Spaceboy and robbie have been gifted

yesterday was my nephew's bday party. so now i can post the completed gifts and the cool recycled packaging we used.

this is the robot my daughter, C, drew and embroidered. i transferred the image onto fabric so that she could embroider it. i then sewed it up, and she helped to stuff it. so much love and care went into making this little robot stuffie, that it was hard to let go. but, in the end, it was made for the purpose of gifting it to my nephew from C. she was so proud of her work, as was i! her embroidery skills are improving so much!

and here is my nephew's finished spaceboy. it is cute, as are all of wee wonderful's doll patterns. but, i feel like C really outdid me, in originality. of course, she was inspired to make the robot stuffie after she saw what i was making for him, so the two gifts definitely go well together. and because we thought they were such a nice pair, we decided to package them together as a set. here is what we came up with:


as you can see, C named the embroidered robot stuffie, 'robbie'. i thought that was cute and more appropriate than her first choice, 'stephen'.

i found an empty cereal box in the recyclables and decided to make a box package. i was inspired by lizette greco's recycled box packaging tutorial. i didn't exactly follow her directions, but she was the main inspiration for my choice in packaging the presents. i opted for covering the box with brown paper bag and i didn't put any plastic in the windows, mainly because i was short on time and couldn't find any. i also pasted some cute space themed stickers from lotta bruhn. i thought they went so well with the dolls and overall theme. the stickers are a free pdf download, so go get some!

for some reason my printer was acting up, despite the fact that my husband had just replaced all the colors. that is why the blues came out striped. it didn't affect the cuteness factor, so i was okay with the way they turned out.

the birthday boy was very pleased with his present and we all had a wonderful time with family and ate yummy chocolate cupcakes, made by the best aunt ever, me! ;)

Spaceboy and embroidered robot for my nephew

my nephew, the only boy in our family, so far, will be turning 6 in august. he's a tough little boy with a sweet heart. he's very much into the typical things little boys like, like super heroes, robots, pirates, cars, etc., so i'm sure he will like the spaceboy, from wee wonderful's, that i'm in the process of making for him. he's still young enough to appreciate soft dolls, and he still has pretty much everything i've hand made for him. it's very touching to see the toys i've made for him throughout his life, very well loved and very well played with. the years in which he will play with these sorts of toys will soon be ending. i want to get a few more in before i have to come up with new gift ideas for a big kid. i plan on making him the robot, also from wee wonderful's pattern, for xmas.


C is very close to her cousin, N, so she insisted on making something, too. she decided on making him a robot to go with his spaceboy, so after doing some reseach on robot looks and designs, she came up with a cute drawing of a robot. to keep it simple for her, i copied her drawing onto fabric and let her color it with crayon so that she could embroider it. when she's done with the embroidery, i'll help her find a suitable backing fabric and help her sew the front and back together (right-sides facing), turn it out, stuff it and sew it closed for an easy stuffie robot to accompany the spaceboy doll. stay tuned for pics of the finished presents!

I've Been a Bad Blogger

yeah, i have no excuse, other than i was caught up with our summer activities and daily life with my two girls and my husband at home all day for the whole summer. it was both lots of fun and lots of work. more cleaning up after the girls (and my husband!), more clothes to wash, meals to cook, dishes to wash, etc., etc. but it was also nice having our little family being so close and doing fun things together.


i also got to do more crafting with my husband being around to play and spend time with our girls. here is one thing that i made. it's an embroidery for my Aunt Josie, who recently renewed her vows with her husband of 10 years. i got the pattern from vintage transfer finds but i just checked and it seems that the pattern has been removed. and i'm glad to say that my aunt loved it! i wasn't there to see her and her husband open their presents, but i heard that it was ooohed and aaahhed a lot. my mom thought it was the nicest present, and i'm glad i decided to make that for her!

Neice's Birthday Present Complete!

this is the front of the tote bag. i also decorated the gift bag with my own hand carved stamps. C made the birthday card.

this is the back of the tote bag. you can also see the hand carved stamp i made for my niece, outside of the little white envelope i packed it in.

here is a close up of the stamp i made for the birthday girl and the gift bag i decorated using my own stamps. note: C also made some mini brownies, shaped like hearts, with m&m's inside. we packed them up in a little box with printed wax paper (from the martha stewart craft line) and i wrote "to:" and "from:" on the front of the box and used the stamp i made for my niece and a new stamp i made that morning of C with her name on it. i didn't get a picture of it because C made them right before we had to leave to the party so i forgot. i also didn't get a picture of C's stamp, but i'll try to remember to post it along with any new stamps i may finish. right now all i want to do is carve my own stamps!

Still Working on Niece's Birthday Present

since my last post i've been trying to fit in some crafting time to finish this present. i've only had a few minutes here and there because i've had family visiting us, so this is all i have done. i added a few more pieces all around to make it large enough for a tote bag and to add more color.

and i've finished the back side of the purse! i wanted to sort of mimic what was going on in the front with the fabrics i used and made a large outside pocket using some of the left over scraps. i also decided to go with a more solid back and so i'm using a pink fabric with an all-over print with really small flowers. i also decided to put her first name initial, so i played around with some more fabric scraps and came up with this.

and if you look real close you could see my handmade tag i made using my own hand carved stamp. it's my first time putting a label onto anything i've made, except for some paper tags i made for the father's day presents i made. but this label is special because it will forever be a part of the tote bag. the ink is a bit too light, but the pastel stamp pads are all i have right now that print well on fabric and will resist coming off if it is washed. i really like being able to put my name on my hand made things!

i still need to add the strap and finish sewing the bag closed. i also need to get C to make a nice birthday card with one of her drawings. if i get it done in time and manage to get a nice pic, i'll try to put in in my next post. i'm also trying to add one other small, but nice, handmade addition to this tote bag gift. so i have to go now and try to finish everything!

Summer Fun, Week 3

what we've been up to this past week:

* more homework.
* lots of drawing time. i have now accumulated a year's worth of artwork in only three weeks! and many of C's works have amazed me so much that i want to save them and either make an art book for her as a gift or incorporate them into my projects. i've also been thinking of making her a quilt with some of her drawings embroidered onto plain, solid blocks. and part of me also wants to start an etsy shop and sell some of the things i can create using C's drawings, but i wonder if that would be fair to her. it is her artwork that is inspiring me, afterall. well, i guess i'll have to think it a bit more before i decide on that. either way, i really want to encourage C to continue with her drawing because i think that maybe she can grow up to be a children's book illustrator or something else in the field of art.
* reading to each other. we're still on the same books, but we've also borrowed a few more books on a recent trip to the library. we signed up for the library's summer reading program and we got C her first library card! she was so proud!
*we went to participate in an art class taught by an employee of lacma. C made her own story book and got to experiment using oil pastels. her book was about a fairy who saw her home in a tree and decided to go home. it was only four pages long and that included the title page, so there was not enough pages to be more elaborate. still, i think it was a good story because in those four pages C was able to draw the fairy looking at her home from afar, then flying over to her home, then sitting happily inside, which C colored pink with a purple door. i thought it was very imaginative!
* we're still playing hopscotch, using the hula hoop and having a game or two of tag, while we're outdoors. it hasn't been warm enough to bring out our kiddie pool since C's graduation party. but maybe we'll bring it out for the weekend. the pool is large enough for a family of four and so i hope to be able to enjoy the pool with my family.
* M decided to go pee-pee in her potty once this week, so that is a big accomplishment in the potty training area.
* we went to watch "wall-e" in a new movie theatre and it was a really nice experience because there were only a handful of other people watching the movie, so we didnt' have to bother with finding a seat for our family of four and dealing with other noisy movie watchers. the seating was also neat because the armrests could be pulled up, and so we could all sit much closer together or be able to lay M down if she wanted to take a nap. the movie was so touching! it even made me and my two year old cry! we'll definately get the movie when it goes out on dvd.

on the crafting front, i've been getting some work done, finally! here is a picture of the embroidery/appliqué i made using my niece's drawing. she actually only drew the horse, which is cute in itself, but because i didn't want it to be too plain, i added a few things, such as the sun, her name, the butterfly, the bird, the grass and the flowers. at this point i still wasn't sure what to do with the finished embroidery. i didn't want to frame it because i thought it would be enjoyed more by a child if it was something that could be held or touched. so the only two things i thought of were a small pillow or a tote bag.

after adding some pieces of fabric all around, log cabin-style, i decided that i wanted to add more to it and make it into a tote bag, so that it could have some usefulness and it can be seen. i guess you can say i was pretty proud of myself! the wet spots on the embroidery are where i had to make the water-soluble pen ink disappear. i don't know if i'll have the gift done in time, as the party will be on sunday, but we'll see!

Finished Gifts!

these are the paintings C made. one is for her teacher and the other two are for her grandfathers for father's day. they are acrylic on flat canvases. it was their first time using real paints and real canvases, so it was exciting for all of us to see the results. as you can see, they came out pretty good!

these are the paintings that M made for her dadda and her two grandfathers. you can see that on her first painting she started out really enthusiastic. she didn't want to stop painting on it, until i showed her that she had two more canvases to paint on and asked her if she was done. so she quickly continued on the next one and on this 2nd one she started mixing paints more, which caused me to get a bit worried about the colors getting all muddy. so i tried to discourage too much mixing and by the 3rd painting she wasn't having so much fun anymore. she started putting the brush onto the canvas and looking at me for approval and then moved on to the next color and repeated the process. i felt bad that i ruined her fun and she obviously did, too cause she didn't want to paint much more after that, which explains all that empty space. too bad. still, i'm really proud of the work she did and hopefully the next time we paint she will want to paint again and be more careful, too.

seeing as how father's day is tomorrow, i thought it would be safe enough to show what my girls and i made for their dadda.

first off, i decided to do a typical (read cheezy) father's day t-shirt. i chose to do this one with the words "this dad deserves a pat on the back" freezer paper stencilled because at the time we were working on this project my husband was also going through some work-related stress that was getting our whole family down, but it obviously affected him the most. and i think that despite all the worry he had, he was still taking care of his responsibilities and being a wonderful husband and father.here is the back where the three of us stamped our hand print as if giving him a pat on the back. i didn't have enough fabric paints and so i borrowed a few from my MIL. those are the ones that didn't show up so well because the paints she let me borrow were thinner and probably not meant for printing on knit shirts. i think they were more for painting on silk with paintbrushes. oh well! i know he probably wouldn't have worn this shirt anywhere but at home. i don't blame him either, but still, it was a nice project to do with my girls.

i still remember when i only had C and she was 2 years old that we did a similar father's day present with a t-shirt that said "my daughter walks all over me!" and i had C walk around the shirt with paint on her feet! it was very messy! but what i find amusing is that the next day we did that project she asked her father if she could paint with her feet and he was so confused! i had to explain it all to him after we gave him his present on father's day. we had a good laugh!

this is another t-shirt that i made using the silhouettes of my girls. i also did this with freezer paper stencils. i had to ask my husband for help with this project because i'm still not really good with using our drawing program. he usually doesn't ask any questions because he knows it will be a surprise for him, even if he does help me out. i hope these shirts don't fit him too big. i made the mistake of ordering them a size too big. we'll see!

and here is another project we made using pictures of my girls from M's birthday party. i printed the pictures on paper because i wasn't sure if the project would work out the way i wanted and so i didn't want to waste any of our photo paper. i cut the pictures into oval shapes glued the pictures onto wax paper. i then helped the girls glue the sequins because my glue bottle was really difficult to squeeze. and then had C make some crayon shavings and let the girls sprinkle glitter and crayon shavings as they pleased.

once they were satisfied i put another piece of wax paper on top and a layer of newspaper on top and below the project and ironed it just enough to melt the crayons and making a seal around the edge of the picture. after it cooled off, i cut it out using scalloped edge scissors, punched a hole on top and tied a piece of string for hanging.

More Progress and Feeling Better

this is where i'm at on my teacher gift. i embroidered the words "criss cross applesauce", "thank you!" and her name on the bottom (not shown). i remember when C first started saying "criss cross applesauce" and she would sit with her legs crossed on the floor, like a really good student. apparently my C is what you would call a teacher's pet. she strives to impress her teacher and always do her best. i admire that she tries to do her best and that she respects her teacher so much that she wants to get her approval. i'm glad that she has learned the importance of being a good student from what we've taught her. so, because her teacher says this a lot to her students when she wants them to sit and pay attention, i thought it would be nice to embroider it onto her present. i still need to finish embroidering and add the drawing that C made of herself. i'm working on it right now.

other than that, i have been really busy getting some cleaning done! my body is achey and sore, but i think it was well worth it because now i have nice, bright, clean floors! it had been ages since i last did a thorough cleaning of my kitchen, dining room and living room floors. i don't really like to clean cause i feel it takes away from all the crafting i could be doing, but since i've been getting a lot of crafting done, i thought it was time.

so, i guess i'm finally out of my depression. i feel good and i feel hope and i look forward to this summer! i need to start planning what trips or activities we would like to do this summer as a family and what new projects i want to start on. the future is looking bright and full of opportunities!

C Lost Another Tooth!

c lost her third tooth this past weekend. this tooth is special because it's her first upper tooth she's lost. i think it makes her look so cute! and she's very happy with her cute look! of course it didn't come without the usual freaking out she does every time she looses a tooth. but i guess most kids would freak out with the sight of blood coming from their own mouths. it happened while she was eating. she took a bite of her food and it became so loose that it was just dangling by a piece of her gums. she was running around screaming and crying with her mouth open and blood spreading around her gums and teeth. it was a sight to see! i tried to calm her down and asked her if she would like me to help by pulling it off. she said 'no' but she approached me anyway. i guess she really wanted to get it over with but was afraid of the pain. i got a piece of paper towel and took hold of the dangling tooth and when she freaked out and started running, it was all over! soon after it was pulled out she was fine, again. i chuckle even now as i remember the events! but i do feel bad that she was so scared. i'm sure it will get easier as she continues to lose her baby teeth.

this is her tooth fairy pillow i made for her in late fall, when i first found out she had a loose tooth and she would soon be losing her first tooth. i made it using crafty carnival's tutorial. it was a very easy tutorial to follow and my daughter loved the cute tooth stuffie.

i made both the pillow and tooth stuffie because i wasn't sure when she would lose her tooth. so i thought that the stuffie would be a good idea to keep in her backpack. it has a heart pocket on the back so that she could stick her tooth in it. c loves her tooth stuffie and pillow and she carries one or the other around with her as soon as she thinks she might be losing her next tooth.

A Present For My Father

i finished my father's present for father's day. i made him a passport sleeve with an embroidery of one of C's drawings. i followed sewbunnybum's tutorial found here. (Thanks to sewbunnybum for answering my question!) i decided to make him a passport sleeve because he has recently become a U.S. citizen and has also recently acquired his passport and is planning on taking a trip back home. (obviously i didn't actually sew the flaps closed when i took these pictures. but these pics show the details i added to this present much better this way. i have since sewn the flaps.)

the tutorial was really easy to follow. i have yet to see if it fits because i don't have a passport of my own and so i'll have to wait until father's day when i give this present to my father.

Happy Mother's Day!

here are the finished mother's day presents for my mother and my mother-in-law. i decided to frame them, as you can see. i don't know if this was the best idea, but i was running out of time and i didn't know what else to do. i do like how they look, but i'm not sure if it was the best way to display the embroidery. well, it is my first time doing embroidery and i can say that i learned a few things along the way. none that i care to talk about since i'm sure there are more experienced embroiderers with more informative tutorials. and since i still need to learn a lot more and i really want to continue with embroidery, i'm going to search for those tutorials. i've seen so many wonderful examples of embroidery and i hope to one day make work that is half as good as what i've seen!

one other thing i'm making for the mom's in my life is a pavlova! i've made pavlovas maybe twice and my mom has missed out on it both times, and i've been promising to make her one since then. so, i thought this would be the right time, if any, to make her this special treat. i'll try to get a picture of one before we dig into it!

i don't think i'll be doing much this mother's day. well, that's wrong. actually i'll probably spend it cleaning up my messy house since i've neglected a lot of my housework. i let the dishes pile up and i think we might be all out of clean clothes. and my craft/sewing area is a total mess. it's all work that i let build up cause i was so busy making things. i don't mind, really, cause i was able to make some nice things for people who i think deserved it. i can have my mother's day any time i want. my husband is really nice to me and is very supportive, and my girls are so wonderful! i feel very lucky! and so i hope all the moms out there who don't have it so easy but still deserve a day of pampering and being appreciated, do get to spend mother's day with their loved ones and get to do something special. my mom is one of those unfortunate mothers who isn't appreciated enough (IMHO) by family members she lives with, so i plan to bring her over to my house and i'm going to try to make it a special day for her. happy mother's day!

Three Bags and a Moopy

well, it's been a long time, but i've been pretty busy crafting! i'm still working on the embroidery projects, mother's day presents for my mom and my MIL. i'm done with the embroidery part and i added a border. now i just need to find a frame for them. maybe i'll add some batting on the back, but i'm not sure, yet. i've never done embroidery before, so i don't really know how to put the work in a frame. since i started, i have seen examples of similar projects, and i think most have some batting to the back of the embroidery. well, i hope to find some frames soon so that i can complete the presents and post some pictures!

speaking of mother's day presents, i had been wanting to make myself a new bag ever since last xmas. i had put it off long enough when i realized that mother's day was coming up. i decided to finally make some time and got it done!

i have to admit that another thing that helped me finally get around to making myself a bag was that i needed to make one for a friend. it took me a long time to get the bag done for her, but i'm so glad to say that i finished! and i think it looks pretty nice!

i also made a tote bag for her older daughter, as i had already made one for her younger daughter's birthday.

finally i added a mini moopy softie to match the one i made for her younger daughter. although this is the first time i've posted about making a mini moopy, it's the 7th one i've made. this is the first time i actually took a picture of one. i made one for each of my daughters, my nieces, my nephew, and my friends' daughters, all as birthday presents. it's one of my favorite patterns and they've been a hit with all the children that have received one.

one day i hope to make my own patters for soft toys and either make and sell them on etsy or sell the patterns. but i realize right now that my time is still very limited because my girls need so much of my attention.

it's kind of frustrating, but at least i have more time to be creative now than when i first started making things. when my oldest daughter, C, was still a baby i just didn't know how to manage my time. i know i've learned to be more efficient with my time and how to ask my husband for help with the girls on weekends. it helps that the loved ones who receive my hand made gifts really appreciate it, and that means a lot. if i miss the chance to start a business selling my crafts, then so be it, as long as i still get to be creative and share in the creative process with my daughters!

Mother's Day Gifts WIP

Since Mother's Day is coming up next, I started thinking about what I could make for my Mom and for my Mother-in-Law, and for myself. I decided to make them something decorative; something I'm sure they will treasure. So, again, I decided to include my girls in the gift making and giving by using some of my favorite drawings that they have made and use a combination of embroidery and appliqué to "re-do" the drawings.

Since I don't think either of them read my blog, I decided to show my progress here.
So basically, I took two drawings that my daughter, C, drew and combined them. I traced them onto plain white fabric with a water soluble ink pen. And if you click on the picture you can see a closer view and see the little circles I added. These are the tiny little circles that my little girl, M, has been drawing lately. It wouldn't be fair not to include some of M's creativity. She usually draws in pencil so I'm still not sure what color to embroider them. Maybe I'll just stick to gray, like her pencil drawings.

And if you haven't noticed the drawings C made are of the two dolls I made for my girls! The love and inspiration just keeps on going! They inspire me, I inspire them, and they inspire me, again! So as you can see, I tried to use some of the scraps from the fabric I used to make their dolls so that they look as much as possible like those dolls. This embroidery is going to my Mom. I have another drawing picked out to make a similar embroidery for my MIL, so I'll try to post some pics of that when I do more work on it. As for my present to myself, I still haven't decided. There are so many ideas in my head and ones I've seen in other craft blogs. I've been needing to make myself a new bag, so maybe I'll just do that. I would also like my own embroidery of my girls' art, too! And I've been wanting to make silhouettes of my girls' profiles, either in paper or fabric. I guess I'll just have to wait until I'm done with the two embroidery projects I've already started and see how much time I have left for my own Mother's Day present.