A Rorschach Test!

 Today I have a really neat little project for the babies out there.  My little one goes through onesies like they are going out of style.  I'm sure all you moms out there are familiar with this! So I decided to get crafty and make her some really cute onesies to wear.

 The process to make these is pretty simple.  You will need: your onesies (prewashed), some fabric paint, and some cardboard.

To start cut your cardboard so it fits snugly inside the onesies. You don't want to stretch them out too much but you want them snug so the design adheres evenly. Fit the cardboard inside your onesies.  This will prevent the paint from getting on the other side.

Now, prefold your onesie over so that you get your cardboard creased perfectly in half.  This way you're not fighting to get the onesie perfectly in half when you have your paint distributed.

Next is the fun part. Pick your paint color or colors.  Spread the paint on in drips and lines.  Be creative! Don't goop the paint on though or your design might get too blotchy. Once you're happy with the paint, carefully fold the onesie in half.  I try to keep my onesie stretched taunt when folding to make sure the design doesn't smudge.  Press down to evenly distribute the paint and then slowly peel it back open.

There you have it! You'll need to let the paint dry for 72 hours before you can wash the onesie and make sure to turn it inside out when you do.

For those that are interested in buying these instead of making them, I'm going to be selling these soon on my facebook page!  I'll post a link here when the page is up. I'll also probably sell some cards and such as well. So be on the look out for some awesome stuff!

EDIT: Here's a link to my facebook page where you can buy these onesies! Come by and check it out!

Uh Oh, More Hobbies!

Thank you cards.  I have written a lot so far but I have many more to go.  I did a set of cards and that covered the people who attended my baby shower, but it didn't cover the house warming party we had or the other random baby gifts we have received.  So I'll be working on another round of cards soon. This is the card that I had made as a thank you:

I know it's not your typical thank you card, but I wanted something simple and different. And it does say thank you on the inside with a handwritten note!

The stamp I used was Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous and I used a few different distress inks.  Then I used some Stickles over the design to give it some sparkle.  For just a touch of contrast I added a nice piece of DCWV patterned paper to the left side of the card.  I have to say, I love this stamp.  It's so simple and elegant.

In other news, I had Christmas money to spend!  So I decided to try something new and I bought some jewelry making supplies. Another crafty hobby!  I am totally new to this and have no idea what I'm doing, but this was sparked when last month I won a book on jewelry making and there were so many cool project I decided that I had to try it out.

I figure I need tools.  So I got a starter kit and a tool kit (used two different 50% off coupons for them). Also some hemp cord and some stretchy cord. Sure I can use those somehow!

Can I just say there are SO many pretty beads out there?  I mean come on.  I could spend so much money on them. I limited myself to a few here.

Okay I love steampunk and this collection was on clearance at A.C. Moore so I picked up a few items.  This is pretty simple to "make" but I just love these pieces.

For a beginner I thought these little kits were awesome.  They are already color coded and give you a nice variety of beads.  And just the right amount for one project.

Decorative magnetic clasps!  Need I say more?  These are just too cool.  I thought the little ball ones would work great for bracelets and the flower ones for necklaces.  Love these.

A few strands of beads that A.C. Moore had in their dollar bin.  I figure these will come in handy at some point. So there's my jewelry making supplies for now.  Did I miss anything?  Is there something I can't live without?

I've been pretty impressed with A.C. Moore's clearance items.  All these were also $1.  You can't beat that.

Did I mention that my baby girl is 3 months old today?  Oh my gosh I can't believe it.  She is just growing so quickly!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend, whether you're crafting or not! I have so many crafty projects to work on, I don't know where I'll start!  So until next time, Happy Scrappin!

My Home Management Binder

For 2013 I figure I need to be really organized if I'm going to accomplish my goals with the little one here. I've always been big on list and calendars and such but I really needed to get it all in one place so I can easily keep track of things and manage my week.  So this year I made a home management binder!

I used a few different sources for the printables and thanks to Money Saving Mom for sharing these resources. By the way, Money Saving Mom is one of my favorite blogs to visit.  She always has great posts and shares the best deals, go check her out!

For the printables I used two different sources because they both had pages I wanted to incorporate into my binder. I loved the pages for goals, chores, menu planning and creative ideas at Motherhood on a Dime so I grabbed those there.  Then for the binder cover, some inspirational quotes, contact info and weekly to do's, I went to The Harmonized House Project on the WorldLabel blog. I printed everything out I needed and got started.  Note that the rest of this post is very picture heavy!

For my supplies I have a 3-ring binder, some page protectors, a set of dividers and a hole punch. Pretty simple stuff that you probably already have laying around the house.

Here's my stack of printables after I was done.  With my laser printer this went pretty quickly.  I imagine if you have a simple inkjet you could probably eat a meal while the pages were printing.

To save some paper and to make my binder less thick and easy to manage, I printed my weekly menu plan on the back of my weekly to do list.  This way I can even take the page out of the binder and have my whole week on one page if I need to.

My little assistant slept through this whole project.  I guess she was bored with all the organization.

Here's the binder with the cover in and my stack of papers once they had been punch and organized. I labeled my dividers and put them in the order I wanted: 2013 Goals, Weekly, Contacts, Household and Creative.

I wanted this inspirational quote right at the beginning of the binder so I would always see it when I opened the book up. It's a good reminder.

First under 2013 Goals is my goal checklist.  I have this written on a separate sheet of paper right now so I just need to fill it in. Also under this tab I have a time schedule page that I'll use to try to manage my time with the baby and work and such.  That will help me figure out what I need to adjust in order to keep the family/work balance I want.

The next section is for my weekly pages. Here's my first one filled out.  I love that I can easily cross things out as I go, there's room to add more items or appointments and at the bottom there's a notes section where I can put reminders.  And there's also another great quote on this page.

On the back is my weekly menu plan.  Right now I'm only doing dinners but later I may decide to add in some lunch ideas.  Since Mike and I do breakfast separately and I don't yet have to plan meals for Natty, there's not much reason for me to plan for the other meals.

I put a page protector after this page to hold any recipes I plan on making this week so I have easy access to them. When I go to plan the next week, I can move the page protector to the next weekly page (which also makes it my book mark) and then put in the next week's recipes.  This makes it so easy for me and I think it will also inspire me to try more new recipes and go back to old ones. If the recipe is in a book, I can just write the book and page number on my menu plan.  Super easy.

The next section is Contacts.  The first page that I have is an emergency contact information sheet.  I figure this is really important now that the little one is here.

Next I have several pages for addresses.  I'm going to take my multiple address books and emails that have contact info and combine it all here.  When I did Christmas cards this year I had to look in 4 different places for addresses and that's just crazy.  So I need to combine it all in one spot so it's simple and easy.

The next section is Household.  I'm not entirely sure what this section is going to look like so I figure it's going to evolve throughout the year. I added the chore chart here just so I can get an idea of things I regularly want to do.  I also added some page protectors so I can maybe put things like home decor or improvement ideas or business cards for contractors and such.

The last section is Creative.  I printed out a few of these idea lists to put in this section.  I can use one page for my blog ideas, one for scrapbook and crafty ideas, and maybe one for ideas on games and activities to do with the baby.  I also put page protectors in this section for anything I might want to keep here.

So that's my binder.  I'm sure I'll add stuff and it will evolve as the year goes along. I also have a separate little book that I keep my coupons in. I use The Couponizer to organize all those and I love it. So when I'm getting ready for the week I just need my binder and my Couponizer and I'm good to go!  Gotta love the organization of it all!

Oh I also wanted to share this awesome calendar I had made at Shutterfly. I wouldn't normally get a calendar printed but I had a coupon for a free one so I gave it a shot.  I have to say that I am in love with it!  The print quality is excellent and I love how much you can personalize it.  I will definitely be making one again next year.

I hope you all enjoyed seeing how OCD I am about organization!  Those of you who know me know how much I enjoy planning. Have you made a home management binder? What do your sections look like? What's worked to keep your family organized   I would love to hear your stories!  And thanks for stopping by and reading mine!

A trip to AC Moore

So I haven't really found a good place to go for scrapbooking supplies since we moved to Virginia. When we were in Georgia my store of choice was Archiver's. If I want to go there now, the closet location is in North Carolina! We also don't have a hobby lobby anywhere close. There was one good local store that was an hour away, but they just closed their doors at the end of the year. So my choices are Michael's and A.C. Moore.

We didn't have A.C. Moore in Georgia, so this was a first for me. I would say that it's in between a Michael's and a Hobby Lobby. They have a better variety than Michael's and better deals, but not quite as much variety as Hobby Lobby.  And there's still no place local to get the brands I love like Graphic 45, BoBunny and Basic Grey.

Anyway I did find a few good deals.  Here's what I got.

This was a good deal! They had some stamp sets and Distress embossing powders on sale for $2 each! That made the trip worth it.

A few girly things I got to make pages for a recent photo shoot of my daughter. The stickers were 40% off, which is a normal deal at most of the chains. Thickers and the glitter tape (haven't used this before so I hope it's good) were regular price.

These embossing folders were also a good find. This brand of folders were on sale for $1.99 each so I picked up a few. They had all different sizes, even some border folders.

There was a table of clearance $1 items where I found these little flags.  I thought it was strange they were on clearance since they are perfect for the upcoming Valentine's holiday, but it works for me! These should make for some cute cards.

I also got a few bracelets that were 3 for $9.99 but I forgot to take a picture of those.

I am slowly getting back into crafting and writing on my blog.  I'm planning to post about some other stuff this year besides just scrapping so I hope that you guys enjoy reading some other things. I'm excited about a few of the posts I have coming up so please check back again!  Thanks for reading and happy scrappin!