The DIY that stole my heart

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

Which DIY stole your heart this year?

Will you be my DIY? 2012

I thought I would revisit the "Will you be my DIY?" post and share my favorite DIYs and tutorials for Valentine's Day 2012.

Hope you enjoy.

1. Crunch Photo Valentine- I love this variation on the lolipop photo valentine by Andrea.

2. Photo bookmark- I can see both Grandmas using this bookmark by Suzonne for years to come!

3. I'm a sucker for Super Heros. No pun intended.. Thanks for this awesome idea Zakka Life.

4. This is literally the cutest thing EVER. You open the hand and he's blowing kisses. TOO CUTE!

Check out the tutorial here.

5. I am very pro any valentine that doesn't include candy. This is a great idea! You can be the healthy mom, but still be a cool a mom. Thanks for the idea, Bree!

6. These are super cute arrows. Though I am imagining them done as Pixy Sticks. Which I think would make them even awesomer. Here's the fancy pants tutorial.

7. An Airplane! Come on now. That's awesome. Way-to-go Disney.

8. I had to include the Lolipop gang. Props to this mom, since it's one of the only ones I've seen where the kids are actually smiling!

9. HOLY CUTENESS! Hershey's Robots! I LOVE THEM! Thanks Reagan!

10. This one is especially sweet to me because my dad used to call me Pooh Bear and Honey Bunny, because I LOVED honey and.... I still do!  Thanks for the template Calli!

Lasting Lovies

I made my niece this Molly Monkey doll back in 2010!

Here she is still loving on her two years later.

I made my nephew a Super Kid cape and Super Monkey back in 2010. Here he is enjoying them both then and now.

 

 2010

2012

Have you had the pleasure of watching your creations loved over the years?



Happy Storm Trooper!

Here is the birthday boy!

 He is being Hans Solo pretending to be a Storm Trooper. He had to pose with a gun for the full effect. (Good thing he was able to whip one up out of Lego blocks in no time at all.)
He was very happy with the new characters as well.

 I even added a Sand Person at the last minute. He requested some additional bad guy robots as well as "twentyfourty" more storm troopers and fifteen more Jawaws.
He was very pleased with the eye choice for the Jawaw and stated that they do indeed have gold eyes. I also made weapons for them and he was quite satisfied with their accuracy to the movie. So overall we had a happy camper!

I love that he understands that these are custom made for him! Can you imagine opening a store bought gift and requesting revised weaponry, additional characters, etc. to your own desired specifications!

This is what makes handmade gifts so special! They are custom made just for you!

Have you made a handmade creation for someone recently? How did you customize it to meet their particular interests, desires, etc.

Braided Infinity

For Christmas I also wanted to make a "younger" looking scarf for my two sister-in-laws.

I came across a braided scarf tutorial on pinterest and got to work. Unfortunately the tutorial had me literally pulling my hair out, so I thought I would post my own tutorial that addresses some of the issues and allows for a more polished result.

Again, I wanted to make two scarves from the same fabric so I simply cut it in half width wise. This left me with four 11"x 36" strips.

The pink scarf above was made from some leftover spandexy, velvety fabric I had lying around. I fudged around an just made a width and length I felt comfortable with. You can also use two medium sized t-shirts.

The green scarf below was made from standard cotton fabric from JoAnns.

Braided Infinity Scarf Tutorial

Take two pieces of fabric and sew them (right sides together) to make a tube. I used 1/4" seams. Leave about a two inches untouched on either end.

Do this again using the other two pieces of fabric.

Turn both tubes right side out.

Take a random strip of fabric and tie the ends of the two tubes together. Now you will have two circles.

You are now ready for your knot.

The knot was VERY confusing to figure out. I actually got my husband's help and practiced on two pieces of string.
Hopefully, I can describe it clearly.


Knotting the Scarf

Put the knotted end of circle A through the unknotted end of circle B

Then take the knotted end of circle A and pull it up on top of the unknotted end of circle A.

Now take the knotted end of circle B and put that through the center of everything (where the arrow is)

Now pull each knotted end.

It should end up looking like this:

Closing the Scarf 

 I left side openings on each tube like below:

 please ignore the tulle inside the tubes, I tried it for extra volume, but it didn't look good.

 I then sewed the ends of each tube together. Matching right sides together.

It's fairly awkward to pin together and sew, but ends up with the best result.

Then you have a finished seam across the scarf. All you have left is to pin up the sides and hand stitch them.

Good Luck!!

Forever and Ever Scarf

This is my beautiful mother sporting the new Infinity scarf I made her for Christmas.

She always forgets what they are called so she calls it her "forever and ever scarf."
This photo also includes the doll quilt I made for my niece in the background.

I used this tutorial. The fabric I used was stardard cotton fabric found at JoAnns. I made mine slightly narrower than the tutorial so I could make two scarves out of one piece of fabric. I simply cut the fabric in half width wise to make my two matching scarves. I gave one to each of my Moms. (my mom and mother-in-law)

My mom is a teacher so she loves light weight colorful/ statement making accessories to jazz up practical work attire. She is anxious to make another for herself!

Activity Board!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we created an activity board for Lucas for Christmas!
After watching him play we made a few changes. We added a door knocker, a drain spout, and painted it with chalkboard paint!
His favorite part is the springs that stick out at the top. We simply attached them with screws.

He also loves the top door that opens to a mirror. He always greets his reflection with an enthusiastic "HI!!"

The drain was a great addition. He loves anything that functions like a steering wheel.

What is included:

2 doors

One with crinkly shiny wrapping paper behind it (leftover from Christmas)

The other with a mirror (from one of his old baby toys)

3 door locks

1 hook lock

1 latch lock

1 chain lock

1 light switch

1 door knocker

4 caster wheels to SPIN, SPIN, SPIN!

4 Springs to BOING!

One pulley to pull a string through

The board is made of two sheets a plywood attached together. We screwed them together so we could take them apart easily if we ever wanted to add anything else.

The two boards allowed us to open the doors and not have wall behind.

We made the doors by drilling small circular holes in each corner of a drawn square.

Then we could place a saw into the holes as starting points for each cut without losing our square to make the door itself.

As finishing touches we used a router along all the edges, primed with grey primer, and used chalkboard spraypaint.

Our son is involved with Early Intervention because of his heart condition. The supervisor was highly impressed and said this was excellent for developing gross and fine motor skills.

So we got a very big seal of approval!

Lucas absolutely LOVES it!