Aprons

Busy, busy, busy. That is what my life has been this last month.  My last post showed some Christmas gifts my hubby and I were making.  I thought I would share the aprons I have made recently.  One of my co-workers saw the aprons I made for Christmas for the Grandbabies and asked me to make one for her niece.  I wanted to try a new pattern.  I love how it turned out, very girly!!  Of course I had to take it to Peighton to model it for me.  She is such a cute little model!!

 

Don't you love this gorgeous fabric?  It is a drapery fabric, so very heavy.  Here is another apron I made for a co-worker for Christmas, had to wrap it around Peighton!!  The base is a vintage valance that I added a ruffle and some gorgeous lace and a wasteband to make a shabby chic apron. 

 Now to show you some of the aprons I made for the kiddo's for Christmas.  I made this apron in 3 different sizes.  This is Peighton and Nova.

Here is Jemma.

And Kiah.

Now you know Gunner needed an apron as well.  We have to teach those boys that they need to learn to cook as well.  I thought I was pretty brilliant when these pockets lined up perfectly on Gunner's apron!! 

You can't really see it, but I made Ralphie one as well.

Now, to show you some of the pictures of the kiddo's with their doll beds we made from my last post:

I wish Nova's face wasn't blurry, but you can see how excited she was.  Of course the first thing she did was crawl in herself!!

The girls loved their doll beds as well.

Kiah thought she should get in the bed as well!!  It is a good thing these plans from Ana White are strong!!

Papa Gene built Gunner a Gun Rack for Christmas.  I cut the title out in brown vinyl on my Cricut Expression.

And now to leave you with a picture of the newest Grandbaby.  This is Bryar. He was born on Dec 16th. I was given the most amazing gift of being one of her coaches during delivery. So amazing.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Handmade Christmas Gifts

Wow, it has been almost a month since I have made a card.  Now that doesn't mean that I haven't been crafting.  This year we decided to make a lot of our Christmas gifts for the Grandbabies.  Not to save money, but because in my memory the things that meant so much to us as kids and the best memories that I have of Christmases when I was a child are the handmade items that we received.  When I say we, I always mean my twin sister Rebecca and I.  Because as you can imagine, whatever was made for one, was made for both of us.  So Papa and I have been sewing (OK, that is me), cutting, building, sanding, and painting gifts for the kiddo's,

The girls, (Peighton-5, Kiah-3, Jemma-2) are getting beds for their dolls.  The beds of course need bedding, mattresses, pillows and a quilt. Nova who is 1 1/2 is getting a crib for her baby, which of course will require a mattress, quilt, and pillow.  And Gunner who is almost 3 is getting a gun rack made by Papa, that will say Gun's Guns!!

I was so excited to find fabulous plans over at Ana White Homemaker for beds for 18 inch dolls.  Now Gene did the cutting, I think he is afraid I would cut off a finger or something!! And I did the building.  

I learned a few lessons along the way.  Don't buy a cute little drill that is small and under 10 volts because it is Lime Green, no use the bigger 18 volt drill that belongs to your husband!!  I learned how to countersink screws.  I do really think though that you should have 3 drills so that you don't have to continually change back and forth. ;)  The first bed took me a good day to finish, the next two went so much faster.  The building that is..... not the sanding and painting!!

Now, I wish I could take the credit for the crib that Gene built for Nova.  He did it one day while I was a work, I did however get to sand and paint it.  I think it is darling and can't wait to give it to her! It has a cool little storage drawer underneath it.  You know, for diapers and such!

The plans for this crib can also be found by Ana White. I just love how this turned out!!  The blankets, pillows and mattresses were not made with any plans, just sewn.  Now did I mention I can't wait for Christmas!! I cannot wait to give these gifts to the girls.  I will be back with Gunners gift later!

I am going to link up my projects to:

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Not Just a Housewife.

Todays Creative Blog Holiday projects.

Skip To My Lou Made by you Monday,

Baby Shower with the Cricut

Last Saturday we were able to Bless my daughter Katie and her husband Adam with a Baby Shower.  My daughter Danelle, Adam's mom Tina and I planned a baby shower with their baby room theme in mind.  The theme is Knights and Dragons.  Well, knights and dragons is just not a theme that you can find anywhere.  So, I got out my Cricut and my Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge.  Silly me, I don't have a pic of the invites.  And to be honest, time got away from me and not everyone got one!!  Gotta love Facebook events!!  We had over 40 people at the shower and believe me, Bryar was blessed.   Here are a few pics from the shower.

For the Knights and Dragons theme I went with shields. We used all black and silver tablecloths, napkins, plates, etc.   I hung the banner with black and white twine and mini clothespins. 

I made a pile of mini shields and stamped each one with a B.

These cupcakes are so YUMMO!!  Who likes coffee????  Well, you all know that I do. 

1. I took a chocolate cake mix and replaced most of the water in the recipe with coffee and a some Kahlua coffee syrup. 

2. I then folded some of the Kahlua syrup into some cool whip and used a tip to put the cream into the center of the cupcake when it cooled. 

3. I made a chocolate buttercream frosting and added coffee to it.  

4. Sprinkle on some toffee Heath bits.

Overkill, nah!!

Wish I could say that I made that cool shield for Bryar's wall with my Cricut.  but no, my daughter Danelle had that made for him.  How cool is that?!!   Baby Bryar was gifted with so many fabulous gifts, so many fabulous handmade items, I was blown away.  This quilt was made by his great grandmother.

And a pic of both of my pregnant daughters.  I will be blessed with 2 more grandsons, bringing the count to 4 and 4.  We are so blessed. 

My daughter Danelle is my fabulous photographer, and here are a couple of my fave pregnancy photos of Katie and Adam. 

Isn't this T-shirt the greatest?  A gift from his mom. I love it!!

And there she is.  

Now, just a note:  I was so busy working on this shower that I skipped out on Guylou's Christmas with a Wreath Challenge this week.  You will want to head on over to the Challenge and check it out. I know she has some new images to play with. 

Anita Be Stampin Blog Hop and Release

It's Anita Be Stampin Digi Release and Blog Hop day.  Are you ready?  All of the new releases are now available over at the Anita Be Stampin Store.  We are celebrating by having a Blog Hop.  There is so much inspiration along the way, you will want to visit every blog to check it out.  One lucky person that comments on every blog will win the entire new release. How fun is that?  Now if you came here from Anita's fabulous blog then you are on the right track.  If not you will want to head back to the ABS Challenge Blog where all the fun starts.  Now time for my creations.  I played with two of the new images. The first one is Sandy Clause.  

And the second image is called Elfira. 

Both of these sentiments are from AmyR over at All That Scraps from last years Christmas sentiments.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  The next stop on the hop is Dee's Blog.   Remember to leave a comment on every blog on the hop by Sunday, Nov. 13^th at 12:01 am CST for your chance to win all of the ABS digi images released today.  Here is the list of all of the stops on the hop today, just in case you get lost along the way:

ABS Challenge Blog

Anita

Brenda

Dee

Lelia

Rene’

Tracy

ABS Challenge Blog

Something other than a card!!

My hubby and I have been hitting the little auction on Friday nights.  One thing that I have been bidding on are pictures and frames. I have so many ideas in mind for them.  I have been wanting to make a chalk board for my kitchen wall.  This is what I came up with. 

As you can see I haven't hung it yet, but I wanted to share it!!  So, the question is.....should I add white paint to the frame and distress it?  Or leave it as is?  Want to see how it started?  Well of course you do!! I bought this picture for $5 at the auction.

I tried to rough up the glass using steel wool, next time I will use a fine sand paper.  Apparently the paint adheres better that way.  I cleaned the glass with rubbing alcohol and taped off the frame.  I used spray paint chalk.  And gave it about 3 coats.  After waiting at least 24 hours I cured the chalk board with chalk and then wiped it off.   Yesterday I bought chalk paint in the can, my friend Laurie says that is the way to go.  We will see!!!  

It's Your Birthday

It's your birthday.  Starla, it's your birthday!! 

 Did you come by way of Gina's fabulous blog?  If not you will want to start back at Vicki's blog so you won't miss any of the hop.  Starla is having a bog hop to celebrate her birthday, her 1 year blogaversary, and her belated celebration of 100 followers to her blog.  She has asked a group of blogger buddies to join in the hop and help her celebrate.  I was happy to be asked and happy to hop along with Starla and this great group of crafters.  What Starla doesn't know is that Guylou has created a special image just for Starla.  Starla loves everything fairies and so she has requested that we all use a fairy image.  So happy birthday Starla, what's better than to have an image named after you. 

 Now you will want to check out the rest of the hop.  Your next stop along the way is Tracy's blog.   If you leave a comment on all the stops along the way I know that Starla has some great blog candy for the winners.  If you get lost along the way here are the participants. 

Vicki

Cely

Charlene

Lynn

Sara

Gina

                      Brenda ~ you are here

Tracy

Kim

Guylou

Starla

Thankful with a Turkey Twist

The holiday season has began.  It seems though that Thanksgiving gets somewhat lost between the hoopla of Halloween and the commercialism of Christmas.   I love how Thanksgiving comes earlier in Canada.  It seems there is more time to reflect on what you are thankful for before jumping into Christmas.  Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but it is good for us to stop and be Thankful for what God has given us.  When you walk into stores and the Halloween candy and costumes is just one isle away from the Christmas decorations you wonder where Thanksgiving went.  I think we all need to take some time to be thankful for God's goodness.

 We are having a Thanksgiving Challenge over at Guylou's Inimitability with a turkey twist.  I used the image, Leah cooks a Turkey.

For this card I used some paper from my stash, the Happy Thanksgiving block is from The Cutting Cafe and the Taste and See stamp is from Layers of Color.  

I hope you will pop over to the Challenge Blog and check out all the fabulous inspiration from the Design Team.  You will have until 10:00 PM EST on Novemeber 17th to play along.  And don't forget to have a turkey somewhere on your project.

I am going to add this to the following challenges.
Dutch Dare Card Challenge has a Give Thanks theme.
Moving along with the Times has food as the challenge.
My Mums Craft Shop has with Thanks.