Lucky Kitty

Oh, I'll Stencil You In...

I'm a sucker for cool stencil books.  Some of my favorites include Ed Roth's Stencil 101, and Lotta Jansdotter's Lotta Prints.

So, when I stumbled over Marthe Le Van's Stencil Me In, I knew I had to hurry up and hit that purchase button right quick!

Where to start?  Well, first, I happened to co-host a baby shower for a buddy back in early December and what a perfect excuse to use stencils for a onesie decoration station!  Even people that say they're not crafty can join in the fun!

We forced... um, I mean encouraged everyone at the shower to take a turn with a stencil...

Here's a pic of the decoration station...

 

Kinda sad that all I had to purchase were the onesies and bibs... everything else I had on hand... think I'm a craft supply hoarder, but that's a different post for a different day...

...and here's the awesome fruits of the party people's labor...

 

So fun!!! Lil Weezy is gonna have super awesome custom onesies for at least a couple of months until she out grows everything... ah babies...

But what about my Little Man?  Poor cobbler's kids, they never get shoes.  I thought that in addition to the millions of toys he would be receiving from Santa, he might appreciate a custom tee or two - time to break out those stencils!

I specifically only used stencils from Stencil Me In this time around, since it is my newest stencil book and therefore my favorite... for now...

Behold!

 

Three new shirts - all cool and custom for Mr. Toddler Pants!

First I had to do robots - that boy loves him some robots, I tell you what...

 
I didn't realize that my orange fabric paint happened to be orange glitter fabric paint... bonus! 

Then I did a cool jellyfish...

 

...and finished up with what I thought was three things that begin with the Letter B...

 

The Hubs informed me that the image on the bottom is a rocket ship, not a bomb... So, this shirt is now 'two things that start with the Letter B and a rocket ship'...

Stenciling - it's fun, it's easy, you don't have to have a single artistic bone in your body, just grab a tee, a little paint, and your favorite design and you're good to go!!

xoxo

Dollar General Wreath

It all started when my buddy Vickie invited myself and our friend Jen over to make holiday wreaths...

 
This is the 'before' pic of our supplies.  Each of us brought a huge bag of goodies and no one had a plan... a perfect recipe for crafty goodness.

Since our playdate was after work, I didn't have a lot of time to shop for my supplies, but thankfully, there's a Dollar General on the way to Little Man's escuela...

It became a mission to see if I could make a cute wreath out of things found at the dollar store...

Did I succeed?

 

I think it turned out pretty cute! 

Materials used were 4 bunches of ribbon - two red, two gold - $.79 each, 10 'poinsetta' bows - 2 for $1.00, and one string of red glitter pom pom garland - on sale for $1.50. 

Not too shabby... maybe even a little chic... :)

Have paper, will decorate!

Recently, three of my friends and I hosted a baby shower for our buddies that just adopted their baby girl.  I highly recommend planning a party as a group - it helps even out the workload and each person can focus on their particular task.

My assignments included invite design, cupcake toppers, and general cute-ri-fying.

First up, invite design.  Yeah, I know, you can just go buy invites at the store, or better yet, save a tree and use a pre-designed e-vite template, but what's the fun in that?  Isn't it better to design your own?  Yes, yes it is...

 
 

So, once we had our invite design, we automatically had our theme and colors too...

I decided to see how many things I could make with a few packs of cardstock, a glue stick, some die-cutters, my completely awesome Martha Stewart circle cutter (I heart you, Martha), and some ribbon...

Check it out...

Cupcake toppers-

 

Small welcome banners...

 

Large welcome banners...

 

Small tags for flower vases (also tied these around all my plants outside and then promptly forgot to photograph them)...

 

Each project was super easy, super quick, and super cheap.  It's amazing what a little bit of paper and a smidge of craftiness can add to sweeten up your party decorations!

Turkey Day Bibs for Tots!

We were oh so lucky this past Thanksgiving when our dear family friends invited us out to Fredericksburg, TX to spend the holiday at a ranch house. 

Last year, when every holiday was 'baby's first', it was easy to find accessories and outfits to mark all of our special occasions.  This year, however, being 'baby's second' holiday season, has been a bit of a challenge.

Not one to give up so easily, I decided to make Quinn and his baby buddy Clover some special bibs - just for Thanksgiving.

Instead of trying to find the perfect pattern, I thought I would just wing it, so, I drew an outline around an existing bib...

 

Freehanded my embroidery design...

 

and voila! Baby's Second Thanksgiving bib.

 

Had to add the pockets - our little ones tend to drop lots of things and if it lands in the pocket, well, that's what we call 'seconds' at our house...

I think the babies were pleased...

 

 

...or maybe just distracted by all the delicious choices we had at our dinner...

I am so glad we were able to spend Thanksgiving with such good friends and that our babies got to dine in style!

P.S. Homemade cranberry sauce is the total baby jam...

 

 

Fourply Designs for Ultra Violet!

Two of my very dearest friends, Kirk and Rebecca Dixon have been helping their daughter, Violet, battle Cystic Fibrosis for the past couple years.

I can't even believe it's been that long!

One of the biggest events they do each year is the Great Strides Walk for CF up in Dallas... click here to read Violet's amazing story and to see how you can get involved in the walk!



So, today, I notice over on ye ol' Facebook that jewelry designers Fourply Designs are donating 15% of their sales to Violet, CF, and the Great Strides Walk...How cool is that?

Their stuff is beautiful! I'm totally crushing on...

The Groove Necklace


...and the Plateau Ring


They can make everything in a variety of wood and all items seem very reasonably priced.

Good for you Fourply Designs for helping to make a difference for Miss Violet and all the CF Kids out there!

A very special present...

You say it's your birthday... duh na na na NA na... well it's my birthday too!

Yes, it's true.. today I turned the ripe old age of 33!

So far, it's been quite a lucky b-day - my husband gave me the sweetest little wishbone necklace (amongst other prezzies) and so far it's provided me with enough good luck to miss that huge accident on S. 1st St. in rush hour traffic and most importantly... got me out of having to go to jury duty on my birthday!

...but today's post is about a very special present handmade by my friend Mandy...

It's funny, I had read about this particular crafty project on Design Sponge, and thought it would be fun to try... but I'd probably mess it up...

Well, low and behold, yesterday morning, Mandy and Bobby surprised me with it as a B-Day present! Check it out!


Isn't it awesome??!!??




Mandy, you did such an amazing job! I'm so happy to be the proud owner of it!

Here we are with it together...


Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Now, everybody should go and check out Mandy's new blog... click here!

My friend Susann...

My friend Susann and I took an upholstery class way back in 2003 together at the community college.

She walked into class one evening and informed me that she was bored at work that day... so she started her own business... seriously... it took her one day to set up a website...

Check out All Dressed Up and Shy.

So, this year at Stitch, Susann was one of the runway designers. She thought it would be cool to have one of her models walk the runway with one of my birdies... I thought that would be cool too...

You can check out Susann's entire runway collection from Stitch 07 here