Give the Girl a Hand....a Santa Hand That Is!

I wasn't sure if I would be back before Christmas Day, but here is one last blog entry for the year.  As you may or may not know, my husband and I adopted a beautiful baby girl this year and it is her first Christmas.  Her addition to the family has been such an amazing blessing.  It is really a miracle from God that she is in our lives.  She's the perfect fit that God created for us and we couldn't be more thankful.

I was wanting to make Christmas ornaments to give to our parents, siblings, cousins etc. and while browsing on Pinterest (which is one of my favorite things now, by the way) I found the perfect idea to commemorate her addition to the family.  I saw a picture of the cutest Santa ornament made out of a hand print.  So my brain went to work deciding that I could do this myself and I came up with a plan.

First - I went to check out clay at Hobby Lobby (my home away from home).  If you have never delved into the world of clay or modeling it can be a bit intimidating.  At least it was for me.  There is clay you fire, oven-dry clay, air-dry clay, self-drying clay, colored clay, modeling clay, clay you throw on a wheel and the list goes on.  For no other motivation than cost, I settled on Amaco brand Play in Clay that is a self-drying clay in color white.  I had no idea if it would work, but it was the cheapest and I thought I would give it a go.  It turned out to be the perfect medium!

I set aside a day for ornamenting and chose a time when baby girl would be in a good mood since I needed her cooperation.  I rolled out the clay (I actually ended up rolling in on a baking sheet that was lightly sprayed with cooking spray because I had some "stickage" problems when I rolled in out on the counter and it tore right through wax paper.  I'm sure that is not the professional recommended thing to do, but you go with what works, right?)  I then proceeded to press her little hand in to make prints making sure to leave a little room around each print to carve it out for the ornament.

After all the prints were done, I took a regular kitchen knife and carefully cut around each print.  You don't have to cut all the way in between the fingers.  I just followed the picture I had found on Pinterest.  I'm sure a craft knife would work for this as well.  I used small up-down cutting to prevent the clay from sticking to the knife and dragging.

I then just peeled away the excess clay.  The edges were kind of rough, but after trial and error I figure out that you could wet your finger and smooth out the edges.  I used a small knitting needle to get down in the points between the fingers and smooth them.  I then laid each cutout on a cookie sheet and used the knitting needle to make a hole at the base of each hand to attach an ornament hanger.

Even though this is an air-drying clay, every thing I read about it said it could take up to a couple of days to completely dry.  I was hoping for a faster drying time so after some research online I determined that I could place them in the oven on a low temp.  I put them in at 200 degrees for about 5 hours.  They dried like a charm! with no detectable shrinkage.

The next step was painting.  I painted each ornament with white acrylic paint all over, making sure to get down in every crease and hole completely to form a complete seal.  If the clay isn't sealed, moisture can seep in over time and soften the clay.  When that was dry I just used the internet picture as a reference.  I found that using a red paint pen for the hat and a black paint pen for the outlining was easiest.  I did use a brush for the face color.  Then I made sure to write the name and year on the back.  

After the paint was completely dry, I spray painted them with a clear, acrylic gloss seal for the final coat.  I bought a thin ribbon and used that as a hanger for the ornament.  I love this keepsake ornament and look forward to passing it on to Olivia with her other ornaments.  I will always remember her sweet little hand on her first Christmas and how thrilled I am to get to hold that hand as she grows and goes through life.

I ended up liking these so well I decided to use the idea for a dirty Santa gift exchange I had with my Waiting Moms group.  These are all families who's lives are being touched by adoption and I have the privilege of meeting with them each week.  What a wonderful support and group of prayer warriors they are!  I'm so glad to have these sweet ladies and kids in my life.

I wish you all the merriest of Christmases.  May God bless you in this season as we celebrate His Son's birth and in the coming New Year.

Erin

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

November certainly took our home by storm and I can't believe it's December already.  Two weeks ago the stomach bug had me out of commission for about 5 days.  Fortunately after that we were able to get away for eight days with family for Thanksgiving.  And we have so much for which we are thankful!  God has blessed us abundantly.

Now we roll into December and I'm excited to celebrate Christmas and get a jump on traditions with our baby girl.  It's her first Christmas and the shopping is done, but I was anxious to make some things for my girl so I thought I would share what I've been up to this week and share in some of my family traditions.

My wonderfully talented mother made all of us hand made Christmas stockings when we were little and I am always thrilled every year to see them.  They all still hang on her mantle at my parents' home, but the home made things that both she and my grandmother made for me are such a special part of my Christmas memories.  So one of the first things I wanted to get to was making Olivia her Christmas stocking.  Through the years, I've made several attempts of making stockings for myself and my husband, but have never been satisfied.  I was quite nervous about deciding what to do for Olivia.  After seeing a chenille stocking I liked at Canton and then searching the internet for ideas for finishing touches, I came up with a plan.

Thanks to the help of my mother-in-law who embroidered her name on the material over Thanksgiving, I came home ready to get crackin'!  All in all I was pleased with the outcome and home she will come to appreciate it over the years.

My mother also started a tradition with our Christmas ornaments.  Every year since 1973 when my sisters were born, she kept a journal of all the Christmas ornaments we were given and who gave them or made them as well as things we may have made for neighbors or teachers.  When we put up the tree each year we went through the journal in in order and we each hung our ornaments on the tree in that order.  I admit by the time we were in college it took so long that at times it could be a little wearying, but it is a great way to remember!  She since has divided up our ornaments but with each of our boxes she included the list.  I look forward to unwrapping my ornaments and hanging them on the tree to this day...even if it is weird to think that some of those ornaments are over 30 years old now!

To keep this tradition alive I bought an inexpensive Christmas journal at Michael's.  My sister-in-law brought her Cricut to Thanksgiving and let me play with it so I made Olivia's name and some snowflakes out of red flocked paper, ran them through my sticker machine and embellished the journal so we can start the ornament list this year.  We've already got several to include!

My other craft project for the week was to finish making her a Christmas onesie to wear throughout the Christmas season.

I do love Christmas crafts and am grateful for the time my mother and grandmother spent teaching me and crafting with me.  Those memories will always be a part of me.  But I am most grateful to my parents and grandparents for teaching me the true meaning of Christmas.  That we were sinful and separated from God so He sent His only son, Jesus to earth as a tiny baby.  And while we focus on the baby at Christmas, he grew to be a perfect, sinless man who laid down his own life to pay the penalty for my sin.  He graciously has saved me from the death and separation from God that I deserve!  That is the reason my family celebrates Christmas.  And I look forward to passing down that awesome tradition.

So if you don't hear from me before then...Merry Christmas!

Baby Gifts Gone Handmade

Well hello again!  It's been a while since my last post, but it's been hectic around here with traveling and the usual business of life.  In my circle of friends there seems to be a lot of celebrating the arrival of new babies!  It is so exciting to watch these precious families welcome God's precious gifts come into their lives.

So with these new bundles comes a season of sweet showers and sip and see parties.  The art of gift giving has always been somewhat stressful for me.  I have always wanted to get just the perfect gift...as if that really exists.  So I have decided to branch out as of late and make some hand-crafted baby gifts for my friends.  There are so many cute "boutique" items for babies I have seen and thought, "I think I could make that!"  The latest item that came to my attention was a padded cover for a baby carrier handle.  A friend of mine from my Adoptive Moms Group got one and said she loved it.  So this was my effort in taking on this new project.

First I cut my foam to size.  Fortunately my mom had a store of foam sheets that were just perfect for this project.  You could cut your foam to any size, but I used an 8 1/2 by 10 1/2 inch piece of foam.  The 10 1/2 inch length was just right to wrap around the carrier handle and fasten.  I then cut two pieces of coordinating fabric 10" by 15".  I laid the fabric right sides together and sewed them together on three sides (the two lengths and one end).

I then turned the piece right sides out and ironed to make all the fabric and edges smooth.  I then cut a strip of sew on velcro to the length of the two shorter ends.  I pinned one side of the velcro to the sewn end of the fabric and stitched around the velcro to secure it in place.

Once the velcro was secure, I cut a strip of grograin ribbon to match the length of the same end.  I used a ribbon that was slightly wider than the velcro and cut it longer to cover the stitches from the velcro.  I flipped the fabric to the opposite side and sewed the ribbon into place even with the velcro.  (A great tip when cutting ribbon is to pass a lighter gently across the cut end of the ribbon.  The flame seals the cut end, keeps the ribbon from fraying, and provides a nice finished look to your ribbon).

I then inserted the foam piece into the open end of the fabric pocket.  (Before sewing the velcro and ribbon you may want to insert the foam and check that the fit is nice and snug inside the fabric.)  After inserting the foam, I turned the cut ends of the open fabric inside and ironed the fabric to hold it in place.  You want to make sure that the fabric goes past the foam just the width of your velcro and ribbon so that when you sew them in place, they will form a snug fit against your foam.  Once I checked the length I pinned the open ends together and pinned the velcro in place on the opposite side of the fabric from the first piece of velcro.  I then sewed the velcro to the fabric, and in the same manner as the first end, also sewed the ribbon into place.

 
This was the finished project.  I thought it turned out well and I was pretty proud that worked on the first try!

Once I had the pad finished I decided I needed a couple of coordinating burp cloths to welcome a sweet little baby boy at his shower today.  I had done the burp cloths before for a baby girl by taking a towel cut to size and sewing it together with a coordinating piece of fabric - right sides together and leaving a hole to turn it right-side-out.  Once turned out, I ironed it and then made another stitch slightly inside the outer edge around the cloth.  Then I simply hand-stitched the small opening I had left on the outside.  I made two burp cloths to match the pad for this particular gift (I also include pics of the ones I made for baby girl).

This was such a fun project to do...even for a person with minimal sewing skills such as myself!  I never once got frustrated (as I can often do with other sewing projects)!  So I hope if you want to take a stab at making hand made baby gifts this is helpful to you.  I'm trying to get better taking pics with each step of the process and hopefully simplify as time goes by.  Feel free to pass this along to your crafty friends and pass along any craft ideas to me!  Bye for now...

6 Months and Sitting Pretty

Sometimes I am just blown away by how fast time passes.  This week my precious baby girl turned six months old!  We are praising God for what a marvelous gift she is!!  Of course I was feeling the need to celebrate and got a little crafty to help.

It was time for us to jump into what I call Mama's Home Photo Studio again.  This month I wanted to take pics in a cute-as-a-button dress I bought for her to wear for her court date on Gotcha Day. So first I needed to make her amatching hair bow for the dress.  You've just got to have a matching hair bow!  So I got out my box of ribbon and got to work.

I was well please with the outfit!

After that I decided to work on some props for the background.  I always have my trusty white or black backdrop to hang, but I wanted to add a little coordinating punch with some hanging tulle pom poms.  I made the pom poms by wrapping tulle repeatedly around a notebook and then cut the tulle in two places to create two even stacks.  I then gathered the tulle squares and tied them off with matching ribbon.  

This is the first time I've made these, but I think I'm addicted now.  They turned out to be so fun and Olivia loves them!  I made five puffs and hung them at different heights and depths in front of my white backdrop.  Then all I had to do was wait for the sun to shine.

So the next day we got Olivia all dolled up and went to work.  The thing about taking pictures of your own kids in your own home is that she's a little more comfortable at home and with me than at the studio which means she doesn't let me pose her like the photographer does.  I tried alone at first, but had to enlist the help of my husband to help wipe up drool, keep her from pulling her socks off, get her to smile, keep her from pulling her hair bow off, look in the direction of the camera, stop pulling her dress above her head, etc....  Photographing a six month old was much more challenging than snapping the sleeping one month old, but still so much fun!  When all was said and done, these are some of the shots we got.

And there were so many more hysterical and memorable shots.  So it was a great family memory.  And having such a cute subject makes it all the more fun.  It was a big week for the little girl...six months.  And it was a fun week for me getting my hands busy with crafts and capturing this precious stage in my daughter's life.  I'm grateful for every moment we have and thanking God for His wonderful blessings.  I hope you take time to thank Him for the little blessings in your life today.

Always Say PEAS and Thank You!

My sweet baby girl is about 5 and 1/2 months old now.  Long before we started her on table food I decided I was going to give it a go at making her baby food myself.  So Jody and I loaded up and went to farmers market one Saturday morning and stocked up on peas and green beans and I went to work.  I steamed and pureed the veggies and filled up my trays and put them in the freezer ready for the day when Olivia would be ready for green veggies.

Lo and behold, this is that week.  We're enjoying a successful run with cereal and I was expected peas to be a fun addition to menu.  Much to my dismay, it doesn't seem that Olivia is enjoying peas!  As is evident from the picture, more peas made it on the face and bib than in the mouth!

So, what started as a mama proud of herself for making her own baby food ended after a couple of tries as a mama hoping it is no reflection on her baby-food-making ability.  (The photos are a little deceptive because she actually looks happy with the peas.  But it was really tears and shaking her head.  She just turned on the charm when the camera came out!)

So after a half an hour, this is what we were still left with in the bowl...

Looking forward to what the pediatrician tells us to start adding after the next appointment so we can continue with the culinary crafting adventure.  And who knows...maybe baby girl will eventually decide to like peas.

Me...a blogger?????

So this is my first post on my new blog.  I never thought I would be a blogger, but my friends have been trying to convince me.  I am a new mom and long-time crafter who has recently quit my job to stay home with my baby girl.  It's been five months of joy with her now and I'm starting to get back into the crafting mood to make things for my sweet baby.

So I have all these ADORABLE pictures of this BEAUTIFUL girl and I need a cute way to display them.  I was cleaning out my craft closet and found an unfinished frame I had bought and stored who knows when.  So I decided to put some materials I already had to good use.  Here is my process.

I painted the frame using a turquoise craft paint and let it dry

Then I went over the paint with a black glaze - you can see the can of glaze in the picture here.

Then I made a bow and glued it and glued a flower I had previously made for a hair clip.

Then to top it all off I added a picture of the cutest little baby in the entire world.  That really made it sing!  I was pretty pleased with the finished product.  I hope you think so too!    

That ended my crafting adventure today.  On to mom adventure...have an abnormally high percentage of poop covered clothes in the baby's basket this time around.  It's Spot Shot to the rescue.  Laundry is calling!