Crafty In 2010

I must admit that the craftier side of me definitely came alive in 2010. I think it's partly because my husband bought me an awesome sewing machine as a St. Patrick's Day present :) But also probably because I had more time on my hands. I ended up making a lot of cool gifts for people and for myself. Here are some of the things I was able to finish in 2010...

I made a "chore chart" with some friends. Although my kids still don't even grasp the concept of chores, I had so much fun making this:



You place the chores you want them to do in their little block and when they've completed it, they place the stick back in the main block. I'm looking forward to the day it will actually get used. The next thing I worked on was blankets, and not just any blankets. I decided to try my hand at sewing minky (the bumpy baby blanket material). Worst idea ever. The blankets don't even begin to look like they took as much time as they really did. It's a very funny material that doesn't cooperate at all really. However, despite the time they consumed, the blankets turned out well.








I had fun monogramming names and stuff on them too. My next big crafty thing was making all of my pregnant friends car seat covers. Making these really helped me get the basics of sewing down. I had a lot of fun adding little details to each one to make it my own unique pattern.








I sewed reversing strips of fabric to each side, made rounded corners, added ribbon, and added 2 fabrics to each strap. I had a fun time making these for everyone and hope that they are all enjoying them :) One of my more labor intensive crafts this year was my tutu bow holders. I made everything on these from scratch which took a lot of preparing.








For those of you unsure as to what this is, it has 2 purposes. One is that it's a really cute decoration for a little girl's room. Next it serves as a hair accessory holder. The ribbons draping down the tutu are used to clip barrettes and hair clips on and helps keep them all organized. For this project I had to create the design for the bodice. Then I went out and bought the wood and traced the design. After a friend cut it out for me, I drilled 2 holes in the top of wood. This created a place to tie the ribbon so that the piece could be hung up. Next I covered the front in batting and wrapped the chosen piece of fabric around it - Brodie even helped with this part since it required 2 sets of hands and a staple gun. Then I came up with a few different ways to gather the toole and apply the ribbon around the waste with the attached ribbon running down the tutu. Lastly I added embellishments, and voila, my masterpiece was complete. They all turned out really cute. The next thing I tried out last year was making a hooded towel. After combining directions from a few sites, I think it turned out pretty well.



I only made one, but it was super easy and I got to try out some new stitches on my sewing machine. I also did a lot of things for my sister's wedding, but posted those pictures earlier here. The only thing I hadn't posted yet was her guest sign in book. This book consumed a better part of the end of my year. I'm glad I didn't document how many hours this took - I might be embarrassed. Needless to say it turned out gorgeous and I couldn't help but take a photo of every layout.













On the first page I summarized the story of the night Ryan proposed to my sister. The next layout was a spread of her bridals and his groomals since they had photos taken before the wedding - which turned out gorgeous. The rest of the book's layouts included both sets of their engagement photos scrapbooked in a way that left plenty of room for their guests to write a message to the couple. I'm so proud of that little book, yet the amount of time that went into it has made me lay off the scrapbooking for a while!

I've also been working on lots of things for the baby, but I will post all of those together when I'm done with all of her projects :) I'm so proud of all my projects. Here's to a crafty 2011!