Craft Wars Inspired Day Bed Makeover

Last week's episode of Craft Wars found the contestants designing a bedroom using the mystery ingredient, zippers. I only had one day to work on an "inspired by" craft and had zero extra zippers laying around.

What I did have was a very messy day bed! We bought this bed when Lydia moved out of the crib and into what, up until that moment, had been our guest bed. The day bed was a great deal on Craigslist and, some day, it will move into the new addition we are constructing. But for now, it has been shoved into the nursery. Not having a permanent home yet, it also didn't get much thought in terms of its covers... And it shows!

For now, the day bed sits opposite our beautiful vintage circus crib. Now that there is a baby occupying the nursery again, I really wanted to make a bedspread for the day bed to help it look more like a cohesive part of this room.

If you haven't tackled a bedspread, they aren't that difficult. Most are just a large rectangle, with the most difficult part being the large size. This bed is a twin, so one width of my fabric fit the width of the mattress and that is where I started. I cut a piece of fabric just a tiny bit larger than the top of the mattress.

Next, I cut a long rectangle band that was as tall as the mattress was thick and long enough the sew it to three of the sides of my initial rectangle. (I am leaving one end of the bedspread open to make it easier to sleep under when needed) My fabric wasn't long enough so I had to cut a couple of long rectangle pieces, sew them to make a really long rectangle, and then sew them to the top piece.

I made another long rectangle to be the skirt of the bedspread. I sewed it to the bottom edge of the first long rectangle and the bedspread was essentially finished. It isn't lined at this point, but when I do that I will just repeat the same process and then sew the outside and the inside lining together.

I didn't want all the messy throw pillows on the day bed, but it needed something to create more of a couch feeling. I had just enough fabric to make three small pillows for the back of the bed. I think I only have three hours invested in the sewing of this project, which makes it definitely worthy of a Craft Wars challenge! More importantly, I now have a beautiful day bed worthy of our vintage circus nursery!

Check out what some of the other Craft Wars contestants were inspired to make this week.

Margot Potter made a retro-fabulous lampshade.

Andrea Curry made a cute zipper pillow.

Pattye showcased some lamps in her Foo Foo La La shop.

Safety City

Growing up, I remember my mom taking us kids to a "safety town" where we learned all about traffic signs by driving pedal cars around kid sized buildings. I was aware that our city had one, but just learned that in the summer there are a few days when it is open to the public.

By the time I felt organized and recovered enough to venture out with Lydia and baby, our Safety City was about to have its LAST public day of the summer. It was crowded, but I am SO glad we made it!

The "town" is full of miniature versions of Knoxville businesses and landmarks, including a small sized Sunspere!

Because we have a gravel driveway at our house, Lydia doesn't get a lot of time to practice on her bike. She also hasn't had many reasons to learn the rules of "driving" on a real road with stop signs, red lights, and intersections.

When we arrived, I had that realization that I might need to follow her and help her. To her credit, Lydia had other plans! She took off and told me "No Grownups!"

No Grownups, that is, until she needed a drink and her shoe tied!

Thanks Safety City for a really fun day! See you next year!

Four and Fabulous Portraits

More than a month after her birthday, we have finally gotten to the portrait studio to take Lydia's birthday photos.  I like having a good picture of her each year, but his year I also wanted a picture of the birthday outfit that I made for her.  Somehow with all the excitement at her party, I didn't get a good shot of it.

The good thing about taking these pictures AFTER her party, is that we had a bunch of gift bags to use in the pictures!

 I also brought along some extra feather boas from the party swag bags.

It wasn't much to carry into the studio, but it gave Lydia several things to interact with in the pictures.

Sibling Portraits

 We went back to JC Penney's Portrait Studio again today!  We were in the studio last week for Joshua's newborn portraits.  I was supposed to take Lydia in for her birthday pictures in early July, but Joshua's early birth changed those plans.  As long as we were rescheduling the birthday photos, I brought along a change of clothing (OK, I totally forgot the extra outfit and had to buy a new white shirt and skirt at Penney's) and had some sibling pictures taken. Unlike our usual photo sessions, these did not require any extra props.  I did search the internet and found a few poses that I liked to suggest to the photographer.  I am SO in love with these photos.  I won't even try to comment on them.  I'm speechless (and head over heals in love with my kids)!

Pinterest Pacifier

I saw these on Pinterest, so I can't take any credit for the idea. I did figure out how to do it on my own, mostly because I am lazy and hate following directions!

I opted to use a clear pacifier to add to the illusion that the baby actually has a mustache.

I cut a small rectangle of brown felt. I would like to re-create this craft with fun foam, but I didn't have any. So, I'll have to see how this holds up to washing and I will have to be OK with it just being a prototype.

Next I cut a small notch out of the felt so that it fit the shape of the pacifier better. I then looked at a picture of a mustache and cut the rest of the felt to match. (Hint: get half of it perfect and then fold in half to copy the shape)

Finally, I tested the mustache size on Joshua, making sure it didn't cover his nose.

Now Joshua has a fun new pacifier, I can check one more project off of my Pinterest list, AND I think I have a start on Joshua's Halloween costume!

A Postage Themed Problem; "Special Delivery" Birth Announcements!

Often, I find that having a limit set on my supplies or time forces me to bypass the most obvious way to do something and find a really creative solution to a problem. It's one of the main things that I really like about the show Craft Wars. This week the CW contestants were challenged to make Christmas decorations from mailing supplies. In my attempt to create things referencing the show, I also created something that celebrates a special moment and used stamps and packaging materials to solve a crafting cunundrum. Here's the problem and how I crafted my way out of it.

In a recent post, I shared the story behind this photo and explained what went into creating the props for the photo shoot. I loved the picture so much and I wanted to use it as part of Joshua's birth announcement.

The birth announcement above is NOT Joshua, but it is the starting point for his birth announcements and for my problem. I found these blank announcements months ago at a HUGE discount. (I got a few hundred of these beautiful announcements for $5!) At the time, I figured I would get a good (horizontal) photo of the baby and do a similar layout.....and then I fell in love with this luggage idea (and its vertical orientation) and I had a problem!

Here is the initial picture from the luggage photo shoot. (Can you believe I took it on my PHONE?!? My "big camera" was out of batteries and the light was good and the baby was asleep and my phone apparently has a REALLY good camera on it!) I was aware of the layout issue and tried to take a few in a horizontal format, but they just didn't work for this image.

Before I could figure it all out, I went ahead and ran the photo through photo-shop to add Joshua's name and "special delivery" to the luggage tags. I also cropped the image and bumped up the contrast and saturation of the colors a little.

And then it was time to deal with the layout issue. I would have just flipped the card to be vertical, but there is the round monogram on one side of the card and it was going to show and be in an odd location if I flipped the card to be vertical. I decided that I would need to hide the monogram behind some additional element.

I went looking for fun travel or delivery themed images that could be glued over the monogram area to hide it. When I found these stamps I was SO excited! I also got a new idea for how to handle the odd monogram circle space so that these stamps no longer needed to be glued over the monogram area.

Instead, I placed them in random looking areas on the picture as if it were a postcard being mailed. As long as I was in photo-shop, I also played around with the date on the flag stamp, making it Joshua's birthday!

I still needed to deal with the monogram circle, but the stamps had given me a new idea. Instead of hiding the monogram circle, I re-invented it as a round postal cancelation stamp! This provided the additional oportunity to add the details of Joshua's place of birth, weight, and length where a real postal cancelation would have its own information.

I just used a craft knife to cut half the edge of the circle, so that the photo slid underneath the round shape and my problem was solved!

That's how I went from a problem layout to a postal themed "special delivery" birth announcement! I love how a few limiting factors and the choice of a few postage supplies created a finished product that was so much more creative than the original design!

Several Craft Wars contestants have also been making things inspired by the "Christmas Craftastrophe" episode. Check them out at the links below!

Lisa's Cardstock Christmas Tree

Traci's Craft Wars Inspired Wreath

Nikki's Wine Cork Wreath

Margot's Re-Do of Last Week's Sweater Wreath

Pattye's Up-cycled Christmas Ornaments

Joshua's J.C. Penney's Portraits

Even though I just orchestrated my own "special delivery" themed photo shoot here at our house, I still wanted some studio photographs of baby Joshua while he was still a tiny baby. I also wanted the opportunity to be in a few photos with him, so I made an appointment at our favorite JC Pennies Portrait Studios yesterday.

I love that I already have access to small sized preview images and I love, love, love how economical these photos are! You used to need a coupon, but now all their basic, unedited photos are just $4 a sheet! We have always had good results, but I usually put some thought and effort into what we wear and what props to bring.

I always start with a search for poses, themes, and color schemes. For this session I searched the internet for "newborn photography" and "newborn pictures" (examples above). I saved the images I liked to show to the photographer. The newborn wearing a paper hat that I saw on multiple websites was one of my favorites.

If you want to do something similar, here are directions for making a newspaper hat. (directions originally found here from the book This Book Belongs to Aye Aye.)

I wanted a to do a little more with printed paper, so I also made some paper pinwheels and paper pennants in similarly monochromatic neutral colors. I love that now it appears that Joshua has had a little party to explain the hat!

I also brought in several blankets and pieces of fabric that had good texture and colors for the look that I wanted. A higher priced photographer shod have these items for you, but if you ate going the more economical route you may want to bring extra options. Think outside the box! The nubby textured fabric in many of these pictures is one of my sweaters!

I remembered from Lydia's one month portraits that my hands may end up in a few photos, so I did an at home gel manicure that morning.

I was surprised that they encouraged me to strip him completely for these pictures, but since it was my fabric inside their basket, it didn't matter as much if he peed (which he did).

They did have a rule against showing full nudity. Baby bottoms were OK, but we had to strategically place the fabric for this pose.

And that's the story behind Joshua's first JC Pennies portraits!