Freebie Friday: Numbers & Shapes Matching

This freebie was inspired by this post from handmade by Jill. The little buddy was sitting next to me while I was reading it and asked if I would make him "some of those." Obviously I don't an L Letterpress (alas) so we just did something on the computer. But they are still kind of fun. Instead of making them the same I opted for numbers and shapes with corresponding values. But, if you wanted to print out two sets you could just match number to number and shapes to shapes.

The second page I copied Jill and made a "back" for them. I thought that was really an ingenious idea since a lot of the time a single page of 67 lb. cardstock is still see-through when it's flipped over.  I used spray adhesive to stick them together before I cut them out. -but any kind of glue would work (elmer's or another really "wet" glue will probably make them wavy though). And of course there is always laminating . . .

Here they are. I did two inch square so if you want to turn them into circles instead it would work!

enjoy!

ruffle rosette pillow

Sew Mama Sew has an awesome collection of pillow tutorials. In fact, I'm having a hard time deciding which ones I want to make. I love this chevron tutorial by Made.  But, I knew I needed a pillow for the rocking chair in the little sweeties room, and this tutorial  seemed just right. I wanted my flowers to look more like a rose and less ruffled so I didn't gather them as much, and then instead of doing the entire pillow I opted for a heart. The hunny told me I was too late for Valentines, but I think for a nursery, it's perfect! Plus now I can slouch in the rocking chair without it hurting my back! Yay for 2:00 am.

crazy ice

So, ice storm huh? This blew (literally) in a couple days ago. I was almost glad we've been sick and had another reason to stay inside.

 

Then yesterday the sun came out, and oh my goodness! These pictures don't do it justice. It looked like all the iced over trees had been covered in glitter. This caught a few of the sparkles, but not anywhere near the real thing. Gorgeous. I couldn't stop staring. 

This is the lawn outside-and yes it is covered with a crust of ice. The white part is snow and the grey stuff is ice. Crazy geese! Anyway, I do have some projects to show you, I just haven't had a chance to photograph them yet. And, I am working on those etsy shop things. (Seriously, I'm putting it off because I hate getting the pictures ready, poor excuse I know).

Freebie Friday . . . Lace Up Boy

Yep, I finally finished making these.  While I was cutting them out today the buddy sat by me and played with them. He kept talking about the boy in his "skins." I admit I haven't taught him the word "naked" so he uses "skins" and I love it. I'll be sad when he learns the real word. But, I think they are a success since the little buddy LOVES them.

So here is the Spring Lace Up Boy. . . . and if you are too busy to print and cut and laminate and punch yourself . . . you can get the finished deal in my etsy shop.. . .{ in a few days. . . . the little sweetie came down with croup today and listing those things fell to the bottom of my list. sorry. They will be there soon. I'll let you know!}

 The Spring Lace Up Boy comes with four sets of clothes . . . and a knight costume . . .
 

Also in the shop {in a few days}? Some more sweet dress up clothes as a Printable (for you to print) and Made  (by me, and laminated and punched . . . ready to go) versions! I think the cowboy is my favorite.

And if it doesn't get better than that . . . I'm also featuring customizable dolls in my shop. Hence, if you don't want a scrawny white boy  . . . you can pick any color of skin, hair and eyes in either a Printable or Made set. . . .

I'll let you know when they are in my etsy shop {in a few days}

Happy Valentines

I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate all of your comments. Thank you! They truly make my day.


The little buddy and I made these Valentine's last week for grandparents. I pulled out these hat stickers I've had hanging around forever (like 10 years hoarding  . . . forever). He went to town with them. He would tell me what "shirt" he wanted and I would do the cutting. He did all the planning and most of the gluing. but then when I told  him we were going to give them to the grandma's he got all teary eyed and said he wanted to keep it. It was his "cowboy hat." How could I say no? I was secretly glad we got to keep one of them because they were so cute!

So here's a happy valentine's to you  from the buddy and I :)



and no . . . the hunny isn't a police man . . . it just looks like it :)

Freebie Friday- Personalize Your Valentine

A little slow on the draw this morning. Yesterday was just a weird day-all the routines were out of whack. Some days are like that, no? But I wanted to add a more personalized valentine to the slew of Valentine paraphenalia.

Get the cut out heart here. The plan? Cut it out (with an exacto knife) and make your own insides-

Put a picture inside the opening
Or find a cool picture or texture from a magazine.
Or tape some fake fur inside, or a cool fabric,
or glue a heart chocolate or conversation  heart on the inside to poke through. . . really the possibilities are endless. Seriously.

This one I cut three hearts out exactly the same (I just cut them all out at once) Then folded them so the colored part was on the inside and glued half of the middle heart back to the back of one heart and the other half to the other heart.  (Extra points if you understood what I even said here).

I think I'm going to have to go make some more myself . . .

the heart headband

I'm really not usually a huge valentine celebrator-you couldn't tell from all the posts, eh? Maybe it's something about kids or having a girl now? I don't know, maybe it's freebie friday that's got my mind thinking about it.

This idea for a headband popped into my head about the time I was going to sleep. And like any practical mother who has to take that moment when it comes (aka when the kids are asleep) I got out the felt right then and there and made this fun little headband. It took about 10 minutes-

All I did was fold the fleece in half, cut out a heart (from two layers of felt at once), and then stitched them together with a little embroidery floss and stitched them onto some headband elastic. Pretty simple, but fun for Valentine's eh?

Freebie Friday: Valentine Circles

I don't know what to call these 2 inch beauties? They are so versatile. Should I call them stickers? Cupcake toppers? seals? I just don't know.

But wouldn't they be fun centered on a CD cover with a cookie wrapped in wax paper inside? I think so.

Any other fun ideas?


Get the Valentine's "Circles" here.

(that's a 2 1/4 inch scalloped hole punch above and 2 inch hole punch below). 

Tutorial: Star Paper Notes

A cute little package . . .

an eye catching presence . . .

*this one was made folding the white side in in step 2 and out in step 3 (opposite of pix)

and you can write in it!

I can't remember where I learned how to make these. But they are pretty cool, and fun for sending notes, or even hanging up as decorations. And fairly easy to make.

With Valentines coming up I thought it would be a fun tutorial:

*this one was made folding the white side out in step 2 and in in step 3-like the pictures show

First a little note: I'm a very visual learner. A lot of tutorials I just look at the pictures and know how to make it-I don't need to read it. (although a lot of times I wish later I had).  I'm not very good at explaining with words what to do.So, first, I'm sorry I'm bad at explaining, and second, you might want to read through the whole thing before starting.

SUPPLIES:


*Colored/scrapbooking PAPER. (the creases are usually ugly and big with cardstock)
*2-3 foot piece of ribbon/string
*chipboard (I like to use the backs of note books if there fairly stiff-or the back board of a stack of scrapbooking paper)
*Glue ( I use a glue stick because it's not too wet and won't curl your paper-but whatever you want).
*Scissors

optional, but nice:

paper trimmer
bone folder


1. Trim your paper to 5 inches square. (Or 6 if you want it a little bigger-and then you can just cut a 12x12 piece of scrapbooking paper in fourths.) You will need at least 5 sheets to make it big enough to open-but don't do more than 7 or it won't show all the pages open.

I did 6 different colors (I have more paper here because I made a few stars)

2. Fold each sheet in half open, and then fold in half the other direction.  *important. (If you want the colored side to be on the edges instead of in the middle fold it so the color is on the outside for these two folds--see pictures at beginning of post)

so it look like this (Use a bone folder for nice and easy creases).

3. Open it up and fold corner to corner the opposite way (if you've been folding with the colored part in-like the pictures-then fold this one with the colored part out).

This is what it should look like now:

4. line them up and glue the backs together really you are just stacking them on top of each other and gluing facing sides.

I like to keep them folded while you glue so that you only get glue on the part you are gluing.

after I stick them together I open it up and rub the glued part with a bone folder to adhere it well.

Once you've glued them all together it should look like this (they don't like to stay folded shut):

and this:

5. Cut 2 chipboard pieces 1/2 the size of your original page dimensions. So if you cut 5 inch squares for your paper, cut 2 1/2 inch squares for your chipboard.

 6. Cut another piece of scrapbooking paper 1 inch larger than your chipboard. (3 1/2 inches if your going with my measurements).
7. Cover the chipboard with glue and put it in the center of your paper like so: And then cut the edges off with scissors (I just eyeballed it).

8. Glue each side and fold in: like so: Repeat with your other piece of chipboard and paper.

9. Fold your ribbon in half and pinch to find the center.  Put the center on one of the corners of your chipboard and glue in place. Glue your other square and put it about 1/4 inch away with the center pinch of your ribbon in between the two squares.

10. Glue the two empty backs of your paper to the  inside of your chipboard rub down with your bone folder. When it's folded together it should look like this:

Tie a little bow and wala: you are done. Open it up and flatten one of the insides to write a special little note. 

heart garland

Do you ever have ideas find you? This garland was one of them. I wanted some simple valentine decor-a little something with a big punch and then there it was. I could see little hearts all strung together with a little string hanging in my mind. Lots of rows back and forth. So I started cutting out hearts from scrapbook paper. For an hour or two. . . Then I sewed them all together with an old needle in the machine and red thread. Pretty simple.

Only downer? It's really easy to get 16 feet or so of garland tangled. Oh, and make sure you sew towards the top of the bumps on the heart so the hearts  don't hang upside down ;)

Yeah, they still need a little work hanging just right-maybe not quite so swoopy? But we ACTUALLY had the sun come out of the clouds for a little bit so I could take semi-decent pictures in the darkest corner of our apartment!

**Tomorrow I hope to have a tutorial for you on star paper notes. The plan was to have it up for you yesterday, but, well, things keep coming up. Tomorrow!