Felt Board Busy Bags

Yesterday I got three busy bag felt board sets done.  While the felt board isn't made yet the labor of cutting pieces is (mostly).  I decided to make a cupcake, tree and doll set.

While I started with a list I definitely didn't stick to it when I got to the store.  I ended up with a large (12x18) and a small (9x12) stiffer white felt which I plan to attach to something to use as the board.  This is more than half (15) of my pile of felt (24) so I bought too much felt since I have a lot of usable scraps left to finish up other busy bags.  Since I was making some dolls I decided to get some printed felt also (3).

 
Here are my cupcakes.  I used this pattern from Money Saving Mom.  The only pieces left to make for this bag are the toppings for the cupcakes.  I skipped making them because I want to use the scraps but started with this set.

I designed this tree in Publisher.  Get the file below!

For the dolls I used the Dress Up Dolls pattern from Little Gene Green Bean.  I created the dress by pinning the tank top and skirt next to each other and cutting it out as a single piece.  The hair was made by drawing around the head on a piece of paper to make a template.  I still plan to make shoes since they are Melodi's favorite.

As promised, here is the tree template.  VIEW PDF

It was a busy but productive day.  Hubby finished up Melodi's new dresser and watched Melodi while doing it.  Definitely nice to have a crafty day while not having to watch Melodi.  I was also able to get some pictures done and backdated posts finished up.

Watermark Take Two

I have been playing around with FotoFlexer lately, as you can tell since I have a blog header and a signature line now.  Just now I realized that I have been over looking using the layers feature to create a watermark once, save it to my computer, then adding it to a picture as another layer.  It was a quick process, so now I also have a watermark figured out.  This is my original attempt at a watermark.

Here is the watermark that I have saved as an image with a transparent background.

All I have to do is load my picture into FotoFlexer, edit it as desired, then in the layers tab select Add Images, find my watermark, load it in, position, and save.  No more going through the steps of inserting the sticker, changing the color, typing the text, selecting the font, and so on.  Tried doing this for real and it doesn't work.  My picture gets all wonky and cropped in half.  I'll have to mess around with it more.  So, for now I'm just using Publisher to upload the picture and watermark then group the two together and save as picture.

Adding a Signature

There are a whole bunch of blogs that have a signature line after each post that they write.  I would like to have a really cute one with some 3D looking digital scrapbooking element, but this will do for now.  This is the tutorial that I used to create my signature, but I used FotoFlexer to make it.  The butterfly sticker from the FotoFlexer collection.  I got hung up on where to get the HTML coding for the image so I'm going to share my steps on how to do that.  Looking back at the tutorial I found that it said to "upload the image to an image hosting website such as photobucket.com" but I don't use one so I will share my steps anyways.

1. Open a new page in your blog
2. Insert the picture file from your computer
3. Select the HTML button (if you use blogger it's in the upper left, next to compose)
4. Now you have the HTML code!
5. If you want your signature on the left margin as opposed to centered you will need to edit the code.
• The code likely reads <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
• Change it to read <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">

So I got this far and realized that there is a nasty border and shadow around my signature so I found this tutorial on getting rid of it.  This tutorial will walk you through everything you need to do to get a signature line on your blog posts.  Now that I've removed the shadow my signature is in a white box whereas my background is light blue.  I had this really cute "sparkling" butterfly which seems to be causing the issue with transparency coming from FotoFlexer so I reverted to a simple sticker without the sparkle.  But I wanted to show you the sparkle anyways.

This is inserted as an image instead of the cool signature line deal so it's a real mess.  But isn't the sparkle so AWESOME!

The story behind butterflies and me goes back to planning our wedding.  I feel like a lot of "themes" are over done (no offense if you used any of the themes I dis, it just wasn't right for us), and didn't want to have an event theme but needed something to tie things together a little bit more than just "blue."  Doves didn't work, we didn't have "a place" like the beach, or any of the other wedding themes that were floating around in 2007.  Ever since we had a "blue butterfly" wedding we have been receiving blue butterflies for decoration, household goods, etc.  I've even bought some of it, but I was never really "into" butterflies and I'm still not, but it's a symbol that has stuck.

This project turned out to take a lot longer than I had hoped/expected and now that's after 1am it is time to call it a night.  I may be back tomorrow to edit this craziness a little bit and delete all the draft posts that have been created in the process of figuring out how to add a signature to my posts.  

Easter Photo Props

Since we didn't do Christmas photos in 2011 or get birthday photos done in February, we decided to go to an Easter Mini Session hosted by Danette Kay Photography to catch up.  This means I'm completely ready for Easter, as far as Melodi's outfit goes with a dress, decorated basket, and hat.

My first instinct when looking at buying clothes for Melodi online is to go to JCPenney's website because I'm partial to Penney's.  Of course the one I liked was only available online and I didn't have time to have it shipped.  My next thought was about a gift card I had in my purse for Sears.  I will definitely have to start shopping at Sears more for cute dresses because they had a lot to choose from.  Since I had found an idea I liked at Penney's I went into Sears looking for the same design and had a few choices that were similar to the dress I found at Penney's.

JCPenney Dress

Sears Dress

This is the first Easter (even though it's her third) that Melodi is walking by herself so she gets a real Easter basket.  I wanted to find a plain basket that would be easy to decorate each year to match her outfit.  Target had the basket in several colors so I decided on a white one over the brown one.  I wove two layers of fuchsia tulle that I had on hand and two ribbons (one solid green, the other pink with white pokadots) through the weave of the basket and finished it off with a bow.

Recognize the grass?  It's from the Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party we had for Melodi in February!  I love having supplies on hand to make a project more cost efficient.  We did put some eggs in the basket for the photo shoot, and we're lucky to have found some in the "right" colors.  I went to JoAnns, Target, and Walmart in order to find eggs that would work, I probably could have stayed closer to home by going to Hobby Lobby but it was Sunday so they were closed.

For Melodi's hat I had one of those crocheted hats on hand that was the right color to match her dress.  I based my design off a Lollitop that Melodi received from a friend at Easter last year.  This was another project that I had just about everything that I needed on hand.  The only thing I had to buy was dowels to make the curly ribbon and thicker white ribbon to weave through the hat, I didn't even have to buy starch since hubby spray starches his blues shirts.  The bow (directions below, sorry no step by step pictures) is a removable hair clip that can be used on the hat, on a headband, or in Melodi's hair.

I had a blast doing these projects and it is always nice having a hubby that support my crazy crafting crazes.

Steph's Curly Bow Directions
Materials

Ribbons
Dowels
Clothes pins
Spray starch
Alligator clip
Hot glue
Needle and thread

Steps

1. Wrap dowels with ribbon and secure each end with a clothes pin.  Do not overlap the ribbon.
2. Spray starch on each ribbon wrapped dowel.  Place on a foil lined baking sheet.
3. Bake at 275 degrees F for 25 minutes.  Let cool and remove from dowel.
• While baking the ribbon cover the alligator clip with ribbon using hot glue.
4. Trim ends at an angle since they didn't get sprayed with starch.
5. Cut ribbon into smaller sections, 3-4 inches each.
6. Stack ribbon holding the centers together.
7. Put a small stitch into the center and secure.
8. Hot glue the bow onto the covered alligator clip.

Sources
Adapted from several pins and web search directions.  Some starch and bake, others just bake, and of course there is little consistency with baking temperatures or times.

• Glorious Treats
• Notes from the Patch  

There is one more (from a general how to site) that I remember looking at but I can't find right now, and it's time for bed, so goodnight and I will try to find it tomorrow.

One Sheet Wonder

I have a few sets of cards on my list of Insane Goals.  One Sheet Wonders is an easy way to get many different cards made in a short period of time, with a small amount of materials.  There are tons of templates available.  I used this cut template and these card samples.  These are all done with the exception of stamping a sentiment and writing inside.

Materials:
12x12 patterned paper, cut to 8.5x11 (template called for 8.5x11, but I chose a 12x12 paper)
3- 8x8 solid cardstock (used most, but have some scraps
A2 card bases (premade or an 8.5x11 cut to 8.5x5.5 and folded)
Vellum scrap
Various ribbons
Paper flowers
Jewel stickers
Eyelets

The best part is I didn't buy anything for this set of cards!  I picked up three more masculine patterned papers and cardstock to go with them, as well as two more feminine sets.  One thing more that I need to check into is the price difference between premade card bases and using cardstock.