Party Favors

     Sorry I haven't been posting much lately but I have a good excuse. It has nothing to do with the Hurricane Irene but rather with preparing for a baking themed birthday party. So, without further adieu:

     Yup, it's aprons, all 25 of them!!! You read that right, 12 girls and 13 boys. I made my own pattern and the the boys are the chef apron out of character fabric. Some are Batman, some Star Wars, and some are Spiderman. How flippin' cute is that! The girls' aprons are girlie prints with a ruffle around the bottom and side edges. The waistband and neck tie have velcro enclosures making it easy for the little ones to put on themselves.
     The kids range in age from 7 months to 9 years old which meant I had to make several sizes. It may seem like an overwhelming task but not really. I have been sewing for more years than I care to count so I have a serger which helped a lot plus gives it a real professional look. It actually takes more time to cut them out than to actually construct them, lol. Start to finish it took me 2 weeks. Not bad for a power sewer!
     Here's a closer look:

Star Wars Apron

Spiderman Apron

     Here are all the boys including 2 Batman versions. They are all reversible. The straps and waist tie are also from the co ordinating fabric.Now for the girls:

        Such girlie girls!

     Now that's one happy little 5 year old! Happy Birthday Mia Sofia!

     I'll be back tomorrow to share with you what a baking Birthday Party looks like. I'll also have a few pics of the tropical downpour in Massachusetts prior to Irene's arrival. You just can't picture this with approximately 60 people gathered for several celebrations!

Hurricane Irene

     Well we survived but had been without power for 2 days. Unfortunately one of my daughters, her husband and their 3 children, just had their power restored this morning. Just a few pointers: make sure everything is turned off when the power goes out. They had been making pancakes when they lost power and left the pan on the burner to keep the last few pancakes warm while they finished eating. The last 5 days they have been in and out at our house or the in laws so never gave the stove a second thought.
     Well, you guessed it, the power came back on (my daughter was home at the time, Thank God) when she smelled something burning. It was the oily fry pan! Can you imagine what would have happened if she had not gone home? I shutter to think.
     I swear I must have ADD because I just can not sit without something to do, hurricane or not! We are so used to losing our power that I had planned ahead to do projects that did not require electricity. My husband was making sure the generator was working, My daughter is home from Hawaii for a three week visit, so she was catching up on some much needed sleep, so I pulled out some ribbon, scissors and pipe cleaners and made:

     There are 20 of them for a wedding we attending this week end. It's one of those projects that are time consuming but a great job to do when you have no place to go and nothing else to do, lol.
     We had a huge celebration the day before Irene paid a visit. It was Mia's 5th birthday and our last child Steve graduated from college so we also celebrated this milestone. Aside from the tropical downpours proceeding the hurricane, we had a great time. I'll show you pics of a MAJOR project I did as party favors for the 25 kids attending the party. Here's a hint: it involves sewing!!!

Bind It All Mistake

Well  now that the grand kids will be starting back to school I figured it was time to finish the Harry Potter Book we started when they first got out of school. Note to self: don't attempt this when there is an 18 month old running around!
     All was going nicely . We picked out the paper for the cover, glued it on corrugated card board and the paper for the inside cover. Then I began to punch the holes. Oh no! I didn't have the cover firmly in the punching channel and this is what happened.
    

 

       Since I had ordered the paper on line from Two Peas In A Bucket I couldn't just run right out and replace the 2 pieces of paper I had just managed to ruin. My grand son was very consoling yet I knew we were both pretty distraught since it was to be a special project for the 2 of us to do together. So I searched my memory bank and remembered all the classes I had taken at My Creative Classroom and the proverbial light bulb came on!
     I save all my scraps so I managed to find some chip board that was the perfect size. The first thing I did was to punch the holes. (I wasn't taking any chances, lol). Next I grabbed some of Tim Holtz crackle paint for the cover and some brown paint for the inside piece. After the crackle paint was dry I used some Vintage Photo and Walnut Ranger Ink for the cover strip.

     My grand son thought the crackle paint was really cool. I grabbed Beacon's 3 in 1 glue to adhere the strips to the pages. I didn't want this reinforcement to go anywhere!

       Here is the finished book. As you can tell from the smile on his face he is pretty pleased with out it came out. Now we are the only ones who know about the mistake. By the way, you can see why we had trouble finishing this project. That's Cece trying to escape! 

Creative Charms Winner!

     What a pleasant surprise to check my email and found I won the super prize from Creative Charms. It includes the gradient gems (you know how I LOVE them) and the vintage sets. That adds up to 21 packages of pure goodness.

     They offer deals every month ( a few of which got me all started using their products, lol). This is the package I won. Here is a project they made using these goodies: http://creative-charms.blogspot.com/2011/08/altered-silver-brooch-box-using-vintage.html While you're there, be sure to check out the other great projects.

     I'll be watching the mail to see these beauties when they come in!

Not So Shabby Heart Book

     Wow I am on a roll lately! I thought I'd share this wonderful little project with you today but first I have to welcome some new followers, yeah! I hope I can inspire you a bit with my creative adventures!

     I have had this album on my craft table for months now and finally said enough, finish it! This will be picture heavy but thought you might enjoy seeing the finished product. I started with the chipboard heart albums they sell for $1 in the clearance aisle @ Michaels. Next I grabbed a Scrap Pad by K & Company called K-ology Peabody Scrap Pad. This is one of the yummiest pads I own. Isn't the paper just fabulous?
     I just added ran it through my Xyron 900 and rolled it down with my brayer. When it was done I used an xacto knife to trim around the edge and then lightly sanded it smooth. I then used a paint marker to go around the edges for a nice finished edge. All the inner pages were done the same way.

     For the cover I stamped a flourish with Inkadinkado stamps and then added some bling with my Imaginisce tool. I LOVE how this came out! The center tag was from the scrap pad but I decided to emboss a heart with some silver Zing powder. I also pulled out my stash of buttons and added them for some dimension before I used pop dots on the center image.

     This gives you a different view as to how I closed the album. I just used rivets by Zutter to secure the ribbon. Now for the inside view!

     The inside cover and first page have a pocket with tag for journal ling and the 1st page leaves room for a photo. The pink rhinestone flower is a creative charm. ( Love these things).

       The next page also has a tag with a very romantic feel to it whereas the next page is more shabby chic!

     Another tag from the pad only this time I added a little dimension to the "forever" wording by adding Diamond Glaze. This is a new product I tried and OMG I will have to do a review on this. It is amazing!

     I made a pocket for the left hand page out of scrap paper that was just screaming to be used. So I added 2 tags. These could fit some wallet sized pics. The patterned heart is the inside back cover that also would support a photo.
     That's its for now. I must try Audrey's tri easel card if I can find my craft table. Ughhh!