Little Projects for my Little One Part-3

Hello all, Hope you are all doing good. I missed blogging so much in the past few years. I had to take a break to shorten my to do list and keep myself sane for a bit. But it turned out keeping myself busy is what keeps me sane. Isn't that funny? Let me continue from where I stopped. I was sharing the little projects that I put together before my baby arrived and this part 3.

How cute is this little jewelry chest? I saw a similar one in Etsy listing but they were all sold out. Later when I saw this empty wooden chest at Michaels I had to grab it. I painted it in white and shades of pink Ombre style. Decorated the top 2 drawers with flowers and second row with simple polka-dots using nail art dotting tools. The third row I wanted to paint tiny hearts so I used my cricut to cut out a customized stencil to get a perfect finish.

The picture above gives you a glimpse of how I painted it.

I love hearts and I had this heart shaped pillow that I got from my husband as a gift. But it's bright red looked out of place and I wanted to cover it in pink to go with my theme. I got this pink rosette textured fabric from etsy and sew this simple pillow cover similar to my patio pillows except this one is cut in heart shape and I just added a Velcro piece for closure.

It was a quick project and I heart how it turned out.

I saved little scrap wood pieces from DIY Coat rack project and this scrap wood photo frame was a simple project to put them to use.

I covered the wood pieces with scrapbook papers using modpodge and added wood dowel pieces to the back to make them stand. For the pink one I just mounted the picture using double side foam tape. For the grey color one I decided to add those little clips to make it extra cute. And I had grabbed that oval shaped frame from Michaels Dollar bin long ago. I just spray painted that one white.

I found this cute basket at Target for 3$ and thought it would be perfect to fill it with diapers next to the changing station. 

I made these easy felt flowers and stuck them to basket using hot glue. You can refer my easy gift bag tutorial if you want to see how these flowers are made. I love how girly the basket looks now.

Hope you enjoyed reading this post. Let me know what you think about these simple projects. Would love to hear your comments. Thank you for stopping by.

Little Cricut Projects for my Little one Part-2

Handmade products are the best and when they are made for your tiny bundle of joy they become even more precious. Here is the second set of crafts that I did for my little one.

I always dreamed of having a little girl, so of course I had to make a banner for our maternity photo shoot to shout out my joy and here is that. I made this onesie banner with the help of my Cricut cutting machine. It saves me whole lot of time now that I have other things to take care of.

I just designed my project in Cricut software and put the pieces together once they are cut. It took a little bit of time until I got hang of the machine and now I just love it.

I saw these cute onesie designs on a shopping site but I wanted to give my Cricut a shot, so I designed stencils and used Martha's multipurpose acrylic paints that I already had on hand.

They turned out really cute. Did you ever go shopping clothes for a little girl? Most of the time they have quotes only about dad's like Dad's little princess etc., so I just loved this quote "I'm Cute. Mom's Cute. Dad's Lucky"and I just had to recreate it.

This was my first Iron on project and it was Super easy to do. I chose the word #adorable for this little baby pink onesie.

My Cricut cut through the gold glitter iron on like it was butter. All I had to do was follow the instructions that came with my iron on sheet and after that little bit of ironing it was all done. I used Cricut Iron on sheet and it stayed so well even after multiple washes.

I wanted a 3 piece wall art to go above my baby crib. I saw these wooden boards at Michaels and started brainstorming.

I decided the 3 quotes I wanted on them and whipped up these cute designs on Cricut with card stock and scrapbook papers I had on hand. Personally I think this wall art didn't turn out exactly like how I imagined but I still love it. What do you think?

Would love to hear your comments. Thank you for stopping by.

Little Projects for my Little one - Part 1

I am very excited writing this post as I am finally going to show you few of my teeny projects I did for my little one. You can be sure there is more coming, I can't wait to get to her first birthday post yet. I didn't give up crafting at all, its just hard to make time for blogging these days. I hope I will find a way soon.

Here comes the most adorable project, Crochet Shoes. Actually this was the last project I did in my 9th month of pregnancy waiting for my little angel to step out. I was literally impatient counting days to see my princess. But I wanted to share this project first because, come on whats more cuter than handmade pink shoes of newborn. I followed multiple tutorials from YouTube to make these.

I and my mom sew up these burp rags and hand towels just because we love handmade projects. They are super cute and super soft. I used nursery fannel fabric from Joann. God I was lost looking at all the pretty fabrics they have for little ones.

I followed the tutorial and template from My Happy Nursery for the burp rags. If you don't know what burp rags are they are soft clothes that go over mother or any care taker's shoulder and catch spit up from baby's burps while carrying them.

This was a fun one day project for me. I sew this exactly like how I sew my make up pouch except I increased the measurements so that it can hold 2 diapers, small wipes case. I also added an internal zipper pocket for Desitin or any other small essentials and a wristlet to keep my hands free. This clutch came very handy many times especially in flight journeys.

If you are looking for a internal zipper tutorial here is a good one to follow.

This etsy listing was the one that inspired my diaper clutch.

Though its not exactly baby related, Card Wallet was another fun project I did when I was pregnant to keep my bag little more organized before baby arrival. This one took little more time than I thought to get all the measurement markings and calculations correct. 

I took a whole lot of pictures of making this card wallet so that I can write a tutorial but I guess it will take me forever to write tutorials now with all the work piled up. So here is another wonderful tutorial from Infarrantly Creative if you want to make one.

There are a lot more little projects I did that I want to share a glimpse of. Will try to post again soon. I am really trying hard to keep myself motivated to continue blogging. Share your views and comments to keep me on track. I really love to read them. Thank you for stopping by.

DIY Baby Strawberry Costume

Can't believe its my little one's second Halloween already. Last October I was surfing internet to find a comfortable strawberry costume for my then 6 months old and was highly disappointed to see that all of the store bought costumes are thick and bulgy for a little baby. So I decided to make one at home. This costume from amazon was my inspiration. I loved how cute my homemade strawberry costume turned out.

I started with a red onesie that I bought on amazon and felt squares of different colors that I had in my craft supplies.

I drew a simple seed design on little cardboard piece and cut it out with a pair of scissors. Using that cardboard seed as template I cut a lot of seeds out of black felt piece and stuck them in polka dot pattern on onesie using hot glue gun. You can use fabric glue if you have or if you prefer to wash your costume. I didn't have time to go out and shop so I went ahead with what I had on hand.

Similarly I made a leaf cardboard template and cut leaves out of two shades of green felt pieces that I had on hand. I was satisfied with how dark green looked so I went ahead and stuck it under neck ruffle of the onesie.

I just added a small white flower (from my craft stash) in between leaves to add little more detail.

I just loved how cute and adorable my baby looked in this strawberry costume. Ofcourse the fact that its handmade by me added to my happiness. Thanks for stopping by. Have a Happy Halloween.

Sreemantham Decoration (South Indian Baby Shower Decor)

Hi there, its been more than a year and I am finally getting back to my blog. Life is busy with baby, I am glad I had my family and a loving husband all through the though times. Okay life aside lets get back to the Sreemantham decor I did for my own Sreemantham a year and half ago. Sreemantham is a traditional South Indain Baby Shower.

       Here is a detailed video I made recently with clear explanation.

                                    

I planned this backdrop way ahead. I wanted something traditional, simple and definitely have a god idol or symbol on the backdrop. I wanted to take it easy and go with age old maroon and cream color combination. This flower Ganesha from a wedding picture that I saw long back on Pinternet was my inspiration. However I didn't want to use fresh flowers because it can be overwhelming to do things on the celebration day. So I went ahead and ordered these fabric flowers from this etsy store they took around 15-20 days to reach me.

I used dollar store foam board and started roughly drawing outline of Ganesha. I kept everything (hands, legs of the idol) connected unlike my inspiration image to make it easy for hanging on backdrop. I would recommend using thick cardboard instead of foam board if you have patience and energy to cut it. As foam board wears out easily once painted. Foam board will survive for one time use though.

When I felt satisfied with the outline I used an exacto knife to cut along the outline.

I painted it with red acrylic paint to match the flowers so that the white board won't peek through red flowers.

Using hot glue gun I stuck fabric flowers as close as possible to each other all along the cut foam board. I had to cut the plastic stalks under the flowers to make them stick properly.

Using a piece of yarn I hung it on the backdrop stand. I reinforced the back of Ganesha cutout with few more foam pieces and hot glue to make it little strong at joints.

For the backdrop, I bought satin cloth and backdrop stand on amazon. I stitched a huge curtain using cream color cloth with pocket at top to insert rod. I followed this video from youtube to put up my backdrop stand and fabric. I tied a rope from top left corner to top right corner of backdrop stand to add the bead strings that my mom got from India. For top center I used artificial flower thoran I had on hand.

For Sreemantham table its a tradition to fill 5 or 9 plates with variety of fruits, nuts, sweets and savories. I borrowed the steel plates and diya stands from my friend. My sister in law is so sweet, she took all the pain to bring my favorite sweets all the way from Atlanta to Tucson. And my mom made few at home. We added a simple 2 tier cake to the table though its not Indian custom.

Bangles and flowers are the important things on Sreemantham table. Every guest adorns mom to be with bangles and blesses mom and baby. I chose pink and green bangles to match my saree.

For return gifts I shopped these pretty bangles from India. I roughly estimated hand size of each friend and wrote names on the bangle cover to make it easy to give them in party.

We wrapped bangles and tambulam (beetle leaves, beetle nuts, fruits, pasupu, kumkum and blouse piece) together in a decorative plate. 

For the return gift bags I added a thank you note and a little bling using my Cricut.

Overall the party looked perfectly like how I wanted it to be and the best part was everyone loved home cooked food by mom and sister in law. 

Note: Websites referred are for only reader's information. I am not paid for any of the referral links.
Additional Info: If you are in USA and are looking for fresh flowers, beetle leaves, mango leaves or any pooja items there are websites that deliver them overnight to anywhere in USA. I did not know this before my sreemantham. Thought a word might help someone.

Here is a picture of me and my husband from Sreemantham (South Indian Baby Shower Party). Hope you enjoyed the party too. Thank you for stopping by.

DIY Baby Head Bands

Boutique style baby head bands are so easy to make and you can make them way under budget. These head bands are very special to me as these are the first DIY project I did for my little one. After this project I made a lot of DIY decor projects for her nursery. So stay tuned for up coming posts but forgive me, it might take a while to post them all as I am busy loving my newborn. 

Coming back to head bands, things you need:

• Pretty lace pieces of your choice (I got mine at local Joann craft store)
• Matching ribbon
• Satin ribbon flowers, big lace flowers or any other embellishments (optional)
• Thin elastic ( I used 0.25 inch thick braided elastic)
• Hot glue gun
• Scissors

Don't this list look so simple? I promise the procedure is as simple as the list.

For head band sizing information, you can google "Baby head band size chart" and you will find a ton of information. 

For example new born's head band need to be approximately 11 to 12 inches,  if you are making one for a new born cut your lace piece and elastic such that they both add up to 11 or 12 inches. 

I just made my head bands in 3 different sizes to use them as baby grows.

Cut lace and elastic pieces according to measurements you choose. Cut 2 pieces of ribbon about 1.5 inch each.

Join one end of elastic to one end of lace using little hot glue, dab little more hot glue and wrap the joint around with a ribbon piece.

Similarly join the other end of lace to other end of elastic and wrap the joint with ribbon using hot glue.

Cut any excess ribbon left at the joints. If you like add a pretty flower or bow to make it even more gorgeous.

That's it you just made a pretty head band. Isn't it the easiest craft you ever made?

Here are a couple more headbands I made for my little angel. Try using thicker lace or elastic bands with beautiful vintage style lace flowers for a glamorous look. 

These handmade headbands take very little time to make for your baby girl and they can add a touch of love to your baby shower gifts. I hope you enjoy making these as well. I love to hear your comments. Thank you for stopping by. Have a great day :)