A great teacher gift {A SIMPLE INFINITY SCARF} for an infinite amount of thank yous!

Let me just start out by making a disclaimer.... I am a teacher.  I have been teacher for 10 years now {oh yes, I am to that point where adults run up to me in public yelling, "You were my 6th grade teacher!!"}.  Any-who, with that said, now that I have my own littlens with teachers of their own, I like to try to make teachers' gifts usable, special, and a little unique.  This year my daughter is in preschool and between all of her "teachers" there are 12 usable, special, and unique gifts to come up with AND since I am a teacher as mentioned before, I am on a budget!

So I saw these adorable, soft, cozy infinity scarfs the other day- price tag, $12.  Not too shabby.  In fact, I thought that was a great price... then math kicked in 12 X 12... I am pretty sure I am suppose to know this math fact and it is way to close to $150, which I don't have just lying on the nightstand.  SO my wheels started turning and I thought- how hard could one of these suckers be to make- simple I am sure!  And- another disclaimer- I sew... when I need to, and I don't necessarily know what I am doing.  AND, it was even pretty simple for me.  In fact, I spent 3 hours one morning {while watching a 4 year old and 1 1/2 year old at the same time} and got all 12 done!  And my total: $27!

Basically you need 1 cut yard of fabric for every 2 scarfs.  Since all of our teachers have different personalities, I just went through the sale bin (with an additional 40% off coupon in hand) cuddling with fabrics and since I need one cut yard, I got 6 different fabrics to try to match the different personalities... and let the CUT COUNTER do the cutting- woo-hoo!  {I hate cutting fabric!}  I snapped pictures once I had the kinks worked out to share with you- I hope they help!!

(Click HERE to see this tutorial in Google Drive- you can zoom in to see each step clearly there :)

 So 12 scarfs for just under $30, not to shabby!

I made up these little tags to go with them and had them printed at Costco.  You can download the tag HERE if you are in need!

And there you have it- cute, cheap, cuddley scarves for the teachers- hope they enjoy!!

OH- and added bonus... I got the best Photo bomb ever while trying to get my hubby to snap a few pictures of the scarves... isn't she a cutie!?!  Love this picture :)

A Shabby Chic First Birthday

Little sis turned one this month.  I had a blast throwing all the details of her party together... a shabby chic sorta affair with a little country garden feel to it.

The Invites
I design the invites myself using Photoshop Elements and use a business postcard printer online to print- for about $25 I can get 50 of these on heavy duty card-stock, rounded corners, and envelopes!  They also print the back- so all the details (and more adorable pictures) go on the reverse side!  Love this little trick to help save money!!

 Making the Banners
I went to our librarian at school to see if she had any discard books (older books usually missing pages) and I was in luck!  I used old book pages, packaging paper (which is kind of a paper bag feel and you can get at any hardware store), and I printed out the letters on 4X6 lustre finish paper at Costco.  To make things go quicker, I used a spray glue I had left over to throw them together- and I loved how they turned out!!

The Outfit
I made this shabby chic little outfit {the tutorial is HERE} for under twenty dollars and only about an hour of time.  It turned out super cute when paired with boots and some ruffly socks!

The Decor
I went with a country garden feel... think burlap, red checkers, and mason jars!!  I found favors in Target's dollar section: hand shovels and rakes, bubble wands, and pin wheels.

The Grub
The hubby got up early to smoke us a pork shoulder... YUM!  So the menu included chips and salsa to snack on, BBQ Pork sandwiches with a homemade Carolina style BBQ sauce, sweet baked beans, salad, watermelon, and a fresh strawberry-cucumber water, lemonade and sweet tea to drink.  The cake was a delicious dark chocolate with strawberry filling with a smoosh cake in white cake for the munchkin... so fun!  A perfect welcome to summer :)

I had a blast putting it all together and most importantly, little sis had a great time with family and friends!!

PS- I am all about sharing... you can download all of the following tags and birthday banner letters HERE (They are JPEG files designed to print on 4X6... I use Costco and choose lustre finish which is similar to matte)!  Just share the love by following my blog :)

A Tribute to Moms; Chalkboard Printable

A little tribute to all of us moms out there tirelessly working for our little munchkins!  Meant to be printed by your local printshop as an 8X10, simply add to your favorite frame for a sweet recognition of all the hard work our moms do!!  Happy early Mother's Day!

Click HERE to download your free print!

A DIY Shabby Chic Scrappy Tutu {No Sew!!}

 

So I fell in love with this skirt from Lullaby Birds on Etsy... I blame Pinterest!! And when I decided I wanted to do a shabby chic country garden theme for little sis' first birthday... I knew I had to have one!  The problem: my hubby might shoot me if I spend $30 on a skirt for my little one AND it was just the wrong colors.  So, what was I to do but make my own!

Now, by all means, if you have tons of quilting scraps laying around, use those!  I didn't and as I mentioned before, I was after certain colors, so I made my trusty trip to JoAnns, found the first paisley print that I just fell in love with and found five other fabrics to compliment it..

I bought 1 ft. of each fabric, which was more than enough and spent less than $10.  And luckily, my girlfriend let me borrow her rottary cutter and cutting board, so this went super fast and easy!!

I measured from sis' waist to her knees and got 9".  I doubled that and added one inch for tying.

EX: Measure from waist to knee ___ X 2 + 1" = length of strips

Next I measured her waist... 18".  The way I was tying, I needed 2 strips for every one inch.

EX: Measure of waist ____ X 2 = the amount of strips needed.

We used 36 (19" X 2") strips of fabric for her tutu... she is one year old!  For older kiddos, I would probably make the strips wider along with adding the appropriate length and amount needed... possibly 3"strips?  This tutu hit just above her knees.

 You could easily use elastic for the waistband, but I chose ribbon.  I cut enough ribbon to go around her waist plus extra on each end for tying a pretty bow.  To begin adding the scraps, I used a chair and tied the ribbon to both legs of a chair to hold it tight.  I started in the middle, using a double square knot to tie the strips snugly on and worked my way out.  I had 6 strips of 6 different patterns... and because I am slightly OCD, I tied mine on in the same pattern every time.  NOT necessary at all... unless you are like me, lol!

 The entire tutu took me about 1 hour from start to finish.  I couldn't beleive how quick and easy and ADORABLE it really was!  A few pictures of the try on...

and in the cherry orchard...

and in front of the old white barn :)

Thanks for stopping in, and thanks again to Lullaby Birds for their great inspiration!

UPDATE:  See the birthday girl in action in her super cute outfit HERE!

Linking up:

An Upcycled Garden: Toilet Paper Roll Planters

 

It is sprint which means... time to PLANT!  I love spring and I love gardening.  It is so fun to get something of value out of something of very little to no value.  The past few years we have been planting from seeds so we aren't spending money on buying plants, but we usually start them in the little mini green houses (just wait till you see what I found that makes a perfect upcycled green house!) and compostable containers that you can get from your local garden center.  This year I am on a mission to find things we can re-purpose... and the little compostable planting containers were the first to go!  In their place??  Toilet paper rolls!

We saved toilet paper rolls (and paper towel rolls too!) for about a month and just cut them in half (or in fives for the paper towel rolls).  We placed them so they fit snug in our little green house starter container then filled them with dirt, planted them with seeds, and kept then moist in a sunlit window.  Because they have no bottoms, we were careful not to bump them too much. 

 

After a few weeks they had sprouted and were ready to be transplanted.  You can see that some of the toilet paper rolls started to unravel a bit, but it did not seem to disturb the plants. Plus, I unwrapped before planting anyway!  However, you could most likely plant with the rolls still on and have no issue!

The most curious thing I noticed about doing it with the toilet paper rolls is that the roots grew along the bottom of the tray and did not ball up like when confined to a container.  You can see how long and nice they were and I am expecting these plants to do well now that they are planted! 

I have some other fun bits and pieces of upcycling that I am going to share for the garden... but I am curious... what have you upcycled to use in the gardens??

DIY Superhero Capes {Printable Templates Included!!}

Well big sis wanted a superhero birthday party for her 4th... so what else was there to do but to make superhero capes!!! {You can see her party here}

I searched on-line and found a few tid-bits here and there, but nothing that really seemed to help all that much, soooo, we basically started from scratch!  Lucky for you, if you ever need to make a superhero cape for your little angel, I saved everything I did right here!

The first main decision came down to time and money (doesn't it always!?).  I decided to go with a felt cape versus a shinny material because 1. it is super cheap and 2. it won't fray so you don't have to break out the sewing machine!  Once I decided that, I gathered the following materials...

Materials:
Felt by the yard (2ft. cut length per every two capes needed)
A pack of assorted color felt sheets for the emblems
Spray Adhesive
Velcro squares or 1" Velcro to cut
Christy's Customs Superhero Cape Template
Christy's Customs Superhero Cape Shapes and Letters Templates

{The template above is designed to print out on normal 8 1/2 X 11 printer paper.  Download the template by clicking on the above link and saving each of the seven pieces.  When printing, treat the JPEG file as a picture.  Choose 8 1/2 X 11 paper size and choose BORDERLESS printing.  The borderless printing will preserve the correct proportions of the template and is usually only an option when printing pictures.  I personally would choose to print in draft to save ink.  Once the template is printed, you simply lay the pieces out and use tape to hold them together.  Cut along the dark line to get your cape template.  This cape size works well for 3-6 year old children}

Lay out your felt (most is sold doubled over- I left mine so each template cut out resulted in two capes) placing the template on top.  Use a washable marker to lightly trace the template.  Cut out.

Using the Shapes and Letters template above, print out the shape for a background and letter for the child's first name.  Cut out and use for templates on the assorted color felt choices.  Using spray adhesive, coat the back of the felt shape, place on cape, and felt letter, also placing on cape.

Now the Velcro to hold the cape on... oh how I wish I could tell you to spray the back of the Velcro and stick it on too... but you will need something a bit stronger than spay adhesive to hold on the Velcro... ours pulled off after the first hour or so.  A few stitches would be best to add on your little cape neck closers!

And wha-la!  Happy little superheros!

For age reference... big sis had just turned 4 in this picture, while cousin is 6 1/2.  The capes seemed to work well for both sizes!

And- KAPOW!  There you have it!  Super simple.  I did 8 of them in just a couple hours one evening and gave them as party favors.  I wish I had taken a picture of all of them, but in the rush of the party, I forgot- oh well! 

I'd love to hear if you use the templates... I'd love to know that someone else got use out of them too :-)  So please share if you do!