Baby Shower Bonanza!

This past weekend was a baby shower for my future-sister-in-law Laura, who will be having a baby just before our wedding! I am so excited for them, and I was almost as excited to do my fair share of DIY projects for the shower and my future neice-y or nephew-y!

I will not be making tutorials for any of these projects, so I will post links to the ones that I used if you want to make any of these things yourself!

1. Baby Bunting Banner

This one was easy peasy. I just cut triangles out of different papers, cut out the letters "b a b y" with my cricut and glued them on, then used double-sided tape to attach the triangles to a ribbon.

2. Cake Pops

You can see my previous post on how to make cake pops if you want to make them. This time I did them a little differently because I used the cake pop maker that Jordan got me for Christmas. It is like a waffle iron and allows you to bake the cake into the ball shapes instead of mixing them with icing, which is much faster. These are a big hit with the kids!

3. Diaper Cake

My future-sister-in-law Lindsay asked me to make a diaper cake for the shower, and I couldn't have been more delighted. I have seen a bunch of these on Pinterest, and was dying to make one! It wasn't that hard either. I followed this tutorial, but instead of using cardboard to make the form, I used white foam board that I got from dollarama.

Pinterest vs Reality: Diaper Cake

4. Knitted Carseat Blanket

This one I got the pattern out of a knitting magazine so unfortunately I can't share the pattern. This is a carseat blanket, the hole is for the buckle on the carseat. The pattern is fairly simple, and it didn't even take a full ball of yarn!

5. Sewn receiving blanket, change pad, burp cloth, and bib

I am learning how to sew, and going a little overboard with it! It took just over 3 metres of fabric to make all of this, so I was very happy with how it turned out! Here are the links for the tutorials:

For the bib, I followed this tutorial, but just used solid fabric for both sides. I was careful when sewing on the velcro, so the bib is reversible as well!

Pinterest vs Reality: Baby Bib

I did a similar thing with the burp cloth, I followed this tutorial, but made my own pattern using newspaper. I also sewed the edges in instead of leaving them frayed.

Pinterest vs Reality: Burp Cloth

I also made this receiving blanket, following this tutorial. I have made a few of these by now, and I think that they turn out really cute with the different fabric combinations!

Pinterest vs Reality: Receiving Blanket

And finally, the changing pad, complete with a pocket to store some extra wipes and diapers, and it even rolls up to fit snugly in your diaper bag. I followed this tutorial, and was happy with the way it turned out.

Pinterest vs Reality: Changing Pad and Wipes Holder

And there you have it folks! It seems like I've been very busy, but I haven't been working for a few weeks so it really is my pleasure to do all these crafts! Enjoy!

Best Shower Gift Ever

I am reaching that stage of life where all of my friends (including me!) are getting married. That means lots of wedding showers to go to! This is (in my opinion) a great shower gift for a bride-to-be, and was a big hit at the two showers that I have gone to so far. With your name etched onto the casserole dish, nobody will ever steal it at potlucks! I saw this idea on Pinterest, and had to try it out! I apologize for the quality of my pictures, it is really difficult to take a good picture of glass!

Supplies:
-glass casserole dish
-glass etching cream (I got it from Michael's for about $10)
-foam brush
-adhesive vinyl
-cricut or stencils and exacto knife

Instructions:
1. Cut out the letters/design that you would like onto the adhesive vinyl using your cricut, or trace and cut with an exacto knife.

2. Stick the adhesive vinyl onto the clean glass surface where you would like your design to appear.

3. Apply a GENEROUS amount of glass etching cream to the glass surface on top of the stencil you made. Put it on nice and thick so that you can't see the glass underneath. Leave it for 10-15 minutes on a flat surface so that the cream doesn't drip. *The instructions on the cream said to leave it for 1-2 minutes, but on my practice one it didn't show up well enough, so I left it for a lot longer.*

4. Rinse off the cream using water and paper towels. Peel off the stenciled vinyl, and wipe off any excess cream. Dry it and you are finished!

A few notes:
The way that the glass etching works is that it is an acid that chips away at the surface of the glass. This means that the etching is permanent, and you can bake, microwave, and wash it and it won't come off. This also means that you have to be careful not to make any mistakes! I recommend doing a practice one on an old candle or jar before doing it on a $20 casserole dish. :)

Variations:
You can use this technique on any glass surface that you would like. I saw some on Pinterest that were decorated trifle dishes, or candle holders that are nice.

Pinterest vs. Reality: Glass Etched Casserole Dish

(mine on bottom)

Dress it up:

I knit some dishcloths and put them inside one of the gifts that I gave. I also sewed a plastic bag holder, you can find that tutorial here.

Pinterest vs. Reality: Plastic Bag Holder (mine on bottom)

  
For another, I sewed a casserole carrier to go with it. I am a beginner sewer, so I am not even going to attempt to make a tutorial, but you can find the one that I used here. Ta da!

Pinterest vs. Reality: Casserole Carrier (mine on bottom)

Wall Sticker Update

I have been a busy bee making wall stickers for different people, and so I thought I'd share pictures of the different ones that I've made. If you're interested in ordering one, then e-mail me and we can work something out. Some of them are shown still with the transfer tape, so that would be removed once you put it on the wall. Enjoy!

Simply Sweet Font, 5.5", chocolate brown

Gratitude Font, 2", black

 Calligraphy Font, 2.5", brown

Paper Lace Font, 2", black

Paper Lace Font, 2", Black

Gratitude Font, 5.5", Black

Simply Sweet Font, 5.5", Pink

Opposites Attract Font, 5.5", Black

Custom Wall Stickers For Sale

Well, I've decided to start selling some of my homemade crafts. First up is custom wall stickers. I have special adhesive vinyl that I can cut with my cricut. I can cut any letter in a few different fonts, and a few shapes as well from 1" to 5 1/2" tall. The colours I have available right now are black, chocolate brown, and pink. I may be able to get other colours on request. The stickers come off the wall without leaving a mark, and can be reapplied (although I do not recommend reusing them). The prices will vary based on what you want, but most should be around $20. Shipping/delivery are extra. Here are a few that I've made already.  E-mail me for more details or to place your order!

This one I made with chocolate brown vinyl, 5.5" letters, and Simply Sweet Font.














This one was done in chocolate brown, 2.5" letters in Calligraphy font and cost $18.50 ("best" done in 3").
This one was done in 2" letters ("fearless" in 3") on black in Gratitude font and cost $26.50.

How to Host an Amazing Luau!

My boyfriend and I hosted a Luau last weekend, and it was a bunch of fun! I thought I'd share some neat party ideas if anyone else wants to host one!


Decorations

Most of the decorations that we had were from Dollarama, one or two things from a party store. We got tiki torches ($2 each), candle holders ($2 each), citronella candles, paper lanterns, and a few other things. It looked great when the sun started going down, but the bugs were bad so we didn't get to enjoy it for too long. I just used bright colours for all the plates, etc. I also got some coconuts and pineapples that doubled as extra food. Make sure you have leis to give to your guests as they arrive too!

I made this sign using my cricut, and it was super easy! I just cut out the tags and letters using the George and Basic Shapes cartridge, and strung it together using some hemp. The wind blew it around a bit, but we added a bit of tape and it looked great! You could easily do this craft to suit any occasion as well!

Food

Having a roasted pig would have been awesome, but we simply did not have the budget for it. We decided to do sliders (mini hamburgers), summery salads, and make-your-own skewer bar. The skewers were a big hit because everybody could put the foods that they liked on the skewers, and it saved us some work putting them together. Aside from the typical vegetables, we had pineapple, mango, and shrimp.


Drinks

For drinks we made sure we had lots of water and pop. I bought some margarita mix from Walmart that was super easy. You just mix it with water (and tequila if you really want to) in the morning and stick it in a giant ziploc bag in the freezer and it freezes into a slush by the evening. I also had an ice shaver that I got from Home Sense for $15. It worked better if you froze the ice in the discs that it came with, but you can use ice cubes as well. I bought some slushie mix and pina colada syrup so we had sno cones and mocktails.











Activities

I spent more time working on the other parts of the Luau than the activities, but here are some fun ideas that we tried. A spontaneous game of ring toss ensued trying to get our ring-shaped frisbee to land on a tiki torch. We also played coconut bowling with waterbottles, but one of the coconuts split open. We also played human ring toss with a hula hoop, which was really fun. We found a giant bamboo stick at Dollarama for $2 (not sure what the actual purpose of it is) but it worked perfect for our limbo game! Make sure you have some good limbo music for this part! A couple other games you could try are hula hooping contest, any sort of water game, and another game where you have two people with a coconut or beach ball and you start with it on the ground, and without using your hands you have to get it up between your faces.

I hope you all enjoy, we sure did!