Lucky Banner

I love banners. LOVE them. I love them like kids love cake! I made this one last year. I used an old fruit snacks box for the backing. I hand cut all the letters since I didn't have my Cricut Expression yet.

Isn't it a sparkly, gorgeous treat for the eyes? I hope to make another banner before St Pat's.
If you like it, leave a comment. We all love to be loved, right? I am sharing this banner at:

Edit: I added flowers to the banner. I made two different kinds. The first one is the same one I used on my Christmas cards. You can see those here. It is five punched scallops, spritzed with bronze glimmer mist and held together with a brad. The second is five punched scallops too. To make this flower you fold four of the scallops into fourths and glue on. This flower is also held together with a brad. I like the little addition.

Mustache Valentine

I've been brainstorming ideas for my boys valentines day party for awhile now. Well, not really brainstorming but thinking about it before bed. As in, "Do I really have to make 40-ish valentines?" I remembered a cute Martha flower valentine pictured here. I kept thinking of ways to make it more masculine. I knew my boys wouldn't go for flowers. They're only 4 but they already refuse to wear pink.

Then it hit me! A mustache valentine. I thought I was a genius. I could cut out little mustaches for the boys and lips for the girls and wrap it around the lollipop. I mean, really, I am so smart. Then I decided to google it make sure nobody else was as smart (i.e. thought of it first). Turn out I am not a genius. I found cute mustache ideas here and here and here. I guess great minds think alike.

What I DID do was make them cute, original tshirts. Using my new best friend (PSE) I made the mustache valentine shirt. I printed onto t-shirt iron-on transfer paper and ironed on. You can download it here. Again, I ask that you leave a comment or become a follower when you download. Thanks!

Love Printable

I've been working on my Photo Shop skills. I came up with this design for Valentines day. This could be printed and framed for wall decor. It could be matted to cardstock for a nice card. Or you could print it onto iron transfer paper and make a cute little shirt.

Click here to download. If you do download, please leave me a comment or become a follower (because it's nice). Thanks for looking and enjoy!

Ruffled towels

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I've posted. Well, actually I can believe it. We were part of Snowmageddon this past week. We got over a foot but I lost track when the wind started blowing huge drifts at us. We shoveled out on our snow day. The kids definitely enjoyed all the snow!
On to the towels. I have a house full of males and my cutsey, flowery decor is barely detectable. I have seen ruffles all over blogland lately. I really wanted to do something with ruffles but didn't know what.

I started by ruffling a ribbon I had. It went ok. I don't have a ruffler foot for my sewing machine so I just did a straight stich down the middle and pulled the thread until the ribbon resembled a ruffle. I liked it but thought it was too blah to put on anything. Then it hit me!

I have had these super soft and plush Tommy Hilfigar towel in my stash for-evah. I just needed the right project. I gathered up some fresh and some old fabric and went to work.

I love that they are fun and frilly and can be used for Valentine's day or for spring. I would use them in a feminine (very) bathroom. I'm even thinking about using them as decor in my kitchen.

I love them! (It seems I love everything I make.) :) If you'd like to purchase one they are in my etsy shop. BabsMadeIt. Convo me on etsy or leave a comment here and I'll give you a 20% off code.

Teacher Gifts

My boys are only in their first year of school and already I'm thinking of teacher's gifts. I love to see the look on their face when you give them something they need and want. (Please forgive the terrible photos, we were losing daylight and I really wanted to share these with you.)
We still have a full blanket of snow on the ground so I didn't feel bad using my holiday paper. The adorable snowmen and polka dots are from My Mind's Eye. These are not double sided papers so I had to glue them together. I'll tell you more about that later.

This paper is double sided. It is from K&Company. The 'thank you' is cut from cardstock and then I used modge podge & glitter to make it sparkle.
Here's and inside peek at the markers. I love that it holds them perfectly and it can stand up and be a decoration as well as a gift.
Now, this is why you want to use double sided paper. It is not so pretty inside. Here's a quick 'how to':

1. Cut your paper 12"x6"

2. Score vertically at 1.5", 2.5", 4.5" and 5.5"

3. Score horizontally at 1"

Fold on all your score lines. The first 7.5" of the horizontal score will be folded for the bottom of your box. The remaining 4.5" will be cut off. Tape or glue together and you have a great little teacher's gift!

Upcycled Mittens

Anyone tired of my upcycled sweater yet? This is the third and final project I made out of this little $4 sweater. Can you guess what it is? (If you didn't already read the title.) It's mittens!
Here's what I had left of this sweater. First, I made pillow covers and then I made the sweet little flower pom barrette. I had the entire sleeve left and I HAD to do something with it.

I did a super simple pattern: I traced around my hand. I cut it on the seam so I only had to sew up one side. I did the same with some leftover fleece I had. Here you can see the inside.
What mittens wouldn't be complete without a couple of fabric rosettes?

I am very happy with how they turned out. The sweater is not felted so they won't hold up to our Wisconsin snow but they'll make great driving mittens.

Note: Since making these little guys I been informed of a video tutorial to make super cute felted mittens. I will be trying that next! Here it is, if you'd like to give it a shot. There's even a hand drawn mitten pattern.

New Blog Design

I decided it was time to take down the Christmas banner and background. I changed it up, fairly easily, last time. However, this time, I had a little glitch that took me FOREVER to figure out. I couldn't get my background to load due to size. Grrr. I tried and tried again. Finally I realized it was my own silly error. I read the maximum size wrong. Ooops. It was a good hour I wasted. Oh well, it finally worked out and here is my new lovely blog. I love it. I used digital Echo Park Walk in the Park paper.

I just got PhotoShop Elements for Christmas so while I'm learing how to use it Iuse Picnik to make the banner.

So, what do you think? I love comments.