Matryoshka Applique Onesie

I just received another order of appliques from northernwarmthings on etsy and made another onesie. I just love appliques!

I hand embroidered the applique, neckline and sleeves, then I glued red and clear swarovski crystals to give the flowers a little sparkle. Swarovski crystals are my favorite finishing touch to most of my projects. I use them in my flower clips all the time. That reminds me, I haven't posted any of my hair accessories in awhile but plan to post some in time to order for Valentine's Day. What colors would you be most interested in, pink or red? Maybe I'll just make an assortment and you can decide. Would love your feedback :)

Felt Candy Hearts Tutorial

Too soon to already be thinking about Valentine's Day? Since I've been on this felt food kick, I thought it would be cute to make felt candy hearts to give Mia for Valentine's Day. I made them last night just to see what they would look like and I love them! I plan to make a bunch more. I played around with the embroidery stitches to see which I liked best. The pink one is the blanket stitch, I did that one first, and decided it wasn't my fave for this project, so I just did the basic stitch and liked that better. I didn't think about doing a tutorial until this morning, so I don't have pictures of the process, but I will do my best to explain how I did it. These are the supplies you will need. ( I forgot to take a picture of the felt, sorry!)

Supplies Needed:

1. Felt in whatever color you would like you candy hearts to be

2. Scissors

3. A dark pink fine tip Sharpie marker

4. Embroidery floss in the colors you are using for your candy hearts

5. Embroidery needle (I forgot to take a picture of that too)

6. Heart Stencil if you don't want to make your own (I got mine at WalMart)

How to:

I couldn't find my stencil last night, but I had a heart already cut out from a previous project so I used that as my stencil.

I cut out all my heart shapes (2 per color because you will be embroidering both sides together)

When I was done cutting out my hearts, I tied a knot at one end of my embroidery floss and threaded it through my embroidery needle.

I placed the two hearts together and started my embroidery stitch at the top of the heart, in the middle. You will want to push the needle through the backside so your knot isn't on the front to start. From there I just did a basic stitch all the way around the heart (ie:go up from the back with the needle, pull through, then go back up through the back again...make sense?) Once I got back to the top of the heart where I started, I tied a knot on the back. Lastly, I used my pink Sharpie to write on each heart. Taduhhhh!!! So easy and so cute! Hope you can understand my tutorial, I've never done one. if you have any questions feel free to comment and leave your email address :)

Some Handmade Christmas Goodies

Mia LOVED the apron and felt tea party food I made her! I got the idea to make the pop tarts and pasta from treasures for tots. I found cookie ideas on etsy. Can't remember the exact shops because I just did a general search for ideas. Felt food is so fun and easy to make and your little ones will love it too :)

I also made these yummy cupcake goodies for my little sweetie. 

 I made this applique top to go with it. Cute huh? So fast and easy. I glued a couple of swarovski crystals on the cupcake to give it just the right touch!

Lastly, this necklace is a gift my mom got me this year. I LOVE this necklace :) I know she ordered from a shop on etsy, but she couldn't remember which. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Christmas Tree Applique

Doesn't she make a cute little reindeer? I made Hayden this sweet little Christmas tree applique onesie with ruffles on the butt in the same fabric. I topped the tree with a silver button covered in rhinestones, and decorated it with multi-colored swarovski crystals. I've washed and tried it a few times already and it's held up great. I just make sure to turn it inside out :)

Giveaway

Sue is doing a giveaway to celebrate her 400th post! She will pick 5 winners :) I hope I'm one of them. Click on her button above to enter now!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all! I can't believe it's already Christmas Eve. I wanted to share some fun crafts I've done with Mia to help decorate our Christmas tree.

I went to WalMart and found little wood trains, planes, helicopters, etc. Mia wanted them in the worst way so I bought them thinking it would be fun to have her paint them. She LOVES to paint! The problem is that paint makes messes, so I found these acrylic paint markers at WalMart. Have any of you tried them? They were perfect for her and for this project.

This kept her busy for quite some time-*Bonus*

When she was done painting she looked at me and said, "Hmmm...Somethings missing." She wanted to hang it on our tree so I added some embroidery floss so she could. Doesn't it look cute?

This next ornament I found on Juicy Bits. I love what she did! It was too advanced for kids, so I improvised to make it more kid friendly. Instead of embroidering the felt to hold it together, I had Mia use glue. The glue didn't work very well, so I used a hot glue gun when she wasn't looking ;-)

I think Mia's little ornament turned out so cute hanging on our tree! I love the extra touch of gold glitter she used.

I decided to make an owl too using the pattern from Juicy Bits

Instead of an owl ornament, I made an applique to make Mia a t-shirt. I LOVE the way it turned out! Appliques are my new favorite thing. My goal this next year to use this blog not only to post the hair accessories I make and sell, but to post sewing and crafts projects, links to other fun projects, and possibly some tutorials. I would love to hear from you all and get your feedback. Again, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Embellish a Plain White Onesie!

Onesies make great gifts, especially if you glam them up a bit! I have a few babies to give gifts to for Christmas, including my new baby, so this is what I came up with this afternoon. I ordered these cute cupcake appliques from northernwarmthings on etsy and just ironed them on. I glammed them up a bit by glueing swarovski crystals to them to add a bit of sparkle. I love the way they turned out. I embroidered the neckline to the above onesie using a blanket stitch. So simple, but adds so much, don't you think?
This one below is actually a newborn size onesie. Don't you hate it when you first have a baby and even the 0-3 month sized clothes are HUGE? At least they've been huge on my girls. My little Hayden is a month and a half and 0-3 month stuff is still pretty big on her. Anyway, I'm getting to my point--How cute would this onesie be as a baby shower gift for baby to have something that actually fits and is unique to wear home from the hospital? I made half of a tiny tutu on a piece of elastic that I sewed on the back of this onesie to give it some flare. You can find a great tutu tutorial on treasuresfortots.blogspot.com I'm thinking I might add the embroidered neckline on this later when I have more time for a nice finishing touch. It's a fun project that turns out so darling. You can add your own personal style to each one you make. If you're not up for making your own and want to buy one from me, just leave me a comment. And if you don't want to buy one, but you enjoyed this post, still leave a comment :) I love hearing from people!

An Apron for Mia

My blogger friend Angie from Treasures for Tots came up with a great way to share our crafting ideas. Check out her blog here
I just made this apron for Mia as a Christmas gift to wear while she works on all her little art projects or wants to help me bake brownies :) I didn't have a pattern so I just made my own. Heather Bailey and Amy Butler fabric are my favorite so I combined the two. I can't wait to make more of these for gifts! I'll be posting more gift ideas in the near future as soon as I finish them. Please don't forget to add yourself as a follower so you can check back often :)

Headbands for the Holidays

I haven't posted in awhile, and thought it would be perfect to post a picture of my new little princess wearing one of the headbands I designed. I think it's really pretty for holiday portraits! I can clip any flower to my headbands, this is just one example. This flower can be worn by all ages. Mia, my 3 year old and I have both been caught wearing this flower. I just thought it was especially pretty on this headband for the holidays.