It's Baby Season

A few years ago there was an explosion of weddings with my close girlfriends.  This might come as a shock, but now there is suddenly an explosion of pregnancies.  I know.  Who could have foreseen this?!  I am so excited about all the bundles of joy expected to arrive next year.  I had the first of what will be many baby showers this morning, and of course, I had to be different and deviate from the registry a little in order to be craftabulous.  Being on a shoestring budget, I opted to make some of the gifts for the little guy.  The following are some of the gifts I included in my "gift cooler".

A few weeks ago, I got a picture from my friend from her newly painted and baby-ready nursery.  The theme of the room was sailboats.  That was all the inspiration I needed.  I went to the craft store and found some blue sailboat appliques.  Not being a sewer, the iron-on pieces were right up my alley.  Bougt a pack of plain white onesies and....BAM....one personalized gift done with very little cost and virtually no time consumed.  I was able to iron on during World Series commercial breaks!

I bought a white wall hanging letter P that they could put up in the nursery.  I was most nervous about this project.  I knew I wanted to decorate it with a design, but it is so easy to mess something up when it comes  paint.  I put this off until yesterday.  Looking through my collection of stuff I was able to find a sailboat stencil.  With the intention of keeping it simple I used a green paint pen and stenciled the bottom of the letter and used baby blue (aka Carolina blue) stickers everywhere else.  For just a little more contrast I made little dots with my brown paint pen.  It turned out very well, and mom-to-be seemed impressed with it.  

Okay, I had all the gifts together and only a medium sized baby gift bag available to use.  Not going to work.  The options were now: go buy a larger bag OR use something on hand in a creative way.  There was a small styrofoam cooler collecting dust in my closet, so that's what I used.  I had bought some small wooden sailboat cutouts and painted them, but I never found a way to utilize them.  They were clearly meant to adorn the cooler!  Going to the trusty ribbon bag, I picked out ribbon that would resemble ocean water.  There was not a ton of it, so that led to the need for a shore.  I used the glue gun to attach everything and also raided my scrapbooking supplies for some little extras for the shore scene.  With some red crepe paper inside and coming over the sides to hide the ugly styrofoam, the project was complete.

I did buy some other gifts to put in the cooler, but I am glad that little baby boy will be getting some things from me that required care and thought.  Can't wait to meet him!!

The Wonder That is Ribbon!

Recently I was at Hancock Fabrics and noticed the bags of Christmas ribbon they had on sale. With a price tag of 77 cents, I had to pick up a couple. The thing about this “Christmas” ribbon was that it was in no way limited to Christmas colors. Still not sure why it was even labeled the way it was, but it worked to my advantage. Initially, I fully intended to put it to use for gift wrapping. Then, I ran across this article by Diana Durkes about using ribbon to upholster old and worn furniture and bring it back to vibrant life. http://www.homeworkshop.com/2009/07/21/diy-ribbon-upholstered-chair/  I absolutely loved the effect of the multi-colored ribbon as a stand in for fabric. I had plenty of ribbon, but no chair in need of a facelift. I did have a stool that was doubling as a bedside catchall that was not too cute though.


I layered the ribbons vertically and horizontally in no particular pattern; just making sure none of the seat was visible. I could have done a basket weave or any other number of patterns, but I kept it simple. I improvised my own method of simply double knotting the ribbon underneath to secure it in place. Not as put together and clean in its aesthetic, but I like the whimsy of glimpsing the ribbon underneath. The good news is….this project cost me less than $1 and I have plenty of ribbon left!

I get so much inspiration from the many talented and creative people posting their ideas on the web that I thought it might be fun to join their numbers! Money is tight these days, and resourcefulness is more important than ever. Whether it’s money saving tips or inventive uses for items already on hand, it all adds up. But sometimes the financial aspect of things are completely irrelevant. Sometimes it’s all about making yourself or someone else happy. And that’s worth more than all the money the U.S. Treasury can print! So, I look forward to sharing the things that have inspired me, and in turn would love to do some inspiring myself. Here goes…