Easy DIY: Heart Tea Bags!

this is a super easy craft to make, perfect for a thoughtful gift! 

what you need:

coffee filters

embroidery thread

needle

loose leaf tea

scissors

start by cutting out your tea pouch from the coffee filters

put two coffee filters together and cut out your desired shape

next you'll thread your needle and sew around the edges of your two filters

you can sew them a few ways, but as long as they are held together with no gaps it will work!

tip: it helps keep your stitching even if you poke the holes before threading through 

if you're using a larger needle for the embroidery thread, a thinner needle can help poke the holes

before you finish your stitching, add your loose leaf tea inside, then finish and close it up

and you're done! 

you should now have a super cute tea bag to give to a friend or keep for yourself

if you're making multiples, you can use coordinating colors or keep it consistent

DIY: Baby Name Letters

these letters turned out really cute and weren't too hard to make!

what you need:
wooden letters
fabric
glue / hot glue gun
buttons

first, choose what fabric you want for each letter

trace your letter over the fabric with pencil (back side) and cut about 1/2" - 1" around that line
that will be the main piece of fabric

you'll notice that this doesn't cover the curved parts of the letters very well

for any edge that doesn't get covered by the original fabric, cut a piece of matching fabric to cover that part

even if the fabric has a pattern, it shouldn't show much because it's on the edge

overlapping on the back is fine

glue those curved edge pieces down first, then start on the main piece

start from the top edge and work your way down, gluing only the edges of the fabric

you shouldn't need to glue the front of the letter to the fabric,
only the edges should be enough to hold it down

once you get all your letters done, then you can add embellishments, like fabric flowers and buttons

to make fabric flowers, take a long, skinny piece of fabric and twist it, 

then turn it around in a spiral gluing it along the way

now you're done!

makes for a great present, though you probably want to make sure there is room for it in the nursery!

Baby Shower Craft: Bunting!

I just realized I never posted baby shower crafts from my best friend's baby shower!

Jessica and I (Brianne) along with my other BFF Ari helped lead a craft at the shower and it was a big success!

look at these cuties

materials you will need:
fabric
fusible tape (magic!)
poster board (for stencils)
fabric pens
ruler
scissors
pinking shears
iron (& board)
string

before the shower prep:
 the first step is to pick out your fabric

Amanda's nursery theme is yellow and gray, and we found some really cute fabric to match!

next, decide how big you want your flags to be
(you don't want them to look like the Nightmare Before Christmas)

we made ours 5 inches across and 6 inches down to the point, creating an isosceles triangle

the easiest way I found to draw them was to keep the 5" section on the edge of the paper, draw a 6" line down the poster board right in the middle of the top edge, and then use a ruler to draw the sides of the triangle

depending on how many guests there are, make an appropriate amount of flag stencils

you'll also want to have stencils for people to use on their flags

we google searched for simple images to use

here are some ideas: heart, flowers, giraffe, elephant, numbers, letters, shapes

just print out the shapes and then cut them out on your poster board

you should have all this prep work done before the shower, then bring everything along for the guests to create!

it's a good idea to have an example for them to see as well

at the shower instructions:

 start with making your flag

turn fabric to the back side to trace so the marks aren't on the front

fold over your fabric to trace it putting the top edge on your crease, that way your flag is double ply and you can pull your string through the top

we had our guests write blessings on the back of their flags, giving the craft a little more of a personal touch! 

it also allows the less-crafty people to participate more

once the blessing is written, over to the ironing board to stick the flag sides together

take 2 pieces of fusible tape and put them on the inside edges of your flag

leave about 1/2-1 inch at the top open

the fusible tape should have directions on the package

on ours, it said to iron with a damp cloth 10 seconds on each side

look at my cute little sister

ironing is fun!

after the sides are ironed together, pick out what shapes you want on your flag

it's good to have a mix of simple and busy, and 1-3 shapes is best

trace the backside of the fabric with your choice of stencils and cut them out (pencil works better than pen for not bleeding through)

 

 decide how you want to arrange the cutouts on your flag, then use fusible tape 

& the iron to stick them on in place

  

it doesn't take too much tape to get them to stay on since this will be just hanging somewhere rather than worn or used

look how great they turned out!

we found they weren't holding up very well just strung through at the top, so I went back in with a sewing machine to sew the very top of the flags just about a quarter of an inch down, making the string easier to go through them

since I'm so late in posting this, here's a bonus: a pic of little miss Layla now!

The Birch and the Bee

Jump on over to The Birch and the Bee to support Blake and Jenna's new venture. You can support them on Kickstarter as they make the cutest wooden jewlery! 

(Jenna is the cousin of one of my favorite people in the world, Lauren Tien. What a creative family!)