Felt no-sew circus bunting

I made this felt pennant banner for Avinash's room yesterday evening.  It was inexpensive and easy to do, so I felt like sharing.

I bought a stack of felt from Michael's.  This stack cost 8 (4 after coupon). Yellow was missing so I bought a sheet of that as well (around 2.50 after coupon).  Everything else I used I had on hand (thus free, right?).

 Choose your colors.  I used yellow, grey, red, blue, light blue, aqua and white.

I used a piece of grey felt for a template.  I cut an isosceles triangle with a base of six inches and almost 8 inch sides.  Approximating is fine.

I was able to get three triangles out of an 8.5×11 felt sheet and five out of the 12×12 sheet.

Lay the template down on your felt sheet and start cutting.  The felt sticks to each other pretty well so I didn't need to pin it down.

I just used regular fabric scissors and tried to cut straight.  No rotary blade or trimmer needed.  Hand cutting was pretty quick luckily.  Not pinning also helped the whole thing go much faster.

Once I had a nice thick stack of triangles cut and Avinash had had his fill up running around the house throwing them in the air, I placed them in the order I liked.  A little bit random but with colors evenly distributed.

I used cotton yarn to bind the triangles together.  You can punch holes on each side and thread the yarn through. 

 

 

I just threaded a big needle and joined them individually.  This worked faster for me than punching, threading and tying.  Plus hole punches give me finger cramps.

That's it!  Find a sunny spot to hang up and enjoy.

It really brings together the room's whole decor. {These shots however are of it hanging up in my living room. Avi's room has no windows.  So, yeah, the lighting is not great in there.}  It was so quick and affordable it would make great DIY birthday party decor too. 

Avinash never had a nursery.  He always slept in a pack and play and now sleeps on my old bed from Med school.  Ever since Hawaii we have been thinking about buying him his own little bed.  Maybe he will finally sleep on his own.  We do have a yellow and grey quilt on the bed and Steelers stuff hanging up in there.  So the main theme is yellow??

I was really inspired by this IKEA circus tent.  It is currently sold out but I am waiting with baited breathe for it to be restocked.  Originally I wanted a Muppet babies theme and we do have quite the growing Muppet collection.  But it is not really a theme just a bunch of toys.  Luckily,  all of these things fit in with a circus theme.  I think.  Plus he loves Dumbo.   I think it also means I can hang up more Sanjay Ganesha posters in his room as well.    I need help with this newfangled less is more theory I keep hearing about.
The felt circus bunting is key to unifying everything I think.  Feels so good to set his whole room together. And it only took me one evening to do it.  One evening and three and half+ years give or take. Not bad.
Linked here and tip junkie.

Junior Ranger (and Badge)

We visited the Ranger Station at Volcano National Park early in the morning on our first morning in Hawaii. Avinash was charged with filling out a coloring book in order to earn his junior ranger badge. He worked diligently in the car all day. He took his assignment very seriously and chattered about saving the piglets in the forest A LOT. Even so, he was completely overcome with emotion when he actually recieved his junior ranger badge because the park ranger announced his name OVER THE SPEAKERS. He helped stamp his own certificate and was pinned with a new badge.  It was incredible.

I mixed three lines to create this project.  The background is new Crate Paper Story Teller Paper, the beautiful books on the side are also Crate Paper hand cut with a fringe, the flocked transparency is Fancy Pants, also hand cut, and the title is done in Studio Calico new lullaby thickers.  I always loved these in foam, but would have a really hard time making a straight line with them.  The new chipboard version is a lot easier to work with. 

I kept the certificate loosely tucked in between layers so he can go back and look at it easily.  I should probably laminate it or something as it is just plain paper.

All the little chipboard and stickers are Crate Paper too.  I am taking part in Shimelle's mixing papers challenge this weekend.  Thanks for looking.

take 12

We have been at my parent's home all week for Easter break of sorts. It always wonderful seeing my family, especially seeeing Avinash and Nandini's relationship with them grow as they get older. Of course napping in the midst of all the excitement can be a big challenge for babies and thus mommy loses a little more of her mind for every nap that they don't take....This is a snapshot of being home so far in a dozen pictures.  I didn't really take twelve pictures in one day, so some are from Easter too.  Just keeping the holiday going I guess.

 Avi's first real haircut {where he wasn't throwing a tantrum so huge that his ear was nearly lopped off with a scissor}.  After that he told everyone else, "You need a haircut."

Her bow on Easter may or may not have been taken off a box of candy.  Proof that she can rock any look.

 The trees are in full bloom here.  Their transience makes them that much more beautiful to me.  Apple blossoms (ok, crab apple, but that doesn't really sound as nice??).

 With a little shake of the branches or gust of wind the petals start falling like snow.  

Love how the light hits Nandini's face here.  I would have loved to have a picnic out here but my Dad was SUPER worried about poison oak or poison something.  I didn't see it... Also, there are no special wildflowers here like bluebells and Indian paintbrush like in Texas.  But there are dandelions everywhere and I think they are wonderful. 

Avinash had an easter egg hunt with the neighbors during the day, but we did our own egg dyeing a little later. 

Her new trick: rushing to the stairs as soon as no one is looking.  Then screaming loudly once she gets there to make sure that everyone comes to look at her. 

Nana flanked by two hungry, demanding babies.  Look at how suspicious Nandini is of not getting her share of food.  Also, bread.  Lots of bread.  We don't often get good bread now, so we make up for lost time when we are home by eating it at all meals.  Toast, bagels, hoagies of all kinds are devoured regularly. 

I'll never be that cool because I just can't take pictures of my feet or other people's shoes, but Avinash can.  That boy is way cooler than me already.

Nandini going through the tunnel Avi made her at the museum.

She finally notices me taking pictures.  This is her face as she is just about to grab my phone away.

The neighbor girls come over almost every day to play with Avinash.  Note the remnants of lunch (Dunkin Donuts aka 'prinkles) and the snack of green acorn cookies (with extra sprinkles).  Nandini was not too pleased when we tried to give her some with no chocolate on them.  We went to visit our cousins (my cousin and his cousin) last night too, but I was too tired for more pictures by then.


Linking up for the daily dozen on April 12th at Dear Lizzy.

Project Life - My Strawberry

This could also be the week all about food. We tried out three or four new food trucks in our area and went strawberry picking over the weekend. We stocked up on tons of farm fresh vegetables while we were there as well.

I included a lot of pictures from the strawberry picking outing, but I love the idea on Ali Edward's blog of just picking one daily highlight from her vacation week.  Limiting yourself gives you a certain creative push I think.  Also, my pictures are totally out of chronological order this week. Again. The first page is essentially tuesday through friday (with the extra strawberry picture thrown in), and the second is just the weekend.

Found these old OA stickers with strawberries on them.  Ah-ha! The exact reason why I hoard everything for so long.  In addition to my Clementine core kit, I mostly used Studio Calico and Crate Paper, uh, papers.  And, in case you are wondering, her strawberry onesie was purchased well over a year ago at Janie Jack and is two sizes too small, but still able to squeeze her in.  {FYI-all those red stains on her white shirt came right out with baking soda+hydrogen peroxide+dawn, the popular carpet cleaning formula going around pinterest these days.}

The top 4x4 instagram print is matted on Noteworthy pp.  I never thought I would say this, but I am so into woodgrain right now.  The B-side notebook paper was perfect for a long story too. The journaling sticker is Martha Stewart (textured egg shell oval label).

The two-part picture of Nandini at the bottom shows her playing the bottle cap game.  Not sure how long this phase will last, and it probably wouldn't have made it into the regular scrapbook, but it is a constant thing in our house right now.

 Journaled on an old Crate Emma's Shoppe accent paper.  These are double sided and normally it killed me to use them.  Now I can use both sides if I want. Embellished with a misted wood veneer house and pink hearts washi.

The tissue paper squares are from a library craft.  I may or may not have helped Avinash glue down extra tissue pieces while we were there because I wanted it to look more colorful.  Journaling on a Martha Stewart label sticker again.

How pretty are jasmine flowers? I usually am a terrible gardner so having anything bloom makes me ridiculously happy.  I added a spring AC Gardenia paper rosette and pink striped washi. Done. Love how easy it is to write on washi tape.

Another instagram collage, pasted on Clementine cards with little captions.  I needed something more, so more washi - yellow wallpaper.

I used picasa to make a photo collage of this printable note card and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston - Food Trucks logo.  I just took a picture of it there.  We tried out the Waffle Bus (Thursday), Ladybird (Friday), and the Rice Box (Sunday).  All were pretty good for vegetarians.

Strawberry picking, eating, swinging.   A random story about splashing in puddles while singing this song.

 No pictures, but I had to write out some of the April Fools pranks Avinash pulled.  The tag is Elle's studio vintage month flashcards with old foam letters and SC wood asterisks. 

Linked up with The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama for Project Life Tuesday. The PL kit I am using is the Clementine kit. Thank you so much to everyone in this wonderful community. I love all the feedback and looking at everything people do each week. It definitely keeps me motivated. And, please, link me up to any of your inspiring pages this week as well in the comments!

ps- I am using the new google+ option for uploading photos on my blog this week and HATING IT. The resolution is the worst. Need to find a new solution. Clue me in if you have any ideas please.

Night time scrapping

Last night's twitter crop was so much fun.  I don't even know how much I got done, but it was fun to connect with people in real time over our shared hobby. 

I thought it would be fun to share some of what I made here too. 

A very artsy layout for me.  I actually made most of this at the art museum on Sunday at one of their family activity stations.  I used painters tape to block out the chevron shape and then alternated red and pink pastel.  I covered that with some tracing paper and pinned the texture materials on top as well.  I printed out the photo collage (6 photos on a 4x6 print for little square photos) on cardstock and pasted them into a photostrip. Even that washi tape came from the craft table at the museum. 
Still debating about adding a title and journaling.  Any thoughts?

Supplies: background paper is kesi art, photo matted with new grey SC, pink foam thickers, wood alpha misted in yellow, pink paislee wood table, house of three green tissue paper, pebbles tissue flowers, and crate farmhouse and random border stickers.
I had started this layout earlier but finished it up last night.  Mostly just the journaling and stitching.  Originally was going to staple that tag on there, but @soaphousemama started stitching on her layout, so I started stitching on mine.  It definitely took a little longer, but I like how it turned out.  I also spent a little extra time on the journaling.  I usually just write extemporaneously and you'll find the grammar and spacing is awful.  I just read Smitha's e-book and she recommended planning out your journaling.  Writing it down elsewhere first definitely helped a lot I think with flow and neatness.  
I think I'm done with this layout but still considering lacquering the wood with nail polish.

A lot of people ended up joining us for #twittercrop last night and I think it is going to become a regular thing.  Ladies, share what you made last night with us and I'll put up links to your projects too.

// Hastag TwitterCrop

So, after much feet dragging I finally joined twitter (hello, five years late? I know.)  The idea of only communicating in small amounts and using weird hashtags totally mystified me.  Plus, seeing what is trending and following random celebrities.  I just didn't think I could get into that.

Over the past few weeks I have discovered some things. It is a great way to talk to fake celebrities @HandmadeRyanGosling, who will tweet you back about your craft projects (hello butterflies). Or comedians like @mindykaling who post random romantic comedy scenarios late at night that make laugh at loud in the middle of whatever I'm doing.  I also love following the Dalai Lama.  He tweets these great inspirational spiritual quotes every once in a while. 

It is also a great way to get in touch with customer service.  Even though United has ignored all of my tweets about their wretched service, bliss spa did get back to me quickly about a mixed up order and sent me a free gift bag full of goodies.  Score!  

I also follow 'famous' scrapbookers.  Some of them will actually reply to you.  And some of them will actually become your friends.  People to motivate you and inspire you. 

I still don't get the whole hashtag thing.  Whenever I try them, figuring it must be a common phrase, like #girlslovemath for my pi day project.  No one has ever tweeted that before!!  It is a sad world we live in, I'm telling you. 

But, I'm a glutton for punishment, so we are going to try this hashtag business again.  I'm usually a pretty steady scrapper.  I find it relaxes me at the end of a stressful day.  Just all that cutting and gluing, looking over our pictures and reminiscing.  Yes, our days are often filled with cranky moments and tantrums, but luckily the photos remind us of all the good times too and even the tantrums seem funnier after the kids are soundly sleeping.

In an effort to break out of a recent slump I am joining forces with Smitha Katti to get our mojo back.  So, tonight the #scrapntweet for #momswhoscrapwhilekidssleep is on! Hashtag #twittercrop.  Start time is anytime after bedtime.  Pull out your stuff and tweet while you cut and paste.  An after dinner apertif is not required but can't hurt either. 

Avinash and I found a caterpillar yesterday and made him lunch before putting him back in the grass.  He was going crazy looking for his cocoon afterwards.  Can't wait to scrap moments like these.

Everybody's looking forward to the weeekend

This weekend was all about family time. Going strawberry picking, hanging out with friends, cooking, eating outside again finally.  Ryan and I started watching homeland together and have been flying through it.  I think I really just miss Firefly and like seeing Inara again.
We also ventured out to the art musuem for some culture and food trucks.  We ended up doing every family day activity there.  The food truck there on Sunday turned out to be Rice box.  The food was great and the service was fantastic.  By the time we made our way out to the truck they were almost out of everything, including rice, but they still whipped together two different and scrumptious tofu dishes for us.  Like, the kind where you have actual tofu inside the crispy crust, not just some stringy gristle. 

Did I mention that we had Picasso story time to ourselves.  You'd think these two had never seen pillows before.  (Picasso? Meh.  Pillows?!?!!!  Eeeeeeeeeeeee!)

How was your weekend?

Project Life - bluebells, butterflies, bows and Mad Men

This week was busy and the weekend was even busier.  There were so many little moments I wanted to record that flew by.  Oh well, that is how it goes some weeks.  So thankful for Ryan's iphone because that is where the majority of pictures came from this week.  I also took no pictures while Ryan was out of town and forgot to even write about it.  I totally should have included Avi's delight at going down the waterslides on the soggy playground one evening.  Oh well.

A simple one page, design D page.

I figured I'll be doing a few bluebells layouts soon, so I only included one picture from our trip to Brenham.  I just used the back of the vellum and covered up the stamped title with a bit of grey doily washi.
Avinash's cupcake picture is also from the same day.  I used this Elle's studio penant for the journaling. 
On Nandini's party dress picture, I used a JBS paint dabber in lemon drops to color the wooden butterfly.  They are such a nice quality and weight.  Definite love.
And how cute are those woolen bows from SC? If only real hairbows would stay in place as well.  I don't think the picture really does them justice because they are a little squished in the page protectors.  Next time I'll try them with a design A so they can pop over the top more easily.
Also, a rare picture of me and my friend Maria.  I used the Hambly lattice overlay on top of last week's kraft envelope.  You can't tell from the picture but it is the same stencil as their accent wall.  Just trust me, it's gorgeous.  

I used these black thickers on the bows card with Nandini and Roshan. (Please tell me you get it.. bows? beaus?  anyone, anyone? nevermind.)  I really wanted a group shot of at least the kids, but it just didn't happen.  Nisha looked so adorable and Audrey Hepburn-esque in this black dress with pearls on it.  Avinash threw a huge tantrum when he couldn't find a picture of him and Nisha together this week.  We are in trouble.
I used some banner chipboard on the swim card and woodgrain thickers.  Too bad the chipboard banner covers up most of the real one over the Y pool.  Don't forget the turquoise washi! Love the combo of red, turqoise and woodgrain together.  Bold but just enough neutral to make it play well with others.

This Mad Men card is one of the coolest things I've made, probably ever.  (Since I don't really do cool that well, but, I digress.  And I digest...toasted flour all brown sugar chocolate cookies. A really bad idea at 11pm.  See why I'm not cool? Too many bad puns. Sigh.)
I used the lovely new polaroid travel Abroad SC paper.  The little squares were perfect for 2x2 pictures.  Which was perfect for me because I had made a collage of 6 instagrams on one 4x6 photo.  I am down to bare bones on these vanilla fabric thickers, so the Ws became Ms for the title.  I have had this pack since Nandini was born.  Very weird to think about.  In my mind it matches the Mad Men font, but I was too lazy to actually check.
And, yes, that is a real gimlet in the picture. I was going to put down more journaling but decided the pictures were pretty self explanatory.  Plus I don't need the questions when they get old enough to read.  It's juice honey, it's just cherry, er, um soda!!

That's it.  No second page, no inserts, no tricky trick.  Just one more week ticked off into the done is good column. 

Linked up with The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama for Project Life Tuesday. The PL kit I am using is the Clementine kit.   Thank you so much to everyone in this wonderful community.  I love all the feedback and looking at everything people do each week.  It definitely keeps me motivated.  And, please, link me up to any of your inspiring pages this week as well in the comments!