KT Made It: Baby Shower Card Book

This past weekend I went to a celebration that so many women look forward to: their baby shower! It was an incredibly special day thanks to some very special people - my mom, sister Joy, friend Jessica and her mother Nancy. Thank you all for making this celebration so memorable for me!



And, of course, thank you to everyone who was able to attend my baby shower. My hubby and I appreciate that you took time to celebrate with my family and I this joyous event in my life, and for your very generous gifts!

The theme of the shower came courtesy of Jessica, who did some research on Pinterest and found the most adorable invitations for a "Little Girls Are TuTu Cute" party - in purple and turquoise no less!


















Here is the quilt that my mom made for Rachel:


And the cake that she made for me!










And my love of arts and crafts was evident throughout with different crafting stations, which I will admit I might-maybe-may have had some hand in making :)

There was a station to make headbands:

A station to write advice for me as a mommy-to-be:

Another station to make pages for baby's first Alphabet Book:





























A thumb print guest book:




























And some cards for guests to fill out for "Wishes for Baby" and also to see who knows me the best with a few trivia questions.













Here are the beautiful headbands that my friends and family made for baby Rachel:

 

 

My sister-in-law, Ashley, made this adorable diaper bouquet!
















Now on to the did-it! There are a lot of very creative ways to display cards. To make my card book, I modified this tutorial from Dreamy Elk.

I only used the instructions for putting the pages of the book together using thread and a piece of fabric.



I did not follow the remainder of the instructions simply because I did not want to buy materials and I felt like I could improvise pretty well on my own. I won't detail how I made the cover of the book because, quite frankly, I'm not really sure how I did it, suffice to say that it involved card stock, canva paper, hot glue, modge podge and some fabric. Here is the finished product, which will go in a memory chest for baby Rachel!


If you are going to make something like this, I would recommend following the tutorial, as it looks pretty simple, the pictures are really helpful, and she gives pretty explicit instructions so it would be hard to mess up!

KT Made It: Crib Bedding

Happy April!

I can admit that did-its appear few and far between this spring, but I assure you that I have in fact been quite busy prepping for baby and getting ready to finalize the move to our new apartment next month. So while crafts, baking, reading, etc. have not been on the top of the to do list, I guess I will consider it an exercise in the decrease in free time I have to look forward to as a mom - which is something that I certainly don't mind!

One of the things that I have been doing to prepare for baby girl has been making the crib bedding for the nursery. The colors for the nursery that I chose are gray, purple and turquoise, a palate inspired by some serious time spent on Pinterest (view my Nursery Inspiration board here!)

I used Simplicity pattern #3795. This pattern was very straight forward and I would certainly use it again. The only complaint I have came when I put the bumpers into the crib and they were too long! Yeah, I almost cried, which is definitely an over reaction, but disappointment is not considering how hard I worked. However, given the fact that they really are for decoration and that baby will not be sleeping with the bumpers in her crib, it really is not that big of a deal and I can always adjust them later.

Here are some photos showing some of the process of making the crib set:











Here are the cut out pattern pieces. I made the quilt, pillow, dust ruffle and bumpers. The pattern also has a canopy which would be pretty cute as well as an organizer to hang on the side of the crib.

The first piece I made was the dust ruffle:
 

Next were the bumpers:

And the pillow and quilt:

And here is the crib set ready to go! All that is missing is a little baby girl :)

KT Made It: Tulle Wreath for a Nursery

I've seen these tulle wreaths made for a variety of decorative uses, mostly for holidays, and I have always wanted to make one.

Here are a couple that I really love!

This Halloween wreath comes from Our Best Bites with a great DIY tutorial...

Here's a great one for upcoming St. Patrick's Day from the A Night Owl, with tutorial included...

Looking for a wreath for something other than the holidays? Here is a monogram tulle wreath for a nursery from View Along the Way...

So now is where I can show how I made a wreath in purple and turquoise for our little girl's nursery that remains a figment of my imagination for the time being. I used a styrofoam wreath for this project and two spools of tulle that were each 20 yards. I used only single strips of tulle to tie around the wreath, but you can use more layers for a fuller effect if you like. I also bought paper flowers to decorate the wreath.

I cut strips of tulle that were about 1 1/2 feet long. You can use any length that you like and trim the edges at the end. Here are my strips.















Next, I began tying the strips of tulle around the wreath alternating purple and turquoise.

Here is the wreath with all of the tulle tied around it.

To decorate the wreath, I attached the purple paper roses with hot glue. Finally, I made a banner with our little girl's name using card stock and ribbon.  Here is the wreath which is now ready to hang in her (imaginary) nursery!

I think that wreath could appear again hanging on the front door for a future birthday party!

KT Made It: Hair Bow and Headband Organizer

Now that we are only 15 weeks away from welcoming our little baby girl, I'm certainly feeling the heat to start preparing to bring her home, a task complicated by the fact that we are going to be moving the month before our due date to a yet undetermined apartment on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Yikes!

Not only do I need to prepare myself for taking care of her (something I've accepted I will never be completely prepared for), but I'm hoping to make a few things for the nursery that, at this time, is merely a figment on my imagination. And in my mind it is purple and turquoise, and it sure is cute!

Headbands are all the rage these days for little Princesses, and I'm definitely on board to have a few for our little girl. However, I am more of a Bow Head, so I'm hoping she has enough hair for me to put all of the cute bows I've imagined into her hair! And, of course, every collection of headwear needs to have a place for organization and display. So, on a recent snow day home from work, I took on a new project inspired by one of the way-too-many pins on my Pinterest board "Baby Girl Stuff!" to make an organizer for all of the ribbons and bows that, I imagine, I will hopefully someday have a chance to make for her.

I love the idea of using a picture frame for a hair bow organizer! This one comes from Michael's - it is a craft frame, not a picture frame, and I found it in one of the aisles with the wood supplies.
















I painted the frame turquoise first. I thought about putting a purple border around the edge, but I ended up deciding against it for the time being. Once the paint was dry, I used hard gloss modge podge to glaze the frame for a finished touch.














I then hot glued strands of purple satin ribbon to the back of the frame, which will be the place to hang the hair bows.















Next, I painted the wood pegs that I bought, which will be the place to hang a few headbands. I painted them purple and turquoise. I then cut out a circle of a piece of purple and turquoise gingham pattern scrapbook paper and glued it to the top of one side of each peg. Here are the finished pegs:













I used the same scrapbook paper and traced around the three letters I bought for her initials. After cutting out the paper, I used modge podge to apply the paper to the letters and then glazed over top of the paper as well. Here are the finished letters:











Finally, I hot glued the begs and letters to the front of the frame, and then used the same satin ribbon to create a hanger for the frame. And here it is! I'm still going back-and-forth about adding a purple border around the outside, but I really love this hair bow and headband organizer, and I cannot wait to make a few pieces for our baby girl to hang on it!

KT Made It: Baby Bonnet

Happy February!

As promised in my last post, today's post is about the baby bonnet I made to go along with the romper that I shared previously. Again, this is pattern #1600 from Simplicity, which you can get online or at any Jo-Ann fabrics.

Here are my pattern pieces. The pattern uses two of each piece, and I used the floral fabric I bought for a second romper as the lining.












































In addition, the pattern calls for a piece of lightweight fusible interfacing for the bonnet rim, shown below.

After the pattern pieces were cut out, I started sewing my baby bonnet. The pattern instructions were easy to follow, and luckily there were not very many steps. Here you can see the fabric below, as well as the way in which the back of the bonnet and crown were sewn together.

Here is the finished bonnet:

After finishing the bonnet, I decided it was a little plain, so I made some fabric yo-yos to add to the side. 

First, I made two circles of the lining fabric using a glass one large than the other. 

Next, I sewed a running stitch around the edge of the circle. One end of the thread should be knotted so that the thread does not come out.  Make sure you make the running stitch far enough from the edge so that if the fabric frays the stitches will not come out. 

After you've completed the running stitch, draw the free end of the thread and the knotted end together. Tie the thread in several knots. 

I added a few pearl beads to the center of the yo-yos before attaching them to the left side of the bonnet. 

And here is the finished product!