Monday, June 29, 2009

Getting Crafty

Larry got me Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts for Mother's Day and since then I'd been itching to try one of those lovely crafts. She makes it seem so do-able, with beautiful pictures and step by step instructions. I had already picked out by first one- the one that seemed the simplest! It went pretty well, so I'm ready to try another... or maybe it's safer to just stare at Martha's lovely pictures!

Potato Stamps
My friend Diana is a talented seamstress and has made a couple of adorable things for my kids, so when it was time to "shower" her for the soon-arrival of her 2nd sweet girl, I wanted to make something special. Maybe Potato stamped onsies would be cute?
Starts out easy- potatoes, cookie cutter & knife...

Add fabric paint; carefully "stamp".

A few more dots of paint turn stamps into a fishy, monogram & bird!


I also got crafty for Father's Day. My little hippos helped me make shirts for daddy and Grandad- an idea I got from doing the potato stamps, but I thought hand prints would be cuter. You have to do hand print crafts now, while their hands are still so little and adorable! Too soon they'll be as big as mine!! I also got an idea for making some sweet bookmarks, which we gave to our special dads each with a fun-read book.

Photo Bookmark
This one is also easy- start with a length of wide ribbon, cute pictures, needle & thread.
Sew the pictures back to back, with the ribbon running between them. Make sure the edge of your stitch catches the edge of the ribbon to hold them all together.

Present wrapped around your loved ones' favorite bestseller!


How to make a "Custom T" for Father's Day
1) Have willing helpers with adorable hands.
2)Pick your paint color and shake it up!
3) Paint hand. {"I do it, mommy!"}

4) Carefully place hand print on shirt. (not as easy as it sounds...)
5)Wipe paint off crying baby boy's hands, face, head, etc. (So maybe not all of my helpers were "willing"!)
6) Present adorable "Custom T" to special dads, made with love!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dad loved his shirt and the picture book of the process was so cute! Poor Lincoln just didn't seem to be having much fun! You and GK are soooooo crafty! Grammie needs you to come down here and do lots of projects. All this home- ec making stuff is just another trait you get from your aunt karen pate! She always had the patience to do cute stuff like this too!!! Hugs and see you in 2 days- yeah!!!

The Phelps said...

I wish I was HALF as creative as you! I would definitely find a way to mess these projects up... you saw how lacking the plate I did at Painted By U was. :)

Anonymous said...

I loved the shirt almost as much as the info on how it was made-- edc. So looking forward to you all being here tomorrow-- lu granddad