"Create a Critter" Play Time Layout

Today's project is a scrapbook layout I made for Landon's excersauser days.  I used my Cricut to make both the text and the animals  -- the "Create a Critter" and "Tear Drop" font cartridges.  All the paper came from Scrapadoodle, my favorite store back in Peoria.

Landon's excersaucer was zoo themed, and he just loved playing with the zebra, monkey, lions, and giraffes.  I sure miss those days when he would spend endless hours just sitting and discovering the toys on his excersaucer! And boy was it easier back then when he couldn't run all over the place....

Well that is all for today folks!

A Seat and a Table in the Forbidden Room

Landon has pretty much been forbidden from entering my craft room since the moment he began to crawl.  His little mischievous hands are just to quick at getting into my stamps, paper, scissors, inks, markers, thread.... And now that he is napping less and less, I'm not finding time to get into my craft room.  But after reading about how my friend Kristy, over at the The No-No Room, has a little desk in her craft room for her toddler, I thought I might as well give this a try.

Landon has really been into coloring, painting, and stickers lately, so why not make him a little craft space of his own.  That way I get time to do my crafting, and Landon and I still get to spend quality time together.

So with that, we headed out to Walmart to get Landon his very own craft table.  And since we happened to stumble across a great back to school sale, we stocked up on all the things a little toddler could need for his craft space -- crayons, washable markers, water paints, notebooks, cars themed pencils, erasers, a pencil box, construction paper, and a pencil sharpener.  Landon was like a little kid in a candy store and everytime we passed another customer in the store Landon would point to his supplies and say "Look at this!  These are for me!"  (I hope he keeps this excitement up when its time to actually go school supply shopping.)

The shopping trip was so exhilarating for Landon that he fell asleep on his way home.  So while he napped, I put the "some assembly required" table and bench set together and situated it right next to my craft desk.  And then I filled his desk with all his school supplies (and stashed the duplicates and messy stuff for a later date).

So immediately after waking up, Landon asked right away where his "colors" where, so I brought him into the craft room and he immediately sat down at his craft table and spent 3 hours coloring, drawing, and scribbling.  He was enjoying it so much that he wanted to Skype Gramma & Grampa just to show them his craft table.

So far this table has been a good investment and it looks like Landon and I are going to get to do a lot of really fun crafting together in the future.  I still need to personalize his space a little -- make him a pencil holder, put up a bulletin board for his art work, and maybe even make a magnetic board so he can practice with his letters.

Thanks Kristy for the idea!  Here's a few more pictures of Landon enjoying his new craft table.  And until next time, have a Sew Scrappy Day!

Look Who Turned 2 -- Landon's Mickey Mouse Birthday Party

I haven't had much time for crafting lately since I'm in the middle of a major painting project (pictures to come later) so I decided to share the Mickey Mouse themed birthday party that I put on for Landon back in February.

At the time of the party, Landon's favorite TV show was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, (actually that was pretty much the only thing Landon would watch) and since there were endless craft possibilities, I decided Mickey Mouse would be the theme -- and I challenged myself to do it without buying Mickey Mouse party supplies.  I spent a lot of time on Pinterest and google searches getting ideas, and even more time with my Cricut, to put on this party -- but I really just had a ball putting the party together.  Here is what I ended up coming up with:

Invitations:  I made the invitations using the Disney Mickey & Friends and the Disney Mickey Font Cricut cartridges and printed out out the inside of the card on my computer.

Front of invitation

Inside of invitation

The Cake:  I had just gotten my Cricut Cake and was so excited to use it.  I used cookie cutters ofr the stars and Mickey heads, the cricut to cut out the words.  This was my first time using fondant,  but I was happy with my first attempt.  Erica (my sister-in-law) was a very dedicated assistant for this project.  I think our hands were stained blue for weeks from the food coloring used to die the fondant :)   One tip I learned for next time -- freezing the cakes before adding the frosting helps keep the edges more square instead of rounded mounds like this ended up.

Happy Birthday Banner:  Again, I used the cricut to make the Happy Birthday banner.  I used a 12"x24" cutting mat for the Pluto and Mickey characters.  I also had the other disney characters scattered about the area.

Party Drinks:  I wanted to make festive, cheap, and spill proof glasses for the kids to drink from.  I came across the idea in a craft magazine to decorate mason jars.  So I pulled out my left over jam jars, poked a hole in the lid, and added some Mickey themed paper.  To make sure the kids wouldn't get mixed up, I wrote there names in white marker on a Mickey cut outs, and then added some fun plastic straws.  To finish it off I painted a wooden tray that some of Landon's toys came in, and then slapped a "Clarabell Cow's Moo Milk" label on the tray.  These went over real well with all the kids.  

Party Shirt:  I saw all these cute shirts on Etsy shops and Pinterest that were just basic white T-Shirts with a Mickey head appliquéd on.  I've never done this before, but I decided to give it a try and went easier then I thought it would.   And as a bonus -- Landon was super excited to get dressed the morning of his party.  He just couldn't wait to wear his Mickey shirt.   The shirt got dirty pretty fast, but I guess getting dirty is just party of a 2 year old.

Goodie Bags & Mickey Head Decoration:  I saw several versions of tissue paper Mickey heads on Pinterest, and thought this would make a great decoration for the goodie bag table. I started with 1 large styrofoam ball and 2 smaller balls, then used wire to attach tissue paper flowers, and attached a wooden dowel for the stem.  For the base I lined a 1 quart mason jar with red tissue paper and then filled with marbles to keep the wooden dowel in place.  I added 2 white buttons to the jar to simulate the red iconic shorts that Mickey always wears.

For the party favor bags, I purchase som red bags from Hobby Lobby and then added Mickey Mouse cut outs with each child's name.  Inside I had Mickey stickers, a hand made Mickey necklace, Oreo Mickey pops, and hand made baby food jar snow globe.  (I really wish I would have remembered to take pictures of the snow globes because they really turned out cool)

Mickey Orea Pops:  For a festive extra treat, I made these Orio Pops using regular Oreos, mini Oreos, melted chocolate, and a sucker stick, I made this Mickey Mouse Oreo Pops.

Mickey Mouse Food Table:  To keep with the Mickey theme, I used gave all the food Mickey Mouse names.  The menu included Mouseker jello, Mickey Mouse-mellow fruit salad, Goofy's gold fish, Pluto's pretzels, Minnie's mushroms, Daisy's delicious dip, Donald's chips & salsa, Pete's potato salad, Oh Toodle's Oreo pops, Clarabelle Cows moo-milk, Hot-Dog-Hot-Dog-Hot-Diggity-Dogs (a.k.a. pigs in a blanket), and Chip & Dale's Veggie Tray.

And a Few Random Pics From the Party:

We got a quick family shot before the party began.

Landon tried feeding his Jello to Mickey

Enjoying his chocolate milk from his special glass. 

We almost lost the cake before the party started :(

The nice blanket Gramma made with a kit from Hobby Lobby.

Opening presents!

Well I hoped you enjoyed our Mickey Mouse themed birthday party!  Thats all for now, and until next time have a Sew Scrappy Day!

Welcome to Sew Scrappy Day: A Quilted Handbag

Hello everybody!  Welcome to Sew Scrappy Day -- a blog dedicated to my two passions -- crafting and raising my son.  I recently moved from the Midwest to the New Braunfels, Texas (Near San Antonio).  So I thought this blog would be a great way to keep my friends and family back home updated on what I am up to, as well as an opportunity for me to share and document some of my craft projects.  I do not consider myself an expert, but I am willing to give anything a try.  So I hope you enjoy my posts!

To get this blog started I decided to post this quilted handbag that I just finished.

I had been wanting to make a quilted hand bag for a while so that I could carry my magazines and books on road trips and outings to the beach.  When I saw this fabric at Hobby Lobby by Brother Sister Design Studio, I just couldn't resist.  I actually used a pattern (Simplicity 2551) and it went together quite quickly.  The hardest and most time consuming task was pre-quilting the fabric.  Once that was done, it was just cutting, pinning, and sewing.

I matched the trim on the outer pockets to the lining on the inside of the bag, which is shown below.  I really like that this back features outer pockets on both sides of the bag, as well as four pockets on the interior lining -- leaving plenty of place to store cell phones, pens, my e-reader, camera, etc.

So now that I've made one hand bag, I think it's time to start making a bunch more.

I hope you enjoyed my first post.  Until next time have a Sew Scrappy Day!