Author: Raptor Mama

We had a “snow day” today so Raptor and I worked on some crafty projects.  🙂  First up was a Project Life spread.

Only 47 more spreads to go.  lol.

 

Before Raptor was born, I added patterned rick rack to a bunch of gerber prefolds to use as burp rags.  It was super cute and it only took a few minutes.  Why not just use these same ones for the twins?  Well, because they are a little worse for wear.  lol.  We use them all the time to dry dishes, clean up spills, and more.  Have I mentioned that we don’t use paper towels?

My initial plan was just to make some new ones with the same patterned rick rack.  A few problems soon became apparent.  First, despite buying premium prefolds again, they were super rough and scratchy this time.  I guess I got organic ones last time?  Or maybe a different brand?  Second, I kind of wanted a way to distinguish between baby burp rags and kitchen burp rags.  Third?  I can’t find the damn rick rack.  lol.  Time for plan B.  lol.

I was playing around on Pinterest, and I found this tutorial.  Perfection.  And goodness knows I have plenty of flannel laying around.  It was super easy.  I was able to do all 9 in 1 day.  First I cut out the flannel using the rotary cutter.  I just measured the center of the burp rag and added about an inch.  Sorry, no pics of that step.  I was working with limited time first thing in the morning.

 

Then I *gasp* ironed the seams.  I know, I know.  I was scared of the iron too, but it was really no big deal and it did make the rest of the project easier.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to go crazy and start ironing clothes or anything.  lol.

 

Here you can see that I just went around and ironed about a half inch on each side.  Then I just pinned the flannel to the center of the diapers.  I ended up getting the Gerber prefolds since that’s what they had at Target and they’re, well, far from perfectly stitched.  lol.  Good news is that it took the pressure off of me a bit with the stitching since no amount of pinning was going to make them perfect rectangles.  lol.

 

Then I just went around the edges with the zig zag stitch.  Easy peezy.  🙂

You can see that the stitching isn’t perfect, but I’m currently embracing imperfections.  After all, a baby is just going to throw up on it.  lol.  Overall, I’m super happy with how these turned out.  The flannel is nice and soft which is awesome considering how rough the diapers themselves were.  Plus, I can easily tell these apart from our kitchen rags.  Bonus?  Super cute.  I think I might add these to my baby shower gift idea list.  🙂

 

 

I made a page that I like!  lol.  You may have noticed that I make a lot of pages where I cut an inch off of 2 sides of patterned paper and then back it with cardstock to have a bit of a frame for the background.  As you can imagine, this leaves me with a ton of 1 inch strips of paper.  Today I decided to use some of them.  🙂

As you can see, I just took a bunch of the strips from my Jillibean Soup drawer (I love their B sides!) and layered them to mat the photos.  Then I added a few strips of washi tape and a couple of stickers.

If I do a page like this again, I think I’d add even more embellishments to the strips of paper, but all in all I’m happy with how this turned out.

In other news, I just placed a huge order with scrapbook.com and I cannot wait for it to get here!  After making over 80 pages in the last 2 months without buying anything aside from cardstock, it’s time for some new product!  I will say, I’ve enjoyed falling in love with some of my old papers again, but there’s nothing like a big box of goodies to inspire me.  🙂

Speaking of inspiration, how did I do on February’s goals?  Well, not as good as I did on January’s, but I did get quite a bit accomplished.

1. Baby Girl’s Blanket- Well, I got a teeny bit done, but I really need to put in some time on this one.
2. Finish Felt Letters- I have got to work on these.  For serious.
3. 2014 Project Life- I got 2 out of the 5 layouts done.  That’s something, right?  lol.
4. 2015 Project Life- I got 2 of the 4 done.  I want to catch up on this next month.
5. Add trim to burp rags.  Done!  I’ll be blogging this soon.  They’re super cute.
6. Fraycheck wipes.  Ugh.  I need to buy the fraycheck so I can finish these already.
7. Scrap September 2013.  Done!  I got 9 layouts done and it feels great.
8. Scrap October 2013.  Also done!  11 layouts for this month.  🙂
9. Scrap November 2013.  So close.  Only 2 more to go.
10. Scrap December 2013.  I think I was a bit ambitious with the scrappy goals.  lol.  2 left to go in this month as well.  You guys!  That means I only have 4 more layouts left in 2013!  Sweet!
11. Blog!  I was able to get a blog post up 3 times a week this month which was my goal!

I set some ridiculous lofty goals for February, so even though I didn’t meet all of them I’m feeling pretty great about the progress that I did make.

Now March…  Since the babies are going to be here early to mid April, the pressure is on!  Also, RaptorDad is taking Raptor on a wee road trip for Spring Break so I’m going to have a few days of dedicated crafty time.  Yay!  So goals for March.

1. Shopping List for Frozen Meals
2. Assemble/ Freeze Casseroles (0/3). I want to make several batches of lasagna, mac n cheese, and something else and freeze them so we don’t starve when the twins arrive.
3. Scrap November 2013.  Only 2 to go!
4. Scrap December 2013.  I’m actually hoping to knock out most of these before my big box of scrappy goodness arrives.  I know I’m only going to want to play with new things then and I didn’t order any Christmas stuff.  lol.
5. Scrap February 2014.  Believe it or not, January 2014 is already done.  As is March.  🙂  I may end up skipping February for now and working on April since I didn’t order any Valentine’s Day stuff, but I did order some summery stuff.
6. Finish Baby Girl’s Blanket.  Down to the wire here folks.  Yikes.
7. Finish Felt Letters.  It’s pathetic that these still aren’t done.
8. Make Carseat Covers.  I’m excited about these!  I found a tutorial on line and I can’t wait to go pick out fabric for them.  🙂
9. 2014 Project Life (0/6)
10. 2015 Project Life (0/6)
11. Paint Nursery.  Soon!
12. Assemble all of the Baby Stuff!
13. Summer Activities for Raptor.  I want to come up with some throw down activities/ crafts for her for this summer.
14. Blog! (0/27). This seems ridiculous, but it will give me a buffer through April.  I’d really like to be able to have some content post while we’re busy with babies.  🙂  I’m think I’m going to photograph some of my older layouts and put them up on the blog.  I spotted a few blog worthy ones while I was assembling the 2013 (part 2) album.

 

 

Raptor and I finished a project for the babies today!  We made them little taggie blankets.  Raptor loves hers as a baby so I decided it was time to make some for the twins.  She was a big help finding lots of ribbon to use which partially explains why poor baby boy has so much pink on his.  lol.  May as well get him used to it early.  🙂

I did a tutorial of sorts here so I didn’t want to try to make another.  The big change this time is that didn’t stitch the ribbon on first, I just stitched it all together at the same time.  I also top stitched it, but if I had a do over I would have skipped that as it didn’t make much of a difference.  Mainly I did it so I could tell Raptor’s blanket apart from Baby Sister’s.

Basically, cut out 16 lengths of ribbon and pin them to the right side of a 9×9 square of minky.  Then pin a 9×9 square of satin on top, wrong sides together.  These fabrics kind of suck for sewing, but babies tend to like them, so don’t be alarmed when your minky gets all out of shape and you end up with more of a 7×7 blanket.  lol.  Or maybe you actually know how to sew and this doesn’t happen to you.  I imagine it involves the mysterious walking foot.

At any rate, here are the finished products.  Luckily babies aren’t all that critical.  😉

 

Another week done!

Slowly but surely I’m plugging away.

Photo credit for the cute Valentine’s Day pic goes to Kelly at Happy Soul Photography.  🙂

 

 

Still behind (of course) but still plugging along.  🙂  Here’s Week 5.

 

Pretty simple again.  I added a few thickers and some washi tape, but that’s it.

All of these pics are iPhone pics aside from the top right.  I find that I’m using my iPhone more and more and leaving my DSLR at home.  I wonder what that will look like when it’s time to scrap these months traditionally…  Still have a ways to go on catch up before that’s an issue.  lol.

I’m working my way through October.  🙂  Here’s a page I made with some older Jillibean Soup and October Afternoon papers.  I’m actually pleased with how it turned out!

I even managed to do some embellishment clusters.  🙂  I used some washi tape, a banner sticker from Doodlebug, a flair badge from Lawn Fawn, some old school Prima flowers, and a bit of stickles.  2  more layouts and I’m done with October.  🙂

 

 

I’m plugging away on October 2013 so I dragged out all of my old Halloween stuff.  For this page, I used the October Afternoon Witch Hazel collection.  Side note: I freaking love October Afternoon, but I wish they would release some new stuff!

I added a bit of Target washi tape and some sequins from Doodlebug, but everything else is from the Witch Hazel line.  I still love it.  I’m kind of wishing I had bought more of it which is saying something because I bought a ton.  lol.

In other news, we’re painting the nursery this weekend!  Exciting.  I can’t wait to get it all organized.

Here’s week 4 for your viewing pleasure.  🙂

This week I went back to the Honey Edition cards.  Still love them.  🙂

I’m just going to keep plugging along on this project.  🙂  Next up, Week 5 for both 2014 and 2015.  Yes I realize that I’m behind.  That’s just how I roll.

 

 

I suggested several super cute, crafty valentine’s from Pinterest, but Raptor wasn’t having it.  RaptorDad suggested Star Wars and she was sold.  I found this image on Pinterest, and he added the text and then printed them out.  Raptor signed the back, I popped a little storm trooper in each bag, and stapled them to the top.  Easy Peasy.

Although a far cry from some of my previous valentines, the homemade playdoh ones and the heart crayon ones come to mind, Raptor is quite happy with them so I’m happy too.  I even let her make her own Valentine’s Day box y’all.  I seriously wanted to take over and make it a scrappy masterpiece, but I restrained myself.  I want her to get used to doing her own projects while she still enjoys them.  This mama will not be doing her 6th grader’s homework.  lol.

In other news, I narrowed down the 2013 October layout to do list from 21 layouts to 11.  Still, 11!  Maybe Raptor and I will get in some quality time this weekend in the scrap room.  All of the pics are edited and printed and ready to go.  I’m also thinking of making another order with Scrapbook.com.  I have my eye on the Simple Stories Good Day Sunshine collection.  I’m sure I’ll find loads of other stuff to throw in my cart too.  🙂