Instagram Tutu Tutorial!

Aud's having a Strawberry Shortcake themed 3rd birthday party this year. So I had to make her an appropriately matching tutu for the occasion, didn't I? I wanted to see how long it took me so I decided to take pics at the beginning and the end to give myself a time stamp of sorts and have pics for my Project Life Album.

Then I figured why not go all out and share my tutu making process with you all. It's super easy and fairly quick! Here we go!

First up, you'll need to gather your supplies. A couple spools of tulle, scissors, elastic, needle and thread. Measure around the waist of your little one with the elastic, trim, and hold it together with a safety pin.

Now you'll want to stitch the ends together, making sure to overlap the ends and to stitch it securely. Little ones can be rough and you don't want your waistband to come undone!

Next up, we're going to figure out how long your tulle strips need to be. Just grab your munchkin, measure the length you want your tutu to be, and double it. Remember that some of the length will be used in the knot and it will poof out making a bit shorter so you may want to add an extra inch or two. I wanted hers to be a bit longer this time so I went with 32" strips. Cut your strips to that length.

Fold your first strip of tulle in half and thread the folded end under your elastic. I pulled the elastic over my knee to make my tutu making process a bit more stable.

Now, thread the other end through the loop and tighten.

Continue with the rest of your strips until your tutu is as full as you'd like it to be. I made a pattern with my Strawberry Shortcake colors of pink-red-pink-green because I didn't want the red or the green to over power the final skirt.

And here's my final product! Aud loves it and has been begging to wear it since I finished it.

And the time to make this? Just over 45 minutes and that includes taking photos, a bathroom break and a few kiddo interruptions. All in all, super quick!

I'm Teaching a Class at CKC-Vegas!!!

Yep! And, I'm so excited about it, it's ridiculous! I'm teaching for Punky Sprouts and here's the cute Create banner that I designed for the class.

It uses the new Indio Bleu line from Pink Paislee and a whole bunch of new products from Punky Sprouts including shaped Punky Playground, Lil' Petals and Lil' Stems and Lil' Twiney in Denim and my favorite current Punky product, Lil' Lacy Blooms!

So, if you're going to CKC-Vegas keep an eye out for me!!!!

Squeeeee!!!

A Punky Sprouts Challenge!

There's a new challenge up on the Punky Sprouts blog!

It's a sketch challenge and you know I always love those. :)

Go check it out here!

Punky Sprouts & The Robin's Nest!

This month the Punky Sprouts team is swapping with The Robin's Nest!

You can read more about my card and the goodies I used on the Punky Sprouts blog here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lily Bee Sketch Challenge

I loved the sketch from Lily Bee's 6th Sketch Challenge and just had to join in!

I used some Instagram photos of Aud and I and this sketch was just perfect for that. I followed the sketch almost exactly because I liked it so darn much! LOL!

AWDML Sketch Contest

A Walk Down Memory Lane, the awesome online store I used to DT for, is celebrating it's 9th birthday this month and they've got a ton of contests going on. I created this layout for their sketch contest.

I used the new Keepsake line from My Little Shoebox along with a My Favorite Things Die and some twine from The Twinery.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Nacho Night!!!

Andrew's been out of town the last few days so in order to keep the kiddos happy, we had Nacho Night last night! They wanted to help so I had them cut the olives up.
Did you know? Nacho Night has it's own theme song?

Yep!

Ahem.

Nacho Night, Nacho Night,

Nacho, Nacho, Nacho Night!

Yeah!!!!!

Our nachos are actually just plain taco salads eaten with our hands but therein lies the fun...we eat with our hands! Woot!!!

Nacho Night Conversation.

Mickey-I win.

Audrey-No, I win.

Me-Okay you guys, Nacho Night is not a race but if it were... I'd totally win! (Flashing my empty plate at them.)

Mickey & Audrey-Nooooooooo!

Me-Bwahahahaha!

Project Life-Week 9!

I know it's Thursday, but this week's layout came together really quickly as I only picked up my photos yesterday and finished it last night! I'm getting much faster. I don't dilly-dally quite so much with the journaling. My goal is to just get the info down and not worry that I don't sound as cool as Ali Edwards or as heartfelt as Stephanie Howell. I'm me and that's good enough for my family!
This week consisted of some pretty unique things. Along with our normal preschool and the kids playing school, we got to head back to our neighbor's house and the kids got to bottle feed their two bummer lambs! We have the best neighbors!

This week also included a ride on the Canby Ferry! Cody and I had gotten a gift card from our dad and so we took Audrey and Cody's boyfriend, Justin along with us. They hadn't ridden the ferry before so it was a real treat! Then we have Mickey helping Andrew do yard work, and help me scrap and help Daddy put up stuff in my scrap room. He was quite the helper! He also got to go to another birthday party this weekend. Andrew took him and they stayed for hours. Kinda wore Andrew out. Heh! Aud was styling a unique hat and I took Lilly for a walk where we watched one of the neighbor's practice landings and take off. Again, we have the coolest neighbors! On the last page is some of Aud's artwork, eating dessert first for Leap Day, walking to the neighbor's and playing with our goat afterwards and a Lego creation of Mickey's. There's also another picture of Mickey and Aud playing school and the story of how Audrey picked Strawberry Shortcake as the theme for her party next month.

I'm pretty proud of myself this week because not only did I get 'er done quickly, I also included a lot of ephemera! I'd kind of gotten out of the habit of keeping little things because I always intended to scrap them but never got around to it. Now, I am. Go, me!

Project Life-Week 8!

Week 8 is here! I've got two inserts this week!

First up, new flowers, the weather, a Lego creation, Play-doh games and preschool!

The first insert is one of my divided 12x6 protectors. I wish that I could find one that held the 3x4's only. This side holds preschool, grocery store Playland, games with Daddy, a munchkin sleepover, more preschool and a girl hanging out with her dog. The backside of this insert is less kid-centric. I started organizing my stamps, cleared off my dresser, got some fun scrappy mail (x2!), found a leak under the sink and scrapped with the kids.

The second insert holds the outcome of scrapping with the kids. Aud made this page and Mickey helped me today by making that little label for it since she can't write her name yet. (Aud picked the tape colors!)

The back holds Mickey's page. He wrote his name twice, wrote Mommy, drew a heart to show he loves his Mommy and drew a treasure map to the dinosaur which has an "x" on it because...it's the treasure! I love this page! Finally we have, Aud taking a nap, the kids bath getting interrupted by Lilly, some much needed outside time, Aud using the potty at Mickey's preschool (yay!!!), Mickey's work job and Aud taking her nap under Mickey's bed. Hee!

I love this project! And, I found a quick kid's photography class online (thank you, Pinterest!) so I decided to give Mickey our unused point and shoot and go over this class with him. I told him that some of his photos could be in the Project Life album and he got sooooo excited! I'm so glad the kids like this as much as I do!

ps~Andrew likes it too! I "make" him look at it each week and he takes the time to not only look at each photo but also read everything I write. I love that man of mine!