Top 10 Posts of 2012

Happy New Year!!

Are you ready for 2013?  So far it's been great. Got up early did some yoga and started laundry nice and early.

What are your new year's resolutions?  I will be sharing mine in the next couple days.

Want to get organized?  

Want to tighten your booty and fit in those skinny jeans?  (Join our next challenge today!)  

Today, I want to thank you for you!!  YOU mean so much to me!  Thanks for connecting with me!  Thanks for reading, commenting, pining, liking, emailing, etc.  Thank you for your business and for joining my team. Thanks for joining me on facebook!

Today, I want to share some of my top posts of 2012. 

T-Shirt Quilt

DIY Patio Cover

Uno Shirt

Updated Patio Cover 

Baby Food Galore

5 Minute Christmas Tree Skirt

Brown Ombre Dresser

Boo Wreath

Little Man Tie

Onesie Bouquet

Here's to a prosperous 2013!!

A bit over due...

At the beginning of the month, our family participated in a 5K walk to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He and another coworker were in charge of organizing a team from his office. His coworker felt they needed a shirt for everyone to wear so they went to work creating a design. I told my husband to bring me a copy as soon as they finished so I could make one for Andrew. It took them a while but I finally got a copy a couple days before the walk. I was going to make a shirt from the 90 minute shirt tutorial over at MADE, but I didn't have the time. Luckily I went to Goodwill and there was the perfect size and perfect shade of gray shirt.

I used the same freezer paper method I've used in the past.

The back was a bit of a challenge because the cut outs were so small. I decided to not write out the whole thing and instead free-handed an abbreviated version. I was happy I finished it, but it wasn't the best quality on the back. We had a fun time and Andrew was really good the whole time. I just can't believe I forgot my camera so these are the only photos I've got of the shirt.

My version of the UNO shirt

When I first started getting into and reading blogs, one of the first things I bookmarked was Dana's UNO shirt that she made for her son's first birthday. I knew I wanted something like this for my cub when the time came. Well Wednesday was the day and I still hadn't started it so I got rushed but he got to wear it for a bit on his birthday. My version is a little different. I did mine in red and black to look like this picture I found...

I did the same basic freezer paper stenciling technique, but I had to do it in a couple layers (sorry no pictures, I was scrambling to get it done and dry in time). I started by stenciling the black then red and lastly the letters. When the letters were on I didn't like them and almost scrapped the whole thing. I gave it one last shot and hand painted around the letters to give it an outline and I liked it so much better.

Ignore the frosting smudges on this one...I forgot, of course, to get a close up before he had cake, but at least it wasn't chocolate.

Yeah, I was apparently a 'mean mommy' for not making him a chocolate cake to make a huge mess in our apartment with light carpeting. :-P I made him an apple/banana cake instead and he seemed to like it just fine. I found the recipe here and the frosting recipe here, if anyone else dares to be a 'mean mommy'.... ;-D

More Stenciling

Well I don't know where the time has gone this last week or so. I really thought I could get more done, but for some reason I just could not find the motivation. Good news though, my husband installed locks on our kitchen cabinets so at least I don't have to worry about the little man squishing his fingers. (They're the magnetic kind so the door won't open at all without the 'key' - just what we needed!)

Anyway, I made another cute saying shirt for my son with the same freezer paper technique I showed earlier. I skipped the 'carbon copy' step and just went straight to tracing my idea on the freezer paper, it works well either way. I think it turned out pretty awesome!

Hopefully, this week will be more productive. I'm working on a couple onesies for some family members, but I just can't decide on what fabric to use so we'll see how that goes.

Adventures in Freezer Paper Stenciling #1

A while back I saw this tutorial on using freezer paper to create your own stencils. This week I finally put it to use. When we were in Oregon, I saw this idea for a onesie in a gift shop. It had nothing to do with Oregon or the beach so it was kind of out of place, but I just thought it was hilarious!

So I started by making a word document to recreate it. Luckily I was able to find the same font. I made the document and formatted it the way I wanted it. Normally this is where you'd just print it off, however, my print is not in working order, so I just traced it off the computer screen (if you do this, don't push too hard!). Then I went over it again to make the lines darker.

Then I made a quick carbon copy by turning over the outline and scraping a pencil back and forth.

Then I went back and retraced the outline with the freezer paper underneath.

Then I used an exacto knife to cut out the stencil, ironed it on the onesie and mixed my paint. I didn't have the exact color I wanted, but I did have blue and yellow and brown. 

Then came the painting, be sure to put some cardboard inside whatever you're painting to prevent any kind of bleeding.

And finally after a couple of coats and many hours of drying, I began to peel off the paper.

I love how it turned out!

Now that I got the ball rolling and I've tried this project, I've got a ton more ideas that I just need to make myself follow through with. Share your ideas and freezer paper projects with me! I'd love to see what everyone else comes up with!