Scrap: Gift Card Holder

I had some scrap fabric laying around and have had a gift card holder in the "someday pile" for years now. I want to give Julia's kindergarten teachers and her bus driver a small thank you before Thanksgiving break and thought this was the perfect opportunity to get ride of scrap and be creative at the same time.

My finished product

My inspiration

I think this might have been purchased at a Starbucks many years ago.

It held a gift card from one of my former students.

Step 1: Gather supplies

(2) pieces of coordinating fabric 6 1/4" x 2 3/4"

(2) pieces of coordinating fabric 2 1/2" x 2 3/4"

(2) buttons

Cotton thread

I used pinking shears around the edges of the fabric just like the inspiration piece.

Step 2: Sew your buttons to one large piece and 1 small piece of the same fabric.

Notice the placement of the buttons. You want them fairly close to the 2 3/4" wide edge of fabric. Your sewing machine foot will need to be able to get around the buttons so be careful to not put them too close to the edge. Leave a long tail after sewing on the button to the large piece. This will be your fastener. I I tied this thread around the button after sewing it on to secure the string.

The difference between sewing your buttons on first or after. If you sew them after you will see your thread. Not a big deal but it looks a little nice hidden.

Step 3: Sew your small pieces together, wrong sides together, along the 2 3/4" wide edge opposite of your button. I hope that makes sense.

Again, if you sew your button on before hand you threads will be hidden.

Step 4: Place wrong sides together of large fabric pieces. I used a pin to secure my long tail so I did not accidentally sew it to an edge.

Step 5: Pin small fabric to large fabric.

Step 6: Double check correct placement of small fabric piece on the large fabric piece by folding over the top of the large piece. Unfold before sewing small piece to large piece.

Step 7: Sew small piece to large piece fairly close around the edges.

You will sew the entire large rectangle.

Step 8: Insert gift card of your choice and then fasten in a "figure-8" fashion.

Cut off any excess string.

The inspiration piece had a loop attached for hanging in a Christmas tree. This can easily be added by using grosgrain ribbon. The fabric I chose for this project was in a fall palette. I can't wait to go through my scrap pile and look for cute combos for birthdays, showers, or other gifts. I might even try to add a little embroidery to the front like the inspiration piece.

Cowgirl Birthday!

My Daughter's 5th Birthday party.

First off, most of the ideas for this party were found on other blogs. I'll do my best to give you some links for some beautiful ideas and pictures.

The Kid's tables

1. S'mores on a stick and Rice Krispies on a stick were placed in $2 Target tins. I wrapped the tins with burlap and a little yarn. I used Styrofoam to hold the sticks and covered it up with roasted peanuts still in their shell.
2. The same burlap used on the tins was also used as place mats.
3. Instead of plates I used pie tins. If you wash the pie tins a few times in the dishwasher they start to get a nice patina.
4. I found some fabric in my stash to tear into napkins. I folded the napkin, stuck a fork in it, and wrapped it with red rafia. This was placed above a blue bandanna along with a Sheriff's badge from Oriental Trading Company.
5. Wrapped in red tissue paper and tied off with a tag that read "Saddle Up Partner" were bubbles for big kids and mini playdoh for the little kids.
6. The tablecloth is a drop cloth from Home Depot.

The red barn siding is from Oriental Trading Company. I wrapped it around my patio which helped to keep the eating area contained.

I did rent a few chairs. They were only $1 each so I couldn't resist. One side of the table sat on chairs and the other side of the table sat on hay.

The Food Table

1. In the center of all the food was the cupcake tower. I made a mini cake for my daughter to top off the tower.
2. I used pictures from her photo shoot on the table.
3. Kids Menu: Lil' Smokies, Mac N Cheese, strawberries, watermelon, and all the sweets they could muster.
4. Adult Menu: Basic Beef Dip and Italian Beef Dip, Potato Salad, watermelon, strawberries, chips, deviled eggs, and a green salad that I forgot to put out on the table. :)
5. Sweets: S'mores on a stick, Rice Krispies on a stick, we attempted Mini Caramel Apples on a stick, chocolate chip cookies, cowboy hats, and the cupcakes.
6. Cowboy hats (edible) are just below the cupcakes. They are Pringles dipped in chocolate with a rolo on top.

I'm not a baker and I saw the cutest fondant covered cake. I was inspired by this cupcake stand and I tried to do a mock version of this cake by covering boxes with fabric and covering it with cupcakes. I used my Cricut to create the toppers. What I love about this tower is that once the cupcakes are gone I still have cute fabric on the table instead of an empty hole. I saved my boxes for future parties. You also don't have to cut cake! I plan to use the fabric to make my daughter an apron.

The guests received cowboy hats on their way into the party. We also had mustaches for the boys or anyone that wished to wear one. Some of the dads had fun. At their seats they had a bandanna and a badge.

And the big surprise of the party....we rented 2 ponies!

Our birthday girl

You might be able to see the hay we set up (behind my daughter) for a photo booth type area as seen here.

While the pony rides were going on I had a few activities planned to keep the kids occupied while waiting in line. We played "Snake in my Boot", decorated cookies, I had coloring pages and crayons ready, and a "Pin the Badge on the Sheriff" game.

My daughter's cake. See, I'm not a baker/cake decorator by any means.

"Pin the Badge on the Sheriff" created with the "Paper Dolls" cartridge for the Cricut.

Apparently you could see through our blind fold! Haha!

I loved the cookie decorating and so did the kids. My friend baked sugar cookies in the shapes of boots and longhorns. The child picked out which shape they wanted, an adult iced it for them, and they got to pick out their decorating toppings. I had small containers to put their toppings in so they could decorate at their seats. This also meant that I didn't have to buy multiple sets of toppings. I would totally do this activity again.

That was a pretty big party for me to pull off. I couldn't have done it without some really great help from 4 wonderful ladies (and their hubbies!). Her next few birthdays will be a little more low key. Today she told me that she would like a Barbie party for her 6th birthday. I think we can do something simple for that.

Past Birthday Shirts

The first birthday shirt I made. I didn't have any thread that matched. I outlined the number using puff paint. The only bottle of puff paint I had was purple. It did not match the shirt. So I grabbed some glitter and covered that purple puff paint right up. Thank you Martha Stewart for your great selection of glitter. Add a little bow and you are done.

Year #4. I have a new sewing machine so I try the blanket stitch technique.

My son's birthday is next month. It will be fun to do a boy shirt.

Happy Birthday Shirt

Today my baby girl turns 5! I can hardly believe it. A friend of mine makes shirts for her girls for their birthday. I thought this was so cute and started the tradition on Julia's 3rd birthday.

I used Microsoft Word to print out my template. I also format the font so that it is just an outline. No need to have a big black number. I put a small bit of Wonder Under on my fabrics, traced the number on, cut it out, and then ironed it to the shirt. To make it stay for more than just a few washes I used a blanket stitch on the blue fabric and a straight stitch on the circle fabric. I added a little bow and there you have it!

Cowgirl Birthday Invitation

My daughter's 5th birthday is coming up. In my mind this is a big one! The one that sends her off to school. Next will be 8, then 12, then 16, then 18........but for now I'm just trying to make it through the 5th.

She loves horses and dinosaurs and dolls. We did a dinosaur cake last year. I thought we would concentrate on having horses in our party somehow since there will be boys at the party. We can throw some dolls in there for the 6th party. Maybe a retro Barbie party?

So I needed an invitation. Nothing cutesy. Something with a rustic feel. I scoured Google Images (love that!) for some ideas and stumbled across this invite from Roxter Designs'. She has an Etsy shop and sells some very cute invitations.

But I want to spend my money on the party and not the invitations so I opened up Photoshop and scoured my digital papers to see if I could make it work. I also took my daughter to a friends place for a little photo shoot. I'm a very amateur photographer. All of my shots are in auto mode. I took over 200 pictures and managed to get 47 that I liked.

Digital Paper: Dana Zarling's Average Joe No. 2 (no. 5, 8, & 9)

For the cardstock under the photo: I cut a blank card in half. Then I used CTMH stamp pad Barn Red and Desert Sand to dress it up a bit. My local craft stores were closed so I decided to just dig around my craft room to come up with something on the cheap.

My friend Samara suggested I use some of my straw (rafia) for the top of the invite. I didn't have any straw left but I did have some red mini rafia. I punched two holes, threw on some grommets, threaded rafia through and then unwound it. I also stuck a tiny bit of double sided tape under the ribbon to help it lay a little flatter.

I had to match the envelope and why not since I had the stamp pads out. You can see the shape of the stamp pad on the envelope. This is where those spray inks would have come in handy. But the lines don't bother me one bit. Rustic, right?

Hand stamped 'Cowgirl Up' on the back of the envelope.

Front of envelope needed a little something also. I had borrowed a friend "Paper Dolls" cartridge to cut out the cutest clothes for a baby shower the other day. I cut out cowboy hats and then added a silver brad for the Sheriff's star. Wish I had a star brad to put on the hat but I was going budget friendly with the invitations.

I also stamped each child's name above the hat.

This invitation cost me less than $2.00 to make because I used items that I already had on hand. I printed the photo that is on the invitation at Costco.

Happy Trails!

Birthday Shirt

I got this idea from my friend Missy who creates the cutest little birthday shirts for her daughters. I use Wonder Under to fuse the number to the fabric. I used my Cricut to cut out the number this year but in the past I have simply printed out a large number through Word to use as a stencil. Last year I did not have the right color thread to sew the number to the shirt. I simply used puff paint. It was also the wrong shade so I sprinkled some glitter over the puff paint that matched the fabric and hid the paint. This year I used a blanket stitch in a matching color.
If your child only wears it a few times you can probably get away with out the extra sewing or puff paint. I did notice that last years shirt did start to come apart after many washings.