I don’t know about you, but the time from Halloween to Christmas seems to just fly by. I find myself thinking that I have plenty of time for DIY gifts and decor projects….only to blink and have December holidays upon us!
I wanted to make gifts for Harlow’s preschool teachers this year, but I knew that if I kept saying “Oh, I’ll do it when we are closer to Christmas break” would leave me running out to buy a gift card the last morning of school before break.
Can I get an amen?
So one chilly morning, Harlow and I got our crafting on and made these mugs for her teachers! We will be filling them with chocolates and gift cards and some artwork from Harlow as well! I’m seriously ecstatic about how they turned out!
For fun, I’ve been sharing some of my “sleepy secrets” over on instagram — today is the second one that I’m sharing! This is nothing earth shattering by any means, but just wanted to share some of my favorite — or Jonesy’s favorite — sleepy dust things.
Today? I bring you the Ollie Swaddle! The Ollie Swaddle is the swaddle I reach for at naps — I need to buy another because I hate the days I’m washing it! It’s simple and quick to use, and easy to get a nice and tight swaddle wrap that Jones can’t break out of!
Immediately I was drawn to the bright blue and simple stripes pattern — but then I read the story of how the Ollie swaddle came to be, and I was even more impressed and intrigued. After trying this swaddle, I am hooked. Grab a tissue if you watch the video (you should), it might just be my hormones, but goodness, I cried.
My story begins when I fell in love with an infant named Oliver. He was handsome, and yet on the verge of being labeled “failure to thrive.” Other foster parents struggled with keeping Oliver because he was difficult, struggling to eat and sleep. But I was in love, and so I began my journey to help Oliver thrive.
My experience in infant mental health had acquainted me with the timeless technique of swaddling. However, to both my and Oliver’s distress, the swaddles available on the market didn’t seem to help. They either didn’t hold him correctly, were not strong enough to apply a comforting pressure, or they left his legs unwrapped. So my mission to help Oliver took a new turn as I searched for a swaddle which would meet all of Oliver’s needs.
The answer finally came when I created a new type of swaddle. One which would move with him through the night, keep a comforting pressure from his shoulders to his feet, and which would help keep him cool. When I started wrapping my little Ollie in the new swaddle, I began to see dramatic changes. He began to sleep through the night, eating and gaining weight. Most importantly, he began to catch up with developmental milestones which he had missed. Ollie began to thrive!
This change led to a happy ending for Ollie. In 2009 he was adopted by a loving family. Since then, I have been working with a great team to develop a quality swaddle which could be shared with families everywhere. This is the swaddle which I am happy to share with you today, The Ollie, named after my little love.
Today I am giving away 2 Ollie Swaddles! One swaddle will be awarded to a winner over here via the rafflecopter below — and one winner will be selected at random from the instagram giveaway! I’ll be posting it tomorrow, so be sure to keep checking over there!
Want to know what that little pink sticky note on my door says? “Please do not ring the doorbell! Babies sleeping.” I definitely should make something that looks a bit nicer, since I’m not planning on taking it down anytime soon. :) Anywhooooo! That has nothing to do with today’s post. :) I just debated taking it down for the photos…but that wouldn’t be real life.
No, today is all about my new entry art that I made with my ScanNCut machine! My little sis called it the “anti mirror” — first thing you see when you walk in our front door is a reminder of how beautiful you are! Funny thing is, I was considering putting a mirror somewhere in this entryway as well….but now I feel like I should hide it behind the door or something! :/ Ha. I still have a lot to do in this little nook!
Back to the art. I am going down all sorts of rabbit trails today. We will blame that on the sleep deprivation — partly the newborn, but mostly this dumb throat and sinus and coughing cruddy thing I’ve got going on. Blah.
I saw an entry way sign like this similar on Pinterest — and then I searched on etsy and found bajillion of them, so I’m jumping on board. Problem was, I had no idea how I’d print something big — and I wanted this sign to be huge! I hopped on Illustrator and began picking fonts for my little experiment. I played around with the text a bit — adding gorgeous, pretty and landing on beautiful for the final design. And early on in the design process, I realized that I could “print” this art using vinyl and my ScanNCut. Huzzah!
I wanted to share not only how I did this project — but provide you with the downloads as well! (.SVG and .FCM files are at the end of the post!) The great part is that this print is actually 2 feet wide by 3 feet tall, so I was able to use my 12″x24″ mat to cut out the text. Here’s what I did!
1| Download the design — or make up your own! Convert your file to an .FCM file if needed using ScanNCut Canvas. You’ll see that I rotated the text 90º so it fit on the length of the mat.
2| Lay out the vinyl on your mat – vinyl side up.
3| Run a test of your blade settings — I landed on
Speed 1
Pressure 0
Depth just shy of 1
4| After you’ve run the test, go ahead and cut out all the vinyl text!
6| Trim around the text and weed away the negative space vinyl, leaving your text remaining on the paper backing.
7| I picked up a poster frame at my local craft store. Instead of searching for something large enough to create a white background, I just spray painted the particle board white. :)
8| Place the contact paper on your text — I love using the lined contact paper to help me keep things straight as I place them.
9| Place on your backdrop and peel contact paper away. Continue these steps for all the text!
VOILA! Pop it back in the frame and hang it up! This entryway nook is becoming my favorite spot in the house. :) Too bad those chairs aren’t comfortable enough for a nap, or I would totally nap there!
In other news, Wyler needs a haircut so. so. so bad.
And now for a surprise giveaway! I posted a photo of this new scarf — because I love it so much I joked that they made it just for me ;) — and people fell in love with it too!
Well, most items from are not available at other boutiques and stores, but this scarf just so happens to be available at a local boutique here in Pittsburgh! Rosewood Boutique is the cutest boutique with trendy and classic pieces — and affordable prices! She also has an online boutique and will ship to you as well! Kathryn reached out to me and told me, “WE HAVE THE SCARF!”
One of the things I was looking forward to as a mom was crafting with my kids — my mom spent so much time teaching us how to sew and make things. I am absolutely loving this age with Harlow (well, I can list off a few things about the three-titude that I’m nota fan of as well…), and one of my favorite things we’ve started doing is our post-nap craft time.
I love prepping our projects while she’s upstairs reading or sleeping — Jones is usually a rockstar during his afternoon nap as well. I typically get stuff ready…and then sometimes conk out for a nap myself if it’s been a particularly “awesome” night of partying with the infant. ;)
This pumpkin decorating craft can really be modified for almost any season — and it’s super, sooooper simple. I just love that I was able to make custom stickers from whatever color I wanted (using adhesive vinyl) because of my ScanNCut. I’ve included both the .FCM files for download at the end of this post!
A few reasons why I love this simple project:
So easy to modify and switch up for other holidays
Harlow is so great at chatting about her day and friends when we do a simple craft like this — I love hearing about her days and dreams and thoughts and made up friends. I’m usually cry-laughing by the end of it.
It was great for her fine motor skills. Vinyl is super thin, and I thought I would need to remove the stickers for her, but she insisted on “I do it!” and do it herself, she did!
Because she was able to do so much of it on her own, I was able to attend to Jones as he needed me and wrap up final dinner prep too.
I just like lists that end in an odd number…moving on.
You can either use real pumpkins — keep them orange or spray paint them. I found these paper mache -type pumpkins on clearance, and then I just spray painted them white.
Using your ScanNCut machine, cut out the stickers out of your adhesive vinyl color of choice. (Downloads available at the end of this post.)
Start sticking! I always have to remind myself to just let Harlow do her three-year-old-thing. I so often wanted to step in and suggest placement to make the pumpkins more aesthetically pleasing, but that’s not what crafting with Harlow is about. :)
Silly faces are a must, too!
Harlow insists that Jones be near her at all times — I had him at the end of the table…but that wasn’t close enough for her. She is seriously the best big sister.
Jones is hanging out in his Stokke Steps Bouncer. It’s our favorite thing ever because he is at our height, so it’s great for cooking, crafting, sewing and eating times, to name a few!)
I use these little bottles and their labels daily, and I’ve been meaning to share the details on where I purchased my supplies — and also give y’all the file for the labels!
BOTTLES
When I moved to a new apartment in 2008, I had this crazy desire to make all the bottles for my toiletries match. If you want to know the whole story, I was at Williams Sonoma, saw their refill containers for things like dish and hand soap….and I wanted needed to find bottles similar to have at home!! I began googling for wholesale bottles, and stumbled upon SKS Bottles. Since 2008, I’ve purchased glass bottles to put things like bath salts for gifts, plastic and tin containers for storage, spray bottles, etc. They’ve up’d the minimums you have to buy per item, but if you even grab another person to go in on it with you, it would work great!
VINYL
A lot of vinyl is removable — made for wall decals, etc. — but I wanted a more permanent vinyl for these bottles. If you google “permanent vinyl,” you’ll probably find a lot of options, but I purchased the Oracel 651 in white for these labels. I purchased it from here.
LABELS
The labels! So I’ve included the 6 that I’ve made and used — but let me know in the comments what else you’d like to see, and I’ll add to this look. I used my ScanNCut to cut these labels from the vinyl — and yes, I’m addicted to labeling everything these days…more on that soon. :)
If you know anything about me…you know that I’ll probably be bored with these in about a year, and I’ll probably design new ones. :)
Thank you for all the kind words and notes on my Airplane Quilt post a few days ago! I am still so humbled and honored — and encouraged to create more!
I was so excited to test the new Iron-On Transfer Material available from Brother for your ScanNCut Machine! There are a variety of thicknesses and textures — from a thin film to a thick flock and glitter and hologram in between.
When thinking of ideas for a project to share with you all, I wanted to incorporate all of the textures and varieties available! I also wanted to show you just how easy it is to create layered and multi-color designs using these Iron-On Transfers!
There are two things I love most about the Iron-On Transfers: ease of cutting and the built in transfer sheet. You don’t need to buy additional products to create something with a professional and clean result!
1|| Begin by designing your tote bag. This step can be accomplished in ScanNCut Canvas or directly on your ScanNCut Machine. Or you can simply download the patterns I’ve created for you!
*the donut design was done completely on the ScanNCut Machine. I’ll show you that later on in this post!
2|| This step is optional, but I like to verify that my design is how I want it arranged and sized correctly. Using a piece of cardstock or printer paper and the Pen Holder and pen, draw the full design on the paper.
3|| Resize or correct your design as needed. I like to then cut out sections of my design from this paper template. You can cut out every piece, or cut out enough to mark placement on your bag.
I always make sure that I have a few of each color cut out — since each color will stay together on its own transfer paper, we just need to line up a few specific key points to ensure correct placement.
4|| Using an iron-away fabric pen (like my favorites!) trace from your pattern a few lines and marks to align your Iron-On Transfer material when it’s time to complete your tote!
5|| Set aside your tote bag as we cut out all the pieces from the Iron-On Transfer materials.
At the end of this post, you will see each section of the design available for download. If you want to change the way the colors are grouped, you can use the full design and save your own objects together to be cut from the same color of Iron-On Transfer.
Begin by testing your Iron-On Transfer materials. I have found the following settings to be pretty full-proof on my ScanNCut Machine:
Iron-On Transfer Film Sheets: Pressure 0, Speed 1, Blade 1-1.5
Iron-On Transfer Hologram Sheets: Pressure 0, Speed 1, Blade 1-1.5
Iron-On Transfer Glitter Sheets: Pressure 0, Speed 1, Blade 3-3.5
Iron-On Transfer Flock Sheets: Pressure 0, Speed 1, Blade 3.5-4
Using your ScanNCut Machine, cut out each section of the design in the color and material type of your choosing.
Don’t forget to double-check that you’ve mirrored your images prior to cutting!
6|| After all Iron-On Transfer materials have been cut, trim around all the pieces — you want to keep them attached to the plastic release so the arrangement and placement stays consistent!
Weed away all the negative space material, so you are left with your design pieces on the plastic release.
7|| Arrange all pattern pieces on your tote and iron on each color in the correct place. Your iron will probably remove some of your placement marks, so just use your template to make a few more marks as you go!
*Use a hard/flat surface to iron your Transfer Materials to your tote bag. An ironing board isn’t ideal if it has a lot of padding on it. I use my wooden sewing table — sometimes I lay a towel down on it to protect it from the heat.*
Voila!
Continue for additional designs or tote bags! Try changing out colors and material types as well! If you’re wondering what I used for the fish bag, the text is in the Flock material, the fish is made from the Glitter and Hologram, the bubbles are Glitter and the fish eye is Film.
The donut design — my favorite of the three…pregnancy cravings much!? — was designed completely on my ScanNCut Machine.
The donut is available in the built in patterns on your machine. I resized and cut the donut from Glitter and the frosting from Flock.
I created sprinkles using a basic oval-type shape also built into your machine. I resized super tiny and cut them out of Glitter.
I used the sans serif bold font in all caps for my text. I create 2 text objects — ALWAYS and YES. I wanted them to be the same width, not necessarily the same size font, so I resized until they were both the same width. I then removed the aspect ratio and shortened the height of “YES.” just a bit.
And that’s that! The options are truly endless — from onesies to shirts to placemats to blankets to whatever you can iron the Heat Applied Materials to! Just have fun!
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