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Baby Rabies

pregnancy & parenting

  • Start Here
    • About Baby Rabies
    • Baby Registry Top Picks
    • Favorite Pregnancy Apps
  • The Book
  • Pregnancy
    • Birth Stories
    • Perinatal Mood Disorders
  • Parenthood
    • Babies
    • Toddlers
    • School Age Kids
    • Parenting LOLZ
  • Photography
    • Photography

      6 Stunning Photos You Would Never Guess Were…

      February 11, 2019

      Photography

      Simple Tips For Editing Snow Photos On Your…

      December 13, 2018

      Photography

      I Wrote A Photography eBook And This Is…

      December 6, 2018

      Photography

      Creative Lighting Ideas To Help You Take Great…

      November 27, 2018

      Photography

      Learn How To Take And Edit Photos On…

      November 19, 2018

  • Reviews
    • Reviews

      The Answer To Last Minute Holiday Gifting For…

      December 19, 2018

      Reviews

      I Was Never A Barbie Girl Until Now

      October 1, 2018

      Reviews

      Finally! Jeans For My Jean-Averse Kids!

      August 22, 2018

      Reviews

      If Your Kid Loves Dump Trucks & Garbage…

      August 13, 2018

      Reviews

      Nobody Tell My Kids ABC Mouse Is Part…

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tutorial

Snowman Wreath Tutorial
Crafty!Home Decor & DIY

Snowman Wreath Tutorial

by Jill December 7, 2015
written by Jill

Someone asked me the other day how many seasonal wreaths I have. 12. I have 12. I’ve actually given away quite a few (and a couple have broken- sad face).

But, believe it or not, I really didn’t have any that worked well on our new front door for the holidays. Last year I purchased an evergreen wreath on sale at the last minute. I gave away Santa and Rudolph the year before! The felt pomp wreath goes over our fireplace.

Well, we all know what this means. I made a new wreath- a jumbo snowman wreath! I know he might not look “jumbo” here, but our door is huge.

IMG_6340

You know I love me an EASY DIY, and this one is certainly that, but I will say he’s not inexpensive, especially if going the jumbo route. Hopefully I’ll get a few year’s use out of him to make up for it. (Total cost was about $55-$60 for this jumbo size.)

Here’s whatcha need, which isn’t much:

IMG_6314

First, RUN to Target’s Dollar Spot and get you that top hat for $3. If you miss out, you can get a top hat on Amazon, though I think it’s a touch bigger.

You’ll need either a small scarf, or fabric to make a scarf. I picked up some clearance flannel and used about 3/4 yard to make mine.

A corn cob pipe

For this jumbo wreath, I used 7 white feather marabou boas. Honestly, 8 would have been best. If you make a smaller wreath, obviously you’ll need fewer. The great part about using white ones is it won’t matter much if the white from the wreaths show through.

That leads me to the wreaths. Here’s a picture with all the info of the exact ones I purchased.

IMG_6309

That’s a 13.8″ and an 18″ extruded foam wreath, and if you’re doing the jumbo, yes, you need both.

They should fit perfectly and snugly, one inside the other.

IMG_6315

*The reason I did two wreaths was to decrease the inner space and make the wreath seem fluffier. Another option, which would be less expensive, but more work, would be to create a white tulle wreath. The tulle pieces are longer and fluffier, and you won’t need that inner wreath form. Plus tulle is much cheaper than feather boas. 

My wreaths fit so snugly that I didn’t feel like I needed to glue them together, but you certainly could for extra security.

IMG_6320

I wrapped my feather boas around the wreath, hot glueing the ends to secure them. I left a little spot for the scarf to tie.

IMG_6326There’s no right or wrong way to do this, but I did it with 2 separate pieces.

IMG_6328

IMG_6331I cut the top hat in half (so technically you could get 2 wreaths out of one), so it would lay flat against the door. I secured it to the wreath with long pins. Eventually I’ll get around to coloring those yellow heads with a black Sharpie.

IMG_6334

I also used the pins to add a ribbon for hanging to the back.

IMG_6335

All that was left was to insert his corn cob pipe. I pressed it between the boa, into the styrofoam wreath sideways. You could secure it with hot glue if it doesn’t feel snug enough.

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And that’s all you have to do to make a jolly happy soul with a corn cob pipe to adorn your doorway.

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SnowmanWreathTutorial

 

 

December 7, 2015 10 comments
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Turn Ceramic Tiles Into Ornaments. In July. I know. I’m sorry.
Crafty!

Turn Ceramic Tiles Into Ornaments. In July. I know. I’m sorry.

by Jill July 23, 2015
written by Jill

FaLaLaLaLa! I’m a lunatic!

It’s okay to hate me for posting about CHRISTMAS right now, but hear me out. Every. Single. December. I’m like, “Wow, I’d really like to make x,y, and z (including desperately needed new ornaments), but LIKE THAT IS HAPPENING NOW. Pshaw.” And then I run out for more wrapping paper.

So I saw some craft groups I’m part of on Facebook starting to share these awesome tile to ornament transformations a few weeks ago, and I immediately saw them as a win-win to my 100+ degree woes right now. They are super fun crafts to do with the kids, relatively cheap, and come December, I’ll be like, “Wow, Jill. You were SO on top of things!”

Many of these craft groups are doing fancy designs with their vinyl cutters for these (I recently got a Silhouette Cameo), and they are amazing, but also not something people can do if they don’t have one of these costly machines.

So I made it my mission to come up with a couple cute ideas that ANYONE can do.

Transform inexpensive ceramic tiles into ornaments! Super easy! | BabyRabies.com

Supplies:
Sharpies
Spray paint (I used gold and Krylon’s Glitter Blast in red – obsessed with that stuff!)
Removable vinyl letters (look in the canvas and art supply section at the craft store)
Masking tape or vinyl (I used vinyl scraps, you can buy a roll at the craft store for about $8)
Felt, hot glue, and ribbon to finish off the back
Ceramic tiles

Transform inexpensive ceramic tiles into ornaments! Super easy! | BabyRabies.com

This sheet was about $7 at Lowes.

Transform inexpensive ceramic tiles into ornaments! Super easy! | BabyRabies.com

This box of 5 large tiles was $15 at Lowes.

Transform inexpensive ceramic tiles into ornaments! Super easy! | BabyRabies.com

For our first project, we used the removable vinyl letters to spell words out on the big ones, and add initials to the little ones.

Transform inexpensive ceramic tiles into ornaments! Super easy! | BabyRabies.com

The kids did the dot-dot-dot Sharpie thing around their initials…

Transform inexpensive ceramic tiles into ornaments! Super easy! | BabyRabies.com

They look like this once we peeled away the stickers (and hot glued some felt and a ribbon to the back)…

Transform inexpensive ceramic tiles into ornaments! Super easy! | BabyRabies.com

I hit the big ornaments with a couple coats of Krylon Glitter Blast and got this look when we removed the letters…

Transform inexpensive ceramic tiles into ornaments! Super easy! | BabyRabies.com

Here’s a better look at the felt and ribbon on the back:

Transform inexpensive ceramic tiles into ornaments! Super easy! | BabyRabies.com

My personal favorites are the ones I’m going to use to decorate MY tree. I got an all white tree last year that goes in our front room.

Transform inexpensive ceramic tiles into ornaments! Super easy! | BabyRabies.com

I simply cut shapes and strips of vinyl, adhered it to the ornaments, then hit it with a few rounds of gold spray paint. Love!

Transform inexpensive ceramic tiles into ornaments! Super easy! | BabyRabies.com

There are so many other fun applications for these! We did a few decoupage with scrapbook paper I let the kids pick out, and even some printed pictures. We also tried this Sharpie water color look, but it didn’t work too well for us. I think we’ll just spray paint over them.

Transform inexpensive ceramic tiles into ornaments! Super easy! | BabyRabies.com

This has really inspired me to do more Christmas crafts… for now. I will have to put them all away in September so I can properly respect the pumpkin and the turkey.

 

July 23, 2015 25 comments
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Learn Light Painting AND Win $500
Photography

Learn Light Painting AND Win $500

by Jill July 21, 2015
written by Jill

My lovely little sister came for a visit this weekend, and taught us how to do light painting.

She has this rad job where she gets paid to do stuff like this. Can you tell we come from an extremely creative family?

We took these in my office, which unfortunately has no windows (it’s a sad place to work all day), but was perfect because you need to do these in the dark.

I set my camera to a 8 second shutter (suuuuuuuper slow), ISO 100, f/5.6, and used my Speedlite flash.

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We had the kids gather some light-up toys, and my sister used the light from her iPhone in some.

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So we told the kids to smile or pose, and then after the flash to move their light up toys around for some pictures. In others, we told them to stay very still after the flash while my sister jumped in and “painted” around them.

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Leyna and Kendall could have done these all night. They were dying laughing at the images that resulted.

Lowell?

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Yeah…. no.

Dark room, and then an unexpected flash?

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Were we trying to KILL HIM?!

Horror.

Anyway, while you’re laughing at that, let me move onto something completely different.

How would you like to win $500??! 

I mean, really, you could use it to buy a camera to do light painting… or a speedlite for your camera to do light painting… or 100 light up toys… for light painting.

Or not. Whatever.

I’ve teamed up with some really awesome women to give away TWO $500 Amazon gift cards. Enter to win between July 21-31, 2015 via the Rafflecopter widget below. You need to login via Facebook or with an e-mail so we know you aren’t a robot, but you will not be added to any mailing list!

If you follow all 10 of us on Instagram, you are entered to win 10 times for 2 different cards, so that’s like 20 chances of winning, which is 18 more than the number of light painting pictures Lowell let us take of him before he literally ran out of the room screaming.

This post accomplishes so much: humor, education, raining money. My work here is done.

Good luck!

hugegiveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

July 21, 2015 9 comments
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#FreeToBe-lieve In Your #Selfie – Another Easy Tutorial
Build ItCrafty!

#FreeToBe-lieve In Your #Selfie – Another Easy Tutorial

by Jill June 17, 2015
written by Jill


We have half bath downstairs that’s supposed to be for guests. And by “guests” I mean the 10 boys on the street who pee in our house frequently.

It’s fancy and formal looking, which is the exact opposite of my taste. So I’ve decided to add some whimsical touches to it, because painting over the maroon walls is at the bottom of my “that sounds like a total nightmare” priority list.

Believe In Your #Selfie bathroom sign tutorial | BabyRabies.com

And because it’s my bathroom and we are all #freetobe-lieve in our selfies. Plus, this bathroom has the best selfie mirror in the house. I love the idea of filling this room with conversation starters and positivity. If you can’t have fun with a stuffy bathroom, then what good is a stuffy bathroom?

All free clear wanted me to talk about being #freetobe crafty this summer, and I realized this would be the perfect project for this sponsored post.

To start, I found a piece of wood that fit the space in our scrap pile (about 18×24), but you could always ask your home improvement store to cut one to size for you.

Keep in mind that you want your sign to show when you take your selfie, so plan according to that space.

Believe In Your #Selfie bathroom sign tutorial | BabyRabies.com

This one was a little crooked, but I liked that about it. We just gave it a quick sanding to smooth out any rough spots.

This is actually the first project I’ve done with my vinyl cutting machine, and it made it SO easy.

Believe In Your #Selfie bathroom sign tutorial | BabyRabies.com

The key to remember is the letters have to be BACKWARDS on the wood/canvas for them to appear the right way in the mirror. So I designed my text that way in my machine’s software.

If you don’t have a vinyl cutting machine, you could easily request this as a custom order from one of the thousands of vinyl vendors on Etsy.

Now, the sign looked pretty awesome just like that, but it wasn’t the look I was going for, and I liked being able to remove the vinyl so I don’t have to worry about it peeling at some point.

Believe In Your #Selfie bathroom sign tutorial | BabyRabies.com

First, I used some gold spray paint around the edges, which is a totally optional, but fun thing to do.

Believe In Your #Selfie bathroom sign tutorial | BabyRabies.com

I painted over the letters and covered the top. I used white chalk paint for this.

Believe In Your #Selfie bathroom sign tutorial | BabyRabies.com

Then I carefully peeled back the vinyl letters while the paint was still wet. And made a big mess, then made a mental note to throw my clothes in the wash immediately after with some all free clear. (I’ve been working that stuff hard this week. Thank you, stomach bug.)

Believe In Your #Selfie bathroom sign tutorial | BabyRabies.com

This little scraper tool helped a lot. You can get it in the craft store with the paper and vinyl cutting supplies.

I like the idea of someone sitting on the toilet, totally confused by what that sign is supposed to mean until they stand at the sink to wash their hands.

Believe In Your #Selfie bathroom sign tutorial | BabyRabies.com

I sanded the white paint a little bit to even the texture and distress it just a tad.

Believe In Your #Selfie bathroom sign tutorial | BabyRabies.com

Annnnnnd done! Super simple, but so unexpected. And fun!

Summer is a great time for getting the paint and craft supplies out and experimenting. You can throw on old shorts and make a big mess outside, then let your projects dry in the hot sun while you use all free clear to clean up everything from your clothes to your counters- with their all free clear OXI booster.

If you’d like to save $1 off any all free clear product, head here for a printable coupon.

And if you’d like to take a couple minutes to answer this short survey, that would be pretty cool.

A photo posted by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on Jun 17, 2015 at 12:46pm PDT

June 17, 2015 2 comments
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DIY No Sew Christmas Tree Skirt
Crafty!

DIY No Sew Christmas Tree Skirt

by Jill December 8, 2014
written by Jill

You know what’s an odd thing I’ve craved since having children? A Christmas tree of my own that will only have matching ornaments. Some of them even breakable! And none of them made from popsicle sticks and Elmer’s glue.

Listen, it’s not that I don’t love those little popsicle stick ornaments that my children lovingly paste together. I cherish them, I promise. I’m not heartless.

I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get a 2nd tree for our new house, though, since we have the space… and there was a really great Black Friday sale. So this one is alllllll mine.

Since I have to start from scratch, my budget was really limited, and I couldn’t spend a lot on the tree skirt.

I also can’t find my sewing machine right now. So many boxes. So. Many. Unpacked. Boxes.

I did, however, find a lovely round table cloth at Target for $14, and I came up with a plan.

EASY! No sew tree skirt from a round table cloth | BabyRabies.com

I bought some Fray Check, and 2 spools of coordinating satin ribbon (silver and gold for my new grown up tree theme).

Then I busted out the iron and my trusty glue gun.

EASY! No sew tree skirt from a round table cloth | BabyRabies.com

Round table cloth
Fray Check 
Ribbon of your choice
Glue gun
Iron
Flat surface to work (ironing board works fine)

EASY! No sew tree skirt from a round table cloth | BabyRabies.com

I started by laying the table cloth right side down on the ironing board, and folding a few inches in, then ironing a crease all the way around. This is simply going to help you when it comes time to glue it. Don’t worry if it doesn’t stay folded as you go. The crease line will still be there.

EASY! No sew tree skirt from a round table cloth | BabyRabies.com

Then just run a bead of hot glue at  the top of your table cloth and fold it over. I kept this a few inches deep so that I had plenty of space to work my ribbon through later. Since it’s round, you’ll have to make a sort of pleat every 8 inches or so. DON’T stress about keeping this perfect!

EASY! No sew tree skirt from a round table cloth | BabyRabies.com

Don’t close it all the way up. Leave a small gap for now.

EASY! No sew tree skirt from a round table cloth | BabyRabies.com

Cut a slit, about an inch tall, in the right facing side of the table cloth, near what will now be the top (by the crease). This is hard to describe. Check out the pic.

EASY! No sew tree skirt from a round table cloth | BabyRabies.com

Make sure it doesn’t extend beyond where the hot glue will be on the back after you seal it up. Then apply the Fray Check to the edges and let sit for about 15 minutes. Don’t worry too much about this looking unfinished. The bow will completely cover it.

Tie a large knot at the end of your ribbon. This is what you’ll grab onto to help work it through the top of the table cloth. Since I used 2 ribbons, the knot was big enough. If your’s is too small, try pinning a large safety pin to the knot to give you something more to grab onto.

EASY! No sew tree skirt from a round table cloth | BabyRabies.com

Slip it into the open part of the fold, and begin to work it around the inside of the hem. This will take a little while, be patient.

Once you get it all the way around, bring both ends of the ribbon(s) through the slit you cut. Then glue the rest of the hem shut.

EASY! No sew tree skirt from a round table cloth | BabyRabies.com

Now, very gently, begin to cinch it up like a sack.

EASY! No sew tree skirt from a round table cloth | BabyRabies.com

Place it under your tree, and continue to cinch it all the way up around it, finishing it off with a big bow. You can trim your bow ends if you’d like, but I loved the look of the trailing tails.

EASY! No sew tree skirt from a round table cloth | BabyRabies.com

This isn’t a very big skirt, but we needed it to be smaller to accommodate the train tracks that my husband built.

If you’re looking for a bigger skirt, use a bigger table cloth. For reference, the one I used here was 70″.

Total cost for this project was about $20. Total time was about 40 minutes.

December 8, 2014 2 comments
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How To Personalize A Cutting Board (Great Housewarming Gift)
Crafty!

How To Personalize A Cutting Board (Great Housewarming Gift)

by Jill October 23, 2014
written by Jill

We are in the thick of the moving/buying/selling chaos. Everything is up in the air right now, and it’s so stressful. Honestly, it makes me really happy we didn’t try to do this last year with a newborn, like the original plan was.

While we’re in the process of all of this, we got some new neighbors. They are a lovely young family, with a toddler and another baby on the way literally any day now. I just… I can’t imagine the stress THEY must be going through.

So while we won’t be their neighbors for long (HOPEFULLY), I still wanted to do something to welcome them. After my husband and I both stopped by to introduce ourselves, offer up any tools they need, and let them know we’d happily haul away any empty boxes they have, I put together a little basket of goodies for them.

A Personalized Housewarming Gift- super easy!- BabyRabies.com

I was inspired to personalize a wood cutting board by this pin I ran across a couple weeks ago.

I have a simple wood-burning tool that I purchased to make a Father’s Day gift this year, and it’s (figuratively) burning a hole in my craft closet, begging me to use it more.

SUPER EASY personalized housewarming gift- babyrabies.com

It’s the Creative Versa-Tool, and you can get it from Amazon for less than $25. 

I purchased the cutting board from Target for $12, but any wood cutting board will do the trick.

SUPER EASY personalized housewarming gift- babyrabies.com

The only other stuff you need is Graphite Paper (transfer paper), which you can find at any craft store. And you’ll also need to create the design you want on the board.

I made a simple circular design in Photoshop Elements (using the text on shape tool) with their new home address- blurred out a bit here for obvious reasons. Then used a contrasting font to type Welcome Home in the center.

SUPER EASY personalized housewarming gift- babyrabies.com

Cut a piece of transfer paper just big enough to fit under your design (then store the rest for later projects because that stuff ain’t cheap). Tape both pieces down with low tack tape (like masking tape or painters tape), and trace over your design with a soft pencil.

Once you remove the papers, the design will be traced onto your board, and you can go over it with your wood burner.

SUPER EASY personalized housewarming gift- babyrabies.com

Admittedly, my wood-burning skills need work, but I was happy with the finished result.

SUPER EASY personalized housewarming gift- babyrabies.com

I put it in a basket (from the Dollar Section at Target) and included a couple of my favorite Mrs Meyers products, some flour sack towels, and a ball and bubbles for their toddler.

It only took me about an hour to complete this, design to finish.

Did your neighbors do anything to welcome you to your neighborhood? Have you done anything similar? I’d love to hear more ideas

October 23, 2014 4 comments
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Last-Minute School Kit – DIY & Video
Crafty!School Age DaysVideos

Last-Minute School Kit – DIY & Video

by Jill September 4, 2014
written by Jill

As a mom of a 1st-grader now, I am totally profesh at this whole school-mom thing. So consider this me bestowing some of my infinite wisdom upon you all and sharing a cool tip that will make life easier when you have kids in school.

Or, you know, it could also be me making a post out of something I knew I had to do to try to stay sane and not appear like a negligent parent this year.

Either way, I present to you this thing I actually did and am actually hoping will actually make my life a little easier this year- The Last-Minute School Kit.

Now, I’m not saying all of these items will be requested from our teacher at the “last minute.” I’m just saying I usually only remember I need to send them at the last minute. So. That’s where that comes from

Last-Minute-School-Kit

1. A container of some sort for your kit. It doesn’t have to be fancy. You can use a tampon box. I won’t judge.

2. Ziploc bags are good to have on hand for when you need to send small items to school and it’s like the ONE time you don’t have any and think you’ll have to send 100 M&Ms (for the 100th day of school because, WARNING, THAT IS A THING) in an empty but still dirty chip bag, or something.

3. Tape & envelopes definitely come in handy when you need to send money to school, and want to be sure that money actually makes it to the teacher and not the bottom of your child’s backpack or piggy bank.

4. A small notepad of some sort for writing notes to the teacher like a proper grownup who is entrusted with raising a child so you don’t have to resort to the back of a Wendy’s receipt.

5. Blank notecards for when you want to get fancy. Great for writing Thank You cards, or for your child to draw/write a note of appreciation for their teacher on holidays.

6. Stationary if you want to get even fancier. Totally not necessary, but I’ve had some for forever, and I need to use it up.

7. A few gift cards in small amounts to universally loved places like Starbucks or Target. Great to slip into a holiday card or a thank you card. Also great to send to the nurse after your child projectile vomits all over her if you’re in the giving mood.

8. A pen & a Sharpie that are TAPED TO THE CONTAINER. Because we know kids purposely hide proper writing tools and get great satisfaction out of seeing us write absence excuses with a nub of eyeliner.

9. Post-its are great if you need to add notes to homework or folders and such.

10. Pictures of the school kid and family because YES you will need them, and NO you can’t send your kid to school with the iPad and the Flickr app open. Do yourself a favor and print them all old fashioned style on paper like people did in the 90s now.

11. Small change and dolla bills, yo. Because they are forever coming home with scraps of paper that say crap like, “2nd grade is selling bubble gum this Friday for a quarter!” and your kid will NOT go to sleep until they know you have at least 3 quarters to send with them. And sending 75 pennies you dug up from the floor of your car is generally frowned upon, I think. Not to mention you’ll smell like French fries the rest of the day if you have to resort to that.

As you can see, I have plenty of room left in my box. What else would you add?

September 4, 2014 12 comments
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“Helping Hands” DIY Handprint Gift
Crafty!

“Helping Hands” DIY Handprint Gift

by Jill June 13, 2014
written by Jill

HelpingHandsDIY

Fathers Day is less than 48 hours away, so naturally I just finished the DIY project with the kids I’ve been planning on making for weeks.

Procrastination, why can’t I quit you?

The theme for this year’s Fathers Day is Operation Garage Clean Up. I know that sounds horrible, but Scott is so practical, and that space is where he does so much that I am pretty sure he’ll love the garage floor coating epoxy kit we got him and this “Helping Hands” shelf the kids helped me make.

Here’s what you need:

IMG_3740-2

A shelf with space big enough for your kids’ handprints. I got this one at Hobby Lobby. It has a removable panel that came in handy. I think it’s regularly priced about $16. Don’t forget to install their app and access their 50% off coupon in store (or print it off at home).

Paint. I chose a can of spray paint because it’s just so dang easy.

A Versa Tool for wood burning. This is optional, and you can choose to use something like a Sharpie if you want. If you decide to go the wood burning route, though, you can get this at Michaels (and probably Hobby Lobby). Again, don’t forget to try to use a coupon on it. I used at 50% off coupon at Michaels, making it $15.

First, I took the panel out, and spray-painted the shelf in the garage.

While that was drying, I traced the kids hands onto the wood panel that was removable. I also had Kendall sign his name on the back, and I wrote Leyna and Lowell’s names on the back, along with the date.

Next, I used the flow point of the Versa Tool to go over the handprints and the writing on the back of the panel. Super, duper easy.

IMG_3743-2

The shelf dried really fast because spray paint is so awesome like that. So I was able to use the Versa Tool and the same flow point to write “Daddy’s Helping Hands” on the top of the shelf.

IMG_3746-2

Finally, I popped the panel back into the shelf.

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IMG_3747-2

Keep in mind you can use this idea for all kinds of objects. While this is intended for Scott to hang tool belts and other things from in the garage, you could easily adapt this to a kitchen shelf if the recipient is a cook, or a bookshelf for the home office.

It’s hard to come up with cute, sentimental gifts that are also practical for my very practical husband, but I think this might be a home run.

 

June 13, 2014 2 comments
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DIY Muslin Swaddle Blanket Stars
BabiesCrafty!

DIY Muslin Swaddle Blanket Stars

by Jill April 29, 2014
written by Jill

IMG_2479

Recently, Aden & Anais sent Lowell a box full of soft, muslin goodies, from bibs to blankets and sheets. He’s been snuggling with an Aden & Anais Dream Blanket since we brought him home from the hospital, and the soft fabric seems to soothe him.

I’ve had some crafty, creative fun with Aden & Anais swaddling blankets in the past (and will link you up to a couple posts at the bottom of this one) by channeling my inner cruise ship attendant, and folding them into fun shapes. These muslin blankets are one of my new baby must-haves, and I love gifting them to friends.

So I like to come up with fun ways to display and present them.

MuslinSwaddleBlanketStar

This tutorial is as easy as it gets. You only need 3 things.

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1. Muslin swaddling blankets (These are the Aden & Anais blankets I used.)
2. Foil
3. Tulle (or ribbon)

I used a total of 6 blankets to make 3 stars- large, medium and small.

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The large star required 3 blankets, the small star just required one. This tutorial will show you the medium star, which requires 2 blankets.

You’ll also need a large, clean space for this project. My kitchen table was barely large enough. It also doesn’t hurt to have some extra hands, though it’s not required.

Start by laying down your blankets, face/pattern down, overlapping them by a few inches.

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Unroll your foil the length of the blankets. For this star, the medium, I only needed one layer of foil. For the large star with 3 blankets, I used 2 layers (laid on top of each other). For the small star, I didn’t need any foil at all.

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The foil just helps give your star points some structure to keep them from being floppy.

Then, working your way up and down the length of the blankets, tightly roll them up with the foil inside.

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Keep it up until the foil is completely rolled up, then continue rolling the blanket.

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Try to keep the roll as tight as possible and mind the seams where the blankets come together.

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You’ll end up with one long roll.

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Fold it in half and secure the ends with a piece of tulle or some ribbon.

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If you plan to suspend the star, make sure this piece of tulle or ribbon is long enough for that.

Pull the folded end 1/4 of the way in toward the tied end.

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This is where you’ll have to play around a bit. What you have here are 3 points of your star. You still need to make 2 more out of those 2 long edges. I tried to come up with a mathematical equation for this, but my brain hurts and doesn’t really work that way. I just play with things until they look okay enough.

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Once you’ve got your points evened out, wrap your tulle or ribbon around the center of the star to secure it.

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That’s basically it. It’s really really simple.

I love the idea of using these stars to decorate for a baby shower! Hang them from the ceiling over the cake table…

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And on the front door…

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You really can’t have too many of these blankets! We used them for everything around here.

If you want a couple other swaddle blanket gifting ideas, here’s one for an elephant…

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And another for bunnies!

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April 29, 2014 6 comments
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Crafty!

DIY Paper Mobile Tutorial

by Jill May 29, 2013
written by Jill

My trip to the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel this month inspired this simple, paper mobile tutorial for the Red Barn Blog. 

Paper Mobile DIY

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Head on over to RedBarnBlog.com get the full tutorial.

May 29, 2013 2 comments
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