Stamped Napkins

For the Bridal Shower I co-hosted recently, I really wanted to add some personal touches and what better way than with personalized napkins? I wasn't prepared to pay a fortune for someone else to print them, so I researched ways to do them myself and settled on stamping them.

I purchased a large pack of light pink napkins from Ikea and dark purple stamping ink from Michaels. I bought permanent ink because it's fast drying. While at Michaels, I found a "Bridal Shower" stamp in the clearance bin for a couple of dollars. After that I decided to search for a big "K" stamp. I looked everywhere but couldn't find one the right size.

So, I decided to make a potato stamp. I remembered doing this as a kid and thought it would work well. I cut the potato in half, and then cut out my letter. You could draw on your design or even use a cookie cutter to get a perfect design. Mine was simple so I freehanded it. Just remember, if you are doing letters, you need to cut them out backwards.

I took one napkin and used it for practice. Once I knew how much ink and how much pressure I needed, I stamped each napkin. I used to permanent ink so I was able to pile them on top of each other right away. This easy (and cheap!) project took me less than an hour in total. Great addition to your next party.

Tell everyone I'm TWO!

Little Dude is going to be 2 on Sunday! I can hardly believe it. I wanted him to have a special shirt for his birthday, but I also wanted him to be able to wear it again. Most shirts say "It's my birthday," "Birthday Boy," and that type of thing...not what I was looking for. Therefore, I decided to make him one myself.

I bought a plain white shirt from Old Navy for a few dollars (its the baby sale - 30% off everything!!) and took a scrap peice of fabric from my mom's quilting box. You could use just about anything though. An old dress shirt, skirt or some other peice of clothing that you will never wear again. Anything with a large enough space to cut out your number (or letter depending on your project). I printed off a letter in Antique Olive Compact font, approximately size 500 as a template. Lastly, you need some fusible webbing. Fusible webbing is great stuff. It is basically a plastic fiber sheet to attach two fabrics together using an iron.

I cut the peice of fabric and fusible webbing large enough to accomodate the number I had printed. Try not to let the fusible webbing hang over the sides of the fabric or you might end up melting it to your ironning board. You pull off one side of the plastic and iron it to the backside of your fabric. While it is cooling, cut out your number template. I drew my template on the fabric before I cut it, but you could also just pin it on or freehand it. Make sure you draw it on the fabric side rather than the side with the fusible webbing, otherwise you'll get a backwards number. Cut the fabric number out. Pull off the paper from the fusible webbing and place it on the t-shirt. Then simply iron it on. Let it cool and voila!

I sewed a little border on with the sewing machine, but it didn't really need it. Here is how the back looks!

The front looked a bit boring so I decided to put a little two on the front pocket. I followed the same steps. I love the way it looks and can't wait for Little Dude to wear it on his birthday. I showed him...he seemed quite indifferent about it, I'm sure he loves it deep down.



Inspired By Buttons

At Christmas time my family draws names. I have 5 siblings and 3 of us are now married, so buying presents for everyone would be a big expense. Or in my case, everyone would probably get handmade gift certificates for 1 free hug. The thing is I love finding the perfect present for everyone or choosing a theme and collecting a bunch of little stuff. This year I drew my little sis and my husband drew my big sis. So, in essence, I got both of my sisters. They are very different, but they both bought property recently. So, I was scouring etsy for the perfect idea. I narrowed it down to some sort of household item pretty quickly and then I found these pillows...

Etsy: withLovebyApril

I thought they were so cute, but expensive. We have a 50$ budget and with that I would only be able to get them one each. Therefore, I decided to make them myself. It should be easy... I mean how hard could it be to sew a few buttons on a pillow?! I bought a few plain pillow covers from Ikea for like $9 and the actual cushions for about $6 each. I looked other places, but I couldn't find ones with strong enough covers that could hold all of the buttons, so I splurged at Ikea. Anyways, my younger sister got 2 and older got 3. (No, I am not playing favourites, my younger sister got another little present too!)

I bought buttons from ebay. I looked at button lots and bought a few lots of blues and teals. Most were vintage but I bought one lot of new ones that I liked the colours of. I bought about 250 buttons and spent probably $12. And I did use all the buttons.

On a side note... I love the way buttons look. I have no idea why, but they totally inspire me.

For my first pillow I took a pencil and drew on the letter. This wasn't the greatest idea because erasing it turned out to be pretty difficult. For the next ones I just put dots on to show me the corner of the letters. That was much more successful and easy to follow. I then sewed on every button individually, using embroidary thread. It took a bit of practice but got much easier as I went along. My little sister got an A and a Star. My older sister got a L, a heart and a N. I can not sew by hand and it took me a long time. I worked on it for weeks...every evening sewing a few on. I do have really bad eyesight, so threading the needle was a pain.

Here are how mine turned out....

Overall I spent for each pillow
$9 - for cover
$4 - for cushion
$2.5 - for buttons (on average)
$15.5 per pillow!!

It was much cheaper.... but, if I consider what my time is worth... not too sure.

Overall, I think they are pretty cool, and it came from the heart and a few weeks before Christmas my great-grandma passed away (she was 101!!). I asked my mom for a few buttons from some of her clothes. So, I sewed a few on each of the pillows for my sisters. You can see them on the corners of the pillow with the star. Now they have even a bit more meaning for everyone.