Crochet iPhone charger cover

I'm on my 2nd iPhone charger. Either I'm rough or Apple has cheap wires! I really didn't want to buy a new charger. Let's face it, new phones come out almost annually and since the iPhone 5, they've changed the chargers.

Since having exposed wires is not okay, I decided to do it the old school way and put electrical tape on it. I wasn't too excited about the look. I mean, what did I expect, right?!?

I had just finished crocheting a newborn hat and thought I'll just crochet over the wire using the same pink yarn. My husband saw me and disapproved of my wire wrapping skills and used shrink wrap instead (because it looks cleaner).

I ended up using a smaller hook than pictured. And twisting the wire as I crocheted made it look better. It was fairly simple and quick. Now I have a new (ish) pink charger!

YAY!

DIY Cake Stand

I needed a cake stand so I started searching online. I was really surprised at how much it cost! I'm frugal. Cheap if you want to call it that but I just don't want to spend $50 ish on a plain white cake stand.

When I did a search on Pinterest, there were so many projects out there using candle holders and plates, glued with E6000 or GOOP. The problem is it's either glass or ceramic and although that's great, I needed something less likely to break. I plan to use it for my one year old Cake Smash Sessions. 

I was browsing in Target and my wonderful husband saw a cake stand clearanced for $7 and called me over to look at it (yes, we are always browsing in different parts of the store). When I got there I saw all these other plates and bowls for even cheaper! Since my plan was to make them, it was perfect! Each plate (Salad size) & bowl was under $2! Did I mention they were plastic? Perfect!

I decided to go with a glue gun because the plates/bowls are light weight and I don't plan on heavy use. These will be hand washed anyway. 

SUPPLIES:

Matching plate & bowl (base)

Glue gun

DIRECTIONS:

1) Wash plates & bowls and dry

2) You can choose to mark the center of the back of the plate (I didn't because I was in a rush)

3) Apply hot glue to the bottom of the bowl (quickly before it dries) & place it on the center of the back of the plate. 

That's it! Simple as 1, 2, 3! For less than $10, I made 4 cake stands!!!!!

        

Kissing Booth Prop

Happy New Year! ... And I'm already frantically calling around to see if the stores stocked their shelves with Valentines decor! 

When I originally thought about making the booth, I had planned to make a bigger one using pallets and cutting wood, nails, glue etc. but I decided to work with what I have because this is probably going to be temporary and disposable. 

SUPPLIES:

Wooden Crate - from the craft store. I already had one that my husband stained for me. 

White Foam Board - Dollar Tree

Packing Tape

Box Cutter

Red Marker

Valentine decorations 

DIRECTIONS:

1) Measure two 2" strips the long ways of the foam board 

2) Cut out the pieces. I did not cut so straight but planned on wrapping decorations over it later anyway. 

See? Not so straight!

3) Cut the desired size for your sign

4) Stand crate on its side and stick the 2 inch pieces in

5) Put the sign above it and mark the back (just so you know where to tape the sign)

6) Lay the sign down and lay the 2 inch pieces on top lining it up to your markings. Tape it. I chose to use tape because foam boards are so light that you don't really need strong adhesive. 

7) I used a pen (in red) first to write my letters and then used my son's red marker to color it in. 

8) I purchased these in red & purple. I wrapped the 2 inch pieces with them. 

 

The garlands, felt hearts, bubblegum dispensers and candies were all from the Dollar Tree. This is why it being "disposal" is okay with me. 

 

Here's my lil munchkin:

Update: added more decorations and the 5 cent sign (paper cut out taped to foam hearts)

DIY Onesie Suspenders

I love holidays, any holiday!... Okay wait, does Valentine's Day count?? Haha

I'm getting ready for a Valentine's mini session and since my boys are always my first models, I needed an outfit. Unfortunately we've all caught a bug over the holidays and I'm not in the mood to go shopping. 

I saw & pinned several projects for onesies and thought I'm pretty sure I have all the supplies for a suspender onesie. 

SUPPLIES:

Plain white onesie

Ribbon for suspenders

Ribbon for bow tie (you can use the same ribbon so it matches) I had to use yarn

Sewing Machine & coordinating thread

Pins

2 D rings (optional)

Safety pin

DIRECTIONS:

Measure and cut the ribbon from under the flaps of onsie near neck to bottom of onesie. 

Pin it and sew ribbon to onesie. 

Fold ribbon under and sew along edges. I ended up only seeing the top and bottom (and not along the length of ribbon) I also decided not to use D rings because the ones I had were too heavy duty for a baby.  

Sew edges of small ribbon (bow)

Wrap a smaller piece of ribbon in the middle to pick (I ran out! So I used grey yarn) Make sure the seam is in the middle. 

Slip a safety pin on the back side (do not leave bow on baby while playing) I'm using this as a photo prob. You might want to sew it to onesie for safety. I wanted mine detachable. (You can use Velcro too)

 Attach to onesie. Isn't that cute? Took like 5 minutes!

In this photo I crocheted a red bow and attached it using a safety pin (and that's why it had to be detachable!)

DIY Triangle Bunting from 12x12 Scrapbook Paper

My baby is 11 months which means his first birthday is right around the corner! Where did the time go? 

I'm getting ready for his first birthday cake smash photo shoot, and I want it simple. I love what the triangle bunting adds as a backdrop.... plus it's soooo easy to make. 

I was so excited to find this tutorial on Pinterest awhile ago and have already made some. The buntings are two-sided on her tutorial but since I'm not going to need double sided bunting this time, I made it slightly different. 

Update: I make all my bunting 4.5 inches now (instead of 5). I like the size better and you don't end up with a smaller set of bunting.

Each bunting is 5 4.5 inches wide & 6 inches long and you will have two 4.5 inch wide triangles 8 from each 12x12 sheet (I'll use for another project) 

Sorry for the crappy iPhone photos. I was in the dark using a small lamp. >_<

SUPPLIES:

• 12x12 scrapbook paper
• String or yarn (something to hold the bunting)
• Scissors or paper cutter
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Hole puncher

DIRECTIONS:

Here are the papers I've decided to use

1) On the back of the paper, mark 5 inches 4.5 (this is much better, I think) from one edge with your pencil and another 5 4.5  inches from that mark (you should have 2 inches left).

2) Do the same on the opposite side. Make sure you start on the same side (edge).

3) Draw your lines (the two triangles on the left are the smaller ones 4.5 inches). I also drew a line in the middle. 

4) Cut your paper in half (original tutorial doesn't do this because they fold the triangles in half so you have patterns on both side). You can use a scissors but I'm terrible at cutting straight so I used a paper cutter. 

5) Cut along the lines. Each 12x12 sheet will make six eight 5 4.5 inch wide triangles and two 4.5 inch triangles. 

6) Punch holes on each outer top corner of triangle for threading the yarn/string through. You can use a hole puncher but I used my Crop-A-Dile. 

7) Lay the triangles down (you could probably skip this step but knowing me, I would miss a pattern if I don't have them already in the order I want them).

8) Thread the yarn/string through holes. Had these Dollar Tree twine (3/$1!) laying around. 

Simple??? I thought so!

Update: the smaller size buntings look just as good and you get more out of your 12x12 paper!

Thanks for visiting!

DIY newborn cheesecloth wrap

When I started doing newborn photography, I knew eventually I wanted those cute newborn wraps. I started looking around and boy, they cost a lot more than I wanted to spend especially since I wanted multiple colors!

The original tutorial I found is no longer available so I'm just going to have to remember what I did before. 

SUPPLIES: 

• Cheesecloth

• Rit Dye Powder

• Scissors

• Stirring Stick (I used chopsticks) 

DIRECTIONS:

1) Cut the cheesecloth 4 feet long (last 2 ended up being 3.5 ft)

2) Fill bucket or bowl with hot water. I used my pot. 

3) Mix dye (I started with Grey) with 2 cups hot water 

4) Pour dye into pot of water

5) Put cheesecloth in (I put 2)

6) Set timer for 30 minutes and stir often in that time period. The cheesecloth is very thin so you really only need to soak it for a few minutes depending how light or dark you want it. (I dipped the light green one in for less than 1 minute)

7) Rinse in warm water, then cool water until water runs clear. Wash with warm water and mild detergent. 

8) Hang dry (see a pink one? Funny I decided to use the neon food coloring and it worked just fine!)

These are fairly cheap and easy to make!

Cheesecloth - $6 for 6 yards at Walmart

Rit Dye - $2 for a box at Michael's

For less than $10, you get about 5 wraps!

I had one left and decided to use my food coloring (neon purple) which turned out pink but that's okay too. 

This photo was taken using a different batch of cheesecloth I made almost a year ago!

Have fun and experiment!