A’hoy Mate!

Yo ho, yo ho a pirate’s life for me…

But back to reality. My goddaughter came to visit a few weekends ago, and her mom mentioned that they are going to a pirate-themed party.

SAY NO MORE.

Not only is Pirates of the Carribean pretty much one of my favorite drinking games movies, I just so happened to have this sweet pirate ship shape for my Cricut.

(Okay, so yes, technically you could say it was just a regular ship like the Nina, Pinta, or Santa Maria…but I like to think it’s the Black Pearl.)

(And if you don’t mentally read “the Black Pearl” in a pirate voice…something is wrong with you.)

Use the outsides of the Cricut cutout for the stencil, and then use the Cricut shape for the notecard.

I had the Cricut set on 4.5 inches, and the onesie is size 6-12 months. This notecard is an A6 size.

Savvy?

If you want a full tutorial on painting baby onesies with stencils, here is a step-by-step overview.

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DIY Roundup: Triple Crown Onesie and Notecard

Okay, I know the Triple Crown didn’t happen this year.

And yes, technically this baby onesie was a christening gift, so technically a more appropriate title would be something like gifts of the magi.

But after carefully considering the fact that earlier this year someone told me that he “couldn’t go out with me because I was too religious,” I’ve decided to go with Triple Crown.

(When you’re done laughing over the fact that someone would EVER describe me as “too religious,” continue reading.)

As per usual, I DIY’d the stencil for this bit of baby onesie glory on my Cricut. The crowns are from the wall art cartridge, sized at one point five inches. If you want full instructions for fabric paint projects and stencils, click here.

The fabric paint is a pink pearl, which means pink glitter. Because pink glitter totally screams “Jesus,” don’t you think?

Normally I feel super-guilty when I cut out stencils for DIY projects, because a) I drive a Prius and b) what do I do with all the insides?

I can’t throw them away because I’m a paper hoarder I might need them in the future…so now I have a drawer full of mismatched letters and cutouts in various shapes and sizes. I CAN QUIT ANYTIME. I SWEAR.

Luckily, this time I around I “got smart” as they say. Being that I needed a card for one of my fav coworkers, I used the crown center cut-outs as the decoration on the card. FREAKING BRILLIANT.

Not to mention eco-Prius-friendly. And efficient. It’s like craft multi-tasking.

Freaking brilliant.

Does anyone else have a favorite way to craft multi-task?

L<3VE Onesies

Whenever I’m frustrated with people, I think about my niece. She is honest, reliable, and will always voice what’s on her mind. When she’s upset, you just know. And I don’t have to play it cool around her. I can tell her that I’m totally obsessed and that is totally normal.

Yeah, she pretty much just chills on the corner of awesome and bombdiggity. And she’s not even 7 months old.

Which, also means that I still have at least 7 years of being able to DIY and craft amazingly fun things for her to wear. Like this.

And, she still has a few more years of being obnoxious where she can get away with doing things like this. Hands off the tresses girlfriend.

I DIY’d this onesie for Mother’s Day—it took about 30 minutes to complete, start to finish. The trickiest part is sewing on the letters…and remembering to trace your design in reverse. Must remember to trace in reverse…

If you want to make your own felt applique onesie, you can find detailed directions and photos here. Or, if you’re not in the mood to click over, here’s the brief recap.

1. Trace design onto Heat n’ Bond or similar two-sided iron-on transfer paper. Be sure to trace your design IN REVERSE.
2. Iron first side of paper onto felt.
3. Cut out design.
4. Peel off paper backing and iron onto clothing.
5. Stitch design down with sewing machine.
6. Impress your friends with your mad crafting skills.

And seriously, how cute is this baby?

Miss Ewes

OCCUPY CAKERYPAPERY’S CRAFT ROOM is closely approaching its second month.

Which leaves me two choices. I can either evict the squatters (multiple pieces of trim, old medicine cabinet, shop vac, extra tiles, joint compound, paint cans), or I can find a way to work around them.

Given my level of laziness (high) on a Thursday evening, I went with the second option. Don’t judge.

Besides, the Cricut doesn’t need much room, right?

I started out with these cutouts.

Have an idea where this is going?

And I ended up with this.

The ‘Miss Ewes’ card was for one of my coworkers, who is leaving to attend medical school.

And since she always talks about how much she wants original stationary, I made her some celery rose cards. In blue, since she’s becoming a doctor.

I make the celery cards a lot—they are ending up as one of my signature projects. I really enjoy the speed at which I can make these, and each set is different than the one before. You can read the instructions on how to make these here.

To make the ‘Miss Ewes’ card, I started with a pre-cut piece of cardstock from a 4 x 6 stack for the background. Sure, you can cut your own, but using pre-cut is much more efficient. The sheep cutouts & ewe font are in the Just Because Cricut cartridge. The ‘ewe’ was cut at 4 inches and the sheep at 3.5 and 4 inches. The tag cut is from Plantain Schoolbook, sized at 1.5 inches. Cut, glue, assemble.

And the occupy craft room protest rages on…

Hand-Painted Onesies: Gifting on a Budget Part 2

My life is full of babies. No, not any baby of mine thank goodness…but I lead a baby-filled life. They are EVERYWHERE lately.

So I’m back to DIY-ing onesies. For other people’s babies.

These suckers beautiful items I made with fabric paint instead of felt–which is MUCH EASIER AND FASTER. Want to see my hand-crafted onesies with felt appliques? Check them out here. 

If you’ve never used fabric paint before, don’t be scared off. It’s easy to use and can be found at pretty much any craft store. Fabric paint comes in a lot of different colors and varieties–I bought pink”pearl” and silver “metallic.”

You’ll also need some paintbrushes. I like the foam-top kind, it makes distributing the paint easier than a traditional brush.

I made these stencils on the Cricut (yet another amazing use of the Cricut) but if you want to make your own sans Cricut/die-cutter, just be sure to make them out of cardstock. This way you have a good, clean edge when you paint. Alternatively, if you’d like to be even more lazy efficient than using a die-cutter like the Cricut, craft stores sell a variety of reuseable plastic stencils.

Place a piece of cardboard underneath the area to be painted and then tape the stencil on top. Then you’re ready to paint. I’m definitely not a pro at this–I use one hand to press the stencil down and then the other to paint. Which generally results in getting paint ALL OVER the not-brush hand. And in my case, a BRAND NEW MANICURE. You get three guesses as to what fabric paint doesn’t wash off of…and the first two don’t count.

One tip I can offer is to brush the paint in from the stencil edges–it helps keep the edges of the design crisper. And I should let you know that “pearl” apparently is code for with sparkley glitter and “metallic” just means…shiny.

I actually really enjoy the glitter-pearl paint. It has a nice sparkle but the glitter doesn’t rub off, so you don’t end up looking like you had a run in with Tinkerbell.

After you let the paint dry for a minute or two, remove the stencil and you’re done!

Hand-crafted, hand-painted onesie glory.

Gifting on a Budget: Customized Onesies

For me, it’s not the Year of the Dragon. It’s the “year of the shower.” As in, wedding and baby showers.

Last year, I had seven bridal showers and this year, I’m already locked into two baby showers. And it’s just the beginning of March.

So, I’m focused on finding thoughtful gifts that don’t break the bank. Which is what spurred me to make these onesies. I originally saw the idea here on Finley & Oliver, which has a ton of great DIY ideas for kids.

You don’t need to be a master seamstress to make these, as long as your design isn’t too complex.

Here’s what you need:

• Felt
• Heat n’ Bond or a similar iron-on transfer paper
• Onesies (duh)
• Sewing machine

You can stitch these by hand, but given how much wear and tear baby clothes get, machine-sewing makes them much more durable.

I used my Cricut Expression to cut out some of the shapes, which made tracing them super fast. Else there are lots of free downloadable shape templates for things like polygons or chevrons and a quick google search will find whatever you need.

When you’ve selected a design, it’s five quick steps to handcrafted onesie gold.

1. Trace your design
2. Iron onto felt
3. Cut out the shapes and layout your design
4. Iron the shapes onto onesies
5. Stitch down for added durability

You could easily use this technique to make a custom tee or bag too.

Happy crafting!