Along with the frame I also made a cardboard organizing box for my work area, I painted it green to go with the boxes I made for the bottom area, remember that you can see the tutorial for those here.

I used a dowel that I painted white to organize my spools or baker’s twine and a small kraft wrapping paper roll. I used wire to attach everything to the frame and used a wire mesh for the back and to make small containers sized to everything I wanted to put on the frame. I also added pink yarn around the top edges of the containers because the wire mesh was still a little rough on the edges.

I also made covers for both printers and added white shelving paper on some shelves an the top of the dresser and shipping storage table. here some more pictures of how this ended up, I’m pretty happy considering I spent $20 on the material for the frame and $20 for the material for the table, all the rest were things I had around the house, paint included. So a shipping station for $40 I think it’s a pretty good deal =]

Here is how the dresser and my new table looked like before painting. Paint makes everything so much better!!

I hope you are all having a lovely day! I’m excited to keep showing the rest of the projects I’m working on right now, hopefully I’ll finish this studio soon!
XOXO

Actually this was my original idea for my shop, to design, print and sell bags, teat towels and pillows. But after researching several places to have my fabric products screen-printed I realized that it was not going to happen unless I did it myself (my idea at first was to just outsource the printing) So I put my big girl pants, did a bunch or research and decided to invest with Ryonet and purchase all the necessary tools and materials to make my dream products.

I am beyond excited because I’ve been planning/designing/testing and learning so much to be able to do this =] I secretly wanted to be able to screen print ever since I discovered what it was, so having the tools and the excuse to actually pursuit one of my dreams makes me extremely happy.

It’s kind of funny that making this makes SO excited, but since eventually I want to start printing my own fabrics, my excitement is so big because I know that I’m getting closer to actually do that =]

I am working on listing the totes, tea towels and pillows I’ve already made this next week, my plan was to be able to do this a few weeks a go, but I spent way too much time sick with a cold, and between feeling crappy and taking care of a super energetic little baby, my productivity was at minimun levels.

Also on other news, my awesome husband helpend me move down to my studio (I spent all winter two floors up at our dinning room table) so if you follow me on Instagram, you can see a little peek of how the studio is coming together, so now I can create, make and be inspired all at the same place! I’m hoping to finish all the little projects I have pending so I can reveal my studio in the next month or two.

Also couple of weeks a go it was our 3rd wedding anniversary and Conner turned 6 months, all in the same day =] It seems that our “life” number is the 11th because our legal beach ceremony was November 11th, our Wedding celebration was April 11th, and Conner’s birthday was October 11th – The funny part is that we didn’t really planned any of those, we realized we chose the same day for both our marriage celebrations after the fact.

And in honor to Conner being 6 months I wanted to show a few pictures we took this morning, after I finish with all my product ones.

I can’t believe it’s been 6 months since we had him, and to any Mom that works from home, you all have my deepest sympathy! Working with a baby is SO HARD! and naps are definitely not long enough in this house for everything I want to get done. But at the end of the day I would not have it any other way, I am blessed that I can take a break and play with my little Peanut every time I want (actually is when HE wants) and I get to be home with him <3

I hope you are all having a great day!!
Have a safe weekend and see you next week
XOXO

ps. A limited number of my bags are going to be at Ps I adore you next week, starting on Sunday so you can get them with a BIG discount while they last!

If you follow me on instagram you have probably seen little sneak peeks of how this place is coming along and the things I’ve been working on. So today (without showing much about the space that is not finish) I wanted to share a solution for storage and organizing using recycled materials.

I collected a lot of cardboard boxes with the purchases for my shop and another (very exciting) project I’m working on right now, so I decided to make custom sized storage boxes for a cabinet that I have in the studio. Don’t get me wrong, I actually searched everywhere for something that would fit there: Ikea, thrift store, Target, TJ-Maxx, everywhere!! but nothing had the measurements I needed, my space was too “custom”, so of course I decided to make them instead =]

The grand total for the 8 boxes I made is $26, but that’s because I wanted pretty card holders so I could write what each box contains. The only things I purchased where the nickel card holders and a gift wrapping paper on sale from Target, everything else was around my studio.

MATERIALS

• Lots of cardboard
• Box cutter or x-acto knife
• Kraft paper gummed tape
• Wrapping paper or paint
• ModPodge if you use wrapping paper
• Nickel plated card holders
• Double sided sticky tape (the one I used is high contact so I am not 100% sure this one will work as well, I bought mine at my local scrapbooking store and it’s a local brand)

I actually explained in detail how I made the boxes I used to restore an old wire storage cube, in this case the process I follow was EXACLY the same, but instead of using those measurements I used the space I needed to fill to make my boxes, I left an inch and a half on the top and half an inch on the side (from the total measurement) so that the boxes would not fit too tight.

For the pink boxes on the cabinet I used the box from conner’s high chair, it was a super sturdy cardboard, so I didn’t need to double that one, but the bottoms are normal cardboard, so for those I used a double layer.

One of the reasons I could not fit anything that fit the shelve perfectly was that right in the middle there is a small piece that runs through the back of the cabinet, to solve that I made a “cut” one the back of the center cubes, so now they fit like a glove =]

To ad the card holders I actually used the double sided sticky tape, the holders come in packs of 25 and come with tiny little screws that would work perfect if the boxes were made out of wood, but since it’s cardboard I just used the tape all the way around the edges, as I mention in the material’s list, I got mine at my local scrapbooking store and it’s suposed to be high contact, it bonds after 24 hours. I haven’t read the one I linked so I am not sure if it works that way too, I’ve had the boxes for about a month now and it’s working great!

I’ve only used 8 card holders so far, so it breaks down to a little bit more than a dollar a card holder, witch is not bad, because I’m planning on using most of them in handmade boxes in the studio.

Here you can see a little better the space I was trying to fill, I would have probably choose a different pattern for the boxes, but HEY! blame it on Target’s wrapping paper sale =]

I also made taller boxes for my shipping station, I’m still not done with that space but you can see the boxes in the images below. I painted them instead of using wrapping paper and it’s actually a lot faster, I used the same paint as in my walls, just thin layers so that the boxes will not get all bended.

I am very happy about how the boxes turn out and they fit the spaces I needed beautifully! I am excited to get the studio done so I can show you all, but for now I’ll just share projects along the way =]

And remember if you have a tricky spot you want to organize with boxes but haven’t found anything that fits, cardboard might be the solution!
I hope you all have a wonderful day!!
XOXO

If my fix didn’t work at least I knew that they were going to the trash anyways so I had them to explore and play conscience free =] I am happy to report my fix actually worked and I’ve been wearing them for the past year very successfully. I did wanted to wait a see how they worked before I shared this post, I just didn’t imagine it was going to take me 14 months to actually finish the post.

After I fixed the ripped sides, and sealed the seam with glue that whole area got a little darker (because of the glue), so I decided to cover the front part of the boots (my plan was to cover the whole boot, but then I liked them just like this) So if you have a stain thats bugging you, or just want to add some color to your Uggs, this can help you accomplish that =]

I do want to point out something before you try this:

• I am no shoe professional, so if you have a small rip and your boots are fairly new you might want to consider to take them to a professional to have them fixed. Uggs are not cheap so I would hate for anyone to ruin their boots.
• This process was very time consuming, so if you want something fast, this project might not be for you. After applying glue you have to let it sit for a day or so, so if you are fixing rips and covering (you need glue for both) you are looking at minimun 2 days.

So if you are committed to try my fix, I am going to explain how I did this and list all the materials I used =]

MATERIALS

1. Your fabric of choice, I used a thicker home decor canvas
2. Newspaper, for you to trace the shape of the front boot
3. E6000 glue
4. I used Premium invisible thread but you can also use any strong upholstery threat
5. Quilter’s Curved Needle
6. Scissors
7. A round tip knife
8. Normal pins (not in the picture)
9. *Optional: pliers (not in the picture)

*If you only want to add the fabric and don’t need to fix any rips, you will need the exact same materials.

PROCESS

(I apologize I have no pictures to show the process, I fixed them in such a rush, the night before leaving for ALT summit last year, I forgot to take pictures)

As you can see in the image below, the rip on the boots I got was pretty severe, so the first thing for me to do was to sew the rip close, to do it I used the curved needle and upholstery threat. Sometimes it can be a little hard to sew through the leather, so to help myself I used pliers to pull the needle in the hard places.

After the rip was sewed, I added glue on top of the seam (this makes it waterproof too) I spread it with the knife and tried to have a medium thick layer. Let it sit for a whole day so it can get completely dry before moving to covering it.

1. To cover the boot I first made a newspaper template of the area that I was going to cover. To do this I first filled the boot with news paper so that it’s sturdy (like when you are wearing them) to hold the paper better, then I placed a sheet of paper on top and used pins to “pin” (just poke the pin through the boot seam) in the center (top and bottom) of the boot and also one on each side, I just used my fingernails to mark the seam of the boot, you can also do it with a pen, go all the way around inside the seam. After this remove the pins and cut the template with scissors.
2. Once you have your newspaper template you can cut the fabric, to do this fold the fabric so that the right sides are facing each other, place the template on top one of the wrong sides and mark leaving at least a 1/4″ seam allowance (this will be the part you are going to fold in so that the edges of your fabric don’t fray) To me it works better when I iron down the seam allowance so that I don’t have to keep pushing the fabric when sewing.

   

3. To add the fabric to the boot, I first added glue to the bottom edge of the seam (not exactly on the seam but on the boot part as close to the seam as you can) carefully put the fabric as close to the seam as possible, pin it in place (pin all the way around the fabric) and then helping yourself with the round point knife, slowly “push” the fabric into the bottom seam* (this will help keep prolong the life of this “fix”) afte that, use pins to secure the fabric in place, carefully sew the fabric to the bottom binding of the boot and let the glue dry.

   

   * In the photos below you can see that I sewed the sides but not the bottom seam, after a couple of months the bottom part started to show some wear and I decided to sew that too, just to make sure that it was going to last longer, so I recommend to sew it from the beginning.

4. After the bottom seam is dry, carefully sew the rest of the fabric piece. I kept the pins there until I finish sewing. Remember, since the boot it’s hard use the same holes the seams already have and if it’s too much grab the threat when sewing instead of going through the leader.

On the above image you can see a close up of how I sewed the fabric piece to the boot. I skipped some of the wholes that the boot already have, just because I was a little tired, but I would recommend to sew all of them for a more “long lasting” result.

So there you go!
I wish I would have taken pictures of the process, that always helps me =] but I will not be fixing more boots for a while. If I do I will update this post but for now I think this is a little help to those who want to try it out!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!
XOXO

1- Paper Rose by Lia from Ellinée
2- Rolled flower by Wendy from Dozi
3- Paper orchid by Lia from Ellinée
4- Watercolor paper flowers by Rachel from Heart of light

I hope you all have a wonderful (and warm) day!

Just in case you haven’t heard about Feedburner before, you should know that it is one of the most popular and fully featured free service for syndication of your blog feed. Once you have set up your free Feedburner account, you can choose to redirect your blog feed through Feedburner, instead of simply offering the default feed which are automatically generated for your blog in either Blogger or WordPress.

There are many reasons why burning your feed through Feedburner will be beneficial for both you and your readers, and don’t get me wrong Feedburner has had a lot of little issues in the last couple of years (then it became a part of Google) but for being a free service I totally give it thumbs up, I’ve personally tried other paid feed services and after a few weeks I always came back to Feedburner. Sometimes I hate it and wish they had better capabilities but overall they are a pretty awesome service and in this post I want to explain why and the basics to get you running =]

In this post I will cover all of the following:

• Why use Feedburner?
• How To burn your feed
• How to activate FeedCount
• How to automatically publish to Twitter
• How to activate Email delivery
• Additional recommendations

Why use Feedburner?

1. All of your subscribers will receive the same feed. If you are using Blogger, by default you are publishing up to three different feed URLs for your blog:
   • yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default (atom feed)
   • yourblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml (another atom feed)
   • yourblog.blogspot.com/rss.xml (an RSS feed)

   In WordPress.org feeds can be publish in all of the following:

   • http://yourblog.com/feed/
   • http://yourblog.com/feed/rss/
   • http://yourblog.com/feed/rss2/
   • http://yourblog.com/feed/rdf/
   • http://yourblog.com/feed/atom/

   However, if you choose to redirect your feed to your Feedburner syndicated feed, all of these feeds will lead to the same single online location:

   feeds.feeedburner.com/YOUR-FEED-NAME

   This also means that all of your subscribers will receive a feed with the same (possibly improved) formatting.

2. Using Feedburner offers readers more incentive to subscribe, the Feedburner view includes the most popular feed readers, this makes it a lot easier for those interested to subscribe with their favorite feed reader.

   [Click on images to enlarge]

   

   

   …

   The image on the right is an example of unformatted, default feed page which is accessed when feeds are not redirected through Feedburner. The image on the left is an example of a feed page generated by Feedburner. As you can see, this is much more visually enticing and includes easy subscription options for your readers.

3. Offer Email subscriptions. If you are in Blogger you might have notice that now you can simply add a subscribe by email widget, well this is run by Feedburner, so if you add it Blogger will automatically burn a feed for your blog and enable the email delivery option. Email delivery can really increase the number of subscribers you have in your blog and with Feedburner you just set it up and forget about it =] I will explain how to customize the delivery later.

   

4. You will have a better indication of your subscriber base. While many bloggers choose to add a Feedburner account and offer this syndication to subscribers, those who don’t redirect their feeds through Feedburner or any other feed manager, will seem to have fewer subscribers! … Why? because it is almost impossible to know how many subscribers retrieve your default blog feed unless you redirect them through a feed manager, having your readers pull your content from a feed manager will help you know in a more accurate way the numer of subscribers to your feed, and after you figure out the number you can brag about it with a count widget

   

5. Monitor the growth of your blog using the subscriber count. As your blog matures and your posts reach a wider audience, you will undoubtedly notice an increase in your subscriber count. Using your blog’s subscriber count is one method of analyzing your blog’s growth, and can also offer statistics of page views and popular posts (Similar but not as detailed as Google Analytics ).

How to burn your feed

1. The process to create a Feedburner feed depends on the platform your blog is using, but in order to start with any of then you will need to go to Google Feedburner Homepage and Login using your existing Gmail account or Google Apps account. If you don’t have a Gmail account, you can create one for free and sign into Feedburner.
2. Identify your platform and proceed with the Google instructions for each case.
   • For WordPress.com
   • For WordPress.org
   • For Blogger
   • For TypePad
3. In the instructions above remember that after you burn your feed you will need to redirect the feed from your blog to Feedbuner, in Blogger you do it from the Dashboard but for WordPress you will need a Plugging to do so.

How to activate FeedCount

Activating FeedCount is very easy and this will allow you to create a widget to display your follower’s number as well as code a custom widget if you are tech savvy =] Here are the steps to activate and get the default widget:

[Click on Image to enlarge]


1. First you need to go to the Publicize menu tab on your Feedburner feed account
2. After that go to the FeedCount submenu option on your left sidebar
3. Now customize if you want a static or animated widget
4. Choose the colors for your background and text
5. Activate or save and they will show you the code you have copy and paste in the place on your blog you want the widget to show, paste it wherever you want to display and you are DONE!

How to automatically publish to Twitter

I have to say that this is one of my favorite options, because after I activated this I could forget about manually publishing my post to twitter each time I posted something new in my blog, the best part is that you can customize so it pulls your categories and uses them as hash tags in the tweet.

[Click on Image to enlarge]


1. First you need to go to the Publicize menu tab on your Feedburner feed account
2. After that go to the Socialize submenu option on your left sidebar
3. Now you have to link to your twitter account, just follow the stept when it prompts you and grand permission to Feedburner to use your twitter account
4. Now it’s time to customize your tweet, you should always have the inlude lick option so that people can actually go to the post you are tweeting about
5. Remember I said you can customize so your tweet has hastags, here is hwere you have to select the “create hash tags from categories” from the drop-down, so the hash tag of your tweet will depend on the categorie/s you selected for your the post when you publish in your blog
6. I really like the additional text option, so you can let your readers know that this is a post from your blog I do something like {New on the blog} or {A fresh post} to go before the post title on the tweet, so that my followers know that is a post and not a random tweet.
7. If you publish on your blog multiple times a day and dont want to overload your followers you can also set a max number of tweets a day
8. Or you can set it so you tweet only post in a specific category of your blog
9. Click Activate or Save and you are all set!

How to activate Email delivery

I know there are a lot of Bloggers that prefer to not activate this option and offer only a snippet on their feed (and not the full post) so that their readers are “forced” to visit their blogs and that way increase their pageviews. But as a reader of various blogs, I personally hate this and simply unsubscribe from their feeds, I like the liberty of choosing how to “follow” a blog and I think my readers too, so I offer as many ways to receive my content as possible.

Activating Email delivery is a very easy process and it can increase your number of followers in a very radical way. Just to set an example, in this little blog 20% of my RSS subscribers are subscribed via Email, so never underestimate the Email delivery option.

Gettings started is very easy and if you are in Blogger you can pull the widget from the Blogger default widget list. If you are in WordPress.com you can offer it with a link and in WordPress.org you can just copy the code you will get after activating it (first step)

::: Activate the service


[Click on Image to enlarge]

1. First you need to go to the Publicize menu tab on your Feedburner feed account
2. After that go to the Email subscription submenu option on your left sidebar
3. Click on Activate and this will allow you to create a widget and link to offer this option to your readers

After you activate the service, you will have a submenu on the sidebar where you can customize your email delivery even further, so I will explain all of the sub categories and how to make the best out of them.

::: Subscription management


[Click on Image to enlarge]

4. Click on “Subscription Management” link on the left side of you sidebar
5. Select the language you want your widget
6. You can copy and paste the code show above, but if you want you can select in their drop-down options and it will automatically create a widget for you
7. On the bottom you can see a number of subscribers at the bottom, since this is a sample feed there is no subscribers, but once you do you can actually see all of the emails, suspend or pause their delivery. Not that you should stop it but its good to have control over who receives your updates. After you edit just click Save

::: Communication preferences


[Click on Image to enlarge]

8. Click on “Communication Preferences” link on the left side of you sidebar
9. Here you can edit the email that will show when your subscribers receive their updates, by default it will show your Gmail account associated with your Feedburner account, so now it’s your chance to change it to your blog’s email
10. You also have control over the subjet of the confirmation email that will be send to them when they subscribe to your email updates, you can edit to say whatever you want but remember that it is important that they need to confirm their subscription before it start working
11. You can also edit the body text of the confirmation email
12. After you are done with all of the edits just click Save

::: Email branding


[Click on Image to enlarge]

13. Click on “Email Branding” link on the left side of you sidebar
14. You can edit the title of the email your readers will receive each time you post on your blog
15. Feedburner offers you the change to add a logo image to the top of your email for branding purposes, upload your image to your blog and then copy the URL it should eb something like this http://www.YOURBLOG.com/YOUR_IMAGE_NAME.jpg but it might change depending on how you host your images. Copy the URL in that filed
16. You can further customize the look of your email by setting colors and fonts
17. You can preview how it would look there
18. After you are happy with the setting click save

::: Delivery options


[Click on Image to enlarge]

19. Click on “Delivery Options” link on the left side of you sidebar
20. Select your timezone
21. Select the time you would like the emails to be delivered (eg. if you post during the day, morning emails would deliver everything you posted the day before)
22. Click Save

Additional recommendations

There are some other options I personally thing are very useful when it comes to your feed so here is the extra steps I would recommend to go that extra mile on your feed management:

::: Activate smartfeed
Assure maximun compatibility with any feed reader

[Click on Image to enlarge]


1. First you need to go to the Optimize menu tab on your Feedburner feed account
2. After that go to the SmartFeed submenu option on your left sidebar
3. Click on the activate button and you are set!

::: Activate feedflare
Creates interactivity at the bottom of your feed so that your readers can share, see the comment count, etc from their readers.

[Click on Images to enlarge]


1. First you need to go to the Optimize menu tab on your Feedburner feed account
2. After that go to the FeedFlare submenu option on your left sidebar
3. Select all of the items you wish to add to your feed, you also have the possibility to crete your own if what they have for default is not enough =]
4. Go to the very bottom of the page an activate the service



5. You can drag and rearrange the order you want your flares to show at the bottom of your feed
6. Click on the Save button and you are DONE!

For further Questions and explanations you can visit the Google help section dedicated to FeedBurner.
I hope you found this post helpful and if you have topics you would like me to cover just leave your suggestion in the comment section
Keep warm and have a wonderful day!

I am a fabric flower lover so I was thrilled to be asked to participate, the flower I am going to show you is the lily bloom, I added my own spin and changed the center of the flower, hand stitched the edges and add some leafs =] I am super excited about how it came out.

The instructions were super easy and in the back there is patterns for all of the flowers. Here a peek to the Lily bloom flower page (how cute is the bag of the second picture in the below image huh?)

Since I still have not finish my sewing room, I though this would make the perfect wall accent, I added my new flower with my rose flower and my daisy in a embroidery hoop, and TA-DA! a cute and very pink accent for my wall is ready.

So here is your chance to win Amy’s new book and Kanzashi Tools from Clover to whip up your own fab floral accessories! Simply comment sharing a project you would like to add flowers to or what you’d like to make with fabric flowers and the most original idea will be the winner, so be creative =] The winner will be chosen March 7th!

AND if you can’t wait just go to IndygoJunction.com and get 20% OFF your order their with the code FFBK19 (offer expires 5/1/13)

Feeling lucky? Check out the other stops for more chances to WIN!:

2/2/13 – Indygo Junction Kick Off Post
2/4/13 – Kollabora
2/5/13 – CraftFoxes
2/6/13 – Sewing Secrets
2/7/13 – Princess Lasertron
2/8/13 – Dollar Store Crafts
2/11/13 – Tatertots & Jello
2/12/13 – Family Ever After
2/13/13 – This Mama Makes Stuff
2/14/13 – Amy’s Creative Side
2/15/13 – Today’s Creative Blog
2/18/13 – Lazy Girl Designs
2/19/13 – Skip to My Lou
2/20/13 – The Sewing Loft
2/21/13 – The Crafty Cupboard
2/22/13 – Fishsticks Designs
2/25/13 – Taradara
2/26/13 – Diary of a Quilter
2/27/13 – Craft Gossip
2/28/13 – How Joyful – This is ME!
3/1/13 – Lindsay Sews
3/4/13 – Flamingo Toes
3/5/13 – In Color Order
3/6/13 – See Kate Sew
3/7/13 – Handmade Charlotte
3/8/13 – Sew Caroline
3/9/13 – Indygo Junction Wrap Up Post, Bonus Giveaway & Free Flower Project –

So there you go! good luck and have a lovely day!
XO

ps. There was a lot of very fun ideas so to be fair I selected the winner using random.org

In this new section I am going to cover the most frequent questions I get asked by my clients, but if you have a special topic you’d like me to blog about, just mention it on the comments and I’ll try my best to cover it.

So to start, I am going to talk about blogging platforms, I will cover the 3 most popular ones with my clients (Blogger, WordPress.com and WordPress.org) When starting a blog or when having a re-design most bloggers question what platform they should go with, and to be honest it’s about band-with, size, investment and flexibility. So it depends on what is more important to you, so to help out I worked on a comparison table that will cover some of the most important points.

So to start, note that there are two different WordPress, one is the free software you install in your own Host (.org), you are in charge of installing and updating, the other is self-hosted, meaning it’s run and updated by WordPress.com, you have an account, log-in and start blogging.

*Most hosting providers cost anywhere from $3-12 dollars a month and they almost always come with a free domain name (in case you don’t have one already) I recommend: Blue Host, Fat Cow Host, Host Gator and Go Daddy.

**Widgets are HTML or PHP code added normally on sidebars or footers. Example: Google Friend connect, BlogHer, PassionFruitsads, Counters, Google Adsense, etc.

To wrap things up my advice would be… If you are considering to start a blog with serious aspirations and consider advertising or blogging for profit, I would recommend you to go with a self-hosted option (WordPress.org) The set up and Design can be a little tricky, but with patience a lot of Google or just by hiring a Designer to handle all that for you (*wink* + big wave!) you can end up with a very profesional blog or website.

If you blog as a hobby and have no plans of monetizing in the long run I would suggest you to consider Blogger or WordPress.com – the set up is super easy and there are a variety of very economical templates, as well as some free ones (I offer a couple of Free templates in my Website and premades in my Shop) and while they might not have quite the same level of features, for someone that does not need much they are perfect!

And that’s it my friends! I hope this helps you undertand the differences a little better and if you are hunger for more check out this post by Darren from Problogger.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

The first har I made (when I made this tutorial) was a month and a half a go, so Peanut was only 2 and a half months, I made the hat just like the pattern I’m sharing, but he grew out of it pretty fast, so I made a second one (photo below) adding 1/4″ around the pattern.

Since I made this pattern measuring Conner and not with an actual hat, I’m not sure about the sizes. The best way to be sure the hat will fit your baby perfectly is to measure the circumference and then measure the pattern, that’s what I did for the second hat, I just added 1/2″total to the width of the pattern. But you can also just use your copy machine and make the whole pattern bigger.

Now that I’ve warn all of you about the sizing, let’s start making this cute hat!

MATERIALS

• Joyful baby hat pattern
• Approx. 1/2 yard of fleece*
• Scissors
• Sewing machine (or treat and needle if you want to make them by hand)
• Marking pen
• Pins

* if you make it in one color you only need 1/2 yard, if you make it in 2 colors, get 1/2 yard of each and that will be good for 2 hats.

The pattern is a PDF file, to view that file you will need to have Abobe Reader installed on your PC or MAC. Without the program you will not be able to download or preview the file. If you have troubles please visit this link, because each browser works differently.

PROCESS

	1- First you need to cut your pieces, in this picture you can see the 4 pieces for the ears and the two for the hat body. I left 1/4″of seam allowance for mine.
	2- Place the ear pieces with the right side facing in and sew around the edge.
	3- Turn the ears inside our, then fold the ends toward the center, just like the picture shows, once you have them in that shape pin them in place.
	4- Fold the hat body in half right side facing in an sew the back and the front.
	5- Repeat the previous step with the inside piece of the hat.
	6- Place the hat with the front facing towards you.
	7- Pin the hears to the body as shown the picture, ears facing down with the front facing the front of the hat.
	8- Pin the rest of the top opening so it’s easier to sew.
	9- Repeat with the inside piece, and if you want you can add ears to this too and make the hat reversible, I chose to have one side with ears and the other one without.
	10- Turn the hat inside out.
	11- Place the body pieces one inside the other with the right sides facing each other.
	12- Pin them in place for easy sewing.
	13- Sew all the way around leaving a small opening in the back.
	14- Turn the hat inside out.
	15- Pin the opening shut and topstitch all the way around the edge of the hat.
	16- After topstitching you can iron the seams so your hat is ready to warm up your baby’s hear and ears!

I am so bummed he grew out of the white hat so fast, but that’s the good part about this patterns being simple, they are fearly easy to make so I just have to make more!

He is not much of a hat baby, he always tries to take them off, but I just pull it back in. I really like the coverage of the ears and I made the back kind of low so his neck is protected from the back too.

I hope you enjoy the pattern and I will love to see pictures if you make some for your babies or to give as presents!
XO

ps. The winner of my print giveaway is listed in this post so go ahead and see if you are one of the two lucky winners! and if you didn’t win don’t worry there will be another chance to win a print soon for everyone following me on Instagram!

* This tutorial is provided for personal use only. If you wish to sell items made with this tutorial please purchase a limited production license.
Check the Site policy at the bottom for further information, Thank you!

You might have wonder why this little space was so silent, well I’ve been working really hard sketching, vectorizing and painting the new Illustration print line for my shop =] And I’m beyond excited to finally (an officially) launch it today!

As I mention in a previous post, one of my goal for this year was to go back to pen and paper, draw more and try new things. And this is a new as it gets, I had the idea of selling prints for two years now, but I was always too busy to invest time on that little venture.

So to celebrate 2 of my lovely readers will get an 8″x10″ print!
To enter you just have to comment on this post and let me know:

1 – What’s your favorite product from my Etsy shop
2 – What print you’d like to win!

As easy as that! This giveaway is open for International readers as well =] and also I am offering an awesome 20% OFF everything in my shop using the code “PRINTLAUNCH” at checkout until February 6th (I will also pick out the winner that day!).

I am excited to work on new designs to add in the next few months and to finally show you all my work so far. It has been very challenging to do anything with little Conner always asking for attention, and since he comes first many days I get almost nothing done, but others he just watches me draw, I’m hoping I can get him to love drawing and painting too =]

ps. I also added a few notebooks, cards and sometime soon (if everything works out) I will be adding other super exciting items with my designs on them =]

I will email you ladies soon to send the prints your way! and thank you everyone for participate and don’t worry there will be another chance to win a print soon for everyone following me on Instagram!

This project took me a long time because I made it the first month after Peanut was born, at that point I could only try to do something while he was sleeping, but crafting was not a priority when you are sleep deprived and with a messy house =] The good part, I got to REALLY enjoy having a few minutes here and there to relax and play with cardboard!

So here is the list of all the materials I use to make it, in my case I already had all of it so the cost of this cute little project was $0 YAY!

• Oversized cardboard box
• Illustrator
• Printer
• X-acto knives
• Cutting mat
• Wire
• Pliers
• Hot glue gun
• Paper glue tape
• Paint

The first thing I did was to measure the box I was going to use to make the sign, I was lucky to receive the giraffe in Peanut’s nursery that week, so I had the perfect large size box to use. If you plan to purchase one, you should check the Home Depot or any shipping supply store.

After I knew the exact size of the usable area of the box, I drew a rectangle on Illustrator with that measurements, then I started playing with the words. I knew I wanted to try to merge the “E” from his first and middle name, so I made 3 different options.

Ken was on a fire assignment that week, so I texted him the options I made and he agreed that the first option was the best.

After that I merged the shapes of the letters (pathfinder tool) so I could have one solid area and make it “print friendly” I set up my file so I could print the super big shape in 12 different pages, after printing I taped them together (I was feeling kind of lazy so I didn’t use my normal way to enlarge graphics)

Below you can see the box I used and the printed version of my sign, next I cut the front and back of the box (I used two layer of cardboard to make the sign thicker) and taped my template on top.

Since I was all about saving time that day, I didn’t mark the pieces of cardboard and cut them separately (like I would recommend if you can’t handle the X-acto well) I just re-taped the template each time it was a little loose, I started by cutting all of the edges, just a rectangular shape, and tape again in all the areas my sign touched the external lines. After that I started with the inside details very carefully.

Once I had my sign all cut out, I measured 3 inches down and made the marks to add wire (only to the back piece) so the sign could hang easily. I poked the wire through the cardboard and twisted it on the other side, to reinforce I added some hot glue in between the wire and cardboard (on the inside side, not the side facing out)

Once I made the hanging pieces I hot glue both cardboard pieces together, I used a lot of glue, but since I recommend to use paper tape for the edges, the hot glue is mostly just to keep them together on the center.

I cut my paper tape in half lengthwise to have thiner stripes and glue them to the edge of my sign, this part was kind of a pain, because I wasn’t planning on covering the letters after this, so the tape had to have a clean finish. After I did all of the edges I punched some circles and glue them randomly to add a little bit of texture, the edges were so noticeable! So the texture helped making the sign more like one piece.

Once I had my sign all ready I used the same paint from the wall I was going to hang it, so it would match, I though about using the contrasting color, but I love how it’s still contrasting just with the shape and thickness.

The final sign is actually super light, but just in case our crib is not flushed with the wall now (it was for the pictures) and I know that its placed high enough so that our little Conner will not try to hand from it once he’s older and starts doing that kind of things!

I hope you experiment with cardboard now! I know I’ve mentioned a lot of times, but it’s one of my favorites materials ever, so many possibilities =]

ps. the font I used is Impact with some width edits on Illustrator.

I hope you have a lovely day!
XOXO

My resolution for this year was to get back into drawing and using pen and paper again. I’ve done handwriting and graphics for my blog designs before, but my resolution is to create a line of prints to sell on my Studio’s etsy shop. My idea is to create a line of sewing/crafting prints and some other nursery and office focus ones. I’m excited to explore that creative outlet again! Here a few preview of what I’ve been working on.

Santa also surprised me with this beautiful serger, so I also want to learn about it and do some tutorials =] Another project I want to tackle is the one I started two years a go, my 101 in 1001 I need to update the things I’ve done but I still have a way to go, my plan is to try and finish all of it before October. I also have cool collaboration plans for a new series of post that I know a lot of you would really like, so yeah! lots of exciting things going on right now.

But of course my main priority is to keep enjoying this little guy! I’ve used him as a model for an upcoming tutorial, and here a few behind the scenes pictures =]

What are your plans for this year? Anyone exploring new creative outlets?
I hope you are staying warm!
XOXO

I am not going to lie usually I could have done a project like this in a very productive afternoon, but it actually took me a few weeks to finally finish, for a few days I though that they were not going to be done before Christmas, but if you follow me on instagram you already know that actually I came about a week early =]

Sewing with baby Peanut with me was a challenge, some days I was lucky to have about and hour of uninterrupted work, but it was very worth it! My initial idea was to have very modern typography stockings for all of us, but one day while feeding baby Peanut I started to doodle characters that I though would look very cute as stockings, I was immediately sold on the idea and made templates for each one of “us” the same day, planned the colors and happily the only thing I had to buy were a few thread colors I didn’t have.

I decided to make Ken a snowman with a green hat in honor to his Irish heritage, I made baby Peanut a Polar Bear because to me he looks like a little bear now =] Curly got to be a reindeer and I decided to be a very feminine penguin with pink ear muffs.

The process was super easy with the patterns, I just draw the shapes into a real size paper stocking template. Then cut all the pieces, pin them to my felt cut and assemble.

I pinned all of the pieces so they will stay in place and sewed the edges with a zig-zag stitch in matching thread.

I used two different kind of blue fabric for the stocking, a simple cotton for the back and top fold and a more textured (almost like burlap) looking for the front.

I hand-stitch our “names” with red embroidery floss and TA-DA! We have family stockings!

I loved how they turn out and I had so much fun making them, but if I could have changed one thing I would have made everything in only 2 colors because I had to change the thread TOO many times! below a sample of all the different colors I used for this project.

And of course I had to share a pic of my little helper, snuggled on mommy’s fleece fabric for winter projects.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! and many blessing for this upcoming year, may 2013 be full of success, happiness and LOVE!
XOXO

I can’t believe the holidays are already here! I feel like only last month was March =] (I guess that’s what happens when you have morning sickness for 28 weeks hehe) This year was a specially blessed one for our family, we became home owners in March and now I finally have my own space for sewing, crafting and an office for my Design Business. Then a couple of months a go we received the greatest blessing ever, our darling little boy! I don’t have words to describe how much we love this little man, he melts our heart with every smile (and every single face he makes)

We could not be happier, we feel extremely blessed and thankful. I know that there is a lot of people that can’t wait for 2012 to be over so they can start a new year fresh from everything. So I want to wish to everyone many blessings for this holiday season and upcoming year, may all your wishes come true and I hope 2013 brings lots of JOY to your life =]

And as a little celebration from my part I am offering discounts for advertisement and my shop. I am still on “official” maternity leave and I am not accepting new clients for Custom design work, because I’m still getting used to my new Mommy-sleep-deprived life, but I just reopened my Etsy shop so I can slowly start to get back on the working train.

From today until January 5th (two weeks) I am offering a special 20% OFF on advertisement for my blog and also on all my Etsy shop products.

And now my Etsy shop doe snot only carry WordPress and Blogger blog templates, I’ve added two new categories: Pints and printables and Calling cards. So now you can purchase paper prints, printable files for calling cards and 8×11″ prints. I have a few designs for each category but I hope to add some more.

These few months have been super crazy and I now that I am feeling better I can’t believe on how much pain I was, that whole 26 hours of labor and emergency C-section really messed up with my body. I guess you don’t realize how bad you feel until you feel good huh? So I am very thankful for that and also the fact that I am slowly getting the hang of being responsible for another human being and do ONE or TWO other things.

All of you that have a newborn and continue with your normal social life, blogging, etc. get a WOW! from my part because I could NOT do it all, my days were completely busy just taking care of our little Peanut and trying to catch up on sleep whenever I had a chance.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a fantastic Navidad, wishing you love, happiness and JOY!
XOXO

I wanted to make a marquee K because of our last name “Kelley” since Peanut’s sex was a surprise and we had decided on two names with different initials. I’ve seen foam-board tutorials for these cuties, but I wanted something more resistant and lasting, so unlike most of my up-cycled projects this time I wanted wood instead of cardboard or foam-board.

For this project the only thing I bough were the lights ($15.00 with a coupon), everything else was recycled. We had just received our floors and the pallet was laying around our front yard, so I used pieces from the feet of the pallet for the sides and after getting all the nails out I used that board for the K shape.

The very first thing I did was to draw a small version of how I wanted the K, it would have been a lot faster to just select a font that had the look I wanted but at that point the computer screen still made me dizzy so I just went the old way. After I finish the K, I used the same principle I used to escalate the logo in my office wall and enlarge it to the real size I wanted (about 35″ tall)

Se the rest of the post after the jump.

Once I had the template on paper I cut it so I could tape it to my board, it would have been easier to just use a marker, but the lazy pregnant wanted to skip a step =] I carefully cut the board with a jigsaw – I should have just ask Ken to do it, because I ended up cutting the bucket underneath (I can blame my pregnancy clumsiness for that, because I never had anything like that happen to me before)

After I cut the K shape, I used all the little rectangles they had assemble to make the pallet feet and place them on the sides. Because I needed space on the back for the lights I placed 1.5″pieces of wood under the K so that when I glued the side pieces the K would be exactly on the center.

And because at 8 months pregnant I was so uncomfortable, I decided to just work on the floor in front of the garage =] and no one could move me from there! That’s what happens when getting up is a very extreme task.

I asked Ken to help me with the angles to finish (to keep me from breaking anything else) I let the wood glue dry for a full day because I added lots of glue in all of the joints.

Once the glue was dry I sanded the whole thing and used calking to fill up and smooth the joints.

Before I cut my K shape I made sure I mark all the little dots where the lights where going to go. I just used a nail and hammer for that. To actually make the wholes I used a drill. I measure the socket of my lights to make the holes as close as possible so that I could have the socket fit tightly on the hole.

And here are my lights in case you were wondering, they give a super nice glow but they are not very strong, perfect for a night light.

I gave it 3 coats of paint (I used the leftover from the closet) and to plug we got an extension cord and add a light switch, of course I had the hardest time finding a switch for the exact cord we got, so I asked my Mom to bring me a few of them from Chile.

I am super happy about how it ended up looking, and it was way less work than the elephant lamp.

So there you go! I hope this can help anyone wanting to go the wood route for a project like this.
I hope you are all having a great day!
XOXO

ps. If you are one of the hundreds that emailed me in the past few months, know that I am working on my inbox now so I hopefully will get to you shortly (hopefully I’ll get down to 0 next week) Penut only cooperates a few days a week =]