Chubby Bird Bud Vases

I think it's clear that I live in the place that becomes dark and cold first, as it seems I am already reaching an autumnal level of crafting. Anyway. Ellen gave me some super fun paper for my birthday, and I picked up these small pharmacy jars at an antique store. I used a chubby bird pattern I found online and used decoupage glue by Decopatch. I removed glue outside the bird on the glass using my go-to handy dandy standby for everything - nailpolish remover.

a self-explanatory apron

I have sewn an apron. It was easy and back to the kind of 'flat' sewing I like best. There really isn't that much else to. say. about. this. apron. The fabric is Michael Miller Fifties Kitchen. The word apron is starting to look funny to me now.

Pack Your Bags

Here's Elana and her new weekender bag! For my second attempt (see first version here), I used Etsuko Furuya's Echino Balance bird meduim-weight fabric. The matching toiletry bag was made from Amy Butler's stash & dash pattern (interior is the cheerful full moon polka dot in cherry from Amy Butler's Lotus line).

When friends reproduce, I produce. Baby onesies.

I also used the japanese pattern book (referred to by Ellen below) to make some baby onesies. I thought a bit about how to make the pattern transfer. I first traced the pattern onto regular notebook paper. Then, on two of the onesies, I used a tracing paper/tracing wheel set for fabric and a ballpoint pen to push the pattern through the tracing paper onto the fabric when the wheel could not catch the necessary detail. For the rather un-detailed rainbow onesie, I just traced the pattern onto a piece of notebook paper and sewed the paper onto the shirt to get the main pattern (before filling in with color etc). The paper was pretty easy to tear away.

Bridezilla's Sweatshop

During the month of June, I did more cutting, pasting, folding, pressing, taping, measuring, stitching, sewing and tying than I ever thought possible. And somewhere in the middle of it all, double-sided tape became my best friend. Preparation for Elana's wedding pushed me to the edge of craftiness and beyond, and even though it was occasionally lonely being the only worker in Bridezilla's sweatshop, it was super fun*.

Elana picked out gorgeous Japanese paper for the table tents, place cards, wedding directory and guest book, which were all made from supplies we bought at the Paper Source**. The guest book was made from a photo album kit and was bound with the dove gray German linen photo book cloth. I thought the album was the perfect size but I didn't think the vellum paper between the pages was appropriate for a guest book, so I removed each vellum sheet and pasted a strip of the Japanese paper against the spine of each page. If you're into book binding, and even if you're not, you should pick up one of these bonefolders cuz it's a sweet little tool (but not as cool as double-sided tape). Elana came up with the idea of a guest seating directory which listed each guest's name, affiliation to the bride or groom, kids (if applicable), where they were from, and their table number. It was a very practical little booklet and a great souvenir.

The petal cones were made from regular sheets of paper and were covered with white 8" paper doilies. We spruced up three inexpensive baskets with cute white ribbon and stuffed them with the petal cones (that were constructed very late at night, I might add).

Lastly, the photo garland added a personal touch to the reception. I printed out a bunch of childhood photos of the bride and groom, sandwiched them between pieces of vellum paper and stitched them together. Two trusty friendzillas strung them up with pretty ribbon at the reception.

* Since I used Mikey's apartment as my craft studio (thanks, Michael!), he kept me company and provided feedback, so I wan't technically alone...

**Warning: The Paper Source is a great store but can be a dangerous black hole for enthusiastic crafters. Never go into the Paper Source just to "look around" and never go by yourself - either situation will result in a state of total delirium.