Color Your Own Valentine's Cards

Are you like me? I refuse to buy commercial, "character" based valentines. At least for now while Beeper still does not realize he has a choice in the matter and is happy to go along with whatever his mama puts in front of him.

Like these Color Your Own Valentines Cards I purchased from Etsy--a $3.99 pdf purchase=as many valentine's as you can manage to print + a donation to the Children's Heart Foundation. I love that. Don't you?

The pdf consists of 12 different hand drawn valentines by various Etsy artists and not a dud in the bunch, I tell you. They are all sweet and lovely. Also that donation was a clincher for me.

So, rather than coloring valentines for each of his classmates, Beeper is packaging a little set of these cards for them to color themselves. Brilliant--right? A little gift and a valentine all in one envelope (never mind that we did almost the exact same thing last year--new school, new kids--they'll never know). I made a little band for the cards and Beeper addressed some brightly colored envelopes and now we are set for Friday's Valentine's Day shindig.

Interested in the cards? You can buy your own set here. Interested in doing something like what we did? You can download the band we made for the cards here:

DOWNLOAD VALENTINE CARD BAND

Happy Valentine's Day.

Baby Shower GIft-Making Mania

I really did get a little crazy with the handmade baby gifts this time--but there were unforeseen forces of which I was under the influence--like that damn organic cotton fleece that kept wooing me to make just one more thing, and the fact that this gift would be for my dear friend J. who has had such a long, perilous road to pregnancy. And I do believe that there is no better way to welcome new life into the world than with something handmade, something you have put part of yourself into, love sewn in with each stitch (and maybe a little blood too if you often prick your finger because you are watching MadMen while hand-sewing).

So, you see the fruits of my baby-stuff-making-mania above. Mostly my designs, but I could not resist including the lovely Kokeshi Stuffie designed by Melly and Me. Also, Beeper picked out the board books: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle and Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli. They were favorites of his when he was a babe. And, of course, the itty bitty knit booties from Funchi that could break your heart they are so perfectly made--they definitely caused an outcry of admiration when they were held up for all to see.

I will be posting a tutorial next week for one of those baby items, and within the next couple of weeks, a pattern pack in my little shop that will include patterns and illustrated instructions for 5 or 6 different baby things...just in case you too may want to engage in your own baby gift-making mania.

In My Shop: Sleepyhead Bunny & Rainbow Sunshine Plushie

More sweet and lovely little plushies in my shop made from that uber-soft organic cotton fleece I recently purchased. There is just something about this material that reminds me of a lovingly worn and most-beloved toy--in fact, I think my brother had this little sleepy puppy (Sleeper was what we called him) made from a fabric very similar to this way back when--back before the notion of making fabrics from synthetic materials ever existed. And it was his favorite cuddle toy for ages--and then it was adopted by me when he was over it.

So, I have designed a little plushie sleepyhead bunny that is based on an antique bunny toy I saw in a book. It is sweetly sized for little ones with a sleepy face inspired by the aforementioned Sleeper. I also created this sunshiney little plushie made with a color wheel of ribbons. You know, babies love those little ribbon tags, and, well, lately, I am in love with using lots of color (the influence of Beeper's favored coloring approach--the color-it-like-a-rainbow-threw-up-all-over-it approach).

You can find them both in my shop, here.

Doodle Face Something-or-Other...

What can I say about Beeper's latest Doodle Face? How about this: What the...? The kid has some imagination...is it a mutant giant attacking the kingdom? A bunny gone real, real bad? A spider scaling the castle walls? Who can say? Beeper would not divulge the answer to these burning questions and so I turn to you--what do you think it is? And yes, I have added some notes to the drawing for your comprehension(the temperamental artist was willing to divulge that much)--just in case it is not completely obvious to you what all is there.

Celebrating the Boy

It is Celebrate the Boy month over at Made by Rae and Made. This means that the whole month of February, Rae and Dana are doing posts on crafts and projects and tutorials geared for boys only. Love this idea. Boys need crafty, handmade things too.

Rae and Dana have already launched the month with some of their own projects--Dana has a cool tee pattern with endless possibilities and Rae has a brilliant tutorial on making little boys shirts from recycled big-boy shirts. And, all month they will featuring various guest bloggers who will be sharing their own boy-centric projects--me included. I will be showing up on Feb 23 with a boy-ish toy tutorial (although, girls are welcome to play too, if they are so inclined--even if I do hear comments from Beeper's girl friends like, His toys are all snakes and super heroes and stuff. They aren't very good. And kind of gross. To which I say, I hear you, sister, but the world can't be all hot pink ruffles and Polly Pockets now, can it? Besides, you'll understand that Batman is cool when you're older.). There are many other wonderful crafters who will be contributing too--Meg from Elsie Marley among them.

So, go check it out. Find Rae's blog here, and Dana's here.

Quilt Anxiety

Look at this stack of fabrics. So lovely it almost hurts my heart. They are from the Good Folks collection from Anna Maria Horner. In a fit of ardor, I purchased fat quarters of the entire collection--all 24 heart-wrendingly beautiful fabrics. You see, I came across Anna Maria's blog (her home is too devastingly lovely) and then her fabrics and then I was in love and knew I had to have a quilt made from these fabrics for our bedroom. But, I don't quilt. Not that that deterred me, as you can see, from purchasing the fabrics.

As soon as the fabrics arrived, I tore into the box and laid them out across our bed, just to see how they would look if they were to be assembled in the aforementioned quilt--and , I think my heart sang when it saw all those fabrics together, against the backdrop of our dark gray walls. This is the quilt of my dreams--if only I can manage to make it a reality. And dear Chez Beeper Bebe readers, I am scared. I have never ever made a quilt, and what if I screw it up? Gods knows what sort of desperate state I would fall into if I ruined all that otherworldly fabric and worse yet, this quilt would never grace my bedroom.

So, I turn to all of you for your advice and assistance. Please tell me, where are the best resources for how to make a quilt? Books? Blogs? Other Resources? And if you are already quilters and know a thing or two about this elusive craft, what are your personal tips? What sort of batting is the best for this sort of project? What should I do for binding? What about backing it? I would be in a state of paralysis with all this lack of knowledge I posses on the subject, but dammit if I am not determined to make this quilt and have it in my bedroom.

So, let me tell what I am envisioning at this point: I want to make this quilt with big square blocks of the fabric (somewhat like pictured above)--because I think the fabric itself is the superstar of this quilt, and more importantly, I need to start simple or I will never have the gumption to make this. And I have this idea that I would quilt it by hand, quilting around varying bits of the patterns in the fabric--creating this sort of mosaic of quilted patterns. Is this a bad idea? Am I doomed for failure if I go down this path? What don't I know that I should? Please help me. I am so utterly clueless. I mean, I sew things all the time, but somehow this feels like I am about to attempt to build the the space shuttle in my bedroom--because it is that important to me.

Anything you can do to help will result in my eternal gratitude.

In My Shop: Chow Bebe Bibs & Plushie Duckies

I have a very dear friend who after a long, hard road to getting pregnant (and staying pregnant), is finally there. I have been so ridiculously excited for her that I have been making loads of stuff for her baby--some stuff that I have made before, some entirely new designs, and one or two things designed by others. Of course, the way I work is that if I am bothering to make one, I might as well make three (or eight). So, some all new baby stuff has landed in my shop--and there is more to come in the next few days.

One of my favorites that I have just put into my shop is that uber-soft organic cotton fleece duckie in the cream color. I ADORE this material and if I had to go into a cocoon at any point, it would be made of this. There will be more items made from this because it is just so frickin lovely that all babies should be born into a world where at least one item they are handed is something made from this material. Seriously. And its eco-friendly.

And some more bibs. I was using Amy Karol's bib pattern--but then decided to make my own design that was a little more modern and curvier and wider through the body so as to provide more coverage to little baby buddah-bellies. And did I mention those are environmentally friendly too?--Yeah, they are since they are made with recycled towels.

So, considering all the baby-gear-creation going on around here, the big picture plan is to put together a little booklet with several Beeper Bebe for Babies patterns in it that will be for sale, at some point, in my shop. And yes, one tutorial will be offered for download here too, so don't change that dial.