Make it a Last Minute Tradition!

Who out there doesn't love a good holiday tradition? Well, if you have been following the blog for long you know that we love holiday traditions around my house. So if you haven't already, I'm here to encourage you to carve pumpkins with your family each year, starting tonight!! It can be quick, easy, and full of laughter. And in the end, it's totally worth the glow on your little ones faces and those of your pumpkins too!

First, you have to make a quick afternoon trip to a fun pumpkin farm to find just the right one. And just think, if you've waited this long they probably have a sale! (If you can't get out to the farm, I bet your grocer has a great $3.99 pumpkin with your name written all over it!)

Cut the top of your pumpkin and scoop out all the insides, leaving the carving side of your pumpkin as thin as you can. Have a good metal serving spoon? Those make perfect scoopers and scrapers!

To make it easy, go to your local grocery store and pick up a book of carving patterns. The set always comes with these great little tools that make carving a cinch.

 Be sure to get the whole family involved!

When everyone's done, light them up, sit back and enjoy the show!!

Have some fun pumpkin carvings you'd like to share? Link them up to our Flickr account so we can all enjoy! Hope you can 'carve out' some time to get in on this great tradition this year before its too late!

Happy Wednesday, and Happy Halloween!

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A Simple Thank You {Silhouette Project}

About a month ago my sister-in-law and mother-in-law threw me the sweetest baby shower. I knew before we even had the shower how much time and effort they were putting in to make it perfect for me and the soon to be baby, so I needed the perfect simple way to thank them and this is what I came up with.

I love how the Silhouette can cut out simple messages to make such professional looking cards, so I turned to my Silhouette SD and its design studio to find just the right thing.

  

After I found the sweetest phrase, I combined it with the tag options I already had in my gallery to create quick thank you tags. 

 

I quickly glued the messages onto the tags I had cut out in varying scrapbook papers and tied them off with a ribbon. The result looked so 'finished' and I loved it! 

Using the Silhouette to make these tags was so quick and easy. I guess it's the job of the machine working at it's simplest? It got me thinking about how I need to start working ahead for personalized Christmas gift tags, how sweet would that be? Have you used your Silhouette to make any tags or cards recently? We'd love to have you link them to our Flickr sight!

Here are a couple of other simple thank you ideas I've used recently too. (I've been blessed with some sweet showers for baby Abbott, so I've gotten to make quite a few fun thank you's this year!)

These were created just using Microsoft word and an inkjet printer, though I did use the Silhouette to cut out one of my favorite scalloped circles too!

Happy Wednesday!

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Documenting a New Arrival {Pinterest Style}

On September 20th my little family grew by 19.5 inches, and we were thrilled!

We were blessed with a beautiful baby boy named Abbott. He is perfect in every single way.

I have always regretted not documenting my daughter Laurelei's growth in an obvious way, and knew that this time around I didn't want to miss out on those monthly shots. Luckily, my baby pinboard on Pinterest came to the rescue in the perfect way...

via {melange photography blog}

Someone had pinned the perfect idea found on melange photography, by Mary Schannen. I loved the idea of the blocks and knew that I could create my own fairly easily. After finding a set of blocks at Marshalls for $0.70 I knew it was meant to be!

There were only 5 blocks in the set, so I had to get creative. In order to have all the numbers, I needed two of the blocks just for them. That only left 3 blocks for the word 'months.' I decided just to abbreviate and go with it. It wasn't ideal, but did I mention that it was only $0.70? :) The blocks were already the perfect distressed milky white, so all I had to do was cut out the numbers on my Silhouette machine and use the outline as a stencil.

I let the paint dry, peeled off the Silhouette stencil and voila, instant block set!

I am so in love with my newest little sweetie. I cannot wait to watch him grow over the next 12 months, documenting it along the way. We are over the moon!

You can read more about little Abbott's journey here, on little burlew our family blog.

Happy Wednesday!

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Eek! Wreath {A Silhouette Project}

Halloween is just about a month away now, practically right around the corner! It's no surprise that I love to make a  fun wreath to help celebrate the holidays. I still love my wreath from last year for outside, but wanted something new to hang inside the door this year too! Since the wreath was going to be away from 'the elements,' I decided to put my Silhouette SD to work to help create a ribbon and paper wreath.

Here is what I came up with:

 

I won't bore you with the obvious details since I pretty much just combined a myriad of different wreath styles we've all seen before, but I will highlight the different parts of the wreath and give you a quick run down of what I used to create it. 

I grabbed a bunch of supplies to start with, not knowing what I would use and not use. I used the wire ring as the base of the wreath, and began by tying ribbon in varying colors and sizes in knots around about a third of the wire base.

 

 Next,  I used my Silhouette SD to cut out scalloped circles in varying sizes and two different colors. I found a layout I liked and covered the remaining two-thirds of the wire base. I used hot glue to keep the circles in place.

 

I decided I needed some more volume on the paper side of the wreath, so I created some scalloped paper flowers to sort of mimic clouds. Then, I used my Silhouette SD to cut out bats in varying sizes. I created a crease down the center to create death and give them the fling illusion, then glued them in an ascending  fashion 'flying' us the side of the wreath.

 

 As a finishing touch, I added one of my favorite spooky words, eek! (I used this last year in my pumpkin display too.) I picked a fun font from my computer and cut it out from a thick orange cardstock using the Silhouette as well.

And that was is! I tied a big orange bow on the top to hang it with because, come on, who doesn't love a GIANT bow? What do you think?

Have a fun holiday wreath you've been working on? I would LOVE to see it. Upload your version of the paper wreath to our Flickr sight, or leave a comment with your latest and greatest wreath here.

{I'll be linking to the CSI Fall Projects.}

 

And just in case you are interested...

{Last year's wreath, the shoes wreath}

Happy Wednesday!

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Very Hungry Caterpillar Costume

 I had so much fun making my daughter's No-sew Cup Cake Halloween costume last year that I knew I wanted to make my kids costumes again this year. (And I couldn't have been more excited that this year I got to make 2 costumes for my kid(s) plural! :) When it came to the baby's costume, I knew I wanted something super easy to wear and not fussy at all. Well, awhile back I pinned the perfect option! A Very Hungry Caterpillar, as inspired by Sweet Love Creates, found here. Can you find the "pin-spiration?"

Here was the visual I was working with...

While their set is absolutely perfect, it did not fit my budget for costumes, which I have decided should always stay under $20.00. So, I decided to put my crocheting skills to good use and make my own. It is nowhere near as perfect as theirs, but it should do just fine!

I started by picking out some of my favorite soft yarn from a local fabric store. I chose a heavier blend that I knew would keep the baby warm if Halloween turned into a cooler night.  The turquoise was the closest thing I could find to book image with some color variation. All of the greens were just too solid or too thin of a yarn to give me just what I want. I guess the turquoise is just my creative licensing at work!

Since the baby won't be more than a month old on the occasion, I decided to stick with making just a little hat and sack to put the baby in. The sack is nice and tight, like a swaddling blanket, so hopefully the baby will be nice and cozy! I like how the turquoise yarn created its own color bands around the sack. I didn't have to do a thing to make that happen, and it was fabulous.

I wish I could give a state of the art tutorial on how to crochet, but I am just not that adept with my crocheting skills! You can find all of the basics of the stitch here, a simple tutorial I used to refresh some of my skills too. To make the sack and the hat, I followed similar steps to the ones found in this tutorial as well. To make the sack, just make a really long hat!

 

I'll confess that for the eyes, I just made a long first crochet stitch and hot-glued it into a circle, lime green on the inside and yellow on the outside. For the nose and antennae, I just crocheted a couple of lines and pulled the stitch through the hat to secure them into place.

We were very pleased with the result. I finished the costume in all of two evenings at home, probably under 5 hours all together. The baby will be able to wear his own comfy clothes and we can just wrap him up in his little sack like a warm blanket! The hat will be sure to keep him warm on a cold night too! Now, I just hope when he comes he is standard infant size so it will fit just right. Fingers crossed!

What costumes are you working on this fall? I'd love to see what you have in mind!
Happy Wednesday!

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