Woven hot air balloon baby mobile

For a friend's baby shower I was looking for a different kind of baby mobile idea on Pinterest and came across a woven 3D baby mobile that caught my eye. I honestly didn't know what I was getting myself into!

I didn't take many photos in the process since it took me a LONG time to make each balloon and I am so thankful I only had to make five of them haha. For these balloons, you do not need a die cutter like I have, so you can still cut it out by hand if you want. It would just take a longer time. The pattern can be found here.

The PapterMatrix website is great and actually provides tutorial videos, they aren't perfect but it helped me out a lot when trying to figure out how to put the balloons together.

The materials you need are:

1. Glue
2. Paper
3. Tons of paper clips! (You NEED these!)
4. Beads
5. Dowels
6. Fishing line or another type of thin string
7. PATIENCE!

The first balloon actually took me TWO hours to make, YES TWO!!! I was pretty frustrated at it and I started to think about whether or not I should actually make them. I decided to push through and the rest of the balloons took me about 45 minutes each to make.

It was pretty hard to get the baskets on the balloons too, as you can see some of them are crooked in the photo =(. I probably wouldn't make another one of these since it took a long time. However, if you have the patience and this would be a beautiful one to make for yourself or for a friend!

Happy birthday with layered balloon stamp

I created this card for a friend who has a birthday coming up and hopefully this person is going to like it when it arrives in the mail! I normally don't post cards before the recipient receives them but the timing of posts didn't work out!

For this card, I first used my silhouette cameo and stamping kit to cut out a balloon shape. Originally I was planning on buying a balloon stamp, but it was hard to find the perfect shape that I wanted to use. Stamps are also super expensive and the Cameo allows me to create any shape I want, whenever I want! 

The inspiration for this card was from Pinterest and the original card had three different colors but I decided to stick with two to make it easier for me to stamp.

Also! It is so convenient to have envelopes that I pre-made with different colors! Beats having to find an envelope every time I make a card!! For the post on how I made more cards, click here!

Crafting Days: I heart U card

I wanted to try something different for handmade cards this time around and I had seen some cards on Pinterest that used embroidery thread as accents. The idea was very simple but the process did take some time since I hand punched all of the holes needed for the pattern.

First I printed out a heart and added the letters. I made sure the sizing was fine when compared to the card and taped it down onto the back of a magazine. Using a sewing pin, I poked holes along the outlines as evenly as I could.

After all of the holes were done, I used needle and thread and sewed randomly through the holes, while making sure that the letters were recognizable.

Crafting Days!: Stamp Catalog

So I don't have that many stamps but I am starting to a get a bit worried that I would buy the same ones on my weekly trips (shh don't tell my husband) to Michaels. After being on Pinterest for such a long time, I have seen a lot of people who catalog their stamps so that they can see what they have and to make it easier for them to choose the right one.

I figured since that I don't have that many right now, it would be a smart idea to start now before I bought more and go out of hand (shhh don't tell my husband ;)). With the amount of stamps I have, it still took me a 3-4 hours to sort, stamp, and clean all of them.

In the end, I ended up with 10 pages and I even scanned them in and uploaded it to Google Drive so that I can access them on the go! Now I don't have to worry about buying the same stamps now!

Crafting Days: Custom Toms!

One day at a friends house, I was web surfing through Etsy looking for random things to buy and I came across a woman who painted custom Toms. I saw that she sold one that were of Disney's Stitch and thought, "I CAN DO THAT MYSELF!". So here we are, with a little tutorial/step by step of how I did it!

Materials:

• A pair of Toms. I chose white so that I wouldn't have to worry about painting
• Paint
• Pencil
• Sealant/finishing spray

Steps:

1. Open the box of Toms!

2. Draw your design using pencil.

3. PAINT!!!!!!

4. Seal it, yea... seal it good. (make sure you do it outside haha) I did get a bit dizzy from the spray, just FYI.

5. Wait to dry and then wear them!

Crafting days: Buttons galore

On August 30th, Kollaboration NY had it's showcase (my post about it will be up later) and in preparation, I made 200 buttons that were used that day. They were placed in our VIP ticket holders swag bags as well as used to promote our brand at our booth. 

The buttons didn't take too long to make. With some help I was able to make all of them within 2hours. Luckily I have the Cameo otherwise cutting the 200 graphics would have taken forever! Oh, by the way.. I have a button maker ;)

Crafting Days: Happy birthday cards

Last Thursday, I made two birthday cards for two special people who had birthdays within days of each other. Both cards were inspired by others on pinterest but for the most part it was my own design.

The first card belongs to my lovely cousin who is very talented in baking and cooking in general. I made her this cake card which was cut out all using the silhouette cameo and then hand glued on.

The second card I went for something bolder and more colorful. It now belongs to my aunt who is very thoughtful and always willing to help. The card that inspired this one was "busier" with more colors but having just the bold pennant banners and washi tape does it for me.

Which one do you like more?