GIVEAWAY!

Hey y'all!

My amazing friend and Birth Bootcamp Instructor launched a GIVEAWAY today! 
http://mybabymybirth.com/?p=171

 
Winner receives:

• An adorable pair of Freshly Picked Moccasins (you choose the color and size) valued at $60
• A Portrait Session from Ashley Kasallis Photography (maternity or newborn) valued at $250
• A Hand-Drawn Portrait from a photo by Cherise Larue (size 11 x 14) valued at $175
• $50 off a Live Birth Boot Camp class with yours truly at My Baby My Birth!

To enter:

1. Like the post. (http://mybabymybirth.com/?p=171)
2. Follow @freshlypicked, @ashleykasallisphotography, @cherisedavies08, @mybabymybirth and @birthbootcamp on Instagram or Facebook.
3. Comment and tag 3 friends who you think would love these gifts!

For additional entries:

1. Repost/Share giveaway to Instagram or Facebook with #mommymusthavesgiveaway

Giveaway ends on Valentine’s Day!! Good luck! xoxo

Newborn & Children Pencil Portraits

I was fourteen and totally awkward as awkward can be. I was trying to find myself and find what I could be good at. Art had been my favorite class since I was small but I wouldn't have been picked out of a crowd for my artistic abilities then.

 

But my father was a painter and sketch artist. He would sketch almost anything we wanted during church to keep us 'reverent'. He was famous among us seven children for his rabbits and his little girl drawings. The ones with the ruffles on her dress, big eyes and her hands behind her back.

 

(Jaren)

Once, when I was about seven, after family prayer mom and dad were going to send us off to get ready for bed but dad added an extra incentive for doing it quickly. (I imagine we were all the worst doddlers, magnified by the fact that we were trying to get all seven of us through the one bathroom...)

He said whoever got all their bathroom chores done and got back to the living room first would get their portrait drawn.

I won.

So I was awkwardly fourteen and decided to try out my portrait drawing skills.

To this day, I'm grateful I don't have that first self-portrait. 

( Jessica)

My father was so kind, though, and gave me pointers and explained the ratios between the facial features and encouraged me to keep trying.

Within a few months I had figured something out. Something just clicked.

 I've been drawing portraits from photographs ever since. 

Photos in magazines were some of my first subjects.  The pictures were large and gave a wide variety of options.  This eventually lead me to try drawing baby photos from a parenting magazine:

 

It was an ad for a medicine to help babies with gas. :) See how sad the poor thing is! 

Gas is no laughing matter!

(Cody)

 

 (Taelyn) Pardon the glare from the glass!

 

(Tanner)

 

(Client)

I've found over the years that the bigger the drawing, the more enjoyable for me and my clients. 

I love love love my return clients who come back to me every time they have another child or they need another gift. Bless them. 

Elephant Quilt: Green Orange & Brown Baby Boy Quilt

So, what qualifies a quilt as a quilt vs a blanket???

I don't even know. 

This blanket is quilted but not really pieced so I guess you can decide. :)

This is the blanket I made for my newest little nephew!

He lives all the way out in VA but I got to meet him and snuggle him a few weeks ago at our family reunion.  He's totes adorbes. ;)

This is a flannel blanket on both sides and the binding is cotton. 

It is quilted (though you really can't see it in this pic)

So Kimi is going to send me more pics but here's one that I do have of it with it folded over so you can see the back and front at the same time. 

I'll add more pics of the final quilt once I get them! :)

Here's a couple from the process:

My fabric choices:

After basting all the layers together, prior to quilting and binding:

Story Time Blanket- With Two Awesome TIPS!!!

So recently I made a blanket and quilted it.....so I don't know if that counts as a blanket or a quilt.

Either way, I wanted to share a couple tips that I've learned that are helpful and that make the process easier.

Here's my finished product:

Now, I used the Warm Natural batting, flannel on both sides and cotton binding.

HELPFUL HINT #1:

Batting can be pricey and I hate wasting it when I have random/too small pieces from previous projects. So I looked it up and found out you can sew them together!!!

Cut them all with straight edges and place the pieces out to make the size you need. 

DO NOT OVERLAP edges. (Otherwise you'll have bumpy batting, and that's no good)

Just place them against each other as close as you can without overlapping and run it through your sewing machine on the biggest zig-zag stitch you have, catching each piece as it crosses. 

 This held up perfect and was completely surprised at it's stability and how smooth it was in the end!

This saved me time (not having to run back to the store for more batting) and money.

 So I picked out my fabrics. The teal is a little unconventional and quite dark compared the the front. 

I'm still actually on the fence about my decision but I love it anyway.

HELPFUL HINT #2

(Don't miss this one!!)

Batting Spray.

Batting Spray can be your best friend when quilting.

I use it for blankets that I quilt like this one and for when I piece.

Essentially you'll glue all the layers of your quilt together. This should prevent the need for needles and pins (thank goodness!!!!).

Lay out some kind of protection for the carpet or table or whatever you lay it out on. The spray is in an aerosol can and you don't want to get it on anything but your blanket.

I use recycled sketch paper because I have it and it's cheap. Newspaper is a really good option too.

So place one of your (previously ironed) blanket/quilt out as smooth and flat as you can WITH THE BACK SIDE FACING UP (the print or outside of the fabric should face down).

Place your batting over and smooth out to make sure it all fits right. 

I fold back the top half carefully and spray the adhesive on the fabric.

Carefully roll the batting over it and gently smooth. 

Repeat the the bottom half.

Lay the fabric for the other side of the quilt out, roll one half back, spray

and gently replace the fabric over the batting, smoothing as you go.

 This should be your end result: 

All three layers glued together perfectly and ready to quilt over! 

I don't have pics for the quilting and binding on this quilt. But I hope those two tips were helpful!

Pink Blue and Yellow Pieced Quilt

I decided to finally do a square block pieced quilt. I had never done one before and wanted to try.

I used scraps from other quilts I had made. 

When I started planning it, I started with a different solid color for the back. I ended up going with a darker pink later on. Also, I was placing my blocks out in different ways, trying to decide what I liked best.

Here I was trying out placing them in diamond shape and off center from each row.

I decided I didn't like it.

 And went with the more traditional route. 

 Here it is once it was all sewn together, prior to quilting and binding: 

 It sat there over the back of my couch waiting to be quilted for almost a month while I worked on our camping trip and the painting for Cindy.

Here you can see that I had changed to the darker Pink for the back. 

I also added a linen border, which I love love love. 

And this time, I didn't add binding separately, I pulled the back fabric around the edges to bind it.

Final product after quilting and binding: 

(Wish the colors weren't so off. The colors in the above pic are actually the most accurate)

Where the Wild Things Are inspired nursery decor

I originally did Where the Wild Things Are nursery decor for my best friend Brie's little one's room last year when she asked me to. 

Then recently, my friend Emily said she had just fallen in love with the ones I had done for Brie and asked if I could do the same for her twin boys' room. 

She just asked if I could add orange to my original designs and then we left out one of the canvases I had done for Brie and and replaced it with a new design.

Once she and her family move into their new house and get them all hung, she'll send me a picture of it all hung and I'll add it. In the mean-time, here are all the paintings with front and side views. They're all on 2inch deep canvases to prevent the need for framing: 

Here's the canvas that replaced Brie's Greatest Adventure canvas:

These are also unique to Emily's set:

And here are her arrows: 

(PS- this photoshoot of the arrows was done while on our road trip last month, using a dish towel as the back drop. Bryce was driving down the highway, while I set this up over the dashboard and my lap and took the pics on my iPhone. Ha!)

Wood Scoreboard with usable metal number plates

My sister asked me to make a scoreboard for her boys' bedroom. They love sports with all their hearts and play constantly. 

We decided to make it a little generic so that they could use it for different sports.

The ones we found online were not usable. They didn't have usable/movable number plates. 

So between me and my husband we came up with these metal number plates. :)

So, I started with a piece of wood. (4ft x 3ft)

 Then I drew on the curve to cut out on the top. 

And drew on the cut marks on the steel metal sheet we bought at Home Depot

Hubby cut the wood for me.

And I sanded it down. I wanted it to be smooth enough that when the boys want to move it to another room or outside, it wouldn't hurt their little hands. :)

Then I did a layer of BIN to cover the knots in the wood and seal it.

Then painted.

As much as I like doing things by hand, I was on a time crunch so I bought and used stencils for the lettering.

But I only had one size of stencil. So the "THE" was by hand and the "FAUSET BOYS" I made my own stencil using my Silhouette Cameo and thick card stock.

(notice, the Where the Wild Things are painting behind the scoreboard. I was working on those at the same time as the scoreboard.) 

Then I added all the blocks for where to place the numbers. 

The top middle two are where to keep the numbers when they're not being used.

You'll see in the final pic that the hooks I used on those two are much larger than the hooks for the scoring.

The Number plates are made from that steel metal sheet we bought. Bryce used a tool at work to cut them out and then I sanded the edges and cut the numbers out of black vinyl, again using my Silhouette Cameo.

And then I used sand paper and rocks (yes, rocks) to antique it just a little.

Final Product: 

I'll add a couple more photos once Jen has it hung in the boys' room!