I made this pink monkey birthday hat for Elise to wear on her 1st birthday. She was a good sport about it and I think she looked adorable especially when she dug into her matching monkey birthday cake. It’s really easy to put together and attach the white ribbon ties. The free printable PDF below …
Paper Crafts
I made this “Happy 1st Birthday Elise” pink and yellow hanging birthday banner for Elise’s pink monkey and bananas birthday party. I hung it over our living room curtains using three kinds of ribbon – vintage yellow ric-rac, yellow solid ribbon and yellow and white polka-dot ribbon, then I added pink and yellow balloons on …
I was totally stumped trying to think of birthday party theme ideas for Elise’s 1st birthday. And then Shane suggested having a Pink Monkey and Bananas 1st birthday party theme and it just felt perfect. Elise has snuggled with her adorable Pink Monkey Security Blankie (by Angel Dear) since she was just a few months …
At the risk of dating myself my sisters and I used to play with embossed label makers when we were kids. With the new “improved” models and computers that came out in the 90s, manual embossing label makers all but disappeared from use. I saw this Dymo retro embossing label maker while walking through the …
Years ago I bought a vintage kissing couple pendant at a Manhattan summertime flea market. I wore the sweet thing ad nauseum, which you can see here in this summer cider and berry smoothie post that includes this photo of me fawning over Stephanie and Dale at the Green City Market. See also: ‘Make Valentines …
My niece Madison is universally and deservedly spoiled by all members of our family. I try to make her special handmade Christmas and birthday gifts like this one and that one. With our cross-country family — Madison in Arizona, me and Shane in Chicago and the grandparents in Michigan — I decided to make Madison …
When Shane told me that he wanted to host our sixth annual Thanksgiving dinner I didn’t quite know what to say. Baby Elise was born on October 20th and I was crazy sore and beat. Flash forward a month and we’re all starting to get the hang of things as a family. So what better …
My coworker Danielle recently came back to work after the birth to her first child, son Otto James. We work together at a web design company in an industrial part of Chicago near Oprah’s TV studio and the legendary Chicago meat markets. So I thought it would be fun to make a book for Otto …
Make this easy fall DIY leaf wreath idea to properly welcome autumn! It’s a simple DIY fall wreath idea that you can make in less than 1 hour. Hang it on your front door or inside your home to decorate for autumn. I love this time of year …changing leaves, football, pumpkins, cider, late-afternoon sunshine, …
Recently I took part in the first inaugural Chicago Craft Social hosted by Amanda Edwards, Megan Hall, Megan Heep, and Jessica Jones. In addition to meeting tons of super cool crafty Chicago ladies, I made these fun retro Paris notecards out of old time-y black-and-white France vacation photos. Table leader Lisa Haskin of Faux Transformations …
Canning has been a theme the past few weeks so I’m excited to share these free printable canning labels with you. My pretty floral printable canning labels come in five colors — red, blue, green, purple, and yellow — for your jams, salsa, and relish. You can print my free labels for mason jar lids, …
I am totally in love with these DIY sewn fabric wedding invitations that I designed for recent bride Natalie Fayard. Thanks to Google, Natalie and her mother found me and my sewn fabric poppy wedding invitations that were featured in the The Knot’s 2007-2008 Fall/Winter National Magazine. Natalie had found this lovely yellow, black, white …
Cristin Siegel made this sophisticated wedding card box covered in decorative paper to collect cards at her sister-in-law Mara’s wedding reception. Pretty crafty and much cuter than a most of the pre-made money boxes being sold out there, don’t you think? And it coordinated perfectly with Mara’s black-and-yellow wedding theme to boot. This craft would …
So my niece Madison’s 3rd birthday is in April. What a big girl! I work near Madison Street in Chicago and couldn’t resist taking a photo of a street sign to top her package. The sign perfectly fit with the theme of the handmade present I made her (I’ll be posting her gift soon). Madison …
I really like this thoughtful detail from Cristin and Adam Siegel’s Chicago nuptials. Cristin tied handmade name tags around the tops of water-filled glass Ball mason jars to hold the bridal party’s bouquets during the reception. And aren’t the bridesmaid bouquets that feature orchids and fiddlehead ferns lovely? Supplies: Thick paper in two colors (Cristin …