EtsyMom Treasure Hunt

So my Etsy team - EtsyMoms - is hosting a new event for Valentine's Day. A Treasure Hunt!

What the mess is a Treasure Hunt, you say?

Well it's similar to the blog hop we had at the beginning of December except that you'll be surfing through shops instead of blogs looking for treasure {particular symbols} in the shops listings. Each shop will hide 1 of 3 images in one of their listings, & you have to search for it!

Confusing? Bear with me. You'll start at the EtsyMom Blog where you'll find a list of the participating shops. Imagine that you go to my shop....Baby Swank, & you start with my first listing. You check out all 5 pictures & your looking for one of the specified images hidden in that listing. Yeah, it's small. It's a treasure hunt people...it's not supposed to be obvious! Not in the first listing? Keep going! Once you've found the "treasure" {image}, you will email the URL for the listing that you found the symbol in to etsymomteam@gmail.com. But wait! Only one email! Put all your url's in one email. Viola! You're entered into the giveaway for the prize: items from each of the participating EtsyMom shops. & guess what? There are three prize categories: Grand Prize, Second Place, & Third Place. What a great deal! Whoever has found the most after Feb. 14th wins the Grand Prize!

Here are the images you're looking for!

Good Luck!!

 

Make Someones Day with Seed Packets

Marigold Seed Packets by Baby Swank on Etsy

Valentine's Day is here, and Spring is just around the corner. Want a fun, creative way to say "I love you", "Thinking of you", or "You mean so much to me"? How about saying it with seed packs!

I'm now offering these cute little Marigold seed packs in my shop. Each pack comes with a miniature clay pot to plant your seeds in that can be customized to any color you'd like. Each seed pack has between 50-100 seeds inside that I saved myself...way more than you'll need for your pot!

Gift ideas:

• say "thank you" to someone who likes flowers
• makes great diy projects for kids
• share it with someone and grow your seeds together

One idea I had for this item was for it to become a creative gift that you could share. Have you seen the movie, How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days? I love that movie! One of my favorite parts is when she freaks out on him for letting their "love fern" die. So I thought, that would make a great gift and project! It wouldn't matter if you had young children or if you did it with your mother or a friend even. Buy two seed packs, keep one for yourself, give the other one away, and grow your flowers together. Every time you look at your flower growing in your window seal, I guarantee you'll think of that person that means so much to you.

So what are you waiting for? Go buy some seed packs today, and grow some beautiful flowers with someone to remember them by!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Yay! My first guest post. One down, one to go!

Wanna learn how to make cheaper, healthier laundry detergent for you and your family? Check it out here at naturemoms.com!

Celebrity Look-a-likes?

Okay, so I've learned a couple new things today from a new blog I found.

1. Facebook has a week where everyone changes their profile picture to a picture of a celebrity that they look like. ---- I must of missed out on this. I don't even think I was aware of it. Maybe I wasn't on facebook for a week. Doubt it.
2. So, I don't think that I look like anyone in particular, but the owner of the blog I was on found this website where you upload a picture of yourself, and it matches you up with celebrities that you look like. So here are my results...

So, I'm pretty excited that I now know which celebrities I look like. I'm sure that will get me far in life. At least I had fun with it! BTW, I am excited that I look like Kathrine Heigl.

DIY Felt Plush Heart

Plush Felt Pin Cushion by Baby Swank

     If you've checked out the plush animals section of my shop, you've seen my chickie, "Scrappy". Cute, isn't he?

     Making plush items is so easy and a lot of fun. So today I'm gonna show you how to make a Plush Heart out of felt. I figured a heart was appropriate since Valentine's Day is just around the corner. You can use this for so many things because it's so cute and fun...and easy! I'm using mine for a pin cushion since my current one is almost kaput, but it would also make a cute decoration for a party or room.

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Supplies:

3 colors of felt

stuffing - I used FiberFil

embroidery thread

needle, chalk, scissors

Cut Away!
Okay, so here you're going to want to cut out 3 sizes of hearts. Pick the color you want for your main heart and cut out 2 hearts the exact same size. Then cut another heart a tad smaller from your next color, and the third heart even smaller than the second in the last color.




Layer and Stitch:
     Now you want to layer your hearts. Does it look okay or do you need to trim some more? I decided that for my heart, I would put a little stuffing in between each layer so that my finished product had a bit more depth. You can make your heart flat if you want.
     Take your top heart (smallest) and start stitching it to the middle heart using your embroidery thread and needle. Use any kind of stitch you'd like. I used a basic stitch to keep it simple. BUT WAIT...don't stitch it closed if you're going to stuff in between each layer. Stop when you have 3/4 of it stitched, put a bit of stuffing in, then finish it up. Repeat this same process for the last layer.


Now for the finishing touch!
     Follow the above stitching instructions to stitch your big hearts together. I changed my stitch here to a button hole stitch to make it more decorative. Make sure you leave room to stuff it full before finishing up. Viola! All done! Now you can add a cute ribbon, lace, or rik-rak to the back so you can hang it, or if you're gonna use it as a pin cushion like I am, you can attach some hook and loop to the back and secure it somewhere!




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Awesome Giveaway on Oh My Handmade!

Okay, I found this really cool blog today, Oh My Handmade, while I was surfing another blog I love, and it's definitely a new favorite! It has tons of great stuff, and right now they're hosting a giveaway for your choice of two patterns from Pink Panda Fabrics! You have to go check their shop out if you love to sew, and don't forget to enter into this giveaway! There are several ways to enter. And no, they aren't asking an arm and a leg from you...it's simple and easy! Click here to be taken directly to the giveaway! Good luck!

New Bibs

So, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret here...I'm working on some new bibs, and I'm going to give you a sneak peak at them!

When I make items for my shop or for other moms as gifts, I want my item to solve a problem for them. Since I'm a mom with children of my own I feel like I can do this by solving my own problems, therefore solving there's...hopefully without them ever knowing they had one.

Anyway, one problem that I want to solve concerns feeding babies. They are messy little squirts, especially when they're first learning to eat solids. Take a look at my kid here!

Isaiah eating spagetti!

Yes, he's not wearing a bib, therefore staining his clothes and giving me more laundry to do since I probably changed his outfit after he ate. So, what's my problem here...stains and laundry, that's what, and I don't know anyone who likes doing laundry. If you do, come to my house because I can give you plenty to enjoy!

So how do I solve this problem? Well, by putting a bib on the kid before he eats, that's how! And I don't mean any bib. I mean a freakin' awesome bib! I LOVE my Washcloth Bibs! They are big enough to cover the kids clothes, they velcro so that they'll come undone if by chance it gets pulled hard enough {no choking the kiddies!}, they have a pocket at the bottom to catch food in, you can clean the kids face when they're done eating, and they are so stinkin' cute! 

Anyway, that solves one problem - staining, but what about laundry? Yeah, a bib isn't as bad to wash as clothes, but it's still not solving both problems. So, I finally have a great idea that I want to try, and I try everything on my kids first! I found this material at the fabric store the other day. It's called "laminated cotton". I'm sure some of you have heard of it. It comes in really cute designs, and it's waterproof on one side. So, I'm making a bib out of it. My plan is once you're done feeding your kid, just rinse your bib off with water, and hang it up to dry. So simple. It solves both my problems -staining and laundry! 

Now, I thought that I'd be posting pics of a finished bib, but I'm not. I'm overcasting the edges of the bib so that the material doesn't fray, and my over-locking foot broke. {Dang thing! Doesn't it know I'm working and I need it's stupid self! GGEEERRRRR!} So anyway, I can't finish them until I buy another. But, here's the new bib anyway.

bib with pocket

stupid broke over-locking foot

So what do you think of it? Can you think of any areas I can improve before it goes to my shop?