Baby Name Sign

I have a confession to make.

I love babies.

I love the way they look, I love that sweet "baby smell," I love to hold and snuggle them...and then I love to give them back to their mommies and daddies.

So, while I'm personally done with diapers and 2 AM feedings, I looooove it when our friends have new babies I can enjoy!

Last Tuesday, our friends Ryan and Julie had a sweet little baby girl who they're calling Rylie.  Get it?  

Ryan + Julie = Rylie!

Seriously, how cool is that?  Our names just wouldn't have worked that way.  LC would have been, um, Damy?  Amiel?  Day?  Let's just say that wasn't an option for us.  But Rylie, now that's genius.  I wanted to make a special gift for her, and here's what I came up with.

It's a variation on the family name sign I made recently; you can find a full tutorial here. 

For this one, though, I painted the letters grey first, then wrote on them with white paint pen rather than just writing on the pink background because there wasn't enough contrast between the colors.  Ask me how I know.  I may or may not have done the whole name the original way only to find that you could barely see it.  Artsy Fail.

Each letter says its own special thing.

R= Lyrics to "You Are My Sunshine"

Y= Lyrics to "I love you a bushel and a peck"

L= "Sugar and Spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of."

I= "I love you to the moon and back, sweet baby girl."

E= "Rylie is a child of God.  Ryan + Julie = Rylie.  You are my sunshine, my only sunshine."

I had a lot of fun making it and thinking that it'll be something that she may grow up to treasure.

What about you?  How did you get your name?

Happy Crafting!

Easy DIY Tag Blanket

I love it when my friends have babies!

That means I get more little ones to snuggle and love without being responsible to change their diapers or give up all my sleep!  My friend {tall} Jess is having her third child in April, and this one is a boy.  We recently threw her a little shower, and one of the things I made for Baby S. was this little tag blanket.  It's really simple, and I had all the materials I needed on hand already.  Here's how to make your own.

DIY TAG BLANKET

Materials:

-fabric scrap

- assorted ribbon

- batting

- sewing machine, thread, pins, needle, scissors

STEP 1: Cut your fabric into two squares {it can be any size really; mine was 9"x9"}.

STEP 2: Cut coordinating ribbon into pieces that are the same length.  I used 20 pieces, 5 along each side.  Fold the ribbons in half and pin to one of your fabric squares.

STEP 3: Sew around your square as close to the edge as possible to secure the ribbons in place.  Remove pins.

STEP 4: Place the piece of fabric with ribbons attached face up on your work surface.  Place your other piece of fabric on top of it, face down.  Finally, place a square of batting on top.  Pin all 3 layers together. 

*Be sure you layer them in this order!  When I made LC a blanket one time, I put the batting in the middle, then had to seam rip the whole thing. Uggh.* 

STEP 5: Sew around the square with a 5/8" seam allowance.  Be sure not to sew the whole thing shut; leave two or three inches open so that you can turn it!

STEP 6: Turn right side out and hand stitch the opening shut.

There you have it!  Quick, easy, and requires minimal sewing skills.  Now I can't wait for Baby S. to get here and play with it!

A Very Hungry Caterpillar Shower

Looking for the Shine on Fridays link party?  Click here!

Well, friends, I truly hope you enjoyed the Growing Your Blog Series and learned at least one thing that will be helpful to you.  I've loved hearing your feedback; it seems that the series was really timely for a lot of people. 

I debated whether or not to do it, because I didn't know if there would be enough interest,

but I'm glad to say it seems to have been the right call! 

In the meantime, I have missed posting about all our crafting adventures!  So, today, I just have to show you some pics from a baby shower I helped organize for a good friend of mine.

I know you've heard me share before about "my girls." 
Here they are: April, {short} Jess, & {tall} Jess.

Tall Jess is due with her third baby {a boy!} next month, so the rest of us got together and planned a little get-together.  Our theme was the Very Hungry Caterpillar!

I'll be posting more about some of the specific things in the next few days, but here's a look at what we did:

I had WAY too much fun making these onesies!

Short Jess put together this balloon caterpillar.

For favors, April and I made cake pops, and Little Crafter helped me make some pom-pom caterpillars to clip on them.

To see more about the caterpillars, click here.

 The guest of honor got a butterfly balloon...and a mint chocolate goody bag!

 ...and even though he wasn't invited to the shower, Little Crafter still had a hand in things, quite literally.  As I was browsing Pinterest, he saw this idea and just had to do it for himself.  For a complete tutorial, see my guest post at Life With the Hawleys!

I promise to show you a lot more things coming up soon, like the DIY Tag blanket I made, the other painted onesies, and a simple stuffed monster.  Stay tuned!  Jess, I hope you had a fantastic time...you and Baby S. are loved!

Happy Crafting, friends!  And be sure to come back starting Sunday for a whole week of fabulous giveaways!

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