Makin' Blossoms

I used up all my cute Sassafras blossoms and I still have a few pages left that I want to make. So I made some of my own ;) My favorite is the big far left flower. That pretty burst on the paper is a rub-on!

The Little Plaid Dress

Audrey's little plaid dress ;) This was one of my favorite dresses of hers last year. She's had so many cute clothes. When I scrapbook the older pictures and see the darling outfits they wore it makes me a little sad because I'm reminded how fast my girls are growing.

Caitlyn is shooting up like a rocket and for a while she was eating like a bird but this past week she's back to gobbling everything in sight! I swear every half an hour I hear her whine "I'm hungry". Meanwhile Audrey's growing taller and leaner like Caitlyn. She's starting to lose what little baby fat she had and even her cute roundy feet are getting longer and leaner. While I love getting and now making them new clothes, it's hard to know they grow up so fast. It's exciting to watch the new things they learn but I also miss my bebes.

Audrey used to curl up on my lap when I called her my bebe but now she gives me one of her lemony faces and says "I'm not a baby, mom-mom! I'm a girl!" Breaks my poor mama heart! Of course if I act sad at the comment she comes rushing into my lap anyway. I just don't get to call her my Audrey bebe anymore. Now she says she's 'Audrey girl', lol. I know I totally baby and spoil my girls. Audrey will be five in the fall but I can't help it, they grow up way too fast!

Green at Heart Paper by Basic Grey

Paper Doll Collection Paper by Crate Paper

Kraft Cardstock from Roberts

Spring Sprout Blossoms by Sassafras

Lush Decorative Brads in Green by My Minds Eye

Fieldhouse Flocked Boutique by American Crafts

So Sophie Savvy Alpha Stickers by My Minds Eye

Indian Summer glazed brad by Basic Grey

Journaling Card by October Afternoon

Mini Red Alphas by Jenni Bowlin

Dear Lizzy Springhouse shapes by American Crafts

The Party Dress

I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that the Analise dress pattern is by Portabello Pixie. It comes with instructions for 3 styles of clothing, a patch work dress, a patchwork skirt, and the party dress. I also thought it would be helpful to add that I don't have a serger. Most of the seams ended up very nice after the topstitching. The one thing I will hope to remember the next time I make this dress is to zigzag stitch the gather seam allowance before topstitching. I think that would have made that part a little neater. At any rate, here is A's dress made with the Woodland Delight fabric by Michael Miller.

A's was made in about 1/4 of the time. The biggest help was not doing any patchwork. I think that's what took so long the first time. Also I only had one gather to do since the party dress version uses binding. I could have added a ruffle and actually considered it but I'm glad I went with the binding since the dress is a little big on her. I made the size up on both dresses (7 and 5), though with C's I did cut the elastic to a size 6 since she's such a string bean. And I'm sure it helped that I had sewn the dress once before ;)

Some mistakes were still made this time around, different ones but definitely fewer. My seam ripper didn't see nearly as much action on this dress, hehe. Seeing A's back now can you tell the big mistake I made with C's? Because I patchworked her straps I forgot to add the extra dimensions for the cut on the fold so they are twice as short. Don't worry though, I'm fixing that soon ;)

It doesn't twirl as big as C's, that comes from the extra ruffle. I'll definitely be making more of these for the girls or at the very least trying the skirts. It will be sad when C passes size 8. That's where most of these darling patterns end. Of course I guess by then she'll be wanting less of a little girl style *sigh*. I'll just have to enjoy it while it lasts!

Analise Dress

If you haven't been able to tell I've really been getting into sewing more lately. Though sewing clothes was almost a lost cause again earlier in the week. I had gotten this pattern about a month and a half ago. I opened it up, read through the instructions and looked at the pattern pieces. It was very easy to understand and seemed simple enough for me to try out. At the time I didn't have fabric that I felt worked with the pattern so I pulled out a couple Simplicity ones that I had picked up on sale for $1 at JoAnns. They looked like they used a lot less material and I thought it would be better to practice on something simpler.

But it wasn't simple at all! There were weird markings all over the pattern pieces, the instructions were confusing with terminology I'm not yet familiar with. After pouring over the patterns I finally put them away, completely discouraged. It took me another week before I thought to just pull out this pattern again since I actually understood it and simply used what I had. The prints in this are from 5 fat quarters I bought over a year ago. The pattern calls for either two large pieces for the skirt, or provides a specific patchwork design.

I thought, why can't I improvise my own patchworked design sized to the same dimensions? And that's exactly what I ended up doing. The fat quarters were cut as strips and pieced then topstitched. Because my finished length ended up being 17 1/2" instead of the 19" on the pattern piece, I increased the length of the ruffle at the bottom. I love the way this dress turned out though the entire time sewing I wasn't sure I'd care for it. After all it used fat quarters I wasn't in love with anymore. Now I think they are gorgeous!

The dress is so full and fun! C calls it her princess dress. I love the way it looks when she twirls ;) Now I've got to make one for A. Hopefully I can learn from the dozens of mistakes I made while making this one and the other will move along more smoothly!

Sweet Bubbly

Lately I've been wanting to create but not wanting to have to think of how to do my layouts so I've been doing a lot of lifts and sketches. It had been a while since I visited Inspired Blueprints and I headed over to check out what was new and see if any of the sketches fit my pics. One of their newer sketches - #48 - was perfect for these pictures. I simply turned the layout to fit my vertical photos and the circle elements were like bubbles ;)


Last year C was such a camera ham with the bubbles. While a got plenty of her I only caught a few good ones of A since while she was blowing bubbles she wanted 'no pictures mom!' Now of course she wants pictures all the time, hehe. But these were some of the few shots I got of her and she's wearing one of my favorite tops for her last summer. She still fits in it just barely right now, but I think she passes it by in favor of the newer hand-me-downs from C ;) I hope you enjoy and thanks for stopping by!

Paper Doll Collection Paper by Crate Paper
Green at Heart Paper by Basic Grey
Kraft Cardstock by Roberts
Baby Pink Cardstock by CTMH
Dear Lizzy Details by American Crafts
Dear Lizzy Rubons by American Crafts
Spring Sprouts Blossoms by Sassafras
Lush Decorative Brads in Green by My Minds Eye
Lemonade and Indian Summer Glazed Brads by Basic Grey
Subway Thickers by American Crafts

Be Happy

Starting fast and fresh with these goodies ;) I think spring and summer are my favorite pages to create. My best photos are the ones taken outside and the girls just love a chance to play model when the weather is nice. These sweet pictures of A are from last spring. The girls are always so happy when the weather warms and they get to wear skirts and dresses nearly all the time. I took inspiration for this layout from another one of Susan's. I added more goodies since this is a girly layout ;) The bees I have been hoarding for a while and I'm so glad to finally have used them on a page. They were the perfect little addition with that title.


A lot of the embellishments I picked to go with my stash shopping have a bit of dimension and I know it's hard to capture that with a straight shot of the layout so I thought it would be fun to share some of the little details too ;) Thanks for popping by and have a happy Wednesday!


Green at Heart Paper by Basic Grey
Cardstock by American Crafts
Kraft Cardstock by Roberts
Urban Prairie Chipboard (bees) by Basic Grey
Spring Sprout Blossoms by Sassafras
Dear Lizzy Rubons by American Crafts
Regards Thickers by American Crafts
Journaling Lines Stamps and Raspberry Fizz Ink by Papertrey Ink
Gingham Ribbon by Making Memories
Lush Decorative Brads in Green by My Minds Eye
Apron Lace Border Punch by Fiskars