Birthday Photo Banner

For my son's first birthday, I wanted to display photos of him from Month 0- Month 12.  As I Googled ideas for this, I came across the cutest birthday photo banners!  I decided to make my own and this was my process:

Easy Beginner Skirt- Elastic Waist

I'm a beginner at sewing.  I searched and searched for a simple 1-yard skirt with an elastic waistband, but the tutorials were not very clear.  So, I read a bunch or tutorials and came up with my own skirt plan that didn't involve crazy zippers and button holes (the thought of doing those TERRIFY me).  Anyways, the pictures above show the adult version and the child version of this skirt.  Of course, my cool tomboy niece has it scrunched up in the back :)  Four-year-old's are awesome.  

If you have any questions or improvements to this tutorial, please let me know =]  I'd be happy to talk with you.

Here is my process:

DIY- Photo Canvas

I'm pretty much obsessed with taking pictures and cheap home decor.  Why not combine the two by making homemade photo canvases?

I happened across 4 free canvases to use. I made my first one in the summer of 2012 and made my second one in January 2013.  I'm using them to decorate the wall above my TV =]  It looked a little bare at first, but I'm working on it!  I sat down and completed one while watching a movie, so it takes about 1.5 hours (maybe less... I bet the movie distracted me some!)

Anyways, this is how I made mine!

Homemade Baby Christmas Ornaments

My sister has three beautiful children and for Christmas I wanted to make her a special ornament for each of them.  I decided to make a cube for each child with pictures and their birth specs on it.  This project is not difficult, it just has to be done with ample drying time between steps.  No one likes a sloppy ornament! =]

Here's my process, with corresponding pictures of course!  Step 1 is the hardest part, if you need additional instruction let me know =]

Christmas Tree Net Lighting

It's about time to put up Christmas trees!  When I was a teenager, it was my job to decorate our tree.  One Christmas, I grabbed outdoor net lighting instead of string lights from our attic.  Instead of climbing up to switch the lights, I decided to toss the net lights over the tree.... and it worked!

• No more untangling long light strands.
• No more walking laps around the tree to wrap the lights.
• No more re-wrapping if you don't apply the lights evenly.

To cover a standard sized tree, we used two net lights with dark green cord.

I wrap one net around the bottom and the other net around the top.  This overlaps a few lights and leaves a gap in the back, but who really sees the back of your Christmas tree...

Then, push your lights into the tree branches to finish!  It takes me roughly 10 minutes to do this.  So much faster than walking laps around the tree applying lights!

DIY- Wedding Guest Tree

We had a small wedding, about 50-60 guests, and instead of doing a guest book we opted to go the more creative route by creating a wedding guest tree.  With this project, each guest writes his/her name on a leaf and the bride can assemble them onto a tree sometime after the wedding.  When completed, the newlyweds can display the artsy guest tree in their new home.  Cool, right? I couldn't find a clear "How-To" guide on making one, so I winged it and it turned out pretty well.  Here is how I did it: