Origami Owl together with Initials Inc.

I rarely blog about my Origami Owl business. I just don't find many opportunities and I keep this mostly a crafting blog. However, this is a special cause. 

A friend of mine through a crafting group is raising money for a local family that just lost their nine year old daughter. They are unprepared for the expenses and could use our help.  I've teamed together with her to raise money. 

Dee at Cupcakes and Crowbars is raising money by selling super cute cases! I want to buy them all!

Visit her blog (link will take you directly to the fundraiser) for more information and how to order. And to keep it crafty, I can totally see those with some HTV or embroidery. Stock up for Christmas gifts!

I am teaming up with Dee with an Origami Owl Online Jewelry Bar. I will be donating a large portion of my commission on all items and 100% of my commission on awareness ribbon charms.

Now you might be thinking, I don't know these people. Why donate? I don't either. But my company's mission is to be a force for good.  And I enjoy finding causes to uphold this mission.  So if you can find it in your heart to place an order, you can be a force for good as well. 

If you have any questions, you can email me at bwarrn@hotmail.com or comment here.

Thank you and God bless!

Paper Garland

Woohoo! Another month, another Silhouette Challenge and I'm so excited. This month's theme is paper and paper just happens to be one of my favorite mediums.  So before accepting this challenge, I had to think really hard about one thing I haven't done with paper.  There isn't much, however, one thing that has always scared me is sewing paper.  Did you know you could sew paper?  I just recently (within the last year) learned I could do this and now that I've taken the leap, I can only imagine the fun things I can do with this new skill. 

So, what did I want to sew?  Well I need centerpieces for my best friend's baby shower and a little banner would be so cute!  So, I made a pennant banner that is tiny enough to fit on top of cute little terrariums.

Cute right? Perfect for a Woodland Theme Baby Shower.

So here's how you do it.

I started with all these little pieces.  I used a triangle shape and sized it to about 1.5 inch.

Then I changed the stitch spacing on my machine to about 3 and chained them together.  All you do is feed them through the machine. As soon as one triangle is about done, put the other one in and feed it through.  Here is a side view.

 

And a head on view.  Just keep feeding them through and before you know it, you have a nice little banner.

 

I just love it!  I'm envisioning doing this in seasonal colors. I can keep the terrarium the same and just change the banner!

These are going to look awesome at the baby shower!

 

Do you love paper crafting as much as I do?  Do you run out of ideas like I did?  Well, check out some of my friends to get some more inspiration.

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!





1. McCall Manor // 2. The Turquoise Home // 3. Creative Savings // 4. Sandpaper and Glue // 5. The Thinking Closet // 6. Sowdering About in Seattle // 7. Persia Lou // 8. From Wine to Whine // 9. Dream a Little Bigger // 10. Please Excuse My Craftermath... // 11. Play. Party. Pin. // 12. Everyday Paper // 13. Practically Functional // 14. A Tossed Salad Life // 15. My Favorite Finds // 16. The House on Hillbrook // 17. Adventures in All Things Food // 18. A Glimpse Into Barb's Life // 19. TitiCrafty // 20. The Experimental Home // 21. feto soap blog // 22. Creative Ramblings // 23. The Stamp Doc // 24. Ginger Snap Crafts // 25. Simply Kelly Designs // 26. Whats Next Ma // 27. unOriginal Mom // 28. Bringing Creativity 2 Life // 29. Cutesy Crafts // 30. My Paper Craze // 31. Create & Babble // 32. Grey Luster Girl // 33. The Sensory Emporium // 34. Lil' Mrs. Tori // 35. Black and White Obsession // 36. Mama Sonshine // 37. Weekend Craft // 38. Creative Carnival // 39. Peace, Love and Joyce // 40. Tried & True // 41. The Frill of Life // 42. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 43. Get Silvered // 44. Minted Strawberry

Woodland Baby Shower

I've blogged about my kids' birthday parties, but this is the first time I've done a baby shower.  If you read my post last night, you know my best friend is having a baby and I'm so excited!  So I threw a baby shower for her. It turned out so beautiful.

It starts with the invitation.  I created all of this using the animals from the SIL store. However, the creator of the animals has a similar invitation in the SIL store.

The gift "table". You'll see more on this cute banner next Monday.

Woodland Animals Banner.  It's a boy! If you don't know already, I'm excited!  The animals are from the SIL store, font is KG Be Still and Know and I traced the banner shape from Google.

Cute little centerpieces. Fish bowls, moss and sticks from Dollar Tree and I got the bird house from Joann.

Yummy Snacks!  Chocolate covered pretzels and there was another jar with some covered in nuts as well. They're supposed to look like bird treats. They were really good!

Another delicious snack, acorns!  Hershey kisses, mini Nilla wafers and peanut butter chips all held together with frosting. Yum!

And what is a party without cupcakes? Don't you just LOVE this cupcake stand? My mom made it for me.  Cupcake stand is topped with a wooden R (for the baby's name) wrapped in green jute. Animal cupcake wrappers are from the SIL store and then I also created some of my own using the acorn from the gift bags.

Party favor bags from the SIL store.

Badges for the Mommy, Grandma and Aunts. These are made using Shrinky Dinks.  Started with a 3 inch circle in Studio and created my design.  Drew the badges using my pen holder and Sharpie Ultra Fine markers. Cut them out by hand or with a punch, punch a hole in the top and shrink. Add a safety pin and you have an awesome badge for the special people at the shower.

My favorite part was the guest book.  We did finger prints on a tree (from the sil store). Tree was drawn using Gelly Roll Gel Pens.

 

Games we played: Name the Baby Animal, Baby Shower Bingo and Guess the Belly Size.

 

It was a fantastic shower, filled with lots of love and support.  Now May can get here.  I'm ready to snuggle this baby!

The Hardest Sewing Project Ever!

My best friend is having a baby in May. I'm so excited. From the day she got married, I knew I was going to do this project. Seems kind of crazy, but I was super excited.  Little did I know, when the time came, it would be so hard!  It was hard emotionally and for my talent level.  Read on...

So, I'm making a blanket.  Here is the fabric selection:

 Cut into 6.5inch squares. Easy. I've done this before. 

Here comes the hard part...See this? This is my brides maid dress when I was the matron of honor at her wedding.

See, here we are.  Her all pretty and glowing on her wedding day. Me all swollen and 5 months pregnant.  But it was a beautiful day, rained when it could and didn't when it shouldn't.

And here is that little princess in my belly, trying the dress on for size.  A little big :)

I had to hand wash it and hang it to dry because her niece spilled wine down the front and it left a huge stain. But I got it out.

 Yes, those are scissors on the dress, why do you ask. (Hand shaking, unsure I should really do it!)

 No going back now!

 Really no going back...

 Yup! Those are little 6.5 inch squares of my bridesmaid dress. 

 But you know what? It's okay, because this is turning out to be a beautiful quilt.

 

 

I'm so glad I did this. It turned out beautiful and made her cry (which is always the goal ha ha).  She's my best friend and this is the best baby gift I could ever give.  No gift I ever give again will mean as much to me.