Crafty Momma!

The other day I was reading a fellow Mommy Bloggers blog, Life with the Lebedas, and she had posted some great ideas for "do-it-yourself" projects. I have been really inspired lately to start making more things. It's a great way to save money and make things a little more special.

One of the reasons I have been so inspired is because of the amazing talent I see on Etsy. I have come across some of the cutest, most unique items. But I need to face reality and understand that my talents are pretty limited. We won't even get into the "time" issue, but my skills in general for craftiness are not great. My mom was awesome with sewing. She made all our Halloween costumes and clothes for our dolls. I can't even sew a button on. The other day my daughter ripped a corner of one of the Wonder Pets capes off and I had to drive to my moms house to have her sew the little corner down. Fail.

But one thing I can do is use a glue gun... but not too neatly. So I took on the challenge to try making some hair accessories for my almost bald daughter. I'm full of bright ideas. I don't think it was a total failure. Some of them actually look pretty decent from the front. You don't want to look at the gluey mess on the back.

Well, you can't have a bazillion bows without a bow holder, right?

Hand painted with love! Not too shabby, huh? Well if only I wasn't doing these projects at 11:00 at night. What has this taught me? I can do it. I can make cute things for my daughter if I put the time and thought into it. It takes a lot of time. I will sacrifice sleep.

To make the bow holder I just went to Michael's and picked up one of their wood plaques. I painted it with acrylic paint in the design I desired. Then I chose two different types of ribbon and fray sealed (you can buy this stuff in a bottle at Michael's in the ribbon section) the ends. Then I hot glued them to the back of the plaque. This holds about 30-40 bows depending on the size. And the whole project only cost me about 10 dollars.

I did have a lot of fun doing these little projects and I will certainly do more. But I have a huge respect for the WAHM's who do this to perfection. My bows don't measure up to the ones I have purchased, but I really didn't expect them too. But it sure was fun making something special!