I Love to Create - Handmade Nursery Touches

The final count down to baby time is upon us. Heck, I'm writing this in advance and putting it on a timer - he/she could be here by now! Will it be a boy or a girl? Will they like their new nursery? So many questions! Today for I Love to Create, I thought I would show you a few of the handmade touches I have added to the room.



Oddly enough hanging in the nursery, back when it was still a spare bedroom, was a block print of a zebra that fit the decor perfectly! Only problem was the frame was dark green and all the frames in this room are fuchsia. Well as luck would have it I happen to have some Tulip Soft Fabric Paint in the perfect shade. Yup, fabric paint can go on wood too!




Next up there was the whole sheet conundrum. First of all let me reiterate that finding solid colored sheets not in a pastel shade is the bane of my nursery decorating existence. I already have a set of fuchsia sheets that I found on a whim, but what if I have a little boy? I felt like I need a back-up option in aqua. I just happened to have a white crib sheet and a Tulip Custom Dye Color Kit. I could have whipped up sheets in any color my little heart desired.



The whole theme of this nursery revolves around the fabric in the curtains. My lovely mom Fredda Perkins was kind enough to sew them for me. When she asked me if I wanted ball fringe I promptly replied something about wild bears and the woods. How did she tack that ball fringe to the curtains before stitching it in place you ask? By using Fabric Fusion Glue that's how.



Tallulah got a photo album that matched her room, it seemed only fair that the new baby get one too. Some fabric, felt, a photo album and some Fabric Fusion Glue and I'm ready to get camera happy!

The only handmade touch that the room needs now is le' bebe. What kind of handmade touches do you have in your nursery/kids room? Did you whip up a mobile, sew your own crib sheets or do some fancy stencil work on the walls. This might not be my last baby, it's never too early to start gathering ideas for nursery #3.

Kid Friendly Art Gallery

I have finally caved and decided to get rid of my spare bedroom. Not get rid of it as in I am cutting it off from the house I mean convert it into a new room for our upcoming bundle of joy.  As with Tallulah's nursery the new room is revolving around the fabric. More Echino fabric as a matter of fact. This pattern has little fawns (Tallulah's middle name is Fawn) and zebras and my new favorite shade of fuchsia.  Why am I putting fawns in another kids room you ask?  Well my first thought was that this room would be for Tallulah, but after much screaming and kicking about a room transfer we decided against it.  The first thing I did for Tallulah's nursery was collect some art so why should her brother or sister's new room be any different!


If only Threadless had those awesome $5 sales on their art prints. I'm pretty smitten on The Voice of Thunder by Elisha Hale.


So far I have scored one piece to go in the room and of course it is the obligatory alphabet print. It was such a struggle for me to find the perfect one for Tallulah's nursery, but the ABC Print by Helen Dardik was a little easier because the colors match so perfectly! I'm still looking for more 'educational' prints of things like numbers, food groups, colors, teeth brushing. Know any?


Shocking Pink Afro by Valerie Galloway is another adorable option. However, I feel like I need to wait to see if the baby is a boy or a girl before I get too many prints.



Flickr is good for so many things, including finding prints for a baby nursery. These two uploaded by Aundrea_K and Thimble Nest are perfect and kind of educational. I have several vintage books of my own I need to flip through for more ideas.


Retro Whale, it's like you know me and my decorating plan for this new room like the back of your hand. Your Wild Horses print is a must have. Not only do the colors match, but there is a zebra too!


My sister the supa dupa talented Hope Perkins has offered to paint a custom piece for her new bedroom. We are thinking something with a zebra head to match the zebras in the fabric.


I adore everything by Naoshi, but Driven Into a Corner has that fuchsia I need.


Artist Tad Carpenter has tons of prints in the running for Tallulah's new room. I bought two of his pieces at the Renegade Craft Fair in Austin that now hang in my hallway, but I'm very close to moving them.


Bitchin Kicks indeed. These high tops by Josephine and Cole would look perfect on the wall.


With Tallulah's 1st room I made a little mini art gallery, this time around I want a mix of pictures and prints. Luckily Ikea and Target had plenty of frames in the fuchsia color of the fabric.

I'm looking for more prints for the room, know any that would match perfectly? What did you hang on the walls in your nursery?

Tallulah's Chibo Rainbow Birthday Cake

Today is Tallulah's 2nd Birthday! It took everything in my power not to throw a party (check out part 1 and 2 of last year's festivities). With the baby being due in a week, I thought better of it. I couldn't let the day pass without doing anything so Tallulah and I decided to bake a birthday cake.


My original plan was to make a Muno cake since I had bought a party pack with a Yo Gabba Gabba theme. After I could not make red icing and Tallulah's recent obvious obsession with sisters I opted to make the cake Muno's sister Chibo instead.


Not only did we fix up the outside of the cake, we made the inside rainbow-rific as well.


I have seen lot's of people make rainbow cupcakes and round rainbow cakes, I thought couldn't I do the same thing with a sheet cake that I could carve? I was right. Mix a white cake mix according to directions and then split the batter between as many small bowls as you want to have colors in your cake. I used food coloring gel, apparently if you use fancy food coloring from the baking store your colors will be more vibrant. The lighter colors matched Chibo so it worked out fine for me.


Pour the batter into the center of the well greased pan one bowl at a time. I poured the next color directly into the center of the last one until all the batter was in the pan. Bake according to directions.


Once the cake cooled I carved the top so that it was rounded. I iced the cake to look like Chibo using a few of the skills I learned in cupcake decorating class. Tallulah supervised and made sure I got all the icing out of the jar. All our hard work was worth it because Tallulah has talked non-stop about her "sister cake".



All that was left to do was set the table and cut the cake. Tallulah was more interested in eating ice cream than she was the cake, but the rest of the fam enjoyed it!

Carousel Designs - Where Solid Colored Crib Sheets in Bright Colors Exist

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - why do all crib sheets come in either a pattern or pastel colors? Suppose I don't know what I am having and even if I did powder blue, pastel pink and mint green don't do a thing for me. What is a girl to do? After a long tedious search my sheet prayers were answered by Carousel Designs. Who knew two military dudes (with kids and nursery design obsessed wives) would be so in-tune with what I would want.


This is not the first time I have been down this road looking for solid colored sheets. I was lucky to find red for Tallulah's room. This time around I was in search of fuchsia or teal. Carousel Designs had both and then some! Seriously solid colored sheets are tricky to find. Carousel Designs has not only sheets, but the whole nursery kit and kaboodle - changing table covers, blankets, curtains, mobiles you name it. Wish I had known about this place and their registry sooner.


Don't worry if a print is what you have your heart set on they have you covered there too. Cute prints seem to be as hard to come by as bright colored solids. Carousel Designs has cute little retro owls, chipper zoo animals, hip modern prints and oodles more. Actually they have a really handy dandy little nursery designer tool to help you make the baby room of your dreams.


I ended up going with the solid fuchsia sheet and will be back for more. Just waiting to see if I have a boy or a girl before I order another fuchsia or a couple of teal sheets. Check in Thursday to see how I also took this solid color sheet dilema into my own hands.

Did you have trouble finding nursery bedding? Did you sew your own from full size sheets? Did you find some amazing vintage ones on Etsy? Dye a set? Love to know.

I Love to Create - Danielle Thompson Interview

I have a big fat craft/design/home decor crush on Danielle Thompson. She makes me want to paint my walls white, learn how to use a decent camera and take a digital scrap booking class. Every time I pop over to her blog, Flickr page, Etsy shop or Kitschy Digitals I come away inspired and with a sudden urge to thrift.

If there was ever a gal who loved to create, and create well it is Danielle Thompson. That is why she is this month's I Love to Create interview.


Is the Tiny Bazaar your full time job? What is your top seller?

No, Tiny Bazaar isn't my full time job. I do enjoy it though as a little "side" project. : ) My favorite thing to make for my Etsy shop are accessories for Blythe, and I hope to make more of those soon. You can see my recent designs here. I have true admiration for artists that have a handmade business as their main source of income. It's A LOT of work! My top sellers in my shop would probably be my Vintage Camera Embroidery Patterns and also my Happy Mail Polymer Stamp Collection.


Help a Blythe illiterate girl out. Where does one get Blythe Doll? They are adorable and I can see how there is a whole sub-culture around them. How bad is your Blythe addiction?

I've bought most of my Blythes on Ebay and have had no problems. I have also purchased used Blythes at Blythe Kingdom. I could see you owning lots of Blythes, Jennifer! She's definitely an addiction. The first one you buy will have you hooked and before you know it, you're already buying another. She's not a cheap hobby, but she's super fun. My addiction is pretty bad! I have 5 dolls and one on the way! But my collection pales in comparison to some. I've seen people with 20, 30 or more. It's insane. : ) There are three things I love about Blythe: 1. She's a very still photo subject (unlike humans), 2. I can dress her the way I'd want to dress, but could never pull off (60's mod, hello!) and 3. She makes up for the fact that I'm surrounded by boys at home (I have two sons and a husband). I can live out my girly-ness through them.


What has been the most popular how-to project on your blog? Anything that you made and people just went nuts over?

I would say my fabric pumpkin tutorial. I still get hits on my blog for that post! People posted about that tutorial all over the web, so it's received lots of traffic. It's a fun one and I'm so glad people were/are excited about them!


So your Kitschy Digitals digital kits are enough to make me want to learn to scrap book. Any suggestions for those of us that love our paper and glue stick on how we can use your adorable designs in paper crafting?

I totally understand how it's hard to let go of our tangible paper and glue and embrace digital! I'm a lover of handmade, but when it comes to scrapbooking, I'm a full digital convert. I used to create scrapbook art for various publications and just got so burned out! It was crazy time consuming. I would often spend five hours or more on a page. And it was MESSY. I live in a small home and space is definitely an issue. My "studio" is in the corner of our living room, so it was always a mess, which made me insane. I couldn't "hide it away" in another room. SO, when I got into designing my own digital scrapbooking products (and they aren't just for scrapbooking!), I started creating some digital pages of my own with my kits and I realized how much I enjoyed it - yes, more than paper and glue. For me and my busy family life, digital was the way to go. It's not messy, it's a much faster process (I can get way more pages done in less time), it's less expensive (the nature of digital files is that you can use them over and over again, unlike tangible supplies like a piece of patterned paper that can only be used once) and it's earth friendly (no waste!). Another great thing about digital kits is that the files are high-resolution, so you can print them! Yes, if you can't bare to let go of your paper and glue, that is ok! If you have a photo-editing program (like Adobe Photoshop for example) you just open the files and print them out. Easy-peasy. My designs are not only great for scrapbooking, but for any paper-crafting projects.


If someone, like say me, wanted to get into Digital Scrapbooking where should we start? Any good books, online classes, computer programs you could suggest?

You would need a photo-editing program. This is a good place to start with good information on what you need (it's a free class!). Jessica Sprague, where I sell my kits, has other fantastic classes to get you started!


For your Kitschy Digitals kits like the Vintage Stacked Flowers are those items in your own personal collection? Do you photograph your collections and then make them into parts of your kits?

Yes! I usually create things using various supplies I have in my stash, photograph them, and then make them into digital elements. My background in photography and graphic design has made the process easier. I love it! Creating these digital kits is sort of a great combination of many things that I love: vintage, handmade, photography and design.


Your photography is part of what makes your Thompson Family Blog so amazing! Do you have a degree in photography? What kind of camera do you have? Any tips for aspiring photographers?

Thank-you! I do not have a degree, but before I got into designing my own products, my main focus was on improving my photography. I was especially into portrait photography. Everything I know has been self-taught. It took me a while to really "get it" and shooting in Manual has greatly improved the quality of my photos. I own a Canon 30d. There are some great photography classes at Jessica Sprague that you can find here. There are also lots of great photography forums out there so I suggest looking out for those. Flickr is also a great source of inspiration and often photographers are wonderful about sharing their knowledge.


I love your home decor. Do you have a particular philosophy about your home decorating style? Where are some of your fave places to shop for eclectic and kitschy home décor items (if you wanna share fave Etsy dealers, flea markets, thrift stores)?

Thank-you! My philosophy is that there aren't rules. And don't take it all too seriously. I pretty much throw everything together but the kitchen sink. Most of the time it works. I'm all about throwing a bit of humor in there as well with funny vintage kitsch that I find. I shop vintage in Etsy and Ebay, but I've also gotten better about shopping locally. Over the past year I've found MANY thrifts and antique malls around Atlanta, and the prices are usually much better and you don't have to pay shipping! You just have to take the time to look. Finding the time is always the issue when you have two small children! : )


You are an artsy/crafty Jill of all trades – embroidery, photography, graphic design, crochet and more. If you had to choose just one to do for the rest of forever which would it be? Which do you find yourself doing the most often?

Thanks! I would say I do graphic design most often since it's my "bread and butter". I use it when designing my digital kits and I use it every day for my blog. It's really fun and I'm lucky that I get to use my graphic design degree/experience on fun projects like these. But if I could do one for the rest of my life? Hmm... that's a hard one. Don't make me choose! I guess photography would be the one I could never live without. : )


What does the future have in store for you? Any new and exciting projects on the horizon we should be waiting for with baited breath?

I always have various things in the queue that I'm working on, but I have one BIG project that is quite paramount. I'm having to do a lot of it myself so it's very time consuming! I'm basically building and designing an entire website/shop that will be a one-stop shopping destination for.... well, I'll keep that to myself for now. ; ) But please stay tuned on my blog over the next few months to get all of the details! It will be full of wondrous eye candy.

Are you as smitten as I am? Ready to get your scrapbook on? Do you suddenly have the urge to play with dolls? See what I mean, she has that effect on people.

Oh and pop over to I Love to Create to win a pack of Tacky Glue for those of you still playing with paper.

WIN IT! Hats a new book by Sarah Cant

I must admit that hat making is way beyond my realm of crafting. I have decorated an existing hat a time or two in my life, made some pretty fancy headbands and even some ornate ear muffs - but, hats from scratch I have never tried. However, now that I have a copy of Hats: Make Classic Hats and Headpieces in Fabric, Felt and More by Sarah Cant in my hot little hands anything is possible. Would you like to give hat making a whirl? Read on and I'll tell you how to win a copy!


Blocking, Trimming, Finishing all the lingo of milliners is covered in Hats. Once you start flipping through the pages and looking at all the step by step pictures and reading all the easy to follow instructions hat making suddenly does not seem so daunting.


Several different shapes and styles of hats are covered in the book. The classic cloche, pillbox, coolie and trilby for example. I'm a fan of the smaller headpieces and head domes that resemble fascinators.


Not only are several styles of hats covered, so are several different materials. Using a steaming tea kettle you will learn to shape felt. Did you know there was such a thing as straw stiffiner for light weight summer hats? Rice bags are not only good sashets and eye pillows they help shape hats as well. See what I mean? I feel so well versed in hat making already


Sarah Cant lives in Oxford, England. She has show her fabulous work at places like The Chelsea Craft Fair, London Fashion Week and Origin. She even teaches millinery at the Kinsington & Chelsea College. Her style seems to run the gambit from traditional to trendy. Some of the hats you might wear to the Kentucky Derby or on Easter Sunday others would fit in perfectly at a cocktail party or night out with the girls.


Have you always been Isabella Blow, but would like to try to be Phillip Treacy? Well now is your chance. You have a week to leave me a comment about hats. Do you wear them? Have you ever knit a beanie? Do you collect vintage ones like me? Any hat comment will do and we will put a copy of Hats: Make Classic Hats & Headpieces in Fabric, Felt and Straw in the mail for you.