Newborn Photo Props

I decided to be crafty for the first time in a long time! Today was the first day off in a long time where I had ZERO obligations or plans. So I went to the craft vortex known as Hobby Lobby. My good friend Audrey over at Vintage Suitcase Photography is going to be photographing our little bundle of joy when she makes her debut. We want some "natural habitat" pictures and some more stylized pictures. Etsy has tons of great newborn photo props...but why spend upwards of $25 when I can just make this stuff myself? One popular trend is to wrap your baby in dyed cheesecloth, and many etsy sellers have matching headbands. I wanted to do something in Autumn colors and knew I had the orangish-red fabric to make flowers for a headband. A sort of peach color seemed like a good idea for the cheesecloth. And of course, in the store, the box of dye looked to be peach. But when I started dyeing...

Yeah, it was BRIGHT BRIGHT orange. Like, "go Illini!!" orange. Not to worry, I had plenty of earl grey tea on hand. Surely, that would tone it down, right? Wrong. It did help a little, but not as much as I hoped. Next, I added some instant coffee to the tea. The picture on the right is the result of that. It's getting much closer to a nice color, but still has a way to go. The cheesecloth is currently stewing in some super strong coffee and I'm hoping that will do the trick. If not, it's back to Hobby Lobby I go! And if I have to have a second go at it, I'm just going to skip the orange and dye it with coffee so it's a nice beige.

DIY Baker's Twine

Wow, it's been a year since I've posted anything! And what an eventful year it was. We moved twice AND found out we are having a baby. Our new place doesn't have an ideal space for crafting and I've felt so drained all the time, I just haven't really created anything. Which is sad, because I have multiple Pinterest boards filled with ideas. DIY baker's twine is one of them. I decided to ease back into being crafty, and let me tell you, this was the perfect project. Do you own tape, a ruler, embroidery thread, and markers? Can you draw sort of straight-ish lines? Then you can make your own baker's twine too! Ever since I discovered Divine Twine, I have longed to have it. It comes in so many different colors and is the perfect little addition to gift wrap or homemade cards and probably tons of other little projects. Sadly, it is super expensive and I couldn't justify spending the money. This lovely alternative is inexpensive and involves very little effort. 

And there you have it. I bought the spools at Hobby Lobby for $1.70 with a 40% off coupon. I only got four spools so for now these are all the colors I've made. But seeing as I bought a 12 pack of sharpies, there will be more colors in the future!