Monday, April 11, 2011

Chalkboard Backdrop

I also do a little photography on the side Mommy Creations Photography and love to find new ideas to jazz up indoor portraits. So, for my sons 6 month pictures I decided to make a Chalkboard backdrop.
I went to the local hardware store and picked up a 3 feet by 4 feet board. Mine happened to be whiteboard material on one side. So I took it home and painted the opposite side with chalkboard paint.
It was that easy just a couple of coats of paint and I had a double sided photo backdrop.
I use it to write stats on so I can remember how big he was and specific milestones he had reached. I also used it for the backdrop of my crocheted bracelets found here and I used the white side as a backdrop here.

Linking here

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Easter Bunny Egg Hat

I know I promised more of the Dora party details, but we are a little Dora out over here so we will let birthday party jitters die down a little and turn our gears to Easter with this cute little egg hat.
This little hat is my own pattern and came as a result of me stressing over another project. I use crocheting as a stress reliever. And today it was much needed. So I decided to take a break from the day and finish up another Easter project I had been working on over the weekend. It was an aurigumi bunny and was not turning out how I wanted and I didn't like the pattern much and couldn't find a pattern that I liked any better so I thought hey maybe I could make my own pattern. Well in short a large project is not where I should of started my pattern making career. Trying to create my own pattern with an attention needing 9 month old getting tangled in my yarn was not the stress relief I wanted so I switch to a small easy project that I could practice my pattern making skills and finish in the amount of time it took my baby to finish his lunch. And that is how the Easter bunny egg hat was born.
As I was taking pictures the egg was a little wobbly and I said to myself I wish I had some cute egg holders. So I made my own out of an empty egg carton that I just so happened to have on hand since I was using the last egg to try my little hat on. I just cut 2 wells from the egg carton glued the bottoms together and painted adding a little ribbon in the middle.

Now back to the egg hat (lucky you get a 2 for in today's post). This really took me minutes to create and it is really simple. So here is the pattern for all of you to try out. I used a size G hook and regular worst weight yarn.

Base
with white ch 2.
Rnd 1: Work 6 sc in first chain.
Rnd 2: Work 2 sc in each sc around – 12 sc.
Rnd 3: *2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc; repeat from * around – 18 sc.
Rnd 4: *2 sc in next sc, sc in each of next 2 sc; repeat from * around – 24 sc.
Rnd 5-8: Sc in each sc around.

Ears (make 2)
with pink ch 5
sc in 2nd at from hook and in each of the next 3 st
fasten off switch to white yarn.
sc up one side in next 3 st
2 dc, ch, tc in next stitch (you will now be at the top of your ear and will start going down the other side of your pink strip)
tc, ch, 2 dc in next st
sc in next 3 st
fasten off attach ears to hat base

easy enough right? I hope that makes sense if not feel free to ask me questions.
dc=double crochet
tc=triple crochet


Oh wait I said I didn't have an egg holder. Like I said I was using my last egg which was not hard boiled and my curios daughter started to play with it when I wasn't looking and cracked it so I headed to my basement to see if I had a plastic egg for her to play with and found this cute little holder that my mom sent me and thought I should include it so I don't get a comment from my mother that I do indeed have an egg holder.

So go on relieve a little stress and whip up a few little egg hats to put on your Easter eggs.

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