STL: Mommy and Me journal with Delia from Delia Creates

Hi everyone! We're back today, Sharing the Love with another one of my favorite bloggers, Delia from Delia Creates. I just kinda love Delia's blog. She sews awesome stuff, her photos are gorgeous, AND she has the coolest ideas for fun projects to work on with your kids. (Did you see the dice roll-a-recipe for helping your kids learn their numbers? It was genius!) So Delia's pretty much awesome, plus I kind of want to gobble up her adorable baby girl. Is that a bad thing? Anyway, Delia's here today with another genius idea to help you connect with the important people in your life - your kids! - in an innovative way. Thanks Delia!

Hi there!

I think Autumn's series is so brilliant and needed at this time of year, don't you?

I had been wanting to implement my project for today for a while, but I needed this inspiring series to get me to move on it!

It's a simple idea. I call it:

(Keep reading for more info!)

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STL: DIY fascinator with Stef from Girl. Inspired

Today's Share the Love guest poster is Stef from Girl. Inspired. Her blog is one of those you can just get lost in for hours, clicking from one clever idea to the next. She sews - she makes adorable clothes for her daughters and made them the most beautiful matching scalloped quilts - AND crafts AND bakes AND throws some seriously amazing parties. Her blog is classy and beautiful and I'm so happy to have her here today!

Hi there!  It's Stef from Girl. Inspired.  I'm thrilled to be here today to show you how to share the love with this fun DIY fascinator project.

 A couple years ago, I made some fascinators for my two-year-old's tea party.  My mom came over the evening before the party and we had the BEST time laughing and hot gluing and dreaming up the most fabulous hair adornments.  I think this would be such a fun project with girlfriends, with YOUR mom, for a fun dinner party, or even with your children!  The best part about this project is that there are no rules and you just add/build as you go along! (Keep reading for instructions.)

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STL: felt monsters to make with your kids {plus free mix-n-match pattern}

Hey everyone! It's week two of Share the Love: projects that bring people together, and we'd had some fantastic posts so far. (Click here for links to all the posts so far). We have three more guest posters joining us this week as well as another giveaway (the Ribbon Retreat giveaway from last week stays open through Wed!) coming up. And I'm starting off the fun this week with a great project you can do with your kids: mix-n-match felt monsters.

My four-year-old and I spent a few happy hours last week designing, cutting out, and sewing up a monster for him. We had such a great time that I created a mix-n-match PDF pattern, which includes five different monster bodies, five different sets of eyes, five mouths, and five different accessories. (Keep reading for the free pattern and instructions on how to make and customize your own monster.) 

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STL: Frozen cookie dough gifts with Melissa from No. 2 Pencil

For day two of Share the Love: projects that bring people together, we have an awesome guest post from Melissa, who blogs at no. 2 pencil. I've discovered Melissa's blog fairly recently but I've been checking it regularly ever since. She posts fantastic recipes, including a fairly brilliant method for making a single chocolate chip cookie in a cup, as well as great crafts, and her photography is beautiful. I'm excited to have her here today!

I'm so excited to be here guest posting for Autumn. Today, I'm sharing a gift idea that is sure to brighten anybody's day. Who doesn't love freshly baked homemade cookies? (Keep reading for more info on frozen cookie dough gift packages.)

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STL: fortune cookies with Simple Simon and Co

 We're starting this week off with a clever tutorial from Elizabeth, who blogs along with Liz at Simple Simon and Co. (It's share the love time, remember? Projects that help you connect with people during this chilly and often lonely time of year.) I've been clicking over to Simple Simon and Co every couple of days for at least a year to check out both ladies' gorgeous sewing projects (have you seen the Audrey Hepburn outfits they made for their girls? to die for adorable!), read their awesome "The Art of Homemaking" posts, and see if we agree on who should win this current season of Project Runway. Today, Elizabeth has a simple and sweet way to let the important people in your life know you care about them: felt fortune cookies with a sweet sentiment inside.

(Keep reading for the tutorial!)

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ombre heart tee {freezer paper stencil}

Today's project is a very simple freezer paper stencil shirt - just a heart with the word "love" in the middle. I kept the design simple because I wanted to see if by mixing colors of fabric paint I could get an ombre effect on the heart. I mixed up five different shades of red and pink using red and white fabric paint, then painted the heart light on top moving to dark on the bottom. Quick, easy, and cute. (Keep reading for tips on making your own ombre heart shirt.)

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wrapping presents

It's been a different week-before-Christmas than usual. I've been doing all the normal things - wrapping presents and making candy and playing in the snow with the kids - but I've had the recent tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in mind all week long. It's hard, even when I'm in the middle of a perfect moment with my own family, not to start crying again for the families that were affected. We're praying for them and trying to hold our own family even closer as a result.

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So, many of my friends have been done shopping and wrapping for weeks already - weeks! I'm not quite so on the ball. I have a few little odds and ends to pick up, but mostly I'm just watching the mail every day for packages I ordered (I heart Amazon) to arrive. And in the mornings, when I'm home with the two little ones, I've been wrapping presents.

When my big kids came home and saw a bunch of presents wrapping in brown paper, they said, "I've never seem wrapping paper like that before..." That's because they're used to me wrapping presents in whatever wrapping paper I happened to buy at the dollar store. Mismatched, but bright and merry. This year I decided to try wrapping all the presents in very simple brown paper (still from the dollar store), string, and a few doilies for a simple, old-fashioned look.

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holiday cookie mix gift bags

You may have seen this project last week over at The Ribbon Retreat blog, as well as some additional bag toppers here, but I wanted to make sure everything got posted in one place, so here it is!

Well, we're down to T minus two weeks guys. Crazy or what? That means it's time to start rustling up gifts for teachers, neighbors, etc. Here's a very simple (and inexpensive!) project that looks like it took a lot of work that's sure to be appreciated: chocolate fudge mint cookie mix in a cute holiday sack. 

I love giving homemade treats to friends and neighbors during the holidays, but sometimes we receive so many treats during those few shorts weeks that some of them end up in the trash. Cookie mix makes a great gift because the recipient can make them whenever she wants - if she has guests showing up she can mix them together and have hot fresh cookies in about 15 minutes, or she can tuck the cookie mix away until January and bake them up then. And did I mention these cookies are really, really good? It's win-win for whomever you give these to!

It's win-win for you as well. You can make up the mix with just a few ingredients, then slide it into a simple fabric sack, print out a topper (12 varieties below!), and you're through! If you have lots of these to make you can do them assembly-line style and get a bunch of gifts taken care of in under an hour.

Here's what you need for each cookie mix:

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