DIY Framed Silhouettes for Grandparents' Gifts

We live in Texas, but our family all live in Arizona (where we're from originally). We took their one and only grandchild away from the grandparents and great grandparents just shortly after she turned one. Although many of them come to visit, it's just not the same as living in the same city.

For Christmas last year, I made snowman handprint ornaments for all of the family members to remember just how big my daughter's hand was in 2010. I boxed these up in cute little ornament boxes with gift cards to suit their interests and personally flew them (and my daughter) back to Arizona to deliver them.

This year, I'm due to have baby #2 in 6 weeks so we're not traveling back to Arizona for Christmas. Somehow, December seemed to go by faster than I wanted it to and I was at a loss for what to get everyone in Arizona for Christmas. I wanted to do something personalized that they could keep out all year, not just display at Christmas like the ornaments. It also had to be easy to ship. We've sent photos of my daughter and although I'm sure the grandparents would love more photos of her, I wanted to give them something different. So, cue the framed silhouette idea. I'd seen some silhouettes throughout the year on various blogs so I guess they're trendy. I found this tutorial online and here's how it turned out (please forgive the poor quality iphone photo):

I found 5x7 frames at Michael's for $3 each plus I had a 20% off coupon. Then I just needed some off white cardstock (was able to cut 2 5x7 backgrounds from 1 sheet) and the darkest black cardstock I could find. I ended up only needing 2 sheets of the black cardstock because those big scrapbook sheets go a long way for this sizes silhouette. I've got enough leftover for the next kiddo :)

The most expensive part of this project was the priority shipping because I finished these up at midnight on Monday and shipped them out priority on Tuesday to make sure that they made it to our family in Arizona in time for Christmas (or Hanukkah for some of them). I'm quite pleased with how they turned out and I've got one for us to display on our bookshelves now too.

I'm Hookin' Up with HoH this week.

Thrift Store Sweater Dress

I found this post on Pinterest by Naptime Crafters for an easy to follow DIY tutorial on how to turn a woman's turtleneck sweater into a sweater dress for a toddler.

Around veteran's day, Savers was having a 50% off sale on their clothing so I went in search of a turtleneck sweater to transform. I found this cute rainbow colored stripe sweater for $3 (I didn't think to take a photo of the "before" until after I had started cutting it up).

I'm certainly a novice sewer, but even I was able to upcycle an old thrift store sweater into a fabulous sweater dress for my daughter to wear for this year's holiday photos. I didn't take a photo of her in it by herself, but here's one of our holiday photos to give you the "after":

I still need to do something to finish up the neck because it was the last thing I had to finish at 11 PM the night before our photo shoot, so I just cut the turtle neck down the middle to create the cowl neck. It needs a hem or ribbon trim or something, but I'm not sure what. Any suggestions from more advanced sewers?

Linking up to Project Run and Play this week. Super excited to participate in the sew along! I need some motivation and inspiration to create more cute things for my daughter and her baby sister (coming Feb 1).

Target $10 Gift Card Coupon is Back

The Target free $10 gift card when you spend $50 offer is back! I'm glad because I was planning another $50 transaction there this week. They did this last week and it was even better then because they also had a $10 gift card deal with diapers, so I was able to do 3 separate $50 transactions and rack up $60 worth of gift cards ($20 of which I have yet to spend). I also was able to make my out of pocket money back by selling the Missoni sweater dress that I found on clearance for $100 (if only the person would pay already!). I still have the Missoni blouse to sell, but it hasn't gotten many views so not sure if that will sell anytime soon. I also picked up a Missoni romper for $8 at another Target, but think I might return it as there are so many rompers listed and it's just not the season for people to be buying rompers.

On another note, I'm fighting a chest cold at the moment, but I feel a little better since I was able to pick up cold medicine at Walgreens for $1.99 instead of the usual price of $5.99. It's good until 2013 so I'm thinking about stocking up. Is it just me or does saving money make you feel better?

BOLO: Missoni in Target Clearance

While I was out shopping at Target last night (taking advantage of their spend $50, get $10 gift card promotion), I was perusing the clearance racks for maternity clothes and sweaters since I had coupons for those when I came across a couple of Missoni items. I had heard that these do well on eBay because of the fact that they were so limited and are now sold out.

So, I did a quick lookup of the particular sweater dress I found and there were completed listings that sold for around $100. The dress was marked down from $54.99 to $27.48, but when it rang up at the cash register it was an even better deal at $16.48.

I also picked up a blouse that was marked down from $34.99 to $11.48. I passed on a pair of XL shorts because I didn’t think they would do well given the completed listings for them (I can’t remember the price on these, but might go back and check). I’ve got these listed and am hoping to net a profit to cover my other purchases (diapers for new baby and a FurReal dog for my daughter for xmas for $30 instead of the regular $60 pricetag). Plus I still have $40 worth of gift cards to use still! I might check out other Targets for more Missoni treasures hiding amongst the clearance racks.