Nested

Soft Cubes & Softies

Want one of baby's first toys to be an item you made yourself? Would you prefer that said toy didn't have any sharp edges? Then try this soft baby cube tutorial posted by Esther over at London Mummy. She documented the steps to making these soft cubes with a picture tutorial over at Flickr.

Speaking of soft things, via AT: The Nursery, we discovered the book Softies: Simple Instructions for 25 Plush Pals (available from Amazon for $13.57). The author/editor, Therese Laskey, also runs the very popular Softies Central blog where you can get your daily fix of Softies. Now, if only we could get over the word "softie" sounding vaguely naughty.

Getting Crafty via Craftzine

Via Craftzine, here are three projects to master and produce:

Love the cuteness of Mousey and his bed and it looks like a great project to do with the kids.

Happy Smocket. Because kids can't have enough aprons, especially homemade ones with pockets. And, it looks so easy to make!

You already know that we like making and finding really easy bib patterns. Here's another one to consider: a basic chenille bib pattern with instructions.

Spell it Out!

Since we know just how much parents love spelling out their little one's name on the walls of nurseries and play rooms, it only made sense to highlight Spell with Flickr, an online utlity that will serve up photographs of letters based on the names you enter (here's the results we got after entering Nested). If you're not happy with the suggested letter, simply click until you find the perfect one. Links to the original photos in their larger sizes are also provided -- this means you can print them out and frame them for your perfect wall art (assuming you're not running a commercial nursery, which, we assume most people aren't).

Decorating with Hoops

SouleMama has inspired us to rethink the way we hang up art -- the use of embroidery hoops to hang up both embroidered art and fabric is both smart and inexpensive. It's especially great considering all the great fabric you may already have in remnant form.

Definitely check out SouleMama  and peruse her archives. It's a great crafting blog that has an emphasis on getting crafting with children. And, from her site, it appears her book, The Creative Family, is available for pre-order from Amazon.

Something to Make: Stencil Collage

When we purchased the Birds of a Feather Mobile by Helen Ige, we were put-off by the $69 price for a few moments. After all, your purchase seems to be nothing more than a 11 by 13 piece of walnut veneer and some string. When we saw that the bird and tree pieces are meant to be punched out of a piece of wood that can become a stencil, we thought, "okay, we can make *something* else out of this" and swallowed the price.

That *something* that ended up being made is this piece of nursery art that was intended to tie all our nursery colors together.

First, we took the stencil and cut out the leaves, tree and birds from brown paper. To add some contrast, some of the pieces were also cut out of white paper. There wasn't anything scientific going on -- just an aesthetic choice of what works and what doesn't.

The background colors were simply  pieces of colored paper we got at a stationary supply store.

The most complicated part of the project was finding the right frame -- and that wasn't too hard either. We used one of those family collage frames that have a bunch of windows cut out the matte paper.

The pieces of color paper were simply placed in the windows -- just like you would place a photo and then the bird/tree pieces were moved around until the presentation was just right. Gluing secures it all and that's it.

Tissue Paper Pom-Poms

We like the idea of hanging tissue paper pom-poms from the ceiling of a nursery or kid's room (or maybe as decoration for a baby shower). They're lightweight so you don't have to worry about them coming crashing down on baby and easy and inexpensive to make.

Over at marthastewart.com, there's instructions on how to make these tissue paper pom-poms with your own materials. Or, you can buy the kit with all materials including.

And on a similar note, according to Craftzine, a new issue of Martha Stewart Kids is on newsstands now.

Play Food! Group on Flickr

Now for a little something that you can't buy or can make (actually, you can make if you're talented and I'm sure some of these folks have online stores). Regardless, you'll have a tough time deciding which "three-dimensional, hand-crafted non-edible play food: crocheted, knitted, felted, sewn, sculpted from clay, paper-mache, assembled from found objects, origami, quilling" is cutest.

We're torn over which item makes us smile most, but feel determined to somehow, someday become the owners of this cannoli.

Something to Make: Basic Bib

Yesterday, when we posted the great fabrics from Repro Depot that we thought would inspire anyone to get sewing, we said that making a bib was "as basic as it gets."

Now, that may not be completely true when you don't even know where to start. We're not master seamstresses by any stretch of the imagination and even making a bib can give us a headache, but a bib gives high returns for relatively low effort. All you have to do it ditch the complicated steps (like encasing an entire bib in double fold bias tape). Unless you're good and stuff and sewing and then you can embellish away!

Here's a basic bib pattern we threw together (with instructions) that should help you showcase the fabulous fabrics that you find.

Fabrics to Inspire You to Sew

A great fabric is magic. Magic that makes you say "wow, I really *do* need that twenty-seventh bib or burp cloth from an Etsy seller!" In the sewing world, a bib and blanket is almost as basic as it gets, but the right fabric can just charm you from the moment you set eyes on it.

Here are some fabrics that could totally convince us to make "just one more" burp cloth:

Echino Birds and Butterflies (eggplant) from Repro Depot Fabrics ($17.95/yard). Also available in natural and rust.

Rabbit Town (yellow) from Repro Depot Fabrics ($11.95/yard). Won't you take me to ... Rabbit Town?

Apples and Pears (Brown) from Repro Depot Graphics ($8.50/yard). We see this fabric being used everywhere (usually the blue version), but we still love it. Also available in pink.

All the Automobiles from Repro Depot Graphics ($11.95/yard). Also available in yellow.

Aloha (ivory) from Repro Depot Graphics ($8.95/yard). Hawaiian/Tiki kitsch is often played-out, but we covet this fabric for its Disneyland feel.

Fool Us Once, Martha Stewart, Shame on Us...

It's almost against our better judgment to link to any official Martha Stewart project. Not that we have any issues with her as a businesswoman or even care about her time in prison. We think that the real reason so many people resent Martha Stewart is simply because she has sent so many people on wild goose chases looking for craft and cooking supplies that simply don't exist outside Turkey Hill or wherever she lives. We won't even go into detail about the one Christmas where we searched all over for a certain heavy-duty aluminum foil to make ornaments from.

Still, we couldn't resist linking to these two projects because (1) they actually seem doable (2) they require really basic materials.

First, the Basic Baby Kit. Very similar to the crayon pouch project we made, the Basic Baby Kit seems almost as easy (if not easier) to complete. And, it's a great way to store all those less-than-glam essentials.

This second project, these adorable Felt Baby Shoes, looks easy enough, but we question the results of us mere craft mortals. The first giveaway? The "ingenious templates" look too simple. The second possible giveaway? Instructions that simply say "make a button slit" as if that's the easiest thing in the world to do on a piece of felt that looks no wider than 1/4 inch wide. We're going to attempt this pattern one of these days, but won't get our hopes up.