Lady A's Birthday Party Bunting

Lady A. turned three a few months back, all she wanted was Princess everything. While I couldn't do everything, there were a few fun things I could do, and that was going to require my Silhouette. Yippy!!!

We couldn't have just any princess either, it had to be Princess Sophia! Which I don't mind. She is a cut little princess and a lot closer to my daughters age, dealing with the same stuff....friends, telling the truth, etc.

Bring on the purple!

First things first....we needed the invite. Check it out over here. So easy and we found some great images to use. I also like to send cards to family, even though we know they won't be able to come since we live too far away, but we want to make sure they feel included. With a digital card, since it was so last minute, I could just email it to them.

It would be fun if I had all the time and money needed to put on one of those perfect Pinterest parties that you see everyday, but I don't, so I do the best I can with what I have. We had just moved again and most everything was still in boxes.

Instead of having the perfect Pinterest party I sat back and reminded myself that this was for Lady A., not to keep up with someone else, not for me and she turned three, she was more excited to have friends over and make a mess then posing for photos.

Now for the bunting. I was going to hang it but LadyA. wanted it close enough to touch and show her friends so we taped it to the wall ... no biggie. Happy to please her with such a simple request.

I am going to break this up into two tutorials because this can get really long and involved. This one will explain what I did and the other will cover simple techniques and tricks on how to design in Illustrator for projects that will be transferred to Silhouette Studio once it is ready to cut. O.K. maybe three. The final one will give instructions on how to transfer your project from Illustrator to Silhouette Studio. I think simple, basic tutorials are better than one monster post that becomes too much to read and follow.

*This tutorial takes into consideration that you know how to work out certain steps. It is NOT for the beginner unless you,  like me, are willing to work out things on your own to help you learn. Trial and error are sometimes the best teacher.

MATERIALS/SUPPLIES
Cardstock to fit the size of your cutting machine {two different colors}
Silver Sharpie
Adhesive for the wall

TOOLS
Silhouette Machine or other cutting machine
Exacto Knife
Glue Stick

INSTRUCTIONS
Find an image of Princess Sophia's tiara to trace. When tracing or creating designs to cut I like to use Adobe Illustrator, it is what I am familiar with, I can do so much more in it and I already have it on my computer instead of paying for the design studio.

Trace the image making sure not to double and triple your lines. Trace only where there will be a cut. Since the tiara is symmetrical I did one side then mirrored it. I thickened the line to 4 pt so you could see exactly where I traced. In your project use a line thickness of 1 pt.

Now copy the shape as many times as you need for your bunting. Lady A's name is 7 letters long but two of the letters are used twice....hence 5 tiaras.

Decide on a letter, font and size, overlay it on the shapes until you have the look you want. Change the letters to 'outlines', remove the fill color and copy and paste a second set, then place them off to the side of your 'design board' or even on a different layer {lock it or hide it}**. Offset the the out lines to be a bit larger than the actual letter, this will give the illusion of a tracing or a thicker outline for your letter. You can see that I left the original letters in place so I could get a better sense of what the letters would look like once put all together. Then cut out overlapping lines to 'merge' the two images.

**If any changes need to be made to the letters doing it once they are outlines would be the perfect time, before the copy is made and placed to the side. I did not like the 'L' in the font I chose so I manipulated it until I was satisfied.

*You can also merge the shape with the letter once in Silhouette but keep in mind it will just do an over all exterior tracing, the interior detail will be lost.

Time to create your 'pages' that will be transferred to Silhouette Studio. I fit two of the tiara letters on a page then put all the original letters {the ones we copied and moved to the side of the 'design board'} on another page since I wanted them to be a different color. The font I chose also had interior detail so I deleted all that for the tiara alphabet outline. Then left it for the white alphabet so that the background purple would pop through.

Open in Silhouette Studio {Tutorial coming soon}

Cut out accordingly, assemble, add some bling {silver Sharpie, sticker gems would work great too} and wa-la!!

I used the Exacto knife to help cut out some of this tiny little accents inside the letters.

Yes, that was involved. But I LOVE how they turned out and so does Lady A. Three months later and we still have them up because she loves them so much.

New Years Traditions

With the New Year comes new traditions. Now that Lady A is a bit older and able to participate a little more in family activities we have had a lot of fun coming up with our own family traditions, especially since we live away from the rest of our family and won't always be able to make it out for the big events and holidays.

I'm not much of one for New Years Eve events, trying to keep my toddler up until midnight does not sound fun right now. She would be so tired and fussy by the time midnight came and the following day we would all still be paying for it.

But it is still a good reason to celebrate so for now we will celebrate on New Years Day!

We are new to Kentucky, we got here the weekend before the college semester started in August. While the winter has been pretty mild compared to what we are used to {we are from Utah and spent the last three years in Connecticut for Grad School} but we are told that the cold comes mostly in January. Here is my mug and saying for the year.

We all can use a little pep talk every once in a while.

Lady A joined in and created her own as well!

We need to encourage those little creative minds

The back detail

Paul helped her a little bit.

She wanted to use the mug I had done a little trial on. The gold dots were "oh, pretty!"

SUPPLIES

Paint Pens / Sharpie Markers
Cheap White Mug {I got mine from Wal-mart}

Vinyl {optional}
Silhouette Portrait {optional}
Saying, Quote, Shapes etc. {optional}

INSTRUCTIONS

I do not care for my handwriting on the mugs, it just never turns out the way I want. Instead I busted out my Silhouette Portrait and quickly cut out a little saying. 

Clean the surface you are going to be placing your design. I used a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol and went over the area once to wipe away any dirt and oils on the mugs.

Place your stickers, shapes, or vinyl where you want it. Now so to town with your paint pens and markers to create your one and only mug.

I used CraftSmart paint pens. I had more colors on hand with the markers so Lady A decided to use them.

Bake the dish int eh oven by placing it on a cookie tray. With your mug in the oven set it to 425 degrees, once the temperature is reached bake it for 30 minutes. Prop the door open, turn the oven off and let it your oven cool with your mug still in it.

A close up of the back detail.

I love how they turned out. Lady A is pretty pleased with herself too! Now that she is getting older and wants to join me in my creative activities I am so excited to see her creative personality emerge.

TIPS: 

I took two days to do mine because Lady A wanted me to wait so that she could finish her master piece before we placed them in the oven. When using a paint pen to fill in or around a letters and shapes, I would recommend taking them vinyl off before the paint has time to dry too much. Taking it off in the morning after the paint had time to dry and get tacky pulled up some of the paint from my letters so they don't look as smooth as I would like.

On the dishes I have made so far I have found that the Paint Pen stays great to wash in the dishwasher on the top shelf. Sharpie marker is best washed by hand. Do Not scrub! Use a soft washcloth and mild soap

Here is another Sharpie marker project with different tips and tricks.

Easter Plate

I would love to hear from you and see your projects. Leave a comment or #AlwaysCreate on your photos. Find me on Instagram {@AlwaysCreate} and follow along for behind the scenes and fun little extras.

Our First Adventures in Potty Training

We have finally decided to take the leap and potty train Lady A. I really think she was ready to start during the summer but with vacations and family visitors, time got away from us. But if you must know I was really worried it was going to take weeks and we would never be able to leave the house. With baby girl number 2 on the way and all the changes that will be coming this summer, the winter break between semesters seemed like a great time to undertake the adventures of potty training.

I have been pretty sick with being pregnant so I needed to make sure to do this while Paul would be home to help. I gag so easily that if there was going to be a mess to clean up, Paul would have to do it and I would need to go in the next room.

Here was my plan. Ask and listen to as much 'advise' as I could get from mom's who had recently potty trained, take it with a grain of salt knowing that it wasn't going to be perfect and be willing to change my method if what we were doing wasn't working.

• Spend the day in the bathroom with books, phone/tablet, drinks {to make sure they have to use the potty} and plenty of wipes.
• Put her in big girl underwear {this way if they have an accident they know what it feels like and will hopefully make them want to try harder}.
• It could take a day to a week.
• Put the little potty in the open {dinning area, living room} and let them figure it out.
• Potty stickers/treats or anything that would be a reward for your child.
• AND so on. Everyone had suggestions and no two were exactly the same.

We had gotten the little people potty and underwear over the summer so she was familiar with them already. Any time she wanted to sit down on it we encouraged her or if she wanted to put the underwear on over her diaper we were happy to help.

Like I said earlier, she might have been ready this past summer, she started pointing to her diaper every time she wet it a little or if we knew she was going in her diaper we would talk to her about it, letting her know that soon she would use a toilet like mom and dad.

Day One:
The day arrived and we had breakfast first {maybe we should have put her on the potty first, oh well} then took the little potty and all our goodies into the restroom. This lasted almost two hours and mom and dad were done. Our operation moved down to the family room. We had her in her big girl undies and she had already had a mishap but I could tell she knew when she needed to go {even if she did not make it to the potty on time}. One of us stayed almost within arms reach of her the whole time so if we needed to we could grab her and run for the safe haven of the linoleum floor.

The rest of the day was a great success. Her candy of choice right now is Hershey Hugs so we used those as her potty treat. Lady A would always point to herself when she needed to go, she picked up the potty dance real quick, so we knew when it was time to help her. Every time she made it to the potty we also made a big deal out of it: hugs and kisses, high fives and knuckles.....I mean this is a pretty big deal and big change, it was our job to let her know how proud of her we were and to encourage her to keep going, even after accidents.

Right before bed she needed to go number two and I heard that this had it's own set of issues. Well it wasn't perfect for us but we recovered. Even at the very last possible second before dad laid her down for bed she let him know she needed to go {this might of been a scam to come down and see mom and stay up just a little bit later} so they came downstairs and sure enough, she earned her treats.

Now to just keep doing the same thing for the next while. I'm sure the first time we go out for a trial run with the big girl undies on, it's possible we'll need to take extras and make a lot of potty stops.

It wasn't perfect but it was pretty good and didn't scare me so bad once we finally started. Maybe with baby number two I won't put it off so long once she starts showing me she is ready.

Day Two:
She woke up with a dry diaper!!! Yay. I know this one can take a lot longer and it might of been a one time thing until she gets better at controlling herself.....but we are counting it as a win.

Today was a bit harder with Church right in the middle of the day. She wouldn't use the restroom at church and I can not blame her.....those things are so big they looked like they could swallow her whole. For nap time she is still in Pull-Ups and figured out quickly that she could use the excuse of needing to go potty as a way to stay up. She has perfected that excuse and was able to stay up almost 2 hours at bedtime. But every time she sat on her toilet, she used it so I can't be too upset.

Day Three:
Another dry diaper!!

Paul had to work this afternoon so I was going to do the second half of the day by myself. Lady A has come up with her own way of letting us know she needs to go. Trying to make her go ever couple of hours or constantly asking her was causing more contention than anything so from now on she stops what she is doing, assumes the potty stance then runs to the toilet yelling "Go, Go, Go" until she has made it. We did have two accidents but one of them was my own fault. For the past few days I have been staying within arms reach and not doing anything but waiting for our next trip to the potty but I got caught up doing my own thing today.

Day Four:
You guessed it.....A dry diaper!!! I'm super excited for Lady A but don't think we will stop using Pull-Ups at night and nap time for a little while.

I was also told {by others as well as from Elmo's Potty video} that mastering number 1 and number 2 can happen at different times but today she decided that it was time to master the second. By now the treats do not mean as much to her as running back and forth from mom to dad and getting high-fives and knuckles. This little girl cracks me up, she has such a huge personality in a little tiny body.

From others and my own experience of having four younger siblings, I know that sometimes the kids can go back to wanting diapers and that wet diapers at nap time and bed time could come back for a visit. Even though it seems like we have mastered this milestone, and are moving forward, we could take a step back at times so I will have to keep reminding myself to be patient.

Here are some tips I have put together as a first timer {I'll be coming back to this list in a couple of years for baby number two}:

• Ask around about different potty training techniques. This will help you decide on what might work for you.
• Don't get stuck on one method. I had heard from a lot of moms who had great success by spending a whole day in the restroom with their toddler. There is no way Lady A was going to do that, so we adapted with some of the other ideas I had gotten from moms.
• Wait until they are ready. As I said, I really think Lady A was ready. She would let us know every time she went in her diaper and needed a diaper change. This is a huge reason why I think her potty training went so well.
• Help them get familiar with what changes are coming. The little people potty had been out in the restroom for some time and she had sat on it before.
• A lot of patience. There will be accidents and bumps along the way. Potty training is just as much an exercise for the parents as it is for the kids.
• A tag-team partner. Even if it is just for the first day, having someone there to help was a great help and can encourage you to stick with it.

Something I did not think about until we had potty trained her was that once she is awake from nap time or bed time I have to get up too to see if she needs to use the potty. There is no more sleeping in and waiting to see if she'll fall back to sleep. If I want her to be potty trained, I need to make sure I get up to help her when she gets up.

What potty training tips do you have? Help us build a list of ideas for all those who are taking on this adventure in the future.