Changes for the New Year

Its been a long time since I have opened up this blog to write. I love writing and I miss blogging but life gets busy and things get forgotten or put to the way side. But here I am with some time to finally sit down and say hi. "Hi!" The last few months have had a lot of ups and downs but there are huge changes on the way. Not "new year, new you" kind of changes...I'm talking life altering changes. At this point I wont write much. We haven't told our family or friends yet what our plans are. I am so incredibly excited and a little anxious though. Once we have told them, I will begin blogging again because it will all be too exciting to not share. In the mean time, this blog will undergo some changes too. I want to make it more user friendly. I'm gonna figure out how to get my posts to appear on the appropriate page and I am going to add you tube videos to it. I hope that everyone who reads this blog will be patient with me as I move forward with the changes. I promise, they will make everything better in the end...


Just keep swimming...

Rachel B. 

DIY: Block Print Stamp

The last few days my brain has been swimming with ideas for my very own product line. Because I am creating kid friendly clothes I want kid friendly fabrics, designs and prints. Now don't get me wrong. The print fabrics they sell in stores are great and all but I really wanna do my own thing. After some extensive research (which equals hours cruising pinterest)...I settled on the idea of block prints. This technique is where you take a block that has a design on it and print the fabric with it over and over again. Since I am a "do it myself" kinda gal, I didn't want to buy a stamp. But, I can't carve so I had to figure out a way to make my own block stamps. Preferably using the materials I already had on hand at home. So, without further ado...here is what I came up with!

Supplies: 

Poster board (6"x6") plus some small two inch long strips
Craft foam
Glue
Marker
Scissors
Some kind of weight (I used a rock)

Step 1: Cut the poster board to size

I cut my blocks into 6"x6" squares. It seems to really be the perfect size for handling the prints. After I cut out the main block, I cut the scraps into small long strips for the handle.

 

Step 2: Glue on strips/handle

I used Elmer's school glue which so far has held up pretty well. You just need a little bit to get it to stick. Once you have glued and stacked all of the little blocks on top of one another, place the weight on top. Allow to dry.

Step 3: Create your design

Take the foam and draw your design onto it. For this tutorial I did circles, which I intend to use on a cute skirt design I have in the works. (Polka dots rock!!) Once you have drawn the design cut it out and glue it on. There is no set way to do this. The more random the better. Allow to dry, again under the weight.

Step 4: Print Away!!!

The very first block print I made was of mini-mustaches. To show how well the block print works, I took a little bit of paint, sponged it onto the print (just covering the raised print) and then dabbed it onto a scrap of plain white fabric I had.

Overall, I think it turned out pretty snazzy looking. I hope that this tutorial will help inspire you to create your very own prints!!

Happy Printing!

Rachel B.

Busy Days Ahead

I think I have finally decided to take the plunge into this whole "business" thing. For years I have sewed for family and friends as a hobby. At one point I thought I would make wedding dresses that would be of my own design but I got bored with that quickly. I find myself, time and again going back to kids clothes. I have two amazing little boys and a whole bushel of nieces and nephews so I have plenty of opportunity to make stuff for little kiddos. I've just never sold any of it before. With that being said, the next few weeks are going to be spent drawing up and creating prototypes, developing my brand (hence the new blog design...) and creating a real life business plan.

Wish me luck!

Rachel B.

Hiking Season is Coming!!

Yay!!! It's almost spring time (well...in a couple of months or so) and in our house that means its time to get ready for the hiking season!! In the past our hikes have always been really low key short little treks out and back, usually to some waterfall. However, Bird, my oldest, has become uber fascinated with survival skills. What better way to teach him survival skills (and the rest of the family too) than to go on a few overnight backpacking trips! When I was a kid all we ever did was car camping and no hiking. My kiddos have both car camping and day hiking under their belts so this just seems like the next logical step. Of course I'm geeking out about it over here because I can just imagine how fun (and probably stressful) this will all be. So to gear up for the season we are going to start small, organize our gear, shake off our winter cobwebs and work on some fun projects.

We got started this last weekend by going for a short day hike out along Strawberry Island. There are several trails through this little patch of land that are pretty well maintained and are not very far from our house. Score! This really made for a perfect little trek out. While we were out there Bird decided to bring along some of his tracking books. We bought him several animal tracking books for Christmas because it never fails, every time we are out on a hike we come across tracks we can't identify. Not this time! Towards the end of our hike we stumbled across a print in the mud that at first looked like it could have been a dog (to my untrained eye). Checked the book...not a dog...Bird thought it might have been a cougar...checked...nope...William thought it could be a coyote print...checked and BINGO!! We took pictures and while its kinda hard to tell from them, we feel pretty good about our id. Overall it was a successful first trek out. Because of the weather here we wont be able to actually go backpacking until April or May but until then the short little day hikes should be good for brushing up on our skills.

Happy Trails,

Rachel B.