Taylor, Author at TaylorMade

Baby Boy Gift Set

February 5, 2014 By Taylor 3 Comments

Hands down, handmade baby gifts are my favorite. Moms love unique handmade gifts and I love doing quick and easy projects, it’s a win-win. Last week I went to my friend Jamie’s Baby shower for her soon to be little boy. I have a bunch of cute boy fabric so I knew I had to make him some burp cloths.

I have talked a lot about my love for THESE cloth diapers HERE, when I made my last baby gift. I always have a pack or two on hand because they make the perfect burp cloth! Most moms contact me within a few weeks asking for more :)

I also added a few boy onesies from my Etsy Shop. Bikes and lightning bolts, you can’t go wrong there.

I wrapped them in brown craft paper and added a sticker so it looked professional :)

And there you have a very simple handmade baby gift! If you have any need for custom burp cloths, email me at taylor.taylormade@gmail.com or contact me on my etsy page! I have started making a lot of custom ones for my friends and they are a big hit :)

Speaking of babies… our gender appointment is this Friday!! AHH! We didn’t find out the gender for our boys so this is a first for us, I am so exited to see if a brother or sister will be joining us this summer! 2 more days :)

Craft Room Reveal

January 20, 2014 By Taylor 29 Comments

Hi Guys. I took a little blog break over the holidays but it’s good to be back. If you follow me on Instagram (taylormadeblog) you will know I’m pregnant with baby #3, Yay! My old routine consisted of kid’s bath then kids to bed then blogging. Well now, after the kids go down, I do too. I am getting some energy back but I’m sure posts will be a little lighter while I’m pregnant and definitely once the baby gets here in June. I love having this little outlet and feeling like I have a timeline with something (even if it’s one I made up). Also, stay-at-home-mom life can get lonely sometimes and I’m thankful to have the social aspect. I’m here to stay even if that means it’s a little sporadic at times. Anyway, on to today’s post… my favorite room in the house, THE CRAFT ROOM!

When we moved in to our new house 6 months ago, the craft room was at the top of the to-do list! I was squeezed into the dining room at the old house so having an extra room for me was a must. The deal was my husband would get the whole garage if I got a craft room, DONE! The day we moved in I took some bad cell phone pictures just because I knew how pretty it would end up.

All I had was the big Expedit Shelf from Ikea that was staying. I got rid of everything else and continued to craft and blog from the floor for about a month or so :)

I sketched out a VERY rough plan to get my thoughts on to paper and for my birthday this past summer my husband built me world’s best craft room. These are the actual dimensions for everything he built. He built the two side desks, the big center work table and the 4 shelves. I ordered the hairpin legs online for the side desks.

He finished the furniture months ago but I wanted to wait for it to be “finished” before I posted about it. I realized a few weeks ago that it will never be finished so I am going to share where it’s at now. Eventually I want recessed lighting, wood floors, new curtains, new chairs and a way to hide those ugly cords. But today here she is…

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this room! It is by far my favorite room in the house! It’s bright, happy and inspiring. We have a living room and a dining room so this is the “formal living”. It also happens to be the first room you see when you walk through the front door. I was originally torn because we have an extra bedroom in the back and I debated between the craft room vs. the playroom being up front. We decided that I could keep a craft room more organized on a daily basis than a playroom. I’m so happy with our decision because the playroom is a disaster area everyday, as it should be. Also, most people come through our garage so that puts this room in the back.

The best thing is the huge beast of a work table that Bryan built! It’s so sturdy that I can stand on it to take overhead pictures.

One issue was that this room had no lighting. Zero. Great natural light but not so good at night. We want to add recessed lighting one day but for now, my mom got me these fun lights for my birthday. I strung them up one afternoon which was both mind boggling to get the sway right and also a very intense workout because I went up and down a 20 ft ladder about 700 times. The light is a little too yellow but they work for now.

Everyone always asks about this spinner on the work table. It was a display when we had our store and when we closed my mom and I each kept one, it’s perfect for craft supplies.

I wanted a clean white look so when we moved I bought these white containers from IKEA. They hold everything! It’s all very organized in there and surprisingly I know where everything is without having to label them. Everything from glue guns, felt, paints, scrapbook paper and stamps to bins for unfinished projects, fabric scraps, batting and my iron are all hiding in there. On the very right side I kept my fabric around comic book board system. The only fabric on the boards are 1/2yd – 1yd. If it is larger or smaller it lives in the pink bins on top.

I have the two desks split up by sewing and fabric crafts on the right and computer and paper crafts on the left. This is the right desk. I have my sewing machine, serger and my Photo Printer (canon selphy). I also whipped these fabric hoops up very quickly one evening and I love them! That bottom Heather Bailey is my all time favorite fabric.

On the shelf above the sewing machines, I have a basket for my current sewing project. I also have some project life cards that I’m working on right now. On top I have some magazine boxes that hold sewing patterns and some buttons/bakers twine.

Behind the sewing side I have a little work station. I have most of my sewing notions and tools in the drawers. I got both the white Alex drawers and the Cart from Ikea. On top I have a lot of scrapbooking stuff like stickers and embellishments. I made the chalkboard HERE. I also have a scale and packing stuff here for when I sell stuff from my etsy shop. I keep chalk and business cards in the little hanging basket. Mini Dresden is from Inside the Paper Box.

On to the paper craft and computer side. I keep my new embroidery machine and the silhouette over here because they have to be connected to the computer.

The first thing I made for this room was the fabric garland and I still love it. I want to make about 100 more. Also I begged for this Freshly Picked mouse pad and got it for my birthday.

I have my Project Life Card Holder on the shelf by my copic markers and one of my many Katie Daisy prints. On the top shelf I have my silhouette (dust cover pattern HERE) and the little boxes are full of the stamps I use most often. I made the top painting HERE and the print is from Gus and Lula.

That pretty much wraps her up :) Like I said, it is a work in progress. I am not sure that union jack painting is perfect there. Also the cords are still driving me crazy, any tips on how to hide them? I am craft room obsessed so if you have a craft room leave a link in the comments so I can check it out. If I left anything ask feel free to ask where I got something!

DIY Ornament Party

December 16, 2013 By Taylor Leave a Comment

Remember last year when I hosted the first DIY Ornament Party? Well, my friends (the coyotes) had so much fun they insisted on round two ;)

I kept it simple like last year. I made an appetizer and I asked each girl to bring one too. I also made a dessert and had wine. We meet once a month and we usually have a meal but for this, it’s easier to just have snacks since there is crafting to be done!

For the ornaments I got a pack of clear glass bulbs. Then I set out a bunch of different paint colors and some paint brushes and sponges. At each spot I placed a few paper towels, some water and I used a plastic Tupperware lid for our paint palettes.

Some of us painted on the outside and some on the inside. I did the “squeeze paint into the ornament” method.

They all turned out so pretty and obviously we had fun too!

After they dried overnight I wrote the year on the outside with sharpie. This is what I ended up with…

So, has anyone hosted a make your own ornament party? I am going to need some more ideas as I see this is becoming an annual thing :)

Triangle Baby Quilt

November 20, 2013 By Taylor 21 Comments

Triangle quilts are all the rage this year so I knew I had to make one for my friend. She isn’t finding out the sex of her baby which I am a big fan of, I was surprised both times too. It adds so much excitement but it can be hard to pick out a gift. I love making baby gifts and I feel like a quilt is the perfect unisex present. I went with a range of colors and even though I added two pinks I made sure to add more blues just in case. But either way- it’s a baby and a little pink on a quilt is OK for a boy in my opinion :)

For the front I used 11 different solid cottons, 1/4 yard of each color. Then I used 1 1/2 yards for both the batting and the back. I made a quilted triangle pillow a few months ago and I cut out all the triangles by measuring. So this time bought a handy little triangle ruler. The template I was using was about 7 1/2″ on every side. I didn’t realize that the flat top on the template was for another quilt pattern and all of my triangles were cut incorrectly. Bummer but since they were all consistently wrong I just went with it.

After I cut all of the triangles out I placed them in stacks. I laid the quilt out in a random pattern and I made sure no color was touching the same color. Then I sewed the triangles together horizontally making rows. I ended up cutting about 115 triangles but only used 8 rows of 12 triangles… so 96 total.

Then I sewed each row together vertically. Because of the flat tops on the triangles it made them more of a trapezoid shape, which turned out OK it just made the quilting part a little different. I placed the back fabric right side down, then the batting then the top. I used very thick and fluffy batting because I thought it would make a perfect “play-on-the-floor-tummy-time-quilt”. Then I placed the quilt on top, right side up. Here is a very rough diagram of how I quilted the whole thing.

I started with 1 and sewed horizontally all the way across each line. The diagram just shows 4 lines but I actually did all the the horizontal lines down the full length of the quilt. After I was done with that I started the zig-zag quilting. Because of the trapezoid shape I wasn’t able to just make diagonal lines. I actually started in the middle and did that zig-zag pattern down each “line”. This made it look like every “triangle” was separate, which I loved!

I just used some white cotton that I already had lying around for the binding so I’m not really sure how much I used. The quilt ended up to be 42″ x 52″ so that will give you an idea for the length of the binding. Also, The day I went out and took pictures I got some awesome sun-flares… Baby Quilt Magic :)

Before I quilted everything I added this little TaylorMade tag to one of the triangles.

I honestly thought about keeping it for myself because I loved it so much. I guess that makes a good gift, if you want to keep it! Now I just need to make one in my size.