Linky Party Features!

Ok, so I'm a little late... I did say this would happen Saturday, but you would not believe the weekend I've had. At this point, I'm just looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. haha! However, if you're anything like me, by Sunday morning you are missing all the lovely blog reading that happens during the week. Most days I feel like I can never read them all, but Saturday and Sunday I am seriously jonesin' for some good blog reading!

We had a GREAT Tutorial Tuesday link up this week! I am just loving checking out everyone's projects, and meeting so many awesome new bloggers! Thanks to those of you who invited me over to play! :)

So much excitement and I had the worst time trying to just pick a few of you to feature, but these were the link ups that caught my attention!

Vivienne over at The V Spot linked up the beautiful Spring Chandelier

{I love the little tiny nests!}

Jess at A Winding Road linked up this awesome Turquise Tote

{I have been in such a "bag" mood lately, I want to make them all!}

Christine at Crafty Geordi linked up this incredible Silverplate Pitcher makeover

{I can just imagine this sitting on our picnic table, and her paint story will give you a giggle!}

Tracy at All Thumbs Crafts linked up these No Wood Burlap Frames
{GREAT idea for those of us not on the power tool train!}







And last but not least...

Sarah Marie from Braids and Brown Boots linked up this Duck Tape Tote... you will NEVER believe how awesomely easy and cute it is! Duck tape? Holy cow!
{Oooh, this just tickles me pink and adds a whole new column to my project list!}







Really though, there were SO many great submissions, I hope you all got to check them out!

If you were featured, feel free to grab a button!

Copy and paste code:

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I hope to see you all back here on Tuesday for more linky party fun! 

Spring is getting into full swing {at least down here in the South it is...} 

so I just know there will be tons of beautiful spring-inspired projects coming up!

Fun stuff coming up this week @ The Little Birdie:

Monday 

A brand new shop review and a great GIVEAWAY!

Tuesday

A tutorial just for Mommy & Tuesday Linky Party!

Wednesday

Hope Rocks!

Thursday

More to be thankful for...

Friday

Lend a Hand to Help Japan

Saturday

Linky Party Features

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

XOXO

Thankful Thursday - 3/17/11

~ Family Time. ~

A beautiful day at the park...

A blessed union of two lovely friends...

{and a very tired - but surprisingly well behaved - baby!}

And a fun new toy for our adventurous little monkey!

{who loves feeling the wind in that wild hair of hers!}

It was a perfect weekend, chock full of much needed family time.

I have so much to be thankful for. :)

XOXO

Facebook Giveaway!

~ GIVEAWAY ALERT!! ~

For any of you who are followers of The Little Birdie, but not a "fan" on Facebook: I'm here to fill you in!

We hit 200 followers last week, {YAY!} so I'm holding a giveaway for a $25 credit to my etsy shop, ONLY winnable if you're a Facebook fan. :) Giveaway is going on now through Friday {3/18} at noon!

So, head on over to the Little Birdie Facebook Page 

and check it out now for your chance to win!

XOXO

Tutorial Tuesday - Fancy Pants Hand Towels for Under $2!

I have new towels for my kitchen!

Maybe that doesn't sound like a big deal, but I can never find anything that I like that matches my kitchen. First of all, it's cherry red {already painted when we moved in} with kind of a hodge-podge of mismatched appliances, and ugly cabinets to top it off... so I have trouble accessorizing. Secondly, truth be told - I'm picky. It can get ridiculous at times. I still don't have a matching set of bath/hand/wash towels for the master bath because nothing I've come across speaks to my splishy-splashy side. 

Eh, all in good time I guess. HAHA!

I'm getting off topic, sorry! 

So I'm excited about my little kitchen towels! 

There's only one thing that could make this whole scenario better, and that's if I had made them. 

Oh wait! I DID! Yay me!

P.S. The whole project cost under $2 to make {that's less than $1 per towel!!} 

Now that's a winner in my book!

And because I love you all so much I whipped up a little tutorial so you can make your own fancy pants towels using a couple of scraps and your pocket change. Let's get started!

~ Dressed Up Hand Towels ~

Wal*Mart, 2 pack, $1.68. 

SCORE!

My fabric was a little scrap left over from a jelly roll, ribbon was a scrap from my white felt wreath, and the lace stuff a scrap from a ribbon scrap pack I bought at Hobby Lobby ages ago. You don't need much of anything to do this project, these particular towels are only 15" wide to give you an idea.

First, lay your pieces out across the short side of your towel to make sure they are long enough with a bit leftover at each end to fold under and hem. I left about an inch on each end.

I started with my fabric since I knew I wanted it on the bottom. I planned to sew the ribbon and the lace over the top of the raw edges of the fabric so I wouldn't have to do any more hemming than necessary.

I folded under and pinned the edges down first, then used the wonky little zig-zag stitch 

to attach it to the towel. Clean edges, pretty little ziggy zaggy.

Next, I pinned and basted down the long edges. I know I'm going to be attaching the ribbon and lace 

over the fabric, so I mostly just need it to stay down and in place. The real reinforcing will come later.

Now more pinning for the lace...

{what is that stuff? Seriously, I have no idea what to call it, so I'm just going with lace for now.}

And again with the wonky zig zag stitch to make sure this stays in place and can be machine washed.

I did the same thing for the ribbon on top that I did for the fabric: 

Pinned and basted on both the top and bottom long edge. 

Somehow I managed to miss taking the pic on this one so you'll just have to use your imagination, haha!

Iron out any wrinkles, and ta-da! Pretty little dish towel!

They're SO easy, and you already have an extra towel, so why not make it two?

 Two is better than one anyway, I think. :)

Since I made these two, I've been digging around in my scrap box for other coordinating colors to make more. I could seriously solve my entire house-wide towel problem with what I find in my scrap box. :) 

But wouldn't they make great gifts? Housewarming parties, hostess gifts, wedding shower... 

Now let's see what you've been working on this week! I'm excited that our little linky party is growing, thanks to you all for participating and spreading the word. Don't forget, once we have at least 10 link ups I'll do a Saturday post featuring my favorites from that week. 

Grab yourself a button if you're linking up this week, and you can find all the parties I'll be linking up to this week up top under the "linky parties!" tab. There's lots of great spots on that list so definitely go check them out, and let me know if you have a party that I can add to my list!

<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/EUZEMD4scxL2eZF2LEPusA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybpWehEcQYkr_bcTNwQtjMs-pSV-lbAnKMq0wQAbpkfm8Vn6I1fmUjYtVvzwqfTuazi67qG1Z7SWKRWPfgV3kkRVaYGnhKP7LJ0txiH6AQQj2x8KUcYdEuPtOudXo4oDmxEdFyxqjJ7RO/s144/Tute%20Tues%20LB.png" height="144" width="144" /></a>

XOXO

Answering Your Marketing Questions + Free Stuff

~ your source for all things small-business related ~

~ want to feature YOUR shop on Merch Monday? email me! ~

Good morning!! My goodness this time change is kicking my butt. It probably doesn't help that it's all stormy and dark down here in southeast Texas, but I am finding it terribly difficult to get going this morning. Anyone else having trouble? ;)

In the last several days I have gotten a whole slew of emails from the business card swap post and from last week's Thankful Thursday all wanting to know the same thing:

Where did I get my 

business cards/return address labels/postcards?

Long story short, I generally purchase all of my print media from 2 sources:

www.moo.com

www.vistaprint.com

I use VistaPrint when I need a good deal on the cheap. {especially if I need really large quantities...} They always have awesome specials, and most of the time I don't need this kind of thing quickly so I can save even more by doing the slow, cheap shipping. They have thousands of pre-designed options to choose from, so I also go this route if I'm not planning on doing the designing myself.

The return address labels I ordered from VistaPrint... I got like 300 of them for under $3. Seriously.

I use Moo for my business cards, my mini cards, and anything else that I KNOW needs to make a great presentation every time. These are the areas where I don't mind spending a little extra, but honestly, as far as I'm concerned Moo's product quality can't be beat. Moo is also "designer friendly," which I totally appreciate because I really prefer designing my own print media so it's exactly the way I want it.

My business cards and mini cards. 

I've even used a version of my mini cards as tags for my merchandise at "in person" sales like craft shows and bazaars.

Please excuse the terrible quality of these photos... they are seriously not doing these products justice. It is seriously SO dark and yucky outside, there is no natural light whatsoever so I am stuck with my overhead light today. Sorry. :( This picture actually makes it look pretty out compared to what's actually going on outside. Yuck.

{Anyway, obviously I have to tell you that neither of these companies sponsors me in any way, 

this is just an honest-to-goodness product/company review from my own personal experiences.}

That being said, I got an email this morning from VistaPrint {another perk... email specials} with all kinds of great deals going on right now. Free postcards, free return address labels, free premium business cards... there's like 7 deals going on this week. So if you're in the market, you might want to check them out, there's lots of free stuff happening over there from now through March 18th.

VistPrint FREE Offers

All of you that emailed me, I hope this helps! You guys know I'm always happy to share whatever info/knowledge I can in order to make your lives easier. :)

Don't run off too far, 

I'll be making an announcement 

about our next giveaway later today!

XOXO

We have a WINNER!!

Okay guys, I know you have been anxiously awaiting the big announcement so here goes...

Let's see... we had 59 comments, minus the 2 comments I interjected, so a total of 57 comments! Wow! So our winner as selected by random.org is...

#4!!

"Katrina" says...

Congrats Katrina! You must have been putting some positive energy out into the universe, girl! 

Now, send me an email with your info and I'll pop your pretty present in the mail, stat!

 littlebirdiebaby {at} gmail {dot} com

The rest of you: don't be sad! 

Guess what else happened this week? 

Facebook reached 200 followers!

For all of you that are new to The Little Birdie, each milestone we hit together gets its very own giveaway, so every time we hit an increment of 100, there's a new giveaway! YAY!

So...

If you're not already a "fan" on Facebook, head on over there and get hitched up 

so you can enter the giveaway starting Monday morning!

I hope everyone has a SUPER weekend!!

XOXO

Guest Post at SAHMs of Etsy!

Hey all!!

Just wanted to let you know that I'm guest posting my little Silhouette project tutorial from earlier this week over at the SAHM of Etsy blog today!

Go check it out! 

{Especially if you're a stay at home mom yourself... there are tons of great women in this group!}

If you're interested in joining this group, go HERE for more info.

Also...

Kaleigh over at Lottie Lou and Brother Too sent me her pics of the sweet little elephants she made for her kiddos from our Eli the Elephant tutorial. They are just too cute! She even included pics of her precious tiny baby boy snuggling with his. {sigh} My heart melts!



Thanks Kaleigh for sharing with us! She's a new blogger, so be sure to pop over and say hello to her! :)

Thanks so much to the SAHM of Etsy team for letting me share! Have a great weekend!

XOXO

Just a Reminder!

Just a little reminder that today is the last day to enter 

the Baby Gift Set Giveaway! 

I will be doing the drawing at 5pm central time this evening, so don't wait! :)

Click HERE for details, and to enter!

XOXO

Thankful Thursday - 3/10/11

What a week this has been!! It really seems like it's been two weeks rolled into one. Hubby has been working like crazy going into his busy season. With all this early warm weather, he's got plenty to keep up with so we didn't get much of a weekend together. Every day since Saturday has felt like Friday... like my internal clock is telling me it's time for some family time! But we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of this weekend, as we'll finally get some much needed time together. :)

OK, here we go! There are always "big things" in my life that I'm thankful for every single day. {Hubby, Baby A, our home, jobs, and food on the table, etc.} So, from day to day I try to focus on "the little things" to help me appreciate even the small blessings in life, and so that I won't be so quick to take things for granted. I think it helps me see the big picture, and keep a positive attitude! :)


Without further adieu, these are the "little things" I'm thankful for this week!

1. Print Media! Despite shipping issues, my new return address labels are finally in. No more writing by hand, yay!

2. Mail Scale! I can't believe I've waited this long to get one of these. It is seriously shaving hours of time off my week when it comes to shipping, etc. I highly recommend getting one if you have any decent amount of outgoing shipping happening in your house. Well worth the $30 for sure!

3. The Dollar Bins at Target. I never look. I dunno what it is, but I just never do. I'm not good at the bin digging, I really think that's what it is. I like things nice and neat and orderly when shopping, haha! However, something pulled me over yesterday while doing a little pre-wedding shopping for Baby A, and I totally scored!! I bought her 4 Sesame Street books, 4 bathtub books, and 2 animal books for only a DOLLAR! Seriously, who can beat that? Oooh, oooh! I also got these super cute magnetic list pads and a big ol' pile of notecards {and the box!} for only a dollar too. {sigh} I love cheap stuff. :)

4. Plans this weekend! Since having the baby, Hubby and I have become even more hermit-y than we are already predisposed to be. That coupled with the fact that we are both working so darn much just doesn't make for alot of free time. So, needless to say, we don't go out much at night... sleep prevails! ;) This weekend a good friend of ours is getting married to his long-time girlfriend, and guess what? The hermits are getting out of the house Saturday night! We are so excited for them to begin their new journey, and who doesn't love a wedding? Plus, as an added bonus, I get to play dress up with my sweet Baby A. <3

5. Linky Parties! I love, love, LOVE linky parties because they are such a great way to show of all the fun projects you've been working on, and get new ideas and inspiration from other people's projects. You guys have been inviting me all over the web this week, I have loved coming to see your blogs and linking up at your parties!

Since things are growing so fast, I have been working on a new tab {see it up top?} to house all of the wonderful linky parties I visit every week. Now you can all go have some fun! As far as the page goes, it's a work that will constantly be in progress. So, if you've got a linky party you want me to go check out, let me know! I'd love to come for a visit and add your button to my party list!


I hope that everyone is having a fantastic week and that you all are thankful for all the blessings in your life, both big and small. :)


XOXO

Tutorial Tuesday - Pretty Storage Solutions

Welcome back to Tutorial Tuesday! 

I hope you all have your projects ready to link up... 

I can't wait to see them! :)

Today's tutorial is an organizational/storage solution. But, it's pretty! 

Because who wants a craft/work/play space that's not pretty? I don't! :)

but....

First things first!

Have you entered the Baby Shower Gift Set Giveaway? If not, go now! Winner will be selected Friday, March 11th at 5pm central time. Gift set includes, Eli the Elephant {from last weeks tutorial}, matching bib, matching burpie, and a cute little tufted block {perfect for those little hands!} all made from the super cute green flannel with brown polka dots. This set would be perfect for a boy or a girl!

There are plenty of ways to win, so don't miss out!

Now... on to the reason you're really here today! 

It's Tutorial Time!

I don't know about you all, but I think baby food jars are just perfect for storing things in. There are always plenty of those little tiny bits and pieces that are difficult to wrangle, especially when you have so many other things occupying your craft play space. But let's face it, not so pretty. So I took a few baby food jars, some pretty scrap paper, some ribbon scraps and the trusty old Mod Podge and went to town!


What you need:
baby food jars
scraps of pretty paper
scraps of coordinating ribbon
pencil
scissors or exacto knife
mod podge
rubbing alcohol
soft cloth


First we're going to take the rubbing alcohol and your soft cloth and clean these babies up. No matter how much you picked at that label, there is bound to be leftover goo... and well, that's not pretty. But with a little rubbing alcohol and some elbow grease it will come right off, as well as any printing that may also be on the jar.

See? Nice and clean and ready to dress up!

Next, flip your jar over onto the backside of your paper. Trace the shape of the lid. 

{See? I told you I was a nerd, complete with mechanical pencils, haha!}

Now, I don't know if any of you have one of these, but it is amazing! I picked up this little teeny tiny exacto knife with a swiveling head one day while I was at Hobby Lobby, and I llllllllllllove it! It makes cutting out circles a snap because it moves with your hand. Genius, I tell you!

OK, so cut out your circles by whatever means suits you. Be sure to leave about 1/4 inch or so around the outside of the circle so you have plenty of room to fold it down on the sides of the lid.

Next, slap a thin layer of mod podge onto your lid for sticking power. 

Careful not to overdo it, as too much will make the paper slide all around and, well, not stick.

Place your paper print side up over your lid and mod podge over the right side of the paper. 

{I did this upside down so it was easier to center.} 

As you're pressing it down, make little pleats around the edges to keep things nice and smooth.

{I should warn you- you're going to get dirty. Have some paper towels handy!}

Let this dry completely before doing anything else. If it's still tacky, that pretty paper will rip. 

Sadly, I know this from experience. Do over! haha!

Once it's dry, cut your coordinating ribbon scrap to fit around the edge of the lid and mod podge that bad boy in place too. {Don't you just love mod podge? It's like Super Goo or something.}

TA-DA! Pretty little jars to adorn your space and store all your little tidbits.

They look so cute on my shelf!

Now it's YOUR turn! 

Link up your projects below and be sure to go and visit each other's project posts so everyone feels loved. 

If we ever get more than 2 or 3 people linking up 

I'll do a feature post on Saturdays of my favorites!

XOXO

As for me, I'm linking up here this week:

Too Cute Tuesdays @ Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog
Take A Look Tuesday @ Sugar Bee: Craft Edition
Show Me What Ya Got @ Not Just a Housewife
Tuesday's Treasures @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Ten Buck Tuesday @ The Young Nester

Grab a button if you're linking up! :)

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