Baby presents... And an elephant parade...

Hi again,

So I promised I would show you something again soon and I'm happy to say I got to finish another one of my projects. Let me first tell you how I came about making it. About a month ago I became an aunt for the very first time (yay me!!! And who would have known that my tough, I-never-want-kids brother would melt when looking at his baby girl... ). So, I decided to push some of my ongoing projects aside and start on some little presents for lovely little Lotte (and I really do mean little: she was born about 2 months early and weighed only 1440 grammes (about 3 pounds) ). Sooooooooooooo, having found a great little shop a few weeks before, I decided to paint a bisque piggy bank for her (every child needs to put their savings somewhere...). The problem was that I wanted to paint the piggy bank so it would look like the birth card. I know that doesn't sound like a problem, but keep in mind she was 2 months early so the recent parents were completely unprepared... Luckily, about 4 days later the cards arrived and the next Saturday I got up bright and early and stepped into the shop to paint the piggy bank. 

So this is the card. Thankfully the design was not too difficult (if the card was too difficult I would have had the piggy bank painted by the artist who runs the shop, but I really wanted to do it myself, makes it more personal). Anyway, I decided to put the name and the date of birth on the front and the little poem my brother and the misses chose on the back. All around this text I decided to put the different coloured feet. I was pleasantly surprised when the shop owner told me that I could draw on the bisque first (the pencil outlines disappear in the baking process, which really comes in handy when you're a bit unsure about your artistic skills), it made my job a lot easier. So I guess it's time to show you the end result (it was already wrapped at the time, so I apologize if the pictures aren't clear enough).

I actually wanted to paint the letters in hot pink (it is a girl after all), but that paint was not present in the shop so I decided to go for the lime green instead. Anyway, this was homemade present number 1 (I also bought some clothes and a few items from the list, of course). Then, one day I'm spending way too much time pinning (yes, I admit it, I'm a pinterest pinoholic) and I stumbled upon the cutest little sewing pattern...

I thought the elephants were so cute I immediately bought the pattern on etsy... And then a small, really tiny little problem occurs to me: I have never used a sewing machine before. Luckily, my mom had been using a sewing machine since secondary school (and she has one at home), so she taught me how to use it and then sat there when I started cutting the fabric and sewing up my cute little elephant. And this is my process... And the end result...

Let's see if everything works after cutting the fabric

Result after having sewed together the 2 sides

And the end result from the left and the right.

And I must say, as this was my very first project, I think I did a pretty good job. Brother loved it and so did my boyfriend, so much even that he wanted me to make him one too (for the times when I'm not there, so he would still have the elephant and in that way a piece of me. Sweet, isn't it). I had already bought me some cute fabric for stil unknown future projects and I decided to use that for the second elephant. So let me show you how it turned out...

And then... My mom looked at it, told me she loved it and said that the opposite would look great as well. Soooooooooo, I decided to make my own little elephant, the exact reverse of the boyfriend's. And this is the result...

And some duo shots...

And I guess that's the end of my baby presents and elephant parade show-off... I hope you enjoyed it. I know I enjoyed making it. And as always, I hope to see you again soon...

Lots of love,

Crazy Crafter