My first ever giveaway!

**This giveaway is now closed**

I don't know why I didn't mention this earlier, but My Own Road celebrated its second birthday last month!

I started this blog as an outlet to talk about my family, life experiences and the projects that I do. And along the way I've had a lot of fun experiences. There was the time I told my sister-in-law I couldn't read, the day when my daughter hid a crayon in the laundry, when I attempted to work out with a toddler, and most disgustingly, when I accidentally put one of my daughter's boogers in my mouth and learned a very important lesson.

I've also shared a lot of my projects (which you can find in my tutorials.)

Most of all though, I've been lucky enough to have met a bunch of new bloggy friends that seem to think my life is interesting enough to read about too :) So thanks for all of your support, new friends and old! 

So as a belated birthday gift to you, I decided that It's about time I hosted a giveaway for all of you awesome blog readers out there. I've been wanting to give something away for awhile, but I couldn't decide on exactly what. Then I discovered Isabel.

Isabel of Monellisa is a talented artist who likes to work in acrylics, oil, and watercolor. She's even made a bunch of hand painted ceramics. But I'm especially in love with the beautiful watercolor trees she paints.

But enough of my rambling, I'll let Isabel tell you a little bit more about herself.

My name is Isabel Monell. I'm 25, and I love creating unique pieces of art. I know that my talent was a gift given to me so I could create wonderful art to share with others. I'm an artist, and I hold a Bachelor Degree in Studio Art from Old Dominion University. I love painting. I have several years of experience with painting pottery, as well as working with acrylic, oil, and watercolor creations. Because I love creating, I'm always exploring different mediums and seeing where it leads me.

To see more of her work, you visit Isabel  here on her website or go to her Etsy shop, Monellisa, to purchase the paintings, prints, and cards she has for sale.

So here's the deal. To help me celebrate my second blogaversary, Isabel is giving away a pack of her gorgeous postcards to one of my readers!

The winner will get their choice of a 10-pack of postcards in one of 5 designs (or you can choose the "Pretty Little Ladies" collection, which includes 2 of each card.)

Want to win? I thought so.


There are 2 ways to enter: 

1. Become a follower of My Own Road (that means clicking on the "follow" button in the left hand sidebar. I can't see you if you're hiding in RSS feedland, sorry!) If you're already a follower, you've been entered. 1 entry.
2. Visit Isabel's Etsy shop, Monellisa, and look around, then come back and leave me a comment on this entry with which cards you would choose if you won. 1 entry.

That's 2 possible entries per person!

This contest is open to US residents only please! Winners will be chosen using random.org and announced on Wednesday March 23rd.

Please make sure I have a way of getting in touch with you. Either leave your email address in your comment, or make sure your profile is set up to include your email. Winners will have a week to respond, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.

Thanks for entering! Oh, and while you're here, why not grab a button?

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Grab a button!

I have new blog buttons up!

I finally figured out how to make cool blog buttons! I know, you all probably know how to do this in your sleep. You can find the new buttons in my tabs below my header, or to make things nice and convenient I also posted them below. Just copy and paste the code wherever you want the button on your blog.

Grab this first button if you're a fan of my blog (I would love to hang out in your sidebar :)

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This second button is for those of you whose projects I've featured (and I would love to feature you!) If you ever make any projects from the tutorials I post, just email me at myownroad@yahoo.com. Or, if you have a cool tutorial you are interested in posting, email me about those too! If I think they're appropriate for my audience, we just might have to set up a blog date.

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Thanks for reading, and don't forget about my upcoming giveaway this Wednesday!

Fan favorites and upcoming giveaway!

So I just had to show off some of your projects. I have received submissions from people all over who have made adorable shirts using my Rockin' Necklace Tee tutorial.

Here are some of my favorites:

Alison from Momma Did It made this adorable, super-girly version for her daughter's second birthday. Don't you just love the flower and the matching pink skirt?


Rebecca from Searching Out Simple made these adorable versions for her girls and added bows for extra cuteness.

And I was ecstatic to receive an email all the way from the Phillippines where a couple crafty mama's from I Love Crafts taught their students in Manila how to make their own necklace tees.

They even adapted it for the boys!

I absolutely love seeing your versions of my projects! Thank you for sharing them with me. I'm working on creating my own "Featured On" button so if I've shared one of your projects here, make sure to come back soon and grab a button.


Also, I will be hosting my very first giveaway on My Own Road this week! All residents of the U.S. are welcome to participate. Make sure you stay tuned for more details.

Lucky In Love shirt

I've been wanting to make a St. Patrick's Day shirt for my son but I couldn't decide on what I wanted to do. Of course I put it off so long that I needed to find something that would be quick. As I was surfing the blogosphere for St. Patrick's Day ideas the other day, I was lucky enough to stumble upon these Lucky In Love printables over at Agape Love Designs.

It's already a great printable, but I thought it would make an even cuter shirt. After making one for my son, I think I might have to make one for myself! Here's how to make one for your little lucky charm.

 Supplies:

• Plain white shirt (I used a onesie)
• Black fabric paint and paintbrush
• Freezer paper
• X-Acto knife
• Green knit fabric scraps (I used an old t-shirt)
• Sewing machine and thread
• Needle and white embroidery thread
• Iron and ironing board 

Step 1: Print out the Lucky In Love image at Agape Love Designs. Use the shirt you want to use as a template for how big you would like the design to be. For a 0-3 month onesie, a 5x7 size was big enough for me. I chose to crop out the "lucky in" wording because I thought the shirt would be cuter without it.

Step 2: Trace the image onto a piece of freezer paper on the paper side. Make sure you don't draw it on the shiny or else you'll have to start over again. Trace the clover on a separate piece of freezer paper and set aside.

Step 3: Cut out the image. Place the freezer paper onto a cutting mat and use an X-Acto knife to carefully cut out your lettering. You don't need to cut out the clover. Let's ignore the fact that I did that :)

Step 4: Iron the paper to your shirt and paint letters. Using an iron and ironing board, set the heat to medium with no steam and iron your freezer paper lettering to your shirt, shiny side down. Check to make sure all of the edges of your lettering have been ironed down so paint doesn't leak outside of the lines. Also insert a piece of freezer paper, cardboard, or other protective material inside the shirt to protect it from fabric paint leaking through when you paint.

Using a paintbrush and the black fabric paint, paint neatly inside of the lettering, starting from the outside edges and moving in. Let your shirt dry for however long the bottle states. I always get too impatient and just let it dry overnight. It's always worked out fine for me.

When it's dry, peel off the freezer paper.

Step 5: Make your fabric clover. Ok so this part was a little tricky. I originally tried to cut out a clover and trace it onto my green fabric, but it was nearly impossible to see the fabric marker on the clover and even more impossible to cut out the clover. So I came up with a better idea. (There may be an easier way of doing this, but this is how I did it.)

Take the clover that you traced previously on the piece of freezer paper and pin it to 2 layers of your scrap fabric. I used 2 layers because I wanted it to have a very thick, dimensional look.

Now, carefully sew around your clover, picking up the foot and turning your image as you go to get smooth, clean lines. If you have a see-through embroidery foot, use it! Unfortunately, I don't have one so I had to wing it with my regular foot. It took a little longer because I was picking up the foot every few stitches to make sure I was sewing on the lines I drew, but it was worth it because the shape was exactly what I wanted. After you're done sewing, carefully tear the freezer paper off and cut around the edges of your clover.

Step 6: Attach the clover to your shirt. Pin the clover you just cut out to your shirt and use your embroidery needle and embroidery floss to stitch over your machine stitches. This gives the shirt a decorative look and attaches the clover to your shirt. If you'd rather skip the embroidery floss part, you could always just glue your clover to your shirt with some Fabric Fusion or something. I personally like the look of the thick embroidery floss on this project.

And there you have it! Pinch-free St. Patty's day wear!

Then again, who would want to pinch someone so cute anyway?

I'm linking up here:

• Craft Gossip
• Be Different, Act Normal
• One Pretty Thing
• U Create
• Sew Much Ado
• Someday Crafts
• Tip Junkie

Fresh Beat Band Birthday: The Big Day!

My daughter turned 2 yesterday, and if you've been reading along, we celebrated by throwing her a Fresh Beat Band-themed birthday. If you don't know who the Fresh Beat Band is, imagine High School Musical meets The Wiggles and there you have it. They're happy, they're colorful, and if they ever get in a bind, their problems can always be solved by a song or two. If only life was that simple right?



In any case, my daughter LOVES the Fresh Beat Band. If they ever go on tour, you better believe we'll have front row seats. She calls them "my Ba Beats," and if she's ever upset about anything, we can turn on an episode of Fresh Beat Band and it cheers her right up. After a year of watching Fresh Beat Band, I know every song, episode, and catch phrase of each band member. They've practically become members of the family. Like second cousins who show up to entertain our kid then leave after eating all the good snacks.

For Haley's second birthday, I wanted everything to be Fresh Beat Band themed from the decorations to the goody bags and the food. Considering there are no Fresh Beat Band party supplies out there yet, I think I did pretty well with what I could find or create. I was rushing around to do so much so I ran out of time and I unfortunately didn't get as many pictures of the table as I had wanted.

It was all about color color color. All of the partyware and decorations were bright and colorful (since everything and everyone in the show is colorful.) Rather than choosing one color, I thought it would be more appropriate to use a variety of colors based on those used in the show.

The musical notes I cut out were hung from the living room fan as well as over the table - which I didn't get pictures of , grr.

The Food

The food was my favorite part of the party. Everything was themed around the show. I even made individual tags for each food item with catchy names like "Hip, Hop, and Popcorn" and "Groovy Orange Smoothie." Call me corny, but I thought it was a fun touch.

Everyone's favorite part was the Oreo Truffle Pops (I've got to come up with a better name). There was only one left after the party was over! I make Oreo Truffles pretty regularly for my hubby who is obsessed with them, but for the party I decided I wanted to make them kind of like cake pops. I made the truffles as usual, then added some sprinkles on top and stuck them on popsicle sticks. I then made some  tags for the pops, which I modified from these cake pop tags on Bakerella.com. Using Photoshop, I just changed the colors and wording to fit the theme. They turned out so cute!

 

I think they were Haley's favorite too :)

The Cake

Of course we had to have a Fresh Beat Band cake. I made the cake myself with the Funfetti cake mix, then my husband made the icing (I gotta give the man credit, the frosting was awesome!) We used a recipe for Cream Cheese Frosting from MarthaStewart.com and added a little more confectioner's sugar because it needed a little more sweetness.

For the topper, we ordered an edible sugar screen print of the image that I made for Haley's birthday invites from a local baker. All we had to do was peel the topper off and place it on the cake. It looked great, and it was super easy. I used more of the frosting to decorate the edges and that was it!

I had to help her blow out her candle. She was a little confused as to why we would want her to get near a flame when we've continually told her that fire is bad.

Goody Bags

I went the simple route and used clear cellophane bags and ribbon for the goody bags. Each one is filled with crayons and the coloring pages I made in this post, plastic musical instruments, and bubbles shaped like guitars. They also each got a "Backstage Pass" that I printed off from the Fresh Beat Band printables on NickJr.com.

Since the show is centered around music, the little instruments were perfect for the kids. Their parents might not agree with me though :)

To quote the Fresh Beat Band, it was a great day. Haley had a ton of fun at her party playing with all of her friends and eating nothing but sugar all day. It's just hard to believe she's already another year older. Every day she seems like she's doing or saying something new. When we ask her how old she is now, she'll even tell you "two!" ... and hold out five fingers.

We're working on it.

I'm linking up here:

• Craft Gossip
• Be Different, Act Normal
• One Pretty Thing
• U Create
• Tip Junkie