The Cozy Caterpillar

After spending a couple hours out shopping with my one year old nephew, I realized that babies go through a TON of socks! He would go into the store with two socks and inevitably by the time we left there would be one lonely sock on his foot.

I realized that the perfect gift for his first birthday would be some baby socks. I mean the more he has the better, right?! Especially since he seems to be constantly losing them.

I didn't want to just throw a bunch of socks in the bag and call it good either because that just didn't seem fun. So I came up with the "Cozy Caterpillar" baby socks gift. It's super cute and easy to make!

Ingredients:
About a dozen baby socks (boy or girl)
1 pipe cleaner
2 mini pop-poms
2 buttons
Green shredded paper
Note: I have double stick tape pictured but I found that Elmer's glue dots worked better for part of it, so I ended up using both
Not pictured: Container to put it in (I used a cookie tin)

Step 1: Take one of the baby socks and roll it up as seen in the picture.

Step 2: Take the first baby sock and put it down inside the foot of the matching sock.

Step 3: Starting at the opening of the sock, roll it around the foot so that you end up making a ball.

Step 4: Do this with all the remaining socks. Then decide which pattern you would like your caterpillar to have. There was only one red sock with mine, so I made that the head.

Step 5: Cut 2 pieces of pipe cleaner, each about 3 inches long. Wrap the bottoms together to form a "V." Bend the base of the "V" and attach it to the top of the head with the glue dots. Using the glue dots again, attach the pom-poms to the tops of the pipe cleaners and then attach the eyes. You can see why I changed it and went with the glue dots instead. The tape just looks messy!

Step 6: Place a piece of double stick tape on the bottom of each sock and attach them to your container. The double stick tape worked perfectly for this.
I made a zig-zag pattern with the socks. First, to get them all to fit and second because I thought it was cute and wiggly.

Step 7: Finish by filling in around your caterpillar with your paper shreds. I made mine by running 2 different colors of green paper through my shredder.

There you have it! A cute and fun way to give baby socks!

I will be linking up to my favorite parties this week.

A Few of My Favorite Things...

With all the Christmas presents I've been working on lately, I thought I would share some of Santa's little helpers with you. These are some things that I just can't live without this year:

Source: Joann.com

1. Olfa Pinking Blade

For those that are familiar with rotary cutters, this is for use with the Olfa Deluxe 45mm Rotary Cutter. A rotary cutter is used with a self healing cutting mat and a ruler to cut fabric and it makes cutting a dream. The pinking blade makes cutting pinked edges (zig-zag) so much easier. I've used pinking shears on so many projects but I hate how uneven my lines come out! By using the rotary cutter, the cut lines on your fabric turn out so straight and even!

Source: Amazon.com

2. Singer Stylist Sewing Machine
I recently upgraded to this sewing machine from a more basic model and I am so impressed. If I had known there was such a difference, I would have done it much sooner. This machine has more stitch functions than I have figured out what do with. It also has an automatic threader, comes with an assortment of foot attachments and is incredibly easy to use. It would be great for a beginner or even a more experienced user. It is very reasonably priced too!

Source: www.silhouetteamerica.com

3. Silhouette Cameo

The newest model is the Silhouette Cameo, it has been on my wishlist since it was announced that they were going to be putting it out this fall. This amazing little machine can do everything! It cuts vinyl - both heat transfer and indoor/outdoor vinyl - scrapbook paper and cardstock, makes temporary tattoos, cuts fabric, it can sketch designs, all sorts of great things. I've used it to make gifts, cards, home decor, t-shirts and just about everything imaginable! I really don't know what I did before I had it.

Source: www.elmers.com

4. Elmer's CraftBond Glue Spots
These handy little glue spots are great for all my paper crafts. My most common use for them is when
making cards. They are also great for scrapbooking. But using these with my latest projects - a 3D snowflake and paper chain - turned out so much better than if I had used tape like the directions said (I'm not one to follow directions anyway!). They come in a variety of sizes and I've found them all to be useful depending on the project.

Source: http://www.beaconadhesives.com

5. Fabri-tac
This is such a fantastic adhesive. Most recently, I used it to decorate Christmas stockings. I found that it worked wonderfully to apply buttons, ribbon, pom-poms and felt flowers to my stockings. Then when my friend was talking about how plain her stockings were, the first thing that came to mind was using Fabri-tac to help with decorating hers. It's great because instead of having to figure out how to sew through layers upon layers of fabric, you use a bit of this and your materials adhere quickly and effortlessly. I think it's my new favorite way to "sew!"

 Disclaimer:  I was not paid for this post. I paid for all these products with my own money and these reviews are all my personal opinion. 

What are you all loving that we should know about???