on the cheap: fabric pennant banner.

this was a quickie decor idea for my baby girl's all-pink, all-cupcake first birthday party, which co-ordinated perfectly with her pink and brown 'happy birthday' banner. this one worked just right on the mantel of our fireplace in the kitchen.
you will need:

* a couple of fabric squares (i alternated 5 inch and 6 inch squares)
*a 3 yard-ish spool of ribbon
*pinking shears
*sewing machine or hot glue

this can be a completely free project if you have these basic things in your craft stash, but if you don't, it's not too expensive to find a spool of ribbon and a half-yard or so of fabric (or a scrap-bag!).

here are the steps:
(you can click on the pictures to enlarge them!)
and ta-da! hang and enjoy! you can also use bias tape if you want it a little more secure [or just have that on hand]. i think this would be really cute in a mix of reds and greens to hang at christmas if you have a little empty corner that needs something festive, or maybe make one with teeny tiny squares to wrap around the tree!
i also reused it with my crocheted heart garland for valentine's day:
and it's currently adding some girly sweetness between the two windows of my daughter's nursery! here are a couple of great tutorials for other simple pennant-style banners:

diy fabric garland

celebration flags

or you could just buy some sweet little scalloped ones on etsy if you didn't feel like diy-ing!

teeny tiny kitchens.

thanks to an impromptu stop at ikea on the way home from an out-of-town wedding last weekend and her momma's penchant for all things mini, my daughter is now the proud owner of a teeny-tiny pots & pans set, little bitty baking cookies set, and miniscule silverware set. [or at least she will be when christmas comes around.]

now she just needs, um, a kitchen.

unfortunately, the perfectly sweet and gorgeously adorable ikea kitchen had a not-to-adorable price tag to go with it, especially if you add on the tiny microwave.

then i remembered that surely i had seen some crafty creative blogs out there where folks were making amazingly cute and personalized little play kitchens for their kids out of cheap things like leftover bedside tables. and let me tell you, there are some CUTE ones out there! here are three that are insanely inspiring me to run out to goodwill right now and search for a little discarded wooden something that could become a lovely little play kitchen for my girl:

play kitchen from a nightstand by my little gems

play kitchen renovation by domestic simplicity

[make sure you check out the before picture!]

and a very manly little future-chef gender neutral play kitchen by homemade by jill

[inspired by vintage songbird!]

and even if you had absolutely zero intention of ever making a play kitchen out of anything when you started out reading this post, if you check out the flickr group for play kitchens i pretty much promise you're going to want to by the time you're done. man i love flickr for that!

[seriously, this one? could that be my real kitchen please?]

now that i think about it, i must admit that my current bedside table would be pretty perfect for this particular project, and would be pretty special since it used to be my mom's until we redid it together when i was in high school.
but i'm not quite ready to give it up as a bedside table just yet.

and if i'm going to make her a kitchen, i'm going to want to make her an apron and matching cake. of course.

garden party!

i was looking through the older archives of martha's craft of the day [super fun website the by way!] and though most of these ideas were technically easter-related, when looking through them in rapid succession i kept thinking what a beautiful garden-themed little girl birthday party they would make when put together! check out these images, beautiful as only martha can make them [source links are beneath each picture]:

[hanging tissue paper flowers]

[paper basket centerpiece]

[flower cupcake stand]

[lollipop flower cupcake]

[paper daffodil votive candles]

[mini flower pot cakes]

and then, of course, have you seen kara's birthday party ideas blog? seriously, don't plan another party without it. you will be inundated with inspiration, ideas, and photos of beautiful parties! inundated, i tell you. and these would be perfect with the garden theme:

mason glass drinks in a picket fence box and party favors in tiny buckets! [the little eyeball-looking things are earrings on a card, to give you an idea of how tiny the buckets are!]

[from garden shower featured by kara]

and to keep things from being a little less super-girly and more lovely-nature-y, i'd add pretty much everything from the through the woods party she also featured. especially the moss and tree stump decorations, and the smores bite kabobs!
ok, who i am i kidding- i would love someone to throw this party for me! why should little kids have all the fun [and hard work!] and then not remember it? nothing beats a fun over-the-top birthday theme!

messy miracles.

i'm super excited to add a new little wee one to the gallery of messy little miracles over at the petite bee facebook page!

ladies and gentlemen, beautiful little miss h:
check out the whole gallery anytime, and don't forget to email me at petitebeehandmade[at] gmail.com if you'd like a picture of your favorite messy miracle in his or her favorite petite bee bib added to the gallery!

polka dotted packing tape!

edited to add:
[today i just happened to find myself back at michael's... ahem... and discovered that all of their 'dollar store' stuff, which are called 'fun finds' if you want to be technical, were 30% off! so i got 4 more rolls of this awesome tape for only .70 cents each. hurrah! fun finds indeed. also picked up a couple rolls of a gorgeous green damask print tape that was just calling my name. now i'm in search of a tape-related project to use my super pretty tape!]

i'm pretty much a sucker anytime a regular store starts having a 'dollar section.' what is it that's so magical about something only costing $1 [or even 1 ish dollars]? it gets me every time. this was especially true a few weeks back at michael's when i saw a little bit of polka dotted green goodness peeking out from one of the 'dollar section' shelves full of office supplies:

green. polka dot. packing tape.

what could be better for petite bee? i snapped up 3 rolls right on the spot [i think they were like $2.50, but still!] and may have to get some more, i love it that much. it looked so cute on my orders i shipped out yesterday. and since i always try to re-use any bubble mailer envelopes i can, it helps them stay together in the mail a little better while also adding a little fun!

i love getting real mail, and i especially love it when it's brightly packaged! hopefully one of these dotted little wonders is on its way to you!

night time crafting.

welcome to a typical night of crafting chez me... hubby is out fishing, wee one is sleeping soundly in her bed, and i'm starting with some slightly burned chocolate chip cookies and yes, every single season of gilmore girls at my disposal.
sidenote: why is the fine line between deliciously baked and terribly burnt so miniscule?

and, slightly less edible but arguably just as yummy, a nice little pile of craft supplies!
i've been stalking this little address file book on etsy for a long, long time. not that i have particularly transient friends or anything, but the main problem with a traditional address book is that each time any little detail [or the whole address!] changes for anyone, you have to completely cross it out and deal with page after page of not-so-lovely crossed out pages. thus the genius of a little card file where there's one neat little card per person than can be torn out & replaced each time you need to make a change! hurray!

it's the simple things in life, ya'll.

so i decided to start making my cards... updating addresses as i go... and they needed a little personality. so, perfect time to try out my new speedball stamp carver for the first time! and what could be better for an address card than an old school rotary phone?
add it to a regular 3x5 index card, and now i have awesome little stamped cards ready to be personalized with the addresses of our friends and families! [and that is my all-time favorite pen by the way].
so now, several episodes of gilmore girls later, i have bunches of super cute telephone-ed cards ready for addresses to go in a new address file book!

thanks for crashing my little craft-in this evening! come back anytime... i promise i'll save you some cookies.

a few of my favorite things...

today i got a glorious hour-ish block of time in my craft room with my spray paint. i left the door open, worked mostly in the back yard, enjoyed the sun and a little breeze... just enough to dry each layer as i worked.

spray paint makes me so happy.

i guess it's the combination of easy & cheap, the love of a quick makeover, the way your finger cramps up from squeezing the sprayer so long, or maybe it's just all the pretty colors! this is a sure sign of a good day:
isn't that yummy? it kind of makes me think of ice cream and chocolate. makes me want to paint everything i own... maybe it's the grown up version of coloring?

here are all the names of my favorite colors i'm using on several projects right now, in case you were wondering (because i always wonder).
i have to say that krylon has truly won me over with their little built-in sprayer that makes a big cloud of color instead of a little graffiti-like squirt. if i keep it up i may need to invest in a hardcore little grippy thingy to do the spraying for me. also, note to self-i do in fact need a real drop cloth [to use as an actual drop cloth] because i think it would blow around less in the breeze.

and here are my projects in progress, can't you tell my neighbors must love me? i guess every neighborhood needs that crazy girl who is always in the paint-splattered shorts, spraying multiple things at once spread out over a huge plastic drop cloth.
i can't wait to show the befores and afters on these!