School Spirit Burlap Football

Do I love football? Yes.
Do I look crafting? Yes.
Do I love Purdue Boilermaker Football? Yes.

Well, crap - let's make a burlap wreath. That's not exactly how it went down - but close enough!

I was originally inspired by Amanda's tutorial from My Heart's Desire that I discovered from yes, you guessed it - Pinterest. (Insert shameless plug here -----> Follow Me!! )

When my friends, Krystal & Jenna, decided to get together for a crafting Sunday - I thought it was only fitting that 3 ladies who love football make some pretties for their doors!

I was unsure if it was going to come out as a WIN or FAIL - so I have very little pictures documenting the process. So bare with me and feel free to ask as many questions as your big heart desires!

{SHOPPING LIST}
Glue Gun & Glue Sticks
Posterboard
Sharpie
Acrylic Paint
Tulip Puff Paint (for the "stitching")
Plastic grocery sacks (aren't we all looking for another use for them besides trash can liners?!?)
Ribbon
Burlap - I actually realized that there are many different shades of "brown" - if I could do it over again - I would've gotten the darker brown for a more football-like tone.

Yes, I'm not kidding you - that's it.

Step ONE ::
Draw the shape you would like your football to be on posterboard to use as a template

Step TWO::
Place the template down on your burlap and use a sharpie to draw around the edges (Amanda used chalk - I just had a sharpie on hand) and cut out your shape. Make sure your burlap is folded to get your "front" and "back" of the football. Also, make sure to mark the "pairs" of the burlap if you are doing multiples. This will help when you go to put the footballs' together.

Step THREE::
Brainstorm what you want your football to be and lightly sketch your design on the football. Then break out your paints and get fancy! I used acrylic paint that I had lying around. Also - make sure to put wax paper underneath because the paint WILL bleed through the burlap. Newspaper would NOT be a good idea. Then let your paint dry.

Step FOUR::
On the burlap football "back" hot glue where you would like your ribbon hanger to be ON THE INSIDE. I'm sure it would look okay glued to the back - but I think it looks so much cleaner glued to the inside of the football.

Step FIVE::
Lay the painted side face up on top of the "back" of the football. Then start glueing the inside together. You want to make a pocket to fill up with the grocery sacks. Once you get about 3/4 of the way done with your hot gluing process STOP (in the name of love - oh wait...) and fill up your pocket with about 10 or so grocery sacks. The more poofy you'd like it to be...add more sacks. Hot glue the opening and any spots you might have missed so it starts to look like a real football! Isn't it exciting!?

Step SIX:
Use your puffy paint to draw fake "stitching" along the outside of the football. Let Dry.

Step SEVEN.
Use your fancy ribbons to fancify your hanging ribbon and wham, bam, thank you ma'am - you're ready to hang!!

I didn't take a picture of the football hanging on my door because I have yet to buy a wreath hanger - but don't worry - it's on the shopping list. For now, I am enjoying it hanging on the wall in my apartment! Happy Friday, friends!! Boiler Up!!

Pretty Paper...

Remember how you were going to send out Christmas cards last year - and remember how you didn't? I'm teaming up with Kelli from CK Photo to make some badass Christmas cards for anyone who feels like beating the hustle and bustle of the holidays!

Shoot me an email if you feel like getting some more deets! abby.lynn.raber@gmail.com

Happy Thursday!

Growing Up

There are so many people that are growing up around me.

Sometimes I wonder if people think that I'm growing up?

Nearly 76.2% of my friends are married.

Out of those 76.2% - I'd say 45.333333333% are with child, having a child or thinking about children.

How do you judge growing up? Is it an age? Is it owning a house? Is it having a steady job? Is it having a significant relationship with another human being? Is it finally obtaining the house with the white picket fence and 2.5 children? Is it owning your own business? Is it traveling the world?

Whoa - this is way more serious than I want it to be.

I originally set out to write this post about my best friend and her new baby - Anna, growing up. She's two months now. Since Lauren lives in Alberta, Canada - I get to watch Anna grow up via Skype & pictures. Thank God for Skype. But, I was blessed with her getting to come home 2 weeks ago and I made the 5 hour trip to go see my best friend's baby. And of course see Lauren, Brandon, Amy & Tom - but Anna was the main event.

I think there were multiple times that I had flashbacks of meeting Lauren for the first time at Purdue. Or having flashbacks of us complaining about class, going to get Den Pops, complaining about boys, drinking (kool-aid of course), or watching re-runs of Sex & The City on that infamous purple futon. Regardless, when I step back and look how Lauren has grown into an incredible wife and now mom - I tear up. I'm so proud of her.

Okay, enough sappiness.

I designed Anna's birth announcements and tried my hand at snapping some family photos with my trusty Nikon D5000. It's even crazy to me to see how much she's grown up in those 2 short months! I can't imagine how Lauren feels!

Take a peek!

It's easy to photograph people when they are so darn cute.

TGIF, Friends!!

Grandpa Barry is 80 going on 50!

Okay, so I have two things to celebrate. I can celebrate on a Thursday, right? #1 - that I'm taking the time to blog! And #2 - I checked and I've had 14,746 views as of today. Wow. Me? People have actually looked at this 14,746 times. I don't believe it. Now, I know that is probably an extremely small number compared to eh, let's say Google!? Holy cow - I bet they get 14,746 views every second. Maybe even more. Hey, but we all gotta start somewhere. :) 

I actually made this invitation back in July for my Grandpa Barry's surprise 80th birthday party that my granny had during our annual family vacation. I can honestly say that nobody else in this world deserved a surprise party more than my Grandpa Barry. He is one of the most brilliant, warm-hearted, fear-less, silent, loving, artistic man that I know. And, most importantly - he has the best thick head of white hair - it's manly gorgeous (if I can say that?). When I was younger and used to stay the weekend with Granny & Grandpa Barry, I used to love when I would get to hang out in the craft room with him. I can still smell the oil paints and see the almost finished canvas. He knew that I was a creative soul even before I did. He knew that I would much rather make giant tissue paper flowers than pretty much anything else. Grandpa Barry is one man that I'll happily sit six hours with painting pottery at 'Fired Up' - trust me, we've done it.

Happy 80th Birthday, Grandpa Barry. Cheers to many more winery tours with you! I love you.

See, I told you Grandpa Barry had a great head of hair! And check out my beautiful Granny!

Country Chic Wedding Invitation

This week was my brother's first wedding anniversary to his wife, Erin. So, I thought it only seem fitting that I post the wedding invitation that I designed for the couple.

Erin & Ryan had a Country Chic barn wedding - and I think the wedding invitation set the tone for just that.

Congrats on your first wedding anniversary!! Love you both!

 

The fabic detail was my favorite part of the invitation. What's your's?

Happy Thursday!!

Abby

IceCream Family

I've been having so much fun illustrating ice cream. Next up, trying to tackle the 'Skinny Cow' line...maybe.

I think I'm gonna buy some rocket pops tonight.

Ice cream on the brain...

Just doodling and sharing.

How bad do you want one of those Fred Flintstone orange push pops right now??

Stay tunes to see what I end up creating with these...

Follow me on instagram:: abbyraber

Pretty little thangs

I randomly whipped these little notecards up for a co-workers wedding send off filled with cookies at work.

I thought I'd share. Can't live withoat you. Ha, I'm still giggling. Now, say it out load.

Hamburgers for dessert!

Who doesn't love hamburgers? Wait, well...I guess vegans don't. Crap, anyways. MOST people love them a good juicy hamburger including about 92.7% of the people I run around with.

So, the real question? Who doesn't love dessert? Nobody. I don't care who you are there is a dessert everyone loves. If you want to argue about it....eh, I've got better things to do.

So for memorial weekend I made these little treats. And with the mix of randomness that makes them look like hamburgers they tasted delicious. Even after the nilla wafer got a little soft. Did I ever tell you I'm a sucker for stale nilla wafers? No? Okay, I am!

So, Anyways, I'll get to the good stuff.

Ingredients::
1 box of nilla wafers (I even used the generic Wal-Mart brand)
1 small bag of coconut
Green gel food coloring
Mint wafers (if you're out of girl scout cookies, Keebler makes a great mint wafer)
One tube of red icing (yes, that's right, I bought mine in a tube!)
One tube of yellow icing (don't hate!)

Once you've got all of the ingredients I started out emptying the coconut into a large zip lock and used a whole tube of green gel food coloring. Then squish with your hands. Next, ice the flat side of the nilla wafer with yellow icing. Place mint wafer on top of icing. Grab another nilla wafer spread red icing on it and sprinkle the green coconut on the icing then place ontop of wafer. BAM. You're done and you have the worlds cutest hamburger dessert in your hand.

Now try and refrain from eating all of them! Total I made 40 minus two (because they accidentally went in my mouth). And the ingredients are fairly inexpensive!