Thursday, October 4, 2012

Craft tutorials for a friend...

 Hello Kitty Necklace, I set the glass tile over the printed image and traced it (pen or pencil works great).
then I use the glaze and squirted a little bit onto the tile, then I used the tip of the glaze bottle to swirl the glaze around the tile somewhat evenly.

 I then placed the tile over the image, glaze side down. I pressed it smoothly, some of the glaze may come out the sides, that's ok, you can use your finger to wipe it off and once you're done making it and it's all dry you can take a wet cloth to the glass to clean off any remaining residue. I used scissors to trim any paper that wasn't covered by the tile. Then you take the cement glue and glue the bail onto the back.
 

 Then thread the necklace through the bail and voila, you have a cute hello kitty necklace for your little girl!

 For the fabric pens, just start at the tip with a few dabs of hot glue, I actually dab a strip of the hot glue all the way up one side of the pen as I wrap the fabric around. When I get to the end I just do an extra dot of hot glue for the overlap of fabric. Then take your flower and hot glue it on. For the instructions of how to make the flowers click HERE. Hope this helps, I'll take some pictures later with how the pen looks with the flower, but this should allow you to make the two crafts :)


Saturday, August 18, 2012

Vinyl Fun!

Someone else requested this and I had so much fun making it, the top was a little crooked so I redid it before I gave it to her.

A friend asked me to cut some vinyl for this tile and I was SO excited that I was actually able to! See that, the black vinyl is layered on the cream...makes me SO happy!

This was my fun day!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Target Junkies!

Hey all you Target Junkies, here's some great sites that show some awesome free stuff and great deals at target this week:

Cheap Hefty Storage bag - gallon and quart size zipper bags

Free Nuetrogena Facial Wipes

Huge Savings Trip to Target - I seriously check out this site weekly, it's got some great deals!

Some other good deals at Target - If you go to target.com and check out their coupons, they have:

1$ off one paper mate writing instrument - in their school section you can find a 10 pack of pens for 1$ - which makes it free with the coupon!

There's also a 50 cent's off one scotch magic tape - in the school section at target they have scotch tape for 1$ which makes it 50 cents!

There's also a danimals, 1$ off one coupon, my kids love these but I hate buying them unless they're on sale. A lot of times you can find 1$ off 2 danimals, then you could print 2 of the 1$ off 1 and get 1.50$ off each package.

Remember - you can use target and manufacturers coupons on the same item to get double the savings :) LOVE target!

So much to catch up on - check it out!

So about a month ago I won a super fun 25$ worth of craft goodies giveaway from Mindy Mae's Market! It came last week and it was SO much fun, that I hopped onto the gals website and ordered another goodie box - 50$ worth of craft stuff for 25$! It's shipping today, so I should get it by next week...i'll let you know all the fun stuff that's in it once it gets here :)
These giveaway goodies included - 3 washi tapes, a pouch of buttons, wooden earrings, pink paper straws, 10 belt bracelets, 2 pkgs of fabric tape and some neon green tags! All this stuff will come in handy for this big craft day a friend of mine and I are throwing!!! Can't wait!!!
Onto what I've been working on lately - I finally got up the desire to start crafting again...during the pregnancy I had NO desire at all, it sucked all my crafting mojo from me! SO...last week I went craft with my Silhouette Cameo cutter that I won back in December, I've used it everyday for the last week and am totally addicted!!! So for fun I put this on my craft room door:
Then two nights ago and decided I wanted to try cutting something for the wall...it was kinda tricky since I can only cute 12 inches at a time (need to order the 24 inch mat), but I did it! It's not perfect, but it's pretty good! Note - I took this at 10 o'clock at night, hence the awful lighting! Now I need to go to home depot and get some wood so that I can make a frame to go around the vinyl, I'll post a pic once it's done!!! I think it's going to look AWESOME!
At church I get to work with the 8 and 9 year old girls, we get together about twice a month to do something fun and to help them pass off goals. Last week the activity was at my house and we were supposed to talk about positive qualities in themselves and qualities they like in others. So i put together this little craft for them to make, they got to sand their wood, paint it and put the vinyl on. I think it went super smooth for 15 girls and 2 leaders :) They loved it!
Last week my mom, sister and I started a weekly dinner swap, we each cook twice a week for everyone, and then the last day of the week we can have leftovers or cook something for our families. We live within 2 minutes of each other which makes it super easy to drop off meals! It's SO nice not to have to cook everyday! So last week I attempted homemade Chicken Stir fry...I think it turned out pretty good! I LOVE snow peas so it was kind of hard to mess this up! I was practically drooling as i made it, the smell was so good!!! I can't find the recipe anymore, it was on all recipes, but all it had was cornstach, soysauce, ginger and dry sherry (I used chicken stock instead).
The week before 4th of July I got together with some girl friends to have a crafty afternoon, my wonderful husband cut all the wood for us, so when everyone came over we sanded, painted, sanded some more and glued in our little wire pieces and tied some twine around it all! I LOVED how it turned out, it was super cheap, easy and fun!
Homemade Flower Pens - has anyone else ever wondered how to make these? I looked up a tutorial and found out that you have to pull the bottom cap off the pen...this took some effort, but I was finally able to get all 6 caps off, though I did get a minor battle wound...
see - it's pretty minor, but it did hurt; I'm pretty sure I hit the bone, it was bruised for about a week!
after getting the caps off I hot glued around the top of the flower stem, then pressed it into the pen. Yep that's right, the stem goes inside the pen next to the pen ink thingy (totally technical here, can't tell)!
Once I shoved it into the pen a little bit of glue came out the top, I took advantage of that and wrapped the floral tape around the glue, all the way down the pen and back up to the flower. So it was some heavy duty wrapping ;)
And Voila! Cute flower pens :)
Click HERE for a great tutorial of how to make these!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Lemonade Cake - YUM!

Lately I've been on this new recipe kick! I'm loving trying out new recipes! Pinterest has such a wide selection of wonderful recipes linked that I just want to try them all! So I'm trying out at least 1 new recipe a week, of course some weeks I try more :)
I pinned this recipe months ago and finally made it, definitely a keeper! We all loved it and it was the first layered cake I made that didn't break...very exciting for me! So if I could do it, so can you :) it's fool proof! Just click on the name of the cake and it will take you to the recipe!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Teacher Gift :)

After lots of thought about trying to come up with the perfect teacher gift for my son's preschool teacher I finally found it!!! I put together all the gifts I liked into one BIG gift :)
I got the idea HERE! Where you do one thing for every letter of the alphabet. Then I used several of the other cute ideas I saw as inspiration for the letters...love it! My sister and I went in on it since both of our kids go to pre-school together. It would be fun to do among several parents and come up with bigger stuff to do :)

Here's our ABC's (I got several of my ideas HERE):
A - Our teacher is AW-some! (A&W rootbeer)
B - Thanks for helping us BLOOM! (Burpee flower seeds)
C - With you as our teacher we'll be one smart cookie! (container of mini oreos)
D - DONUT you know you are the best teacher! (hostess donuts)
E - You are EXTRA special! (EXTRA Gum)
F - You are o'FISH'ally the best! (sweedish fish)
G - Thanks for helping us GROW! (mini plant kit)
H - Thanks for making our school year BRIGHT! (highlighters)
I - To break the ice with your new kids and keep you sweet! (Icebreakers gum)
J - Thanks for sparking our creative juices! (juice boxes)
K - Teachers cannot live on apples alone, they need hugs and kisses too! (Hershey's Kisses)
L - Thanks for all the laughs! (Left, Right, Center Game - found it at Target)
M - We've had MOUNDS of fun! (Mounds bar)
N - Take NOTE, you are our favorite teacher! (sticky notes)
O - Stay cool this summer! ("otter pops")
P - Roses are red, violets are blue, this pencil bouquet is just for you! (pencils)
Q - Dairy Queen needs no words :) (5$ gift card to DQ)
R - We just love you to pieces! (reese's pieces)
S - We SKORED have you as our teacher! (SKOR bar)
T - Teacher's Treats - to share or not to share (Turtles)
U - Don't U-NO you're wonderful?! (UNO game)
V - for future spills (Viva paper towels)
W - You have been just WRITE for our kids! (pens)
X - X-TRA Special Gift (10$ Subway Gift Card)
Y - You were MINT to teach! (York Peppermint Patty)
Z - Best Teacher "Bar None" (Zero Bar)

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Homemade Modge Podge

I couldn't find my modge podge the other day when I remembered I had pinned a link a while back for how to make homemade modge podge! I looked it up and was super excited that all I needed was elmers glue and water...super easy! So I grabbed an empty jar, dumped the bottle of glue in, then guesstimated about the same amount of water and shook it up. Voila! I tried it out and I love it so much more than bought modge podge, the coat is so much clearer and it's not as sticky, plus it dries even faster!! Super cheap too, I suggest this to everyone!!!
 
Oh and if anyone's wondering why i've hardly posted the last few months, here's what I've been cookin up:
This sweet little girl will be 4 weeks on Thursday!!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Shamrock Hats

My little guys St. Patty's Day party for preschool is tomorrow, so I decided to make something that I saw on pinterest :) These cute little Leprechaun Hats, made out of glad-ware snack size containers. They were super easy, the thing that took the longest was letting the paint dry.
I filled each one with 8 rolo's instead of chocolate coins since it was a little cheaper. Plus, rolo's have caramel, so they taste better!! Made 10 of them, one for him and each of his class mates. I'm sure he'll be super excited to share them tomorrow!!!

I found a shamrock clip-art on Microsoft word and just cut them out! Easy peasy! I used tacky glue for the ribbon, shamrock and yellow square.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Candy Jars

I'm sure you could do this with any holiday! I got the idea HERE from the blog Brown Paper Packages! I saw it the first of the month and wanted to make them for Visiting Teaching, well i did end up making them the week of Valentines, but I'm just now delivering them today! With kiddos being sick constantly I never made it over to visit, whoops! Next month will be better :)
I painted the lids with pink acrylic craft paint that I had on hand, and tied a bow around them with pink baker's twine. I never did get a cute little saying to go with them, but I think they still turned out cute!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Tried a New Recipe!

Peanut Butter Blossoms from the blog eighteen25, they turned out super yummy!!! The boys are excited to have them as our treat for FHE tonight (Cooper was too tired last night to stay up and do it, so we decided to have it tonight). The hubby even loved them :)
The recipe said to roll into balls, and roll in sugar before baking. I was lazy and used my small pampered chef scooper and completely skipped rolling them in sugar, below is how they looked when they came out of the oven. I baked them for 9 minutes each, and it made 2 cookies shy of 4 dozen! They turned out great though! The boys also loved unwrapping all the chocolates!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Dry Erase Calendar :)

So basically the same pic, but couldn't decide which one looked best :) they're iPhone pics, so not the greatest but it works! I saw the tutorial for the calendar here a year ago, I finally ordered the vinyl in October and bought the frame early December! So I am SO happy to finally have it done!
The vinyl is on the underside of the glass, as well as all the lines, it took an hour in a half or so to get it all done, the little guys nap time this morning! Now I need to get some dry erase markers and I'm set! I would suggest checking out the TUTORIAL, the frame I used is 16x20. Can't wait to have the hubby hang it tonight!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

My Newly Organized Craft Room :)

It may not look like much, eventually I'd like to put some cute stuff on the walls! But I love it! It's super functional and the kids are able to come in and out without getting into too much.
Below is my sewing table, in the back left corner is my die cuts for my accu quilt, I love having the serger and sewing machine set up full time so I can use either one whenever I want.
Along this wall I have my wonderful desk that I painted last August, I love it! I have a laptop and my new Silhouette set up on there - and yes people, I finally opened it and used it this week :) Can't wait to try more with it!!! Those two messy baskets underneath are all my fabric scraps - I plan on getting to work on using up some of those soon so that they'll fit in one basket!
In between the desk and table are my bookshelves - both were free so it worked out great to put all my stuff onto it! On the left the top shelf is a basket full of serger thread, a roll of elastic lace, 2 boxes of holiday embroidery thread and a pouch full of regular sewing thread. The second shelf has a basket full of patterns, a cute round box full of ribbon and a basket full of yarn and ornaments. Then the last three shelves house almost all of my fabric...I love how pretty it looks all organized! The shelf on the right has some more fabric, baker's twine, squares cut and ready to sew for some rag quilts. A basket full of craft paint and different glue's. A basket full of cards and stationary, A shelf full of Sunday coloring books for the kids, some things that need to be framed eventually, stamps and scrap booking, and at the bottom some finished pillow cases, receiving blankets and some more squares that are cut and ready to sew into rag quilts.
A better view of the pretty fabric! I bought comic book backing boards and wrapped my fabric around them. I bought mine for 9.50 at a local comic book shop, it was a pack of 100 and I have 3 left! Woot! The green tote right under the table houses my accu quilt cutter.
Well I think that's pretty much it, it's super functional for me and I love my new craft corner/room! Sorry the lighting was so bad in the pictures! But you get the gist of it :)
**Here's my previous craft room, we moved it over a room since we have a little girl on the way, my previous craft room was painted pink, but i love the blue in this room :)

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Valentines...

I finally took a picture of something Valentine! Heart shaped pizza was our dinner last night :) What did you guys do?
On another note, I saw this cute idea on a blog last week! So I did it for my hubby and he thought it was super sweet!!! So glad I did something...next time I"ll have to take a picture of it!

Lastly...I've been working on my craft room off and on the past month...okay, so i've spent probably about 3 days working on it in the last month, BUT it should be done today! Yipee!!! The hubby and I even hooked up the Silhouette last night that I won the first of December (yes, it's sad that it has taken this long). I would have done it sooner but this pregnancy has pretty much nipped my craftiness in the butt!
To give you an idea of how bad my craft room was here's a before of half the room...
...pretty scary! This is only have the room, I promise the rest looked just as bad! But tomorrow I'll post pictures of how it looks now :) Such a happy craft space now! So excited!!!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Mantle :)

It took me 3 weeks to finally post this, but here is my new mantle!!! I know it's a Christmas morning picture with the stocking's filled, but I am SO happy to have a mantle up! It was my early Christmas present, my hub's hung it up a week before Christmas so that we'd have somewhere to put our stockings. We bought the mantle pre-built unfinished at Lowe's. Then my hubs and dad stained it red oak, not sure what brand for that (i'm too lazy to go check). I love it though!!!