Crafts
Easy DIY Necklace for Mother’s Day – Kid Craft
My son’s preschool does a super sweet event each spring called Muffins for Mom. Or was is Muffins with Mom? Prepositions aside, the important thing is there were muffins and moms in one classroom with their kids. And all was right with the world. It’s a good thing this event is so sweet and heartfelt because I admit to having a hard time taking anything seriously when I am sitting on an itty bitty chair 12 inches off the ground. I’m just saying. Even the Leader of the Free World would feel a little ridiculous. I set my discomfort aside because after the kids sang a special song, it was…
Fairy Houses – Gift and Craft Idea
One of my dearest friends, who is like a sister to me, was headed to a birthday party this past weekend in Oregon for a mutual friend of my daughter’s. We exchanging our 1000th text of the day, more or less, when she sent me a picture of what she and her daughter had created for the birthday girl, who loves fairies. A fairy house! Isn’t it magical? Such a clever gift idea. I can’t take credit for the idea, the creation or even the pictures! It was all my friend’s doing, but I had to share. I wish we could have done a real photoshoot on these, but the West Coast…
State Appliquéd Dish Towels
My mother-in-law’s birthday is coming up and I wanted to get her something special. I started brainstorming and came up with…nothing. Oh boy. After that bit of anticlimactic brainstorming, I knew it was time to call in reinforcements! My friend, Laura, has an Etsy shop, One Blue Eye Birdie. I love what she creates, especially the state appliquéd pillows. I just couldn’t figure out how to work one into my current decor. Clearly, my life has huge problems. (sarcasm alert) If you are my mother-in-law, you should probably stop reading now. Birthday spoilers ahead! That’s when inspiration hit me over the head. What if I begged and pleaded asked her to make state appliquéd…
No-Sew Embellished Canvas Tote
Do you have one of those friends that has known you longer than you’ve been with your spouse or partner? I do. She’s pretty darn special to me. We don’t talk or see each other nearly as often as I’d like, but I know she’d be there for me in a heartbeat. A few months ago she called and told me about her new job. What impressed me the most is not that she had landed a new job (she’s talented and smart), but her attitude about her new job. She, in essence, told me that she’d finally come to the realization that she needed to stop undermining her value and…
No-Sew Way to Repair a T-Shirt Hole
June 30, 2015 Update: T-shirt repair using this method is still holding strong! This isn’t a shirt I wear everyday, but it has been washed and worn several times since this original post in February 2015. I hope you have the same results as I have had. The other day I paused to straighten my shirt as I was running at the door and somehow one of my fingernails of steel punched a hole right through my shirt. AGH! I still have no idea how it happened. Especially since I’m not sporting particularly long or pointy fingernails at the moment. This is the shirt in question. A dressier version of…
Magnifying Glass Valentine’s Card – Free Printable
I’m a big fan of Valentine’s cards for kids that don’t include candy. I know, I know, I’m such a party pooper. However, I do love Valentine’s cards that include trinkets. See, I’m not a complete scrooge! This attitude works really well because at my daughter’s elementary school they do not allow us to bring in sweets for Valentine’s Day or even for birthdays. It’s a little too strict, in my opinion, but their heart is in the right place. Last month my daughter and I scoured the big ol’ world wide web looking for Valentine’s ideas. If the truth is known, I find this part of Valentine’s Day ridiculously fun.…
Parachute Man Valentine’s Cards – Free Printable
My son has recently started playing “Army” with his neighborhood friends. So when I saw some examples out there for a parachute man Valentine’s cards, I knew he’d get excited. That was an understatement! I don’t know who to credit for the original idea, but I was inspired by this example here. Of course, I had to do my own take on it! Here’s the label that I came up with: I printed the labels out on white card stock, but regular computer paper would work fine too. I designed them to fold in half over the top of the plastic baggie that holds the parachute man. I got a dozen parachute…
Paper Rainbow Butterfly Art
An alternate title to this post could be, “How to Turn Birthday Decor Into Art.” Or, I could have titled it: “The Time I Spent 50 Gajillion Hours on a Silly Project.” Before we moved to Georgia, my daughter had a “Rainbow Butterfly” themed birthday party. There might have been unicorns in there too. It’s hard to pick just one favorite thing when you are turning six. Anyway, I had this brilliant idea to make it look like a swarm of butterflies were passing by our window. It wasn’t a hard project. It involved construction paper, tape and a butterfly hole punch. I did severely underestimate how long it would take…
Cookie Cutter Stencils and Embellishing a Brown Bag
I thought I’d share a fun trick for embellishing a plain brown gift bag. My secret is using cookie cutters as a stencil. I will confess… my cookie cutters see far more use outside of the kitchen than in it. These are the supplies I gathered to embellish gift bags for my children’s teachers. Ignore the snowflake cookie cutter. I was considering using it for my stencil, but switched to the tree. I insert a small cutting board inside the brown bag so that I don’t cut through it. I then trace the shape of the cookie cutter with a pencil on the brown bag. After that, it’s pretty easy to…
Jazzing Up a Fake Wreath
The house we are renting has a double front door. Cool, right? I have been very proud of myself for resisting the temptation to paint those things. Anyway, I don’t have two wreaths, let alone two matching wreaths, so I was on a mission to somehow dress up those front doors this holiday season. My first inclination was to buy a fresh wreath. Well, they were more than I wanted to spend. Big, surprise. Then I saw a fake wreath at Target and they wanted $25. For a fake wreath! Sheesh. So, I went to Hobby Lobby and their Christmas stuff was 50% off. I found a fake wreath for $5.00, originally…
