Merry Christmas!

I got my craft on for the ladies in my family this Christmas. The gifts are hidden in these homemade fortune cookies...what're you getting? I'm not tellin'!

Anyway, I'm linking these to the craft challenge for the month on Lil' Betty's Blog--enjoy!

Working away is not always work!

In preparation for a silent auction benefit thingy I am helping out with a bit, I was putting together some lots to bid on. One being a scrapbooking lot. It includes lots of little embellishments, and it would be overwhelming to lay them all out, so I typed up a list of the items and then made these cute little origami boxes out of scrapbook paper to contain and pretty them up! :) This is a major accomplishment for me, because my 3rd grade students were consistently better at origami then me--it's just not my thing. Ahem, wasn't my thing, until tonight. Check 'em out! I used the tutorial for origami gift bags over at one of my new haunts, infarrantly creative. And I decided handles would make everything even more cluttered--um, did I mention I couldn't lay my hands on my hole-punch? But seriously, I think simple is better! ;)


The kids were pretty much having none of it, so I bribed Nehemiah with a toy we had put back until he was old enough for it...his IKEA train set. He adored it! The timing was great, having just been to the train museum last week.


And Adelynne? Well bless her poor, over-tired, no-napping soul, she tried!

Craft Hope

Wow!!! (yes it gets 3 exclamation points!!!) I just came across Craft Hope, and I am in love! I have a lot of things I need to work on straightening out in life right now, but if and when things get a bit more manageable, I really would like to get involved in a Craft Hope project! The Lord uses people in such wonderful ways to provide for his children, Amen? He is faithful to provide for us--I know it! It is a bit hard for me to see right now, as I am in a bit of a rough patch.

You see, Ben is working 70-90 hours a week, and I am not really cut out for the life of a single parent! Especially out on the lone prairie! But, Our Lord is faithful, and seasons do change. In addition to all of the crazy hours of work, we have been greeted with some major decisions...one was buying a new van when ours was totaled. Ben put it in the ditch on his way down to the airport to pick us up. It sounds like he pretty much saved lives with his driving, but it was such an unwanted hassle to go get a new loan and things. Our "new to us" van is lovely, but it was a definite stress. Also, there is some stress over a possible move to Iowa this coming winter/spring. It was a great hope of mine, but some red flags have been popping up. For awhile I felt my hopes dashed, but there may yet be reason to hope. Ben is talking some of our red flags over with his boss today, so we'll see if things are addressed in a healthy way for our family. These are hard things to do when your husband routinely leaves before 6 am, sometimes at 4:30 even, and generally doesn't return home until 8:30 ish at night 6 days a week. We're both zombies by the end--which isn't the best state to make major financial and life decisions in.

Enough explaining of myself though! I just want to say, if you have free time...when I have free time...head on over and help out Craft Hope!

Raise the flag...aka:uplift someone!

My friend Sarah found this great tutorial for making mini mailboxes. The mailboxes are in the $1 section at Target for Valentine's Day. I loved the idea of having year-'round (as in, not just for Valentine's) boxes designated for encouragement and little treats. They are meant specifically for kids, but I think Ben and I can use encouragement too! And I want to cultivate encouraging hearts in my children as they grow; I think it will be good for them to see everyone getting involved. Besides, it will give me an excuse/reminder to be romantic. I thought I'd show you how they came out...can't wait to hang them on the walls in our rooms!

For the Boys

Let's hear it for the Girls!

Oh, and because it has been a long time since I have decoupaged anything--mostly because the last thing I tried was not that great, I looked for some information on good strategies and came across a helpful tutorial here! I'd love to hear how it goes if you try it yourself!

Christmas Crafts

I have been browsing over at my favorite crafting with kids website, and they have oodles of great ideas for decorations, fun projects, and gifts for kids and their parents to make! I really like a ton of them, but this is one of my favorites!


It is on a blog I hadn't seen before, and it also has a bunch of neat projects with detailed tutorials and supply lists (both for year 'round and the holidays). In addition to this one, there is an adorable angel clothesline! So creative!


Photo and idea credits go to: Gail Bartel over at that artist woman--check her out!

Birthday Projects--Take 2

Here is one of the reasons I have been woefully slow in posting these days!


My friend Susan and I cut out all of the little pennants; I free-handed (backwards!) and cut out all of the letters with pinking shears. Then I used Heat-N-Bond Lite to iron the letters onto the pennants (though it was obviously a 1st effort, because I now need a new ironing board cover--the stuff was a little messy--a great idea to keep the letter fabric from stretching, and to avoid pinning, but somehow, I just didn't get it quite right.) Then this afternoon, my mother-in-law, who shall heretofore be known as Sew Like the Wind came over to help me appliqué around the letters and sew the pennant backs and fronts together. Then I pinked around all of the pennants, while Sew Like the Wind made bias tape--or rather unbiased tape--since we didn't need it to go around curves (hee hee...unbiased tape!). She just put the fabric through the bias tape maker and pressed it flat without cutting on the bias (which uses a ton of fabric!). Then Sew Like the Wind stitched the pennants to the tape while I kept the now-awake-from-his-nap-birthday-boy occupied. These projects are always a little more involved for a beginner than I think they will be, but I LOVE the results! We'll be hanging it outside on the big day, so we'll have more room to stretch it out in all of it's glory!

Wondering where I got the idea?

Check out: The DIY network and the tutorial at Sew Mommy Sew (such a fun site by the way!)

Also, want to know more about bias tape? Check out this tutorial on how to use it from angry chicken.

Crafting with the Little Buggers

I was inspired today when I saw a cute tutorial for making little monster softies. :)
I generally check out the Crafty Crow now and then, and this week she has a guest author found over at Luckybeans. So I grabbed some scraps I had around and headed to the "nursery," which it isn't exclusively. In fact the only baby tonight was mine!
I brought a print out of the tutorial and my softies book with me, and my DLF (dear little friend) came up with the brilliant idea of making a pear with a blue tongue! It is turning out really well. I promise pictures when it is all finished up. I was fortunate that my helper this evening is an accomplished quilter, because I am just starting out with sewing stuff, and she was able to frame things in such a simple, straight-forward, confident way--hooray!

Just so you know, this project is working well one-on-one with an 8 year old, so it doesn't have to be for the older set! My DLF is really enjoying it--I hope you do too.

I'm famous!!! Well, sorta'

I just found out that my diaper cake tutorial was featured over at the Tip Junkie on their Teach Me Thursday post. And I didn't even ask! How exciting!

I'd been over there to register for a contest earlier in the week, and I have to tell you, it is one fun blog. Quite the resource, and I am proud that I was added to the list of resources she references!

If you try the cake and have a tough time, let me know. I'd be more than happy to answer questions if I can. :)

*Beaming proudly*

Baby Shower fun and a Diaper Cake Tutorial

One of the things I recently promised to blog about was what we made for my sister-in-law's shower (after it happened). Well, the shower was yesterday, so I can safely show you what we did! :)

My mom and I had so much fun putting together this diaper cake. I had seen cute ones at homemade by jill and alpha+mom. I liked some aspects of both, but we were also limited in our supply shopping by living rurally. You'll be happy to know that you can make our diaper cake with supplies you find at Target, WalMart, and the local grocery store.

My mom really liked it when the diapers showed so that you could tell what the cake was made of, and I liked the bottle of champagne (though we used sparkling ligonberry-apple cider) as the center piece. With those thoughts in mind, we went on our hunt for supplies.

Here is what we bought:
-A 116 diaper package of Luvs (this ended up being a good size to go with, we didn't use all of them, but I'd say we only had about 25 left over. I tell you this, because no one else said how many diapers they used. Oh, and we used size 1 diapers, because some babies (like mine) are too big for newborns when they are born, and all babies will eventually use size 1.
-A bottle of something celebratory to toast with when the big day arrives
- As many elastics as diapers: we used small hair elastics (clear was preferred, but not necessary--since we couldn't find them anywhere)
-A bag of jumbo mailing rubber bands
-2.5" white satin ribbon--the cheap stuff is fine
-A roll of other decorative ribbon, and one more in a coordinating color if you like
-A few toys to decorate with (we used a pack of teethers and a stuffed horse)
-A package of straight pins
-A platter

1. We started out by rolling our package of diapers and rubber-banding them. Roll with the design at the top hidden inside the roll. Then secure with a small elastic. I'd roll at least 80 to start with.
2. Place the bottle of yumminess on the platter.
3. Start placing rolled diapers in concentric circles around the bottom of the bottle. Our first cake layer had 3 circles of diapers. Secure a large mailing rubber band around all of the diapers--this took 4 hands.
4. Then move up a layer, using 1 less row of diapers, and following the rest of the instructions in Step 3.
5. Same as before...this is probably your last layer, because it is about as tall as the bottle by now.
6. Using the wide white satin ribbon, wrap it around each layer to hide the big rubber band. Straight pin it to itself--we don't want holey diapers!
7. Next cover the satin ribbon with your pretty ribbon and pin in back. We used the teethers to decorate the ribbon. I secured them by threading the ribbon through them when the shape made it possible. When the shape was difficult, I got creative, and found a few toothpicks. I taped a toothpick to the back of the teether and threaded the ribbon through there--don't forget to wash the teethers before you use them Mel! ;)
   
8. Then I pinned the coordinating ribbon down in a cascade.
9. And, because I am no good at making pretty bows for the tops of things, we stuck the little horsey up there and pinned him to the ribbon.

My parents carted it 17 hours back to Colorado in a box, and my understanding is that it traveled really well.

These make cute centerpieces at a shower-I think ours went up on the gift table. Cute and fun to do!

We also made little hand-dipped truffles for the party favors. (I love the blogoshpere for ideas!) We got our super simple truffle recipe from Bakerella's blog. We topped them with Oreo crumbs and cute little blue flowers to commemorate my new nephew!

And, we made a Price-is-Right shower game, got things for the guests to make a scrapbook for the baby, and bought miniature baby bottles to freeze in ice-cubes. Each guest gets an ice cube, and the first one who's cube melts and the bottle floats free yells out, "My water broke!" When I first heard about this game I laughed so hard, that I had to convince my mom to do it. I laughed even harder at the thought of my beautiful 16 year old cousin yelling the phrase to win the prize yesterday--way to go Katelyn! Hee hee. Maybe it's just my quirky sense of humor.

So I was able to send my mom home with a planned party.

I had a blast, which I think will serve our business well if we ever get it going. ;)

Edited June 23, 2009: here is the link to my latest cake..a girly one! :)

Stressed spelled backwards and all that

So, we got a brand spankin' new refrigerator delivered to our house yesterday...it is GORGEOUS! We love it, but true to Murphy's Law, our year-old spiffy Kenmore Front Loader washing machine broke today. I think it is a computer issue, which means Ben can't fix it--uugh! It seems like you save and spend money on one big purchase and then something else (unexpected) goes. :( Oh well, the repair guy will come tomorrow to tell us what the damage is.

Ben was frustrated after futzing with the washer for a few hours, and he had several hours of homework to accomplish, so he sent the babe and I to Dairy Queen. He really wanted a DQ cake, but those are expensive, so I made a Hot Fudge Cake and we got a quart of DQ Softserve to go with it, and added some Caramel Sauce we already had. I think it was close to as good as the cake would have been, and at least $10 less expensive.

After our yummy dessert, Nehemiah required a bath--and a mohawk. He just looks so stinkin' cute with one that I couldn't resist!

After I got him contented in his pjs and off to bed, I embarked on a craft project. I was browsing blogs earlier today (sadly I cannot remember the original) and found one where a mom made little stuffed frogs for her childrens' Easter baskets. She linked over to this tutorial, which has a pattern ready to print and super easy instructions. If it takes me less than 3 hours, it must be easy! Didn't my froggy friend come out cute?

For kicks and grins

As my Aunt Dawn would say. :) I saw this HILARIOUS little youtube video on bias tape today. I was looking into buying a serger so that I could make cute receiving blankets that are actually large enough to swaddle my jumbo sized babies (assuming that eventually there will be more than Nehemiah)! :) And those of my friends. However I can use bias tape or make my own instead. You'll die laughing, so run on over to Angry Chicken and check it out. Whether you sew or not, it is worth it!

Fun with the Little Buggers

I worked in the child care room for Celebrate Recovery tonight, and man was I prepared! Nothing like a holiday to get you mulling over fun ideas. We had a special treat left by "Lucky the Leprechaun," and we made Shrinkydinks.

It was a fun time, though I was a little bummed that more kids didn't show up. On the other hand, it made it a really relaxing and fun night, because the only kiddo other than Nehemiah was my helper's daughter.

We went shrink plastic crazy! I had forgotten about this fun craft. And it turns out that it is cheap, easy, and takes up quite a bit of time, and in the end, you get a fun thing to take home. I'll tell you how it is done:

1.) Procure some #6 Recyclable plastic. This is the clear stuff that you often see baked goods packaged in at the grocery store. Look for that little #6 because it is the only stuff you can use effectively. They are normally clamshell style containers, and sometimes they come with salads too. Anyway, save those, because they are a little tough to find recycling centers for, and making shrinky dinks is more fun anyway!

2.) Cut it out so that you have a flat piece of the clear stuff (after you have cleaned it of course). Rough up one side with fine grit sandpaper.

3.) Then find a picture you would like to trace, or freehand something. Use permanent markers for the outlining and colored pencils to fill it in. You can use permanent markers for everything, but it is a little much for kids and gets messy quickly, so the colored pencils offer a cleaner, cheaper, more colorful option. You use these on the roughed up side of the plastic (which you made this way so that the color will stick).

4.) Use a hole punch to punch a hole on the side of your design so that you can later string it on a key chain or necklace. You could even use them as zipper pulls.

5.) Cut out around your shape and the hole.

6.) Preheat your oven to 350*F. Then place the plastic on a foil lined cookie sheet (not the airbake kind) with the foil shiny side up.

7.) Place the tray on the bottom rack and turn on the oven light if you have one.

8.) It should take about 3.5 minutes for the plastic to shrink up.

They will curl up first and then sort of flatten out. When you take them out, you can sort of flatten them out with a spatula if you need to (though we didn't have to).

I put the picture up so you can see how much they shrink.

These are really fun. And thanks to our local grocery store for donating some containers, since this was a spur-of-the-moment project plan.

Obsession of the day

So, I have a confession...I think I am developing an obsession with felt food! I was tooling around the blogosphere a few weeks ago and ran into this awesome, crafty blog called: homemade by jill
She has the neatest craft ideas and sometimes tutorials or links to such things. Anyway, she likes to make felt food, and I LOVE it! It is so cute! And I think I could probably figure it out. The creative possibilities are practically endless!

Image from: lilybeanmarket.com


So I went in search of fun pictures for ideas and information that I could find on the topic. If you are interested, here is what I have found.

Two adorable sites that sell the food for those of us who don't know what we're doing quite yet:
Lily Bean Market
and
Mahar Drygoods


A site that sells patterns/tutorials for all kinds of yummy creations.


One lady's amazing directions on what she has crafted


A tutorial for some adorable fortune cookies!!!


More tutorials


Felt cupcakes, donuts and more.


And if you really think you might like to tackle this project, here are some beginner's basics:

This first one shows how to hand stitch felt.


and, though this one is how to make a little ladybug, it shows how to use a technique called needle felting--which I think is used in making little raspberries and other fun food.

Tell me what you think, and if you have any experience making such morsels I'd love to hear about it! :)