Painted bracelets

When my mom comes to visit, the kids swarm her looking for the “bag of tricks” that she always packs full of projects, stickers, books or other things for the kids.  There’s often something in there for me too, which is awesome!

On her last visit, she brought an empty wrapping paper roll, paints and a zillion gems and assorted bling to create bracelets.

The cardboard tube was cut into sections, and then slit open to become a “one size fits most” type of bracelet.

Paint, paint, everywhere!

Itty bitty hands….little tiny fingers…..

Complete concentration…painting first, then gluing on some bling.

And here is the finished product!   I was gifted several of these beauties and I sure hope a couple made it back home with my mom!

Softy pillow face

Grace just started drawing people with faces.  (3 yr old) 

I love this picture she gave me!  The top is me, the middle is her big sister and she drew her first self portrait at the bottom.   

I played around with some fleece and felt and came up with this little pillow face. It was fun to make something totally silly and completely useless!

(Inspired by this book: Plush-o-rama: Curious Creatures for Immature Adults )

Flower re-do

I saw these golden flowers at at estate sale and was able to get them for $5 each.   I knew they would be a super fun decorating opportunity for the girls.  

I saved them for a gorgeous sunny day when they could paint outdoors.   They love to paint almost as much as I hate the mess that painting makes.   I usually try to save painting time for when my mom is up to visit!

The flowers turned out (mostly) pretty, and we hung them in different places around the playhouse. 

mini scrabble

I always grab Scrabble games at thrift stores and garage sales.  I just have this thing for the letters.   Sorta hate the actual game, but those little letters in perfect squares…..ah.  I can’t get enough.

 

So, two summers ago, I saw a travel scrabble game at a garage sale for $2 and bought it.  I didn’t realize till later that “travel” is code word for “itty-bitty pieces”.  At the time, I was mostly using scrabble tiles to make necklaces like these,

 

so these little things were useless.   I threw them into my box labeled “Junky Junk” where they hung out for a while.

 

The other day I had a revelation.   Inspiration.   A light bulb moment.    The mini tiles are exactly the same width as a clothespin!   I warmed up my glue gun and started playing around to make words like HOPE, ALIVE, QUEEN, MENU.

Then, even BETTER, I glued some magnets to the back so they can hold papers on the refrigerator.   (the side of the fridge, not on the beautiful front of course)

(I’ve had this vinyl decal up for over 4 years on our fridge and I’m still loving it!)

 

Since the glue gun was hot and I had el cheapo ring bases hanging around, I made a couple of rings for little Gracie and her friend.  They are weird rings.  You’re not going to see me with an “A” on my finger.

My favorite might be “DO IT”.   ha. 

What’s your favorite?  I’m going to stash some in my purse and start secretly leaving them at people’s houses when I visit.  

Thrifted jewelry junk

I got this loot for $16 at an estate sale.  My mom was with me and she also got a few bags of costume jewelry.

Most of it is mis-matched, some is hideous, I’m not sure it was a good value, but it was SO fun to look through it all with my mom and the girls! 

I invited some neighbor girls over to make rings.  They oooohed and ahhhhhhed over the jewels then picked out the favorites.  I hot glued the bling onto some cheap adjustable ring bases that I bought from etsy.

I made one too out of an old clip on earring.

Kaylee’s art

Kaylee and I made this 11 x 14 inch art together using pretty paper and mod podge glue.   She wanted to give it to Grammy, but I vetoed that idea.    I love how it turned out and want it in my kitchen!   Maybe we’ll make another one for a present……

papered light switches

“Mom, let’s do crafts!”  Kaylee said one day.

When I pulled out her paper, stickers and scissors, she said, “No mom.  I want to do a real craft;  a mommy craft.”

Interesting, right?   Somewhere along the way she’s figured out that my projects are really cool.  She’s upped the anti for craft time and going to keep me on my toes!

We pulled out my stack of pretty papers and covered a couple light switches using mod podge glue.  I’ve been meaning to try this easy idea for a while, and Kaylee was satisfied making a project that went up in the house.

 

The pretty flower switch cover is in Kaylee’s bed room, and the other is in the hallway.

 

I think it’s a really fun and easy way to get a craft fix with a 4 year old, and add a small detail to our home.

January Craft Time with cousins

I'm so lucky to have my cousin Colleen and her family across town from me.   Our little girls get along really well and we have decided to schedule times to get together more frequently.   If it's not on the calendar, it just doesn't happen.....ha.....with so many things, it seems!  Anyway, we both like to make stuff and are mildly addicted to Pinterest. 

Olivia with her heart shaped cupcake.

These cupcakes turned out good, considering I forgot to add the eggs.   I always use applesauce instead of oil, but leaving out the eggs was a surprising calorie reducer. They were a bit more dense.

Belle made a mountain of frosting.

We tucked a ball of foil into the cupcake pan to shape them into hearts.  I considered saving the balls for next time I need heart shaped cupcakes....but thought that was a tad TOO thrifty.   Kinda wish I had now.....

Sweet tooth

Next up, another pinterest project idea.
"This is a MOMMY craft." we must have explained 17 times before the kids ran off to play.
We painted wooden hearts in conversation heart colors and then printed out our family names for each heart.   

AWWWWW  SWEET!

Chocolate, crafts, cousins:

A perfect afternoon.

screwy pumpkins

 

I took the kids to pick pumpkins from a local neighbor and they each picked out itty bitty pumpkins.   They didn’t even glance at the huge pumpkins, but picked out the “cute” ones….that happened to be fifty cents each.   Fine by me!   ha

I absolutely do not carve pumpkins, but I adore many other creative ways to decorate that orange vegetable.   I saw this idea in Family Fun magazine and thought it looked fun and easy.  It was.

Pretty cool, huh?

Or creepy….

Mostly funny.

tutu favors

My cousin gives the BEST birthday parties.   Seriously….she goes all out.    The latest was a pretty amazing princess birthday party for her daughter.   

Each girl was given a unique tutu and the boys had some really cool prince capes.    My girls loved it and looked pretty stinkin cute too.   They have been wearing them non-stop, so it gets my vote for “VERY BEST PARTY FAVOR EVER”. 

Colleen, my cousin, has an etsy shop with a couple of friends to sell these cute tutus.   Check it out here:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/whimsicaldreams3?ref=pr_shop_more

A home for fairies

Did you know that fairies live at Grammy’s house?  They make

Kaylee spent an hour making a special spot homey with Grammy, who had perfect decorating accessories that she’s collected from nature walks over the years.

mushrooms = umbrellas

twigs + bark = table

rock = bed

leaves = blankets

acorns = chandeliers

rolled bark = sleeping bags

rocks = gems

acorn tops = bowls

When she was all done, she contentedly whispered, “I think they’re going to LOVE it!”

(and mom possibly had more fun than K did)

A tent for the kids

 

I found directions for making a play tent on line, and thought my kids would love it!   The directions call for just a few pieces of wood and a twin sheet.    I was so excited to use a sheet that I grabbed from my grandparents house last fall.   I slept under those flowered sheets when I would visit, and they are still in great shape.

I set the kids up with snacks, pillows and books and ran inside to tidy up the house.   The next time I checked on them, everything was flattened to the ground.    Gotta make it more sturdy or something….

The most wonderful story…family

Last summer I came across a stack of 11x14 canvases that some teenage boy had painted all over for an art class or something.  They were awful!   I bet his mom was happy to unload them to me for $.50 each.

I pulled a couple of them out, primed them with spray paint and asked the kids to draw a picture of our family.   Unfortunately, Kaylee thought it was hilarious to give everyone “antlers”, and Joshua liked the idea too.  GRRRRRRR….I can always spray over them and ask them to re-draw another time!   But for now, they are hanging up in our family room.

I printed out their names and ages with my Silhouette machine.  The quote “The most wonderful story…family” was my first attempt at cutting out a longer phrase on that machine.

Brownie cut outs

Kaylee asked to make cut out cookies using different shapes.   I almost groaned out loud.   Cut out cookies are so much work!    I make them at Christmas time, but it’s a 3 day event.

Day one:  Make the dough

Day two:  Cut them out and bake

Day three:  Decorate cookies

Maybe I could toughen up and pull it off in two days….but today I used a brownie mix.  Sprayed a large cookie tray and baked a thin layer of brownies for 20 minutes.

We tried to maximize the placement and got about 12 cut outs.  The poor gingerbread man lost a leg and an arm.

The best part just may be all the “leftover” parts that must be eaten. 

They will be decorated on day 2….if any survive that long before we eat them up.