Handmade Christmas

Hey family and friends! Our little crafter, Aurora, has been hard at work making gifts for her family. We wanted to share some of her favorite projects with you.

She is 14 now which is scary but super fun! It was interesting watching her create so much on her own. She found ideas she wanted to copy or use as a starting point. She picked something personal for each one of her cousins.

Starting out on top, she sewed gift bags for each child. Sewing straight lines is pretty easy! :p :)  There are tons of tutorials for basic bags on the net. If you need a starting off point, check this place out.

Next up was painting. Her two favorites of her paintings were the white deer and the Minecraft one.

Another easy craft she thought she could tackle on her own was to make some onsies.

She was blessed with twin cousins this year! That Aunt and Uncle grew up on Mario so it was a natural choice. I cracked up when she asked me to print these. Teen crafters are the best!

We will see you next year! Merry Christmas, from our family to yours. :)

A card by my kiddo

My little crafting kiddo always makes cards for guys look easy!

She used Stampin Up to make this card for her cousin. I love how simple and neat it is. Good job, Aurora.

Happy crafting!

Just another easy card

My daughter and I have been working on making cards again. We had quite the on-hand stock before the house burned so it's time to start getting that back.

We have seen several versions of this card and this one is my daughter's. She used all SU! The Birthday greeting was from Sale-a-Bration. Grey, saffron and black.

The part of this that was really fun was layering the stamps to make a patterned paper. Aurora had so many strips and they all looked really neat. She's pretty into making patterns now.

I love crafting with my kiddo. It's fun seeing her be proud of the cards to gives out. :)

Just a little reminder of the beach

The weather here in AR is starting to get a little ugly and we need something cheerful to do. While digging through my craft room I came across some tins left over from the advent calendar I made a couple years ago. They already had magnets glued to the back. So, then I began wondering what we could do with these.

I remember coming across someone using them as little miniature round shadow boxes. Who knows where this idea originated so I can't quote the source but my daughter really got into the idea!

Once we picked the pictures and printed them, all that was left to do with add some sand and sea shells we found at the beach. I used a little E6 glue to put the lid on. We don't usually have things on the fridge, because I'm a bit of a neat freak but we love this little magnets and it puts a smile on my face whenever I walk by it. Just a little reminder of the amazing vacation we had this year in Destin, Florida.

We hope you are inspired to grab a kiddo and do a  fun 10 minute craft with them. :) Happy crafting!

Mini Apple Pies as gifts for Thanksgiving

It never fails to make me so proud when my daughter cooks!

Wait, let me back up since that sounded a little less like my feminist self. I don't cook. I have never enjoyed it and it holds nothing for me. You're thinking: "LIZ! Your CAKES!" yes yes, I cake but you should know that I don't bake it. I leave that for my better half. Ladies, you would not want to eat something I cooked.

My wife is an amazing cook and she has been teaching the kiddo for years. I deeply believe that all children, boys and girls, need to learn their way around a kitchen. Why? We all eat, of course! Cooking healthy, fresh food is a life skill and I think every kid needs to learn, at least the basics.

My 12 yr old daughter and mini crafter, Aurora did these as little Thank You gifts for Thanksgiving. She got the idea from her favorite website, Pinterest. Here's the recipe she used: Mini Apple Pies (using a cupcake pan). She's so proud that she did this by herself! They are in food safe containers and placed in these adorable stamped lunch bags that she did. The stamps and ribbon are Stampin' Up!

We hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Trunk Or Treat - My Little Pony

It's no secret that our daughter loves My Little Pony and that we all adore Halloween. We have a tradition that we all dress up in theme with the kiddo picking. Hey, they are only little for a little while, why not?  This year is My Little Pony. We made our costumes. LaRisa is Apple Jack, I am Pinkie Pie and of course our daughter is Rainbow Dash.

The Nightmare Night episode was our inspiration for our trunk for Trunk or Treat. The wife brought home some boxes from work. The kiddo Aurora and I painted and taped some pieces together for a background. I think she did a great job! It's nothing oober fancy but we had a blast making the stuff and hanging out.

Grand total for the entire thing was $1, for paper bags to make the trees. I wanted to make tons for them to put all over the bottom but the family decided that 5 trees was good enough to represent the Everfree Forest. lol everything else we had laying around either in the craft space or in the kiddo's room.

The Nightmare Night decorations, including the Mare in the Moon were all found and printed off Google images. The toys, of course, we had. Some left over fabrics from the sewing bin covered our Rendevous' tan interior. We put some battery operated lights around under the sheer fabrics so it will glow when it gets dark. :D 

We hope you all have an awesome Nightmare Night! Happy Halloween! 

Rainbow Dash MLP Cake

My daughter is heavy into Rainbow Dash, you know, from My Little Pony.

She was so sweet when we were making this cake. She said not to stress it. If it didn't work out we could make it into a hill and put a little figure of Dash on top!
I love how accepting she is. She made all the hair for this cake by herself!

For this cake we baked 3 round chocolate 6" cakes and we used RKT. You could use the Wonder Mold pan too. I basically carved her body down to that shape anyway.

The head and front legs are RKT skewered in place. Coming up, printables and more from her Rainbow Dash Party!

Monster High Doll Re-paint

I'm sure if you have a daughter you know all about these dolls. I personally can't stand the clothing they come in.. look like dead... well.. nevermind. We make a lot of doll clothes and we toss the stuff that just isn't right looking. ;)

All over Pinterest we have been seeing *amazing* repaints of Monster High dolls. So, naturally my daughter wanted to give it a shot.

To get the pre-printed face off you simply scrub it off with a washcloth and nail polish remover.

We then used markers, a gel pen and acrylic paint to make new faces. We had so much fun with that!! I sealed them with a blast of clear acrylic spray. They aren't the amazing art repaints we see online but it was so fun for my daughter to make her own faces!

This is Day of the Dead Ghoulia and Sleeping Frankie, by my daughter Aurora and I. :)

Easy little tree

Hey there! We are putting little things around the house to get us into the holiday season.
                       

Thinner strips = more tree like. I liked somewhere in between. You can use glitter or stamps to make it even more festive. These are also cute in patterned paper. Let the kids draw or stamp away! Wouldn't it be fun for them to decorate it and then put it in their room?  :)

Just cut some strips of paper, you decide on your size. Curl them by rubbing them against the side of your table. Using stick pins, attach the paper to a styrofoam cone. Those cones come in all sizes so you could make a fun display out of these.

Happy Crafting!

Paper Gift Bows (repost)

Hey there!! The Barrel featured the paper gift bow video from last year! Yay!
I wanted to re-post the tutorial for the holidays. In case you missed it last year:




Hope you all have a great week!

Baby Snuggle Sew Along!

Just in time for Christmas sewing! My niece, Aubrey, needed a nice warm snuggle for her car seat. I made one for my 9 year old daughter so I figured I'd give it a shot for the baby too!

What you need:

Fleece

Sewing machine & Thread

A way to measure the child or baby you are making for

Okay! What you do is measure the person you are making for, you will need to know how many inches around the arms will be too so measure that. Give yourself lots of extra room in the length and the sleeves, you don't want a tight snuggle.

Cut and hem your blanket portion based on the size person you are sewing for. You don't have to hem fleece. You can leave it as is, tie it, fringe it, ect.

        

Cut a rectangle, twice as long as he arm length and the width of the arm. You will have a long rectangle. Hem the short ends (this will be the end of the sleeves). Fold in half lengthwise, right sides together to make  a long tube (pic A). Now, cut your tube in half. Tada! You have 2 sleeves!

           

Okay, attaching the arms! Here we go. Measure how far apart you want the sleeves and cut holes the same size around as your sleeves (pic B). I fold the blanket part in half and mark the second hole using the first as a template. That's easier for me. I hate measuring anything. lol

  

Now place one sleeve into one hole. You can pin it or stretch it to fit if you cut too large, don't stress it. Fleece is forgiving. Sew the sleeves on (pic C).

Guess what? You're done! Check out how cute my niece is!! :D 

    

Click pics to see them larger. Happy crafting!!

    

  

Woodland Fairy Birthday

Birthdays in our family are small, family & close friends events. Every year my daughter picks her theme and we make a party. This year the theme was Woodland Fairy.

  

In NLR there is a great place called The Old Mill. It was in Gone With the Wind, well it was a flash in the credits but it still counts! It's the perfect backdrop for my little girl's woodland fairy birthday.

 

Let me tell you about the table.
The front is a branch with holes drilled to fit skewers. We dipped large marshmellows in chocolate and added sprinkes.

We have pink rice crispie balls and sandwiches on the sides of the cake. There is more food on the right of this picture but it's not as cute and the goodies! I made the cake.

All the girls got fairy wings and goodies. They danced around the garden, having a ball and keeping us all very entertained... Happy birthday to my amazing daughter!!

The Dead Egg & The Army of Bunny Napkins

Happy Easter!! You know I'm holding the cake and food stuffs off until the last second because I'm busy doing other little nerdy things. Like this:

Yes. We are crazy. My daughter is so funny. We had a blast doing this and laughing so hard we barely stayed in our chairs.

Next we made these fantastic cheesecake filled strawberries from Martha. While we were making them we noticed that the bunny napkins kept getting closer and closer...

 

I wasn't really concerned until I came back and the napkin bunnies were surrounding the strawberry. Now I'm worried. I quickly snapped this picture before they could get me.

  
Okay, all kidding aside I hope you all have a fun and safe Easter. We will be playing with our family all day. I'll post the cake if I ever get around to decorating it. I guess I'd have to stop playing napkin bunny wars with my daughter first... lol

Easy earrings

My sweet little neice wanted to make earrings for her mommy. Isn't that too cute?? So we made 2 pair. It's just shrinky dink (the printable kind holds stamping best) and some earring hooks. It's just standard ink and stamps.
Wow you can really see all my earring holes there... 

I can not wait to post some cakes. My brother's 30th birthday is next week and then Easter. So hopefully the cakes will come out okay and I will share them with you. :)

Easter egg place setting - Kid's table

More Easter... I'm making each kid a place at thier Easter table. Each one will have a special gift in the egg. Doing blue with dragonflies for the boys and pink butterflies for the girls.

I saw Martha make some and I thought it would be cute. It's really really easy. Just cut the paper. glue into a tube, stick the wire and butterfly on with glue dots.

:) I like Easter. I can't wait to make the cake!

Peeps in a Box

Hey crafters! Easter is on it's way and I needed some fast and easy little gifts for the adults. Every year we ahve a really small but fun Easter party. We put out eggs over 2 acres and let the little ones have at it. Hopefully this year it won't rain this year and we will get to be outside the whole time.

These tins are from Stampin Up, as is the paper and ink. I have no idea where the rub-on came from to be honest, it was just in my stash. I had to try using a rub-on right onto the clear cover of the tin and I have some advice: Go slow and hold your hand on the back of the lid. It needs support and if you go slow you will avoid slipping.

4 bunny peeps fit perfectly in the tin. I'm all about presentation of little gifts. For some reason that makes me happy. lol

Am I making Valentine's stuff already??!

Yes. Dang it. I admit it! Okay!!! I'm a dork and that's just how it is. My daugther's making Pixie Stick heart Valentines for her little classmates. I made this first trial one so see if I got the cut files right.

We use our Cricut to cut svg files we made. I posted it on the svg blog in case you want the heart too.

          

The tin is from Stampin' Up, as are the ink and stamps. I used a rub-on on the stop of the tin to make it more pretty. The candy on the inside is Hershey's nuggets. All pretty easy stuff. Cut, glue and give!

   

The pencil can is just scrap paper around a soup can. The little one loves to change the paper on her can for whatever season or holiday is coming up. She got tired of the blue with snowflakes. lol. She's ready for Spring already!

Aurora is a Witch!

So... this is the first year that my little girl has asked to be anything that wasn't a fairy or a princess (or a fairy princess) lol! She wanted to be a witch. She saw a tutu on Etsy that she really liked and we knewn we could make. So we set out to make her Halloween costume. Grand total for everything she wanted: $7. Can you believe that??

             

She is wearing black pants and a black shirt she had already. The tulle is from Joann's (with a coupon). I hot glued a spider to an orange ribbon bracelet and tack stitched another spider to her hat.

         

Obviously there is no makeup on her in this picture, not that I plan on putting much on her other than lipstick, and she is squinting from the sun. It literally takes about 3 minutes to make a bracelet out of ribbon and hot glue something on it so if you're looking for a very last minute costume addition you might give this a try.  :)

   

Forgive me for my pictures. You all know by now that I'm no photographer. How cool is that view of my front yard though? Across the street is a beautiful old red barn and the trees are starting to look so beautiful. I'm so lucky!! I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!!!

Ribbon Snaps: Bracelets, Pacifier Clips and more...

I have a ton of ribbon. I use it for making bows, clips for my daughter's hair, my scrapbook and just about anything else. I have tried different ways to mak ribbon closures and this is the easiest way. So I'm going to share it with you. If you scrapbook you probaby have everything you need already except these:

      

You don't need a special tool to set these. This little package comes with a plastic tool that does the job well. So what else do you need?

1. These are the snaps and the tool they come with.

2. Scissors. Those are my new Honey Bees!

3. Hammer

4. Self healing mat, or do this on a table you don't care about.

5. Ribbon or fabric

Lets get started.

Step 1. Cut your ribbon to length. Use a lighter to "burn" the edges. That keeps the ribbon from fraying.

       

Step 2.  Use the instructions that came with your snaps to attach the snap. I like to fold the ribbon over and putt he snap through 2 layers of the ribbon.

                     

Step 3. Do the other end of the ribbon with the snap's opposite end.

            

Now you have a bracelet! You could make purse with changeable straps, or any other fun ribbon project.  

              

I like to make pacifier clips. Want me to show you those??
    

The clips are just badge clips that you can get in any office supply store (or Walmart's office section). I used standard eyelets to attach the ribbon to the badge clip by putting the ribbon through the hole in the clip and folding it over. Once you punch your hole, I suggest holding a lighter flame close to the holes you punched. It makes the frays melt and makes the hole stronger. Then just set your eyelet and you're done. : )
                  

What do you think? If you have ideas on what else us crafters can do with ribbon and snaps please share! I love trying new projects and my daughter loves helping make anything with ribbon. She's a ribbon lover. Like mother, like daughter.

Easy Ribbon Roses (folded ribbon)

Here's a fun little project for your longer ribbon scraps. Make them into fun little roses for hair clips, gifts and other stuff.
              
Double sided ribbon looks the best for this project. Once you get the hang of it you'll be pounding these things out. The first one is the hardest. : )
                             
I did a little photo slideshow to show you how to make these little fun things. I can't wait to have a new video camera so I can just do video tutorials. :)