Primary Birthday Cards 2012

So, I have been working on the Primary birthday cards for this year.  We decided to give little packs of gum that say:  I can "chews" the right.  Here is what they look like....

I just went to Sam's Club and got boxes of the little packs of gum.  I printed the card on cardstock, and I'm planning on taking them somewhere to get copies, so I don't waste all my ink. :)
(We are making about 100 of these little guys!)

Anyway - if anyone is interested - you can download the cards HERE.

It should print out with 4 cards to a page.

Hope you like it!

DIY Felt Headbands

Last weekend I suddenly decided I needed to make a Christmas headband for my little girl.  (She is just to the age where she will wear headbands again without pulling them off.) 

I had seen some really cute ones online, and I am literally swimming in felt - so I thought, "I'll just try it, if it turns out bad - oh well, I didn't lose much." hahaha

I went to the dollar store and got a pack of cheap, thin headbands that are all different colors, so I decided to make a couple.  I made a black, white and silver one to go with one of her other dresses, and a pretty red one to go with her Christmas dress.

They turned out pretty good! I am surprised! I thought maybe they would look really cheesy and homemade - and maybe to some of you experienced accessory-makers, they do. :)  Oh-well, just humor me and pretend they look professional, okay?

Okay, here is the first one.  Do you like my model? hahaha  Her name is Miss Jenny.  I pulled her out of storage to model my headbands. :)

I looked all over online and could NOT find where I got this tutorial - seriously.  Basically, you trace a circle and then cut it out in a wavy shape.  Then, you cut a spiral toward the center, keeping your wavy shape and then roll it up tight, using your glue gun every so often.  There are tons of tutorials if you just search for "felt rosettes".

The only things I did differently were:
1.  I used a lighter to singe the edges, so it gives it a little more dimension.
2.  I glued a little silver bead into the center of each rosette.

Here is the back:

I glued each flower directly to the headband, and then glued another piece of felt to the back of that, to give it more stability.

Here is a picture of my little princess wearing it:

Okay, here is the red one I made for her Christmas dress:

I got the tutorial for this one here.  I took a lighter to this one, too. :D 

It started out looking like this, and then I just kept thinking it needed something more.  So I added a little bit of tulle to the bottom:

I just cut about 4 circles out, gathered them in the middle, made an X and wrapped thread around that, then made another X, and wrapped thread around that, too.  Then, I just hot-glued that to the flower.

I attached this flower the same way I did the black and white one.  Glued it to the headband, and then attached another piece of felt to that underneath.

I wanted it to look a little more Christmas-sy you know, with striped ribbon or some green - but in the end I decided she would be able to wear this more often.

Well, I hope that this makes sense. :)  These really are super fun to make, I might just have to do lots more styles and colors!

Thanks a bunch!

Easy, Handmade Ornaments

I have some more super easy ornaments for you....
The first one is a Cinnamon Stick Santa. You can make a whole bunch of these in a short amount of time. 
I made these soooo long ago, so I don't have step-by-step pictures, but they are pretty easy to figure out.

Things you will need:
cinnamon sticks
twine
red and peach craft paint
black craft paint or my preference - a sharpie!
craft snow
hot glue or other craft glue

Instructions:
1.  Paint the top portion of the cinnamon stick red.  I only painted the front half, because the back doesn't snow anyway. You decide how big or little you want the hat to be.
2.  Paint just underneath that peach - I went longer on this part than the red. Let these dry.
3.  Glob on the craft snow to make Santa's hat, hair & beard. (yes, that's my technical term - glob - seems to fit don't you think?) I went just under the hat, down both sides and made a little moustache in the middle. Oh, and don't forget a little dab on the top of his hat.
4.  Let that sit and dry really well.
5.  Make 2 black dots for his eyes.
6.  Cut a little piece of twine and got glue it onto the top of the cinnamon stick.

Here is a better picture of them together:

I hope that I explained these good enough for you.  I made a couple dozen and they are such cute fillers for my tree.  You could also hang them on packages - super cute!

Here is a picture of the kind of craft snow I used:

The next ornament I have for you is another one I made forever ago.  I'm sure you've seen these around, but they are such classics - I think they look sooo good on any tree, or as gift tags:

Cinnamon Cookie Cutter Ornaments.

I LOVE these! I still have these after probably 15 years - and they STILL smell yummy - seriously!

Warning!! Do NOT eat these - for decoration only.  Not that you would, they have glue in them, but just to make sure... ;)


Here is the recipe:

1 cup cinnamon
3/4 cup applesauce
3 TBS white glue (Elmer's)

Mix all ingredients together and knead until you get a soft consistancy. (kind of a "furry" look)

Roll the dough out making sure you keep an even thickness - I made mine pretty thick because I didn't want them to break.

Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter. 

Make sure to poke out your holes while the dough is still wet.  A straw is the easiest way to do this.

Let them sit somewhere undisturbed to dry. It takes about 3 days.  (I know, it's a long time, but it's really worth it.)

Hang with ribbons.

You can store these with your decorations to use year after year!

Well - I hope you like these ornaments as much as I do!

Neighbor Gifts

These are my neighbor gifts this year.  I just went and got some hand soap, (the green one is a scrub I got at the dollar store) removed the labels and added some contact paper that I cut with my Silhouette.  If you don't have a cutter, you could easily trace and cut a simple shape out of contact paper with scissors.

Then I added ribbon and simple little tags. Sooo easy, and pretty cheap, really. Now, I just need to make about 12 more!



Thanks for stopping by,

Framed Wall Letters

Since we moved into our new house, I wanted to redo the letters in my daughter's room.  This is what they looked like before -

They are okay, but just needed something more.  Here is what I came up with -

Sooo much better, don't you think? (By the way, we liked the paint so much in our old house, that we did the same thing in the new one. It has stripes of the same pink color, only one is flat and the other is semi-gloss.)

Here is what I did:

I found some old wooden frames at a local thrift store that were the same size, but each had a slightly different frame. I took out the glass and painted the frames white.  Then, I glazed and sanded them so they looked kind of old and weathered.

I put different patterns of scrapbook paper into the frames, but left out the glass. I originally wanted to hang the entire frame with the ribbon, but I couldn't figure out how I would get the letters to stay inside without ripping the paper.  Soooo......

I hammered a tiny nail into the top of each frame and just hung the letters back up.  I LOVE it! The black and white really look so good against the pink wall. The frames also take up more space on the wall, and I like that, too. :) 

I have more fun things I want to do with her room, like some cute window treatments!  I will show more before and afters of her room later.  It's so fun to finally have a girl after 3 boys! haha :)


UPDATE: My little sister used this idea for her daughter's room and it turned out so stinkin' cute:

This room is a gorgeous ice blue with black accents - I love it!

Well, thanks for stopping by -

Family Ornaments 2011

 
Every year, we give our kids an ornament. Then, when they are all grown up, they will have a box of ornaments that have special meaning to each of them. (And - I will finally get my "beautiful" tree.)

No, I'm just kidding - I love my tree with all the different ornaments all over it. It's so much more fun to look at and talk about.

 
So I got these plain, glass ornaments a couple years ago at Michael's for like $1 each. I bought 3 round ones and 3 snowflake ones. Well, I never did anything with them, and now we have a baby girl! So I decided to do all the boys' round, and my daughter got the snowflake.

All I did was cut out circles and their names in black vinyl. (The snowflake ornament was smaller, so I couldn't do the circle with that one.) Then, I cut out their initials in some speckled contact paper that I got at Wal-Mart. Sorry, you can't see it that well in the picture, but it's really pretty.

Then, I just added the year to the back in black vinyl. I just left the gold ribbon on them that came with the ornaments. I might swap the ribbon out later, but I think it goes really well.


I love them! I think they turned out really great - especially for only $4!