A Valentine treat for your Honey.

Ok, so this is SOOOOO old!! about ten years old to be exact!! I made this pillow as a gift for Valentines day for my hubby (but at that point he was my almost fianc'e) . I was inspired by this fabric that I had found at Walmart in my small college town. I loved the whole "How do I love thee let me count the ways" thing so I went with it and began thinking up all of the ways I loved my man! The fun part about this pillow was that I re-read the list for the first time in ten years the other day and it reminded me of all the little things that I loved and still love about my honey! And for the last couple of days I have re-noticed all of those little things that made me fall in love with him way back then! I know this is so cheesy! But fun!

So I typed up my reasons and printed them on transferable iron on paper. and then Ironed it onto a white piece of square fabric. The pillow is 16X16 inch square and I just used a pillow form for the stuffing.

This such a simple project and would be great if you are a beginner sewer and just looking for a fun little project. All straight lines and really no way to mess up.  And if you don't love the whole pillow idea just type your reasons up, print them out and frae them. That works to and is even easier then the pillow!!

I was bored...

So you know how your craft to do list is a mile long???? I see all of these ideas all of the time but I never find the time to try any of them. But not this time. The other night I actually stayed up a little late and played around. I bought this awesome old window from a yard sale last summer for $5.00 and it has been sitting in my basement. I thought of several ideas to use it for and just couldn't decide. Finally I just went for it and hung it on my wall. Then I decided to actually cross off something on my "crafts to try list" and  I made a paper wreath. I have seen these done all kinds of ways using book pages but, I was having a terrible time deciding on what book I would want to use. (I am really weird and I feel like things hanging on my wall have to have some kind of meaning. It's really frusterating because that means I have a horrible time buying art and I LOVE FUNKY art.) Anyways so I decided to skip the book and use sheet music of music that I just love and that means so much to our family. I love the way it turned out, but I need to figure something out to put in the middle, and I also need my husband to stop laughing at it and asking what on earth it is.(obviously he is not a blogger!! :) )

So I just rolled my pages up and hot glued them all together. Some of my music was very old and already colored and textured but some I used a brown ink pad and distressed the edges. I also had an old wreath that I had bought from the dollar store forever ago so I glued it all to that. Easy Peasy.

Modge Podge never gets old

One of my little family's new years resolutions is to read our Book of Mormon more regularly as a family.  I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we are counselled to read this book daily. I love it and it is something that I am very passionate about. I wasn't sure how to get my kids equally as excited. So for family night a couple of weeks ago we talked to our kids about our beliefs and about how the Book of Mormon came to us. Before hand I had hidden these books and at the end the kids had to go on a hunt to find their books. I thought they would like them, but I HAD no idea how much they would love them. Even my little three year old just lugs his around and has to show everyone. They now see this book by their bed every night and beg us to read to them. Not sure how long this will last but I am gonna love it while it does. 

I had seen these done for a girl's camp craft with little mini book of Mormons but I wanted the kids to have big sized ones and hard cover ones. For Max's I just modge podged scrapbook paper on and hot glued the red ric rack in for a book mark. Then I just printed off the label on my computer and inked the edges with an ink pad. For Madi's I actually painted the book!! yikes I hope that is ok. But I painted it and then modge podged some paper on and used stickers and ribbons to embellish. And I love them I love that they are personalized for my kids and that they are special for them. This can totally be done with any kind of book. Anything that you want to personalize, think their favorite stories, a song book, a journal, a drawing book, ANYTHING.

Garage Sale Chair

In July I bought this chair at a garage sale for $3.00. My original plan was to sand it and restain it a darker color and change out the fabric. It has just been sitting in my front room for months. The original fabric on it was so dirty and ugly. FINALLY this week I took the dang 10 minutes and switched out my fabric, I decided to keep the wood the same color and I really like the way it turned out. Not bad for $3.00!

give thanks center piece

This month for our little crafty get together with my ma and sisters, we took a tip from TIP JUNKIE and made these EASY fun "give thanks" center pieces!!!

Tip Junkies --->

This is a way easy cheap project. We cut circles from scrapbook paper, and then used sticker letters to spell out various sayings, such as give thanks, bounty, grattitude, gobble etc. You could really use whatever you wanted. My mom and one of my sisters even did sayings on both sides. The sticks are just painted wooden skewers like bbq skewers and the pumpkins were all free from an old patch! Turned out way cuter then I thought they would. I love having it on my table!

Recycle your sweaters!

I love the Fall!! I swear everyone becomes more crafty and inspired!! I just had to share these darling sweater vases! So cute! And so Easy!

Stephanie at under the table and dreaming

came up with these and has a tutorial for us too! Go check her out! I am getting pretty behind on my dang project list! I just keep running into ideas that are so darling! I need like a week alone with no kids and no responsibilities, just me  my glue gun, sewing machine, and some fabric!!

Monster rice bag tutorial

I was pretty Bored tonight so I decided to play with some felt! And I came up with a little monster rice bag for my little man to snuggle up in bed with. You know those rice bags that we all have and love, you pop them in the microwave and then they heat up your feet or heal your sore back. Last year for Christmas I made me and a bunch of my girlfriends some, now my little boy just loves it. So I decided I would make him his very own and one that was maybe a little more his style!

This project is way simple, and so fun because there is NO WRONG WAY! and any mess ups don't matter at all because it just adds character to the little guys.  

Step 1. This took the longest for me! Trying to decide the shape of his body! I ended up drawing this shape and you are more then welcome to print it if you want! But really look at it??? NO PERFECTION HERE! just draw some weird shape and you can make it into a monster body!  After you have decided on the shape cut two pieces of that shape out of the felt. I just layered my pieces and cut them at the exact same time.

STEP 2. Next use your other felt pieces and give the guy some personality. Do what ever you please!! One eye, no eye, hair etc.

Step 3. Sew all of your little pieces to the top part of your monster. I have seen this done hand sewn or by machine. I used black thread because I thought the contrast would be a little fun but I don't think I love it! I also tried a new stitch on my machine around the eye balls, again not sure if I love it but whatever, it was fun to try out.

I sewed my little claws up into the body so that when I turned the monster inside out they would stick out... Does that make sense? Look at the pic...

Step 4. Sew right sides together all the way around. I left an opening on his foot to pour in the rice you can leave your opening where you think will be easiest to sew back up or to hide the opening.

Step 5. For some weird reason I store my rice in 2 liter bottles so I already had a funnel shape for the rice stuffing, so you can pour in your rice however you want!! (make a paper funnel or something) But go ahead and fill that bad boy up!

Step 6. Sew up your opening, Plop the guy into the microwave and give him to your buddy to snuggle up to to keep warm! Depending on how big you make your monster depends on how long to keep it in the microwave. For my normal one I usually do 2 min but that was too long for this little guy, I'd say 1 min to 1 1/2 min is good.

I think this is a fun little boy gift idea, I might make them for my little man to give to all of his little buddies. This monster is kind of small, I think next time I will make a bigger one, but this would be great for pocket warmers and just a little warmer for bed! Have fun! Send me pics if you make one!

P.S. what about cute flowers or hearts for girls?? or Valentines gifts!

Free Prints for you!

The other day I was at the bus stop with my little girl. Me and the other mama got chatting and she was telling me about her sisters new etsy shop Couture Prints. (which is way way cheap! so you probably should check her out and do a little Christmas shopping!) Anyways my friend was saying how her sister designs different digital prints and then sells them on Etsy. So I went home checked out her shop and thought, Why am I not printing and framing my own prints of random sayings??? So I sat down and made a few, and it was way fun! I have a few saved and I thought what a fun Christmas gift to get printed and framed for a friend or a sister.

Fast forward to the other night, I was blog hopping around and I ran into THIS cute blog and found this SUPER cute Thanksgiving saying!! 

How cute is this??? LOVE it! if you go to her blog she has a PDF format saved for you and you can print your own!! Nice of her! Plus she has tons of other way cute ideas to check out to!

(I have something to admit...Did you know that I had no idea this was a poster from WWII??? Keep Calm and Carry On was a poster produced by the British government in 1939 during the beginning of World War II,  it was intended to raise the morale of the British public under the threat of invasion. It was little known and never used. It was rediscovered in 2000 and now printed all over, for decorations I have seen it in TJMAX, Ross, and tons of etsy shops! Kind of interesting huh? Now that I know the history I like it even much more! )

Anyways! So my question is what kind of creative computer programs do you use to scrap book, edit etc??? I WISH I had photo shop but I don't, and even if I did, I am not sure I have the brains to figure that baby out!!! SO I use Scrapbook Factory Deluxe. I bought it for ten bucks a couple of years ago and I LOVE it! I use it for everything. Invitations, cards, name tags, paper dolls, crafts, all kinds of things. In fact after I saw miss craftily Ever afters print, and even though she was giving it to us for free fifty free, I still wanted to try one out and see how close I could get...

Pretty close, but I am loving her turkey way better!

So what do you use??? 

Is there some awesome program out there that I am totally missing out on?

When I saw how awesome Jessica was at CrafitlyEverAfter for giving us all free access to her art I decided I would add a PDF file of one of my own. I chose this one...

 because I think it takes courage to share your ideas and talents with everyone! It's scary putting yourself out there! So I am thinking this would be cute printed, matted, and framed as a little reminder to share what you got!!!

Thanks Jessica and Couture Prints for giving me a little inspiration!

Naggy Wife

First I need to add a little disclaimer: I AM WELL AWARE OF HOW MUCH CUTER THIS COULD BE! I mean really I could have added some more funky paper, maybe some ribbon, strings, or rick rack. I even thought about doing a little laminated square for it to be dry eraser but then I KNEW that we would just lose that blasted dry erase marker! (maybe I'll paint a chalk square) Ok now that I have that cleared up let me explain my little project...

Remember when you were first married and you hardly EVER nagged that cute hubby of yours??? And now that you are an actual grown adult it seems like you have like 5 things a day to nag your honey buns about. Well, I just get sick of always feeling like I'm an old NAG!! So we came up with a little  agreement where each Sunday I get to add three honey do's to this clip board. They can be whatever 3 things that I want and the rule is that by the next Sunday all three things HAVE to be done and then we start over! The clipboard hangs in our kitchen so it is his reminder rather then me and then he doesn't have to look at me like I am his constant reminder of all of the things that he has to do or isn't doing and instead he thinks of how hot I am and how he wants to just kiss me and buy me lots of pretty things!! It's a win win for both of us really! The only hard part is narrowing it down to only 3!!!

PS if you decide to make one and you make one waaay cuter then mine (which won't be hard!) send me pics I would love to see!

PSS I used a little clipboard rather then a large one that way it didn't take up so much space and wasn't as noticeable.

Last minute Easy baby spider costume

Hey Em!! Yep you are on my blog!! Is that ok?? I hope so. LOOK HOW CUTE this costume is!
Meet my sis in law! She is another awesome mommy always doing fun creative things
around her house and with her wardrobe. For our family Halloween party her and her
little boy showed up as a spider and web! It was DARLING!This afternoon I googled her costume
and found this awesome step by step tutorial. So if you still don't have a costume for your little tots there is still some time!!
Have fun!!!

Little Girly Shirt tutorial

I have been wanting to make my girls some shirts. I just kept putting it off and putting it off and then finally I pulled out my machine and googled little girl shirt tutorials. I came across THIS BLOG and this tutorial. An hour later I had two shirts made for my little meeza peeza! I love them they are so cute! Seriously if you are new to sewing you NEED to try this project! It is soooooo simple! and it takes hardly any fabric. Both shirts that I made came straight from my stashes of fabric I have spread all over my house! I was thinking how cute these could be out of Halloween fabric! But maybe next year I am way too cheap to go buy Halloween fabric for only 10 days of use!!! Anyways hope you enjoy!

I can't catch my cutie in a moment in the other shirt when it is actually clean! Maybe next week!

Spooky finger bread

I know I know another recipe??? Sorry but I am in charge of bread sticks for our family halloween party this weekend. I was hoping to try something new and I found this awesome hand to go with my Mama's awesome chilli! How cute is this???? Love it! Go HERE for more awesome halloween bread recipes!


Servings:



Skills: Beginning


Prep Time: 8 min (not including thaw time)


Bake Time: 20-25 min


Ingredients


5 Rhodes Texas™ Rolls, thawed but still cold


1 egg, beaten


aluminum foil






Instructions


Shape 3 rolls into a wide oval. With scissors, cut a deep 3-inch slice down one side of the oval for the thumb. Cut 3 more slices to form fingers. These will not be as deep as the thumb slice. Pull the thumb down and away from the rest of the fingers. Place hand on sprayed baking sheet. Spread fingers apart and push an indention into the bottom of the palm.


Press knuckles into the fingers by using the end of a spoon to cut small half circles.






Press your fingertip deeply into the ends of the dough to make depressions for fingernails. Roll another roll into a long rope and cut off 2 small pieces for warts and 5 pieces cut on the diagonal for nails. Shape nails into long, flat tear drops and press them into the depressions. Shape the small pieces into round balls and press into the hand for warts, where desired.






Shape the remaining roll into a long flat rectangle for the wrist. Place it slightly under the hand.






Slash hand and wrist with a knife to add spooky cuts and stitches. Crinkle up aluminum foil to form a log shape. Drape fingers over the top of a small, oven-safe bowl sprayed with non-stick spray. Use the foil where needed for support. Brush hand with egg. Let rise 15 to 30 minutes. Just before baking, pinch the sides of the knuckles. Bake at 350°F 20-25 minutes. Check nails and warts during baking and reshape if necessary. Let hand cool completely before removing from dish and foil.

Cheap Ghost Decoration

I saw these cheese cloth ghosts tutorials floating around and had to blog about them. My ma, sisters, and I made these a couple of years ago! I LOVED THEM! Not only were they so simple but they were super cheap! Really the only thing you need to go buy is the cheese cloth. You can get that at any fabric store and probablly even Walmart. If you haven't ever seen these or try these you totally should. Even you "not crafty" girls! This is one that you won't mess up. Also after you make your ghost you will have extra cheese cloth lying sround for more decorations. I like to hang mine around the house and on windows and then add spiders for cute little spider webs! So click here for a step by step tute and let me know how it goes!