GreenChicken31

Before and After

2012-03-01T10:41:00.000-08:00

We rent the house we live in and I find the lamp in the dinning room rather ugly (of course my husband thinks it is just fine). One day I was just browsing blog land and I saw a picture of the same lamp and the fix the person came up with and I knew I had to try it one day. So I did. I used some poster board I had and some scrap fabric and tape and really quickly put it up to see what it would look like. I think it is better, but I'm going to have to redo it. You can tell where the extra fabric folds over and the seam where the poster board overlaps. I didn't realize how much light was still going to show through. What do you think?

Tiny Juggler 2

2012-02-28T07:35:00.001-08:00

I allways have the hardest time picking what pictures to scrapbook. I finally limited to these two, though I do love the picture I have of Moose trying to eat the club, but the color of that one was off. Maybe I'll have to reprint it. I use some stitching to attatch the photos, which I had not done for a while. I'm so into that bright green right now. I see more green pages in the future.

Tiny Juggler

2012-02-27T07:28:00.001-08:00

I'm back to scrapbooking. I can't believe how small my little Moose use to be next to my juggling club. I used a lot of old scraps for this page. I made that yellow felt flower over two years ago. Crazy!

Peg Prince

2012-02-24T06:06:00.001-08:00

So I made some princes to go with the princesses I made at Christmas time for my niece's birthday. I only had four peg men body's so I had to be picky. Of course I had to make her favorite, Shrek. I couldn't resist making the Beast. I thought about making his human form, but I wanted the challenge of making him in the Beast form. Did you know his name is Adam? Just doesn't have the same ring as Beast. Anyways, I love how he turned out. He makes me smile every time I look at him. I had to make prince Charming (I figured he could also pass for Eric with the black hair) and then I decided to do prince Phillip because I thought he would be the most generic looking prince and could pass for prince Ferdinand or Flynn, even though Flynn has a little bit of facial hair.

Making My Own Embellishments

2012-02-20T09:51:00.000-08:00

It's funny, no matter how many embellishments I have, it all ways seems that I never have what I'm looking for. I love this page and it took a lot of cutting.

I made these cute flags with some toothpicks.

This little streamer of flags is my new go to idea to use up some scrap papers and some scrap sewing floss.

Scrapbooking Little Toes

2012-02-19T11:45:00.000-08:00

I played around with my photos for a while. I really wanted three pictures on this page, but in the end it is two with a pull out. I do think interactive pages are fun, they just take more work sometimes.

Moose's Valentine

2012-02-18T06:42:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to share Moose's Valentine that she made for her daddy. I just love foam shapes. Such a simple and mess free project.

Flower Box and a Layed Back Tutorial

2012-02-09T06:25:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to make a flower box for Moose a long time. Well I was at Target and in the dollar section they had a bunch of these flowers and I knew I had to get them for the flower box I was dreaming of. Now I kept putting off making the box because I had planed to make the box out of wood and that meant I needed a saw...and I just kept holding off on buying one. Then it hit me one day, I have three flower boxes in our garage that we no longer use. So I cleaned the box out and started my project.

What you need:

1. An old flower box, or something you could make one out of

2. Some foam (and something to cut it with)

3. Some brown fabric

4. Hot glue

5. Things to plant in the box (I've also made some carrots in case Moose gets sick of the flowers)

Steps:

1. First I cut the foam into three pieces. Now I did it with scissors because I don't have an electric knife, but I just found out that a bread knife works well and I do have one of those. Oh well. I eyeballed the entire thing, and if they come out jagged and uneven it really isn't the end of the world. Is dirt ever even? Nope. The size you cut will depend on how big your container is.

2. Cut your fabric. I had some brown fabric laying around so I used that. Some pieces were a little smaller then I would of liked, but using scraps is awesome. Your really just need it to cover the top and a little bit on the sides. Now I did iron my fabric, but after I took this picture.

3. Hot glue it down. Turns out it is really hart to take a picture while hot gluing.

I folded my edges like I do when I'm wrapping presents.

4. Hot glue them down into your container. If you don't, curious minds might take them out and whack anything they can find with them.

5. Plant your flowers or veggies and enjoy!

I do plan on making cute garden signs and pretend seed packets, but I'll save that for sometime in the future.

Scrapbooking My Little Snuggle Bunny

2012-02-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

Well so far I've kept up with the journaling on my pages. I know Moose will appreciated all these pages when she is older. She all ready likes to look at them. I can't wait till she can help make pages with me. I give her a glue stick and some paper, but she ignored the paper and just walked around rubbing the closed stick over her stuff animals, furniture, and anything else that wasn't paper. Maybe she will get it in a few more months.

Finding Time to Scrapbook

2012-02-07T09:55:00.000-08:00

It's been way to long since I've done any scrapbooking. I think I haven't done any since thanksgiving. Well I have a lot to do... I have so many pictures of my little Moose that need to be done. Well I do like how this page turned out. It's a simple page, but it has a lot of something I tend to avoid...journaling. I wrote all along the edge a song I used to sing a lot to Moose (and still do when she has a bad night). For me this just might be one of the most personal pages I've made yet.

Valentine Tree

2012-02-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

I originally envisioned a beautiful white vase with tree branches and hearts hanging off of it, but then I found a wooden tree at one of my local crafty stores. At first I painted it white, but my white paint stinks and I hated how it looked so then I went with pink. I tried to go with a gradient, but the paint didn't go on as well as I would have liked, and I wish I had just gone with watercolor to start with. That's what I did with the hearts. Maybe I'll find that vase and branches next year, but for this year this will have to do.

Fun with Hearts

2012-02-03T06:27:00.000-08:00

I always feel like our home is so empty once the Christmas decorations all come down. My Valentines decorations are very limited, so I decided to make some felt hearts...a LOT of hearts.

Some of the hearts I put on sticks. They look great in a jar and make wonderful wands. You can NEVER have to many wands.

Some of the hearts I put into a big vase, but they did not stay in for very long.

They look so beautiful laying out on the floor. I would love to put them in a big frame and hang them just like this.

Or like this.

Of course they look wonderful just laying in a big pile ready to trip anybody that walks by.

What's Important to a four year old

2012-01-31T10:17:00.000-08:00

"Auntie Kia, they don't have smiles!"

And now they do....and enjoying smores too!

Peg Princess Aurora

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

It was just a few years ago that I actually watched Sleeping Beauty. I don't know why, but it was never one that I watched.

I wish I had some cool color changing paint and could make her dress blue and green too.

Peg Princess Rapunzel

2012-01-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair!

I decided to add a bunch of little flowers to her hair, because I love when she has her hair in that big fat braid during the celebration.

Peg Princess Ariel

2012-01-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

Ariel is just waiting to be human. I was thinking about making her one of her human form dresses, but I always loved the fact that she was a mermaid (The movie originally came out when I was 5, so I was kind of obsessed.). She just came out simpler then I wanted. I guess she doesn't live up to my five year old self's standards.

Maybe I'll just have to make another in human form...

Peg Princess Snow White

2012-01-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

I'm wishing for the one I love, to find him someday...

Snow White is just so cute with that little wishing well!

Peg Princess Belle

2012-01-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

Belle is out and waiting for Beast to join her in the courtyard. I totally need to make a peg Beast now...oh I'm envisioning something so funny!

I'm not in love with how the back of how her hair turned out, but it will do.

Peg Princess Cinderella

2012-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Cinderella has just been transformed by the fairy godmother and doesn't she look stunning!

That hairdo just cracks me up!

Peg Princess Fiona

2012-01-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

Here is Peg Princess Fiona! Fiona is my niece's favorite and you just don't find many dolls and toys with her in ogre form.

I'm just in love with the little green ears!

Box O' Princesses

2012-01-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

I made two of these really cute boxes filled with fun peg princesses for my nieces. I've been seeing them all over the Internet lately and I knew I had to make them. They were fun to make, but I did have to make them in a time crunch and that was interesting. I decided that I'll revile a princess everyday that I made. My main inspiration was from here. You can get the cute backgrounds at Stephannie's website. I would have loved to make my own backgrounds, but I was just too sick and ran out of time.

Monkey and Alligator Glove Puppets

2012-01-13T10:33:00.000-08:00

It's Friday the 13th and I've saved the best for last. This one has two poems! You can just use the monkeys for 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed, or you can also use the alligator and do 5 little monkeys swinging in the tree! Monkeys all ways seem to be getting into trouble! The tongues on some of them is great! I just love how my sister-in-law made the alligator, even though he looks a little like a dragon.

Pumpkin Glove Puppet

2012-01-12T10:29:00.000-08:00

Here is day 4, 5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate. This one will be great for Halloween.

Duck Glove Puppet

2012-01-11T10:27:00.000-08:00

Here is day 3 of the glove puppets, 5 little ducks! This one just might be my favorite because I just love the momma duck! Little Moose loves to try and put the momma duck on her hand and have her talk.

Frog Glove Puppet

2012-01-10T10:24:00.000-08:00

Here is day 2 of my sister-in-law's glove puppet creations, 5 green and speckled frogs! I just heart their googly eyes .

Fish Finger Glove Puppet

2012-01-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

I just love being back east and being with all of my family for Christmas, but I don't like the travel and I really don't like the germs. We managed to bring back with us some lovely east coast germs. Little Moose took it the hardest and still is a little bit sick. Anyways, I finally got the chance to get back onto my computer and I just have to share with you what my sister-in-law made for us. There are a bunch so I'll share one every day this week!

I love the bright colors of the fishes! Each glove puppet came with a poem. They are just to cute!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T21:05:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Happy Crayons

2011-12-15T13:20:00.000-08:00

If you haven't tried making your own crayons from old crayon scraps yet, I totally suggest you make them. They make wonderful little Christmas gifts, especially if you don't have a lot of spare $.

Directions:

1. Find some sad old crayons that could use some loving...

2. Break them into little bits and put them in a cupcake molds or a an ice cube tray if it can stand up to heat. There are so many cute ones out there now.

3. Preheat your oven to 225 F and put them in for 15-17 minutes. It's fun to watch them melt...

4. Take them out of the oven and let them cool for a while.

5. Pop them out and wrap them up in some creative fashion and give!

Not all of mine came out of the mold successfully...so I just let them melt again and tried to pop them out a bit more carefully.

Toddlers and Snowmen

2011-12-13T14:56:00.000-08:00

I had Moose's playgroup friends over to make the snowmen and boy were they a hit!

Some were more interested in making them then others. =)

But I just love how they all came out!

Snowman on a dime

2011-12-06T12:07:00.000-08:00

Here is Moose's snowman...or snowlady? Since she is just 15months, I had to keep it simple for her, so she just finger painted the eyes and nose and watched mommy do all the rest. We are making them for when her play friends come over, which I thought was today, but turns out is next Tuesday, ops!

They are super easy to make and here is how.

What you need:

Paper Tube

Pipe cleaners

Felt

Pompoms

Paint

Directions:

1. Cute your tube to desired height

2. Paint it white and let it dry

3. Make a cute hat for your snowman while he dries

4. Punch some a hole on each side for the pipe cleaner arms and stick them in (you can let your little one stick the pipe cleaner in if they have the coordination for it)

5. Let them paint some eyes, nose, maybe some buttons, or a little scrap felt for a scarf

6. Let dry and enjoy!

Bunch of Hats

2011-12-04T13:07:00.000-08:00

I'm making a bunch of tiny hats. Lots of them.

These cute little hats are for Moose's playgroup. We are going to be making the cutest little snowman on Tuesday and I can't wait to see how they will turn out!

I still don't have a clue were my scanner's power cord is...so I took a picture of my templates for the hats in case you want to make some too. To give a sense of scale, the bottom of the two pointed hat should be about 3 1/4 inches.

My last minute turkey napkin rings

2011-11-25T22:49:00.000-08:00

So while I was up late making some mini apple pies in my cupcake pan (they turned out marvelous by the way), I made these cute napkin rings.

The napkin rings started out because I had these cute foam shapes and I got them all for 88 cents! Even after our 10% tax it was still less then a dollar. Yay!

I knew I had to make something with them. So I finished up a paper towel roll and cut them into lots of rings.

Then I painted them some lovely fall colors. I think I did three coats.

Then all I had to do was stick the foam turkeys on and they were the sticker kind so I didn't have to use my hot glue gun.

I just love happy napkin rings, especially when they cost me less then a dollar to make them all.

I hope everyone had a very happy thanksgiving!

Fall Leaf Banner

2011-11-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

This is a quick and simple leaf banner that is great for keeping your fireplace decorated till thanksgiving and it is super simple to make.

All you need is some felt, ribbon, and some embroidery floss.

I cut out a bunch of of acorns, maple leaves, and oak leaves (remember you need 2 each for front and back!). I wanted to put up my template but I have no idea where my scanner's power cord is. If your backyard is filled with oaks and maples then just grab some fallen leaves and trace them...or look for leave images online and uses them as templates. Just making a bunch like this and spreading them out on a thanksgiving table would look awesome.

Now I just sewed the backs on with my sewing machine.

Now you can embroider the front for some details on the leaves or keep them simple. Then sew them to the backs or glue if you are in a time pinch.

I just love the oak leaves.

Then hang them up!

Enjoy!

Hand Print Turkeys

2011-11-15T08:34:00.000-08:00

I could just be crazy, but I had little Moose's playgroup over and I thought it would be fun to make crafts with a bunch of young toddlers.

This is a simple craft, but it can get messy with the finger paint.

What you need:

white paper

brown paper

a little bit of orange paper

finger paint

scissors

googly eyes or a some other creative things for eyes

glue

Steps:

1. Now you can do these one of two ways. You can take your toddler's hand and cover it in paint and press it on the paper to make a hand print, or you can let them go crazy and just paint away on a piece of paper and then trace your toddlers hand and cut it out when it has dried.

2. Cut a big brown circle for the body and cut a smaller brown circle for the head and glue them on.

3. Cut out a little orange triangle for the beak and some feet and glue them on.

4. Pick out some stylish eyes for your little turkey and stick them on and you're done!

For my playgroup, I went and made all the turkey bodies ahead of time. With so many toddlers running around I wanted to make it as simple as possible.

The mommies thought I was crazy to have white chairs...

Enjoy!

Quick Whimsical Pillows

2011-11-14T08:05:00.000-08:00

In a week I'm expecting our nice new couch to arrive. I can't wait for it come, because I hate the couches that we currently have, but they were free so I can't hate them too much. Our current couches are much too country plaid for my tastes, and what is coming is black and modern. Anyways, I made these pillows because I think they will make for a fun and whimsical addition to our couch. It also gave me a chance to practice sewing zippers in, which I apparently stink at.

Little Moose is having a blast with them. She doesn't mind the imperfections at all.

1st Birthday Card

2011-11-06T22:31:00.000-08:00

So my little Moose is all ready getting invited to birthday parties, crazy! I didn't have to much time to come up with this card so I had to keep it simple, but it did give me a chance to play with my new Copic markers. Yay!

What little one year old boy wouldn't want to open this? Poor sock monkey looks like he is being strangled, oh well!

Photo Wall

2011-11-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

It took me a while, but I finally finished putting up my photo wall. I've been wanting to do this for so long, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. It always looks great when I lay it on the floor, but everything gets off when I hang it up. So for a week or two I had newspaper rectangles on the wall, which made for an interesting conversation starter when I had little Moose's playgroup over. Then I found the 3M photo hanging strips and boy did that help me. I never have had any luck when nailing a nail in the wall. My nails would always be a bit high or a bit low and same thing when I used the hooks, but now I could just stick the picture on the wall and it stuck right where I wanted it. I don't know why I never had seen them before.

The last piece that made it up was this photo box that now has the origami cranes in it. For the longest time I couldn't decide what was to go here.

I love making origami cranes, I could make them in my sleep.

I tried to mix it up with more then just photos. I have a special cross stitch that my friend made for me, my Moose's hand print, an initial (even though O isn't the most exciting of letters), and the shadow box of origami cranes. I used a lot of the frames that I have had for a long time and some didn't make the cut, and that's the hardest part of doing a photo wall.

Halloween Paper Flag Banner

2011-10-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

The night before my little Moose's Halloween party I decided that I needed some more Halloween decorations. So I looked through my scrapbooking paper and made some flags and cut out some bats out of paper. I would post my template up, but I can't seem find my cord to my scanner...oh the joys of moving. I do hope to make this again with some felt so that I can have a more durable flag banner that I can use year after year.

But this year they will just have to do!

Doesn't it look cute on that wall?

Graham Cracker Owl Crafts

2011-10-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

So somehow I ended up hosting a Halloween party for little Moose's friends and I ended up making these graham cracker owls.

They are so easy to make. Just stick two marshmallows on your gramcraker square and stick it in the microwave for 8-12 seconds. For me 11 seconds was perfect.

Then really quickly stick a chocolate chip in each eye and a candy corn for the nose and your little owl is complete. Now doesn't he look yummy! You could always add some cheese wings or something along those lines too. These make for a simple last minute snack.

Little Moose didn't realize they were edible.

Ya, she mostly just played with it.

Tasty marshmallow...

Halloween Foot Ghost Craft

2011-10-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm always trying to find crafty things I can do with my little Moose and finding things you can do with a baby or young toddler is almost impossible. Luckily this one was simple enough we could make six! The grandparents were thrilled when these came in their mailboxes.

Quilt like page

2011-10-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

This is the companion page to the other page I did the other day. It reminds me a lot like a quilt. I have so many little scraps of paper and embellishments and this kind of layout lets me use them up. I hate being wasteful. I've never really been one for much journaling on pages. I've always liked to let the pictures speak for themselves. While there isn't a lot of words on the page, the one word I put on it sums everything I wanted to say. And I've just been dying to use that little pink elephant!

Getting back to scrapbooking

2011-10-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

I wish I had more time to scrapbook, as I should have made this page a year ago! Oh well, I'll just have to scrapbook away! The benefit to waiting a year is that I'm much better at editing what photos to scrap. I'm printing off a lot less and that makes for a happy wallet. Since my time to scrapbook is limited to when Moose is sleeping (and only on days when laundry, vacuuming, and whatnot doesn't have to get done during that time), I have to force myself to keep them simple or they would never get done!

Updating Old Artwork

2011-09-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

This cute little water color used to hang in our bathroom back when we lived in an apartment, but it no longer matches our bathroom since we moved. Both bathrooms in our house actually feature real stone and have nice neutral color scheme. This picture matched my brightly colored shower curtain and helped hide the cheap and very white apartment bathroom, but now it would clash soooooo bad with the marble, so it is time to put this little frame to better use.

Back on Valentines day I made this little hand print of my Moose's hand and never did anything with it. I found some scrapbook paper and placed it in the frame. It isn't anything earth shattering, but it will go great in our family room once I finish painting it.

Moving

2011-09-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

It seams like it came out of nowhere, but we just moved. We didn't move far, but the move was kind of last minute and that has made things hectic and stressful. I had less than a week to get everything packed. We moved from a small two bedroom apartment on the third floor (I was so sick of climbing all those steps) into a cute three bedroom ranch house with plenty of room for crafty projects. So now I don't have a clue where any of my crafting supplies are and I really want to scrapbook and make some fall decorations that I have in my head that is just waiting to be made. I guess I'll just have to wait.

Beads Beads Everywhere

2011-08-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

So I have been working away at making this cute little doll...well the doll isn't as little as I thought she was going to be. I thought I would take the easy route as she comes from a kit from Feltworks. The kit is for 8+, so I thought it would be an easy quick project since I am way past being eight. Now in some ways she was easy, but in other ways not so much. I definitely don't know any eight year olds that could happily make this. At times matching up the felt was a little tricky with all the pre-punched holes and I'm still not all that positive I like all the holes. It was especially tricky when I had to do the but/legs part. I'm positive they messed up the instructions or forgot to punch some holes because that part I totally had to improvise on. The other part that ended up being way more difficult then it should have been was all those stupid little seed beads. I'm not sure why they have to go inside her, because they don't add that much extra weight or help her sit at all. I do know that they are a pain. I thought I could just poor them in, but whey I tried that they got stuck and next thing I know they were all over the floor, hundreds of them! I spent forever picking them off the floor and I still keep finding them hidden in the carpet. I'm also not a fan of how the crown attaches because it doesn't stay at all. At least she came out cute!

As you can see, the doll is fairly big compared to my little moose and my little moose isn't so little anymore. Sniffles, she is going to be one in just a few days!

Scrapbook Challenge Day 25

2011-06-25T06:33:00.000-07:00

I finished the other side of the layout. I had to keep it simple, I am totally get sick. Yuck! At least it has a nice clean look to it.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 24

2011-06-24T06:30:00.000-07:00

I cringe at having to post my unfinished page. It is part of a two page spread and I just don't have the energy to finish it today. Turns out my little Moose has been grumpy because she has an ear infection. She constantly wants to cling to me and that doesn't go well for scrapbooking. I hope she will feel better soon. I wouldn't mind a solid chunk of sleep because I think I feel a cold coming on.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 23

2011-06-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

It's another page for the boys. I knew what I wanted to do with the layout, but I had the hardest time making it work. I blame it on the lack of manly embellishments I had. Plus, my little moose is getting sick or she is teething really bad, so the major lack of sleep is starting to get to me. I don't have the energy to make many embellishments.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 22

2011-06-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

I finally got to make a page for the boys. I had to make most of the embellishments. I don't have many manly ones. I'm loving the huge blue button!

Scrapbook Challenge Day 21

2011-06-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

This page has a vintage feel to me. I don't know if it is the orange and blue paper or my fake Polaroids. The idea for this page all came from the little camera sticker I had. I had to make the big glittery letters too so they matched the little sticker letters I had. I love my glitter but it does get messy! I wanted the photos to look like they fell down onto the paper and I think they ended up getting a little more organized looking when I glued them down, oh well I still like it.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 20

2011-06-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

This one came out simple looking, but it took me a while to make. I had some scrap fabric that I used for the orange and blue ribbon. I think making that is why it took me so long. My sewing machine is hidden away and it takes a while to get out, then I have to clear some space to sew, then pack it all up...it just takes way to much effort sometimes. I can't wait for the day when I have a dedicated craft room or even space. I'm tired of having to scrapbook on my kitchen table.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 19

2011-06-19T06:04:00.000-07:00

I think I might have gone a little overboard with the embellishments on this one...but I love the title! These are some of my favorite pictures, but they were a little tricky to scrapbook. It took me forever to come up with this layout. I knew I wanted to use the dress paper; I've had it for a really long time. I also had some cute buttons that I wanted to use also. I think that is why I used so many embellishments.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 18

2011-06-18T05:52:00.000-07:00

You know what they say, those that juggle together stick together!

Scrapbook Challenge Day 17

2011-06-17T06:45:00.000-07:00

This is such a happy page and brings back such joyful feelings. It was so much fun to juggle in a wedding dress. I was a bit hesitant to put the Sharpe marker boarder around my photo, but it looks so fun. The color scheme worked out so well and I did something I have a hard time doing...not grouping my embellishments in odd numbers.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 16

2011-06-16T06:38:00.000-07:00

This page will go on the opposite side of yesterdays very yellow page. They look really nice next to eachother. I realized I didn't have very many yellow embellishments at all. The little yellow flowers are actually little yellow hair clips. I even had a hard time finding yellow stickers, that's why there is just a little yellow owl.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 15

2011-06-15T06:30:00.000-07:00

This page is so happy and yellow, but it didn't photograph as bright as it really is. I even tried edditing it, but it still doesn't look like how it really is. I tried to keep it simple. I think I tend to go a little overboard with the embelishment.

I used some yellow ribbon I had left over from an old project.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 14

2011-06-14T06:18:00.000-07:00

This page makes me laugh. I like how it turned out, but the circle reminds me of a zodiac wheel. I debated a bit about putting a big title on it, but opted for just a little one.

I did a little bit of hand stitching on this page. I think I might be addicted to had stitching. I just love the texture it adds.

I have had that big polkadot button for a long time just waiting for the right page to use it on.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 13

2011-06-13T06:17:00.000-07:00

Two years ago from today I married my love! What better way to celebrate then to make the page with the kiss! This is one of my favorite photos and I didn't want to make the page too overwhelming.

I love the little bride and groom outfit charms.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 12

2011-06-12T05:57:00.000-07:00

It's another two page day! I really like how the rounded edges on this page turned out.

I had just the right embellishments for this page too!

The second page is kind of simple, but sometimes I just like to let the photos speak for themselves.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 11

2011-06-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

I made the second page of the rings today. I had to show how I had a hard time getting the ring off the pillow too!

Scrapbook Challenge Day 10

2011-06-10T06:43:00.000-07:00

I am still on the glitter kick and had to add more glitter to my page. It was fun to crop the photos so I could show how my husband couldn't get the ring off of the pillow. I just wish I had a close up photo with the rings on the pillow.

I found this cute little ring charm to add to this page. The sparkle it adds is perfect.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 9

2011-06-09T06:38:00.000-07:00

Another two pages done and I like these a lot better even though the one page is so simple! I guess I just needed to go to the other side of the color wheel to get my juices flowing again. On my Vows page I added glitter to my embellishments. I had lots of fun with it. I need to use glitter more often.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 8

2011-06-08T06:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I was able to make two more pages, but I think all this scrapbooking is starting to get to me because I'm not in love with these two pages. Mostly it is the color paper that I'm not a huge fan of, but I was trying to do something other than pink. I like my wedding color, but I don't want to go overboard with it.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 7

2011-06-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

This was a two page day! For the first page I tried to mimic the back of my dress on this page to add some interest to this page.

I just love these photos where my husband leads me up the stairs. I had the perfect vellum quote piece for this page too!

Scrapbook Challenge Day 6

2011-06-06T06:37:00.000-07:00

It's a simple page, but I have lots of pages to make!

Scrapbook Challenge Day 5

2011-06-05T06:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not in love with this page, but I had the hardest of times finding photos for this page. I forgot to tell my bridesmaids to smile so most of their photos are very serious. This is especially true for my ring bearer and flower girl! Every single photo of them is so serious, but they did behave extremely well. My sister must have told them they wouldn't be able to have any cake if they didn't behave. I don't have a single smiling photo of them till the reception!

Scrapbook Challenge Day 4

2011-06-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

This just might be my favorite scrapbook page I ever made. I have played hand bells for a very long time and was lucky enough to have the hand bell group I played in play at my wedding.

The little tab pulls out to show more bell photos.

I wish I could have played with them, but it would have been a little tricky running back there in my dress! I had them play a toll at the end when we kissed too. It was a very Cinderella moment!

I didn't have any musical embellishments, so I made my own with some wire I had. It was a bit tricky to glue them down, but I got it to work after a few hours of drying.

I even was able to sew some jingle bells onto the page so it actually makes music!

Scrapbook Challenge Day 3

2011-06-03T06:09:00.000-07:00

It is the little things that helped my wedding day so special. I wanted a page to help me remember some of the little things like my anti pew bow flower alternative. I made a little mini book to go with this so I wouldn't have to overwhelm the page with photos, but I forgot to take a photo till after I put it in the sleeve.

Scrapbook Challenge Day 2

2011-06-02T06:03:00.000-07:00

Whenever possible I love to make my pages interactive in some kind of way. I was able to make a pocket to hold one of my wedding programs. I just love these photos of my brother-in-laws. I had no idea that they had sunglasses on until I got my pictures back from the photographer!

30 Day Scrapbook Challenge

2011-06-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

I realized that June marks my 2nd anniversary and my wedding scrapbook is nowhere near finished! So I decided that I will scrapbook a page every day and hopefully get a bit closer to being finished. Now I have a few pages that are done, but I have a lot more to go.

It is so hard to narrow down from all the photos I have, but it helps that only a few would crop well with this crazy layout. I'm happy that I could use both color and black and white photos on this page.

Never Ending Artwork

2011-05-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think I'll never finish this thing...at least I learned how to do a French Knot

E-book Cozy

2011-05-02T16:32:00.000-07:00

I just got a nook and the first thing I did was to make this little home for it. It is not perfect, but it is very cute and holding up to little Moose's curiosity.

Peep Earrings

2011-04-09T06:30:00.000-07:00

These just might be my new favorite earrings. They are just peep-a-licious and super easy and quick to make. All you need is some sculpty, two earring hook things (not the technical name), two eye screws (or you can make your own with some wire. I just have a bunch of them lying around), a little bit of paint, and some glaze (optional).

First you are going to make some itty bitty balls of clay in your desired color. The ball for the head should be about 6mm and the body should be about 8mm. My ball chart only goes down to 6mm so the two balls fort the ears are about 3 or 4 mm.

Lightly squish the head and body together.

Then light press down to flatten a little bit. Do the same for the ears.

I found it was easier to kind of score the parts a little bit. It looks a tad ugly at this stage, but once you smooth it out with you fingers they should look fine. This does take a little playing around with.

See, they come out just fine and dandy.

Insert the eye screw and bake and then put the earring hook on.

Paint little eyes and a nose on and then add some glaze and let dry for a bit. I had them hanging on a pencil over a pickle jar to dry.

Them put them on a cute peep shape board and they are ready to be put into the Easter basket!

Bunny Bookend Template

2011-04-07T11:59:00.000-07:00

It took me a little while, but I finally got the other bunny bookend done.

Now the books don't tumble over. Yay! Aren't they a cute addition to the room?

I'm not really into using patterns when I sew, but I needed two identical...well almost identical bookends so I had to make one, otherwise I know I would of had two very different bunnies. Now you can sew the bunny bottom together or you can use a scrap piece for the bottom so that it sits better (that's what I did). I did take step by step photos, but this is a simple enough project that I don't think they are really needed (and my little moose is sick so I don't have much time to post them).

Happy sewing and reading!

Bunny Bookend

2011-03-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

My little Moose is outgrowing her bookshelf. In order to make room for more books, I had to move some up to the top. The problem is that now I keep knocking over her books because the top shelf is right under the light switch. I needed a bookend!

Now I really like these bookends by Skip Hop, but they are a tad to expensive and they don't have any bunny ones. For a temporary solution I put a pack of wipes on the end, but that doesn't look to grand and I would like to be able to use the packages, so I came up with this little hoppy solution.

Isn't he just the cutest little bunny bookend!

What a silly bunny holding up books with his tale! Now he is a little smaller then I was planning, so I'll make the other bunny end a bit bigger and another fun color so that way they are not so matchy matchy.

Fiona Ears

2011-02-20T13:23:00.000-08:00

My niece is turning 3 in a few days and I had to make her something that I knew she would love. She loves to pretend that she is Fiona and that she is married to Shrek. Shrek even paints her green! Anyways, she has lots of princess dresses, but has no Fiona ears so I knew I had to make her some! I added the flower so that they were girlified...they couldn't just be Shrek ears!

Scrapbooking with Very 3D Objects

2011-02-16T18:17:00.000-08:00

I love to scrapbook and I like to have my pages in the plastic sleeves, but 3D objects don't work very well in them. Well, I was determined to come up with a solution so that I could put my baby girl's hat and id bracelet in her scrapbook.

First, I cut out a square where I wanted her hat to go out of some cardboard/fiberboard stuff. I also trimmed the top side and the right side a bit. I would say it was about 5 mm. I did this so when I slide this "thicker" sheet into the sleeve it has room. The thicker you make it, the more you have to trim off the sides.

Then on a second piece of board I cut out strips of card stock (out of a hideous hot pink I hate and never use) and glued them on. I ended up using 3 sheets of card stock.

I cut out 12 strips and glued them together for the thickness I wanted. I added 3 squares to make it more sturdy and actually added one more in the lower right after I took the picture. You could lay down 12 sheets and just cut out the squares, but that would waste a lot of paper.

Then glue the top layer on. Actually, you should cut out the squares on your top/cover paper first before you glue it down so you can make a nice hole. I forgot to do it, so it made it a bit more challenging.

So to hide the layering, take a beautiful piece of scrapbook paper and lay it in the hole...make it a little bigger so it can go up and over. Cut a small diagonal at the corners to help ya.

Press it down (I used a pencil to help) and it should look like this.

Then glue them down so it looks like this.

Here is a zoomed out shot.

Then take your top paper (that you hopefully remembered to cut the hole out of earlier before you glued the board on....unlike me) and glue it on.

Then place your object in. Now my hat did stick up a little bit, but when it is in the plastic sleeve it squishes down perfectly.

It sits just right!

Then add those wonderful embellishments and put it in the plastic sleeve and you're done! Now if only I could fit a blanket in there....hummmmmmm.

Valentine Banner

2011-02-05T15:56:00.000-08:00

This was a really easy and quick decoration once I made up my mind on what I was going to do. At first I was just going to make solid hearts, then I was going to do mostly light pink but with one dark pink, and then I decided to put on some of the candy conversation heart saying on every other one, and then I just put them on all of them.

What you need: some felt, a heart shape cookie cutter, scissors, ribbon, sewing floss, and a pen. First use your heart shape cookie cutter and trace a bunch of hearts onto the felt and then cut them out. You need to cut out two hearts for every heart you want. Then stitch some cute conversation heart sayings onto the top hearts. I did: Q T Pie, My Baby, Hugs, Be Mine, XOXO, Sweet, Kiss Me, Dream, and Love. I tried to stick to shorter ones because I didn't have much room on my hearts.

Then sew the bottom hearts onto the ribbon.

Then sew the top hearts with the sayings on them so the ribbon is sandwiched in between.

I just stitched around the outside, slowly going around and around.

Then they are ready to hang!

Don't they look cute on the fireplace!

Happy Valentines Day!

Valentine's Day Wreath

2011-01-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

Now that the Christmas decorations are down, it is time to make some Valentine's Day decorations to put up! I have seen some in the store, but it is much more fun to make your own. So here is how I made my sweet heart wreath.

First you need a hoop (the one I used had about a 7 in diameter), 7 big wooden hearts, 8 small wooden hearts, paint, glitter, ribbon, and some hot glue.

I took all my hearts and painted them a solid color and then went back over them and made some patterns or outlined them.

I thought they were looking a little boring so I went back and put some glitter on random ones.

Then I went around and hot glued the big ones and tried to make them as evenly spaced as possible.

Then I hot glued the smaller ones on top of the bigger hearts, tied some ribbon, and then hung on my door!

Little Boy Pee Shields

2011-01-21T00:02:00.000-08:00

I just found out that one of my very good friends is going to have a little boy, so I have started putting together a little package to send to her and I wanted something a little fun in it. A few months back I was talking with some older ladies at my church and one of them mentioned how she always buys anybody who is having a boy some pee pee teepees. Well, I thought they sound like they were a hoot and put it on my list of things to make someday. Well now I have a reason to make some little pee shields and you can make them too!

First you need some fabric and an old cd to help make your circles. Then go and make a bunch of circles. You will need two circles per shield. Make the inside circle fabric an absorbent one!

Next cut out a 1/4 piece in each of the circles so you have a Pac-Man...nom nom nom

Then sew around the outside. You can sew one side of the triangle part before turning inside out. I tried it both ways and it really didn't make a difference.

Then turn inside out and sew the two triangle sides together so the close.

And then it's done!

My baby girl was having fun with them even though they are sooooooo not for her! =)

Handmade Gifts

2011-01-13T00:17:00.000-08:00

There is nothing I like more then a handmade gift. I just love the ornaments that my husband's grandma makes for us (and other family members too) when there was something special that happened that year. This is the one we received this year.

I thought I would snap some quick photos of the ornaments of years past before I take down the tree.

Aren't they just the cutest!

Well I also have to add a box my husband's grandmas is making for our baby girls keepsakes. It almost is done, so hopefully next time we fly back we can bring it back with us.

I edited out our little girl's name for this blog, but it is painted in the center part.

It has little red pandas all over it, because my husband's grandma knows how much I just LOVE red pandas.

hehehehe the red panda is sleeping on the sides

Princess and the Pea

2010-12-22T14:38:00.000-08:00

I finally got all my princess and the pea play sets finished just in time for Christmas. Here is what one looks like all finished. The pillows would be a great project for a little one to sew, but I would leave the princess to somebody a little little older to try to make, even though she isn't too difficult to make.

3 Little Princesses

2010-11-27T00:25:00.000-08:00

I am slowly working on these 3 little cuties. It has taken me so much longer then I thought with the grandparents in town and thanksgiving festivities. I am making them for my nieces (each one altered to look like them). I got the tutorial for them here. I just love how simple they look. They totally remind me of Veggie Tales. =) I hope I can alter the design and make more uncommon fairy tale play sets.

One Very Hungry Caterpillar

2010-10-31T19:48:00.000-07:00

I made my first Halloween costume ever this year for my little girl. I was going to make a tutorial on how I made the hungry caterpillar, but I don't really know how to sew. I'm sure if anyone who does know how to sew saw how I made this, they might be horrified! Plus, this is the first time I have ever put in a zipper and I don't think I did it right...lol. Oh well, at least the zipper works.

One day this caterpillar will be a beautiful butterfly!

This picture is a little dark, but it was late at night and the only full body shot (well almost full body) that isn't all blurry (my hungry caterpillar is also a very wiggly one!).

Halloween Luminaries

2010-10-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

I had a major lack of Halloween decorations, so I started to make these cute luminaries. I have seen lots of variations on these guys, most are done with tissue paper, but I made mine using glitter on the inside.

So what you need is a glass jar (I like pickle jars), some mod podge, black craft paint, a paint brush, and some glitter.

So all you need to do is clean your glass jar and coat it in some mod podge. I suggest kind of speckling it on instead of coating up and down in strokes so you avoid a streaky look. Then just sprinkle lots of glitter on the inside and let it dry over night. You can see the orange one is almost dry and the purple one is just starting to dry. Once dry, you can paint some spooky faces on the outside. I just free handed them, but you could always cut them out of black paper and glue them on too.

Then add some lights on the inside and you are ready to go! Now I just need to finish the last jar of pickles to make a ghost one.

Birthday Cards

2010-10-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

It's my niece's 3rd birthday and nephew's 7th birthday this month, so I made these cards for them. The ice cream cone card is for my niece...three scoops for turning three! I had to make them real fast since my little girl is keeping me so busy, so the cards are really simple.

Finished Quilt

2010-09-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I never put a picture up of my finished quilt...ops. It is way big for my little girl now, but someday it will be just the right size for her. =)

Tissue Paper

2010-09-03T02:32:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I had received something that came in this really nice sparkly pink tissue paper. I saved the paper because it looked cool and I knew I would use it for something. Well, a few years have gone by and now I finally am using it. I got this nice frame for a picture of my baby girl that lets the picture look like it is floating, but the walls in my apartment are so bland in color so I had to do something. Then I remembered the tissue paper and thought I would try placing it between the layers of glass and I really like its crinkly look. I might just have to get more frames like this and try to find some more cool tissue paper.

My New Baby Girl

2010-08-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

I had my baby girl on 8-11-10. Isn't she just cute with my juggling clubs. Have to start her out early! She was way bigger then I thought she was going to be...9lbs and 2oz and 22 inches long. She doesn't even fit into some of the cute newborn outfits that I got. Now that I'm getting used to her being here, I hopefully will be able to get back to my crafts!

Dear Baby...

2010-08-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I will be induced and I'm so nervous! My little girl just doesn't want to come out, so I took the time today to write a little letter to our baby today and I'll put it in her scrapbook. It's a little sad to know that she isn't going to be in my belly anymore, but I got to have her in there a lot longer then a lot of mommies get to have them in their bellies. I also feel a little empty because I'm not feeling the last part of this pregnancy like I imagined it to be. I haven't experienced the contractions, the water breaking, and the excited rush to the hospital like I thought I would. I really hope everything will go really smoothly!

Making your own eggs

2010-08-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

As much as I love to make my clay eggs, I hate blowing out real eggs so I thought I would try making paper eggs. I started out with plastic Easter eggs. My first layer was mostly just water and paper with just a little glue so it wouldn't stick too much to the inside. Then once it dried I made a second layer with less water and more glue. I did more and more layers until I got the thickness I liked. I had tried covering the outside of the egg instead of the inside, but I couldn't get it as smooth as I wanted.

Once it is all dried it really is very easy to pop them out.

You can see that they aren't super smooth, but when you cover them with clay, you can't really tell.

I joined the halves together with some paper and lots of glue. I covered the whole egg with a layer of glue, let it dry, and then it was ready to cover with clay. When I baked it, I kept my eye on it, but never had any fires.

Benefits over blown out eggs:

1. It is much easier to get an eye hook into these paper eggs too then a blown out egg.

2. They don't break as easily

3. Great way to recycle scrap paper you have lying around.

Clay Eggs

2010-08-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

One thing I always loved to make are clay eggs. I think it is because they are so easy to make, even when you are nine months pregnant. =)

So you want to start off with a hollowed out egg. If you never have blown out an egg before it is easy. Just take a needle and poke it on one end then poke a larger hold on the other end. Then blown in the smaller hole really hard and the yoke should come out. You can make a paper egg and it will work too (I'll put up how to do that later). Once you have your egg and it is dry, then you cut think slices from your can and gently press onto the egg. If you press to hard your egg might break....this happened to me on my purple one. =( *sniffles*

Cover your egg and try to get the slices as close to each other as possible. This will let them distort less later. The smaller the cane the easier it is to do this, though I like the look of the bigger ones better. If you have gaps, fill them in with clay.

Then you want to roll it around in your and or on your surface and try to make sure everything is covered and you don't see any egg. The smoother you get it now, the less sanding you have to do later. Your cane might distort a bit at this stage.

Once it is all covered and you have smoothed it out, you want to insert your eye hook. It is much easier to add it in before you bake it. Actually, you can put the hook in first and then start adding the canes around it. This way you can use the hole where you blew out the egg. I just forget to do this all the time.

Then bake according to your clay's directions. I like to sand and then glaze to make it all nice and shiny, but I still have to do that part. Then you can add some string and hang them!

Clay Pens

2010-07-24T16:07:00.000-07:00

So a few posts back I showed how to make some canes and now it is time to put them to use. One of the easiest things is to make pens. I like to use the basic Bic pens.(that don't have any grips on them. Start by taking out the ink so you just have the shell. Then you will cut your can into nice thin slices and start to press them onto the pen gently.

Cover the entire pen! I like to start at the end and work towards the pen tip.

You might have to trim the extra off at the end.

Once it it all covered I like to gently roll it back and forth to make it smooth. The canes will distort a little bit. I recommend (if using sculpty or premo) to bake at 250 for 15 minutes. It is better to go a little cooler so your pen doesn't melt! Once it is done and cooled, you can sand it a little bit to make it a tad smoother. I like to use wet/dry sand paper at the highest I can find (usually that is 600). Once sanded, I use a glaze and cover the entire pen. It makes it nice and shiny and I think it helps from cracking over time. Then just put the ink back in and your done!.

I made the leaf pen a long time ago and have been able to change out the ink and use it over and over again. This can be a good project for young kids to do. A simpler option for them would be to have them cover the pen in one color clay and then have them wrap a long "snake" around the pen and then roll it smooth.

4th of July

2010-07-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July!

My mini fruit pizza wannabes

Simple Clay Canes

2010-07-02T22:28:00.000-07:00

So now that you know how to make that nice clay blend, it is time to get some canes going.

If you just take the blend and roll it up, you will get a cane that looks like this and it is cool, but we can make it cooler!

What you want to do is take a solid color and make it the same size as your blend or just a little longer.

I like to put the blend on top of the solid and then roll it up.

It is going to look like this. It is called a jelly roll cane. Then you are going to reduce it.

The end might start to look a little deformed and that is ok.

When you cut the end off it should look like these and now they are ready for a project!

Skinner Blend

2010-07-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

I've recently gotten back into my clay and I thought I would put up how to make a skinner blend (mostly because my hubby wanted to know how I did it).

So first take your two colors of clay (roll them into flat sheets or go through your pasta machine) and make them into triangles and joing them like this.

Once again blogger has decided to rotate my picture on me...gerrrr. Once it is through the pasta machine fold it one time. The blue edge went up to the long white edge.

This is what it looks like once it has gone through a 2-3 times. Make sure you keep folding it in the right direction.

Now it has gone through a dozen or so times

just keep folding and putting it through till you get the blend you want.

Now you are ready to create your project!

Fun Summer Popcan Bracelet

2010-06-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

Got to love recyclable crafts. I've been saving up a bunch of those pop can top tab things for a while because there is a lot you can do with them like make this cool bracelet and here is how.

What you need is 22 of these things and some elastic string and optional spray paint if you want more than just the silver look. Spray paint both sides and I suggest also a sealer of some kind so that they paint doesn't wear away so fast. I'm going to show you without spray paint.

Line up the tabs like this so that you will not have any sharp parts on your skin.

They are going to be lined up like this. 11 on the top and 11 on the bottom. If making for a kid, you might only need 9 or 10.

The tricky part is getting the weaving right. I start with the bottom and then do the top the same way.

The string will come back up through the top tab, but this picture show midway of the step.

It should look like this, but not so blurry. =)

Then just keep going all around.

You can see better on this one how all the tabs are done.

Just finish off with a knot or two and you are good to go!

Piggy Earrings

2010-06-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Flag Day! Ok, so one of my nieces is having her 9th birthday soon and I wanted to make her a little something along with some stuff I got for her so I made these cute little piggy earrings (she is really into pigs).

So to start I got some pink sculpty clay and made two little clay balls as equal size as possible and made them a little flat.

Then I put my earring studs into them and covered it up as best as I could. At first I was going to make dangle earrings, but decided that since she is still kinda young that non-dangles would be better.

Then I got two more little circles of clay and pressed them on to the bigger ones.

Then added a few triangles for ears and baked the clay.

Then I painted eyes and nose and glazed. As you can see the glazed one wasn't dry and had a big bubble when I took the picture.

Once they were dry I found some board I had, covered it in some scrapbook paper, punched some holes into it, and put the earrings in. I loved how this did not take too long.

Another Simple Bunny Artwork

2010-06-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun with the first bunny piece I had to make a second one.

First, I traced the bunny again.

Then I sewed a cute bunny face. I did three stitches for each eye and about six for the nose.

Then I just stitched around and put in another shadow box. Super easy and looks cute with the other one.

Simple Bunny Artwork

2010-06-11T16:55:00.000-07:00

I wanted some artwork for the baby's room, but I have been so tired lately that I know whatever I did it had to be simple and fast. My original plan was to use scrapbook paper, but it was too busy and I just couldn't find any paper that I liked (and that is amazing because I have way too much scrapbook paper). So I found some felt in my stash and decided that was what I was going to use.

First I traced my bunny shape on some felt and cut it out

Then I sewed around the bunny onto another piece of felt. I like to start at the ear so that I end more evenly.

I don't know why blogger is rotating this picture but next I glued on a cotton ball...well I didn't have the size I wanted so I used some batting I had glued that on.

Then I made a mat and put it into the shadow box I had and it is ready to hang.