Goo

Ok, so this came out of a magazine as a craft for kids, but who doesn't love goo? Sounds icky at first but squishing your fingers through this gunk will release your inner child. So get down and goopy!

Recommended ages: 4 and up

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water in large bowl
• food coloring
• 2 cups cornstarch

Steps:

1. Add a few drops of food coloring to water
2. Stir in 2 cups of cornstarch into the water

Easy but fun!

Mosaic Lantern Craft

This cute lantern is fun and easy to make. Plus this time of year you can adapt it to fit whatever holiday is approaching. Another great thing about this craft is you can use it as a lesson in recycling/repurposing since you may already have these supplies at home!


Recommended ages 6 and up.




















You will need:

• 1 mason jar (emptied pickle jars, or other glass jars are perfect. You can also purchase mason jars from Walmart or most craft stores)
• tissue paper of assorted colors (used tissue paper or crepe paper will work great)
• Elmer's Glue
• water
• paintbrush
• scissors
• bowl or shoebox lid (to mix glue and water)
• paper plate or newspaper to work on
• tea light
• wire if you plan to hang your lantern(18 gauge florist wire is what we used)

Steps:

1. Lay out your paper plate or newspaper.
2. Cut the tissue paper into randomly shaped small pieces and set aside
3. Mix equal parts glue and water in a bowl
4. With your paintbrush paint the glue onto your jar
5. Cover the jar with the cut tissue paper
6. You may have places where the tissue paper sticks up. If you want it to lay down just brush it with a little of the glue mixture and it will smooth out.
7. Allow to dry (usually takes about 30 minutes at most)
8. If you want to hang your lantern take your wire and cut enough to wrap around the top of the jar twice and wrap it around the top of the jar. Then take another length of wire (length will depend on how low you want the lantern to hang) and twist one side to the wire already wrapped on the jar and then do the same to the other. You can then twist the middle of the wire to make a loop of you would like.
9. Add your tea light. (To make sure the candle doesn't slip or slide you can add a little salt or sand.

Variations:


Halloween: Instead of a colorful mosaic you can cover your lantern in orange and with black felt cut out mouth and eyes for a jack-o-lantern for Halloween.
Christmas: Use holiday colors or cut out shapes or Christmas trees, ornaments, Santa, etc.
Form your name out of the tissue paper bits, or make a butterfly shape.
Use your imagination and see what you can come up with.


This craft makes cute gifts from the little ones.

Get creative

Part of why I started this blog (besides venting) is because I love crafts! I love everything about them. I love taking something and creating something new. I love learning new things and sharing ideas with others. Since I also hold classes and clubs for crafting I thought this would be a great way to share even more ideas and possibly be inspired by others.

Feel free to try anything I have listed here and tell me what you think.

And if you have any crafting questions you want to ask feel free to and if I can't answer you I will find an answer for you.

Cakes

I have always wanted to decorate cakes. So I took a class and I have found something I love, Here are a few pictures of what I have done:









Ok, I'm done showing off now.

Baby's first birthday is coming up

That's right. Man does the time fly. In less then 2 months my baby gir will be 1 year old!!! I know this will be the last 1st birthday I get to throw so I want to do something great. My husband already warned me not to spend too much (the last birthday party I threw came to over $3k) so I want to keep it cheap. Problem is my family is huge and what do you even do for a 1 year old?

I realize at this age the party is more for me then it is for her but I still want it to be something she can enjoy.

So now I have to brainstorm on what to do for a kid who won't even know what's going on.

Your Momma Said You Ugly

We have all seen them. Heck we may even have them whether we realize it or not. They can be found anywhere... they are ugly kids.

It only makes sense that they are out there, there are plenty of ugly adults.

Now of course beauty is on the inside and that is what matters and I know I am no prize so I don't hate on the fuglies of the world.

But today I saw one of the most unattractive kids I have ever seen running around. This little boy fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down and then was beaten with the ugly stick.

Please don't be mad at me. I can't help it. They were ugly! I felt bad for them but unfortunately the kid was with their sister who was so cute. It can't be easy having a sister who looks like a cover girl off of a parenting magazine!

The kicker... the boy was so polite and sweet. Such a well behaved young man. But with the rolls and bucked teeth and freckles the were black against his light skin and frizzy hair I found myself hoping on this kids behalf that he was just going though a severe awkward phase and it would pass.

The sister... well the phrase beauty is only skin deep was so true here. She was a brat. Screaming and whinny and just nasty. It's a good thing she's as cute as she is because that personality isn't gonna help her make friends.

Now seeing the mom with these two made me think of a question I have thought to myself several times and now I am going to pose it to you in a poll I hope you take part in.

Do parents know when their kid is ugly?

My cousin is ugly too and her dad says she is breathtaking. Seriously?

Many of you may think I am shallow but I am not really. I am realistic.

Hello

Well this isn't my first attempt at blogging but hopefully it will work out. It's not as easy as most people think. (But I will admit maybe it's just me.)

I guess I will just try to do this like I am talking to a friend. I guess I could use one too since I am new to staying at home and even though I have several friends I am lonely. Each of my friends are so very different from each other which is great since it makes them unique (I have a friend who I scrap with, one who I do mommy things with, etc.) but it is awkward since I don't have one that is there for everything.

This last weekend I went with my friend Kim on the Tampa Bay Scrapbook Treasure Hunt. It was a blast. We hit 12 stores in 3 days and we had sooo much fun doing it. Kim's friends Amanda and Tina tagged along. Amanda is a hoot and Tina is just as sweet as could be.

The Scrapbook Treasure Hunt is basically a two week event. You pay $10 to get a bag and passport. You then go to each store that is participating, spend $5.00 and get a tag, a make-n-take scrapbook page, and a passport stamp. If you get your passport filled then you turn it back in to enter a drawing. It's fun and we got really into it. We dressed up like pirates and it was great.

Now that it's over and I am back to my normal life. That means cleaning, diaper changes, the whole nine. It was a nice little vacation from the regular weekend. But I did miss the kids. Now I can't wait until next year to do it again. Maybe I will do my own mini hunt in 6 months.