Scrappy Initial

Here is a very cute wall decoration I made for B. It was super cute, easy and pretty cheap to make, especially if you have extra material and some spare scrapbook embellishments around.

What you need is:
-1 hot glue gun (and about 1 glue stick for it)
-floral wire
-scraps of fabric in your choice of color cut to about 1/2 inch wide. For her whole name I used about 10 strips each about 1 yard long.
-wire cutters to trim excess floral wire
-embellishments. I used bright colored yarn, buttons, brads, flowers and made a butterfly out of printed card stock and a pipe cleaner.

1. Form the wire into desired shape. You can do an initial or full name or any word of you choice.
2. Hot glue one strip of fabric to the wire and begin wrapping the fabric around the wire. When you get to the end glue it to the wire and start again with next strip.
3. Embellish however you like. I use brads to go on flowers I had and stuck those on. I also used large square brads and a button. I used bright yarn scraps to wrap around the wire in some spots.


Get creative with it. Make a smaller one to jazz up a folder or scrapbook page. Have fun with it.

And now I have to give out props for the idea. Yes I hate to say it was not all mine. Being a crafter I believe in giving credit where credit is due so I am proud to say I stole this idea from Family Fun magazine who got the idea from Lauren Brandy author of http://www.goodygoody.typepad.com/ . Below is the article from the magazine.



I of course made a few changes and tweaked it a bit. I didn't wrap my wire in paper and did the full name instead of the first initial so feel free to make any changes you'd like. Maybe instead of writing the name out in cursive like I did you want to do each letter separately? It's all about being creative. I'm already thinking of how to change it up for the next one I do for D!

Happy New Year

Well 2010 is here and I am very excited.

Last year was rough. Particularly the last 6 months. Having dealt with being victims of a crime, the death of several family members, my mom being diagnosed with cancer, the hospitalization and surgeries for both my husband and baby and the on going care for the baby and all the bills that have piled up it has been hard.

But I am determined to enter this new year with a positive attitude and do my absolute best to leave the negativity behind me. I know this may be easier said then done but the purpose of a New Years Resolution is to resolve yourself to do something. Here is what I resolve:

I will do more for charity because I know that even when I have been at my lowest I still had many blessings. I also want to return the kindness and support people have given me through these tough times by paying it forward and being there for others.

I will appreciate every day more because I have found that you never know when you may leave this life and the worst thing to have is regrets.

I will dedicate myself to my business because my family needs me and I will not let them down.

I will tell my friends and family how much they mean to me every chance I get.

I will be happy. I will do my best to make others happy and I will instill the value of happiness in my children and those around me.

I will be the best wife, mother and person I can be.

It's 2010.... What will you do?
I wish you all lots of love and an amazing new year.

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.