fancy hair

A couple weeks ago my sister-in-law and I got together for a crafty girls night.  It ends up we did a lot more talking than crafting.  In fact, Conner was pretty disappointed in our lack of product.  It was funny.

We tried our hand at "boutique bows" and an Easter bunny clippie.  Guess what Abby's getting for her birthday?

The Easter bunny directions are here.

silhouette & pizza parts

I got a new toy for Christmas!  I've seen them all over blog land and decided (after MUCH deliberation) that I would rather have a Silhouette than a Cricut.  The selling point for me was the ability to make your own designs instead of buying the design cartridges.
I have used other people's Cricut machines, and have to say - I'm glad I made the decision I did.

I downloaded a few outlines of pizza ingredients, and let it do its thing!! {mushrooms, pepperoni, peppers, olives}

I set the kids loose with a glue stick and all the pieces.  {cheese is just little strips of white paper I cut by hand}  Then I added the YUM on top after.

Inside the card is a recipe that we're hoping some of friends will want to try! {phone number has been erased}

I'm looking forward to celebrating his 6th birthday with him!  We'll be making our own pizzas & cookies - should be a messy, fun time!

fashion design

I made 5 kits for Christmas presents this year.  Using my Sizzix BigKick dies I cut a bunch of foam and felt bodies, felt and paper outfits, foam hair and shoes.  I added a small bottle of craft glue, a big handful of sequins, a few googly eyes, ribbon and tulle scraps, stickers, and a few pearls.
Hopefully the girls enjoy their time making some fun dolls for themselves!

indian corn

I have a couple beaded Indian corns in my fall box (craft project from when I taught), and Conner wanted to try making his own.  We grabbed some beads, pipe cleaners, and corn husks from the uncle's farm.  When I taught I used raffia instead of corn husks and they turn out just as cute!

Thread the beads on the pipe cleaner.  Make sure to twist a little extra around the first one so they don't all slide off.

Take a few pieces of corn husk and twist them on top.  Then enjoy being a scarecrow or making silly faces at your mom!

sorting apples

We got busy with some Sculpey clay and made ourselves a bunch of mini-apples.  The red and yellow clay blocks were a lot harder than the green.  Not having had a lot of experience with Sculpey, I was a little disappointed!  It made it much more difficult to make the apples - that's why there's less yellow and red ones.  I mixed together red, yellow and green bits until I got a brown I liked for the stem.

We baked them.  I love the swirl one!!!

Then we sorted, counted, arranged, improved our math skills and played!

{Thanks Roots & Wings for the idea.}

fingerprints & animals

What did you get for Christmas? Here's one of my presents I'm really excited about - an Ed Emberley Fingerprint Drawing Book. I LOVE Ed Emberley, and asked my mom if she knew where my childhood book was. She couldn't find it, so she & my dad gifted me with a couple new books this Christmas. As you can see, Conner and I had a lot of fun with the fingerprint one during Abby's naptime creating a fish, a frog, a turtle, a parade of pink elephants, purple birds, and a couple flowers. So easy, and so fun using the stamp pads!!!

As we were flipping the pages after the animal ones, we saw some trains & cars. I drew the road with a black marker, and we added two cars (with exhaust trailing behind), a helicopter, clouds, a bird, sun, and he drew the building.If you're looking for a new artsy fun with kids book - check out Ed Emberley!!!! I consider myself to have a creative side, but not much artistic ability. I don't feel that my sketching skills are worth much. That makes Ed Emberley perfect for me! He breaks it down into easy steps and even the drawing-incompetent folks like me end up with cute pictures. I also have another one that uses basic shapes to make animals, etc. I'm excited to see how I can incorporate that into craft time - my own sewing - and some felt stuff for the kids.

soccer game

What do you do with a bag full of soccer players? Find them a field to play on of course!
Let them play - - -
And hope nobody gets a red card! (play by the rules please, guys.)
In case you want some details... here they are.
- The guys playing are Manchester United v. Chelsea
- Field is made out of a wooden tray painted green, field made out of green felt glued on, lines painted on with white fabric paint.
- Peg dolls painted as close to real uniforms as possible - 11 players on each team, and I actually looked up the roster online.

Yes, my brother is a BIG soccer fan. Now he can play soccer any time he wants - whether there's a game on or not! Merry Christmas, Matt!

{ I originally saw it on Crafty Crow - posted from A Bit of This & A Bit of That. I didn't do a goal post - and instead of storing the pieces in a box they go in a denim bag with soccer ribbon on it. I also didn't take the time to do faces & hair. Go check out hers though - so DARN cute! }

do you hear the sirens?

All I know is that I think I'm living in a fire station because I've got a fireman at my door and a dalmatian running in the yard!!!
I made the coat and pants. I tackled a collar and I don't love how it looks inside, but it turned out just fine for a costume. I bought some iron-on reflective tape and then reinforced it by stitching the edges. My husband tracked down a Fire Supply store and we got the hat, boots, and letters for our last name on the back of the jacket. The suspenders were actually my brother's when he was little - my mom had them in a box and they were perfect for this!
The air pack is a 2-liter bottle spray painted gray. I then hot-glued webbing straps to one side, added D-rings and tried it on for size. We realized it needed a little more so we looked up Scott Air Packs online. I enlarged the picture, printed it out, and Mod-Podged it on. That added a little shine to make it glossier, and made it look like a little more than just a spray painted bottle.
The dalmatian costume is a white sweatshirt & leggings (store-bought) with felt dots I sewed all over. The ears are white felt. I made sure to give her a cute little collar with a heart tag. She wore black patent leather shoes too - just because!Hope you had a Happy Halloween! I'm off to enjoy a little more chocolate...

dinner guests

Look what's joined us for dinner!
A ghost!And a spider!
They are hanging from the lamp above our table.

The inspiration came from here.

yarn pumpkins

I read about yarn apples here and figured that yarn pumpkins would be easy and fun too!

Quick & seasonal. A perfect activity for the pre-dinner time.

cupcakes, circles, and a party

72 mini cupcakes+24 regular cupcakes
+30 plates
=1 fabulous party!

The cupcakes were chocolate with chocolate buttercream, and funfetti with buttercream (birthday girl's request). They were all covered with nonpareils (large on the big cupcakes, small on the minis).

The plates were kind of a random idea. I saw this laundry line featured on Twig & Thistle. I knew my friend's 40th birthday party was coming up, and she's going with a bright circle/ circus/ fun fair kind of theme for it. So I was going to cut out a bunch of circles and make a garland to decorate with, and for guests to write her birthday wishes. But when I went to get the paper, the plates were sitting on top - and I got this crazy idea to get out a circular sponge & primary colored paints. This is what I came up with! If I had come up with the idea at a better time, I might have had my son help me with some of it. Instead, he spent his last hour before bedtime helping daddy dig up & wash carrots. I was on a deadline, so the painting fell to me. There are so many cute ways to make this work for your party theme or craft time!If I'd thought it through, I might not have brought permanent markers - but everybody was able to write something nice & the kids drew some illustrations. It was fine.It looked pretty fluttering in the breeze!

The birthday girl wanted to relive her youth, and she did that by getting out the "old favorites". She had Bozo Buckets, badminton, croquet, Bocce, Musical Chairs, the balloon stomp, and of course...

a water balloon toss...

the clothespin drop...

And car rides!

It was such a great celebration - her family and friends came together at her parent's house. We ate, chatted, made new friends, watched each other's children have all kinds of fun together, and enjoyed some fun "retro" music from her youth. (Yes, there might have been some singing along to ABBA!)

Happy Birthday, B! The kids loved it!

sunflowers

Rainy days always make us a little restless. We want sun, we want a change of activity, and this is what we did...
Color the paper plate yellow and run a glue stick around the edge a couple times.

I tore up some leftover yellow streamers into little yellow pieces. I put a bunch on Abby's to help her fill hers up. Conner made his own little strips and lined them up neatly around the edge.

Then it was time to get messy with the inkpad!

Fingerprints turned into seeds!! We then hung them up in the window that looks out over our sunflowers. It added a little something bright to our day. We can't wait for the actual sunflower to start bearing seeds. It has been fun watching it grow up taller and taller in the window, though!

happy birthday hubby

This is him with the kids at Magic Wings in Deerfield, MA (cool place by the way!) - a perfect picture in my book. He's such a great dad!!!
My son was convinced that we had to do something to "set-up" for his party tomorrow - a nice dinner with family is his party. So we tossed a bunch of craft stuff on the table and set to work. I told him, I don't care what you do - just DON'T write on the letters I already wrote.She was given the task of decorating the middle panel. That was enough for her. She was interested in adding a sticker later.
There were a LOT of stickers involved. Add some more crayons, markers, glitter glue, and we were good to go.
He picked out a red yarn I had sitting around, and up went the banner to surprise Daddy when he comes home from work. We also "had to" blow up some balloons. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that wasn't just for Daddy's benefit. haha.
His mom says he was born at 2:31 p.m. - hopefully that's when this post goes up.
Happy Birthday to you!!!

(Now I'm off to finish the cake!)

swap this

Dear Jen,
You said you like pink - orange and turquoise - and a little bit of green. I did what I could. Enjoy!
Do you think your daughter would like to draw a little something too?
I know she's a little young, but she'll want one just like her sister, right?
You live near Lake Michigan, right? Well, closer than I do for sure. I'm jealous! Enjoy the swimming this summer with your new toteable towel. And I hope your oldest daughter enjoys her new monogrammed pillowcase! (I forgot to take pictures of those things. oops.)

And last but not least... a little something special for your spring/ summer kitchen table - or the girl's room - or your room for that matter!
Hope you loved the package! I had fun thinking up these fun projects and expanding my color palette.
Fondly, your swap partner,
Beth

P.S. Crafty Mama - thanks for hooking us up!