Blooming Flowers Mothers Day Gift (Free Printable!)

Moms are softies.  They love things that probably shouldn't be kept and especially sentimental thank you's.  I have waaaay too many of them, and yet they continue to melt my heart.  This printable is made for kids to cut, color and gift their mommas should they need a last minute gift (it's ok.  If you're here printing one it means your a good giver).  The cool part is that you can print them out, color them and then fold each petal into the center and they will really bloom!  Put them in a small dish of water, and as the water absorbs through the paper the petals unfold before your eyes.  It's as much fun for the kids as it is for the moms.  Write a special message on

the center of the flower if you want it to be even better.  Enjoy!

Halloween decor and Fall Fun

Who can resist the Fall when there are field trips to go on, pumpkins to carve, harvests to gather and apple crisp to eat?  Yay fall is here! 

I have volunteered to chaperon for this field trip with each of my kids, very selfishly too.  I love the delight that the kids experience as they go through a corn maze, and the games that they enjoy at the end.  The pumpkin picking is so exciting for them, and they could care less that they are hungry or tired when they see all the fun themed playground toys.  There is even a kid-zoo spot, where farm animals live.  I'd pretty much elbow out other moms to get to the sign up sheet for this field trip.

This is L loving on his pumpin and Chester (the preschool pet stow away that comes on certain field trips.  Who knew raccoons are so docile?)

This is notable, because it's difficult for L to feel like he even wants to do some of this stuff.  He usually holds back until everyone is done with the activity until he wants to join.  He is so handsome when he smiles!  Good job, buddy!

Amazing play-land and spooky tunnels to crawl through.

I love this musty smelling pumpkin.  It's right next to the animal habitat, and I'm pretty sure that goat stink is on that baby for life.  But the kids don't care at all.

DIY Creepy Halloween Mirror Wreath

Today was much better (anxiety wise) than yesterday.  My upset stomach continued until about 7pm, but really, others often have it so much worse.  Maybe we all ate the same lead paint chips when we were young.  Sheesh.  Sometimes I wish there were more defined causes to the onset of anxiety.

On another note, Halloween is fast approaching, and I have promised many a great diy holiday projects.  Meet the creepy wreath!  Appropriate for small kiddos, and older ones alike. The best part?  IT COST ME LESS THAN 4.00!!  Yay for a DIY project!

Here's how she went down:

GATHER:

the mirror (a serving platter from Dollar tree, which happens to be reflective)
a diaper (or ask for a free one from you neighbor with 4 kids.  She's bound to have one.)
Scraps of satiny emerald green fabric...from a dress your grandma made you when you were 12
    (thanks grandma!)
Scraps of black felt and old lace (optional)
2 fake plant stems from the dollar tree as well (any creepy stem with black fuzz on it works)
Raffia or straw
6-10 purple fuzzies or pom pom balls (optional)
12-15 black feathers (from a craft store - I already had these)
glue gun (are you a DIYer?  You already have this)
a scrap of white toole - or tole.  Why doesn't English spell like it sounds? (any mesh fabric will do.
    You only need like a 7x9" piece)

MAKE THE WITCHY FINGERS

This is the creepiest part of the mirror, and really just a feat of imagination.  This is also the coolest part, according to my kids.  They can't believe the scary fingers are really just diapers.

1. Get your diaper out, and cut 4 pieces of 1.5x3" strips.  The stuffing will want to come out,  I know.

2. Now you roll up your little strip length wise, and tape it 1/3 of the way up.  Bend the roll in half, and THEN tighten it on the un-taped section.  Once you've got it pretty tight, tape in place. Stay with me, I know this is weird.

3. You can tighten the tip even further and tape it again, making it pointy like the fingernail of a witch finger.  Depending upon how tightly you rolled each section, it should stay pretty bent and pointy!  It's ok if not.  Try it again, or accept that your fingers are arthritic and won't bend like they used to.

4.  Finally, wrap the whole thing in your shimmery green black fabric.  Use the glue gun to tack it down, and make sure to burn your fingers at least 6 times. Sacrifice makes it valuable :)  Cut out some raisin size fingernails from the black fabric and glue them on there.

5. Position all 4 fingers into the most natural look you can.  I recommend posing your own fingers and then modeling the diaper fingers after that.  Glue the unfinished bottoms to the back of the mirror, and then again at the lip of the front of the mirror.  Cut a strip of felt out to cover the back of fingers on the mirror and glue it down.  Cut out a piece of lace and glue it on the knuckles and on top of the black felt. Now it looks like a sleeve.

MAKE THE GHOST FACE

1. Get your piece of white mesh and fold it over itself.
2. Cut a tear drop shape out of both pieces, so that you get two ghost heads.
3. Fold one of the heads down by 1/3  (tip of the tear drop downward) and cut out some pointed oval
    length-wise slits for eyes.
4. Unfold.
5. Fold the whole head in half, and cut a long wavy mouth.  Now you have a screaming ghost.
6. Using spray adhesive (or the glue gun) tack down the screaming ghost to the mirror.
7. Bunch up the fabric of the uncut ghost head and tack it down the same way, but make it a little
    bunchy and irregular.  That gives it dimension.

BUNDLE THE STEMS

1. Get several pieces of raffia and wrap around the stems.  Keep going until you've wrapped up 3-4
    inches of the stem.
2. Tie a square knot.

3. Cut off the excess close to the knot, so it looks like broom ends.
4. Arrange branches to poke out and jut like a creepy tree.
5. Glue along the side of the mirror, and hold it there for a few seconds till it sets.

ADHERE THE FEATHERS

1. Arrange 12-15 black feathers along the bottom of the mirror
2. Glue the stems only in place, letting the tufts on top free to blow.
3. Enjoy that your mirror has no crow, just the remnants of one.
4. Glue on a few purple pom pom balls/fuzzies because your kids like to think they're spiders
    (optional)

tape on a wire to the back of your mirror with packing tape, and you are ready to hang!

You can add a 'boo' on there, or even write some creepy message in red/black sharpie if you want!  I'd love to know if you make one of these! Have fun and Happy Halloween!

Reversible Halloween and Christmas banner tutorial

This post was originally written for a guest appearance (doesn't that sound fancy?) over at thejoyfulorganizer.com   This site is an incredible place to find direction when you're up to your eyeballs in clutter.  Look for it on Oct 09!

Reversible Holiday Banner

Dress your mantle with a Boo banner for Halloween, and then flip it to celebrate Christmas!  This makes a darling gift. And it's super cheap!  Get yourself ready for crafty goodness.

Read on to make this banner:

Guest post: The Joyful Organizer

I'm so pleased to introduce Bonnie Dewkett, from thejoyfulorgnaizer.com  She is a brilliant certified professional organizer who has great ideas for organizing your craft space.  Enjoy and then visit her site to learn more about what she can do for you and your home.

Just about everyone does one craft or another.  Knitting, scrapbooking, card making… What’s the one thing they all have in common?  They can easily take over our living space with their various tools, supplies, and materials.  Keeping your craft supplies in order not only helps maintain your sanity and the appearance of your home, it also helps keep your materials in good working order.  In addition, it allows you to sit down and complete a project without having to dig out first.  The best part is getting your craft area organized doesn’t have to take a lot of time or money.

 Keep reading for some quick and easy tips and tricks to help you maintain order wherever you complete your craft projects.

6 years of crafting with the Silhouette

update: Amazon has the Silhouette machine for CHEAP right now!  And it comes with a bundle.  Follow this link to  check it out: Silhouette Cameo Starter Kit Bundle 

First things first: I write this for a friend who texted asking about the silhouette machine I used to make her son's banner. No one paid me to make this post.

I tried to email a few pics to her that show what this brilliant baby can do.  It crashed my email app.
I realized that sharing these pics with you would probably inspire great creations too!

DIY Screen Printing

I have never screen printed before this project, but with the low cost and great results, I would do this again and again.  Sheesh, I did do this again and again.  Here's how:

DIY embellished elastic hair ties

These gifties were made just a bit ago for the newest teenager in our family.  It was her birthday and she is very pleased to be 13.  She was so happy and kind to all of us.  I could tell she felt special, and I hope this little gift made her feel such.


Here's how to make them:

10 Must Do Activities to celebrate America

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday.  My dad is a vet, and I lived abroad for long enough to want to kiss the ground when I returned.  Truly I cannot tell you how thankful I am to live in this country, even with all it's ills.  I love other countries as well, but the USofA is home, and that is where my heart is!

So it makes sense that around here we get patriotic early on. Here are my best ideas for having a fantastic 4th!

1. Decorate your home, so all can see!

Even if I am dirt cheap, I can still afford to decorate for the 4th of Joo-lye.  

Try this:

I'm going for just the fire crackers, as I already have an old table that's busted up and needs re-purposing.  I love that there's an old red cooler out too, giving kudos to the picnic month.

Visit here to see how she up-cycles a wooden post for those firecrackers!

Teacher Appreciation Week

I am a room mom, which usually means that I end up making the gifts and posters for teacher appreciation week.  This year, my friend actually did the poster (and it is incredible, complete with paper mache and top to bottom intricate).  I was, however asked to make the office staff a thank you poster, and this is what I came up with.

Office Staff thank you poster

I will see what I can do about getting pictures of the posters when they are hung next week.  

In the meantime here is a link to a helpful idea board on Pinterest.  There are some really creative posters out there that may have taken an extraordinary amount of time.

Speaking of extrordinary amounts of time, I'm going to be posting every other day, as I have met my match in my schedule right now.  I apologize to those of you who may be looking daily (though I'm pretty sure that's not many at this point).  But great things are coming!!  I can't wait to share some of the things I've been working on with you!

Time to do something to help those around you be happy today, it's Friday!  Everyone deserves a break on Friday.

Thanks, Coach!

Since Soccer is winding down, I'm sharing a thank you card complete with a freebie .studio file (I know it only works with a silhouette machine, but I'm working on the conversion!).  I've made the card holder cut marks to fit a Movie gift card, but they should be pretty close to almost any gift card.
UPDATE: You can download the .jpg files of the front and inside of this card here and here.
Enjoy!