How to.... do something

How to make glittery reindeer

2011-12-16T20:39:00.000-05:00

This was my dollar store craft last year. So simple but so cute.

I was inspired by some more expensive ornaments I saw at a department store and thought I could do something similar with dollar store finds.

Dollarama had these great packs of fine glitter in tones of colours. I added 3 of the colours together which created a beautiful new colour.

In the home section (not the holiday section) I found these reindeer which were perfect to glitter.

To attach the glitter I painted on white glue and then poured the glitter over top. I used 2 paper plates to pour and catch the glitter. I glued and glittered in sections, it took awhile including letting it dry and touching up the spots that were missed. To fix the glitter so it doesn't just fall off and make a glittery mess everywhere I sprayed with hairspray. It works pretty well, I pulled them out for year 2 and the glitter still stays put.

Here's how I have them displayed, on top of the bookshelf with a collection of the girls Santa photos (in dollar store frames).

How to make a glitzy wreath

2011-12-04T16:20:00.001-05:00

Here's the new wreath I made last year for our backdoor.

I started with a wire hanger and bent it into a circle.

Then I wrapped the wire with newspaper and taped it around. I took sheets of newspaper and crumpled it into long tubes and then formed around the wire and taped it in place, then I added more until it was thick enough. I then taped all around to smooth it out. I spray painted the wreath white. And now you have a free wreath form.

Then I put all the Christmas crap I had bought on the table to figure out what to use. It's a combination of dollar store stuff and decorations that I bought at a sample sale - stuff like 1 strand of garland that's not enough to decorate a tree or anything.

I chose the garland to start with, since I only had 1 strand of 3 different kinds I had to spread them out and layer them. After I got all the garland on I added a big bow and some dollar store decorations.

How to make pretty monster cupcakes

2011-11-16T21:09:00.001-05:00

Since Lilo's birthday is around Halloween she decided that she wanted monster cupcakes for her birthday, but not scary monsters. I showed her the monster cupcakes I made for a Halloween party but she thought they were too scary, so I thought brighter colours but same concept would be good. And then I also found some great ideas on Pinterest.

I was trying to make big cupcakes that rise tall, that didn't work but instead they were just too big for little kids - oh well. To make them taller I put 1/2 a marshmallow on the top of the cupcakes. To cut the marshmallows run your knife under hot water and after you cut one marshmallow, rinse knife again.
Then pick a fun piping tip and add your coloured icing. The icing is about 1 1/2 cups of soften butter, about 3-4 cups of icing sugar, and a splash of milk - I don't measure just taste test. To ice the cupcake, start from the top of marshmallow and bring down to the edges and repeat until the cupcake is covered.
The eyes are just suckers with a dot of white icing and a mini M&M - the eyelashes are 3 chocolate sprinkles. And then I added a red M&M for a nose (or mouth).
And to make rainbow cupcakes you just divide and dye the batter and layer before you bake.

I made 3 different coloured monsters, using a different tip for each colour. The kids ended up eating the suckers and a bit of icing and that's it. Next year I need to make mini cupcakes instead.

How to a make a spider

2011-10-22T16:30:00.000-04:00

Here is a tutorial from Lilo my little girl. She made this spider with her daycare provider last year and wanted to show me how they made it. It was her idea to take the pictures of each step.

Cut out oval shape from corrugated cardboard.

Push 4 pipe cleaners through cardboard

Bend pipe cleaners down to make the spider stand

Crunch up tin foil into a ball that will fit on the top of your cardboard oval.

So it looks like this.

Then remove the tin foil ball and glue on pieces of cut up tissue paper until it's all covered. We also glued tissue paper to the cardboard oval.

Then glue the tin foil ball to the legs and all goggly eyes. And done.

Then we made a large spider web out of bright coloured pipe cleaners and attached the spiders to them.

This was last year's craft that I didn't get time to post before Halloween. Hopefully we'll have time for something new this year.

How to make worms in dirt

2011-09-26T21:27:00.000-04:00

We were inspired by a dessert on the Boston Pizza kids menu. Since we were full after our meal we decided to try and make it instead at home later.

So on the way home we stopped off at the grocery store and picked up chocolate pudding, Oreo cookies (which we crushed up) and gummy worms.

It was a fun Saturday night dessert, but to be honest I think it would have tasted better without the gummy worms - the girls didn't agree.

How to make a cardboard flower

2011-08-21T13:12:00.004-04:00

After seeing beautiful cardstock flowers on The Little Hut I was dying to try to make one. So when we were visiting my sister-in-law and family around Easter I was inspired by a Barbie box that Isla got for her birthday. I cut out petals from the box, taped and glued the flower together. Check out The Little Hut for instructions. I didn't follow it 100% but just went by memory of her post - pretty close though. I thought they colours of the Barbie box made a perfect flower.

How to make a skirt into a dress

2011-08-12T22:45:00.003-04:00

I finally started to tackle my alteration/ re-fashioning box and one of those things was this skirt of mine. I got it at H&M and it was super cute until it flew up one day after I got off the street car and I flashed the street thanks to a gust of wind. I then decided that maybe it was too short for me. But the fabric is so cute that I couldn't just give it away.

So I dress for Isla it will be.
I could have simply taken the skirt in and added straps but I find smocked dresses that are straight at the top don't fit as good. And I hate when my girls pull their dresses down to expose themselves. So I decided to curve under the arm to make it more comfortable. I used one of her dresses to get the size and shape.
I took the dress in on the side seam and then traced out the armhole shape. After cutting the armhole I serged the edge, turned it over and stitched down.
Then added straps from scrap ribbons and added a bow. And done. It was pretty simple and now Isla has one more dress to add to her collection.
And the dress is great for dancing.

How to make a dress into a skirt

2011-08-12T21:46:00.002-04:00

This was the easiest transformation ever. Isla had this cute dress but it was a little too short but she found it in give away box and came out wearing it one day. Then it came to me - remove the straps and make it a skirt.

So I just simply cut the straps off and ta-da, a new skirt.
I love the long length and perfect for my girly-girl with attitude :)

How to make a photo memory

2011-07-20T22:08:00.004-04:00

For Father's Day I gave my husband 2 framed photos of our girls. I saw this great idea on Pinterest and thought it would be a fun thing to make and now I would love to make one every year and keep an album of them.

I took the photos into Photoshop and added the list of things the kids love right now. I played with different fonts and colours. Since my background is coloured it was changelling to get fonts and colours that showed up well on them. For the photo of Isla I traced out and highlighted the background above the grass and blurred it so the women back there is just a blur and not a real part of the photo.

I'm really happy with how they turned out, it helps that I have super cute kids :)

How to make rainbow cupcakes

2011-06-15T22:21:00.002-04:00

So now this is my 5th version of a rainbow cake - check out the other 4 here. This one was inspired by a photo on Pinterest posted by Mia B. I knew I saw these rainbow candy at our corner store so I had to try it. Rainbow candy or "Gay Bacon" according to Epic Mealtime - have you seen them, they make crazy extreme meals with fast food or in this case candy.

Ok, back to the cupcakes. Pretty simple, I used the cupcake recipe from Saucy's Sprinkles, then iced with blue tinted buttercream icing. I cut the rainbow candy in half and curved on the cupcakes to make an arc. The clouds are just mini marshmallows.
So cute and so easy to make. I made them for the bake sale at Lilo's school fun fair. They were a hit and sold fast.
And don't leave your iced cupcakes on top of the oven while you preheat it for dinner. The heat from the vent on the top melted a few cupcakes, I luckily had saved some extra icing so I re-iced them. The wrappers were a little sticky but no one complained.

How to make a rock family plaque

2011-06-04T16:08:00.002-04:00

Here's what Lilo made for Father's Day last year.

I saw a similar idea but she personalized it by writing our names out. The plaque is from the dollar store, the rocks from the beach, googly eyes from my collection and embroidery thread for the hair. If it wasn't so last minute I could have painted the background first but all in all it's pretty cute.

We should get on to this year's gift, only a few weeks away.

How to transfer your kids artwork to a t-shirt

2011-05-29T20:14:00.005-04:00

For my husband's birthday Lilo and I made him a shirt. I saw this idea to transfer your kids drawings on tees with freezer paper a while ago so I thought I'd finally try it out.
I first asked Lilo to draw a picture for the shirt. I asked to only use 1 or 2 colours but she couldn't so she restricted herself to 6. If your child's drawing is only 1-2 colours it would be easier. Anyways I went with it.
I traced out the picture onto Freezer paper. For those of you that don't know what this is it's butcher paper. It's not easy to find, I got mine at No Frills once over a year ago but haven't seen it since. It's with the plastic wrap, mine is Glad brand.

Anyways, the cool thing about this paper is that you can iron it on to fabric and it stays until put but can be pulled off so it works great as a stencil.

So back to the t-shirt, after tracing out the picture I cut it out with an x-acto knife, careful to keep the loose pieces.

Then iron the paper, including the little pieces such as around the arms. Since Lilo drew a heart around her and dad I cut a thin line around the shape so I could include on the shirt. Then I painted the shirt using the drawing as a guide for where to put the colour.

When the paint was dry I removed the freezer paper. Lilo was upset that she forgot to add her arms in the picture so I added them on after and I also added the face. Then to set the paint just iron the image on the back side.

I glued Lilo's drawing to the gift bag, she was pretty proud of the shirt. And I think it makes a cute bumming around the house shirt.

Afterwards I made another shirt with Lilo's drawing of a bike. I love how this turned out. It was a little tricky to cut all the little pieces out but I think its cute. I started by cutting out the main shape and ironed the outline on. The small pieces I cut out part by part and ironed on as I cut so I would loose the pieces. At least painting was much easier.

How to make a kid crafted card when the kids are away

2011-05-03T23:12:00.002-04:00

My girls are on vacation in Florida with my in-laws right now and I realized that I forgot to get them to make a mother's day card for my mom. Then I thought to make a collage with all the art work that we have kicking around the house. I took the green paper that Isla (3) made and cut out the princess (check out the high heels) and the heart from Lilo (5) and the flowers are mine.

I think my mom will love it - a collaboration from all 3 girls.

How to make a mermaid cake

2011-04-16T15:33:00.005-04:00

My little baby turned 3 on Monday, I can't believe time has gone by so fast. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday cake, she said a Barbie, mermaid, princess, ballerina, fairy cake. I decided to narrow that down to just mermaid - well Barbie mermaid.

I had great ideas of making a mermaid by molding it out of rice crispy cake - you know it looks so easy on tv - but then I thought better and decided to just buy a mermaid Barbie. This way it's a cake topper and present in one. To ice the cake I took inspiration from the movie Mermaidia - a Barbie movie the girls have watched too many times.

I started by making 2 round cakes, I made them rainbow by separating the batter in 3 and adding food colouring to each and then pouring them in the cake pans. I also made another batch of cake and cooked part of it in my Pampered Chef big mixing bowl and made cupcakes with the rest. The cake from the mixing bowl made the rock for the mermaid to sit on.

Before icing it all I leveled the cakes off and made sure the Barbie could sit on it.

I then iced the round cakes. I iced it in blue icing and then mixed up a darker and lighter blue and swirled it around look like water.

I iced the rock on a separate board with wax paper underneath so I could lift it on the blue cake. I made a purply grey icing for the rock and added some sugar crystals on top to make it sparkle. If you make something like this don't make the rock black - I saw some online that made their rocks black and it looks like the poor mermaid is stuck in tar.
Then I plopped the iced rock on top of the water. I piped some blue icing around the rock and pulled it up on the rock to look like waves. I had some blue tinted sugar that I sprinkled on top to make the water shimmer.

I think it turned out pretty good and more importantly I think Isla liked it.

How to make an egg holder with sushi grass

2011-03-26T17:51:00.002-04:00

I've been collecting the plastic grass that they put in take out sushi, it just looked like something I could craft with. With Easter coming I thought I needed to pull it out.
To make just cut a piece of paper towel or TP tube into a 1/2" ring. Then glue 2 pieces of sushi grass around. To hold it together and make it look cuter, I tied a piece of ribbon around. And done. I love fast crafts.
And I just had to share the picture I captured today of Lilo catching a rainbow.

How to fill a glass with seasonal decor

2011-03-13T11:00:00.003-04:00

As part of the 52 things to do in 2011, one of them was to fill our glass lamp in the living room with something different every month - and so far I have. There is March, a rainbow with a pot of gold.

I started by tracing the bottom of the lamp on a piece of cardboard. I then glued the grass on, the grass was from the Easter section of dollar store. I cut it into tuffs and glued it on.
The rainbow is made from pipe cleaners glued together. The cloud is make-up pads that I pulled apart to look fluffier and glued together and glued to rainbow. For the pot I had originally bought a mini pot from the dollar store but since the bottom of the lamp and the post (holding the wires) that runs down the middle makes it the opening very small so the mini pot wouldn't fit. So instead of scrapping the whole idea I cut a piece of paper towel roll and painted it black and tied a gold ribbon around it.

In the grass I put some little shamrocks in - they are 2 foam stickers stuck together with a toothpick in the middle. Then the toothpicks are poked into the grass. And the gold is chocolate loonies. I had to convince the girls to wait to eat the chocolate.

So far for January it was filled with paper snowflakes and February with paper hearts - so now to start working on April.

How to make a St. Patrick's Day headband

2011-03-03T21:35:00.003-05:00

Just a quick st. paddy's day craft. I picked up some shamrock stickers from the dollar store and 2 headbands.
Lilo went to town adding the stickers to the headband, layering the different sizes and colours and creating a pattern.
On the other side of the headband I put another sticker so it doesn't stick to your hair.

Lilo made one for herself and one for her sister and wrapped it up to give to her for St. Patrick's Day, so we had to take these pictures in secret so Isla wouldn't see it. Never really thought of St. Patrick's Day as a gift giving holiday but why not?

You can also use the stickers on little clips like I did last year for Valentines.

How to make snow Valentines

2011-02-13T09:49:00.004-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. Last weekend at the park the snow was perfect to make these snow valentines. I got carried away and couldn't stop making them. I left them all over the park, hopefully it brings a smile to the next people that come visit.
One on the park bench.
On on the end of the slide.
You need the perfect kind of snow to make these, the snow needs to be hard on the top, at least 1 inch but up to 4 (maybe more if you're lucky) of crunchy snow and then it was fluffy underneath. I drew out a heart with my hand and carved it out. Then gently picked it up from underneath.
Some kids had made a snow hill and then after they left I covered it with hearts.

And of course the girls ate their weight in snow and Isla broke as many hearts as she could. It was a fun afternoon in the snow.

How to make pom pom friends

2011-02-12T09:23:00.003-05:00

This is just a quick one. I was looking through photos and found these critters. They are pom poms and googly eyes glued to paper with legs and arms added, oh and I added a mouth from a scrap paper.

Just a cute fun craft to keep the kids entertained.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend.

How to paint a pirate ship mural - phase 1

2011-02-02T21:30:00.005-05:00

My nephew asked for a pirate mural for Christmas from me, I was very flattered. My sister-in-law sent me the drawing he did and gave me a few key words of what he was wanting: Jolly Roger flag, cannon with a pile of balls and a parrot.

So I took his ideas and came up with this picture below which is what I actually wrapped for Christmas for him. This past weekend we got back to their place to start working on the actual mural.

In 2 days I got a good chunk finished, the pirate ship is done which is phase 1. Next visit will be phase 2; the pirate, parrot, cannon, balls and port holes. But I must say I'm pretty excited about how it's coming. I love that the image in my head looks the same as the one on the wall.

I first prepped the wall. Removed the red tape on the stripe and sanded the road (left from previous decor). I then primed the stripe.
To help draw out the image on the wall I took my picture I drew into photoshop and added 1 foot grid lines. On the wall I marked off 1 foot intervals on the sides. Then drew out the base of the ship.
I painted brown on the ship. Since I had drew out the outline of the ship I tried to keep the lines when I painted the brown so I wouldn't have to re-draw it. I also painted the base grey colour on the part of the stripe that I primed.
I drew in the on the flags and posts again referring back to my drawing with the grid lines. I decided to paint the main Jolly Roger sail in black instead of white, just to look more piratey and it matches back to his black comforter.

Then next day I went to the details. Inspired by the 90s Debbie Travis, I found a wood grainer tool and made the ship look like real wood - so cool. It was easy to use. I mixed a darker brown colour and mixed it 1 part paint to 4 parts glaze. I rolled the glazed paint in small section and then pulled the wood graining tool across, rocking in as I pulled and it left this cool wood grain. The hardest part was staying straight - but since the glaze stays wet you can try again.
I used a projector to trace out the Jolly Roger, then painted a few coats of white. Then I added detail to the posts and the sails. I added highlights and shadows to the ship and I used a sharpie to outline - which easier to use a marker then a paint brush.
Here's a little cousin love, aren't they cute.
Ian's liking the mural - it's bigger than he thought, but I think if you're going to paint a mural then why paint it small. I'm not a fan of dinky mural, I say just go for it.

I will post phase 2 once in the future.

How to make 4 different rainbow cakes

2011-01-23T10:15:00.002-05:00

I realized that after Lilo's past birthday when she asked for a rainbow cake that I've made her a rainbow cake for the past 3 years.
Lilo's 3rd birthday was the start of the rainbow cakes. This layered cake was a lot of work - many batches of cake mix. I decided that I wanted to make the cake from scratch, not sure why. The cake was a little dry, some layers tasted better then other but I've learned to just stick to cake mixes, my mom always used them and they were always great so I'm going with it.

The layered rainbow cake idea came from here.

Lilo's 4th birthday we did rainbow cupcakes. I used cake mix this time but found a variation here, on Saucy's Sprinkles that makes it even tastier - replace the oil with melted butter and whip it all up.

To add extra fun to these cupcakes all the kids got a tray with treats to decorate the cupcakes with - it was a lot of fun that I think I will do again another year.

So for Lilo's 5th birthday she asked again for a rainbow cake so here came version 3. Again an idea from Saucy's Sprinkles blog to divide the batter and dye it up. Then scoop them into the pan and since the batter is nice and whipped the different colours don't run into each other.
I made the cake in a Pampered Chef batter bowl in 2 batches and layered them and trimmed to make it into a beautiful princess cake. Here's the directions. It was a fun surprize for Lilo's friends when I cut in and it was rainbow inside. And a freaky surprize when she pulled the Barbie out and found out the Barbie was only a torso.
And then for fun this summer when we had friends over I made the "Double Rainbow" cake. Remember that crazy Youtube video that was everywhere. Well I saw this idea and thought it would be a fun dessert. I made the cake with a angel food ring cake mold and cut it half, covered with icing and then M&Ms. I got Lilo to help me sort out the M&Ms and we got to snack on the brown ones.

Now to come up with a 5th version for her next birthday :)

How to do 52 things in 2011

2011-01-16T20:34:00.005-05:00

photo I took last year at Toronto Island

I really want to get back to blogging - I do. But it's hard, life is busy. I have made some fun stuff this past year but haven't had time to share. Here's hoping I can be better in 2011.

While reading a blog, karenika, I saw that in 2010 she wrote out 52 things she wanted to do that year. Lately I've been collecting a mental list of projects to finish around our house, craft projects I would like to try and just things I want to do this year. So I've written them down if for no other reason to help me remember and hopefully motivate me to cross things off. I'll post the interesting ones for you to see.

52 things for 2011

Post on the family blog at least once a month
Post on how to do something... at least once a month
Finish my 2010 year in review photo book
Make Barbie doll house
Make book sling for Lilo’s room
Finish painting dots on Isla’s rocking chair
Organize Lilo’s playroom
Organize Isla’s room
Make change table into desk
Buy bedroom furniture
Decorate our bedroom
Paint upstairs bathroom
Paint downstairs bathroom
Artwork in kitchen
Sew something for myself
Sew Lilo gymnastics outfit
Sew dresses for the girls
Sew nightgowns for the girls
Tackle my alteration pile
Buy a new belt or 2
Go to a movie with just Rob
Go to a movie with the kids
Get a tattoo
Make my studio space look less like a dungeon
Make bird mobile for Lilo’s room
Make a headboard for Isla’s room
Organize my closet
Take more photos
Relearn how to take photos in manual
Hang pictures up the stairs
Make a meal plan
Dye my hair blond
Go to Winnipeg
Go to Florida
Go away with just Rob
Fill lamp with something new every month
Collect enough beach glass to fill the lamp
Get/make the girls portfolios
Create an art book for each girl
Get file folders boxes for each girl to files things from each year.
Make a quilt
Organize the basement
Put up the radio in the kitchen
Find a better solution for our knives in the kitchen
Put up can crusher
Go to Toronto Island with bikes
Make tote bags for the girls art projects from daycare
Make headband for lady at work
Organize my recipes
Make 5 fabulous gifts for 5 fabulous ladies
Make a headboard for our bedroom
Make t-shirt necklace

So what do you want to accomplish this year?

How to make kids Christmas crafts

2010-12-19T21:59:00.006-05:00

So I know that you probably assumed that I just gave up on the blog. I wish I made more time to share but at least I've had some time to craft. I thought I'd show you some of the crafts my girls have been making this season.

Lilo made jingle bell bracelets for her friends at school. I bought some bells from the dollar store and thought they would make cute bracelets. I was trying to find some elastic string to thread them on but while looking through my stuff I found pipe cleaners and thought they would be easier for Lilo to use. Plus the bracelets could also be used as ornaments.

Here's Lilo wrapping them all up herself. Too bad she only remembered to hand out 2 out of the 20 she made on the last day of school. It looks like she will be giving out good luck bracelets in the new year.

The girls brought these home from daycare last week. I love them. So cute and simple.
An oval of cardboard as the base, pinecone hot glued on with cotton balls glued around as snow. The pinecone tree is decorated with a string of mini beads, sprinkled with fake snow and topped with a gold star.
These are just made from the Ikea pyssla beads. Fun melting beads shapes that I just glued a ribbon on the back to make into an ornament.
On the back of one of them I glued a piece of paper for Lilo to use as a gift tag on her teacher's gift.

We also made picture frame wreaths from small paper plates. I cut a hole in the middle of the plate and let the girls decorate them. I realized that it sometimes is better if I limit the number of different things I give the kids to decorate with otherwise they look, well unfinished (see one on the left). The ones we made with only 1-3 different things I like better.
I decided to add the kids Santa photo inside to make a cute frame.
I took another paper plate and cut the photo to fit inside and then glued both plates together. Then poke a hole through both plates and loop a pipe cleaner through to make a hook.
And lastly Lilo brought this home from school. A classic idea but so cute and easy - a great keepsake. We got 2 different colours of green paper in her school bag and as home work we were had to cut out outlines of her hands. Then at school she glued them on to a large paper plate and decorated.

Hope everyone is having a fun crafty holiday season.

How to re-fashion nightshirts

2010-08-29T17:32:00.004-04:00

My 2 little girls have been asking me to make them nightgowns. I mean they've been wearing dresses everyday this summer so why wouldn't they want to sleep in dresses.

So I've finally started to get my sewing area set up and my serger is now fixed so I had no excuses to make them night dresses.
At work we were cleaning up and throwing out a bunch of cut samples - we buy samples for colour, fabric and style inspiration. Some get used and another don't but most get cut. It feels like a such a waste to throw them out - some do get donated to schools and artist but we had just missed the last donation.

Anyways - I found 2 ladies nightshirt with swatches cut out the back that I thought would make great dresses for the girls.

I started by using a t-shirt of Lilo's and lined it up on the ladies nightshirt neckline matching the neck width up and marked it. Then I cut the front and the back apart.
Then I lined up the back neckline to the marks on the front neckline to create the new neckline.
I folded the front and back together and placed the folded t-shirt on top. Then traced out the t-shirt added seam allowance as I traced. I traced the shoulder and then used the t-shirt as a guide for the body. I wanted it looser than the tee so I left room at the waist and added length. You can use an existing dress to measure the length - or measure your kid - or since my kids were asleep I just guessed. To measure around the armhole - carefully fold the sleeve in and mark the curve.
If you look close you can see the marking of the dress.
To make the sleeves - use the original sleeve, fold in half and match up the hem. Place the t-shirt sleeve on top matching fold. Mark top and bottom of the sleeve.
Then carefully fold the tee over the sleeve so you can see the sleeve seam and trace around leaving seam allowance.
Cut all the pieces out and sew together. I started by sewing the shoulder seam. Then adding the sleeves. To make the sleeve fit the best do a basting stitch on the top curve of the sleeve and ease into place when you pin. You might get gathers at the cap but that would be cute. Then sew the side seam and sleeve seam. For the hem I just serged it around but you could do a real hem if you wanted. To finish it off fold in serge ends and topstitch seams down at neckline and underarm.
And there you go - 2 nightshirts in just over an hour.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the girls in them. They wore them at Grandma's Friday night and looked so cute. I think I'll need to make more soon.

How to make personalized door hangers

2010-08-13T22:37:00.004-04:00

Lilo and I made door hangers for her and Isla's door last weekend. She saw the idea on Mr. Maker, he made a bottle sign for his door made from a shower gel bottle that had a hook on it. Since we didn't have any shower gel bottle Lilo suggested just using paper. I thought cardboard would work better but like her thinking outside of the box.
I drew out 2 for each door hanger on the inside of the box. Then we drew on the basic painting areas.
I put our shower curtain/painting drop cloth on the dining room table and got out the "messy paints", acrylic paints. We painted the base colours and then started to add details, like necklace and trim styling.

Once the paint was dry we added outline with a black marker. And then glued the 2 pieces together and let it dry under a big book to weight it down.
One side is awake and the other side is sleeping.
Here's Lilo awake in her rainbow dress.
And asleep in her blue nightgown.

We did this craft Isla was napping and Lilo made the cutest comment since I was making one for Isla - "she's going to love it, I think it's her dream come true"

The girls do love them and turn them to asleep when they go to bed and awake in the morning.

How to build a sandbox under your deck

2010-07-24T17:35:00.000-04:00

We recently moved back into the city from the suburbs. We lucked into finding a house with a great deck in the back, a place for a garden and a double car garage (very rare downtown) but it's lacking a yard (in the back, we do have a front yard). Since there are a bunch of parks close by and the beach is just down the street it doesn't bother us much. But there are those times when you would like to send the kids outside play so my husband came up with this great idea to build a sandbox under our deck.

Here's the sandbox with the lid on. The lid is made of 2 pieces with one having rope handles to pull it out.
Here it is with the 1st piece out and stacked at the end of the deck.
And with the 2nd piece out - there is a sandbox. I was afraid the lid pieces were going to be very heavy but they - just a little awkward thanks to their length. But the being apple to cover the sandbox completely means that we don't lose any deck space for BBQs. Plus, it helps to keep the sand a little more dry, and stops the raccoons from using it as a litter box (euwh!).

Since it was my husband's project, he didn't think to take step-by-step photos of the process like I would have. But, here how it was made:

1. We located the stringers - the supports that run under the deck, perpendicular to the decking and decided where we would create the opening. Like studs in a wall, stringers are typically 16" apart - so remove 2 would give us a nice 4' opening.

2. Using a reciprocating saw, we cut the deck boards at both ends of what would be the opening, so the deck boards that remained were flush with the last stringer.

3. Next we removed the deck boards in between the two cuts - first by attempting to unscrew them, and when that didn't work, by prying/pulling/smashing them. We had hoped to reuse them, but unfortunately they didn't come off the deck structure very well without being destroyed (thanks to stripped screws). In fact, had they come off cleanly, we would have been able to do the entire project with just 2 new lengths of 2x6 and a couple of 1x6's - the rest would have all been reused.

4. With thee decking removed and the supports exposed, we removed two of the 2x6 stringers. The reciprocating saw again came in handy to cut the screws where the stringers were attached to the supports at either - meaning the wood could be reused, and the supports stayed in place.

5. Our deck is supported by two 2x12's that are spaced 48" apart, and run the length of the deck underneath the stringers. We cut 1x6's to fit in between 2x12's, and stacked them on top of each other at each end to close the opening under neath the remaining stringers - this created a perfect 4'x4' box to fill with sand!

In this picture, the wood to the left of the pink bucket is the top of the 2x12 support, and to the right of the pink bucket is the top 1x6 (the other is buried below the sand)

6. On the outside of the 2x12's, we built small benches - which also support the lid. The benches are supported by short lengths of 2x6 that are screwed into the 2x12 with metal hangers, and are attached to the outside supports of the deck with metal hangers.

7. For the lids, we simply built boxes using 2x6's the fit snuggly inside the outside deck supports and the remaining deck stringers, leaving a 2" gap in the middle, and a 2" gap on either end. Because the decking is 5/4" thick, we had to trim 5/4" off the bottom of each 2x6, so when the decking was put on top it would be level with the rest of the deck.

8. To make sure the deck boards on top the lids were cut to the right length, we placed the box-frames in gap, side by side, and then measured the length of each 1x6 deck board to go on top - using one length of wood for the entire gap. We attach each deck board to the box-frame first, before moving on to the next. Finally, once all of the deck boards were cut and attached, we removed the whole lid (at this point still one large piece). After chalking a line down the middle of the deck boards (in 2" gap that we left between the box-frames), and used a circular saw to cut the whole thing into two perfectly fitting pieces.

9. Finally, to make it easier to remove the first lid we attached two rope handles. The ropes are fed through a hole drilled in the 2x6 support on the underside of the lid, and then knotted. The second lid piece doesn't need rope handles, since it is easily moved once the first lid is removed.

Here is the sandbox when we want to use the deck for entertaining. It's a great that we can still have a sandbox in our small space.

The chairs fold up so they can be put to the side (they are a curbside find that I have to paint at some point to spruce them up) and the bbq can move over to the side.

I love that my hubby was so innovative to come up with such a great idea - now the kids aren't digging in my garden. The kids are happy to have a sandbox again, now I just have to figure out how to keep the sand out of the house.

How to do easy tie dye with tissue paper

2010-07-24T15:11:00.003-04:00

I saw this neat idea over at Dollar Store Crafts last year and wanted to try - so I did, last year (yes, it's old but I thought I'd post it anyways since the idea as fun).

It's cute to see the girls looking so young.

Since it was last year that I tried this I'll just give you a brief recap of what I did (or what I remember doing). I found a few old t-shirts and an old stained dress of Lilo's to work with. I have a dollar store shower curtain I use as a drop cloth for kids crafts. I was using it so the clothes wouldn't get dirty (Isla walked all over this idea ).

First wet the clothes you want to dye.
Then rip up tissue paper and place on your fabric and spray with a mixture of white vinegar and water.

Then we let them dry. Some colours work better than others and some tissue paper works better than others - the cheaper the better. Red and yellow were the hardest to get colour from but I did find a few scraps of tissue paper that worked. I've also read that crepe paper works (like the crepe paper streamers) work well, think of how they stain your hands when they get wet.
And this is what we came up with . Ok, so it was more of the process that was fun and the end result was, well ok :) The girls tops were pretty cute but I think mine ended up being a painting shirt. One thing I figured out was that the colour will bleed to the other side so put a plastic bag inside the shirt if you don't want this to happen.

To set colours throw them in the dryer after they've dry. Then wash them since they smell like vinegar. The colours stayed after washing. I didn't wash them lots so I don't know how long the colour will last but they did go through a few washing and still had colour.
It was a fun outside summer activity. Enjoy and check out Dollar Store Crafts for a full tutorial.

How to make a dress prettier

2010-06-27T15:58:00.004-04:00

Hi All. I know I've been MIA for awhile now. We're all moved in and getting settled. The basement, future home of my crafting, sewing, studio space is still just a pile of boxes. Hopefully soon we can start to organize it a bit so I can find stuff and make some of the ideas in my head.

I haven't been crafting much lately but we did make a cool father's day gift (I'll post later about that) and a few other things so I'm going to try and post a bit more often again.

The one thing about working having your office attached to the mall is that you shop - and find great deals. I love me a deal. So I had to pick up this dress for only $7 from H&M. The only thing is that I knew that Lilo would say that the dress wasn't pretty enough, since it was just grey. So I dug through my stuff to find something to dress it up. I brought home the dress and bow and ribbons for her to help me figure out what to do to make the dress prettier.
The bow and ribbon is from a gift set that I kept and the thinner ribbon was from my stash. We played around with how to put them on and then while Lilo slept I sewed everything on.
The bow on the waist is as is from the package I just reinforced it more so it would come undone and sewed it on. The rose I made from the ribbon, just wrapping it around, hand sewing as I went, twisting the ribbon to give texture. And the thinner ribbons are just folded and sewn down at both ends. I also tacked in place about 1 1/2" from the neck so it would lie flatter.

Lilo was pretty proud of the dress. She wore it to her Junior Kindergarten graduation. It was funny there was a girl in another class that was wearing the same dress but not "prettier" - it's still a really cute dress without the stuff but I know my girl likes the stuff.

Just a few other pics of my cutie, such a big girl now.

How to fix a broken snap on kids pant

2010-04-25T09:19:00.002-04:00

Don't you hate when the snap on your kids pants just won't stay closed. I had these new jeans for Lilo but the snap would pop open all the time - the snap was just defected. So they just got put to the side to never be worn again. I thought I should be able to fix or something so here's what I came up with.
First with pliers and some difficulty I removed the top snap. The bottom snap I couldn't get off without damaging the pants so I got a hammer and flattened the snap down.
Then I sewed a shank button just beside the snap.
These pants had a faux buttonhole so I just opened it up so that the button would fit in. The hole is pretty tight for the button but Lilo has no bum so she can actually just pull the pants on. But you could choose a smaller button or if your pants don't have button hole just put one on.
I think they look pretty good that you'd never know the snap was removed. I hate when new clothes have something small but so important wrong with them. What a waste to throw them out.

How to make Yo Gabba Gabba cupcakes

2010-04-15T21:12:00.007-04:00

Isla had her 2nd birthday party last weekend. I can't believe it's been 2 years already.

Since she's a big fan of Yo Gabba Gabba it was Lilo's idea to make her these cupcakes. They were a lot of work but lots of fun and I'm super proud of how they turned out.
Here is my inspiration while I was working - plus I found some other great cupcakes online that I also used as inspiration.
I first started by making the eyes and add ons the night before. I made them with melting chocolate put into parchment piping bags. The eyes are just white chocolate and a brown mini m&m in the centre.
Then I melted other colours to make flowers, ears, mouths and their other weird things on their faces :) I piped them on to wax paper and let dry. They come off easily. For the flowers I started by drawing on the back side of the wax paper to use as a pattern to trace but then I found it just as easy to free hand it.
Then I started icing the cupcakes. I wasn't sure how to do it at first to get a smooth look. I started by just using a knife but that wasn't looking great so I tried piping it. It worked so much better. I just piped the outline of the head shape and then filled some inside.
I smoothed it out with a wet knife. I had a wet paper towel to wipe the knife clean between cupcakes. Then I dipped the knife into a glass of water before smoothing. Worked great.
Here are all the different bases for the cupcakes. I only had one icing bag so I washed out the bag between each colour (a pain but I planned it well) I started with the pink, the extra icing I turned red. I also mixed the extra yellow and blue to make the green - I added a bit more yellow colouring to make the colour green I wanted.
Then I added all the chocolate pieces as well as used a small tip to add details.
I love how Plex turned out. I was most nervous about making him and now he's my favourite.
Brodee - you don't get the true goofiness of him without his body.
Foofa - I made the pink icing a little darker than I had planned - I was trying to get it lighter than the chocolate. It doesn't take much of the gel colouring to dye the icing. Oh well, she's still cute. I added a yellow m&m to the flower and painted eyelashes using the gel colouring with a thin new paintbrush.
Mono - who can't like Mono and his big eye. The red m&m for his spots turned out cute.
Toodee - her eyes are a little off but still a sweetie.

Also in case you're wondering - I didn't make 2 cakes. The Elmo cake was made by my friend Deb for her daughter - our girls birthdays are only a week apart so we did a joint party for them. She made her cake by renting the cake pan at Bulk Barn. They have the icing pattern on the pan as well. She did a great job. Lots of stained tongues after this party.

How to make princess shoes

2010-03-28T09:11:00.002-04:00

I'm sure like many kids out there, my girls love to dress up. And as part of dressing up is putting on princess shoes. For Lilo's birthday a few years back she got a whole set of princess shoes - you know those hard plastic high heels. Lilo wasn't really into wearing them lots but when Isla got older she started to wear them lots which was weird to see a 18 month old wearing heels. But because her feet are shorter the shoe, she was putting pressure just before the heel and then the heels started to break off leaving a jagged sharp end. I think we threw out 3 shoes in a week.

Anyways I thought I would come up with a safer princess shoe - one that won't break and something they can wear on the stairs - those plastic ones made me nervous.

So the dollar store to the rescue. I found these sandal and thought they would be great to decorate into our personalized princess shoes.
After finally getting some better glue (the only glue I owned before was white glue, glue stick and glue gun - the glue gun might have worked but I was afraid it would melt the shoe), we got to decorating.

I collected all the pretty things I had around; jewels, sequins, ribbon, broken lei flowers, and feathers that have fallen off the dress up boas.
This is the gorgeous pair that Lilo made herself. The butterflies were from the dollar store too. She added the blue jewel as the finish touch.
I made Isla's pair (she was napping). Isla loves them and doesn't want to take them off.
Lilo is very proud of the shoes.

How to make pinwheels

2010-03-20T09:04:00.004-04:00

Since I'm now working full time it's really cutting into my crafting and blogging time. So I thought I'd pull something that I did in the summer and didn't post - plus with this beautiful spring weather we've been having I thought it would be cute. (I started writing this when the weather was still warm - today it was snowing a bit so I guess spring isn't quite here yet.)

At the end of the summer last year I made these for decorations for a weekend bbq. The kids thought they were fun even if the wind just turned the pencils in the vases verses actually spinning the pinwheels.

I got the tutorial on ohdeedoh. Look there for the full tutorial - I'll just brief over what I did. First do not to use heavy weight scrapbooking paper - I had this pretty heavier paper that was printed on both sides but it didn't want to bend very well for this project. I used plain scrapbooking paper cut into 5"x5" squares. Then folded in half in a triangle and then folded the other way and cut up the fold line half way. I found it easiest to pre-prick the holes on the tips so it went together easier. I used pins from the dollar store (that aren't good for anything else) and cut them down to about 1/2" or maybe less. I pulled the 4 corners together with the pin and through the centre and then I used a small seed bead as a spacer before I stuck the pin into the eraser of the pencil. The spacer just helps it to spin. I also put a dab of glue on the end of the pin in hopes that they would stay in place. They didn't stay together but I think they held up a bit longer because of this.

I had a bunch of coloured pencils - which actually say "Vone's pencil HANDS OFF!!!" on them from my sister-in-law that I used. She got them for me because I complained that I could never find anything with my name on it as a child so that Christmas I got 3-4 things with my name on them.

I put them in Vodka shot glasses. I don't think we've ever used them for vodka and they are pretty big for a regular shot so they've mostly been used for small flowers and decorations.

Pinwheels would be fun to make with the kids for the windy spring weather.

How to paint your kitchen blacksplash

2010-03-02T16:39:00.006-05:00

Here's another room makeover we did to update our house.
The before picture looks better than it was since I had already taken down the country boarder and my husband had fixed the hole in the ceiling from a leaking pipe already.

It's amazing what a difference painting the back splash was - and removing all the clutter. I also made new curtains and my husband spray painted the stove hood so it blended in better (not the aged beige that it was).
We had some extra kitchen tiles so I made up a few samples first. I wish I had taken a photo of the finished tiles. I did one with lots of texture, a little, none and one white base. It was good to get other people opinion and to try it out different techniques first.

First I cleaned the back splash well with TSP. Then taped it off for painting. I primed the tiles with a foam roller, a nice even coat of good primer - stuff that said it was good for glossy surfaces.

Next again using a foam roller painted on the base coat - which was 2 shades darker than the walls.

Now to add texture. I mixed up glaze with the wall colour, as well as the lighter trim colour for variation. Plus I had some base colour to mix with too to add depth.

I used a sea sponge, a foam brush, a thin artist brush and a bunch of clean rags to get the look I wanted.

I started by using the lightest colour (glaze/paint mix) and tapped it in the grout lines with the foam brush.

Then wiped off the tiles, trying to leave the paint in the grout.

Then using a variety of the 3 colour of paint, I sponged them on the tiles.

And then using a tapping motion removed most of it with a clean dry rag.

Then using an artist brush I added more paint in the grout and wiped off any extra.

I put 2 coats of polyurethane over top to seal it all in and give it a bit of a gloss.
I think it looks amazing. You wouldn't guess it was painted. I think the key is to spend the time on the grout. This wasn't a fast project but it was well worth it since it's updated the dated kitchen so much.

If we were staying we were thinking of painting the cabinets as well but at least the horrible tiles are covered up. We only wished we had done this sooner. Since I already had the primer and glaze, the project cost only $30.

It also seems like it should last a while as long as you don't scratch it too much (which you don't do much of on a back splash). Since it's coated with polyurethane it wipes up easy too. And really even if it chipped a bit it would still look better than it did. I think the key is making sure it dries well in between coats and adding at least 2 coats of polyurethane.

How to make Olympic cookies

2010-02-25T14:24:00.002-05:00

The other weekend we went to my sister-in-law's house and watched the opening ceremonies for the Olympic and she made these super cute Olympic ring cookies.
She started with a tube of store bought cookie dough and cut them into 1/4" or so slices and flatten them a bit onto a cookie sheet. Then slightly undercooked them (just need them really soft). Right when they come out, using a cup or something round cut out the centre of the cookies to make the rings and let cool completely before removing the rings. We then coloured up some store bought icing in the colours of the rings. We tried to make black but it ended up looking more purple so we used one of the gel icing tubes she had for the black.

Here are the kids sampling the icing.

After admiring and taking pictures of the rings we let the kids choose a ring to decorate with sprinkles.

Doesn't it just make your teeth hurt.

And of course the inside cookie of the rings got snacked on by the parents while the kids decorated. I thought it was such a fun and simple way to get the kids in the Olympic spirit.

And to get us all in the spirit more, my husband put together an Olympic pool like he did last winter Olympics but this time we posted it all on the wall. The basics of the pool is that we split up all the events so we all can get points if Canada medals or gets top 10 in that event. And we also got 2 bonus countries, countries that were ranked 11-27 last Olympics, that we would get points for too. And well to make it a bit more interesting you lost points if USA medals in that event.

It a fun way to keep interested in all events and cheer on some other countries - Go Belarus and France :)

Looking forward to the exciting conclusion of the Olympics. GO CANADA GO!!!

How to extend the life of hand me downs - part 3

2010-02-22T18:25:00.003-05:00

I have another pair of jeans with a hole in the knee. Why do kids wear them out? Oh well I'm still liking the patches so I'm ok with patching them up. So here is patch up number 3.

I decided to do something a little different this time. One side is a truck and the other a Jeep - since girls like trucks too. The patches are in a printed jersey knit ironed on with fusible web and then I did a straight stitch around them. I didn't have to use a zig-zag like I did on this one or this one since the knit won't fray. From doing this one I realized that you should keep your patch in a simple shape as these were a pain to fit under the sewing machine to sew.

Muffin Tin Monday - pink

2010-02-22T12:39:00.004-05:00

The theme on Muffin Tin Mom's blog was actually "Orange" but we made "Pinkalicious" cupcakes this weekend so I thought we'd go with pink instead this week.

Strawberry milk, the Pinkalicious cupcake, crackers with cream cheese and raspberry jam
turkey, cherry yogurt, apple sauce with food colouring.

Of course both girls went for the cupcake first so I took Isla's away for later and told Lilo that she needed to eat everything else first before she ate the cupcake. And she did. Isla didn't eat everything but she's forgotten about the cupcake. She would only pick the icing off anyways so I might as well eat it :)

You can check out other people's Orange muffin tin meals here.

How to make a faux fireplace screen & dress a mantel

2010-02-19T08:57:00.008-05:00

We just sold our house and therefore finally got to all the projects we'd been meaning to get to since we moved in. Here's the transformation of the fireplace room.

This is how we lived before. The horrible wallpaper, messy books, lots of toys, a clutter of small pictures and a tv in the fireplace.

And look at it now - amazing isn't it? First I painted over the wall paper; one even coat of primer and then one coat of Soft Dove paint (which was the same colour we painted the kitchen, back hall, downstairs bathroom and upstairs bathroom)

The big artwork was bought for $5 at a garage sale. I cut some branches from the backyard and put in a vase with some stones and added a little bird for some whimsy.

We also moved some furniture around which really brighten the room up. Re-arranged the books and added some of our pictures on the book shelves. Removed 2 bins of toys and then put the white chair from the hall in to fill the empty spot.

And then I made a super cool fireplace screen. I was inspired by a fireplace screen from Crate and Barrel. So instead of spending $200, I got the look for only $20.

Have you guys ever made a project behind your spouses back since you know they wouldn't get it until they see the final product? Well this was one for me but I think I proved to him at the end that it was worth it.

Here's how I made the screen but just so you know it's for decoration only and not to be used with an actual fire since it's made from plastic and wood.

I bought 2 pieces of 1 1/2" x 3/4" wood and cut them into 2 pieces of 27 1/2" and 2 pieces of 30" - since the opening of the fireplace is 23X26. Then I sanded the cut edges and put them together like the photo above. I put the cut edges out since they weren't the most even and therefore could make the frame not even or squared (this comes from hand cutting the wood myself).

To attach the frame together I used some white glue and staples. I put 3 staples on both sides and was surprized how sturdy the frame was. I then painted the frame since I thought it might be a pain to get an even coat of spray paint on after it was done.

Then I covered the frame with screening and stapled around. The corners I just folded and stapled until they were flat and then trimmed the extra off. You could cover the edges with something, like tape or something, to make it look neater but I didn't.

I got some branches from the back yard and cut them up and arranged them on the screen. I then glued them down using a glue gun - which you shouldn't do. They didn't stay very well. I really need to find some better glue for next time. But to keep them in place while I was gluing (or while your better glue is drying) I cut some wire to hold in place.

I made some "V" with the craft wire so I could thread from the back of the screen around the branches and twist them closed. I curled the ends of the wire so they weren't sharp and looked better.

Then to keep it all flat while the branches dried, I came up with this fancy flattening devise. I put some fabric down first so the branches could lie on it and not indent the screening and then piled a bunch of heavy stuff on top. And then I left it for a few days to dry.

To make the leaves I cut up pop cans like I did for the Christmas decorations I made. I don't know how many leaves I cut but it was a lot, I think it was 6 coke cans. I didn't use a pattern to cut out the leaves I just made a variety of sizes. Then using a pen draw a line down the middle. I sanded the edges using a sand paper on a block. I didn't take a lot of time sanding, just enough to get the really rough edges off. That being said it's not something I would want my kids playing with but you could sand more if you wanted. Then glued on the leaves until it looks full - again I only used white glue which wasn't the best glue for the job but it worked for now.

I sprayed 2 coats of black spray paint all over. Again if you had more time you could spray the back too so you couldn't see any of the cans anymore. I just used black adding a copper finish over would look cool too.
I just leaned the screen over the fireplace but you could make feet or something if you had more time.

My sister-in-law wants this for her place so I might play around with it more but right now I love it.

I love how it looks now. I only wished I had painted that wallpaper ages ago. I wonder how long before the tv is back at least with the screen it can be covered. And in case you're wondering the fireplace doesn't have an insert in it so it can't be used right now, that's why the tv got put there.

How to make super cute, easy, cheap Valentines clips

2010-02-12T10:36:00.002-05:00

These clips took no time at all to make and I think they look super cute. I bought these felt heart stickers at the dollar store for the girls to make Valentines card with. They've made some but the backs are hard to come off so it wasn't an independent project like I'd hoped. Anyways we still had some left and I happened to have a clip in my pocket so I thought that this might work.

For the larger clips I used a large heart and a small one and the smaller clip only took a large heart. You need 2 of each heart for the back and front.

Take the big heart and place with right side out under the clip. Then mark where the opening is.

Then cut out where the opening is and keep that piece (it's not pictured but you'll need it later so don't throw it out).

Put the back piece on first to place around the opening. Then place the front over it, this is tricky since they are very sticky and you only have one try and placing it right. If you have some overlap at all you can trim it off. Then take the back opening piece that you saved and try and fit it under the clip so that hair doesn't get stuck on the sticky part.

Then you can put the smaller heart on from the front and cover with the back heart.

I added stitch lines with a black pen. You can do this before or after you attach the hearts on the clip. It's easier to add them before but if you have to trim if the hearts don't match up exactly it might trim some of it off. The first one I did after because I didn't think of it until after but the others I did before.

Since Isla didn't feel like wearing the clip today I got Dora to fill in for her.

She looks like she likes them - doesn't she?

I kinda wish I thought of these before since they were so easy, cheap and cute. They would have made cute gifts for the kids at Lilo's school, but I guess what would you do for the boys?

So instead I had already made these bracelets or for the boys - Power Bands.

We did have them on a piece of card and Lilo wrote her name and a heart on them but I forgot before she left this morning to take a photo of them - so here are the extras.

I got the idea from here but I used elastic for the bands instead and I didn't use super nice felt like her so I'm not sure how long they will hold up. Oh well, they will look cute for today.

How to make a jewelry organizer

2010-02-10T14:40:00.002-05:00

I finally, in January, got around to organizing my jewelry. It only took me 3 years to get it done. We have this gap in the closet organizer that is perfect to put my jewelry.

I've seen many organizers for necklaces that fit half a dozen or so necklaces but I don't throw my necklaces out since you never know when you might want to wear them so as you can see I have a lot more. I decided to use to an old rail that we had from Ikea and the hooks.

I still had to double or triple up my necklaces but at least they aren't all tangled in the basket anymore and I can see them.

For my earrings I took an old canvas that I had tried to paint but it was not successful and had been sitting in the basement for years. I cut out the canvas and stretched mesh screening over it and stapled into place. Then I used some ribbon to trim it. The ribbon works well to be able to pin my brooches to (not that I wear them but they look pretty don't they?)

I still have my basket filled with broken jewelry and odd stuff but most of it's organized. I put my earrings with the backings in an old jewelry box that I got a beautiful necklace in. I can close it up and keep them all together. I also have a small box behind it that I have some bracelets in. And I even have some space for a few of the hubby's hats and belts.

I know it would prettier if I had painted this spot first but it had taken me this long just to get this done that I didn't care, I'm just happy to be able to see all my jewelry and not to untangle a necklace every time I want to wear one.

How to make a feather necklace

2010-01-30T07:57:00.003-05:00

I just thought I'd add a photo of the feather necklace I made since people seems to have liked the earring so much.

Short post today since we're busy getting our house ready to sell. So we've been busy painting, cleaning, installing new carpet and hiding toys. It's funny how empty a room can look when you remove all the toys.

Muffin Tin Monday - ABC

2010-01-25T12:16:00.002-05:00

This weeks Muffin Tin Monday theme is ABC/ 1 2 3. Since I've done some number muffin tins before I thought I'd work with the ABCs but do all the letters and see how many letter of the alphabet we could find food for.

I started with two 12 cup muffin tins and one 6 cup one and cut out all the letters of the alphabet and taped them to the muffin tins. Then I just started going through the kitchen seeing what would work. Lilo and I worked together. I had another small tin for Isla to snack on while we were making it. Here's what we got.

A: Apples, B: Broccoli, C: Cheese, D: couldn't think of anything, E: Elephant animal crackers, F: again drew a blank and didn't want to make any fish or french fries for lunch, G: Grapes, H: Hotdogs, I: Crushed Ice, J: Juice, K: Ketchup, L: Lion animal crackers.

M: Milk, N: Noodles, O: Orange, P: Pickles, Q: don't have anything here either (Isla dropped something but really what starts with Q), R: Red Pepper (that I will be eating when they are done), S: Syrup, T: could have been toast or tomato but I didn't do anything, U: again nothing just Isla's extras, V: Vegetables (carrots and cucumbers), W: Waffle, X: again nothing.

Finally Y: Yogurt and nothing for Z.

If I had actually planned it I might have gotten more letters but for an on the spot lunch I thought I did pretty good. Since it was a huge muffin tin lunch I had them share it and I ate the left overs :)

Check out what other people did over at Muffin Tin Mom.

How to make feather earrings

2010-01-19T10:34:00.003-05:00

More Christmas presents I made, here are some feather earrings made from leather and beads. This was another gift made from my stash of stuff, nothing purchased to make them.

I went through my stash of leather scraps and finally got to use some of the printed leather swatches. I cut out 2 feather shapes for each earring. I used my punch to make holes in the top feather, a combination of small and bigger holes. I also made a small hole at the top of each feather.

Then I created a string of beads using an assortment of coordinating bead that I had. I made a loop at the top so I could string it all together.

Then I took a piece of coated wire and strung on a crimp bead, black spacer bead, red feather, another black spacer bead, printed feather, bead string, black spacer bead, another crimp bead and then the earring.

Thread the wire back through to create a hoop. Then using pliers, crimp the crimp beads and trim extra wire. The challenge is to make the hoop the same size on the other earring.
I made 2 pairs but would like to make more, I really like how they turned out. So package them I used a blank gift tag that I had printed and punched small holes to fit the earrings in.

How to fix mitts so your toddler can't get them off

2010-01-15T15:55:00.003-05:00

This fall my cute little toddler did not like to keeping her mitts or boots on when we were outside. We walk Lilo to school everyday and I would fight with her to keep them on. It would be below zero (Celsius) outside and Isla would have bare hands and feet and I would look like the horrible mother.
Luckily as it got colder and she was wearing snow pants she would at least keep her boots on but not the mitts.

Finally before Christmas I realized that I need to figure something out now since we were visiting family up north where they had lots of snow.
Here is the 2nd attempt at the mitts.I found an old pair of socks, they were very worn at the foot but the rest was in good shape. I cut the foot off.

Then with right sides together sewed the top of sock to the mitt.

And there you go. The elastic on the sock keeps them up and now I can easily slip a coat over. This also prevents her getting snow up her sleeve. I know there are longer mitts out there but the elastic in the sock makes it harder (not impossible) for her to remove them. Also you can put the mitts on over the coat if they do come off. They can easily stretch over top.

As I said this was attempt #2 - the first was with the bottom of a sleeve of a sweater but there wasn't any spandex in it so it stretched out of shape and was slipping off. I took it off and tried this sock instead, I'm thinking it should work better.

How to make a City Play Mat for toy cars

2010-01-12T15:34:00.003-05:00

Here is another gift I made this Christmas. I ended up making 3 of them and only used scraps that I had on hand. Well almost, I did end up having to buy one spool of yellow thread since I ran out after I finished the 1st one.

First I drew out a plan on a piece of paper. Then transferred the road on to one of the base fabrics. I then went through all my scraps and found what would work. I cut out pieces for all 3 at the same time so I could sew all 3 in a production line and not have to keep switching thread.

I was thinking of using fusible web to place everything down but I didn't feel like wasting all that web and time. So I just pinned when needed.

I first sewed on the windows and doors to buildings. I used adhesive felt for the doors and letters since it was easier to cut out and stick in place, the only problem with this is my sewing machines didn't like the white adhesive felt. The needle got really sticky and gunky and the thread would break, so I can to do those pieces by hand - I am not a hand sewer so this was a pain. Thankfully the other colours weren't as bad, a few skipped stitches and had to wipe down the needle but otherwise I could use my machine and avoid hand sewing everything.

I used a small zig zag to sew the road down. Then started on the buildings. If fabric was a woven like some of the houses - I zig zagged around them. If they were just felt, like the school and fire hall, I just straight stitched around them.

The lines on the road were just yellow thread in a wide zig zag. To speed things up I didn't measure them out, just eyeballed them, using my presser foot as a gauge for length and distance between them. To avoid having to back stitch each line I just started each line with a couple straight stitches and ended the same way and since the stitch length is so short it keeps it from coming apart. I also didn't cut anything threads between lines while sewing, I waited and did it all at the end.

To finish off the mat, I just cut another piece of fabric the same side and sewed around leaving a space to flip and then pressed and top stitched all around, closing the hole.

Since I gave 2 away as gifts I printed out the photography I took of play mat set up with other toys we have and then folded with a ribbon. I like how it looks very professional.

It was a lot of work but I think they turned out fun, my girls are enjoying the one we kept.

The one set I gave with a set of cars, the other I gave to a boy who I knew had a ton of cars so I gave a set of animals for the zoo.

How to make a year in review scrapbook

2010-01-10T08:36:00.006-05:00

I'm excited that I finished (well 99% finished) my first scrapbook. Last Christmas I was looking through one of my sister-in-laws scrapbooking books "Real.Simple.Scrapbooking" by Rebecca Cooper. I like looking at ideas but I don't want to get into scrapbooking since I have enough crafts I'm into, but they had this simple idea that I thought looked easy and fun. It was a year in review album and my sister-in-law and I said that we would each do one and show it to each other the following Christmas.
The concept is to keep track all year, all of the stuff you did each month. I had post-it notes (this year a notebook) for each month and just jotted down what we did or what happened; such as, weddings, birthday parties, concerts or shows we went to, and things like; Isla took her first step, first words, etc. And I even added some of the cute quotes or saying that Lilo had said, "Don't eber, eber. You don't sit on prickles" (referring to cactus when in Arizona).
Then print 1 pictures to represent that month.
Since this Rebecca Cooper and others of you might scrapbook the big events in your life this concept might work great for you - but for me since this is the only printed record of what we did I couldn't decide on just one photo. I also expanded the book to included a few other things, like news stories of 2009, friends and family page and also to be added music of 2009.
I know, now I took a simple book and made it complicated, but it worked for me.
I used a 8x8 book but if you're doing a single photo per month then you can use one of the mini photo albums, you just have to make sure there are at least 26 pages in it (13 pages double sided). The 8x8 one I bought only had 20 so I bought a pack of refills to add. I ended up using 28 pages.

The first page was News Stories of 2009, plus I added some prices from Dec 31, 2009; Gas, milk, bread and transit. You know so we could say - I remember when gas was only $.983/L and you could buy 4L of milk for under $4 - when we get old and grumpy :)

Here are some pages from the book. On the left side I printed off the list of stuff we did onto a 7x7 square of scrapbooking paper. I got a bunch of scrapbooking paper from my sister-in-law for a different project I was working on and decided not to do. If you don't have scrapbooking paper, anything would work but I did like how it added to the book.
As for the pictures, I cropped and cut out some of them to fit them all in. This is one of the pages that I thought if I only do one picture per page you might never see a picture of my husband or I - just the kids, even so it's mostly the kids.

Here is one of the cool papers that I had that I thought really made the page - thanks Janet for the paper, I'm going to have to hit you up for some fresh ones for the 2010 book.

I was also thinking that I might add some notes by the photos to help remember what was going on then. Such as I forgot to add in the notes of the month in April my husband shaved off his bread of 8 years but I have a photo.

Or notes beside Isla's picture of her pointing at the Disney parade and the other photo of us watching dolphin at Sea World.

I like the mix of cut out pictures with the clean line cropped ones.

I kept the ticket stub from my birthday surprize concert we went to and added it to September.

Isn't this paper beautiful.

And then as I was about to clean up after Christmas and another year of not knowing what to do with the photo cards from friends, I thought to add another page to my book.

I cut out the photos and added them to a friends and family page.
I wrote out their names under the photo (probably should have added ages also - next year). I also thought this would be a good place to add birth announcements (or add them to the month they were born if have room)

The final page that I haven't finished is the Music of 2009. My husband made a play list of songs that we listened to this year, some might have come out in 2008 but they were big in 09. I want to burn a CD and print out the list of songs to add to the last page.

I'm looking forward to making one of these each year. I think it will be fun to look back at the years before, it's almost like a scrapbooking diary.

I wrote the notes as they happened but didn't start putting the book together until after Christmas. I guess ideally you could do each page as the year went on. I'll see what happens this year.

I hope to have inspired some of you to make your own, as my sister-in-law said 2010 is a good year to start.

How to make a tent for over your table

2010-01-07T14:41:00.003-05:00

This is actually something I made last year but it got locked in a closet and we just found the key again - thanks Isla (she's the one that lost it, not found it)

The tent was my husbands idea after Lilo kept getting frustrated that the blanket we were using over the table was always slipping off.
The table in our basement comes out from the wall and is higher and only has one leg so it works pretty well but I'm sure any table would do.

First I cut a piece of fabric and placed on top of the table and traced it out adding 1/2" for seam allowance. Since the table was taller than the width of the fabric I cut out 3 length of fabric and serged one edge and then I added windows.
The windows are clear plastic from a saved comforter bag (you know the ones with the zippers on them). I cut out a rectangle shape from the plastic and taped in to the fabric - then sewed around twice about 1/4" apart. Then I cut out the tent fabric from the inside of the window. I used pinking shears so it wouldn't fray.
Then I sewed the pieces to the top, overlapping the pieces about 1" (but you could do more) to make doors.
I found the tent was still slipping off the table since the fabric is pretty light. So I used some left over carpet grip stuff, the plasticy stuff that you put under your rugs so they don't slip. I traced the top of the table and tacked that to the tent. It works well now.

It's a fun distraction when it's cold or rainy outside.

I wanted to thank everyone for a great 2009 - I can't believe I had 97 posts and now have 29 followers. Hopefully I can keep it up in 2010.

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-01-04T14:42:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year everyone
There was no theme today for the Muffin Tins so I went with some leftovers and had fun with the grapes.

Pizza cut into bite sizes, grapes on sticks, banana chips and cheese which I had tried to skewer but it didn't work.

Lilo is learning about repeats and patterns at school so I thought she'd like the grapes.

Check out other muffin tins over here.

How to make the Ultimate Turkey Leftover Sandwich

2009-12-26T14:08:00.003-05:00

My husband introduced me to his family tradition of the Ultimate Turkey Leftover Sandwich. I'll admit when I first heard of it I thought it sounded a little gross but boy was I wrong.

First take out all your leftovers from your turkey dinner; the Turkey, the Stuffing, and the Cranberry sauce. Then butter 2 slices of bread and cut thin slices of cheese. To build the sandwich, you start with the bread with the butter side out, then a thin layer of cheese, followed by a thin layer of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce then topped with another thin layer of cheese. The second layer of cheese is optional. The key to making the sandwich work is thin layers, otherwise it will sit like a brick in your stomach.

Now grill them like a grilled cheese sandwich. This sandwich press I have is great for these sandwiches but a frying pan will also work, you just have to be careful when flipping so you don't lose all the insides. Also cook on a lower temperature so the inside heats up. If using a frying pan just squish the sandwich down so have the layers melt together.

And Volia - the Ultimate Turkey Leftover Sandwich. It's so wrong but so yummy.

How to make more ornaments

2009-12-24T08:49:00.003-05:00

Here are few last minute ornaments I made yesterday for our babysitters. We have a family of 3 girls up the street that take turns watching our girls when we need. It's very handy to have 3 options in one house.
I wasn't sure what to make/ get for them but at the last minute thought of personalized ornaments.
I made this one from an Arizona Ice Tea can. I cut out all the letters, sanded them and glue gunned it to a popsicle stick. Check out here how I made other ornaments from pop cans.

The problem is these girls have long names :) So I glittered a big J here. I glittered both side this time. Then on from opaque stencil plastic I used white glue and glitter to write the rest of her name out. I used a glue gun to add this piece to the edge of the J. It would also be cute to just do initials. Here is the other glittery ornaments we made.

And since I had some of my book left from the other paper ornament I made I came up with this one. I took about 15-20 pages from the book and wrote out the name. Then with an x-acto knife I cut out all layers. Using white glue I glued all the layers together. I used a small amount of glue on the inside of the letter, leaving the edges so when it was all stacked together you could see the individual layers. I then used a white iridescent paint to wash over the letters. On the edges I used a dark bronze colour paint. Then glue gunned to a popsicle stick and glued a ribbon to the back.

I like how they can be used as tree ornaments but also could be used just as room decorations too - a cute gift for anytime of the year.

Hope everyone is having a fun, stress free holiday. Merry Christmas.

How to make a tea party play-mat

2009-12-22T16:46:00.003-05:00

Here is one of the projects I have been working on for Christmas presents, a tea party play-mat. I love how it turned out. For Christmas this year, I decided to make a few things and try not to buy anything since I have so much fabric and stuff that I shouldn't have to. So all I bought for this play mat was the tea set and I also got a cute basket at the dollar store to store it all in.

The fabric is a combination of inherited fabric, left over from Lilo's baby's room and odd scraps.

To make, I just zig zagged all the pieces in place. Since I didn't use any fusible web (because I was lazy and didn't think I needed to waste it) I found it easier to sew the outer plate on the place mat first and then work my way in to the flower last and then sew the place mat to the table cloth. The first time I tried, I sewed the flower on to the inside layer of the plate but it stretched the fabric a bit and didn't lie as flat so I found more layers of fabric made it lie flatter - plus a good ironing.

I sewed a ribbon in a ring to hold the napkins in place. The napkin I just sewed the edges over and trimmed one end with lace.

I was originally thinking of double layering the table cloth but the fabric was heavy enough that I didn't think it was necessary so I just trimmed the edges in the floral fabric.

This tea party set was for a friend's little girl. When I was setting it up to take photos Lilo was so excited, which I'm happy about since I made her one too (in different coloured scraps, no photo since Lilo has decided not to nap lately)

Muffin Tin Monday (late) Christmas

2009-12-22T16:22:00.003-05:00

I wasn't feeling super creative so this is what I came up with.

Santa hat (toast with jam and cream cheese), broccoli Christmas tree with cheese star, shortbread cookie, Christmas orange, pear reindeer again, and reindeer food (Kraft dinner since we had left overs)

Merry Christmas everyone.

Check over here for more great muffin tins.

How to make ornaments out of pop cans

2009-12-17T14:47:00.002-05:00

I saw this idea last year and finally got around to trying it and I love it. It's super simple to do - check out full instructions here.

Start off with an aluminum pop can and using heavy scissors cut the top and bottom off and down the side (near the Nutrition Facts part since you won't want to use that part). Wipe clean and lay flat. Then trace or draw out the image you want. You can use a pencil/ pen or I had some other pointy thing that I think is for rubbing off transfer sticker (from university or something). Draw out the image and add some detail lines and cut out. Becareful as the edges are sharp but they weren't as bad as I thought they would be.

Using sandpaper on a block smooth out the edges and distress. If you added detail lines on the inside of the can then when sanding on the coloured side they will become silver when sanded. If you add detail lines on the coloured side, they will stay coloured when sanded. So play to get the look you want.
Circles that I used a hammer punch to make holes and linked together with rings.

This is why you want to avoid the Nutrition Facts - it doesn't look very good.

This star I added the detail line on the coloured side so you can still see them. I like that effect too. The small star was glue gunned on afterwards.
For the holly ornament - I cut out 3 leaves and used the back side of them and then the berries are the coloured side. Then I glue gunned them together adding a bow on a loop behind it.

I added it to this small box. All I did was wrap the box with the ribbon and then used a paper clip to hold the ornament in place.

We only drink coke in our house, so we only have red cans. I did take a green can home from when we were at a friends place which I want to use to make another holly ornament. Also when I was walking with Isla the other day I found a few more cans on the ground, a blue can and one of the pretty Arizona Ice Tea ones. Amazing the pretty stuff you can make from garbage.

How extend the life of hand me downs - Part 2

2009-12-16T14:36:00.003-05:00

Here is the 2nd pair of hand me down jeans that I've patched up the knees. I love them even more than before. I picked stars for the appliques because the back pockets have star embroidery (I should have taken a picture, this was just a quick photo before we dropped Lilo off to school the other day)
Pair #1 almost don't fit anymore, but they were so cute. I like that I'm making her hand-me downs even better then they originally were (not that she's picky, yet :)

I wrote up a "How to" with the first pair if you want to check it out.

One more pair to go, not sure what to do yet. Maybe butterflies, or hearts?

How to make a glittery ornament

2009-12-15T14:00:00.003-05:00

I was trying to come up with a gift idea for Lilo to make for the family and I was getting a little stumped. I asked her what she thought Oma would like and she said a new pair of glasses. So that's when I thought of these glittery ornaments.

I found some old cardboard from a cereal box and drew out a shape of the glasses and cut out. Then on the printed side we covered it with white glue using a paint brush to smooth it all over. Then over a piece of paper sprinkle glitter. Reuse the glitter to cover any missed spots. Then leave to dry. When they were dry I sprayed a light dusting of aerosol hairspray to fix the glitter. I remember using hairspray as a fixative in university and it works pretty well, otherwise the glitter would just keep falling off.

Once it's dry you can add other decorations to make it more beautiful (Lilo's words). For the fish it would probably be best to leave to dry between colours but we didn't. The pink glitter around the eye was put there because Lilo put so much glue to stick the eye on.

The wrench is for my brother - Lilo's idea since he's a carpenter.

If you want you can add more glitter to the back of the ornament. I decided not to and I had Lilo write her name and the year instead.

And my wreath I made last year I submitted to contest on Dollar Store Crafts. If you can please go over and vote for me that would be great.

How to make snowflake ornaments with small kids

2009-12-14T14:33:00.003-05:00

I was trying to clean up one of the junk cupboards that I have full of craft stuff and I found some cotton balls and Popsicle sticks. I saw someone make snowflake ornaments with Popsicle sticks and buttons and was wondering if cotton balls would work.
As I took out the supplies, cotton balls, Popsicle sticks and white glue. Isla also hopped up and started helping right away. She grabbed the glue and just started going to town. It was neat to see her really enjoying it and actually doing it by herself.
After all the cotton balls were on I quickly took it away to dry - since Isla just wanted to play with it more. I added a bit more glue to make sure the cotton balls were going to stay on.
The next day, when Lilo was making her ornaments (I'll post later) Isla was wanting to do something too, so that's when I thought about adding the snowflake sequins.

On the back I glue gunned a piece of string to hang it from and wrote Isla's name and year.

Looking at it now I could have put another Popsicle stick. I did try to space them out more but the glue is slippery before it dries and a 20 month old isn't that patient.
I still think they turned out super cute.

Muffin Tin Monday - Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer

2009-12-14T12:20:00.003-05:00

This weeks theme over at Her Cup Overflowth is Christmas stories. I originally thought it would be fun to do the 12 days of Christmas and use a large muffin tin but then I drew a blank after 4 or 5.
Last night Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer was on tv and I remembered last week someone posted this reindeer made from a pear that was super cute. So I went with that.
Snowman is made from leftover mash potatoes, pear reindeer, and the abominable snowman made from cream cheese on bread. Oh and the mini marshmallows are the snow, I couldn't think of anything for the other 2 spots.

How to make ornaments out of an old book

2009-12-12T09:02:00.004-05:00

Here is one of the ornaments I have been working on the past few weeks. I was inspired by Zakka Life where they made a similar style ornament with felt.
The first one I made I used an old magazine but I like the look of the text on the book.

So the first step was to go to our book shelf and find books that I know I will never read again and don't mind giving up - or you can go to the Good Will. I thought I could part with my copy of Staying Alive.

Rip out a section or 2 from the book - I think I took about 25 pages but it could have used a bit more. Trace out a circle twice and cut out. Put all 50 (or so) circles on top of each other. Fold the top circle in half and make a crease, use this as your sewing guide. Sew across the crease using a large stitch length. I have an industrial sewing machine so it could get through it no problem. If your machine can't you could do it in 2 or 3 sections and then just glue gun the pieces together on the stitching. Don't back tack your stitches, it will just make the paper tear so just leave long thread tails.

Then I would take the thread tails and untwist and tie a knot at each end. Pull the loose threads to the center and trim to 1/2" and glue gun down to seam (I didn't do this until the end and the threads kept getting in the way so it would be easier to do it first).

Since the edges of the paper were a little rough I used some sandpaper on the edges to smooth them out - optional, I just had some sandpaper around for another project so I used it. When using the sandpaper don't use too close to the thread or it will rip it.

Then take the first page and glue a dot in the middle - not too close to the edges so the glue doesn't spill out.

Turn to the next page and put 2 glue dots spaced apart like the picture. And then continue to alternate for both sides of the circle and leave to dry.

There is an example of putting too much glue, too close to the edge. It made all the pages stick together - a big mess. If a few pages get stuck together you can gently get them apart. This one on the other hand could not be saved.
While it's drying get the ornament hanger ready. I used some coated wire stuff that I had from days when I was making necklaces but anything that you can thread a bead onto would work.

Make a big loop at top and add some beads. For the bottom I put the gold coloured bead on first, then the silver ball and then back through the gold bead.

Glue gun the wire to the seam of the circle - pulling the wire tight at the bottom and making the loop the size you want to hang at the top. Trim extra wire.

Then gently pull apart pieces to join the last pages together. Using a glue gun join them.

Take some metallic paint and lightly brush on the edges to add some glitz.

We don't have our tree up yet so I took pictures on this mini tree we have, a little silly looking, I know :)

Muffin Tin Monday - Christmas morning theme

2009-12-07T12:22:00.005-05:00

Today's theme was Christmas morning. I made fresh waffles and then cut in 4 and put on a plate to represent a tree. Then the muffin tin was filled with treats to decorate the tree with.
Chocolate chips, almonds, apple sauce with sprinkles, bananas, craisins, mini marshmallows.

This is Lilo's decorated tree.

She was proud of her creation and ate it all.

Isla - on the other hand - ate the chocolate, marshmallows and a few bites of waffle.

Check out other Muffin Tins over here.

How to make a flour shaker

2009-12-07T10:01:00.004-05:00

A few weeks back I had a peorgie making day at my place with another family. It was the first time I held a perogie day and, well, we learned a lot. Hopefully next year we will be better organized, and more efficient. But all in all it was fun, tiring and both families were left with at least 12 dozen big perogies.

A couple years ago I joined my friend's family on their perogie day and the one thing they had was a flour shaker for bench flour - it was a Pampered Chef thing. Just before our friends came over I got my husband to make one for us.

All he did was drill some small holes in a top of a mason jar - then fill jar with flour.

Then sprinkle flour when needed. (it's hard to take a picture with one hand of the other hand)

To store the flour when not in use, I just put a second lid on top of the holed one and put the ring back on.

I thought I'd share since I'm sure this will come in handy once we start making holiday cookies.

How to make an advent tree calendar

2009-12-04T08:25:00.003-05:00

I saw this super cute idea over at ikat bag to make paper cone trees for an advent calendar.
I had been thinking of making an advent calendar and there are so many fun ideas out there it was hard to decide what to make. I thought this one was really fun.

I found a bunch of green scrapbook paper with different patterns. I traced a big bowl for a circle and then cut the circle in 3 (not an easy thing to figure out and of course when I looked back at the post she used 1/4 circle - much easier) Once I figured it out I traced on the other circles and cut out a few at a time.

I got Lilo to write the numbers 1 to 25 on the triangles since she is loving practicing writing.

Then I gathered a bunch of fun things to decorate with, after a trip to a dollar store I had: jewels, holiday sequins, glittery mini pompoms, glitter glue, stickers, star sequins and big star jewels for the tops of some trees.

While Isla was napping, Lilo and I decorated. Isla did colour one of them when she woke up.

After they were dry I rolled and glued or taped them. This was also a pain. The original made a tab seam allowance to fold over. I tried snipping the tip and folding but anyway I tried it was hard to get them to stay together. So at the end I just used tape on the outside - you can't see it when they are up on the mantel.

So everyday I will put a treat under the tree. So far I've put chocolates, lolly pops and yesterday holiday erasers. I'm also thinking that some days will be activities like, write Santa a letter, make cookies, buy a Christmas tree - so I've decided to not put things under until the day of. Also I don't really trust Lilo not to peak and I don't trust the cats not to jump up and knock them all down.

And yes, we have a tv in our fireplace.

Muffin Tin Monday - counting

2009-11-30T14:35:00.004-05:00

So this week was a theme-less week over at Muffin Tin Mom but since my last few weeks I've been doing theme-less ones (I know, I didn't even post them!) I thought I'd do a counting theme.

Super easy: 1 PB&J, 2 pieces of pickles, 3 carrots, 4 crackers (but I think they ended up eating about a dozen or so), 5 grapes, and 6 chocolate chips.

Lilo ate it all, and Isla ate the pickles, crackers and chocolate chips and then came over to me and tried to eat half my soup and a bunch more crackers.

Check out what other people did today.

How to update your window shades

2009-11-29T08:20:00.005-05:00

So, it's not a super exciting transformation - but it looks a ton better then it did before! I was getting tired of looking at the dingy, fringed hem on these shades. So I finally just chopped them off.

I measured across the bottom and cut.

Then using a glue gun I applied white webbing to the edge. The ends of the webbing are just folder and glued to the back.

It was also the first time since we moved in that I've actually dusted the shades, so they are a lot less dingy now.

We had these shades in all the rooms at the front of our house, so I fixed the 2 in our bedroom and the 2 in the bathroom. I left the shades in Lilo's room as-is, since I they fringed edge goes with her girly theme. And now that the shades in her room aren't the same as all of the other rooms, they almost look like they were put there on purpose.

Now I need some kind of curtain or valence to add a pop of colour in our bedroom. Our room is entirely white, since we have never been able to settle on a colour to paint it. We HAD to do something with our bedroom immediately upon moving in, since the previous owners had left behind a pink and purple sponge painting experiement gone horribly wrong with a metallic floral boarder. So white it was, and white it has stayed. But at least these new-ish shades have helped clean it up a little more, for now. I also am thinking that I could add another colour ribbon above the white webbing to add some colour/interest.

How to get inspired

2009-11-24T21:22:00.003-05:00

So I was feeling blah today and then I got a message from Jessica at Mad in Craft, that she nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger award. It's very cool to know that people that don't know me in real life actually read and like my blog. So thanks so much, you have inspired me to post more often.

Okay, rule time:
~thank the person who nominated me for the award
~copy the logo and place it on my blog
~link to the person who nominated me
~list 7 things people may not know about me
~nominate 7 creative bloggers
~post their links
~leave a comment on each

7 Creative Bloggers

Filth Wizardry - super fun and neat craft project to do with your kids.
ikat bag - I just found this blog and love it. Great kids crafts and sewing projects. She has inspired me to get back to basics and make some pattern blocks and stop using commercial patterns that don't work like you want them to anyways.
Make It and Love It - Super cute craft projects for kids and adorable kids clothes.
Scrumdily-do! - great photos and fun projects.
The Activity Mom - just as the name states - great activities for your kids.
The Idea Room - this is just a beautiful blog. Her photos are amazing. Filled with tons of great crafts, recipes and tips.
Mad in Crafts - I know it's the person that nominated me but her blog is one of my favs. Lots of great thrifty ideas for the home.

7 things you may not know about me.

I'm a victim of the recession. My company did a bunch of restructuring just as I was returning from maternity leave - so when my position had been eliminated. I've enjoyed having more time off with my girls but now am itchy to get back into things but it's a tough time.
I've been sewing my whole life. I got my first real sewing machine when I was in grade 4 and have been sewing every since. I graduated high school with a vocational diploma in Fashion Technology and then went and got a BAA in Fashion Design.
I've tried too many crafts to name them all, I have a hard time sticking to anything.
I wish I could sew and craft all day - and maybe check out blogs :)
I have the 2 most beautiful girls in the world - seriously I think they are cuter than your kids :)
I have a hard time spending money on things, especially if I think I could make it.
I hate cleaning, my place is a mess and I hate it. I don't understand those people that don't have clutter and junk piles.

How to make princess hands

2009-11-24T21:03:00.002-05:00

This was a project inspired by Mister Maker, BBC show that airs on Treehouse. He was making scary monster hands to surprise your friends with. After he showed how to make them he showed other options, included a queen hand. Lilo thought we should make pretty princess hands and not monsters since she didn't want to scare anyone. And since I had been saving some of my old rubber gloves it was easy.

First I stuffed the fingers with stuffing. Mister Maker actually stuffed the whole hand and put an old wooden spoon in the hand and tied the bottom closed. Then used a sock to put over your arm and to hold the spoon. Since I didn't have any old wooden spoons, we just put them on our hands and since the fingers were stuffed it worked on her small hand.

Then I cut out some nails out of craft foam and then we glued a bunch of stars and some flowers from a broken lei. We also added some stickers. I also had some white fun fur that I thought we could add a queen type cuff but Lilo didn't want it.

So, voila - beautiful princess hands.

But the monster hands were fun, they had furry knuckles and a few moles.

How to make a magnet board for the car or home

2009-11-19T15:36:00.003-05:00

I made 2 magnet boards for my daughters for our road trips that we took this summer. It's super simple it's just a cookie sheet. You can use old ones or I picked this one up at Dollarama. Just double check to make sure magnets will stick since some aren't made from the right kind of metal.
Then I just covered with mac-tac (also from the dollar store). It fit perfectly on the kids laps in the car under their arm rests of the car seat. The mac-tac can be used as a dry erase board so you can bring dry erase markers and a cloth to wipe. Also bring magnet toys or letters. I made these plush coloured magnets for Isla since I was afraid of the magnets falling out of the plastic ones if (when) she chewed on them.

I got this fabric from a friend that is printed squares of colours. So I just had a layer of the printed fabric, a layer of white felt and a backing layer. I glued on a small magnet (dollar store) to the back of the felt layer and sewed around. I used fray check on the edges so they wouldn't fall apart.

Lilo liked the board for colouring books and Isla just liked the sound of things banging on it. Either way they were enjoyed and could be tucked easily away when they weren't being used.

This pretty one I made for one of the Pay-It-Forward people. I sent off 2 of the 4 gift, don't worry the other 2 will happen at soonish.

How to make Play Dough

2009-11-15T08:47:00.003-05:00

I've seen a lot of recipes for play dough but after seeing this on Craftzine I thought I'd try it. They have a great printable recipe.

All you need to make it is 1cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon of oil. Mix together and put over med-low heat. The recipe over at Craftzine said to mix over heat for 10 mins but I'm not sure if my heat was too high or what but it took only minutes for it to come together.
Then take it off the heat and separate into balls to dye different colours. It's hot so be careful. I just put a few drops of colouring in and mixed it around. My sister-in-law said when she made it she put the hot dough in ziplocks to work the colour in. This way it's not as hot and you don't get dye all over your hands.
I realized the hard way that you don't leave the dye in arms reach of your toddler. She added a few more drops of green to the dough and counter (thankfully our counter is green) So I got a bunch of dye on my hands trying to quickly clean it.

I only had a few colours of liquid dye around so we had 4 colours - Lilo took off with the pink. Not sure if the gel dye would work - might try next time.

Just store in an airtight container or ziplock and it lasts just like play dough. I made it a few weeks ago and it's still soft. I also like that it doesn't have the chemically smell that play dough sometimes does.

How to make a poppy that will stay on your jacket

2009-11-09T14:28:00.003-05:00

It's neat with Lilo in school now coming home taking about the things she has learned. She started talking about poppies and remembrance day last week. And she kept pointing out everyone who was wearing poppies. So I realized that we needed to get some but the problem with them is the stick pin that's in them and falls off easily and can poke you.
So I found some of my brooch backings (you can get these at the dollar store) and glued them on. First I took the pin out and glued the black centre in place. Then I glued the backing on. I used my glue gun but it didn't hold, it fell off Lilo's jacket after a game of tag on the way home from school. Now I'm trying Alene's jewelry glue - so hopefully that will work.
Then I made one for my leather jacket - one that I didn't have to poke a hole into my jacket. I first used wire cutters to cut the pin short (since I like the look of the silver pin on the front of the poppy)
Then I glued a magnet to the back (you can get these at the dollar store, too) - the glue also held the pin in place and I therefore didn't need to glue the back flower centre in place.
Then use another magnet on the other side of the collar and they will stick together and the poppy will stay. I tried it on my husband's thick leather jacket collar and it stayed in place.

On November 11th, please take a moment to remember those who have fought for our freedom.

Muffin Tin Mondays - Green Eggs and Ham

2009-11-09T12:35:00.003-05:00

Last night while I was reading Lilo Green Eggs and Ham before bed, she asked if I liked green eggs and ham. I said that I had never tried them, maybe we could make them for lunch tomorrow. Since there was no set theme for Muffin Tin Monday I thought this would be fun.

So here are my green eggs and ham - along with the boat (that he would not eat them on)
The green eggs are egg white that I cut into circles using a cup and a scoop of avocado for the green yolk.
The ham was just painted with food colouring.
And the boat is a good ole PB&J with a cheese slice sail (that broke before I could get a photo)

Lilo will now say that she does like green eggs and ham and Isla liked the ham best - even though in the picture she has a funny face - she did like it :)

While I was making lunch Lilo got on the computer and remembered this site and wanted to watch/listen to the Green Eggs and Ham book - and then I also read the book to them while they were eating.

Check out more Muffin Tins here.

How to extend the life of hand me downs

2009-11-03T12:06:00.004-05:00

With 2 girls I'm lucky that Isla has many hand me downs. It's fun to open a box that has been packed up for a year and half or more. So many cute clothes, some that were barely worn but others like these jeans that were well loved. So instead of just buying new ones, since I'm cheap, I mean environmentally conscience and not wanting to waste :) - I patched them up.

I played around with circle patches but they looked boring so I made the circles into flowers. I used some iron on adhesive on the fabric to attach them to the pants.

Then using a zig-zag with a super short stitch length I went around the flower. It was a little tricky to get up the pant leg and around the flower.

I love how the turned out. I have another pair of jeans that could use a patch - I'm thinking butterflies patches next time.

I love how they look like I bought them this way and not just patching up old pants.

Muffin Tin Monday - Outer Space

2009-11-02T16:16:00.002-05:00

Muffin Tin Monday theme today was Outer Space. I had idea to make aliens and stuff but I thought I'd ask Lilo what she thought was in space. She said, planets, rocket ships, star and the world. So here's what I came up with.

Top row: banana moon, PB&J rocket ship (with a little help from some icing tubes), cheese star

Bottom row: apple planet and egg rings planets (hard boiled egg sliced with an old school slicer and the yolks poked out - Lilo sometimes likes the yokes but not today.)

And I was happy that Lilo almost ate it all. Isla on the other hand was more interested in my salad.

Check out Muffin Tin Mom for other Outer Space meals

How to make a halloween bird mobile

2009-10-26T14:51:00.003-04:00

I saw this super cute bird pattern over at Spool Sewing and they made this colourful bird mobile. I thought it would be fun to do a Halloween version.

I made it last year and it looks much cooler when it's dark out but it's daytime now and I wanted to post this before Halloween this year (EDIT: I've added the night photo from Halloween night)I hung it outside by our front door last year and we had green lights behind it - very cool looking.

Anyways, I found all the different black fabrics I could find, velour, an assortment of vinyl, raw silk, spandex and a few printed fabrics that worked.

I realized afterwards that I really should have read the instruction instead of just guessing them like I usually do - since you weren't suppose to stuff their tails. So they could have been a big cuter and well balanced better maybe.
The hardest part was trying to get the birds to balance. Every time I glued them they would want to fall upside down - so some are. Maybe they are bat birds :)

In the dark you can't tell.

How to throw a 4th birthday party

2009-10-22T16:13:00.008-04:00

So little Lilo is 4 now - time does fly. I didn't do a big theme this year, it was just cupcakes. I made a rainbow out of cupcake.

I made 48 cupcakes - 2 batches of cake mix. I used this variation to the back of the box instructions from Saucy Sprinkles - 3 eggs, 1/2 cup melted butter and 1 cup water - beat with mixer and bake for 20 mins at 350. I don't think I'm going to try and make from scratch cake again - last years cake looks awesome but was really dry.

Then I gave each kids a little muffin tin that I filled with different candies to decorate their cupcakes with. Lilo nicely decorated hers, then ate the candy off and re-decorated - innovated young lady :)

Once my mom showed Isla what to do, she got into it too.

Alex just wanted to eat the cupcake, didn't want to fuss with the decorating.

Austin was concentrating hard on what he was doing.

Izzy sampling her creation.

Maddie was working hard with mom to get the right look.
I think Mom helped out a bit here :)

I also made aprons for all the kids - I forgot to get a picture of all them together. Oh well, here's Izzy modeling hers.

Instead of goody bags, their giveaways were the aprons and muffin tins (so they can all do muffin tin Mondays). I totally lucked into the muffin tins, they are look like muffin top tins but they work for this and they were only a dollar each. The fabric for the apron was donated to me from my sister-in-law.

And some of the pictures of the kids decorating their cupcakes weren't intended to look like that. I just forgot the flash and then the battery died so I couldn't just take more pictures. (the problem when you use manual) So I had to lighten them as much as I could in Adobe Lightroom. I kinda like the look, they look like old grainy photos.

How to make Initial Art

2009-10-14T14:16:00.005-04:00

I saw this great idea and thought it would make a cute baby gift for my friend. Well it ended up being a half birthday gift as it took me 6 months to actually get it done.

It was fun and easy to make. I picked out a pack of crayons and a shadow box frame from the dollar store. I printed out the letter K from the computer in the right size to fit in the frame as a guide. Then using an x-tacto knife I cut the crayons to fit the letter.
Then I painted the frame background white and the frame black with some acrylic paint. Once dry I used a glue gun to attach the crayon pieces.
Since on it's own it didn't scream K - I painted in the K is for Kai.

I thought this made a great baby gift, especially since his room is primary colours. But it would also make a great teachers gift which is what the original was made for.

How to make Halloween cupcakes

2009-10-06T19:06:00.003-04:00

A few years ago I made these fun cupcakes for our friend's super awesome Halloween party. They were fun to make. The pink ones were suppose to look like brains. And then green and brown monsters. I played around with different icing tips that I had. To create the faces I used some different types of candy, large and small marshmallows - cut up, fruit leather, chocolate chips and whatever else I could find.

Since I was pregnant at that party, I think I ate a lot of them :)

We were a family of bikers that year.

Last year we were a family of Mexican wrestlers. We're still trying to figure out what to do this year. We're leaving the kids with a babysitter for the party so we don't need a family costume just something for the 2 of us. Lilo has already decided that she wants to be a butterfly - it has changed from Tinkerbell. I haven't started it yet but I've been planning it out in my head.

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-10-05T14:19:00.003-04:00

This weeks theme over at Her Cup Overfloweth is "All about Me".

I decided to write out the girls names in food and give Lilo her favorite lunch.

She's funny, everyday I ask her what she wants for lunch. She stops and thinks and says, "I know, how about a peanut butter sandwich?". Like it was a new idea.

L - peanut butter and jam sandwich, i - cucumber and banana, l - more pb&J and o - spaghetti

I - cucmber, s - spaghetti, L - pb&j, and A - banana

I know they aren't in Muffin Tins - but it's still a fun lunch :) Check out Her Cup Overfloweth to see what other people did.

How to do something with your tomatoes - Post #1 - Salsa edition

2009-10-04T12:55:00.007-04:00

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes – boy, did I have a lot of tomatoes this year. This is a photo of one batch. I think I had about at least this amount times 3. And the funny thing is I’m the only one is the family that eats tomatoes, raw that is, they like them in sauces and stuff. So sauces and stuff is what I made. I made 2 big batches of salsa, my favorite, and a batch of slow cooker tomato sauce, a batch of roasted tomato sauce, tomato soup, bean soup with tomatoes, green tomato salsa and a bunch of tomato sandwiches and salsas for me. I now have a batch of green tomatoes that I’m trying to figure out what to do with – if anyone has any great recipes let me know.

Here is Post #1 in how to do something with tomatoes – salsa edition.

Last year I found this awesome recipe for Salsa with zucchini and lime, which I thought was perfect since I had a crazy amount of zucchinis also. Last year I wished I made more so this year I did, but I’m still nervous about giving any away since I don’t want to run out.

Here is the link to the recipe.

Salsa With Zucchini With a Hint of Lime

Ingredients
8 cups peeled seeded diced tomatoes
olive oil
6 cups zucchini
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups diced onions
3 jalapenos
1-2 habaneros, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
4 chipotle chiles in adobo, minced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/3 cup salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 lime, juice and zest of
1 1/2 cups vinegar, 5% acid
12 ounces tomato paste
1 tablespoon fresh basil or fresh cilantro, minced

To peel and seed the tomatoes it’s a pain it the butt. Boil a pot of water and then score an “x” on the bottom of your tomatoes. Place the tomatoes in the boiling water for about 30 seconds, or until you start to see the skins splitting. Scoop them out and place in a sink filled with ice cold water. When they cool off a bit the skin will easily come off. Then cut and remove the stem part and the seeds. Chop and put in a strainer over a bowl to catch the juices.

To prep my zucchini – I scooped out the seeds and mushy middle since my zucchinis were huge and the seeds inside were the side of pumpkin seeds. If you have normal sized zucchini you wouldn’t have to do this. Then cut up and shred in food processor.

Lightly oil the bottom of a large pot and add the zucchini and ½ teaspoon of salt, heat to release juices and reduce the liquid. Add the juice caught from the chopped tomatoes and cook for 10 mins or until most of the liquid is gone.

Add onions, all the peppers and chili`s, garlic, tomatoes, spices, salt, black pepper, sugar, lime juice and zest, vinegar, and paste.

Simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes.

Then you're suppose to add either fresh basil or cilantro – of course I forgot to pick that so since it was past 11pm already I had to grab the flashlight so I could find it in the backyard.

While you are stewing the salsa put on the water in the canning pot and boil.

You can either sterilize the jars in the dishwasher or in the boiling water for 10 mins.

I sterilized the lids using by placing them in a strainer.

Fill into hot sterile jars with hot salsa leaving 1/2 inch head space. Being careful not to leave any salsa on the rims. Wipe jar rims with a clean, damp paper towel. Put on lids and screw on metal bands.
I used fitted cotton gloves under rubber gloves to hold the jars – still hot but you can handle them at least.

It filled 8 pints and a little extra for sampling.

Process for 10 minutes in a hot water bath. Label and store in a dark place. Use with 1 year.

Yummy! The first batch I did I removed the seeds from the hot peppers – it wasn’t super spicy but very yummy. The second batch I kept the seeds in – spicy but not killer. One thing you can’t leave out is the chipotle peppers, they give it a smoky flavour.
I tried to make a green salsa also using green tomatoes but it wasn’t awesome so I’m still looking for a better recipe.

Wow that was a long post :)

How to make a yarn pumpkin

2009-10-02T12:15:00.003-04:00

WARNING - if you have cats this might not be the best project for you as you may never see it again.

Seriously it's a ball of yarn and a pipe cleaner. If you haven't tried - cats love pipe cleaners. Ours steal them all the time and then I find 4 of them in their food bowl. I'm not sure why but they always end up there.

I saw this cute idea idea to make yarn apples on Make and Takes and thought it would fun to use this idea to make pumpkins. I found in the clearance bins at Walmart for $1 a ball of this beautiful orange yarn. They have a great tutorial over at Make and Takes but here is the condensed version with less photos :)

Start with a piece of cardboard about 2-3" wide and fold in the middle. Then start wrapping the yarn around it until it looks full. Then cut a pipe cleaner in half and feed it through where the cardboard was folded and pull it up and twist together.

Then slide it off the cardboard and shape into a circle. You will have to tuck some ends in to make it look round. Then if you want add another piece of pipe cleaner to make little vines off the stem. I just wrapped them around a pencil to get there shape.

Lilo made it for Dad's office at work. I was thinking it would be cute to make some for our dinning room table but then realized that with the cats that wouldn't last. But they were quick and easy so maybe we'll make them for Lilo's class.

Muffin Tin Monday - Circus of Colors

2009-09-28T14:36:00.004-04:00

Go on over to Her Cup Overfloweth to find out more about Muffin Tin Mondays. It's simply feeding your kids a meal in a muffin tin - just to be different.

This week even though it's a theme less week but since I didn't really do a theme last week when it was children's literature week I thought I'd do one this week. I got the idea while I was reading this book to Isla for the 4th time on the weekend.

Circus of Color by Lisa Hopp, Illustrated by Chiara Bordoni.
It's a cute book where each page is a different colour and a different performer at the circus. Here's my interpretation.

Red - Meatball with ketchup - Kooky the clown's red nose

Yellow - Apple sauce with star sprinkles - The great yellow Starini

Green - Grapes - Big green balloon that's about to POP

Blue - Yogurt with blue food colouring and face - the silly blue clown

Grey - PB&J sandwich in elephant shape - the great grey elephant (I know it's not grey but what food is)

White - Rice - the snow that's turning the circus tent white.

Pink - Also served with strawberry milk - Pretty pink tightrope walker.

I invited one of Lilo's friends over - they thought it was cool but just wanted to play so didn't eat that much. Isla enjoyed it.

How to make my birthday extra special

2009-09-25T09:08:00.004-04:00

Vote for me - well actually my girls. I've submitted my technology photo on the Durham Region Baby site to win $250 towards graphic design from Sweet World Media. I really want to win this. I've been putting off starting my own kids/mom accessory online business and I need a kick in the pants. If I win this I could get a logo and maybe a web header. So I really, really want to win.

So please everyone go and vote - and then vote again on another computer and maybe even ask someone else to vote too. Vote for Lilo almost 4 and Isla 1 1/2.

If you vote for me you can consider this my birthday present and you won't need to get me a gift.

Thanks

Update: Thanks everyone who voted and there were a lot of you - unfortunately someone else won. Oh well, that's life. But I'm still considering this my kick in the pants and I will be starting this business of mine.

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-09-21T18:33:00.003-04:00

This week's theme from Her Cup Overfloweth is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Since we haven't read the book or seen the movie I sorta used the theme and just threw in stuff we had in the fridge.

It's left over spaghetti, carrots, cucumber, meatballs, cheese, jello.

So I have meatballs so that's themish :)

I was going to do the muffin tin meal tomorrow instead but since Lilo didn't want dinner I thought this was a way to get her to eat. They are both eating now but I think Lilo is just eating the Jello - which she thinks is really cool.

How to make a Survivor Immunity Necklace

2009-09-17T18:52:00.003-04:00

With another season of Survivor starting up again I thought this "cool thing" I made back in April would fit now. I made an immunity necklace for my nephew for his birthday. I've been trying to make some of my gifts and thought this would be fun since he's a fan of the show.
I started by doing a bit of research - ie: watching the show and trying to find a picture online, which there wasn't a lot of good pictures of it. So it's really just an interpretation of the original from last season from my memory.
After going through my stash of junk to find stuff that would work; leather, buttons, twine and wire. And then off to the dollar store to find some additional supplies; feathers and beaded necklace.
The base or frame is made from a piece of cardboard with some medium gauge wire bent to fit around the neck. I covered it all in masking tape so it was one piece. Then on the back side I started gluing feathers using a glue gun.

Then I flipped it over and looked at my supplies to get inspired.

I cut some of the leather I had into strips to wind around the ends, securing with hot glue.

Then I cut a large piece of leather for the front and glued it down, folded the top edge over to the back. Then embellished it with some textured leather, buttons which I layered and in the centre is a pendent from the dollar store necklace, and the 2 wood beads are the earrings from that set. The necklace itself I used to frame the lower edge. Then I used twine to finish it off.

Then flipped to the back and covered with more leather - I think I had to piece it in the back since I was running out.

And there you go, your very own immunity necklace so you can never be voted out.

I know most of you have given up on Survivor many seasons ago but we're still giving the show another chance this year. Have fun.

How to make PB&J cookies

2009-09-14T22:27:00.003-04:00

This is a super simple idea that turned out so yummy. It's just 2 peanut butter cookies with raspberry jam in between.

Since Lilo is in school now, it was Isla and I that made the cookies. She was so cute trying to stir and really just lick the spoon. We made the super easy recipe that's on the back of the Kraft peanut butter jar - if you haven't tried it, you should.

1 cup crunchy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

Jam

That's it. Just mix together and then roll into balls and press with a fork to give them that trademark look. The dough is really sticky so I put a little flour on my fingers when I roll them and then I flattened them down (I wanted thin cookies for this recipe) and then dipped the fork in the flour to press down.

Bake in a 325 oven for 15 minutes (the top oven took 15 mins and the lower took only 10 but it was on an older, well seasoned cookie sheet - so just keep an eye on them) so they are a nice light brown colour.

Cool on cookie sheet and then I put them in the fridge for about an hour or so - til Lilo came home to help me finish them.

Add a spoonful of jam on one cookie and place a second on top.

It will make 1 dozen filled cookies.

YUM YUM - Lilo is already asking to make them again.

How to do a Muffin Tin Monday meal

2009-09-14T12:34:00.006-04:00

Michelle over at Her Cup Overfloweth came up with serving her kids meals in muffin tins. You can check out her site for lots of great ideas. Some weeks she has themes; like this week is "Apples" and other weeks there isn't. I think it's a neat idea to do something different. Some days, like today, I think I'm doing it more for me than the kids - I think Lilo would rather of just had a peanut butter sandwich.
Today we had apple slices with carmel to dip, PB & J cut into an apple shape, peanut butter and apple rolls, cucumber and dip and apple sauce.

The sandwich was cut with a pumpkin cookie cutter. The rolls are a slice of bread rolled flat with a rolling pin and then spread with peanut butter and some apple slices and roll up and cut into kids sushi. The idea came from On a Whimm blog - see over here for her tutorial - she cuts the crusts off, I didn't this time and it still worked (if your crust are firmer it would be easier to roll without them). I've also made these with cream cheese and apples to bring to nut free places.

Here are some other muffin tins we've done. This one was the "People and Faces" theme.

The top meal was Lilo's and bottom Isla's. It's PB&J cut into a man, yogurt with face, cheese cut with mini cookie cutter and some extra carrots, grapes and strawberries.

This one here was no theme - Isla's upper; pretzels, grapes, potato salad and tuna. Lilo's has good ole PB&J, grapes and pretzels.

I like how you can see Isla's hand in her's - she can't wait for me to take the picture :)

As you can see I started with just these 2 disposable muffin tins but got these super cute heart muffin tins from the Muffin Tin (MTM) swap that Her Cup Overfloweth hosted. My partner was Denise and she sent me those great muffin tins and some fun sprinkles and stuff.

I wish I had taken a picture of the fun dessert muffin tin we did once - I gave the girls bowls of ice cream and filled the muffin tin with different sprinkles, marshmallows, chocolate chips, strawberries, etc to add to their ice cream. It was yummy and a special treat for a Friday night.

How to have your kid learn while they eat breakfast

2009-09-10T15:43:00.004-04:00

I can't believe my little girl had her first day of junior kindergarten today. Time flies by so fast.

I saw these on some blog - somewhere (I really need to save the links so I can credit people). EDIT - I found the original site where this idea came from Avocado & Papaya.

I made these alphabet pancakes on Tuesday to get her excited about school.

The secret is a turkey baster - just make sure your batter is thin enough. I've also heard that you can use one of those ketchup type squeeze bottles and put the batter in. I used the turkey baster and most letters worked the first time, but I'll admit that some broke in the transfer to the tray.

Lilo was trying to spell her name with it - we turned the T into another L. Then she wrote MOM and figured out on her own that she could make another M with the W.

As she was eating the letters we were coming up with different words that start with each letter.

With rest of the batter I made a couple heart pancakes - you just use the baster to make the heart and then let it cook a little and then pour the pancake over top of it. This would be an easier way to do letters too.

Since Lilo likes pancakes a lot for breakfast I will often make up a full batch of pancakes and then freeze the extras. I put them single layer on a cookie sheet and then put them in a ziplock when they are frozen for a quick weekday meal. To heat, you can put them in a toaster or I just throw them in the microwave. They aren't the best in the microwave but Lilo still tells me I make the best pancakes - so in other words kids usually don't complain.

Here's the recipe that I have for pancakes.

Ingredients

2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla (optional)

2 eggs

2 Tblsp oil

1-2 cups milk (depends on how thin you want the batter - for the alphabet I used 2 cups)

How to get your kids excited about starting school

2009-09-03T15:43:00.004-04:00

Lilo starts junior kindergarten in a week and she is super excited. I think it's cute since she doesn't really know what school is. She has visited it once and knows there will be lots of friends there - so that's all that matters.

My hubby was thinking that we should have some sort of count down to the first day for her. And then the next day I found this idea on a Back to School countdown chain. Perfect, a super simple craft that Lilo can help me make.

I don't have a picture of ours but it's pretty close - this is the one from Brassy Apple blog. Lilo had fun trying the stapler, she was a little frustrated when the chain slipped out before she could push it all the way. But of course she didn't want any help. After it was all stapled together I numbered the chains so she could count easier.

I hung it up high so Isla can't reach and Lilo rips a ring off everyday. We have been making them into bracelets afterwards. Then we count down the days left. It has been a good learning of patience for her too. She's been wanting to rip another one off and we've been trying to explain that we have to wait until tomorrow. It was hard at first but she's understanding better now.

How to make a treasure map

2009-08-30T08:37:00.005-04:00

Since the battery charger for our camera is still in our car, which is till in South Carolina. I've decided to finally post another one of the April cool things we made.

This was a fun kids craft that I'm sure you could do a whole pirate theme around.

Start with a piece of white paper and draw things you'd find on a treasure map; the dashed line path to follow, some of the things you'll pass like a palm tree and water and don't forget the X. Then tear the edges and crumple up.

Then rub an old tea bag all over the paper. I rubbed the tea bag on the paper before I crumpled it but I think it would work better the other way so the tea would stain the creases more.

And then let it dry - I find that the hardest part for Lilo - waiting.

I have been working on a few other things and will post some of them when I have the camera charger - next weekend hopefully. Lilo and I are making a mobile, I started making her a ruffled dress but think it's too full and have been trying to organize my studio finally. My husband made me these great shelves and table in my room and I just need to actually organize my stuff so I know what I have and where it is. Last night I finished sorting my ribbons, elastics and bindings so they aren't all mixed up in 3 different places and not a big rats nest of ribbons. My room will never be Martha Stewart neat, I'm just hoping for some organization so I know where to look for things. My problem is that I never throw anything out - it was kinda like walking through memory lane looking at the ribbons, remembering where they were from.

When it's sorta tidy I'll take pictures and post.

How to make spaghetti creatures for dinner

2009-08-23T13:52:00.010-04:00

I saw this idea on a blog somewhere but can't remember so sorry for not linking. EDIT - I've just been reminded that it came from Filth Wizardy - a super cool site that does a bunch of fun things.
I know hot dogs aren't the best dinner option but they were fun to make and I threw in some broccoli so it was sorta healthy.

I want to try and get Lilo more involved with making dinner so hopefully she will try new things. We had fun making these.

Cut up hot dogs and break dry spaghetti noodles in half so they were easier to work if you want.

Start poking in the noodles into the hot dog pieces. You can play around with how you put the noodles in.

Isla wanted to help too but she just kept trying to eat the raw noodles and hot dogs, so I put some cheese pieces up there so she could grab and eat them instead.

Then just boil up some water and throw the hot dog creatures until the spaghetti is done. I threw in some broccoli to the boiling water at the end to cook that up too.

Then drain and serve with pasta sauce. They girl both loved them. The person who originally posted this also tried using carrots which she pre-cooked a bit to soften. And you could try other foods too that you would boil to cook.

How to make a dress out of an old t-shirt

2009-08-14T20:42:00.011-04:00

Here is one of the things I've been working on the past few weeks. I've been trying to purge and I found this tank top of mine. I love the print but have barely worn it since, well, I'm not 18. Yeah, it's cute but maybe a little too cute for me, so it's been sitting in my drawer for a few years. Here's me wearing it while I was traveling with work and visiting the Great Wall in China - that was over 2 years ago.

First I found a simple knit dress of Lilo's to use as a pattern. I folded the tank in half, matching the side seams and traced out the dress giving approximately 1/2" seam allowance and using the existing neckline from the tank. Then I cut the front and back out and sewed the side seams up. For the strap and to finish the armhole I had some elastic binding stuff. It's left over from one company that I worked for and was throwing it out. But regular bias tape would also work made from knit or woven. I sewed it around the armhole and to the shoulder leaving 1" of just strap at the top before connecting the other side.

The hem is the original hem of the tank top. I didn't end up getting a picture of Lilo wearing it since I never seemed to have my camera with me and I kept thinking I would take some adorable picture like on Grosgrain but that didn't happen. And well now it's too short. It was always short but it seems like Lilo's sprouted up and 1" this summer. Oh well, it will be fit Isla next summer or the following, or maybe I'll see if I have any coordinating fabric to make capris leggings for it.

Well, I loved this dress so much and it came together so fast that I went through my stash and found and old golf shirt of my husband's. The colours are fun but they were a little faded so I used the back of the fabric as it was more vibrant.

I used the same dress as a pattern and made sure it was longer this time. I actually thought since this is the 2nd time I'm making this dress that maybe I'll trace it on to paper so I can make it again easier. I have a bad habit of just placing an existing garment on fabric and tracing it out and not making a hard copy pattern.

Before photo of the shirt

To jazz it up a bit and to make it a little more girly - I added some orange ribbon on to one of the stripes. I measured every 1/2" on dress and 1" on the ribbon and just straight stitched it down.

Since I didn't have a finished neckline to use on this dress I made a little facing. Just trace the neckline and make about 1 1/2" deep. Sew it right sides together and then flip and top stitch down.

Then I sewed sides together and sew the binding around armhole and shoulder. Press and your done.

Pressing is a very important step, I find you can correct many mistakes from a good pressing. Everything lies flatter.

For some reason this is the pose I get most times when I try and take a picture of what she's wearing.

This time I took a picture right away even though I could get the best pose.

And I had to add her self portrait she took. I have a whole collection of them that I want to make a collage out of - I love them.

How to make a frozen banana treat

2009-07-24T08:22:00.003-04:00

As my friends are making watermelon Popsicles I decided to make frozen bananas with chocolate and sprinkles. Not as healthy but so yummy.

So the bananas are super simple and delicious. I had 1 banana that was on it's last day so I cut it in half and put Popsicle sticks through them. Then I melted some chocolate with a little butter in the microwave. Once the chocolate is melted, I usually take it out when there is still a few chunks in it and then stir it until it's smooth. Then spoon the chocolate over the banana and add sprinkles.

Once they were decorated to our liking we put them in a tray covered in wax paper to freeze while they napped.

I'm sure this would also work well if the bananas were frozen first too, the chocolate might solidify before you put the sprinkles on - not sure.

Anyways the girls really enjoyed it. Lilo left hers after all the chocolate was gone and said she was done, so I finished it - it turned out she wasn't done and was very upset at me, oops.

Isla was nice enough to share hers with Lilo and then went to relax by herself.

How to make something for Dad

2009-07-13T13:27:00.003-04:00

Here are 2 gifts that Lilo made for her Dad. His birthday was the day after we got back from Florida so I didn't plan any gifts since we did a bunch of shopping while we were gone. The girls and I did make cupcakes and I thought that was good. But at 5pm - 20mins before my husband got home, Lilo says that we have to make something a present for Daddy. How could I say no. I was trying to think of something quick we could do and saw an easter egg on the floor of the play room and was reminded of a craft I saw on Mr. Maker - a wobbly clown.

First open the egg and put a piece of modeling clay or I used a piece of blue sticky tack since I had some on hand from university.

Then close it up and add a face. We put googly eyes on, pompoms for hair, a red jewel for a nose and made a mouth out of a foam sheet. Then Lilo said he needed ears - so we glued them on as well.

Daddy loved it. But the following week the episode of Mr. Maker was on where he made this clown and Lilo realized that we made it wrong. The nose should have been a small red pompom and the hair was crunched up tissue paper. I say go with what you have.

Then I poorly planned Father's Day and made another last minute gift - again Mr. Maker inspired. It's a friendly dragon box to hold your bits and piece (pens and stuff).

It's made from an old tea box, covered with scrap booking paper. The eyes, nose and tongue are made from foam sheets. Lilo drew them out and I helped her cut them out and glue them on. She saw the glitter and thought he needed some glitter - so that's why he has red glitter eye. I think she was right, he did need some glitter. She also wanted to give him a happy smile to make him a friendly dragon. The tongue is glued under the flap so when you open his mouth the tongue is hanging below.

How to get your kids to clean your fence

2009-07-10T15:04:00.003-04:00

Ok so it might not really be the best way to clean your fence but it did work to distract the kids while I got some weeding done.

I remember doing this when I was a kid - painting the fence. Super simple, fill a bucket with water and get a few paint brushes. I had a couple of those foam paint brushes but you can grab a regular one at the dollar store which would be fun too. I think I'm also going to grab some small foam rollers next time I'm at the dollar store to add some variety.

The girls had fun, Lilo even got a chair so she could get the whole fence board.

Let's hope the warm weather stays with us.

How to arrange wild flowers

2009-07-09T15:28:00.002-04:00

The other day while I was out for a walk with the girls we decided to pick some flowers that are growing by the side of the road. The bright purple of the clover is so pretty and the little yellow ones too. The colour combination was so nice.

Once we got them home I decided to put them in a collection of shot glasses that we have since the stems were too short for a real vase. Plus it make it more interesting.

They are now adding colour to our dinning room table which gets great sun in the morning.

While going through some old junk a while back I found this astro turf frame I made years ago. I like it better as a frame for the flowers, there's something interesting about the real flowers and the fake grass.

How to make a cat bed

2009-07-06T16:09:00.002-04:00

This is one of the cool things we made in April - better late then never.

When we came back from Costco once we had this salad box kicking around that the kids were playing with - it was a good sitting spot according to Lilo.

I thought it would make a good cat bed so while I was at the fabric store I found a piece of polar fleece in the remnant bin - you could also use a dollar store polar fleece blanket.

I then found a bunch of different coloured paper that matched to decorate the box. I cut rectangles and hearts out for the girls to glue on - trying to get them to cover the writing on the box.

Then we decorated with stickers. I recently found my old stickers and had a bunch of cat ones which were perfect for this.

I then put an old pillow in the box and covered it with the piece of polar fleece.

Lilo tried to get the cat to sit in the box - he wasn't so sure. But it didn't take long before he was sleeping in it. Now over 2 months later one of the cats is almost always sleeping in the bed. It might not the be prettiest thing but the cats like it so much we can't get rid of it.

How to take pictures

2009-06-27T08:18:00.005-04:00

So I'm back, well hopefully. I just finished my Digital Capture 1 class and it was great. A lot of work and classes but I learned so much about my camera and have found a new medium to express myself. I know that's all I need - something new to play with.

I originally took the course so I could learn to take better pictures of the products I'm going to sell when I get my Etsy store up and running but now I'm really enjoying taking pictures so maybe I'll add some of my prints in the shop too. I need to get my act together now - no excuses.

The class was jam packed, every Tuesday and Thursday evening and 2 Saturday field trips. The one Saturday we walked all around downtown Toronto, visiting St. Lawrence Market, the Distillery District and then walking along Front Street watching the Cirque de Soliel performers. It was a fun day but tiring from all the walking. I got some good pictures that day.

The following Saturday we drove down to Rochester to visit the Eastman house and the Kodak museum. A very interesting place.

I completed this month, 1 page written assignment, and 2 photo assignments, as well as our final photo essay. I enjoyed it all and hope to take another course in the fall.

Here are some photos from my final assignment - Toys, Toys, Toys.

So I can't promise that all my photographs will be great on this blog from now on but hopefully they will be better.

How to prove I'm still alive

2009-05-26T23:18:00.005-04:00

Wow - I can't believe my last post was in April. The first few weeks in May - I sewed, sewed and sewed some more - and finished the 7 bridesmaid dresses. They turned out pretty good, a few puckers that I wish I had time and patience to fix but to the average person they looked good. My friend was at the wedding so she took some pictures for me.

As soon as I finished the dresses we drove to Florida and spent a week in the rain. We still had fun but got wet doing it. Now I'm home and realizing that my house is a mess.

So I would love to say I'm back and will be posting regularly but June is going to be super busy. I'm starting a photography course that's every Tuesday and Thursday evening for 4 weeks and 2 full Saturdays. Plus I'm taking some career building workshops a few mornings. I guess this will be practice for how crazy it will be once I start working again.