Someday Crafts

Michelle over at Someday Crafts has featured me again for her Categorically Crafting Fridays. This weeks theme was TP Rolls.

She featured my Two Uses for Toilet Paper Rolls. Check the feature out HERE.

She really has a great website. I check it often. She was some really awesome ideas and is also a great resource to find ideas on other blogs.

On a different note, I reached 10,000 hits on my blog this morning!! Yay! I'm very excited. So because of this momentous occasion, leave me a comment letting me know:

1. who you are
2. where you're from
   
3. what you'd like to see more of on my blog

Also, if you're not a follower, click FOLLOW over on the side bar and become one!!!!

I'm so thankful that God has given me an outlet for my creativity. I've definitely always been a crafter but since becoming a stay at home mom, it's become quite a passion for me. Thanks to all my friends for such encouraging words and messages!

Unexpected Break

Well I certainly didn't mean to take a two week vacation from blogging. I guess I was so busy doing things that I didn't have the time to actually post them.

Hope you all are still with me. I will try to get some posting done this week!

My Dollar Tree Find

All size ribbon at the Dollar Tree. Oh my. I must contain myself.

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Magazines and Playdough

Here are two things that have been on my checklist for a while that I finally got done.

1. Magazine Straw Magazine holder. What better way to hold my magazines in the bathroom than with rolled up old magazine pages! I got the box for like a dime. I originally thought to Mod Podge some pretty paper on the box but then saw this awesome idea HERE. I like the way it turned out!

2. Homemade Playdough. Easy enough and I really hope Isaac likes it. I got this recipe HERE.

Two Down, many more to go!

March Craft Club

This month I hosted our craft club put on by Sarah at CREATE. This month we tried our hand at freezer paper stencils. So easy and so fun!

The benefits of freezer paper are:

1. You can get it pretty cheap at walmart
2. You can iron the freezer paper directly onto your fabric to minimize seeping.
3. The paper peels right off with no left behind residue.
   
4. You can feed it through your printer and print your design directly on the printer.
   

To paint on fabric you'll need

1. regular acrylic paint
2. textile medium

It really was easy. Here's Sarah painting a little onesie for her little one coming in September.
Here's the onesie I painted before I peeled off the paper. I made a bird just in case I was having a girl. But now that I know I'm having a boy, it will probably be given to someone.

Here are my finished products. I also made initialed pillow cases for Luke and I. I'm a sucker for monogrammed stuff!

Here's a trick we discovered: Iron on the freezer paper to the front and the back of whatever you're painting. This gives your fabric stability and prevents the paint leaking and sticking.

Have fun stenciling!

Sunday Hymn Sing

All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam!

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou rushing wind that art so strong
Ye clouds that sail in Heaven along,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Thou rising moon, in praise rejoice,
Ye lights of evening, find a voice!

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Let all things their Creator bless,
And worship Him in humbleness,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
And praise the Spirit, Three in One!

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Cupcake Stand

For Easter, I usually enjoy and am more than willing to bring dessert to Easter lunch. This year, however, though I was just as excited, I was completely blank on what to make. i wanted try something new and creative but I just couldn't think of anything. So I settled for cupcakes. They did have a minty cream filling though! So to make up for my lack of creativity, I decided to make my own cupcake stand! It was alot easier than I thought it would be. I thought it turned out great! Here's what you need (at least, here's what I used):

• 2 foam boards
• 2-3 flower Styrofoam squares
• 4-5 sheets scrapbook paper (in design of choice)
  
• mod podge
• hot glue gun & glue
• 2in. wide ribbon (in coordinating color as paper)
• 3/8in. wide ribbon (is same or coordinating color as paper)
• tools : sponge brush, rotary cutter or xacto knife, pins, cutting mat or ruler

Note: I apologize for not taking pictures along the way.

Instructions:

1. Cut out 2 of each layer of foam board. I used 2 for stability. Measurements as follows: 12in x 12in, 10in x 10in, and 8in x 8in.
2. Cut out 1 of each layer of scrapbook paper, in same measurements. If you want to cover bottom side of each layers, cut out 2 of each but make sure and buy more paper.
   
3. Mod Podge paper onto board. Once dry, add another layer of Mod Podge on top to finish off.
4. Once these are dry, hot glue the 2 pieces of foam board (of the same size) together. Lay heavy books on top to flatten and evenly glue.
5. While this is drying, start wrapping the 2in. wide ribbon around the foam blocks. Don't go around and around. just cut out 3 strips (or as many as you need) and wrap each strip around one at a time. Fold down raw edge and pin down with simple silver pins. If you have pretty white ball tip pins, use those. I only used 2 blocks for a total of 3 layers.
6. After the foam board layers are done drying, start hot gluing the 3/8 in. wide ribbon around the edge of the boards. Do little sections at a time because the hot glue dries very quickly.
7. This is the trickiest part. Center the blocks on each layer making sure they align from every angle. Hot glue the foam blocks onto the board. It dries very quickly and strong so make sure and get it right!

And you're done! Here's out mine turned out with the cupcakes on it. Some of the cupcakes were already gone by the time I took the picture. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment. It really goes fast. If I could've done it in one sitting, it would've taken me about 1 hour maybe 2, but with a husband and a toddler, it basically took me all day :)

Enjoy!

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter and I hope you all did too! Here are some pictures highlighting our day!

If you follow my blog, you know another thing I'm slightly obsessed with is matching my family on special days. And Easter is no exception. I made Luke a tie, Isaac a romper, and myself a skirt in matching yellow gingham. LOVE IT!!! Isaac found some chocolate after the egg hunt while I wasn't looking. Oops! And my two boys. I love my family so very much! And thanks to my awesome sweet husband who was such a good sport about our matching outfits!

Cascarones (Spanish for Egg Shells)

Let me introduce you to my Easter Egg Hunt Tradition growing up in Laredo, Texas, which I lovingly call, "Practically Mexico", since it's a border town.

Growing up, we didn't hunt for plastic eggs with candy in them. In fact, I don't remember candy at all during Easter. That's not to say there wasn't any, I just remember then eggs more. My family would start weeks in advance saving eggs shells for the hunt. Then on easter, we would lok and look and look. Then, once the eggs were found, it was a free for all, chasing eachother aroud the yard cracking the cascarones, which were filled with confetti, on each others heads. Sounds crazy I know, but I remember it being so much fun. I don't actually remember a whole lot of what would happen after this.

So in this blog, I'm going to show you how to make a traditional Mexican cascarone. I know it's late since I've been saving for months, but maybe, if you have a big family and are gonna make a lot of omelets this weekend, you might have a shot!

First, getting the eggs shells. I would take a butter knife and slowly but firmly (but not too hard) crack away the top of the egg, the top being the narrow end. Chip all around the top then just remove it. This doesn't have to be perfect and it won't be a perfect line, just as long as you have most of the egg in tact. Make sure you wash them out well in soapy hot water. Don't want any salmonella here people.

Here's how mine turned out. And here's an important note, I actually cooked the eggs and ate them for breakfast. I'm not trying to support the wasting of food here.

Next, start dying the eggs. I just used the food coloring you can get at the store and followed the instructions , which included boiling water and white vinegar. Disregard the ugly colors, I thought they would be a pretty purple and pink but turned out pretty yuck.

Next, fill the eggs with confetti. I don't actually know where you can get confetti. Try a party supply store or a mexican store. I got mine when I was in Mexico a few weeks ago and it was very inexpensive.

Then, glue small squares of tissue paper on top of the opening. I used watered down Elmer's Glue and a foam brush.

And that's it! I know Isaac's going to be too small so we might invite some of the neighborhood kids over. So, if you are able to get to it this year, GREAT! If not, save this link and try it next year!!

**This is the last of my Easter projects. Hope you've enjoyed them. Scroll down to the the rest or click the links below:

Easter Banner
Easter Scripture Tree
Easter Egg Wreath
Easter Kitchen Towels and Coasters

Easter Banner

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Here is the Easter Banner I made for my family. I used an egg outline I found on line and cut out as follows,

-2 big eggs of Easter fabric per letter
-1 big egg of fusible interfacing per letter
-2 small eggs of simple white fabric (my white fabric was pretty see through which is why I layered it, but the layering is optional)

After everything is cut, begin the following:

1. Iron on interfacing to one of the big eggs per letter
2. Design your phrase on the computer and print out mirrored image onto transfer paper.
3. Iron on image/letters onto the small white egg (follow manufacturers instructions)

Then the sewing begins:
1. On the big egg with the interfacing, sew on the two small white eggs, making sure your image is on the top. (I just sewed right on, not worrying to much about straight lines, it was messy cute)
2. Sew this big egg to the big egg, wrong sides together. (again...messy cute, see pic for close up).

Here's what the finished egg will look like:Measure out the amount of ribbon depending on how you want it to drape. My phrase was really long which is why I decided to go with two drapes. I used simple half inch white satin ribbon.

Position eggs on ribbon to determine spacing and start hot gluing them on. And that's it. Not too hard just time consuming with the cutting (I hate cutting) and the sewing.

My hubby and I decided that for next year, we'll wait and pull the banner out on Easter morning to give our children the visual that something special has happened that day!

Easter Egg Scripture Tree

Wow, Easter is this weekend and I still have 3 projects to post. Here is my Easter Tree. It was really easy. I found THIS template online for these cute little eggs. Your technically supposed to have 2-sided eggs but because 1) I wanted to write scripture on the back and 2) wanted to save some color ink, I decided to just make one sided eggs and print 40 of them. 40 because it's the number of days in lent.

So I printed and cut them out. Here's the best part, I was planning on laminating them and on my recent trip to the Scrap Exchange, I found this package of self-laminating sheets (where you don't need the machine) brand new for $3! I was very excited! after then were all laminated and cut out, I just hole punched them and tied some simple ribbon to them. This proved to be the hardest part because I just have a wimpy dollar tree hole puncher. Too bad Luke wasn't around.

Then on to the branch hunt in the back yard. I wasn't extrememly happy with the branches I found but thought they were good enough, and didn't want to go in the woods beyond our fence.

Another tricky part was finding Easter verses but through prayer and Luke's help, we found some. We haven't done that great of a job reading one every day but I know one day, Isaac, and all of out children will enjoy decorating our Easter Tree together!

He is Risen!