My Craftiness

Here's a little catch up on some of the things I've made the last few months. My husband celebrated his 30th birthday this past summer. What an old fart. Anyway, for one of his decorations I made a collage of photos in the shape of his age. I just copied and printed pictures out and then taped them to some poster board that I had cut into the number 30. Super easy.

For one of his cakes, I cut out the number 30 on some paper and placed it on his cake after I frosted it. Then I poured sprinkles around it and then pulled off the paper. Voila.

 

Next up are some things I made to prepare for our second baby. My friend gave me a rocking chair that she no longer wanted and I painted it. It was a brown color with a cornucopia looking design on it. Old school. So I spray painted it black to match our bedroom décor and then bought a yellow cushion from Cost Plus World Market.

Safety first. Probably not good for an 8 month pregnant lady to get sick from paint fumes.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

I also painted letters to spell out the initials for both of my girls to hang in their room. I bought the letters at Michaels. I painted them and them modge podged them to seal the paint and add a little shine. Then I hot glue gunned some ribbon to the back of the letters.

 

 

Last is Halloween. While I was visiting my parents this summer, my mom helped me make my girls Halloween costumes. They turned out even cuter than I imagined. They were the Pacman ghosts, Pinky and Blinky. I bought white onesies and pink and red fleece. For my toddler we cut off the bottom of the onesie since she's far too big for that. Then my mom cut out the material and sewed it around the onesies. I made a pixelated cut around the bottom of the material. My mom had sticker felt that I cut out into the shapes of pixelated eyes. Then I stuck the eyes to the front of the material.

 

My husband and I were Pacman and Ms. Pacman. I had to simplify our costumes due to running out of time. Having a baby does that to you. But they still turned out great. I bought foam board, cut it out in circles, painted them to look like Pacman and Ms. Pacman and then taped some ribbon on the back so we could hang them around our necks.

 

We also decorated our door to look like a monster for Halloween night. We used streamers for hair, paper plates and red paper for eyes, and duct tape for a mouth and eyebrows.

And for dinner, what else but ghost pancakes. My husband shaped them like ghosts and then put chocolate chips in them for eyes. Yummy!

Again, thanks to Pinterest for many of the ideas seen above.

Goodie Catch Up

So I've neglected my family blog which means I've definitely been neglecting this one too.  So here is a little catch up of some goodies I've made the last few months.  It's not much since my creativity/energy/motivation has been lacking since I got pregnant.  I didn't feel good for a couple of months which really takes it out of you.  But I'm back.  So enjoy!

For Valentine's Day I made a special breakfast for my husband and little girl.  Everything hearts.  I bought bacon and cut each strip in half and used each half to make a heart.  I cooked it in the oven and voila.  Yummy crispy heart shaped bacon.

 

Here's the pinterest link for more details: http://thepapermama.com/2011/02/wordlessish-wednesday-bacon-of-hearts.html

I also made heart shaped toast. I was hoping to have a bigger cookie cutter but it still worked. So first, you cut out your heart shaped bread. Then you mix some milk with food coloring and lightly coat the bread (you don't want to use too much otherwise the bread will be too soggy to toast). Then using a tiny brush, write a note on the toast using a different color of your milk/food coloring mixture. Then toast your bread. So cool! It takes longer than you think. Mine aren't perfect because I was running out of time so my husband could eat before he needed to leave for work.

Here's the pinterest link: http://cuteeverything.com/food-fun/valentines-day-meal-ideas/

And last I bought a heart shaped ice-cube tray from the $1 section at Target. I dyed some orange juice red and froze my cubes. The next morning I put them in our orange juice. I didn't get a good picture but you get the idea. I also dyed our scrambled eggs pink just for fun.

My next goodie was for Mother's Day. I made these Pampering Kits with a friend for a couple of our friends from church. We loaded them with tissues, chapstick, nail polish, candy, hand sanitizer, lotion, fingernail/toenail  kit, mints, and bath salts. It was pretty easy and I was able to get some of these things at the $1 store to help save on money.  And we drink a lot of juice so I just kept and cleaned the bottles to use for this.

Here's the pinterest link: http://andeverythingsweet.blogspot.com/2010/07/another-packaging-idea.html

And last is a dessert I made for Father's Day. It is so yummy but there is some tweaking that needs to happen. I call it Cookie Oreo Brownies. First make your favorite cookie dough and spread it out on the bottom of your pan (size doesn't matter but I chose 9x13).

 

Then place a layer of whole Oreos on top of the cookie dough.

 

Last, whip up a batch of your favorite brownie mix and spread over Oreos.

Cook at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. This is where I had issues. I cooked it for 10 minutes longer than this and my brownie part was still super gooey. The edges were done but right in the middle was super runny. I haven't made it again to play around with the cook time but maybe lowering the temperature and cooking it longer will fix the problem. I had a friend cook it for an hour and that helped the middle but the edges were too crispy. So good luck but when it's cooked right, it is delicious!

Here's the pinterest link: http://blog.babygizmo.com/2012/02/ultimate-chocolate-chip-cookie-oreo-brownie-bars/

Letter Learner

My preschooler loves letters and fun ways to make them. I found this idea on pinterest and here is my version:

Step 1.Use Jumbo Craft sticks and adhesive velcro strips.

Step 2. Put velcro strips together and cut it into small piece.

 

Step 3. Remove backing from adhesive and place each side of one set of velcro to a stick.

Step 4. Have fun creating letters, shapes and patters by matching up the opposing velcro strips.

My preschooler trying them out! They're a success :)

Also I made a cute bag for them(not pictured). We're taking them to church. I hope it will keep them quiet.

Christmas Craft and Goodies

I would like to share all of my Christmas crafts with you but that will have to wait until next year because I still have one family who hasn't received the gift that I've been making for my other family members over the last couple of years and I want to keep it a surprise.

Anyway, for my parents I made blocks with pictures of their grandkids on it. They turned out cute and were easier than I thought. There were a couple finished blocks that I would have liked to fix because letters covered faces and such but there is only so much you can move the letters so they are still on the blocks.

The first thing we did was go to Lowes and buy and cut the wood. Sooooo cheap. I think we spent about $4 on a piece of wood. Lowes cut the wood to 3" x 4" and they didn't charge us for the cuts. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. We sanded the wood and then painted it; blue for my dad and maroon for my mom.

I collected pictures from my siblings of their kids and then used Microsoft Word to size them and printed them on photo paper. Then I modge podged the pictures to the wood.

I had previously cut the letters out using a friend's Silhouette machine. You can buy the vinyl at Michaels or JoAnns. I stuck the letters over the pictures trying to show as many faces as possible though it wasn't always easy. Then I modge podged over the letters and photos to seal it all together. And voila!  One thing I did notice was once I modge podged the photos, they turned a little sepia colored. But they still looked nice.

Now for the goodies. I wanted to do an assortment of goodies this year so I went to Pinterest. Where else?! I made Mint Chip Cookies, Peppermint Bark, Caramel Popcorn, and Fudge. They were all delicious and again super easy. I won't describe the process because I just stuck to the recipe. I'll give you the links so you can see the recipes and try them out for yourself.

 

Click HERE for the recipe for the Cookies.

 

Click HERE for the recipe for the Fudge. I left out the walnuts.

 

Click HERE for the recipe for the Peppermint Bark. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of dark chocolate.

 

Click HERE for the recipe for the Caramel Popcorn. The best and easiest caramel popcorn ever. And I dyed the caramel green before putting it over the popcorn to make it more Christmasy.

 

And here is my little goodie plate that we gave to family, friends, and neighbors.

 

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!