Missing In Action

Well, the festivities of the holidays over the past couple of months took over, and I neglected the blog--not that I haven't been creating! I've been taking pictures of a few projects and hope to get them up this week. Stay tuned!

Build A Tent Day

I had big plans today. I was going to make birthday cards to last me until the end of the year. Well, I got a bit distracted, and built a tent for my little guy instead.  

We used his folding tent, the couch, the TV, the coffee table, and anything else I could hook a sheet to. I'm not sure who had more fun-me or him. :-)

He may have even had more fun throwing his ball onto the tent than actually playing in the tent. 

It was a fun indoor activity for a chilly day inside. I did get three cards made and two started, so I'll try to share those tomorrow. 

I'm linking here:

• Ta-Da Tuesday Link Party at Mommy By Day...Crafter By Night 
• Craft Schooling Sunday at Creative Jewish Mom

For A Little Boy Who LOVES Big Trucks



I've been a slacker this week and haven't kept up on my posting. I also was a slacker and somehow only took one picture of my little guy is his Halloween costume (see above). I even had to take it with my cell phone. Not sure what happened. He LOVES big trucks, and since my dad (his Papa) happens to be a truck driver, I figured this would be the perfect costume. It was dressing up but was enough like regular clothes that he didn't mind wearing it all day. I drug the little guy out of bed early, so we could go show Papa the surprise costume (that's why he looks sleepy).


I had my mom secretly get one of my dad's old work shirts, so I could cut it up and make a little shirt out of it. I just had to search his closet for pants and an undershirt to go with it (it wasn't too hard since I went overboard at a consignment sale about a month ago). My dad, and all the other drivers for that matter, thought it was pretty cool. :-)

One of Two & Two of Two

My cousin is having twins! One is a boy and one is a girl. I wanted to get something for the baby shower for them that matched somewhat, but finding matching outfits for a boy and a girl is a little difficult. Then it came to me. Why not make them something? I came up with the idea of using the common phrases for a pair of items-"one of two" and "two of two". It was fairly simple, and here's how I did it:

I bought two plain newborn size onesies. I figured white would be a nice neutral color.

I created my design and printed it as a mirror image on t-shirt transfer paper.

I followed the instructions with the transfer paper to transfer my images on the onesies. I did have a little bit of difficultly peeling of the backing of the paper, but after working at it a little, I was able to get the paper off. Here's how they turned out:

I'm linking here:

• Ta-Da Tuesday Link Party at Mommy By Day...Crafter By Night 
• Craft Schooling Sunday at Creative Jewish Mom

Pumpkin Carving Party

Looking for a fun idea for Halloween pumpkin carving? Why not have a pumpkin carving party? We had several of our friends and family over for a Pumpkin Carving Party. Everyone had different ideas and different techniques. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures!

5 Minute Magnet Tutorial

I printed some wallet size pictures for a collage picture frame (a Christmas gift) the other day and ended up with extra prints. I was just going give the prints along with the frame, but then I got to thinking that they may want to put the prints on the fridge. I didn't want the picture to be covered up though, so I thought it would be a good idea to turn the pictures into magnets themselves. Here's how they turned out:

Here's what you need to make your own magnets:

• A wallet size picture (you may have some senior pictures that were sent with graduation announcements)
• A business card size magnet or a sheet type magnet to cut (we get these magnets with our phone books)
• Some type of adhesive (a tape type adhesive will work better than glue)
• Scissors

Trim the magnet to a size just smaller than the picture.

Apply the adhesive to the magnet.

Line the picture up with the magnet. Place the picture over the magnet and press firmly.

And that's all there is to it! 

I made several in about 10 minutes.

This is a great project to use up those business size magnets that sometimes come with the phone book and a nice way to display wallet size pictures (senior pictures that you sometimes get with graduation announcements for example). 

An Oldie But a Goodie

When I was little, my "Bama" made all the grandkids what we all called tepees. They were little tents that easily folded and set up. The awesome thing is that they have lasted a long time. The one  above was mine, and now my little guy uses it. He simply loves it!

It is a fairly simple construction of four sides-one with a slit in the middle for a door and the opposite side has a small opening for a window. The four sides are connected with four pockets each holding a one by two piece of wood.

Those pieces of wood each have a hold drilled near the top and are are attached together with a small cord.

It's a fairly simple construction, but it will be good for hours and maybe even years of fun.

Pillow By Day...Blanket By Night

Pillow By Day...

...Blanket By Night

My sister recently got married and my little guy was the ring bearer. My sister made him what we call a "quillow" for a thank you gift. Our "Bama" made these for all the grandkids when we were little. These nifty little blankets fold up into a pillow. They're simple but lovely.

On one side of the blanket has a pocket that is approximately 1/3 the width of the blanket.

To turn the blanket into the pillow, fold the blanket lengthwise in thirds with the folds behind the pocket.

Flip the blanket so the pocket is face  down and fold in half upward.

Fold in half again, so that the blanket is folded to the same size as the pocket.

Turn the pocket inside out so that the blanket is inside the pocket, and now you have a pillow!

To Go With A "Whiteboard"

One of the first projects I've tried after finding the craft blogging community was a "whiteboard" of sorts. I saw the original here at things for boys. Here's her version:

My version is below:

I wanted to add something to keep the dry erase marker attached to the board, so I followed the tutorial here at Michael Ann Made for making a friendship bracelet. I made it about 14 inches long and attached it to the back of the frame simply with some tape. I tied the end to the marker lid with a nice little bow and that was that!

Five Fall Favorites

I'm feeling so inspired to create some Autumn/Fall projects. Here are some of my favorite posts I'm thinking about this Friday:

I plan on making a wreath like this after Halloween comes and goes:

 Mini Pumpkin Wreath from Snowflakes & Dragonflies

This Jack-O-Lantern puppet is so simple but so cute and fun. I think I may try to make a couple for our upcoming pumpkin carving party. I'm sure the almost 2 year old and almost 2 1/2 year old will lose interest in pumpkin carving at some point, so this may be something fun for them to play with.

Jack-o-Lantern Puppets from Two Girls Being Crafty

I may have to keep this creative way of packaging candy in mind for future years when my little guy is in school. Such a cute idea! 


Halloween Treats from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar

Although I'm not brave enough (or maybe patient enough) to do this myself, it's a great idea, and the product used has so many possiblities.

Monogrammed Pumpkin from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar

I may have to try making my own version of these candy corn candles for Halloween.

Simple Fall Decorating from Snowflakes and Dragonflies

A Leafly Card!

A Leafly Card for a Leafly Day

A few years ago, I tried using leaves as stamps, and I was surprised at how well it worked. So, I decided to break out this technique again and went on a leaf hunt one night while taking a walk around the neighborhood. There are so many interesting shapes! These are the leaves I found for the project:

I think it works best when you have a good variation in sizes and shapes.

You can use the leaf kind of like you would a stamp just be sure to work a little more gently, so the leaf doesn't get torn.

Place the leaf on your paper as you would any stamp.

Here's where there's a little trick. It seemed to work best if I placed a piece of paper over the leaf after placing it where I wanted, and then I pressed on the paper and rubbed it a little to get as much of the ink off the leaf as possible. This kept the leaf in place and kept it from tearing.

You can repeat with the same leaf several times. The only drawback is that you have to use either the same color or a darker color (since you can't exactly use stamp cleaner on a leaf!). The good news though it that you can get a bunch of the same type of leaf if you want to do different colors.

Continue with this process with different colors and shapes of leaves.

I believe I used four different types of leaves with a different color for each type. You can do as many or as few leaves as you would like. I didn't want my leaves too crowded, so I stopped at four.

I created my leaf collage with a piece of paper large enough to cut into pieces for four cards. After I cut each piece I used a sponge and a darker brown ink to distress each piece.

I printed the sentiment on my computer and added some twine to the side for an extra touch. The card base was a precut package I bought a couple years ago and hadn't been able to use yet (I wish I could say I did that scalloped edge myself!).

I stamped a lighter piece of card stock with a larger leaf and glued it to the inside  for the message area.

I went ahead and created all four cards, but placed the sentiments in different places. Each card is unique, but all of them are very leafly if I do say so myself!

Linking to Craft Schooling Sunday at Creative Jewish Mom