Cub Scout Mother's Day

I am the den leader of some wolf cub scouts. We worked through our whole book. Instead of doing an elective badge, we made mother's day presents.

Sure the boys *made* them, but it took a few hours out of my week to prepare.

Like painting the jars.

Their tags are either coupons for chores or things they like about their moms. I think this boy could have used a few more sticks, I should have taken a picture of a different one.

 I also made these tags. Although the phrase I saw on pinterest.

Tandem Bike Printable

This picture is on all my other blogs today too. But I did make it so I figured I'd been fair and add it here too.

First off, I know senior LDS missionary couples do not ride tandem bikes. But I thought it was a cute idea. Based off all those other LDS printables for primary kids.
I found the bike from graphic fairy and the background came from one of my favorite flickr pages.

Homemade Birthday Cards

If you are making Christmas presents, you better get started before December. Last year I made my sweet 91 year old grandma birthday cards. 50 to be exact! She sends birthday cards to all her children, spouses, grandchildren, spouses and great grandchildren. I should have added extras since 50 won't even make it through the year...

I think the cards turned out adorable, if I do say so myself. I used a bunch of printables from pinterest, and I won't even try to remember all the sites I printed them off. There were many repeating elements, but they are all at least slightly different the the last. Since they would be sent out to the same families, I didn't want to make 50 of the same card.

Countdown

My oldest son has wanted a countdown for his birthday for years. He always wants to do a paper chain and sometimes we do, but he never keeps track of it, then I have to count those dumb paper rings to figure out how many he should take off and it really just drives me crazy. So for the last couple of months I keep thinking I'll make something permanent. I made it almost in time for my baby's birthday. It has 10 days and we did it for 8. I bought a photo album scrapbook kit thing and just printed off numbers from the internet, then glued them in. The older kids had a blast counting down.

My husband's birthday is two days before my oldest son's birthday. So I knew what was up when my son sheepishly came to me, and said, are we going to count down to dad's birthday? I said nope, only kids. He looked much relieved.

Fall Birthday Bunting

Long story short, I needed a birthday surprises for a friend. So the other three of us, left a candle, banana bread and heart attacked her front door in fall colors. I volunteered to making the Happy Birthday sign.

 Here is the close up, I used sharpie, paper, glue stick and my die cutter. It took me about an hour to make. Not bad, it was fun.

Elsa the Turkey

If you've ever had a kindergarten you've probably had to disguise Tom the Turkey.  

Here is my son's turkey.

Can you guess who Tom is dressed as? I'll give you a clue, its not a Viking opera singer, singing "Let it snow, let it snow...."

 This is the picture my 5 year old took.

Pumpkin Patch

I made a pumpkin patch for my kitchen counter. My kids helped, Nat painted the stems and J made the leaves. They are made from old soup cans and scrapbook paper. The kids were so proud of the additions. 

What I really wanted was 2x4 block pumpkins. But that would have required me to buy wood and then ask my husband to cut to for me. And I really didn't want to buy wood, because I'm trying to save my money. Plus these were far easier, they took me about 10 minutes to cut and tape the paper, and since I only spent $1.50 on paper (scrapbook paper is expensive) I won't feel bad throwing them out. Painting wood is many more steps.

You didn't really think we were done?

Once again Nat changed Halloween Costumes yet again. She was Rapunzel at school and then the Pirate Princess for trick or treating. This costume was made from construction paper. Construction paper is what you get when you are on your FOURTH costumes. 

I also pinned up her dress, and we put on pirate boots and leggings. It would have been great to ad a belt, but I didn't have on her size, and I didn't think a construction paper belt would have held up too well.
The inspiration:

Wrapping

I'm not sure this is a craft but that's beside the point.

 I grew up reading a christmas story every night during December.  I've always want to carry on the tradition, but do a terrible job.  The only other year I came close was the year my son found a non-fiction christmas section in a collected works, and we slowly read it to him, but not my daughter she was already asleep. Non-fiction christmas speculation is painfully boring, like what star the wiseman might have seen, and why we have christmas trees.
Anyway, so thanks to pinterest, I decided to wrap up a book for each night of the month, hoping we would read a christmas story.  It isn't quite panning out like I envisioned, but I guess its as good as it gets.  My son reads to my daughter by themselves each night and I can't even hear the story.  But this is what my wrapping looks like.
I printed out numbers for the month, used used craft paper from amazon packing, with green crepe paper.  I really quite love it.

Harry Potter Accessories

For some reason I made my son a wand.  I'm not sure why he needs a wand to trick or treat, but I had all the supplies on hand so it was free. I used this tutorial, with my kid's air dry crayola clay for the handle.
 

At least it made him feel special.
 

I always say I'm going to buy costumes.  But then I looked at the price at Amazon, because heaven knows I'm either buying it at Amazon or Walmart, and I couldn't bare to spend that much when I had a large piece of hand me down black twill in my closet.  I bought the patch for $5, so much cheaper than Amazon pricing.  I didn't add lining, because I figured a black cloak (minus the patch) could be used at Halloween for years, where a black and maroon cloak not so versatile. (But you know in the pictures of the characters from the early movies, they don't have maroon lining.) This is the tutorial I use for the cloak, plus I added a hood.
 

And here are the matching buttons I made for the boys to wear on their costumes.

So here is a another picture of Ron's Tie.

And well who doesn't want to see another picture of my ginger baby.  He's so adorable. 

(Aren't you glad I don't clean my house before I take pictures?!) 

Turns out that tie is a very effective drool catcher.There are two more Halloween Posts, one more costume, plus the 7 year old actually dressed up.

My birthday

I changed the way I hung my birthday bunting for my birthday. I like it a lot better.

I know a cell phone pic in the dark is awesome. 

Back to school

I should have posted this about a month ago. Of course I needed August decorations so I made a back to school wreath and bunting.

 I kind of hate the color I used for my letters, other than that I was pleased. 

For some reason green and yellow are back to school colors. Now a close up

And lastly my subway art with my wreath. 

Birthday Bunting

I decided I didn't like my birthday banner so I made a new one from the left over paint chips my kids had collected while we were painting the interior of our house.

I made many small ones to go around the majority of my living room and kitchen.  You can tell what colors we favored.  Pink/Red, Yellows, and neutrals for me.

Patriotic Pinwheel Foam Wreath

My Patriotic Foam Wreath for the wine rack, with paper pinwheels and bunting.

I also used this wreath at Memorial Day. 

With Memorial Day Subway Art

Cup Coaster

After 1 week of summer vacation it became apparent we needed this.

A cup coaster for everyone. I added extra tiles because the board I found fit seven tiles. In retrospect I only needed a three tile board, my husband and I already only use one cup a day. 

I used modge podge, scrapbook paper, stickers, and sealant for the tiles.
This is hardly an original idea.  Search pinterest for family cup coaster.
I also used drawer pulls as decorative handles on the outside like someone else on pinterest.

Obsessed

Today I decided I was finally bored of my easter decor. But just for the record, Easter the second Sunday in April, is my ideal. I took down the peeps banner, and then my window looked so boring. I thought about making some sort of valance but instead I made more bunting. So yes, I am a little obsessed with bunting. I can't help it, I love it so. I made it match with the wall to keep it understated, but still giving my wall a little somethin' somethin'. I tell everyone in my family individually they are my favorite. And in the moment I mean it, they really are my favorite.

By the way, I love crafts that are free and can be done within one or two tv episodes. I used card stock and handme down lace hem tape.

Baby Girls

I know two girls that are about to have baby girls. So of course I made blankets and burp clothes. Then I made cards with the fabric scraps.