Gobble Gobble Banner

 

So, during some of my time off, I've been cleaning out, organizing and trying to make sense of everything.  One thing I've figured out...I should have no reason to go to Hobby Lobby for a very long time!!

This banner was made with leftover burlap, jute, brown paint and little bit of muslin fabric.

For the letters, I simply printed out each letter, put underneath the burlap and painted.

Each flag is cut out of burlap using a letter sized piece of cardstock for the template.

To finish, I just sewed the flags onto a long piece of jute.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!!

 

Gobble Gobble!!

 

Smiles!!

 

I don't always share at the linky parties, but when I do I chose the ones in my sidebar!

Frosty Goes to the Movies

This week I was asked to wrap up a secret Santa gift for a friend.

Her gift recipient collects snowmen so I made this paper mache' box to hold the goodies.

I think it would be really cute made from a bucket, too! 

It was really pretty simple...spray paint the botton white, paint the lid, the rounded wooded pieces and the wooden wheels black, add some glitter to the wheels, some snow & glitter to the lid and super glue everything together.  OH, don't forget the snowman's scarf!

Now he's ready to be delivered!

I wonder what's inside?!?

Popcorn, candy, drinks and a movie theater gift certificate!

This gal must have a pretty special secret Santa!

Happy gift-giving to you!

Smiles!

May share Mr. Frosty with some of my fun friends found in the sidebar =>

Book Boxes - Revisited

Another year, another book box.

(Last year's is at bottom of the post...)

For the newbies, the kindergartner teachers ask that each family create a book box out of a cereal box.  The kiddos use them to hold the books they make at school.

It's a great way to recycle and to show a little of the kids' personalities.

What I learned last year, was that using decoupage to apply the paper is a great way to reinforce the box.  It just feel sturdier.  J wanted his picture on his because that's the way H's teacher requested his look in 1st Grade.

Here is what I came up with:

Because I'm still recovering, I just used a group of coordinating papers and decoupage.  My mind and energy level would only allow mindless crafting.

Aren't packaged papers the best?!?!

Turned out pretty cute, don't cha think?

Oh, I just stamped his name on with rubber stamps and acrylic paint after the Mod Podge dried.  Because I wasn't sure which end would show, I put his picture on both.

Doesn't he look like a happy Kindergartner?!?

 This is the 1st Grade version.  They sent home the book boxes (very sturdy) with only one request...to include a picture of your child reading a book on the short end.  The teacher added the names so it gave all of the individual book boxes a unified look.

Here'slast year's version - Click here for link

Happy Fall!

Smiles!

Book Labels for Borrowed Books

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but it warrants being said again,

we have great neighbors!

Wonderful, fun, helpful, kind, sweet & generous neighbors.

One set of such fabulous neighbors shared about 20 something books with my son.  

Now, Sweet Neighbor, (SN,) is well past this reading level, but SN has a Sweet Little Sister (SLS) that will be wanting to read these in a few years.

To help ME keep up with which books were SN's and which one were our's, I quickly made some labels....cute, huh? (I made these a while ago, but I'm pretty sure I found the graphics at Graphics Fairy.)

Now, placement in children young reader's books can be tricky.

My guys like to look at ALL of the info availbale in the book...which books do we have...which books do we need, etc.

Making the book labels on standard address labels (Avery 8160) seemed to be the perfect size.

I threw this picture in just to show you an idea of where to place these little labels.

Would you like to create some of these?

Use my template and insert your own name!

For the Bee click HERE!

(I think I was in such a hurry, I forgot to save the butterfly ones to SCRIBD...so sorry!)

Easy peasy!

Would love for you to stop by and share your little lovelies at the Tuesday To Do Party!

Smiles!

Family Sign

So the short version of "why I made this sign," goes something like this...

We have a family reunion every two years.  At the last one (or maybe it was the one before,) they had an auction to raise money to help cover reunion costs and to help cover the upkeep costs of the old family cemetary.  Good idea.  I definitely wanted to contribute this year, but wasn't sure what I might do.  Most items are "family" related so I came up with this sign!

 With images of a good-hearted bidding war going on in my head I started to work on the sign.  I collected the items I would need:

a ready made wooden sign board (Hobby Lobby - $6.99)

Chip Board Letters (Hobby Lobby - $ .99 each)

wood glue

gesso

acrylic paint

acrylic float

assorted brushes

paper towels

At Hobby Lobby, I tried out the chip board letters on the sign to make sure they would fit.  My current surname will not fit on the boards they offered at Hobby Lobby...maybe another craft supply store will have something or, gulp, I could make my own (not anytime soon!) 

 When I got home I made light  pencil marks on the board, top and bottom, to be sure I kept the letters straight and centered on the board.  A light sanding might not be such a bad idea either, but I was pressed for time and skipped the sanding.

Once I had every thing nice and centered, I simply glued the chip board letters to the board with wood glue.

All nice and neat!

Once the letters had a chance to dry I coated the whole sign with gesso...seemed to give the whole sign the same texture.

Next I painted it with a gray blue paint.  Then I lightly sanded it.  It just wasn't quite the look I wanted so I painted the whole thing red.  Again, I lightly sanded it. 

Once the red paint had dried, I painted over it with black acrylic mixed with float.

While it was still wet, I used the paper towels to wipe it off.

Love the way it turned out!

Oh, did I mention that when I got the family newsletter with all of the reunion details that I didn't read it?  Did I mention that once I got to the reunion with my cute little sign that I was met with a puzzled look by the reunion coordinator?   Yea, no auction this year.

Congrats to mom & dad for being the winning bidders proud new owners of the family sign!

Stop by the Tuesday To Do Party and link up your latest creative endeavor!

Smiles!!!!

Linking to many of the fun parties listed on my side bar...come join me!

Family Tree

Be Sure To Link Up To The PRETTY PACKAGES PARTY!

Check out the NEW TUESDAY TO DO PARTY

My grandmother blessed our family with a gift more precious than any material possession. She created a book with our family history.  She researched and investigated my grandfather's family tracing it back to its origins in Ireland.  Our family has a rich history of many different personalities and backgrounds.  Royalty and peasants, cowboys and indians,  Rebels and Yanks, Amercian Revolutionary soldiers (I'm a DAR member because of her passion for family history) and Texas Revolutionary soldiers and everything in between make up our amazing family.  Because of her hard work, my grandfather, whom I never had the privlege of knowing, comes alive with stories and pictures.   

When I saw Martha Stewart's version of this family tree, I wanted to make one for my parents,  (they just celebrated their 52nd Wedding Anniversary in January,) as well as for my parents-in-love...I'll take them to a printer to have them copied for my brothers and sister-in-love.

Rather than printing in off as in Martha's version, I painted my own with watercolor using her's as a guide.  I followed her instructions for hand-edging the name cards with gold paint. 

I was very happy with the results and look forward to presenting it to my parents this weekend.  I'll present YOU with the tutorial in a few days.  If you can't wait that long to give it a try, then scoot on over to Martha's and check it out for yourself!

Smiles!!

The Tuesday To Do Party is HERE!

OH!  Don't forget stop by tomorrow thru the 12th for the Pretty Packages Party!

Linking to:

Frugalicious Friday

Weekend Wrap-up

Sundae Scoop

Saturday Spotlight

Sunday Showcase

Not Baaad

M.M.M at C.R.A.F.T.

Craftomaniac Monday

The More The Merrier Monday

Market Yourself Monday

Just Something I Whipped Up

Making the World Cuter Monday

Motivate Me Monday

Get Your Craft On

Handmade Tuesday

Power of Paint Party

Under $100

Get Your Brag On

Baby Sign for Hospital

My sweet friend is scheduled to deliver her precious baby boy on St. Patrick's Day!

When I saw Haley at the Autocrat's darling baby sign, I knew I had to make one for baby Jackson.

This adorable vintage image was at the Graphics Fairy.  I used the freezer paper technique to print it on some fabric...it is so sweet.

We'll have to wait until the 17th to fill out these!

I just HAD to put a shamrock on this!!  After all, it will be St. Patrick's day!

A little message on the back for sweet baby Jackson from his Auntie Jame-Jame!

Smiles!!!

Linking to:

Market Yourself Monday

Just Something I Whipped Up

Motivate Me Monday

M.M.M. at C.R.A.F.T.

Craft-o-Maniac Monday

Making the World Cuter Monday

Take a Look Tuesday

Get Your Craft On

Handmade Tuesday

100 Days of School

Its Sunday afternoon.  A mom is feeling really good about herself because she's actually making sure she has everything ready for school the night before.  She's going throught last week's notes, etc.  What's that?  100 days of school.  Bring a collection of 100 things uniquely displayed on Monday.

Mom goes searching through craft stuff.  There's that "H" that I haven't got around to doing anything with...what can we put on it?  Pom-poms? Too girly.  Beads?  Too girly.  Sequins?  Too girly.  (You can see where this is going?!?)  What else?

Manly copper (or copper-looking) pennies.

A hundred pennies will completely cover the front of the letter as well as a few left over to decorate the outside.  I actually kind of like the whole copper look. If you could find enough pennies of a person's birth year, it might be a neat little birthday gift, too.

Happy 100 Days of School!

Smiles!

Linking to:

Craftomaniac Monday

Get Your Craft On

Embroidery Hoop Christmas Card Holder Tutorial

Ok, so this is just a teensy, weensy bit late OR

if you're a glass is half-full kind of person, this is just in time for you to be

 prepared for that influx of Christmas cards 2011. 

(or for those really late last minute card senders who mean well but just get overwhelmed with all of the fun Christmas activites and family things and...ok, me.)

I had seen this idea in my Martha Stewart mag and then again on one of the local morning shows.  It kept appearing on my to-do list, but just took a while to get "to-dooed." (kind of like those Christmas cards!!!)

(I didn't actually get mine put together until about 4 days before Christmas! sshhhh!)

Smiles!!!

What you'll need:

Embroidery hoops (I bought 3 @ $1.69 at Hobby Lobby)

2 packages of small clothespins ($2.33 each at Hobby Lobby)

Elmers wood glue

wide satin ribbon

about 8 minutes

Simply lay the hoop down, space wood glue dots evenly arount loop...say 4" apart or so.

Place clothespins on glue dots alternating the "pinchy" end facing in and out of the hoop.

Let dry completely, add your ribbon, hang and add cards.

Smiles!!!

Linking to:

Hooo's Got Talent

Photo Confetti Tutortial

 Here is the Photo-confetti Picture Tutorial (finally!)

(Click here to see my original version)

What you will need:

144 photos cropped down to 1" x 1"

(I print mine on Epson Premier Art Matte Scrapbook paper)

3/4" circle hole punch

12" x 12" piece of card stock

mini glue dots adhesive

12" x 12" frame

ruler

pencil

art eraser

Start by making a mark at .5 inches then every inch after that at the top of your page.

  Repeat on each edge of your paper.

Using your pencil marks, line up the ruler and mark off a grid.

(You can save a little time and just make tick marks at every inch,

but this may not be as accurate as the grid.)

 (below:  just making tick marks) 

Erase the lines leaving the intersection marks.  This is where you will place your photos.

Now, add your photos using mini glue dots adhesive.  My photos are a collection of photos of my family from my parents childhood to today.  I try to mix up the older photos with the newer ones.  Also, I try to mix up up the photos so there is a portrait next to a group photo...make it visually pleasing.

Another item I added was an identifying tag at the bottom right corner.

Ours says "Earley Family Est. 1959."

Ta-da!! Here is the finished product!

It looks great on a photo stand or hanging on the wall.

I'd love to see your version!

Smiles!!!

Linking to:

American Crafter Auditions