Piles and Piles of Presents

Ahhhh, I'm late! I am just catching the tail end of Tuesdays Trash for Treasure with Kimm @ Reinvented. Wait, it's Tuesday right?

It has been a rough day. Starting with Baby Bug being covered in an awful rash and ending in Wild Child falling asleep with a Migraine and a whole lot of crazy in between. Still, I love my trash and wanted to share another 2x4 scrap idea with you.

So, stain your scraps. Size doesn't really matter. (In fact go larger for a bigger impact.) Any scrap will do.

Then Mod Podge scrap paper to your blocks and tie on some ribbon.
There you have it. You can make piles and piles of tiny wooden presents to add a bit of Christmas flare to any shelf or counter top.


Wrap them up in cellophane and you have a great friend or neighbor gift for this upcoming holiday season.

Homemade Bookmark

This is a fun east activity for kids. Your child may want to make a whole bunch of bookmarks to give-a-way to friends for school or even simply gifts to Aunts and Uncles.

You will need:

Paper

Clear Contact Paper

Scissors

Markers, paints, stickers or whatever you can find

You can cut the paper into strips or have your child color the entire paper first then cut into strips. You can also use existing art work.
Color.

Cut 2 pieces of contact paper for the front and back of you bookmark.

Adhere to paper. Smooth out bubbles.

Trim edges. There you have it. A homemade book mark.

You might even want to read books with your child before or after your craft or even take a field trip to the Library.

Starry eyed

Happy 4th of July! I thought I would get a quick post in for the weekend.

Did you see this cute Patriotic window done by The Creative Crate? It was featured on U Create a couple of days ago. It reminded me of a project I did last year.

Which is pictured below. It is a regular picture frame from Wal Mart. I painted the frame and the back of the glass. The lettering is done with a dry erase marker. I change it with the seasons, I use it to record medication dosages and to write quick reminders. Wouldn't it be cute to have three of them, one above the other, the top and bottom smaller than the middle? You could write Home Sweet Home, Live Laugh Love and so on.Anyway, after seeing the flag, I knew I needed to do something similar, but with a frame a little easier to get a hold of. So, I got a $3 Wal Mart frame.
Painted the frame. Cut of a template of a star. (I used paper, which was a big mistake. Next time I will use contact paper.)

Painted the star.

Then stripes.

Not perfect, but I love it.

Another great affordable gift. You could do any season. I know I will be doing a Valentines day frame. The wipeable board is a great gift for Newly weds, they could write sticky sweet gaggy messages to each other or just about anyone. Also, a good affordable way to fill space on a wall and add color.

Just Bead Happy

I never been very girly. I just am now getting in touch with my soft chewy center. My girls have been benefiting from my new interest in all things pink and poofy. Recently, I have been putting more of an effort into their hair. Thanks to blogs about little girls hair dos and my neighbor who should go in the hair book of geniuses for the fabulous styles she gives her girls, my girls are looking a bit more kept. When it comes to hair embellishments there are a lot of options every where you go. However, I have got to be a creative and a smidgen frugal. I have come up several idea's already as seen here and here. So now I will share one more idea.

You will need:

24 gauge wire

Package of beads (I got the pkg. shown in the picture at Wal Mart for $2)

Package of bobby pins

A few of the beads and bobby pins is all you will need.

Select 2 coordinating beads and cut about 3"-4" inches of the wire.
Slide one bead onto one end of the wire leaving enough wire to wrap around bead.

Push end of wire through the other side of the bead. You can do this a couple of times to secure the bead. Pull tight.

Twist the wire together with the top part of the remaining wire. ( I know, I need a new camera and maybe a new end user. If you have any suggestions for a new camera I am listening. If you know of any Internet camera classes I am still listening.)

Do the same with the other bead on the opposite end.

Then slip wire into bobby pin with a bead on each side.

Twist beads until secure on the bobby pin.


Then decorate that cute little head of hair. With these cute little buggers you can make one to coordinate with each of your bows and flower clips.

Seriously, so cheap. So easy. So cute.

Consider yourself framed

Last month I participated in Craft it Forward. I had my three people comment and 2 of them have contacted me with their mailing info. However, one hasn't.

Reneee where are you?!?! Please contact me with your address. I made this frame for you.

If Renee doesn't contact me by July 1, I will hold a drawing to find this frame a home.

Look Xazmin! An entry for Mod Podge Mania! Everyone go check out Xazmin, @This is the year, this Tuesday!

Stroll happy

Meet the newest baby wipe diaper holder helps keep everything together ma-jigger. I plan to add it to my Etsy account soon. Can you imagine yourself standing up in church holding this little cutie and not having to search the depths of a diaper bag to find both the wipes and diapers.

I'm toying with doing a tutorial on these in the near future.

You can even attach it to a stroller to keep your hands on both handles.
What a skinny shadow!

Here is a heads up: My 100th blog is coming up soon. I will be having a give-a-way. Be sure to become a follower! I will have more details next week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Scrappy Paper Dolls

To celebrate going dot com the Tip Junkie featured a bunch of posts about parties. One of them had a link to this post on This Mama Makes Stuff. It was an American Girl themed party and she had Kit paper dolls. I couldn't find a pattern for them so I made my own. Get all of your ribbon, lace, fabric scraps and any beads, paper or embellishments you don't need anymore and let your girls have a blast designing clothes for their own paper dolls.

My oldest daughter is 4 and she was able to do a lot of it on her own. She and her friends, ages 5 and 7, played with the scraps and dolls for over an hour. I think had they all been 6+ they would have play even longer.



This is a great summer activity.

Topped with a bow

My girls don't have a whole lot of hair and what the little ones does have is in the shape of a mullet. So, girlifying them is very important and tricky. I gathered ribbons and elastics. (not pictured here is those little disposable back elastics, they work well for this.)

Cut a 3-5 inch length of ribbon...

or fabric of varying lengths.

Seal ends.

Tie in a knot around elastic.

Girlify like crazy.

Works with curly ribbon too.

Have a ribbon swap with friends and you just may end up with every color you will ever need. Because the ends are sealed, if an elastic breaks, just tie ribbon to a new elastic. I love these because they are small enough that they don't over power a little head and you can use several per hair style.

These are very cost effective and easy to make.

Making my mark

I look forward to Tuesday every week. Why? Because it's Trash to Treasure Tuesday! So for heaven's sakes get on over to Kimms place @ Reinvented and link up. Come on I know you can be just as trashy as the next gal. I am also try out a new one. Diane's second time around Tuesday on her blog A picture is worth a 1000 words.

This will be my last 2x4 post for a while. So enjoy!

I didn't measure the length of the board. Just use a small scrap of 2x4. You can cut a template like I did or just eyeball 10 holes. I used my cricut for the template, the holes are two big. It was just a guide really. I couldn't find the right bit. So, I had to use one that was too big. Did this make me mad? Yes, just a bit. giggle

Stain or paint. Don't worry about getting the paint down in the holes.
For the next part you will need a box of 10 Markers. Note: There should only be one marker manufactured and that is the washable kind. I bought these long before I learned this valuable lesson.

Grab your glue gun and fill each hole a little more than half way. Place marker cap down in the glue as you go. Some of the glue will go up into the hallow of the cap, so be sure to use plenty of glue. Let dry.

Viola! Now your caps won't wander away from you marker.

Wrap this bad boy up with a pad of paper and you have a great gift for a child you adore.

If you have a chance take a look at my previous post. It's a real treat!