Poor Badger Creations

Upcycled Kids Table/Confessions of a Board Game Addicted Family

2012-10-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

Are your kids as destructive as a swarm of locusts like mine?

We have a 5, 3, and 1 year old who can produce wear and tear on any household object like a pro.

This little card table is so handy at our house for board games, if you know us you will know our LOVE of board games!

So with little money, here is a quick DIY. These tables are main stars at Goodwill and yard sales, so if you see one for 5 bucks it will be well worth the investment.

I wanted to include this picture because my simple DIY started out as an epic FAIL. I had the great idea to do this in silver.... it did not look cute at all.

What I used was two cans of spray paint, apply an even coat. Some decorative duct tape and some scraps of card stock. Only because I ran out of duct tape, but I'll claim that was my design intent. ;)

Apply your design of paper or tape, a few layers of mod podge, and a clear spray sealant and.....

Hungry Hungry Hippos

BOARD GAME TIME!

Doggie Doo


Doggie Doo

This game is fun and gross; two good board game qualities.

I told you we like our board games....

Thanks for reading and I promise to not be a stranger for so long this time. I am still humbled and impressed by all the people who read this.

Poor Badger

Oh my JEEZ!

2012-07-31T11:38:00.001-07:00

If you apart of the Ikea rewards program or are on the mailing list, I am sure you got the same AWESOME surprise in the mail that I got. Complete ERMAGERD moment! Going to wait until the little ones go to bed and dissect this book like I'm Nick Cage and there is a map in it you can only see with a black light.

Enjoy your catalog fellow Ikea fans and DIYers!

Something I saw on pinterest; the series.

2012-07-14T13:29:00.001-07:00

I've been planning on doing this for a while now, a series of reviews of the awesome projects that I've pinned and tried on pinterest. I want to start by saying two things...

1. If you are not on pinterest, go NOW! (well AFTER you read this of course). Pinterest is the greatest thing since Martha Stewart for people who craft, bake, cook, or ANY Martha related interest.

2. My goal in this series is to NOT be mean to another crafter. People who create are my people and in the words of one of the funniest females EVER, Whoopi Goldberg; 'if you can't be witty, don't be sh@#%^'. Pinterest has so many awesome ideas, I just wanted to share my thoughts and let you know if it is worth your time and money.

This project has been all over pinterest and blogged by many people, so I have no clue who to source as the original. The cost is very cheap. Just 2 yards of fabric and a cheap $7 roller blind (with about $4 worth of hardware).

Very simple instructions; just hot glue your fabric to the roller blind, like wrapping a present.

The amount of time was good too. Me and my husband did this during one 30 minute episode of Parks and Rec. God bless Ron Swanson!

So out of a 5 'pin' rating. I give this 2 and a 1/2 pins. Very cheap and easy to do, not much skill required. The only issue we had is that the blind does not roll up so well. This window had been a HUGE pain in our neck, funneling sunlight into the home like a laser beam. We are very happy with the outcome but we do wish it rolled up easier. This might be an error on our part or a flaw in the blind itself...either way it is a great idea to add something unique and one of a kind for little money.

Thanks for reading!

DIY: Key Rack

2012-07-08T06:41:00.001-07:00

It has been a hot minute since I did one of my Poor Badger blogs, I have really missed it. We've had a great year so far this 2012, I just have been kept bust with a 4, 3, and 1 year old. Even as I type this I am bathing one kid for church and creeping silently to avoid waking the other two. But I truly miss this and I miss the people I've met doing this.

Now for some old business:

I am blessed, humbled, and dumbfounded that over 11,000 people read my blog last year. People from Asia, Africa, South America, Europe, Australia,and North America showed up to my blog. Still haven't cracked that Antarctic market though. ;)

Thank you for that, I do hope to have more projects for you.

Onto the project!

This came out of a scary and frustrating situation. My husband is a janitor for a local school system and carries a set of keys for the doors, closets, etc. If he loses those keys it is MAJOR TROUBLE! Guess what he did? Hid them over his vacation so he wouldn't lose them and FORGOT where he hid them! Thank God he found them and so out of a crisis a craft emerged!

You'll need:
*a board ($2.99 @Hobby Lobby)
*scrapbook paper in any style (.59 @ Hobby Lobby)
*some hardware to hang the keys (50% sale @ Hobby Lobby.... $1.50 a PIECE!!!)
*some paint
*mod podge
*some screws

First I painted the edge, any color you want. I Liked the dark brown with the woodsy style.

After you paint it, figure out where on the board you want your hardware. Place and mark where the screw needs to go.

Pre-drill your pilot holes. This makes things easier afterwards.

Apply scrapbook paper to board with a thin layer of mod podge. Smooth out paper and work with any air bubble.

Use your tiny scissors to trim the extra away.

Apply 1 or 2 coats of mod podge to the entire project, depending on how you want it. Then screw your screws into the board. Your paper won't tear because you drilled the pilot holes.

Because we are poor folk and do things as easy peezy as possible, I used my diet Dr. Pepper lid to make a hanging tab on the back.

There you go! If Hobby Lobby doesn't have the

hardware on sale, print off their 40% coupon from

their site. This would also be cute if you used cute

drawer knobs, old faucets found at a yard sale,

or something from nature.

Thanks for reading and I promise not to be

such a stranger anymore!

No mantel? No problem! The stocking tutorial on making and hanging those socks for Santa.

2011-12-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

Stockings hung by the chimney with care? Not in this house of crafty loons.

Christmas is slowly approaching and to me this is the saddest week. Soon all the fun crafts, food, and that joyful magic will evaporate and we will have a long wait until the next Santa season.

Lets make our stockings. God bless black Friday at Jo Annes Fabric! They had comfy fleece for $1.49 a yard. We went to Wal-Mart, Toys -R- Us, and Target that morning and nothing was as brutal as all the vicious ladies in the fleece section going bonkers. We picked half a yard of fleece for each Scaff. It was fun picking the prints according to personality. You'll also need some white felt for the cuff.

I free handed a basic stocking on paper, but if you want yours super perfect there are loads of free patterns online. Trace, cut, and sew.

I just drew a rectangle for the cuff and hot glued it to the stocking after I turned it right side out.

Don't forget your little tab for hanging! If you are really loading your stockings you might want to sew in place of hot gluing. I sewed the stocking but I really LOVE my sewing machine and I get kinda hissy about sewing thick materials, crafty and crazy persons problem.

Now as you saw above we hung our stockings in a different way, so like the perfect dress this outfit needed some accessories. These were also black Friday finds, with coupons!

Even though I would have loved to take 3 hours and paint these perfectly, kids love to help and be included. Since this would be something meaningful to us I wanted it to be made by MY greatest creations.

I just put some paint on a paper plate and let those creative fingers do their thing. Nothing makes a kid happier than showing off what they made all by their selves.

Even the baby got to paint a bulb in her choice of color; orange. What a cute Christmas Elf.

So as I said before; no mantel, no problem! We went adventuring and found this cool branch. A few nails and ribbon to secure it to the wall and some push pins to hang the stockings on, and we ended up with a piece we are all proud of.

It is much easier to buy these things, but it is defiantly not cheaper or more special. My kids get such a kick out of explaining whose stocking is which to our visitors, and they take tremendous pride in knowing they helped!

Thanks for reading! Merry Christmas!

Scrap Fabric Christmas Tree

2011-12-13T18:58:00.000-08:00

Got a fun and easy one for you tonight. I saw this FABULOUS set of lights made by a talented girl on a blog and had to try her technique. Whiteney Caroline Desings did this but used ribbon, I am far too conservative with my ribbon (two beautiful girls with beautiful hair need all the hair bows this mama can crank out) so I used some scrap fabric.

All you need is some scrap fabric or ribbon and some Christmas lights. I think you should use mini lights because they don't get as hot, and during the Christmas season fire is this Poor Badgers biggest fear.

You basically just cut you some strips, the length and width is all determined on how you want it to look, I liked the shaggy look so I think I cut mine 7 inches long by 2 inches wide. After you cut your strips just tie a plain knot onto your lights. Easy as pie.

By the by, the star that you saw was made by my oldest badger. She is turning out to be a super crafty gal and I wouldn't trade her not a gosh darn thing. Notice the hair bows on her head? That is where I got the fabric for this project, from some old yo-yo hair bow projects last year. Poor badgers craft on a dime.

I used my strand of fabric lights to fashion myself a little tree to place in the house that could have used a little extra light. I used thumbtacks (we are planning to paint in the Spring anywho) to fashion the outline of the tree and my sissy cats star made the tree just poop.

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone is enjoys the blessings of our saviors birth as much as the Poor Badgers are. Merry Christmas!

Meet our family elf; Alabaster Snowball!

2011-12-09T20:51:00.000-08:00

Oh how my kids LOVE this new Christmas tradition called Elf on the shelf. I wanted to blog about this in time for you to adopt your own family Elf. Christmas is about celebrating the birth of our savior, but I really feel strongly about incorporating fun family traditions that foster imagination and family bonding.

First you need to go adopt your own Elf. These are pricey, around $30 a kit. But you only have to buy them once and thankfully we got ours on Black Friday with a 10% discount and a $5 off coupon. Book stores, pharmacies, Target, and Hallmark stores carry them. They come in this cute box that you save each year to announce the coming of your family Elf!

Your kit comes with a story book you can read to your kids explaining the story of the scout elf. In a nut shell the second you first get your elf home you must name them, that is how they get their magic. Then read you kids the story and let the magic happen.

Santa needs help figuring out what kids are good or bad, so these scout elves watch your family. Once an elf joins the family, they are bonded for life. Once the holidays begin the elf you had last year reappears at your home with his book and he/she begins taking note of the kids.

Every night once your kids go to sleep, your elf uses its magic to fly to the North Pole and tell Santa all the good things and bad things they did for the day. Then your elf zooms back home before morning and hides in silly places. It becomes a game to see who can find the elf first and see what silly thing your elf did.

Only two elf laws; elves can only listen to you. They will take note of what you want for Christmas and relay the message to Santa, but they can not talk back. The second is VERY important; if you touch the elf it will lose its magic. No more flying to Santa. Proudly I can say that after a month, no Scaff kid has touched our Alabaster.

Our Elf is Alabaster Snowball, he is a Southern Gentlemen with a pension for the ponies. He enjoys the formalities of a polite and proper phone conversation but also is frisky and likes to do some very wonky things.

One morning we awoke to this bit of cheekiness. We blocked the number. We think this was a bit of elf revenge.

On Christmas Eve night, your elf leaves your family for the year. He joins Santa and his buddies but will return promptly once the Christmas season comes back around.

We love that our family has adopted this proper little trouble maker. Alabaster Snowball has made this month so fun and it will be sad when he leaves. There is a website that lets you share the stories and pics of your elf; elfontheshelf.com.

Thanks for reading! We hope you have enjoyed Alabaster as much as we do.

Poor Badgers first product review and first lesson on being a DIYer!

2011-11-30T14:43:00.000-08:00

Yea! Excited to do this and I want to just jump right in. One of the main principles of Poor Badger was to be crafty on a dime. God Bless Martha Stewart, but we all can not afford her craft supplies. So I am excited to do this product review to let others know some of the crafting tricks of the trade.

I'm going to take a moment and say very loudly; 'God bless spray paint!' If you haven't visited the spray paint isle, you have no idea how things have changed. Spray paint is not just for men, it comes in WAY MORE colors than it did 10 years ago, and the quality has changed by leaps and bounds.

Spray paint has become the new DIYers trick of choice. Wood, plastic, wicker, glass, and almost any other surface type can be spray painted. There are also spray paints that replicate mercury glass, various metals, and gravely textures.

We found this wonky wicker stand at a yard sale for $1!!! I used the Krylon from our local Wal-Mart (around $4). Make sure you clean any surface before you spray paint it, and also do the spraying outside. We don't need you sniffing the funny fumes.

After just two cans, our one dollar find became the cutest stand for Gumball the underwater hamsters cage. Visit your local Goodwill or yard sale and buy those pieces of furniture that looks neat and hit it with some color. Best DIY tip you'll find!

The next review is for the Martha Stewart acrylic paint line. You can find them at Micheal's craft store. They cost around $3 per bottle and you can ALWAYS find coupons for the store or Martha products online or in her magazine.

I found these at the same store for a buck and wanted to use them as my tester. I thought copper would look nice.

In addition to the crosses, we found this picture of Jesus at a yard sale for $1. The frame was in poor shape and had stickers all over it. I knew with some DIY TLC, it would turn out nice!

So over all I give the Martha paint a good paws up. It did require a few coats, but the bottle was still pretty full after I painted all three crosses and the frame. Her color selection is to die for and the price isn't that bad. (But in all honesty I had coupons, I would probably not purchase any without a coupon)

The Krylon also gets a good paw up because of the low price point, HUGE selection, and the ease of use.

Not too shabby! Besides the product review I really wanted this to be a helpful craft lesson. Goodwill, flea markets, and yard sales are the BEST places to find things for your home. Now you know how to spiff it up, infuse it with YOUR style, and help the piece fit into your home with either spray paint or acrylic paint.

Thanks for reading!

Crepe Paper Ruffles

2011-11-27T14:49:00.000-08:00

Got a super easy project for you. It cost only two bucks and is something you can do in less than an hour. This is a craft that has been HUGE this year in the craft world, and I thought I'd take a swing at it and use it for toddler and puppy friendly Christmas tree garland.

You'll need two or three rolls of crepe paper in two different colors. I'm using this nice cherry red and apple green I found for a buck a piece at the yellow dollar store (when you live in a sleepy town like ours you'll have a red dollar store and a yellow dollar store).

For thread choice you'll need any all purpose thread in either a contrasting color or the same color as crepe paper. You'll also need to set your tension setting on your machine to the highest setting possible.

You'll also need to turn your stitch length setting to the highest setting. On some machines and brands of crape paper this will be enough to create the ruffle, but on this one I had to also hold the thread at the top of the machine tight to create the ruffle. The material is cheap enough you can play around.

Now you just lay the paper on top of each other and sew as normal. Like I said above, you MIGHT have to hold the tread at the top with one hand making it pull tight to ruffle.

Keep sewing! My crepe paper was 81 feet long, so it took a while. But oh what fun it is to sew!

When you are done you'll have the cutest crepe paper ruffle perfect for birthdays, baby showers, prom, or any other celebration.

Our house has two toddlers, a baby, and a new puppy. So I thought this would be a fun and safe garland for those who can not keep curious hands off new things.

We are not quite done decorating the tree yet, but I think it is coming along. Apple green, cherry red, and turquoise are my favorite Christmas color schemes.

This would be the perfect time to introduce the craft world to the newest Scaff, Daisy. She is a Weimaraner and is already a full member of the Scaff clan.

All three Scaff kids thinks she is the greatest thing since sliced bread. She was an anniversary gift for my husband a few weeks ago (our seventh year of marriage!), but the kids have claimed her as their own. God has blessed me with the perfect family; a great husband I've known since middle school, two beautiful and crafty daughters, one precious son who thinks his mom hung the moon, and now the perfect family dog.

God is good and I hope many blessings upon you this Holiday season as you celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Thanks for reading!

Wreathing Nuts!

2011-11-07T18:39:00.000-08:00

Okey dokey smokey, I know that it can be quite offensive to Tom turkey when we still his gravy and thunder, but women who take Christmas decorating seriously need all the time they can get. So giving my condolences to the bird, but Poor Badger is kicking off the most coveted time of the year for craters with a wreath.

First lets start this off with a MAJOR tip. Instead of spending $10 or more on foam wreaths at your local craft haunts, go to Lowe's and in the plumbing section find foam pipe insulators. I got a 9 foot tube for only 97 CENTS! I cut it in half and now I have two wreaths for pennies compared to the foam wreaths. When you cut them in half just tape the ends together, duct tape would work better, but a Poor Badger uses what she has. Also the 1/2 inch wide tubes seem to bend better then the 1 inch wide tubes.

While grocery shopping I found these cute mini cupcake wrappers for $1.98 for 100. To make this wreath you can use the mini, the full size, and any color or style you want. This wreath is so easy to suite the different Christmas themes out there.

Take your cupcake liner and using a glue gun put a dot on the bottom and start smushing these suckers on your wreath. My cupcake liners were white on the inside so I flipped them all inside out, but you decide what looks good for your wreath. Another tip; I used my thimble when smushing the liner onto the wreath after putting the hot glue on. Hot glue burns, you gals need watch those fingers.

Keep adding until you get the wreath you want, then when you are done you can add a fun bow or maybe an ornament to complete the look. Easy, right?!?!

1 - 1/2 inch copper tube insulator - 97 cents

1 - Pack of 100 mini cupcake liners - $1.98

Now that is how a Poor Badger does Christmas.

Thanks for reading!

Our love letter to Fall

2011-10-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

No crafts this time, I promise I have one more Halloween blog up my sleeve. This is just our love letter to Fall.

Fall is that tricky time of year when the heat of Summer is a distant memory and the air is crisp with warning of cool days to come.

As the beautiful leaves turns shades of yellow, red, and brown we are reminded God still has a few beautiful surprises op his sleeves.

Fall lets families enjoy the warmth of a warm hoody and the snuggle of a dear loved one.

Fall can be a time of magic, all kids know that pumpkins are the gourd of choice for all wicked witches.

Our family started in the fall. 8 years ago in November as the leaves died our family began it's beautiful life. Then 4 years ago in the fall God sent us our first angel.

Last fall God sent us our last angel. The fall was when our forever family began.

Even though this man was sent to us from heaven during the winter, God kissed his head with hair as red as beautiful fall leaves.

As the year winds down and we get lost in a maze of triumph and tragedy that occurred throughout the year,

the fall will fill us with that ever lasting hope that the new year will have more triumph and less tragedy. Like a loved one at the end of a maze calling you home.

The fall is Gods promise of feasts with family, the praising of our saviors birth, and other magic is just around the corner.

The fall is when we put on our political hats and elect leaders. Some will fight, others will come together evoking compassion and compromise. Like a brother and sister who can fuss and argue, but will always remain the best play mates you could find.

In a society that spins faster and faster...

always rushing without looking at the blessings we have in our homes and outside our doors...

the fall gives us that chance to slow down, hold on, and live and love.

Really, slow down. See what blessings you might miss.

We love the fall, we love that magic and excitement in the air.

We love our gypsy family. We are Scaffs. We are a family who are thick as thieves and unapologetic about our weirdness or awkwardness.

So this is our love letter to our favorite time of year. We love the celebrations, the weather, and the beauty of Gods creations.

As we left our fun day at the greenhouse with two kids pleading, crying, and pitching level 12 hissy fits, this goat left me a lovely thought. Even the best fall day can still have an yucky butt at the end. ;)

Welcome to the bat cave!

2011-10-04T10:11:00.000-07:00

Hey there! My goal on helping you get festive this Halloween without sending you to the poor house continues.

This week I took a single BUCK and created something fun for your bat cave.

Our local Dollar Store had these fun bats, 15 for $1!

I think the Dollar Tree also had these.

So the easy tip is to simply fold these suckers (blood suckers!) wings and tape them in a interesting design. This would give you a chance to use those bone folders Martha pushes on us almost every episode. (I just used my Poor Badger paws)

Easy peazy, lemon squeezy. Right?!?!

So since this was a short, sweet, simple, and CHEAP blog I thought I'd show off the most beautiful things I've created. (Well, not just me. Mr. Badger helped)

Miss Olivia, the oldest and most creative of the baby badgers. Freshly turned 4 and a very important young lady.

My red headed stranger, Cody. He may be only 2 but this boy is the toughest and wildest of the baby badgers. He loves his mama and loves to rough house.

Oh Abigail. Oh our Abigail. She is only 10 months old but she is a firecracker! She has a face that just MELTS this mom and a wild and wooly spirit that I pray the world never tames.

Happy Halloween from the creative team of Poor Badger:

Olivia, Cody, Abigail, Jayson, and Barb.

DIY: Yard Reaper

2011-10-01T18:43:00.000-07:00

Time for another Poor Badger Halloween tutorial.

I have always gave credit to Ms. Martha Stewart for being the bottom line Queen of Halloween, but this year I am aiming hard for at least the Duchess of Doom title.

Like all of my projects this one was very easy and VERY CHEAP.

Our Out-Let store had this costume for $4.95, so it was a SCORE!

I found a wonky ball from my tots room that made a perfect head, a few swipes of some cheap Folk-Art acrylic paint in red and this monster had some snazzy peepers.

Since the costume was a kids costume, our yard reaper was only 4 or 5 feet tall. If you wanted taller, you could get an adults costume or sew yourself a black robe.

We used an tomato stick and stuck it into the ground a few inches for stability. Then a few feet of chicken wire (which can be bought at a feed store or Lowes) framed the little fellers body so he could be dressed.

Some wire ties helped hold the whole shabang together. God bless wire ties!

We dressed our newest yard member and had him point the way to our spooky plots.

More spooky crafts to come!

I'm haunting these parties:

Clock from HECK!

2011-09-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

Oh it feels SO good to back blogging! I have missed my readers, the ladies who I enjoy reading, and the craft community in general. So lets hop to it bunny rabbits!

October is among us and the Poor Badgers LOVE some creepy crafts. This one is Poor Badger no/low budget approved.

Get a cheap clock. Dollar tree, Dollar Store, your closet, or the outlet stores are a good place to look. We got this at our Outlet store for 99 cents because the vinyl cover was scratched and broke. SCORE!

Some basic acrylic paint. Wal-Mart has folk art for a BUCK!

Now remove the cover, this wasn't too hard. Paint the clock face black or red, then paint your numbers on. Don't forget the spookiest hour of all....13!

Now you have a spooky clock for your trick or treaters or a nice inside decoration. This was beyond simple and something your older kids could easily do themselves.

We have many more spooky blogs to come, so you can have your yard just as wicked as ours. We are hoping through Facebook and word of mouth to have people come see our haunted yard and bring us a can of food. The Holidays are around the corner and many churches, libraries, and schools will be having food drives to make food baskets. This is a fun and spooky way to help out our brothers and sisters!

Proverbs 19:17
He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.

You can find my blog with these awesome crafters!

Kiddie crack: homemade pixie sticks!

2011-07-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

Yeah, you heard me. The stuff of parents nightmares and drug of choice for all kids. The candy white pony.

PIXIE STICKS!

This is fun, simple, and a ONCE in a while thing.

Start with a straw and something to melt the ends. (I quit smoking over 4 months ago so all I had was matches and they made the ends kinda yucky brown. YEA ME for quitting smoking!)

Of course you need sugar, but you can get pretty experimental with the rest of the ingredients. Here are some ideas:

jello mix

kool-aid packets

cotton candy sugars

any type of extract and food coloring

I did not want to make a trip to the store so I used what I had.

Add whatever ingredients you choose in a ziploc bag.

Then mix like your life depends on it! Since we used two wet ingredients ours took quite some time to mix (half an episode of the smurfs).

*Look at the poor baby in the crib wanting to be included with the older two! When I edited this pic I almost cried when I saw her watching us.* :(

This is what you end up with. Our sugar is kinda moist like brown sugar, but if you only use dry ingredients like the kool-aid or jello you will have a powdery mix.

Now you need to get you pixie mix into the straw, I used a cake decorating tip and a toothpick to get mine in.

Now close the ends up and let the kids go NUTS!

Enjoy those sugar highs kids!

We are partying!

Cucumbers and Cream Pops: what the what?!?!

2011-07-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

Yeppers, you read that right. Cucumbers and cream pops.

In Northern Kentucky it has been HOT this month. We have been held captive by the sun and we are restless hostages.

So one scorching afternoon I wanted to make a cold treat and saw three beautiful cucumbers on the kitchen counter looking very summarily.

Ingredients:

3 cucumbers (or more if you LOVE that fresh taste)

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

3 tbs. lemon juice (add more or less to taste)

Peel, de-seed, and puree 3 (or more to taste) cucumbers.

Wisk the puree with 1 can sweetened condensed milk and 3 tbs. of lemon juice (more or less to taste).

Pour into some paper cups and place cups onto baking sheet or baking dish to keep level.

Allow random 3 year old to assault your pops with sprinkles. We choose green and blue to make an Earth theme.

Put in freezer for a few hours and when they get a little firm you can add your sticks.

Remove the paper cup and ENJOY! My husband and son HATED them. But me and my Olivia loved them. They have that summer garden taste with the sweet taste you want from a cold treat.

Find us on facebook:

Poor Badger Creations

We are partying with these crafty gals!

Natural and Macgyver-ish way to get rid of fleas!

2011-07-08T09:47:00.000-07:00

I love the summer but HATE the flea season. We only have one pet, and his name is Uncle Harvey. Thanks to Uncle Harvey and from what I read, a VERY BAD year for fleas. We had a itchy problem a few weeks ago.

So here is my mini tutorial on a DIY flea trap.

1. Get a plate, old cooking sheet, etc. As long as it is flat and has a good amount of surface area to catch your fleas, it will work.

2. Fill with water and place on the floor near where your pet hangs out.

3. Use any kind of dish liquid and squirt a good amount onto the water. No need to mix.

4. Create a light source. You can set this under a night light, fix a flash light to a mini tri-pod and angle the light to the water, or use a little stand and put a flame less candle on it. It doesn't matter as long as the light source is the yellow-ish type of light. Fleas only attack to the yellow glow.

5. Set this out when you go to bed and make sure all other light sources are turned off.

The fleas will think the yellow glow/warmth is a meal. They will jump to the light and land in the water. The dish soap will create a resistance in their swimming to the edges and drown them.

Done-zo!

This is meant for minor infestations, if your flea problem is too far gone than this might not help.

We used this trick every night for a week or two in addition to putting Uncle Harvey outside (he's an outside cat anyways), and washing EVERYTHING the fleas could have laid eggs on.

Hope this helps! It is a AWFUL problem and kind of embarrassing but we are flea free now!

We forgive you Uncle Harvey! We have had you since 2001 and won't get rid of you over some stinky fleas.

We are partying!

She's an old hippy! Making watering cans by recycling.

2011-07-08T04:16:00.000-07:00

I am attempting to do this blog with as few words as possible. So don't forget to check us out on facebook; Poor Badger Creations. Thanks for reading the new blog and no words starting.....NOW!

We are partying!

Some 4th of July food for thought

2011-07-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

I love holidays! Especially when you get to enjoy food, family, fireworks, and celebrating our beautiful country.

So this blog is short and SWEET!

Popcorn poop:

*1 stick of butter melted

*1 bag of marshmallows melted and mixed with the butter

*TONS of popcorn

*1 large bag of M & Ms

Melt and mix. I was inspired by the Cookies and Cups popcorn cake. Ours is just a pile of YUM! Not the prettiest but OHHH BOY!

Apple Pies on a Stick:

This one is easy peezy.

Ingredients:

*pre-made pie filling

*apple pie spice

*pre-made pie crust

*sugar

*bamboo skewers

*egg yolk

(can you tell I shop at a certain store and buy generic?)

Preheat to 350 degrees. Cut little circles out of pie crust (I used a cup as a cookie cutter). Spoon on pie filling and lay skewer on. Cut a second circle and lay on top. Mix egg yolk and a dash of water to give the outside an egg bath. Sprinkle on some sugar mixed with apple pie spice. Use a fork to flute the edges.

Bake until crust is cooked and DONE!

With an election year looming lets remember to keep some of the abundance of pride we feel on the 4th and be civil to others we may not agree with politically. Try to remember what we tell our kids: treat others how you want to be treated. Just food for thought. Thanks for reading!

God bless America!

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Poor Badger Creations

SOAP MONSTERS Tutorial

2011-06-27T12:44:00.000-07:00

Here is a craft that is toddler and tired mommy friendly. We have a 2 year old son and a 3 year old girl and they LOVED this. Plus our poor wallets loved the price too.

Easy to find supply list:

soap (any kind, but I used glycerin for a easy cut)

glue (regular old white glue will do)

pen

knife

some google eyes

When dealing with toddlers who can pick a fight about whose 'whatever' is whose, I went ahead and drew a O for Olivia and a C for Cody on the back. Toddlers!

Then just give your little sculptor a pen and let them draw their creature on the soap. For an older kid this could be a very cool piece of art, mine just went bananas.

If your kids are young like mine, you'll have to do this step yourself. Just interpret the monsters shape and cut it out. The glycerin soap was sooo easy to cut. If you have an older kid this could be done by them with a butter knife.

All cut out! The kids REFUSED to have their picture taken during this craft. Not even the bribe of marshmallows and hot cocoa could persuade them.

Glue some eyes on and get your monster play going. Being a gal who HATES wasting, I just clumped up the extra soap and used it for hand washing at the kitchen sink. Us poor badgers waste not and want not. =)

Thanks for reading!

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Poor Badger Creations

I'm partying with these crafty gals:

Sugar Bee Crafts

Ask Anna...

Reasons To Skip The Housework

A Bowl Full of Lemons

Funky Polkadot Giraffe

Confessions of a Stay at Home Mom

Laugh, Love, and Craft

Ginger Snap Crafts

Lil' Luna

The 36th Avenue

Polka Dots on Parade

Tea Rose

Someday Crafts

Momnivore's Dilemma

Fireflies and Jellybeans

The Shabby Chic Cottage

A Glimpse Inside

Smile Monsters

It's a Hodgepodge Life

Little Lucy Lu

Simply Designing

Creation Corner

Pink and Green Mama

Bacon Time With The Hungry Hungry Hypo

Tatertots and Jello

Lamb Around

Yo-yo nuts: how one yo-yo sparked my sewing insanity. (tutorial)

2011-06-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

  My first encounter with a yo-yo was an old blanket my mamaw had. It was a hundred or more of these beautiful yo-yos stitched together making a blanket with colors, textures, and patterns in a fanciful design.


So here is my tutorial on the yo-yo for those who may not be familiar with this sewing staple.

First start with a small swatch of fabric. Find something to create your pattern on, I just used a throw away plate. Trace and cut out.

If you've read a few of my blogs this fabric might look familiar to you. HERE is the blog it came from.

Anywho....

Cut the circle out and hand stitch a running or basting stitch the whole circumference of the circle. Make sure you don't tangle the thread.

This is what it looks like after you apply the stitch. Now it is time to GENTLY tug the thread.

Now you will have this little pouch. Primp it into shape and tie it off at the end.

And there you go!

By the by...hand sewing is usually avoided because some find it hard to thread the needle. I knew how to hand sew and machine sew for awhile before I figured out what this little fellow was:

I had NO CLUE this was a needle threader. So if you are reading this and had no clue either, don't feel bad. ;)

All you do is push the flexible wire through the needle eye and put one end of the thread through the wire. Then pull the flexi wire and thread through the eye. I have to give a big *praise the Lord and pass the biscuits* to this invention.

Rambling, sorry. Back to the yo-yos. Here is my pile I made in one afternoon:

These little cuties have a 101 uses. But these specific ones were made for the locks of my special brown headed badger.

Using the yo-yos and a few extra crafting materials I made these:

She is SO happy I am including her BFF Cheetah in the blog.

Here are some pink yo-yos I made and Cheetah sneaks in my picture again!

I will have a few more blogs showing the MANY uses of this awesome sewing project.

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Poor Badger Creations

I am partying with these awesome crafty gals:

Lamb Around

Sisters of the Wild West

Ginger Snap Crafts

Fireflies and Jellybeans

The 36th Avenue

A Glimpse Inside

Finding Fabulous

Fingerprints on the Fridge

It's FUN to craft!

It's a Hodgepodge Life

Sassy Sites!

WhipperBerry

Simply Designing

Kojo Designs

Creation Corner

The Mexican Two Step

2011-06-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

This one is easy and WEIRD. Tonight I was wanting something sweet and different for dessert and thought back to an episode of Top Chef when they made a Mexican inspired dessert.

Miss Olivia LOVES to draw on those legs, and she said her baby, cat baby had to be in the next blog. So here is your 15 minutes cat baby!

Back to the dessert. This one is BEYOND easy. Just make any box of chocolate pudding and add chili powder and cinnamon. No measurements, this is strictly according to how much your taste tells you.

So why the Mexican Two Step? When I told my husband what I was making he said 'I'm not eating THAT. It'll give me the Mexican two step!'

Excluding old fuddy duddy, daddy. I love that these two kids are willing to take a walk on the weird side every now and again.

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Poor Badger Creations

Summer Series: My fantastical romp with ZIPPERS!

2011-06-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

Zippers, zippers, and zippers!

Right now we are penny pinching. Today a local church was having a hot dog and rummage sale. Since the church is only a 10 minute walk from our home, I walked all three baby badgers over to have lunch and support the church.

I was not wanting to buy anything except the hot dogs when a bag caught my eye. It was filled with at least a hundred zippers of every color. I really needed ONE zipper so I asked how much, the kind woman said one DOLLAR for the WHOLE bag! My crafting brain almost seized on me, SOLD!

I could not believe the deal I found. At that point I was on such a craft high I over looked my onry toddler Cody stuffing hot dog (including sauce) into his shorts pocket. There is something about a fresh craft find that makes everything OK.

So as I sat at the park while the kids got even MORE dirty I thought about the endless projects. I decided to challenge myself. I am going to do a summer series where I make several tutorials using these fabulous zippers.

I hope to get started this weekend on the first zipper tutorial and I will keep doing the zipper blogs until summer ends or I run out of zippers.

Now I need to mention my model for this blog. This is Uncle Harvey. Uncle Harvey has been my cat for the last 12 years. I had him before my husband and kids. He is a fat cat who is currently retired and HATING it. He was a outdoor cat in his younger days who enjoyed fighting and catching mice. Sadly Uncle Harvey got into a pretty major fight with a dog last year and he is now retired from the outdoors. That is why he always looks a little annoyed.

Special thanks to my zipper model: Uncle Harvey!

Stay tuned for some awesome zipper fun!

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Poor Badger Creations

Cooling off in the heat by freezing a lizard and rat: toddler fun!

2011-06-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

Yea! Back to blogging, so let's just dive in. In Kentucky it has been HOT, so I came up with a quick, easy, and for us poor folks: FREE project.

Go in your kids room and find some silly plastic toys. I found these two lurking at the bottom of the toy box.

Grab two cheap plastic containers. We had these down in a drawer. I thought about using an old baby wipe box, either way I'd pick something you wouldn't mind if it cracked in the freezer.

Now, in the words of Olivia 'Drown that rat!'

The lizard pictures seemed sad, like the animal lover in me wanted to save him.

Now pop those puppies in the freezer 6-8 hours.

They had been good toys.

Now the fun part, run hot water over the plastic cup and pop that puppy out. On this day is was 95 degrees and we welcomed our fun game.

We imagined that the rat and lizard was trapped in the ice age, and we had to save them!

I am just in LOVE with this pretty little girl and her princess hair.

My red headed stranger took the task of rescuing the lizard.

After an HOUR of cooling off with this free, fun toy we busted them loose using the smashing method.

FREEDOM!

I think this summer is going to be HOT so I hope all of you stay safe, keep cool, and have FUN this summer.

Special thanks to the poor lizard and rat who sacrificed themselves for this fun.

And even more special thanks to the two toddlers who inspire me, challenge me, and who have stole my creative heart; Olivia and Cody.

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Poor Badger Creations

Poor Badger is partying hard at these awesome places:

It's a Hodgepodge Life

The Frugal Girls

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Thrifty Decorating

Tatertots and Jello

Creation Corner

It's FUN to craft!

The 36th Avenue.

Simply Designing

Little Lucy Lu

Smile Monsters

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Sisters of the Wild West

Reasons to Skip the Housework

Where are those darn badgers?!?!?!

2011-05-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

Oh how I've missed my blog! Us badgers have just recently moved a whooping 3 miles from our old homestead. Moving a whole home while the hubby works 9 hours a night and 3 kids ages 3, 2, and 5 months old is quite the adventure.

We have spent this week living like a band of gypsy's. Sleeping on a air mattress, meals that include bologna, bananas, and bagels (not pregnant I SWEAR!), and all around chaos has put my crafting to a grinding stop. For some reason no one shares my opinion that the craft stuff should be unpacked first.

So this week I thought I would take this time to introduce my 3 baby badgers. These 3 kids make crafting fun and easy!

We have been spending these first few days enjoying the cool rain on these HOT days.

This is Miss Olivia, the oldest badger. At 3 years old she still can rock an awesome spandex neon colored bathing suit with a side pony tail and awesome band-aid like any 80s rad chick.

She also has enough spunk for a whole herd of little girls. A girl with a korker bow and a stick is a recipe for trouble.

Next up is the red headed stranger himself, Cody!

He loves this stroller and will pretend to push his babies (a ball with a wolf on it) around for hours. But he's cute enough to pull it off.

Like his sister he is over ran with spunky, rowdy energy. We had a blast taking these sticks and launching them into the field.

The youngest badger is Abigail. Abigail enjoyed our play in the rain under the comfy tent we pitched for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday. She looks just like her father and has a joyful, Chris Farley type of humor. Always laughing!

How can you not get inspired by this face?!?!

I really hope to get back to crafting new and exciting things soon. And of course blogging about them!

The support and kindness the craft-blog world has shown me is beyond humbling and touching. I enjoy all the awesome ladies in this great field and I am honored to be amongst such crafty ladies.

So stay tuned...hoping to get the craft lab up and running after our family vacation in 3 weeks.

In the meantime:

'Mama, just ONE more picture! Then we are done.'

'Ok mama, this is the LAST one!'

They hate my picture addiction but I don't want to miss a single moment with my poor badgers.

Poor Badger Creations

Upcycled Kids Table/Confessions of a Board Game Addicted Family

Oh my JEEZ!

Something I saw on pinterest; the series.

DIY: Key Rack

No mantel? No problem! The stocking tutorial on making and hanging those socks for Santa.

Scrap Fabric Christmas Tree

Meet our family elf; Alabaster Snowball!

Poor Badgers first product review and first lesson on being a DIYer!

Crepe Paper Ruffles

Wreathing Nuts!

Our love letter to Fall

Welcome to the bat cave!

DIY: Yard Reaper

Clock from HECK!

Kiddie crack: homemade pixie sticks!

Cucumbers and Cream Pops: what the what?!?!

Natural and Macgyver-ish way to get rid of fleas!

She's an old hippy! Making watering cans by recycling.

Some 4th of July food for thought

*SOAP MONSTERS* Tutorial

Yo-yo nuts: how one yo-yo sparked my sewing insanity. (tutorial)

The Mexican Two Step

Summer Series: My fantastical romp with ZIPPERS!

Cooling off in the heat by freezing a lizard and rat: toddler fun!

Where are those darn badgers?!?!?!

SOAP MONSTERS Tutorial