R-n-R Reviews

This Year's Valentine's Day Finds: Better Late Than Never

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 21:15:00 +0000

I've been searching for some last minute Valentine crafts and things and thought I'd share some stuff I saw along the way. These could make for some fun weekend projects:

Nichole Heady has a tutorial on a very creative Valentine gift: "a cupcake take along".

Another packaging idea I liked was this foxy Valentine favor box by P.S.

There's a tutorial for these heart breaker Valentine's on Dana Made It. So cute!

This pounded wire heart pin by Can't Stop Making Things is so simple that you have to love it. Check out their site for more great finds like, love potion No. 9 wine stopper

I've never really done much as far as decor goes for Valentine's day, with the exception of a huge banner I'd done one year made up of a million I love yous (very time consuming), but I like this chain made from personal photos.

Along those same lines, I also liked this card holder from Lemon Tree Creations.

Here's another Valentine wreath that looks pretty simple from Sassy Style.

And if you're sick of wreaths, here's some Valentine trees, which are definitely different.

Happiness In A Box

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 03:55:00 +0000

This is something I recently did for my husband, something that might make a good Valentine's Day gift.

I just took a cardboard box, painted and aged it. The idea was to make it look like an old treasure box.

It originally had gifts that filled the box, but he'd taken those out before I took the photo. There are still a few wrapped gifts that are to be opened at specific times: when he's feeling tired, feeling overwhelmed, stuff like that.

The "Hang in there" kitty is meant to be a joke.

I did a mix CD of songs to brighten his day. Then printed out the cassette tape sleeve because I'm old school. I made cards that are sealed, meant to be opened when he needs them. The photos are of our times together, things that would make him smile.

Basically, the box is meant to be something he can go to, on his bad days, for a little pick me up. I will refill the box as things are taken from it, so that he can always rely on it.

I Earned My Romance Badge

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:25:00 +0000

It's a little early, but Valentine's Day is coming soon and love is in the air. So I thought I'd share a project I did a couple years ago, for our 7th wedding anniversary. The gift theme was wool. I used and old wool jacket to make a boy scout themed gift, badges and all.

I created the "badges" on fabric squares using a stamp set. I attached them with fabric glue - no sewing involved!

The special part was the "key" I added to the inside, explaining what he's done to earn each badge. In other words, all the symbols represented something special about him. I attached the key to cardboard and there you go. I'd like to think he liked it as much as I hoped he would. If nothing else, I thought it was original.

Everything Lego

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 20:03:00 +0000

The thing is, my husband LOVES Legos. He's obsessed in fact. I don't know that these would interest him, but I always think of him when I see these little things around and so I thought I'd do this post for him.

I can't believe I'm doing it, but apparently I'm jumping ahead to Christmas time with this Lego ornament.

As much as my husband loves Lego, he has never made an ornament and now I think it's about time.

I don't know that I would want a Lego purse, but I bet my son would like a lego lunchbox. I'm thinking that wouldn't be too hard, depending on how complicated you tried to make it.

Intimate Weddings has Lego wedding, complete with Lego cuff links, cake toppers and place cards. Ah, if only we were more creative in our younger years, I know my husband would have loved this idea.

Unplggd has a NES tutorial. If you're a Lego fan, you have to check out this site in it's entirety because there's tons of good stuff, including a home office made from Legos.

My Pirate Treasure Box Makeover

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 03:22:00 +0000

I was given a good size trunk like many of us probably have. I know I used to have one when I was younger. This one was blue with a gold frame and had stickers all over it. I scraped those off and gave it a coat of black.

I knew I wanted it to be like a pirate chest so I decided to do a treasure map with the X being the X in my son's name.

I just free handed all the painting and lettering. I figured it was fine if it looked really rough. I don't think pirates were known for their art skills.

My husband had bought these wooden cutouts and so I decided to work around them.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It was a fun little project to do.

Halloween Accessories & Decor

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 04:01:00 +0000

Here's just a few last minute finds for Halloween:

This Blood Slide Candy from Forkable would be good for many party themes, Dexter, mystery/C.S.I., Halloween, you name it. See other Dexter party ideas here.

Take a plate, glue it on a bowl, add legs and eyes, and you've got a spider plate. Thanks to She Wears Flowers for this easy idea.

Don't forget the centerpiece. Lil Luna made the one above.

I love how simple and how cute this eyeball bag is.

Same goes for this Oogie Boogie Monster. These would make great treat bags for your kid's school.

I'm not sure what I'd do with these Paper Mache Witch Boots by Mieljolie but she has some neat ones.

Bug Party (Pt 2) Decorations and More

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 04:11:00 +0000

I'm kicking myself that I didn't get any pictures of the whole scene after it was done. Thankfully, I snapped this pic in the midst of decorating. I wish it was clearer, but I was sure I'd get more. Frankly, the party went so fast, between entertaining, pictures and videotaping, I didn't get everything like I would have liked.

You can see we did a spider above the light with streamer legs. There are red polka dot "ladybug" and yellow striped "bee" balloons up in the corners.

We did big green grass around the house with bugs.

I had a huge cardboard tube that I knew I had to use, so I covered it in crinkled paper bags and topped it off with green balloons to make a tree.

My husband then made bugs out of glue and wire that we stuck on the tree and on the pinata.

The beehive pinata was my first so I reinforced it with yellow yarn just in case it wasn't structurally sound. You can't tell, but I used a punch balloon and so it was huge. I filled with candy, of course, but added some bugs as well.

The other game I did quickly, was pin the spot on the ladybug. It was a last minute thing and I didn't stress over it. You can also see that I had a Caterpillar tunnel laid out in the main area for the kids.

We did a butterfly net outside, in the front.

I don't know what my thought was with this flower except that I had this planter and wanted to do a playful oversized flower.

I made bug antenna out of some cheap headbands, pipe cleaners and puffballs.

The banner was kind of a challenge because I was given a calendar with these pics on it and was asked to use it in the party, but wasn't sure how I was going to do that. I thought of place mats, but decided on this instead. It wasn't what I'd originally planned for a banner, but I actually liked the way it turned out.

As far as wrapping went. I did not want to buy wrapping paper. I had some colored paper and so I just stamped it, colored it, etc. Again, I didn't stress over this part of the party.

You can't have a picnic without a picnic basket. Well, all I had was a sewing basket with sewing decor around the edges. So, I bought some clearance watermelon ribbon and stuck it on with some tape. Nobody was the wiser.

Finally, I made another Jax shirt with the above image for my son Jaxon. Here is last year's Jax shirt, which I did using the game jacks.

My Son's 3rd Birthday Party: A BUG PICNIC! (Pt. 1)

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 03:29:00 +0000

So, for my son's 3rd birthday, the whole theme came from my wanting to do the grill cupcakes (shown below) from Family Fun magazine. I thought grill- picnic, picnic-bugs. There you go, now we have a boy theme. Next step was invites. I didn't like any invites I was seeing so I did my own from scratch. Here's what the front looked like folded:

The "Indoor picnic" part actually folded down and when you opened it, there was a shoe that folded up. Both folds held confetti bugs that fell out when opened. It might sound confusing and, believe me, it wasn't the easiest thing getting everything to line up; but it all came together nicely in the end. I also did special address labels and stamped a big bug on the envelope for an extra touch.

As I mentioned food inspired, but also became a big centerpiece for, the party. We did hot dogs on a roaster, lemonade, "bug juice" from a cooler, ladybug Hors D'oeuvres, everything you'd want for a picnic; but the deserts were the real crowd pleaser.

We changed the frosting a bit on the grill cupcakes, using red, instead of brown for a more fiery touch.

We also did cheeseburger cupcakes that turned out even better than expected. I mean these looked and tasted awesome! Kudos to my husband for doing these.

My mother-in-law did a spider cake along with some bee and bug cookies:

The table was complete with baskets and silverware covered with flyswatter papers. I made these myself on my husband's suggestion. What would I do without him?

I'll show decorations, party games and gifts in my next post.

My First Mosaic

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:49:00 +0000

I've been wanting to do a mosaic for my outside step for awhile and finally did it. I ended up using some 1" tiles that I had on hand, but would have liked to have used bigger ones, looking back. Other than that, I think it turned out pretty well for a first time.

I didn't use a pattern, but when I was looking for patterns, I did find this site I liked: Mosaic Patterns Online - free patterns each month

Name Art: Take 2

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 03:49:00 +0000

My son's 3rd birthday is coming up and he has a new room, so I thought it was time to update some things. After some thought, I decided to keep the jungle/animal theme that I had before, but to take it to the next level.

Here's the before and after:

I did the above with scrapbook paper, wooden squares and wooden letters--super simple.

The second time around, I decided to try my hand at painting. Mind you, I am not a painter by any means and I'm afraid it's painfully obvious; but I do like the way they turned out, especially considering I did it freehand.

Halloween Stuff to Make For Kids & Adults

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:11:00 +0000

So, I'm starting on my Halloween crafts for the year, or at least planning to. Thought I'd share my finds:

I saw these "Halloween Candy Cauldrons" last year on CTPubBlog last year but didn't get a chance to make them. I hope I have time this year though because I think they're neat and they don't look that hard to make.

I Love to Create has these great necklaces made from Tulip 3-Dimensional Slick Paint. I love them!

Thanks to Purple Trail for this spooky spinners idea. How awesome!

Frankenstein Head -Free Kids Crafts uses cotton inside just as a fun thing, but I would think you could use they're printable on a container and put candy in it. That's just me though.

I could probably do a whole post on just paper plate crafts, and just might. For now though, I thought this pumpkin was good inspiration. Just like with real pumpkin faces, your kids could get creative here.

These Ghostwriter finger pens are a must do craft for me this year.

Is it wrong that I want this Toadstool hat for myself and it has nothing to do with Halloween? I just really love crazy hats.

Who doesn't have an old white tee to use for this simple ghost craft from BHG? Better home & Gardens has a lot of good kid crafts, including this pumpkin hat. I know I said no more paper plates, but this is a paper bowl. So cute.

Listia: An Auction Site Where Everything Is Free!

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:26:00 +0000

It's been awhile I know. Turns out having a 2 1/2 year old is hectic. I've come out of hiding though and found this new auction site, Listia, where you exchange credits instead of money. Being that everything is free, it may not be the best auction site you'll ever go to, but it's worth checking out.

If you sign up using my link below, you'll get an extra 50 credits on top of the credits they already give you for joining. You don't even have to give your credit info to sign up.

Fun Additions To Your Kid's Wardrobe

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:55:00 +0000

I've done a lot of hats and probably some no sew fleece hats as well, but this might take the cake for easy and cute at the same time.

Lands' End has these cool kid boots but I'm thinking you could just take this idea and paint the faces on some regular boots. Mind you, they're on sale now for $15 and up so that's really not bad.

Valentine's Day: It's the little things

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:39:00 +0000

Maybe you've done breakfast in bed before, but A Bit O' Shine suggests presentation can go along way with these Rosy cups.

You can't go wrong with cookies or candy hearts in my book, so why not combine them? That's what Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories did.

-or-

Do like Muffin Tin Mom did and just put the love on anything, like with this Oreo.

My Coin Purse blog has a tutorial for a Bee Mine Bee Magnet that I thought was funny.

Make a valentine spinner as naughty or nice as you want to be. This tutorial shows you how.

I've been looking for ideas for men and can't really share any I plan to use just in case my husband were to see. Here's one I did find:

Custom Beer Labels. I know it doesn't scream romance, but hey it's their day too. Why not give em what they want...I mean the beer.

Check out great sites like Romantic-ideas.org for more ideas.

The Funny, The Unique, The Just Plain Weird Site Round-Up

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:59:00 +0000

Shoot the Baddies certainly spices up target practice a bit.

I mentioned before the site Skull-A-Day, well The Ghoulish Gallery (right) is along the same "ghoulish" lines. You can actually buy these monsterpieces if you dare!

Awful Library Books -Pretty self-explanatory, it's real books with awful (and usually funny) titles

My husband sent me this link from one of his favorite blogs, Super Punch for unique business cards. From there I found another bunch like the ID card to the left at Paper Crave.

Check out these 3D sidewalk paintings by chalk artist Julian Beever over on Mighty Optical Illusions. The whole sight is very cool.

It's Not too Late To Get Crafty For The Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:38:00 +0000

Ucreate shows you how to turn decorative grapevine balls into a festive snowman. I say festive, opposed to the other kind.

Well, you should know by now that I love winter hats. This reindeer hat is funny and yes, I would wear it if someone made it for me.

Glittery Foil Icicles -oh goody, a way for me to recycle my Chipotle Foil!

Huge List of Free Gift Tags at Bella Dia

Make Baby Stuff had a great idea for using a punch to make gift tags from your kids art. Love it!!!

I saw this Hershey's Kissletoe over at Purple Trail and think it's pretty funny. I'd do different colors, but still...

Some Crafty Holiday Gift Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:25:00 +0000

Hey, if you're feeling really crafty, break out the plaster of Paris and make some of this Cast Catchalls. Just like with the baseball, you could make it suit the recipient's likes. Apples would be a great one for teachers gifts.

Martha has these photo candle centerpieces but I think these would make good gifts too.

Happy Valley Quilter shows you how to personalize a dish with a family name or whatever you'd like.

Happy Together has a great tutorial on an Anthropologie-inspired rag bag. I'm also big on bags. Is it wrong that I want to make these things for myself?

This Alligator Sewing Kit could be something you could help your kids make for their grandma or someone. I know I'd be happy to get one.

Christmas Gifts With Heart

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:34:00 +0000

This isn't as big of a post as I'd like but I'm super busy this holiday season. I did want to share these little finds:

Fresh Picked Whimsy has a post on turning your family into artists as a collective project. I thought this idea could be done as a gift, having everyone work on a single project for one person (doesn't even have to be a painting)-OR- one person doing the family's portraits. I also have my own spin on the idea, but I can't say what just yet, because I'm not sure who I would do it for.

Blueprints has a tutorial on how to turn your kids art work into a cool fabric design for a tote or whatever else you could think of.

My Christmas Pet Peeve

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:02:00 +0000

I know some Christmas lovers might fall dead from disbelief, but Halloween is officially my favorite holiday. For me, Christmas has just become some sort of commercial nightmare.

I'll just say it, just because you slap a Santa hat on something doesn’t mean it’s for Christmas.
Same goes for Harley ridin' Santas

Not to mention John Deere Santas.

It's ridiculous and it's got to stop. I saw a commercial today with the misfit toys, one of my favorite Christmas things and it was advertising some phone or something ridiculous and I just wanted to hurl. I don't want my childhood memories associated with these things; and I especially don't want my son to think Santa rides a Harley. Is nothing off limits?

Jazz Up Your Winter Wardrobe

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:41:00 +0000

I found these monster mittens at Martha's site... of course. My son is going to love them!

Poca Cosas did a post on these cute shoes by Em & Sprout. I think I did a post on them before but after seeing these, I just had to mention them again. I am definitely going to have to jazz up my winter slippers now.

NaNoWriMo

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:43:00 +0000

Posts may be sparse this month due to the fact that I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month. I had participated once a few years ago but didn't make the goal of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. I doubt very seriously that this year will be any different, especially since I got started late. However, I obviously like writing and thought it might be fun to try.

I'm up to 2430 words, which is a little discouraging but, again, it's just for fun. If, by some small chance, I were to make the goal, one of their sponsors, CreateSpace, "is offering all NaNoWriMo 2009 winners a free proof copy of your manuscript in paperback book form. They'll even cover basic postage!". Something to think about if you had a book idea rattling around in your head. Sometimes competition can be a great motivator.

Movember: Mustaches Fundraiser For Cancer

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:46:00 +0000

My husband is taking part of Movember, where men grow their mustaches for the month of November in order to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LIVESTRONG). My husband is part of Team Mo Bicless.

If you can't afford to give yourself, you can join the team to help support and to help raise money for the cause. You do not have to grow a mustache to be part of the team, so ladies you can join too as a MO Sista "A woman who loves a mustache".

After losing my father to cancer, I've heard so many people's stories that I don't believe there's anyone who hasn't been affected by cancer.

I am selling sets of mustache magnets and stickers here. A portion will go towards the charity.

My Harry Potter Sorting Hat

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:59:00 +0000

While I'm doing tutorials, I realized I didn't post on my sorting hat fiasco from our Harry Potter Party. First of all, this was a last minute party set up and then I became obsessed with doing a sorting hat. Why, considering I hate to sew, I do not know. I just knew I had these old leather jackets that I'd gotten for free somewhere because they were damaged. I thought this would work great. So, I made a form from newspaper, cut out the leather...

Then I pinned the leather to kind of get an idea of how this would work. I thought it looked pretty good and so i started sewing up the back but then I had to cut out the front piece to accommodate the curve in the hat. There was probably a better way of doing that, but it worked out because it gave me a more defined brow area.

I then added the brim. I can't really give instructions on that because I was just guessing on how that's done.
I did the sewing by hand, which was no easy feat, but it still ended up being the easy part. The hard part was figuring out how to make it stay stiff enough to stand up. I tried starching it like there was no tomorrow, that didn't work. I tried stuffing it, but it was a fine balance trying to make it look wrinkled and old with stuffing inside.

Finally, I sewed some creases here and there, stuffed a little then just propped it up underneath with a CD spindle. It still wasn't what I wanted but after stressing over it, I through my hands up and it was fine.

Of course, it didn't fit my husband who I'd made it for, but it fit me. So, I didn't have sizing down either. Still, I feel it went pretty well for someone who was winging it the whole time.

How to Make An Active Volcano

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:38:00 +0000

I had mentioned before that I would give a few more details on how we made our volcano for our son's Dino B-day party (click link to see more pics). Mind you, I say "we" loosely because it was mainly my husband's work, though I did do some painting.

Basically, he had a cardboard tube with a plastic cup at the top. He then started building the volcano by wrapping newspaper to add bulk without wasting too much foam. He then covered the whole thing with spray insulation foam, which balloons up to what you see in the picture below.

He sprayed it with brown matte spray, but it's wet here so it looks much shinier than it dries. Still it was too bland and so that's where I came in. I went over it with greens and black to break it up. He did the red and silver at top, not sure why he used the silver, but whatever.

To make it explode, he read it was about 2 tablespoons baking soda to every 1/2 cup of vinegar, but he said more baking soda produced better results. He also added a little dish soap to make it foamier and red food coloring.

Sorry, don't have a picture of it, I was too busy filming it. If we'd been outside I would have done the mentos with soda. I still plan on doing that though, when it gets warm again.

Last Minute Halloween Party Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (callmekelly) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:46:00 +0000

Now this Dexter inspired theme is what I call a party. I absolutely love Showtime's Dexter and I find this mix of horror and fine dining hi-larious!

Equally hi-larious and to go right along with decorating your stroller, why not decorate your car? Tip Junkie has a nice round up of different pics from the web.

Eddie Ross has a super simple bat napkin ring tutorial.

Creativity Portal has a good tutorial on making Hershey Nugget Candy Wrappers. Just think scary and add any scary image you want.

Okay, these band aids for "boo boos" could be handouts for people at the party, or just for your kids. They don't even have to be for Halloween, honestly, but I saw them and had to list them. I actually have some Dexter ones that they gave out to my husband's work. I didn't even think about stamping my own, but now I know. Thanks to Gets Bored Easily for the tip.

If you don't have a costume yet and you're freaking out, there are a lot of tutorials out there on some cool make-up effects. I really liked this one.