The Crafting Chicks

Poppy Seed Projects Antiqued Valentine Plaques {GIVEAWAY}

Brooke — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:00:38 +0000

I am excited for today’s giveaway! We are big fans of Poppy Seed Projects!

The ladies behind Poppy Seed Projects are amazing, because they want to make creating CUTE pieces of art accessible to all! They do most of the hard work, leaving the fun part for you—they design and put together project kits that you can purchase then assemble and craft yourself. You’ll die at how cute their stuff is:

frames
photo blocks
clocks
quote boards
vinyl
antiqued subway art
wood letters
LDS temple art. . .and more.

I’ll take one of each, please. I love it because it saves me time and it saves me from accidentally sawing off my hand cutting out the wood myself, ha!

Their kits and ideas are perfect for Super Saturday, craft groups, or an afternoon of crafting on your own, with detailed instructions and high quality, hand-cut materials. Poppy Seed Projects make it simple and affordable for you to create beautiful decor for your home. You can order products from their website (they ship anywhere) or you can visit their store located in Sandy, Utah. They also offer a variety of classes, so check and see if they have one in your area.

I was like a kid in a candy store looking at all of the goodies in their store today. YUM. And this is only a portion of it!

I went to learn how to make some of their new Antiqued Valentine Plaques—I did the first step of the project (adding the texture cream to the wood squares) and this is as far as I got before I had to leave to meet my kids coming home from school! Dang! (I mean, I love my kids but it was way fun to make a crafty mess somewhere other than my own kitchen!)

And this is what the finished project will be! LOVE them. I hope mine turn out as cute as these.

Get a load of the awesome texture and detail of these babies. SO COOL. These are such a fun way to add some Valentine-y cheer to your home!

Poppy Seed Projects is giving away a kit for one of our readers to make a set of three 16×16 inch Antiqued Valentine Plaques, like these!

One lucky winner will receive the kit (does not include the paint) to make these plaques. The winner also can go to a class for hands-on instruction from the Poppy Seed girls to finish the project–it is a little bit tricky in terms of the technique but the kit does come with full instructions. I’d highly recommend taking the class if you’re able to, though!!

To enter:

You must be a public follower of The Crafting Chicks (via GFC, RSS feed or email subscription) and leave a comment on this post.

For optional extra entries you may:

“Like” Poppy Seed Projects on Facebook and leave a comment on this post
“Like” The Crafting Chicks on Facebook and leave a comment on this post

Good luck!

This giveaway will end Monday night, January 30, 2012 at midnight MST. Winner will be chosen at random and will be announced on our Facebook page Tuesday morning 1/31/12 as well as contacted via email. Winner has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

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Poppy Seed Projects Antiqued Valentine Plaques {GIVEAWAY} is a post from: The Crafting Chicks

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Necktie Redo: {Necktie Necklace}

Becky — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:00:09 +0000

I’m so excited to share my fun Necktie Necklace redo with you today. I’ve had this one in my head for like 6 months just needing the time to get it together. Now that it’s been made let me tell you, it comes together really quick.

So here’s what you need:

a man’s necktie, beads (I used wooden ones I bought at Hobby Lobby), a sewing machine, and an un-picker.

My husband had this really nice necktie that had a big stain on it. I was super excited when I got permission to make something new out of this one. I began by unpicking the back stitches of the tie. Super easy cause there wasn’t too much to unpick.

Once you have it all unpicked, you just want to remove the stiff material in the middle of the tie.

Fold the tie, right sides together and sew a straight line to make a tube.

Put the material so the right side shows again. Grab your beads and thread the tie through one, and place the next bead inside the tube. Continue doing this until you have as many beads as you want.

You are basically done! Now all you have to do it tie the necklace together. You can do this a bunch of fun ways.

Here’s a couple rosettes:

To make the rosette you will take both ends of the tie and twist them together into a circle shape. Then fold the ends back up through the bottom of the twisted circled you just made.

You can also do this fun little knot:

This one is made by making a loop with your ends and then wrapping the ends in a knot.

You could also tie a bow or try something else. Add your own fun twist to it.

I sure love the way it turned out. So now you can go get your guy a new tie for Valentine’s Day so you can use one of his old ones to make a necklace!

Pin It

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Necktie Redo: {Necktie Necklace} is a post from: The Crafting Chicks

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Framed {custom} birth announcement print {gift idea}

Brooke — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:00:52 +0000

My cute brother and his darling wife just had their first baby a few months ago, which our family is thrilled about! I decided to make them a custom announcement with their baby’s birth stats as a gift, with a fun shaped frame to match their baby’s nursery colors. They loved it!

I’d seen a few ideas like this on Pinterest (the one that inspired me the most when I was searching for ideas was definitely Mosieposies on Etsy— she has beautiful customized prints for sale, check her out!). I designed my own version of the baby birth announcement. I created it in Photoshop, using various fonts and some sweet graphics by Crystal Wilkerson (the pennant, owl and scalloped border, all recolored to match the color scheme). I included the baby’s name, birthdate, weight, height, time of birth, and city/state of birth.

These are the fonts I used:

You can play around with different fonts and make each “stat” a different size–have fun with it! I had it printed as an 8×10 at Costco, matte (luster) finish.

As for the frame (ohmygosh I adore that frame!!!) I bought it unfinished at The Wood Connection–a local unfinished wood shop here in Salt Lake City, Utah. At this time I don’t think they have an online store or ship, but they do sell these frames in their physical store. I painted it yellow–started out with a craft brush and acrylic paint but it wasn’t quite the right color…so I ran and got some glossy spray paint and got the look I was going for. (I used Rustoleum Warm Yellow in gloss)

Once the paint dried I just popped the print into it! Easy as pie.

This makes an adorable piece of wall art for the nursery, as well as a special family keepsake for years to come!

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Framed {custom} birth announcement print {gift idea} is a post from: The Crafting Chicks

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{9 Valentine’s Oldies…but GOODIES!}

Jamie — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:55:34 +0000

We have some {Crafting Chicks} OLDIES but GOODIES for you today…

now that Valentine’s Day is just around the corner!

Nikkala’s {HEART} Chocolate Covered Oreos

Kirsten’s Clever Kid Valentines

Nikkala’s EVIL treats

Brooke’s IPHONE Valentines

Brooke’s DIY (Potter Barn Kids Style) Felt Envelopes for VDAY!

Kirsten’s Vintage Chandelier-{Valentine Style}

Jamie’s Valentine Centerpiece “LOVE TREE”

Jamie’s Valentine Word Art

Kirsten’s Silly Valentine Cards for Kids

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{ONE WORD ONE GOAL SERIES @ Less Cake More Frosting}

Kirsten — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:47:22 +0000

WHICH WORD???

Thanks to the sweetest girl Lara from the lovely blog LESS CAKE MORE FROSTING, who invited one of us along with many other bloggers to choose one word to focus on in the year 2012. This ended up being me, KIRSTEN….oh no, not the word to focus on, but the one that got to choose a word , what a cool experience that has been as I have thought about what might be the best thing to focus on this year….

FIND OUT HERE!

p.s. LARA is one of the coolest girls I know. She is amazing, and genuine, and real. You’ll see more of what I said about here in the post . She is also a part of the creative team for the SNAP CONFERENCE coming up here in April. We will be there!!!

Which word would you choose for your one word goal???

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{ONE WORD ONE GOAL SERIES @ Less Cake More Frosting} is a post from: The Crafting Chicks

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Rick Rack Rosette and Pearl Necklace

Becky — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:00:42 +0000

This Christmas I made a ton of the Rick Rack Rosettes Nikkala posted last year. I just loved them and they are so fun to make.

I wanted to add my own spin so I got a strand of cheap pearls, made some tiny rick rack rosettes and put it all together to create a fun vintage style necklace.

It’s pretty simple really, but here’s how I did it.

I followed all of Nikkala’s instructions for making the rick rack rosettes, but instead of making my rick rack 10-12 inches long, I made mine 5 inches so that they would be mini.

I then cut my pearl strand and restrung it sewing the rick rack rosettes on jump rings and placing them on the strand as well.

I think it is so fun and the rick rack rosettes add just a fun bit of whimsy.

I’ll be sharing how to make the Rick Rack Rosettes on Fresh Living today at 1pm MST. You can watch and see how fun and easy these are.

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Rick Rack Rosette and Pearl Necklace is a post from: The Crafting Chicks

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{Mindy Mae’s Marketplace Giveaway}

Becky — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:00:41 +0000

Mindy Mae’s Marketplace is a one deal-a-day site for crafty ladies like yourself. Not only are the deals incredible but they are such great items.

Our giveaway today will be a Mindy Mae’s Market $50.00 Giveaway, (Retail Value: over $100!)

It will include:

160 feet of baker’s twine in 8 different colors

200 buttons- 100 of rainbow colored and 100 wooden buttons, 20 hairpin blanks,

twine and scissor combo (as seen on Old Faithful Shop for $22.50),

and three (3) tea light holders- fillable and each a different height.

Such fun things!!! I’m excited for the winner already. Here’s how you can enter to win:

Make sure you are a public follower of The Crafting Chicks and leave a comment on this post and tell us what you are most excited to win from this fantastic craft package.

For more entries you can:

1. Share this Giveaway in a Twitter or Facebook update.

2. Follow Mindy Mae’s Market on Twitter.

3. Follow Mindy Mae’s Blog.

4. You can also find Mindy Mae’s Market on Facebook.

Also, exclusively for Crafting Chicks followers- Mindy Mae’s Market will be giving away 80 feet of baker’s twine in 4 colors for every purchase made through January 19th…just mention ‘Crafting Chicks’ in your purchase ‘message to seller’.

Giveaway will end on Sunday January 15 and the winner will be announced on our Facebook page. Good luck!

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What is a Gratitude Challenge? Mixed with FREE PRINTABLES!

Kirsten — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:30:34 +0000

Hey friends it’s me, Kirsten again . Recently on the LDS.ORG website, there was a talk by President Henry B. Eyring where he talked about “The Choice to Be Grateful.” There’s never been a better time than to talk about being grateful for the blessings we have. On and off throughout my life, I have kept a gratitude journal (that I have recently started again). It’s a journal that stays by my bedside and each night or every couple nights, I write the date, then write 5-10 things in it that I am thankful for. It’s so much fun, and always amazes me when I look back at what I wrote in times past. In that journal you can find anything from, “I’m thankful for Jesus” to “I’m thankful that my Dad called me today and cheered me up.” Feeling entitled and ungrateful is a slippery slope for me, and it really helps me focus more on all the great things in my life rather than the hurts and heartache, because we all have them.

At the end of the article, John Hilton III and Anthony Sweat gave a “Gratitude Challenge”, which I totally love considering the fact that I am a memory hoarder and I often would like so much to put time in a bottle.

They said, “Let’s not just talk about counting our blessings—let’s do it! Write a list of 100 things you are thankful for.” They even broke it down into 10 different categories of 10. I couldn’t help but design it cute on a page because heaven forbid, I would print out a black and white sheet of questions…;). They also said this, “When we make a list like this, we discover that a list of 100 doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of all the things God has given us.”

WAYS TO USE THIS: For our family we printed one on each side of a white piece of card stock and stuck them in little sheet protectors in a small binder. We printed one set of questions for each child as well as for Dave and I. Each Family Home Evening night for the next little bit, we are going to write down one thing in each category. Last night when we did this, they said the cutest things like…..ME: “Bennett, what is your favorite modern invention (had to explain to the 5 year-old what that meant)?” Bennett: “Grandpa TuTu’s inventions.” My Grandpa that passed away before he was born had several patents and was an inventor you could say. I have told them many stories about Grandpa so this was darling to hear him say and write down to remember always. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say next week. I can’t wait to tuck these away when they are completed and I know we will have fun in the process.

DOWNLOAD First Page: HERE

DOWNLOAD Second Page: HERE

Please feel free to share this with your friends and family! I hope this enriches your home and family in some way! ENJOY!

xo,

Kirsten

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What is a Gratitude Challenge? Mixed with ***FREE PRINTABLES***! is a post from: The Crafting Chicks

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Indoor Climbing Wall

Nikkala — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:01:11 +0000

Although neither of our boys asked for a climbing wall for Christmas, Santa surprised them with one Christmas morning!

The idea of a climbing wall came about when I was trying to figure out what to get our soon to be 3 year old for his birthday. The boy loves to climb–chain link fences, retaining walls, kitchen drawers! Unfortunately, the idea came a little late to make a reality for his birthday so we decided to save the project for Christmas. Neither my husband or I are climbers, so I spent some time learning about the parts we’d need, reading how to put it together, and finally ordering the parts the beginning of December. The actual construction of it was left to my husband. And in true fashion he waited until Christmas Eve day to pick up the missing piece (a sheet of 3/4″ plywood) and put it all together.

While I kept the boys out of the house on Christmas Eve, the husband got busy putting it all together. I begged him to take picture of the process so I could share with you, so here they are–compliments of his iPhone.

There are a few options when it comes to the type of wall and holds to use. We decided to go with the bolt on holds because you can rearrange them from the front of the wall, where the screw on type have to be changed from the back. All of our supplies–the holds, t-nuts and bolts were ordered through Atomik Climbing.

We decided to install the climbing wall in the toy room–which is possibly the worlds smallest room (really I’ve had closets bigger) which I am really excited to finish and reveal later!

Step 1: Cut plywood to size. They come in 4×8′ sheets, but we knew that in order to get it down the stairs and into the room it could only be 7′ tall.

Step 2: Use a chalk line to mark where to drill the holes. We spaced them 6-8″ apart.

Step 3: Drill the holes.

Step 4: Hammer a t-nut in each hole. This will be the back of your climbing wall and allow you to bolt the holds on.

Step 5: Install the wall and bolt on the holds! He added wood spacers behind the climbing wall for added support, and to give enough room for the bolts to poke through on the other side.

We’re already glad we went with the bolt on holds, because our little guys’ reaches were a lot shorter than we thought and we ended up moving all the holds closer together Christmas day.

Our boys have had fun climbing on it, although after a few times up and down they say they get tired–music to this mom’s ears! Here’s a video of my 3 year old climbing it Christmas Day. He’s quite a bit quicker now and ready for the holds to be rearranged and wondering if we can make it taller–what a little mountain goat!

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New Habit Made EASY with FREE PRINTABLES 8.5X11″- 20X24″ POSTERS….Family Scripture Study

Kirsten — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:31:03 +0000

Ok….so this post is dedicated to our friends that showed us this trick….and we are so grateful for their great idea. It worked for us (I’m still surprised myself), and I hope it works for you too! Thanks Wood Family

Ok so last year at this time we embarked with a new year’s resolution that honestly I didn’t think we would be able to keep up….how’s that for a resolution! This resolution was to read scriptures every day as a family….not a whole chapter, not even a whole ten verses, just at least one verse. We just wanted to make family scripture study a habit, whether it was one verse or 20. We had tried in the past to make this a habit with no real success or consistency. BUT WE DID IT THIS YEAR! We missed only 2 days! That’s not to say that there wasn’t fighting and wrestling and rough housing and crying on some or all of those days; but that’s the beauty of it, that’s just how it is, for us at least…heavens…my kids are 7, 6, 5, and 3. Let’s be honest, it’s like herding cats. If we can do this, ANYONE can do this, trust me.

SECRETS TO OUR SUCCESS (isn’t that an 80′s movie?): There are definitely secrets, but they are “EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY”, as my kids would say.

BE ACCOUNTABLE: This is the BEST SECRET of them all, I tell ya…use one page CALENDAR CHART that represents the whole year!!!!!! Dave and I said so many times throughout the year that just the thought that we were going to have a gap on our reading chart was enough to muster up the umph to read each night, and how we didn’t anticipate that we would be motivated by that, but it worked.
USE COLORED STICKERS & make it a game: This was also a main key for us. The child that was the most well-behaved got to choose the sticker for the chart that night. This was a major motivator for our kids.
CHOOSE THE SAME TIME EACH DAY TO READ: For us, the time of day we chose wasn’t exactly at a specific specific time, but right before bed which was around the same time each night. If you can choose the same time each day that works best for your family, you are really setting yourselves up for success.
KEEP YOUR EXPECTATIONS LOW: Ok this is one of those times that low expectations are GREAT. The kids are going to be rowdy, mean, ornery, and not want to do it at times…hang in there . There should be a level of respect while reading, from my point of view, but it’s not going to be perfect. Sometimes the best things are HARD, until it’s a habit. Just tonight as we were reading, the younger two got into trouble because they were being too loud, it happens still, but at least we are reading, right!

WHY WE’VE MADE IT A PRIORITY?

Boyd K. Packer, in a talk titled, Counsel to Youth (can be found there), said, “I say again that youth today are being raised in enemy territory with a declining standard of morality.” This is so true. I believe that a loving Father in Heaven communicates to his children through prayer & scripture. I want my kids to have this open communication with their Savior. I know without a doubt that learning to be more like God will help them more in their lives than learning to be like any other person they could model themselves after. Since my job as a parent is to equip my children with the best tools possible for success, this is top priority.

(the thing that worked best for us is to print this out, front and back, on a piece of white card stock and laminate)

DOWNLOAD FRONT (8.5″x 11″): HERE

DOWNLOAD BACK: (8.5x 11″): HERE

DOWNLOAD FRONT (16X20″ POSTER): HERE

DOWNLOAD FRONT (20X24″ POSTER): HERE

What has worked for you??? Let us know if you make this a habit too, we can’t wait to hear your feedback!

xoxo,

KIRSTEN

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New Habit Made EASY with **FREE PRINTABLES 8.5X11″- 20X24″ POSTERS**….Family Scripture Study is a post from: The Crafting Chicks

Please visit our wonderful sponsors:

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