Yellow Mums

4x6 Halloween Printables

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 20:06:00 +0000

So I have these 4x6 inch frames that I bought to put my nativity silhouettes in. I love them at Christmas time, but since we've moved I haven't put them up because I couldn't get past the Christmas nature of them.

I finally decided they needed some revolving holiday art. (In the spring and summer I may just put family photos in them). Here are the Halloween versions. I tried to keep them simple, but graphic. I love a good pattern! Enjoy! They print 3 to a page. I would recommend printing them on white cardstock and cutting them out. Get the printables HERE.

I apologize for the bad photos. This corner of our house gets no natural light and it's extremely difficult to photograph.

*Also a little side note that I may or may not be back to blogging. Number 3 is finally one and I feel like I'm figuring out how to balance 3 kids, but number 4 is unexpectedly on her way here. . . so we shall see what that brings!

"sharp" valentine cards

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 04:48:00 +0000

It's been a long time since I posted. A long time. Three kids will do that, at least to me I guess! But I do exist. I go back and forth on whether I want to keep up the blog or not. But I did do something fun today I thought I would share.

The buddy wants the store bought valentines to give to his friends. Surprise. I want to do cute hand made ones. So I signed up to bring a simple prize for one of the games at their classroom party, just so I could make a valentine and he can still give out the "cool" ones for his friends :) Alas. This is what I'm doing! I bought simple heart pencil sharpeners (at walmart) and I will probably hot glue them on (waiting for the glue to start cooling before putting them on so they will come off). We'll see how that goes . . . I may have procrastinated a bit! (so they are just sitting on top for pictures)

---> Click here to get the free printable <--- p="">

I hope you all have a wonderful valentines day with the sharing of lots of love.

Freebie Friday: B&W Halloween Banner

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 03:09:00 +0000

Okay, so first, sorry about the long hiatus. I think summer just isn't my time of year for blogging. It has been a crazy summer though. We spent the summer house hunting and finally moved into our new house when I was eight months pregnant. Number three was born last week and once things normalize I will be back. But I haven't stopped crafting and oh how many things have started piling up to be blogged about! It's making me crazy. But while sweet number three is still sleeping constantly I've had a little time to put up Halloween decorations. I Loooooooove the fall and decorating for Halloween, and Thanksgiving. So, I just needed a Halloween banner. I wanted to just do some fun patterns, but didn't feel satisfied with the scrapbook paper options I had on hand. So I decided to make my own! I didn't want to use a ton of ink doing a full color print though . . . so a black and white pattern was born . . . that could be printed with colored paper to still get my need for bright colors in there. I love the different vibe each color produces. Both my kids noticed the banner as soon as they woke up this morning. The little buddy wanted to know whose birthday it was! Happy celebrating!

Get the printable pdf here.

Wild Kratts Birthday & Printables

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 04:33:00 +0000

I was talking to my sister before I planned the buddy's birthday party and she told me how she'd invited 5 boys to her son's party and 3 of them ended up not being able to come and so his party involved 3 boys. She was a little disappointed. So I figured, heck, we'll invite 9 kids, that way when half of them can't come, we'll still have a party! And then of course, as luck would have it, all 9 of them (plus a few siblings) were able to come. Another stroke of luck came when Caleb snuck up behind me while I was perusing ideas online for the party and saw some pictures of "creature power vests" because we were having a Wild's Kratt's Party--from the show on pbskids about animals. Anyway, he got super excited thinking he was going to have creature power vests at HIS party. So then of course I couldn't say no . . . to making 12 creature power vests. I didn't show pictures of how to make the vests because there are lots of tutorials. See here. or here. I just used black fleece for the vest, colored fleece for the accents and velcro. I hot glued all the colored parts and the velcro on. I sewed the sides of the vest shut.

Yep. It was definitely a partay. I gathered most of my ideas from online, and I have to say pinterest is definitely my friend :) Here's how it went down: I designed an invite because really is there any good Wild Kratt's paraphernalia online. Nope.

Then I got gathering ideas and making stuff. . . which kind of snowballed into a lot of stuff (note to self: don't start planning early because then you just keep adding to your ideas).

I ended up with 10 creature power discs, which "activate" the creature power suits. On the show the 2 Kratt brothers have creature power suits--including a vest with a circle in the middle. They get these circular discs with an animal on them and put them into the circle and then their suit turns into whatever animal is on the disc. (Yeah, I know that didn't make sense).

* get the CREATURE POWER DISCS PDF HERE. (I modified some I found online to fit the activities we wanted to do--if you want the original jpegs they should be linked through the pinterest link). I turned these into pdfs so I could make sure they were all able to be hole punched with my 3.5 inch hole punch--I had 100 to cut out and I wanted to make it easy on myself :)

Print on cardstock, punch with 3.5 inch hole punch or cut out with scissors, glue small piece of velcro to back.

We just had too many activities we wanted to do--so 6 of the discs we turned into an activity to "use" the disc and the other 4 went into their favor bags to take home. We started off giving them their beaver discs so they could turn into beavers and make beaver dams out of peanut butter and pretzels. In theory it was suppose to take a long time and be an opener while everyone arrived. But somehow everyone seemed to arrive within like a 5 minute window. So they all made their "dams" together.

Next up we took them outside and gave them their Cheetah Discs to turn into cheetah's and race around the yard. A little anticlimactic, but the buddy enjoyed it. Because we had so many kids we split them in half and rotated through the rest of the activities.

For the Buttefly creature power disc I gave them each their disc and then they wrapped each other up in toilet paper like a cocoon and then "burst" free to become a butterfly. Simple, but fun.

For the polar bear disc I froze 4 gallon size bags of water flat in the freezer and then we pulled them out and put them on the grass. They had to step from "ice floe" to "ice floe" without slipping off. (but I don't think we managed pictures of this one before they were done--they went fast).

For the shark disc we had a little blow up pool that they fished for little plastic fishes. By far the favorite, and the one thing the buddy requested we do.

The platypus disc was a simple carrying a boiled egg on a spoon to the nest game. Not the highlight, butsome of the kids thought it was pretty great.

* get the ANIMAL OUTLINE POSTER PDF'S HERE. Print the first 3 pages on simple patterned scrapbook paper/cardstock and then cut out each animal leaving black outline. Print last 5 pages on colored cardstock. Glue animals above words.

And of course we had to end with cake and ice cream (or ice cream sandwiches).

*Get generic WILD KRATT TOPPERS PDF HERE. Print on cardstock and punch out with a 2 inch hole punch. (they don't say Caleb on them).

I also ended up making a little pouch for each child with a velcro closure and a band on the back so that as they collected each disc they could put the previous one in the pouch so it didn't get lost. In retrospect it was kind of a lot of work, and it may have been faster and more organized if they'd just given me back each disc as we moved on--and then I could have divided them out again at the end to send them home.

Their favor bags included the last 4 creature power discs with a little favor and fun fact to go along with each one:
* get the FAVOR TAGS PDF HERE. Print on cardstock and cut out with 2 inch hole punch.
* get the FUN FACTS PRINTABLE PDF HERE.

The Firefly included a glow stick bracelet.

The Earthworm had a little toy worm and some gummy worms.

The bat included some "bat ears" made from black elastic and black fleece left over from the vests.

The large mouth bass included some gold fish.

The buddy had a good time. He still occasionally puts on his creature power vest and runs around the house. And even when he doesn't have his vest on he'll say "cheetah power" and that means he's running "super" fast. It ended up being quite a bit of work, but I kind of brought in on myself. I get started and the ideas just keep coming and I want to do them all and so I do. I enjoy it though so I guess it's okay. I just hope it doesn't get out of control (probably too late for that one eh?)

Happy Fourth of July!

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 23:38:00 +0000

I hope all you American's have a wonderful fun filled fourth of July. I promise I will be back with lots of great stuff. It's been a very busy/ extremely lazy month and a half. I hope I'm recovered :)

So far we've had lots of fun with parades and picnics and looking forward to fireworks!!

cakes

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

I've got 3 cakes and 2 sets of cup cakes to make in the next couple weeks. Cake is on my mind. This white cake was surprisingly easy (besides the enormous amounts of frosting it required.) But it packs a punch. I found the how-to on I am baker. Find it here. And yes, hers is much better than mine, but I'm learning.

My first attempts at cake making were at best pretty sad. Here's the buddies first birthday cake. . . good thing he was only one and didn't know how bad it was. It even leaned to one side. So I decided that I just didn't like making cakes and that it was too sloppy for me. I like clean crisp edges and neat lines--easily achieved with paper. Not so much with cake. Goopy, unpredictable and messy. Yup. Always getting the crumbs from the cake into the frosting.

Last year I decided I was going to learn how to make a decent cake for the buddies birthday (below). So I picked the brains of a couple of really great ladies at church, one of whom used to teach cake decorating classes. (yep, I'm too cheap to take an actual class). Here are some the most important things I learned from them.

When making a layered cake: bake the cakes. Let them cool, take them out of the pans, and wrap them tightly in saran wrap. (but not so tight that you crumble the cake :) Then freeze them overnight. It's about 10 times easier to frost a frozen cake than it is to frost a soft crumbly cake. And the best part of all is that when you freeze it, the moisture is kept in the cake and you end up with a much moister cake.

When frosting the cake I also learned that you don't go over and over the same area with the knife. An easy way to do it is to pipe the frosting on all over the cake with a big tip and then just spread it flat so you don't make such a mess.

And finally, I really like using fondant: crisp edges and neat lines :) I made my own marshmallow fondant, which is kind of annoying, but really much yummier than the already made kind. I used this recipe from all recipes. When you are ready to use it just roll it out with some powdered sugar to keep it from getting sticky and then use cookie cutters or fondant cutters (or new sculpey clay cutters) to cut them out. Get them wet with a tiny bit of water and stick them on your cake.

Anyway. This week I'm going to attempt to make a chocolate ganache for a fancy chocolate cake I'm making for a mother's day tea party. It's amazing how much more confident I feel with a few cake making success behind me. I'm no pro and I've still got a lot to learn, but I've decided that making cakes is surprisingly fun, time consuming, but with some attention to detail do-able.

Animal Alphabet Flashcards Giveaway Winner

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Wed, 09 May 2012 03:30:00 +0000

The winner of the animal alphabet flashcard giveaway is Gentri! Congrats! Email me at yellowmum (at) gmail (dot) com and I will send you the pdf file!

If you missed out they are still available in my shop! Find them here.

sewing

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Thu, 03 May 2012 02:24:00 +0000

This is the buddy's quilt I'm hoping to finish in time for his birthday in a couple weeks. I started it way back here, and am finally buckling down. Deadlines help with the whole finishing something business.

I actually don't really like sewing. I liked it at 4 when I had my own mini sewing machine and would sit and sew scraps together to make barbie quilts sitting by mom who was sewing on her real machine. And it even came in nifty in home ec when I already knew how to sew. Easy A. And I still really love the products that are produced from sewing. But I just don't like the actual sewing part. The running the fabric underneath the whirling needle part, oh, and the ironing part. So monotonous, so tedious, yet so much attention to detail required. It's hard for my ADD brain to stay focused (no, I haven't actually been diagnosed with ADD, but since both my parents have it, it's a safe bet). But, I keep at it. I keep coming up with projects. I keep seeing things and saying "oh, that would be so much easier/cheaper/cuter if I did it like this . . . " And then I find myself back at the sewing machine trying to keep myself from losing interest before it's done. I guess it's a love/hate relationship. I love the freedom of knowing how to sew and being able to do something, and so I guess I love creating the ideas in my mind and seeing the finished product. Those are the fun parts. The coming up with a creation, and the finished piece. Maybe that's true with life too though. Some times the daily grind is really monotonous, but the plans and goals, and the accomplishment of those is so very exhilarating and fulfilling.

Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:08:00 +0000

May is my favorite month, and least favorite in some ways too. But we have a lot going on in May, including my birthday :) So in honor of that I'm going to try and post a little something more about myself each day.

But first, can I just tell you how much I LOVE the target dollar bins? They must know how much I love yellow . . . and stripes . . . and grey with yellow. Yes, I bought the only two I could find.

Now, back to sharing more about myself. That's hard for me. I'm a pretty private person, I think a lot of it is due to insecurity. I wait until I know someone pretty well before I open up-and that doesn't help with the making lots of friends bit. But I want to be more open and I really admire people who are so open not just online but in real life too. So . . . I've been thinking a lot about my kids lately. I really love my kids. Like, really love them. Last night when I was putting the little sweetie to bed she was looking up at me and I was looking down at her in my lap and she just smiled her big happy smile and put her forehead against mine and started laughing and laughing. It was such pure happiness and sweetness I was soon laughing right along with her. She is so full of love and life. I can't get enough of her. I haven't always felt such a connection to my kids. In fact, when I was first pregnant with the buddy I wasn't really sure I wanted kids. It seemed like I was going to be giving up a lot more than I was getting. But I'm so glad I took that leap of faith and carried on. Those first months were rough, really rough after he was born. But I look back now and I realize I was so wrong. I did give up things, but I gained so much more. Being a mom and having a family has brought more real joy and fulfillment than any hobby or other job ever could. I just wish more people knew how great being a mom is!

Have a great day! And don't forget we've got another week for the giveaway--see below!

Animal Alphabet Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:30:00 +0000

I've put some new ABC cards up in the shop--look familiar? I originally made them as posters, but I'm kind of loving the smaller size of the 4 inch by 5 inch cards. I made a fun little book for my kiddos by putting the Animal shaped Alphabet Cards into a simple photo album. My animal loving sweetie has been enthralled with it.

They've been a bit of a hit, and we really haven't had a giveaway for a long time . . . so we're having a giveaway!

To enter for the printable Animal Alphabet leave a comment telling me what you'd do with the Animal cards.

Giveaway ends Monday, May 7th. One winner will be posted May 8th.

enjoy!

FF- 5 a day

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 23:30:00 +0000

One of my good friends asked me months ago if I would come up with a way to keep track of eating 5 a day-you know 5 servings of fruits and veggies (although is it total or is it 5 veggies?). Anyway, I guess it's up to you. I finally did it. A simple monthly calendar that has five little circles around a number (the day of the month) so you can fill in on each day how many healthy plant things your eating :) It's actually been really good for me to start thinking about adding that extra fruit or veggie at meals. But I may just need a separate calendar for each family member (those picky eaters!)

You can find the calendar here.

Enjoy!

Baptism Toppers

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 04:42:00 +0000

My oldest nephew on my husband's side turned eight in March, which means a very exciting event occurred. He got baptized! In our church children are baptized at eight rather than as an infant. We believe children aren't held accountable for their choices before this and therefore can't "sin." (Yeah they still make wrong choices but they're mistakes are covered through the Savior's atonement before eight--without needing repentance). Anyway, at eight we believe they are old enough to decide if they want to be baptized and also to start choosing right from wrong and start repenting for mistakes. (the CTR stands for "Choose the Right").

Anyway, so I volunteered to make cupcakes for the big event and of course they needed toppers! So this is what I came up with--simple but fun. I feel bad that I didn't get any pictures at the luncheon with the toppers in the cupcakes. . . I just did white frosting with a few blue sugar sprinkles. They went fast!

They were such a hit that I thought I'd offer them to you. I know they don't apply to all, but some times those religious printables are hard to find when you're looking for them! You can now find my baptism toppers in my etsy shop personalized with the name and color of your choice. Find them here.

enjoy!

Missed you guys

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:50:00 +0000

Well, let me tell you. Don't listen to nurses :) Just kidding. My sister in law is a great nurse. But as it happens one particular nurse told me 4 weeks ago not to take an psuedophed for my head cold. . . which a week later was a sinus infection. . . which also became an ear infection . . . so I called the nurse back and she told me to take psuedophed! It's been a fun 3 weeks of sickness around here and another week of frantically putting the house back together and getting ready for Easter. But I'm back! This is what I was working on all last week:

A little Easter dress for the sweetie. (Who was being very uncooperative for pictures outside . . . I couldn't get her out of that play house!) One of the weeks I was so sick I couldn't get out of my bed (thanks to the lovely vertigo assaulting me) I laid in bed and planned it all out in my mind. It turned out just how I imagined (which doesn't always happen) and that is always happy. And just so you know, if you ever are going to do ruffles on a dress figure around a 3:1 ratio (3 feet of fabric equals 1 foot of gathered fabric) and a lot of yardage to hem :)

Hope you all had a very happy Easter!

Freebie Friday: Spring Has Sprung Poster

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:11:00 +0000

So, today I just felt like making something. Hooray. We've had head colds at our house for two weeks and mine is currently residing in my forehead. So this afternoon fighting the little buddy to clean up all the toys in the basement just seemed overwhelming. Instead I made him put away his pj's and let him watch netflix while I checked my email. I had some graphic design work waiting for me, and one thing led to another. But I've been thinking about spring all day noticing little green leaves on the trees! Hooray. It really is coming!

Download the printable poster here. Print on letter size cardstock and cut on the lines to 8x10.

Enjoy!

one plus one equals . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:42:00 +0000

We are very very excited to be adding a sweet new little lemon to our family, and can't wait to find out what we are having! The buddy is really hoping for a brother . . . I guess we'll see! but here is the reason I have not had one urge to create: yup, I guess I'm just working on creating on the inside instead of the outside. I hope to be back soon though. We're almost through the first trimester and hey spring is almost here right? Maybe that will endow me with more energy and get rid of the creative block! I'm hopeful!

Freebie Friday: Pretend Pasta Box

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

With the new kitchen the kiddos got for Christmas they have all these cute little pots and pans. But all the plastic and wooden food they have doesn't fit very well inside. One apple in the pan just doesn't seem right. . . So I made them some felt pasta. It's been probably a month since then and I've found felt pasta everywhere. They needed some containment. So our freebie today was born: a pasta box for felt fettuccine.

Get the box here.

I just cut it out, taped some plastic on the holes, folded it and taped it up. Although in retrospect, I think I may go back and laminate it instead. . . last longer that way.

branching out

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:48:00 +0000

Today was a day. The sweetie is turning into a little explorer. I think she's getting to the terrible twos a little early. We managed to change her clothes three times today. It probably should have been four after she dumped her entire sippy cup of apple juice on the floor at her feet. (I only changed her socks that time). If she wasn't making a mess or getting into something she shouldn't, she was hanging on my leg trying to be held. I think I held her half the day. She may be teething, but wow, it is good to have it today behind us. She did have her sweet moments though, like putting a donut shaped toy in her mouth that pushed up her top lip and showed her front teeth through the opening in the middle. She looked like a scary rabid rabbit. That was pretty funny. I'm only sorry I didn't get a picture. She also gave me lots of cuddles which are always priceless. I do love some cuddles! Well, anyway, it was a definitely a day. On to more related topics . . .

I've started playing around with combining design on the computer and handmade cards. I love the look of handmade cards, but sometimes it can be limiting (especially when I'm not willing to spend a fortune on crafting supplies). I thought a card with a branch coming out designed on the computer would be fun to dress up with leaves of any color, or blossoms . . . so many possiblities! If I can fine tune the details I will post it as a freebie. Happy Wednesday!

Freebie Friday Repost: Valentines Printables

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Enjoy some past fun Valentine Printables! I've determined it's time to start removing past printables and only keep up the last couple of freebies. So start downloading them while you can!

Here is one way to use the Valentine Simple Cards. Click to find lots more ideas.

Catch up quick and do a 14 days of I love you with these Valentine Notes. Or make a chain card or banner to hang up on Valentines Day.

These Valentine Toppers are great for cupcakes, but also make a nice seal or tag on a valentine package too!

Personalize this Valentine Box with meaningful trinkets or candies. Not too big at 2 inches square, but perfect for a little something to share.

In the shop: Animal Shaped Alphabet Toppers

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:18:00 +0000

I've just posted these fun Animal shaped alphabet circles

The idea of these toppers was to make my ABC posters a little more accessible, and useable. They are fun on a wall, but I want to use them in more ways.

The possibilities of these circular little ABC's created by animal bodies are pretty vast. Here are some ideas:

Obviously you can use them as cupcake toppers

How about as a card embellishments

A small gift tag

A monogrammed seal for kids gifts, favor bags, etc . . .

Make a mini word banner for the top of a cake or a small space

Turn into stickers

Make into a matching game

Make into badges or a knecklace

Anyway, pretty fun. Find them here.

weekend prep

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:16:00 +0000

This may be a little, or a lot, random and completely not on topic, but it is what I did this weekend. We put 1700 lbs of hard white wheat into 6 gallon food grade buckets with lots of oxygen packs to take out all the air. We, being me, my mom, the hunny, and my bro. It only took us about an hour to fill 34 buckets.

And why, you ask, in the heck were we doing that? Well, for lots of reasons. My mom found a great deal on wheat, say $20 for 50 lbs. And we're both trying to add more whole wheat to our diet. But, these weren't just for my mom and I and that's only part of why we were doing it. We were also doing it to be prepared. Food Storage you know. Not because I'm a conspiracy theorist or because I think 2012 is going to be the end of the world, but because you never know what might happen-not just with the world but with us. What if the hunny lost his job? It sure would be nice to have a little back up food around until we got back on our feet. Anyway, so the buckets got divided out 6 ways and I'm happy to have a little extra wheat on hand :) Random, yes. Reassuring too :)

Starting

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:36:00 +0000

I guess my whining last week paid off. After venting a bit on Friday I kicked myself back into gear. First gear. But Saturday I went to Joann's and bought myself some fabric, and this is what I've accomplished so far: All the squares cut out for the buddies quilt. I'm anxious to see the final results! But I dare say venting is therapeutic!

We colored a set of Birthday Masks for fun the other day as well . . . they work great . . . maybe not great enough to hide my lack of make up though, eh?

Freebie Friday: Super Mask Birthday Card

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 04:27:00 +0000

I guess January is always kind of an unproductive month for me. December is so crazy I think I just kind of ooze into a blissful indifference to getting much done in January. The first week or so I'm still running off the steam of Christmas and the hope of New Year's resolutions. But after that it just kind of peters out. And that is where I am. I have lots of great ideas floating around in my head. Like starting a quilt like this but expanding it to a twin size, and using this technique to make it faster. I want to start drawing again since painting seems to be too time consuming for this time of my life, and then I've got a paper mache lamp/ light fixture with Christmas lights as the "bulb" floating around in my head . . . and then a gazillion design projects including some Valentine's ones that may or may not get done before that holiday hits. But, instead I sat around reading Parenting and Time Magazine this afternoon for a good hour or so while the buddy watched TV and the sweetie played dolls and tried to figure out how lego's work (don't worry she's past the eating them phase).

Anywhoo. . . I did make a boy version of the printable Birthday cards as a Freebie Friday for you today though: (Actually I made them over a week ago because I had a nephew's birthday come up, but that's beside the point, right).

Click here to download the Super Mask Birthday Card.

Each page makes two birthday cards with instructions for the birthday boy to cut out and color the mask themselves. I recommend printing on white cardstock so they can color it however they choose!

Enjoy!

Brown Bag Wreath

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:20:00 +0000

This awesome wreath I was first introduced to on Make Happy. I saw it and knew I needed to make it. But that was over a year ago. I even bought an 1.25 inch scalloped hole punch specifically for this (it's come in handy for lots of other things). But when I took down my Christmas wreath our poor little door looked so bare. I knew the brown paper bag wreath had finally moved up on the priority list. It was time to make it.

I started with a pretty thick brown bag and then moved to what else I had on hand-lunch bags. After starting to put them on the wreath I realized that they weren't quite the same color of brown. So I tried to vary them both through the whole thing to add a little depth. Anyway, a little picture tutorial below. Or you can go to the original in depth tutorial by MaryJanes and Galoshes.

Have a great Wednesday!!

Freebie Friday: Birthday Crown Card

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:45:00 +0000

When I was a girl I had one uncle who sent me birthday cards. Not every year, but often enough that I felt that he cared. I felt special and important to someone I didn't see very often and it meant a lot.

So as an aunt (and sister and in law), I've tried to do the same thing: remember family birthdays with cards. It's a big job. The hunny and I both come from large families. We're rounding out to about 60 cards a year. This year I've decided to make it a little bit more fun for the nieces and nephews and a little faster for me too.

The birthday crown card is going to all my nieces this year. In the past I've always made them a personalized card, but I think this will be more fun for them, still it's a card with a personalized note from us inside, but they can cut it up and turn it into a birthday crown to decorate and wear!

I thought it would be fun to share: click here for the Birthday Crown Card.

A letter size sheet makes 2 cards. I recommend printing on colored cardstock, and then cutting in half longwise. (along the dotted line).

When they cut out the crown they will use the bottom strip to go around the back of their head, and tape it to fit. Instructions are included on the card!

ENJOY!

** I'm also sorry about the poor pictures. My camera batteries died during the photo shoot, and I'd forgotten to charge the back up set. So these are mostly thanks to my phone. Alas.

A Merry Busy Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Lauralee) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Went a little MIA this christmas season working on this entertainment center turned kitchen. The idea started brewing 3 weeks before Christmas after seeing several in blog land, mostly notably this one from sutton grace.

So 2.5 weeks before Christmas I went and bought this entertainment center at the thrift store for $10 (talked the guy down from $20 cause I'm cheap like that) and then spent every night (when I usually blog) working on it for several hours.

I added the long side door aka "fridge" and the "oven" door. Found an awesome real faucet with sprayer at the thrift store for $5, modge podged the numbers around the oven knobs (also found at thrift store .25 each). The stove hot plates are black paint (simple, easy and fast), the "rack" stripes in the oven shelf I ended up just drawing on with a wide sharpie marker and a ruler. The phone was also found at the thrift store and hangs on a screw (so it can come off pretty easy), the sink comes out of it's hole and is just a weird bowl I also found at the thrift store and then the curtain at the top is held in place with a small tension rod.

All in all the most time consuming part was the painting, and the waiting for paint to dry, and shopping for all the pieces (because I refused to buy more than I had to at home depot-I bought as much as I could from the thrift store and the Habitat for Humanity ReStore).

It took the full two weeks finishing up Christmas Eve. It was a fun project to do, albeit a little bit stressful under the time restraints. I love how it turned out, especially the yellow, of course, and the sweetie LOVES it. It was given to both her and the buddy, but it the buddy has been too busy with Captain America, spiderman and remote control cars to have time for the kitchen. Give it a couple weeks . . .

The little sweetie has spent most of yesterday and today playing with it which makes my heart so happy. It definitely makes it all worth it to see her so excited about it!

Hope you had a very merry Christmas too!