Creation Corner

2015-08-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine opened a new online craft business,

I'm excited to see their new adventure take off. I made my first order this morning and cannot wait to see what new products will be launched each month on the 9th. I hope you'll go check them out!

Snap Conference

2012-04-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

SNAP the Conference was AMAZING. The fabulous classes, the amazing bloggers, the incredible SNAP team...every last detail I loved. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to go. I was completely nervous to do it alone...and honestly it was very hard on my quiet, non-aggressive personality (meeting new people has always been very hard on me), but I am SO glad I went and did it. I loved getting to see and talk and rub shoulders with so many incredible women. It is a wonderful feeling when you talk to someone you have been emailing with for months (if not longer).

Me, Kristy (The Dairy of Dave's Wife), Kelli (Lolly Jane Boutique), Jamilyn (I Heart Naptime), and Ashley (Mommy by day Crafter by night.)

The first girls I ran into were these wonderful friends. They were kind enough to let me sneak a seat by them. (Later we learned we were not suppose to be sitting on the floor.) I was the most excited to meet Kelli (green sweater) from Lolly Jane. I adore her and after a lot of emailing I loved that finally we could meet in person. She is truly as happy and fun and friendly as she seems on her blog. Do you see those big black bags we all have....they were the SWAG bags FULL of amazing things from the sponsors. Happiness!

The venue at Thanksgiving Point was gorgeous. I loved walking around taking in all the beauty and even got a few quiet moments alone in a some gardens. The weather was fabulous the entire time and it really was a perfect location for this fun event.

This was the Sponsor/break room. I ate lunch there both days and loved meeting sponsors and amazing bloggers. The sponsors for the event were incredible. Every last one.

We ate dinner each night in the barn room. Thursday night we walked in to see the place looking like this. Everything you see, the SNAP team created. Since it was a creative conference they wanted to make all the details by hand. I loved that. It was gorgeous.

Don't you just love the details?

Tauni introduced the full SNAP team and I loved seeing them all together. I can say nothing but good things about each and every one of these women. Honestly, they were all friendly, loving, personable, and I came to love them and their blogs even more just by watching the way they interacted with us all. You could tell they had put so much effort into every last detail for us, and truly wanted to make this a conference we would all remember. Thank you SNAP Team.

That evening we were able to hear from Tauni (Leader of SNAP team) and Amy (The Idea Room). I loved what they both taught us. It was actually an empowering moment for me. They emphasized what I have been really feeling lately. The theme the introduced was "Just be You". I loved it.

One of the people I really wanted to meet was Gwen from Gwenny Penny. We have been blog friends for some time now and I just love her and her style. When she tapped me on the shoulder Thursday night I was SO excited!! I had the opportunity to talk with her a couple of time throughout the conference and I loved it. I think I could have spent the entire conference with her. I loved seeing pictures of her children and hearing her take on blogging and life. She is an amazing women.

After 9 or 10 years I finally got to see my beautiful friend Stephanie from Somewhat Simple. We grew up together and I truly just love her. It took a blogging conference for us to see each other after all these years. It didn't feel like it has been that long though since we have kept up with each other through blogging.

Tausha and I meeting. I love her blog as well. She came over to meet another Tausha to find out I really say my name with an "a" sound (as in apples). But, we still needed a picture! She is so much fun.

Becca from Blue Cricket Designs and I. Oh, how I love Becca. She is another girl I grew up with and honestly has always been fun, creative, and someone people wanted to be around. I loved getting to talk to her multiple times during the conference. Love you Becca!

This group of ladies (minus the two on the left) I sat with during the Thursday night dinner. The Dating Divas and The Letter 4 Girls were so awesome! Truly, I loved each one of them. They were so cute and sweet and fun to be around. When I ran into them waiting to get into a class on Friday I wanted to get a picture (since I had forgotten the night before). I know I will be following both of their blogs from here on out. (I think I feel a little short looking at this picture.)

Oh, how I LOVED meeting Desiree from The 36th Avenue. She is SOOOO awesome! Yes, she is just as fun and happy and wonderful in person as she is on her blog. I have yet to meet another lady like her. I loved chatting with her multiple times

This whole weekend would not have been possible without my wonderful Mother who was my driving partner and made it so I could go. Thank you Mom. (My Mother is so good to me.) Then I got to spend the nights and mornings with my two beautiful sisters. I left saying I NEED more Mom/Sisters getaways. We had so much fun together!! They came out for the Queen Bee Market on Friday night.

Right as we walked in the door we walked into Becca and Stephanie. They were excited to see my Mom and Sisters as well. (Since we all grew up together.)

And then the AMAZING Queen Bee Market! There were lots of fun and fabulous vendors. We shopped and shopped and shopped. Then got into a line that took over an hour to get through! (Yes, there were that many people there.)

I am grateful I was able to attend the conference. It was a great experience for me. Now, I am back home trying to get back into the swing of things and cannot wait to go through all the business cards I received. There are a lot of new blogs for me to check out!

Buisness Card Holder

2012-04-17T03:00:00.000-07:00

I needed something to carry my business cards.

I couldn't quite decide what to make,

but, in the end went with a simple small zipper pouch.

I used THIS tutorial here, but made it a lot smaller.

It was simple, bright, and now I won't get my cards all bent up.

These cards are actually from my shop,

but, I haven't had a chance to make new ones

sooo.... they will have to do.

But, I am good with that.

Happy week!

Oh SNAP!

2012-04-16T04:10:00.002-07:00

3 days until SNAP!

I seriously cannot believe it.

I am SO excited!!

I have to be honest and say I am super nervous at the same time.

I have had a knot in my stomach for over a week now.

I know it is going to be fabulous though,

and I cannot wait to meet so many wonderful blog heroes of mine.

I have to tell you, I look up to so many of you!

I am doing a shout out to all you Utah friends.

Did you know that the Queen Bee Market has joined with SNAP

and is going to be there Friday night - Saturday!?!

You know you want to come!

Fabulous Vendors.

Great giveaways.

You could meet some of your favorite bloggers.

AND, it is free.

No door charge.

HAPPINESS!

Just thought you might want to know if you didn't already.

Happy Week to you all!

Black Apron

2012-04-09T21:28:00.001-07:00

My good friend Letti has spent the last few months sewing (and creating) her heart out.

She is over 150 costumes for the play Beauty and the Beast in a local production.
I have helped her some (but not as much as I wish I could have.)

She is amazing!

Hands down, awesome!

Really, she has such a creative mind and I cannot wait to see the production this weekend.

I got a text from her one day recently asking if I could make her an apron with pockets.

She was always having things stuffed in her pockets, but that it would be so nice to have an apron.

I ,of course, was more then excited to do it for her!

I love her and have been wishing there was more I could do to lighten her load a little.

If she called, I wanted to help.

So, I made this cute, but simple, black apron.

Nothing too fancy, but good for backstage and it shouldn't get too dirty with all the cast make-up.

Good luck this week Letti as the final touches all come together!

I know all your hard work is going to pay off.

DIY Ties

2012-04-04T10:15:00.002-07:00

Priorities.

Last night, I made myself stay up until these cute guys were done.

With Easter this weekend, and a very busy week ahead of me, I knew it was do or die.

So, I put myself to work and would not let myself to go sleep until they were complete.

Three ties...check.check.check.

My boys were pretty excited when they woke up and saw them laying out.

I got the fabric idea HERE.

I was in love with this Michael Miller Ta Dot Fabric.

It is just so "springy".

I ordered it from Hawthorne Threads.

I love them.

They are so quick to ship and the best prices in shipping.

Now, I am at least one step closer to being ready for Easter.

Now to move on with my list.

Linking up to some of THESE link Parties

Baseball Ideas

2012-04-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

In celebration of "Opening Day of Baseball" I thought I would share some of my favorite fun Baseball ideas I have seen out there:

Baseball Cupcakes found at Bright Ideas HERE

Baseball Invitations

Cake Ball Baseballs from Cake Central

Baseball Cookie Pops from Grin and Bake It

Baseball Party by Two Plus Us

A lot of these ideas would be fun to do for our kids baseball and t-ball snacks too!

Opening Day of Baseball

2012-04-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

Baseball Season is here and we are excited!

Every year since I was a little girl, we have celebrated the Opening Day of Baseball.

This includes decorations, baseball food, and of course watching a baseball game.

I made this banner a couple of years ago and we love pulling it out each year.

We also have a number of other baseball decorations from my oldest son's birthday a number of years back.

It is a Party at our house!

Image found here

We are celebrating on Friday since that is the Angel's Opening Day,

And we LOVE the Angels!

You can pick your favorite team and start with their Opening Day,

or look up the official day the first teams start.

My boys love that we eat Baseball Food:

Hot Dogs, Cracker Jacks, sometimes Nachos, Peanuts, etc.

In Honor of this years Opening Day here is a free printable to share with you.

Download HERE.

Download HERE

Happy Opening Day of Baseball Week!

Lemon Bar Recipe

2012-03-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

I LOVE Lemon Bars.

Love. Love. Love. Them.

Every spring, when the beautiful lemons are ready to be picked from the trees, I start craving them.

Oh, they are so yummy.

Last week, when I had book club at my house my husband laughed when he saw what I made as dessert.

"It wouldn't be a party without Tasha's Lemon Bars," he said.

Yep, that is right.

If I am going to make them I need to make them for a purpose...

Or I will eat the ENTIRE pan myself.

Here is my favorite recipe (and I have tried a lot of recipes)

My Favorite Lemon Bars

Ingredients:

2 sticks (8 ounces) real butter (no margarine, although you can, it just does not taste as good)

2 cups flour

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

4 beaten eggs

2 cups sugar

5 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup lemon juice (this is about 2 large lemons)

2 tablespoons finely grated lemon peel

sifted confectioners sugar

Preparation:

Heat over to 325 degrees. Blend butter, 2 cups flour, and 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar. Pat into ungreased 9x13 pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. For filling, blend together eggs, sugar, 5 tablespoons flour, lemon juice, and lemon peel. Pour over first layer once it comes out of the oven. Return to the oven and bake at 325 degrees for 20-22 minutes. Loosen around edges, cut into bars and sift confectioners' sugar over the top while warm. Then enjoy!

Relief Society Birthday Activity

2012-03-13T04:01:00.005-07:00

I am in the Relief Society presidency in my Church and I am co over the activities we put on each month. (With my friend Kristen who is also in the president. We do not have an activity leader.) Every month we plan different activities that will help strengthen the women in our church. March's activity is more of a celebration of the anniversary of the beginning of the Relief Society program. This year we celebrated 170 years. Pretty amazing. It is a wonderful organization that I love being a part of. As a presidency we decided we wanted to do a "party" theme with birthday hats, birthday cake, games, and even a handmade gift to each sister. It was neat to meet together and plan this activity as we each came with different ideas that all fell right together.

I had the idea to have sisters sign up to make a cake and bring it on a cake pedestal. This would be our center piece and also the dessert served that evening. Our president had the idea to make a fun cute present for each sister. A heart hot pad and all three of us made a set of them. They were adorable and sadly I have no pictures other then them wrapped in that cute pink paper with a real ribbon bow. Kristen had the idea to make adorable birthday hats for each lady to wear all evening.

Kristen's fun birthday hat idea was a hit. She created these ADORABLE paper hats using scrapbook paper and tissue paper and elastic thread. She and I spent many hours putting together all 42 of them. By, the last day she ended up horribly sick (and even had to miss the event. So sad.) and I did all the tissue fray. I thought I was going to die by the end...but they were so adorable it was totally worth all the time and effort. I loved them!

Gluing, gluing, and more gluing.

It was worth every minute of it!
We took a small strip of tissue and frayed both ends.
Then crumpled them up and straightened them up again and hot glued them on.
I did the same for the pompom top except scrunched it into a little ball.

We also played 2 games. The first one was on the history of the Relief Society. Our Relief Society President put together an opening spiritual message on the history of the Relief Society. She then came up with 10 questions from her message. The message was given before the dinner and then the game was played after. People did not know it had to do with the game. It made for a fun surprise. The winners were able to choose a small prize from a prize bucket.

The second game I created from a baby shower I have played before. In the baby shower game you take small baby items and put them individually into different brown paper lunch sacks. Then you number the sacks and pass them around the room and the guests have to try to guess what baby item is in the bag. I changed the game to kitchen items. (You can see some of the items I used in the above picture.)

Since we would have 6 different round tables set up for the event I put together 6 different sets of the the game. I did 7 kitchen items in 7 different brown lunch sacks. Then I had 6 sets of these. Each table played against their own table. In the end there were 6 different winners. One from each table. We had a fun bucket filled with little prizes for the winners.

We wanted the colors of the night to be bright and fun. We all happen to love bright happy colors.

The Relief Society president made all these fun center piece squares. We served a light dinner of Taco Salad. It was simple and yummy.

Kristen shared that adorable paper banner she had made for her daughters birthday.

The tables looked cute when they were all put together. The different cakes were very fun. There were some delicious and quite the variety of yummy cakes. I always love a present with a pretty bow.

The night was a success and every lady that attended seemed to have a wonderful time. Now onto next months theme....Self Reliance and Gardening.

I will be sharing at some of THESE fabulous link parties

Milkaholic Baby Boy Shower

2012-03-01T16:53:00.002-08:00

(Please excuse pictures. I only had my little camera that does not take as good of pictures.)

This last weekend, I was lucky enough to go to my cousin Krystal's baby shower.

It is her first baby and a little boy.

We cannot wait for him to arrive.

The shower was a little bit away so I met up with my aunt, other cousin, and sister in law to carpool.

We had a nice time chatting and enjoying ourselves on the way out and back.

I feel so lucky to live by family.

I want to be clear that I did NOT throw this baby shower.

But, when we got there and saw how completely amazing it was I couldn't help myself from taking pictures.

It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Magazine amazing.

I talked to the wonderful hostess, Becky Jones, and asked if could I take pictures and share them on my blog.

She was more then gracious about it.

She was the neatest lady.

The shower was thrown by 3 wonderful ladies.
(I am not sure what the other 2's names are. I wish I did so I could give them credit too.)

Becky Jones along with my cute cousin Krystal.

Do you see the adorable apron she is wearing.

All 3 hostess wore one.

I loved that.

The ladies did an incredible job.

Outside decorations.

As you walked up this was the first thing you saw.

Outside decorations.

These are what you saw as you walked up to the door.

So beautiful.

Inside she had all these beautiful canvases (yes canvases)

and picuresthat were adorable and along the Milkaholic theme.

The top left one was very large.

You can see better how it looked in the first picture in this post.

It was behind the dessert table.

The food.

It was amazing.

The desserts were so delicious.

The croissants in those adorable "milk" bags that were hand sewn I adored.

It was hard to choose what to eat.

This shower was all about detail.

I love details.

More of the fabulous details.

I really loved that cute bunting behind Krystal too.

There were 3 games.

I always love getting game ideas so I wanted to share them all with you even though I only have pictures of 2.

First they handed out the "Goodnight Moon" game.

You had to fill in the missing words from the book Goodnight Moon.

Then on the back of the game there was a spot for you to write down how many candies were in this jar:

You had to guess how many malt balls were in there (not the gum that was mixed in.)

The third game was so cute, but I felt awkward taking pictures of it.

She had us each write a piece of advice for the mother on a cute white board.

Then they took our picture holding the white board with the advice and along with a little "Milk" mustache.

So clever!

These were the adorable party favors.

I know the hostess bought some of the things off of etsy.

I went and looked it up so here are a few links if you are interested in using some of the same things she did.

Check out HERE and HERE and HERE.

Dr. Suess Ideas

2012-02-29T08:37:00.002-08:00

We have been very excited for March 2nd to arrive so we could celebrate Dr. Seuss Day.

My second grader on Monday even put almost every. single. Dr. Seuss book we own in his backpack.

(And that is A LOT of books!)

He claimed he was going to carry them back and forth all week long,

so he would not forget them for the Friday activities happening.

Crack me up.

It only lasted one day.

I think he got tired after that.

(That is a heavy backpack!)

But, they are stacked neatly on the kitchen counter waiting for Friday.

All I know is if he forgets them Friday I will be making a special trip back to take them to him.

We love Dr. Seuss Books.

They are probably the most picked bedtime books.

So, in honor of Dr. Suess here are a few of my favorite ideas I have seen out there.

(We just might be using some of these for a preschool activity on Friday too!)

Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes by Good Life Eats

Fabulous Dr. Seuss Unit by What the Teacher Wants

Cat in the Hat Hat Cookies by Meet the Dubiens

Dr. Seuss Unit ideas by 2 Teaching Mommies

Thing 1 Hand print craft by Little Warriors

Hortan Hears a Who craft by Meet the Dubiens

One fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish activity by Oopsey Daisy

Yummy Red Fish Blue Fish Snacks by Simple Girl

I hope this Friday you a little fun celebrating Dr. Seuss Day too!

Belleza Mia Jewelry Review

2012-02-22T13:50:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from one of my sponsors, Kendra, the creator behind her beautiful shop Belleza Mia. (She also has a great blog, On My Side of the Room) Kendra, offered for me to review one of her pieces of jewelry from her shop. I was so excited. I love Kendra's jewelry. Each and every piece is beautiful. I spent a few days going through her shop. It was so hard to make a choice. I could have picked almost any one of them.

After narrowing it down between two pieces I was about to email my sister and ask her opinion when I last minute saw this beautiful necklace I had somehow not seen before. As soon as I saw it I knew it was the one I wanted to review. I love hearts. My themes for the year are "loving others" and "finding peace". (I know two themes....but I need them both this year.) I felt like this necklace spoke both of those. It was so simple and classy and on a simple beautiful chain. (It came just as you see above.)

Before, I received the necklace I was already in love with it. When it arrived....I cannot even tell you how much I loved it even more. I wasn't expecting that. It is so pretty. Beyond what the pictures showed. It is a simple classy beauty. Just what I love.

The chain was the most surprising to me. I have ordered other necklaces from other shops and when I received them the chains were always a little bit of a disappointment for me. They were okay, but I felt like they made them a little "cheaper" then I had hoped. Not this chain. It is perfect. Kendra, has a gift of creating beauty in every detail.

Can you see it around my neck in this picture? I wear it often and have received so many wonderful complements. I love getting to refer them to Belleza Mia the shop. I love when they say they are going to go right home and check her shop.

Belleza Mia has a variety of necklaces, bracelets, earnings, even a few hair wear, personalized gifts, and even beautiful bridal/wedding jewelry.

Please go check out Kendra's shop: Belleza Mia. I am so grateful to her for the opportunity to review one of her products and I am excited to share her shop with each of you. You can see her button linked in my sponsor section on the right side of my blog.

I was compensated with this piece of jewelry for writing this post and review.

Mickey Mouse Ear Tutorial

2012-02-15T02:49:00.000-08:00

For my son's Mickey Mouse birthday party I made Mickey Mouse (and a few Minnie Mouse) ears for the guests to wear. I got the idea HERE and HERE. It took me a few trials to make them a way that worked for me, but this was my final outcome.

I used black felt and created this little template. I basically used a cup to make a circle and then cut the bottom off the circle.

I cut out 4 pieces for each set of Mickey Ears.

Then on my sewing machine I zigged them together leaving the bottoms open. I then stuffed them with fiber fill and zigged them shut. Then I hot glued them onto black headbands.

Pretty simple and easy right?

I also made one small baby headband for my 2 month old nephew who was at the party. For this I cut a smaller template, but still stuffed it with the fiber fill. Before zigging the bottom shut I put some black stretch elastic that I use for headbands into each piece and sewed it down. They turned out pretty cute and my nephew wore them through the entire party.

I also made a few mini mouse headbands for the girls who would be there that didn't want Mickey Mouse ears. I used some red polkadot fabric I had on hand and created a bow by sewing a small tubing, turning it right side out, pinching the center down and sewing it by hand together, and then gluing another piece of the fabric around the center.

They were a big hit.

I had a few left over, so if you are wanting to do a Mickey Mouse party and do not want to make your own the first person to buy them out of my shop HERE gets them.

Here is my little Mickey Mouse with his ears on.

We just LOVE Mickey Mouse at our house!

I will be linking to some of these parties HERE.

Also, GFC will be going away soon please join me with the new Linky Connect

Ball Valentines

2012-02-13T02:17:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for a last minute Valentine idea I have one for you.

I wanted a more "boy" idea for my son and saw this idea at Dandee HERE.

My son loves playing with balls all over my house.
(Even though it is against the rules and drives me crazy.)

I knew he would love giving a bouncy ball to all his classmates at school.

I also thought I would add in a little heart sucker, because honestly, it just made it look cuter and I knew my son would want to give some sort of candy too.

I came up with these cute heart cut outs and then printed them on my computer.

(Of course my colored ink started running out so ended up doing them in black and white and then printed them on red paper.) I cut out a little extra around the edges to see more of the red paper. I liked how they turned out.

Nothing too fancy, but cute and simple.

Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow!

Mickey Mouse Party

2012-02-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago was my youngest son's birthday. He is currently in love with Mickey Mouse and so that is what we decided his party should be. I LOVE that he LOVES Mickey Mouse. Isn't it more fun to plan a party when you are in love the theme as well?

I made adorable Mickey Ears for all the kids (along with a few Minnie Ears for some of the girls)

I also made a cute sign to go with them.

Plus, my 7 week old nephew was there, so I had to make him Baby Mickey Ears to wear. He really did wear them the whole time too. It was so cute.

The party favors were these fun Mickey Mouse Rice Krispie Treats on a stick. I got the idea HERE.

I will be sharing a tutorial later on them. They were easy to make and oh, so yummy!

I also made these fun dipped oreo Mickey Mouses. I got the idea and tutorial on how to do them HERE and HERE. I did them slightly different then either, but love how they turned out.

Cute cupcakes with fun Mickey Mouse toppers cut out on my friend, Kristen's, cricut. She helped me cut out all of the signs, banner, cupcake toppers, and invitations. Kristen is the best!

The cake had Mickey Mouse and a fun little banner hanging behind him. I love that Mickey Mouse!

A simple way to add Mickey Mouse was a platter of veggies using one place and two bowls to look like Mickey's head. Simple, healthy, and cute!

Of course a fun Mickey Mouse Banner also. I just LOVED the banner.

For games we let the kids play around in the back yard. We had "Mickey's Jump House" on our trampoline where we let the kids jump with a bunch of black balloons on it. This was the biggest hit. They played almost the whole time on there and did not want to get off. We also played "Mickey Mickey Mouse" (As in Duck Duck Goose) and also a little relay race too.

Do you see what my son is wearing too? He wore his Halloween Mickey Mouse costume I had made him. He looked so cute dressed up as Mickey Mouse through the whole party.

We also has some Mickey Mouse chocolate covered marshmallows. I got the idea HERE.

It was a fun day and the best part...my little guy loved the whole thing! There will be lots of fun tutorials come up on how I made the ears, favors, and more.

Happiness for February

2012-02-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

Happy February my friends!

Did you know that I love February?
It is my favorite month of the whole year.

It has Valentine's Day

(Which is a holiday I just LOVE)

and it is my birthday month.
Two great things in one!

Plus, it is a short month and somehow I love that too.

I love things that make me happy.

Pinned HERE

This last Saturday was my son's Mickey Mouse Party.

I cannot wait to share lots of the fun details.

I a little sneak peak includes these....

Handmade Mickey (and a few Minnie) Ears for all the guests

Some super yummy Party Favors

I just love Mickey Mouse.

I cannot wait to share lots more with you soon!

Valentine Chair Envelope Tutorial Guest Post

2012-01-30T04:00:00.000-08:00

I am super excited to introduce a guest post today by Missy at

Lookie What I Did.

Missy is super creative and shares lots of great tutorials and ideas on her blog.

Today, she will be sharing a darling Valentine's Day Tutorial with all of us.

Personalized Valentine's Chair Envelope...

I received that ever so popular kids magazine a couple of weeks ago in the mail and I fell in love with this picture...

image from Pottery Barn Kids

I knew as soon as I saw this that I could make my own and I did for less than $2.00...Let me show you how!!

Items needed to create the chair envelopes:

Sheets of 12" x 18" Stiff Felt (takes two sheets to make one envelope, $.79 a sheet)
Jumbo and Small rick rack (found in fabric dept)
Hearts (I found mine in the scrapbook section)
Scrapbook letter stickers
Glue Gun
Scissors
Ruler

Start by cutting your stiff felt. Since this sheet is already 18" wide, just cut it in half to 9".

Take your second sheet and make the envelope flap. See below for envelope flap .jpg....

Take one side of your 9" felt and glue the jumbo rick rack all the way around so a little of the curves are sticking out..

This is what it will look like when you are finished....

Now place the other 9" felt on top, like making a sandwich...hot glue down....

Now take your envelope flap and glue a heart onto the bottom corner....

I went ahead and measured my small rick rack out that I was going to use to trim out my envelope flap. Since this rick rack was tiny, I decided to use my Xyron machine and run the strips through it. I have a permanent adhesive cartridge in the machine and so it worked well. I love my Xyron machine and use it all the time!!

This is what the flap will look like after you apply the rick rack. It took one long strip along the top and two of the same size on the left and right.

Hot glue along the top of the flap and adhere to the top of the envelope.

Here is what it will look like after you glue the flap down. I added small strips of rick rack along the edges and bottom to give it a more embellished look.

I don't own a monogram machine but I do have ALOT of scrapbook stickers. These worked out so great.

To attach it to the back of each of our chairs, I glued a strip of ribbon I had left over from Christmas.

And here they are.....my knockoff version of the envelopes...

Each member of the family got one.....

This is what the ribbon looks like on the chair....

This is an easy, easy project that took an afternoon to do. I think they are so cute on the kitchen chairs!

Hope you feel inspired to create a quick and easy Valentine's Craft!!

Birthday Traditions

2012-01-25T09:37:00.000-08:00

It is a birthday morning at our house.

Which means starting the day out with breakfast in bed.

We let the kids choose what they want for their special breakfast.

This was my son's choice: a donut with sprinkles, eggs, and orange juice.

We have to come in singing Happy Birthday.

I personally have to sing and say say Happy Birthday all day long!!

We put candles in every meal and blow them out all day long.

I love birthdays

I love fun traditions.

So, my question to you my friends...

What are your fun birthday traditions?

Kid Valentine Ideas

2012-01-16T03:07:00.000-08:00

I simply LOVE Valentine's Day. I have been pinning ideas for weeks. Here are just a few of my favorite kid Valentine Ideas that you can find on my boards at Pinterest.

Zakka Life's adorable super hero Valentine's. She even shares the free printable to make your own.

30 Handmade Day's "Wheelie" Valentine's. What boy wouldn't LOVE this Valentine. Printables HERE.

Tammy Mitchel Photography's "fishie" Valentines. Such a simple cute toddler Valentine idea.

Edda Photography's Kid Bookmark Valentine idea. I love the idea of sending a bookmark with my oldest son to school.

My Crazy Life's "Stick'm Up Valentines" Adorable. What more can I say. Free Printables HERE.

The Crafting Chicks Bouncy Ball Valentines. All 3 of my boys would LOVE this one. We love bouncy balls at this house. Free Printable HERE.

A Small Snippet's fun Pop Rocks Valentine's. Fun fun fun. She shares other fun Valentine ideas too here.

Fiskars Blog Monkey Valentine's. Simple and fun. You can find the tutorial HERE.

Fry Family "I Dig You" Valentines. My sister did this for my boys a couple of years ago. They just LOVED them.

Dandee's Magnify Glass Valentine. Great none food Valentine.

What are your ideas for your kid's this year for Valentine's Day? I would love to hear.

Valentine's Day Headband Tutorial

2012-01-11T02:49:00.000-08:00

I shared this headband tutorial last year, but thought I would share it again this year earlier so maybe you could actually make the headband before Valentine's Day. It is simple and easy. Does anyone else love Valentine's Day like I do? I LOVE Valentine's Day. It is just so nice to take time to appreciate the people I love.

Here is what you will need:
Fabric (It is only going to be about 1-2 inches wide but about 44-45 inches long.)
Scissors
Needle and thread
Hot glue gun and hot glue stick
Iron and ironing board
Small pieces of felt
Headband

First you will grab you fabric and scissors. Mine was quarter of a yard of this fabulous red and white polka dot fabric called bliss.

You are going to make a cut that is about 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide. I just eye ball it.

Then you are going to tear the fabric. You want to do this along the long edge. In the end you want the torn piece to be about 45 inches long.

Once it is all torn you will iron it out flat.

Grab your needle and thread and start gathering the strip of fabric.

It should look like this when you are done. Tie off the thread at the end of your gather. You do not want it tightly gathered, but more loosely.

Then you will take the gathered strip and make it into a circle like this. Making the fabric overlap each other. Your outer layer should be larger then your inner. You are going to wined it in.

Cut out a circle of felt that will fit under your fabric circle. Put hot glue on it.

Place the circle you made onto the felt circle. Use more hot glue to make sure the whole circle is glued down.

The back should look something like this when you are done.

Grab a few more scraps of felt and cut out two hearts. I folded my felt in half to make my hearts. I made the white heart a little larger then the red one.

They were about this size when I was done. I glue them lightly together. Then I added a button on top for extra decoration.

Get your headband. Put it on your head and find the best place for the circle of fabric you are going to glue onto it. You will be sorry if you do not look first to pick where you want it. I like mine more to the side. Then put hot glue where you want the fabric piece to go.

After the fabric piece is glued on a take another small piece of felt and glue that on also. It helps to hold the fabric piece to the headband.

And now you have a cute Valentine's Day headband to wear.

Mini Kid Pinatas

2012-01-10T08:12:00.000-08:00

At my son's Birthday Party this last month we decided to make Mini Pinata's with his friends.

It was such a fun thing to do I thought I would like to share it with all of you.

They are easy, fun, and what kid does not like a pinata?

First, you need your supplies. You will need two paper lunch sacks per child, some tissue paper, pompoms, crayons, construction paper, scissors and glue. (Or anything else you would like to use.) I cut the tissue paper into strips to make it easier for them.

You put two lunch sacks inside each other and hand one set to each child. Then, you let them go wild creating. (I love seeing what kids will come up with.)

When they are all done you stuff the inside of their sacks with some tissue paper and a handful or two of candy. Then staple them shut on top.

We got some creative and fun pinatas! I think most of the kids at our party made them into monsters.

After they dry you punch a hole in the top, attach some rope and take them outside to knock apart. I was surprised how sturdy they were. It took a little while to break some holes.

I hope you have fun making some mini pinatas with your kids also!

Gingerbread House

2011-12-21T11:23:00.000-08:00

Monday, we had fun making Gingerbread houses with my kids and sister who is in town. Originally, I was going to buy a kit, but ended up never picking one up. So, we went route 2 with making our own with graham crackers and homemade frosting. It was so easy, and I thought I would share a little with you. (Although, I am sure many of you already know how to do it.)

We went to the store and bought some different candies to use. My oldest child had been saving all his candy from school and other places for this event also. My kids were so excited last week when I told them "Yes" to getting to make a gingerbread house. Don't you love it when you can say "Yes" to their requests.

My sister had the idea to put them into Muffin tins for easy access for everyone. I used my large muffin tin.

Frosting:
Powdered sugar
Water
Mix together powdered sugar and just a little water to make a good thick frosting. Then put the frosting into ziploc bags and cut a tiny hole off one of the bottom corners. I wish I had exact measurements,but we just eye balled it all. This frosting dries pretty quickly.

Building the Gingerbread House: Get your graham crackers out. Get a knife and cutting board. To make the sides of our houses you take 2 full graham crackers. To make the sides of the house cut two triangles out of the top half of the graham crackers. You can kind of see it on the side there. Hopefully, you get the idea. You could cut things how ever you like. When done glue all your pieces together. You can really build any shape or size gingerbread house you want. We went for small ones. One for my sister and I and one for the kids.

Here is how the kids house turned out. They wanted to see how much candy they could get on it. They had a blast doing it together.

My sisters house. I was suppose to do it with her, but really I ended up needing to help "glue" (with frosting of course) all my kids candy and things down on their house.

Merry Christmas my friends! I Hope you are having a wonderful holiday season.

Snowman Box Drinks

2011-12-19T21:50:00.000-08:00

For my son's classroom party last week I made these cute Snowman Box Drinks

I was inspired by the amazing Becca from Blue Cricket Designs darling Snowman Cups.

It was a simple cute way to make their holiday party a little more fun.

I painted the faces on using acrylic paint and the back point of my paint brush.

The cheeks were painted on with a sponge I cut a small circle out of.

Wisemen Crowns

2011-12-14T04:42:00.000-08:00

These really could be wisemen crowns, birthday crowns, prince crowns, princess crowns...but, since I was making them as wisemen crowns, that is what I am going to call them. For our church Christmas party two of my boys were to be Wisemen. As I was coming up with costumes fro them, I created these. They are fairly simple, and you could go a ton of different directions with them. I will show you what I did.

Supplies:
Construction Paper (to make a template)
Felt
elastic
sewing machine and coordinating thread
Tacky Glue (optional)

Make a crown template.

I used extra long construction paper. Here are the dimensions I used. I didn't end up using the middle template because my 7 year old got very upset that I wanted to make one of the crowns without points. But, I think it would have made a cool Wiseman Crown. (I made 3 crowns...one for each of my boys since even though the yougest was not going to be in the program, I knew he would cry if he didn't have one too.)

Fold your felt in half and use your template as a pattern. You need two crown pieces. Cut out the two crowns.

Also cut 1 pieces of elastic 4 inches long.

Sew the 2 crown pieces together. Make sure to insert the elastic into one of the ends. Leave the other end open. (Do NOT sew one end together.)

Cut out diamonds (or whatever shapes you would like) out of scraps of felt. Pin them in place.

Sew the diamond down.

Or you can glue them with Tacky glue. I decided since this crown had so many different colors I would glue it instead of sew. Both ways work.

After all the sewing is done take the elastic and stretch it to the other side, slip it in between the two felt crown pieces, and sew the last side closed.

It should look like this when you are done!

Here are how my three crowns turned out:

Crown 1

Crown 2

Crown 3

And one cute Wieman ready for his performance.