Fresh Wreath

A few years back I helped do an activity where we made fresh Christmas wreaths.  Wreaths sell for around $20-$25 at the grocery store or at a tree farm and they are super easy to make.  When we did this activity we bought the wreath frames in bulk from someone who had a wholesale card for items like that.  The cost for us was about $3 a wreath frame.  To make a wreath you will need

Wreath frame (they are metal)
green wire (the same type of wire you would need to make a corsage)
wire cutters
garden pruners
tree boughs/branches
decorations-bows, pine cones, berries etc.

I got all of my branches when we picked up our Christmas tree.  Usually Home Depot or Lowes will have a pile of excess tree branches and if you ask they will most likely give it to you for free because they will be throwing it out.

To make the wreath start attaching branches to the wreath frame and tie down with the wire.  Just go in a circle and fill in any bare spots while trimming as you go.  Give your wreath a spritz of water here and there to keep it fresh.  Easy and super cheap!

Wood Block Nativity

Back in October my church had a super crafty Saturday and we made these cute wooden nativity sets.  They are great for little kids.  I really don't know where the women in charge found the craft I'm just in awe that she cut out over 500 pieces with a jig saw for the activity.  That's some serious dedication.  The silhouettes are all made out of vinyl.  We used some type of spray that would be similar to using mod podge to seal the vinyl in place.  Super cute!!

A corner in the baby's room

Getting the energy to get all my projects done for the baby's room has been a challenge.  If I can get the mobile done I'll be thrilled.  Here is a corner of the room..  I think I'll add a basket with books in it eventually.

 Lamb pillow tutorial found on the Purl Bee.  Click here.

 Paper flowers found at Dozi Design.  Click here.

Asian Salad

Cooking is not my specialty but this creation I've put together I really love so I wanted to post this "making".

My base recipe came from my mom which I think came from a church cookbook.  I added a few things and found a dressing I LOVE and this Asian Salad reminds me a lot of the one at Souplantation or The Red Tomato.

Ingredients:
Bag of lettuce (I got one with carrots, and radishes but I buy whatever is on sale)
Can of Mandarin oranges in their own juice.  
Green Onions (I used one that had about three offshoots and I like to use the green and white part)
Celery (about three to four stocks)
Slivered almonds (add to taste.  I also had some pecans so I threw a few chopped in as well)
La Choy rice noodles (smashed Top Raman works too)
Cooked chicken (I boil my chicken and then cut it into small chunks.  I added about 5 tenderloins to the salad)
Sesame Seeds (to taste)
Kraft Light Asian Toasted Sesame reduced fat dressing (this is what brings the salad all together.   It's really yummy.)

I would post a picture but we ate it all.  Next time.  :)

Halloween Costumes 2011

We had a blast with our theme.  

We definitely have a lot of train tracks around where we live which would have been fun for a picture but they are all very much in use.  

 My mother-in-law made Matt's awesome vest, chaps and belt buckle.  The red cowboy boots I found at an antique store in town.

Spooky Tree

I saw this picture and decided I wanted to make some kind of tree.  I used a flower pot that wasn't in use, collected branches from the back yard and filled the pot with sand to hold the branches in place.  I added a couple crows (I found some after I finished my wreath at Michaels), spider webs, and raffia and tulle to cover the pot.  My husband added the corn and pumpkin and I think it's a nice touch.  I need to play with the spider webs a bit.  They got a beating over the last few days with the heavy winds we have had.  

Halloween Wreath

I wanted a festive wreath specifically for Halloween.  After googling Halloween wreaths I found this one.  I love the neutrals and blacks in her wreath.  I love the crow too but I couldn't find one so a creepy spider took its place.  Here is mine.  

Rag Quilt

I'm predicting I'm going to have a few more crafts posted soon since we have a baby girl on the way!! I think I go through spurts when I'm feeling creative and other times when I would rather sit down and read a book. As of late it's been mostly pregnancy sickness and summer traveling.

Here is a rag quilt I made with the guidance of my friend Tarin. She makes these quilts and sells them on Etsy. Here is a link.

Future Missionary

My brother came home from a church mission so I decided it would be cute to make a shirt for Matt. I bought the shirt from Hobby Lobby and used fusible printer paper you can find at Michaels and probably Hobby Lobby too. His tie resembles the South African flag which is where my brother served his mission. His name badge reads, "Future Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints".

This project is super easy! 1. Print images you want on special paper that fits in your printer. 2. Cut out image. 3. Iron on image.

ABC Quilt

I found this fabric in California and loved the panel. I initially wanted to try a patchwork quilt but I thought this panel was much cuter than anything I could put together so I just bought some flannel for the back and some quilt batting. I sewed along the squares to make it look more patchwork but it was the border that gave me the headache. It shouldn't have been bad I just had some measurement problems. At the end I didn't pay too much attention to the border because I just wanted to get this done. Then the next day I laid it out in my son's room and this is what he did...

I'd call this a success!

Flowers for Spring

I've been wanting to make these hair clips forever. I saw them at the Purl Bee and here is a link to the tutorial. I know I don't have a little girl but perhaps they would make a good gift. They were really fun and fast to make.

Bow Ties

I saw this bow tie on U-Create and thought it was adorable. The project was posted on Papersnitch the Blog but it was a guest post from Living the Swell Life. I had another craft night and this project looked like fun. I usually only make one of something but this time I decided to make two and I was remarkably faster the second time around.

Easter

The Big 3-0

My husband turned 30 so we had a little celebration in his honor. I didn't do a lot of decorating just a banner and some "over the hill" muffins. The banner was fun because I made it on my Silhouette. To make the letters I found some school notes Mike threw away in the trash can and made a copy of them. I thought they looked cool because they had all these nifty derivatives on the page.

Casserole Cozy

A casserole cozy! So practical for church potlucks and bringing dinner over to a family in need. I decided to make one for my mom's birthday.

I got the idea from Homemade by Jill who got the idea from 2 Little Hooligans.

I took Jill's suggestion and used canvas belting for the handles and I ditched the Velcro and made ties instead. This was partially done out of necessity but I like the look of it too. Most difficult part was sewing on top of the insul-bright material because it tended to pull and scrunch but other than that it was fairly simple to construct.

Good bye Bow Hello Rosettes

I mentioned this earlier but bow making is not a strength of mine so I decided to get rid of my bow on my temple picture found here and change it to a few flowers. These flower tutorials are everywhere! I looked at this one as a guide from the blog The Secret Stitch Club.

Journal Jars

Making journal jars was an idea for our church craft activity. Here is a link to a journal jar on the site Made.

I love you every hour of the day!

Love is in the air and so is the sweet smell of chocolate.

I made my hubby a "Valentines clock" for Valentines Day. Each number is a note with a message from me to him. He can only open a note when it comes to that hour of the day. The paper was cut using my Silhouette.

My little dude got this monkey card. I copied this idea straight off of the Silhouette blog. You can find the example here. The original lollipop was found and consumed earlier today. He enjoyed the magnetic letters as well.
I was surprised by this sweet Valentines card. I do love homemade Valentines cards especially from my boys.

Happy Valentines Day

Spiritual Art

I was asked to help do a craft at our church that would be considered "Spiritual Art" and $2 per project.

Yay a crafty activity!! Well I first went to the mecca of all things crafty u-createcrafts.com and clicked on the label that said "religious". From there I found a cute temple block craft from the website lilluna.com. She and her husband antique temple pictures to be used for this craft. This project is becoming fairly popular based on the number of different temples she had on her site. However, she didn't have an Atlanta temple so my dear friend Stacy helped me out and sent me a great temple picture.

I was expecting 15-20 people to sign up but we had over 60 people sign up! We had around 50 people at the activity too. What can I say girls like to craft...or they like anything that is free.

I managed to stay in the budget and in the end spent $1.80 per craft. They didn't charge me at Home Depot to cut the wood so that was a life saver and I learned at Kinkos it's 9 cents a page to use the copy machine with USB port opposed to 48 cents a page to use the printer. It's the exact same quality. This helped me save so I could spend more money on ribbons. Everyone did a great job especially with their ribbons which is something I am very dysfunctional at.

There was a second craft too which were these cute vinyl tiles that are super easy but turn out so sharp.