Magnet Board

I've been wanting to make one of these FOREVER!  I finally chummed my mom out of one of her pieces of sheet metal that she bought a couple of weeks ago and made one.  I LOVE the way it turned out and it was so simple to make.  (Definitely my kind of craft - fast and easy!)

Bless Our Home

I made this a while ago for a Relief Society Craft Night.  I love how it turned out - I did mine different from the sample that they had displayed that night.  I had to put my own little spin on it. 

Thanksgiving Crafts

I have a few more Thanksgiving projects that I wanted to share with everyone. The first is a GIVE THANKS banner (I guess that is what you would call it).  I made this a couple of years ago out of white cardstock covered with scrapbook paper and then I cut out letters to put on it.  I connected each square with some hemp cord.  It actually is pretty dang cute.

The second projects is a set of Happy Turkey Day blocks.  I got this idea from my SIL Leslie and since I already had something that says GIVE THANKS, I went with HAPPY TURKEY DAY.

The last thing I wanted to share is TURKEY FINGER PUPPETS.  I got the idea from here.  They turned out so cute and the boys love them.  They seriously took me like 15 minutes or less to make all three.

Jake doesn't look too happy here - check out his eye!  It happened right before the pic was taken.

Ribbon tree

I saw a picture of one of these a while ago and decided to give it a try.  They are pretty easy - a little time consuming.  All you need is a styrofoam cone, assorted ribbon, and something to hold the ribbon on the styrofoam (I used tiny pins).   I also used a small green bow for the top.  It took me a while to do - what with cutting all the ribbon and sticking them one by one on the tree.  The one I saw wasn't really done in layers, the ribbon was just kind of stuck all over with no specific pattern.  I really like the way this one turned out though.

Foamboard Frame

I made this for Aaron the other day for work.  He has been telling me for a while now that he needs some new pics of the kids for his desk at the office.  I wanted to put the word FAMILY across the bottom and add some ribbon to hang it - he wasn't too keen on that idea.  In his words "As soon as you start adding ribbon and lettering it turns all girly!"

Rooster Cutting Board

I made this the other day for my MIL.  Her kitchen is decorated in roosters and I saw this pic the other day here.  I printed it off and then mod podged it onto a cutting board that I had painted to match her kitchen.  She absolutely loved it and has it displayed on top of her cupboard.

Grand Gobbler

I made this a couple of years ago from a pattern that I found on the internet.  You can find the pattern here.  This is by far my favorite Thanksgiving craft that I have done.  Its quick and easy so if you are looking for that type of thing - this is it!

Feeling Fall

When I got out my Thanksgiving decorations the other day, I realized I didn't have too many to celebrate my favorite holiday/time of year.  My dad was cutting some wood plaques out for my mom so I asked for one and this is what I came up with.  It is much cuter in person and even Aaron didn't make fun of me for this one - probably because I didn't use mod podge!

Counting Our Blessings (Post Scripted!)

This is my new favorite thing.  It's basically an advent calendar for November and each little pocket has a card in it that has something you are thankful for written inside.  I call it Counting Our Blessings.  Some of the things on the cards are: We are thankful for music - turn up some tunes and dance together; We are thankful for our bodies - let's go play; We are thankful for our forever family - do something fun together; etc.  You get the idea.  I'm hoping it will make the kids appreciate all the things we are blessed with.  I'm excited for November 1st when we can get started.  I got the idea from here.

PS There is a cute, easier idea for this here.

Fabric Wreath

Since I had some fabric left over from my Halloween table runner, I decided to put it to good use.  The hardest part of this, was finding a wire hanger - seriously who uses wire hangers anymore?  Anyway, it was a really quick project.  You just cut strips of fabric - mine are 1 in wide by 6 in long - then you tie them in a knot around the wire hanger which you have bent to form a circle.  I then added a big bow out of fabric.

Happy October

Aren't these so adorable?!



It took me probably an hour to make all of them. I got the idea from here: http://notsoidlehands.blogspot.com/2009/09/freecycle-friday-glowing-jack-olanterns.html They are really easy and inexpensive - between me and my mom, I had all the supplies on hand. Just thought I would share the idea for anyone interested.

Halloween Duo

I got the pattern for this from here: http://www.freepatterns.com/ This is such a great site and they have really cute patterns for almost any type of craft. Best of all - they are free. All you have to do is join up and you get access to all of the free patterns you could ever want. This cute little duo went together so quick and easy. It probably took me an hour from start to finish.

A friendly ghost

A smiley pumpkin

Bean Bags

After I made the bean bag to use with the hopscotch mat, I had to pry it out of Benjamin and Elli's fingers. They were having so much fun with such a simple toy. SO, I decided to make them all their own personalized bean bags because (1) I still had the embroidery machine out and because (2) if their names are on them there is MUCH less fighting. All I did, was take two coordinating pieces of felt, embroidered the name on one square, sewed three sides and then turned it right side out, filled it with some old beans that I found in my parents food storage room, handstitched the open side closed and DONE!

Quiet Book

I made this Quiet Book when I was pregnant with Jacob. I didn't really have a pattern - I kind of just made it up on my own as I went. I tried to remember some of the pages we had in the book my mom had made for me and my brothers when we were little. I haven't let the kids play with it much because (1) it took me FOREVER to make and (2) I let some older kids look at it at church one Sunday and they DESTROYED it (I had to redo a lot of things and some of them I can't fix). I'm trying to be better about it so my kids can actually enjoy it - afterall I did make it for them. I guess I will just have to let them look at it "under my supervision".

Title page

The apples are made of foam with velcro on the back

Beads on string sewn onto the page - this is one of the pages that got destroyed that I can't fix

Pocket full of letters

What you match the letters to

I just drew all the destinations freehand and then made a little car that is attached to a string that you drive on the roads

This one all the pieces come off of the clown face and then you remake it the way it is supposed to be

Pretty self explanitory

The flowers all come off and then you button them back on

Who doesn't enjoy a game of tic tac toe?

The game pieces are stored here

How to tell time

All of the shapes come off and then you match them up with the ones left on the page

A beehive - you open it up and it has some bees in it

My favorite page - the farmer and all animals are all velcroed on the back so you can remove them and play with them however you want to

A couple of things

I got this craft from my SIL Leslie's Super Saturday. They NEVER do super saturday here so I ordered a couple projects through her ward. I love this one. It was way easy too. I just painted the boards brown, added some cute scrapbook paper, and then nailed the sheet metal cut outs onto the board. It turned out really cute and I can hardly wait for our new house so I can hang it up somewhere.

A watch band for my mom

A padded camera strap for myself - I ordered one online a month ago and have yet to see hide nor hair of it. So, I gave up and decided to figure it on my own. I got some help from this site:
http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2009/01/camera-strap-cover-tutorial.html

A sheet metal picture holder with homemade magnets - I got this one from my SIL Leslie's Super Saturday also. The wording was supposed to say : MEMORIES, but I didn't really like that so I had her change it to: A picture is worth a thousand words. Then I just put the vinyl on, made some cute little magnets (with Andrea's help) and added some pics and WALA!

Strawberry Jam and Live in the Moment

I made some strawberry jam on Thursday and it is DELICIOUS!! I love homemade jam. What goes better with homemade jam then homemade bread? The answer is nothing. I made bread on Friday - no pics of it because it got eating almost instantly. Not only did I make regular bread but I made some cinnamon bread (thanks to Kinz for the recipe) and it was just as delicious as I remembered it being.

Today I put together a frame with a quote on it and a college of all my babies at 5 months old as the background. I got the quote from another crafting website - somewhat simple - and then when I was awake in the middle of the night I came up with the idea of using the collage of pics for the background instead of fabric or scrapbook paper like the one I was going off of. It turned out way cute and it is much cuter in person. I am really happy with it. I just took an old frame that my mom had lying around and painted it black and then put the vinyl wording on the outside of the glass and the matted collage in the frame.