Craft

Summer 2012 Bucket List

WELCOME SUMMER 2012!! The kids have been out of school for about 2 weeks now, and they could not be happier about it. The last day of school for us fell in the middle of June, we usually spend the remaining month staying up late and sleeping in, having movie nights, and really enjoying the nice break that they deserve.

Because I work outside the home it is hard for me to enjoy summer with them as much as I would like. I have done the juggle of summer in the past and I have realized that organization is the key! This year we decided to do something differant. I have seen several of these "summer activitey" lists going around mom blogs and pinterest and decided to make one for our family as well. We gave our "BIG CALENDER" in the kitchen a make over as well.

This was so simple and fun to make! We just went to the dollar store and bought a cheap-o plastic buckett. I used scrapbook paper left over from Noah's birthday party invites, and taped that onto the buckett. I cut up construction paper, and on each square I wrote down one of our activity's, folded it and placed it into the buckett.

Check out what's inside.........

Glow Stick Swimming

Sand castle competition

Picnick in the park

Visit a new park

Go on a hike to the falls

Children's museum ++

Zoo++

Make stepping stones for the back yard

Backyard campout

Movie night sleep over

Library ++

Sprinkler Course

Road trip, destination....ANYWHERE!

Scavanger hunt hiking trip

Mini Golf

Drive in Movie

Fishing (with magnets) in the kiddie pool!

Water balloon fight!

Wack a balloon fight!

Glow in the dark egg hunt!

Button Kids Bake off!

Tie-Dye Day!

Weekend Trip to Grandparents House!

Several of these are marked with ++ that means there is more than one of those in the buckett. We have yearly passes to the Portland Children's Museum, the Portland Zoo, and we are members of the Library. Swimming and River trips are a give-in, these actvities above are to do something extra and out of the normal.

How am I going to do all these fun actvities while I'm working? Easy Peasy.....ORGANIZATION!

Yes, our giant white board in the kitchen has gotten a facelift, and is now our big calender! Each week we will jot down our actvities that we pick, I'll make sure that we have everything that we need for a summer full of fun! Some things like "weekend trip to grandparents" and "sand castle competition" have to be planned. (We don't live near my parents, and we don't have a sand box)

What are your summer fun plans? Anything missing from my list that you think I should try?! Let me know, I'm dying to hear!

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Girley Goodness

JackLynn recently decided that she wanted to have short hair like mommy, a haircut just like Mommies. I made the decision a very long time ago, that I will let them have the hair style that they want, unless I feel it’s a bit, shall we say drastic. I will make them think it over for a week or so, if they’re still at me, then it’s off to the stylist {who won’t do anything that would look HORRID}. So Last weekend we were off to see Bob, our stylist, for the perfect A-line bob.

JackLynn’s hair came out super cute. The pictures don’t do her justice, but you get the idea. She loves her haircut, and looks adorable, but she soon realized that she suddenly does not get french braids, and piggy tails. No more, fancy curls and such. She needs accessories! JackLynn changes her accessories through the day. I’m telling you she’s extremely fashion sensitive! After about 3 days, it was clear that she was not going to be able to go without hair accessories. Of course, this kind of situation calls for a DIY!

JackLynn believes that feathers are still going to be in for spring, she swears by it. {I personally am not so confident, which makes me sad so I’m hoping she’s right} We never usually make it to the dollar store, but we decided to make a trip. We picked up a few different headbands and some small hair clips. Then we were off to JoAnne’s {Love it nearly as much as Michaels} for all kinds of girly goodies!

Here is a few of her favorites

I used the glue gun to attach all the goodies. She picked everything from jingle bells to fabric flowers, she even has a couple with veils attached to the front. Just as I suspected, she is in love with each and every hair piece. Izzy made a couple herself, even if she doesn’t like to wear them much. We spent a couple of hours playing and crafting and enjoying each other’s company. It is extremely important for me to have an unbreakable bond with my daughters, and little things like this are what that kind of relationship is built on.

Pennie

April 1 2012

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Stained Glass Eggs

We recently decided to clean out our art supply cart and found that we had a lot of well-loved, and well used crayons that needed to retire. Instead of throwing them away, or making more crayons with them we decided to make these adorable stained glass eggs! spring is just around the corner, and we are extremely anxious! I started with taking the old crayons and shaving them down as best I could, sorting them into bowls according to color. Once finished we laid out a piece of wax paper, and laid down our crayon shavings down in the pattern we wanted. When finished, we placed another piece of wax paper on top, and using an iron on a low setting, melted the shavings! While they are cooling, we took two paper plates and cut identical egg shapes out of them. Place the crayon shavings art in between the two paper plats, and glue together. We then used a hole punch and hemp, and hung them from our dining room sliding window. They are just beautiful when the sun comes in, don’t you think?

Pennie

March 26th 2012

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Egg Garlands

I have made these since I was young, with my mother and sister. I love when I get a chance to make a craft that I did as a child too. It brings me around, full circle. These egg garlands are not hard to make, they are messy and can get frustrating if your srting gets in a knot. This is probably not a craft for toddlers, I would say it would be food for 2nd graders on up. But again, every child is different, and you know better than I, what your child is capable of. You’ll need water balloons, embroidery thread, and homemade pinata paste.

Start with blowing up your water balloons to the size you wish, remember not to go to big, or you will just make balls. Although balls have a time and a place, on my fireplace is not one. You will need to prepare your pinata paste: dissolve 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch in 1 cup of water, then add 1/2 cup of flour and mix well. Place the embroidery thread gently into the bowl of pinata paste, careful wind the thread in a circular motion into the bowl and press it down. Knots are NOT allowed! {hehehe} Wind the thread around the water balloon until you have the perfect design! I tend to make the plain ones because the kids can get pretty wild with the colors! I placed them on a piece of wax paper over night, until the thread is set. Pop the balloon, and thread with hemp. Viola! I get a lot of compliments on these, unfortunately they don’t really hold well over time, so we make new ones every year, but it’s always a project we look forward to!

Pennie

March 26th 2012

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Proton Packs

Jaydyn’s 8th birthday is this weekend! He decided on Ghostbusters……who wouldn’t?! Jaydyn has been a Ghostbuster fan for years, we were discussing party possibilities the other night and made the decision! I’ve been preparing for this for weeks now, and I am so excited to see my vision become reality! Part of the party, really one of the biggest aspects of the party were the creation of “proton Packs”. There are party’s that are so easy they practically plan themselves. This party, however, was not one of them. Everything had to be created and envisioned. I could not go down to party city and purchase this stuff, because it’s not popular. Everything came from the ‘ol noggin!

I started with a shipping box, I assembled the bottom and left the top open, and spray painted it black. I used black duct tape with the assembly.

Once dry I stood the box vertically and cut off the short box flap. I inserted wires fastened by the black tape on the inside.

I flipped the box over and cut for holes on the back of the box for the rope “arm straps”. Cut to length and again fastened by the black tape.

Flip the box on its side, and cut another hole in the side. Inserted flexible pipes for garden drip system, cut to length.

Attached a spray paint nosel onto the other end of the tube, and add the silly string.

Then I attached black foam board onto the front and decorated with random foam pieces and some cup up paper plates.

Presto!

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Photo Canvas Collage

Hello there! If you follow the “decorate” tab on my bog then you may be aware of my obsession with decorating. I love it! Truly obsessed, to be frank. I am re decorating the front room as I go, and one of my first projects was to take down ALL of our pictures and decide which ones I really wanted up and wanted to take down. I was going for a more gallery type feel for the pictures. I work incredibly hard at taking pictures and to show them off is the icing on the cake. That being said, once you do that you are left with quite a bit of photos that you just do not have the room for any longer. That’s what happened with us. After making sure the photos’ that I chose were presented as they should be, my wall space was eaten up. But there is so many more pictures that I want to show off. But how without looking tacky? I have found the perfect solution!

DIY Photo college!!!

The best thing about these is that you can choose every aspect of this amazing project. I even gifted one of these to my husbands grandmother, who is they hardest person in the world to shop for. I hope you give this a try, because it’s so much fun, and everyone asks me about it!

I made one of these for my mother and step father for Christmas this year and they fell in love with it. I did not use a stencil on theirs, and so I wanted to give this one a little more depth. I laid the photo’s out on the blank canvas before I did anything else. This stencil could be used either horizontally or vertically, but I try to eliminate any potential issues before starting.

I painted my base coat, and allowed it to dry, then added the stencil layer. You will want to use the adhesive spray if you have it available, because it really is a lifesaver!

It’s not perfect, and you can see the paint has smudged in places, but it’s homemade. It’s not supposed to be perfect.

I used 3 layers of modge podge, making sure that each layer is 15-20 minuets in between each layer. I allowed it to dry overnight.

There we go! Happy 75th Birthday Rozzie, you are a loved grandma!

Pennie December 29th 2011

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Thumbprint Reindeer Ornaments

The kids are officially on Christmas break! I spent all day friday trying to find crafts for them to do, to give as gifts to the family members that we visit on Christmas eve and some neighbors that are extra special to us. My girlfriend told me of a craft that she had seen somewhere, but never got a chance to do. It sounded super easy, all I needed was some plain ornaments and some brown, black, and red paint, and some ornament hangers. I did try them at first on red bulbs, but they were not clear. When you make the thumbprint a good amount of paint is missing in the center, and it was just ont enough of a color contrast. White would have been best, but I had these gold glitter balls that were already on the tree.

I started with their names on the bottom and the year, then we picked the ornament, and finally painted our thumb.

We have our thumbprint spaced evenly, now time to add the antlers and the eyes, finish with a red nose.

Beautiful! They came out super cute, and I know that every one of our giftee’s will appreciate the time and work that the kids put into making them perfect. I’ll make another batch for keeps, but these will make some adorable gifts. What do you think?

Pennie B.

December 17th 2011

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Footprints In The Sand

This summer my family has been spending a lot of time on the river. We have made some amazing memories this summer, and I hope memories that will grow each year. It’s wonderful being so close to the river, we just load up the boat, hitch it to the truck and we’re off! My husband is a wakeboarder, a hobby he is teaching Alex. Noah has discovered tubing, he tries all kinds of tricks and flips in the tube, I swear he’s doing this to give me a heart attack! But none the less, when we’re not int he boat we’re on the shore, I’ll catch some sun and the kids will play in the river or build sand castles. And now we have a permanent footprint in the sand.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

Scissors

Plaster of Paris

Twine or Hemp {i used hemp}

Fresh water

Bowl

Build a mold of the child’s footprint in the sand. Our sand was a little to thick to push their feet into the sand, so I build the mold around their foot. Mix the Plaster of paris according to the directions.

Pour the plaster of paris into the mold, make sure that you pour a thick layer, because if it’s to thin it will break when you try to lift it from the “mold”. Cut a piece of twine to the desired length pushing each end into each of the footprints to ensure a secure hold.

When the plaster of paris is set {according to the directions} ensure that it’s set and doesn’t break, if the print feels even a little soft or tacky at all don’t try to lift it! Once set, rinse the prints in water to remove any excess sand .

VIOLA! Perma-Prints! Once we got home, I did remove some of the excess “chunks” that were on the side of the feet just to give them a uniform look, but if you like the “rawness” of this, it’s cool too!

And that’s our Footprints in the Sand. I’m happy with the way these came out, and we hang them on our mantle in the front room through the summer. Enjoy!

-Pennie Button

August 2011

I LOVE CRAFTING!!! This was a quality that I inherited from my mother and grandmother, and I am proud to pass this down to my babies! My mother and grandmother would make jewelry, mostly intricate beaded earrings, they were beautiful. My grandfather would make these amazing lawn chairs with the aluminum frame, but instead of that horrible scratchy weft material, me would eave them with soft cord. My family would do craft shows on the weekends and I could get to explore other people’s amazing treasures, and talents. As a child this was natural and beautiful, something about wearing something that someone took time to make beautiful, put love into was an amazing feeling. Here we’ll see some of the crafts that I’ve done with my children, and some that I have seen from others along the way.