Birthday Calendar

I saw this idea for birthday calendars on Eighteen25.  I thought it was cute and small, so it didn't take up a lot of room.  I'll just have to find someone to write in the names on the lines for me since I don't have cute handwriting :)

You can hang it on the wall, lean it against a wall, or hang it up since the clip has a handy hold to hang it with already.

What I did different:
*I didn't trim the calendars on the bottoms along the line you are suposed to cut - just trimmed the top and sides.  That way the calendar went closer to the bottom of the clipboard - more centered and didn't leave a big gap like in the example (just an OCD of mine).  I just used the strip of paper to cover the line that still showed.
*Since I left my calendars a little longer, I ended up cutting my strips of patterened paper to 1.25" tall instead of the 1" in the example.

First problem I ran into...I couldn't find these 6"x9" clipboards at Michael's anymore. I went to 2 different Michael's stores before an employee told me he thought they were just a seasonal item (why would clipboards be seasonal?) So I tried Jo-Anns - no clipboards...Wal-Mart - only plastic, neon mini clipboards. So, I went to Office Depot as my last resort. I figured they would be there, but probably expensive, so I was avoiding them. I was right - $2.50 for the clipboard compared to the .99 cent one in the example. Oh well.

Second problem...these clipboards didn't have screws attaching the clip to the board. They were riveted on and not removable. So if I want to paint the board, I'll have to tape it off and paint it really careful. So for now, it's not painted. But I'm having a hard time thinking of a color besides white, that would match all the different papers I glued to the calendar pages.

Seasonal Word Blocks

I saw these blocks at Ben Franklin's as a kit last year, but since I had the supplies to make it myself, I didn't want to spend the money on a kit when I could make it cheaper. But I couldn't remember the letters that went on each block . . . so I searched the blog world and found it on a few blogs. Brown Paper Packages uses a lower case font and different color of paint, so it gives you an idea of the options in making these.

There are letters on 4 sides of each block, which gives you 16+ words to use throughout the year. I used the green because it matches the standard decor in my house, and that color works for most of the holidays.

Here are pictures with 2 of the words. The words they spell are:

• Welcome
• Friends
• Easter
• Dream
• Harvest
• Faith
• Mother
• Monster
• Spooky
• Family
• Freedom
• Winter
• Hope
• Home
• Snow
• Blessed

*And I'm sure there are some more to come up with, but this was all I could find between the different blogs that have this craft on there.


If you want to make these, here is the letter breakdown:
Block #1 - T F B W
Block #2 - E Y H D
Block #3 - D O M E
Block #4 - R T E P
Block #5 - A C R S
Block #6 - L N O V
Block #7 - K M I S

These are out of a 4"x4" post from Home Depot (but it's actually 3.5" wide, so I'm not sure why they call it a 4" if it's not 4 inches - oh well)

I cut out the letters with my cricut but ran out of black vinyl, so I used black cardstock - which makes it cheaper too!

Birthday Banner

I made this banner last week . . . I used 2 different sized bowls to create the circles - the biggest bowl was about 6" wide and the other one was slightly smaller. I cut the letters out with my Cricut onto cardstock and then layered them all using a glue stick.

I also distressed the edges of the letters and the inner circle with brown ink to make them stand out a little better.

And then I used my crop-a-dile (just a fancy hole punch) to punch holes in the edges and tied them together with ribbon. We have an 8 foot opening between the living room and the kitchen, so I wanted it to be kindof big so it would span the whole opening.

4th of July Wreath

I've been in a wreath mood lately and was trying so hard to find a patriotic wreath online but couldn't find anything but a couple of the tied rag kind - and that's not my taste. So I thought of this idea.

Felt stars and a navy ribbon.

I bought a styrofoam wreath at the dollar store and some red felt at Jo-Ann's and started cutting stars . . .

Unfortunately, these 2 stacks didn't even cover half of it. My hands were so tired from tracing and cutting stars so this wreath actually took me about 5 days to do. I took some quilting pins and pushed them through the center of the star and then attached them to the wreath. You can't really tell they are stars when it's all done, but I like the spikes.

Then I attached the navy ribbon and cut out some white stars from craft foam and glued them on the ribbon.

I love it - and it's been a while since I did a craft without inspiration from someone else's ideas . . .

I'm linked up to . . .

Birthday Wreath

I saw this idea on How Does She? And thought it sounded like a cheap, easy craft. Well, it was easy, but it wasn't anywhere near as cheap as I thought it would be.

Problem #1 - I had a heck of a time finding the right sized balloons. I looked at Target, Wal-Mart, Michaels, Dollar Store, Party City . . no luck. I found either water balloons (that would take too many to fill a wreath) or the giant ones (that would be way too big and not look good for a wreath.)

I happened to be at Safeway getting milk and walked by the balloons and found a pack that would be the right size. They were packed in bags of 100 - I ended up using 350 balloons, my sister ended up using 250. I packed mine in tighter and her's were a little looser - both look great and full.

Problem #2 - I found floral pins that the tutorial mentioned to use, but they were about 3 inches long - so they would stick out the back of my wreath. I guess I used a smaller wreath than they did - mine was the styrofoam one from the dollar store. So I ended up using sewing pins with the plastic balls on the ends. They worked great.

Problem #3 - I didn't plan on using 350 balloons since the tutorial only mentioned about 140 balloons, so I didn't have enough pins. So we doubled them up and used 2 balloons per pin - it worked just fine.

I love how it turned out. But for some reason I thought it would only be about 5-8 dollars. But it turned out to be about $15 dollars to make it in the end. Still not too bad, but it was twice what I thought it would be.

Spring Plate

I found this plate in the Easter/Spring area at Target at the end of March . . . . . . just cut out some vinly flowers and letters on my Cricut and viola, a plate for the mantle.

Spring Wreath

I saw this idea sometime around Valentine's Day, but never wrote down the link . . . which meant I had to try and remember how they did it. Not sure if this was how, but here's what I did:I bought a yard of pink felt, cut it into tons of circles - definately over a hundred, but I just kept cutting rows as I needed more, so I never got a final count.

Fold the circle in half, then in half again, so it looks like a triangle. Then using a sewing pin (the kind with the ball on the end, attach the felt to the styrofoam wreath form. I alternated angles so they weren't all lined up the same way.

Hang it up with ribbon and enjoy!

Green Decor

My little man is getting taller and is able to reach more things on the table, so my table top decorations are limited - either none, or small ones he can't reach. I have a problem with styrofoam balls at Ben Franklin's Craft Store. They have them in every color imaginable - so that means I also have them in every color. But I keep them in their appropriate color-coded holiday boxes so my husband doesn't see them all together and know how many styrofoam balls I've got. So I sat in front of Sesame Street today and sifted the green and yellow ones out of my "Spring" multi-colored tube.

And I had some cute green jute ribbon to tie around the jar thanks to my mom and her ribbon addiction (she was "cleaning house" and thrifting her extra supplies to me and my sister). She has plenty of other addictions that I benefited from as well . . . buttons, fabric, zippers, bias tape, scrapbook paper, etc. Thanks Mom!

Wall Trees

I painted two trees on my daughter's wall - my artistic brothers would be proud of my work. I drew them all by myself. And I'm quite proud of them. To make the flowers, I used a circle template and cut 2 sizes of circles out of pink craft foam. I double layered the flowers, so I half the flowers have a dark pink base and a light pink top, and the other half are light pink on the bottom and dark pink on the top. To attach them to the wall, I used pearl head straight pins. I didn't want to glue them to the wall since I want to be able to remove them some day. So I just pushed them through the foam and into the wall. Easy peasy!
Here's a close up of one of the flowers.

Colorized and Brighter Ceiling Fan

My son's room had a ceiling fan, and it looked boring and plain, so I decided to spruce it up. I disassembled it, and Mod Podged scrapbook paper to the fan blades. I also added a stripe of another color to cover up the paper seam since each blade was longer than the sheets of paper. The fan blades are 2 sided, so I only mod podged the ugly fake wood side and left the plain white side alone, so if I don't want the color anymore, I can just flip them over if the the paper doesn't come off clean.

Baby Info Blocks

I made another 2 sets of the baby name blocks. I made one new set for my daughter and another for a friend's baby.

I also cut out vinyl butterflies with my cricut to add detail.

Here's the first set I made for my son last summer.

UPDATED INFO:
I've been asked for the dimensions of the blocks and how I made them . . .

The tall block is 2.5"x4"
Top long block is 5.5"x2.5"
Bottom long block is 5.5"x1.5"

• Basically, I designed the vinyl layout for my Cricut using the "Sure-cuts-a-lot" program on my computer and then cut the wood to fit the sizing of the letters.
• Sand, paint, and distress the wood with an ink pad
• apply the vinyl
  

Burlap Heart Wreath

Once I saw this idea, I had to make one. I've been seeing burlap projects everywhere and just assumed that burlap fabric was expensive. Boy was I wrong. It was only $2.99/yard at Jo-Anns. And that was the regular price. So I used one of my 40% off coupons and 1 yard of the red burlap was under $2. And I was so excited to find RED burlap.

I don't have any sturdy wire to use as the frame, so i shaped a wire hanger into a heart and strung the burlap strips on from there. I used 8 strips (2.5" wide) to make this wreath. But I had bought a yard, not sure how much I was going to need. That left me with about 16" extra burlap. So I cut 8 more strips at 2" wide each and made a 2nd wreath for my sister. So 2 wreaths for $1.97 - can't beat that!

When the fabric lady was cutting the burlap for me, she did something different than just cut at the yard mark. She made a slit and then pulled one of the strings out - giving her an even guide to cut on. I thought that was genious - so I used that same trick to get even 2.5" strips when I cut it up.

First, make a slit with the scissors and then pull a string at the slit so that the burlap gathers - see photo.

Then when that string is out, you have an easy guide to cut along so your strips are even. I LOVE this idea! So there you go - a trick to cutting burlap strips . . . if you didn't already know it. :)

Valentine's Day Garland

I saw a cute garland on Naptime Journal that I liked. I have an 8' wide opening from the dining room into the living room that I wanted the garland to go on. She used pink - but that didn't match my decor in the house, so I stuck with white, black, and red. But I think one out of just pink - a few different shades - would be adorable.
I bought 2 sheets each of black, white, and red felt. I used red glitter felt - but it's hard to capture that in the picture. I found cookie cutters and traced them onto cardboard to get templates of the circle and heart shapes. And then I used spray adhesive to put the hearts on the circles. But beware - that spray adhesive is a beast to get off your hands. I tried using nail polish remover and that didn't help much; I guess I shellacked my fingers pretty good.

I hand stitched some black embroidery floss around the white circles to add a little to those ones since there wasn't the glitter detail there. Since it's hanging in a walkway, I also cut out hearts for the back side as well, so there are hearts on both sides of the circles.

Record Bowl

I found this craft idea on My Naptime Crafts (love the name!!). My Dad's birthday is today and when I saw this idea, I instantly knew it would be a great gift for him. He loves records - but I didn't have any. So I made a trip to Value Village hoping they would have some good records. They had a ton of Amy Grant records, but I didn't think that would be a great one for my Dad. Then I found and Aerosmith one and B.J. Williams one that would work great.

Obviously, these won't work for food, but they can be a table topper/decoration to hold keys or other things.

I followed the tutorial, but my records weren't pliable enough to mold into the bowl shape. So instead of the suggested 200 degree setting on the oven, I had to do 250 degrees. And mine also took a little longer than her's did to soften. So, if you are going to do this craft and it isn't working, just alter the temp and/or time. I'm guessing altitude and ovens are going to affect it's pliability.

Wooden Accent Words

I bought these letters at Jo-Anns and decorated them with scrapbook paper, ribbon, wooden snowflakes, and fake snow.

This decoration works for December and can stay out into January since it's more "winter" decor and not specific to Christmas.

Christmas Vinyl Plates

I made these plates as presents last year . . .

I cut the vinyl with my Cricut Expression and rubbed it on the plates. For the "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" plate, the tree was just a triangle I drew and then once it was on the plate, I used an exacto knife to cut the lines out.

I was worried it would get messed up and expected to cut another tree out, but surprisingly, it cut smooth and completely straight.

Santa's Belly Ornament

I work in the Young Women's group at our church (for the girls 12-18 years old), and this week we had a Christmas Craft Night for our Activity. Each of the leaders came up with a different craft to teach the girls.

Here's mine - Santa's Belly Ornament

To make this, you'll need:

• square glass ornaments
• black paint
• white puffy paint
• strips of red cardstock (mine are about 1/4"x4")

Coil the strips of paper around something thin - I wrapped mine around the end of a paint brush handle.

After making each coil, put them in the ornament - I didn't count how many I coiled, but once you've filled it up, you're good :)

Then, paint a black stripe around the center of the ornament (santa's belt). Once that's dry, use the puffy paint to draw a square (belt buckle) around the belt.

Finish it off with ribbon to hang it up.