Christmas Cards

Think of it this way; this post isn't late, it's giving you great ideas for next Christmas! I had a lot of fun using my new Cricut, an early Christmas present thanks to Black Friday, along with stamps to create our Christmas cards this year. We sent out/hand delivered about 50 cards this year; so I decided to make five designs and ten of each design. So here's the big reveal of my original designs:

This was my first Cricut trial. I cut out the circles and stamped the wreath on them. I made some of them green because I ran out of red card stock. Oops!

 

 

As I got used to the Cricut I got a little braver. I cut out the ornaments and the saying. I started cutting out red ornaments, but realized that blue might look nice too since it matches the ribbon. I like both of them, but I'd love to hear what you think!

I gave the Cricut a rest on this one, and went with a simple stamped card. This stamp set from Stampin' Up is one of my favorites! The dragging on the edges helps it pop off the background paper a little more.

This is another simple stamped card. I love this swirly tree stamp, and the bling in the middle gives it an extra pop.

These adorable penguins were by far the most work! I used the Cricut to cut out all of the pieces, but had to glue all the tiny pieces on by hand (that was 20 penguins total!). But looking at it again it was worth the effort because they're adorable. :)

I hope you enjoyed these designs. What Christmas cards did you make this year. Did I inspire you to get a head start on next year?

Sinterklaas Crafts

In the Frog class we like to do our own little "Christmas Around the World", and teach the kids about some different cultures. This year we went to the Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, & Switzerland. Since I'm Dutch I had a great time teaching them about Sinterklaas since I grew up celebrating it. I think the highlights were the blue Big Bird (on the Dutch version of Sesame Street), and the video of "Zwarte Pieten Style". But they had fun making a few crafts too so here they are:

This is one I made, but the kids used magazine cut outs to complete their wish bags.

The kids loved making a Piet hat! This is the one I used to become "Piet" when I taught them about Sinterklaas.

All of the kids were adorable in their Sinterklaas hats! They even got a little goofy wearing them sideways or upside down. :)

I can't forget the delicious peppernoten I made at home and brought for snack one day. I wasn't sure what the kids would think because of the anise flavor, but they loved it. I also brought in a chocolate letter (an F for frog class of course!) which they also loved.

I'd say I was successful at teaching them about Dutch culture since they still sing Sinterklaas songs I taught them. One of my girls told me, "I asked Santa to bring me peppernoten and a chocolate letter." If you would like more information about Sinterklaas or these crafts just ask me in the comments!

Fall Craft Projects

Well, the Frog class was busy crafting this fall. Thanks to Pinterest for pretty much all of my ideas!

 We painted egg carton pumpkins. Some are scarier than others!

I got a kit of these foam pumpkins at JoAnn's. I love how they used the same items, but they're all so different! I also got a kit for foam turkeys that the kids had fun putting together.

We made hand print spiders around Halloween. Isn't it cute with the googley eyes?

After reading the "Pumpkin Patch Parable" we made pumpkins similar to these that we hung on our lockers.

For Thanksgiving we had fun coloring pasta (I discovered that liquid water colors work well too) to make noodle turkeys like the ones found here, and hung them above the lockers for everyone to admire. We also made hand print turkeys then used feathers to decorate them to use for a bulletin board display.

Happy crafting! Please leave feedback of crafts you've done with kids for fall, if you want more details, or if you like an idea. I would like validation that I'm writing to an audience.

New Etsy Item: Baby Snuggle Wrap

I'm getting behind in my blogging as the holidays approach, and life is getting busier. Anyways, here is a new product preview for my Etsy shop. I'm excited to introduce baby snuggle wraps!

 

 

 

I made the one shown for a baby shower at church. Of course I found the printable pattern linked from here on Pinterest! I chose to make the one pictured above with coordinating cotton flannel, but will have a custom option in my Etsy shop. Then customers can choose from the fabric choices I have on Flickr.

I'll be listing these in the next day or so. Please let everyone having a baby or looking for a great baby shower gift to buy one of these from my shop.

Pinterest Project: DIY Cake Stand

There are so many ideas on Pinterest on how to make a DIY cake/cupcake stand with items from Dollar Tree. So I decided to try it! The downside is that I didn't read any directions before doing the project, and i learned that I should have.

Off to Dollar Tree I went since I always have a list of things to get there, and I found a plate that I liked. Then I was trying to find a wine glass that fit with it, but didn't have any luck. Then a kind lady, who has done the project before, suggested a candle stick. So with those items in hand I headed to Hobby Lobby to get the glue that the kind lady suggested (E-6000).

When I got home I glued to candle stick to the plate, and put it in the garage to dry (since it was starting to smell up the house).

A few days later I spray painted the bottom side of the plate and candle stick.

I wasn't planning spraying the top of the plate, but in my eagerness to get the project done I didn't realize there would be a clear circle where the candle stick was glued to the plate.

So I spray painted the top of the plate as well.
 
Regardless of my minor mistake it was a fun, quick, and cheap project. The plate and candle stick were $1 each, E-6000 glue was $5, and the pink spray paint I already had. I already have the supplies to make another one, but this time I'll spray paint before gluing together!

NOTE: Sorry, for the sideways pictures! For some reason when I put them in Blogger they turned sideways :(

Paper Plate Apple Craft

This year I'm in charge of crafts for my pre-k class since I'm creative. The other day we made these paper plate apples, and they turned out so cute!



Of course I found the idea on Pinterest which linked me to here. I chose to simplify it a bit.

All you need is:
Large paper plates
Red tempera paint
Green and brown construction paper

While the kids painted their plate, I cut out leaf shapes from the green paper and stems from the brown paper. After the paint was dry I glued the leaf and stem to the back of the plate. Voila! There you have a cute and simple fall craft for kids.

posted from Bloggeroid

You're Dyeing to Know...

...what I dyed aren't you? Sorry, but I couldn't resist the horrible pun. I finally got around to dyeing the Ikea blanket I bought a few months ago. Ikea only sells the blankets in white, tan, grey, & red. I loved the texture of the blanket, but didn't like any of those colors. Then I had the bright idea to buy the white one, and dye it to match my duvet cover on my bed. So with a white blanket in hand I headed to JoAnn's to pick what color I wanted. Note: read the tag on the item you are dyeing BEFORE buying the dye! I made the mistake of thinking it was cotton, when it was really a poly blend, and had to go back to exchange the dye for natural fabrics for the iDye Poly (pictured below). Also, sorry for poor picture quality; these were taken with my iPod before I found my camera again (YAY!). Anyways, continuing with the fabric dyeing process...

The blanket before.

 

I decided green would go nicely with my duvet cover. I read all directions before starting.

The water in the washer after putting in the dye packet.

Scariest part: putting in the blanket & not being 100% sure of how it will look afterwards.

Completely in the murky green water...time to close the washer and wait.

It's green! This is after the first rinse. It recommends a second rinse to lock in the color.

A beautiful day to line dry a blanket. The tag on the blanket said no machine drying.

The after...a pretty green blanket!

I'm glad I got around to dyeing this blanket because I use it all the time now. It's light yet cozy, and the texture is so fun! Now that I've dyed something I'm not so scared to do this again. Hmm...what could be next? What have you dyed? What would you like to dye?

P.S.--I watched "Julie and Julia" last night. That movie always inspires me to blog more regularly. I've got a few projects waiting to be blogged about. So I'm going to try to keep it up! I'd love to have new followers, too. Maybe I'll do a give away or something if I can get up to 30 followers by the end of the year. Please let others know about me if you like reading my blog. Thanks!

A Sneek Peek

Last night for girls' night Diana and I finished her wedding invitations! FINALLY!! Well, technically they're not 100% complete yet since I still need to cut a few more belly bands, score them, and glue them. The big thing is that all of the embossing is done, and now I know that embossing 44 cards is not an easy task. Also, all the printing for inside cards is done, and Diana enjoyed cutting those apart and putting them in the pockets. :) Since the invites haven't been sent yet I'm not allowed to post all the details until the end of June, but I was allowed to take a preview picture to show my embossing accomplishment.

This is after I edited it a little in Instagram. I love, love, love that swirl pattern stamp! I can't wait to share all the details with you later this month.

Details, Details

So, I've switched to the new format for blogger with hopes that it will help solve a few issues I've had with blogger (posting pictures was a hassle). Now I can give you more details on how I made my melted crayon monogram art. Yay!

I decided on a 1" border so I marked that out with pencil, and started hot gluing the crayons on the canvas.

All done hot gluing! I used 30 (I think) crayons on a 12"x12" canvas.

I layered strips of blue painters tape vertically & made another layer horizontally for the monogram. I found a font I liked in Word, and printed out the size I thought fit well. Then cut around it with an Exact-o knife. Getting the tape 'K' off the cutting mat was the hardest part of this project!

Ready to melt! I used my embossing gun instead of a hair dryer. The embossing gun put out hot air, but has less force so the crayon doesn't splatter as much (it splattered a little as you can see in the picture below).

Finished melting; now letting it dry/cool. I had a mini panic attack when I peeled off the tape, and saw it had bled through the edges.

Not to worry though, a little tracing with a black sharpie (that no longer works due to waxiness on the tip...oops!) solved my problem. Notice the splatters of red & orange on either side? I think it adds character! My personal favorite is the added shimmer from the glitter crayons, but I love anything sparkly. :)

Here's the finished product hanging up in my room. Yeah, I know it's not centered. I happened to have a nail there from a larger picture that got taken down.


Overall this was a cheap, easy, and quick project. The only cost was the canvas which was $6 at Big Lots since I already had the crayons, hot glue & glue gun, Exact-o knife, and embossing gun. It only took me an hour tops. Cutting out the monogram, and gluing the crayons took the longest. So now you know the details of my second Pinterest craft project.

Thinking about the Fair

I realized today that the Evergreen State Fair is only a month away (well at least the deadline for entering items is)! This means I've got to get to work on finishing any items I wanted to enter into the fair, and possibly get started (yeah I know there isn't much time) on new projects. This possibly means that I'll be putting my Etsy shop on vacation while I work madly on finishing projects in between my crazy work schedule. I enjoy entering crafts into the fair because then I can volunteer and get free admission. :) I also like the rush I get from looking at my hard work displayed for all to admire with a ribbon (hopefully blue) attached. It's also fun to enter little contests. Last year i made this little cupcake pincushion:It didn't win, but I think it's sweet (haha pun fully intended)! It was made out of scraps of yarn, too. :) Well, I better go work on some projects & think about realistic deadlines. AGH!!

Wow! It's been awhile since my last post.

My latest project is working on various Christmas presents for family and friends. I can't tell you what the projects are just in case one of them reads this. i'll take pictures and post them after the gifts have been given.

Other projects that I'm working on are mitered corner baby blankets and schlep bags to sell on my Etsy site. You can find my store here: http://arainydaydesigns.etsy.com I'll post pictures when I'm done with them.