Color Up Some Fun

Today my husband had class in the morning followed by drill at the Army base. I decided today was the perfect time to get the Lil Monkey and make Vanetine's Day treat for his school friends.

This year was a little harder, because he has a number of kids in his class with dietary restrictions. Some have allergies, but mostof them are cultural or religion-based restrictions. So this year, we decided to go the non-food route.

I'd see the melted crayons made from broken colors, so I thought that my nerves could handle him doing something that involved using the over because he will be 5 on Monday and has learened to stay away from the oven if I tell him too. In the past, my concern was that his curiosity would rule out and he'd try to peek.

The project itself was pretty fun, though not fast. The supplies included:

• various colors of crayons 
• small cups (for sorting)
• mini muffin tin or non-stick baking cups
• cooling sheet (Applique Pressing Sheet)

Step 1: First I seperated the colors in cups by color families. Reds, blues, organges, yellows, etc. 

Step 2: After the colors were sorted, I peeled the paper off and broken them into small pieces. Usually about 5 pieces for each crayon. The brand I used was Playskool colors. I was able to get 36-pack at Dollar Tree for $1 each. I used 4 packs and made about 45 pieces.

Step 3: The Lil Monkey helped layout our silicone heart shaped cups on a baing sheet and started filling them with the broken colors. Some were mixed colors, some were just colors in the same "family".  We filled the cups to the top because they lose volume once they melt.

He was faster than I was unwrapping them, so he started to play around. This was his sad face because he ran out of broken colors while I was unwrapping them. I guess I wasn't fast enough for him. He was playing around pretending he was going to eat them, then I hear, "Yuck! I think I actually ate some!" Ha! I was laughing so hard!

Step 4: After we filled all the cups we placed them in a preheated oven at 275 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Some of the cups were filled more than others so I checked at about 10 minutes and there was still some visible bumps and left them in a few minutes longer. It just depends on if you want them completely melted.

Step 5: After removing from the oven, we let them cool 30 minutes in the cups, them placed in the fridge for another 10 minutes. If you put them directly in the fridge to cool, the rapid temperature change can make some of the colors crack.

Step 6: We carefully removed them from the silicone cups. 

When we took them out of the oven they had a clear coat that I thought was water, but ince they fried, I realized from the nuted colors that it was the wax in the colors. Once we took them out of the silicone cups, the other side was brightly colored. 

As you can see, we made quite a few. 

The Lil Monkey was so excited with this project. I think we will definitely do something again soon, and this one is going in the books as a redo as well. Between the $4 for colors and the $1 Valentine's treat bags we put them in, we've had quite a budget-friendly project. I'll add stickers or cards with a note from him and be ready to pass out the treats later this week.

Until our next cup of tea ... 

Lego and Have Some Creative Fun!!

Hello All! Well, I have clearly been away for a few days, but it's because I was working on a fun project ... or two. First of all, The Lil Monkey decided that he wanted a Lego-themed birthday party this year. Unfortunately, there is very little Lego-themed party stuff, other than the Lego Movie and Lil Monkey prefers the Lego Marvel Superheros. After a little bit of searching, I found a rather simple plan for making invitations and thank you cards, so with a little creativity and digital cutting and pasting, I figured out something that he blessed with his approval.

You may have seen these before, and may have already figured out how to do it without step-by-step instructions, but here is what I did.

Step 1: First I purchased several sheets each of red, blue and yellow 12x12 scrapbook pages. Each page provided for 2 invitations with space for extra circles.

2: I cut each paper at 8 inches, then cut that in half at 6 inches.  The final pieces were 6x8 inches.

Step 3: I took the 6x8-inch pieces and folded it in half making the 4x6 inch invitations.

Step 4: Next i took the 4-inch strip that was left over from the original cuts and used my Fiskars 2-inch circle hole punch and cut out circles. You need two for each invitation, but there is enough to make extras. Save those for later projects.

Step 5: I added 3-dimensional adhesive squares to the back of the circles. I added two circles on the front of each folded invitation.

This is the final outside of the invitations. 

Step 6: I used stock photos from the internet and created the information for the party. I made them 3.5x5 inches so they fit inside. I also used a stock photo and made a photo to put on top. I printed them on 65-weight cardstock, but you may be able to print on photo paper. I then glued them to the inside of the folded invitation.

This is what my work area looked like by the time I finished.

I made thank you cards using the same techniques execpt I cut them at 4x6-inches and left them flat instead of folding them.

The invitations were a hit. Everyone loved them. Next I have decorations and gift bags, so I'll post those as I get them done.

Until our next cup of tea ...

Story Time SAL Gets Us "Frosted" in 2015!!

A few months ago my friend Teresa introduced me to a new cross stitch pattern company, The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. When I explored the site, I instantly fell in love. So many cute projects! I had a lot of projects on my plate at the time and was unable to start something new without finishing a few, but I definitely added their Tea Time pattern to my wish list. 

Last week I saw a post introducing their 2015 Mystery Stitch-a-Long...Story Time Sampler where once a month participants would receive a portrait of some of our favorite characters from literature! What!?! Books and crafts! Who could pass that up?

So the next day, I signed up and received the instruction guide and supply list! Yeah! I am super excited to get started!! 

Some stories we'll be stitching up:

Alice in Wonderland
Little Women
Lady of Shalott
Sherlock Holmes and more!

The finished Story Time pattern measures 8.2" x 11.2" tall and 131 stitches wide x 180 stitches tall on 16 ct. aida or 32 ct. linen. 

I have so many projects that I rotate through, I think I will start a #FrostedPumpkinFriday post to keep me going. I'll try to post progress reports MOST Fridays and encourage you to post photos of your progress if you are participating in the SAL. 

If you are participating please remember to only post photos of your project, not the pattern. Artists work hard to create these patterns and in order to keep pricing  reasonable, we  must remember not to share their work with those who have not purchased it. If you have any questions feel free to post, or email #TheFrostedPumpkin directly at  thefrostedpumpkinstitchery@gmail.com.

Until our next cup of tea ...

Pinterest Project: We Need Alcohol for This!!

Yesterday, I posted about getting some creative time in with my friend, Erin. Though it was by far, our longest creative time together, it is not the only one on this trip.

On Friday, we were still trying to recover from our Christmas Day adventures (the wind picked up our canopy in the backyard and sent it flying though the kitchen windown when I was washing dishes.) After additional clean up and repairs, we rescheduled a gathering of #TheFourFamilies to Saturday and settled in for a quiet evening around our new gas firepit. Mike and Erin, who are staying down the street, walked over with their oldest to join us for some backporch relaxation.

Earlier on Friday, the hubby and I went to Lowe's with Lil Monkey to  pick up the gas grill and I got some plain white tiles so I could "trouble-shoot" the Sharpie Alcohol Art project I will be doing with my son's pre-K class next month. Sharpies and 4/5 year-olds is definitely something that can get scary fast so I wanted to have some idea of the project beforehand.

So when Erin came over, I enticed her to help me with the project. That's what good friends do, get you out of your comfort zone.

The premise seems pretty easy. Take multiple Sharpie markers and color white tiles with various designs then "drop" alcohol on it and watch them kind of melt together like a watercolor. Sounds simple ...

We had 4 color Sharpies ... black, red, blue and yellow. I thought the yellow wouldn't work, but we were surprised. After a couple of tries we discovered there were a few things that were not on the various instructions we'd found on Pinterest:

1. They don't really "melt" together without a little "dabbing" assistance. 

2. The red in particular was difficult because it tended to "float" and eventually just disappear.

3. Black was too strong and muddled everything into a black soupy mess.

The part we loved the most? You could rinse the times and remove the Sharpie and alcohol and start over, though we did have to wipe the ones with red with a little alcohol to get it all off. Not a big deal, and definitely a lifesaver since I'd only gotten 4 tiles. 

We each rinsed and redid our tiles 2 or 3 times, but eventually we got the hang of it. This is a photo of her tiles (top) and mine (bottom) when we left them to dry.

As you can see the red starts to fade away, but overall we were pretty happy. Unfortunately, it has rained to 48+ hours since then, so while they are dry, I have not been able to seal them with a Polyurethane sealer. From all I have read, it is best to use a spary versus a brush method so it doesn't distort the tiles. Hopefully, today the backyard will dry a little and I can spray them and post notes about the finishing step. I'll post another look at them as well, so you can see how they changed as they dried. 

Until our next cup of tea ...

A Friend's Request

Military life comes with a certain degree of separation and a large portion of goodbyes. As a military family you learn to treasure friends when you find them because in a short time you're introductions turn to farewells. If you're lucky you'll stay in touch via social media and if you hit the lottery you may be stationed at the same location again with a good timeframe of overlapping between another move.

Sometimes you have the rare treasure of having a military friend who has family in the same location as you and the friendship can grow into one that will last weel into your golden years. George and I are that lucky. 

He and his friend, Michael, grew up in the same neighborhood and after highschool Mike headed to the Navy and George headed to college where he joined the Army. Eventually wives and children joined the mix and "coming home to visit" gave us more "family" to visit. Now that we are living back in the old neighborhood we've become part of the family their coordinate into those busy trips home.

Erin and I have a friendship that was born because of our husbands' history and grew fast because of the shared understanding of military life. It's hard to explain to those who don't live the daily life of a military family, but there are small daily things that you don't get if you don't live it. Today for example we talked about how even when you are unpacking from a new move you are taking notes on what to do differently when packing the next time, and how even putting away holiday decorations is extreme because you don't know if you will recieve orders to move before you open them again, so you have to pack with that knowledge.

That's not to say that we can't find comfort and support from those family and friends who are not military, but it's sort of an unspoken understanding.

During this visit, we've had a bit of time to get together with what has come to be known as "The Four Families", a group that includes two other friends from George's childhood in this neighborhood. With Mike and Erin staying down the street, we've also had some one-on-one time to visit and relax. Today was one of those days.

The Lil Monkey spent the day with my parents and I called Erin to see if she wanted to come over to sew. When their oldest was younger he recieved a lot of handmade gifts from family members, such as blankets, quilts, afghans, etc. In the 10 years between their oldest and youngest, many of those family members have passed away and Erin was sad that their second child wouldn't have some of the same heirlooms later. I offered to make a quilt and other little things earlier this year and she was excited but also expressed how she'd love to learn to sew as well. 

We were finally able to have a good amount of child-free time for both of us today, so she came over to help layout the quilt (I wanted her to have as much participation as possible) and to learn the sewing basics. After getting her comfortable with my sewing machine and showing her to basics, I pulled out the easiest projects to learn to sew on ... Quiltsmart ZigZapps and Wine Shades. She felt comfortable starting with the Wine Shades because of the straight lines. 

I sorted through my recently consolidated fabric stash pulled out some pink polka dot fabric that matched the quilt we'd been working on for her daughter's soon-to-be big girl room. She was a little hesitant at first, but when I explained that the wine shades were very forgiving as far as staying on the sitching lines and such, she started to feel a little more confident. 

She slowly stitched along, talking herself through the steps and buttons, while I organized my box of ZigZapps looking for some more Wine Shades. I'd recently given my roll of panels to my Mom who was short for a class she was teaching and was now regretting not keeping some. I soon got lucky, finding a few pre-cut wine shades interfacing panels as her confidence grew and she began chatting about making set for each holiday. I dug around in my fabric a little more and found fabric for her to use to make wine shades for 4th of July/Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving/Fall, and Halloween.  

A few hours after starting she had a stack of completed wine shades, the remaining panels I could find and a list of fabric to get at the store this week. I'm not sure of I should be proud like a Mama Bird whose chick learned to fly, or if I should worry that I have created a tornado that cannot be contained! But I guess I'll worry about that later because now I have to show her the ZiggZapp flowers, leaves and petals, stars and more!!!

It was truly an amazing day to be able to take a break from the realities of military life and the looming seperation and just get creative. Quiltsmart made it easy to get have fun while learning, and who knows what crafty craziness we try next!!

Until our next cup of tea ...

Inspiration is Everywhere

I'm having a bit of quilting withdrawals, though it partially for a good reason. Last week our little family joined my brother and his family, and my mom and stepfather for a 5-days cruise, so that's why the blog has been a little quiet. Our dear neighbors collected our mail and packages while we were away and brother them over when we got home. I went to tuck the "Santa" gifts and other things away in the craft room and the light blew when we went in there. So while the packages are safely tucked away, I cannot do any sewing until Hubby can fix the light (I am too short to reach even on a ladder because it is recessed lighting.)

I was even proactive, but cutting and sorting projects at the beginning of the month because our families are really big on making homemade gift baskets and I needed the cutting table to put them together. {sigh} I guess I'll just be happy I can work on some stitching projects.

Earlier today I was chatting with Quiltsmart Mattie via text about some inspiration that I saw on a quilt blog that would look great with the Quiltsmart Dahlia. It got to me thinking about the random photos I take because I think it would be a unique quilt pattern, or color combination or just because I was inspired in that moment. 

Take these tiles at Lowe's. I am coordinating my son's class's annual Art Auction project this year and I saw these and thought it would be fun to try a similar project using Quiltsmart's Hexagons.

I saw this pink rose when my husband and I snuck away for lunch one day and thought the pinks would be amazing in a Quiltsmart Lonestar. (Can you tell that this A Year of Quiltsmart project is not just a part of my creative time? I'm a little obsessed!) 

When we were on the cruise, my husband and I took my son to the Dr. Seuss "Green Eggs and Ham" Breakfast. I thought maybe I'd push myself out of my comfort zone one day and try a red and aqua/teal combo. That would be WAY outside my comfort zone, color-wise.

I hope that I never stop seeing creative "inspirations" in everyday life. Even if I never get to see all the ideas created, it still makes life "colorful" to imagine all the possiblities. 

Until our next cup of tea ...

Festive Fun with a Friend!

Today I had an alone-day. My dear husband was taking his last final of the semester and my parents were taking Lil Monkey to their community's Christmas parade. I attempted to get some long overdue house cleaning done, but then the craft store was calling my name. As soon as my neighbor got her kids and husband off to their respective activities, we headed over to JoAnn's to get supplies to make wreaths.

Now we've both been wanting to make Mickey Mouse holiday wreaths since our two families went to Disney together about 18 months ago. Her husband was more than ready for her to got get the stuff to get it done. My husband was used to my project fixations.

So off we went. The store is pretty picked over at this point and they are already putting out Valentine's Day stuff, but we found what we needed and about 2.5 hours later, this is what we had ...

Her wreath was a beautiful greenery wreath with ornaments and bows ...

Mine was a wire wreath with ornaments strung (and glued) to it. I filled in some of the empty spots after this, but forgot to take another photo.

All in all it was a fun afternoon, and something we'd nover done before. First we've never had a kid-free day at the same time, secondly she's never really done craft projects of this size before, but I think she is hooked now. She is already looking for Spring wreath ideas. I've created a monster!!

Another quick project I did was this vase. The case itself was 70% off because it had a chip in it. As a 

collector of the occasional chipped teacup, I wasn't deterred. The 4 berry branches were 70% off as well. I added some Epsom salt to the vase which I had at home. So for about $8 I created this fun centerpiece. (Later I found 4 more berry branches from a live wreath we had last year - 2 dark red, 2 gold.)

Another great craft adventure complete!!

Until our next cup of tea ...

All That Glitter Isn't Gold ...

I wonder how long it will take me to write this post, because I literally have glitter everywhere on me ... hands, legs, face ... even my eyes! There's like this little glimmer when I look around, maybe its on my eyelash ...

Well, tonight (last night once this posts), I spent the afternoon and part of the evening making pretty, little glittery ornaments for my Pink Christmas tree. Once day, when we finally have a place for this second tree, it is going to be decked out in all sorts of shiny homemade ornaments. 

Last weekend, I braved the after Thanksgiving shopping madness (on Sunday) after my son's play date. It was a well thought out plan because I knew he'd be tired and sit in the cart and play with his LeaPad. I managed to get quite a few things onsale or with coupons. One of them was a variety of mismatched cardboard Christmas ornaments. 

Tpday, I decided to get started on decorating two shapes, the stars and a dreidel sort ofshaped ornament. The plan was quite simple, I would use a paint brush to spread glue onto the ornaments and them sprinkle with glitter and let dry, then do the otherside. It wasn't so much the technique I was using, but the work-surface.

You see that brown matt laying under my supplies, that is a Grip-n-Press by Bear Thread Designs. They actually have a variety of work-surface protectors, but this one was the best choice for this project.

First, the bottom has a non-skid material on it which keeps it from moving around on my table. That is quite important with a curious 4-year-old wandering in and out of the kitchen while I worked. The top side is a non-stick surface. Since nothing sticks to the surface, I poured my glue right on top of it, like a paint palette. Once I'm finished, I can just wipe up any excess with a wet paper towel (or baby wipe) and lt it air dry. Even dried glue/paint/etc wipes right off! Love it!!

To make the ornaments, I just "painted" glue on a small section of the ornaments, then sprinkled glitter over it.

Wht a fun and quick project! The silver stars turned out better than I imagined, and the pink will have a second layer later since I got a really light colored and fine textured glitter. Its a baby pink and the brown cardboard shows through. 

Later, after they dry completely, I will cover with a resin or other protecting agent to make sure the glitter doesn't fall off.

Until our next cup of tea ...

Crafty Kid: Passing the Christmas Torch

Yesterday my husband had his first law school final for the semester, so he didn't get home until nearly 9:30 p.m. After dinner, the Lil Monkey started to get antsy, so I enticed him to clean up so we could make some Christmas ornaments for our holiday gifts (and a few for the tree). 

Now, I am a self-diagnosed with control issues when it comes to crafts and creative stuff for sure. So, I really have to remind myself that doing crafts with him does not have to be picture perfect or even make sense some times. It's about being creative and having fun. He's 4, so there is lots of time for people to put him "in a box" or give him parameters later.

Earlier this week, we had tried to make some reindeer ornaments but didn't get too far because he was getting frustrated with the glue no drying instantaneous! This time, we were making wreaths, from a prepared kit, just like the reindeers. This time, I set him up at the kitchen table, with all of the pieces sorted and said we were going to do an assembly line - I would tie the string on foam wreath and then he could glue the buttons on them. Later we would tie the bows and glue them on. He had no idea was assembly-line was, but said we were working like elves. Ok, elves it is. 

We got quite a few of them done in that last hour before bed time. He event invited his imaginary friends, Stella and Sam, to help us. Then he helped them with the glue and buttons later on so that they would have some ornaments too.

I guess tonight we may try to get some more done. It was fun working on this project and watching him decided what "patterns" he wanted to use for the red and white buttons. We talked about taking the "centers" that we pulled out of the middle and making about half of them Mickey Mouse themed, but we'll see. I'm not sure if he will want to put a photo in the center or not. I'll let him decide when we get to that stage.

While we are on the subject of kids crafts, the Lil Monkey also made these ornaments with my sister, Moo-Moo, when we were visiting my family last weekend. 

I encourage you crafty moms to include your children in activities. Sometimes it hard, I'll admit, because I want something to be perfect. But I always try to keep a spare project nearby so that if he does try to help on a not-so-kid-friendly project, I can give him something to do to keep his creativity inspired.

Until our next cup of tea ...