Bubbles!!

Oh my gosh, it has been a million years (four to be exact) since I posted anything to this blog.
To be quite honest--I forgot all about this blog (obviously).

Well, moving on, I thought I would do a quick share. Yesterday I was watching the kids having fun in their yards and really wishing for those youthful days when summer just started and I had nothing to do. Then I thought...why not be a child for a few hours. Sooooo...I thought about my favorite activity during the summer: SWIMMING! Then I thought, yeah, I don't own a pool... :(
Then I thought of my second favorite activity: blowing bubbles!!

Sadly, there was no bubble to be found.
However, that didn't stop me. After some research--I made my own individualized bubble fun.

Materials:
Mason Jar
Accessories (I used pink puffy paint, buttons, and stickers--this is really where your creativity can shine, though)
Pipe Cleaner
Ribbon
Water
Dawn Dish Soap
Corn Syrup

Directions:
1. Decorate your jar as you see fit. I let mine dry about an hour.
2. Put 2 cups of water, 1/2-2/3 cup Dawn (I estimated here), 1/4 cup of corn syrup. Shake it all up in the mason jar (with the lid closed, of course).
3. Create a wand using your pie cleaner. You just need to created a loop and connect it to the longer line of the pipe cleaner. You can add a bow--if desired.
4. Have fun with your bubbles!!

Party Ideas

This past July my grandfather turned the BIG 90! To celebrate I decided to theme his birthday around his favorite holiday, the Fourth of July, and one of his favorite sport's teams: the Texas Rangers. So, the colors red, white and blue were a given. I used pinterest a lot to help me out with this venture. The first idea I had was to make candy cones filled with my granddad's favorite sugary snack--candied pecans.  I am including the links to both project below. My sister's actually helped me make the cones and cut me out some 90's stars from a Cricut cartridge. 

Here is one way to make candy cones:

Candy Cone Directions

Here is the recipe for the candied pecans:

Candied Pecans Recipe

For the lollypop bouquet I had to go it alone. I saw pictures of it on pinterest, but never found directions. So what I did was buy some cheap clay pots at Michael's and painted them. Then I took a round foam ball from the floral section of Michael's and cut it in half. I glued the semi-round circle into the pot. Once dried I just stuck some dum-dums in there and filled it up. I made sure to start at the top. I decorated with more of my sisters' cut-outs to keep with the theme.

I finished off this decoration idea with a candy table. You can't see it but I made pretzel candy bites and cake balls.
Here is the the recipe I used for the Cake Balls:
Basic Cake Balls

Here is the recipe I used for the pretzel bites:
pretzel buttons

DIY Car Fragrance

I wanted to try something a little different for this post and thought what could I pick that most people could enjoy. Well, most people have cars...so maybe I'll do a post on homemade car fragrances. 

What will you need: glue, pen, cut-out stencil, scissors, oil fragrance (I used yankee candle vanilla), felt and ribbon. 

Step 1: trace your cut-out paper stencil (any image you print from a google image, etc. this is up to you) on the felt.

Step 2: Cut out three felt shapes.

Step 3: Take one of your cut-outs and heavily douse it with your fragrance oil.

Step 4. Put glue on two of your felt cut-outs. You will put the oil doused cut-out in the middle. Then just squish the top and bottom of your cut-outs to each other. It's like a sandwich with the smelly cut-out in the middle.

Step 5: After the glue has dried, take your scissor and make a small incision for your ribbon. (I used a sharp end of a pin to push my ribbon through)

Step 6: Put it in your car!!!

My word of warning is to wear gloves when working with the fragrance oil. It can burn the skin, etc. So protect yourself!! :)

Glass Magnets

I've seen the glass bead magnet tutorials on many websites, but they tend to be tutorials on making alphabet glass magnets. Since I have no need for alphabet magnets, I thought I would try something a little different.

What you will need: 

craft glue (one that dries clear)

paper (the thinner the easier to cut)

clear finger nail polish

some nail decals (or any small sticker will do just fine!)

glass marbles

craft razor

small magnets (glue to the back of your finished marbles--you can get them at Michael's)

1. I start with coating the back of each marble with some clear nail polish. Any top coat will do. I used one with glitter and I applied two coats. Let the marbles dry before the next step.

2. Choose some decals that you want to put behind your glass marble. I used nail decals. They were small and cheap!

3. Place the decals directly on some scrap paper. Then put the marbles on top of the decals with a thin layer of clear drying glue. Let the marbles dry for an hour, or two. 

4. Once it is completely dry you can use a sharp craft razor to cut around the edges of the paper. This is why I say using cheap, thin paper is best. I used a hard surface under my razor so that it wouldn't scrape my table. A piece of cardboard would be good.

5. After they are cut out you can apply the magnets with a small drop of glue! And that's all there is to it!!

Summer Decorations

Doorknob Wreath!

Today's project is a mini version of a tulle wreath. I promise, maybe, that this is the last tulle wreath. I just can't help myself...I love the tulle!

I'm not sure what made me want to make a doorknob wreath--other than I love everything in miniature and thought that would be the same with a wreath (I was right)! The biggest problem was figuring out how to make the frame for the wreath. There are not too many options when looking for a tiny circular shape that is also tubular. I chose pipe cleaner. What I did was wrap four pieces of pipe cleaner together (although eight probably would have been better). 

Wrapping the tulle around the pipe cleaner I noticed two problems. First, tulle loves to cling to spiky pipe cleaner so next time I will use the softer kind. Secondly, make sure your pipe cleaner matches the color of your tulle. When I finished with my project it looked more like a Barbie tutu than a wreath. Therefore, I glued some tiny rhinestone embellishments and foam hearts onto it. I tied ribbon to the back strands of some tulle to help hang this little guy/girl.

For this project you will need the following:

4-8 pipe cleaners (twist them together and make a circle connecting/folding the two sides together)

Half a roll of Tulle (mine was 25 ft long. and 6 in. wide. I cut them into 5 by 6 in. pieces)

Embellishments (rhinestone, hearts, etc.)

Ribbon (about 12 inches)

Glue

Boa Valentine's Day Wreath

Well Christmas is over and I am feeling that sad lull that only comes from not having a holiday to look forward to for awhile. Plus, winter holiday crafts are just the most fun to make. Then I thought...why should I wait to start crafting for my second favorite holiday: Valentine's day! It's only two months away!! (:

Pinterest often has 'boa wreaths' and most of the time I do not care for them, mainly because most of them are just wrapped around boa and nothing else. I was a bit apprehensive about trying one myself, knowing that the fluffiness of the wreath would make it hard to attach any embellishments (glueing to  boa fabric is not going to happen, by the way...I have tried many times). Then I though why not use straight pins to add embellishments like I do for all my other wreaths. So, here is my first wreath for the Valentine's day season...

Michael's had a sale on craft Boas. If you go to their holiday Valentine's day sections they have them there. Each strand was about eight feet long and the wreath is 14 inches. It took me eight of the boas to fill in the wreath. As far as the embellishments are concerned I decided to use my cricut to make small periwinkle flowers, using straight pints in the middle so it looks like pollen. I also couldn't make a Valentine's day wreath without a heart. I straight pinned the heart into my wreath and then covered up those pins with a periwinkle flower. If you don't have a cricut you can just use a Martha Stewart flower stamp. The stamp is about ten dollars.

I tied a ribbon behing the wreath with straight pins and then added a decorate bow to the top of the hanger to help hide the nail I put in the wall.

This is a great project to do with your kids, especially for the first part of this craft. Wrapping the boa around the foam wreath is easy and convenient for you to fix if there are a few mess-ups along the way.

Here is what you will need:
14 inch foam ring
8 packages of boas (about 8 feet long each strand)
Pink, White, Red craft paper (or any color that will match the color of your boa, this is for the flowers and the cutout heart)
Straight pins that will look like pollen
Ribbon
A cricut (for flower embellishments) or flower stamp