Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Baby Invites

So a sweet little lady friend of mine is having her fourth, a girl, and I was asked to do her shower invites. Do I ever LOVE to come up with a new card idea. I, of course, couldn't find any examples to copy-cat, and was forced to make my own. Naturally I couldn't just make one and run with it, so here are all of the "samples" I made.

This was my first idea. I was inspired by all those cute baby bum cakes made out of fondant. I loved it, but wasn't sure anyone would know what they were looking at. Of course I lost a toe before I took the picture, and being too lazy to make a new one just for this post, my baby only has 9.

Next I made this little birdie.

The diaper was cute, but a lot of work and tons of paper. Where she needed 35 invites I opted to save myself a whole day of work and not pick it.


This is the one I decided to do. A pacifier. I hope you can tell it is a pacifier. Whatever it looks like, I think it is still cute. I used the same paper on all of the invites so that the choice would be based on the actual card, not the cutest paper.

This is the actual card mailed out. I picked paper I could use with the stack of green card stock I didn't use for Christmas Cards since I opted out of them this year. I went the cheaper route with the rinestones and got the little bag and glued them on myself instead of using the pre-glued (which would have been tons easier)!

Here they all are! 35 cards made inbetween spring chicks, family of 8 visiting for a week, and various other activities. Now for the shower decorations!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Fake Cake Re-Make



Here is my fake cake with a makeover!!! I re-did the fabulous time saver and used it as a center piece for our RS Birthday Party. I primed and painted and glued on these funky flowers. It was a big hit. Now where to store the thing. It would make a lovely hat holder :0)

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Spring Chick


Spring is here and THIS CHICK IS READY FOR SPRING!!! The three chicks that live in this house have been soooooo busy making this fun project with every friend we know, almost. We have had atleast 4 chick-making parties 'cause they are soooo cute, easy and cheep-cheep. These are the chickies we made with our first group of groupies.

Of course my own cutie chicky had to paint too. I just couldn't resist putting her picture in here too.

More chicks, more bow options. I got the chick body from The Wood Connection in Salt Lake City two years ago and finally got around to doing something with it. They painted their chick, but I thought the mod podged paper would make the project more fun.


Here are the supplies you will need. Wood pieces, good luck with that one, paper-the thicker the better, scissors, modge podge, foam and/or brisle brushes, paint for edges and black for the eyes, and plastic for under the table. You might also want a sanding block, distressing ink, feathers or feather boa for the hair, misc. ribbons or flowers and blush or paint for cheeks.

Trace the pieces face down on the wrong-side of the paper. You want to cut the pieces out just inside of the line. It is better for the pieces to be too small(you will have paint behind them just incase) than to have them too big and hanging over the edge.

When your pieces are cut out, you can paint the wood. I paint the sides first, then the back, and then just the edge of the front like this...

Next, modge podge the wood. Slop it on there. I use a small sponge brush and just dip it into the jar, don't bother pouring it into a bowl or plate and wasting the expensive stuff.

A friend told me that if you paint the back of the paper also, it will have less chance of bubbling up on you. Don't know if it is true, just do it and hope it is. The best way to prevent the paper from bubbling up is to use thicker paper. The thin stuff just bubbles no matter what you do. Go for the better paper or just plain cardstock and save yourself the headach. You want to work quickly though, so the glue doesn't start to dry. If it does, just slop some more on and keep going :0)

Next, apply the paper to the wood pieces and rub the living daylights out of them. I start in the middle and work my way out. It seems to get the bubbles out fairly well. You can also use one of those bone tools Martha always uses. I have one but it was taken to be a Barbie diving board and has never been heard of again :0(

Sand or cut off the little over-hanging edges, if any :0)

Ink the edges with distressing ink then apply a top coat of modge podge to all pieces.

OK, hot glue on the feather boa and bows or flowers to the top of the head. *Optional* Brush the cheeks with blush or stipple them on with paint. Hot Glue the feet and beak. Dot the eyes with the end of your brush and some black paint.

Finished product!!! So hip-chick!



These dollies were made by my 11 year old daughter and my 9 year old son. They did a fabulous job and their chicks are a welcomed addition to our springy family!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Disney Give a Day, Get a Day

We participated in Disney's Give a Day Get a Day program where you volunteer for a day and then you get a free pass to Disneyland!!! I think it is cheating cause you should just volunteer because of the goodness of your heart, not because you are getting something. Obviously that didn't stop me from accepting the tickets! We got to volunteer at a retirement village picking the fruit from the trees. It was really fun!
Just look at the family togetherness it inspired! Sibling love.

We were actually kind of sad there were so many people there. They were only expecting like 40 and ended up with 200. We were supposed to be there from 8-noon, and were finished in an hour. Good thing though, cause it started to down-pour, thats right, instant rain in Arizona. Weird.
My kids now need to go to home depot and buy one of these things cause they had so much fun using it. I try to remind them that we, ourselves, don't have an orange tree. They think we can just walk the streets and pick the city trees that they fail to glean. Any opinions on that? Still not buying the fruit picker though.
Why buy a fruit picker when you gave birth to one, I say.
February 2010

Lego Head Cake

Here was Eli's request for his cake this year- A Lego Guy's Head. I told him I thought it would be a smashing idea, but I would only do it if I could fill the head with vanilla pudding dyed pink so that when we cut into the cake the pudding would ooze out all over the place. My husband forbid it saying it would traumatize the children and the other mothers wouldn't approve. I guess that means... I have to do it now!
Several problems followed. I baked three 8" cakes and a 6" short one to go on top for the lego connector piece. I cut the middle out of one of the 8" cakes and filled it with slurpalicious vanilla pudding. Torte, stack, torte, stack...crack..ooze..sniff, sniff, yell for help. The pudding oozed all right! I didn't make the cake from scratch or use my top-secret way to make a cake mix into pound cake like i should have. Instead I baked more cakes, this time 10", baking a 6" pan filled with beans (for weight) into the middle thinking if the hole were baked in to the center it wouldn't crack. Wrong. It cracked, big time too. So, final decision, make cake ball stuff (fabulous Christmas treat-baked cake, stir in frosting, dip in chocolate, eat all by yourself) with destroyed cakes, smoosh into hole, cover with frosting, add next layer, fill with melty ice cream, freeze, and frost at the party is starting. Whew...Who's idea was this anyway!
Pulled it off, don't you love all the junk on top of my fridge. Don't you just love how pictures taken randomly can show you how horrible you are at housekeeping? Anyway, did a two face lego guy. One side smiling, and at Eli's request, with dots on his face to show five-o'clock-shadow, one side trembling with fear at the suggestion we eat him!
I served this whole, six cake mix cake, and threw away the leftovers. Good riddins!

Eli's Lego Party

OK, spoiled boy is 9 and wanted a Lego party. We made invitations out of soap boxes, yes, we emptied all of dad's Irish Spring soap boxes, glued cut up toilet paper roll cores(wrapped in paper) to the tops, and spray painted them orange, the only color I had other than black and white. Eli put the written invite inside, along with a handful of legos, and delivered them to his friends. A month or two before I bid on some Legos on Ebay. It was like 6lbs of legos. I bid $35 as my max bid and lost, but got a second chance offer the next day to buy them at $35. The box came in the mail like the next day(all the way from Mesa takes a long time =0) We loved the box overflowing with legos so much we decided to order another. This time I only bid $32 and got them the same way as before. We used one box to build with, the other to give the boys in goody bags. We still ended up with tons left over, yeah for Eli!
So we had three competitions: Tallest tower-everyone built a tower in like 3 minutes and then we judged and gave out prizes.
Then we had a mystery build-we had cards that Eli and I came up with, that had things the kids had to build. When 5 minutes was up the kids took turns guessing what each other built, then the kid told what the card said. We gave prizes to each boy like, Most original, Easiest to tell what it was, Most Lego-rific!
After we ate lunch, we had a car competition. Our lovely grandma had purchased wheels and axles for us at the Lego Store. Each boy had time to build and race a couple cars before the competition. Then they build their best car and we judged and gave out prizes. Then we let the boys take their cars home. It was a huge hit!
February 2010

She has Hair!!!

Ladies, pull out the magnifying glass, we have piggies!!! Not only do we have piggies, but miss Emms reminds me to put them in if I forget! I didn't think I would ever be allowed to do her hair. For the last who-knows-how many months she ripped out anything I even held near her hair. Now piggies just aren't enough, she wants bows! Its a dream come true. Now we are late to church each week cause I don't have any bows made and we can't go to church with such pitiful little piggies and no bows!
As you can see, she has hair in the back. And no, I didn't cut her bangs this short! They simply refuse to grow. The hair on the top of her head has grown, but all hair stops here. What is a girl to do. Just don't blame the mamma!

January 2010

Twilight-New Moon Marathon!!!

I decided I could put this on my crafty blog since I "made" them all go with me! I wasn't twisting very hard though. We had a blast and Mary, my darling friend who came along for the girl factor, had not a clue what the books or the movies were even about. After the above picture was taken, about 2:30 am, she had a clue, let me tell you!
These girls went like four hours early to save seats. The marathon was such a blast. I can't wait to do it in June for Eclipse! I would go to all three if it were an option. The whole theater laughed and giggled, hooted and hollered through Twilight, and fell completely silent for the whole of New Moon. Loved the ending by the way!!!!
November 2009

Pinwood Derby 2010

Man were we off to the races in our Pinewood Derby this year. It was Eli's second derby, the first on I was in charge of (yikes)! We had a lot of fun planning it though! We got traffic cones from the city and lined the track with them wrapped in these checker flags. We had the race posting up so that the kids could keep track of their standing.
These fine gentlemen were our judges. Below is our wonderful wolf leader not too happy to have her picture taken.
I copied most of the things we did from our fabulous Primary president who put the derby on last year with such style and class as has never been seen before. I did ad my own little things here and there. Like the concession stand. I brought my quilting frame, set it up on a table and draped a sheet from the top of the wall down to the frame. We filled the stand with popcorn donated by the local theater, marshmallow pops and other treats cleverly named car-related things like grease swabs and axle rods, etc. We gave each child three tickets they could redeem for treats of their choice and had the activity day girls run the stand. Total hit!

This would be my son! Overall winner!!!! He planned long and hard what design to use for his car. Thanks to mom ruining the first one, he had a second chance to change his mind, landing on this beauty! He can't wait to go to the district race and give that one a go!

February 2010

Novelty Print Quilt Pattern

I have had a hard time finding good quilt patterns for novelty prints the past couple times I purchased them.  I made up this pattern so tha...