NEW***Stenciled Glue Gun Stands

Remember the Hot Glue Gun Stands I showed you last week?  Well, these are my stenciled, distressed versions :0}

LOooOVe THeM!!!

I painted them up in vibrant colors, 

then made stencils myself on my Silhouette!!!  I can't even tell you how exciting THAT was for me :0}

I sanded, glazed, stenciled, sanded, then glazed the stands again.

Each one was shot with a thick coat of polyurethane to keep them looking fashionable for years to come!  In the next couple days I hope to get my deluxe, blinged up models put together.  

Until then, you can purchase the Glue Gun Stands on my Etsy.  

The painted stands are selling for $10

 and the painted/stenciled stands are selling for $15. 

You can buy them HERE 

Have a smaller budget?  You can purchase the unpainted versions for $5.  

You can buy them HERE.

100% of that cost is going towards getting my Madison to the Rose Parade this January to march with her marching band.  Being new in the area, once again, is tough.  Fundraising is an utter failure when you know 3 people in town :0}  That is why over the next couple weeks you will be presented with many new products all created in an effort to do a little online fundraising.  

$2000 is a lot of money to come up with, but we will do it, 

One Crafting Adventure At A Time!!!

Bitty Baby Bash

We finally got our party pack from American Girl and House Party!!!  Back in August Emmalee won the chance to host a Bitty Baby House Party from American Girl  and HouseParty.com.   She waited not so patiently for the box to arrive and was dancing on the couch when she witnessed the UPS man carrying it to the door.

The box was full of all sorts of goodies AND...

Emmalee's Bitty Baby!

Not just a Bitty Baby, but also a new outfit, two story books, a Bitty Wishing Star, and an adorable stuffed polar bear featured in one of the story books!

For the next week we planned, prepared, and FINALLY got to host our Bitty Baby Party.

We invited old friends as well as some of our new friends from school and church.  Everyone was asked to bring their favorite baby or stuffed animal to play with.

We started out talking about how to help take care of a baby.  As it turned out, Emmalee was the ONLY girl there without a little brother or sister.  The girls were so cute an already knew just what to do with their babies.  

Kalan was one of the youngest girls there and she was the very fastest to diaper her baby.  She must be a great helper to her mamma ;0} 

 I purchased a bag of no-name newborn diapers for $5 from Walmart and gave each girl 3 or 4 diapers to take home for playtime later.

We also talked about feeding our babies and gave all the girls disappearing milk bottles {purchased at Dollar Tree} and let them take those home too.

Next we talked about bathing and swaddling the babies.  The girls all took turns giving baby a bath, then we practiced swaddling the babies in some nice stretchy knit blankets.

The last thing we did was talk about how babies have to go to the doctor a lot when they are little.  I happened upon a fabulous sale at the thrift store and got this pair of scrubs for just a buck or two.  I cut the legs off so they would be short enough for the little girls, but with the drawstring waist anyone can wear them!

I also happened across an actual doctor's coat at the same sale.  The girls all got a chance to dress up and play doctor.

I found some doctor's kits at Target for $1 and was so excited to hand those out to the girls to take home as well.  The babies were all checked out by their own doctor moms.

Finally, I passed out the goody bags given to us by American Girl so they could pack up all their goodies.  I had them put all their own diapers and such in their bags so nothing was lost or left behind.  We did make sure to keep lots of diapers and other things around for the girls to use to play with. 

Emmalee and I made this mailbox over summer break and brought it up to play with too.  It was a huge hit!  I grabbed a pile of bills {who needs them anyway} and let the kids load and empty the mailbox just like they have seen their mamas do.  

After the girls were all played out, Scott took them into the front room, along with some of the mother's that stayed to help, and read one of the stories American Girl had sent with our Bitty Baby.

Eli helped me clear out the toys and hurry to set up our tea party.  We had all sorts of goodies, crackers and chips, cookies, cupcakes, fruit and cheese.  

Somehow I managed to talk Eli into putting on the old "Man-Up" dress-up {WAAAAAY too short for him now!} and play the waiter for our tea party.

I think the biggest hit of the party was the lemonade.  I made the lemonade with half the powder it calls for, so it was not sweet at all.  Then I put a bowl of sugar cubes on the table and showed the girls how to stir the sugar into their lemonade to make it simply delicious!  They loved it :0}

While the girls ate and chatted, Scott and I filled the goodie bags with all the OTHER fun things American Girl had sent.  There were coloring pages, wishing stars, coupons, stickers, and even a 8x10 puzzle they all got to keep.

Thank you American Girl and HouseParty.com for hosting our fabulous Bitty Baby bash!  The girls all had a total blast and will always remember the fun they had with all the great prizes they got to take home!

Hot Glue Gun Stands

 

I LOvE my hot glue gun stands.  I use them daily.  Seriously.  I usually have multiple stands all through the house, so that no matter what room I happen to be crafting in, I can just plug in a glue gun and get to work.

Back when my clippie madness started to take off, I ended up hiring people to help me put the clips together.  One bonus of becoming my indentured servant was I gave every helper a glue gun and a stand to make the job easier.  I made a lot of friends that way.  

I also made a new batch of glue gun stands each Super Saturday for all the ladies to use all over the gymnasium.  My helpers, as well as many of the ladies crafting, kept coming up and asking if they could take the stands home.  The third year of  my Super Saturday reign, I actually put the glue gun stands on the craft line-up so people could purchase and put together their own. 

{Please ignore my gross looking glue gun by the way!}

As I have been trying to come up with fund raising ideas for Madison's marching band fund, I decided to put these babies up for sale on my Etsy and see if I could bring in a little extra for Pasadena this December.  What a horrible time to have to pay thousands of dollars, I mean really.  She leaves the day after Christmas to march in the Rose Parade AGAIN!

Anyway, rather than fuming about that, here are my glue gun stands.  I have the plain, unpainted stand for sale for $5.   You can purchase the unpainted or painted version HERE with this Etsy listing.
The stands come with either a black or a white glossy tile glued down with a high-endurance glue.  It will arrive assembled and ready to go!  

I also plan to sell various painted versions, but I will have to show you those later.  It is Friday night and all I want to do is go to bed!  What a party pooper.  I hope you have more energy tonight than I do.  Go have some fun, get some sleep, then check back in tomorrow and I will show you the crazy things I have done to decorate these stands.  I just know you are gonna want one!!!

Sewing with Monster Girl

Emmalee chose to sew as her craft for today.  We grabbed some felt, needles, upholstery thread and went to work.  I forgot that Emmers has a fabulous set of Melissa and Doug sewing cards that she uses all the time.  I had no idea playing with them was preparing her for hand sewing, DUH!

I was sure we were going to end up with me doing everything and Emmalee running around bored as can be.

I let go of my perfectionism, locked my lips, and handed her the felt with the threaded needle knotted to it.  Away she went!  At first she was telling me how sewing is so easy...

So cute!  She did that whole thing herself!!!

She decided she needed an apple for the monster to hold since this week is "A" week at Kindergarten.  I handed her a flower that had been punched out of red felt {the only scrap of red I could find-time to go to the store :0}.  She cut this apple out and asked me to thread a needle with red thread.  

She picked out white thread for her mouth...all by herself!  She mastered it.  I am so proud!  She says she is going to make a whole pile of monsters.  Now instead of doing anything else, she will make monsters.  She decided we could then sell them!  LUckY you!!!  Her price is only $1 {so we can go to the dollar store lots of times}.  That said, get your orders in quickly.  I don't know exactly how long her attention span will allow her to make these precious little guys :)

We finished making our monsters just in time to eat a little of our favorite lunch, cheese sandwich with mayo, mustard, and dill pickles.  Want some :0}  It was all I could eat the first 6 weeks after I found out I was pregnant with Madison.  Yumm!

Mr. SewCakeMaker thinks I am nuts......he is right.

The other little guy is mine.  I started out with the same shape.  I just pinched the corners and roped them off with thread to make ears.  LOvE It!!!

Arielle

I got to do another Senior Picture shoot this past weekend with this darling model

Her name is Arielle.  She was such a cute girl to spend the afternoon with.  We found a fabulous location in Maple Grove, MN to capture her beauty surrounded by the gorgeous trees and water that are both so lush here in Minnesota.

These are just a few of my favorites.  

It is crazy to spend time going back through and critiquing my own work.  I enjoy seeing some of my skills improve, and yet there are so many I wish I could improve.  Posing is one of those areas that I need real work in.  Where to put those darn hands is what gets me every time.  I don't really think you can study up on that though.  It seems that more experience is what makes that work better.  

Being in a new location was a challenge this time too.  I had never actually been to this particular area ever before.  I didn't know what to expect or what poses work well in certain areas and which ones do not.  I guess I have an idea now :0}  Anyone want to be next???  I am head over heals in love with this park and can't wait to go back and give it another go!

Thanks Arielle for letting me take your pictures.  I hope your senior year is a great one!

New!!! 1" Mini Nativity Ornaments

Everything is cuter in miniature!!!  That includes my nativity silhouette ornaments :0} 

I have requests all the time for ornaments that can be handed out as gifts to kids in Sunday School classes or as friend gifts.  Now I have these little darlings to offer and at a totally affordable rate.  

I have these for sale on my Etsy site also.  You can purchase each piece separately, or mostly assembled, or totally finished, decorated with greenery and berries.  These ornaments consist of all the same supplies as the bigger counterparts, vinyl nativity cutout, clear ornament insert, and the clear bulb.  However, these ornaments are only 1 1/4" wide!!!  They are adorable!

I had my little Emmalee, age 5, hold one in her hand so that you could see just how small they are.

The bulbs I used were purchased at Hobby Lobby, 24 for $6.  Hobby Lobby also has just a slightly bigger ornament, about 1 1/2" made not out of glass, but shatterproof plastic.  They are just a little more, 12 for $5, but again...shatterproof! I was hoping these bulbs would be a great choice for my project, but it turns out they DON'T WORK for this particular style.  The holes are too small to get the acetate circles into, plus they are rather jagged.  You can, however, put the nativity on the outside of the ornament if you are determined to use shatterproof.  

 If you decide to order ingredients from me, do tell me if you buy the plastic ornaments so I can give you nativities that are just a little bigger.  Btw, the plastic ornaments are found back in the general craft section, not necessarily in the holiday section.

I had one customer buy a bunch of these small ornaments to use on their Christmas gifts as part of the wrapping.  How cute would that be to have an ornament tied onto a gift by the bow.  LOVE IT!

Anyway, I am so excited about this ornament set.  I have them for sale at the following prices:

$ 4.00 Mini Nativity Silhouettes, 24

$ 4.00 Acetate ornament inserts, 24

$ 6 box of glass bulbs, 24 bulbs

$10.00 Fully assembled and decorated ornaments, 1 dozen 

You can check out the listing HERE.  Want half that many???  Just let me know.  No problem.  Need lots???  Contact me and we will see if we can work out some kind of discount.

Feel free to drop by my Etsy and see what else I have for sale :0}