Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts

June 13, 2013

Father's Day Mini album...for our Rad Dad

Last year for Father's Day, I threw together this cute little book for $2...No joke!
I downloaded the files from the rockstar chicks at Eighteen25, and printed at home for free. The photo album was $1.99 at Target.  I asked the kids several questions to fill out the question sheets (hilarious), and inserted them in the album.  It was so easy, and Dan LOVED it!

If you've followed this blog for about five minutes, you know I love me some Project Life, so I was so excited when I saw the Rad Dad kit available a AC Digitals!  ( It's still on sale by the way...$5.59)
I scoured my photo files from the last 12 months and found all my "Dad" pictures, and had them printed up along with the digital elements from the kit.  Sadly, there were no Project Life Mini albums at Hobby Lobby when I was there, so I made do with what I could find.  Here is what I came up with:
Just noticed the tag is hanging out.  Nice... 
Let's hope he loves it!  If not, he should be thrilled with the Keurig coffee maker I'm giving him after he opens this :)

December 6, 2012

New Christmas Tradition


With the kids being so little and not really understanding the concept of time, we often make paper chains to count down to a big event, or trip.  It helps them to visualize how much longer they have until the day will be here.  (How many "sleeps" they have left!).  

I've been seeing this idea floating around on Pinterest and decided to give it a try this year!  The idea is to gather up a bunch of Christmas/holiday books and wrap them up.  Each night before bed, the kids get to unwrap one book and read it.  It is something fun we can do as a family, and helps them see how many days are left before Christmas.  
To my surprise, we only had about 4 or 5 Christmas books, so I went to the library while they were at school and checked out a ton of Christmas books.  (Saved me money, and we can get a fresh selection next year!)
Last night I brought out the basket and let them each open one since it was the first night.  (I wasn't sure how I would let them decide who got to pick the first book...lots of fighting over who goes first these days!)  I tried to get an even selection of Santa-ish stories, as well as stories about the birth of Jesus...just to keep things real around here!  With the commercialization of Santa as well as me shoving "Elf-on-the-shelf" down their throat every morning, I want to make sure they understand the true meaning of Christmas.

I think this should be a fun new tradition we can continue each year.

October 30, 2012

Halloween Memories

Is there anything cuter than chubby little faces and fuzzy Halloween costumes?  I think not!  I love looking back at the kids over the last four years.
So adorable!  

The last few years we haven't been able to keep our annual Pumpkin Carving Contest going, but while the tradition was alive...it was EPIC!  (and I will not brag about pulling off a three-peat win with my Sister Meg.)  Here are some of the awesome pumpkins we've made:
We don't mess around.  I have a feeling with tomorrow's weather forecast  it's probably not going to be the best Halloween.  Oh well, I guess we'll just make the best of it!  Have fun and be safe!  

March 14, 2012

Spring Crafts and Decoration

Now that the weather has been feeling much more spring-like, I have been inspired to reflect these feelings inside the house as well!  Since I spend 90% of my life in this house, I am obsessed with decorating for each season.  Mix that with my obsession with Pinterest and we are in big trouble!  I found a few pinterest ideas and had to try them out.  Here is what I came up with!
I swear I "pinned" this at some point, but I couldn't seem to find it, so I just recreated it from memory.  So easy!  I had the vase sitting around, grabbed a package of Peeps at the grocery store along with some colorful Jelly Beans (I think these were Skittle or Starburst Smoothie Flavor?) and picked out some (SUPER CHEAP-O) tulips from the dollar store.  Dump them all together, and Bam...instant Centerpiece.  Very cheap too.  Maybe a cute gift to bring to teachers, or your Easter Dinner Hostess?
Next up, I decided to spruce up my Stove/Oven/Range/Hood...whatever you call it.  Can you tell I'm so savy in the kitchen???  I call it my new Spring Decor Shelf, that's what I call it!
This may have been the cheapest of all my Easter/Spring decor.  
I had all the supplies in my scrapbook stash to make the banner and the bunny frame.
I used some Kraft then white Cardstock to make each flag, and fun spring-y cardstock to make each letter.  We had some twine in the garage and I just punched holes in each flag to tie to another large piece that attaches to the top of the cabinet. ( It is a very scientific process:  I tied the twine to some heavy serving spoons and tossed them on top of the cabinets hoping they wouldn't fall.  Yup, very scientific)
Hobby Lobby had all their Easter stuff 30 or 40% off so I picked up a few of these wooden eggs for some color.  I think they were $2.99, so around $2 a piece??  Not only am I scientific, but I'm really good at math in my head.
The bunny frame was a must because after all the rest of the decor was up there, I had a big empty space right in the middle that needed to be filled.  I just Googled "bunny silhouette", printed out a this little bunny, then traced him on black cardstock.  All you PL-ers...do you recognize the patterned paper from Clementine?  Used a frame I had sitting around and BAM...another free little accent.  
I "pinned" this adorable tree months ago and knew immediately that I wanted to make this.  (you know, because I love labor intensive, arthritis inducing crafts)
It didn't turn out AS cute as the original crafter's, but I still love it.

Like I said, this was very time consuming, lots of steps, lots of work, but I had fun doing it.  There is a great tutorial here, but I snapped a few pics of the steps to discourage you from trying encourage you to make one!
The longest part was making all the leaves.  I cut out some cardboard as a template to try to make the leaves as uniform as possible.  Then rummaged through my paper stash and found some Spring-y colors and patterns.  Trace, cut, trace, cut, trace cut, ignore your kids, trace, cut, trace, cut.
 Gather some good branches from your yard and try to arrange them to create the fullest efffect.
 Again, the tutorial shows how she glued the two sides of the leaves together with a wire running down the center to create the stability and give it something to attach the branch.  Then you just wrap the wire around the branch to create the look you are going for.  I broke several branches during this step and had to keep shortening my branches.  Find good sticks to start with.
I'm glad I made two different sizes of leaves so it gave the tree some variety.

I've been thinking of spray painting the vase, but that seems like a ton of work.  So it will stay this way...for now.
So things are looking a little Spring-y.  Here's a few more Easter Decorations.  
Felt banner was $3.99 at Target...Love!  Loving this weather!  Loving the time change and having daylight at 7:30pm.   Loving this time of year!  

February 8, 2012

Feelin' the Love | Valentine's Decor

I love decorating for the season or holiday.  If I'm going to be in this house all day every day, I at least want it to look festive.  Last year I used most of these ideas around the house...old post here.

I found this super adorable idea on Pinterest and decided to give it a try.





If you are looking for an inexpensive yet time consuming, labor intensive craft that it sure to give you carpel tunnel syndrome and hot glue burns and blisters, this is for you!  They turned out adorable, but two was all I could handle.  Maybe if I would have made them with smaller styrofoam balls???  Ah well, we live and we learn.
I paired these little death balls with a cute *FREE* printable from my pal Becky Higgins.  Click here to download for yourself.  You can thank me later.
Here's another one.  They can both be found in the free section I linked above.  This was one of my dollar store frames spray painted pink.  I've used these for several little projects in the past.
Next up, I gathered all the silver frames I had and swapped out the photos for my "XOXO" collection.  I made these last year, I think, inspired by the lovely ladies at Tatertots and Jello.  Scrapbook paper, clear glass pebbles, glue...Super easy, super cheap, super cute.
I also made a little heart with my stones and grouped it with any red/pink/white frame I had sitting around.
There are so many great ideas out there.  Are you ready for Valentines day?

Oh yeah...I just picked up my prints for B's Valentines for his class...how cute are these??

Are you kidding me?  Again, free printable.  I can fit 2 on a 4x6 photo and printed them at Costco for $.09 or $.13 or something.  Couple packs of Fun Dip and BAM...adorableness!