Princesses and First Post in Forever

I know I haven't been posting.  I could give you a hundred reasons why: I'm pregnant, sick, we're redoing our basement, my house is a disaster....but I'll just say this.

I'm sorry.

Sorry I haven't given you any updates, crafts, Avery stories, home tours.  I've just been so overwhelmed and exhausted to even think about blogging.  But I am still here, I do still love blogging very much, and I promise to update you more (plus, for Christmas, I'm getting my very own laptop!! No more having to borrow Marty's work laptop to hurriedly hash out a blog post!).

I thought as an apology, I'd dive back into the blogging world with a craft post!

It's no secret that Avery and I are Disney fanatics.  Marty, I think, is starting to come around.  He mentioned to me about a month ago about when we'd visit Disney World again. Convert?  I hope so!

So, with Christmas coming, I thought that it was a no-brainer for us to have some Disney-inspired Christmas decor in our house!  I had to reach wayyyyy back in my memory and dig up these amazing Disney Princess Dolls from Taija's Drawing Board--a Tumblr account where one woman posts her AH-MAZE-ZING works of Disney art.  I'm obsessed.  I currently have one of her drawings of Ariel as my phone background.  That's beside the point.

These are the beauties I'm talking about today:

I know they're not overly Christmas-y, but if you look close (and my apologies for the terrible picture and all the ones to follow...it's going to be a goal for 2015 to learn how to take better iPhone pictures) Tiana is holding a gift, Pocahontas is holding a snowball.  In our house, however, these aren't going to be used for Christmas decor.  We're hanging these from Avery's bedroom ceiling.  She's close to exploding with excitement.  Want to learn how to make your own?  Well, then I'm so glad you're here!

Materials Needed:

• string
• scissors
• glue or tape
• cardstock
• crayons/colored pencils/markers
• tissue paper
• string

How to assemble:

1.  Go to Taija's Drawing Board Tumbler page and print off the Princesses.  For me, it was little complicated to do.  When I just right clicked the picture to print it, it was attempting to print the entire Tumblr page.  So, I had to save the JPG image to my computer and then print the picture off.  

You should have 5 pages when you're done, 10 Princesses total. 

2.  Once you have your Princesses printed out, color 'em! 

I printed off 3 copies of each page, two for me to color and one for Avery.  Yes, I'm OCD when it comes to crafts and wanted some of them to look good.  So sue me. 

3.  Once they're colored, cut each Princess out.  You also need to cut a thin rectangle shape out in the middle of the body for the tissue paper to go.  Taija's already made that easy for you and has the lines where you need to cut.

4.  Choose whatever color tissue paper you want for each specific Princess and fold a long piece of tissue paper into an accordion-style.  Make sure you don't have the folds too wide to fit into the rectangle that you cut out of the middle of the Princess. 

5.  Insert the folded tissue paper into the cutout you made in the Princess.

6.  Open each side of the folded paper and tape or glue the ends together.  Add string to the top and you're done! 

The beauty of these little beauties is how versatile they can be.  Hang them from a present for a unique addition to your wrapped box: 

Or make a loop at the top with your string and turn them into ornaments.  Or, do as the Gaddies are doing, and use them as decor in your Princess obsessed child's room.  So many options! 

You can do two colors of tissue paper, cut one in a design and create a layered dress.  Make the dress longer.  Or shorter.....

Add texture to mimic the Princesses real dresses from their actual Disney movie,,,

The possibilities are endless! And the cool thing about the artist that made these is that she has included little tips to the side of each Princess for you to personalize them any way you'd like.  She even teaches you how to make a real paper flower or how to jazz a Princess up with some glitter.  

So, these Princesses are pretty cute, right?  Am I forgiven for not blogging in forever??

DIY Pool Noodle Horses

I'm baaack!  Marty, Avery and I just returned from a week vacation from the beach and a very short trip at Disney World.  *sigh*  Why does real life exist and why can't I just live at Disney all the time?

Anyway.  So now it's back to work, back to my dirty house and piles of laundry and back to blogging.  Hooray!

Today's blog post is going to be all about teaching you how to make these bad boys:

For Avery's 3rd birthday, we did a Disney Jr. themed party.  The invitations were Doc McStuffins, some of the decor was Mickey Mouse, her outfit and cake was Sofia the First, so I felt like Sheriff Callie needed to be represented.  The easiest way I could think of was making Sheriff Callie favors.  Sheriff Callie, like every good cowgirl, has a faithful and trusty steed, Sparky.

I decided every little girl at the party would need her own Sparky to ride off on adventures with.  Enter, Pool Noodle Sparky.  Wanna know how to make your own?  Let's do this thing. 

Materials Needed: 

• Pool Noodles
• Knee socks
• Fabric (for mane)
• Felt (for ears)
• Buttons
• Grocery bags
• Ribbon (for reins) 
• Hot glue

Assembling:

1.)  Determine what size you want your horses to be.  For an older child, I would recommend leaving the pool noodles whole.  I was making horses for a bunch of toddlers, so I decided to cut my noodles in half to accommodate shorter legs. :)   (Dollar General had primary colored noodles for only $1. I wanted neon colors, so I paid a little more for mine at Walmart).

2.)  Take one knee high sock and stuff the end of the sock with grocery bags, tissue paper or some other type of filler.  You want the sock to be able to stand on its own once it's put on the noodle.

3.)  Slide the sock onto one end of the pool noodle, stopping at the heel.  This makes it seem as if the sock is separated into the horse's head and neck.

4.)  Start adding the fabric for the horse's mane.  I made mine with strips of fabric cut into pieces that were about 4 inches wide by 1 inch thick.  None of this was measured exactly, just eyeballed.  

I did a variety of colors and patterns that I knew would coordinate with the socks that I had bought.  You could also use tulle, ribbon or a variety of other materials to make the mane. 

I started by taking a piece of my fabric, twisting it in the middle and then gluing it down to the sock directly with hot glue.  Some pieces were easy to attach, others needed a bit more glue to make sure it wasn't about to fall off and leave my horse bald.

I continued on, picking two or three different patterns and varying them down the sock until I was happy with the length of the mane.  

5.)  Next, I attached the ears.  For the ears, I picked two different colors of pink felt and cut two ear shaped pieces out of both colors--one set being slightly smaller than the other (to go inside the bigger set).

To attach the ears, I pinched the bottom of the ears (at the widest part) together and then glued it to the side of the sock.  I just eyeballed this part to and placed the ears where I thought they looked best.

When you're gluing the ears on, make sure you glue each layer to each other, or the ears won't be nice and folded together like you see in the picture.  So, when you're gluing, glue:  1.  The hot pink piece to the sock.  2.  The light pink to the hot pink.  3.  The light pink to each other, where the ear will meet in the middle.  4.  The hot pink to the light pink.  

Clear as mud?  Just put glue in between every single layer of the ear. 

6.)  Glue on eyeballs.  I picked buttons in a variety of shapes and colors for my eyes.  You could use pom-pom balls, googly eyes, or just draw them on.  

7.)  Attach the reins.  I used ribbon that I had laying around the house.  First, make a circle around the end of the horse's "nose."  Glue that on.  Then, attach one side of the ribbon to the circle, pull out the ribbon and loop it around the neck and mane, and back on the other side of the circle on the nose.  Glue those two ends down and you have your reins.

You're done!  I made nine of these beauties and Avery had to test ride every single one.

She would ride it around the room, declare it to be a "good Sparky for her fwiends" and then test the next one.  Avery approved pool noodle horses, y'all.   You're welcome.

Donations, please?

I posted this on my Facebook page yesterday and got ZERO responses.  Actually, I'm kind of striking out all over the place because, once again, not a single person has joined mine and Sarah's monthly craft challenge.  Maybe I'm getting on everyone's nerves, so they've all stopped reading my stuff.  Strong possibility.  But I digress.

I'm going to try this again here.

WHO WANTS A CHANCE TO WIN A SET OF 8 PEG DOLLS??

(This is the part where you jump up and wave your arms around madly because, YES, you do want your very own set!)

I couldn't make it any easier for you to enter to win.  All you have to do is donate WHATEVER AMOUNT YOU WANT to me and my Relay for Life team.  I will gladly take a $1.  I will more than gladly take $10.  Or $50.

I Relay for my Peepaw, Sheriff Bobby Thomas, who lost his battle to colon cancer in 2001.  Since losing him, I Relay for my mother in law, Arlene.  My mom's friend Ann.  Brooklyn Disselkamp.  Addie Roberts.  So many other people that I know and love and are fighting this stupid a-hole we call cancer.  No one deserves a life of chemo ports and losing their hair.  Please, please help me?  I'm asking for a measly donation to help go towards the fight to find a cure.  And in return, you might win a set of peg dolls.  EVERYONE WINS.

Are you interested yet?  I hope so.

Rules.

1.  I must receive at least 10 entries before a drawing will take place.  (And since I have zero at the moment, I'm a little concerned.)

2.  You must leave your name (and not an anonymous donation) so I know what name to put in the drawing, and then come back to FB, this blog post, and shoot me a comment or a message to let me know that you've donated. 

3.  If you win, you can pick a set of ANY peg doll characters you want.  Here's a few sketches of possible sets that I've done.

DISNEY VILLAINS

SNOW WHITE AND THE 7 DWARFS

But I can literally do any set you have your heart set on.  Disney Junior characters.  The cast of Peter Pan.  Wizard of Oz.  Or, since I'm such a giving person, if you don't want a set of peg dolls, you can pick a painting (an 11"x14" or smaller) of your choosing. 

4.  Click on the link here to donate to my Relay page.  https://secure.acsevents.org/site/Donation2?1011308.donation=form1&idb=737016230&df_id=1011308&FR_ID=59664&PROXY_ID=19356769&PROXY_TYPE=20&__utmk=244071297&__utma=54177207.414484813.1398691356.1398691356.1398693289.2&__utmc=54177207&__utmb=54177207.5.9.1398693303309&__utmx=-&__utmv=54177207.|3=registration%20status=registered=1&__utmz=54177207.1398691356.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none) 

5.  The drawing will close on May 8th at midnight.  I will draw and announce a winner on May 9th at 5pm!



That's all you have to do.  Make a $5 donation and you're automatically entered to win a set of your very own Peg Dolls, a value of $55 for a set of 8!  No brainer, right??

In all seriousness though.  I take my "job" as a Relayer very seriously.  I lost my Peepaw when I was in high school.  He never saw me graduate, never saw me become an FFA State officer.  He never met my husband or my tractor-loving daughter.  I was robbed of getting to spend more time with him.  All because of cancer.  Please, please, please.  Make a donation and help the American Cancer Society find ways for people to spend more time with their loved ones.  Help them find a cure.   Help me fight for a world where my daughter doesn't have to Relay for her loved ones.  I know there are plenty of causes and organizations that are begging for your money.  I'm just trying to make this donation a little more fun and hopefully a little more rewarding for one lucky winner.  Consider it?

"Busy but Crafty" Monthly Challenge: Month TWO

It's time once again for our "Busy but Crafty" monthly craft challenge!

 As you may recall, our last month didn't go so well.  We're hoping for wayyyyy more participation with this month's challenge:

For this month, I'm expecting to see a bunch of wreaths.  I adore wreaths.  But.  I have an irrational fear of birds.

What's that have to do with wreaths?  I've had multiple people tell me their horror story of putting a wreath on their front door,  a bird laid a nest inside the wreath and...... *shudder*.....when they opened their front door, the bird flew IN. THEIR. HOUSE.

Therefore, I am anti-wreath.

So, this month, it was little of a challenge for me to come up with something for my door that I could make.  Usually, when I have a craft, I do research, come up with something that I like and then go buy the components from there.

Not this one.  I had a few ideas in mind, but nothing that "spoke" to me.  So, today, being the slacker I am, I went to Michaels in hopes that I could pull my door decor craft out of something in the aisles.  Luckily, I found something (obviously, or I wouldn't be blogging right now).

Here's my non-wreath door decor craft:

A boxwood door hanging with monogram!

Supplies Needed:

--Boxwood mat
--Wooden or paper mache letter
--Ribbon
--Scrapbook paper (or paint)
--Floral wire
--Outdoor Modge Podge (if you go the scrapbook paper route)

Instructions:

1.  Decorate your letter.  This can be a completely optional step.  I chose to Modge Podge scrapbook paper onto my letter.  You can Modge Podge, you can paint, you can leave it the wood color, it's up to you and your personal tastes.

2.  Tie ribbon to boxwood mat.  (tip: the boxwood mat is a little expensive if regularly priced.  I had a coupon for 40%.  I wouldn't go this route unless you can get the boxwood material for a discounted price.)
Anyway.  I chose a burlap ribbon and tied it to the back of the mat.

3.  Tie the letter to the mat.

I looped some floral wire around the front of the initial and then just twisted it like a bread tie around the back of the mat. 

4.  You're done! 

(note: this is not my door. They're remodeling my kitchen!!! and, since I waited until the very last minute, I had to put together this craft at my parent's house, you're seeing my parent's lovely front door)

I used two different suction cup hangers to hang this on the door.  One, for the ribbon to hang from.  Two, where I hung the actual boxwood from.  I did this because the initial is heavier than the boxwood and the hanger will want to lean forward.  I wanted it to be flush against the door, so I used the two suction cups. 

Now, show us your fabulous, handmade "Door Decor!!" 

We have to have some rules here, first. 

1.  You must link back to either my blog or the Year of Sarah Blog (the link co-host).

2.  Follow both our blogs.  You can do this however your little heart pleases.  Google +, Facebook  (my page is here, Sarah's is here), Bloglovin', etc.  

3.  Your link needs to be a craft blog post.  Please do not link to your Etsy page, business page, own link party or giveaways.

4.  Must be your own original work.

5.  Show some other blogs some love.  Don't we all get the warm fuzzies when we see new blog comments??

(NOTE:  Inlinkz decided to change their rules and isn't showing thumbnails for your link you submit.  We're not happy about that, but it's gotta be that way for this month's challenge.  We promise, we'll have it back to the old, thumbnail view link up next month.  For now, if you want to see what someone else has created, click on the green link in front of their name.  Apologies, a million.)

DIY Pretend Makeup Tutorial

I'm pretty excited about this post.  I love to craft and, unfortunately, I haven't gotten to really make anything (that wasn't for a 28th and Hudson painting order) in quite awhile.  Easter was coming up though, and I'd had this craft in mind for awhile for part of Avery's Easter basket.

Presenting!

DIY play makeup! 

In my house, I have a two year old.....who thinks she's 19.  She has the attitude, the sassiness, and the fascination with makeup.  If Avery's awake in the morning while I'm putting on makeup, she normally wants to sit right beside me and do "her makeup too."  Of course, in my makeup bag, there's very few things I'll actually let her have, out of fear that, if I gave her eyeshadow or powder, the entire contents would end up on my nice clean bedsheets.  So the idea was born that I would make Avery her own makeup. 

Now.  Let me stop with the crafting tutorial right there and just say this, because I know some of you are thinking it, have thought it, are gonna say it......No, I am not teaching my child that she HAS to wear makeup.  No more than buying her that pretty pink dress teaches her that she has to wear dresses in order to feel pretty.  My child is beautiful.  She has a vibrant personality that matches her outward beauty.  She's also two.  When she's old enough, I'll tell her all about her inner beauty and explain to her that we need to spend more time perfecting our inner beauty than covering up any outward blemishes.  I'll explain about the world and how society will tell her she's not pretty unless she has her hair done perfectly, her makeup done flawlessly and her clothes always at the height of fashion.  I will do everything I can to build her confidence and help her understand that she is a beautiful child of God that doesn't need the world's approval to tell her she's beautiful.  But for now, she's my two and a half year old toddler that loves all things girly.  She's a toddler that wants to sneak into Mommy's makeup bag and start taking things out that I don't want her having.  For my TWO year old, that loves Mommy's makeup....and for saving my sanity.....that's why I made this makeup. 

[puts away soapbox]

Back to the tutorial.  

When I first had the idea to get Avery some play makeup, I looked into buying a ready made kid.  Turns out, stores don't really sell them.  I found a couple of plastic lipsticks, but they mostly came in a set with a pretend purse, credit card and car keys.  Not really what I was needing.  So, I turned to Etsy.  And I found some awesome options like this set from Little Cosmetics Shop, this felt set from Kidn Around Creations, or this set from Lipstick and Bowties.  Problems with these:  I don't want to spend that much and I didn't really love the felt look.  I wanted something more real.  

So, I went to my next favorite place on the Internet:  Pinterest.  If you look up DIY play makeup, there are a TON of tutorials on making pretend makeup using nail polish.  Not my favorite idea.  Yes, the makeup looks real, but it's stinky and messy and can get expensive.  Then I saw this idea for making it out of craft foam.  Genius.  To be honest, I saw the picture on Pinterest and didn't even click the link, but the original inspiration came from Playing House. 

This is a VERY inexpensive and fairly easy project to complete.  Let's get started! 

Supplies Needed:

• Sheets of craft foam (I'll explain how many in the steps).
• Craft glue
• Makeup compacts

X-acto knife or scissors

How To:

1.  Remove the makeup. First, take your makeup compacts.  I chose to go with the "Elf Cosmetics" brand that I picked up at my local Target.  The powder, bronzer and brushes were all $1.02 apiece.  The eyeshadows were $2.05 (or very close to it) apiece.  

Obviously, you're going to be replacing the real makeup with foam, so you gotta get the real stuff out of there.  I found it easiest to use a butter knife.  I cut lines across the makeup and rimmed the knife around the edges of the makeup.  This made it easier to cut out. 

2.  Wash the remaining makeup out of the compacts. After cutting the makeup out and dumping it, wash all the compacts out with soap and water. At first, I tried using a sponge and then a wet paper towel and neither one was getting into the sides and getting all the makeup cleaned out.  Finally, I took a hard bristle paintbrush, which worked wonders. 

3.  Let the compacts dry.  Pretty self explanatory.  I let mine dry overnight. 

4.  Cut and glue foam.  This project is fairly simple, but this is the step where things get a little tricky.  After buying my makeup, I decided what colors I wanted to use (one "powder" flesh color, one pink blush and eight eye shadow colors).  

Let's start with the eyeshadow containers.  I lined up the corner of the craft foam sheet with one section of the eyeshadow container.  After lining the corners up, I pressed the sheet down into the compartment and then cut around the edges with my X-acto knife.  

When I had my piece cut out, I pushed it down into the section.  If there was any overhang, I trimmed it down with my X-acto knife.  After it was the shape I wanted, I took the piece back out and applied craft glue with a fairly heavy hand into the single section of the container.

When the glue is down, push the craft foam piece back in.  And voila!  You're done with one eyeshadow color.  

Repeat this process for the other three colors.

Now, for the tricker part.  The circle compacts.  This took a bit of trial and error before I was finally happy with the shape that came out. 

This is the process that seemed to work best for me.  I took the circle compacts, laid a sheet of the craft foam over it and pushed the foam down into the compact.  When you push the foam into the compact, you can see the outline of the inside where the "powder" will go.  I took my X-acto knife and cut around this outline.

Once it was cut, I pushed the circle down into the compact and cut down any excess to make the shape fit into it.  Same rule applies as before.  Once you get the shape you want, lift it back out, put glue down and then put the circle back in.

You're done!

I bought Avery a cute little pink zipper pouch to store her makeup and two makeup brushes to make her feel like an official big girl like Mommy.

Ready for the cost?  Did you see the sets from Etsy that cost $22 and $28 (and up??).

For the makeup, I spent $6.14 (one blush, one bronzer, two eyeshadows).  For the brushes, I spent $2.04.  For the craft foam, I spent $7.11.  BUT.  I'm only going to count what I used of the foam.  I probably used 1/10 of each sheet (and that's being generous.  I only used a sliver of the sheets for the eyeshadow colors).  If I used 1/10, at 0.79 apiece, and 9 colors, I used 0.72 cents worth of foam.  The bag cost me $1.97.  I already had the X-acto knife and the craft glue.  Bringing this total to $10.87.  I can live with that.

And it made one very happy, one very grown up feeling Avery.

Mom win. 

"Busy But Crafty" Monthly Craft Challenge: House Numbers Challenge

It's finally time for mine and Sarah's very FIRST "Busy but Crafty" Monthly Craft Challenge!!  We're so excited about this.  We're both just two moms of young kids that wish we had more time to craft....voila!  That's how this link up was born.  Each month, we want to give you the opportunity to take a little time out of your busy schedule to get some crafting therapy going.

This month, we challenged you to make a craft using your house numbers.  We asked you to be creative, and now I can't wait to see what you've come up with!  **scroll down to the bottom to join the link up party**

For my craft this month, I chose to bring a little Springtime inside my house (since the winter here in Kentucky has decided that it never wants to end.  Ever.).

Moss Covered Numbers!

This craft was fairly simple to execute, but very, very messy.  You've been warned.


Materials Needed:

--Paper Mache letters or numbers.  (I picked mine up at Hobby Lobby, but any craft speciality store should carry them)

--Moss mat/adhesive backed moss sheets (Also picked up at Hobby Lobby)

--Super glue
--Scissors

That's it.

How to make these fabulous mossy letters for your decor:

1.  Take your letter/number and lay it down on the back side of the moss mat.  Be sure to trace the number backwards, otherwise, you'll have moss for the back of the number/letter you're wanting to trace, not the front.

2. Trace around the shape with a permanent marker.  I tried pen at first, but the backing is too thick and I couldn't see where I was marking.

3.  Cut the shape out.  The particular moss mat I purchased wasn't hard to cut through, so I just used regular scissors.  I would think an exacto-knife would work just as well, just make sure you have something to protect the surface you're cutting on. 

4.  Glue the moss to your shape.  Continue cutting pieces to cover the sides as well.  

5. You can take some of the extra strands of moss and glue it on where you can see the seams where you glued individual pieces on. 

6.  Clean up your mess.  Because this crap will be everywhere.  It's pretty bad when my 2 year old tells me "Mommy, you made a BIIIIIIG mess." 

7.  Enjoy!

Some of you may be wondering, why 139?  Remember a couple of weeks ago, when I talked about paying homage to our old house?  Well, I printed out the picture that I Waterlogued.  139 was our house number when we lived in Bardstown.  I wanted it to be represented along with the picture.  For now, I have these numbers sitting beside the picture of our old house.  Eventually though, when I get the courage to do it., I want them to be a part of the gallery wall I'm going to build around my giant clock.

There you go.  There's so many possibilities that can happen with this project.  A monogram.  A single initial.  Words on tables at a wedding reception.  When I was in Hobby Lobby to buy my supplies for this project, they had an entire leaflet on craft projects with moss.  I'm particularly loving the stenciled moss glued onto a canvas.  So unique.

Now, it's YOUR turn!!  We want to see what you're doing creatively with your house numbers!  First though, let's get a couple of rules out of the way.

1.  You must link back to either my blog or the Year of Sarah Blog (the link co-host).

2.  Follow both our blogs.  You can do this however your little heart pleases.  Google +, Facebook  (my page is here, Sarah's is here), Bloglovin', etc.  

3.  Your link needs to be a craft blog post.  Please do not link to your Etsy page, business page, own link party or giveaways.

4.  Must be your own original work.

5.  Show some other blogs some love.  Don't we all get the warm fuzzies when we see new blog comments??

An InLinkz Link-up