Childs Art Display

OHHH I am SO excited to share this with you! This is my first ever picture tutorial!



Miss A. is crazy for crafting (I wonder where she got THAT from!? lol) She is constantly drawing, painting, gluing, and creating works of art for her dad and I. I have always needed a good place to display and keep her works of love. I finally came up with this cheep and easy idea. I am THRILLED with how it turned out!

Main Supplies-
Ball of twine
Clothes pins
Decoupage glue
Scrapbooking paper
Ribbon




Start the project by cutting a length of twine slightly longer than your desired finished length.


Next tie a loop at both ends of the twine


Next cut strips of your paper the size of your clothes pins


Decoupage the paper strips onto the clothes pins


Once these are dry use a sharp craft knife to cut a small strip of the paper off and allow the wire on the clothes pin to show. I also sanded and inked the edges of the clothes pin to give them a finished distressed look.

Next cut your ribbon in to several varied lengths. The lengths should be no shorter than about 2 inches and no longer than about 6 inches.



Now to assemble your art display
Tie the ribbon onto the twine about every two inches.
Clip the clothes pins onto the twine.


Now use some nails to hang your art display! Simply hook the loops of your twine over the nail and you have a beautiful and fun way to show off all your child's work!




ENJOY!

Photo Fun!

I have a quick photo tip for you today! Here is a QUICK way to give your photos some extra WOW!

Chose the photo you want to use. This technique particularly works well with portraits.
Open your photo in any photo editing program. You can get a free photo editing program called GIMP.

With your photo open find your 'burn' tool. It usually looks something like this


Now grab a large round brush shape and run it around the edges of your photo. I usually like to have my brush opacity set to about 50% for this.



Suddenly your photo has some pizzas, dimension, and a professional touch!
ENJOY!

Post-a-paloosa

I have about a million things to post on here. Really what I SHOULD do is just one post a day until I am caught up..... but since I come up with new post ideas everyday... I am NEVER going to get caught up!

I also have a confession to make. I think I am ill..... ill with HOBBY RAT PACKING. At least that is what I am calling it! With this new blog I find myself thinking of all these great craft things.... and GETTING the stuff for them... but never WORKING on anything! For example this last week I found myself uncontrollably drawn to yard sales and thrift stores. I collected ANYTHING that was inexpensive and I could see a project in. Now what I have is a pile of dirty old broken things that need some serious attention ASAP.



Scary isn't it!!! I will get to them... I just have to spend more time CRAFTING and less time craft HUNTING!

On to the posting!! I am adding a bunch of projects to my to-do list, and finally putting up a few of my own projects. ENJOY!

Finaly something made by ME!!!!

This idea was born because I needed a SIMPLE and CHEEP way to make a great Family Home Evening chart. This could also be used for chore charts! Really pretty self explanatory.. but I will give the instructions anyway.


Supplies
A unique wooden shape for each person involved in your chart.
A wooden square for each assignment you will need. (I like to have as many of these as I have people)
Magnets with adhesive on one side
Paint/brush
Sharpie marker

Instructions-

Take your unique wooden shapes and use the Sharpie to write each persons name on one of them. You can buy them pre-painted like I did, or get them un-painted and do them yourself. (might be fun to let your kids each do their own.)

Paint your wooden squares. When dry use the Sharpie marker to write an assignment on each square.

Stick a magnet on the back of each piece and put them up! You are ready to start using your chart!

The kids love to rotate the magnets each Monday after our FHE. Even Mr. B who can't read knows which shape is his. This cost probably around 5$ to make and has worked wonders!

Christmas gift find!

I found this great tutorial a while ago. I think my kids would play with this for HOURS! I love that it takes up so little space compared to most play kitchens!


The tutorial for this is on Balancing Everything. But I actually found it through one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE craft blogs U Create

Then today I found this great set of links to FELT FOOD projects!!!
Find it here on One Pretty Thing
LOVE IT! Too bad I hate sewing....... We will have to see if I can actually get any of this stuff made by Christmas!

Flower Fantastic!

These are some BEAUTIFUL rosettes. I can't wait to try these out and see how many different craft projects I can use them with!!

Find the instructions at Sis BOOM

OOOHHHH... this is an idea I was THRILLED to find! I have the perfect way to use these!! Remember that pile of thrift store junk!? One of those projects is about to collide with this GREAT idea!!

Find the instructions on 'The Happy Home Blog'

Kids Snake

This is just a fun idea. I have also seen this done where you stuff only the head and then use them as bean bags. The tail makes for a great toss hold!



Find this at Make and Takes

I absolutely ADORE projects using old windows! I think my whole house would be FULL of old windows if I knew where to find them. Anyone know where you can pick up great old windows????


This LOVELY idea came from Wild Child. I am completely in love with this!

Pockets are Perfect

I thought this was a fun and easy idea that could be used for so many different things!


Find it at SERENDIPITY.

Vertical Vegetable Garden

I LOVE this great idea! I need a quick and easy way to grow a garden without taking up much space. This project fits the bill perfectly!


Find the instructions for this Vertical Vegetables garden HERE.

Kids Butterfly

Yesterday Miss A had a good friend over to play for a while. They came to me and asked it they could do a craft together. I had seen these cute and easy butterfly's a while ago on Design Mom.


I knew this would be a quick and easy craft for the girls! Perfect for their last minute request! I didn't have tissue paper and I wanted the girls to have the ability to design the wings a bit. So I improvised on the idea a little. I gave the girls regular colored paper, markers, crayons, and foam stickies to decorate with. I also had some plastic beads they could slip on the antenna's! They had a GREAT time!!




When they were finished I grabbed some embroidery floss and a paper clip and hung them in her room.




Great fun, EASY, and it only took about 30 min! Perfect for their short attention spans!

Necklace and bracelet organizer.

LOVE LOVE this idea!!! My jewelry needs a new place to reside. My little jewelry box started over flowing just before I got into BIG and CHUNKY jewelry! Uh... yeah..... That doesn't work!! I have needed a new place to store my necklaces. I didn't want them hidden in a jewelery box though. I love most of my necklaces so much I wanted a way to store AND display them at the same time. Searching the web yielded this WONDERFUL idea!!!!

OOOH I CAN'T WAIT!!! Going shopping TODAY for the goods!!!!

find this great project over at Laughing Dasies


I do promise that SOON this blog will have things that I have actually MADE! Now if only I would spend more of my time MAKING instead of browsing the web for NEW projects! LOL. *Sigh*

Baby Sling

My little girl has asked me to make her a toy baby sling. I think she is getting 'baby hungry' in that she wants a new sibling.... to bad that dad and I think we are all babied out! I think I will honor her request and make her a sling for her dollies. That way she can play 'mom' all she wants.

Browsing the net for some instructions on how to make a simple baby sling I found this great set of instructions. This pattern could be used for an adult sling or a simple toy sling.

http://www.ida.net/users/stace/sling.html

P.S. - Any projects I find that I love and want to keep for FUTURE reference will be under this label. My 'To Do' label is for selfish personal reasons! Hope you enjoy browsing what I want to make, and maybe find something YOU want to make!

Now on to the REAL post!

OOOOHhhh I am IN LOVE! This STUNNING bracelet is SUPER EASY to make!!! Well... ok... I haven't actually MADE it yet... but doesn't it look so simple! I am totally into jewelery making at the moment! I am so excited to add this project to my to do list!!!

'The Artful Crafter' has wonderful instructions on how to make this lovely piece.

COMMING SOON!

Does the world really need another craft blog??? No... not really.... but I do! For some reason I feel the need to start a craft blog. This is a place for me to gather all my crafty inspiration in once place and share it with the world. This site will be under construction for the next few weeks.
WISH ME LUCK
or better yet
CHECK BACK OFTEN!!!