Stars and Stripes Wreath

Leslie here today:  I love the Fourth of July.  I also love to spend it with my sister Kimberly and her family, in nice, cool, Idaho.  Alas, we won't be visiting this year, but I will be thinking of the traditional, hometown parade, a ride on the carousel, and waving sparklers in your backyard at night, Kim!  (Looking forward to a late July visit, perhaps?)

A few months ago, Kim and I were together for a family get together and we decided we needed a craft day.  So, we both tried out yarn wreaths.  She posted her cute spring version here and I went for a patriotic theme (I was inspired here.) 

Kim gave a good description of how to make these.  Basically, I started out with a straw wreath form (I left the plastic on).  I drew an outline on the wreath of each stripe so they would be even.  Then, I started wrapping a portion of red yarn around (tucking the ends under and adding a little hot glue so they would stay in place), and then wrapping a portion of white, repeat, repeat, and last blue. 

I couldn't find medium-sized wooden stars so I ended up using some larger ones that I had from a previous project.

It feels festive to come home to this on our door.

  One thing I know for sure, after taking pictures of my front door, my next project is to give it a much needed paint job!  Funny how it is something I hadn't really noticed until now!

Skylanders Birthday Party

Hey, Leslie's back today with another fabulous birthday party!


My oldest son turned 9 this weekend!  He didn't want many "toys" for his birthday this year and when my husband and I were birthday shopping, I felt a little sad because I feel like he is nearing a new stage.  Why do they grow up so fast?  Ok, enough of my boobing! 

This year, we did a family birthday party but he still wanted a "theme" (really, I don't know where he gets it from ; )    Last year was Angry Birds, but this year he and his brother are really into a game called Skylanders, so Skylanders it was.  I didn't go all out, but I thought if there are others out there whose boys love this game as much as mine, they might like a few of the things we came up with.

For the decorations, I drew the all important Skylander elements on the coordinating colored balloons.  I printed off coloring sheets of some characters here and then colored them while I finished up watching the last season of Parenthood.  (I love that show!)

I made some little confetti and/or cupcake toppers of the elements.  You can use them as well!  Here is a link to my file.  (If you print it, it will be a little pixely.  I took a black Sharpie and traced the edges to sharpen them up a little). 

But then, my son requested root beer floats and ice cream sundaes for the party, so I used them on top of the floats, but forgot to get a good picture of all the floats lined up. You get the idea:

Next, we had Skylander trivia.  The parents were out of the loop on this game... but the kids enjoyed it.  And, to save you time from looking up random trivia and learning more than you probably ever wanted to know about Skylanders... here is the link to our trivia!  Feel free to use it.

One last game idea:  you could take down the balloons and say the name of a certain Skylander character.  The kids have to run to the correct element that particular Skylander coordinates with.  I included a list of these under the link for trivia above.

Last, I made a little favor for the cousins to take home. I made them using a similar technique as described here (I use Glossy Accents rather than Diamond Glaze). Also, rather than use scrabble tiles, I wanted something bigger, so my brother cut these wood squares for me, which measured about 1 1/2" x 1 1/2". I found the graphics online, copy and pasted them into Word, printed them off and glued a character on both sides of the wood. Then I screwed in the key chain parts that I purchased from JoAnns. (If you want more details on how to make them, just leave a comment or email).
And yes, Tinker Bell is not a member of Skylanders, but there are fairies... so I figured my niece would rather have Tink than Terrafin!

Hope this gives you some ideas for a birthday party or a fun summer activity if you have little ones that love this game like mine!  (Or are mine the only ones???)

Fire truck birthday party

My sister, Leslie, is back with another great party idea:

My youngest son is a big fan of police, rescue and fire truck vehicles.  We do daily "drive-bys" if we are anywhere near the vicinity of our town fire station (and even when we aren't we somehow manage to end up driving by).  So, today we celebrated his 4th birthday in true Fire Truck Party style!

I knew he would love a t-shirt with a fire truck, but I could not find one in stores and what I could find online was either cheesy and/or expensive.  So, I found an imagine online that I liked, printed it off, and cut fabric shapes mimicking the online image.  I used knit fabric which does not fray (I actually used old t-shirts).  Then I ironed the shapes onto fusible interfacing and then ironed them onto a basic black t-shirt.  From past experience, I knew I would need to sew around the edges, but my sewing machine was giving me problems that night, so I decided to use embroidery floss which actually turned out a lot cuter, (I think).

He was pretty excited about it.

The fire fighters were awesome and the kids LOVED the tour.

We gave them this before we left.

Here are some of the ideas for the party we had after our trip to the fire station:

I am soooo not a cake decorator.  However, I can print and cut : ) so I found pictures online of a fire station, hydrant, etc., added a new truck, and made them into a cake!

The guests each choose one of these on their way home. 

We had a beautiful day and had the party outside.

Do you have any spring birthdays coming up?  I will be back to post two more party ideas over the next few weeks:  Skylanders and Batman! 

Scripture Power / Super Hero Capes

Leslie's here today with a fun project:

This was a fun project Kim and I worked on together last year.  We both serve in our church primaries and last year's theme was on the scriptures.  Scripture Power is always one of the kid's favorite songs.  I wanted to make something fun they could use when we sang that song, but even more importantly, something that could help them realize the scriptures can give them superhero-like spiritual strength!  So, this is what we came up with:

The Scripture Power/Super Hero capes!

These were SUPER easy, no sewing necessary, and we made six in an afternoon!

1.  Get red, yellow, blue, and green fabric.  (I bought the cheapest, solid colored, cotton fabric I could find).  
2.  Cut a rectangle measuring about 36" x 22" for each cape.
3.  Iron on fusible interfacing (like this) to the back of a separate piece of contrasting colored fabric for the shield.
4.  Cut a shield shape in the contrasting colored fabric for each cape.  My shields measure about 8" x 8".  I used Kim's Cricut to cut my shields, but you could google "superman shield clip art", find a shape you like and print it to use as a template.  It is a simple shape to cut. 
5.  Iron on fusible interfacing to the back of a piece of fabric.
6.  Cut a "S" and "P" in this piece of fabric. 
7.  Peel off the paper from the interfacing of the letters.  Iron them onto the shield.
8.  Peel off the paper from the shield and iron it onto the center of the cape.

9.  Drape the cape around your little one and tie under their neck using the top corners of the rectangle. 

If you are more of a perfectionist like my sister : ),  you could make straps to go around the neck, but for my purpose, we only needed it to stay on for a 2 minute song, and this works just fine.  (I, also did a simple straight stitch around all the sides to keep them fraying too much, and then cut a fringe into 3 sides to help it fray there.)

Our kids testing out their new superhero strength.

When we used these in primary, we drew names of six kids to come up and wear them while we sang the song.  The primary theme  this year is, Choose The Right.  You could make something similar with the CTR logo.

I'm already thinking of using this pattern for a possible upcoming birthday party favor, with the guest's initial in the shield... but I'm sure my son will change party ideas four or five times before May!

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Valentine Craft with the kids

Welcome "Show Me Some Love" blog hoppers.  Glad you came to visit.  Hope you stay a while and take a look around.

Love is in the air . . . more Valentine's crafts today, this time from Leslie.  Not only does she throw an awesome birthday party, but Leslie always has great craft ideas she does with her boys.  Here's Leslie:

 

I saw this idea from Martha Stewart's website and have had it sitting in my Pinterest file until we tested it out Sunday night.  (Now that we have early church this year, we've been able to try out new craft or art projects Sunday evenings).  It was even fun for my boys, and the results are really pretty.

First, we sharpened crayons in a pencil sharpener and put all the shavings here on a piece of wax paper. After we filled most of the bottom side of the paper full, we folded the top half over the bottom half.

Top half is folded over bottom half here.  (wax paper, crayon shavings, wax paper)

Then, put newspaper under the wax paper and on top of it.  Next, iron on top of the newspaper to melt the wax. 

Sorry, Coach Rose.  As if you hadn't already had a rough night.

It comes out looking something like this.

Then we took cookie cutters and traced heart shapes on the paper.  I cut the shapes out, hole punched the top, and tied red yarn though it.

Now we have them hanging in a few places in the house where the sunlight will shine through them.

My five-year-old thought they were so cool, he insisted that I make one into a necklace for his kindergarten teacher... and he gave it to her today!  Nothing like an early valentine.  They would also look neat glued to the front of a valentine cards!

Thank you to Kristen at One Tough Mother for putting together this awesome blog hop.  Now go visit all the rest of the participants and show them some love! 

Feb. 1 – One Tough Mother
Feb. 2 – DIY Dreamer
Feb. 3 – Pitter and Glink
Feb. 4 – My Amazing Chaos of Life
Feb. 5 – Measure Once – Cut Twice
Feb. 6 – The Brown Eyes Have It
Feb. 7 – One Tough Mother
Feb. 8 – Pint-Sized Baker
Feb. 9 – J Yipp Photography
Feb. 10 – Bird & Tree
Feb. 11 – Growing Up Gabel
Feb. 12 – Scrapity Anne
Feb. 13 – My Life and Kids
Feb. 14 – One Tough Mother

My Design Style: Part 2

We're on a decorating kick here, I guess, and now Leslie is here today with look into her home.  Her house is so cute!  She has amazing style and her home is always so warm and welcoming.
Here's Leslie:

I love decorating and I'm one of those people who is always rearranging furniture and accessories every few months for a new look.

I have always loved blues and whites and since my husband is from Maine and that is our favorite vacation spot, our house has always had a "coastal vibe" (even though we are stuck in the dry, Utah desert).  Lately though, I've added more vintage elements and pops of green, red and yellow and I finally feel like the look I have is comfortable, and really reflects our family.

Kim recently helped me create this picture wall. This wall is such a large white space and I could never figure out what to put there.  I found most of these picture frames at D.I. (thrift store) and then decided what colors I wanted to paint them.  This took a few weeks of rearranging and trying different combinations.  I didn't want too matchy, but also not too busy.  I am really happy with how it turned out.

(I'd love to paint these walls grey, but that is a big project... some day).

I used the 3M Velcro strips on the picture frames for the first time, and they worked great.  I wish I had a picture of me on my husband's shoulders trying to hang these. 

My sister, Kim made this vinyl tree with my husband's and my initials.  She did a great job.  I put the vinyl right on the wall and hung the frame around it.

The sister of my sister-in-law (I'm not making that up) makes some really cute, unique, modern prints, that I love.  You can see them here.  She made the home can be a heaven on earth print in the first picture, and the silhouettes of my boys below.

When we got these family pictures taken in the fall, I didn't want to spend a lot of money hanging them since I knew I would want to change them up after a little while and hang something else there.  I found these flat, glass only frames at Hobby Lobby. They are very inexpensive and just the look I was going for.

When Kim did the design style  post, I took one of the quizzes for fun and this is what it said, "Your style is Folksy Country. You don’t like things to be too matching. You acquire your furniture and accessories over the course of time. You like pattern and solids and can mix them well. You love flea markets and can find a place for just about anything you find or buy. You like animals and probably have a dog or cat or both. You make people feel at home and relaxed. You have lots of knick-knacks. When you entertain you have many friends and family over -- they feel they can pop over at anytime. Your decorating challenge is to simplify and edit your accessories."

Other than the pets (which our kids would love to have, but they haven't quite talked us into it yet), what do you think, Kim?  Does that sound like me?  Viewers, does that look like me?  I don't know.  I have always like bright colors.  Maybe I was on to something when my Mom let Kim and I re-do our bedrooms in Jr. High and pick out any color scheme. (Mine was: primary colors, Mickey Mouse, and M.C. Escher). Weird  : )

Yes, Les, I think that totally sounds like you!  Aren't her boys so cute! I love those family pictures.  And I really need you to make me some cute pillows, she has a great eye for fabrics.   Liking patterns and solids, yes, yes, you should have seen her room - solid bright blue on the bottom, bright red chair rail, and red/yellow/blue sprinkles wallpaper on top, with framed M.C. Escher prints and a Mickey Mouse poster.  It was a little crazy, but cute!