Pinterest

Wow!  The kids are off to their first day of school!  Well, I can tell you what I will be doing with a tiny bit of my extra free time…I will be browsing around Pinterest.  It is this new site my good friend Sunny told me about and she warned me.  She said, “It is addicting”.  I didn’t believe her…but then I got hooked…and then I found the app for my iphone…I am totally addicted!

It is a wonderful site to organize all the lovely things we find on the internet.  I mostly love the creativity of it: finding crafts to make, new recipes, and kids art projects!  The best part is that it is totally for the visual learner, that’s me!  You save any ideas you find on “boards” and then you have a pic of each thing you save, no more searching when you forgot the name of the recipe!

So try it out if you like, it is a great way to pick areas to search in and not have to go through endless blog searches!

<a href="http://pinterest.com/USERNAME/%22%3E%3Cimg src="http://d3io1k5o0zdpqr.cloudfront.net/images/pinterest-button.png" width="78" height="26" alt="Follow Me on Pinterest" /></a>

Happy Back to School Teacher Gifts

The summer flew by so fast and now it is time to head back to school!  I found some great ideas for teacher gifts and started with an adorable idea for an insulated cup (they are all the rage) that can be found for $5 at Wal-Mart.  I then filled it with some lemonade drink packets and a small bag of cookies.  The tag says, “Thank you for quenching my thirst for knowledge”.  The kids had “Meet the Teacher” day on Friday morning, so they met their teacher and then handed them each a cup.  They were a huge hit!

I also like to do practical gifts.  Due to the budget crisis our teachers have NO money to spend on basic classroom supplies and have to reach into their own pockets for stuff like Kleenex, copy paper, and paper towels.  On the first day of school each one of my kids will go with boxes of Kleenex for their teachers.  My son is also giving his teacher note cards for speeches they will be working on.  It is always nice to send extra school supplies; some kids never bring them or can’t afford them.

My daughter’s teacher is teaching an apple unit for the first week of school!  She is very excited and couldn’t wait to pick out her apple at the grocery store.  I also went ahead and picked out five different apples; being sure to leave the stickers on them to let the teacher know which ones they were.  I then painted her initial on a canvas re-usable lunch bag, put the apples in, and tied it with a cute ribbon.  Now she has extras for the kids that don’t bring them to school!

Happy Back to School!

Family Picture Wall

“How do you do that?”  “Did you buy one of those picture hanging kits, the kind with all the frames and a paper layout?”  These are the kinds of questions I get when I hang new frames on the wall.  A picture wall with various frames hung in different arrangements looks intimidating, but it is not!  Here is what I do to create a family picture wall, oh, a cheap inexpensive family picture wall!

First, figure out where you want it in your house and collect any frames you have that you plan on using.  When I started my picture wall I had 4 frames I was going to use ( donated by my mom) and then I bought 5.  Don’t worry about what color they are, remember your frames are not all suppose to match!  You can easily change color at home with an inexpensive bottle of paint from the craft store, they cost a buck.

When looking for frames keep in mind what styles you like, but also pay attention to frames that are somewhat opposite if you are going for an eclectic look or frames that are the same sleek design, but a little different if you are going for a more formal look.

I only bought clearance frames and they all cost under $5 a frame.  So my picture wall only cost $25 dollars!

Second, once you have all your frames lay them out on a surface that is similar in color to your wall color (I used my floor, but you can also use a blanket or sheet).  This will help you to see how your frames will look on your wall and move your frames around until you have an arrangement you like.  When you get an arrangement you like, take a picture!  You may end up with more than one arrangement you like, take a picture each time, so you have something to look back on to decide.  Don’t worry if you don’t have the pictures in the frames yet, that doesn’t matter.

As you can see from my pictures below, I changed my frames after I layed them out.  I painted a white one blue and then sanded it to give it a worn look.  I painted another a light blue.  I also just lightly sanded a wood frame to make it look different than the others.  In design you want to use color and texture, sand paper is great at helping create texture!

Third, choose the picture of the layout you like best, put pictures in your frames, and get your lovely husband to use his laser level to hang your frames!

Oh, another piece of picture advice, when getting your prints to put in your frames, order them in a couple different sizes.  Sometimes an 8x10 print cut down to fit a 5x7 frame looks better than just ordering a 5x7 because that is the size of the frame (a great way to get a close up without taking one in the first place)!

Happy Secretaries Day!

Happy Secretaries Day!  Actually Secretaries Day is next week, but since we have Easter Break we are celebrating the school secretaries this week.  I always want to give them a little something to say, “Thank You” for all they do, but with 3 of them I have to think of money wise gift ideas.

My idea for this year is fun and inexpensive, yet practical!  I bought hand sanitizer gel at the dollar store, doesn’t matter what kind, you will cover it up!  I then bought a bag of jelly beans, some cello bags, ribbon, and used some cardstock and gems I had at home.

1.      Print out a cute saying with a fun font to glue to the front of the bottle.

2.    Glue on some gems, tie on a ribbon, and put in a cello bag.

3.    Surround bottom of bottle with jelly beans.

Now wasn’t that the easiest gift?!

Art for Kids

I love to teach art!  It is my favorite volunteer activity I do at school.  I teach art in my son’s class twice a month and once a month in my daughter’s class.  Our school has an art program that is solely taught by the parents.  There are lessons to teach on famous artists, but I like to find my own or make them up!

This is a great blog for finding art projects to teach kids.  They always go with a famous artist and are tried and true (haven’t had one fail yet).

(http://teachkidsart.blogspot.com/search/label/artist%20Paul%20Klee)

Below are pictures from a lesson I taught last Friday on the artist Paul Klee.  The class drew their own self-portraits with pencil, erased any extra lines they didn’t want, and then traced over the pencil with a Sharpie marker.  After the drawing portion of the project they used squares of watercolor tissue paper (it bleeds when it gets wet and transfers color to whatever it is touching) to cover their portraits and then painted water over the tissue for the final affect.  They removed the tissue paper at the end and after drying, have the project you see below.  They were able to complete this project in an hour!

Girly Centerpieces

Our church is having a Sweet Pea Tea for mothers’ and daughters’ this Saturday!  I was asked to make the centerpieces and had such a fun time coming up with something pink that is in line with the theme.  We will all have tea, treats, and watch the Veggie Tales Sweet Pea Beauty movie.

I bought everything for the centerpieces at The Dollar Tree and 99cent store.  Each centerpiece cost around $3.75 and took me 5 minutes a centerpiece to make!  Such an easy idea for a girl party.  We will give them away at the end of the tea.  I am sure the girls will love taking home their own flower arrangement with a tiara!

Bling Bling

My daughter wants everything totally blinged out!  She believes everything should have glitter and rhinestones.  She doesn’t get this from me, but her Nana likes everything sparkly…it must be genetic!  We went shopping for some new shoes and due to her very narrow feet, anything with sparkle was too wide and she walked right out of.  My daughter was very sad and hung her head as all the other girls in the Target shoe department walked out with sparkle flats that fit.

We finally found a pair with a strap across the top that stayed on her feet.  Oh, NO, there was not one ounce of sparkle on these shoes…so all my art degree skills kicked in and I figured for a couple of bucks I could bling them myself.

I pulled out my Michael’s craft coupon and bought up some rhinestones for $2.50…enough to do a dozen pairs of shoes.  At home I uncovered my hot glue gun and started adding sparkle to her shoes (found out that Professional Welder glue from the home improvement store works better).  It took me less than 5 minutes a pair to add the rhinestones!

As you can see from the picture it worked, she is happy, and they do hold up to kindergarten activities (notice the wood chip in her shoe, tried and true).  Don’t spend a bunch for blinged out stuff when with a couple of dollars you can do it yourself!

Happy Valentine's Weekend!

Happy Valentine’s Weekend!  I hope you are all our spreading love to those around you.  I love to celebrate the holidays and decorate for each one.  It is so fun to make handmade decorations and gifts.  I found a design in the February edition of Better Homes and Gardens Magazine for a heart garland craft.  The instructions used scrapbook paper, but I had some extra felt lying around so I decided to use that.  My daughter loves to craft and so I drew the hearts and she cut them out.  We used a little valentine ribbon and wa-la…adorable Valentine decoration we can use for years to come!

Enjoy your weekend, I can’t wait to celebrate with my kids and hubby on Monday…we don’t have school, Thank you President Lincoln!

Try Something New

I love crafts!  Actually Arts and Crafts are my love!  There isn’t a craft I won’t try, at least once, and it is fun to see what new things I can make or create.  I have wanted to learn how to crochet for a while now and decided that since yarn was on sale, it was the time to start!

I checked out some books from our local library on how to crochet, bought myself some yarn, and hooks.  I was ready.  Read through the books and started with a basic chain.  Then I ventured on and did some single crochet stitches.  With practice it is fun and easy to create small projects.

Everything is all about technology these days and you can find a “how to” on Utube on anything, seriously, once I found a Utube on how to slice a mango…they really have everything on the net!  I also found a great show on the Create channel called Knit and Crochet now.  It was very helpful to see someone crochet and hold the yarn.  They have some great projects to try also.

Have you tried anything new this year?  A recipe, craft, new exercise, sport, book, etc., try something new, it is fun!