SCRAP ATTACK!!!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of hosting one of my best girls, Heather! She's pretty talented, so you need to check her out!

I have been quite naughty this year and have focused more on our Florida scrapbook than Noah's 4 year scrapbook. He just turned 5 and literally there were 3 pages in his 4 year book. Bad mama. SO, yesterday I added 4 more pages for 3 significant events in his year. Hoping to add more this week as well.

This first set of pages was for Noah's Day Out With Thomas. It was seriously hard to edit down the number of pictures I wanted so as to make room for the tickets and such. It was a VERY fun-filled day! I decided on a simple page format to fit everything in.

This next page is my favorite of the day. The papers and the layout pretty much did themselves. I hand cut the banners (too "lazy" to get out my cricut, haha) and used some cool twine/ribbon from Christmas wrapping that reminded us of straw. This page was from when Noah and I went to the country fair.

This last page was a simple one from when Noah and his class went to Bottom View Farms. Again, major editing had to happen. There were so many cute pictures, so I edited it to simple!

If anyone is interested, I might do a post with my Florida book. For it being a last minute, 48 hour total trip, it filled up almost an entire book! I still have like 2 pages left! Anyhow, hope you enjoy! Thanks for looking!

Winner!!!

Remember this post?  I have drawn the winner using random.org! The winner is:  Colleen!! Please email email me at: persnickity.sloan@gmail.com with your address and I will send you your headband! Thanks for playing with us!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZZIE!!!

First, I am so honored to be posting for one of my sweetest, most talented, crafty peeps, Ms. Lizzie. I wish her the happiest, craftiest birthday!!

My project is a DIY comic inspired headbands I have seen around on pinterest and other places. The first time I ever saw any of these I immediately thought of Lizzie. 

 Here is a link to a few that I have seen: http://pinterest.com/search/?q=Comic+Inspired+Headband

These are made with embroidery machines...that's great....but I don't have one. What's a girl to do? I decided to make one with felt. Fabulous felt. I just can't get enough. 

So, I plied my needle and whipped up a few of my own. One for lizzie...and one for you! That's right! I have one to give away to one lucky winner! Just leave a comment below to be entered into the random drawing! 

How'd I do it? Quite simple, actually. I drew a quick sketch for a template of lightning with a border, as well as the letters for ZAP! Because, that's what lightning says. Duh! 

Cut out the templates, pinned em to the felt and cut the felt around em. I sewed the yellow and blue parts together. 

The red felt that I have had a strong adhesive on the back, so rather than try to sew really tiny letters to the lightning, I decided to use that. Easy peasy. But something is missing....BLING. Yeah, it needs stickles. Yeah. That's the stuff. Awesome. Attach to a headband and STYLE!!!  

  Happiest of birthdays, my dear friend! I hope its every bit as fantastic as you! And those of you reading, don't forget to comment for your chance to win one of this awesome comic inspired headbands!

Get ANGRY!!!

I am finally posting this! Several of my friends have been curious how I am pulling off my son's angry birds birthday party. After doing extensive searching, calling and asking, apparently Angry Birds Licensed birthday stuff is just not available ANYWHERE. So, what's a mama to do?

Thank GOODNESS for pinterest.com! Phew! Here is the board that I compiled from searching to the ends of pinterest and back: http://pinterest.com/mamacass07/angry-birds/ .Also, just try searching in general for angry birds. SO many great ideas out there from other moms and people that want to make a fun party for their kids!

So here is a compilation of a lot of things that I did for Noah's party. As of now, we are expecting around 30 guests (GULP). This is our first big shindig. Nervous? Why, yes, YES I AM!!

So in no particular random order, here is what I did. I took some plain, basic colored hats and horns and printed the appropriate face for each color, cut and glued them to them. Tah-dahh! Fancy, I know.

Since no one in this area was willing to make me a cake I printed the birds and pig on card stock in color, cut them and glued them to toothpicks with a card stock circle. Viola! Cupcake toppers!

Um, oh! I made treat bags by again, printing the red bird's face, cutting it out and adhering it to red paper bags. In the bags are 1 bottle of bubbles, 1 Slinky, 1 angry birds key-chain (eBay), a sheet of angry birds stickers (Walmart) and 1 lollipop sticker.

The invitation was made from red, white, black and orange card stock. I cut and paper pieced the entire card. (this was before I thought to print it out ::facepalm::)

The lantern idea came from another blog. I can't remember. I seriously need to start writing these things down. I printed the faces again, and used glue dots to adhere them to the lantern. *this is something you want to do just before time unless you have space to store them. You can't collapse the lanterns while they have the faces on them*

Some of you may remember in an earlier post on here that I painted a bean bag toss, but for reference, here it is again. I need to cut the holes out and it will be complete.

Something different we decided to do was a photo booth. I can't remember where I saw this idea, but it was on a blog somewhere out there. I bought the angry birds posted Walmart had and cut the eyes and beak out of the red angry bird. I adhered it to a presentation board and viola! Instant photo booth. We will take each child's picture and send them a copy of their picture in their thank you card. Fun, no?

We have a couple of other fun things as well. I found a large, inflatable bowling set at Walmart that happened to have green pins and a red ball (Um, Awesome??) so that will be available as well as we have cheap green and red bouncy balls for the kids to throw around and have fun with since the party will be in the school's gymnasium. I also will have a coloring table complete with 2 kinds of angry birds coloring sheets (courtesy of google.com) and a TON of crayons! 

I can't wait to put it all together. Me being the overly OCD concerned I will forget something person that I am have drawn up a schematic of the place where the party is being held so that nothing gets forgotten and everything has a place so set up should be a breeze! You can be sure I will take pictures the day of so you can get a feel for the fun! 

Deck the halls with paper goodies!!!

Finally got a chance today to play with paper! More like, I just did it and stopped procrastinating.

 Our internet has been intermittent at best and so while it was up this morning I scoured the challenges for something that struck my fancy.

I knew I HAD to use my new Ivy stamp from Tickled Pink Stamps so I jumped over to their blog and decided to play along with this week’s challenge. I mean, who can say no to, “anything goes? Right? Here is what I came up with. The papers are a prize I received awhile back. They are from “crate paper” and I LOVE this stack. I will be sorry when its gone. I also decided to challenge myself and try my friend Lizzie’s technique of using watercolors in lieu of copics since several of mine need refills and my colors are very limited. Here is the outcome:

For my other challenge I decided to try out the Pink Sketch Challenges and boy did they have a challenging sketch! I am not good with shape cards, but I needed one more Christmas card, so I decided to give it a go. I used Pressie Tobie and different papers I had laying around. The cardboard is from starbucks. Please excuse the shoddy stitching. First time using that stitch on a circle! I kinda think it adds charm. I also used watercolors on Toby.

Hope you are enjoying your week! TGIF!!

Feeling Elfish

So the favorite Christmas movie in our household is Elf. Nary a day goes by without one or another of Buddy's "elfisims" coming out of one mouth or another around here. My lil guy asked me to make him an elf hat and I promised I would try.

I used felt I found in my stash and doubled it up to make it stiffer so it would stand up. For the pattern, I used a dollar store elf hat we got for Noah this weekend.

Without further ado, here it is! Noah loves it! I surprised him at school with it and he has been wearing it since we left the school. He even let me take pictures!

Oh, our Reindeer is our dog, Owen. Doesn't he look thrilled? Haha! 

Happy Christmas thoughts to you all!

BEFORE I GO...Make sure you check out one of my best craftie's website! She is having a birthday bash for an ENTIRE WEEK! WHAT?!? Prizes and fun for a WEEK? Check it OUT!!

Stylin for the holidays

So today I went out to probably the scariest thrift store I have EVER been in in my entire life in search of some hideous sweaters for DH and I to go out and have fun one night. He gets to go to a party in a few weeks and I have other plans, so he graciously offered to take me and a couple of our friends out to go embarrass ourselves in some awful sweaters so I don't feel left out. Isn't he a sweetie? So, not only did I find this sweater (which will have to be taken in a bit!!!):

 But I also found a BUNCH of peacock feathers! Got a handful for like 10 cents! A BIG handful! WHAT? And I almost paid 99 cents each last week? Psh! Glad I waited! So I whipped up a 5 minute headband with some peacock feathers and a sweet little button. I might fill it in a bit more later, but for now, I be stylin.

I hope to be back in a day or two with some cards. Did I mention that I won the random draw over at Tickled Pink Stamps last week? (check out the snazzy button on my sidebar!) EEEP! I got a cute stamp that I am itching to color up and make something with! Can't wait to show you! 

Busy Day!

Its finally here! Thanksgiving break! Noah and I get to spend an entire week doing...doing...sheesh, how am I going to keep this kid entertained for SO MANY DAYS?

So, last night I worked on the tickled pink challenge. I haven't done cards in so long for fun, and it was great! This sketch was fab, just like tickled pink, so I had to! I bought this stamp from them awhile back and finally had a chance to use her. I got brave and did some sewing and I kinda like how it turned out.

Remember when I made the indian costume for Noah? Today was the big day! He got to wear it to school! He was SO happy to get to have Thanksgiving Appreciation Day. There were LOTS of indians...just 2 of his classmates decided to be pilgrims. It was a blast and the costume held up all day long, even if his wasn't the nicest one. Hehe. 

Oh, and remember this scarf? I totally got to wear it today. Woots! So that was my day! I hope you enjoy, and can't wait to see what the holidays have in store!! Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Accessorize Yourself

Yeah, the older I get the more I LOVE accessories. Of pretty much every kind. I love em. LOVE. So, last night while DH and I were watching a movie I sat and cut up another one of those large Tshirts I bought at Goodwill the other week to alter and made this fun scarf necklace and a bangle. Even the bling on the bangle was a goodwill find. On a hideous gigantic dress. Also got an awesome zipper off that dress. Seeing some more zipper accessorizing in my future. Hehe.

Basically, cut 1.5 - 2 inch strips off the bottom of the Tshirt, stretch to make the edges roll, double over and then cover the twisted part with another piece of Tshirt and viola. 5 minute accessory. Did I mention no sewing? Yeah. Well, I did, but you can just tie. You don't have to sew.

(why am I always holding my head at that strange angle??)

For the bangle, I used more of those strips, braided and sized em down for my puny wrist, added the silver slider and poof. Instant bangle.

So anyway, Here they are, in all their glory. Lovin the purple. Can't wait to wear em somewhere! Woot!

New Shirt

Yessir! I found this awesome post on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pin/106960559869636252/

And me being me, headed straight to Goodwill to grab me some gigantic men's tees! I found bunches. I loved this guitar T the best, so I used it to make my new shirt.

Such an easy tutorial and such a fun project! Lots of tweaking, but joyfully, there was NO SEAM RIPPING this time! When I was done, I thought it looked a bit bare, so I added stickles to the design. We will see how they hold up in the washer. They don't usually come out when I get them on my clothes, so here's hopin!

I decided to make a fun headband to go with the shirt out of the scraps cut from the shirt. Schwing! Used this tutorial to make a quick jersey bow. SO easy peasy! http://www.diyfashiondiva.com/fashion/fabric-bow-tutorial

(Did I mention how SHORT the bottom of my hair is??? EEEEK)

Now the tricky part....no matter HOW many times I tried, I couldn't get a stinkin picture of myself in this shirt! My camera is just too heavy...so, meet my budding photograper:

Hope you enjoyed! I had fun makin it. I have 2 more shirts I might convert as well. 

Happy *almost* Thanksgiving!

First, let me just say, my crafty closet is literally, a closet. Everything crafty I own is in the corner of our dining room closet...except for the material...its in the garage in a tote. Hence, the title of my blog..."Mom's Crafty Closet".

Second, I am SO glad to be blogging and crafting again! I am so inspired by all of you and can't wait to get back into the game!

So, thanksgiving is right around the corner and my now almost 5 year old preschooler is having "Thanksgiving Appreciation Day" next Friday. The catch? They need a pilgrim or Indian costume...cause, every mom just has one of those lying around. Right? What? YOU DON'T? What kind of a mom are you? ::shakes head:: Wait...I don't have one either. Rats.

Off to Goodwill and Walmart I go. No way are we paying for a costume that will be worn once. SO... $1.68 for this very bland sheet, along with a couple of dollars for some beads and feathers, and viola...everything you need for a DIY Indian..for under 5 bucks. Yes, PLEASE!

I have grandiose plans of making an outfit. Pants, shirt, shoes...the whole shebang...then, realistic-ness sinks in...Nope...not happening on these beginner sewing skills....A vest? Yes. We can do that...or a tunic. Even better.

I used Noah's vest from church as a size reference, and made it wider so he could get it on and off easier. Doubled the panels for thickness and strength. He IS a boy, after all. Used some scrap brown for fringe...turned out this was the worst possible material for fringing...spend an hour cutting frayed edges and fray checking each...and every...single...fringe....THAT is dedication, people.

Onto the headband...more scrap brown, some felt for backing so it didn't rub his head raw from the ends of the feathers. Can I just say, hot glue is a mom crafter's best friend? Glued on the feathers, (tried sewing...disaster...DISASTER), AND after about 4 attempts was able to succeed with some fancy orange zig zags. Yes, I said 4. At this point, I am thinking, if my son doesn't know I love him, he never will. Pulling out those zig zag seams 3 times was...terrible!

All in all, it was a success, and no matter what the other kids wear next Friday, my kid will be the most adorable Indian at the Thanksgiving Feast. Because I say so. :D