Top Ten Crafty Moments of 2012

This year, I really stepped out of my box and tried a lot of new things craft-wise. I am excited about the prospects of 2013. Seriously!

So this year I Scrapped, Stamped, Sewed, Smashed and more! Hope you enjoy my mash up of 2012!

First thing this year, I decided that my coupon envelope wasn't cutting it anymore. Hense, my first craft of 2012, the coupon book. 1 year later, even after having been left at Kroger for a week, its held up very well! I couldn't be happier. I DID have to redo the labels last month, but other than that, its awesome!

I got a laptop as a late birthday gift, so of course, I had to craft something for it. This was the first bag I have sewed that turned out exactly as I wanted it to. I padded it and the inside is minky. Love my laptop bag and its gotten a lot of use and has held up without having had to be resewn! Woohoo! Always a plus!

I made my mommy an entire scrapbook for Mother's Day. This is just 2 spreads in the book. The book consists of as many good pictures of my mother and I as I could scrounge without her knowledge and pages of journaling of fond memories of my mother and I. I loved the paper, the book, the techniques...this book was one of those rare moments when the scrapbook just fell together naturally. 

You HAVE to be sick of me talking about aprons by now. They are SO easy to make, and I LOVE them! So I keep making them! Here, are the ones I made for me and my lil guy. He loves his and I love mine. They have both washed and worn perfectly. So proud!

Oh...My...GURRRRRSH! I LURRRRVE Smash booking and I LOVE!! LOOOOVE Downton Abbey. Srsly. NEXT SUNDAY! WOOOO!!! So, this is a mash up of TWO of my loves. My Downton Abbey Smash page in my Black Retro Smash* book. 

This page, I am in love with. It was so fun, and I dunno. It just...Is. :) Shame the picture quality is so crummy. 

This is another one of those pages. The memories are wonderful, and the page is so clean and bright. I love it. 

OMGOODNESS! I was the TARDIS for halloween! I made this outfit from a mumu of a dress! I chopped it, altered it, heat bonded it and viola! Did I mention that I learned how to print on Fabric? Vworp....vworp...vworp...OOOOEEEEOOOOOOOO!! 

My son loves to color and read in the car. Not to mention the books that go with his old school cassettes. I got tired of things being ALL OVER the place. Enter, the awesome car organizer. Even though its not what I planned, its been great and he loves it. When I offered to make a more sturdy one, my son got very upset and begged me to keep it. So, it stays. 

My final favorite for 2012 is my T-Shirt quilt. This was quite a feat for me. My son LOVES his T-shirts, so to pass them on is kind of...well, its just not right. So, rather than store them in a box and have them be useless, I made a quilt. I even bought soft fuzzy material and binding! It was a challenge, but I loved every second of it, and my Noah sleeps with it every night, and snuggles with it while watching TV. 

I sincerely hope you enjoy this post, and I hope to have so many more fabulous things to share this year! Happy 2013!!! Happy crafting!

Scrappin the day away

Oh, my goodness. I am so entirely behind on my dear son's scrapbook for this last year. I stopped in may. MAY! Its almost 2013!!!! ::hangs head in shame::

Today, I finally "moved" back into the dining room and re-opened my closet and got my crafty on.

My Noah is really into scrapping and today, after a day shopping and bowling, he wanted to scrap while I did. He says its a Smash* book, NOT a scrapbook. I love my kid. I will have to photograph some of his other pages. He is so sweet. 

I managed to scrap 4 pages today. 2 of them I plan to go back and add some sewing to, but my sewing machine just made it back into my "crafty closet", so I will work on that tomorrow. 

I have to say, it was tough getting started, but by the last two here, the ideas were just pouring out. I wanted to keep going and finish, but I am so far behind who knows if I could anyhow, haha! Hope you enjoy!! 

Merry Christmas!!! (Don't Blink!)

Its been awhile, but I was actually crafty during the Christmas Holiday. YAY! Christmas cookies, coloring, and more!

So, something that I love doing with my son every year is making snow flakes. I am not a pro like my DH, but its fun and creates warm, fuzzy memories; that's all that really matters to me. Noah got bored pretty quickly, but I sat and pinterested to find some ideas for Doctor WHO snowflakes, thanks to a suggestion by my lovely DH. I wasn't able to actually find patterns, but I was able to eyeball it and work it out.

They cyberman snowflake was wonky due to my lack of folding skills. Haha...so, a couple of cybermen were "deleted". You know....cause....that's what they do....

The Daleks worked a bit better. Not quite as wonky.   

Now, this one, I LOVE. Its the TARDIS and the angels...the angels have the blue box!! Due to folding, two of them look like Sonic Screwdrivers; I am thinking that was just providence instead of a mistake. ;)

Another FUN tradition is Christmas Sugar Cookies. DUH. Gotta decorate cookies! We had a blast this year. Even DH got in on the fun. Noah was a self proclaimed "cookie monster"

I even got to color with my kiddo! Didn't use my Copics .Used my son's new Crayola pencils. I think we both did a crack job! 

I dearly hope that you all had a Merry Christmas. This year, more than ever, I am so thankful for my little boy. I can't imagine the pain parents in CT are going through this year, but my heart goes out to them. Merry Christmas, and a hopeful new year to all!

Birthday Bash....take two!

So Noah's party, was...in a word....AWESOME. It totally rawked. We set up in record time, and had almost an hour to kill. Once the party got rolling, though, it was amazing! Everything came together how I imagined.

Except for the photo booth. I didn't really think it through. It was way too small, and the light was bad. meh...the kids had fun, and that's what matters.

The treat bags were filled to the brim and the kids LOVED em! You can see the contents here: 

I got these awesome lego brick candles at....er....I want to say Kroger, but it might have actually been Walmart. Noah spotted them. Not me, lol. the toppers were a printout that happened to be free. I found it on Pinterest. 

I wrapped tons of Juice boxes in paper and used them as decorations, and jars filled with larger legos. The lego man was in the freebie download I mentioned with the cupcakes.  

Of course, we had a lego build table, and honestly, it was the hit of the party. It was mobbed the entire time, and these kids were so good. Not one lego ended up on the floor. It was amazing. Seriously. 

The other super cool thing that we did was my husband made plaster lego men with our ice mold and attached magnets so that each child got to paint one to take home. We put them aside to dry  and then the picked them up on their way out. It was great!

This was our eating/food area. We used the jar centerpieces to weigh down the balloons. The banner you see on the wall over the green table was also a free printable that I found on pinterest. I cut it out and sewed it to a ribbon.  

The coloring station was fun too. Even the grown ups got in on that one. (see lego jail guy in bottom right of picture, lol) 

My wibbly wobbly pinata was a serious hit, no pun intended. I was terrified that it wouldn't bust open, but it did. The kids had a blast taking their hits. Later, Noah helped hold it.  

As you can see, the birthday boy enjoyed his super, duper party! I hope this inspired those of you thinking of having your own lego party. It wasn't terribly expensive, thanks to the free printables and the dollar tree. We ordered pizza, had veggies and fruit and drinks, and that was it for food. Nothing fancy, which is good...because the kids were more interested in playing than eating, which...to me, says successful party.  

Happy Birthday, Lizzie!!

Its day one of the fabulous Lizzie's birthday bash week! Ms. Lisa has posted a fun, fab card in honor of the first of December, and she has a goodie bag you can win! What are you waiting for?? Go check it out!

HERE!!!

Happy birthday, Lizzie!!!

Merry Mail!!!

I am sure I fall into the small percentage that actually still sends and loves to receive Christmas Cards. I make mine. And I love every one I make. Receiving cards has diminished, but I still love the few we get.

Every year my husband and I haggle over what to do with them. Traditionally, we wither set them up somewhere and they get knocked over several times a day, or we tape them to the door jam, but with so few that looks silly.

So this year, I pinterested and found an idea that was cute, functional and user friendly.

Here is my final product. The paper and decals were from Echo park, (the background piece is paperstudios), and the snowflake is K and Company, and last but certainly not least, is the bling, which came from G Studios. (side-note, I did NOT make the stocking)

Merry Christmas season to those who celebrate, and to those who don't, this is still a great idea for your cards! :D

Lego my party!

Finally on the home stretch before Noah's 6th birthday party. This has been so much easier to do than last year's Angry Birds party. Can we talk about how frustrating it was to have to fabricate literally everything last year and then to see this year every kind of party supply you can imagine including pinatas? So frustrating. Should have waited a year. ::sigh::

Since we didn't, I suppose I should move on and stop being angry about it....

So this year, Noah is soooo into Legos. He is above and beyond amazing at building any and all age range of Lego sets, and has an amazing imagination and can build some amazing things on his own.

So after scouring the internet for days and days, I decided to go ahead and make most of the party supplies myself this year. Most of the things they sell are specifically for Lego City or Lego Star Wars. I wanted more of a generic, Lego Theme. So, create I have.

I found lots of neat things on Pinterest that were free printables and that was a big help. I was able to print these masks:

Of course, I had to cut them out and assemble them, but what's a little hand cramp? lol 

I also found these printables for the centerpieces and cupcake toppers. 

So I wanted cool treat bags, and after I bought the Lego Party boxes and realized that the only things in the box were the invites, thank you cards and the Lego men (which, IS pretty awesome) I decided I needed to make bags, and I wanted them to be unique and fun. So, I went to the dollar tree and bought 2 packs of yellow bags and drew a different Lego guy face on each one. 

For the insides, there are SO many cool treats. I am kinda jealous, honestly. So, at World Market I found "bulding bricks" candy, that seriously tastes and smells amazing. Years ago I won a Lego scrap-booking set and I have been hoarding it like a good little papercrafter for just this moment, so I was able to make little toppers for the bags of candy. 

I also spent a day and a half preparing for and making Lego Man crayons with the Lego Man ice mold we got from the Lego store. 

Also, from the lego box party sets we have these super cool birthday lego men. Srsly awesome. 

My husband graciously printed, cut and stapled these coloring books that can be used with the crayons. This was another free printable that I found. The only stickers we were able to find with more than one sheet to a pack were Lego Star Wars, which suits us fine. Noah was introduced to Star Wars this summer and loves it. 

I am a HUGE fan of photo booths at parties. I srsly love it. I used wrapping paper and a school project board to make the backdrop. Then I made the props. 

My dear, darling husband spent several evenings making plaster lego guys so the kids can paint them and take them home. He attached strong magnets to the back. Its going to be a fun, messy project. 

Theses are the name tags that came with the box party set. I am writing the child's name on them as I get the R.S.V.P. Not sure if the kids will use them? But they are there. They are sturdy plastic, not paper, so they can be kept for awhile.  

I made a pinata. Whether or not it will actually bust apart remains to be seen. One of the Lego circles is completely off base. As my husband lovingly pointed out, its going to be bashed in, so who cares??? I used the box that my husband's amazing R2 D2 robot box. I kind of punched some perforations in a few areas of the corners just in case it was too thick. It really IS a thick, sturdy box. I cut a Quaker grits container into 4 circles. I used red wrapping paper and crepe paper to cover the circles. The box is covered with 2 layers of crepe paper and I attached those layers with hot glue. Got an awesome blister on one of my fingers too. Love to hate hot glue, lol. The box is filled with 2 bags of pinata goodies that I found at Walmart. Candy, gum and plastic toys. 

There will also be a coloring table. Cause that's how I roll. 

And a guess how many jar. There are different sizes and shapes in the jar to make guessing more challenging. The prize is going to be a mystery figurine. 

I hope you enjoy this preview and for those thinking of having a lego party, I hope it gave you some inspiration. Here is the link to my pinterest board as well. I will be posting these things there, and there are links to printables and different neat ideas that I decided not to use because of time. Thanks for checking it out!!