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Showing posts from 2024

New Year's Eve Craft

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Last year we had a last minute New Year's Eve party. I was inspired by a charcuterie counter setup I saw on Instagram. I covered my table and counter with brown paper. On the counter I wrote our menu for the night with arrows to where the dishes were to be placed. On the table I drew a clock with the hands pointing to just before midnight and 'Happy New Year.' I places markers and crayons.on the table amd told the kids to draw their favorite memories from the year. What we ended up with was cute scenes of going to the beach and Christmas fun. It was a lot of fun to see what the kids came up with. Happy New Year and Happy Crafting!

Secret Santa Present

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I always struggle to find the perfect secret Santa gift, especially for co-workers. This year I took some inspiration from Instagram, I'm not sure who did it first or even where hot the idea from but I saw someone fold a dish towel into a pocket and I thought that would be a cute gift for my co-worker who likes to bake.  I found a few tutorials on youtube on how to fold dishcloths into pockets, it's pretty simple. I added cookie mix and festive spatulas to mine. Looking around for cookie cutters to add to the gift I found cookie cutter lights for 60% off at Michael's. They are battery operated and can be set on a timer. I think they would look very cute in a kitchen window ledge or on a little tree in the kitchen.  With everything included I came in just under the 20$ budget at 17.50. I am really looking forward to gifting this Secret Santa gift!  Happy Holidays and Happy Crafting!

Advent Calendars 2024

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I was very much in the spirit of the Spooky season this year and I feel that excitement carrying over to the Christmas season (I don't know what I'm going to do in January, maybe by then I will be done with celebrating but I doubt it!) I love the feeling of making memories with the kids and make everyday meals and activities a bit more special, a little magical.  First things first, advent calendars! I thought it was fitting that I got my advent calendar order from Amazon on Oct 31st. Ok fine, I am very early but I am ready to dive in to the next season! I have a few ideas, we are going to have a few advent calendars going on, and I'm ok with that! Although, I am very last minute with this post and I guess I'm ok with that too! Little Miss wanted to buy an advent calendar again this year so we looked around and chose a jewelry and hair accessory ad entre calendar. I have to admit, it is very cute and it is reusable. Little Man did not choose an advent calendar this year...

Char-BOO-terie Board

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  Now that all the decorations are up and the costumes have been decided (butterfly for Little Miss and a Creepy Dude for Little Man) it's time for the spooky food! I have shared spooky food ideas many times before on my blog and this year I have upped my presentation game by buying a spooky serving board, so logically I made a char-BOO-terie board with some of our favorite foods and some new creations.  Spooky Food: Mummy dogs (crescent roll dough wrapped around hot dogs with olives for eyes.) Witches fingers (crescent roll dough rolled out and shaped to look like fingers with peppers for finger nails.) Ghost and pumpkin tortilla pizzas (cut tortillas using ghost and pumpkin cooking cutters, use olives and peppers for eyes and pumpkin faces.) Eyes and bugs (bocconcini cheese and olives for eyes, bocconcini cheese, olives and pretzel sticks for the bugs.) Caramel Apple Board Sauces and toppings for my caramel apple board. Apples cut into slices Caramel sauce (I used ic...

Ghost Napkin Holder

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I was searching for a spooky napkin holder to decorate my kitchen hutch for the spooky season. I couldn't find one that I liked but I came across this bamboo napkin holder at the dollar store. I immediately thought that it looked like a friendly little ghost.  What you need: ●Napkin holder ●White acrylic paint ●Black acrylic paint ●Clear acrylic paint (Top coat)  What to do: 1. Paint the napkin holder white.  2. Add a face to the ghost. 3. I made a cute ghost face on one side and a more serious ghost face on the other side. 4. Let the paint dry and apply the top coat.  I hope you enjoy this Boo-tiful napkin holder.  Happy Halloween and Happy Crafting. 

Egg Carton Ghost Pictures

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We made these cute ghost pictures from egg cartons to add to our Halloween mantle decorations. I am very happy with how they turned out.  What you need: ● 1 egg carton  ● White paint ● Frame ● Background (Cardstock or construction paper) What to do: 1. Cut out your eggcarton ghosts. You can use the egg cup portions or the portions that separate the eggs, depending on what shape you want your ghosts to be. 2. Paint your egg cartons ghosts all white. I also painted the inside of the egg carton because I was going to be displaying it high up and I didn't want to see the gray of the egg carton.  3. Paint a face on your ghosts. I used black paint and the back of my paint brush but a marker would work as well.  4. Prepare the frame, cut the cardstock to the size of the frame. Put the cardstock in the frame, placing the glass behind the cardstock.  5. Use the hot gun to glue the ghost to the cardstock.  Happy Halloween and Happy Crafting!

Salt Dough Creations

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I am a big fan of salt dough and all the fun things  you can make with it. In the past we have make christmas ornaments as presents from the kids to their grandparents and,maybe my favorite, we made dinosaur fossils during a Dino themed day.  This year we found a salt dough craft book at the library and we decided to see what inspiration we could get from it. Little Miss decided to go along with ideas from the book. The book was garden friends creatures. Little Miss made a porcupine, a lady bug and a snake.  The porcupine uses dry spaghetti for the quills and the lady bug uses dry macaroni for the legs.  The one thing about these cute creature is that it took quite a while for them to dry out. Once they were completely dried out it was time to paint.  I decided to make beads from my portion of the dough. I had a string of decorative wood beads that broke and I wanted to add some decor for the Halloween season.  To make the beads I cut peices of dough that ...

Broom Parking Sign

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This craft was inspired by a witch's broom decoration that I saw in a home decor store. The broom in the store was nice and substantial but it was made with branches and twigs, very easy to reproduce. This is the perfect fall craft, you can gather sticks and branches while going for a walk.  What you need: ● 1 large branch per broom ● Bundle of small branches ● Glue gun and lots of glue sticks  ● Twine ● Ribbon to decorate (I used a simple black ribbon but lace or burlap would be nice] What to do: 1. Glue the small branches to the larger branch (use lots of glue and watch your fingers.) 2. Glue the twine around the smaller branches to secure them into place and the hide the glue.  3. Once the smaller branches are secure (and not falling out every time you pick it up) it's time to add the embellishments. Add the ribbon to the broom, either around the smaller branches or around the handle.  Taking more inspiration from our craft store Halloween decor shopping, we made ...

Just Add Peel and Stick Wallpaper

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We were very lucky that we didn't have to paint when we moved into our new house. The walls had been painted not too long ago in neutral tones, the colors are nice and they were just waiting for our personal touches. I don't love painting walls but I wanted some color.  I like the look of wallpaper but I have vivid memories of helping my Mom remove wallpaper. It was not an easy task.  I heard good things about peel and stick wallpaper, the prospect of just peeling it off was very appealing to me. There were 3 places in the house that I wanted an accent wall with the peel and stick wallpaper paper  the master bedroom, Little Misse's room and the laundry closet in the powder room.  Before starting I watched videos of people pitting up peel and stick wallpaper to get tops and tricks. It looked easy enough.I suggest wa5ching some videos, especially if you learn by watching others. I ordered two of the rolls of wallpaper from Amazon. For Little Misse's room we chose a lig...

First Day of School

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The kids are starting new schools this year and I wanted to make the return to school special.  The day before school started Little Miss said "remember last year when we had a spa day the day before school?"  I got the hint and set up a spa afternoon to pamper Little Miss and her doll. I decided to do manicures and pedicures for our spa treatments complete with a footbath and then of course relaxing spa music and some spa snacks. We always have special snacks on our spa days and 'spa juice' which is usually fruit juice with some berries in it and our snacks are usually cut up fruit but call it a spa snack and that makes it fancy! We spent the afternoon enjoying our spa and getting manicures and pedicures. It was a nice way to end summer vacation and prepare for the new school year.  I always like to decorate for back to school, usually a chalk board sign, something simple but this year I went all out.  I like to decorate the middle shelf of our dinning room hutch. I...

Garden Tea Party

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This was not a special occasion Tea Party it was just a Tuesday afternoon tea party. I thought I would add it to the Blog and we could catch up over a cup of Strawberry Mandarin tea with milk and sugar (it's delicious!)  We are all moved and settling into our new house. July was very busy with the move and setting up and now for August we are trying to make the most of summer. Little Miss requested a Tea Party so I thought it would be fun to do an outdoor Tea Party. We have a little area of our backyard that is off to the side that has a little stone path leading to it and it is the perfect spot for a tea party. My long term plan for this section of the yard is to add an archway with vines and flowers, make it a little magical. So many plans and projects coming up!   We have these great cedar hedges around our backyard, they smell great and I thought it would be a good place to add these butterfly solar lights, they definitely add to the magical, whimsical feeling of this...

Going Away Presents

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I love giving presents and I especially love making presents. I put a lot of thought into my going away presents and this time around I am going with a book theme, because that is very me and most of my friends too! For Little Misses friend and some family friends I found this book  "See You Later Croc-A-Gator"  by Imogen Shelton about a Crocodile and an Alligator who are best friends who grow up together and one day the Alligator family has to move away from the swamp. It is a very cute story with some tips on how to help the kids with being away from their friends. Inside we wrote notes to the kids. To go with the books we made some book marks. We chose some fun paper and used the self-laminating plastic sheets from the Dollar Store. I'm very happy with how they turned out. I love making book marks and I know that like me, my friends can never have enough bookmarks.  Happy Summer everyone and if you are moving, I hope everything goes smoothly!

Buying a new Gnome...I mean home!

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Yup, it's that time for us again! We are packing up our gnome houses...and our real house and moving again, hopefully for the last time.  I am very excited for this new chapter and like all of our adventures I hope to keep on crafting with the kids and on my own, I will share ideas as we get settled and unpack all my craft supplies. Packing up my craft supplies has been a process...organizing and purging things we don't use any more.  One big thing I am looking forward to is sharing my  new Gnome garden set-up. I'm not sure where it's going to go yet but I can't wait to get it all set up! I have some ideas for going away presents that I am hoping to share. I have been thinking about these ideas for a few months but life is busy right now, so I hope to be sharing it very soon!