Birthday Book

Hello there!!
Today I want to share a gift I made for Mother Hen last month for her birthday.  As some of you know, Mother Hen travels a lot.  And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT!  She travels all over the country selling Texas Twisters at fairs, normally every weekend from June to October. So when it comes to kids and grandkids birthdays, she has to send cards for most of them.  More than once I've gotten a call from Mother Hen, asking what birthdays were coming up for the next couple weeks.  I really don't mind telling her, but I decided I could come up with something cute to help her keep track of the birthdays.
So I made her a birthday book!  What is a birthday book, you ask?  Well, here ya go!  Prepare for picture overload!

I'm sorry I don't have any before pictures, but I basically took an old photo album that I had, recovered it, and re bound it.  I was initially going to keep the same binding that the photo album had, but after decorating each of the pages, the book was too big.  So I punched holes in each page, attached eyelets, and bound it with fishing wire.  Not my first choice for binding, but it worked!

For the pages, I cut a piece of cardstock to the size of the cover. Then I used another piece of cardstock, cut it an inch shorter, and folded the edges over the back, making a pocket in the front on the right side.  For the left side, I just printed out a calendar for each month, wrote on the birthdays, and glued it on, which covered the folded edges from the pocket side (did that make sense??).

I wanted to have a pocket for each month so she could keep birthday cards in it.  I made a few of the birthday cards, and then bought the rest.  So not only does she have a calendar that she can take with her, but she has birthday cards ready for an entire year!  All she has to do is fill them out and mail them!  I also did the calendar this way so she can write in birthdays when needed.  Our last birthday calendars were missing quite a few grandkids that hadn't been around when the calendar was made. 

So here's how I decorated the pages for each month.  I owe a huge thanks to my awesome sister Jacki for helping me do some of the pages.  I'm pretty sure this would have ended up as a Christmas present for Mother Hen if Jacki hadn't helped me! :)  On the right side of each page, you can see I attached ribbon.  I was trying to figure out how to print on ribbon so I could type the month on each ribbon, but it just didn't happen.  So I just picked ribbon that coordinated with each page.

I finished off the book by adding some ribbon to tie it closed.  It was bound with fishing wire, but the ribbon helped keep it together.

I love how it turned out, and I know Mother Hen really appreciates it!  So what do you think? 
Thanks for reading!!
-Juli-

Linking to these great parties!

Baby Gift Basket

Hello there and Happy Tuesday!  Did you enjoy your Labor Day?!  I did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, and it was Fabulous!!  

So, if you've read this blog at all, you know I love making hair clips.  I get excited anytime I learn a friend is having a girl, and I start planning what I'm going to make.  Last month my managers wife had her first beautiful baby girl, so all of my fellow employees and I got together to make a fun basket for her.  I had so much fun with this one!  We each bought a couple of outfits, and then it was up to me to make matching hair clips!  YAHOO!!  My favorite part!  You want to see how the basket turned out?!  Of course you do! 

So fun, right?!!

Do you want to see how I did it?!

First of all, look at these adorable receiving blanket cupcakes!

I found the idea for these over at Cute As a Fox .  She has a great tutorial on how to make them, so go check it out!  I made four of them, since the pack of receiving blankets I bought had four in it.  Here's where I placed them

 The one on the top in the middle was made with cute little ruffle socks in the middle that I found at dollar tree.  Instead of rolling the sock in the middle like the tutorial said, I just bunched the socks together so the ruffles were on the top.  Then I just rolled the receiving blanket around them.  I love the look of that one!

Did you see the cute little candies wrapped in cellophane?  I found that idea at the same website, Cute As a Fox.  These are made with baby washcloths!

I thought the candy rolls added some fun to the basket!

I bought a couple toys since this is their first girl.  I found the bear at Dollar Tree, cut off the cheap ribbon it came with, and glued on a nice big pink bow that made it look so much cuter.

To finish off the basket, I HAD to make matching clips for each of the outfits.  Some of the outfits were onesies or pajamas, but I made a clip for each one, knowing she can use them for other outfits.  I used the same technique that I used when I made THIS basket for my friend.  On the bottom I put a layer of diapers, folded in half, as a kind of filler.  And really, what mom couldn't use more diapers, right?!  Then I took each of the outfits, rolled them, and put a headband around them.  Since we had so many outfits I wasn't able to do headbands on all of them.  So for the rest I just used some cheap pearl ribbon/string that I had in my craft stash.  This made it so I could clip each of the hair clips on the front of the outfit.  Here are some of the hair clips I made

Ok, have I said that I love making hair clips?! Yes? Maybe once or twice!?  Well, I love it!  I didn't take a picture of the pink burned silk flower, because I showed it HERE.  I also learned how to make a new kind of felt flower(the one pictured on the polka dot outfit in the middle) so I'll show you how to make those next week! :)  Are you sick of hair clips yet!?!  Sorry if you are!  I'm sure the obsession will pass sooner or later!

So how do you think it turned out?!  

Thanks for reading!!

Juli

Linking to these fabulous parties! :)

Teacher Gift

Hello hello!! How was your summer? I'm sad to say that the last week of our summer was filled with throwing up, laundry, throwing up and more laundry. We all took our turn with the flu bug except my little 1 year old (hallelujah!). But thankfully we are all feeling better, just in time to send my oldest off to 1st grade!! I can't believe it!

I couldn't pass up the chance to make a fun gift for my son's teacher. My inspiration came from Amanda over at Shindig Parties To Go. She made Oreo Apple Pops, and put them in a cute vase covered with pencils. So I used her idea, and made it my own. Please forgive me for the horrible pictures! I still can't find my camera, so these were taken with my ipod! :)
Ok, here's my version

I used Amanda's tutorial to make the apple pops, so check it out HERE if you need a tutorial. Do you want to see how I made the super cheap version of the vase? Well, I started out with this

I didn't want to spend anything on the container, and was lucky enough to see the Parmesan cheese container in our recycle pile! I just washed it out, removed the packaging,
and cut it just a bit shorter than a crayon. The crayons I got at walmart for less than $1,
and the Styrofoam ball was in my craft stash. $1 for the vase? I can handle that!!

I just started gluing the crayons to the outside of the vase. I was going to use my hot glue gun, but ended up using E-6000 glue instead. This turned out to be a very good thing when I got to the last crayon and realized it wouldn't fit. Since the E-6000 stays wet for a while,
I was able to go back and space them better so there wasn't a huge gap.
I tied a ribbon around and glued the bow to the crayons. Then I glued the Styrofoam ball
to the bottom of the container. I first tried the E-6000, only to find out it made half
of the ball disintegrate! So use hot glue to glue the Styrofoam to the bottom! I also lined the inside of the vase with white paper....I'm not sure why. I just did! :)

I used raffia to tie the bags around the apple pops, as well as to hide the Styrofoam in the vase.

Here's my sweet 1st grader (ahhhh!) ready to give the gift to his teacher!

What do you think?! Did you do anything fun for your kids first day of school? If you need more ideas, Jess made some adorable cards for her kids teachers, found HERE.  Or Jacki did a whole week of teacher appreciation gifts HERE.  I also made a supply box for my sons teacher last year that turned out really cute.  Check that one out HERE!

Thanks for reading!!

Juli

Linking to THESE fabulous parties!

Camp Crafts

Life has been slightly busy around my house lately.

Right now I am at Girls Camp for church and I'm loving it.
I am helping with Camp Crafts, which I feel is right up my alley.
I thought I would show you what we're going to be doing,
in case you want to use some of the ideas for your family or your ward.

The main craft I'm in charge of, I found over at The How-To Gal.

I love these felt flowers and they are SO easy to make.
I also made it so you can switch it from a headband to a clip.
I know the girls are going to enjoy it.
Some tips I have, since I am making these for about 100 girls.

*Get a white stamp pad for the color felt and a black stamp pad for the white felt.
I ended up using a Rubbermaid bowl as a stencil and just stamped directly on the felt.
It makes for easier cutting and just saves TONS of time!

* When cutting the base, I found a Triangle with the corners cut off works really well.

*If you want a flower that doesn't stand up really high on your head,
don't cut your flower so thick.

Other crafts we're doing.
Duct Tape Wallets
Totes (but we're using regular material)
Washer Necklaces And Camp Journals
Paracord Bracelet (we're just going to knot them though)

There you have it.
Hope you are having a great summer and that you can use some of these ideas.
See you when I get home from camp!

Gardening Bucket

My awesome mother-in-law, Vienna, had a birthday last week, and I wanted to share what I made for her. I was originally going to make this for her for mothers day,
but being the procrastinator that I am, it didn't get done in time!
So it ended up being the perfect birthday gift! Vienna loves to garden,
so when I found this idea over at Ladybird Ln, I knew I had to make it for her.
Here's how mine turned out

Isn't it great?? Carlee from Ladybird Ln put burlap around hers, and then made an adorable gardening belt to go around it. My sewing machine is broken, so I couldn't do the belt, and I thought it would add a fun touch to put the grand kids hand prints on the outside. I'm not going to do a tutorial since Carlee already has an amazing one, but I will give you some tips

First off, you don't have to buy your 5 gallon bucket. My husband works at a grocery store, and I had him ask the bakery if they would give us one, and they were fine with it. These buckets have pros and cons. They're free, but the reason I spray painted mine was because it had a huge image on the side reminding you that kids can fall into the bucket and drown.

Can you see it? This was after two coats of white paint!!
That's why I decided to paint it the blue color.
Another con is that it still had a huge label on it (ours was for butter-cream frosting!),
but I used my handy dandy 'Sticky Out' that I used for this post, and it took it off, no problem! Carlee used a Gamma lid for her bucket, which would have been awesome if I could have found one in time, but I couldn't. So I just used the original lid, and it worked fine.

Here are a couple pics of how I put the cushion together

Do you see my favorite new tool I just bought for myself?!!
Can't believe I've never owned one, but I love it! :)

Then I had my husband screw the seat to the lid.

I traced my kids hands onto fabric, mod podged them to the bucket with
a couple extra coats on top, and painted on the wording.
After it all dried, I covered it with a couple coats of clear sealant.

It didn't turn out quite like I'd predicted, but it's fun none the less.
At least it shows I put effort into making something for her. What do you think?

Thanks for reading!!

Juli

Linking to these fabulous parties!

Are You Ready??

So are you ready for Fathers Day?!  Did our ideas last week help?  Well, just in case you're not ready, I thought I'd share some great ideas I've seen in blogland.  I'm still working on my Fathers Day gifts, because I'm just a last minute kind of girl!!

I found this first one over at Silly Eagle Books

I love having things that are personalized, and this framed questionnaire and handprint are just perfect!  This is definitely on my list of things to do!

This next one is from Holiday Crafts and Creations

My husband is so hard to buy for, so most often he gets a gift card to an electronics store.  I feel bad only giving him a gift card, but what a fun way to give a kind of lame gift!  :)

Take a look at these free printables from Shindig Parties To Go!

Amazing, right?  You could do so many things with those ties!  The possibilities are endless!! Oh, and by the way, her site is fabulous! There are some awesome ideas, so go check it out!

So I had a few other things that I was going to share with you, but this is the third time writing this post, and for some reason it won't let me attach any more links.  So annoying!! Whatev!!

Hopefully these will give you some fun ideas to show your man how much you appreciate him!
Thanks for reading!

Juli