Crafts
Candy Cane Advent Calendar
Of all the ideas I’ve dreamed up that my husband has built for me, the giant chalkboard is still one of my favorites. Plus, it’s not just a chalkboard, it’s a magnetic chalkboard. It’s constructed out of sheet metal with a wood frame. I got the impression when I went to the sheet metal manufacturing place to buy this randomly-sized piece of sheet metal that they don’t get many walk-ins. And the walk-ins they do get must be a certain type because the only thing the man who helped me said was, “you must be using this to homeschool your children.” Ah, no. Can’t a girl just want a giant magnetic chalkboard? However, I took…
Mason Jar Snow Globes
I have been meaning to make snow globes for years, people. YEARS. I have the fake snow in my craft bins to prove it. Except, I wanted to make a lot of snow globes. That type of commitment makes me commitment-phobic about the permanence of such a gesture. Did that sentence make sense? Imagine being inside my brain… So the kids and I decided to make dry snow globes. Well, I decided, but they happily went along with the idea. This idea is not new or unique and you can find how-to posts all over the ol’ Internet. Basically, it boils down to this. Hot glue a fake tree to the lid…
Hat Box Makeover
I grew up in a family where the ladies wore hats to weddings and funerals for other family members. It’s a formality in our increasingly casual society that I love for the respect it brings to a momentous occasion. I don’t have many hats, but the ones I do have are kept protected in hat boxes – usually in the top of my closet. Except in this house, our closets are itty-bitty and the hat boxes have not had priority placement in the closet. So, that means they’ve been sitting out where I can see them right before I shut my eyes each night. The nightmares were getting to me, so I decided…
Giant Tic Tac Toe
I was going to call this post “what I did with the rest of that giant cardboard box,” but I didn’t want to bury the lead. To recap a long story, I was too lazy to recycle the giant box our new AC unit came in, so it has been sitting in our basement since, oh, August or so. Not long, really. I finally turned part of the box into pumpkin art, but there was still A LOT of box left. Turns out AC boxes and refrigerator boxes are very similar in size. Here’s what I made with it: A giant tic-tac-toe board! How fun is that? Especially if you are…
Thanksgiving Cards – Free Printable
You may not be old enough to remember this, but people, millions of people across this country, used to pay their bills by mailing in a paper check in a paper envelope with a stamp you actually had to lick. This was before Al Gore invented the Internet. A few things have changed since then, like online bill-pay. I’m glad I’m not an envelope salesperson. By my own calculations, we have had the same box of 500 #10 letter-size envelopes for over 15 years. We’ve moved that box of envelopes 8 times in 15 years. The ridiculousness of that statement is almost too much to wrap my mind around. Now you know…
Cardboard Pumpkin Art
Our AC was replaced this summer. This happened in August in Georgia and I may or may not have professed my undying love for the AC installer man. Despite that awkward exchange, he was super nice and made the GIGANTIC box that the AC unit came in into a fort for my kids. Of course, they loved it and played with it for a few days before they moved on to other things. Here’s the embarrassing part. It’s October and that box is still sitting in the basement. Every time I get on the bike or treadmill (which is 5 days a week), I spend 30 minutes thinking that I need…
Paper Pumpkin Centerpiece
I don’t have the time or the energy to make stuff for this blog that I don’t use. That would cut into all of my bon-bon eating and soap opera watching time. 😉 Recently I shared a how-to for making paper pumpkins. Well, this is where those paper pumpkins are hanging out this October – on my dining room table. It’s a little nod to the season. They might even hang around until Thanksgiving…we’ll see. Taking pictures of your home allows you to really study what’s going on. I’m still over-the-moon about a fireplace in my dining room. I’m just not over-the-moon enough to light a fire in it. Maybe…
Halloween Built-Ins
I have been waiting for days for the light to be bright enough to take pictures of the little makeover our built-ins received for Halloween. Have I mentioned patience is not one of my virtues? At the rate I was going it was going to be Easter before I showed you the Halloween shelves. And, well, that wouldn’t be quite right would it? So instead of grainy and dim, let’s call these photos moody and Halloween-esque. 🙂 Decorating mainly with stuff I already had forced me to get creative – especially since I don’t own an abundance of seasonal decorating items. Me and clutter are not friends. If you’ve known me for…
Paper Pumpkins
Human beings are full of contradictions. Okay, me. I’m full of contradictions. For instance, decorating with pumpkins makes me immensely happy. Smelling pumpkin-y things? Can’t get enough. Eat pumpkin-flavored food? Gag me now. I’m super mature for my age too. These paper pumpkins fall into the “can’t get enough” category. I made this orange pumpkin a couple of years ago. He’s a little banged up and misshapen, but we all get that way from time to time. This paper pumpkin craft is easy and cheap – my two requirements for crafting. Here’s what you need: paper, scissors and a glue gun. I’ve done this craft with tape, but the glue…
Useful Perler Bead Craft
True story. Last year my daughter participated in an economics project at school involving making a product out of perler beads and then “selling” that product. I had managed to avoid the perler bead craze thus far, but she was over-the-moon about those little plastic cylinders. I got those warm fuzzy feelings seeing her totally jazzed about what she had created. So, for her birthday which was a few days away, I ordered her a big tub of perler beads. 22,000 perler beads to be exact. In my defense, perler beads are really cheap – especially on Amazon. You probably know how this story is going to go. My daughter opened the…
