Wedding Invitation Keepsake Ornament

With all of the weddings I have attended, I have a surplus of wedding invitations lying around that I can't bring myself to throw away. On the other hand, my house is cluttered enough, and I certainly don't know where I'll store them with the limited storage space we've got. Finally, it dawned on me (about 25 weddings too late)...I could give the invitations back to the bride and groom in the form of a keepsake ornament that they could hang up around Christmastime year after year. With my friends Sarah and Steve getting married this Saturday, I thought they'd be fantastic guinea pigs to receive the first edition of this gift! Here's how it's done...

Materials:

-wedding invitation

-scissors

-round pencil or pen

-clear, glass ornament

-ribbon

-lighter

-charms

-split ring

Instructions:

1. Cut invitation into thin strips so that there is one line of script per piece cut (refer to picture below). Since this particular invitation had cardstock 

    behind it, I decided to separate the cardstock from each of the strips and use them for added color inside of the ornament.

2. Using a rounded pencil or pen, curl each strip of paper tightly around it and slide off the pen or pencil to avoid unraveling

3. Place each of the "curls" inside of the glass ornament.

4. Cut about 8" of ribbon in a corresponding color and tie to the loop at the top of the ornament, creating a way to hang the ornament from a Christmas 

    tree. Fray the edges of the ribbon using a lighter.

5. Cut about 14" of ribbon and tie around the top of the ribbon, creating a bow in the center of the ornament. Trim off excess ribbon. Fray the edges of 

    the ribbon using a lighter.

6. Place the charms on a split ring and close the split ring around the center of the bow so that the charms dangle in the middle of the ornament for 

    added embellishment.

Here's to a lifetime of happiness and wedded bliss!!!

Frozen Birthday Party

I have no idea how, but, before my very eyes, my sweet niece Camdyn is turning 4! Crazy!!! Like most four-year-old girls her age, she is completely obsessed with Frozen, so her party theme was a no-brainer. What was not so simple, however, were all of the little details her mom put into this adorable party for all of us to enjoy! Check out all of the funsies in the pics below...

The almost four-year-old humoring her aunt by taking a picture by her food table

Drink options included "Melted Olaf" (aka-ice water) and "Melted Snow Monster" (a fun and fizzy blue concoction that was quite tasty)

Frozen snow castles created by pouring water and food coloring into beach pails, freezing them and placing them on a cotton ball-covered cookie sheet

Each food item offered went along adorably with the theme! Sno-Cap candies became the Snow Caps of Arendale, Anna and Elsa's kingdom

Green rock candy resembled Anna's frozen coronation gown

Blue and clear-colored rock candy on a stick served as Elsa's frozen fractals all around

No party is complete without powdered donut holes, aka "Snowballs"

Chicken and ham salad sandwiches were served as the main entreé and went along with Anna and Hans' favorite food choice

Who doesn't love frozen grapes???

Pretzel sticks were adorably labeled "Sven's antlers" to pay homage to everyone's favorite reindeer (besides Rudolph, that is).

And let's not forget everyone's favorite character, Olaf and his removable (cheese puff-like) nose

The pretty birthday girl posing by her Olaf poster...

My sister-in-law frosted a Blue Velvet (for obvious reasons) cake and embellished it with beautiful, blue, rock candy and Frozen character figurines

How cool is that light-up birthday candle??? And how sweet is that birthday girl?

Playing "Pin the Nose on the Olaf"---stiff competition

The bar has been set very high for Frozen-themed parties after this little shindig!

Simple, Embroidery Hoop Pumpkins

Here's a fast and super simple project you can finish just in time for Halloween! And the best part is you can keep it up through Thanksgiving to give your house that great, fall feel! Chances are also good that, if you're a craft nerd like me, you probably have all or most of the materials required to create this project! Check out the tutorial below to get started...

Materials:

-embroidery hoops-I used three different sizes, 6", 8" and 10"

-fall or orange fabric cut into squares slightly larger than the corresponding hoops

-green raffia

-2 feet of ribbon or fabric strip

-glue gun and sticks

Instructions:

1. Place the fabric square on top of the inner ring of the embroidery hoop (aka, the one without the metal parts) so that it is completely covered.

2. Place the outer ring on top of the fabric and inner ring and tighten using the screw at the top so that fabric is taut.

3. Repeat this process for the two remaining rings.

4. Trim the excess fabric from around the ring so that no extra fabric remains.

5. Tie about 4 strings of raffia around the tops of each embroidery hoop into a bow.

6. Lay the fabric strip or ribbon across the backs of the embroidery hoops with 2-4" in between each hoop. Leave about 5" above the smallest hoop to create a loop from which to hang the decoration. Glue the fabric strip or ribbon to the backs of each hoop and at the bottom of the loop.

P

Hang and enjoy!

Happy Halloween, goblins and ghouls!!!

Children's Jack-O-Lantern Painting

With baby #2 on the way, I have had virtually no energy to do anything once I get home from a long day of work. Poor Claire has been a trooper when I explain to her that mommy needs to lay down a little and watch her play, or must her chicken nuggets yet again for dinner because I have no energy to cook! Now that I am starting to feel a little (and I mean a little) less exhausted, I finally broke down and bought her the art supply she's been requesting for longer than I care to admit (the thought of setting up, taking down and the potential mess were all just too much for this preggo to handle in the first trimester)...paint! 2 packs of watercolors, 1 set of finger paints, brushes, a Mickey Mouse poster paint kit, paper, and one, giant, drop cloth later, and we were on our way!

Once we arrived home, it was on! I grabbed an old shirt of mine for Claire to use as a smock, covered everything within a 3-mile radius in a drop cloth and let her go to town. After finishing her Halloween-themed, Mickey Mouse posters, she used the leftover paint to decorate a white, baby pumpkin we had recently purchased. A word to the wise...teaching a toddler that she must wait for paint to dry before touching and playing with the completed 

projects WILL result in multiple meltdowns. The sooner you accept it, the easier it becomes!

Finger painting was our final endeavor of the evening. We worked on mixing colors to make other colors and used the orange we created to spread and play with the paint. I helped Claire use her fingers to trace jack-o-lantern eyes, nose, and a mouth and placed it in a safe place to dry.  The following day, I knew I wanted to use her creations as Halloween decoration and decided to tweak her finger painting a bit to be able to display it proudly year after year.

I used a green, chevron, piece of cardstock I had in my stash and traced a pumpkin shape on the back of it in pencil. Using scissors, I cut out the pumpkin shape. 

Double-sided tape allowed me to adhere the pumpkin cutout to the finger painting, so that the jack-o-lantern face was centered nicely. 

I trimmed the excess paper from the finger painting and cut down the chevron paper to make it fit an 8x10 frame. Once placed in a cute frame, the project was complete!   

I do believe this will be a household staple for every Halloween and Fall for many years to come!

Detachable Olaf Plush

Do you wanna build a snowman??? A question familiar to probably every child in America and beyond, courtesy of Disney's fantastic movie Frozen! And who doesn't love that adorable snowman obsessed with the season that would deduce him to a puddle, as well as constantly getting himself decapitated and impaled throughout his adventures with Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Sven! Olaf is a character you can't help but love and my nephew, Derek, is no exception. Check out the stuffed Olaf I created for him. The best part??? He's detachable...just like in the movie! Now Olaf can get into all sorts of pretend play mischief, too!!!

I must note that I am sort of a "cut and wing it" kind of sewer, so there is no specific pattern for you to follow, but I can give you the basic idea as to how you can make an Olaf for yourself! Here goes...

Materials:

-1 yard white felt

-white thread

-needle

-sewing machine

-fabric scissors

-black, orange, and dark brown felt

-Velcro (about 1 ft. total of soft and rough sides)

Instructions:

1. Placing two pieces of felt together, cut out an uneven circle of about 8" in diameter (keep in mind, one of the most endearing things about Olaf is his 

    uneven-ness and whacky ways, so there is no need for precision here). Put both pieces off to the side.

2. Create 2 uneven circles out of white felt approximately 6" in diameter. Place both pieces to the side for later.

3. Create two oval-ish shapes (almost bell shaped) approximately 8"x6" (at its widest point). Refer to the pictures below to get an idea of the shape. 

    Place to the side with the others

4. Using white felt, cut out a rouded rectangle for teeth,  two-2" circlesr eyes, and 2-2x4" rounded rectangles for feet.

5. Using black felt, create three uneven circles approximately 4" in diameter for buttons, two circles about 1" in diameter for the eyes, and one mouth, approximately 4x6" at its largest point (refer to picture)

6. Using dark brown felt, cut out 3-4, 3" long strips for Olaf's hair, two, long, triangular pieces for his eyebrows, and two arms about 6" in length.

7. Take one of the white felt pieces that will make Olaf's head and pin on the mouth, teeth, nose, and eyes (white and black circles) in the appropriate 

     places.

8. Using white thread, handstitch the pieces to the felt

9. Using one of the middle pieces, pin on a black button. Handstitch the button onto the felt.

10. Using one of the large, bottom pieces, pin two black buttons onto the felt and handstitch.

11. Match each of the white pieces felt up so that the eyes, nose, buttons, mouth, etc. are placed in the insides. Pin the hair, arms and legs to each ot the 

      corresponding pieces and place the remaining material into the middle of the white felt so that no parts of the hair, arms, or legs are sticking out. Pin 

      matching pieces together (should be a total of three).

12. Sew around each pinned piece, leaving a 2-3 each gap to stuff them. Once sewn, flip rightside out, stuff, and handstitch to close.

13. Handstitch a 3" piece of rough Velcro to the bottom of Olaf's face, a 3" soft piece to the top of Olaf's mid-section, a 3" rough piece to the bottom of the mid-section, and a 3" soft piece to the top of the bottom part of Olaf.

14. Attach Olaf and enjoy the detachable fun!!!

Counting Money Activities

Let's face it...there are TONS of mathematic concepts that we've been taught,  which we can honestly say we have NEVER used in our everyday lives, nor ever use them in the future! I mean, who can say they've ever had to use the Pythagorean theorem or know the square root of anything in their adult lives? I mean this as no offense whatsoever to all of the math teachers in the world and give them tons of credit for all they do. I am simply leading into some activities that I have used for my students to enforce a math concept that will constantly be used in the future...concepts of money! As a teacher of special needs students, these are crucial life skills that will be used their entire lives and are far more beneficial to this population than exponents, angles, and other, more abstract concepts. Here are some activities to use at home or in a classroom for students of varying ability levels to teach concepts of money...

Practice sorting coins using fake money and small cups

Label envelopes with specific dollar amounts and have students place the correct amount of faux dollar bills in each envelope

Practice combining coins to create the amount written on each envelope (I always include a picture of the item they are "purchasing" to empahsize the fact that money allows us to buy the things we want)

I would loooove to hear ideas you all have for helping your students and children understand concepts of money. Let me know!

Back to School Cash Giveaway!!!

O

Its back to school time! Are you ready? In case your answer is a resounding "no," you have come to the right place! I'm teaming up with lots of awesome bloggers to give away 3 (that's right...THREE) cash prizes of $200 to help you with your shopping! Simply enter using the Rafflecopter link below for your chance to win! Good luck!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway