Puzzle Piece Crayons

As Autism Awareness month comes to an end, I am reminded that Autism is something we should be educating people about every day of the year! The more we know, the more we understand. The more we understand, the more we can help! Here is my final Autism Awareness craft for the month.

Materials:

-broken, unwrapped crayons

-puzzle piece ice cube tray (I found one at Ikea a few years back!)

-gallon Ziploc bag

-hammer

-oven

Instructions:

1. Place all broken and un-wrapped crayons in a gallon, Ziploc bag.

2. Using a hammer, break up crayons into small pieces.

3. Place broken crayons into puzzle piece, ice cube tray

4. Place ice cube tray on a cookie sheet and put both in the oven and bake 15 minutes at 250 ° until crayons have melted.

5. Remove cookie tray from oven and let cool. Once the crayons have hardened, remove carefully from the ice cube tray.

For more information on Autism Awareness, please visit this incredible website!

Autism Awareness Necklace

Now that the Easter insanity has come to a close, I can finally show you this easy-to-make and able to be worn with everything necklace to celebrate Autism Awareness month. As some of you might know, I am an Autism Support teacher and hold this cause very near and dear to my heart. Autism now effects 1 in 68 children and there is no cure at this time. Researchers continue to work tirelessly to determine its cause and are getting closer to determining factors. Knowledge is power, folks, and bringing awareness to this cause can only help increase support and understanding of individuals on the Autism spectrum. For more info., feel free to check out this awesome site. Here are the steps to make a necklace of your very own!

Materials:

-chain with closures (mine was about 18")

-puzzle piece charm (Hobby Lobby and Michael's both sell them in their "Charms" sections)

-split ring

-blue, faceted glass bead

-head pin

-wire cutters

-needle-nosed pliers

Instructions:

1. Using needle-nosed pliers, open the split ring and place the puzzle piece charm onto it.

2. Place blue bead onto head pin and cut remainder of the pin about 1" above the bead. Create a loop using needle-nosed pliers

3. Place blue bead onto split ring. Close split ring using pliers.

4. String pendant onto the necklace. If closures are too large, simply open the split ring and close once around necklace.

Together, let's Light it up Blue for Autism Awareness!!!

Autism Awareness Rag Wreath

April brings the promise of Spring...flowers that have waited all year to bloom, children's laughter when it is finally warm enough to play outside, enjoying friends and family at Eastertime, just to name a few. For myself, and for the incredible families and staff members I have the pleasure of working with, it brings awareness to a cause very near and dear to our hearts...Autism Awareness month! As a special education teacher in an Autism Support classroom, I can say with complete confindence that it is, by far, the most challenging job I have ever held. With that being said, I also find it to be the most unbelievably rewarding and fulfilling job a girl could ever ask for, as it creates in me such a sense of pride in the progress my students continue to make, in spite of the obstacles they encounter every minute of every day. Going into teaching, I assumed I would be doing exactly that...teaching; however, I find myself humbled each day in how much these students teach me and will take those life lessons with me into the future.

Here is my first (of a few) projects to celebrate Autism Awareness, along with how to make one of your own...

Materials:

-wire clotheshanger

-puzzle piece fabric (to learn the reason for the puzzle pieces, check this out!) I used about 1/2 a yard in total

-scissors or a rotary cutter and mat

-wooden puzzle pieces (most thrift stores sell them very inexpensively)

-acrylic paints (I used red, yellow, blue, and green to go along with the color scheme)

-black ribbon

-glue gun/glue sticks

Instructions:

1. Using a rotary cutter or scissors, cut strips that are 1" in width (typically, once a small cut is made, the fabric can be ripped the remainder of the way)

2. Cut long strips into 4" strips.

3. Bend the wire hanger into a circular shape for the wreath form.

4. Double each strip of fabric and place under the wire hanger (as shown in the picture)

5. Thred the open ends of the strip through the folded end and pull to form a knot (pictured below)

6. Continue to repeat step 5 with 4" strips until the wire hanger is covered

7. Paint 16 wooden puzzle pieces using acrylic paint (I made four of each color)

8. Once the puzzle pieces have dried, use hot glue to place 12 of them around the wreath)

9. Cut ribbon into 2-6" pieces and 1-8" piece. Hot glue one puzzle piece to the end of each 6" ribbon and two pieces at the end of the 8' piece.

Interested in a wreath you can make with your child? Check this out! For more information on Autism, please check out the Autism Speaks website, an incredible resource that I would highly recommend!

A Nursery for Claire Bear

It is hard to believe that, in just a few short weeks, our baby girl will be here to meet us! On one hand, it feels like just yesterday that my husband and I discovered we were pregnant! On the other hand, I am going MAD waiting to see who she looks like and which features of mine and my husband's she bears. I can't wait to dress her up in the adorable outfits my relatives and friends spoiled her with, take her for walks in her stroller, and even change a gazillion diapers per day and comforting her on restless nights. Mostly, I just can't wait to have her in my arms and call her my own.

Needless to say, I have been desperately trying to keep busy in any way possible. Here is proof of my busy-ness in the form of pictures of  Claire's room! Enjoy!!!


My amazingly artistic sis-in-law, @Tiffany Beaver painted the tree and I added fabric leaves and birds to match the crib bedding. We're hoping  baby Claire comes out with lots of hair so that she can put the owl barette holder to the right of the tree to good use!

I painted the wooden letters to match Claire's bedding and hot-glued them to ribbon. Each end of the ribbon was then tied around a nail in the wall and covered with fabric-covered, wooden birds.

This plaque was featured in a blog post about a month ago, and we have finally found a home for it in Claire's room

Can't wait to put this glider to very good use. Notice the beautiful afghan on the glider, made by my fabulous mommy, @Jane Beaver!

Bird puzzle completed by shower guests assembled and displayed in baby's room. Love it!!!

For those of you who don't know me, I am obsessed with the use of Scrabble tiles in craft projects! I am passing on this obsession to my child!

Since Claire's cousins all live hours away, I decided to incorporate them into her room for her to think of them fondly when she can't see  them. Each one used their hand or footprints to create an adorable little character to add to her nursery decor! Also of note is the adorable picture frame to the left of the windowsill made by my aunt, @Julie Heckman and featuring the 3-D ultrasound pic of Claire!

A closeup of Alison's and Camdyn's nursery contributions-a birdie and an owl

Royce's, Derek's, and Adrienne's creative contributious-a butterfly, a frog, and a bouquet of flowers



Showered with Love (and Creativity)

I am including some pictures from one of my fantastic baby showers, hosted by my mom, @Jane Beaver, sister, @Kyra Tanner, sister-in-law, @Tiffany Beaver, and best friend, @ Tammie Gloss! These ladies put so much time and creativity into planning a fabulously handmade shower, and I could not have been more appreciative and honored. Claire and I are VERY lucky girls!!!



A view of the adorable shower tables, based on my nursery theme of birds and trees, fashioned by my awesomely creative mom, @Jane Beaver and sister, @Kyra Tanner



Favors were bags of delicious popcorn and labeled "Ready to Pop" Adorbs!!!



A view of the delicious popcorn-kettle corn drizzled with white (in this case, pink) and milk chocolate. Mmmm!!!



How cool is this? A cupcake tree made by the fabulous @Tiffany Beaver



Owl cookies made by my amazing BBFF (that would be "Baker Best Friend Forever") @Tammie Gloss



Tam also fashioned this AWESOME Elmo fruit tray (Elmo is my absolute favorite character from childhood and, let's be honest, adulthood, too)!



One of the shower games encouraged guests to cut apart pictures of my husband, Jason and myself and glue together what our child might look like using our "best features". Yikes! Let's hope life does not imitate art, because the "child" on the right is definitely rocking a MULLET!



More views of Baby Eyer...poor kid!



Another shower activity encouraged each guest to write a message on a puzzle piece, which eventually formed a large bird to be proudly displayed in baby's nursery. @Tiffany Beaver cut out the bird outline and each of the puzzle pieces using pink foam core and an Exacto knife! How amazing is she?!?!

Beautiful pram cover made by my Grandma Dalby, the original crafter of our family!

Very Hungry Caterpillar (one of my favorite children's books)-themed knitted hat and peapod, created by my fabulous aunt, @Patricia Beaver. Is this not the coolest thing you've ever seen?!?!?! Man, I love creative people!

Another amazing example of creativity! My cousin, @ Kristin Pastva created these awesome baby leggings by sewing together two, adult socks! If this baby is not the most fashion-forward chick in all of Pittsburgh, I'm not sure who is! Did I mention creative people are the best?!?!