Hoppy Easter!!

Happy Easter everyone!  Whether you celebrate the holiday or not, I hope you have a happy, chocolate filled Sunday with your friends and family!

I seem to be drawing a lot of bunnies with my new Sketch app lately.  Here are the other two in celebration of the day!

See you all next week!

Spring Time and Taxes!

 

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all of the little things you need to get done?  I'm not talking about the fun, crafty things that you WANT to do, but rather the mundane and incredibly annoying minutae that HAS to be done.  Getting my business receipts, etc. ready for the accountant for taxes is one of my least favorite jobs.  Every year I swear that this time I will turn over a new leaf!  I will save every receipt!  Itemize!  Keep the mileage!  Record!  Record!  Record!  As I go through last year's pile, I can see that once again, I managed to keep my resolution - for about 2 months!   After that, I get lazy, or busy, or get distracted by something shiny and receipts get put into pockets, left in the car or tossed in my studio.  Sigh.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel now, though.  My studio has been cleaned so I could find the receipts,  the office computer has been organized so I can see all of my online purchases, and I've learned how to use my Ipad calendar so I can track appointments better.  A new me?  I guess you'd better check back with me in June to see if I've kept it up!

Now, on to the fun part!  Spring has sprung and Easter is just around the corner!  I am so ready for some pretty colors and flowers, fresh air and sunshine, I want to brighten up the house a little bit!  Really, I don't mind wearing a sweater, but can I please put the parka away??! 

In honor of this being my family's first Easter at home in nearly 10 years, I've been looking at some really cute ways to decorate both the Easter eggs and our home. 

Love this!  Lavender and yellow!

Any fresh flowers will do! 



This would be a cute centerpiece for the table

Simple and sweet - although I can just hear my boys now asking who laid the giant egg!




Don't Celebrate Easter?  How about using some Easter ISLAND decorations!  I think that would be hilarious!

When my boys were young, they loved to Easter egg hunt on Easter morning.  As they got older, though it wasn't as much fun for them and I decided to change it up.  Instead of using Easter eggs, I bought bags of the plastic ones you can fill up with goodies.  In each egg my husband and I put some candy and a note with directions to the next egg.  They had to each follow their own "trail" of eggs until they got to the last one, which was filled with money!  Somehow, a money-filled egg managed to keep the fun going for all of us!  Just a thought!

 These first few ideas came from Pinterest.  If you haven't checked Pinterest out yet - be very careful!  It is addicting!

Some decorated scrapbook paper and a glue stick should do it!  Use a Sharpie for the eyes.

Or..use a Sharpie pen to cover the entire thing!  Genius!

How about some chalkboard paint and have the kids draw on them in chalk?

Melted Crayons!

Ohmigosh!  Painted light bulb lambs from BH&G.com!  I would use a different color yarn for the bonnet and maybe add some flowers!

 

 Have a wonderful week everyone!  Try and bring in some color and freshness to your life to celebrate spring!  (even if snow is still in your near future!) 

Lady in Waiting!

I was so hoping the project I started last week would be done by now!  Unfortunately, I've been waiting to find the right allergy medicine as our Virginia spring begins and I've been a little under the weather with it.

I seem to be on the right kind now and am ready to move forward so please stay tuned until next week when I can show it to you!

Have a wonderful week everyone!  Aaaaachooooooo! :)

There's No Business Like Snow Business...



Good morning!  I have been waiting all winter for a decent snowfall and this past week we finally got it!  As my kids have gotten older, we've traded roles - now they have to shovel the driveway and I get to make the snowman!  I thought I'd share some of my past snow people as well as a few others I thought were clever.  



You remember the table skirt from my sister's tropical party last week?  Here it is again as their grass skirts as well as the leis and palm tree!  Her bra top is just a blue scarf of mine.  For their smiles, I strung beads on thread, knotted the ends, then hot glued the ends to two skewers that I pushed into the snow.  His eyes are googly eyes you can buy at a craft store, glued onto buttons, then the button was glued onto two more wood skewers to push into the snow.  I kept the mouths and eyes for future works of art!

This is arguably my favorite snowman I've ever made.  I had no idea just how big I was going to make the fish, but just loved the way he turned out! 

I love using props like this sled!



This one wasn't my favorite, her legs were too big and the proportions not great, but the snow was almost gone and I needed to hurry!  Her top is just green felt (the same felt I made some leaves out of for my sisters tropical party)!



And now a few more that other people have made - so creative!

Have a great week everyone.  I'm excited to show you the project I'm working on now, which I hope will be ready by next Sunday!

Good morning!  A short and sweet blog post this morning to show some of the other projects I did for my sister's 50th birthday party last night.  We had a great time and are all recovering quite nicely from our late night!

First project - and I'm not sure what to call this, but I painted a cruise ship scene and cut out the holes where the faces would be so our guests could all feel like they were on board ship with my sister!



Sandy and our dear friend Tom enjoying an umbrella drink on board the cruise ship!

 These boards are a great project.  I've made a few of them over the years for my kids elementary school "Fun Night" events (I only have a photo of one of them which I will post at the bottom of today's blog.  The board is a very lightweight piece of insulation board that you can get at Home Depot or Lowes.  It cost about $10 and is easy to cut and paint.



It comes in extra large sheets, so make sure you have a large car to transport it, (or a great neighbor who has a large car, thank you Tara!)



Paint over the silver with a primer, such as Kilz, and you're ready to paint.

 

I drew on the scene and painted it with craft paint.  Here's my Mom helping with the lady's polka dot bikini.  This was a true family affair!

Next, the cake!  You know from a few weeks ago that I am thoroughly enjoying my new found hobby of making cakes using Rice Krispie treats covered in fondant for decoration.  Since my sister is taking a cruise next week, naturally that had to be the theme of the cake...


I used two double-layered sheet cakes set next to each other for the base, then made the cruise ship from the Rice Krispie treats. (my dad helped me make the sheet cakes - thanks Dad!)



Putting the pieces together.  I shaped the base using a greased bread pan, then the next layer, I greased a small tupperwear container.  Once they were cool, I removed them and cut them into the ship shapes.

A ton of icing with blue food color for the watery base!

Well, it wouldn't be a party without eating the decoration!  Here is my friend Tom's Titanic reenactment!  (A prayer that Sandy's cruise doesn't meet up with any ice bergs... :))

A few other smaller projects that really added to the festive, tropical mood...

I purchased two grass table skirts from Oriental Trading Company (if you've never used them, check out their website!).  I purchased a large piece of blue costume material ($4) and a smaller piece of a more expensive tropical material and sewed the grass skirts on to the material for an inexpensive "table cloth".



A large basket of lei's at the front door to put on our guests as they arrived.





Not sure what to call these, but you may remember that at my great-niece's birthday party a few weeks ago, we had these pink tissue paper balls hanging from the chandelier.  Well, I saved them and thought they looked like flowers, and so made some very "Lorax" inspired tropical plants with balloons and chicken wire.  I hope Dr. Seuss would approve!

 There may be more photos that I will post mid-week, once my nephew sends them to me. He has a much better camera than I but he has to convert the shots so I can put them on here.  Stay tuned...

In the mean time, here is another shot of a board I did for our local elementary school event - the theme of the party, of course, was "The Circus"...

I duct taped two boards together for this one so it could stand up on it's own.  Of course, most of the kids wanted to be in the lions mouth! :)

Have a great day everyone, I am going to go back out and enjoy my family until they all head home! 

In the Palm of My Hand!

Good Morning Everyone!  Before I get started, I need to get the business out of the way first to my sister Sandy - Sands, if you don't want to see any of the decorations for your party next week, don't read any further!! 

We are entering into a big week in my family.  First, my baby sister, Laura, will be honored as Detective of the Year for the DC police department.  I am so proud of her!  Additionally, I will be hosting my older sister's 50th birthday party at my home.  I am so excited to not only be able to celebrate this milestone with her, but also to decorate for a themed tropical/cruise party!  As a gift to herself, Sandy will be taking a cruise with her wonderful friend Lori, which is where the theme came about.  Everyone has been asked to dress tropical or cruise-y - which will be very interesting since it is still March in Virginia and I'm not sure how we'll do in flip flops and sarongs in this cold!

I have started some of the decorations to give my home a tropical flavor..this week it was the palm trees and some flowers.

First, the front entry columns.  I figured out how to make palm fronds with foil tissue paper and a wire hanger.  I found the foil tissue at Michael's in the gift wrap section with the regular tissue paper.  For the trunks of the trees, I just used brown grocery bags.  I ripped the top of the bag for a jagged edge, then rubbed dark stencil gel along the top edge to give it a darker line.  Total cost per tree, about $2.99 for the foil.  What an impact!



Here is the view from my front door.  I will add some signs on the trees before the party, probably an arrow to the beach and one to the ship.  By the way, there is an "H" at the beginning of the banner hidden by the palm leaf..

Here is how to make the palm fronds.

There are 5 pieces of foil in each pack.  Lay them out on your work surface.

I opened up a wire hanger for each of them, keeping the hook part and trimming the opposite end to make it just shorter than the foil. Run some glue on either side of the hanger wire as well as on the wire itself



Fold the foil in half, making sure you press down along the wire, ensuring the glue makes contact with both sides.




Once the glue dries, trim all four corners of the foil, then make small cuts at an angle toward the hanger hook from the edge of the foil to about an inch from the center wire.  You can start seeing the fronds now.  Don't be perfect with the cutting, the choppier, the more natural they will look!





To attach the fronds to the columns, I used duct tape.  For each column, I measured out four pieces of tape the diameter of the column plus a few inches to overlap.  I then attached two of the pieces together on one side to make it double the width.  Lastly, I laid the final two pieces over the first two, sticky sides together.   I don't want to tape the duct tape to my columns directly as the glue in the tape can sometimes leave a residue.  I wrapped each piece at the top of my columns, then used another piece of duct tape to tape the ends together. 



I simply taped each hook end of the palm fronds to the duct tape base I created.  Once they were all up, I wrapped one more piece of tape around the entire column for added strength, then bent the ends of the palm fronds to give it a natural curve.



Once the fronds were in place, I just wrapped the columns, starting from the top, in the grocery bags, overlapping each as I moved down toward the floor.  I used a piece of duct tape, wrapped in a circle to make it two sided to hold each bag in place.  Once the tree was done, I ran a bead of glue along the edge to make it lay flat. 

On to the palms trees that I will place in my family room!

My neighbor gave me a few years ago.  Coffee cans mounted on a square base, filled with concrete with a metal pole sticking out of the top. I cannot tell you have many times I've used these!  Wrapped in balloons, holding up banners, plastic tubing filled with white twinkle lights!  These have a dozen uses!  Now they are the base for two more trees.



Terrible photo, I know, but I purchased some pvc pipe to go over the poles (about $4 each) and wrapped each pole in twinkle lights.  Next (and this is the part my son walked in on and thought I was nuts), I cut off the feet and top of three pairs of panty hose and pulled the leg portion over the pipe.  I cut a little hole at each little light and pulled the bulb through the panty hose.



After tucking in more palm fronds in the top of the pvc pipe, I placed them in the dark corner of my family room, which will be the dance floor for the party. 

The bases will be wrapped in greenery with flowers added - I won't do that until just before the party.  It makes a very pretty decoration!

Now to decorate the fireplace mantle.  I found this blog, http://mousechirpy-polkadotpineapple.blogspot.com/2010/01/wire-edged-fabric-flowers.html that explains how to make wire edged flowers.  Great instructions and easy to follow.  I used some of my scrap material and made the flowers to put on the mantle, along with some white flowers I already had (I keep everything!).

Some more twinkle lights and purple tulle (tulle is that fabric that looks sort of like the netting you would use for a ballerina tutu), then I lined the mantle with the flowers and felt leaves.  It looks very tropical!

The leaves I cut out of green felt.

Gathered the edge, then used the ends of the 18 gauge wires that I cut off from the flowers I made to hold the end in place.

Next week, I will show you more of the projects I'm doing for the party.  I have some fun things planned that I hope will make this my sister's best birthday ever!  Have a great week!