Snorkel Ornament

Another project! This crop over at JuJu Bees has given me so much inspiration!! Here it is, made with the Snorkel line by Cosmo Cricket:

Here is the post showing how to make it: How About Orange Paper Flower Ornament.

A tree-mendously cute card

Ok, that post title was a stretch in trying to be witty and cute. LOL. I made this card today for the "shaped card" challenge going on with the JuJu Bees Crop this weekend. There's only a couple of hours left to submit projects and I have to say... it has been such a nice way to spend a weekend!! If you missed the crop... don't worry, there's always fun challenges and tutorials being posted, head over and take a look? Here is my Christmas tree card. I used scrabble tiles and lots of scraps of paper. I added an easel back to this card so that the receiver can use it as Christmas decor as well. Wouldn't this be super cute in your office?

a very crafty day

Today is officially the first day of Christmas vacation at our house! No school for anyone (DH did have to work, though) so I spent the afternoon in my craft room. I cleaned off my desk (which had been neglected for months while homework stole all of my time away) and made two fun and really cool projects.

The first is a wreath made from sheets of music:

I didn't have any books of sheet music on hand so I googled and printed off lots of copies of a few Christmas songs. I found this idea at Miss Mustard Seed. I love her aged pages but I think mine turned out to be very pretty considering I had to improvise. After I printed the music on 8.5"x11" paper I cut them in half and rolled somewhere around 100 tubes (which means 50 sheets of copier paper). I used modge podge to hold mine together, let dry and misted with strongly brewed coffee. Then I inked around the edges of all of the tubes. I would have liked to put a wider, darker bow but this is the largest that I had on hand. All together I spent... nothing! Gotta love that!! Here's some detail that shows the distressing:

The second project of the day is a giant, pink snowflake! The finished snowflake is about 16" (yes, SIXTEEN INCHES) across:

This idea isn't mine either, lol. I found it on the Cosmo Cricket blog a few weeks ago. Find the instructions by checking out their blog post HERE. This is a wonderfully impressive project but it is honestly so super easy to make!

Isn't this cool?? My suggestions: Use good glue. Hot glue would be best. I used my Tombow and it is only holding so-so. I have been reinforcing some of the points with my Zip Dry. I want to make more but I need to find my hot glue gun first. I also want to look for some type of plastic sheets so that I can make some to hang outside!

Hope you try one of these two projects. They would make really great (and cheap!) last minute Christmas gifts, too. Let me know if you try one?

Love in a can

I ran across the cutest idea the other day out there in blog land. I was checking out Blue Cricket Designs and found her tutorial for "Christmas pop top cans" and fell in love! That night for dinner I made sure to use two can (Delmonte fruit) so that I could use for the girls' teacher gifts. She has a great description on how to make them so head over there for the details. Here are the ones that I made using My Minds Eye and Bo Bunny papers. They are filled with candy and chapstick! I wish someone would make one of these cutie patootie things for me!! Perhaps with a nummy starbucks gift card inside... hmmm..... I may have to just give myself a gift this year! lol!

Here they are from the top view...
How cute are these?? and a close up of the pull tab top:

The girls will be taking them to school tomorrow (along with the fleece scarves posted below)... I can't wait to hear if they were a hit!! Wait... what am I thinking?? Of course they will be a hit! They are love in a can, afterall!! Thanks for the idea BCD!

Fleece scarves

Last week I bought some fleece in order to make ruffle scarves for my girls and their teachers for Christmas gifts. Problem is... I can't get my sewing machine to work! So the cut fleece has been sitting in the Hobby Lobby bag since then. Sad. But I was blog hopping today and found a great no-sew fleece scarf tutorial!! (Check out the original post on Creative Jewish Mom) So I ran and grabbed my fleece and popped out all four scarves in about three hours. The girls are getting these girly ones:And their teachers are getting ones in the school colors!! I found the perfect color of green and then a black with white paw prints (their mascot is a wildcat and they often use paws on... well... everything!) so it was perfect! And the fleece was on sale so I only paid $6 for ALL four scarves!! Here is my youngest modeling one of the wildcat scarves:These are SO easy to make!! You start with two strips of fleece, 1/4 of a yard wide (about 5.5"), a pair of good scissors, a ruler and a marker.

You snip 2.5" deep every 1/2" along ONE side. Instead of measuring the 2" every time I just used a marker and drew a temporary mark on the top blade of my scissors (see the pic below), then I knew to cut only that deep and it made it super easy to get my strips even.

Then all you have to do is lay the two pieces side by side...
and start knotting!! I double knotted all of them, just to be sure. But it holds really well so you don't have to sew a single thing!! I also love the back side which looks like this:

Easy peasy, eh? She (Creative Jewish Mom) cut her strips a little shorter and thicker (which I did on the first one with the pale pink and lavender) but I found it harder to knot and my fingers cramped up pretty fast. So on the next one I tried skinnier, longer strips and it went SO much faster. I also love that as you tie up the knots it causes the sides to ruffle!! This is a totally quick project that your kids could easily help with. Let me know if you make one!

I made it!!

The semester is over and I made it out alive!!! LOL. I am still waiting on some of my grades but at least I stuck it out and finished. Looking forward to graduating in just FIVE MONTHS!! So excited!! Thanks for being patient with me, gals. I have been making some stuff and will get it photographed and posted asap!

I am also looking forward to the crop at JuJu Bee's this weekend. Here's the info:

(click to go to the JuJu Bees website)

Wanna play? Me too!! Head over to JuJu Bees and get signed up for the boards and gallery so that you can play along. See you there!

just a few more days...

and this semester will be OVER. And I can breath again!! So for anyone who checks back in, hoping for some great inspiration or witty posts... sorry!! By next Friday I have to:
1. Write a 20 page paper on consumer behavior
2. Take a Calculus final
3. Take my Geology 300 final (from the class I took last SPRING!)
4. Take my Algebra final (from the class I took this summer)
5. Take my Consumer Behavior final
6. Take my Marketing Research final
7. Turn in my Marketing Research project/oral presentation
8. Create a marketing event/plan for an internship interview

Add to that some social engagements and trying to keep my kids from destroying the house.... and I'm beat! I am bummed that I haven't created anything for so long. But it'll be over soon and I am going to PLAY in my scrap room soon.... promise!

Until then... just keep checking back in with me... I'll be back soon! :o)

Attention Carrie (aka Laterg8r)

I didn't receive your email with your mailing address... can you send it again?

my email is erin_manning_@hotmail. com (with no spaces).

THANK YOU!!!!