Blog Tags

Finally, after many years of making tags

off the cuff, in the moment, at the last minute......

I decided to eradicate the problem!

I designed what I wanted, printed them off in mass,

in all sorts of colors of cardstock. (spent many hours

watching tv and cutting) and took scraps of colored

paper and made alot of pre-punched designs.

Now all I have to do is pick the color, add some 

cute embelishments and whew, NO more last 

minute designing. YAY

Paper Flowers

                                    

Paper flowers made from the pages 

of an old book.

Lots of hearts about 15 for each one. Folded

and overlaped , I glued a button in the middle

and hot glued them to a maple branch

Kindle Fire

Confession...........

I've been cheating on my sewing machine.

with the Kindle Fire.

 This is the little book I carved out to keep it safe.

You can click here for instructions

I was going to cover the inside with some scrappy paper

but it just seemed to look fine as is.

anyone on the fence about an E-Reader?

this is probably the single most worthwhile piece of electronics

I have ever used.

Signs

I made this sign back in the spring.

I thought I would try out freezer paper stencils.

but freezer paper stencils and painted wood are not very good friends.

So I scrapped that idea

and did it he old fashioned way.

kind of like paint by number.

Cardboard Jeep #2

For starters I did not make this jeep. Diana stumbled across my blog and saw the Jeep I made here and decided to make one for her VBS program. I actually like the height of hers better. You know that Imitation is the best compliment *blush*. Great job Diana and Thanks for letting me share the pics

Deer......

Deer Freezer Paper,
You make the best fabric stencils ever.
Love, Me :)

Walking Sticks

One of the latest projects at Pre-School. Walking sticks! The wee ones painted these beautiful driftwood sticks today and I would love to just put them all in a short wooden barrell and keep them :)

100% Recycled 100th Post

For my 100th post I have been trying to find something extra special. The other night I had the mother of all headaches and decided that supper would be from a can, beef chow mien to be precise. As I was washing out the cans for recycling I was noticeing how shiney and clean they were and since my can opener removes the lid with out rough edges I was popping it on and off as I was waiting for supper to heat up. The light bulb went on (advil must have kicked in) and I thought it would be cute to make coasters that would fit in the can! So the next day I pulled out some recycled supplies: the fabric was a skirt in its former life, the cotton towel was a rescue from the thrift store, the paper on top of the can was the inside of a junk-mail envelope and of coarse the can! that beautiful CAN :)

Pointsettas

I can't take credit for this idea, I found it on the internet. We made them with the little buggers at pre-school. They painted the coffee filters with watercolor, and due to multiple snowdays I had to bring them home and finish them. There is a bead in the middle and a pipecleaner to attach it to a clothspin. I couldnt help myself, they were so cute I clipped them to a basket and used them for a temporary centerpiece.

Sign your Name?

In my quest to make cool Christmas presents that are cheap, useful and Wanted...... I decided to make Signs. I used old wooden pickets and cut out letters that I printed on sticker paper , used a little spray paint, sandpaper, fabric scraps, elbow grease and Ta-Da! Presents for all of my co-workers.

Cardboard Jeep

Update-I've had alot of people ask for more info on the jeep. I hope these pictures and measurements help

This is one of my favorite things to do if I have a lot of extra time. There are endless possibilitys with cardboard. This is the Safari Jeep/ Puppet theatre for a class I teach at my church. The back is open so the kids can play in it.

Paper Plate Safari Hats

Thank you Vanity Fair! I was looking for a way to make a bunch of Safari hats on the cheap, and paper plates were the answer. I traced the shape of the bowl onto the plate and cut the hole slightly smaller, hot glued them together and Wa-La .
add a little spray paint and some jute twine. FYI buy the jute twine in the section of Walmart where they sell rope , it is alot cheaper than what you buy in the craft section and is just as good.

Piniata

Who says piniata's are just for little kids? I made this Logo piniata for my daughters Grad Party and filled it with candy bars and rolled up dollar bills. To make it interesting I used a fair amount of duct tape to "challenge" them. It is a cardboard frame, hot glued,taped and finally topped with crepe paper. They had to resort to brute force and a baseball bat to finally crack it open.

Cardboard Dinosaur

I made this dinosaur out of old cardboard and oatmeal containers(the feet) also alot of tape and some old paint. He was a big hit at our VBS that year.

Step 1. start with a large cardboard box, crush the corners to get some of the rigid squareness out of it, have LOTS of newspaper and ductape.
2. add dowels, sticks or in my case pvc plumbing pipe(what I happen to have on hand) IN the SHAPE of a Plus sign or a cross, depending on the shape of the box , I used hot glue and duct tape to secure it to the inside of the box. this will give it some internal support.
3. I use a piece of pvc on the inside of all 4 legs (oatmeal containers) and the dino is resting on that pvc, not the container, the pvc is ductaped to the oatmeal container.
4. Tape wadded up newspaper wherever you think it needs it, I added alot to the thigh and front leg area. dont be afraid to layer it :)
5. for the neck and tail, I added "rings" of cardboard, stuffed with paper and taped together until I achieved the right length and shape.
6. finally , I papermached over any thing that needed it, and painted it with different shades of gray.
I hope this helps, good luck!