Plaid + Dots

february resolution: one project done!

Finally one thing to "check" off my February Resolution list.  I finished the artwork for Miss N's nursery and it's even hanging up in her room.  Hooray!  I am really happy with how it turned out and it adds a cute touch to her walls.

Here's a close up of the finished art....

And, here it is hanging in her room..  

 

diy valentines - toddler crafts

As you all know, I love Valentine's Day.  I also love teaching Miss N about crafts and how to make things on her own.  Although she's just a wee one (16 months and counting..) we still try to craft.  In reality, mom does everything with scissors and glue and Miss N does the rest (well, kind of).  So, today was our Valentine's craft day and I pulled out some colored paper, card stock, stamps, double stick tape, scissors and a lot of stickers and we went to town making some very cute Valentine's for our special people in our lives.  Here's the finished result...not bad for a toddler :-)!

My Heart Belongs To You (for daddy)

Whoooo Loves You?  (for the Gs)

paper crafts: holiday snow scene

I just made these winter scenes out of paper to hang on the walls of our powder room.  The nice thing is that they aren't too Christmasy and I could probably keep the art up all winter long.

handmade festive flag banner

One of the things that I made for Miss N's birthday bash was a flag banner.  This very simple and cute paper craft can be tailored to any theme by selecting a color palette and using different colored or patterned papers.  For Miss N's birthday, I used shades of pink and green as my primary color scheme and mixed in a little bit of orange.  Without further adieu, here's what you need to make your very own banner...

DIY Flag Banner Instructions

Supplies

• Colored / Patterned Craft Paper
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pencil 
• Ric Rac 
• Elmer's Glue

Flag Banner Instructions

• Create a template for the flags. 

1. Using your ruler, draw a straight line on a sheet of paper in your desired width [for my flags, this line was 4 inches long].

2. Draw a mark on the line at the midpoint.  

3. From the midpoint, draw a straight line perpendicular to the original line that is at least as long as the length you desire.  You should have a "T" on your sheet of paper.   

4. Draw a straight line from the edge of your original line to the perpendicular line.  You should have a triangle on one side of the "T". 

5. Draw a straight line from the other edge of your original line to the same point on the perpendicular line.  You now have a perfect triangle for your flags.

6. Cut out your triangle template.

• Measure and cut the ric rac into the desired length of the banner plus 1-2 feet on each end for hanging.
• Using a variety of colored and patterned papers, trace the template on the paper.  Make as many "flags" as needed to fill the length of the ric rac less the hanging length.
• Determine the order of your flags - custom or random.  For my banner, I created an order out of the patterned papers and kept repeating that order.
• Leaving 1-2 feet on the first end, glue the first flag to the ric rac.  The ric rac will be glued on top of the flag.
• Leaving about 1/2 inch between flags, glue the next flag.  
• Continue gluing the flags until you have 1-2 feet of ric rac left on the other end.
• Let the flag banner dry.

Hang your homemade banner in a fun place and let the party begin!!!

hats off to the graduates : graduation greeting card

As you all know, I love making my own greeting cards.  With our nephew, Christopher, graduating from high school I found this to be the perfect opportunity to make a card in celebration of this event.  I used a plain white fold-over card and envelope and decorated it in his school's colors - blue and gold.  I made a hat out of black card stock and added a tassel using embroidery floss.   Finally, I used the same blue paper as the envelope liner.  Ta-Da.. an easy to make graduation greeting card.  

 

mom's day cards (diy)

I love to make my own cards for special occasions.  Here's the latest Mother's Day cards that I sent out this week.  Enjoy and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

 
 
 

 

 

mod easter greetings!

I created these cute "mod" Easter cards this year to wish everyone in our family a "Happy Easter"!  I used card stock and a variety of stickers to make these adorable cards...  it's a very easy way to send a little cheer to someone you love.  Enjoy! 

 

 

 

homemade valentine's day cards (part 2)

I went to get the mail yesterday and was very excited to see what arrived..  my prints from Shutterfly!  Luckily they turned out great too.  So I decided to finish my Valentine's Day cards today so that I can get them in the mail next week (just in time for Valentine's Day!).  

Here's a list of all of the things you'll need to make these cute valentines yourselves:

  ::  wallet sized photos of anything you love  

  ::  different colors of card stock 

  ::  cellophane treat bags

  ::  Hershey's kisses

  ::  Hershey's hugs

  ::  decorative ribbon

  ::  hole punch

  ::  marker

  ::  double-sided tape

I trimmed the prints,  mounted them on the colorful paper and wrote a cute little message on the back (like "happy valentine's day! xoxo!").  Then I filled each of the cellophane bags with a combination of hugs 'n kisses.  Once the bags were filled I tied them with ribbon and attached the card.  Now they are ready to be popped in the mail - right in the nick of time! 

     

    

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!! 

homemade valentine's day cards

We had a major snowstorm yesterday and everything looks like a winter wonderland... it's peaceful, beautiful and calming.  The baby is sleeping (sigh!) and I have a nice cup of coffee by my side as I type away.  What a great way to start a Friday!

Today we're starting our VALENTINE'S DAY project and hopefully we'll finish it in time for V-day!  So, this year we're sending out hugs 'n kisses to all of our favorite people.  We'll be packaging some Hershey's Hugs and Kisses (yum!) and adding a cute homemade valentine as a tag for the lil treats.  It's simple, personal and very cute!

A couple days ago I gathered some cool paper in shades of pink and red (side bar: love to get my paper at Paper Source or Michaels) and cut out hearts in various shapes and sizes.  I taped the hearts up on a white door in my daughter's room and used that as the back drop for our Valentine's Day photo shoot.  We just took a bunch of pics and have a great one to use as our card.

I uploaded the pic to Shutterfly, cropped it, added a cute border and ordered wallet sized prints in matte finish to be used as the tag on the treat bags.  Now we wait for the pics to arrive and then we'll complete our homemade cards.  Stay tuned for the next post where we finish this project...

 

Update... here's the link to the next post in this sequence:  Homemade Valentine's Day Cards (Part 2)