Snowflake Wreath DIY

Welcome to another edition of Blog With Friends! This month our theme is "Baby, it's Cold Outside" and for the first time this winter it actually is! It was a little odd having my kids running around outside on Christmas day in short sleeves! I'm not complaining, I'm just saying it was odd!

I finally got all the Christmas decorations organized and put away and now my house looks a little bare. This snowflake wreath is perfect for a little pop of fun on the front door, or even as a wall decoration inside the house.

If you'd like one too, here's what you'll need:

• snowflake chipboard decorations (I got one large, and three small)
• 1-2 sheets of snowy scrapbook paper
• wide, white grosgrain ribbon
• Mod Podge
• pencil
• scissors
• paintbrush
• hot glue gun

First, position your snowflakes on the back of the scrapbook paper. (I was cheap and forced them all to fit on one sheet, but in retrospect two would have been easier.) Trace around the snowflakes and then cut them out. Using the mod podge, paint the chipboard snowflakes and align the paper over them to adhere the paper to each snowflake.

Next, cut your ribbon to the length you want and arrange the snowflakes how you like them. Using hot glue, attach the snowflakes to the ribbon. Make sure to leave enough at the top to fold over for hanging. I also added a bow, but for the life of me I can't find the tutorial now to show you how. It's similar to this method.

Now your snowflakes are ready for display! Easy, peasy!

Want some more project ideas?

Check out this recipe for crockpot Italian soup from Karen at Baking in a Tornado. That will warm you from the inside out!

Need something else to keep you warm? How about these romantic books and movies perfect for a cold night at home on the couch. Many thanks to Melissa at Home on Deranged for putting that list together!

And Lydia at Cluttered Genius has some great At Home Date Nights for you as well!

And if you have to go out, at least you can keep your head warm with this beginners crocheted head wrap from Robin at Someone Else's Genius.

As always, if you'd like to join in on the challenge, just let me or Karen know and we'll get you hooked up with the details. Our theme for February is "romance."

DIY Dollar Store Fall Wreath

The weather is getting cooler, the leaves are starting to change and pumpkin spice everything has taken over the world! It must be Fall!!  While it's not my favorite season, I'm trying not to be a humbug, so I thought I'd make a nice wreath to pretty up the front door. The kids were out of school on Friday, so we ran some errands and I stopped by the Dollar Store to see what jumped out at me.  The supplies for this wreath are pretty basic and there are lots of ways you can customize it to make it your own. I spent less than $5 on this project and it took about a hour or so of my time.  

At the Dollar Store I found:

• 3 willow wreaths
• a three-pack of twine
• assorted fall leaves
• glue dots

Wind the twine around the wreath. I found that one roll of twine filled an entire wreath. Frances wrapped hers a little more tightly and we had to make some adjustments in order to have enough twine. This part was the most time consuming aspect. One wreath took me about 30 minutes to wrap.

After all three wreaths are wrapped, decide how you like them together. There are lots of different arrangements you could go with, I chose an offset line.  Using some leftover twine, tie the wreaths together to hold them in your chose arrangement.

Next, take your decorative leaves and place them around the wreaths. I used mine to hide the places where the wreaths were tied together.

The bow on top is made of burlap. I get my rice in big burlap sacks and then keep the sacks because I'm a hoarder I can always find crafty uses for them later. (You can buy burlap in most craft stores, and I'm pretty sure I saw some at the Dollar Store or Target's Dollar Spot.)  I cut out a rectangle and then gathered the middle and tied it with twine to make a bow.  I tied this to the top of the wreath and hung it on my front door. Happy Fall!

You might also want to check out this Fall door decoration I did last year.

How do you decorate for Fall?

Valentine Bracelets

I love Valentine's Day for my kiddos. I think it's a great time to say nice things to their classmates and talk about friendship.  I also think it's great for practicing writing your name and using good penmanship.  Unfortunately, It is also a sugar-rich holiday.  In trying to avoid that and think of something that my kids would have fun making and giving out to their friends, I came up with these bracelets.

"Valentine, you're "turtle-y" awesome!"

I went to Michael's and found a few bead assortments.  One of them was aquatic animals: turtle, whale, seal, and dolphin.  The other was all different kinds of beads and included a fish, cat, dog and teddy bear.

I also bought some stretchy cord and a bag of pony beads.

I then created some valentine cards to go along with each of the featured beads.

You can download my cards here if you would like.

Set all this out and let the kids go to town making bracelets for their friends!  The teacher in me can't help saying that this project is great for practicing fine motor skills, counting, patterning, and writing their own names and their classmate's names.  It is also a great was to stimulate some conversation about friendship and what's going on with their lives.

Have you made Valentine's yet with your kids?



Linking up here:

Halloween Door Decoration

The girls at work invited me to Pinterest--even though I told them not to! Because we all know that I don't need another internet addiction.  So, of course, I wasted spent some time there looking at lots of fun pictures.  [If you are unfamiliar with Pinterest, it is basically an online cork board. Anytime you are online and see something you like and want to remember for later, you can "pin it" and it will be saved to your board. Then you can go back later and see what you have pinned. You can also look at what other people have pinned for ideas of things you might like to try. People have boards for craft ideas, wedding ideas, recipes, books to read, and all kinds of other stuff.]

I also added this post to a Pinterest Challenge Link up over at YoungHouseLove, so check out all the other people who have decided to stop pinning and start doing!!

Anyway, I saw this cute wreath that was basically a wreath form wrapped with a black and white polka dotted ribbon and tied with an orange bow. Frances is always bugging me to decorate for all manner of holidays and Henry's soccer gave had been cancelled due to rain, so we headed out to the craft store.  I bought our supplies and set up a craft station at my dining room table.  I thought I would photograph the process, so someone else can try it out. We had a lot of fun!!

You will need:

• Styrofoam wreath form (apparently you can also use that grey plumbing insulation that come in a roll, but I have never tried that!)
• Ribbon--the amount you need will vary by the size of your wreath and the width of the ribbon.
• Hot glue
• Foam stickers (optional)

I think our wreaths are 12" across. We used two spools of the thin ribbon for each wreath.

First I glued one end of the ribbon to one flat side of the wreath. This is now the back side of the wreath.  Then I wrapped the ribbon around, leaving space as I went.  When I got all the way around to where I started, I glued the ribbon down on the same side and clipped the excess. 

The I took a second, coordinating ribbon and wrapped it around the same way, filling in the spaces. I glued the ends of this ribbon in the same way that I glued the first one. 

Then I gave the wreath to my 18-month old, who, with some help from his big sissy, put seasonal stickers on it.

I repeated the same process to make a green wreath for Henry, 4.

At 8, Frances was old enough to do her own. She had picked out purple spider ribbon for hers. Hers was not wrapped perfectly, but that wasn't my goal, so it didn't really matter.  Plus, adding the stickers filled in the white spaces.

 After all three wreaths were done, we took a quick lunch break...

Then I used some of our left over ribbon and and glued the wreaths together in sequence and hung them on the front door.

The kids all had a great time and were so proud of their contribution to our Fall decorations.

Cool Christmas ornaments

Today at preschool we made these:

We used clear glass ornaments from Target. Simply pull off the silver hanger part and set it aside. Then I helped the kids use a funnel to pour some glitter inside (optional). The kids picked two colors of acrylic paint and I squirted both colors inside. You have to aim down the inside of the ball, which might take a little bit of practice. You can use more than two colors, but too many will make it look "muddy." Then I gave the balls to the kids and told the to turn them slowly and watch the colors run around inside. (Truly, you can just set them aside and turn them every few minutes, but the kids liked watch the colors move and it helps them feel more a part of the activity.) I also wrote the kids name and '08 on the balls in silver or gold Sharpie. Set them aside for a day or two to dry out and then pop the silver hanger part back on. They will be gifts for my kids' parents. AWESOME!