4th Of July Fun!

Jonah and Matthew love when I get out the paint shirts and the newspaper. They think painting is the best project in the world. It's messy, so it doesn't happen very often, but they love it.

I had a red lid that came with a Christmas cookie container, but the container itself had broken. But the lid was pretty, and I thought I could probably make something with it, so I saved it.  I decided to paint a flag on it.

Since I was painting, I decided to let the boys help, so I pulled two oatmeal canister lids out of the recycling for them, and gave them some red, white, and blue.

Then I put it all together with a little bit of ribbon, and hung it on our front door.  A little bit of festive fun for the season, and they were so proud when they saw their artwork on the door!

Iron Craft Challenge 5: Green

This week's Iron Craft challenge was "green" (whether you picked the color green or something eco-friendly was up to you).  I chose to use some of my craft stash items to go for the eco-friendly option.

This is another one of those "why didn't I just do this a long time ago?" projects.  I have been working on getting rid of some of my craft supplies and odds and ends that I have been saving, and this was a project that I had all of the components for, but I just hadn't done it yet.

It took me all of two minutes: Dump old coffee beans into old pasta sauce jars.  Add old votive candles.  Realize that these old things have been sitting upstairs in the craft stash for 2 years.  Light candles and smell the lovely mixture of warm coffee beans and Christmas cookie candles.

Pretty Mod Podged Boxes

One of my goals for this month was to decorate some boxes to hold my extra greeting cards and my paper scraps.  For some reason, I kept putting off my projects this month, and this one was really easy, so I'm not sure why I took so long to get around to it.  First, I grabbed an old mailing box and cut off the top flaps.  Then I measured (!) and cut pieces to fit the four sides with a bit of overlap.  I mod podged those onto the box and let it dry.

Meanwhile, I cut some coordinating purple cardstock dividers to separate my categories.  For my cards, I have birthdays, weddings/anniversaries, baby, thank you, and other.

I used some extra file labels that I had on hand to label the sections.  Functional and easy!

While I had my mod podge out, I also did a second container.  This bin came with my House Party kit when I threw the Pull-ups Party last month.  I had some cool square paper that I cut into pieces, and did an argyle pattern around the bin.

I love all the colors! Jonah had fun helping hand me the squares too, so yay for bonus time working on colors with him!

I still have to make some cardstock dividers for this one, but once I do, I'll put my paper scraps in here, which will be much better than the binder clips I've been using to hold stacks together.  Maybe then I can finally get to using some of them to make some more cards and other projects...

Easy Bead And Pipe Cleaner Busy Bags

Earlier this week, a few friends and I got together to do a busy bag exchange.  I put together this pipe cleaner beading activity, with my trusty helpers, of course.  We used small yogurt containers with lids to store beads, and then hot glued felt flags onto coordinating pipe cleaners.  The child can then practice threading the beads onto the matching pipe cleaners, working on both color recognition and fine motor skills.

Both boys loved helping me sort out and match the colors, and Jonah had a blast threading the beads on.  Matthew isn't quite capable of the threading yet, but he still had fun helping put the bags together.

We're already looking forward to doing another busy bag exchange sometime soon.  I just have to figure out what activity we'll do next!

Iron Craft Challenge 2: Orange

One of my favorite colors is orange, so I was excited to see that as the challenge theme this week.  I also still wanted to attempt some circle punch art, to try out my new punches that I got for Christmas.  So I grabbed a stack of orange magazine pages and got to punching.

Last year for one of the Iron Craft challenges, I made my note card journal.  I like it and have been keeping up with it, but it has been bugging me for awhile that it was still in the ugly baby wipes container.

I peeled off the label, and mod podged on some of my circles.  The label left some sticky-ness, so I just put a few coats over the whole thing to get rid of that.  It's not perfect (especially some of the corners), but it's a lot better than it was!

In fact, it kind of reminds me of my first car...I had a blue Chevy Corsica in college, which my dad knew wouldn't be re-sold, so he let me paint a line of orange polka dots on it (I wanted to do the whole thing in polka dots, but we compromised).  Ah, the memories!

Homemade Christmas Presents: Food In Jars

One of my favorite homemade Christmas presents (both to give and receive) is food in jars.  The mixes are (usually) layered and pretty to look at, while also still being useful and consumable.  This year we made Taco Bean Chili and Cornbread Mix for our pastors and church administrator.  The cornbread mix is the standard recipe I use, which was on the back of the cornmeal package.  Jonah and Matthew even helped dump the ingredients into the jars!

I also included a bag of peanut butter granola, but that didn't make it into the picture.  I printed the directions for the mixes onto labels and stuck them right onto the jars, so they won't get lost.  We recycled some jars that had been given to us last year with other goodies in them, as well as some cleaned out pickle, salsa, and sauce jars that I had saved from the past few months.  This is an easy (and cheap!) present that can be appreciated after the holidays are over.

Homemade Christmas Presents: Snowman Hot Cocoa Jars

Aren't these adorable? I made these up for some of our nieces and nephews for a little Christmas treat.  They are really simple to make. 

Jonah and Matthew helped me fill the jars.  The bottom one has 1/4 cup hot cocoa powder in it.  The middle one has M&Ms, and the top one has mini marshmallows.  I hot glued the 3 jars together, drew on a Sharpie face and buttons, and wrapped a ribbon scarf around their necks.  Easy!  I'm sure they will enjoy this yummy treat.

Light Bulb Ornaments for Iron Craft #22: Unfinished Objects

A long, long time ago, I found a cute ornament project using light bulbs and baby socks.  And I ended up with a few of both of those.  But the materials just sat in my craft stash forever.  So this week, I finally made them.  First, I figured out how I wanted the sock "hats" to fit on my light bulbs:

Then I took them off and drew on my penguin and snowman with Sharpies.  After letting those dry for a few minutes, I added the socks, using hot glue to attach them. 

I still have to thread a ribbon through the top to hang them on the tree, but these ornaments are close enough to done.

They turned out pretty cute, I think.  I also realized that my babies have dirty feet, because there were a couple other socks that certainly would not have worked for this project.

Once that was done, I fixed a few other randoms with my glue gun, since I had it out, and since this is the week of unfinished objects.  My recipe box has been missing one of its flowerboxes for over a year.  

 

And this little guy just got broken last week, but he still needed fixing.

Much better!

Did you finish any long-awaited projects this week?

Water Bottle Jellyfish

I found this fun-looking activity on Pinterest: Make your own jellyfish in a bottle.  All you need is a water bottle, a plastic bag, thread, food coloring, and water, all of which we have.  So we decided to try.

It took me about 15 minutes to do each one, and my kids were more impressed with the color of the water than the "jellyfish" in the bottle.  Next time we'll probably just mix colors, which is what we did after about 2 times of turning the bottle over to see the jellyfish move. 

"Am I supposed to drink this, Mom?"

Jonah was very proud of his yellow color choice.

Matthew tipped his over to watch it move.

Jonah looks a lot more interested in his than he actually was...

Here's a close-up of our jellyfish.  They didn't really look like much.  I'm kind of glad I didn't put more effort into them than I did though, because I don't think it would have mattered.

So then we added colors to see what we would get.  We ended up at brown pretty quickly, but that was okay.

And then they used them as microphones and sang songs.  It works.

At least we tried something fun and easy off of Pinterest.  If I ever remember to get an eye-dropper, I've seen a few other color-mixing activities that I think at least Jonah would have a ball with.

Bottle Caps and Dried Beans Busy Bag Idea

A few days ago, the boys were getting crabby and restless.  It was hot (hence the diapers only apparel), and they didn't feel like doing much.  So I got out a few plastic cups and bits for them to play with.

For Matthew, who is just shy of 18 months and still occasionally puts things in his mouth, I grabbed some bottle caps I had been saving.

He started dumping them back and forth between the two cups.  I had cut a slit in the bottom of one of the cups for him to push the bottle caps through, which he did once, but then he decided dumping them was more fun.

Jonah, on the other hand, thought the slit in the bottom idea was a great one. I put him to work on a container of dried beans.

He was quite amused for awhile, picking up a handful and dropping them in, one by one.

Since that night, I have cut the slit in the bottom of Jonah's cup bigger, and split the bottle caps between the two of them (and I still add caps as we come up with them).  

We have left the beans alone, because Jonah got upset about something and threw a bunch on the floor, which we had to quickly pick up so Matthew wouldn't put them in his mouth and choke.  So, for now, bottle caps it is.  Both kids have enjoyed that game, and we get the cups out almost every day!

My monthly goal for May was to make 2 busy bags for Jonah, which I never did.  Since my June goal was to move (successful!) and my July goal was to get settled in our new house (also successful!), we'll count this as half of May's project.  Perhaps I'll be able to come up with another one sometime soon...

Trash to Treasure Toy Shelf

A few weeks ago, people started putting large items out on the curb for the annual spring cleaning trash pick-up.  (Side-note: Do we as a society really have that much stuff that we need to do this every year?)  I found this shelf on a family walk, and I knew it would make awesome toy storage, so I carried it the half block or so home.  In a dress.  I'm sure I looked quite ridiculous. 

It also had a couple of brackets and some lovely orange and yellow puppy paw-print fabric on top, but I took those off in the hallway before bringing it into our apartment (along with giving it a good cleaning/disinfecting), so I don't have a picture.  Use your imagination...

I set to work painting in our kitchen, which is rather small, but provided an easier place to clean up if any of the paint dripped, since the rest of our place is carpeted.  So I got to contort myself into all sorts of positions to get into all those shelves. 

I used Valspar Caribbean Blue, a paint sample can that I had gotten in the mail, which came with a little tray and roller, so my total cost for this project was FREE.  Love that!

And then this:

So after letting the paint dry overnight, which was long enough according to the can, we started loading it up.  And the paint chipped like crazy.  So I decided since it was only chipping on the parts that had been white (mostly the shelves), I would just scrape those off and leave them white, and then repaint the top.  This is the first time I've painted furniture, so it was a learning experience.  I realized a few days later that it probably just needed to dry longer, since it was no longer chipping, but since I had already started scraping, I finished that anyways, and then repainted the top.  Based on that, we're going to let the top dry for a week or so before putting anything on it, just to make sure it won't chip.  But the rest we can use:

 

The boys helped me load up the shelves with all of their big trucks and Little People sets.  They don't fit perfectly, but they are close enough, and now they don't have to hog all the space in the toy box.  I really like how this shelf turned out, and I also like the possibilities it has for craft storage in the future when the kids no longer play with big trucks. 

Iron Craft 2012: Earth Day Challenge

The idea for this challenge was to use something you would normally throw away.  I don't normally save bottles after we're done drinking out of them (although I have crafted with the caps before), but I have seen a lot of yarn wrapped bottles on Pinterest lately, and I thought the were really cool.  I also have absolutely zero patriotic decor in my house, and since the next big (or at least big enough that I might decorate for it) holiday season is Memorial Day/4th of July, I decided to go with that color scheme.

I did the middle one first, which is why it isn't as proportional as the other two, but I really like how these turned out.  I used hot glue to attach the yarn at the top, and glued a line down the back (bit by bit, not all at once), so that as I wrapped the yarn, each loop around was held in place.  They're not perfect, but they're cute and simple.  I like them!

Swiffer Duster Refills

My April goal was to make washable refills for my Swiffer dusters.  I received both of these as free samples, and when we had the actual Swiffer dust cloths on them, Jonah and I dusted a lot because it was easy and kind of fun.  But then the cloths got icky, I threw them out, and we dusted less.  I didn't want to continually throw money away by buying more, so I decided to make these. 

I used the pattern here, and leftover fleece from Jonah's blanket and a Christmas gifted scarf.  Because I was hand sewing, each refill took me about an hour to cut and sew, but I think it was well worth the effort.  Some of our window ledges were extra dusty, but as you can see, the dusters picked up A LOT of dust.

I am so happy that these were on my project list, because I know dusting will become a regular chore once again.  And the best part is that since Jonah's is made of "his" fleece, he thinks dusting is the most awesome chore ever, and anything 3 feet and lower is already clean.  Awesome!

Magnetic Denim Pen Pocket

Here is a quick easy project I have been wanting to do for a long time. We have a markerboard on our fridge where we write our lunch and dinner menu plan, as well as the start of the shopping list as we run out of things. But the markers have just been sitting on top of the fridge. No more!

I had a pair of jeans with a broken zipper, so I decided to cut one of the back pockets off for a marker pocket. I just stuck two of my magnets from making bubble magnets on the inside, and voila! marker pocket.

No more losing markers! I may still add some sort of pretty embellishment to the front of the pocket, but it works just fine as is.

Coffee Bag Bag

I love crafting with duct tape! Trivia: My freshman year of college, I made a dress out of hot pink and orange duct tape, and wore it to our formal dinner at the end of the year. So I have a fond place in my heart for duct tape. I also have a fond place in my heart for coffee.

I have been saving my empty coffee bags for awhile now (this project used 6 total), and I knew I would find a great way to use them. Enter: the coffee bag bag.


I didn't take any pictures of the process, but it was pretty simple. I started out by taking the 4 bags for the outside and opening them up and flattening them out. The 2 orange ones show pretty much the whole thing, and the blue and gold ones show just what was the front of the package. I used clear packing tape to attach them all together in a line, and then taped the ends together to form the main part of the bag. The folds of the coffee bags actually work with you for this part. I also folded down the top and bottom edges and taped them with their first layer of duct tape so they would look pretty. With me so far? Good.

Then I moved on to the bottom of the bag. I taped together two miscellaneous other brand bags I had saved, so that they were slightly longer than the bag. Then came the tricky part of maneuvering that into the bottom, and taping it in. I used small pieces of duct tape to keep it in place, and then went over the entire bottom with tape (so from the outside, it just looks black on the bottom). I taped all around the edges of those bags on the inside as well, so it would be nice and sturdy.

I put an extra layer or two of tape around the top and bottom of the bag for extra support, and to make the edges prettier. Then I made the handles. I cut 4 pieces of craft wire (2 for each handle), put them on the sticky side of a piece of duct tape, and taped another one to it, carefully lining up the edges. And then I added another 2 layers, again, for sturdiness. I taped them to the top of the bag and voila! it's done! The craft wire is optional, but it helps the handles keep their shape a bit better.

I think it turned out really well, and while the tape edges aren't perfectly lined up, it's still a really cool one-of-a-kind bag. I think I may even get some of the small 2 oz. coffee bags from the grocery store so I can make some little pockets on the inside from them.

Bottlecap Snowmen

Aren't these bottlecap snowmen just the cutest little things? I saw this idea quite awhile ago, but we don't drink much, and I never remembered to ask people for their bottle caps, so it took awhile before I had even this many.

I painted the bottle caps white, which took several coats on each side. Using a hammer, nail and a piece of scrap wood, I pounded holes in the caps - two in the top one, two in the middle, and one in the bottom. That was actually really easy, although it was quite loud!

I threaded small pieces of craft wire through the holes and twisted it together in the back. I used a longer piece to make a loop on the top, and finished them off with some Sharpie faces and buttons.

Even though this was such an easy project, it's taken me the better part of a month to do. The other day, I was getting sick of how cluttered my dining room table was getting, so I decided to clear it off, and that included getting these guys out of the way.