Day 45: The Big Surprise!

Well, I was so excited that I finally got to photograph the surprise we have been working on for the last big hearts, which we just HAD to have... so, MORE painting.  week, that I totally forgot to take a picture of today's craft!  Leave it to me :-p  So, real quick, for today's craft, we simply painted two of the hearts my dad cut out of 1/8 inch wood.  For being such a simple craft, the girls really loved painting them and were VERY excited to show Mike when he got home.

So, here is the big surprise!:

This has been MULTIPLE work days.. First we started by painting the popcicle sticks... that took 2 days in and of itself.  Then we had to go pick out a frame to put the sticks on.  And of course, we started looking around Jo-Anns and found wooden hearts, so we had to get those, and of course, MORE painting!

Once all the pieces were dry and adhered to the frame, we got to decorate it with foam hearts, love stickers, and lady bugs.  To be honest, I think that it turned out REALLY well.

I did have to go get the kids' pictures taken.  It turned out MUCH better than I was expecting.  We went Portrait Innovations because they are the ONLY place in Cleveland that has same day pictures.  WE used them during Thanksgiving to get a picture of ALL the grandkids and my in-laws and it was a horrible experience.  So much so that I swore up and down that I would NEVER go to another Portrait Innovations, but, as they say, Desperate Times call for Desperate Measures..... well, I was desperate, especially come Tuesday... and the KILLER 14.99 photo package didn't hurt any either :-p  So, we hauled ourselves to Portrait Innovations and they managed to get me ONE good picture of all three girls together, and I walked away with more pictures than I know what to do with and Mike's Valentine's Gift in the bag!

Mike surprised me tonight too, he made ice cream and candied almonds, OMG, delicious !!!!!  Can't wait for more, possibly the best ice cream ever!  I have a wonderful husband :)

Day 44: Whirlwind Crafting

Well, tomorrow is Valentine's Day.  A week of secrecy, was pretty well killed by an overly chatty 4 year old, but for the most party it is still a surprise... I think, maybe?  In case it is, I am still not putting pictures here.

We finished Valentine's cards, made more crayons (i even made BIG ones for Miss Mary and Miss Tricia), Penny made her own Mardi Gras mask today because she didn't want to yesterday.

We finished our surprise for Mike too.  So, we are good to go!  I'll post pictures of the "surprise" tomorrow.

Not a great blog, but hey, I did a LOT today, now it is almost 10 and I am falling asleep.  Nite all!

Day 43: Valentine Inspired Mardi Gras Masks

So, February has already proved to be difficult for "Valentine" themed crafts.  We have had interruptions due to birthdays and, now, Mardi Gras.  When I thought of Mardi Gras a few weeks ago, I instantly thought about how fun it would be to make Mardi Gras masks with the girls.  But, we've been trying to keep a Valentine theme as well.  So, while I was at Hobby Lobby last week, I was looking for feathers for their masks, and I stumbled upon pink and purple feathers and thought "BRILLIANT!" what better way to celebrate Mardi Gras right before Valentine's Day than to use pink and purple feathers to make the masks?

So, my supply list today included a pack of masks (1.99/3), a pack of pink and purple feathers, some glue, and of course, sequin.  Mike actually ended up being the main crafter today because I was busy making dinner after a long day out with the girls... so long, that when the woman at Caribou asked me if i needed anything else I came very close to saying, "You don't sell anything here strong enough for me right now!" but I bit my tongue and graciously accepted my small Turtle Mocha and enjoyed EVERY sip of it lol.

Conveniently, Mike was home in time for craft, so he made a Valentine Mardi Gras mask for me, and Iris made one for herself.  Penny wanted nothing to do with craft until AFTER we were done.  Then she wanted to make craft with us, of course, maybe tomorrow while we are finishing up our school Valentine's and such, I will let Penny make her own mask.  The masks are really quite straight forward, I don't think that you can make a "wrong" mask, but, with glue and a 4 year old, what really worked for us is working in small sections at a time with Mike spreading the glue out with a paint brush to evenly spread the glue around.  Everything stuck, as you can tell, and it turned out perfectly.  On to craft # 44 tomorrow!  (almost halfway to one hundred :) )

I am really have issues with picture quality.  If i take pictures in the dining room, they randomly flip sideways.... if i take them in the living room, they turn out ORANGE.  I am just not meant to be a photographer. :(

Day 42- heart stamps

You know, a few years ago, we saved all our toilet paper tubes for like a year... I wanted to try something with them, i think in the garden, maybe.  Well, we finally threw the extras (like the extra 30 we had sitting in a drawer in the bathroom) away a few months ago, now I'm kicking myself in the butt for doing so.  Hindsight is 20/20, ya know?  I am constantly saving our toilet paper tubes now because I keep finding cute ideas to try, but it takes x number and by the time I gather the necessary number of tubes, I am already finding another project I want to do.  Feel free to save your toilet paper tubes if you are going to see me in the near future!

And, that brings me around to today.  I saw this adorable idea on pinterest, heart shaped "stamps" made simply of toilet paper rolls.  It was a similar idea to the circular stamps we did last month, but this time around, I creased the toilet paper rolls and taped them with packing tape-- imagine that, we have enough of it around right now!-- to hold them in the "<3" shape.  Then, I poured red, pink, silver, and white paint on paper plates, gave the kids, me, and for a nice change, Mike, a piece of construction paper and away we went!








It was a really enjoyable craft.  The girls really had a lot of fun stamping, there were no outbursts, and it was really organized for once!

Here are the fun designs that we created:

Penny's- she kept saying "Ohh, it's so hard!!!" while she pounded the tubes onto the paper.  Why is she soooo cute????? lol:

Iris's:

Mine:

Mike's:

Day 41: Crafts Abound

So, yesterday, I thought "omg, we are out of time and i HAVE to do a craft!!!" well, today, we did not have that problem!  We worked more on our top secret project this morning, getting the paint out before Mike was even out of bed.  I have one more day of "work" on that, and I will need to get to Target before Thursday to work on the finishing touches, but besides that, it will done in time :)

Craft was so far out of my mind by noon that I was actually surprised when, after lunch, my mother in law pulled out the craft that was left at Grandma's house last night to finish today.  She has been a life long teacher, and it really shows when she's crafting with the girls.  She was able to keep BOTH of their attention while they were making... well, i don't know what to call them... they are dogs and cats on popsicle sticks.

I honestly can't explain much of how craft went because I was busy helping the guys move things into the truck, but I can say this... Penny has very interesting anatomy on her puppy... see if you can guess which set is Iris' and which is Penny's. haha

       

Day 40: Paper Hearts

Today, we have been non-stop go since about 8 a.m.  We will have a lot of days like this in the near future I do believe... We started to clear the house out for putting it on the market (anyone looking for a cute 3 bedroom house in Parma???? haha).

I knew my mother-in-law planned on taking the girls for me today, so I bought these really cute Valentine's Crafts at Jo-Anns and sent it with them to Thompson to visit Great Grandma.  I thought it would be really fun for the girls and Grandma to do a craft with each other... but you know what they say, "The best laid plans...."  Grandma's friend came to do her hair as soon as they sat down to make craft and that is exactly where it stayed, on the table.

the FIRST thing Iris told me today was "Mommy!  We forgot to do craft at Great Grandma's!!!"  Well, it was already 6:30... the time which we NORMALLY go to bed and they were just getting home, hadn't had dinner, and still had to do craft... alright, Kara, think quick! Thankfully, I had already had a craft in mind, another easy, hopefully quick craft.  So, now was the PERFECT time to make it happen.

Paper hearts...

I found this idea on Pinterest (where else, really??) and all I needed was paper, a hole punch, and brads.  how easy is that????

So, to make these, you cut the paper into 1 inch strips length-wise... I think 8 strips total would be ideal, i did 12, and it was a bit too many... but that is neither here nor there at this point.  Split them in half, and make 2 full length, cut 1 inch off 2, cut 2 inches off 2, and cut 3 inches off 2...
(this seems so much easier in my head)... separate them into 2 piles, with the wrong sides facing you, from the smallest to the largest strip.  so it will look like this: llll then, put the right sides together like so:

llll  llll

^

Whole punch this side first

now...  the end that is all even once you line them all up, hole punch them and secure a brad into the holes......  (i can't wait until i can take pictures of these... they are upstairs in the girls room and they are sleeping). 

We are almost to the end now:  turn them right side out and line up the uneven ends of paper... you will now notice that you have concentric (right word? I think???) heart shapes.  Hole punch the bottom of the "heart" and put another brad into it.

Presto, PAPER HEART!  My dad is here right now and he was really impressed, so I think that that must be a good sign :)

Here is the link from Pinterest.. they are pretty. http://rootsandwingsco.blogspot.com/2009/02/day-11-valentine-countdown-paper-hearts.html

Day 39: I've been slacking on the Blog Posts..

Ok, so for real tonight, here is a decent blog... hopefully you think so at least :-p...

I knew we were going to have to redo a craft, the girls LOVED making crayons and as I said a few days ago, Iris wanted to make crayons for her friends at school.  So today, I went and I found red, purple, pink, white, and GLITTER crayons to make very Valentine colored heart crayons.  We spent most of the mid afternoon ripping paper off crayons... only to discover 3 crayons from the end, that if I just sliced the paper with the knife, it literally just falls off the crayon.... oh well ya live ya learn!

I am happy about the way these crayons turned out because they are very cohesive, they have a theme, and I like things that "match" lol.  having pink, black, green, blue, purple, yellow, etc all in one crayon drove me a little crazy earlier this week hehe. Can someone explain to me why the white crayons float to the top while baking?  The white is always on top once it comes out of the oven... well i guess, bottom since you bake them upside down. So, I have one more batch to make, and I'm going to go dig in the basement to find my heart shaped cupcake holders to make Miss Mary and Miss Tricia each a big crayon to go with their Valentine's Day cards.

I also went through and finished the Valentine's that we have cut/ punched so that I could show you what they are going to look like in the end.  As I said before, they are glitter cardstock on the bottom, white cardstock that we have written our message on, and Iris colors, in the center, and then velum, cut the same size as the large heart on top.  I have this really nifty hole punch that is made specifically for ribbon attaching. I found it YEARS ago, when Mike and I were making our wedding invites.  I spent a LOT of hours learning the best way to use that silly thing, but it has been well worth every cent I paid for it, 6 1/2 years ago :-p

 

 
I have another few crafts up my sleeve for the next few days.  And we will decorate my dad's birthday cake in the morning as well.  It smelled so good baking!! haha  It is late though, and we have an incredibly busy day tomorrow, so I MUST go to bed if I am going to be worth anything, even after i get coffee in me!