Love Struck >> Arrow Bobby Pins Tutorial

Valentine's Day is tomorrow and we are all set.  Ivy's classroom Valentines are made, her box is ready to go and her hairstyle all planned out.   We looked up some Valentine's inspired hair tutorials on youtube and fell in love with heart braids.  It is cute to see Ivy {finally} get excited about doing her hair.  She even practices making her own hair tutorial videos in the mirror.   To add our own touch to her heart braids we made some arrow bobby pins to make the braids a Cupid's heart. 

To make your own Love Struck bobby pins you need just some tiny scraps of material >> ours are leather and felt <<  bobby pins and a hot glue gun.   To make two bobby pins you will need 3 small squares of material.  

Take the first square and cut it in half diagonally.  This gives you the two arrowheads.   With the second square, first cut a triangle notch out of the top.  Then cut the bottom corners off at an angle to make a point.  Carefully snip the sides of your square to give it a feather look.  Repeat with the third square.  These are your arrow tails.  All that is left is to hot glue the arrowheads and tails to the top of your bobby pins.

Paper Arrow Garland Tutorial

Arrows!  Cupid!  Hearts!  XOXO!  Here is a simple tutorial on how to make an arrow garland to go with your Valentine's Day decor.  Or for any day really, cuz..... put an arrow on it!

Start by cutting strips of paper to your desired width and fold them in half.  For the patterned paper I cut two inch strips.  Using a paper slicer angle the folded strips and cut in to increments. You can either cut them all the same or vary the width.  You will have some extra triangles at the ends that you can either save for another project ;) or recycle them. 

Open up the folded cuts and get excited!  YAY! Arrows!  

You can either stitch them together along the top or punch small holes and string them together.  Just make sure the arrows all point the same direction.

  I made a long arrow using a dowel and some felt and tied my little arrow garland onto the dowel.  I also used a cookie cutter to cut some x's and o's to add and made a little Cupid wall hanging for Ivy's room.  I've also got more arrow garlands in about five places in my house.  Cuz.... put an arrow on it.

You've Pierced My Heart Jewelry Valentines Printable

Valentines Day is this week and Ivy and I have some fun ideas for you to make it special!  Today we are sharing our Jewelry Valentines cards.  We used clay to make some cute earring and beads so we could wear our hearts on our ears.  And necks, and wrists.  Making hearts with the clay took some practice but we were able to make some cute enough to share with friends. 

For the earrings we used sparkly red sculpey clay, and a pack of earring backs that I picked up from the jewelry making department at Hobby Lobby.  The Alison Show has a great tutorial on making clay earrings here.  

 I used my tiniest hole punch to punch two holes for earring posts to go through on the u pierced my heart card.  

And for the bracelet I cut two small slits on the side to hold the string in place.   To make the heart bead I shaped a thicker heart and used an embroidery needle to poke a hole through the sides.  Be sure to make the hole big enough that you can thread the needle and string through after you bake the clay.  

Pierced My Heart Valentines PDF

{for personal use only}

 And since we are all about sharing the love this week, here is the PDF printable so you can make your own jewelry Valentines to share with your friends.  You could use them to give friendship bracelets or loom bracelets, necklaces or whatever else you and/or your kids have fun making!

Branchlers {a simple diy}

Branchlers! I've had a crafting itch lately and this was the perfect easy and fast diy to do during Axel's nap yesterday.  I even got the floors swept afterwards.  The hardest part (as always) has been deciding where to hang them.

Supplies...

a scrap of leather, wood plaque, paint, furniture tack or small nail, branch.

I collected all of these things from my craft room and the the branch I got from a tree in my backyard making it free, which I love.  If you don't have a black hole called The Craft Room then you can get the plaques for $1-2 at a craft store and while you are there you can get a grab bag of leather scraps.  I promise you will find other ways to use the leather.  

Start by painting your plaque.  While it is drying cut a piece of leather long enough to make a circle to fit around your branch.  Using a hammer, pound your nail in each end of the leather to punch holes. 

Put your tack through the holes to make a loop and then pound it into the plaque.

Set your branch into the loop and just like that you've made branchlers.  

For your mistle toes| printable

I finally found a minute to show you guys my next InstaChristmas tag!  I was going along all fine thinking I had a ton of time to get things done before Christmas.  Then this week happened and I feel like I have no time left!  

Sometimes though no matter how busy I get I always find time for things like adding touches to my dining room wall. Its been 3 years and I finally hung some of my favorite things on this really big wall.  I took a canvas and painted it with chalkboard paint so I could change it as often as I wanted. 

For your mistle toes! What a fun idea huh!  I kept it simple and used a circle punch to make little tags to tie on to some of my favorite colors of nail polish.  {jag-u-are. stylenomics. clambake.}  Chalk, hole punch, and some twine and you are done!  You could also use the tags to put on homemade foot scrub, or a cute pair of boot socks.  Really, just like the cup of cheer tags, there are a lot of fun ways to use these little guys!

 Mistletoes square Mistletoes 2

I made two versions of these tags.  One is these square tags perfect for cutting in to circles.  The other is a little bit bigger to add to a box for gift giving.  You can download them from google docs, easy peasy!  As always these printables are free to download, or you can click on the donate button and maybe donate a dollar to adoption fund.  

Are you guys feeling the sudden crunch of time for Christmas too or is it just me?!

Be sure to check out the other Instachristmas tags!

Cup of Cheer

Rock the Night Away

A major award!

This morning my instagram notifications were going crazy!  That's weird I thought, since I didn't take a single picture yesterday.  Fail.  But oh man I was so excited to see why!  

Eek  I won!  Rhonna Designs picked me!  Woot.  Darin is so proud  :)  Thanks to Rhonna and all of her cReative team for your amazing inspiration.  And of course I'd like to take a moment to thank InstaChristmas, which has made all of my holiday dreams come true ;) Cup of Cheer!  Cup of Cheer! Oh man, I need to lay off the Christmas movies.  Doesn't that sound like the Chair of Cheer from the Grinch?  I hope you guys are having a good Friday! 

PS watch Instagram this weekend for more InstaChristmas sneak peaks!

Have a cup of cheer.

Have you been loving all the chalk art that has been popping up?  Just when you thought the chalkboard was done, too.   I was patiently awaiting Rhonna Designs to release her InstaChristmas because I knew it would be perfect for adding some chalk art to my home for the holidays.   In fact the only thing I bought on Black Friday was InstaChristmas.  Well besides a trip to Voodoo Donuts I guess ;)  I have been adding it to my instagram photos and playing around with it in photoshop as well.  I really, really, totoally like it. 

Over at Rhonna's blog she is having a tag contest so I came up with a little gift tag that can be used lots of ways for gift giving this holiday.  Using a chalkboard background in photoshop I came up with this little guy.  Ivy has been walking around singing this song and I couldn't get it out of my head!

I made a fill page for the back side and was able to fit 9 of the 2.5x3.5 tags on a sheet of paper.  I printed it out on white cardstock and cut out each tag.  To give it a little bit more chalkiness I rubbed chalk over the whole design and then wiped it off.  Use a black ink pad to ink the cut edges for extra measure too.  

I think it would be a fun hostess gift to tie a tag on to a bottle of sparkling cider.  And even more fun would be to get those mini bottles and have them for New Years Eve!  Oh, man.  How cute would that be?!  

I've been wanting to try the sharpie mug thing so I decided to actually make a cup of cheer.  I got a mug from Target for $3 I think, and using a circle stencil and a bronze sharpie I put some confetti dots all over the mug. 

 While my mug was baking {at 350 for 30 minutes}  I made a pocket for a packet of hot chocolate.  I printed out the chevron fill page on kraft cardstock and then cut a library pocket like the ones I used for my advent with my silhouette.   I love seeing the design peeking out from the inside.  I backed my tag with some red striped paper and glued it to the front.  I tucked the hot chocolate, along with a mug rug and a box of chocolates into my fun new mug to give as a gift to add some cheer to a dear friend's day.  

I might even make up a couple more of these library pockets to stick some Starbucks gift cards in for quick gifts to give to friends and teachers.  So many ideas for one little tag!

EDIT!!
You can now download your own Cup of Cheer tags by following the link below.  And read about how you can maybe help with our adoption HERE

CUP OF CHEER PDF

PS you can check out the other instachristmas tags too!
For Your Mistletoes
Rock the Night Away

Round 2 Is Over!! Ding ding ding....

Oh man, Round 2 of the 24 day challenge is over!  I totally rocked this one.  And by rocked it I mean I at least did way better than last time!  How did it go for you?  Wanna know what my big reward was for doing better on round 2?  A party for the whole weekend.  With some of my best girls.  Involving lots of shopping  and laughing, and the Color Run.  For sure the highlight of my month so far.

We ran the color run in Boise.  Yep.  Me. Running.  Thanks to my awesome team of personal trainers-- that's what I call my physical therapists these days ha-- I got to actually RUN in the Color Run.   Even two weeks ago I was skeptical of even being able to walk the whole 3 miles but my knee actually feels better when it is moving. And its been three months.  Can you believe it?  Three months since I was able to run last.  

 The Boise Color Run was a little chilly but such a blast.  Our team name was Forever29 so we made some fun white shirts to wear.  Can I just tell you how much fun it was?  SOOOOO FUUN!!!!!

It should definitely be on your list of things to do someday.  You can check the tour dates to see if one is coming to you any time soon.  My friends have been cheering me on while I've been struggling with getting my knee better so I love that I got to celebrate with them.  

So how did your Round 2 of the 24 day challenge go?  I'm finding it easier and easier the more I'm able to exercise.  I'm ready to start Round 3 on November 1st but I was hoping you could let me know a couple things.  What do you find too hard about doing this?  What do you love about it?  Should we go longer?  Shorter?  Any feedback would be awesome!  

The Lincoln Savings Plan

At the beginning of the year I started the Lincoln savings plan.  All you have to do is save any five dollar bills that you get.   I got an envelope and wrote Lincoln Savings Plan on it. Any time I got change from something that was a $5 bill I tucked it in to my envelope.  When the envelope got full, I wrote how much was in it, sealed it up and hid it in my underwear drawer.   Then I got out a new envelope and kept going.   I started the plan to save up money to take Ivy to Disneyland for Christmas.  Well, then we had a private adoption opportunity that we were so happy about.  So we decided to go to Disneyland for Ivy's birthday in July instead because we would have a 4 month old baby at Christmas.  It became kind of a last hurrah.  A trip together with just the three of us before our family changed.  

Yeah that adoption part didn't work out but what did work out was we had an awesome time in California, the highlight of our year really.   And bonus, July is our busiest month at Greenies so we just went ahead and payed for the trip instead of using all the five dollar bills I'd been saving.  

Since then I have just kept adding to my stash of cash and yesterday when we FINALLY finished up our profile for LDS family services {the adoption agency we are working with} I pulled out my envelopes from the underwear drawer and guess what!  I have more than enough for our deposit towards adoption.  In 10 months I was able to save over $1000. Now that is a fat stack of Lincolns.  The rest I kept in the envelope to keep going on my saving for the rest of our adoption expenses.  

I kind of got the idea from Ivy's piggy bank actually.   We had been sticking any change and any $1 bills in to that ballerina pig for a couple years.  It got full at the beginning of the year and took it to the bank for safe keeping.  That fat little piggy had almost $400 dollars in her belly!  I figured if saving $1 bills could add up like that then $5 would add up a bit faster.  Guess I was right eh?  

Guess you better get an envelope and start saving!    

An Asian Insprired Birthday Party

My friend Lindsay is amazing.  And amazing friends deserve big parties.  

An Asian themed dinner party is what we decided on and I love how it all came together.  A trip to the craft store for paper to make lanterns for decorations determined our colors would be turquoise and orange.  I love how the reversible colors show through on the lanterns.  The turquoise fringe was so pretty fluttering in the breeze. The fringe was made from plastic tablecloths.  {tutorial coming soon}  I know who would have thought.  Plastic!  Hmmmph.

Fresh cut flowers and confetti decorated the tables.  For the confetti I cut up a few different colors of tissue paper in to squares and we spread it on white tablecloths.  The same breeze making the garlands flutter, scattered a lot of our confetti but it just added to the party atmosphere.  Also on the table were  vellum chinese take out boxes with tea lights in them for a little bit of ...mood.  {I said that with a voice like Sebastian from the Little Mermaid}

I dip dyed coffee filters {tutorial coming soon} for the other garlands.  I love how they look like fans.  I also had some japanese lanterns from a different event that I got at Ikea to hang above the center of the tables.  

We had the party in our friends backyard. Isn't it gorgeous?!  The light is so amazing.   Thanks Mel for sharing such a perfect location! For dinner we served lettuce wraps, rice, and different chicken dishes to go with it.   I'm so grateful for party planning friends who like to feed people and took care of the food.  It was delicious!

Of course every party needs balloons.  Geronimo balloons are so fun and just make it that much more special.  I ordered mine from Balloon Bargains and got a 6 pack for $18 after shipping.   

The hit of the party had to be The Cake made by Mandy.  It was a Salted Caramel Six Layer Chocolate Cake.  Umm. to. die. for.  That's all I can say. If you want to wow em go for this cake.  I wish I had a better picture of it, but even that couldn't show you the fabulousness of it, and all the other desserts we had there.  

 Everything came together so perfect.  We even pulled off the surprise, which can be so hard to do.  Sometimes its hard to know if its really going to turn out like you hope and this was what I imagined and so much better!

Happy Birthday Lindsay!  Thanks for being such a swell gal so we could throw you a party!

Going to School Dinner.

Well, I am now that mom!  The one that has a kid in school.   Darin and I have been dreading and loving it as this day has gotten closer.  We ask ourselves things like...can she really be that old?  Can we really be that old?  Can she be any cuter?!  

  I've seen others doing their back to school dinners for the past couple years and here I am having my own for my very own kindergartener.  I used the back to school print from eighteen25 as my inspiration for a rainbow party.  And uh, it was all last minute so if you are looking for a quick and easy idea this would be the one! 

First I gathered up some colorful and school-ish things from Ivy's room.  A globe, her set of Roald Dahl books and some markers.  Once I got those arranged on the table I pulled out a piece of cardstock for every color of the rainbow.  I had to substitute pink for orange for two reasons.  One Ivy likes pink and not orange.  And I didn't have any orange.  I cut each sheet in to eight rectangles not being too exact on the size.  I made three strings of garland and with the remaining sixteen rectangles I stitched them together randomly for a little table runner. 

The menu requested by the kindergartener was macaroni & cheese and salad.  Red plates with pencils to make it a little bit fancy added more color to our table.   Its definitely a special occasion if we use fancy glasses AND have juice!

Of course you have to have cupcakes at a party for my girl.  Rainbow sprinkles make them perfect.  

After her cupcake and a blessing from her dad she is all sweetened up and ready to go.  I don't know if there has been a little girl more ready for kindergarten.  I am so excited for her and her new adventures!