Football Hair:: An instant replay tutorial

It was sports day at Seahawks day at school a couple of weeks ago AND crazy hair day.  These Football Braids were a touchdown with Ivy and much easier than you think.  And since the Superbowl is this Sunday I thought I'd give an instant replay of the football braids for the big game.

  First we braided Ivy's bangs so they would stay back.  That part is completely optional.  

Start by putting the hair in to two high and wide pigtails.  Braid each pigtail and secure the ends with those tiny clear elastics.  Take the right braid and bring it down and to the left one, tucking the end in the left braid's rubberband.  With the left braid sweep it up and to the right, tucking it into the right ponytail.  We used bobby pins to hold the braids in place better too.  This gives you the football shape!

For the laces you will need white ribbon, bobby pins and a glue gun.  Cut one long ribbon and 3-4 short ribbons.  The lengths of these depend on your childs head, so don't forget to measure, or at least eyeball it.  Hot glue the shorter ribbons to the bobby pins and then glue those to the longer piece of ribbon.    When the glue is dry, slide the bobby pins down into the hair to secure the laces.  

With a couple more pieces of ribbon you can weave it in the ends to mimic the ends of a football.   I didn't do a great job of this, but you get the idea right?!

We are pretty excited for this Superbowl.  Both of our teams are in it, so either way our team wins!! Ivy has got Seahawks fingers and Broncos toes.  But sssshhhh if you asked Darin and I, we'd have to say go Seahawks!! 

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

Santa's Little Helper Service Project

At church I got a new calling working with the 10 and 11 year old girls.  I love it!!  These girls are so much fun.  My only challenge really is that there are 20 of them!  It is hard to find things to do with them that we can get done in an hour.  We kind of have to keep it simple.  So this week I decided to turn them all in to Santa's little helpers.  

I saw the idea on The Fickle Pickle and switched it up a little bit to go with the holiday, since its December and all.  I found some $1 Santa hats at Walmart, grabbed a couple of boxes of candy canes and put my own elves to work putting together 20 Mission Possible packets.  I used the the printables from The Fickle Pickle's original post which are super awesome!  She even has a list of service activities to do.   Because of the Santa hats I went ahead and used 9x12 manila envelopes.  I put together a subway art tag for the front and was done.  For the subway art I used a couple of lines about elves from Christmas movies that were in my head.    We have been watching the Santa Clause kind of a lot so thats where a couple come from.

The girls loved it and it was fun to hear them get excited about all the different things they could do for others.  They make awesome elves!

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

instagram photo strip bunting.

I love my instagrams.  But they stay on my phone.  I've printed out some of them using PostalPix before but wanted to come up a way to display a whole bunch in a smaller space.  I got to thinking that photostrips would be way fun!   And they definitely were the right way to go!

 I started making a template in photoshop but I got frustrated that it was taking so long.  So I turned to  my friend google and found these awesome templates from Blush and Jelly. She just happened to post these the very day I was making mine!  It was fate! Plus, I'm not gonna lie I love that people share their talents so my projects are so much easier!

Using her awesome templates I made ten strips of photos.  Then in photoshop I opened a new 5x7 document and lined up my strips.  I resized each strip a little bit bigger and fit 5 strips on my 5x7 template.  If you need help with math that means I made 2 5x7's.  I'm so glad I made them a little bit bigger because the pictures are way smaller than I imagined.  But I like the itty bitty-ness of them!  Since I was headed to costco I uploaded my two 5x7's to their photo site so I could pick them up there.  A 5x7 at Costco is 39 cents.  So for just about a dollar I was able to make a photostrip bunting!

Once I unloaded all my groceries from Costco I cut my 5x7's into strips using a paper trimmer.  Then using bakers twine and some clips I already had I hung them up on a window I have propped in our front entryway.  I stop and look just about every time  I walk by because its such a fun way to display our memories from this summer so far!  

Simple Spring Garland

 My sweet holiday loving little girl deserves spring decorations right? Even when her mom just doesn't love spring decorations.  But when I saw these fun colored plastic eggs at Target I knew we could compromise and add a fun garland to Ivy's room.  

A craft can't get much easier than this simple spring garland. It was a perfect rainy day activity for us.  The eggs already have holes in the ends and everything.  All you will need is...

plastic eggs {mine were $2 for a big bag at Target}

string

Have little hands help you take apart your eggs and then you can start stringing them together.   Ivy came up with a pattern and was great at keeping them in order.   If the holes weren't quite punched all the way through, all I had to do was take a pencil and poke the hole to make room for the string.  Once you have the length of garland you want, knot the ends of your string and hang it where you want.  

We hung ours in Ivy's room along with her bunny garland she made.  I used Dana's Peeps bunting pattern and imported it in to my Silhouette.  Then I used the Silhouette to cut out some bunnies using white cardstock and gave them to Ivy to color.  I love all of the smiling faces!  After that we punched some holes and strung them together.  Almost as simple as the egg garland and just as fun to do together. 

Ivy thinks the only thing better would be if the eggs were filled with candy! 

A Little Service. Advent

Can it really be December already?  I love December, don't you?  I've had advent calendars on my mind since I've been putting one for our family together.  It just needs to be hung and I can't wait to show you.   Until then I wanted to share this little service advent calendar we made with our Young Women at church last night.  

On our schedule was a service activity.  But we also wanted to  help them have service on their minds for longer than one night, especially during the holidays.  So I came up with an easy way for them {and I} to perform service all month long, keeping Christ more centered in our Christmas.  

It is simple to put together and  if you want to make one for yourself, I bet you could even get it done today and not miss out on a day.

I found the envelopes in the gift bag section at Michaels.  I think they were $3 for 25.  I cut numbers with my Silhouette but you could use stamps or any number stickers you have on hand.  Hole punch the top and string them all together.  Tuck in a card with an act of service to do each day, and you are ready to count down the days to Christmas!  

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PS... The winner of the Level Up Intro To Photography class is Italia!  Thanks so much for entering!  And I'll let you know when the class after Christmas is so you can learn how to use your new Christmas Presents!

Swimsuits Rack: DIY

{my little fish}


Hi friends!  How was your 4th?  Ours was super fun and I'm just getting back in to the swing of things around here.  But I'll tell you one thing.  We are living in our swimsuits these days.    Pool, Rinse and repeat it seems. And Ivy may or may not even sleep in hers sometimes.   I needed a place to wrangle those suits so we aren't scrambling to find them when its time to go.  I love my rack I came up with and as promised here's a quick how to!

SUPPLIES

board cut to desired length.  Mine is a 1x8x20

Spray paint

faucet handles {I got mine at Home Depot}

vinyl lettering

I found this board in the garage that was painted white and everything all ready to go! But I wanted pink letters so I decided on reverse stenciling. So I spray painted just the top pink.  I let it dry for about 10 minutes but wasn't too worried about letting it dry completely because I want it to be distressed.  

I cut out vinyl letters with my silhouette using the BEBAS font {one of my faves right now} and applied them to my board.  Then I had my helper paint the whole top white with craft paint.  Right over the top of the letters.  Just make sure you don't glob the paint on over the letters or it will seep.  Spray paint would work well too.

Let the paint dry for a couple minutes but not totally.  Then use some tweezers to peel off your letters.  If you want, use some super fine sandpaper to knock down the edges of the letters and distress to your liking. 

I spray painted my faucet handles with the same pink {rustoleoum 2xcoverage pink}, and let them dry completely.  Then I measured out where I wanted them and drilled holes in my board.  When you are getting the faucet handles make sure that you get the ones that have a knob on the back to help it stand off the board.  And Lowes did not have the handles so don't waste a trip.  Just head to home depot and ask where they are.  Then  find some screws in the garage and screw on your handles. 

Booya!  No more scrambling for {dry} swimsuits or lost bottoms!  Happy Swimming!

Pimp My Bike: Basket Liner Tutorial

Source: google.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I have the CUTEST bike evah.  I love.love.love it.  We sell a lot of bikes at Greenies but none have captured my heart they way the Tree of Life has.  It is an Alexander Girard limited edition Electra and riding it is one of the happiest things I do. 

 I finally broke down and exchanged my light for a basket this winter.  Its a fun wicker quick release but it was needing a little sumthin.  So I used my mad skills to make a liner for it. And I was so excited that it actually turned out how I pictured it in my head. So I wrote out a tutorial for you so you can learn how to make your own basket liners.  This would work great for easter baskets too.  You can read the full tutorial after the jump...

{I promise you should read the whole thing because this liner has the sweetest little pockets you've ever seen!  

Bookmarked

I made some bookmarks last week for an activity with our young women.  They were super easy and ended up being a great way to use up some scraps, so I though I would share some of the details.  First I cut 2 coordinating fabrics and a piece of heavyweight interfacing to 7.5 x 2.  Then I placed my fabrics wrong side together with the interfacing in the middle. I cut a 2 inch piece of ribbon and slid it in one end.  After that it was as easy as stitching around the edges and clipping with my pinking shears to minimize fraying.  Like I mentioned it is a great way to use scraps, but if you are making more than a couple, I would recommend getting a couple of fat quarters to make cutting a breeze.  I hope you are getting some spring sunshine this weekend!  

Spring Fever

 So I totally know we would be better friends if I actually posted more regularly.  But I had a fun week off learning new things and I actually sewed!  I lost my sewing scissors a couple of weeks ago which is a big deal if you are left handed.  Not just any scissors will work.  I finally gave in and used my rotary cutter to cut out a pattern. But only because it is the cutest dress ever.   LOVE IT. When I made it last week we had spring like weather.  Now, not so much.  Well, ok so we don't have the warm sunny spring like weather.  We have the blustery,rainy spring like weather.  Either way we definitely have spring fever around here.  How are you coping with your spring fever?

:: Spring Fever Pattern {Me Sew Crazy}

:: Nicey Jane Hello Roses Olive {Heather Bailey}

Glitter Hearts make me happy.

How do you like my newish digs {again}?  I can't help it.  I just have too much fun, trying out new stuff and the holidays just need to be decorated!  I've got a little valentine project to share, but I wanted to point out a couple of things real quick.  I've been cleaning things up and working on adding pages, so those big words over there will take you to things like how to get a hold of me, my shop, blogs I like to look at... stuff like that.

I also had a moment of crazy the other day and signed up for twitter.  I have no idea what I'm doing on there, but I would love for you to come and follow along with me, and I'll follow you too!  My handle{?} is @ruffledsunshine. Do you say handle in the twitter world?! See. Crazy.  I need twitter lessons.

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I'm slowly learning that Valentines Day is a holiday you have to get a jump on.  If you don't it sneaks up on you and then you are scrambling.  I got a little push the other day when I got to help style a  Valentines photo shoot.  I can't wait to show you how it turned out.  It was kind of really amazing. 

{oooh,  a sneak peak ; P }

 

Since there has been very little crafting going on here at this blog I thought i would share one of the little things I came up with. 

 Ready to get your heart on?

At Christmas we got a slice of a tree from Darin's Grandpa.  I got to brand it and everything.  It was all very exciting.  And now its perfect for the photoshoot.

  

I cut a heart out of vinyl on my Silhouette.  I didn't use the heart though, I used the negative space as a stencil.  Vinyl is awesome that way.  I love it when things pull double duty.  

Place your stencil on your wood, or whatever you are stenciling. Make sure and seal the edges really well, especially if you are using paint.  

I've been feeling all of the sparkly stuff lately so I went for mod podge and glitter on this one.  Paint your mod podge on pretty thick then dump on some glitter.  Joann's has started having some holiday colors of glitter in their dollar section.  I love it because I don't have to try so hard to save every speck of my $5 glitter.  Once it has dried a bit dump off your excess glitter and then mod podge OVER your glitter.  I know it looks scary but it does dry clear.  I promise.

After it dries, take off your stencil and you're done!  Its a simple project, but I love how the glitter and wood go together.  Two things that aren't necessarily supposed to be together, but get along so fabulously. 

XOXO.

See glitter hearts make you happy too.