Homemade Valentines

This year I decided to do homemade valentines with my daughter. They were so easy and turned out super cute! I let her pick out the paper she wanted (from my way to large of a stash). I made a stencil by folding a piece of cardstock in half and drawing a heart so the point hung over the edge of the fold and when cut out it unfolds to look like a butterfly. For her class at school we got little tubes of bubbles and candy spree for my dance classes and attached them to the center to look like the butterfly body. This would be a way fun activity for older children to do. They could cut out their own butterfly hearts and decorate them and attach the candy. Super easy and way fun! Enjoy!

Tulle Christmas Skirts

Hello my friends! Are you surprised to see me?! It's about time I know! I've been busy working on Christmas gifts...one in particular that is being done on the computer and long story short my computer is acting up and is lucky it hasn't gone through the window yet! :)

I finished my girls Christmas skirts a few weeks ago and we made it to see Santa last week so I thought I'd share the tutorial with you. I apologize for the horrible photos! I saw this tulle skirt and knew it would be so cute for Christmas! I'm all about the puffy skirts for little girls!

Here's what you'll need:
base fabric for skirt - I had mine on hand. It's satin silver
Tulle - I used about 4 yards for my 3 1/2 yr old skirt and 3 yards for 19 month old skirt
elastic for waist band
matching thread

1. Take measurements and double the waist and add 3" to the length. So for my oldest it was 20x11 so I cut my fabric to 40x14.
2. Cut tulle 6"x the width of the fabric cut in half. Lay tulle out (I had mine cut into 1 yard increments so it was easier to handle) cut along folded edge so you have 2 layers on top of each other. Then cut 6" wide strips.
3. Press and hem bottom edge of skirt.

 

     4. Fold tulle strip in half and in half again and bunch together about an inch from the top (will look like a sack) and pin to skirt. I let the bottom of the tulle hang over the edge a little bit (I just eyeballed it...I knew I would need three rows for the bigger skirt and two for the smaller so I just centered them. I also decided after I took the pictures that the tulle bunches needed to be closer together and made them overlap the bunch next to it about an inch.

Tulle bunch (don't mind the lunch spot on my sleeve) :)

     5. Using sewing machine sew bottom row of tulle bunches on. Repeat steps for the next 1 or 2 rows.

Sewing second row on

Sewing second row on

      6. Fold over and pin top to make pocket for elastic.

      7. Pin ends of skirt together.

     8. Sew side seams together first. Then hem waist seam. Make sure to leave an opening to thread the elastic through.

Don't mind the head shadow...I didn't notice until after the fact! Oops!

     9. Sew ends of elastic together and sew up the opening and and you're done! Hooray!

And here's a little something extra to make you smile! Enjoy!

Halloween Decor

Happy weekend friends! It's officially winter here in Utah! OK it's not that bad, but we went from 80 degrees and sunshine last week to 50 degrees, snow covered mountains, clouds and lots of rain this week! Besides hating to be cold I do love this time of year! I love scarves and boots, but most of all I love the holidays and decorating for them! And it gets better and better over the next couple of months! Holiday decorations are for me, but it's also for my kids to enjoy. For that reason I chose to go with a black, bright purple, orange and green color scheme when I started making items a couple years ago. This year I added the pieces on top of the piano. I had everything on hand to make it which is a huge plus. So here's my Halloween decor right now, but I've seen so many great things this year I may add more :)

I made the Halloween blocks a couple years ago...It's what started my color scheme :)

You can see my post about the {2x4} Pumpkins here. I've been meaning to post about the jar with the green balls in it. All items are from Dollar Tree. It's a vase and candle stick holder glued together. I wrapped styrofoam balls with green yarn and secured with a dab of craft glue as I was wrapping.

 For this display I covered books I had with scrapbook paper I already had. I used tulle and ribbon wreaths on the pottery and the pumpkins are from the dollar store.I still need to paint those and dress them up!

 Here's a picture of the tulle and ribbon wreath when it's hanging up. I originally made these to go somewhere else, but I needed them on the piano display. These were super easy! I used a foam wreath form from the dollar store and tulle and ribbon that I already had on hand. Wrap ribbon around wreath form to cover it completely. Then tie strips of tulle and ribbon alternating.

 Pumpkin lights tied up with ribbon line the railings.

Here's my Halloween Countdown wall hanging. I'm getting ready to fill it with Halloween treats, prizes and fun activities. We can't forget our pumpkin head. He giggles and says Halloween phrases. Super cheesy, but the kids LOVE it! Enjoy!

{2 x 4} Pumpkins

Well we are officially ready for Halloween at our house! I love this time of year and always get so excited pull out my decorations! I spent last week making new pieces to add to my decor and arranging it to the way I want it. I'll share those pictures sometime this week! But tonight I wanted to share a super easy cute project! I made these last year at a craft night with some friends. My super cute neighbor hosted it and came up with this pumpkin project.

Here's what you need:

• any kind of wood you want to use: 3 blocks for small pumpkin, 4 blocks for large (small pumpkin is 5 in tall, large is 7 in) The blocks do not need to be smooth. As you can see from the photo mine were very imperfect, but that's what I like so much about them!
• orange paint
• stain
• dowels for stem
• ribbon and wire

1. Paint wood blocks orange. You don't need to worry about painting the bottom or the sides that you won't be able to see. Make sure they are completely dry before adding stain.
2. Stain dowels and wood blocks with foam brush or paper towel. For the pumpkin blocks I painted the stain on and wiped off with a paper towel leaving most of it in the cracks and dents.
3. We used a nail gun to attach the blocks together. You could also use liquid nails. Just FYI hot glue will not work :)
4. Hot glue on stem.
5. Add ribbon.
6. Twist wire around a pen or pencil and hot glue end in the ribbon.

And you're done! Super easy and very inexpensive! Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July

Hello everyone! Happy 4th of July! What a wonderful day to celebrate the freedoms that we have in this country! I feel so blessed to live in this day and age and to have such amazing people that serve our country and give themselves so that we have our freedom. Thank you to all those that have served or are still serving! And a big thank you to their families for being loving and supportive and giving your family members to fight for all of us. 

It was a busy week last week and this week will be the same! In our church I get to serve in the Young Women program and I taught our lesson yesterday and was busy preparing it last week and we leave Wednesday morning for girls camp so I'll be out for the rest of the week. My lesson was based on the talk Your Happily Ever After by Dieter F. Uchtdorf Second Counselor in the First Presidency. If you'd like to read it or learn more click here, visit http://lds.org/?lang=eng or email me with any questions. I always like to give the girls a little something to remind them of the lesson and it was about the only crafty thing that I did last week so I'll share it with all of you. I am so lucky to live just down the street from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and I get to enjoy it's beauty every time I look out the window or go outside. Through the blessings of the temple our families can be together for eternity. I took this picture of the temple and edited it and added the text using paint.net. If you don't have photo shop, but would love to edit pictures you can download paint.net for FREE and it does all the fancy editing techniques that photo shop does. I gave everyone a copy of this picture with a tag that read, "You are truly royal spirit daughters of Almighty God. You are princesses, destined to become queens. Your own wondrous story has already begun. Your "once upon a time" is now." ~Dieter F. Uchtdorf

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Enjoy!