Rosy Cheeked Snowman Fridge

I am so excited about the return of our snowman fridge.  It's becoming quite the tradition at our house, and I don't know what we'll do when we get around to replacing this old refrigerator.  Each year we find something to add to the snowman to spruce him up a bit, and this year it was the addition of rosy pink cheeks!

It's amazing what two little pink circles can do to make our snowman look super excited to be back this year!

If you want to make your own snowman fridge, this is what you'll need:

Materials

• Construction Paper
• Wrapping Paper
• Tape
• Bowls, Cups, Lids for Tracing
• Pencil
• Scissors

Trace large circles for the eyes and buttons, and trace smaller circles for the mouth and rosy cheeks.  This could be great practice for children, and they can even cut out the circles if they are old enough to use scissors (remember safety scissors for the little one!).  

I don't trace anything for the nose or arms, but it can be done!  The nose could be a triangle, and the hat and arms could be made of rectangles.  Use this as an opportunity to discuss shapes!  When all the pieces are cut out, use a tape that's easily removable to put everything in place on the fridge.  Stand back and enjoy!!  

Note, Frosty the Snowman or Christmas carols playing the background while you are decorating the fridge are an added bonus!

Visit this post to see some of our snowmen from years past.  http://handmadebycj.blogspot.com/2012/12/snowman-fridge.html 

Beach Vacation Keepsake

Last month we had our first official family vacation.  It was actually our second trip to Florida as a family, but last time we were travelling and visiting with lots of other friends and family (being as it was for our wedding!).  This time it was just the four of us!

I knew going down there that I wanted to make one of these jars, so I planned ahead and packed some Ziploc bags for the sand and shells we collected on the beach.  The kids were super excited about bringing home sand and would have filled a five gallon bucket if I'd have allowed it!  

I picked up a simple postcard to use as the backdrop of our beach vacation jar from a souvenir shop while we were on vacation.  I wrote the dates of our trip on the back and tucked the key card from our hotel behind it too!  The only other thing I had to buy for the project was the jar, so in total, this little keepsake cost less than $5 to make!

Once I put the postcard in (it had to be trimmed up a little), I started spooning in the sand and topped it off with the seashells and a few pieces of seaweed that ended up in the sand we'd collected.  After closing it up, I tied a piece of twine around the lid for a little something extra.  The "tag" attached to it is actually the bottom section of the parking pass we were given from the hotel! 

It now has a nice little home on the mantel beside the sand unity vase we made at our wedding.  A little bit of the gulf coast in our home!  I love it!

Teacher Appreciation Flower Pot

This is going to be a quick post, about a simple but adorable teacher appreciation gift we made for my son's pre-k teachers.  I saw these tulips floating around Pinterest the other morning and knew immediately they were something I wanted to make.  And when I remembered that our son's last day of pre-k and graduation program were quickly approaching I knew exactly what I needed to make them for!

This link over to Mama Miss is where you can find the FREE printable for the tulips and instructions on how to put them together:  http://www.mamamiss.com/2013/05/22/create-kiddo-diy-tulips-upcycled-vase-and-printable/.  They also include a link and tutorial for making your own rope vase using an old baby food jar.  

I didn't have any baby food jars, but decided to hit up the dollar store for some cheap glass vases.  When I got there however, I saw these adorable gray flower pots in a package of 4 for $1!  That deal was just too good to pass up.  I needed to make three pots, one for each of his teachers, and the extra pot lets me make one for myself too!

Once we had the tulips put together, I added in some fake moss.  It helps hold the pipe cleaner stems down in the pot and adds to the "planted" look of the flower pot.  

To finish off the gift, I went to my good friend Google to help me find a great gift tag.  I knew I wanted the message to be something about "growing", and I found exactly what I wanted at Living Locurto, this FREE printable gift tag:  http://www.livinglocurto.com/2012/04/teacher-gift/.  They use the tag on real plants as teacher appreciation gifts.  I love that idea too!  I love getting plants!  Instead of gluing the tag to a Popsicle stick, I hole-punched them and tied a ribbon through the tag around the tulips in the vase.

And there you have it, a great long lasting, maintenance free teacher appreciation flower pot!  

Abstract Art for Kids

Almost every day, my two and half year old asks me if we can paint.  She loves it!  And I love that she loves it!  While drinking my coffee and scrolling through Pinterest this morning, I saw this post for Easy DIY Abstract Art from Craft Pond.  I think I've pinned it before, but seeing it pop up again was a sign!  I knew that's what we were going to do today.  Well at least, that's what the kids would do today, because I'm hooked on the camera and somebody had to take pictures right?!

I gave the kiddos some old 12x12 canvases that I had previously used and then repainted over in white to use again.  They also got to choose their colors from all my old paints.  What I didn't do was insist on adding white in the mix like the tutorial from Craft Pond did.  When I do this for myself, I'm going to follow that tutorial more closely.

The other thing my kiddos didn't do was wash out their brushes.  It was probably easier this way for them, but leads to more of an all over blend rather than just blending colors in certain areas.

They kept at it as long as there was still white canvas available to cover.  After a while it looked like they were getting bored with painting, but after a little encouragement they finished up!

I let them both sign their paintings by writing their names.  Well my 5 year old wrote his name.  My two and half year old just left her mark!

Once dry we immediately hung them up for display!  They are so proud of them!  My son was even trying to sell his painting to his aunt for $60.  He thought that would be enough to buy two Lego sets so it was a fair price!  I can't wait to try this easy abstract painting for myself sometime with my own color choices.  It was a fun quick project that I think we all will be doing again and again!

Growing Green Onions

This is another one of those posts about doing something I came across on Pinterest.  There are quite a few posts about growing your own green onions, such as the ones here, here, and here.  A month ago, I decided to give it a go and see if it actually worked.  I'm happy to say that it did, but also that it's not long term.  Because a month later, my green onions are looking pretty sickly and worn.  Here's how it all started:

I took a package of store bought green onions, a few of them had already been used up and the tips had been trimmed off most of them.  I didn't cut them down real far.  I only cut off what I wanted to use for dinner that first night.  I placed them in a clear mug on the counter.  Excuse my holiday mug, I knew it was after Christmas but it was the only clear mug I had!  You don't have to use a clear mug, but it just makes it easier to see how much water is in the mug.

They are sitting on the ledge above my kitchen sink, and very near my desk.  The onion smell seemed strong at first and just after each cutting, but either I got used to it quickly or it fades quickly.  It wasn't a bother!

 Most of the other posts I'd read about this little trick suggested changing the water every other day.  That was no problem since that it when I water the other plants also sitting on the ledge above my kitchen sink.

I have a small potted leafy green plant, but I have no idea what it's called.  I found it on clearance near the check out at Home Depot one day and had to bring it home!  Beside that is a pot of paper whites.  There is also an aloe plant nearby.  With all this green, it's starting to look like a jungle!  Not really but it does make you forget for a while that it's still winter and cold outside!

Anyway, back to the green onions.  I kept about an inch of fresh water in the mug, just enough to cover the roots of the onions.  In no time at all they started growing.

About once a week, I gave them a trim.  Three or four inches or so off the tops.  I just gathered them all up together and snipped them with scissors, and then used the scissors to quickly cut up the top into little tiny pieces to use for garnish in my favorite dishes....chicken enchiladas, nachos, even scrambled eggs!

I stored the snips in an airtight container in the fridge.  I didn't try freezing them.  This small amount was enough for whatever I needed to garnish for the week.  They stayed nice and fresh in the fridge like this.

So back to my earlier point.  This has been a fun experiment, but a month later, I think the green onions are worn out.  They no longer stand up straight, and many of the smaller ones have shriveled up despite keeping up with regular water changes.  The color has also faded from a bright green to a dingy yellow green.  Not exactly pleasant to eat!

I think I will pick up another package of green onions at the store and try again.  After all they're cheap and its good practice for gardening later for spring and summer.  I definitely don't have a green thumb!  I swear this is the first time in my life I've been able to keep a plant alive for more than a few weeks anyway!

Have any of you tried growing your own green onions?  What were your results?

DIY Wall Art - Inspiration Leads to Creation

A few weeks ago, my best friend tipped me off to this post at Young House Love with a great DIY wall art project.  I love recreating fantastic things that I find (or am shown) online, and this was definitely worthy of recreating!  In fact, that piece was inspired by a poster seen on Pinterest!  I just love how the world goes 'round!

My painting inspired by Young House Love

Anyway, I won't walk you through a tutorial...that website has already done it.  But I'll show you the few photos I took along the way.  My piece is smaller, but it still looks great even from across the room.  I only had a 16x20 canvas on hand (and unfortunately no Michael's coupons at the time).  As you can see I also chose a different color scheme.  We are all about the grays in this house, literally!  I'm thinking about taking just one of the white spaces and making it a bright color to pop out, like orange or even red.  We'll see.  I'm still debating.

Getting the canvas setup is a bit time consuming, but I don't think this is the sort of design you could free hand!  I used a corner of an index card to get the points.

Here's what it looked like just before I started painting.  

And just after I finished.  It was actually still wet in that picture.  I wish I had snapped one about halfway through.  At one point I almost stopped, and was going to keep it unfinished because I liked the effect it created.  I had about half of the canvas completely done and just a few spaces blocked in on the other half making a gradient effect.  I may need to make another one!  

DIY Shower Ring Christmas Wreath Ornaments

This past Christmas I was looking for a fun, easy, and ultimately affordable gift that I could help my 5 year old son make to give away to his classmates.  I saw these yarn wrapped wreaths on Pinterest and decided to find a cheap way to make them.  

I started hunting around for something to use in place of the wooden rings, and I spotted a package of shower curtain rings at the dollar store.  My son has 12 kids in his class so a package of 12 shower curtain rings for whopping $1 sounded just right to me!  

I already had the red ribbon, glue, and of course scissors in our craft stash, and I picked up the ball of green yarn for less than $2, and the bow stickers were another $1 at the dollar store (These aren't really necessary because you can tie a bow with the ribbon as well).  So if you're keeping track, that's a grand total of $4 for gifts for the whole class!
 

Now to get started making the wreath.  First I tied a knot on the top part of the shower ring.  Hold onto the  yarn to keep it in place and start wrapping, keeping the yarn touching as you go.  Every few wraps, I put a little dot of glue to keep the yarn securely in place.

Then just keep wrapping.  

When you've covered the entire ring, make sure to glue down the loose end of the yarn.

Here's what the ring looks like when it's completely covered.  I bought the green shower rings just in case any of the ring showed through, but you can't see any of it if you wrap it close enough.  So you could use any color rings you find!  

Now add your embellishments.  We used these little glitter bows and tied a red ribbon on to hang it with.  You could add little gem stickers as ornaments on your wreath, wrap multiple colors of yarn to change up the look, or tie on your own bow.  Get creative!

We put them in these cute little plastic snack bags to hand out.

Hang them on your tree, or your cabinets, or a door knob, and enjoy!  

DIY Christmas Sharpie Mugs

Surely you've seen this craze going around Pinterest?  I honestly can't count the number of links I came across before I finally decided to give this project a go.  And once I started looking into the technique, I was amazed at how many people have tried it.  Then I also was a little worried about the number of people that had poor results!

Most of the tutorials will tell you to draw your design on the mug with a regular Sharpie marker, then bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  I read other suggestions that said to bake it longer or at a higher temperature.  Some recommended a special type of Sharpie.  Some just said it wasn't worth the time because it won't work.  Well I'm brave so I decided to give it a go and see what happened.

Initially, I picked up 8 coffee mugs.  They are off white ceramic mugs and more curved than the standard coffee mug shape.  After we finished the first batch, I went back to the store and bought about 20 more.  Everyone got a mug from us this Christmas!  And we had so much fun doing them!

To get started, remove any stickers and wash and dry the mugs completely.

Then gather up all the supplies and choose a design.  Since we were planning on giving these away as Christmas gifts, I wanted the kids to be involved in making them as well.  All of the mugs have the kids' thumbprints incorporated into the design.  My favorite are these little reindeer inspired from a project found here.

The thumbprints are all done using acrylic paint.  I used the end of a paintbrush dipped in paint to make the nose, although this could also have been done with a red Sharpie.  The rest of the drawing, the eyes and antlers, and sayings, are all done with the regular Sharpies.  It's a little trickier than you'd think to write across the mug with a Sharpie.  My cursive wasn't the greatest, but that just makes it more personalized!

I let them dry on a baking sheet for about 15 minutes while also preheating the oven.  I decided to up the temp to 375 degrees to make sure it worked!  I put the whole thing in the oven for 35 minutes just to be safe!

Pull them out of the oven carefully and leave them on the baking sheet until they are cooled completely.  After that they got another wash and dry and were ready to be gifted!  I wouldn't recommend putting these in the dishwasher, but the paint and marker shows no signs of coming off after hand washing.  

This design was inspired by a DIY Christmas card found here.  We also did a version using a silver Sharpie for the cord and pastel colored lights.  Don't forget to add the date!

365 Memories

Some of you may be aware of this new trend.  Project 365 I think some are calling it.  I've labeled mine "A Photo a Day".  I've seen it on Facebook, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and there are many more people doing it on their own blogs or websites.  It's simple, but powerful.  Snap one picture a day of anything and post it.  The possibilities are endless, and the memories you'll have to look back on at the end of the year will be priceless!

Day 1 Photo

The link to my project is in the sidebar on the left.  I know we're only six days into the new year, but I'm already having so much fun looking back at less than a week's worth of photos.  Most of mine have and will come from Instagram shots I took that day or just a random photo on my camera.  I will probably sort the pictures into separate pages by month as they accumulate so one page won't be so picture heavy.

Day 6 Photo

So are any of you doing a project 365?  Something other than photos perhaps?  It's not too late to get started on one!

Filled Glass Ornaments

This was a project from last Christmas but I didn't post about it then because they were Christmas gifts.  These ornaments were something I had wanted to make for a long time, but it was harder than I expected finding plain clear glass ornaments.  On a late night shopping trip, I finally had time to dig through all the boxes of ornaments, and found the only box of clear ornaments they had! (Something that would have been impossible to do on a day-time trip with the kiddos!)

Two of the ornaments I filled with sheet music from one of my favorite musicals, Les Miserables.  It just so happens it's also a favorite of my sister who was the wonderful recipient of those ornaments.  Since she's a trumpet player, I used the sheet music for a trumpet part.  Huge thank you to Google for that find!  Seriously Google sheet music for your favorite songs and search through the images.  You'll find what you need!  Well mostly what you need.  The other piece of music was a flute part, but that's okay too.

After I printed off the music, I wanted to make the pages look antique.  I dyed them with tea by steeping a teabag in a pan of hot water and dipping the page in it.  Do this carefully as the page can easily tear when wet.  I let it dry completely, and then took a match to the edges to give it a rougher look.

Then I cut the music into strips trying to keep the staves together and included the song title and composer.  The toughest part was actually getting it into the ornament.  After carefully removing the top, I wrapped the individual strips tightly around a pencil and slid them down into the ornament.  I used a bamboo skewer and sometimes one of my crochet hooks to move the pieces around inside the ornament until I had the look I wanted.

To finish it off, I tied on a nice ribbon to hang the ornament with.  (I personally hate metal ornament hooks, and one day I will replace all of mine with ribbon!)

Besides the music filled ornaments, I also made this Hello Kitty one for my other sister who is a huge fan!  The Hello Kitty gift tag was from a McDonald's kid's meal.  I just punched a hole in it to tie the pink ribbon through!  Shhh don't tell!  I also made one for my grandmother with Christmas themed Bible verses as well as filled some with pretty ribbons and other holiday decorations.  The possibilities are endless!  I wish I had taken more pictures last year because they all turned out beautiful!

*Be careful stuffing your ornaments because the glass at the top can be sharp.  I wouldn't recommend this project for small children!

Snowman Fridge

Frosty has returned again this year and before Christmas Day of course.  Decorating the refrigerator for the holidays is so easy and adds so much joy.  All it takes is a few pieces of construction paper and strip of wrapping paper!

Here's a picture of this year's snowman.  We got a little more creative this time.  My five year old said that snowmen have stick arms so we needed to add them too.  The top hat is also new this year.  Comparing it to our light-up snowman in the living room, we couldn't forget the black hat!

The eyes were made by tracing a bowl on a piece of black construction paper.  The buttons and mouth were made by tracing a drinking glass on the construction paper.  The nose was just cut out free hand.  I like the carrot shape I did this year much more than the plain triangle from last year!

Here's a picture of last's year's snowman fridge.  It's a little blurry I know, but someone was just a little too excited about having Frosty in the house!

*This idea is not mine.  The original came from Pinterest last year, but there are so many out there now I have no idea which one was first!

DIY Christmas Wreath

This is the first year we've hung a wreath on our door, but now that I have this lovely wreath it definitely will not be the last!

Christmas Wreath in daylight

I found the basic evergreen wreath at Walmart for $2.50!  I had no idea they were so cheap, and with a few simple embellishments, I turned it into this beautiful Christmas wreath.  The small ornaments and the bow I had tucked away in my Christmas tote.  The bow has a pipe cleaner on the back that I used to attach it to the wreath.  The ornaments are attached with regular ornament hooks.

The pine cones we collected last month from trees behind our house.  I hot glued them to the wreath so they wouldn't fall out.

Christmas Wreath at Night

The red ribbon I pulled out of my box of present wrapping supplies.  I love to save bows, bags, and anything else from presents I've received.  It's always neat to find ways to reuse them on special gifts.  We have a curtain rod on the back of the front door (thanks to the previous owner) which I've tied the ribbon too.  You could also use the Pinterest-learned trick of attaching a Command hook upside down on the door to hook your ribbon to.