DIY Classroom Valentine's

 

 

I try to take care of classroom Valentine's before February even rolls around. It just makes my life easier. My oldest child's birthday happens to be the day before, and things can get really hectic, really fast. I seem to have a habit of forgetting some of the day to day stuff when we get to that week too. So, for everyone's sanity, we plan ahead.

 

Right now, my son's current obsession favorite toy are these tiny little guys called Crazy Cubes. Naturally, when I asked him what type of Valentine he would like to hand out this year, he told me "A Crazy Cube one! That would be so awesome!"

 

Of course it would, except they don't make them.

 

When I told him that, he looked at me and said "well, couldn't we just make them ourselves?"

 

Of course we can!

 

The Valentine's were actually really easy to do, and you don't need special software to do it. I just scanned a drawing on to my computer and did the rest of the editing and type layout in Picasa and then placed them in Word to fit 6 to an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper.

 

Yes, fellow designers and image folks, I know that's not the best way to do it - but this way works just fine and anyone can do it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First things first, you will want to decide on your theme. My Valentine included hand drawings, but if that's not an option for you, no worries, use a photo of your child (check out Pinterest for some really great creative ideas). If you are drawing, scan your finished image on to your computer. I re-sized my scanned image to 5x7.

 

Bring your image into Picasa and start editing. I like to edit in their Creative Kit option, if gives you more freedom. That's where I found the hand drawn hearts, and placed the cool font. This is also where I touched up any stray pencil marks.

 

Once you have your image finished, save it. Open word, change the page layout to landscape and insert your finished image. Adjust the size to your liking, copy and then paste as many as you can fit on a page.

 

 

 

 

Print them out, cut them up and you're done!

 

Happy Monday!

-Lisa :)

 

 

** This post is linked to Homemade Monday's link party, hosted by "Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity AND New Nostalgia Anti-Procrastination Tuesday**

Thanksgiving Banner

 

 

Can you believe in less than one week, Thanksgiving will be here? It crept up on me this year, truly. I had so many things I wanted to accomplish before it got here - crafts, blog posts, new recipes...

 

I do have a few projects in the works and I am going to try my hardest to finish them up this weekend. And then of course share them with all of you during the week.

 

But today, I want to share a quick little banner I made with inspiration from the Silhouette blog, you can read that post here. 

 

I ended up making my own banner shape from scratch. If you have a cameo and would like to use my file, I am more than happy to share. You can download the free Silhouette Cameo files here.

 



 

 

 

I decided to use a metallic gold paper for the background. I'm loving all things gold right now. To view all the details in making this type of banner, please refer to the Silhouette tutorial I mentioned earlier.

 

 

 

I cut out a bunch of maple leaf shapes that were pre-loaded in my software for the cameo. Because they are not mine to share, they are not included in the free files, but my guess is that you already have them in your shape library.

 

 

Then, using some twin, I strung the banner together and using scotch tape, added bunched leaves to the corners.

 

 

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

-Lisa :) 

Halloween Oreo Cupcakes

 

 

Can you believe Halloween will be here in two days!?

 

Thankfully, this year we starting planning early and because of that, I was able to get a lot of the things I wanted to accomplish done. The front door got a simple, but effective spooky spruce up, I was able to finish a DIY Halloween wall art piece that I had been dreaming up for a few weeks, I managed to cut out and laminate holiday bookmarks annnnnd, I had time to whip up a whole lotta cupcakes. Like, A LOT, of cupcakes - maybe about six dozen or so.

 

My son's school had a Fall Festival the other night. Earlier in the week, they sent home a flier requesting baked goods for a cake walk. I got excited at the idea of being able to make more fun and crafty cupcakes - is that strange??? I had so much fun baking and experimenting with different frostings and cakes for Stella's party, and I was itching for an excuse to do it again.

 

Chris and I brainstormed for a little bit, and then finally decided on a chocolate cake recipe and a cookies and cream frosting - which, after trying, we fell in love with - it's soooo good!

 

 

 

I love trying to make simple things look pretty, and, well, look not so simple. So we went on a decoration hunt. We found cute spider wrappers and rings. My husband suggested the fang idea, which I shot down at first, but I'm so glad he talked me into it! I think it looks awesome! And the kiddo's get to have a cool souvenir when they're done.

 

 

I used Halloween oreos for the frosting and for the decorative tops. I also used plain unbleached paper liners to bake the cupcakes in, and then double lined them with the decorative wrappers. This keeps the pretty wrappers looking good and evenly colored.

 

 

 

Here are my oldest two, all dressed up, walking to the festival. I love them so!

 

Wishing you a wonderful start to your week!

-Lisa

DIY Halloween Wall Art

 

I have a fascination with all of the "keep calm and ...." signs. They are everywhere, I know. Why I never purchased one, I'm not quite sure.  They look adorable, and a bunch of different Halloween versions have been popping up on pintrest lately. My original plan was to re-create a sign,  print it out on cardstock and then frame it.

 

I did do that, well, not the framing part though. Something is wrong with my printer, so the solid background just wasn't going to happen for me. I kept getting color fades and lines and it just didn't look all that great. My perfectionism was not about to let me settle, so a little brain storming was in order.

 

 I came up with a re-purposing project!

 

And I had to figure out how to paint particle board...

 

 A while back we had to replace our 8 slot storage cube shelf. At some point it had suffered some water damage to the top (I've given up trying to figure out how or why - I just know it involved my little people). Chris broke all of the pieces down so it would be easy to dispose of. While he was doing that, I noticed most of the undamaged parts were the same size and shape as the mock canvas art you can buy. So, we set aside the clean parts for future projects. I have to give my husband credit here, he doesn't even think twice anymore when I suggest things like this. Love him for that!

 

Can you tell where I'm going with this??

 

Chris cut down one of the longer sections for me, and I filled the holes with my hot glue gun. In the future I will use wood putty or something similar, the glue left divots. When I get excited about something I have a tendency to keep pushing forward even if I know there is a better way - oops!

 

After the glue dried, I lightly sanded the surfaces that I planned on covering with paint. I followed some directions I found on pintrest for painting the particle board.

 

 

Then I primed the board twice, lightly sanding it down in-between coats to even out brush strokes.

 

 

Once everything was dry, I applied three, yes three, coats of craft paint. I had to let the paint dry for over an hour in-between coats. The directions called for 21 days for the paint to cure, but I couldn't wait that long. I have just been very careful not to rub it up against anything. So far so good.

 

I whipped up a quick "Keep Calm" design in Silhouette Studio. The skull was a pre-made graphic from their shop, and the text was done by me using the font Impact.

 

I used vinyl here, but you could get similar results printing out a stencil and using an exacto knife to cut out the images, it would just take a little longer and more painting would be needed.

 

 

Using contact paper to keep the placement right, I attached the vinyl and there it is!

 

I looove this so much!

 

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

-Lisa

Candy Free Halloween Party Favors

 

I remember being shocked by the amount of candy handed out at the very first Halloween party or "Fall" Party that my oldest went to at school. He was 4 and came home with a pile of tiny bags filled with treats. Don't get me wrong, I know how much fun it is to put together little things for the kids and I love seeing their eyes light up in excitement just as much as the next parent. I just wish there was a little less junk food.

 

I was bound and determined this year to find something for my kids to hand out that didn't involve sugar, and wasn't "totally lame". That's no easy feat, let me tell you. So I was thrilled when I came across these free printable bookmarks (click on the link to get your own!).

Look at how cute they are! But not only that, they meet my son's "cool" standard (he's in second grade - I know the bar will keep getting higher).

 

I printed out enough for 32 bookmarks on white 65# cardstock. After cutting them all out, I decided to laminate them for extra durability.

 

A word of advice - don't do like me and put your laminator on top of the stove. As I was snapping this pic, I failed to notice the corner getting stuck in the stove burners. Yup, I had a nice little hot plastic jam to fish out.

 

 

Here's a nice shot of my crinkled mess for you :)

 

 

After a little bit of damage control, I trimmed them up and there you have it! Super cute, inexpensive and candy free!

 

My initial plan was to punch a hole at the top of each bookmark and attach a ribbon. I was advised by my 7 year old that ribbons would make it too girly for his friends that are boys. We both agreed they were good like this.

 

 

I would love to hear some other candy free favor ideas. I'm still on the search for a preschool age appropriate handout. I would love some help!

 

Have a great day!

-Lisa

Easy Halloween Decor for the Front Door

Up until a few months ago, I had never been a huge decorating fan. Of anything really, the house, holidays, birthdays. I have always opted for the "less is more" mentality. I still follow that mantra, but I have been finding myself really enjoying adding a few touches here and there. It seems like just changing up one or two things in an area can really do a lot to transform the look and feel of the space.

 

This is still new to me, so I have been focusing a lot of my attention on the first impression spot of the house - in other words, the front door and entryway.

I started with a Halloween wreath I made last year. I found a base wreath on clearance for a few dollars and spray painted it black using what was left from another project. I added a few non-painted twigs that were in our backyard for contrast and attached fake cobwebs and spider rings. Easy-peasy and cute to boot (couldn't help myself there, sorry!)

I covered our front entry table with gauzy Halloween material I found. That alone made a big impact. Then I dug around our itty-bitty Halloween decor stash (I think it consists of 8 things). I typically buy my holiday decor a year ahead, right after the holiday itself when items are at a deep discount. The only thing I had to buy on the table above was an emergency candle for $1.50 (looks the same as the nicer pillar candles if you ask me). I cut out a quick vinyl spider and web and attached those.

Last year, I remember seeing a lot of cut out bats that bloggers had attached to their walls or outside of their homes. Since I just so happen to have an awesome new die cutting machine, I jumped right on that band wagon and cut out a bunch of different sized bats.

 

The bats were attached using Zots (or snot dots as we used to call them in design school). If you decide to try this yourself, make sure to buy the removable Zots - most are permanent and I don't think it's worth having globs of adhesive all over your walls or siding, no matter how cute these little guys are. You can gently crease the wings to make them look like they are flying.

 

 I love these bats. I keep finding myself looking at our front door and smiling - because I'm a nerd like that.

 

Have a great day!

-Lisa

Archive Friday - Alternative Wrapping

***This is a post from the archives, but I felt it was worth reposting. Have a great weekend!***

Did you know, that during the holiday season, in the US, "trash production increases by up to 25 percent, most coming from wrapping paper, boxes and shopping bags"? That statistic was taken from the Moscow Recycling Food Co-op Newsletter.

I vowed this year that our family would be different. But how? About a month or so ago, I started brainstorming different ways to wrap holiday gifts that would be both presentable yet earth friendly. I came up with a lot of ideas, but most of them were shut down by my husband (I have to give him credit, he pretty much lets me go all out on whatever I'm doing and never says a word - so because of that, I didn't protest too much). Some of the ideas he didn't want to go along with: wrapping them in fabric from my stash - um, ok, I get that. Wrapping them in old black and white newspaper and tied with pretty fabric ribbon - he thinks people will assume we're destitute, not to mention the mess it would likely make on our cream colored carpeting - ok, I'll give him that one too.

Sooo... I decided to make drawstring bags. Lots and lots of drawstring bags. So many, that I'm starting to wonder if they will last me till next year too. I used fabric from Granny Grace, so it's about as thrifty as you can get. I'm hoping that they will be re-used for some other purpose by the recipient. You can always find a use for a cute bag, right?

To see a tutorial on how to make drawstring bags, click here. I did mine a little different so they had a flat bottom. It's pretty much just smaller versions of the toy hammock tutorial on my blog.

How are you wrapping your gifts this year?

- Lisa

Playsilk Grass

Playsilks, love them. So do my kids. To be honest, when I first heard about them, I thought they were kind of silly. And I really didn't think my kids would actually play with them much. Boy was I wrong. They're just large dyed silk scarves - well, to an adult anyway. To a child, they can become blankets, rivers, capes, magic shields, princess veils, ghosts.... The list goes on and on, and only stops when the creative play does too.

They are also great for covering toy baskets and bins at night, my children seem to sleep better when most of their toys are out of sight (sound silly? Try it, stream line your bedroom to just the essentials, or hide things, I swear, you get a better nights rest).

So, all of that being said, this year we are replacing Easter grass with playsilks. I dyed a few with packets of kool-aid that I picked up especially for this project, but you can also use food coloring, or natural dyes. We are going to dye Easter eggs tonight with food, so I'm going to add a few silks to the pots and see how it turns out - I'll share my findings, don't worry.

Here's how to do it...

You need:
Large pots or stainless steel or enamel bowls (plastic will stain)
White Vinegar
Coloring of choice (kool-aid, or food coloring...)
Kitchen tongs or other similar non-porous kitchen tool
White silk scarves (I bought mine here and purchased 30"x30" Habotai)

1) Put white scarves in a mixture of 3 cups hot water and 1 cup vinegar to soak while mixing your color pot.

2) Mix packet of kool-aid (1 for a pastel effect, up to 3 for bright vivid colors), 2 cups vinegar, and 3 cups hot water. Stir to dissolve.

3) Add the scarf and mix around until fully colored. Use kitchen tongs or some sort of utensil for this, the colored water will stain your hands.

4) Once you have the color you want, rinse the scarf under luke warm water until the water runs clear. Squeeze excess water out and hang to dry.

That's it!

Bunny Prep

If you have children, I'm sure they are eagerly awaiting a visit from a certain big-earred, fluffy bunny. I know mine are.

This year, we decided to invest in a few Bolga baskets, 1 for each child. This way, our furry friend would have one less plastic/disposable basket to buy. My children get to do whatever they want with these until the eve of Easter, when they will be emptied out and left on the table to be filled with fun surprises.

If you've never heard of a Bolga basket, you're missing out, truly. These awesome fair trade, strong carriers are handmade by women in Africa, and have a quality that you'll unlikely ever find from one purchased in a big box store. I love these baskets, I really do. So much so, that I plan on purchasing a few larger ones for around the house as well.

Fat Tuesday!

photo credit

Happy Fat Tuesday everyone! We don't do much over here for Mardi Gras, but I do try to bake a king cake for desert. A traditional king cake has a small plastic baby baked inside of it (which, because of my small children, I leave out).

Last year I made a super simple and quick, however very non-authentic cake. It takes about 30 minutes to make. You can see it here.

Tonight I'm going to try and make a more authentic cake using this recipe. I'll color the sugar in the same way as last year.

Do you celebrate Mardi Gras? Please share what you do.

Valentine's Day Cookies and Some Rambling

Happy Valentine's Day!

First off, I think I need to apologize for again, the lack of notice that I wasn't going to be around for a bit. A lot has been going on, and I just couldn't seem to drag myself to the computer. In fact, not only did I not turn my computer on for two weeks, I haven't knit a row or sewn a stitch. I haven't crafted with the kids, baked anything (well, those cookies you see up there, that was our welcome back to baking) or read a single page in a book. If you know me at all, then you know something major must have been going on. I even contemplated stopping this blog - wow! But don't worry, I love this too much, so I won't be going anywhere - although the frequency may die down a bit for a while. So what's been going on? Well, first, we found out that we are going to be blessed with a baby this September. And well, my last pregnancies were a breeze, but this one, not so much - between migraines and morning sickness and a total lack of energy to do anything - nothing has gotten done. Add that to a nasty bout of the flu that included high fevers, hallucinations, vomiting and a trip to the E.R. during the height of a blizzard (oh yeah, we had one of those too), for all four of us. So, that's my excuse...

Enough excuses, let's talk about treats!

As lame as it may sound, the old adage "the quickest way to a man's heart is his stomach" most definitely applies to my man. Some of you know him in person, and I'm sure you're getting a giggle from that, but you know it's true, lol.

So this year for Valentine's day, we made him super soft, frosted sugar cookies. These rival any bake shop, I promise. Though, unlike most of my other recipes, there is nothing healthy about these at all. I used organic butter and farm fresh eggs, which made me feel a little better about it, but hey, you gotta live a little, right? So here it is....

Super Soft Sugar Cookies
1.5 C unsalted butter - softened (use real butter or it won't turn out)
1.5 C granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
4 C flour

1) Pre-heat oven to 350

2) Cream together the butter and sugar.
3) Beat in the eggs and vanilla until well combined.

4) Whisk together the dry ingredients, and add a little bit to the batter at a time, mixing well, until all of the dry mixture is used up.
5) On a lightly floured surface, roll out to 1/4" and cut into desired shapes.
6) Bake on a parchment lined aluminum sheet for 10 minutes or until just set (you don't want them browned at all, or they will not stay soft and chewy).
7) Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 1 minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

Fluffy Sugar Cookie Frosting

2 C powdered sugar
1/4 C butter - softened
2.5 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 drops food coloring (optional)

1) Beat together the sugar and butter.
2) In a small dish or cup, mix together the milk, vanilla and food coloring.
3) Gradually beat in the liquid mixture until well combined, and you achieve a stiff but fluffy frosting (2-5 minutes).

Wait until your cookies are completely cooled, and then frost. If you allow them enough time to dry, you should be able to stack the cookies, the frosting will harden slightly so it won't make a huge mess. These should stay soft and last quite a few days if covered.

Take care everyone! I'll be back in a couple days - promise!

-Lisa

Handmade Holiday Gifts

As much as I love Christmas, and everything it brings along the way, I also love the days after. The slowing down, and easing back into the rhythm of our days is comforting.

Annnnd, now that the gift giving has ended, I can finally share some of the handmade gifted items of the year - yay! I'm a little frustrated with myself for not taking pictures of everything before wrapping. I gave some things away that I can't share with you all because I failed to take a photo first. I'm sure these photos will be enough :)

I'd like to introduce you to Hannah's little Gnome family. Yes, unfortunately, the nature baby swaddled in maroon has been shunned to sleep with the pigs. Oh Hannah...

And what is a fairy princess with out a wand?

Here's the little stinker in action - constant action. I couldn't get a good shot of her momma-made pixie hat and scarf. Both are my design, I'm working on writing up a pattern to put in my online shop once it opens (more on that later!)

Here's a slightly better shot of her hat...

And, well, momma needs to match right? Right. But, note to self - this should happen AFTER the holiday so I'm not so rushed.

Some super cute (I think anyway) ear warmers. You can find the free pattern here.

We made lots and lots of treats. Here is one of many gift bags filled with Country Oatmeal Cookie mix in a jar, and gingerbread men and dragon flies - yes, dragon flies :)

And of course the holiday outfits I made for the kids. I'm pretty sure I bombarded you with enough of those photos.

I hope you are enjoying your days just as much as we are.

Take care!

-Lisa

Happy Holidays!

It's Christmas Eve, and we're all filled with excitement and anticipation for the coming hours. I wanted to take a moment here to wish all of you a safe and wonderful Holiday. I will be back on Monday - I can't wait to share some of the homemade crafts and goodies we made this year!
From our family to yours, Happy Holiday!!
- The Palubicki's

Holiday Cookie Round Up

I have been baking uncontrollably for the last week or so - seriously. I just can't seem to stop myself. Though I don't think my friends and family will protest - we have been bombarding them with treats.

Because a lot of you have been asking about the recipes I use, I thought it would be fun to do our Holiday Cookie/Treat recipe list here.

This list does not include all of the items I make each year, but definitely a lot of our favorites.

1) Healthy Coconut Oil Fudge (pictured above)

2) Chewy Ginger Snaps (pictured above)

3) Triple Layer Peppermint Bark

4) Eggnog Truffles

5) Cinnamon Biscotti Cookies (pictured above) - this was taken from a December issue of Better Homes and Gardens years ago, and I don't know if legally I can reprint it...

5) Homemade Bread - I make all sorts of braided sweet breads using the tassajara bread book.

6) Chocolate Covered Pretzels - just follow the melting directions for your chocolate of choice dip the pretzels and let cool.

That's pretty much it. Most of these I make weeks ahead of time and freeze. This allows me to pull things thing out at the last minute if I need to, and I never feel too rushed.

Have a great day!

-Lisa

Winter Solstice 2010

This is the first year that we are actively celebrating Winter Solstice - and what a year to start. I'm not sure if many of you were aware (though if this is a day you celebrate regularly, I'm sure you are), but this morning was a lunar eclipse. The first lunar eclipse to fall on Winter Solstice since 1638! It's not predicted to happen again until 2094 - which, well, I know I won't be here, but hopefully my children will...

And so, with that said, yes, I was up at 3am watching the moon...

What a beautiful start to the darkest day of the year. I really wanted to have special Solstice pajama's for my children to wear tonight, but I think I put too much on my plate this year as far as crafting is concerned, and it just didn't happen (although I suppose there is still time... yes, I do in fact think I may be nuts, lol).

We will be having a larger than normal, fancier than normal dinner tonight (I hesitate to call it a feast), and a candle will burn until we go to bed. Just small ways to celebrate the coming of longer days, warmer days, and soon to be fertile land.

Wishing you all a beautiful day!

-Lisa

Gratitude

photo credit

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm grateful for so many aspects of my life and my family, but for today, on the blog, I want to express my gratitude to you. I appreciate the few minutes (or perhaps more) you spend reading what I have to say. This is my outlet, a place to express creativity, and to focus on the joy in my life. My life is not perfect, as no one's is. So here, I like to keep the focus positive for those days when my world feels like it's spinning out of control. It's a quiet reminder of the good, and I can visit it whenever I need to.

Thank you for watching these moments with me, and for sharing some of your own.

I wish everyone a peaceful, warm and rich day!