Creating with School Supplies on a budget!

 Hi Everyone!
     This months theme for The Designer Crafts Connection group is to create with School supplies!
I purchased the binder clips, notebook, pencil case and pencils at my local dollar tree.
The washi tape can be found places where scrapbooking supplies are sold, in store and on-line.

Flaming Hot Bookmarks!

Today I'm over on The Robins Nest blog.
Come by and see how Dyllan and I made these "Hot" bookmarks to give to his classmates on the last day of School. :)

Designer Crafts Connection - Back to School Crafts!

 Hi Everyone!
     I hope you having a great Summer! This months theme for the Designer Crafts Connection group is "Back to School" So I let Dyllan pick out his choice of decorative Duct Tape at the retail store and then I decorated a few things he can use at his desk or at home where he does homework.  I think these penguins are just the cutest little guys ever! Don't you?

As you can see, it's quite simple to cover inexpensive school supplies and pencil cases. (plastic or material) to make them look fantastic! I hope this easy project has inspired you to make some ordinary school supplies into something fun!
Please hop "forward" with the blog hop button below for some other fabulous "Back to School" idea's!
~ Michelle Frae Cummings

Designer Craft Connection
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School Years Themed Shadow Box

I'm sorry that I have been absent from my blog for all this week. I am my sons  "Bear" Cub Scout den leader starting this fall and in the meantime I cooridinated and attended Cub Scout day camp all this week with 9 boys at our local Marine Corps base- Camp Pendelton! Tomorrow is our last day and I'm fairly tired but I have a great tan to start the summer with!

Here is a School Years Themed Shadow box I made over at The Robins Nest blog.

I hope you'll come by to see the whole thing!
Saturday is my day off and then I'll be back to my regular crafty blog postings on Monday! :)

Easy Lanyard Key Fobs

Because Dyllan has a summer Birthday, his party favors for the class also doubles as his end of the year gift.
I'm so grateful for our new Hobby Lobby. Otherwise I'd have to buy the kids things that might break in a day or two or never make it home.
Here, because backpack decorations are all the rage...at Hobby Lobby, I found 300 feet of the sparkly tie dye lanyard for $6, more than enough for the key fobs and summer activities! Craft Beads $4 for 65ct, For $4, you get 40 split key rings, 30 lanyard hooks, and 10 figure 8 shaped key rings.
There were 3 different colors of the lanyards, I used 2 per key fob.
Measure and cut  9 1/2" pieces. Grab 2 and loop it through the spilt ring, pull the 4 ends  through the bead. Before pulling tight, loop 3" of craft wire through the split ring and into the bead. Pull the wire and lanyard tight through the bead, then wrap the wire around the base of the bead and secure so it's not sharp.
Dyllan helped add the lanyard hooks to each ring. We put these in a snack bag with a copy of his 2nd  grade photo and a nice note. :)

Looking for last minute Fathers Day or Teacher gifts?

Here are two decorated tins I made. I'm thinking of filling one of them with pencils and school supplies for my sons 2nd grade teacher. Won't that make a nice end of school gift? How about cookies in the other for Fathers Day? Want to know how easy it was to make these? Come visit me on The Robins Nest blog to see how!

Summer Picnic Designer Crafts Challenge!

 This months theme  is Summer Picnics. Right up my alley as I love to pack a picnic! We bring our own lunch to parks, beaches, day trips and amusement parks. I can always be counted on to have plenty of snacks and food to share. So it's no wonder I have more than one lunch tote. But some of those designs are soooo boring or the sacks are too small. So I set about to make my own.

 To cut cost, I used a old plastic table cloth with a cotton backing. This one is not used anymore because it has some stains and rips. But it's plenty long for extra lunch sacks.

 Then I gathered a few pins, scissors, VELCRO® Brand adhesive squares, a marker and scissors.

 This is then back pattern with length for a fold over flap. I cut 2 pieces of this. When you fold down at the  4 1/2" mark, you'll create the front of the bag. Cut 2 pieces.
*(If you don't want a fold over top, then cut 4 pieces of the back)

 Put the two positive sides together and stitch around, leaving the top of the bag open.

Turn the bag inside out and stitch around the outside then all around the inside to add stability. Hold the pieces tight as you stitch or they will bunch up and distort your bag.

 For the bottom, fold the like so and stitch across.

Cut a bit of the table cloth to make the handle.

 Stitch to the inside of the bag.

I used VELCRO® Brand adhesive squares for the enclosure.

Well I hope you liked this! You are probably getting ready to dig out that old table cloth right now.  :)
The cotton backing adds the perfect insulation. And if you don't have one of these table cloths already, you can get them fairly cheap anywhere picnic items are sold.

Leslie Rahye's Earth Day Blog Hop - Star Wars wall clock!

 Happy Earth Day! And welcome to another blog hop hosted by Leslie Rahye!
We were asked to create a project through means of recycle or up-cycle as I like to call it.
Here I re-vamped a old bathroom wall clock for for my sons room. He is a huge Star Wars fan, so this clock blended perfectly with his room decor.

 To get started, you'll need a working wall clock, thin paper, (I used some leftover Clone Wars wrapping paper), a foam brush  Royal Coat Decoupage, red Dew Drops,  strong adhesive, a upside down bowl, and a surface for working on, (I used the inside of a cereal box).

 If your clock is dusty, wipe it down, don't worry about any nicks or rust stains. These will soon be covered up.

 Cut your pieces of paper to be larger than the side of the clock you'll be covering. You'll want them to over hang as you see here. Coat the outside of the clock with the decoupage, place your paper and then add some more decoupage on top.If some decoupage gets onto your clocks face, simple wipe it off with a damp cloth. Use your over turned bowl to prop up your clock as you work. If you have a lazy susan, even better. Then you can rotate it as you work.

 Once you have covered the outside surface, smoothing out any wrinkles with your fingers, let dry completely before this next step.
Here, you will want to apply the decoupage with the foam brush to the flaps of paper and them fold them down to secure them.

 Flip the clock over onto the bowl and add one more coat of the decoupage as a sealer. Let dry completely before adding the dew drops.
With your favorite strong adhesive, (I used Tom-bo) , apply a line of glue around the face of the clock, but not on the glass. Place all your dew drops. Let cure  a couple of hours, until the glue dries clear, before hanging up on the wall.

 Did you like that? If you did, please let me know here. I'm giving away these Stampendous clear stamps to one lucky reader. I will pick a winner sometime on Tuesday May 1st, 2012. 
Please make it easy for me to reach you in case you are picked.

Thanks for coming by, now please hop along to the rest of the designers. All of them have amazing Earth Day crafts and all of them have giveaways too! :)

Not just for Bakugan....

It looks like the guy on the center is making one final plea before getting axed by Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker! My son found that a Bakugan holster also works with Mighty Beanz. Clever!

Kids Cuffs made with fabric scraps

 

Last year for Dyllan's last day of school, I used up some of my fabric scraps and some elastic to make cuffs for the kids. The rainbow cuffs were for the girls and the red/black ones, for the boys. It was such a easy thing to do and as far as I know, the kids liked the gift.

So, what do you like to make with your fabric scraps?

Kids CraftTotem Poles

Recently I was at a all day craft event held at a community center in a mobile home park. Every month the owners wife decorates the room with art she makes with the kids. I love what she did, making these totem poles. She draws the faces and lets the kids color them in.Then she layers paper plates in between them on a rod of PVC.

     

 This would be a great craft to do with kids on a rainy afternoon!

Happy St. Patricks Day Kid Crafts Pin!

I hope you are having a nice St. Patrick's Day! We have friends visiting from Texas this week and to celebrate, we are having a bonfire BBQ at the beach later Tonight. That's one of the perks of living in Southern California, unless it's raining, every day is a "beach" day!
Tomorrow I'll be making the traditional St. Patrick's Day meal for my family- Corned beef, baked carrots, cabbage and Irish soda bread.

Don't you just love these clovers?
I picked them up at Trader Joes last year and re-potted them in the garden!

I love how clever this cake is with the foil wrapped chocolate coins in the center! But boy, that's a lot of black frosting to digest. Don't you agree? I Once used a ton of black frosting to make a "road" for a car themed cake. I think the next time I'll air brush the cake. Seems easier. :)

So how do you like the Shamrock pin Dyllan is holding in the top photo?
I used Green Glitter Chipboard from The Robins Nest.
~
To make this pin, you will need the following...super easy!
Favorite heart punch, - (mine is a scalloped heart by Fiskars)
Circle craft punch (smaller than all the hearts combined) and sturdy paper.
Tacky glue, gold ribbon, pin backings.

Punch 3 hearts per shamrock, use leftover glittered card stock to make the stems.

Punch as many circle backings as needed and add a generous amount of glue to each circle. Place the stem on the circle. Press down for a few seconds. Add a little glue to the stem part on the circle. Place the first heart in the center of the circle so the bottom of the heart touches the bottom of the circle. Then add the other two hearts on each side, pressing firmly each heart for at least ten seconds each. Put aside to set while you work on the other shamrocks.

Going back to your first shamrock, add just a touch of glue to the back of the stem and press down the center of the ribbon for a few seconds. Then flip over and tie a tight bow. Flip over again and add some glue to the center of the circle. Open your pin up and place in the center of the glue. Add a little more glue if desired and spread with a tooth pick or your finger so the glue is even. Put aside to cure completely.

Please visit The Robins Nest for other fun craft idea's!
May the "Luck" of the Irish be with you Today!

Egg Carton Ornaments

This last June, my Mother in law, Susan passed away and I wanted to make something that I knew she would have enjoyed. So I used some vintage glitter she had given me to make these "Egg Carton Ornaments" with Dyllan.

You will need the following:

1. Empty egg carton, I used 18 ct times 2. Don't use the Styrofoam kind or the paints won't stick.
2. Gesso- as a primer (totally optional)
3. Paint color of choice
4. Mod Podge
5. Glitter
6. scissors
7. paint brush
8. table protection
9. containers for paint and mod podge
10. spray glitter - optional
11. spray sealer
12. a bamboo skewer
13. Tin Foil
14. assorted colors tulle
15. sparkly wire trim

Start by trimming away all the egg cartons extra's so you are left with nice bell shapes.


Then mix the gesso with some water so it's not so thick and begin painting the inside and outside of each bell, setting aside to dry as you work.


I had a baby wipe on a plate nearby for Dyllan to help wipe up drips. :)


He had loads of fun painting, can't you tell? :)

To make the bell, I cut 1" strips of tin foil, from the width of the roll. Then I cut 5" pieces of the wire trim.


Working on the non shiny side of the foil, place the end of the trim and fold the foil over.

Bend the wire trim a bit and fold some more foil over that to keep the trim stabilized and unable to easily pull out. Continue wrapping the foil around the end piece with a ball shape starting to form. Be sure to keep the shiny side on the outside.

Keep going till all the foil is used. Use your fingers to mold the foil into a ball shape.


Here are two of the 30 + bell balls I made.

When my gesso bells were dry I gave them a coat of silver paint. These dried fairly quick so I could move on to the glitter part. :)

I coated each of the bells on the outside with Mod Podge. Then I attached a shaker cap to the glitter and generously applied glitter to each bell. I handeled them up as shown to get better glitter coverage and also held them over non glittered pieces so the extra glitter would not go to waste.

I set these in the garage to dry and once done I sprayed them with a sealer. When the sealer had set, I flipped them over and spritzed the inside with some craft glitter spray (from walmart).


Use the bamboo skewer to poke holes in the dry pieces and then thread your bell up through the hole, loop it around your finger and thread it back down through the bell hole. Twist the tail of the wire to the bell trim hiding it inside the bell.

Tie some tulle (I used red, pink, and some greens) on the bell and attach to cookie plates, gifts or decorate your home!

Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoyed my craft!