Black friday Silhouette deals

Last month I made a "31" plaque and a Happy Halloween plaque for halloween.  I wrote about how I made them and the great paint i used.  Check it out.   I loved how they turned out.

Well, I got to thinking how much fun it would be to have one for each holiday. So, when I got some great Silhouette Vinyl in Red and Silver to play with I thought, perfect!   So, I made my Christmas versions of these plaques.  I did a "25" and a "Christmas" plaque.  I put them on a table easel for my two tables and I have great christmas decor items that will go with any Christmas decorations I decide to use this year.

You too can do fun and creative projects like this with a Silhouette machine and some fun vinyl.  In honor of the Black Friday, I have a great deal for you.

Special bundle offers on the Silhouette Cameo machine and the Silhouette Portrait and discounts at Silhouette.com are yours to go along with the spirit of Black Friday!  If case you don't know, they just released a more affordable option called the Silhouette Portrait, it is a smaller version Silhouette Cameo. The black friday deal is $179.99 (suggested retail price is $199.99). The Cameo price with the Designer Edition Software is $229.99 (suggested retail is $349.99). I have to say I love my Cameo and now with the Designer Edition software I can use all my files to create almost anything.

Also, there is 40% off all Silhouette America products!

If you want to take advantage of these great offers, you can go to my "Secret" Silhouette page and get these great discounts.  Check it out here and use the code ANGELA to get the special pricing.

And just so you know... I plan on making a "14", "17" and a "4th" and possibly a "give thanks" and something about Easter.

Christmas Gift for Teachers

Last year I posted 12 Days of Christmas for Teachers.  I am getting so many emails requesting the files for this gift tags that I am posting a link here to download the tags.

Sheet One

Sheet Two

Keep an eye out for:

the 4th day, there is a blank spot for the grade and day 11, there is a blank spot for the name of the school.

Enjoy!

Halloween Costumes Deconstructed

Like I stated earlier, I made most of the halloween costumes this year.  And I did it thanks to some great tutorials, ideas from others and a lot of looking at these pictures.  So, I thought I would share the knowledge I gained from this endeavor with all of you.

The Mario costume was pretty easy.  I bought the overalls, red shirt and hat on ebay.  The gloves I bought online at Amazon.  The mustache I got at Party City.  The buttons are yellow felt.  I cut out 2 circles and cut a slit in one of them and glued them together around the edges and the buttoned them onto the overalls. Pretty easy, right?

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This costume came to be because i found this awesome tutorial.  I am so glad she had this tutorial for me to follow.  Again, another simple costume.  It required simple sewing, felt and clothes I already had.


I cheated on this costume. I found it on ebay and got it for $10.  How wonderful is that.  I also for the blue earrings on ebay (they were a perfect match).  And I got the long gloves on ebay too.  Can you tell ebay is my go to place for halloween.  For the crown, I bought a sheet of gold glittery (thick foam) paper at Joanns.  I found a crown template online and traced and cut it out.  (I cut two pieces of gold and glued them together, so the gold showed up on inside and outside of the crown).  Then I glued gems on the front.  I hole punched to holes in the back and tied the crown together with ribbon. I also punched to holes along the bottom of the crown and thread a thin plastic headband through both holes. (I hope that makes sense :-)

Princess Daisy was the most difficult of the costumes.  I bought a simple yellow dress on ebay and then added a hem of shiny orange fabric to the bottom.  I made and attached the bustles (totally made that up).  Made the scalloped neckline and sleeves out of white felt. and added the gem pendant with felt and a gem and glued it on to the front.  I bought the gloves and white flower earring on ebay.  And made the crown just like Princess Peach.

This costume was a bit tricky too.  I bought a sombrero on ebay and stuffed it with bubble wrap. I tape it in place with packing tape.  then I covered the whole thing with white felt and glue gunned it to the sombrero inside opening for the head.  (it wasn't particularly pretty inside the head opening).  Then I glue gunned red circles around the white felt.  I also made up the vest.  I traced a vest I already had and pieced it together to make a vest and sewed a gold trim to the best.  Then I wore and white shirt and pants and brown shoes.

Luigi's costume was basically the same as Mario's.  I got all the pieces just like Mario...most of it on ebay.  

And there you have it.... our costumes and how they came to be.

A Mario Brothers Halloween

We had a great time this weekend wearing our family costume to our church's halloween party. This is the first year, we have dressed up as a family.  In fact, it is the first year I have dressed up in the last 15 years. It all started with Jake wanting to be Mario.  He knew what he wanted to be and there was no changing his mind.  Then the girls jumped on and wanted to be Princess Peach (Hannah) and Princess Daisy (Ella).   Then Jake said Dad would be Luigi.  Well, I decided to join in and be Toad.  Graham was supposed to be Yoshi, but I found a tutorial for a Goomba and decided that was the perfect costume for little Graham.   So, that is how the family costume came to be.... it all started with Jake! I made all the costumes except Hannah's (I got hers off of ebay for $10, can't beat that!). And I didn't make the boys hats (got those for $5 on ebay).   I wasn't sure how I was going to do some of costumes, but they all worked out better than I could have imagined, especially since I made a lot of it up as I went along. My neighbor has a photography studio in her garage, so I asked if we could have her take some photos of us.   I wanted a plain white background for the photos because i knew it would show off the colors and fun-ness of the costumes so well.   I just love how the pictures turned out and might have to do this every year! So, there you go. This year's halloween costumes.  We went all out this year as a family and the kids loved every bit of it.   And so did Chris and I.

Halloween Misc. Stuff

Lots of things going on for Halloween.  Here are a few things I have been up to getting ready for the festivities.  Here is the flyer I designed for our ward halloween party.  It was a great night/party.   The kids had a blast with the pony ride and the bounce house and of course the gobs of candy from the trunk or treat.

I was asked to do the posters for the halloween party too.  So, here is a poster I made up for the party.  Simple, but fun right?  Silver glittery bats with google-y eyes.

This is what my couch looks like.  It has all the goodies, costumes and anything else Halloween-related on it.  It is my prepping area.  Can you tell what we are going to be for a halloween?

The girls had silly sock day.  So, we combined it with some cute halloween outfits to get in the spirit of the holiday.  The girls loved their silly socks, their hair bows and their shirts.  And I we decided to call it Silly Hair day too (for Ella).

Craft Night - Last One

I realized that I should have taken more pictures that night.  Pictures of the girls, their crafts, the fun of it all.  But for some reason I forgot.  I think it was because I was the instructor for all the crafts, so there wasn't much time for photography.  So, here is what I did capture.  It isn't much, but it is something.

I just might do this again sometime next year :-)

Craft Night Details

Here are the details and the information I provided the neighborhood girls about the craft night.  They were directed to a "secret" spot on my blog to view all the details about the craft projects and the night. Here is what they saw...  I also included the instructions and crafting 411, in case you were interested.



Hi Ladies,

I hope you are able to come to the first annual neighborhood Craftopolooza. It is going to be Friday night October 19th from 7:00 pm until whenever you want (although I might kick you out at midnight).

We will be doing three craft projects. You can do all three or one or two. It is completely up to you. Here are the projects to choose from.

Craft Project #1 - Girls Jumbo Beaded Bracelets


Price $10 for 3 bracelets.

We will be making a halloween-colored bracelet, a christmas-colored bracelet and then you can choose between a valentine-colored bracelet or a WOODS-colored bracelet.

I will provide all of the supplies, you just need to let me know if you want a Woods bracelet or a valentine bracelet.

The CRAFTING 411:
I got my beads from ebay.  I searched using "18mm acrylic round beads".  or you could search 14mm or 16mm for more selection.  Most beads come from China, so you need to give 2-3 week delivery window.

You can also look at these two sites.
pandahall.com
white mountain gems and beads

Here are the instructions I made for the party.

A FEW MORE SPECIFICS:   The string is elastic I bought at Joanns.  I used 9 beads for my 5 year old and 10 beads for my 8 year old.  I used a coordinating ribbon and tied the bow around the knot.  And to keep the ribbon from fraying, I used a lighter to burn the edges (just ever so slightly).

Some of my beads didn't come in time, so I just let the girls make up whatever color bracelets they wanted to.  We didn't stick to the holiday colors.  I gave them free reign :-)

Craft Project #2 - Tabletop Framed Chalkboard


Price $18 for a 8X10 frame

I will provide the paint and frames and chalkboard paint. We will be painting them in an old white color and I will have stuff available to antique them if you want.

THE CRAFTING 411
I bought the frames from Cut it Out Already.  These frames are awesome and for half the cost.  The frames come with a cardboard backing.  So, you will need to go to Lowes and have some thin wood sheets cut for the frames in the size of the opening.

I used Annie Sloane Chalk Paint.  Here is a post all about this great paint.  I bought Old White and Graphite for the chalkboard.

Here are the instructions I made for the party.

The backing of the frame is the wood you purchased at Lowes.  The Dark Wax is from Annie Sloan.  You don't have to antique the frame if you don't want to.  I gave it as a choice for the girls to do.  And again, painting the frame with the clear wax isn't necessary.  We actually didn't do it.  

Craft Project #3 - Holiday Wreath



PRICE $12 (not including fabric or felt)

There are two choices for wreaths. They both will require you purchasing the fabric or felt before the craft night. The fabric wreath is a very simple and quick wreath to make. The felt wreath will require a lot more time. It is still very easy, just more time consuming.

Fabric Wreath - bring one yard of whatever fabric you want to use. It would be best to use a thinner fabric (not something too heavy, like twill or corduroy). HINT: A light airy fabric will make it look similar to the picture, but it would look good with a nice cotton fabric too.

Felt Wreath - one yard of heavy weight felt. Definitely use a heavier-weight felt. It's more expensive, but well worth it. I found mine at Joanne's for $6.99 a yard. The lightweight felt will require you to use more, which means you'll need to cut and cut and cut more circles. The heavyweight felt also gives the wreath a more quality look.

For the felt wreath you probably won't finish it all that night, so you can either start it at the craft night (and finish it at a later time) or pre-cut your felt circles before the craft night, so you can assemble and finish your wreath that night. If you are interested in pre-cutting and having everything ready to complete that night, let me know and I will tell you what to do. it is super easy, just cutting is involved (like a 150 circles, so you know what you are getting yourself into :-).

I will have the wreaths, pins,  etc. You just bring the fabric or felt.

The Crafting 411

I bought the 14 inch wreaths at Hobby Lobby.   Buy the Extruded wreaths, the pins stick in them better.   And then I bought #17 stick pins.  they are a bit longer, so they stick into the wreath further.

Here are the instructions for both wreaths.

For the ruffle wreath, here is a link to show you a bit more of how to assemble it.

I didn't use a glue gun, we just used the pins to stick in the fabric.  And I didn't tell the girls to bring ribbon for hanging, so it might be nice to tell the girls to buy some ribbon while they are already at the fabric store.

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What would be a gathering without food. It would be great if everyone could bring an appetizer or dessert to share with the group to keep our energy levels up while we craft through the night.

So, I think that is it. If you are interested in coming to CRAFTOPOLOOZA, please RSVP as soon as you can (or by Sept 30th at the latest) with which projects you want to do, so I can gather up the supplies and be ready for the big night. And if you can make it, please let me know the following:

1) what projects you want to do
2) if you want a WOODs or Valentine's bracelet
3) which wreath you want to do (so I can get the right wreath for your project).

Hope you all can make it... it will be a fun night of crafts, friends, talking and eating. Not a bad way to spend a friday night!

THERE YOU GO.  A FUN CRAFT NIGHT WITH FRIENDS. I WILL POST A FEW MORE PICTURES OF THE NIGHT IN A FEW DAYS.

HERE IS A LINK TO THE INVITATIONS FOR THE NIGHT.

Craft Night

My neighborhood is awesome.  There are so many fun families.  All the ladies, used to get together about once a quarter for some kind of party... mostly as an excuse to sit and talk and eat.  Well, for some reason, those gatherings have stopped.  I think life just gets too busy.  But one of my neighbor friends asked me a year ago to throw a craft night at my house.  Well, I was about a month away from having a baby, so I politely told her "heck no!"  But maybe in a year of so :-)

Well, it had been a year and I thought to myself, that was a good idea, so maybe I should do it.  We haven't really gotten together in awhile, so maybe I should start it up again.  And that is what I did.

I invited all the ladies on my street (and a few others from around the corner) and we had CRAFTAPOOLOZA!  That is what I called the craft night.

I started by designing a "Craftapooloza" logo for the night.

Here are the invitations I made.  I used some cute chevron bags and put a cute tissue paper flower on the front.  (Here is a tutorial for the flowers, so cute and easy).

Then I designed the invite to go inside and punched a hole and strung ribbon at the top (so they could pull out the invite easily).

So, darn cute, huh!  I was in love with how they turned out.

The gist of the night: I provided 4 crafts (originally I was going 3, but I added another craft at the last minute) for the girls to choose from.  They could do all 4 or just do 1 or 2 or 3 crafts.  I would provide the supplies and my house and instructions.  They came with food, money (to pay for the supplies) and ready to craft the night away.

It was so much fun.  Everyone crafted until midnight and then I had to kick them out :-)

Crafts and photos coming soon!

Soccer Season

It is soccer season and we have been all about soccer these last 2 months.  With three kids in soccer, we have 4 practices a week and 3 games on Saturdays.  It has been busy, but a lot of fun.  

Ella - she loves it and is doing a pretty good job.  She loves that her friend Elle is on her team.  And she loves even more that her dad is her coach.  Last week, she got a goal "all by herself" and was so excited.  It is fun to cheer these little kids on.

Jake - he had a much slower warming up period to soccer.  He cried a lot the first two games.  He would cry when the ball was "stolen" from him and whenever he fell.  It was rough.  But each game got better and now he runs and plays and loves it.  He usually falls behind the other players when running and doesn't always have his eyes on the ball, but he runs and runs and is happy, so that is good enough for us!

Hannah - I am still waiting to get pictures of her.  Her season goes much longer, so I wanted to wait until it wasn't 100 degrees during her game.  So, pictures of her are coming soon.

Jack O'Lantern Seeds

Each year this is what I give out to the kid's friends/soccer teams.   Here are this year's jack o'lantern seeds.

The crazy thing is that i probably get 3 emails a day asking for these tags.  The last time I tried to share the labels on my blog, it didn't work.

So, I am trying it again.  Here is a link to GoogleDocs, where you should be able to download the sheet of labels.  And then just print it onto an 8 1/2 X 11 full sheet of label paper (avery or a generic brand).  Then cut them and stick them on tic tacs... it is simple as that.

If this doesn't work, let me know and I will email you the file.  

And in case you are interested, I found another blog that made cute labels and expanded the tic tacs to include more fun halloween treats .... so, I thought I would pass these on to you... click here to see the lables.

Upcoming Halloween

I am have been busy working on halloween costumes.  For the first time ever, we are dressing up as a family.  We have theme for our costumes.  Most of which i have had to make up and figure out on my own.  Luckily there are a lot of good tips and help on the web.

Here is a hint of just one of the costumes.  It started with a yellow dress I got on ebay and I added everything else... not too shabby, for making it all up.

I have one more costume to go (mine) and I will be all done and ready for halloween.  Can't wait, this should be fun.  I hope people know what we are... anyone have a guess?

FIrst Day of School

I can't believe I forgot to post my kid's "first day school" photos.  I was downloading some photos from my camera and these were there.  Oops, how did I miss these?  A big year for me.  Three kids in some form of school.  All of them are loving school and their teachers, so this school year is looking pretty good!  (Now that we are almost two months in :-)

Graham at 9 months

I keep meaning to write a lot of stuff down about Graham before I forget. So, here I go... i hope I don't forget anything.

1) His favorite song is "Here's a ball for baby". Any time we sing it he has a huge smile on his face. Until the second verse. He doesn't love the second verse as much as the first. I even used this song to help wean him to a bottle. It totally worked. He was all upset and mad when I tried to feed him a bottle and then I sang this song and he calmed down and started to suck. Love this song!

2) He is crawling and has been for a month now. He has the funniest crawl. He crawls with one leg tucked underneath him bottom. He uses one leg to crawl and drags his "lame leg' under his bottom. I call it his "lame leg" (he doesn't really have one), but he crawls like he has one. It is so funny and totally makes me laugh.

3) He loves his dad's voice. Every time he hears his dad he looks for him and when he finds him, he smiles like crazy. Each night when I take him up to bed, Chris says "good night Graham" and Graham strains to find him and then smiles his big, big smile.

4) He walks uses furniture every chance he gets. He loves to pull himself up onto anything and walk around the couch, from chair to chair, really anything that is sturdy enough for him. I predict he will walk by 10 months, we shall see!

5) He got 5 teeth in one month. Between month 8 and 9. He got 2 teeth on top and 3 teeth on the bottom. He is a teething machine. So much drool.

6) He finally started sleeping through the night at 8 1/2 months. The longest it has taken any of my kids (by about 5 months). It is glorious!!! I don't know what it was (Formula, crying it out for the 5th time, age, etc).. but whatever it was, I am so happy!

7) When he is a strange place or with strangers, he cuddles with me.  I love it.  He just wants to be close to me for comfort and security.  And isn't the my job :-)  It is so sweet and I will take it any day.

8) He is a big baby.  And I get it everywhere I go.  But the crazy thing is he is only 21 pounds and like 75% for weight.  But you wouldn't guess it by looking at him.  Super chubby face and thighs.  He is definitely a chunky-monkey!

9) When Graham is mad, he now puts his head back, face in the air and scrunches his face, closes his eyes and makes noises that are definitely mad.  He does it whenever he isn't happy about something.  It is so funny, I just laugh at him, even though I know he is mad.

Spider Topiary

I wanted to show a close up of my spider topiary.  I love it.  It is spooky and fun all at the same time.  It still kind of gives me the creeps each time I look at it.  A super easy project.  For those that care and didn't read my other post.. here are the details.

I got a 7" inch ball of styrofoam.   That size matched my pot pretty well.  I painted it black and I painted a wooden dowel black too.  When it was all dry, I stuck the dowel into the ball and into styrofoam I placed into the bottom of my pot.  I used about 200 black spider rings.  I cute each on in half at the ring, so I could just stick them into the styrofoam.  I tried to do them as close together as I could.  To finish it off, I tied a ribbon around the bottom of the ball and used webbing to cover the pot.  And I got that big, glittery spider to put on the webbing to finish it off.

Enjoy!

Halloween Decor

Last year, i was so big and pregnant that I didn't decorate for halloween.  But not this year :-)  I decided to get the decorations out and add a few more items that I have seen on pinterest.  So, here is my entry table and dining room table.  I love how they turned out.  So, fun and festive.

Some of the new projects are the "31" and "halloween" plaques.  I got the idea of "31" from this blog.  And then I added the 'halloween" to make a set.  The great thing about these plaques is that they are made from cabinet doors.  And I didn't have to do any priming, sanding or prep work.  I used this AWESOME paint.  It is the greatest thing.  For a girl like me, who just wants to get going on a project and get it done (I don't like to prep work), this paint is heavenly. It dries super quick, great colors and easy, easy, easy!   It is called Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Check it out... i will change your "creative" life.

Also, I made the little white garland out of strips of white fabric and just tied it onto a ribbon and added some festive tied ribbon all throughout to add some color.  So, easy and I love how it looks.  

Lastly, I made a spider topiary.    I used spider rings and stuck them onto a black painted Styrofoam ball (i cut the rings so they could poke into the styrofoam).  I used a 7" ball and it took about 200 spider rings.  Again, love it and saw something similar on pinterest and thought... I am going to do that.

The pumpkins are project I did last year. .... here is the link.

Lastly, I put out framed pictures of my kids throughout the years.  I add a few each year.  I love putting them out and see how cute my kids are and how much they are growing up.  They love to see the pictures each year too.  Eventually my whole house my be full of frame pictures each year.

There you go... my halloween decorations.  I would love to have something similar to this for each holiday.  We will see if that every happens. :-)

A little fun

I haven't posted pictures of our day to day for awhile.  So, here is a little catch up.  

A few Saturdays ago, Chris got the girls up bright and early to go watch our hot air balloon launch for our cities annual event.  They had a blast.   They chased the balloons to the field where they landed.  The loved seeing the "fire" in the balloons.

Last week, we had our school's jog-a-thon.  I usually don't love this day.  We don't raise money for it because I don't want to pester my neighbors and it is all super hot.  But this year, they did it in the morning and it was so much fun.

We all went to cheer the girls on and they did such a great job running.  It was fun to be there and be with them and have so much fun with everyone.

Dinner Party

We had a dinner party at our house last month.  I put together a few little party details to go with the theme of the night.  We had a burger bar (since it was still summer weather and used the grill).  Some of the details of the dinner were:

• brown lunch bags cut with scalloped scissors wrapped with some ribbon and the logo of the night.
• brown butcher paper that I wrote on labeling all the different toppings.
• I used mason jars to hold the napkin and utensils.  I wrapped it with ribbon and used the logo of the night.  We used the mason jars for root beer floats for the dessert.
• I created some "burgers" with topping ideas and hung them from the ceiling (to help people create a burger... in case they need some help).
• I used "old-fashion" drive in food baskets for the toppings.

It was a super fun night and to end it, we played a white elephant game.  Everyone brought a white elephant gift.  We had a 30 minute time limit.  Each person rolled dice and any time someone rolled a double they got to pick a gift or steal a gift.  We just played until time ran out.  

The most wanted gifts were a wooden strategy puzzle kit, root beers with mustache tags and singing key chain and picnic basket for 2.  

The funniest gifts were spam and bacon soap and a "fancy" fake corsage from a sister's wedding.  It was hilarious.

Chair re-do again

I don't know what took me so long to jump on the laminated cotton bandwagon. But man, am I glad I finally got on. These are our kitchen table chairs. When we first got them, they were very nice and elegant. But after about two meals with the kiddos, they quickly went from nice and elegant to just plain gross.

So, about a month before I had my third child. I decided I needed to cover the chairs and so I got sewing. I made chair covers for all six chairs. I made it all up as I went and even used piping to make them look nice and "store-bought". I was up against the clock (due date) and I was sewing machine. I got it done and vowed never to do it again. Well, three years later, the chairs covers I slaved over were "just plain gross". But I was not about to sew more of them!

Enter laminated cotton. I found laminate cotton on Pinterest of course and decided that was the way to go. So many cute patterns of fabric and all I had to do was pick my favorite. So, I did (I think) and after some cutting, a lot of staples and a staple gun... I have chair covers that are cute and should last for a while (or until I get tired of the print). I love them.  All you have to do is wipe up the mess with a wet cloth or sponge and you are all set.  I wish I had done this years ago.

SIDE NOTE: I usually go for plain and simple styles, so I was going to go with a simple striped fabric pattern, something classic that would go with anything. But I decided to fight that urge and go for a little color. So, I went against everything in me and picked out this pattern. I am not sure if I love it, but it is playful and fun and adds a little more character to the kitchen table... so BRAVO me for trying something new.... right?

Beads Bracelet Crafts

I saw something like this on pinterest and thought it would be fun to make with my girls. And guess what? It was. Ella loved helping me make the bracelets and putting together the patterns. I made all these bracelets in about an hour. I am not sure the girls will wear them, but regardless they are so fun and cute, i figure some day they will.

and if you are wondering where I got the beads. I got them on ebay. There are websites that sell them in bigger bulk and (maybe) slightly cheaper, but I liked my choices on ebay and the price seemed reasonably, so I went with ebay for my first go-at-it.

Last Day in England

Here is what we did on our last day in the UK. It was a jammed packed trip and way to short... but a lot of fun and definitely worth the trip. Graham even did very well considering he was dealing with jetlag and in his carseat a lot. It was wonderful to spend one-on-one time with Chris' parents and see the beautiful country of Great Britain. We will be back again someday!