Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Colored Glue Volcano

Because of the site Bath Activities for Kids, along with Growing a Jeweled Rose, I am starting an attempt at embracing "messy play". I have the hardest time allowing the kids to make messes or do anything messy. I buy all of the stuff needed to do these activities, but then I chicken out when it comes to the actual doing.

Crystal and a few others are encouraging "messy play" and even offering easy to clean ways to encourage messy play!!! These are my absolute favorite. All kids like to get messy, so why not let them do it when, where, and how you want them to?

I chose her Erupting Paint Recipe for our first one. My children were bored, and I was desperate! Of course, I am also impatient so we didn't actually use it as paint, but we still had fun and made a contained mess (my favorite)!

So, because of my impatience, I used the following:

*bowls (my daughter's kid chef ones)
*cookie sheets (with high edges around them -- I almost used cake pans)
*glue that I had already colored with marker "guts" (you know those sticks from inside the markers)
*baking soda (from the already opened box that had been sitting in my fridge for no telling how long)
*and apple cider vinegar (cause it was the only vinegar I had on hand)

When my daughter saw me grab these items, she began to get all excited.

"What are we making mom?"
I didn't answer, but I asked her to get 2 cookie sheets.
"Oh, yes! We are making cookies!"
I told her: "No, dear, we aren't making cookies. [LONG DRAMATIC PAUSE HERE] We are going to make a mess."

You should have seen their faces! This was extremely new to them. I have NEVER encouraged them to make a mess. They were also very timid at first, double and triple checking that I was sure they could do this. Poor babies.

I didn't actually make the paint part. I let them mix the glue and baking soda. Then, I poured the vinegar and let them play in it with spoons and plastic Easter eggs. (Of course, I left a warning that if we wanted to more of this we couldn't get it outside of the cookie sheets. -- I really tried to let them be messy, but I couldn't go that far.)

Here are my munchkins playing with their colored glue volcanos!

 
 
 
 
I was surprised at how well they kept their "messes" on the cookie sheets!
It was definitely a contained mess.
 
Yes, my kids dress themselves and no, I don't care if they match or not. ;)
 
 
Let me know which messy play and experiments y'all have tried and how they turned out?
 

Football Baby Blanket

We are HUGE football fans. My husband played in High School and College and I wanted to play (but wasn't allowed). Now we both settle for watching the Louisiana teams and cheering for our favorites...the NEW ORLEANS SAINTS, the NSU DEMONS, and the LSU TIGERS.
Here in Illinois, we have a nice little group of people from Louisiana and we get together with them often during Football Season. I decided to make my youngest this blanket and surprise some of our friends with a blanket for their little guy.

I am also adding my own tutorial for the blanket. I hope if you're a football fan like me, you'll enjoy making it as much as I did!

Choose your fabrics wisely. You don't want to make a blanket for a team you don't like rooting for. I've chosen minky brown for one side and an LSU cotton for the other.

You will need:
1 yard of minky or another soft fabric
1 yard Team fabric (can be a heavier fabric than cotton if desired)
1/4 yard of white fleece or another fabric that won't fray
White thread
Brown thread

First, wash your fabrics. You don't want them to shrink on you later.
Next, take your brown fabric and fold it in half. Then in half again.
Cut the fabric in a oval fashion (as if you were going to cut 1/4th of the oval). When you open up the fabric it will make the football shape.
Fold the fabric back up. Fold your other fabric in the same manner. Place brown fabric on top of other fabric with folded edges meeting. Use this as your template to cut the fabric.
Unfold fabrics.
Cut white fabric into laces for the football.
Place on brown fabric and sew down.
Turn brown fabric face down on top of other fabric.
Sew along edges. leave a 6in opening so you can turn the blanket right side out.
'Finish' blanket by sewing edge closed and sewing along edge of the rest of the blanket. This will give it a finished look and close the gap in the fabric.

The tutorial I used for this blanket can be found here: http://thrivinghomeblog.com/2012/01/football-blanket-tutorial/

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Burlap Wreath

I've tried to be very crafty lately and wanted to surprise my husband when he got home after a trip. I also wanted to make my home a little more inviting. I found many different wreaths that looked cute and easy to make but I decided, like I usually do, to take the ones I liked and make them my own.
Here is my finished product.

I love how the yellow flowers pop and how the stark white Fleur De Lis looks.
I didn't get all the pictures I wanted during the process because my phone died. 
I'll post the ones I did get.

What you will need:
2 burlap rolls - brown - approx. 10yards
1 roll colored burlap (I couldn't find any rolls so I bought 1 yard of yellow burlap)
green metal wreath (mine is about 18 inches)
Ribbon or patterned burlap (mine is a Damask Canvas ribbon)
Fleur De Lis wodden icon - 12"
1 pkg pipe cleaners to match burlap color
scissors
Hot Glue & gun
paint (acrylic paint of your color choice)
paint brush
not pictured: hot glue sticks/gun, scissors, paint, & paintbrush

First!!!
Paint Fleur De Lis and allow to dry


Wreath making:

First I cut a bunch of the pipe cleaners in half. 

Next you take one of the rolls of burlap and secure an edge to a crossbar at the top of the wreath.
Then you take the burlap from the back of the wreath and pull about 6 inches through. 
Do this through all 3 openings in the wreath form. 
I went from left to right and once I was at the bottom I went middle, top, middle bottom. 
Each time you get to a cross bar, attach the section with a piece of pipe cleaner.

Once you have gone all the way around. Fluff and adjust your sections to make them nice and full.
Now, take the ribbon and from the front of the wreath, find a starting point 
and attach it to a piece of the wire form with your pipe cleaners.
Move the ribbon around the wreath attaching at intervals to your liking.
(My ribbon was only 3 yards and did not make it all the way around the wreath.
 I used this section to place my Fleur De Lis.)


For the flowers:

First you need to take and cut your burlap into strips. As you can see I couldn't find a tape measurer so I used a large candy bar I had in my office as the guide. It is about 3 inches wide.

For the small flowers I cut the burlap in half (making it go from about 36 inches in length to 18)
For bigger flowers leave burlap longer.
Now for the hard part. Fold burlap lengthwise. Take one edge of it and place a small amout of hot glue.


 Roll this up tight so that the end stays together. Continue to roll two or three more times.
It should look like this: 


 Now, you  should continue to move the fabric around the bud/center you just made. But instead of pulling it tight around the middle, let it be looser and gather it together around the bottom. 
I glued as I went so it stayed together.


Continue to wrap and glue.


 Once you get to the end of the burlap, glue the end down so the rough edges aren't showing
Then you will flip your flower over, trim excess strings, and glue the bottom together.


And here is your finished flower!


 For larger flowers, only fold the top of the burlap down about 1/4 of the way. 
(or you could cut your strips larger)


Here is what my flowers all look like close up on the wreath.


Once you have all your flowers made and you find the placement you like on the wreath,
use your hot glue to glue them into place.

Next step is to flip the Fleur De Lis over and to hot glue 3 full length pieces of pipe cleaner onto it.
One near the top, one in the middle, and one near the bottom.
Make sure to only glue about an inch to an inch and a half to the decal.
After the glue is dry and hardened, use the pipe cleaners to attach it to the wreath.

Now, you're all done and can display it beautifully on your front door!

Good Luck and Happy Crafting!

~Amanda Storrs~

For more tips/tricks, here are the sites I used as my tutorials:
Wreath Ideas:
here is the one I used
This one may be easier but I'm not sure
Flowers:


Monday, April 14, 2014

You've been EGGED!!!

Well, this is my first official post. I usually type up the post and e-mail it to Beckie.

So, on Pinterest (which I'm a HUGE fan of), I found a post that said:

You've been EGGED!

It was super cute so, I had to make my own. My family was going to 'egg' people's houses today but, alas Mother Nature decided to throw another fit and make it cold and rainy. As soon as we get some houses 'egged' I'll post the pictures.

Back to the pin...I thought it was a super cute idea to 'egg' people's houses during the Easter season and to remind them that Christ is the reason for this season also.

Fab N' Free is where the Pinterest link brought me. I really liked the idea, but decided to make my own sign.

 
Click the image for the jpg or get the pdf HERE.

What you need to do to 'EGG' someone is take 12 plastic Easter eggs, put candy or a trinket in 11 of them. Keep the 12th empty. Hide them in someone's yard and tape the sign on their door. The 12th egg is empty in order to remind us that Christ's tomb was empty and that He is Risen!

I hope y'all take some time as a family and go 'EGG' some friends or neighbors.

Happy Easter!

~Amanda Storrs


Added 4/15/14:

Here's one of the houses we "Egged"!!



See the hidden eggs? It's still so cold up here that there are no bushes to hide them in, just the bare skeletons of them.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Modesty

Modesty is such an overlooked and misused term. Being modest doesn't mean you are prude or you can't dress attractively. In my opinion, modesty means you are more attractive. No one wants to see all your goodies hanging out. Those that do want to see that -- definitely aren't the guys / people that I want to be around. Don't tease, taunt, or make it any harder than it already is on our men striving to go on missions, having returned from a mission, or married to someone else. Protect yourself, your spirit, and your virtues. Save your "stuff" for your husband, behind closed doors.

Now, off of my soap box to show you one of my favorite quotes on modesty.


Thanks!


Monday, April 7, 2014

April 2014 Visiting Teaching Handout

Here is the belated, but still early in the month visiting teaching handout!


I had fun making this one and I really hope ya'll enjoy it! Let me know.