Final Creation

I finally finished a project that was started a while ago. Check out the beginning of my project here and this is what it turned out to be. The flowers started off at the Dollar Tree, it was a little girl's cheerleading outfit.

The bag is from Michaels or AC Moore or Joann Fabrics (can't remember!) clearance section. Don't remember how much I paid for it, but I'm sure it wasn't much. I love the clearance section. It was a pack of 3 bags, one with green handles, one with pink handles and one with blue handles. They measure about 10 by 14 inches.

Taaa Daaaa!!!!! The final product.

Not sure if I LOVE it, but it is kinda cute. I thought the green bag handles would match the green flowers (yes, there are green and blue flowers!) but can't really tell which is which.

This will work for shopping anyway.

Thanks for looking.
Cathy

Quote for the Day

I would love to change the world, but they won't give me the source code.

~ Unknown

VERY Early Christmas Ornament Idea

Sorry that I keep sharing everyone else's ideas, but I can't help it!!! They are so darn cute! I love this idea for a Christmas ornament. How stinkin' cute is this idea?!?!?

It seems very easy to make too. Check out the easy step by step directions here, Muffin Tin Mom. Thanks to Michelle for sharing this awesome idea.

My idea is to make a bunch of these ornaments, but mail them out FLAT. In the Christmas card send directions on how to make them and add to a Christmas tree! I'll keep you updated on that idea!
Thanks for looking.
Cathy

Another YUMMY Valentine Snack

Saw this idea and my mouth watered!! Thanks to Kim at It's a Crafty Life for sharing this idea for easy Valentine's Day Smores!! She has the ingredients and directions (along with some great pictures to go along with it) on the link.


I know my kids and husband would love to dive into this snack. I might be creating this over the weekend!!!

I think I have too much time on my hands because of all the blog surfing I do! Love finding new ideas to tryout and share with others. Hope you try this out, and Thanks for looking.

Cathy

Valentines Day Cupcakes

While out looking for some cute Valentine's Day ideas I came across this SUPER cute idea for cupcakes. Thanks to Alison at Alison's Wonder Scraporium for sharing this, I love it! She has a great recipe for strawberry Laffy Taffy bttercream icing there too.


The recipe looks pretty easy, I might try it with just a box cake mix first then see how that works before trying a cake mix from scratch. I'm NOT a baker, just like to try new ideas.

This is such a great idea that it could be used for any Holiday - St Patrick's day shamrock, Halloween pumpkin, or for a birthday - any thing that has a little cookie cutter!

Thanks for looking and good luck trying this out.

Cathy

Chocolate Roses

Saw this great idea from a Mom of 6!!! She shows how to make some very creative chocolate roses. Check out this video with some awesome directions for flowers for cakes. She makes it seem so easy! I haven't tried it, but maybe for my next cake! Thanks Dawn for sharing your ideas with everyone!

Quote for the Day

"Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night."

-- Charles M. Schulz

Flowers from Dollar Store Item

I saw this very cute idea for flowers made from material. Since it was my first time making these cute things, didn't want to spend too much $$$$ on the trial run. Was walking around the Dollar Tree the other day and tried to find some very synthetic clothes, or material. Much to my surprise I found this little girl's play cheerleading outfit. It is exactly what I had in mind!! Bought 2 - one blue and one green. The technique used is shown here - Thanks to Erin Bassett.
Each flower has 4 or 5 circles, then burned the edges of each one. Used a different button in the center of each, don't really like the blue thread - I thought it would "match" more but not so much!!
Final projects -




I like them!!
Thanks for looking,
Cathy

Football Table for Hubby

This year for Christmas I thought it would be cute to make a Virginia Tech football table for my husband and son. In my mind they would play with those paper footballs (you know the ones from elementary school!) and have little competitions. So I found this perfect folding table in Wal-Mart.

Started by painting the "grass" around the field.

Next I painted the inner field part maroon. This was fairly easy using painters tape to set up the lines. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the part with the tape attached.

The lines were next. I measured 1.5 inches for each 10 yards. I used a white paint pen (found it in Michael's by accident while looking for some other "stuff") that made adding the lines easy. Unfortunately I made a couple mistakes and had to go over the lines again with maroon paint then the white a second time. The orange goal areas were the last painting part. Again I used the painters tape to set off the parts I wanted to paint then spray painted the areas. I like the way the orange and maroon paints looked IRL. Kinda shiny, but you can't tell in these pictures.

Then I used stamps to add the line numbers. The VT in the middle is a stickers I swiped from my husband's office. Don't think he even noticed! And, it fits perfectly here.

Some final embellishments were added just for fun and TAAAA DAAAA......

The final project!! He was pretty surprised when he saw it finally done! I forgot to make some paper footballs to go along with it, but that is OK because he used it to have breakfast on it Christmas morning! GO HOKIES!!

Happy New Year to everyone!
Thanks for looking.

Cathy

Teacher Christmas Gifts

This year I saw an awesome idea for candy cane candle sticks. Thanks to The Mother Huddle I found my gifts for this year! I loved it and thought my kids' teachers would also love them! So darn easy to make too! Used my hot glue gun and some ribbon to make it look cute. The candles were 10 inches tall.

Made a couple with red candles, and a couple with white candles. Each teacher received 2 candles. They were a big hit with everyone, including the ladies in the office! They really admired them when I walked in the school.

This was the whole batch. I found it was pretty difficult to make the candles stand evenly. Some of the candy canes aren't exactly the same length! As you can see from the picture a couple were uneven! OOPS! But that is how you know they are homemade with LOVE of course! No one complained. Each one took 10 canes.

I even tried to make a candy cane holder with a 3 inch pillar candle. This was pretty cute! So, of course I had to keep it for myself!! Very cute and easy to make. This one took 30 candles, love it!

My second batch of homemade gifts included hot chocolate stirrers. My daughter and I dipped marshmallows in melted white chocolate and sprinkled with crushed candy canes (I had enough of them left over!).

Finally, we dipped Christmas tree shaped pretzels in melted white chocolate and also sprinkled them with crushed candy canes. YUMMY!

This basket held the sweet treats.

Very cute!

Happy Holidays and a very happy healthy New Year!

Cathy

Dollar Tree Stocking Reusable Shopping Bag

On one of my latest trips to the Dollar Tree, I found this awesome oversized stocking. Loved it immediately, and knew exactly what I was going to create with it! This was the original size, forgot to measure it before starting the project but this shows that it is longer than the "average" stocking.
I wanted to create a reusable shopping bag with this! At first I wasn't positive HOW it was going to be done, but I knew there was a WAY of doing it!

I found this FREE shopping bag in my car and knew it would be perfect for my stocking project.

As you can see it fit perfectly in the stocking. It made the bag stronger and I wouldn't have to create a way to add handles.

Next I just folded over the top to see how much it needed to be shortened before stuffing in the bag. At this point I haven't used a sewing machine (of course I don't own one yet - asked Santa for one though. Keeping my fingers crossed!) just a hot glue gun. So after folding over the top and making the bag a little shorter I hot glued the top part over (The remote control is there to give a little perspective on the size, guess it doesn't really need to be there!).

Folding top back up.

This is a close up of the folded over top. You can't even see where the hot glue went! Love it!!
The project is getting there......

Finally I added the red shopping bag and hot glued that in place. At this point I wanted to make sure nothing fell between the stocking and shopping bag so I did hand stitch the top of the bag. Just as extra insurance.

And, TA DAAAAA here is the final project. I LOVE it! The red handles look like the are a part of the stocking, can't even tell there is another bag inside.
My daughter is displaying it for me! I've used it many times already and have received tons of comments on it. I'm just sad that I can only use it for the rest of the month!


I wanted to add MOM to the top of the bag, just like a real stocking. My husband says to add something like I'm GREEN and Jolly! Funny!
Thanks for looking!
Happy Holidays,
Cathy

Can you guess what this is made from???

Come on give it a guess....

I would have never guessed - not even if I had 10 guesses!! Looks pretty easy to make! Leave a comment with your guess for this super creative ornament!

Check it out HERE for more info! Thanks Steph for sharing this interesting craft!

Thanks for looking.

Have a great day.

Cathy

Quote for the Day

No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.

~~ Florida Scott-Maxwell

Holiday Video - Christmas Can-Can

This is a very funny video for the holiday season!
ENJOY!!

An Angel Gets Her Wings

A dear friend, Xenia, of mine lost her struggle with lung cancer. Her daughter is one of my son's best friends. She is also in my daughter's gymnastics class. It was heart breaking since she hadn't reached her 40th birthday. My heart aches for this family.
For her daughter I created this night light so that her mother is always with her. I cried when I gave her this tiny gift that I hoped would make all her pain go away. Her dad says that she loves to have all the lights out at night so she can see her mother before she falls asleep. Such a beautiful thought. I know this angel has received her wings already. She was an angel here on earth who always had a smile on her face no matter what she was going through. Xenia gave me hope even when everything looked so bleak.

She is missed so much by everyone, especially her 8 year old daughter.

God Bless Xenia.