Archives for posts with tag: crafts

Monday night I went into a fit of creativity. I have had a step stool to paint for Jack for a long time. Maybe close to a year? It was sitting in his closet. For some reason Monday night I decided to go ahead and paint paint paint. The wake was Tuesday. I think I was trying to keep my mind off of my aunt and what the next two days meant. Usually it takes me a few days to finish a painting project. Not this time. I did it all in one night. A few layers of paint and everything…..I was determined. We all deal with grief in our own way.

Behold the Mater step stool. Or as Jack calls him “TOW”

Mater step stool

Side of step stool

I did this all freehand. No stencils. I basically took Jack’s Mater car and used that as my model. What I liked about this project is that it didn’t have to be perfect. Mater is rusty and has dents. He treasures those things about himself because they all tie back to wonderful memories. Mater has a thing or two to teach us.

I mixed a lot of colors to get the right shades. I didn’t go and buy any new paints or brushes.  I used browns, reds, oranges, blues, greens, and white to get the perfect shades for Mater. When I showed it to Jack he said Tow! He still isn’t so fond of standing on it too long. At least last night he kept wanting to get down and brush his teeth. It is a new thing though, standing on a step stool. He will get it and enjoy it one day.

It did keep my mind busy for a few hours. But Tuesday came. So did Wednesday. Wednesday was hard. Very hard. Yesterday was ok. Jack and I had a jammy day. Just hung out at home. It was raining on and off all day anyway. Today we have swim. I still cannot believe my aunt wont be around any more. I truly can’t grasp this concept.

 

For the past week or so I have been working on a new crafty project. My son is obsessed with cars, trucks, vans, etc. VEHICLES rule his world. We cannot leave the house without cars in tow. In particular we cannot leave without Mater and Lightning McQueen.

As you can see, Lightning in particular is rather loved. He is in need of a fresh paint job. I can bring along other cars. He will play with them sure, but only if he also has Mater and Lightning. If I do not have both of them he will shake his head no and point at my purse over and over until he gets the right cars. If he doesn’t get the right car, prepare yourself for a meltdown!

So my kid’s lovies are two cars. Not a blanket or a stuffed animal but metal/plastic cars. Always in his hands. He has even managed to master being able to hold them both and pick up other objects.

Now that you have the background back to my project. I made him a car mat. For him to play with and drive his cars around his town. He has started to drive them around things and make a car sound. I figured it was time for him to have roads to play on.

It is a yard long

I made it from felt. I hand cut all of the pieces. I mean it is not perfect scale or size etc. But I think that adds to the charm of it. The words are actually scrapbooking letter stickers I had. I hot glued everything down. Even the letters.The cutting and the layout took a while. I created it all before gluing anything. Made sure it looked how I wanted. I then ran out of hot glue one evening this week while he was sleeping. He was super cranky all week so we didn’t make it to the craft store until Thursday. I didn’t have the time or energy to finish it until yesterday during nap time. It took me a couple hours to glue it all down. At least 2 hours for sure. Maybe longer. I sort of lost track of time. Thankfully we had been at the beach/park/spray park all morning and he took a long nap.

He did love it! I showed him how to drive his cars on the road and he picked up on it pretty quick. When he saw it he immediately tried to pick one of the lakes up off of the mat. It cracked me up because it was glued down and he was a little confused. I have been contemplating making him a felt board. With felt shapes to stick on it. Now that I saw him do that with the mat I will be making that board.

Yesterday I decided to throw together a quick sensory drum for Jack. I call it a drum instead of a box because I used a drum he received for Christmas. It was an instrument set. All the instruments were inside this drum. He has lots of containers that his toys go in. Even a Pirate metal bucket from Easter. I chose the drum because half of it is see through.

I used things I had in the cabinet. I raided my pantry! I used rice, split peas, kidney beans, black eyed peas, and lentils. I had the kidney beans and split peas from a Thanksgiving decoration I made and then I had the other things just from previous recipes. I used his toys inside of the bin. I didn’t have to go out and buy anything specific for this activity. That was nice. It felt like a freebie!

It took me maybe 5 minutes. Most of the time I spent on it was looking for all the bags of dried goods to put in it! What an easy activity to create. He really likes it.

At first I really buried all of the toys. Trying to get him to dig for them. He wasn’t so interested in doing that. Maybe because he is still 15 months that concept was unclear. BUT if they were poking out a bit he loved searching for them. I could ask him to find a certain object and he would dig it out.

Found a block

Score! A car!

Today he pulled objects out on his own, without any prompting. I found the lid to the drum and he also enjoyed putting the lid on and taking it off.

It gets slightly messy, beans and rice all around the drum but nothing some vacuuming couldn’t fix. I vacuumed this morning from yesterday’s session. Jack loves when I vacuum. He gets so excited every time I bring it out, which is at least once a day these days. I don’t mind the mess so for me that was no big deal. The way I see it, he is learning and learning can be messy. So is life. It is nothing a 5 minute vacuum session cannot take care of!

Next on my list is a felt car mat! He is obsessed with cars. He has started to “drive” his cars around and make car sounds. I think a car mat would be right up his alley. I also plan to make a felt board for him to play with, since he also loves magnets so much.I thought it would be nice for him to learn how other things can stick together besides magnets.

I hope to have the felt mat done before next week. I will post that project as well.

I have mentioned before I am somewhat of a crafty lady. I am probably down playing that a bit. If you ever saw my crafting area you would probably poop your pants. I have a lot of supplies. A LOT. I love to scrapbook, make cards, and I recently started making decorations for parties. That started with Jack’s party really. I have been scrapping and cardmaking since high school (so a long time har har har)

Yesterday we celebrated my best friend, her hubby, and their unborn baby boy. It was their baby shower! I am so excited for them and I love that little nugget to pieces already.

I made a few things to help celebrate their day.

raincloud

I made 10 of these rain clouds. They really turned out super cute. I used my Cricut to make the rain drops. Those are white poofs from the party store and I used fishing line to hang the drops.

Banner

This was one of my favorite decorations. I am a little obsessed with banners this year. I really loved how the stripes and dark blue complimented one another. I was seriously in love as soon as the triangles were cut. Maybe I will have to make some to just hang in Jack’s room! haha Again I used my Cricut. Threaded it with some double faced white satin ribbon and voila!

Cupcake toppers

While I fancy myself something of a baker/chef as well as a fitness freak and crafty gal, I did not make these beautifully iced cupcakes. I made the umbrella and pinwheel toppers. I am also obsessed with pinwheels this year. Used the Cricut to cut them. Then I used glue dots to adhere the toothpicks to the back. I added a little gem to each one for a little dimension and pop.

Rattle cake pops

rattle cake pops

As I just mentioned I fancy myself a bit of a baker. Especially things like these, cake pops and cuppycakes! I have made cake pops a few times for parties and get togethers. Usually I stand them upright in a box with some flower foam and cover that in a colorful shred. This time I wanted to try something different and it really worked out well. I used glue dots again for the little poof balls on the top and double faced baby blue satin ribbon for the sticks. The cake was a blueish color as well. It wasn’t a striking blue. I learned my lesson with the last batch I made for a party. I did blue velvet. I make it from scratch. No boxed cake mix here. Well if you use the correct amount of food coloring in order to wash out the coco every person who takes a bite will have a blue mouth. Since I knew this would happen this time around I couldn’t in good conscious bring mouth dying cake pops to the baby shower! So they weren’t quite the blue inside I liked. It did look like a blue-brown which is the nursery colors. So there ya go!

The frosting is a cream cheese frosting. Mixed with white chips to help made it a harder shell. Light blue sprinkles. I wrapped some of the satin ribbon around the handle of my stand and then tied a big bow with the white satin ribbon. Just a small detail, but the details can really make things pop.

Fruit kebobs

I also brought some fruit kebobs with a Greek yogurt dip. My dear friend and momma to be, Jen, is much like me. I knew she would LOVE fruit kebobs and I was right. I didn’t try the dip (I am lactose intolerant and I have been making a huge effort to skip as much dairy as I can lately. I have been feeling better mostly from it) But the dip is Greek yogurt and honey. I was told it was really great! I did eat a few of the kebobs and I can tell you THOSE were great! I will definitely be making these instead of fruit salad from now on.

Dessert table

Here is the dessert table. It wasn’t quite done. In that box behind the cake pops is a beautiful canoli cake! A canoli with little canolis inside of it. I cannot take credit for all of the beautiful things on this table. Jen’s mom and sister also worked so hard to make this such a beautiful day. They did an amazing job!!! Also, ignore my Venti Passion tea lemonade (unsweetened lol). It is summer time, Starbucks iced teas are a staple in our family in the summer! mmmmm

Poopy diaper game mmmmm

I also brought a game with. The poopy diaper game. I played this at a shower in March and thought it was the funniest thing ever. You melt chocolate bars and put them in diapers. People have to guess what each diaper has. I made 6. I think 6 is a good number for this game. I used Milky way, Reese’s Peanut butter cups, Almond Joy, Rasinetes, York Peppermint Patty, and Snickers. Some of them looked like legitimate poop. Some people were really grossed out but some people really found it funny. My husband was one of the former. He couldn’t stand them on our counter yesterday morning. HA! I just think it is a welcomed changed from actual poopy diapers 😉 It was silly and fun and I recommend it. Super easy to make. I thought Jack’s diapers were too big at this point. He is in a size 4. They are huge. So I went and bought a pack of size 1. Only had to use the 6, so I gave the rest to the Momma to be. That I think is a double bonus for this game. You can NEVER have too many diapers. Lesson 1 I learned. That and wipes!

Best friends and soon we with both be momma’s to little boys!

She is seriously the most beautiful pregnant woman I have ever seen! She looks fantastic. She is all belly. I am so blessed to have her in my life. I am also so excited that we are going to be momma’s to little boys! Oh the adventures we will have together. Especially once they are old enough to play together! Jack loves babies so I know he is going to be stoked to meet his new friend.

I had such a lovely day celebrating 3 of the most wonderful people in the world! Congrats you two! That little boy is so loved already!!!!

A little fact about me. I am a huge crafter. I love crafting. It is actually kind of ridiculous how much craft stuff I own. From scrapbooking to painting. I cannot get enough. I was recently introduced to Pinterest. YOWZA I am addicted. But it is a good thing because I have been getting tons of ideas for projects.

I am currently planning Jack’s 1st birthday party. (I also love planning parties) It will be a Mickey theme. Jack’s Mousekeparty. I saw a sign on Pinterest that I thought was a cute idea. A sign for the party! If you check out the link for the sign you will see that I really put my own spin on it. I just gathered the idea OF a sign from seeing one on Pinterest.

This is Jack’s party sign. I hand painted it all. Every single letter even! I still have to decide how I will display it. If I will try to hang it or get a stand for it. I am happy that I have actually been creating things after spending so much time on that site. I have made a number of items I have discovered. I am not just wasting time with a wish list of crafts I never get to! I am also excited that I have one thing totally completed for Jack’s party.