New Years Eve countdown bags!

I am so excited about this New Years Eve countdown! This will definitely be a new family tradition!!! 

 I saw this idea on 'pinterest' and I got so excited, my son is almost 3 and he will love doing this! I bought some party bags but you could use plain brown paper lunch bags. I found some cute printables (I will post the link below) I thought of a fun activity for each bag. Your child can open a bag every hour leading up to the new year! We will start ours at 5pm, so I made 8 bags. My son is so young that we will be celebrating east coast new years (we live in California, so it will be 9pm here) so the last 3 bags will be more for my hubby and I.  So here we go!!!

I got this ADORABLE printable HERE!   I printed out one sheet and cut them out...all you do is add the 'hands' to the clocks!

So here is what we are doing each hour!

5PM: Beads and streamers to decorate 

6PM: BIG Balloons (the kind you hit up and down)

  7PM: New Years Eve interview and Pop-its

I found this FUN printable HERE!!!
This sheet has a few questions that you can have your kids fill out each year. Some questions don't apply to my kids yet and they won't be able to fill it out by themselves yet but I am excited to keep these from each year and see and remember their different interest!

8PM: glow glasses and glow sticks 

I got these at Target in the party section

 9PM: Noise makers and kids celebrate new years (east coast time, it will be 9pm for us here in Cali)

10PM: (now that the kids had their 'early' new years, time for Mommy and Daddy, so this bag is a few of our favorite treats!

 

11PM: New Years Resolutions 

I did one for our relationship (really, who can't improve on that!?) and one personal one, I am a firm believer in writing things down, I think if you write it down it's more meaningful then just saying it.

12PM: New Years SMOOOOCH!!! 

I am SO excited!!! Happy New Year to you all!!!  I would LOVE to hear if you do this and what ideas you used for each hour!!!

old frame re-newed

Do you ever just get antsy for a new 'project'? I DO! but I have also notice...being crafty and making projects isn't always cheap....I always think it will be and then I start to gather the materials and sometimes it starts to add up! So this particular time that I was itching for a project I reached out to my FB friends asking them if they knew of any good places to find deals on old frames....and one of my friends said she had 2 sitting on the side of her house that she was going to throw away!

nothing is cheaper than FREE!!! so I drove by and picked them up! 
These are not thick sturdy frames, rather thin with plexi glass...but that was perfect for what I was envisioning!

I took both frames apart and removed the plexi glass and then painted both frames with some sample wall paint I had.

I took the plexi glass inside and cut out a tree and taped it to the front. I used my cricut to cut the words "Grow" & "yet to be" I then used a crayon to write "old with me the BEST is" I wanted them to all be in different font styles. 

I then flipped the plexi glass over and started painting following the guide I had taped on the front. 

After it dried, I peeled off all the paper letters and the tree from the front and used a baby wipe to wipe off the crayon. I put it back in the frame and hung it up! 

love this saying!

As for the other frame....the plexi glass cracked so I used some twine and wrapped it around the frame and clipped pictures on it! It will make a great card holder for the holiday season!

-Happy crafting!!!

Growth chart

I LOVE drooling over Pottery Barn catalogs but unless I save ALL my pennies....I very rarely purchase anything from there.

So here's my inspiration!!!  Pottery Barn kids

 

this one originally cost $59.00 plus tax and shipping...
Mine cost me $18.90 :D


Things you will need:

wooden beam
paper
ribbon of a ruler
glue

I cut the paper
trimmed the ribbon
and used my cricut to cut out the numbers...then glued each panel together then used modge-podge to glue it to the wood

It's really cute in person...I wasn't happy with how dark the pictures made it look.

I made little tags to record their growth

 and that's it....our very own growth chart!

-Happy crafting!! 

Think outside the BLOCK!

I am currently OBSESSED with 'pinterest'! Thank you to my friends that told me about it!!! So on pinterest I keep seeing these ADORABLE blocks! some were ornaments, some for decoration, either way I had to make them....but I could not figure out how or where these people were getting these small 2x2 blocks. Local craft stores didn't have them, and when I went to the local home improvement stores they just had huge beams and I would need them to be cut and then have to sand them down myself. So I put that project on the back burner but whenever I was out I was on the hunt for something I could use. A few weeks later I was in the dollar tree....I go there a lot but when I go there I am always 'thinking outside of the box' I always buy things for crafts or projects for the kids.

I saw these......a wooden rectangle game....light bulbs flashed in my head!!! That was it!

I saved the pegs and dice for future projects

 I bought 15 of them (I had a lot of 'gifts' to make) and got to work! I printed out pictures and gathered some scrapbook supplies, paper, letter stickers and glue. I simply cut the pictures and paper to size and used modge podge under and over the paper and pictures.

These are how they turned out!!! They all look similar in style and colors but they are each unique!

  all of the grandparents got these for Christmas this year! I love how they turned out....hopefully they do too!

I hope this project inspires you to "Think outside the BLOCK too!!!"

-Happy crafting!!!

Cinnamon Ornaments

Do you have applesauce? Do you have Cinnamon? That's all you need to make these ornaments....and they smell delicious!!

The original recipe came from here

 Here is how I made it...

3/4 cup applesauce
1 bottle (4.12 ounces) McCormick® Cinnamon, Ground  Tip: If a different size bottle of cinnamon is used, measure 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cinnamon.

1. Mix applesauce and cinnamon in small bowl until a smooth ball of dough is formed. (You may need use your hands to incorporate all of the cinnamon.)  roll dough to 1/4-inch to 1/3-inch thickness between two sheets of plastic wrap. (I used wax paper) Peel off top sheet of wax paper. Cut dough into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Make a hole at top of ornament with drinking straw or skewer.

2.  to dry ornaments at room temperature, allow them to sit on the wax paper for a few hours and turn. after a few more hours carefully place them on wire rack. Let stand 1 to 2 days or until thoroughly dry, turning occasionally.

3. Insert ribbon through holes and tie to hang. Decorate with opaque paint markers, found in arts and crafts stores, if desired. (I used puffy paint)

 

Hang them on the tree or on a gift! I made a batch of these 4 years ago and every year when we take out our Christmas box, these are the first things we smell!! They keep their sent!

ENJOY!

DIY magnet board

want to make this beauty? 

I found the 'tin' signs at the dollar tree, they had a holiday painting on them and an ugly ribbon through the top. I simply cut cute paper to size and used modge podge to attach it. I glued magnet pieces to buttons to use as magnets, and strung cute ribbon through the top! That's it!!!

modge podge to attach the paper and magnets to glue on the back of buttons

so easy and practical too!!!