Arts & Crafts Time

Because I have nothing better to do with my time (ha!) I have been doing little crafty things here and there. In fact, I have a few things I have started and not been able to finish yet. So, these things I am mentioning were all pretty much done in January or February. I can't explain it, but since the new year, I have been in a crafty mood. Apparently the same thing happened to Shannon because we both started doing little crafty projects about the same time. I think it is partially because we both seem to visit some of the same blogs and there are some super crafty ladies out there who have been posting some fun things. Some of them have been pretty inspiring lately with what they can make for almost no money. It can be addictive! :-) Although, with the amount of stuff these ladies craft, I'm just going to assume that they all must have nannies and cleaning ladies in order to fit all of their creative time in. Ha! I have not been able to do much lately (and apparently no blogging time either as you have probably noticed). It seems suddenly like I am back in the middle of the holidays again and it is just go, go, go!

Anyway, I just thought I would post a couple things that I have done. You saw the first wreath I made a while back here. I have also made another wreath for the door made with some left-over coordinating material from the curtain hanging there. And some burlap which is the big craze right now. Actually, I need to fix it now because the folds have started sliding down and I'm not sure about the bow part. I'm not sure that this is the most complementing picture either. But these burlap wreaths were on crafty blogs everywhere. I think they may have started here.

Jute stuff is also big, so I wrapped a styrofoam cone. These ladies are wrapping everything in jute. Here are a couple other people's cone trees here and here. I wasn't really using it as a Christmas craft, but Jaylyn does keep calling it a Christmas tree. :-) Here is mine.And, since Shannon and I seemed to be in a crafty mood at the same time, we decided to get together and tackle a craft project. She just posted about this on her blog here. You will find gobs of gals making these things called a "family rules canvas". I think it was started here. It was really fun - especially doing it together with our kids running around. :-) Actually they were really good and Makenna even pushed Leighton around in the stroller until she fell asleep!Our canvases and papers all ready. Deciding how to arrange . . .

Getting ready to stick them on and cover with Modge-podge.

Ta-da! I really liked how Shannon's turned out and she plans to do another one with Bible verses. fun! Mine was a little different than the "family rules". I changed mine to family values and used the values and target behaviors that tie in with those from a couple that does a ministry called http://www.valuesdrivenfamily.com/. I had to condense some of their descriptions for them to fit, but I like it.


Here is a wall art piece I kind of threw together. It is just a picture I printed off the on the computer and attached onto some foam board. And in this picture, it looks like I can see some nice finger prints. Hmmmmmm. . . .
And another popular project - silhouettes. These I did rather quickly with some scrapbook paper as the background and brown paper for the faces. Although, I will need to replace them eventually since I don't think my brown paper was fade-resistant as my dear cousin Amber reminded me about. But, I did want to add a few touches to them anyway. I liked how some people have added a bow or something to the silhouettes. Anyway, these are a start.And if you are in a sewing kind of mood, you can join my friend Mitzi who read Noell Piper's blog and decided to join a Sewing for Haiti project where they are sewing pillowcase dresses and cloth diapers for an organization in Haiti that helps orphanges, etc. If you are not into sewing, Noell and Mitzi both provide information on some other items they need that you can buy from Walmart online and do a ship from site to store to the contact lady who will get them to the orphans. Awesome! Mitzi's site is here. Noell's site is here. Mitzi even posted her first pillow case dress she made.

And a forgotten thanks to my also crafty cousin Amber who I forgot to mention in my post about the birthday cakes. She always helps me big time when I am doing the birthday parties. She is great at helping me brainstorm and think through these cake ideas and then she helps me make and ice them too! Woohoo!!

So, go get crafty and pray I can have some more spare moments to craft some more! :-)