Star Wars: Yoda Best Valentines (free printable)

Hello!

With the release of the new Star Wars movie and its popularity, it is hard to deny, almost everyone LOVES Star Wars!

I made these valentines two years ago for my son and thought I would share:)

Not only are they cute and fun, but they are a great candy-free valentine alternative!

Here is the FREE PDF!  I believe I got the glow sticks at Dollar Tree.  They were the bracelet size.

Hope you have fun with these!

P.S.  We watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the El Capitan Theatre!  It was pretty cool!

Happy New Year! 

The Easiest Ice Cream Cake Ever....

Want to know how to make the easiest ice cream cake ever???

My oldest recently celebrated her 12th birthday!  She is not a huge fan of cake, but LOVES ice cream. I had seen an idea for a cake made out of ice cream sandwiches on Pinterest and thought this was the perfect time to try it out....it was SO GOOD!  I'm thinking of making another very soon...no special occasion needed!

All you have to do is stack up ice cream sandwiches.  We bought a box full of 12, so our cake was 4 layers tall (with 3 sandwiches in each layer).  I criss-crossed each layer.  I also added a thin layer of hot fudge ice cream topping between each layer.  To frost, you just use thawed out cool whip!  I finished it off with toppings of M&Ms and hardening chocolate shell ice cream topping.  Oh, and my daughter picked out mint chip ice cream sandwiches.  With all the different flavors of ice cream sandwiches and ice cream toppings, the possibilities are endless!

Sorry I didn't take step-by-step photos but if you do a quick search on Google or Pinterest for an ice cream sandwich cake, you should find plenty!

Hope you enjoy your ice cream sandwich cake as much as we enjoyed ours!

Finished Costumes 2013

Here are the finished costumes!

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Corpse Bride

Zombie Brain Surgeon

Pop Art/ Comic Book Girl

Costume Idea #3, 2013: A Pop Art Comic Book Girl

Here's costume idea #3!  My oldest daughter is going to be a pop art inspired comic book girl.  This costume is going to be pretty much all about the face/body paint.  We will be spraying here hair yellow and dressing her up in bright and bold colors too. 

Our inspiration:

Is everyone ready for Halloween next week?

I can't wait to share a picture of the finished costumes!

Costume Idea #2, 2013: A Zombie Brain Surgeon

Okay, here is costume idea #2.  My son has decided to dress up as a zombie brain surgeon.  This is also a very easy costume idea.  You only need a doctor's costume and face paint.  We looked for scrubs at the thrift store, but finally decided to buy a complete doctors costume (with the lab coat, stethoscope, hat, and face mask).  I did see a zombie doctor's costume with a mask, but my son hates wearing masks because they are uncomfortable.  We will just paint his face and add some fake blood here and there.  We have been looking for and will probably make a brain for him to carry around too.  You can pretty much zombify any costume with the right makeup!

Here are some inspiration pics:

Next up: A Pop Art Comic Book Girl!

Costume Idea #1, 2013: A Corpse Bride

All three of my kids wanted to be something scary this year, and that's okay.  Sometimes scary can be fun!  At first my oldest wanted to be a scary clown (all clowns are scary, aren't they?), but later changed her mind after we saw a really cool and different costume idea online.  I'll share the idea later...it's really cool!

One of our favorite parts of Halloween is coming up with ideas for and making the costumes.  We don't usually make the costumes from scratch, but rather they are semi-homemade.  This is still fun, because you can create a costume that not every single other person/kid will have.  It's fun to be unique and creative!  I thought I'd share the costume ideas we came up with this year.  Maybe they with inspire you too!

The first idea I'll share is what my youngest daughter has decided to be, a corpse bride.

This is a pretty easy costume idea!  Really, all you need is a wedding dress and some face paint!  We are not going to make her look exactly like THE corpse bride from the movie, more just a dead bride, but the corpse bride from the movie will serve as great inspiration.  We also lucked out and found a bride costume at the Goodwill that fit her perfectly!

Here are some inspiration pics...can't wait to share the finished costume!

Next up: A Zombie Brain Surgeon!

Gumball Machine Valentines on The Crafty Crow!!!

Hi everyone!

I was very excited to see my Gumball Machine Valentines featured on The Crafty Crow yesterday!

I've been surprised by the response I've gotten from my Gumball Machine Valentines this year!  I've had thousands of people download the printable!  I'm sure thanks to Pinterest!

Here are the PDFs:

Gumball Machine Valentines

Gumball Machine Valentines (Blank)

Enjoy!

Another Version of The Easiest Advent Calendar... Ever!

I don't know if you remember, but last year I posted an idea for "The Easiest Advent Calendar...Ever!". It was a simple project of stamping the numbers 1-25 on wooden clothes pins.  

Last year, I attached magnets to the backs and stuck them to the refrigerator with fun activities or ideas for each day until Christmas.

This year, I did something a bit easier and lazier!  I pinned a piece of twine to the wall and clipped on cups (recycled from when my girls had their lemonade stand this past summer) and filled the cups with sweet treats for each day.  I think it would have looked even cuter with paper bags, but I didn't have any.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll do something different with the numbered pins next year too.  Hmmm....

How do you count down the days to Christmas?  I can't believe we have only about a week left!

Polymer Clay Pumpkin Pie: Tutorial

What you need:

• bottle cap
• Unused and flattened type is the best.  You can find them at craft stores, Amazon, or on Etsy.  You can also look at stores that cater to home brewing.
• beige/crust colored polymer clay
• orange/pie colored polymer clay
• I mixed orange, brown, and gold to get a color I liked.  I have also seen people mix in real pumpkin pie spices to make it look more realistic!
• white for the whipped cream
• needle tool or something to crimp the edges of the crust
• liquid polymer clay to strengthen bond between clay pieces

As I mentioned before, I added some brown to my orange to get a more realistic pumpkin color.

I still wasn't happy with the color, so I added some gold too.

 I flattened the clay, then used a 1 1/4 inch circle cutter to cut a piece of beige and orange.  I used a tiny, about 1/4 inch, circle cutter to cut a piece of white to use for the whipped cream.

 Center and place the piece of beige/crust colored clay in the bottle cap.  I added some liquid polymer clay between the two to secure the bond.

 Roll the orange/pumpkin colored clay in a ball.

 Place the orange ball in the center of the beige piece of clay.

 Press and flatten the orange clay ball.

 Press the side of the needle tool in increments around the pie to crimp the edges of the crust. 

  Try not to indent the orange portion of the pie.

 Roll the white clay into a ball.

 Pinch the top of the white ball to form a teardrop shape.

 Add a drop of liquid polymer clay to the center of the pie.

 Place the white clay in the center of the pie with the pointed side up and squishing it down a tiny bit.

 Bake according to clay directions.

 And...your pies are finished!

You can use them as festive hair bow centers, to decorate napkin rings, as magnets, or even glue on a bail to create a pendant!

My 6 year old daughter helped me make the pies and made two of her own.  She likes to use them to feed her Lalaloopsy doll!

Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

Friendship Bracelet: Tutorial

Here is a really easy friendship bracelet tutorial!

They are easy enough for kids to make too!

Getting started...

#1. You will need:

•  a long piece of t-shirt yarn in any color (you can also make by cutting a long strip of t-shirt about an inch wide and pulling the ends to stretch and lengthen)
• embroidery floss/thread in as many colors as you choose
• a safety pin

#2. Tie a loop at one end of the t-shirt yarn with an overhand knot

             

The Knots...

#3. Safety pin the looped piece of t-shirt yarn to your knee

Cut the embroidery floss in long pieces (around 40 inches in length of each color, depending on wrist size and the amount of different colors used)

Tie (with a double knot) the group of embroidery threads to the top of the piece of t-shirt yarn as close to the knot of the loop as possible, leaving a couple inches of length on one end and the bulk of length on the other

#4. Hold down the long portion of the t-shirt yarn and all pieces of embroidery thread, including the short ends, except for length of embroidery thread in the color you want to show up

Take the chosen color and cross over everything else, making a 4 shape

Wrap around everything else and come up through the loop created by the chosen color of embroidery thread and pull the thread up towards the safety pin/ top loop to tighten the knot

Repeat this way of knotting (a forward knot) until you want to change colors

The entire bracelet is made of forward knots in alternating colors

Knotting Continued...

#5. Continue knotting, alternating colors as desired

#6. Once you have knotted about an inch or two down in length, you are free to cut off the short ends of the embroidery floss

Do not cut the long pieces of thread or t-shirt yarn off!

Finishing Up...

#7. After you have reached the desired length of your knotting, you split the amount of embroidery threads in two and tie a triple knot around the t-shirt yarn

Trim the ends of the embroidery thread

#8. To tie onto your wrist, slip the left over length of t-shirt yarn through the top loop and knot

Cut off excess length of t-shirt yarn on both ends (near the top loop and the end piece)

And...you are...FINISHED!

The good thing about using the t-shirt yarn is that it has a bit of stretch to it, so the bracelets are easy to slip on and off....making them easier to share and give to friends!

These look so cute worn in bunches!

Have fun and feel free to let me know if you have any questions!

Halloween 2012

Hi!  Hope everyone had a fun Halloween yesterday!

Here are a few pictures of my kids in their finished Halloween costumes.

A Dia de los Muertos bride, Dobby from Harry Potter, and a Lalaloopsy doll:

 The Dobby mask ended up being super uncomfortable, so we cut out the ears and attached them to elastic...much better!

Nevada Day Costumes 2012

Nevada Day is on Halloween so at my kids' school, they have to wear Nevada themed costumes.

This year Charles went as a miner and Sienna as a giant piece of silver!

P.S.  You can see some of their past Nevada Day costumes HERE.

Polymer Clay Decorated Pumpkin

We made a polymer clay decorated pumpkin!

And...I'll show you how to make one too!

This project kind of reminds me of a Mr. Potato Pumpkin Head:)

 I made mine look like a bat, but really...the possibilities are endless.

You can even just make a bunch of teeth and add to a carved pumpkin (like this).

First...make all of the parts.  

You will only need polymer clay and either toothpicks or skewers.

You will want the toothpicks to be thick and of good quality.  

The toothpicks I used were thin and flimsy, and I did have some break when pushing into the pumpkin.

For the bat in my example, I made (pictured above):

#1- teeth

#2- ears

#3- eyes

I also made (pictured above):

#1- a heart with a scar

#2- bat wings

Bake according to clay directions.

I baked the parts with the toothpicks in them.  Remember how the parts will be attached, so you put the toothpicks in the appropriate places.  You also could poke the hole for the toothpick, bake the clay, and re-attach the toothpick after the clay has been hardened.  Another option would be to drill a hole for the toothpick in the hardened clay, but remember you do want the toothpick to fit snugly in the hole, so you don't have wobbly parts!

To attach the polymer clay parts to the pumpkin, I poked a guide hole using a needle tool.  This will make it easier to push the toothpick into the pumpkin.

Pictured above:

#1- poke the guide hole

#2- gather your parts

#3- attach the polymer clay parts to your pumpkin

...and that's it!

Another super simple polymer clay project!

 Even kids can do it!

My 6 year old, Sienna, made the pumpkin below (except for the little top hat):

Hope everyone has fun with this project!

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Dia de los Muertos, Sugar Skull, Dead Bride Costume

Ramona got to dress up for school today, so we were able to see what her costume looked like with everything put together...the dress, headpiece, and makeup:

It looked great!

If you would like to see the costume details, you can read this.

Lalaloopsy Costume Tutorial

We finished Sienna's Lalaloopsy costume!

Everything came together really easily...except for the wig!  

The wig was quite a pain, but I'll try to explain how I did it!

 1. the wig:  Here are a couple tutorials that didn't work out for me, but look great and might work for your Lalaloopsy costume.  Peanut Big Top has pig tails, which made it a bit more difficult. I'll try to explain how I did mine, which isn't very difficult or time consuming.

• Lalaloopsy Hair Tutorial by the owlchemist
• Easy Raggedy Yarn Wig Tutorial from Ucreate

I started out my wig using the Easy Raggedy Yarn Wig Tutorial (which will show you how to cut the yarn and tie the sections together), but ended up doing something different.  I wrapped a bunch of yarn around a piece of cardboard to get the desired length.  I cut enough to gather 5 groups of yarn.  Then, tied each group of yarn together with another piece of yarn off-centered, like where the part in the hair would be.   Peanut Big Top has a side part.  Next, I hot glued the yarn, while twisting, to a knit beanie, but later cut it out.  If I were to do it again, I would glue down to a piece of purple felt (the color of the yarn hair) and cut out.  Then, I just gathered the yarn on the sides, like pig-tails, and tied together with a piece of yarn.  To get the twisted, ringlet shapes, I just twisted and hot glued the yarn together.  I also trimmed the pigtails to make the ends even.  So, really, you just have the front part of a wig.  I hot glued red bows to each pig tail and glued the whole piece to a soft headband.  It's much more comfortable that anything else we tried and won't be too hot, like the beanie.  Plus, the beanie wouldn't stay on her head!  Oh...and everything else we made looked so bulky!  This was definitely a test of my patience!  But, we have something useable, and it's pretty cute...especially with the rest of the outfit.

 2. the shirt: I used a shirt we already had and used a pencil eraser dipped in red fabric paint to make the polka dots.

3. the gloves: We bought these on eBay.
4. the tutu: I used this tutorial with gold organza.

5. the tights: I bought striped tights and painted a heart on one of the legs with red fabric paint. I made a heart stencil by cutting the shape out of masking tape.

6. the boots: They are just pink Crocs boots I found on eBay.

Anyway...

It's a semi-handmade costume...my favorite kind!

Oh, and we painted her face to look like Peanut Big Top too!

Please feel free to ask any questions you might have!