Uncle Sam Wants You...To Wear Him

This Artsy Family loves holidays and family get-togethers.  On Monday, we get both!  For the first time since Noah was born, our family is getting together to celebrate the 4th of July with a cookout and steamed crabs {yummm!}.  The extra-cool part is that not only will hubby's parents, grandmother, and grandfather be there, my parents are coming too, which I just love.  So many families don't have the blessing of being able to all get together...and even though my grandparents lived in the same state, I honestly can't remember a time in my life when all four of them were in the same room together.  So I feel like it's an amazing gift for Noah to get to spend time with all of those family members together and enjoying each other's company.

Our job for the 4th is to bring dessert...Noah and I already have a plan for red, white, and blue cupcakes!  But we also wanted to do a craft, something we could give to everyone at the party.  I saw this adorable idea in this week's Macaroni Kid newsletter and couldn't wait to try it with my Little Crafter.

UNCLE SAM PINS {or magnets}

Materials:

- wooden craft spoons

- red, blue, and white craft foam {our red was plain, our white and blue had an adhesive backing}

- googly eyes

- cotton balls

- glue

- pin backs or magnet tape

- scissors

- thin permanent black marker

STEP 1: Cut hats from red craft foam.  Ours were 2 1/4" tall, the base was 2 1/8" wide, and the tall part of the hat was 1 1/8" wide.

STEP 2: Cut stripes from white craft foam.  Ours were 1 3/4" long and I just eyed up the width.  You need 3 stripes per hat.  Also, cut a strip from blue foam to cover the bottom of the hat.

STEP 3: Adhere stripes to hat {if your foam isn't adhesive, just use glue} and glue hat to handle of wooden spoon.  Adhere blue strip to bottom part of hat {not pictured}.

 STEP 4: Glue or stick 2 adhesive googly eyes on each spoon below the hat.

STEP 5: Seperate a cotton ball into several smaller pieces of fluff and glue one to the bottom of each spoon for a beard.

STEP 6: Use a black marker to add a nose.

STEP 7: Attach pin backs or magnet tape to back of spoons.  I haven't decided yet which I'm going to use...on one hand I think the pins would be really cute for everyone to wear, and on the other hand, the magnet would probably get more long-term use.  Oh, decisions!

Little Crafter and I are ready to party now!  What about you?  What are your fun ideas for celebrating the Fourth?



Football Fever

Our family is very serious about football.

 {doesn't the look on his cute little face crack you up?!}

That's right, we're serious Ravens fans.  And we're mighty disappointed that Training Camp isn't going to be local this year.  Last season, we had a Sunday routine that included wearing our jerseys and eating lunch in front of the game since it was almost always on at 1:00.  Noah learned to say and make the hand sign for "Touchdown" and he said "Heap!" before he said "mama."  {Referring to our Tight End, Todd Heap, #86, for those of you non-Ravens-junkies}. If you ask him who our QB is, he will say, "Joe Fakko," which is close enough...coincidentally, I heard Joe got married this weekend!  Congrats, Flacco!

Anyway, all things considered, it should have come as no surprise that Noah wants a football theme for his third birthday party, which is coming up rather quickly.  His actual b'day is the 11th of August; his party will be the following Saturday, which happens to be my mom's birthday too.  I decided it's time to get planning so that I have the time to do everything the way this Artsy Mama likes to...lots of creativity, lots of handmade things.  So, I spent some time during his nap browsing around online to find ideas for things I like and may or may not try to attempt.

INVITATIONS: Aren't these the cutest things you've ever seen?  I know these are baseball, but still...how clever!  Definitely a possibility...

DECORATIONS

What a touchdown of a party setup!  This one just takes my breath away it's so amazing.  The goal post is made of painted PVC pipe.  Hubby conveniently works for a well water supply company...I'm seeing one of these in Noah's future fo' sho!  I looove the look with the decorated letters and the pennants too.  Of course, it'll all have to be black and purple!

This is from the same party shown above; I love the attention to detail with the little napkin wrappers.  Nice.

I think the pennants are really cute and would tie in if I do a pennant banner.  I saw another idea somewhere where they were smaller and were on straws, which would be cute for the kids...maybe to use at the party and then take home as a favor?  Or maybe just a favor?  Hmm...

Of course we'll have Ravens balloons, and I think this f'ball field tablecloth is a cute touch.  I do like the astroturf in the first party picture too, but I think this is more do-able.

Love love love this...it's originally for a basketball party but so easily adaptable.  Can you read the frame in the center?  "Todd's First Season Highlights."  I'm definitely seeing Noah's 3rd Season highlights displayed somewhere.  Now I just need some matching frames; black, of course.

FOOD

This idea is actually from a black and purple New Year's party, but it works perfectly with our color scheme.  I love the purple dipped pretzels, and the M&Ms are cool too...can you get them this time of year?

Our good friend Clem has already volunteered for cake duty, and I can't wait to see what she has up her sleeve.  I didn't even really browse for cake ideas because I know whatever she comes up with will be fantastic.  How do I know?  Take a look at this Thomas cake she made for last year's party.  Yeah.  That's what I'm talking about.  She hand made his face out of fondant.  That's my Clem.

Meanwhile, I did find these football chocolate covered strawberries...mmmmmmmm!  Noah hates chocolate, but hey, that doesn't mean the rest of us have to suffer, right?  Clem, if you're reading this...hint hint!

Before I go on, I want to give a big shout-out to Kara's Party Ideas, which was a major source of my inspiration.  She has ideas for almost any party theme you can think of; some are hers and some are contributed by others, but her collection is easy to navigate and has great photos.

As for favors, I already have something up my sleeve.  I don't want to reveal it here because too many of our potential party guests are readers, {and because it very possibly violates some copyright things...but all in the name of fun}.  Anyway, I will say that it has to do with a photo, which led to this photo shoot this afternoon.

I. heart. this. kid.

Thrifty Lampshade

Today, I wanted to share with you something I whipped up about three years ago but have never featured before.  When we found out Noah was on the way and that he was going to be a boy, we started looking for the perfect bedding set and room decor.  You'd think that since we were naming him Noah, we'd have gone for a bunch of cutesy animals on a boat, but that's not really my style.  I wanted something simple, boyish, and fun that would transition well as he grew a little older.  I found this nursery set by Bananafish and fell in love.  It was modern and I liked the color combination.

We bought the fun coordinating sticky dots for the walls and I had fun putting those up everywhere.  I also painted some wooden letters from Michaels to spell out his name on the wall over his crib.

{here he is the week of his first birthday...wasn't he a cute 1 year old?  meanwhile, where did my baby go?!}

Everything was just the way I wanted it...except for one thing.  I had a lampshade issue.  This is a pic of the shade that matches the set.

Problem one was that I didn't really like it.  I thought it would look better if it had more of the stripes or polka dots incorporated into it.  Problem two?  It cost $36.  For just the shade.  No lamp included!  Plus I'd have to pay shipping.  No way was I going to shell out almost 40 bucks for a little lampshade I didn't even like.  But the trouble was, I didn't know what else to do.  I searched high and low for a plain blue, brown, or caramel shade anywhere I could find it, but the color was never right.  You can see that the blues have kind of a turqouisey hue, which made it impossible to match.

Then, one day I was in Michaels in the ribbon aisle and I happened to look up above where all the ribbon was displayed.  There were photos of various ribbon-oriented projects and one was...a lampshade!!  Cue the spotlight and "hallelujah" music!  They had taken ribbon and used it to make a striped pattern on the shade, and I decided then and there that I was going to do the same thing.  I bought four spools of ribbon: one light turquoise, one dark turquoise, one light brown, and one dark brown.  I purposely got them in a variety of widths, some solid colors and some with white accents.

I bought a cheap plain lampshade at Target and brought all my goodies home.  I picked a starting spot and began to attach the ribbon to the shade, wrapping it around to the back and using hot glue on both ends.  I alternated colors pretty randomly, just like the pattern in the bedding set, and every so often, I cut a small piece of ribbon and tied it around a piece I had wrapped to create a knot/bow effect at various different heights aroudn the lamp.  I put it on a base we already had in the house but weren't using.

It was, and still is, a perfect match!  Noah thinks it's cool looking and now that he's old enough to understand, he loves that Mama made it for him.  All in all, I think it cost me less than 20 bucks for the whole project, plus I had ribbon left over that I used to accent other things I made for his room and his scrapbook.  I forget the exact total because it's been so long...:p  I'm a lot happier with the result than I was with the shade that cost twice as much, and it's still getting good use three years later.  That's what I call a deal!

PS- I'm looking for a few guest posters to feature during the week of August 1-7; if you would like to share a beach-themed craft, decor idea, kids' activity, recipe, or anything else you have up your sleeve, please comment or send me an email at dancers4life@gmail.com! 

                                                               

Go Tell!

Last week, Little Crafter and I both had a fantastic time at Vacation Bible School.  The only problem is, he doesn't want to accept that it's over now and keeps asking to go back.  I had the sweetest little class of three boys and I really felt like they learned some important things while having a great week.  Each day, there was a "Big Question" and a "Big Answer."  Things like:

Who is Jesus?  God's Son!

Why can I trust Him?  Because He loves me!

What happens when I mess up? Jesus forgives me.

Friday, our Bible story was Jesus' ascension into heaven after the resurrection, and our "Big Stuff" was:

What does Jesus want me to do?  Go Tell!

Here are the crafts/activities we did to reinforce the story.

3-D ASCENSION PICTURE

Materials: blue and green cardstock or construction paper, cotton balls, scissors, glue, coloring picture of Jesus

Instructions: Cut green paper to make hills/landscape and glue onto blue paper.  Color and cut out Jesus and glue Him in the sky.  Fluff cotton balls and glue all around Jesus.

Easy and to the point!  And kids always like playing with cotton balls.  You could also color other people to put around on the ground as disciples, or cut people out of magazines.

SHARING GOD'S LOVE: HYGIENE KITS

The big lesson of the story was that since Jesus isn't physically on earth anymore, it's up to us to tell other people about Him and about God's love.  As a practical, physcial way to share that love, we assembled these kits to send to people who are still without their homes in the areas of the U.S. affected by severe storms and tornadoes.

 Each kit contained one hand towel, three washcloths, a toothbrush, a pair of nail clippers, six band-aids, and a bar of soap.

 My little guys also made cards to put inside.  We wrote "God Loves You" and the first name of the child who made it, and each boy decorated his card with crayons and stickers.

 Here they are, so proud of their finished kits!

It was an exhausting week, but I know that every moment was worth it when I hear Noah repeating those "Big Answers" and telling me, "I loved Vacation Bible School.  I want to go some more."  During the closing program, the pastor called all the children up front and asked them what their favorite part was and what they learned.  One of my little guys, Ethan, {on the left in the hygiene kit photo} shouted out, "Jesus is God's Son!"  Yup.  Worth every minute.

Stamp-tastic!

There were a number of things I enjoyed doing in the "Before Noah" days that don't really happen much anymore.  For example: sleeping past 6:30 AM, cooking just one meal at dinner time, actually browsing in a clothing store, and going out dancing every Friday.  Another of those things that's gone by the wayside for the time being is my stamping hobby.  For several years, I was actually a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, which was fantastic because it paid for my crafty addiction.  I loved making cards and scrapbook pages, but when the economy took a hit, that combined with having a new baby to care for made it really difficult to keep hitting my minimum, so I gave up the business.  Now, I rarely get the chance to make anything just for fun because I don't have a good space to do it.  It's impossible to get anything done when Noah is awake, and you have to get out so many different supplies and materials for a project that even if he's napping, it would be impossible to clean up right away when he wakes up.  Hubby doesn't think that a random assortment of ink, stamps and scrapbook paper make a very nice dining room table centerpiece, so for now, my hobby is on hiatus.

BUT...today, my fabulous friend Lisa {who I met online at BabyCenter when we were both expecting our cutie pies}, gave me the chance to stamp again, and boy was it wonderful!  She recently became a consultant for Close to My Heart, and she asked me to host a card workshop.  We made 20 all-occasion cards for $20, which is a fantastic deal...just a buck a card, which is way cheaper than buying them {and they're sooo pretty!}  She did a lot of the prep work ahead of time by cutting the papers down to the right sizes, so all we had to do was stamp and assemble.  Here are the four fantastic designs.

This may be my favorite.  I love the 3-D flower, and my favorite part is the little rhinestones.  I'm a sucker for anything that sparkles!

I like the whimsical look of this one with all the different patterned stripes at different lengths and heights.  I also like the use of the rounded corners on both the word strip and the card itself {it's hard to see in this pic, sorry}.

I always have trouble coming up with totally masculine looking cards, but I think this one fits the bill.  Manly colors, no flowers...it's good stuff.

This one was the simplest design, but it's still fun and summery.  I really like CTMH's designer papers.

Want to know what I really love?  Acrylic Stamps.  Today was my first experience with them and I. am. in. love.  Back in my SU! days, all the stamps were mounted on wooden blocks...which is just dandy when that's all you've got.  But boy, oh boy.  Wait till you try these babies.  You peel these little clear stamps off a clear plastic sheet and stick them on a clear block.  Then you can remove them and change them out whenever you want.  Here are my favorite things about them:

* You can see what and where you're stamping!!!  This is a huuuuuge help when you're doing 2-step stamping, trying to line things up like putting a stem on a flower, or trying to re-stamp something you screwed up.

* You can place several stamps how you want them and ink them together.  Alphabet sets, for instance.  Just spell out your whole word or phrase on the block and then ink it instead of painstakingly doing one letter at a time!  You can also put words going in different directions {see the "many Thanks" card for an example} and stamp them how you want.

* It's cheaper and easier to store. Once you get a few good sizes of blocks, the stamp sets themselves are cheaper because you don't have to pay for the blocks every time.  Also, they come in these thin little envelopes...so small, so portable, so store-able!  Ahhh!

Of course, I had to get me some.  When my order comes in, I'll be sure to show you my first original creations in quite some time!  In the meantime, if you're interested, check out Lisa's business blog.  She just may be willing to do a little giveaway coming up here...stay tuned! 

And speaking of giveaways, don't forget One Artsy Mama is participating in TWO this week...if you haven't already entered to win one of my  Peas in the Pod necklaces at A Little Etsy Love or a Bird's Nest Necklace at Southern Scraps, what are you waiting for?  :)  There are only 15 entries so far for the Bird's Nest; good odds!  Well, hope you all have a great weekend, friends!  I'm off to get some much needed sleep since Little Crafter has been dealing with some nightmares lately that are keeping our whole family up at all hours...send a few prayers his way, would you?  Blessings!

Second Chances

Do any of you, my wonderful readers, like this bird's nest necklace?

Did any of you enter the giveaway I hosted last month but didn't win?  Or miss the giveaway altogether?  Here's your second chance!

Fonda, who is a talented jewelry maker {and stamper and card maker} herself, over at Southern Scraps is featuring this Artsy Mama's Etsy shop today!  Go check it out and you have the opportunity to enter her giveaway for one of my handmade Birds' Nest necklaces.  There's also a coupon code for 10% off anything in my shop.  The winner will get to choose the number and color "eggs" to personalize it...so get going!  Here are a few samples:

Good luck!

W.I.W.W.

So I've noticed that in the blogging world, there are a lot of people who post about "What I Wore Wednesday."  I've never done it before, first of all because I don't always look my finest on a Wednesday morning, and second, because I'm not sure the general public is super interested in my daily fashion.  But I do enjoy looking at other people's outfits, so maybe I'm wrong on that one.  Anyway, I decided to give it a try this week...in part because I've been too busy with Vacation Bible School to do much posting and also because I can't resist showing you my new favorite dress!

I got it on clearance at Express last week and it cost me less than $9.  I've been participating in an online survey group called e-rewards for awhile now, and basically they send you surveys, you can choose to answer them, and if you do, you get "rewards bucks" that you can cash in for real gift cards.  So far, I've earned two $25 gift cards to Express.  So, the dress came to a little over $33, and when I used one of my gift cards, that left me with an $8 and change balance.  Nice.  It's super comfy and I like that it can look either formal or more casual depending on how you accessorize it. 

Last night, I wore this when hubby and I went to a retirement dinner for one of the employees at his company.  I accessorized with the black chandelier earrings my friend Jess made me and my Popping Pink bracelet.  I got to wear my favorite dress and my favorite piece of jewelry at the same time...that's a win-win!

And while I have your attention, I can't resist showing you a picture of my sweet little VBS class...I just love these little guys!!!  They melt my heart.  Especially when they pray.