Latest Anthro Knockoff

Today, I'm excited to be guest posting over at A Girl and Her Craftbox!

Erin has graciously let me take over her blog for a day to share with you my latest Anthro Knockoff Jewelry attempt.  Here's the inspiration piece and my finished product:

{Anthro}                                                                       {mine}

Come on over to see the full tutorial and learn how to make your own!

delicate CONSTRUCTION

I'm famous!  Well, not really, but Michelle over at delicate CONSTRUCTION is interviewing me today!

I've been following her blog for awhile now and it's one of my favorites.  Not only does she have a fun linky party on Fridays where I get lots of crafty ideas, she has one of my favorite link parties on Mondays too which is called "Made by Little Hands Monday."  It's totally devoted to projects and activities for kids, which is the perfect place for me to get inspiration for things that Little Crafter and I can do together.  Michelle also celebrates the Jewish holidays as well as the Christian ones like we do, so I'm totally stealing some of her ideas for Passover next year!  I'd love for you to hop over to her blog and read my interview today!  I'm pretty sure you'll love delicate CONSTRUCTION as much as I do.

Have a great one!

Lunch Dates and Milkshakes

This year, the Summer Reading Program at our local library is giving kids tickets each time they log 50 minutes of reading time.  The children then get to use their tickets to enter one of several prize drawings for things like mini-golf passes, movie passes, Toys R Us gift cards, and horseback riding lessons.  A few weeks ago, we got a call saying that Noah had won two tickets to see the Grammy nominated Milkshake Duo in concert at our local Arts Center on Thursday, July 21st.

Noah was beyond excited to have won a prize, and we decided to make an all-day Mama & Noah date out of it.  Here we are, all dressed up and ready to go.  He actually picked out that shirt for today...honest.

We started out by having a lunch date at Panera.

{I have to insert a funny story here...while we were eating, Noah accidentally kicked me under the table.  He then thought it was hilarious and started kicking on purpose.  I said, "Hey!  No kicking!  That's not how to behave on a date, silly boy.  If your daddy had kicked me when we were dating, I wouldn't have married him!"  At which point the couple at the table next to us burst out laughing.  I guess Noah isn't the only one who needs to use a better indoor voice.}

Anyway, after lunch, we went to Michaels to make the craft of the day, which was a Grecian-inspired decorated flowerpot...he got to paint the pot blue and stick square 'mosaic tiles' made of adhesive foam all over it.  We followed that with a 'treat date' at Starbucks where we read a book and Mama got her beloved Mocha Coconut Frappucino, and finally it was concert time!

The one and only fail of the whole date was that poor Little Crafter wasn't heavy enough to hold the auditorium style seat down, so it started to fold up on him almost as soon as he sat down...it reminded me of the Charlie Brown Christmas movie when Marcie gets folded up and her feet are sticking out...:)  Anyway, he sat on my lap, which was perfectly fine with me. 

I wasn't sure what to expect because I have to confess, I'd never heard of the Milkshake Duo before we won the tickets.  But boy were we in for a treat!  Mikel and Lisa were funny, talented, energetic, and engaging.  They had all kinds of ways to interact with the kids in the audience, including sending about a dozen inflated balls out during a baseball song, dumping yellow confetti off the stage during a song about a jarful of sunshine, and having the kids follow Lisa around the auditorium during a song about the Love Train.  Noah was glued to the stage.  He wanted to go down to the front to catch confetti, he participated in the train, and at the end, all the kids got to go up on stage and dance with Mikel and Lisa to a Milkshake Rock song.  It was absolutely priceless seeing him dance up there.

After the show, he got to meet the stars and he asked me to buy him a CD so that he could listen to the songs "every day and every night."  I willingly obliged, since unlike most children's music I've heard, the Duo doesn't make me want to jump out of a moving vehicle {which I've threatened to do more than once while being forced to listen to Larry the Cucumber singing praise songs in his ridiculous voice}.  In fact, I actually enjoyed their music myself.  They have several CD's out, so we picked the one that had the most songs I thought he'd recognize from the concert {and the ones I liked the best: "Bottle of Sunshine," "Boom Boom," "Space Song," and "ABC of Me"}.  I also particulary liked "Go Wild," "Baseball," and "When I'm Old," which are featured on other albums.  I'm thinking maybe we'll ask for another CD for birthday or Christmas since he really seemed to like the music a lot.

All in all it was a fantastic day.  Lunch, crafts, coffee, and a concert...all with my favorite little man.  What more could an Artsy Mama ask for?  Hope your day was a Bottle of Sunshine too.

Nautical Necklace & Crystal Heart Necklace

As I've been gearing up for the "Life's A Beach" series next week, I couldn't help wanting to make a few nautical themed projects myself!  I saw a necklace similar to this on Etsy and decided to give it a try.

NAUTICAL NECKLACE

Materials: 26 gauge wire, flat shell-like beads, jump rings and clasp, pliers and cutters

First cut four strands of wire the length you want your necklace to be plus about six inches.  I didn't measure, I wrapped it around my neck, allowed an extra 6" and cut.  Then, string your beads one at a time and wrap your wire once or twice around each one to hold it in place.  They're not perfectly spaced so that it has a more random look.  When you've placed beads on all 4 pieces of wire, secure them around one jump ring on each end.  Then add a clasp, and enjoy!

I also have another necklace project up my sleeve...it's not beach themed but I thought you might enjoy it!

CRYSTAL HEART NECKLACE

Materials: 12 gauge aluminum wire, 26 gauge wire, 7 small crystals, jump ring, pliers and cutters

STEP 1: Using needle nose pliers, curl wire into a small loop.

STEP 2: Decide how tall you want your heart to be.  Go down the wire that far and make a loop in the opposite direction.

You can flatten it down with pliers.

STEP 3: Curl the other end of the wire down in a loop to form the second side of the heart.

There's no exact science to it, each one you make will look slightly different...that's what makes it art!

STEP 4: Wrap 26 gauge wire around the larger side of the heart several times.  String a crystal and wrap around the heart once.  String another and wrap, repeating until all seven beads are secure.  Wrap wire several times and cut.

STEP 5: Add jump ring and chain.

You can also make it a more simple necklace by leaving off the crystals and just wearing the heart.

Another option is to make the heart with thinner gauge wire if you like a more delicate look; this is 20 gauge.

You can customize it using any color or combination of colored crystals, even using family birthstones if you like.  What do you think?

I'm thinking of adding these to Etsy...which reminds me, don't forget to enter the giveaway for a $25 gift certificate to my Etsy shop found over at Crayon Freckles!  Only 15 entries so far...your chances are good! :)

Have a great day!

These are a few of my favorite things...

So, Julie Andrews might love raindrops on roses {which are pretty indeed} and whiskers on kittens {which just make me sneeze}, but I have a few favorite things of my own.  One of which is...

 Football. 

So we were thrilled to hear that the lockout is over!! 

Are you ready for some football?!

We sure are.  You probably already know that at this house we bleed purple.  Even Elmo wore a jersey last season when the Ravens were in the playoffs...it's that serious.  We're quite upset about the four big cuts that were announced yesterday; I'm putting off telling Noah that his very favorite player {Heap} got the boot until we know for sure whether he'll resign a new, cheaper contract.  Here's hoping!  In the meantime, I am super excited about this awesome score I got at the mall today...a Ravens swimsuit!  I've had the same suit since 2006. 

Don't get me wrong; it's a nice one: it's black and it has a little skirt to hide my big thighs {the life of a dancer}, but sometimes when we go to the beach it would really be nice to have a second suit for when the first one is still wet.  Ugh...isn't it gross trying to put on a wet swimsuit?  I technically do have a black bikini that I bought and wore the summer I was pregnant with Noah because I didn't want to pay for a maternity suit, but post-baby I refuse to wear it. :)  Partially because the year I did, I got a major, painful, lobster-esque sunburn that covered my entire {pregnant} stomach...and I was afraid I had cooked my baby. 

{Yes, I googled it to make sure he was okay.}

All that to say, I was in the market for a new suit.  I thought I'd snap something up cheap since everything would be on clearance.  Trouble is, there's nothing left.  Just odds and ends; tops that don't match bottoms and vice versa, a major lack of sizes, and really hideous looking things.  My mom was shopping with me, and she literally loves to pull the ugliest thing off the rack and hold it up like she's serious just to see the face I make.  I've always suspected this and today she finally admitted it.  After five stores and lots of terrible faces, I finally landed at Sears where we found this:

Oh. Yes.  And it was surprisingly reasonable for being NFL merchandise.  The swimsuit, of course, reminds me of another of my favorite things...

the beach!

Which is why I'm super excited about the series I'm running next week featuring all kinds of fun beachy projects from some of my favorite bloggers.  Recipes, home decor, decorated flip flops, cards...all kinds of goodies!  So be sure to stop by all week and check out the featured project of the day.  Tomorrow, to get us in the mood, I'll be posting about this little beauty I made.

...and finally, speaking of our fabulous guest posters, there's one more favorite thing I want to mention today:

bloggy buddies and giveaways!

My fabulous friend Andi over at Crayon Freckles just reached 101 followers {yay, Andi!} and is celebrating by hosting a giveaway.  The prize is a gift certificate to...my etsy shop!  So if you've been eyeing up a bird nest, some peas in a pod, or maybe a birthstone necklace, head on over and enter yourself in the contest!  All you have to do is follow my blog and Andi's, check out the etsy shop, and tell Andi what you'd buy with your gift certificate.  Last time I checked, the entries were still in the single digits, so why not give it a shot? Good luck!

Hope you all have a day full of your favorite things!

How Did She Do That?

You may have noticed that a few weeks ago, I managed to neatly shrink the buttons on my sidebar that show places I've been featured and places I party each week.  I was thrilled with the result because once you get a certain number of those, they just take up so much space and don't look nice and tidy at all.  I wish I could take credit for figuring out how to do it, but alas, I googled something along the lines of "How to shrink blog buttons" and I found a nifty little tutorial that stepped me right through.  I thought I'd share what I learned in case any of you are wanting to do the same thing!

Here's all you have to do.  Each button has its own code.  For example, here's mine.

<center><a href="http://oneartmama.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc86/dancers4life/backpink4.jpg"/></a></center>

To shrink it, you just have to add this code: width="40%"

Here's where it goes:

<center><a href="http://oneartmama.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src=http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc86/dancers4life/backpink4.jpg width="40%"/></a></center>

You just have to go into the code for each button you have listed and add that nifty little piece.  Be sure to pay attention to the rest of the code because if any of the buttons specify the height or width, {something like height="150"}, you'll have to delete that.  Also, to make them line up nicely, take out any and all <center>s except for one at the very beginning of your list and one at the very end.

Hope that helps!  If you're trying to do it and have any questions, send them my way!

Two Funny

The terrible twos. 

Everyone warned me about them.  But you know what?  We're just 16 days away from Noah's 3rd birthday and we have yet to experience them.  Sure he has occasional meltdowns from time to time, but hey, so do I.  Overall, he's a happy, playful, loving, crafty little guy and I have loved two.  Why?  Because he can do so many more things!  This year, his vocabulary went from about 9 words to more than I can count.  And every holiday since Halloween has been the most fun one yet with him because of his ability to understand and participate in all the activities.  Most of all, though, I've loved getting a glimpse into his mind as he's more able to express his thoughts and feelings and to actually be funny!  I just have to share with you two stories from yesterday; you'll see what I mean.

A Noah by Any Other Name...

A few weeks ago, hubby said to Noah, "I love you, Little man."  Noah promptly responded, "I love you, Big Man."  Noah enjoyed having special nicknames for each other and decided I needed one too.  My wonderful hubby decided mine should be "Pretty Mama,"...they're too kind!  So, we repeatedly have this conversation at dinner time.

Daddy: "I love you Little Man Noah."

Noah: "I love you Big Man Daddy."
Mama: "I love you Little Man Noah."
Noah: "I love you Pretty Mama."

Cute, huh?  It gets even better.  Yesterday, we were going through our usual routine, and when I got to my line, Noah stopped me and said:

Noah: "Don't say that again, Mama."

Mama: "Say what again?"

Noah: "Little man Noah."
Mama: "Why not?"

Noah: "Don't say it."

Mama: "What should I say then?"

Noah: "Cute Noah."

What can I say, the kid's a genius!  He figured out that 'cute' was a better counterpart to 'pretty.'  Wow.

Now, here's my favorite....

A Tale of Two Cinnamon Rolls

For breakfast every Sunday, I make a package of Pillsbury Reduced Fat Cinnamon Rolls.  We like a lot of icing around here, so I only frost 7 of them so they're extra yummy.  Usually, we each eat two, then Daddy and Noah fight over split the last one.  Yeah, I know.  Noah eats more breakfast than I do.  Anyway, yesterday, Dan and I had finished eating and Noah was about halfway through his second roll.  I decided I was going to go outside and water my herbs since we're having a ridiculous heat wave lately.  Noah wanted to come and help, so I told him we'd do it after he finished eating.  At that point we had this conversation:

Noah: "I'm all done!"

Mama: "What about your cinnamon rolls?"

Noah: "I want Daddy to eat them."
Mama: "Are you sure?  Don't you want them?"
Noah: "No, I want Daddy to eat them.  I want to water herbs."

Mama: "We can wait until you're all finished..."
Noah: "No, I'm all done."

So, out we went with watering can in hand.  We came back in the house, and Noah ran to the table to find that his roll, plus the half a roll we'd saved for him if he wanted it, were both gone.

Noah: "Where's my finnamon roll?"

Daddy: "Um..." {guilty look}

Noah: "I want to eat it."

Daddy: "You said Daddy should eat it."

Noah: "I WANT MY FINNAMON ROLLLLLLL!"

Yeah.  It wasn't a pretty sight.  Poor hubby felt horrible.  We got him calmed down, though, and tried to explain that Daddy hadn't done anything wrong.  He snacked on a few Gerber puffies and peace was restored.  But it wasn't over yet.  Later in the day, Noah was playing and we announced that it was time for lunch.  Noah imediately put down the train in his hand, closed his eyes, and said:

"Dear Jesus, please help Daddy not to eat my lunch.  Amen."

Meanwhile, my Little Crafter has close to 80 votes in the Gerber Generation milestones contest.  The cutie pie with the most votes from each "milestone" group will win...at first I thought there was no way we had a chance since over 150,000 people entered photos, but today as I browsed through the gallery, I didn't see any other preschoolers with as many votes as Noah has.  Granted, I couldn't possibly look at them all, so there may be others out there with more votes, but would you consider voting for Noah just in case?  You can vote one time every day for the next week.  Click on the photo or click here.  You do have to be a US citizen to vote {sorry Terry and Janelle...I love ya anyway!}.



And the Winner is...ME!

On Friday, I got an email from my bloggy friend andi jaye over at Crayon Freckles, letting me know that she was giving me an award!  Here is is...get ready to ooooh and aaaah! ;)

I hadn't heard about this award before receiving it, but according to andi's post, the Liebster Blog Award most likely originated in Germany and is an award used to highlight smaller blogs (defined as those with less than 300 followers).

The Liebster Award is one you accept with the intention of paying it forward. When you accept the award, choose 3-5 other blogs that you feel deserve more followers, and pass the word on to them.
I really like this concept because a lot of the ladies I follow are just getting started and I wish that more people out there knew about them because of all the amazing, fantastic, creative ideas they have to share!

The blogs {and bloggers} I've chosen to award are:

Creative Carmella {Carmella}
These Peas Taste Funny {Terry}
Joy in the Jumble {Amanda}
After accepting the award, you're also supposed to share 7 things the blogging world doesn't know about you, so here they are...

1. When I was in high school, I was part of an award-winning showchoir.  During our competition in NYC, we got to dance in the Rockettes' practice room in Radio City Music Hall.  Hence my obsession with Glee...

2. I hate it when people eat things off of my plate.  When we were dating, hubby snatched a pickle off my plate and took a bite. He's never done it again.

3. I sleep with a stuffed elephant named Peanut that hubby bought for me when we were dating.  In 11 years, I've only gone one night without him and that's because he missed getting packed for an overnight trip.  This online photo shows what he looked like new...you should see my poor well-loved friend...

4. I hate having to buy storebought greeting cards.

5. One of my greatest {and irrational} fears is flying.  Which in turn caused one of my greatest regrets, which was missing the wedding of one of my best friends.

6. When I was in 4th grade, I won the school spelling bee and got a cool bee shaped trophy.

7. My absolute favorite dance is the Argentine Tango...I think it's the sexiest dance ever and I wish I knew more of it.

 

Well, thanks, andi for the honor...and I hope you do go and check out her blog as well as the three I've passed this on to!  I'm sure you'll enjoy them as much as I do!

Beyond the Fridge

As you know, Little Crafter is an artist of many talents.  The trouble comes when he wants us to display ALL of his work.  Our refrigerator is constantly getting new pictures and projects all over it, which then get cycled into his portfolio for safekeeping.  Others of his masterpieces, like his canvas paintings, get the honor of living on one of the walls.  But I've got something even better to share with you today...I've figured out how to wear my favorite Noah-art!!

Remember the ring I showed you how to make yesterday using sheet music and Mod Podge Dimensional Magic?  Well, I tried out a little variation...

Instead of using sheet music like I did the first time, I printed out a tiny photo of one of Noah's masterpieces.  The original was a 6x6 canvas that hangs near our front door.

I used my photo editor to shrink it to a 1" x 1" square and printed it out on photo paper.  Then, I followed the same steps as the first time.  {For a full tutorial, click here.}  I still had the cutout oval window from the original ring, so I just used that to trace over the picture.  I Mod Podged it in place, then added Dimensional Magic over top and impatiently waited for it to dry.

When I showed Noah and explained to him that it's his artwork, you should have seen how excited and proud he was.  His little chest visibly puffed up and he grinned and said, "Mommy, I want you to wear it EVERY day and EVERY night!"  Maybe, little man.  Maybe I just will.

Dimensional Magic

As you know, I have a crafty love affair with Mod Podge.  It's like duct tape, you can find a million uses for it!  From Noah's crafts to my own projects, I feel like I'm constantly applying it.  {Wish it smelled better!}

Anyway, there's a semi-new and very exciting Mod Podge product out there...Dimensional Magic.

Like its predecessors, it can be used in a variety of ways to accent all kinds of different projects, but my favorite use for it is in jewelry making.  I had seen several pictures and posts where other people had done some very cool things with it and was just itching to try it myself.  Here's my first attempt:

DIMENSIONAL MAGIC RING

Materials:

sheet music or your choice of decorative paper

ring base {available for $3.99 at Michaels}

Mod Podge Dimensional Magic

scissors, pencil



STEP 1: Choose your decorative paper or sheet music.  I actually downloaded mine for free.  You can use basically anything, but if you want lots of little notes and both clefs, you should look for classical music designed for piano.  Since I started playing the piano at the age of 3, music is very meaningful to me and I wanted to choose something that I had a connection with rather than a random piece.  I selected my very favorite classical piece to play, Chopin's Waltz in F minor, Op. 70, No.2.  I learned it in college under the instruction of an amazingly talented professor and I just love the sound of it.

STEP 2: Use a scrap piece of paper to trace and cut out the correct size and shape to fit your jewelry base.  Then, trace that onto another piece of paper and cut it out as a "window."

STEP 3: Trace the window onto your sheet music or scrapbook paper.  This allows you to see just what will be in the oval, rather than trying to guess.

STEP 4: Cut out shape and use a thin coat of regular Mod Podge to adhere it in the jewelry base.

STEP 5: Fill base with Dimensional Magic and let dry for at least 3 hours.

At this point, I realized that it was going to be tricky finding a way to sit the ring down and let it dry while remaining flat...here's what I came up with. ;)

The hardest part was being patient and not touching it while it dried...

Here's the end result!

 Because it was just thin regular computer paper, when the Mod Podge made it wet, it picked up some of the pattern from the back of the ring itself...see the gray dots?  But you know what?  I love that!  I think it adds texture and some antique-ness to it.  I chose not to tea stain the music because I didn't want the yellowed look, but I really like the effect this gave.

I. love. it.

I have a new obsession.

What do you think?  Should I add some of these to Etsy?  Of course, now you know how to make your own...:)