Last minute Valentine ideas

I just realized Valentine's day is on Tuesday.  I have Mason's class Valentines ready but I haven't thought about what to do for anyone at home!

I'm definitely going to create my own version of this card I saw on Pinterest for DH.   

source:  stylemepretty.com via Pinterest

I love the 'two halves make a whole' idea, but I'll use the red paper left over from my Superhero Valentines to create the half hearts and put them on a blank note card.  Then I'll write him a little love letter inside.  You could easily create something like this on your computer and then print it onto cardstock yourself.

Superhero Valentines

In October on Pinterest I saw cute little Hallowe'en packages to hand out at school that looked like Frankenstein, vampires and monsters.  I wasn't able to make them in time for Mason so I thought Valentine's Day would be a perfect time to try my own version.

Superhero Valentine

Mason is in a class full of boys so the whole Valentine's thing in the traditional spirit simply won't work, so what better than wishing them a 'Super' valentine with a superhero-inspired package!

The 1 Hour Tutu

We were invited to a Superhero & Princess party at the Boulevard club on Saturday.  Mason was VERY excited to have his Batman costume back that I made for Hallowe'en and then confiscated a couple days after (to keep it safe & in good condition!).

Avery was Robin for Hallowe'en and although I LOVE her costume, I thought it would be nice for her to be her own person this time rather than part of Mason's dynamic duo.

Princess Avery was pretty easy to put together, a pink bathing suit my mom picked up for her last year, a sweet faux fur shrug trimmed with satin that I found at Value Village, tights, her sparkly pink Tom's shoes that my sister-in-law to be got her for Christmas and a pink tutu. 

Pretty Initial Wall Art

I've been busy over the last week!  Between refinishing a table & chairs (which is becoming a chore rather than something fun because I keep running into snags...) and four different wall art projects I've barely had time to take pictures along the way let alone tell you about it :)

I promised myself that I would get some, hopefully all, of them posted over the next week.

Here's the first one, a pretty initial for Avery's room.

I was inspired by this - it's made with quarters and I LOVE it: 

justinesmith.net

I thought about replicating it with the letter A for an 'art wall' that I'm working on in her room.  Unfortunately, lack of time got the upper hand and I resorted to creating something sparkly and simple instead.  I also thought the block letter might be a little too modern for her very pretty room that has a slightly vintage feel to it.

Father's Day Present: We {love} You

I've been trying to get this project done for 2 weeks now :s  Part of the delay was due to some experimentation...  I seem to be having some difficulty getting ideas out of my head and, in this case, onto canvas.  And the other part is that I've started a handful of other projects and am feeling a little scattered about what to do next.  Good thing I have a deadline (Father's Day) for this one!

Originally I wanted to do a series of kid-bit foot/hand prints shaped like hearts that could be framed for Daddy's office inspired  by a friend who did something similar as a craft with her kids for Valentine's Day.  Unfortunately, I wasn't overly impressed with my creations and felt that they'd look pretty silly - plus I know that DH is more inclined to like pictures of the kids rather than imprints of their bits.  So I moved onto the next option, try a tutorial I'd bookmarked a while ago that shows how to use tissue paper to create photo-printed canvases.

Lamb Wall Art

My lovely friend M recently announced that she and her husband are pregnant with their second child.

With an invitation to dinner last night, I wanted to bring something with me to celebrate this new addition to their family. For good reasons, they have an affinity for lambs and so I knew this would be my starting point.

Planning Mason's 3rd Birthday - Gathering my thoughts...

We (Mason & I) had a discussion about his birthday which is coming up in September - I know, it's over 3 months away but those months go quickly! - and when given a bunch of options decided he wanted a super hero party.  More specifically Superman , Spiderman & Batman :)

Last night I spent a little bit of time looking up ideas for cakes and invitations and there are some great ones out there!  Clearly I'm going to have to incorporate red, blue, yellow and black... no problem (ha!)

Here are a couple cakes & invitations that are fantastic (but I saved the best for last... ):

source: greatwhitesnark.com

Baa Baa Black Sheep Toddler Backpack

I'm often inspired to create things when I can't find what I'm looking for in stores.  Last year I saw a little girl with a cute animal backpack and wanted something for my little guy.  When I couldn't find anything I liked I went to work creating my own.  At the time I was (and still am) in LOVE with felted wool and ended up creating about 10 different ones and gave a lot of them to family & friends as Christmas presents. 



My felted wool toddler backpacks

Everyone who's seen them has gone crazy over them but they're an insane amount of work - some of the faces alone take me 3-4 hours to do because they're all hand-sewn.  So I thought I'd test out an easier and faster craft felt version done entirely using the sewing machine.  I think it turned out pretty well!

My Baa Baa Black Sheep Toddler Backpack
(c) Jacs Of All Trades 2011

Wall Graphics - 3 DIY Options

I love Facebook.  It has allowed me to reconnect with fabulous people who I've met throughout the years.   One of those people is an old friend of mine from high school who just moved into a new house with his family. He sent me a quick message yesterday asking if I had any ideas/tips for painting on a kids wall.

Here are the three easiest ways that I know of:

1) Using a projector to create a mural

You can use one of the old-school projectors that your teachers used to use.  Or if you have a projector at work, you can hook it up to your laptop at home and project straight onto the wall that way too (this also skips the 'creating a transparency' step).

This is the least expensive method (provided you don't go out and buy a projector!) and the primary benefit is that you have complete control over the creative because you can use any image that you like.  The drawback is that it can take a lot of time if your mural/images are detailed and if you aren't comfortable painting it may seem a little daunting.

Hand-painted Birthday Card (no artistic skills required)

We had a birthday party yesterday morning and the night before I realized I hadn't made the card! I'm not an artist, my drawing and painting skills are pretty rudimentary but I try not to let that get in my way when I'm doing things!  This is my quick and non-artistic way to create a hand-painted card for a little boy.

Kid-Bits Craft: Handprint Flower Bags

I was at my friend 'A's place right before Mother's Day, she always has amazing ideas and she did this really cute craft with the kids that completely inspired me.
  

I love the idea of having a piece of your little ones with you, but it's hard to find ways to do it that don't look silly on a grown-up! 

Last Minute Mother's Day Gifts

I've been living in bookkeeping hell for the last while (it turns out our bookkeeper last year was horribly incompetent) and then found out this morning that the situation is worse than we thought.  In any case, my limited amount of free time to post fun things and to get ready for Avery's party is going to become even more limited (yikes!) but one of my sisters is coming to stay with us for a week (isn't that incredible?!) to watch the kids so that I can work on the bookkeeping thing... somehow I'll have to find time to get the rest done too although I know the postings will take a back seat to everything else, so my apologies in advance.

Since Mother's Day is only a day away I realized that I need make something for my Mom!  I tried a kid craft tonight based on a great idea that one of my friends came up with using kids' hands.  However, it's still in the beginning stages and I won't know if it worked until tomorrow.... which will be too late for you to try it too.  With that in mind, here are a couple ideas that I'll likely choose from if mine doesn't work out!

Fresh Flowers

Source:  stylehive.com

My mom loves flowers.  Rather than buying a bouquet and giving it to her straight from the store, I prefer to do a little rearranging and put it in a vase/container of my own.  It doesn't have to be a big bouquet, just a beautiful one.  (Ikea & Dollarama have pretty and inexpensive glass vases)

Planning Avery's 1st Birthday: Part 4 - Party Favours (Girls)

We have 5 little girls (not including Avery) ranging from 3 years to 6 years coming to the party.  I wanted to have party favours that would be equally appealing for all the girls and I think I've found the right mix.

For Mason's 1st birthday I put together little loot bags that I thought were cute.  In retrospect they were like any other party favour - trinkety toys in a bag that were fun for a couple minutes but would likely get thrown out when the kids got home.

Since then, I've tried to put more thought into what I pick out. For example last year I made personalized shirts for each little person who came to Mason's 2nd party.  I don't know if they got worn (!) but there was at least more time and effort put into them as well as a higher chance that they would be used afterwards.

For this party, I tried to do the same thing - choose party favours that have a little more intrinsic value.

Planning Avery's 1st Birthday: Part 3 - Invite Redesign & Monogrammed Napkins

Invite Update

After seeing the invites that I originally planned to use, DH told me didn't love them.  So I went back to the drawing board.  Just to be clear, if I'd decided to go ahead with the first ones, he would have accepted that.  But I really believe that being in a relationship includes respecting your partner's opinions and in this case, the party is being thrown by both of us for our daughter.  Plus, in the new design I was able incorporate my butterfly punch! 

The new (and final) invitations still incorporate all of the elements I wanted - polka dots, flowers & butterflies. They're still clean and simple although I think they have more of a traditional feel than what I was originally trying to create. 

Beautiful Easter Eggs

I was speaking with my mother yesterday and she mentioned how much she was looking forward to the long weekend coming up.  Somehow, I'd forgotten Easter was just around the corner!

Over a month ago I picked up an Easter Egg Decorating Kit but yesterday when the kids were having their nap I wondered if there were some other options that might be eggs-traordinary (sorry... had to!).  I had no idea how many wonderful ideas I would find.  It turns out that you don't have to settle for one or two colour sloppily dyed eggs.

Starting with the basics, as you may know there are two options for your eggs:
1) Hardboiled - if you plan to eat the eggs afterwards.
2) Blown (where the contents of a raw egg are removed so you're working on the hollow shell) - this allows you to keep your eggs indefinitely provided that they're stored properly each year.

If you're like me and have a hard time boiling eggs without them cracking - check out this guide from simplyrecipes.com.  Or, if you'd like to try blowing them out, here's a video from monkeysee.com that shows you how.

Egg Dyeing 101 (marthastewart.com) - These instructions are based on using blown eggs

Protect your work area with paper towels or newspaper. Mix 1 teaspoon of vinegar and 20 drops of food coloring (use more to intensify color) in 1 cup of hot water in a heatproof bowl, cup, or jar deep enough to let you submerge an egg completely.

To create different tints of a color, vary dipping times: Submerge eggs for less than 5 minutes for light colors, and leave the egg in for 10 minutes or more for deeper shades. Using tongs makes handling the eggs easy.

To make a two-color egg, dye the whole egg first in a light color, let dry for 15 minutes, and then submerge half into a darker color (this idea works best for hard-boiled eggs).

**Notice the egg drying rack! It's made of foam board (found at most dollar stores) & straight pins**

Stamp It.

The Lovely Miss 'M's Napkins

As we all know, I love personalizing anything and everything.  It feels indulgent and, if done properly, screams high end.  A wonderful friend of mine (we'll call her 'M') contacted me a month ago to discuss making stamped napkins for a bridal shower she was helping to put together.  I've used stamps in the past for making cards but haven't used them on napkins. 

Her vision was to have the bride's initials and the date of the shower on each napkin.  From my experience, there were 2 options.  Order one or make your own.

Printing on Chocolate & Cookies?!

I was on Facebook for a couple minutes while the kiddies were having lunch and one of the ads caught my eye for The Designer Cookie Boutique & Bakeshop. 

I've seen photos printed onto cakes, but I've never seen graphics like these printed onto cookies and chocolate!  There are a number of ideas on their site that are wonderful.

Planning Avery's 1st Birthday - Part 2: Invitations

I've been gathering materials and tools to create the invites for over 2 weeks now.  I finally sat down last night to finalize the design and think I've found the one I'm going to use.

My goal was to incorporate the dot, flower, butterfly theme of her cake-to-be and keep the feel pretty but still slightly modern & graphic.  I think it ended up feeling more vintage than modern! 

The Lost Art of the Hostess Gift

On Saturday one of my friends brought a hostess gift to our get-together.  I was so touched by her thoughtfulness that it made me start to think about how we ( I ) don't do things like that enough.  Small gestures that simply say 'thank you' for your time and your effort.  I especially like the idea of how much more special a gift like that becomes when it's made by the giver.

I took some time today to try to find a couple great handmade hostess gift ideas.  Here are the best ones (I think!).  When giving these types of gifts, I'm drawn to things that the recipient can use/consume or are useful in nature.   Each of the names are linked to a set of instructions that show you how to make them yourself.  I came up with a couple ideas of my own, but I'll save those for a future posting! 

Easter Buckets

I love Easter.  Easter egg hunts, chocolate, a long weekend and hanging out with your family.  Does it get any better?! 

I was in a store last week and bought a little basket ($7) for my daughter and a Spiderman bucket ($7) for my son with the intention of using them for Easter morning. 

When I got home I experienced a smidgen of buyer's remorse, not because of the cost but because I was sure I could do it better myself!