Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Creative Mamas Interview at Stillparenting
Monday, March 28, 2011
Gak! Slime! Goo! {Tutorial}
I admit, this is one of those projects that I've seen all of over the place and always thought "there's NO way in the world I'm making that disaster-in-the-making mess with my boys!" When this month's issue of Family Fun Magazine had a little blurb in it about DIY slime once again, I decided that maybe it wouldn't be such a nightmare now that my boys are a bit older. So we dove right in, and suddenly I'm the coolest mom EVER.
All you need to make your own slime is a 4 oz bottle of white glue, a small amount of Borax, some food coloring, and water.
Starting with a 1/2 cup of water in a bowl, add your entire bottle of glue.
Add your food coloring and mix well.
Heat 1 cup of water and add slowly add Borax 1 tsp at a time until it will no longer dissolve. I think we used about 4 tsp.
Pour your Borax mixture into the glue mixture and stir well.
It will immediate start clumping up. This is where I noticed that my boys had completely failed in the "mix well" directions I mentioned earlier, and we ended up with lumps of uncolored glue mixture in ours.
Drain off the excess water and smush it around in your hands for a few minutes until it is no longer sticky.
Stretch it, squeeze it, mash it...make bracelets out of it?
Oh, and those unmelted and uncolored glue lumps? The more we played with our slime, they completely dissolved into the goo. Phwew, craft crisis averted!
See? No more lumps! We put ours in a plastic zipper bag, and it has kept for a few days already in perfect condition. In fact, it kind of gets better with age!
It's extra stretchy now!
Smooth as can be!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Giveaway Time! Barberry & Lace Jewelry
A few weeks ago I decided to treat myself to something pretty, so I hopped over to Etsy and discovered the beautiful treasures being offered by Barberry & Lace. There were SO many pretty things that it took me for-evvvv-er to choose something!
I finally decided on the Tea Time Necklace, which is sort of perfect for me since I absolutely adore tea. Seriously, I've been drinking tea for as long as I can remember, and it conjures up memories of spending childhood weekends at my grandmom's house having tea parties with my sisters and cousins. I'm super nostalgic like that ;)
It was such a tough decision though...I mean, just look at a few of these amazing goodies that Barberry& Lace has to offer!
I'm totally loving this cute vintage-inspired owl ring!
The Love Letter Necklace is so sweet and perfect for wearing every day. Maybe someone I know *hint, hint* might want to get me this for our 10-year wedding anniversary coming up this Summer ;)
I looove this Eyeglass Necklace (but I feel like I'd be cheating on my Lasik surgery if I keep going back to my love for glasses!)!
Mix tapes and Karaoke...who wouldn't love this!?!
I always find myself attracted to beautiful Dragonfly necklaces, and this one is especially lovely!
So, to say thank you to all of my super awesome blog followers (we hit 200 followers this weekend!) Leigh of Barberry & Lace is giving one lucky reader ANY item in her shop (up to $25 value)! Whoever wins this is truly going to have so much fun picking out their prize - hopefully you're not as indecisive as I am! :)
TO ENTER:
Click on over to Barberry & Lace and tell me what item you'd choose if you win (have fun looking around!). Please make sure that you are a Mom's Crafty Space blog follower as well since that was the inspiration for this giveaway ♥
Bonus Entries: One additional entry will be given if you Like Mom's Crafty Space and/or Barberry & Lace on Facebook (please leave an additional comment).
Giveaway will close at 8:00 PM (PST) on Thursday, April 7th. Good Luck!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Wow, almost 200 followers! Thank you all so much! Seriously, you have no idea how excited it makes me that we have the opportunity to share our ideas with others. My own personal mantra is "Aspire to Inspire," and it truly makes my day when I read all of your wonderful comments and see photos that people send me of ways they've been inspired by us.
Just to say thank you to my follower friends, I have a fantastic giveaway in the works once we hit the 200 follower milestone. Stay tuned! :)
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Rainsticks {Tutorial}
The forecast is calling for a lot more wind and rain around here. Yuck! I usually don't mind the rain too much, but now that it's officially Spring I'm starting to miss the warmth of the sunshine. Just to keep with the rainy theme, we decided to craft some rainsticks out of cardboard tubes that we had left over from a roll of wrapping paper.
The boys chose to decorate their tubes by covering them in crayon and construction paper, but you could use anything, really - paints, glitter, yarn, rhinestones (hey, why not?). I figured that it wasn't going to be long before the rainsticks turned into swordplay, so I was happy to keep it fast and simple.
Everything is better with stickers.
Cap one end of your tube. You can make the cap look really clean and pretty by using a circle of paper and a gluestick, but again, I have boys that have been cooped up indoors for what seems like forever now. Rainstick sword fighting seems somewhat inevitable at this point. I sealed mine with Gorilla Tape ;)
Loosely crumple up a piece of aluminum foil that is slightly shorter than your tube, and insert it into the middle.
Pour about 1/2 cup of rice, birdseed, etc into your tube and seal the other end shut.
Turn it from side to side to listen to the sound of falling rain!
If we're going to have to listen to all this rain, we might as well make some noise of our own...if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Kids Cook! Crescent Roll Creations
(photo source)
At least once a week or so, we have a night that we call "Kids Cook!" The boys look at our menu board and get super excited to see Kids Cook! up there. The only rules to planning a Kids Cook! night is that the menu has to be easy, fast, and something that the kids will actually eat if they prepare it. This week we made a classic - Pilsbury crescent roll creations. You can stuff these with just about anything, but since it was Kids Cook! I let the boys choose our ingredients, and they picked ham, cheese and bacon bits.
First cut up all your ingredients, and pre-heat the oven to 350.
Next we opened our package of Pilsbury crescent rounds and flattened them directly on our lightly greased baking sheets. We actually end up using two packages of crescent rounds, but we made 8 stuffed rolls so that the boys would have leftovers for their school lunches.
Time to pile on your toppings!
Cover with another flattened roll, pinch the edges to seal, and bake for about 15 minutes.
Easy peasy!
Yes, this is the same picture at the top of the page. It came from here. Our finished rolls were obviously round and not rolled up like these ones, but I was in a hurry when photo-hunting. I'd show you our finished crescent roll creations, but let's just say that the result of Kids Cook!, two-toned fluorescent kitchen lighting and a lime green plastic plate didn't exactly make for the prettiest photo presentation LOL. Just enjoy this one instead, k? :P
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Coffee Filter Flowers {Tutorial}
I'm almost ashamed to admit that I've never attempted to make paper flowers before (isn't that a prerequisite for Crafting 101? How is it possible that I have never done this before?). When I recently saw some beautiful coffee filter flowers over at Homemade Serenity, I knew it was finally time for me to attempt to make some for myself.
Items Needed:
* Coffee filters
* Food coloring
* Trays, pans or bowls for dyeing the coffee filters
* Floral tape
* Floral wire or wooden skewers
I started by filling foil pans with hot water and adding food coloring to create varying shades of similar colors. I created three shades of yellow/orange for my yellow flowers (since I wanted them to look more natural) and three shades of blue/violet for my blue flowers (so they would look a little more funky and colorful). I found that adding a little glug of vinegar to each pan helped the filters to take on a more intense color. I dyed about 15 of each color at a time.
Spread the dyed filters out on to an old towel to dry. The food coloring can stain clothing, so be sure you're using old towels and not wearing your most favorite clothing...just in case!
Each completed flower will use five coffee fiters: One of the darkest color (for the center of the flower), two of the mid-range color, and two of the lightest color (for the outer petals). Fold and cut as shown above. You will also want to cut a tiny bit off of the bottom folded tip to create a small hole in the center of the coffee filter (this is where you will insert your floral wire or skewer).
Starting with the darkest color, tape each layer of petals to your floral wire or skewer. If you use a wood skewer, continue to wrap the entire length with floral tape after attaching your final layer of petals.
Fluff and admire!
Fluff and admire!
My five-year-old made me a rainbow flower ♥
It makes me smile :)
So simple and cheery! It's starting to feel more like Spring around here every day!
