Homemade Moon Sand

Oh man, was this a hit. You've seen Moon Sand, right? That wonderful, colorful, messiful (yes) kids' sand that clumps together for easy molding, but is soft and fun to squeeze?

Well, I made some at home, y'all. Much to the delight of my kiddos.

And it took all of 5 minutes.

The recipe is 8:1 flour to vegetable oil (or canola, or even baby oil). I used two cups of flour to 1/4 cup (and some change -- I wanted it a little clumpier) oil. Literally all you do is dump the oil on the flour and mix with a whisk. Period. Done. Game over.

The results?

Hit.

OK, so she wasn't sure of it at first.

SUPER HERO!

Make it happen, Flash.

Don't worry about her. She totally got into it.

Give it a try! I just used a milk carton and a water jug, cut in half, but I'm storing it in tupperware. Great, easy project!

Easy Sand Dough Ornaments

I think we've found our new Christmas tradition!

Best shot I have -- the kiddos haven't painted theirs yet!

Sand dough ornaments!

A friend of mine gave me the recipe, and honestly? This was one of the easiest and most well-received crafts I've done with the kiddos. They think they're cookies, but the dough comes together MUCH quicker than any cookie recipe I've ever used. Plus, it was really two crafts in one -- first, making, cutting the dough, then painting/coloring after they've dried.

Ready for the step-by-step? You got it.

1. Mix together 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt and 1 cup warm water until the dough looks like a pie crust.
2. Place the dough on a well-floured surface and roll out to 1/4" thick. If you do it too thin, it may break easier once dry and will also NOT hold up to a handprint.
3. Cut out whatever shapes you have on hand with cookie cutters and place the shapes on a Pammed (I verbed Pam) cookie sheet.
4. Use a straw to poke a hole through each ornament and remove the center. This is where the ribbon will go after you paint to hang on the tree.
5. Bake for 6 hours at 200 degrees. Let cool overnight, then paint, marker, color away!

If you want these to last years, clear coat them with polyurethane.

Fun! 

Wax-Dipped Pine Cones

Remember when I said I had a special idea in mind for these?

Well, I finally got around to finishing the craft. Over the summer, my family and my husband's mom/brother/grandmother/aunts/cousins/foreverandeveramen went to the lake.

It was a bittersweet trip, as it ended up being the last that we'd spend with my husband's Aunt Lori.

Because we knew at the time that things weren't going the way we'd hoped they would for her, I wanted to do something special to remember the trip. While we were there, I spent quite a while scouring the ground for perfectly shaped pine cones. I had an idea for small gifts for the family.

Originally, I thought these would make great additions to Christmas presents, but I decided to make them as "Just Because" presents instead.

My mom died when I was 20. I was a sophomore in college and it blindsided me. We didn't have a fantastic relationship -- we hardly had one at all. But it was still really hard. Unexpectedly hard.

My mom & dad in the late 1970s.

Two months before she died was the last time I saw her. It was Christmas and she gave me two dollar store candles. I remember being mad that she gave me cheap candles -- especially because they weren't scents I liked (Apple Pie and Cinnamon Spice). How horrible of me. Absolutely horrid, childish behavior.

When she died, I kept the candles on my desk. Each time I moved after that -- from a dorm to an apartment, to my next apartment with fewer roommates, to my own apartment in Oklahoma, to this house where I've started my family -- I've kept the candles out.

I burn them whenever the loss is particularly acute. When my kids have a new adventure and I wish I could tell her about it. When I dream of her and wake up lonely.

I wanted to do the same for her family with these tokens from the lake trip. I melted scented tea candles (Apple Pie and Cinnamon Spice) on a double boiler over high heat, then dipped the pine cones in the wax and sprinkled them with sugar.

Whenever the mood strikes, you just throw one of these in the fireplace. The wax will melt and smell wonderful and the sugar will spark around the pine cones until it burns off.

I hope these pine cones are, in a small way, the same comfort for everyone this first Christmas without Lori as the candles have been for me.

Christmas Ornament Wreath

So, we had the crafting day yesterday and it was a lot of fun! I meant to take pictures while I was there, but it didn't happen ... too much chicken salad dip and chickpeas.

My favorite thing we made was this:

A Christmas ornament wreath! I know technically I should have filled in the gaps with smaller ornaments, but I got frustrated with the glue gun and just stopped.

All you do is take a wire hanger and form it into a circle, then string the balls along the hanger until it's full and pretty -- and oh, so festive!

Also, I made a few more makeup bags:

So excited for Christmas!

Zippered Makeup Bag

Zippered makeup bags. Love. I first saw this here.These are so easy, and I'm obsessed with making them. Hello, Christmas presents.

Want to see?

Of course you do.

She made them with the intention of using them as pencil bags. Not being a student, I immediately saw travel makeup bag.

I talk so much about HobLob, you'd think I owned the place. If I did, I'd have a much bigger house.

BUT -- I got everything I needed for these gems at HobLob. I bought a $.25, 9"x12" piece of brown felt, and a 1/4 yard of this fabric (on sale for $1.22), which gave me enough for two of these bags with scraps left over. You could certainly use any scrap you have laying around in that size. Or patched pieces of scraps. Or an old skirt. These are just my ideas ... :)

For $1.99, I bought the zipper, and the charms came in a 2-pk for $1.47. Basically, these are cheap. Less than $5 for each one.

Hello, Tarte powder. I love you. Never leave me, OK?

Really, really easy. Check out her site for the full tutorial. I'm a fan.

Today I'm having a craft night with some of my favorite friends. We've got a whole host of ideas of things to make.

Wait until you see what I do with these beauties I picked up from our summer lake trip to eastern Oklahoma.

Get excited!

Christmas Ornaments!

So I posted this earlier, and promised to have more. Honestly? There isn't much more to tell!

I went to HobLob and bought a 9-pk of pink mini-tree ornaments for $2 (their Christmas decorations are discounted 50% off!). I found the candy cane and candy piece for $2/ea at Target. They have a lot of colors, so you can mix and match. I loved the blue and pink, though, so I went for it.

To the back of each of these ornaments, I hot glued one round (strength level 6) magnet I bought for $1.99 at HobLob. The pack had 8 magnets. I only ended up using 6 of the pink balls, so I'd have enough for the candy pieces.

I love them. They're really cute and strong, so they can actually hold things on the fridge. The kiddos loved helping me, and are both so excited to already have Christmas flair hanging up :)

Fridge Magnet Teaser ...

This is what the kiddos and I have been up to this weekend.

Just a cellphone shot. More to come!

Glitter-Painted Vase!

Hello, Christmas planning!

I'm pinning things like crazy in preparation for Christmas. I'm hoping to get together with a few of my crafty friends to make a ton of excellent presents for the holiday, and am PUMPED!

I was a little too excited ... and started testing out a few ideas.

Here's one :)

I started with a $2 vase I bought from Goodwill. It was already painted white, but had several scratches.

From HobLob, I used a 40% off coupon to get this silver glitter spray paint for 1.99.

Then I took some yarn I had lying around the house and swirled it around the vase, and tucked/tied it in to secure it. Next time, I'm going to use rubber bands instead in varying thicknesses.

After it was wrapped, I spray painted it and set it outside to dry.

It's kind of hard to tell (excellent camera alert!), but the effect is really pretty. It looks frosted and snowy and perfect for winter!

Whee!

Quick Wreath

Just a quick project I did to replace the wreath I made a few months ago and haven't ever liked.

I bought these at HobLob for $3.99/each. They were 40% off this week, though, so awesome!

They're supposed to be candle decorations, which would have been adorable, too, but I cut each leaf off the round and hot glued the crud out of a Styrofoam wreath ($4.99 at HobLob, plus 40% off coupon) to make:

Won't lie. It's not done. It definitely needs some bling or ribbon ... something.

But it's much better!

Ruffle Tank Top!

I made a quick little ruffle tank top for my little girl tonight. Took about a half an hour -- but if you're more experienced, it would probably take a LOT less.

Have you been to WalMart lately? They have super cheap tanks -- $2.50. Earlier this summer, I MAY have bought one ... of each color.

I've done a few things to several of them, but I still have a few left that are plain. With summer coming to a close soon (soon, right? Yes? Please?), I wanted to doll up the rest since they won't fit my little weed next year.

I started with this:

Just a plain tank with a piece of scrap fabric (7" long x 5" tall) and cut in in half longways. Then I used my sewing machine to sew a strip down the center of each piece like this:

Then, I gently pulled the bottom string to ruffle the material. Make sure you don't pull the thread all the way out from the other side or you'll have to redo this step. One, two or three frustrating times.

Sew each side down after ruffled to keep it in the shape you want:

Then I sewed each ruffled strip to the sleeves along the center ruffle strip and across the bottom hem.

And I finished with buttons! I've loved these buttons and am sad to see them go. I think the bag was $4.99 at HobLob, but I got them 50% off. So in total, the shirt cost about $5 if you had to buy all the items. But you could easily use any scrap material on had and any shirt. If you didn't want to use them across the sleeves of a tank, you could decorate the bottom of the shirt with longer strips or across the front of the shirt.

I think she'll like it! Quick and easy -- love those types of projects!

My Next Craft

Guys, I'm so excited about my next craft!!

Scrabble Tile Pendents!

You can do so many cool things with this! If anyone else tries it before I get to, let me know how it goes!

Wall Art, Redo

One of my oldest and dearest friends is having her second baby -- and her first girl. She's naming her Alayna Sue and I am beyond excited for her. Mainly because I was there when she was a little girl and I know what she was like. And much like her mother, I really, really can't wait until Stacy gets a dose of herself. Love you, Stace!

So I went back to HobLob and bought the last clearanced frame that I used for my daughter's room. But I wanted to do something softer for this little, bitty baby girl.

I came up with this:

Aren't those buttons adorable?? This was a little more expensive since I needed to buy the letter (1.99) and the buttons (1.99). But I used the same white paint I used on my daughter's wall art for Alayna's letter and fell in love with the background paper.

Honestly? I think I like this one more than the one I did for my girl. But that's OK. I can always tweak hers. And this one is going to a special friend and her special girl. I'm so excited for her to see it!

Oh, I just added this to my first linky party!

Wall art for my little lady

I've been hitting up HobLob's clearance aisles hardcore lately. They have TWO 90% off areas and while most of it is broken, some of it is awesome.

Like the 18" x 24" dark cherry wood frame I got -- WITH GLASS intact? Oh, did I mention -- it was $3? Yeah. That kind of awesome.

But I also got this:

But I don't have a baby whose name starts with a Z. I don't know anyone who has a baby who starts with a Z. So ... I decided to buy this thing because the frame was beautiful and the ribbon so sweet. BUT ALSO because it typically cost $12 and I got it for $1.20.

I mean, come on.

So, I took it home and did a little of this:

With the help of a small paring knife, I popped off two sides of the frame and the backing, took off the Z (but I kept it. I don't know why. It's just pretty and I'm a little bit of a craft hoarder.).

Then I used these:

To turn it into this:

Look at my sweet girl two years ago! Sniff ...

I used a hot glue gun to affix the scrapbook paper (50% off .44) to the back of the wood. In retrospect, I should have bought some spray adhesive, but the glue gun worked. I just did the outside to avoid seeing bumps.

Then I painted the wood circle (30% off .50 cents, ya'll!) a sweet cream color called Magnolia White ($1.19). Doesn't that sound lovely?

When the paint was dry, I used the hot glue again and put in the center of the wood. With the leftover scrapbook paper, I glued a circular piece to the top of the wood. I'm not sure I love this idea, but, it's OK.

I taped on the picture of my girl so I can switch it out whenever. I think she'll like it. She was asleep when I finished it, but was able to hang it and sneak a picture while the little lady slept.

Here it is on her wall:

I like it! The bow's off center, but heck, that's OK with me. If you guys can make it to HobLob, go! This whole thing cost me $3 and took maybe 20 minutes. You can't beat that.













Just added this to a linky party!

For Someday

Eventually I want to have baby #3. Not anytime soon. But eventually.

And when I do, just in case I need to refashion a carseat, I found this great tutorial.

Anyone who's expecting a baby and needs it, GO HERE!

So. Cute.

The Tale of the Sandbox

I got it in my head that my kids needed a sandbox. Being the type of crafter who never uses power tools, has never worked with wood or knew anything about building, I also thought I should be the one to make it. From scratch.

Armed with a rudimentary grasp on how to measure twice, cut once and a husband with access to a large shop, the sandbox went from idea to reality.

Hi Lowe's! Hi intimidating wood pile!

We bought four planks of 6" x 8' x 2" wood, two large sheets of plywood, screws and four planks of 4" x 8' x 1" wood and set to work. We didn't have a good saw to cut wood, but my husband, who builds custom chassis for fun, has lots of metal-working tools. So we used those on the wood. Which made the shop smell like burning wood, which, had it not been summer, might have been nice. 

I wanted the box to be large enough for our kids to grow into and also allow room for their friends to play with them. So, 6' x 8'. I also wanted to have an umbrella in the corner so they could have some shade and a small table for snacks, drinks, etc.

This is what came of that:

Not bad!

So big we had to use a forklift to put it on the car!

I took pictures of the sandbox after I painted it, but my phone deleted them. The blue is the color on my front door, and the green is a wonderful shade that reminds me of spring grass. Really, really bright spring grass.

It took us a while to get sand, but we just finished it all this week. The kids LOVE it.

Total project cost about $100 -- $80 for wood and supplies (we didn't end up needing the plywood. We used a $6 tarp on the bottom to hold the sand in so it didn't leak out and another tarp to cover the top so cats don't use it as a litter box) and $20 for the sand. We bought one ton of mason's sand at Dolese and it's been great. There are a few rocks, but it's mostly fine. My son thinks finding the rocks is treasure hunting, so win!

Umbrella: $7 at Big Lots. It's a shade-providing savior. Love!

Bathroom Counter Top Upgrade!

When my husband and I moved into our house five years ago, we had one thing on our minds -- upgrade.

As I've mentioned, the house was in a sad state of disarray. The owner didn't update anything -- not the carpet, the lights, the appliances. It was rough. So rough, in fact, that as part of their offer, they gave us $2000 for new flooring. Yeah. That bad.

We've done a LOT to this house in the five years we've been here. But the bathroom is one of my favorites. I feel like everything is always in a constant state of "better, but not done!" (having a two year old and four year old is a project, in and of itself!), so there are still things I'd like to do to our bathroom (see this!).

However, when you start with this:

That's right. There's carpet. In the bathroom.

It's not too hard to upgrade.

We painted the bathroom a color a creamy latte color. I couldn't tell you what the actual color was because we got two colors for $5/gallon at Sherman Williams' mistint collection. Did you know about that? If you go to Sherman Williams, they'll let you look at colors that other customers either didn't pick or didn't buy because they weren't the shade the expected. For CHEAP.

So then it looked like this:

At this point, we'd also replaced the stock sheet of glass mirror with one from Hobby Lobby. I think it cost $15 on sale. We'd also added a couple small shelves for $3/each from Walmart. Oh, and painted the cabinets white and replaced the knobs. And tiled the floor. And replaced the faucet. And the toilet paper holder. And the toilet. And the light.

I told you we've done a lot.

Next, and I'm telling you, I felt like a genius with this idea, we used laminate flooring tiles to cover the countertops. Yes, that's right. FLOORS ON THE COUNTERS. I saw this in a craft store and it looked great. So we went with it. In total, it cost maybe $35?

Not bad, right? We added slate tiles to the back splash and used a chocolate grout to go in between the tiles on the back and the counter tops.

I'm very happy with how well it turned out. It looks much better than when we moved in. I'm not done yet. I still want to touch up a few more parts to it (and I've come to terms with the avocado shower tiles -- anyone know a quickish/easy way to fix those?), but I'm happy!

This is why I sew by hand ...

I hunkered down. I gave it my best shot.

I ended with a scream.

I decided that today was the day I was going to tackle and conquer the sewing machine. I could never even get to the point of sewing with it, because threading it, getting the bobbin to work, getting the needle to pick up the bobbin tread .... none of this ever worked.

Until today.

Thanks to several (an embarrassing number, actually) YouTube videos on how to work a sewing machine, I got it threaded and bobbined. That's a technical term.

And my first attempt at sewing? Buttah.

Like an arrow, baby.

I was MADE for this.

Oh, my ...

Everyone wastes this much thread, right?

And breaks two needles?

Is that helicopter crashing?