DIY Photo Board

When it comes to Mother's and Father's day, I'm all about the DIY. I don't like the idea of Mother's Day becoming another reason to spend a bunch of money (save that for my birthday and Christmas). I would rather it be about honoring the special women in your life.

There is something special about a gift from your own hands. (Here are some other simple ideas).

This photo board is pretty simple and the result is something beautiful and functional. I learned how to make them from a woman in my small group.

You will need:

• scissors
• measuring tape
• staple gun with staples
• hammer
• scotch tape
• decorative nails or push pins
• quilt batting (20" x 14")
• fabric (22" x 16")
• ribbon (2 pieces 28" long; 4 pieces 20" long - exact measurements will vary depending on thickness of wood - you need the ribbon long enough to cross over the board and be stapled on the back)
• thin piece of plywood (20" x 14")
• picture hanger

1. Cut batting to size of wood (in this case, 20" x 14")

2. Iron fabric if creased, and cut 2-3 inches larger than the wood (22" x 16")

3. Lay batting over the wood and then the fabric over the batting. Flip over. Staple the fabric down (I am liberal with the staples, using one every 2 inches or so). Fold the corners down (like you would on a present), and staple down

4. Measure out and cut your ribbon (I like to tape down the measuring tape for measuring). You will need 2 pieces at least 28" long, and 4 pieces at least 20" long

5. Start with the two long pieces of ribbon and make an 'X' across the board and staple down on the back. Don't pull it too tight. 

6. Run the shorter pieces parallel to the X. Use scotch tape to position them. Once you have them where you want them, staple them down on the back

7. Use your thumb to push nails or tacks into the ribbon intersections and then hammer in with the hammer (if your tacks go through to the other side, use the hammer to bend them over so you don't have sharp ends sticking up)

8. Attach picture hanger

Voile! Who wouldn't love this?

5 easy spring-time kids crafts

Spring time here in Alberta can just as easily mean spring snow as spring showers. It is an emotional time for me, where one day I feel great and excited for summer, and the next totally dejected and stuck indoors. 

Recently, we've had snow about every 3 days. In between snows it has been quite nice outside so the kids and I have got serious spring fever. As a result, I've been scouring Pinterest for simple spring-inspired crafts appropriate for preschoolers, to complete on our wretched snow days. Here are 5 we really enjoyed: 

1. Cupcake liner flowers

Pinterest
Original website

2. Egg carton bunnies

Pinterest
Original website

3. Rainbow hand-prints

Pinterest

Original website

4. Paper caterpillars

Pinterest

Original website

5. Easter egg bugs

Pinterest

Original website

I have to admit, I'm getting a little crafted-out so let's hope the weather smartens up a bit. Seriously. 

Dad Birthday Card

My husband's birthday was this month. I modified this pinterest find into a birthday card. The original appears on Brilliant Beginning's blog, where you can find other great ideas. 

My two kids and myself each got to choose and color a tool. On the back of the corresponding tool, I wrote out one thing each of us loved about my husband. He was pretty touched by the card. 

All About Me - Boy Page

This is the complementary piece to the Art By My Hand page I did for my daughter. These are for inclusion in my kid's "all about me" albums.

It's fun to brainstorm all the things you know about your kid's likes and dislikes. I think it will be really neat for them to read over the lists when they are older. Especially my son, who is obsessed with Ariel the Little Mermaid. In an act of mercy, I chose a picture of him on his next favorite thing, a trampoline, rather than one of him carrying around his sister's Ariel doll...

I came across the idea to "sew" the yarn onto the page in a scrapbooking magazine a long time ago. Using  colored brads repeated the dot pattern on the paper and was an easy way to dress-up the page.

(The weird feather thing is a fish he decorated at his 2nd birthday party).

12 Cheesy Easy V-day Gift Ideas

With Valentine's Day only a couple of days away, I thought I would share with you the easy and admittedly cheesy, v-day gifts I've been leaving for my husband since February 3. My kids were able to get in the action too, helping me pick out treats and make the cards.

I didn't put enough forethought into this to think up items for a "12 days of Valentine's" song, so maybe that will be my challenge for next year.

1. "I Love You" card; a Pinterest find
2. Fun Bite snack ("You're a FUN dad!")
3. Nibs ("Nibbles" of Love)
4. Old Spice antiperspirant, Fiji scent (Our honeymoon was in Fiji)
5. Fly-Fishing Magazine ("You make my heart FLY")
6. Sweet and Sour Lifesavers ("Being with you is a lifesaver, even if some days are sour"
7. Energizer Battery ("Our love keeps going and going and going...")
8. Fruit n' Nut Bar ("I'm Nuts for You")
9. Burt's Bee Lip Balm ("Bee Mine")
10. Bear Hugs, another Pinterest find - I also used this idea for the kids in my daughter's preschool class
11. Box of Smarties ("From the Smartypants who was wise enough to marry you")
12. I love you this much card; also from Pinterest (for this one, I used one of my daughter's hand prints, and one of my son's)

There you go. 12 simple, cheesy ideas to remind your partner how much you love them.

Linking to Serenity Now

Art By My Hand

I scrapbook. Or at least I used to. These days I mostly accumulate scrapbooking supplies which sit on shelves.

Having faced the reality that I just do not have the time to scrapbook in the traditional sense, I have taken up digital scrapbooking. However, I am the belief that digital scrapbooking is cheating, so I aim to (traditionally) scrapbook a few pages for my kids and for my husband each year.

I've decided to do "all about me" albums for each of my kids. I am currently working on my daughter's "at age 3" pages. These will be the first in the album, so I had to fill three 12x12 pages.

In the journal boxes I plan to write what my daughter's likes and dislikes were at age 3 (she is four now, so unless you can remember a lot of details from when your children were younger, I would start with their current age, or up to one year ago if you can remember that far back). I'm going to use either a picture taken of her at her 3rd birthday party, or her preschool picture from that year.

Children bring home a TON of crafts. Way more than I know what to do with. After having a turn being pinned on my "Masterpieces" bulletin board, I have either recycled or stuffed away my kids crafts with intentions to figure it out later.

I have decided to choose a few of my favorite ones that my daughter completed at preschool and at home when she was 3 and include them in her "all about me" album. Since the second page is titled, "Art by my hand", I choose the crafts that used her handprint. I got pretty well all of the supplies seen here at Costco.

Snowman Popcorn Wrapper Favors

Every year my husband and I host an Ugly-Sweater Holiday party.

The winner(s) this year if you were wondering, looked like this. They scored big points for carrying around battery packs in their pockets:

This year I wanted to send our guests home with a party favor. These are another great Pinterest find and were easy to do.

Source: My Crazy Life as a Farmer's Wife

You will need:
8.5 x 11 paper
a printer
glue stick
microwavable packs of popcorn
twist ties
dollar store gloves
medium to thick width ribbon
scissors

I found 8.5 x 11 paper at Staples that resembled brown paper bags.

I downloaded the printable from the website and imported it into my digital scrapbooking program, sbc from Creative Memories. I used sbc to add the wording, "Wishing you a Merry Christmas", (but if you don't have a digital scrapbooking program you can print them without the words).

I then printed out (landscape) the number I needed and cut them to 6.5 inches long instead of 8.

I wrapped the print-outs around packs of microwavable popcorn and glued the back.

Using twist ties, I bunched up the fingers of both gloves.

I then tied a ribbon around the twist tie to hide it (I just did a basic knot, nothing fancy).

I then slid just the glove in front (both gloves were too tight) over the top of the popcorn package.

So cute! I think I will adopt them for my daughter's preschool Christmas party this week and use them for boxes of smarties.

I love Christmas!