{un}crafty - coffee filter flowers.

we got to host our moms here for mother's day! {read more about it on our family blog here}  

it was a great day to spoil them with a lovely lunch after a pretty amazing church service.  i feel like now that my "baby" is 14 months old, i am finally getting my wits about me again - it was fun to plan and craft!  i tried to make the day special for our moms, so i started planning {and crafting} early.  i wanted to help the kids make something for their nana & baggie, so we went with the flower theme and made some super easy coffee filter flowers and painted glass vases for them to take home with them on mother's day.

{our flower themed mother's day lunch}

supplies you need:

coffee filters

markers

spray bottle with water

straws {or pipe cleaners}

empty and cleaned glass jar

craft paint

 i'm certain we have all seen the method of pour paint into a clean glass jar and swirling it around inside until it is covered...that's what i did here.  i just used some paint left over from other projects.

 then i used some metallic pearl white and gold paint on the end of a pencil eraser to make some random dots around the outside of the jar.  it was easy.  i did the jars while the kids were coloring their coffee filters.  {but kids could totally do the paint in a jar thing - easy and fun!}

just scribble around on the coffee filter until its pretty much covered.  it doesn't have to be all colored in {although my very thorough 5 year old made sure to cover every inch} because when you spray with water, the colors with bleed.

once the coffee filters are colored in, spray with water and let them sit to dry {i set our on paper towels in the kitchen while the dried}.  then to add stems, fold your filter in quarters and either glue the tip into a straw {striped paper straws would be so cute!} or wrap with a pipe cleaner.

 this is such a quick and easy project! {and no mess!}  the flowers are so fun because each is so unique.  i think this would make a cute teacher gift too {maybe add a little gift card to their favorite lunch or coffee spot}.

happy {un}crafting!

our {lucky} friends

Some of our lucky friends - very special people in our lives - are going to get these cute little goodies tomorrow (okay...that is one day early for St. Patrick's Day, but oh well)!  I spent much of nap time perfecting them today and it was a fun little project.  I first saw it here and the downloaded the tag here.

Supplies:

1.  Rainbow Twizzlers (found at Wal-Mart - after looking several places)

2. chocolate gold coins (found at 50/50 Party Supply - after looking many places)

3. tag

4. ribbon

5. scissors

6. treat sacks (Target, Michaels, etc.)

I gathered six Twizzlers together for each bag (one of each color) and cute about one inch off the bottoms of the Twizzlers.  Then I put them in the bag, added gold coins and tied with a ribbon.  So easy and what a cute little gift to make your friends feel special this week!  One bag of Twizzlers will make 5 treats and I added 4-5 coins to each, so plan accordingly if you are buying supplies.

My kids informed me that they "don't like those" so I will have to think of something else to make them feel special this week!

Two Finished Projects!

If you are like me, you probably have lots of started projects, not a lot of finished projects.  I think that is just the nature of being a mama.  I don't let it get me down...I just relish in the projects when they are finally finished!  Between Sunday and Monday this week, I was able to finish up the teacher valentine gifts and make the dish mat I've been coveting!

I found a set of six valentine-y pencils at Michaels for $1 and bought the cutest candy I could find: salt water taffy.  I bagged up the candy, added the pencils and a valentine card in the bag.  Then, I tied the bag with ribbon from the Target Dollar Spot and voila!  Finished product!  Cute, handmade-ish teacher gift that is sure to be somewhat original (I think) for only about $3 each.

As for the dish mat, I needed serious help from my crafty family.  I don't sew, but I think this is my biggest attempt at sewing so far.  I attempted pillows a while back, but I enlisted more help for those.  The dish mat was a lot of seaming and measuring.  In fact, it was kinda a lot of work for this non-sewer. It made me not want to sew...I thought I was ready to dive into sewing, but this project reminded me that I probably don't have the time or patience at this point.  But...

I do love the finished product!  My dish mat is about 24" x 16".  I would suggest making it a little smaller.  This size serves me well, but I have a large space on my counter.  I think a smaller size would serve any kitchen well!  I hope to make a couple more because I have more fabric.  I will definitely make them smaller and I think I will skip the piecing fabric and just make them cute fabric on one side and terrycloth on the other.  (I was going to use an old towel on the back side, but ended up cutting a piece of terrycloth to fit.)

For the tutorial, click here.  Hers looks so sophisticated with her cute bowl and glasses resting on it.  Mine speaks differently, but truthfully about my life: full of craziness and kidstuff!

(Un)Crafty - Easy Notebooks

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I wanted to make something unexpensive, but cute for my big boy's preschool teachers.  This is just the thing!  I made boring old notebooks into cute.  I will pair them with cute pencils or pens and a little bit of something sweet.  Voila!

Supplies you will need:

1. scrapbook paper of your choice

2. mini-legal size notepads

3. paper glue (or probably any old glue would work just fine!)

4. scissor or paper cutter

I found these notebooks (a set of 6) at Wal-Mart.  They were so cheap!

I measured the binding of the notebook and cut cute scrapbook paper to fit.

My choice of paper glue for all of my paper crafts is this Zip Dry Paper Glue.  It dries fast with no bubbles or waves in the paper.  I found it at Michaels.

Here's the finished product.  It was so fast and easy that I wished I had more so I could keep on going.  Total time: about 5 minutes.  No kidding.  No creativity needed!  

Since I had lots more paper and about another 5 minutes until the kids finished their snack, I decided to keep on crafting...

I cut more strips of paper (1inch) and stapled the ends to make hearts.

Then I took some clear thread and hung them over the dining table for a little Love Day decor.

Baby Gift

I am so excited because I just ordered this adorable gift from The Baby Bunch for my good friend who just welcomed her first baby girl.  Have you ever seen anything cuter?!

Pink Birdhouse Pajamas

Bubbly

We sure do love playing with bubbles at our house!  My boys both get such a kick out of them!  And what an easy activity!  I found the best bubbles this year (with help from my friend, Sarah) at Gymboree.  The "Bubble Oodles" are a special formula that don't pop too easily, which means they sit on top of the grass, sidewalk or your carpet (if you allow bubble indoors...which I do).  I got a few little bottles of the bubbly for my cousins' kiddos and decided to glam them up a bit:

Before and After

I used scrap paper and ribbon from my stash.  I covered the bottle then with matte contact paper so the bubble won't immediately ruin the paper.  I decided these would make such cute little party favors for a birthday or something...don't you think?  They were sooooo cheap and fun to make!  Each could be personalized with a name on the top of the cover.

Two girly and one boyish.

This is the fun bubble maker we got at Gymboree...you can still find it online!