Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas! Things have been crazy the last week or so as we finished up all our Christmas shopping, baking, visits with friends and family, crafts, shopping, wrapping, etc. I have been working away but something had to give (blogging) or I was going to turn into one mean momma and that's NOT what I wanted my kids to remember about Christmas! I have barely been at the computer the last week and have so many blogs to catch up on! Oh well, they'll all still be there after the first of the year, right? We're heading out of town to visit the in-laws in the morning so I'll be back in full force after the first of the year. Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Another awesome giveaway....

Okay, so I meant to join in on all the Christmas open houses, tour of homes, etc. that have been going on this week....but I still haven't taken pics yet. The kids got an unexpected snow day yesterday (really, it was an "ice day") so that really set me back! Anyways, at the rate I'm going, maybe I'll join in by the weekend.

So, I found another really fun blog today and they're doing some cool giveaways right now. Go check out petit elefant and see what all is being given away in the 12 days of Christmas Giveaway Extravaganza! I would love to win this giveaway because the site You Can Make This is seriously addicting! I've ordered e-books through them before and I've never been disappointed. There are LOTS of cool projects and there is even a "FREE" section. Who doesn't like FREE?

petit elefant has a ton of fun goodies (microwave, Smartshopper, Land's End giveaway, kids personalized books and tons more) in the giveaway. Go check them out now!

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Snowmen {Super Yummy!}

It's been a busy weekend so far! I've made tons of stuff that I can't wait to share with yall {but again, some will have to wait until after Christmas} I've made a few tassels, some adorable wine glass markers that have photo charms on them, felt cookies for my daughter and much more...

Here are some fun treats that the kids and I made together this weekend. I saw the large marshmallow snowmen in a little boutique while I was out doing some Christmas shopping and thought it would be fun for Connor to make and give to his buddies.

These are the miniature snowmen {my personal favorite}...three mini marshmallows dipped in white chocolate and then decorated with assorted sprinkles. I was lazy and didn't feel like melting milk chocolate also, but it would be cute to use that to draw arms, the face, buttons, etc. on the snowmen too. The kids and I had a lot of fun making these together. I let Connor do most of the decorating and he liked the BIG snowmen best {3 large marshmallows on a sucker stick}. Here are a few pics of my kids making the white chocolate snowmen.

My daughter {20 months old} is already hamming it up for the camera while Connor admires his first snowman. A closer look at his first masterpiece. :)

Here she is with a completely fake smile...but proud of the fact that she was able to steal a bottle of sprinkles away from her brother! As you can see, she was also able to sneak a few pieces of candy and sprinkles and relished every bite. Finally, she decided to pitch in and help decorate a few of the snowmen instead of just eating them. Can you tell which ones she helped with? Connor wasn't entirely happy with her "help". The snowmen were really fun to make and I'm sure we'll make them again. I know Connor's friends are really going to enjoy eating these, too. I think they'd also be really cute to use as a stirrer in a cup of hot cocoa. It would add a little white chocolate and tons of marshmallow to the cup...great for someone with a sweet tooth {like me!}

Okay, last pic of the night, I promise! These were my final creation of the evening. I started dipping the mini marshmallows in the white chocolate and then tossing them in a bowl of coconut shavings...YUMMY! They look like little snowballs and taste DE-LISH! Give them a try and you won't be sorry {that is, unless you are one of those people that don't like coconut} :)

Too many crafts...not enough time!

I made a promise {same one I seem to make every year} to myself that I was going to make a bunch of the gifts I give this year. I always seem to wait too long to begin {guess 364 days isn't enough time for me to prepare for Christmas} However, I am proud to say that I'm actually making good on my promise this year! I'm making LOTS of handmade goodies and unfortunately, will have to wait to show you most of them for a few weeks. However, here are a few things I was working on last night.

Button Snowman Onesie

This was just a basic red turtleneck onesie that I embellished. I know I've seen a post or two with these along with some pictures on flickr...just can't remember where I found them to give the original person credit. Anyways, I have a bunch of vintage buttons that my great grandmother used to collect, so I used a few for this. {Forgive the terrible pictures...my hubby just got a digital SLR yesterday but we still need some lenses and need to learn how to use it. I hope my images will improve in quality in the near future.} In the mean time, you get to look at a yellow snowman. The buttons are actually a beautiful ivory color with a pearly sheen to them. I think one of them is a mother of pearl button. I'm not thrilled with how the little faux scarf turned out so I'll probably fix it later but for now, this is what she'll wear. I think this would also be really cute on some tea towels.

Elastic Bookmarks

As I was getting ready to go to bed last night, I noticed Nikki had updated her blog. I love her blog, Whimsy love! She had posted some adorable elastic bookmarks. You can see the tutorial here {and while you're there, check out some of her other tutorials, lots of cute stuff} I realized I had everything I needed to make them and couldn't go to sleep until I'd made some myself. :) So, I spent 15 minutes hunting down my various elastics before I remembered I'd gotten it all out to add some closures to my pocket calendars {go check the post back out, I updated it a week or so ago and I like them even more now} Once I found everything, I had 5 bookmarks made in just a matter of a few minutes. I would have made 50, but I need to get some more elastic. If you can use a ruler, a pair of scissors and know how to tie a knot, then you can make this project! Here's what I made {and again, forgive the poor pics}

I think these bookmarks would be adorable wrapped around a small gift instead of using a bow. Because they're elastic, they stay in place...no more losing your spot in your book because your 20 month old pulled out your bookmark again!

Okay, I'm heading to Hobby Lobby for the third time this week! I need some more trim to make tassels. I'll show yall those soon.

Awesome Crafty Giveaway spotted...

Would you love to win all of this? I know I would!!!

Confessions of a Craft Addict is hosting this awesome giveaway! This is taken directly from her blog: "There’s a little bit of everything here: fabric, beads, Scrabble tiles, scrapbooking elements, ribbon, tulle, yarn, snaps, buttons, embroidery kits, patterns and books. Everything you need to be a craft addict or feed your existing crafty addiction. A couple of things are from my stash or pre-loved, while some things were purchased new just for you. I think it’s a pretty cool prize and I hope you will, too."

Head on over to her blog and check it out. One of the rules for entry is that you must leave her a comment about your favorite charity. Tell her the name of it, why you support it, what it does, whatever — give them a plug! All the rules are on her site.

I think I should win since my blog is titled {Craft Addict}...it's only fair, right? :)

Since we're at it, I'll tell yall about my favorite non-profit. Prestonwood Pregnancy To give you a little background, my oldest son was a crisis pregnancy for me (in the sense that I was a junior in college, not married and hadn't planned on starting my family under these circumstances...nor with the man whose child I was carrying) I was scared to death and found SO much support, love and reassurance from a crisis pregnancy center in my college town. I am forever grateful for the prayers, time and outpouring of support from them. So, when I moved to Dallas after my son was born (to finish school and be closer to family for the support that I needed) I began volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center here. After a year or two, I joined the staff full time and was blessed beyond measure during my time there. The awesome part of this is that God can take our mistakes and make them our message. I truly feel blessed to have been able to look young women in the eyes and tell them I could understand, I had been there...and it will be okay if you let HIM take control. What's really awesome is that most crisis pregnancy centers are not just focused on the life of the unborn child but also the eternal life of the mother and father involved in that pregnancy. The gospel message is almost always shared and you would be amazed at how many men and women come to know the Lord through their time as a client! I am no longer volunteering or working there b/c God has blessed me with an incredible husband (who adopted my son, our son) and we have since welcomed another child into our lives. I have been given the awesome responsibility and blessing of being a stay at home mother...something I NEVER thought possible, nor dreamed of 7 years ago when I found out I was going to be a mother. We still are in close contact with Prestonwood Pregnancy and love to help support them financially when we can. I know when the kids are both back in school, I'll be back up there volunteering again!

A few of my favorite things & a thrifty white elephant gift

Head on over here if you want to join the party or see other lists of favorite things.


Topping my list of favorites right now are the following:

1. Hazelnut Hot Cocoa - Archer Farms (Target brand) has a great mix if you are like me and don't want to fork out tons of $$$ to Starbucks. There are tons of other flavors, but I'm addicted to the hazelnut...topped with a little whipped cream and I'm good to go.


2. Bob's Peppermint Pie - We grew up devouring Bob's Soft Peppermint sticks. My brother and I would always twist and turn them in our mouths as we sucked on them to bring them to a fine point so we could poke each other with them :) Anyways, my mother and I were both watching Paula Deen on the Food Network the morning she aired this recipe. We have both made this multiple times now and it's so yummy...unexpected...but really good. {Come on, it's from Paula Deen, that woman makes awesome stuff!} If you have trouble finding the peppermint sticks, Walmart usually has giant tubs of the soft peppermint "pillow" looking candies. They're individually wrapped, but well worth the effort for this recipe. My other tip is to crush the candies before you put them on the stove top to start melting. Trust me on this, it takes FOREVER if you don't!


3. We have my husband's office party tonight {this is the small departmental party with all the people we know. The big company party is next weekend}. You'll know why I threw that preface in there when you take a look at the picture. I made these for the white elephant gift exchange, per my husbands request. Yup, he asked me to make these... {love him!}

Hehehe...slippers made from maxi pads. I beautified {like that word?} them with some left over fake flowers from my stash and a rhinestone accent. Someone tonight will get to take them home. I just hope they don't need to use them for their original purpose b/c I hot glued them together in case the sticky strips didn't hold up. The funny thing about this gift is that I did make slippers out of maxi pads...when I was 4 and at my dad's new boss' house for dinner. It's one of the family stories that will never die -well, not if my family can help it at least.

4. My list could go on and on and on but I won't bore you to tears... oh wait, maybe I will!

5. My kids! I LOVE watching them take in all the magic of Christmas. Right now, my daughter is sitting in her high chair eating "yo yo's" {cheerios} and playing with a $9.99 plastic snow globe from CVS that plays 11 different music selections. She's captivated by that silly thing and I love watching her face light up each time she pushes that button. My son's prayers reflect that he's really coming to an understanding of Christ and the true meaning of Christmas-as opposed to just repeating things we've said or he's been taught-this is priceless to me!

What are your favorite things right now?

My only Christmas decor right now...

Well, my youngest has been sick since Saturday night and sleep has been a little sparse in this house since. I'm behind on my Christmas decorating (and house cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, Christmas shopping, and the list goes on...) as a result. I finally finished pulling the lights off of 10 branches on our pre-lit tree last night {a serious pain in the rear}. We spent too much money on that tree and I didn't see the point in trashing a pretty tree with half the lights working...so I pulled, yanked and cut those things off and restrung the tree at 11:00 last night. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it decorated today! I've got the stockings hung, a wreath on the front door and boxes littered across my living room and entry hall...can't wait to get those taken care of and everything put up...hopefully in time for Christmas! :)

Here is one little project I managed to get accomplished this week and I really like the way it turned out! I promise that is looks a lot prettier in person! {geez, you think I could at least take the picture so it was centered on the wall and not so weird looking with my iron piece there on the wall behind it..but this is what you get when I take a pic hanging from a ladder in my kitchen} I just wrapped an extra piece of garland around the chain on my light fixture and shaped it like a tree and then decorated with a little garland, ribbon and some gold glittery birds and assorted gold balls. Once I get all my Christmas ornaments out to decorate the tree, I plan on setting a few aside and hanging them from the metal scrolls on this fixture.

Well, I am going to go start decorating the tree since my baby girl is sleeping {YEAH!} and my son just left for school. I'll post pictures once I get everything up and decorated so I can participate in Thrify Decor Chick's Favorite Things party.

Awesome Giveaway spotted...

I found a great giveaway over here! But really, don't go looking at it...I want to win! {It's a giveaway for a Wii & a Wii Fit!} I've never been a huge video game player, but a Wii Fit would be so cool! It would be great to have either system because I could see myself playing video games with Jason and the kids if we had one of these awesome systems...and Free would make it even better!

Conversation Pebbles

I saw this cute idea while watching HGTV over the weekend. {I think it was on a Decorating Cents holiday special, but don't hold me to that} Anyways, on one of the tables they were setting for the holidays, they placed the cheap little glass gems {vase fillers} around the centerpiece and also had some of the large ones mixed in with them. The host picked them up and revealed cute little conversation pebbles. I realized I had everything at home to make them and wouldn't have to get out on Black Friday to go get supplies!

They aren't the cutest things, but they really do help spark conversations at the table. I'm sure you could make them cute by using fun papers but I didn't want to limit them to one table scape and figured in this case, simple was better. I plan on bringing them out when we have company and just sprinkling them on the table. Since I still have a little one who likes to put things in her mouth, I won't use the small gems to decorate with. Anyways, I checked at Hobby Lobby while I was out on Saturday and you can get a 2 lb. bag of these large gems for $2.77 so this is a very inexpensive craft. By the way, the ones I used have that iridescent stuff on them but they looked and worked just fine. You can find "perfect large round gems" on ebay and etsy...but they're a lot more expensive and I think these irregular, iridescent ones work just fine for this.

All I did was type up a list of conversation starters that were appropriate for my kiddos and family. You can see in a few examples that I used questions like:

"My favorite thing to do with dad is...", " What do you think Heaven is like?", "What would you do if you were invisible for a day?", "What is your least favorite chore? Why?", "What has been the best day of your life so far?", etc.

I printed them out in size 8 & 9 fonts and made sure that my questions would fit under my pebbles without being cut off. Then, I just traced, cut {a large circle punch would have been great for this...adding that to my Christmas list now} and mod podged the circles to the back side of the stones. I pushed down to get rid of any air bubbles and then topped the back side off with two coats of mod podge to seal them.

My son picked these up at lunch today {because I was lazy and had left at least half a dozen projects I was working on on the kitchen table} and wanted to use them. My husband and I enjoyed listening to our son list 3 things he loved about his sister, explain to us what he thinks dad does at work, tell us his favorite joke and we got in on the fun too. It made for a very pleasant lunch and I think I'll make some more of these conversation pebbles and bring them out for no reason at all instead of waiting for a special occasion. :)

So these little guys were hard to photograph given the overhead light and their iridescent sheen, but you get the point, right?

Trash to Treasure {Jewelry Organizer}

See this BEAUTIFUL picture I picked up last week at the thrift store? I have just the place for it.

Well, maybe I don't have a place for the picture, but the frame will work for this project. I took off the backing and set the picture and glass aside. See, doesn't it look better already? This is one of my little helpers. Isn't she a cutie? :)

I took the frame outside and spray painted it a matte black. I didn't bother painting the back. Next, I measured and marked on the frame where I wanted to predrill my holes for the hooks for my necklaces and bracelets to hang from. I drilled the holes and screwed in my hooks. Then I simply stapled a piece of metal window screen to the back. I did use quite a few staples because I don't want the screen to move as I'm putting earrings on and taking them off. After I took this picture, I cut off the excess screen and rolled the rough edges close to the frame so that it wouldn't scrape up my walls or be visible from the front side.

Then, I repositioned the saw tooth hanger so that my frame would hang horizontal instead of it's original vertical position. Here is what it looks like now:

I haven't loaded all my jewelry on yet {but I couldn't wait to share it with you gals} because I realized I need to put another saw tooth hanger on it. With one hanger, the piece tends to move on the wall if the weight isn't even on both sides. It would probably be fine if I was only going to hang earrings on this...but I'll take it down and put a saw tooth hanger on the top right and left sides of the frame. Maybe I'll go do that right now since the baby is sleeping! Then I can finally get my jewelry out of all the little dishes on my dresser and vanity so I can see it all again! I've also got plans of making a smaller version of this jewelry holder to sit on my vanity for my earrings with a post and back. The one I just hung will really only work well with ear wires. How do you organize your jewelry?

From "Blah" to "Oooo, Ahhh"

I am proof that you don't have to be a scrapbooker (is that even a word?) to love and use scrapbook papers. In our MOPS {Mothers of Preschoolers} meeting today, we transformed some boring pine 4x6 frames from Ikea and took them from "Blah" to "Ahhh!"

Here is just a small sampling of what everyone created:

I received a lot of good feedback from the ladies today and it appeared that everyone was genuinely having a good time. That makes me happy! :) This is my first year as the creative activities coordinator and I've spent a lot of time trying to come up with projects that fit into our budget, our short time frame to complete the project and have them be practical or fun projects (ie: not something they're going to trash on their way out the door). It's been fun teaching some of the ladies new techniques and seeing that sense of accomplishment. I'm hoping to make some craft addicts out of this group!

This project can be done in so many ways! For the sake of the above mentioned reasons {time & budget b/c this craft was done for ~75 people} we kept it pretty simple and had the ladies paint the frames with sponge brushes and acrylic paint of their choice. Then, we cut out our scrapbook paper and adhered it to the front. {If I was doing this at home, I'd be covering it with Mod Podge too} Then the ladies got to have fun and embellish to their liking. It was fun seeing how creative some of the ladies got and I'll totally be copying some of their awesome ideas! :) We had a table set up in the back that had an assortment of stamps, scraps of papers, ribbons, rhinestones, stickers, paper punches, paint, fake flowers etc. {If you decide to do something like this with a group of friends or with your MOPS group, see if any of the ladies are willing to share their stamps, paper punches and scraps for the day. That will really help save you some money!}

See the creativity around the ribbons, stamps and rhinestones? :) They all made some great stuff!

I think creative activities are such an important part of a MOPS group! It allows everyone time to get up and move around the room & meet new people, have discussions with other adults AND not be interrupted by your kiddos while doing so, it offers women the opportunity to learn new crafts, and you're able to start and finish a project that you may otherwise not have the time to do at home. I am really enjoying this opportunity as creative activities coordinator and it's forcing me to make time for creativity in my life. I realized a few months ago how little I was doing and how much I missed and needed that for myself. Besides, all the crafty blogs give me SOOO much inspiration and I hope to be able to do MANY of the fun projects I've found with our MOPS group.

Here are two frames that I made. The first one is for my daughters room and that picture was taken the week of her first birthday. I LOVE it! The second one is for my son's room. I couldn't find any 4x6 pics of him last night when I was finishing up my prep work at midnight so I found this old one and used it. I look sooo young...that little booger is now 6 1/2 years old! :) I roughed up the edges of both frames with a little sand paper and I really like the way they turned out.

I found a great tutorial at SplitCoastStampers for this craft. While you're there, check out some of their other free tutorials-lots of cool projects!

Custom {Organized} Binder Clips

My husband thinks I've lost it. He came in last night and saw me applying Mod Podge to binder clips, shook his head and walked out. Haha! I for one, LOVE them and have already put them to use organizing my stacks of papers!

So, here is a QUICK and easy project that will help you stay organized and would make a great addition to a teacher gift, too.

You'll need :

*Binder Clips {I had an assortment of cute colored ones from Staples-that's what is in the plastic tub, but plain black ones will be fine also.}

*Mod Podge

*sponge brush {or your finger if you really want to get messy}

*Your sayings printed out

*scissors

The binder clips come in varying sizes but the ones I used here have clips that measure 3/4" long and 1/2" high. I used a text font size 11 so that my text would fit on my clips once cut out. Adjust your font size to fit your clips.

So, determine what sayings you want. I chose to do "today", "soon", "later", my name, my kids and husband's name all for sorting the papers, bills, field trip slips, etc. that seem to find their way to my kitchen counters. I also did a few sets with things like "2 be graded", "graded", "2 be copied", "handouts", and teachers names for teacher gifts. Type them up in a word program and print out. I then cut each word out and applied a thin layer of Mod Podge to one side of each clip. Next, I positioned each word in the middle of the clip while the Mod Podge was still wet. I let that coat dry and brushed another coat on top to seal and I was done.

Super quick, easy and cute...not to mention, practical. What other sayings or words would you put on yours?

Creating a {Cute} purse size calendar...

{Edited 12/1/08 to add more pictures and another embellishment to the calendar!}

Chris, over at Just a Girl, was hosting an I Can Make That party on her blog this past Monday. I thought I'd make a submission and be fashionably late. Hey, I'm new to craft blogging...that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Check out her site for TONS of cute ideas and gifts that you can make also!

{First, a disclaimer: several of my friends will probably be receiving these as gifts this year, so please act surprised when you get one and pretend that you never saw this post!}

Two girlfriends from my MOPS group came over this morning for a few hours to help get our next craft prepped and make some examples for our next meeting. We spent the morning making cute picture frames {I'll post that craft next week after our meeting} and I decided after they left that I'd take advantage of having half my supplies sprawled out all over the kitchen and make some more stuff instead of cleaning. :)

Here is my submission to the I Can Make That {seriously, anyone can do this...cheap, quick and something everyone really uses. This would be great as a gift for a neighbor, stocking stuffer, mail man, friend, etc... Scroll all the way down to see just how cheap thrifty this project is}

So, up first was a quick transformation of a purse size calendar. I started with all of this:

{Small calendar in clear sleeve, piece of scrapbook paper, scissors, glue stick, paper punch and not pictured: ribbon, glue, stamp pad and stamps}

1. Remove the calendar from it's plastic sleeve and trace it on the backside of the scrapbook paper.

2. Apply glue stick to the backside of the paper and adhere to the cover of the calendar.

Your calendar will now look something like this.

(I used a bone folder...that white thing next to the green mechanical pencil...to smooth out any air bubbles and make sure the paper is adhered. You can also use your finger or save those fake credit cards that come in your junk mail and use them to smooth your paper)

Next, I just embellished it a little. I didn't want to do too much with this wild pattern so I just stamped my name on a piece of paper, framed it with a scrap and glued down some ribbon. I put it back in the plastic sleeve and I was done! {If yours doesn't have a plastic sleeve, you may want to apply a coat or two of Mod Podge to keep it from getting torn up and ruined in your purse.}

Click on the picture for a larger view and you'll see that it's in the plastic sleeve.

What do you think? I certainly think it's much cuter now than it was when I originally purchased it. Oh, and did I mention that the total cost for this project was $1.00? I found the calendar at DollarTree and everything else was stuff I already had and you probably do too. If you make one, please comment and let me know. :)

{I've made several more of these since I first posted this but I won't show you pics yet because they're going to be gifts. Anyways, I have gone back and added a cute rhinestone brad to the front cover (punched a whole through the plastic cover, ribbon, paper and all) and added a piece of elastic that is held in place with an eyelet on the back) I found the idea for this over here. Now I like my calendar even more!}

Sprucing up the fireplace with wood appliques

We had some friends over Saturday night for dinner and to play cards and somewhere during the conversation I mentioned how I would LOVE to change our fireplace. Our home came with a WHITE cast stone fireplace and mantle. It's nice and all...it's just that it's the only thing that is white in the whole room and it's HUGE and pretty much the focal point. I would love to stain it or something to make it a little more warm {and less white} but my husband insists that it can't be done and would ruin it. {sigh} So, my friend Angela came up with a brilliant idea {at least, I think it's brilliant} of adding a medallion or applique to the fireplace to tie it all together. So, what do you think? (It's the small fleur de lis in the middle of the fireplace that I'm talking about)I was at Joann's buying some more fabric for a window mistreatment (from Nesting Place). I'll show you what I did with before and after pics soon. Anyways, while I was there, I decided to take a look at their wood appliques and I found both of these for $1.99 (and a 40% coupon).

I already had black and gold paints and a plethora of sponge brushes at home. So, in a matter of minutes, I had them looking like this:

All I did was paint them black {graphite if we're being technical here} with a sponge brush and then used my blow dryer to speed up the drying time because I'm that impatient. :) Then I applied gold metallic paint with my finger so that the raised surfaces would become gold and the recessed areas would remain black. It took about 3 minutes to paint and dry these gals. Then, I applied them to the fireplace with scotch tape to see what they looked like and which one I wanted in the center. Now, I may go back and buy one more of the serrated squares {the one on the right in the picture above} and apply both of those to the fireplace also...hmmm....too many choices to make. Three might be getting too busy!?! Oh well, I'll still buy another one to see how I like it and then I can always use those appliques to spruce up something else.

So what do you think? No appliques, just one {the fleur de lis or the square in the center} or the fleur de lis flanked by two square medallions (which I need to go buy another but you get the idea)? Leave a comment and let me know what you think! Oh, and ignore all the clutter on the built in bookcase...need to clear that out and reorganize it all!

Tip Junkie Shop-a-thon and 12 days of Junkie Giveaways

Tip Junkie is one of my favorite blogs. Laurie is hosting a Mom-preneur shop-a-thon and a 12 days of Junkie GIVEAWAY that starts tomorrow (Tuesday). Go on over to her site Tip Junkie and check it out! I find SO many cute ideas from her blog! I can't wait to see what she gives away this time. {Hoping I'll win something this time!}

Embellished Notebooks

I really need to figure out my camera settings and learn how to take better pictures! Thankfully our next speaker at MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) will be covering this topic. Yeah! Hopefully you can get a general idea despite my terrible picture. I was going to take more pics but then my camera battery died. I'll add that to my growing list of things to do today. Here is the first craft we did in our MOPS group this year. It's a bit of a challenge trying to come up with inexpensive crafts that you can do in a short amount of time with 50 or so women. :)

Anyways, you could use this idea to alter any spiral notebook but I really like the steno books with the spiral at the top. (Think of all the not-so-cute notebooks you can find for less than a dollar...oh, the possibilities!) You simply cover the notebook with scrapbook papers- including the spiral. I just made small cuts in the paper next to each spiral in order to completely cover the front and pressed the paper down between each spiral and glued. Because we're limited on time at our meetings, we just used a glue stick but when I make these at home, I use Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the notebooks and to seal it. Then you embellish with stamps, rhinestones, buttons, brads, stickers, etc. and then cut assorted ribbons that match your papers and knot onto each spiral. It's a quick and easy project and it seemed to go over well with the ladies in my MOPS group.

I had taken this picture before I decided to start a craft blog. In the future, I'll take more pics so you can see the progress and steps to completion. :) Now I'm off to see the dentist and get a new camera battery. Have a great weekend!

My new craft blog

Well, I've decided to delete our family blog and create a blog dedicated to my addiction instead: crafts! :) I didn't want to make our family blog private and I didn't want identifying info out on the web about my kids (why did I put our last name in the url...rookie mistake?) I haven't updated it since this summer and decided to just delete it all together. So, now you can check here and see what we're up to. I'm sure I'll post pics of the kids when we're doing crafts together but I'll probably refer to them by their first initial or something instead of their full names. If you'd like to see more pics of the kids, email me and I'll hook you up. (I'm adding pics pretty regularly on my facebook page now, too).

I've got a growing list of handmade gifts I want to make this year. I intend to post links to tutorials but probably won't post my pics of finished products until after Christmas (that is, if I get around to actually making all the gifts). I hope that since I'm thinking about it now, I'll actually get a few gifts made instead of waiting until the week before Christmas to get started. :)

I'll post some links soon but now I'm off to spruce up this blog with a cool background and a list of all my favorite blogs I stalk follow.

testing...new blog to soon follow (that I will actually update) :)