Sunrise Inspiration

I am hanging drywall today in a large unused storage space and need a little inspiration. I love to wake up early and watch the sunrise over the ocean, it is beyond inspiring to me. I hope you find yourself inspired today too.

Wire Bird's Nest for Jewelry

WOW! I am in love! I am going to try this bird's nest tutorial found here and make it into a necklace.

What a great idea for holiday gifts for teachers, parents, grandparents or yourself. It would be a cute idea to put as many "eggs" as someone has children. Unless there is only one child and then I would do 3 for the parents and child.

I will post my pictures from my attempt at this project and let you know how it works out for me.

How to make Felt Beads

(picture is from Today I Made)

I ran across the tutorial of these from Family Fun magazine in the November issue. I also found a blog that made these and added fun mixtures of color. Head over to Today I Made for instructions on how to make these beads. You can also look at www.familyfun.com for more information and additional ideas.

If you LOVE to save money, check this out!

Today was my all time favorite day at Target. I made $15 buying Glade candle products. Here is how this worked. This week only! Buy any Holiday oil candles, open the cans and get out the $1.50 coupon. These candles are on sale for $2.50 so here is how this works.

Candles: $2.50 each, buy 5
Coupon: -$1.50 use 5
Total: $1.00 each $5 total
BUT: you get a $5.00 gift card from Target for buying any 5 glade holiday oil candles.

Now, to make money, you need to follow here and find the SC Johnson rebates. Mail in your rebate along with the original receipt and you will receive $5 for every 3 glade products purchased. There are 3 rebates deals per household.

Go to www.hip2save.com for more INCREDIBLE saving deals.

Where was I when this asylumn sign was being sold??

The other day I was shopping in Lowe's and my kids, who are 14 months apart, decided to get into a fight. It escalated from yelling to hitting and then pushing while hitting. So, as the good mom I am...I asked a great question for my son and daughter to think about and adjust their actions. Here is how this went for me.

Me: If God were here right now, what would he think of your behavior (I was looking at my son, H)
Son H: (looking confused while thinking) Hum, can you get back to me.
Me: (to daughter R loudly) What would God think of your behavior if he were here right now?
Daughter R: Why would God be in Lowe's???????
Me: Let's go...

So again I ask, WHERE WAS THIS SIGN WHEN I NEEDED IT??????????

Pfunky Griddle In Nashville Tennessee

As quoted in the 2008 Southern Living article for the Pfunky Griddle, it was more exciting than getting the new Easy Bake Oven for Christmas! This place was soooo much fun!!! My kids loved making their own pancakes right in the middle of the table. The Pfunky Griddle gives new meaning to playing with your food. And you know it has to be cool just by the way Pfunky is spelled.



If you order pancakes, you get a "bottomless" pitcher of pancake batter. Each person gets to pick one topping like M&Ms or coconut or if you are daring...fresh fruit :). If you find yourself in Nashville TN check out this place. Go to www.thepfunkygriddle.com for more information.

Water Balloons are better filled with paint.

This was by far the messiest and most fun thing we did at art camp. I have made these with my kids but this one was super special because every child was able to take home a piece of the art.

I find it so much fun to be able, as an adult, to act just like a child. The parents wanted in on the action just as much as the kids did.

Here are some helpful hints if working with several children...

1. have stations with different kinds of paint techniques

2. wear clothes and shoes that can be ruined

3. get protective eye wear, there will be tons of paint on the faces

4. encourage kids to get dirty, it is part of being a kid!

Supplies:

1. water balloons filled with water and paint (more paint than water)

2. paint brushes for throwing paint

3. syringes from the pharmacy, you know if you have kids, these are the ones that you get with liquid medicine.

4. paper cups

5. lots of fun colors of paint

6. several canvases or one huge one if just for you

7. tarp

What to do:

1. fill water balloons with paint and water

2. fill several paper cups with water and paint. Again, more paint than water.

3. Lay tarp down on surface you are working on

4. lay out the canvas

5. set up stations-I did 2 water balloon stations, 2 cups with different color paint to use with brushes to "throw" paint, and 3 paint cups with different color cups to fill syringes and squirt them.

6. Email me with any questions

7. Take tons of pictures.

Look at how fabulous our art turned out! I have actually done this for a family gift, you can split up the painting and give each family member a piece of the whole painting.

Oil Pastel and Watercolor Sea Creatures

This is part 2 of the Bubbles, Bubbles. We had fun with both parts of this art project. For this you will need...

Supplies:

oil pastels, find these at any craft store. Really any oil based art crayon or pastel will work.

watercolor paints

watercolor paper, any size will do based on your design ideas

paint brushes

What to do:

1. Outline your design on watercolor paper with the oil pastels

2. Paint with the watercolor paints, any color, any style.

(This was done with dark blue pastels and light blue watercolors)

3. Cut out your design and glue onto the dried bubble color paper

What is cool is that the watercolor paints and the oil pastels do not mix so you can create some pretty cool designs.

Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere! Day 2

Here is one of my favorites! I have used this technique for kids art, greeting or birthday cards, and picture matte for fun photos. Would love to hear if anyone else has any great ideas. The picture above was done with purple and blue paint on the watercolor paper background. Look what a unique and fun way the bubble paint dries.

What you need:
Plastic cups
Straws
Liquid Dish Soap
Paint, any kind
Cookie Sheet, older the better
Watercolor paper sheets
Water, tap is good for me

How To:
1. COVER WORK SURFACE!!!!
2. Mix in a plastic cup: 3T paint (any sort) or 1 T tempura paint, 1/2 cup water and 1T liquid dish soap. You want to make sure your liquid color is still very vibrant and bold.
3. Place straw into the cup and place the cup on a cookie sheet
4. Blow bubbles...This is my favorite part!!! Let the bubbles spill out onto the cookie sheet. Yes,
all over the cookie sheet!!


Oh and do not suck in the bubbles, it might be smart to breath while your mouth is OFF the straw.
5. Place watercolor paper LIGHTLY on the bubbles and lift gently.


6. Let dry and then repeat with other colors!
7. Make something FABULOUS.

Instructions for the sea creatures to come tomorrow. See you then.

5 Days of Kids Crafts

I totally love playing with my two kids and coming up with crazy and fun art projects. This past summer I decided to host an art camp for a week of fun and messy art. So for the next 5 days I am going to share some of my favorite art projects that I have done with my kids as well as some super cool things I have found on other blog sites and that I am going to try really soon.

Come to think of it, we are out of school for another 5 days, perfect time.

God's Eye:

Supplies:

popsicle sticks

yarn in fun colors

glue

scissors

How To:

1. Glue popsicle sticks together in an "x"

2. Number ends of popsicle sticks 1-4

3. Hold yarn in center of "x"...now follow me...Take long end of yarn and go under 1 and over 1, under 2 and over 2, repeat over and over and over until you reach about a 1/2" from ends.

4. Tie with a long tale to hang your God's eye

TADA!!!

This is also a great project to do in the car on a road trip. You can make these as big or as small as you want. Look at this window display I saw at the MAC store.