Make Your Own Bib Necklace: Red, White and Blue Edition

I love to have something festive to wear on the 4Th of July. In the past my girls and I have made read, white, and blue flower hair clips. This year I wanted to try something a little different, so I made each one of my girls a bib necklace and a brooch for myself. They all vary slightly.

 I accented my flowers with a bit of Russian lace and little diamonds.
For the brooch below, I added a little brooch pin by hot gluing it to the felt backing of the flowers.

See here for a rolled flower tutorial.
 Note: I used ribbon instead of fabric. I have no frayed edges on  my flowers.When I start my rolled flowers I always tie a knot at the end and wrap my ribbon around it.

See here for a tutorial on how to make a bib necklace.

I would have done the tutorials myself, but I injured my knee pretty badly and everything is taking so much longer to accomplish.

Happy Crafting!
XOXO,
 Amy

Make a 4th of July banner out of an old pair of jeans!

 Don't throw those old jeans out! There are so many things you can reuse them for, like this totally cute July 4TH banner that I hung across my entry way mirror:

 I adore it! Best of all it was so easy to make. I didn't sew a stitch! I simply used my trusty hot glue gun!

 I got my inspiration from this blog here. I haven't the foggiest idea what Cost Plus World Market is or where one might even exist. And I certainly didn't have any gift cards for the store. So I said to myself, you could totally make that! And I did and you can too!

P.S.
Great for a photography backdrop!!!

You'll need:
A pair of old jeans
sharp scissors
ruler
pencil
pen
red and white ribbon (walmart $3)
twine (walmart $5 for huge roll)
Hot glue gun
hot glue
white felt ($0.58 walmart)

I started out by creating a triangle to be used as a stencil. You'll have to figure out what size you want. Mine was 7 inches along the side. I cut the triangle out

 and began to trace the pattern onto my old jeans

Once I cute out the triangles, I hot glued a length of ribbon to the top

 flipped it over and trimmed up the edges.

 I had a stack of 6 flags . . .

 I measured out roughly where I wanted my flags to be glued to the twine. I don't ever do anything perfectly. I just spaced them out by eyeballing them. Then I  did this: (It is a different project that I will post later, but the idea is the same:)

I taped the length of twine to my craft desk so that it wouldn't move about. then I placed the top of the flag near the twine and ran a bit of glue across the top of the denim triangle pushed it into the twine. I repeated this 6 times.

 This is what i have so far. No I wanted a star on it and in the back of my mind I could see a package of copper star brads that I wanted to use for embellishments. However, the only placeI could find my brads was in the back of my mind.

 SO instead I free handed a star chape onto a piece of paper, cut it out and used it a a pattern to tracea star shape onto my white felt.

 Then I hot glued that star onto the denim tip of the triangle.

 I really do adore it!

 I think it will get a lot of use this summer!

 Happy Crafting!
XOXO,
 Amy

4th of July Cookies- Pops!

What happen when a cookie and a lolly pop get married? They have cookie-pops!

What a yummy way to celebrate our Independence!!

You've gotta make these! They are so easy!!

 First of all, I admit that I totally cheated! In our house my husband is the baker and he makes the most AH-MAZING cookies. So I will not even try to compete. Instead I just use the family recipe that My Aunt Nestle Toll House passed down to me. Had he been home I would have sent Aunt Nestle packing.

This is what you need:
Cookies- from scratch or from Nestle
Popsicle sticks (one per two cookies)
2 cups confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted buttered, softened
1 TBL milk

 Make your filling while the cookies are baking:
on medium speed beat together confectioners' sugar, butter and milk until smooth, thick frosting is created.

 Use a few drop sof food coloring to color a bit of the frosting. I didn't measure. I'd say maybe 1/8 of a cup.

 Let your cookies cool completely

 Spread about two tsp. of filling onto flat side of one cookie.

 Press a Popsicle stick into frosting, then sandwich with a second cookie (flat side down). Refrigerate until firm.

 I used skewers and that is why I am giving you the benefit of my mistake you can use lollipop sticks, but I really think Popsicle sticks would work best.

 Tie wit a decorative bow.

 So cute and so yummy!

 Happy Independence Day!

Happy Baking!
XOXO,
 Amy

Arts and Crafts for Kids: Painting with Condensed Milk and Food coloring

I love this project because it is completely non toxic and 100% edible, which is really good if you have a one year old who loved to bite and chew on everything! You only need four things:
* Food coloring
*condensed Milk
*Paper
* A paint brush or Q-tips

That is it . . . paint away! Your paintings will take a little bit of time to dry but when the dry they will be shiny!!

This is the one who eats everything!

This was  away fun project that kept the kids busy for a good long time!
Happy Crafting!
xoxo,
 Amy

Kid's Craft: Decorative Twine Vase

I just love how this little craft turned out. It radiates a rugged beauty and charm.

Kids crafts can totally be cute as well as fun!

This was was a lot easier than I though it was going to be.  I am going to tell you how we did it and you can adjust it to fit your needs. (You may want to use a bigger glass bottle, or you may want to boy it up by leaving off the ribbon and fill it with pencils instead of flowers.)

 This is what I used:

*One glass baby food jar. (I don't have a baby who eats baby food any more but all my kids still love to eat these little meat sticks. I save the jars and fill them with jello or use them for other crafts.)

 * A low temp glue gun and glue stick
* A roll of twine, twice the length of your forearm. I got mine at Walmart for $5.
* White ribbon
*Brad embellishment to put on center of the ribbon.

 I put a little dab of hot glue around the very top of the lid and started the first wrap of twine for my daughter. From there, she wrapped the twine around the little jar again and again, and again.

 She was very focused;)

 And very proud of her finished product. I added a little drop of hit glue to the bottom of the jar to secure the twine and a few drops of hot glue in between some of the spaces of twine and secured them together.

 We then tied a ribbon in a bow and I let my daughter carefully put a little drop of hot glue on the center of the ribbon so that we could add the embellishment.

 Ta-dum!

 I really do love how it turned out. I can imagine a shelf filled with vases of all different sizes covered in twine:)

Happy Crafting!
xoxo,
 Amy