Sniff sniff, goodbye Picnik

What am I going to do without Picnik??

Birthday Brookies

My baby boy is 5! He loves cool cars and Star Wars, and wearing short sleeve shirts over long sleeve shirts. He is so sweet and so... BIG! I did not do too much planning for his karate birthday party, but threw in a few Star Wars things, including this hit: BROOKIES! I love them. Not just because they are named after me. They are simple to make! Ready? Here's how: make some brownie mix and pour some in the bottom of cupcake tins. Refrigerate until cold, then in the center add a pre-made (Oh the shame!! But it makes it sooo easy!) chocolate chip cookie round, the kind that come in the tray next to the roll of cookie dough, and poke it down a little. Bake. Done! These little brookies are amazing when they're a little warm, topped with ice cream. xo

Magic Books

Nash is into magic tricks lately and he's been asking me what kind of magic I can teach him. I am so happy I remembered seeing there instructions for making a magic wallet! I've got a pretty awesome library with books on quilting designs, sewing patterns, paper crafts, invitation making, star wars crafts, 2,000 binding stitches, applique, recycled crafts... you get the point. The book with these instructions is by Esther K. Smith and it's called Paper Crafts and Magic Books. Lots of fun old fashioned "tricks". So you put your business card in the middle of the wallet. Close it. When you reopen it, it looks like... this! And if you close it and reopen it again, then it looks like... this! TA-DA!! It was good enough for my little magician.

How D' Ya Like Your Eggs In The Morning?

Blogging today about someone else's project which makes me grin. My friend Lucy lives in England and I met her the strangest way; Lucy's husband was flat mates with my friend's sister. Isn't it just amazing how people come into your life! She and I keep up with projects on Pinterest, and we watch the same TV shows, and we talk about kids and crafts and she gives me advice. She. is. so. cool.

I sent her a package while back with some spoons in it, and look what she's done!


The song asks, "How d'ya like your eggs in the morning?" Boiled, fried, over easy... with a kiss. Here it is on You Tube... so cute.



Her brother got some chickens awhile back, and so received many chicken-related Christmas gifts this year :) I wasn't familiar with the song, but it's from the 1951 movie "Rich, Young And Pretty" and is sung by Dean Martin. Great job, Lucy! Hope your brother liked them as much as I do!

{If you like this post, please leave a little comment below... and don't forget to sign up to follow me!}

Party Bunting - Lots Of Shapes

It can't be work work work all the time, can it? I was sad to realize it's been at least a month since I've used my sewing machine. An idea came to me last night and I thought I could make it quickly... so here is it!

I know, I know, you're all tired of party bunting- these banners are everywhere! But I wondered if anyone has done a combined shapes party banner? I looked around and didn't see one. So just in case you were wondering, here's what it would look like!

I am not at all precise when I make things like this. I do use a quilting ruler and rotary cutter, but there are no templates and no measuring involved. I took a few basic shapes I've seen made into banners, and made some of each. I kinda like it... what do you think??

While I'm talking about trying new things, I may as well include a picture of these super cool chopsticks I just added to my Etsy store
Now I need to have a sushi party. You're all invited.

**update!**It's funny to find things when you're not looking for them! Just happen to come across this DIY boho bunting.

Beautiful!

Wooden Ice Cream Spoons - Birthday Candles

I rarely post new designs for wooden spoons on this blog, but am so very excited for these "candle" spoons! Aren't they sweet? I hope you'll run over to my Etsy store and take a look around!

It's Just About Time For Presents!

And this year I am shopping at Crate and Barrel. Perhaps exclusively.

Sweater vase!


Fish hotel! Forget the Ritz or the W, this is the coolest hotel I've seen.

I would use these candy stripe bowls year-round. They are so much fun! And I love the way red looks with my aqua walls.

While I'm busy shopping at C&B, I'll take two of these. What about you?

Styling Paper Plates Into A Tiered Cake

Get those paper plates off your table and style them up!

I came across a pin found by the very talented Courtney Spencer of Merriment Events and my eyes just saw it wrong. It's funny sometimes how the mother of invention is just a big accident! I thought that someone had very prettily styled paper plates to look like a tiered cake. Once I realized my mistake, I knew I had to be the one! Surely this exists, since I've seen diapers fashioned into cakes, but I've never seen it.

A quick trip to Target later, armed with plates measuring 6 7/8", 8.5" and 10 3/8" and I have my very own beautiful three tiered plate stack. As for those adooorable spoons also pictured, you can find them in my Etsy store.

Make Custom Wine Tags Using Picnik

How great is it to be able to make your own wine tags? You can create a basic design and save it, then easily update it or personalize it for future use. Here's how!

Step #1 is to go to your Paint program (like Microsoft Paint) and open a new document. Don't do anything to it! Save it as a blank doc to your computer.
Step #2: Head over to Picnik and open that blank doc.
#3: Under the "edit" tab, go to "effects" and scroll until you see "duo tone". This creates your background color.
#4: play with their "stickers" and add "text". There is a section in stickers for Hanukkah and for Christmas, and New Years, so there should be lots to choose from!



If you like the tag I made, you can save it to your computer and open it on Picnik. Find "geometric shapes" under "stickers" and add a rectangle. Change the color to white and expand it to cover up my text. Then add your own text!


When it's time to print I changed the setting from "fit to page" to 4x6. Use cardstock for added stability.

I used a paper trimmer to cut my tags to 3x7, making sure that I had enough space on top for my punch. Use a circle cutter or a punch to make a 1.5" circle. Just below the circle punch, make a fold in your cardstock so your tag will lay nicely against the bottle.

You can round the corners or use an edge punch, or add embellishments. Make it your own!

Enjoy!

Hanukkah Craft #2 - Dreidel Holder

Why not have a special container for dreidels? Even though I really appreciate the Hannukah gear available now at Target, Home Good and Bed Bath & Beyond, there's something nice about a homemade table. The dreidels could rest in any old bowl or cup, but I had this little tin bucket laying around and thought it would be perfect.
I used Stazon ink, which is a solvent ink pad and that stuff sticks to almost anything! Plastic, glass, paper, metal, ceramic, leather, etc. So even if your container is a plastic bowl, or glass, Stazon will stay on, and it dries quickly, which is important when there are little ones running around!

I might even take this as far as to see if I can pick up a few more metal buckets and bowls, assorted shapes and materials will be fine, and let Nash and Margot make their own.

Hanukkah Craft #1 - Paper Gelt Pouch

I am so very excited that Hanukkah is late in the month this year because I have more time to have my decorations out. Also, it gives me more time after Thanksgiving to get ready! So, to begin with, here's a little project I've been working on using easy materials to make a fun Hanukkah treat for the kids: little dreidel and star gelt pouches!

I used old grocery bags and and drew my shapes onto the wrong sides, which is the outside of the bag, (I free handed the dreidel and star, but can always looks for a template online,) cut out two sheets, still wrong sides together, following my lines. I used the wrong sides because I wanted the blank inside of the bag to end up being what showed on my finished product!
I began to sew. Just a few things about sewing paper on a sewing machine: use a sharp needle, make your stitches longer than you would on fabric, and make sure to hold both pieces of paper together since the feed dogs won't pull the bottom layer of paper through. I left the candy out until I was about 3/4 of the way done with my stitching, then put it in and finished sewing.
The paper didn't stay completely in line, so I ended up trimming my edges. I might have used some decorative scissors just to make it a little prettier, but a friend's borrowing mine right now so I just left it straight.
I wrote the first letter of my kids names then traced it in glue and added glitter, just to fancy it up a little. I love embellishing! Go ahead, add buttons, ribbon, rick rack and anything else you want. The more the better!
And maybe the best thing about this is that if you don't sew, just use glue!!
Have fun getting ready for Hanukkah!



Thanks for the request, Amy! Happy to share my post with One Artsy Mama.