Las Vegas Craft Weekend

Things have been so crazy around here I didn't get a chance to tell you about my trip down to Las Vegas My mom and I put our names in the drawing to go to a Craft Weekend with Meg Deurksen in Kansas and sadly didn't get chosen. So when Gwen and I had planned a trip down to visit my parents my mom naturally made it into our own version of a craft weekend.

My Mom set up their formal dining room as crafting headquarters with a St. Patrick's Day flair. She made that bunting without any sewing involved, that woman can yield a hot glue gun like it's nobody's business.

She has so much stuff that's collected over the years. It was insane how many foam paint brushes, acrylic paints and wood blocks one woman can have. The minute we laid the baby down for a nap we got to crafting.

By the end of the weekend we had managed to make so many things. It was like Pinterest came to life.  My dad got my mom a cricut last October for her birthday and she had yet to use it until that weekend. She broke it in quite well, I must say. We used it for all the wood block projects and surprised ourselves at how nice they came out.

Here are a couple projects we made.

Birthday clipboard inspired by Eighteen25

I read on Twitter one day (I have no clue who posted it it was awhile ago) that the dutch put a calendar filled with birthdays in their bathrooms. It's a great spot where you have to look at it all day everyday. They followed it up with something like, "but you're not tacky enough to do that but follow their lead by doing this instead...." I'm terrible with birthdays. Just ask my nephew who gets his birthday card a week late every year or our two friends who I had planned on making cupcakes for 3 weeks ago. So guess where this bday reminder calendar is hanging? On the wall straight across from the toilet. That's right. My nephew's birthday card was still late but that's just tradition at this point. {cough cough}

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine's & St. Patrick's  rotating blocks inspired by Thoughts in Vinyl

Fabric canvas inspired by Whatever

My Dad was cute. He came in and looked at everything we made and oohed and ahhed and then got a little quiet and said, "I understand the blocks and everything else, but I'm sorry, I just don't get these things," pointing to the fabric canvases. We all just laughed because we don't really get them either. They're quirky and fun and that's what matters, right?

Picture block puzzle inspired by The Idea Room

This one was a bit time consuming and a little too advanced for Gwen, but still a great idea. Amy at the Idea Room recommends square blocks from a craft store which my mom discovered were quite pricey. So she bought some wood at Home Depot and had my dad saw it down to the right size for $1.50. She wound up with over 20 blocks.

And that's not even all of it! It helped that the baby slept for the majority of her visit there since her grandparents knew how to tire a girl out. So if you ever lose out on the lottery of getting to go to an official "craft weekend" don't forget that you can always just do one yourself. Between yourself, your family and your friends you could gather up quite a few supplies and you'd be surprised what you're capable of.

 

Insta-Friday- 4th Edition

It's Friday and the last day of September. Woo-ee. 

I swear this has been the world's longest week, hasn't it? I didn't even get to do my weekly garbage day ritual. It's just a sweep of the house for any and all garbage. But this week it was just a run down the driveway as we were running out the door. Lord knows what garbage has been left behind for one more week. Oh the horror! 

Anywho, here's the weekly to-doings around these parts.  We went to a lot of parties: a pajama party, tea party and a birthday party. Neither of which I took any pictures of. But don't you worry, I snapped plenty of pics of the babe being her cute self. 

1. Ripping the farm magnets off the fridge 2. Chewing on Mommy's purse

3. Showing a little midriff (illegal!) 4. That is a stuffed kangaroo, not a dead pet

     

       

1. An awesome cricut project (the challenge of the week) 2. Lunch time

3. Hedwig resides on our door 4. How we use our bouncy chair nowadays

Have a killer weekend! We've got a car to be fixed and some banana bread to make. How about you?

As usual, if you have no clue what the what this Insta-Friday stuff is about, click here

Insta-Friday- 4th Edition

It's Friday and the last day of September. Woo-ee. 

I swear this has been the world's longest week, hasn't it? I didn't even get to do my weekly garbage day ritual. It's just a sweep of the house for any and all garbage. But this week it was just a run down the driveway as we were running out the door. Lord knows what garbage has been left behind for one more week. Oh the horror! 

Anywho, here's the weekly to-doings around these parts.  We went to a lot of parties: a pajama party, tea party and a birthday party. Neither of which I took any pictures of. But don't you worry, I snapped plenty of pics of the babe being her cute self. 

1. Ripping the farm magnets off the fridge 2. Chewing on Mommy's purse

3. Showing a little midriff (illegal!) 4. That is a stuffed kangaroo, not a dead pet

     

       

1. An awesome cricut project (the challenge of the week) 2. Lunch time

3. Hedwig resides on our door 4. How we use our bouncy chair nowadays

Have a killer weekend! We've got a car to be fixed and some banana bread to make. How about you?

As usual, if you have no clue what the what this Insta-Friday stuff is about, click here

I got a Cricut!

My grandparents surprised me with a Cricut as an early birthday present when they were up visiting. That's right ladies and gentlemen, a Cricut. Every woman's dream come true. My first project?

Grandparent's Day cards. 

 Now, I'm sure once I figure out the proper tools, tips and tricks for the almighty Cricut, it'll be an amazing thing to have. But for now, it's quite the source of frustration.

Why, you ask? Because it cuts out these teeny tiny letters that you then need to pick off, apply glue and very carefully glue onto something.

 I had planned on combining Grandma & Grandpa on one card, until the letters were too big. So I then had to make separate cards, eight of them. Lets just say I'm not doing a project like that until I get a cool little sticker maker, which apparently is the tool you need to make using your Cricut a little more manageable.

In the meantime, I was just sure to put my "handmade" stamp on the back of each card, as if it's not going to obvious with all the glue everywhere.

 They are pretty cute and boy was it a triumph to put those babies in the mailbox, on time.

Pin It

I  also made an attempt at freezer paper stenciling to make an accompanying adorable onesie for baby G to wear on Grandparent's Day. Lets say I got excited until I realized that cutting the stencil the right way, on the right side of the paper, is damn near impossible on the original Cricut. Rumor has it that there's some code you can use to flip your image, but the world wide web has yet to deliver that answer to my doorstep. And the Cricut website's message boards are a nightmare.

Anywho, for all your Pinterest lovers out there, I'm linking up to the following linky parties. These are a great resource for killing time pinning things, if you know what I mean. 

http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/

I got a Cricut!

My grandparents surprised me with a Cricut as an early birthday present when they were up visiting. That's right ladies and gentlemen, a Cricut. Every woman's dream come true. My first project?

Grandparent's Day cards. 

 Now, I'm sure once I figure out the proper tools, tips and tricks for the almighty Cricut, it'll be an amazing thing to have. But for now, it's quite the source of frustration.

Why, you ask? Because it cuts out these teeny tiny letters that you then need to pick off, apply glue and very carefully glue onto something.

 I had planned on combining Grandma & Grandpa on one card, until the letters were too big. So I then had to make separate cards, eight of them. Lets just say I'm not doing a project like that until I get a cool little sticker maker, which apparently is the tool you need to make using your Cricut a little more manageable.

In the meantime, I was just sure to put my "handmade" stamp on the back of each card, as if it's not going to obvious with all the glue everywhere.

 They are pretty cute and boy was it a triumph to put those babies in the mailbox, on time.

Pin It

I  also made an attempt at freezer paper stenciling to make an accompanying adorable onesie for baby G to wear on Grandparent's Day. Lets say I got excited until I realized that cutting the stencil the right way, on the right side of the paper, is damn near impossible on the original Cricut. Rumor has it that there's some code you can use to flip your image, but the world wide web has yet to deliver that answer to my doorstep. And the Cricut website's message boards are a nightmare.

Anywho, for all your Pinterest lovers out there, I'm linking up to the following linky parties. These are a great resource for killing time pinning things, if you know what I mean. 

http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/