This winter has felt exceptionally long and I’ve been in a funk lately (missing the warm breeze and SUN!). Whenever I feel this way I always turn to words. Writing, reading, quotes, poetry… you name it. If you follow me on Pinterest, you probably noticed my quotes board has exploded the last few weeks.

While I was wondering around Michaels doing some happy shopping (hehe!) I came across the display of words for jewelry and got inspired to create. The hard part was deciding how to arrange the straps and getting them to stay in place while I tied the ends up! I think it turned out pretty well. In hindsight I would have added another braided or some single smaller straps below the word to balance out the one on top, but I think it’s not too shabby for my first leather bracelet. I’m hoping it doesn’t fall apart on me!

Hello March! Not only am I looking forward to seeing the snow melt from my lawn, I am excited about about trying out three projects (for the third month of the year) that I found on Pinterest in honor of National Craft Month!

Project #1: LEGO(r) Crayons

This LEGO crayon project from estylojewelry is the perfect craft project for my boy who is in love with LEGOs. His birthday is coming up in May and I think these would make some great party favors!

UPDATE: I made a batch of these colorful LEGO people and I can’t wait to make more! The hardest or rather, the most tedious part of this whole project was peeling off the paper from the crayons. The fastest,cleanest way I found was to run an Exacto knife down the length of the crayon and then peel off. Good news is that I spent one evening peeling off an entire box of 64 crayons that I picked up at the dollar store for $2.50.

Project #2: Animal Silhouette on Canvas

I am going to modify this canvas project by bluechickadee somewhat as I will not be decorating a nursery. Instead, I plan on a Longhorn silhouette for my alma mater (Hook ‘Em Horns!). It will look great in my home office!

UPDATE: Canvas #1 is complete! I spent the evening working on it and didn’t finish until near midnight but it was worth it! Paint is not my medium, but I’m glad how it turned out (as long as you don’t look at it too closely!). I am calling this “Ombre, Longhorn Style”. It will go well in my home office. Canvas #2 is now complete! I kind of winged it and improvised as I went along. I think it turned out okay! They’re both hung proudly in my home office and got my kids’ stamp of approval. They’ve already put in orders for their own rooms!

Project #3:Sandpaper Printed T-Shirt

My kids love drawing so why not make their “works of art” something they can wear too? This sandpaper printed T-shirt project from alphamom reminds me of a similar project I did when I was in 1st grade a gazillion years ago

UPDATE: The kids really enjoyed this project. What I found was that pictures that were outlines (vs. filled in) ended up looking better. Also,what I did was really saturate the lines with crayon as my kids weren’t able to apply as much pressure. This is an airplane that my son drew (he LOVES airplanes and knows all the major airlines!).

Bonus: A craft project that I completed that wasn’t part of the original three was giving my living room pillows a makeover. Before they were a drab green/brown fabric and I decided to give my room a pop of color. The entire project (including the design, measuring, cutting and sewing) took about 1.5 hours. I didn’t spend a dime as I already had the fabric as part of my stash I love the blue/orange combination!

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Paper is my current favorite medium at the moment (the Spring paper wreath was my last craft project). I also bought a paper cutter a while back that cuts out perfect circles…no longer will I try to cut circles out with regular scissors again.  So my latest craft project involves pretty paper, lots of circles and it just so happens to be another decoration that I made for my baby girl’s first birthday which is just a week away!

I cut out 7″ circles from design paper. It’s cardstock so it’s really nice and sturdy. I then cut out 5″ circles of solid color cardstock. Lastly, I printed the letters on regular white paper and cut them out with 4″ circles. I glued the 4″ circles to the 5″ and then glued it to the 7″ design paper.

Next, I punched out two holes on the top of each circle so that I could thread craft ribbon to string them all together. 

This is a super easy project (especially with the cirle paper cutter) that you can make for just about any occasion.

When I was young, my sister and I would leave out cookies and milk for Santa. We would also write him a little thank you note or some years leave a “Don’t eat these Dad, they’re for Santa!” sign. Making these reminded me of those younger years and of the older ones where we would remind each other to eat the cookies before our younger brother woke up!

Download embes Santa note template.

One summer I worked in the Wrap and Send department of what was then Dayton’s (now Macy’s). It was a fun job because one of my best friends worked there along with a handful of other high school students. What was better then hanging out with friends and wrapping presents in pretty paper?

While I already knew how to wrap gifts (my mom use to make my sister and I do all the holiday gift wrapping!) I did learn a few great tips to make the gift look spectacular. With the upcoming holidays here are some tips to make your presents pop:

Instead of taping the paper closed in the middle of the bottom of the box, tape it to the edge. Its one step to fold the paper over and tape.

Then after wrapping the gift define the edges by running pinched fingers along the sides. This gives the gifted a “finished” look.

A little ribbon goes a long way! Make a bow first and then tie it on with a second piece. By making the bow first you don’t have to wrestle with the ends to make them face the right way. Ribbon with wire works best since you can shape it and “curl” the tails.

I’ll admit it, I keep almost every card given to me. For awhile I didn’t know how to store them and just shoved them in a box. Then one day it dawned on me. I could use metal rings and “bind” the cards together by occasion so that whenever I wanted to look at my wedding cards or baby shower cards I could read them like a “book”.

Supplies

• Metal rings – I get the ones in the embroidery section at Michaels. They come in sets of 2.
• 3-hole punch – or any type of whole punch. The 3-hole works great because it will punch both holes at the same time and I don’t have to measure.
• Greeting cards

Instructions

Just punch the holes in the card and slip them onto the rings.

Tips

• align the hole punch at the bottom of the card so that the bottom align.
• use cardstock to divide events if you put multiple events into one “book”

My daughter is still too young for these but I thought that when the time came they would be a great way to help encourage her. The nice thing about making them is that you can write anything on them to suit the occasion. (I see “great pooper!” on one when potty training time comes along, hehe)

These also would be great for parties as place cards (minus the ribbon) or as rewards or even decoration.

1. Cut a 7/8″ strip from the 11″ side of a piece of paper.

2. Fold the paper accordion style. Make each fold about 3/4″

3. Overlap and glue or tape the ends together to form a circle. I used double sided tape. The circle won’t lie flat and the next step will fix it.

4. Cut out two circles – one 1 3/4″ in diameter, one 1 7/8″ in diameter.

5. Glue the larger circle to the back side. Place something on top to flatten (I used the rubber cement glue bottle). Wait for the glue to dry.

6. Write a message on the smaller circle before gluing it to the front. Place something on top to flatten. Wait for glue to dry.

7. For the ribbons, cut out two strips of paper 3.5″ long and 1/5″ wide. Glue to the backside. Cut the ends to form an upside-down V.

8. Adhere a pin or string to the back for wearing.

Here’s one craft tip that my son was more than happy to partake…he got to eat it afterwards! This is a super easy way to decorate your cupcakes. All you need are the following:

1) Paper – preferably cardstock to hold a small amount of confectioner’s sugar

2) Craft punch (if you don’t have a craft punch, you can cut out your very own design)

3) Cupcakes (a dark flavor like chocolate so that the white sugar shows or you can color your sugar with food color and let dry)

4) Confectioner’s sugar & sifter

Just take your craft punch and punch out some shapes on the piece of cardstock. Using the negative portion, hold the piece of paper over the cupcake (it’s probably easier to have a helper do this!) and sift the sugar until you get the shape to show.

For the opposite effect, take the punch-out shape and place on top of the cupcake. Sift the sugar all over the cupcake and then remove the paper shape and voila! You’ve just turned some plain cupcakes into edible art!

Tissue boxes have become more decorative over the years. Gone are the days of the marbled blues, greens, and browns – thank goodness!

For a long time I always thought it was a shame to toss them out (in the recycling bin of course!) but never knew what to do with them if I kept them. Then one day it hit me, I could use them to make a mobile for over my daughters changing table!

All you need is an animal shape, an empty tissue box, chopsticks, string and some glue and voila! A mobile.

Here are the basic steps:

1. Cut out the animal shape from the tissue box (use two boxes for varied colors and designs). Make half of the shapes reversed so that you can glue them together and have the pretty side out.

2. Glue the pieces together with the string in between. I doubled the string and put the loop at the top to attach it to the chopsticks.

3. Use string to tie the chopsticks into an X shape. (Leave a tail for attaching it to the ceiling.)

4. Wrap the string from the shapes around the chopstick ends a few times to secure. This is where making the loop in step 2 comes in handy.

5. Hang and enjoy!