30 Beers for 30 Years Birthday Gift Sampler

It's been a few months since my husbands big 30th birthday but I finally got around to blogging about it. As most of you have probably discovered, gift giving for guys can be tough! No they don't want ties... or socks... or really anything from the stores I like shopping at! My guy loves gadgets and computer stuff but I don't speak geek. For instance, the one time I tried to buy a computer game for my dad who likes "Fantasy" type games... I accidentally got him a kids game. I guess I don't know how to tell the difference between adult games with elves and kids games with elves. Lol!

But beer. Beer is always a win in our house! So if your guy is like mine then consider making him a beer sampler with the number of beers to match the number of birthdays! We have a store called Specs that sells individual beers so I came up with the idea of 30 Beers for 30 Years! I was pretty proud of myself... if you can't tell. And if you would like to avoid your kitchen counter being taken over by the beer rating system, go ahead and type up a spreadsheet or download a beer app on his phone so your guy can rate them and remember which ones he liked. That's part of the fun!

The Sampler idea could translate to an easy gift idea for any member of the family too. Have a mom that likes tea and coffee? Give her a sampler of exotic tea bags or k-cups if you have a Tassimo coffee machine. Does your dad like gardening? You could give a Seed Sampler to the green thumb in your family. Samplers are fun! And they're a gift that keeps on giving!

Heart Glow Valentine

Valentine's Day is upon us and, I don't know about you, but I can never seem to bring myself to buying pre-made Valentine's from the store. I'm sure J would be perfectly happy giving out Disney Princess cards to her little friends but... Mommy just can't help herself. I found this cute Valentine on Pinterest, and, while it was printable, I couldn't edit it and add J's name. Off to PicMonkey.com I went and I'm really happy with the way it turned out! 

Since, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person out there who would like a personalized Valentine I thought I would save you some work and give you a quick and easy tutorial! So, head on over to www.picmonkey.com and make one already!!!

What You Need
* Cardstock
*Printer
*Hole Punch
*Glowsticks (15 for $1 from Target)

First thing I did was open paint and create a blank canvas of the right size. Once you are in paint open Properties change the units to inches and input the Width as 5.5 and the Height as 1.5. Now save it somewhere where you can find it! Lol!

Click edit your photo and open your page. Click on the P on the far left which will take you to fonts. Type in the words in these sizes, fonts and colors: 

Valentine- D90700 Sacramento 48

you make my- Shadows into Light Two 22

Heart Glow- Budmo Jiggler 50

Happy Vday- Shadows into Light Two 18 

Click on the picture of the Heart with the arrow through it below the P, click on Sweathearts, click on banners, choose one and enlarge it to fill the entire page. This is how I made the background pink. There is probably an easier way... but that's what I did. You can do the background in any color you like but here is the color pink I used: FFCDE1.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and... Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Burp Cloths and Fabric Block

Baby C was born in November and between going from parent of one to parent of two, plus throw in some holidays and having family in town, I haven't posted in a while. But... I have completed a few projects here and there. A good friend of mine had her baby boy just a month before me and I was able to throw a little something together for her before popping myself! 

Burp cloths are just about the most simple thing you could possibly make and one that absolutely gets used! There are a lot of burp cloth tutorials out there in blogland so I won't bore you with another one... but you can click on the link to view the tutorial I used. I also made a fabric block out of the same fabrics with a felt letter M for Max! 

Halloween Crafts 2012

Here are some of the fun little Halloween crafts J did this year! Most of these she did at school so I can't really take credit but I thought I would share anyway for those of you who might want to recreate the cuteness!

J colored her pumpkin with markers one day and added the "Happy Halloween" letters another. 

The cat was made in a bowl with dried black beans and lots of glue! Add the googly eyes, pom nose, pipe cleaner whiskers and scrap paper ears and you have yourself one cute little black cat! Oh, and, can't forget about the glitter!

The balloon pumpkin was covered with paper and starch water, painted orange and a paper face was added last. 

I found the foam Halloween cutouts and stickers at the dollar store. It worked out great for working on letters and sounds!

The pumpkin is made of orange dyed rice with a black bean face and a artificial leaf and pipe cleaner for embellishment. Again... lots of glue!

The paper crafts is simple enough... gluing spooky scrapbook paper shapes onto paper but I thought the footprint ghost was a nice touch!

And that was our October of crafts in a nutshell! Hope you found some good ideas to share with your kiddos! Happy Halloween!!!

J's Pink & Blue Airplane Party

Thanks for stopping by and checking out J's Pink & Blue Airplane Party! My little girl loves pink and loves airplanes so the theme was an easy choice. Since airplane party are more of a boy thing, everything I was finding was red and blue so I had to make a lot of the labels and things myself. Here are some of the details including links to inspiration and where to buy. Enjoy!!!

For the gift bags, I made these adorable candy airplanes out of tootsie rolls, a stick of gum (wrapped in scrapbook paper) and two lifesavers for wheels. I bought the individually wrapped lifesavers, poked a hole in the sides and threaded the rubberband through the middle so they weren't completely unwrapped. 

Then, I bagged, threw in some skittles and added some ribbon!

I put two glowstick bracelets in pretzel bags and made labels that said "Airplane Flares." I also had a foam airplane in each bag!

This runway table cloth was SO easy to make! All it took was one dollar store plastic table cloth and a roll of white Duct Tape. I taped the table cloth down with painters tape and had my hubby hold one roll of tape as I held the other. Then, I cut small strips for the dashes. Done!

I didn't find anything I liked for J to wear so I decided to make something! I found this plain t-shirt at Target for $2.50, added the "jewelry" embellishments with some fabric paint using a pencil eraser for the big beads and the back of a wooden skewer for the smaller beads. Anything works really, just see what you have around the house! Finished it off with some pretty ribbon bows and you have an adorable, one of a kind T!!!

I made these cupcake toppers on Picmonkey and I love them!!! One says "Happy Birthday J", the second is a pink plane and the third says "J" in pink over a large blue 3! I found some matching pink scrapbook paper and used a large hole punch to frame it. Put a thin popsicle stick in between the two papers and glue!

The birthday girl demolishing her cake! Actually, just the icing. =)

 Here is the big picture! A few other details: I used these blue cloud balloons and blue airplane balloons. We also had individual bubble containers on each table as out party activity. 

J loved her airplane party and I hope you did too!!! In fact... J keeps asking when her next party is! Lol!

Football Taggie Blanket

Ever since we found out that we are having a little boy I have had all things boy on the brain! I finally finished my first project for the little man and just in time for football season! I've been determined to make him a football blanket and since my husband is a Notre Dame fan and I am a Navy fan I added blue and gold taggies for us both! 

What You Need

*Brown bumpy fabric (1 yard)

*Soft white fabric (1/4 yard)

*fabric glue

*ribbons

*thread

First thing I did was fold the fabric in half and sew a line along the inside for my first seam. No cutting!

Then I folded the blanket corners under to make a decent football shape.

I traced my football shaped and folded into fours so I could trim and make all sides even

I cut 2in strips of my white fabric and used fabric glue to pinch the edges together and form a center line down the under side of the fabric

I used my form as a guide to place my white fabric, pinned it in place and sewed it down.

Now, here comes the fun creative part I am really excited about! I wanted to flatten out the bumps outside of the football outline so I simply ironed them out leaving a bumpy football and a flat exterior. Be careful not to iron out the bumps on the backside of your fabric though! Also, don't let your fabric get too hot or it could discolor. Iron a few swipes, let cool and go again until flat.

Cut 6 in ribbons, use fabric glue to make them into 3 in loops and space evenly on fabric. 

The finished result isn't perfect but I really love it and hope you do too!!!

Hand Stamped Wine Glass Charms

So, I know it looks like I haven't done anything for a month but I actually have a few projects waiting to be posted. Since two of them were gifts, I figured I should give them away before posting them online!

My sister-in-law got married this weekend and we decided to give them a pair of nice Crystal glasses for toasting at their wedding. Since I don't know how to blow glass, and I'm sure it would be disastrous in so many ways if I tried, I decided to leave that to the professionals and I made some wine charms instead. =)

I found this great 6 minute tutorial that shows you how quick and easy the project really is! I practiced on a notepad for spacing (as shown in the tutorial above) then on one of the circles to see how hard I needed to hit the stamps. After that, line up the stamps and hammer away! It really was that simple!

What You'll Need

*Hammer

*Beads

*Earring loops 

*Letter stamp punch set 

*Circular stamping blanks (pendant)

*Steel bench block 

(I found everything at Hobby Lobby and after using their 40% off coupon spent less than $20!)

 I used a small sticky note as a guide so my letters would be straight. You can also write the letter on the note if you are concerned about spacing. 

 After I finished stamping...

 I strung some alternating purple and clear beads along with my pendant and VOILA! 

 A great wedding gift and, if they hate it, they can easily take it off and just use the glasses! =)