I entered a giveaway...

I entered a giveaway at this cute craft blog for some vinyl designs. I could use them in a million places in my house!

http://brandyscrafts.blogspot.com/2011/01/giveaway-my-vinyl-designer.html

Formula cans, Valentine's wreath, Menu Board

I have been saving my formula cans since my son changed over to formula at 8 months old. It's amazing how many accumulate and how excited I am to stop buying it in a month! I found a way to use those cans to organize some stuff. We organized our markers, crayons, foam stickers, and craft sticks on the hallway bookshelf. Then I made some 72 hour kit food jars. I'm planning on putting a strap end in each side of the can and tying it inside so it can be carried over the shoulder if needed. I have a list on the outside of what is inside (after I buy the stuff!). I have another can saved for an ABC game that I saw but that also includes saving juice can lids (26 of them) and we don't buy that much juice! So maybe when baby is ready to learn his ABC's I'll have enough juice lids. Or- if any of you people reading this blog want to save them for me, send them along!

There are Valentine wreaths like this all over blog land right now so I don't know where I actually got this idea. It's just felt circles, a straw wreath ($1 from a thrift store that my SIL found!) and straight pins. Very festive.


I usually scribble our week menu on a little scrap of paper so I thought I'd copy my cousin's project and make a menu board. The glass can be written on with a dry erase marker and the words are cut with vinyl on my cricut. I think I will still paint the frame black.

Valentine's wall hangings

So I've been wanting to get some more Valentine's stuff up and this is what I basically copied from some other people's blogs. I found the hanging heart wreath here and the 3-d heart thing here. Please excuse the blurry pictures. That's what you get when you hold a baby and take pictures at the same time. Total cost- $0.88 for the red ribbon. I had all the other stuff.


I also finished another matching Valentine's banner to hang over another doorway. Our house is slowly getting ready for Valentine's day (and our 14th wedding anniversary the day after!)

Valentine's banner

I've never had Valentine's decorations but now that I have my big bare new house, I gotta do something to spice up those bare windows and walls! I started with this paper Valentine's banner. I'm thinking of doing two more smaller ones that say "Hugs" and "XOXO" for the two other spaces in my dining room. I also want to do some paper hearts in different sizes and colors and string them onto a thin craft wire and wrap them around some lights. I'm going to search for some festive table decoration or table cloth. I want to do a "Wordle" of some sort with Valentine's words for my entry way.

Love my cricut... this took 15 sheets of cardstock with 2 cut outs on each sheet, then 2 sheets of black for the letters. Each oval background is about 5 inches tall. There was extra room so I could've made it a bit smaller and got three cuts on a sheet. Then I assembled and laminated each letter.

Doll bed and bedding

So the last of my three girls is getting an American Girl doll bed for her birthday. I will NOT buy stuff from the catalog (except for the doll) so I get to figure out how to make everything for the girls. I made the first two beds a few years ago and this time I used a boy scout merit badge (wood working) to get my son to help me. We used scrap wood from the garage and followed a plan from www.ana-white.com (love her site!). We had a few mishaps along the way of course but overall it turned out pretty sturdy and cute. I found some scrap fabric and threw together a quilt and pillow and now we have a birthday present for FREE! (and a wood working merit badge)

First attempt at a quiet book

I was so excited to make this "colors book" today! I pretty much copied the one I found on this blog. I changed mine a little bit and I spent ZERO dollars since I had all the materials at home. I got to try out my new cricut again, cutting the fabric letters this time. I discovered what types of fabric work well and which fabrics don't work well in the cricut. I depleted my wonder under stash and my interfacing stash making the pages a little more stiff. I also didn't have any orange or purple scraps so I'll have to make those pages as I get those colors of scraps or trims. I now need to find someone who can make grommets and put one in the corner and then put it all on a ring. I also realized that the white lettering on the cover and on the "black and white" page didn't show up very well so I'll get a fabric marker and outline the letters. After having had 6 kids I've never had a quiet book, so this last little boy is pretty lucky. (can't figure out why the computer flipped all of my pictures- they were the right direction before I started. Sorry)