Hello again! It has been waaaaaayyyy too long! ;)

Okay, so I have been up to lots of stuff since my last post. We have as a family gone through a crazy, hectic, insane, fill-in-the-blank year. Life is just now starting to settle down nicely, and I feel that I can start up my blog again. Yay! I know that you are all just *so* dang excited! ;)

With that being said, this past year has taught me to be even more frugal with my gifts/crafts. I have a ton of crafting supplies that I have gathered up and pulled out of storage, so I am going to be sharing projects that I have designed and those that are in catalogs that I refuse to pay their hefty price tag on.

So... here's my first project in for-ev-er! I promise to bring up more and post them as regularly as I can.

I didn't photo these before I finished the project, nor did I photo in between steps. It is very easy to do, and if you have ever made a paper hand turkey, this should be a breeze!

Supplies:
1 canvas- mine is 8" x 10" (I bought 2 at Hobby Lobby for $2)
Acrylic paints: Brown, cranberry, orange, yellow, gold, ivory, white and black
Acrylic spray sealer
Sponge paintbrush (the ones that are 25 cents at Michaels or Home Depot)
Detailing paintbrush (narrow bristles)

Step 1: Paint entire canvas ivory. Let dry fully.

Step 2: Paint your husband's entire hand brown. Place you husband's hand on the canvas. Remove hand carefully, to avoid smearing. Let dry fully.

Note: If you don't want to wait for it to dry naturally, a hair dryer on low will work. The entire hand print needs to be dry before proceeding to the next step, or it will pull off of the canvas. :)

Step 3: Paint your fingers cranberry and your palm brown. Place your hand on top of your husband's print and place your fingers according to your own design. Remove hand carefully, to avoid smearing. Let dry fully.

Step 4: Paint your oldest child's fingers orange and their palm brown. Place their hand on top of your print and place their fingers according to your own design. Remove hand carefully, to avoid smearing. Let dry fully.

Step 5: Paint your next child's fingers yellow and their palm brown. Place their hand on top of your oldest child's print and place their fingers according to your own design. Remove hand carefully, to avoid smearing. Let dry fully.

Step 6-??: If you have more than 2 children; continue the pattern of brown palm, colored fingers until all children are printed. Removing hands carefully, to avoid smearing. Letting dry fully.

Step 7: Paint "We are Thankful" across the top of your painting in gold. (I free handed this part.)

Step 8: Paint the outline of your turkey in black to define the head and neck. Let dry.

Step 9: Paint two white dots for eyes. Let dry.

Step 10: Paint beak orange.

Step 11: Paint wattle cranberry.

Step 12: Paint pupils black. Outline beak and wattle with black also.

Step 13: Paint year in corner with gold.

Admire your new Thanksgiving keepsake. :)

That's it!

Trip to Home Depot...

Any of my friends know how much I *LOVE* going to Home Depot. Yes, I'm a dork, but I love that place! So many things that can be used in so many non-traditional methods- gotta love it! ;)

Anyhoo... on my way there in a few, and hope to have a super cool project to share with y'all later. :)

Coffee Filter Wreath

As promised, I am posting pics of my wreath. Sorry didn't take any pictures of the process of making it. :/

Overall, this project was very easy (time consuming) and very inexpensive. I only used about 50 coffee white coffee filters, about a yard of 1 1/2" black satin ribbon, some food coloring, a dash of salt and a piece of cardboard from the recycle bin. Total cost of this project $1.50- and I have enough coffee filters left for another wreath. :)

I found that dying the coffee filters worked best by boiling 3 quarts of water with about 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt in the water, after the water is boiling add the food coloring. Keep in mind the water has to be much darker than what you would expect. My water actually looked black and the filters as I took them out looked almost indigo, but then when they came out of the oven were the lavender color. I just love the way it turned out! So pretty! :)

Alright, now how to make your own wreath...

Supplies:

White coffee filters (natural/brown ones didn't hold the dye right)

Cardboard cut into the wreath shape you want (e.g. round, square, rectangle, etc.)

1 yard of 1 1/2" satin ribbon (or any type you have on hand)

Hot glue gun

Salt

Stew pot

Food coloring

Stove/Oven

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 225 degrees F.

Step 2: Boil 3 quarts of water with 1-2 teaspoons of salt.

Step 3: Add food coloring to desired color. (You might want to test out a filter- you can dye it darker, if you don't like your result. For the lavender color I ended up with, I used a concoction of 25 drops of pink, 30 drops of blue, 35 drops of purple and 20 drops of red.- No wonder the water was black!) ;)

Step 4: Submerge 6-8 coffee filters at at time in your stew pot. Let them soak for about a minute. Keep the pot on low heat to keep the water hot.

Step 5: Carefully remove the coffee filters from the water, and lay them flat on your oven rack.

Step 6: Bake your filters for 2 minutes. Remove from oven. (Your filters should be dry- if not, keep them in for another 30 seconds until they are completely dry.)

Step 7: Repeat Steps 4-5 until you have all of your filters dyed and dried.

Step 8: Take a filter and scrunch it to make your "flower." There is no "right" or "wrong" way to do this, it is a piece of art, and really you can't mess it up. :)

Step 9: Repeat Step 8 until you use all of your filters. (This is the time consuming part.)

Step 10: Take your ribbon and find the center of the top of your wreath, and glue in place. (This will become your hanger and bow later.)

Step 11: Take your cardboard wreath shape and start hot gluing your filter flowers to cover it entirely. (The amount of filters used will vary depending on size.)

Step 12: Tie the ribbon from Step 10 in a knot, then a bow on top of it for decoration. (or just have a ribbon hanger without the bow- whatever you like.)

That's it! :)

6 cups of coffee so far... to kick start a great weekend!

Waking up at 5am this morning, the need for having a hot cup of coffee in 90+ degree weather seemed like a good idea. ;) So, as I pulled the coffee filter out of the packaging, it hit me. I also had the need to make a coffee filter wreath.

(Ahhh... the season of crafting is about to get fun and exciting over here. Not that it isn't usually, but with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas in quick succession, the need for seasonal craftiness is prime.) ;)

Now, what shape of wreath should I make? Square? Round? I'm thinking of either orange or deep purple with a raven, skulls, etc. Depends on what happens to jump into my cart at Dollar Tree later. ;) I'll post pics once it is done. ;)

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Envelope Saving System

Living on a budget is a fact of life for many of us lately, but who says you have to look like it?? ;)


I found a great tutorial a few months ago when we decided to use Dave Ramsey's envelope system. Kelleigh has made it even easier for your envelopes to look super cute and stylish. You can download her FREE envelope template and labels to make your own customized envelope system here! :) She also has some amazing templates to make just about anything out of paper! You've gotta check her templates out! :)



Photo from Kelleigh Ratzlaff.com

She shows how you can make it fit right into your wallet, but I personally made mine look more like a book. I tied ribbon through it and it has worked well, although it is pretty worn out now and I am going to make it differently this weekend; I will post those pics later. ;) I've also seen where you can put the 1" metal hoops (you can find them at an office supply store like Office Max, Staples, etc.) where your envelope system is like a binder.



This project is very simple with Kelleigh's envelope template and several scrapbook paper pages from your local craft store- sometimes, you can score 4 or 5 pieces of paper for $1! What a deal!! Grab yourself some ribbon scraps, ric rac (wouldn't that be cute!), organza, buttons, trims - whatever you have around and get crafty! :)

Another state, another move...

Since it seems that we have a knack for moving every year or so (don't know why- guess we're lucky like that) we are moving again to another state. Although, this time, we've actually lived there before and like it a lot. We're moving to Arizona, so for my loyal readers I will begin posting when the boxes of crafts are unloaded and bring some wonderful-ness to you all. I am thinking of even doing a giveaway that will be really cool- promise. :)

On that note, I will sign off for now, and see you all in about 10 days.

Craziness of Life

I've been officially "offline" for almost 2 months with a nasty computer virus that I have finally been able to contain, but also officially off of my foot for most of that time too. Why? (in case you want to know) I broke my right tibia and fibula on April 28th and had to have surgery to repair it. One titanium plate, eight screws later, complete cabin fever, and lots of hours of physical therapy; I'm hoping to be able to craft and blog here again very soon.

Since I haven't been able to drive either (hopefully I'll get cleared in 9 days) I haven't been able to get supplies; a lot of stuff that needs just a bit more to complete. Drives me crazy- or maybe that's the cabin fever talking. Regardless, I will do what I can to get some projects up for the summer for some fun and excitement- I know my kiddos can't wait.

I hope that all of you are having a great summer and enjoying the nice warm weather, and I will post again later.