Tutorials/Tips

Valentine Monster homemade kids cards

February 14, 2012 | Also posted in Topic: craft, featured, Seasonal/Holiday

Happy Valentine’s Day! Normally I share Valentines Cards prior to the actual day, to help give other people ideas, but let’s say we ran a bit behind this year. No matter, sharing now, since the internet is eternal, and this may help someone out next year! So Sunday evening, after a marathon session of watching Series 2 of Doctor Who with the Boy (who between that and Harry Potter is becoming quite the Anglophile), we had the sudden realization that Tuesday was Valentines Day… oops! I guess we need a bunch of cards for the classmates!… Read on...

How to Make Roses Roundup (from all kinds of things, including Bacon!)

February 11, 2012 | Also posted in Topic: craft, food, Seasonal/Holiday

Want to be clever and romantic for Vday? How to make all kinds of roses–out of all kinds of things– just in time for Valentine’s Day! Following are tutorials for crafty rose making, as well as some edible versions (Like these roses, from BACON?) Crafty Goodness:

For those who like to play… Read on...

Get Creative with The Lorax: The Truffula Tree-Shirt!

February 10, 2012 | Also posted in Topic: craft, featured, Featured Craft, inspirations

I’ve always adored The Lorax, it was probably my favorite Dr. Suess book when I was little. And what really captured my imagination as a kid were those fabulous Truffula Trees, looking like cotton candy on a stick! So when I was invited to participate in the blog tour in promotion of the new movie coming out (in theaters March 2nd. Visit the official site for the movie preview, pictures, downloads and more!) I couldn’t resist doing a project featuring those wonderful trees. The Truffula Tree-Shirt! This is a simple “Freezer Paper Stencil” project. Just print out the stencil I’m… Read on...

Fabulous Heart Middle Valentines Cupcakes

February 9, 2012 | Also posted in Topic: Seasonal/Holiday

Check these out from @madalinaa at Duhlicious! Get the how-to: http://duhlicious.com/2012/02/i-heart-you-cupcakes

Don’t forget those after Christmas decoration sales!

January 5, 2012 | Also posted in Topic: Seasonal/Holiday

Yesterday I reminded you about picking up your clearance Candy Canes for use in Valentines Day treats. Today I’m reminding you that the rest of those Holiday Clearance goodies are also a bargain hunting crafter’s delight! In previous years I’ve picked up a tablecloth which was remade into a fun and modern treeskirt, and I noticed my local Target had some pretty red and white snowflake tablecloths (a smaller print than this one from previous years) left on clearance and marked down cheap. If you don’t need a tree skirt, those tablecloths are a great source of holiday fabric for… Read on...

How to: B&W wood photo ornaments and keepsake gift tags!

December 13, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: craft, featured, Featured Craft, Seasonal/Holiday

I recently did a guest post on the FedEx Out of Office blog, with a tutorial on making personalized wooden ornaments and gift tags from photocopies of your photos and drawings. It’s pretty cool, go check it out: Personalized Black & White Wood Ornaments for all the step by steps. It’s a really neat technique that just uses acrylic gel medium from the art store– no toxic chemicals or anything like that. The toner from the photocopy remains on the wood, so the white areas of your photo become wood colored,… Read on...

My fave Thanksgiving dish: Sweet Potato Casserole

November 21, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: Featured Recipes, food

Wow, it’s already thanksgiving week? Where is the year going? In any case, one of my favorite things about this time of year is the food, and my favorite holiday casserole is this one! It’s simple to make, not too sweet, and always a crowd favorite. I wrote up an extensive step by step how to last year at Foodwhirl, so I’m not going to go through it all again — just go read it there : Dot’s Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe.

…perfect for Thanksgiving! I don’t know if sweet potatoes are on your typical

… Read on...

Daphne (Scooby Doo) little girls costume

October 25, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: craft, Halloween, inspirations

This was actually supposed to go up last year (!) but you know how the time around halloween gets around here! My friend Cecily made this costume for her daughter… She writes:

For my daughter, I didn’t like the Daphne costumes available for sale from the costume stores. They are kind of skanky and not the cool retro Daphne from 1970! She wanted to be the original Daphne for sure.
I used Simplicity: It’s So Easy, pattern #2825 (Dress and Backpack (didn’t make the backpack). I used purple Kona cotton and lavendar bias tape for the trim. Honestly I have

… Read on...

BRAAAAINS! Conehead Zombie… PvZ costume

October 24, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: craft, featured, Featured Craft, Halloween, Seasonal/Holiday

kids conehead zombie costume from plants vs zombies

The Cutest Little Conehead Zombie: I promised you guys a second costume for The Boy’s halloween (you’ll remember he’s also doing Draco Malfoy, Death Eater), and here it is! He’s a big fan of the Plants Vs. Zombies video game, and insisted on being a Conehead Zombie. We also considered buckethead, but we had the cone, so that sealed the deal. This is easy to put together, and tons of fun. I think this would be a great group costume idea – everyone picking different zombies to play… Read on...

Make a Hogwarts scarf out of old sweatshirts (Harry Potter, Halloween)

October 20, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: crafttop, Featured Craft, Halloween, inspirations, Seasonal/Holiday

This is part 3, we’ve already covered how to make a death eater mask, and how to make a hogwarts robe out of a t-shirt! For the boy’s Death Eater costume, he really didn’t want any Slytherin gear, as he said (and rightly) that Draco Malfoy skulking around as a Death Eater would not be wearing his Slytherin scarf. But since a death… Read on...