crazedparent

Get Crafty: Valentine's Day "cards" for school...

My oldest son just learned about the Ten Commandments so I am forbidden from using the phrase "sweet Jesus" in our household (for the time being). But right now I really want to say it in bold font and capital letters because Valentine's Day is less than a week away and we have done NOTHING to prepare for the boys' class parties.

Deep breath. 

Usually we are locked and loaded with the core components of the projects but this year, we're only locked and loaded on the actual ideas. Nol will be cooking up a chocolate candy and Q. is vacillating between giving away a matchbox car with each valentine (to help rid us of his collection) or making candy corn, a la last year. 

But if you are looking DIY Valentine's Day cards and crafts for your kids to create, I thought it might help to share what we've done over the past few years:

Homemade Marshmallow Valentines (part two here for packaging ideas)

Candy Corn (recipe here)

Preschool Heart Cards

Heart Crayons (part two for packaging)

Shortbread hearts

Okay. Officially inspired and ready to get to work with Q. and let Nol loose in the kitchen!

 

Par-tay: Owl & Library-themed baby shower...

I co-hosted a baby shower for Mrs. Geek at casa crazedparent a few weeks ago and the crafty inspiration it inspired filled my very empty bottle of creativity. But seeing Mrs. Geek smile all afternoon? It was impossible not to feel the magic of her excitement. We can't wait for that little baby of hers to arrive.

 One of the co-hosts and I were staring at my chalkboard pondering what we should write. Q. watched us, dragged a dining room chair over to the board and proceeded to draw his welcome message. It's an owl with the word "Baby." My heart did a little flip.

Decorating and game inspiration came from the blog, Pink Tea, and her owl/library-themed baby shower. The boys' added their contributions by picking out their favorite books for display: Good Night Gorilla; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane; How to Speak Politely and Why; Wabi Sabi; The Cat in the Hat; Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride; and Spot Goes on a Picnic.

My decorating goal was to only include items that the expectant parents could use in their nursery. I didn't have enough time to make more owl plushies so I just used their front sides to add color to the mantle. They are slowly progressing to the plushie stage. (One down!)

I participated in a Red Velvet Art summer craft camp (sorry, camp site is password protected for participants only!) and one project focused on button-based embroidery. Lucky me because one of the projects included an owl! In a truly geeked-out fashion, I stitched this one during a car ride to a SF Giants game. My husband insisted I not bring it into the stadium, lest I end up on camera crafting during a baseball game. No stich 'n pitch!

See that little felt mural in the corner? I did that too. The plan is to have it framed. The inspiration for the Geek Owl Family came from this little fella. (I thought I took a full photo but will have to ask Mrs. Geek to do that for me!) Also? Baby belly! And pretty mama with the glowing smile!

Because the shower was in the afternoon, our food spread was on the lighter side. We had tea sandwiches and wraps catered from a local cafe that I adore. A co-host gal handled the fruit salad and I made the cupcakes. (Book: Ruby's Beauty Shop). Drinks included cucumber water, homemade lemonade and two agua frescas: cantaloupe and strawberry.

Back to the cupcakes. Nom nom. The most popular batch? Bakerella's s'more cupcakes. The look complicated and time consuming but they are so easy to make and incredibly delicious.

Also? A batch of banana cupcakes with honey cinnamon frosting, a la Martha Stewart. The owl cupcake toppers were purchased on Etsy via Tracy Ann Digital Art.

And last but not least, red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Holy yum.

A wise owl party...

I'm throwing a baby shower this weekend along with two other lovely gals for my bestest, oldest friend, Mrs. Geek. Oldest meaning we hugged on the first day of high school and never let go. (And she went with me to my very first Rick Springfield concert. Seriously? True friendship.)

We're using a library theme, with lots of books as decor. But at some point in the party planning process, someone mentioned adding owls into the mix. I think it was after I shared a link to an owls and books baby shower post from Pink Tea. We all cheered (online) in agreement.

Owls are sweet and scholarly, silly and serious. The perfect symbol for the expectant parents we're going to shower with love and good vibes.

I found some online inspiration for party planning, and then the crafty bug kicked me in my arse while yelling, "It's time to get your creative groove on, sister."

So many ideas.

 

So many fingers burned.

I can't share it all yet; I will after this weekend.

But I couldn't resist showing off the owl plushie I made yesterday. The boys are battling for ownership. I came up with the idea while sitting in a gym watching Q's in his gymnastics class and since I've been carrying around my sewing bag with me, I started right there in the gym. It's that easy.

And guess what? Maybe I'll even have a downloadable pattern out of it. Woot! Hoot!

No, you are NOT bored: Easy DIY (crafty) summer projects for the kids...

Summer vacation isn't one of those times where I can just wing it. My boys are active. They like to be on the move. While both boys in various camps this summer, yet they have ample homebody time. Post camp, we're reading books, hitting our local parks and beaches, chilling out, and enjoying our days. It took about two weeks for all of us to find a routine to summer break. (Routine is key for our family. We all dig and need it.) And at some point during each afternoon or early evening, the boys want to make/build/draw something. Which in our house we just dub "Get Crafty" time.

I have several bins full of art materials they can both use and because of their 3.5 year age difference, they both come up with vastly different ending points. It's fascinating. But leading into summer break, I took note of several projects that I thought they'd enjoy. Some are more tailored to the pre-K age set, others are for older kids. And there are those that all ages will enjoy, even mom or dad. Here's a few that we've either tried or are in the process of working on:

• Connect a mini marshmallow shooter:  Haven't tried this but plan on making it next week to bring on a camping trip where marshmallows will be a plenty.

• Talk it up with tin can telephones: Going old school with this activity. I've turned it into a lesson for Q. to teach him how sound travels. And don't think your second or third grader wouldn't enjoy this either. There's something so simple and fun about it that they can't resist.

• Whip up a cereal box marble run:...or Matchbox car. Just sayin'. I'm always looking for ways to use our cereal boxes in art projects. From creating a cereal box town to mailboxes,they are so full of potential. This project? Awesomeness. Older kids can build it themselves and younger kids can practice cutting on the lines as they help make this one.

• Get spacey with a cardboard rocket ship: Requires parental assistance -- cutting out the cardboard shapes -- but worth it. I helped Q. make his rocket ship (pictures below) early on during the break and it's still in his room, occupied by alien creatures, and Lego men and Matchbox cars..

• Create a driftwood town: Super excited about this project; I've We've been collecting driftwood with every beach visit. I'm certain the boys will have fun painting the driftwood but the best part will come  when they get to set up the towns on the beach and in other random areas. I know we'll save this set for a long, long time.

• Stir up monster puke bubble bath: This is a mom-driven project because I'm tired of the boys stealing our body soap to make huge bubble baths in the tub. A big jug of homemade bubble bath will fix that problem. Just add a drop of food coloring or you can eliminate it and just have a clear bubble bath mix.

What activities are in your "No you are NOT bored" bag of tricks?

Time to doodle, cut and paste...

Summer projects abound.

For one community activity sure to inspire, check out The Envelope Project via Meet Me at Mikes. I am constantly in the midst of purging from my craft supplies, slimming down to those tools I use most often. Sending off a few small items as part of The Envelope Project is a way to break the monotony of cleaning out my supply closet.

I checked back at Mike's this morning to see that batch of envelopes already received. Gorgeous. Adorable. Creative. Fun. Simple. And yes, inspiring.

Makes me want to break out my crayons and doodle. (Also makes me want to come up with my own Envelope Project!)

Check out the photos.

(Photo via Meet Me at Mikes.)

Who says kids get to have all the fun over summer break?...

My kids always come home from summer camp with the coolest, most creative art projects. We end up lining their rooms with paintings and sculptures and recycled art, sort of a mini gallery.

But why do the kids get to have all the fun?

I just signed up to participate in a Red Velvet Art Summer Camp. You can do the projects at your own pace, which is exactly the kind of summer camp this mama needs.

I was part of a 6-week Red Velvet Art course last spring and complete only two of the projects (see them here and here). And if I only complete two more this time round, I'll be ecstatic. Just enough let different creative juices flow. I've always found that getting crafty brings new ideas in other parts of my life. Over summer vacation, that's a very good thing.

Crafty & Crazed: When the sewing bug strikes...

Q. turned five last week. FIVE. Sigh.

In the days leading up to his birthday, I became determined to find a t-shirt that had the number five on it so he could have something special on the big day. I found a cute shirt on Etsy but didn't have enough time to order it in time for his birthday...so I decided I'd copy the idea and make it on my own. Only it was going to take more time than I imagined because Sewing Queen I am not.

And then I remembered a TV segment where Mike Adamick showed how to sew a simple applique on kids' clothes.

I already had fusible webbing (read: iron-on sheets) and I hit Target for a few $5 t-shirts; I decided I'd make a few of these for some of kiddies in our world who would be turning five soon as well. The one pictured above is for my niece. I picked up a quarter yard of fabric (spaceships! $1) for Q. and a few other quarter yards at $2 each. The entire project took me about 15 minutes per shirt, including the time spent sewing edges on the "applique" to make it look a little more snazzy. So cute and so easy. Check out this post on Mike's TV segment for instructions.

Tips from me: Use one-sided fusible webbing. You buy a pack at a fabric store like JoAnn's -- $4 for 5 sheets. Sketch your number on the non-stick side of the sheet and then cut it out. Peel off the paper and apply it to the wrong side of your fabric and then cut the design out.  Note: The design will appear "backwards" but it's all good because you've attached it to the wrong side of the fabric. Also? Make sure your webbing is cut to the edges of your design, otherwise it will fray in the wash. Then just iron it on to your shirt/clothing of choice. 

Since I pulled the sewing machine out of its hiding place, I've been finding all sorts of things I want to try my hand at making. Like this adorable one-hour dress from Craftzine. Simple aprons to use up some of my fabric from Kauai. And more shirts for the boys. Simple things that are manageable with my limited skillz.

I decided to spend the morning cutting out fabric pieces for some lunch bags I'm making for the boys' teachers...end-of-the-year gifts. Normally I find myself so frustrated when I am using a rotary cutter but I've changed my approach...and a little patience and planning are working in my favor.

Fancy that.

Crafty & Crazed: Transforming an already transformed chair (alt. title: DIY dining room chair seat covers...)

At last summer's Sunset Celebration Weekend, I picked up a few household items (e.g., cute little bowls) at the magazines "Secondhand Sunset" Booth, where the magazine sells props they've used in photo shoots. Some of those "items" were pieces of small furniture that, at the time, we didn't really need and they didn't have a spot in our house

...but I couldn't let them go.

Take this chair. It appeared in an issue of Sunset, where the very sweet and crafty Jess Chamberlain took a thrift-store find and prettied it up. I immediately saw RED RED RED and loved the design of the chair. The fabric pattern? I didn't jive with the look in our house, but I could live with it. Especially for 15 bucks.

The chair found a home at my desk, which happens to be a craigslist find that I restored last summer. I can't find the photos of it during the crafty phase. Sigh.

I was cruising around the fabric store yesterday and came upon some faux leopard fur. It struck me that, RAWR, would that fabric look hot with my red chair? Hell yes, it would.

I got home and within 15 minutes, my chair was transformed from sporty, Cape Cad nautical to sassy, chic, fabulous hotness. (Notice the kid playing in the background? I re-did the chair WHILE HE WAS IN THE ROOM! Fastest DIY home craft project EVER.)

I can only imagine what kind of writing this chair will now inspire. Meow.

Re-covering a dining room chair pad is one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to give new life to an old piece of furniture.

This particular seat only required about 1/2 yard of fabric, which cost me a grand total of six bucks. I had to pick up a new staple gun -- lost the old one -- but I'll be using it for other projects.

Other than the fabric and staple gun (plus more staples), you'll need a screwdriver (usually a phillips head), pliers and scissors.

That's it. For real.

Sunset has instructions here, but I will also post step-by-step details later this week when I finish up with our dining room set.

Dispatch from the test kitchen: Homemade marshmallows for Valentine's Day, part one

The boys and I began part one of making homemade marshmallows yesterday using a recipe and instructions from The Hungry Mouse. The thought of making candy and boiling sugar worries me because, OUCH, hot sugar on my arm. But I was super careful, thankyouverymuch. There was not a single cooking injury in casa crazedparent during the making of the marshmallows.

If you're going to try making marshmallows at home with the kids, let them do all the measuring. Once the mixture is on the stove, you'll not want them near it. Too hot, too risky. Once the hot sugar is in the mixer whipping itself into a frenzy, however, they'll want to be close by to see turn from a weird, stinky tan-ish murky liquid into the thick, white, sweet-smelling stuff of marshmallows. I may never buy a bag of marshmallows again.

We let the marshmallow "batter," for lack of a better word, set overnight in two baking dishes. Today, Eight and I will cut them into squares, powder them and wrap them for Valentine's day treats for his class.

Can hardly wait.

Things I love: DIY silly putty...

Gross, right?

When I wrote about DIY goop, Jay Fence said that when he was a kid, he loved "goop that used to come in a plastic egg."

Silly Putty! 

I used to love playing with Silly Putty when I was a kid, too. And Jay's comment added a new DIY craft project for me and the boys.

DIY silly putty calls for two ingredients: liquid starch and washable, non-toxic glue. Simple enough.

I found one set of instructions that said you mix and equal ratio of liquid starch and glue. Hmm, not so simple. Turns out it requires a little bit of experimenting.

Eight and I figured out that it's a two to five ratio. Two tablespoons of liquid starch to five tablespoons of glue. (We used Sta-Flo Concentrated liquid starch and Elmer's school glue.)

You mix and knead it in a plastic container. You want to make sure that the you -- or the kids -- really mop up all the liquid starch with the glue, otherwise it feels too wet. If it IS too wet, you may have to add more glue...go one teaspoon at at time. Again, just make sure you or the kids mix it all really, really well.

The DIY silly putty starts out slippery and the more you knead, the smoother and more silly putty-esque it gets. It starts out shiny then loses that luster. But if you let it sit for a bit, the shine comes back. When you're done, store the Silly Putty in a resealable plastic bag.

If the DIY silly putty gets on clothes (or hair, just sayin'), rub the spot with whatever kind of vinegar you have on hand (a la Crafty Teacher). It works really well, especially when you say, "Out damned spot."

Now, there are those folks who add food coloring to their DIY silly putty. After a food coloring mini disaster in our kitchen earlier this week that ended with our blinds covered with red streaks, I say avoid it at all costs.

Glitter? Okay.

Food coloring? Run. Run like the wind.

Eight had the idea of packaging the ratio of starch and glue in small containers along with a sheet with instructions, and giving it as a small gift. I thought that was cute and may have to investigate it further. Maybe for Valentine's Day? (Then I'll have to purchase this big mama.)

Test out the DIY silly putty and let me know how it goes and what worked for you!