Fabric Pumpkin Burlap Banner

I can't believe tomorrow is October!

I absolutely love this time of the year.

September is still warm enough that I don't feel the season change too much, but as soon as October comes we decorate for Halloween, start planning costumes, and the overall feel just completely changes.

The other day I decided to make this pumpkin banner to add to our decorations this year.

I love that it will work for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

I was able to make this whole thing in a little less than an hour.

I've got lots of pictures and instructions for you, but please let me know if you have any questions.

*Also, if you aren't feeling too crafty I have these for sale over at my Etsy shop! Click here to find the listing.

DIY Reversible Burlap Banner

The other day I was thinking about some of the craft supplies that are sadly sitting in my craft room waiting to be used up.

While I was rocking my baby for his nap that day I decided I wanted to use up some of those supplies and try my hand at making a burlap banner.

I wanted it to last longer than one month or one holiday though so I decided to make it reversible!

Since Valentine's Day is fast approaching I thought that would be perfect to have on the first side. 

I love having pieces that are versatile and can be left up for a while, so I thought bunnies on the other side would be perfect so it can be up for Easter but also all of Spring. 

I've got step-by-step instructions and pictures for you, and I've also got a video at the very end of this post if you want to see it all come together that way.

DIY Valentine's Photo Booth and Props

Last year for our February Relief Society (women’s group in our church) activity we decided to host a Valentine’s dance for all of the adults in our ward.

They had actually done it the year before and had a really good turnout, so we wanted to do it again.

We wanted to add a few new things to the evening though.

One of the things we wanted to add was a photo area with some fun props.

I was able to either make the thugs we needed, or find them for really cheap, so I put together this post for you in case it can help out!

These are the items I made, chalkboard signs, big red lips, and black mustaches.

Didn’t these turn out so cute?!

Heart Garland {For less than $5!}

For our monthly activity for our Relief Society (women's group) for February we put together a Valentines dance.

This dance was for couples, singles, friends, whomever wanted to come.

I am the one in charge of planning these activities, and after a little brainstorming with my committee (1 other girl), and some scrolling through Pinterest, we had a plan of what we wanted everything to look like.

I took over all of the decor, and I was really excited because I've never really done much in the way of decorating for Valentines, so I was ready to take on this new challenge.

We knew we wanted to do a little photo booth area with props and a simple background.
The background of the photos was just plastic white table cloths from the dollar store, and this heart garland I made.
This is the first garland I've ever made and I was pretty excited with how it turned out!
The nice thing is this garland isn't just for Valentines, you can whip this up for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
I've got pictures and instructions below for you to see how this all came together.

Reindeer Wreath Toss

For the Relief Society Christmas party I planned a few weeks ago we had dinner and minute-to-win-it type games.

I found a couple of ideas on Pinterest and then came up with a few of my own.

I had seen a reindeer game for sale where someone wears balloon antlers on their head and the other players tossed rings to catch on the antlers, but I didn't want to spend our budget money on that, so I made my own version of the game.

This could also be great to make for your little ones at home!

Baby Food Jar Candles

I've mentioned here in the blog a few times that I am the one in charge of planning the Relief Society activities for my ward (church). 

Last week was our annual Christmas party and the Relief Society President (lady in charge of the group) wanted a small gift to hand out to each of the ladies at the end of the evening.

After like a week of tossing ideas around in mind head I remembered that I had been hoarding these baby food jars from like 2 years ago, and I decided that I was going to turn them into candles.

I wanted a special Christmas type message to go along with the candles, and at first I was going to go with something along the lines of when Jesus says 'I am the light of the world', or 'let your light so shine' but I couldn't decided yet for sure and I knew I wanted the candles, so I just started there.

I actually really enjoyed making these, I've always wanted to make my own candles, and I love how these turned out.
About a 2 weeks before our Christmas party the church we belong to came out with their #LightTheWorld campaign (It's 25 ways in 25 days to serve others and bring Christ to our minds this Christmas season. To learn more about the full campaign click here).
The Christmas party was a success and at the end of the night I took a few minutes to talk about the candles.
I told the quote from Harry Potter where Dumbledore says "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."
The candle is all ready to go, but it can't light itself.
We need to take action, we need to actually light it for it to bring us light.
The same goes for the Christmas season.
We need to include Christ in our celebration and bring the light into our lives.
I hope it made sense when I was talking, ha ha sometimes my words come to me better AFTER I'm done talking.
Anyways, I've included a full tutorial for you so you can see how these candles came together.

Ugly Sweater Trophy

This last week we had our Relief Society Christmas party.

(Relief Society is basically the women's group in our church. I am in charge of planning the monthly activities.)

Along with a dinner I decided to have games and a 'festive sweater' or 'festive outfit' contest.

(I'll do another post with the details of the games and everything).

To add to the fun I wanted to have a trophy and prize to give to the winner for putting forth the effort of dressing up of course! ;)

I just have to say, I'm pretty bummed that I didn't get a better picture of the finished product. I was so busy that day with last-minute prep for the party that I totally spaced it.

Harry Potter Wand Tutorial

For Halloween this year my oldest decided he wants to dress-up as Harry Potter.

We talked about the details of his costume and he for sure needed a wand :)

I've been trying to step back more and let his creative juices flow, and I must say I'm pretty proud of his thought process and how this turned out!

It all started the other day when he found this stick.

I told him I thought it would make a good wand, so he held on to it.

DIY Reversible 2x4 Craft

I feel like when it comes to seasonal decor, I'm kind of a minimalist.

I honestly think I don't like a lot of knick-knacks and stuff because my boys already leave so much crap everywhere they go that it just looks like it's adding to the clutter...

Does anyone else have this problem??

Anyways, I've mentioned before that my new calling (volunteer type position) in my church is the person in charge of planning monthly activities for the Relief Society (women's group).

Once a year there is something called Super Saturday.

It's pretty much a chance to get together and make some common crafts, nibble on treats, and chat with the other women.

Our Super Saturday is next month, but I made the crafts in advance so the other women could see what's in store for them if they're able to make it.

As I mentioned before, I don't like having a lot of seasonal stuff, but I kind of wanted something.

I decided to make these reversible 2x4 blocks as a way to have them be a little more functional and last a little longer through the seasons.

I really wanted this craft to be customizable for the women attending.

Meaning; they don't have to do Fall and Winter. They could do any season they want, or even a saying like 'Love at Home' or whatever.

I will actually post more about different options after we have our Super Saturday and I have more options to show.

For now though, I will show you how I made these ones.

DIY Pokeball Costume

A few weeks ago I was talking to my 3 year old about Halloween.

He is so excited to go trick-or-treating, and much to my surprise he already knew what he wanted his costume to be.

When I asked him what he was planning on dressing up as he squealed with delight "A Pokeball!"

Ha ha ha

Um, it was the cutest thing ever to hear him talk about being a Pokeball and I was excited because I knew this would be something I could easily whip up for him.

I love how this turned out, and I love that he'll be able to wear a coat, or sweater, or whatever underneath it and you'll still be able to see the full costume.

I've got step-by-step pictures and instructions to show you how this came together.

FREE Lego Valentine printable

I have to start out by saying I am kind of proud of myself for getting this posted BEFORE the holiday!
Yay!
For the last two years my son has taken a Star Wars themed Valentine to school.
It says 'Yoda Best' and it has Yoda holding a light saber, which is where you put a glow stick, (you can check that FREE printable out here).
Back then when we discussed him taking Valentines to school it basically came down to it being 'boy approved'.
At his school they don't write the name of each person receiving the Valentine, only who it's from, so he wanted something that would apply to everyone.
When we were discussing the Valentines he would take this year it was the same story.
He didn't want to do Star Wars again though, he wanted to try a new theme.
A grocery store near us has a bulk candy section and they have these candy Lego bricks.
My son loves them. so he decided he wanted to give those out with a little Lego saying.
This is what we came up with.
Pretty 'boy approved' if you ask me ;)

He was really excited with how it turned out, and that was good enough for me!

To put these Valentines together we first printed out the printable.

I created these so that you can just print them on a regular 8x11 paper.

There are 15 Valentines on each page, so we printed 2 pages.

Dragon Costume Tutorial

Well this a close one, no one will probably really be able to use this costume tutorial until next year, but I am proud of myself for getting this posted before Halloween!

Small victory here.

I mentioned this last year, but I will reiterate again for those who might be new.

At the school my son attends the children may dress up for Halloween if they complete a book report for the month.

If they do dress up it can't be anything undead, scary, evil,  etc.

Last year my son wanted to be Dracula for Halloween, but that costume wouldn't cut it for school, so he was Dracula for trick-or-treating, and we made him a spider costume for school. (You can check out the spider costume tutorial here).
This year, again, he wants to be Dracula for trick-or-treating, but knowing the policy of his school he chose to be a dragon there.
Like the spider costume from last year, I didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I went a DIY route with it.

Now you may be asking yourself, Why did she go to all this work for one costume to be worn only a couple of hours at school? (Don't worry, my husband asked me the same question...)
My response is, It will be worn/used more than once!
I made the costume specifically so it can be added to our 'collection' of 'dress-up items.

Patriotic Pinwheel Headband

A few weeks ago I was talking to my neighbor and her little girl was wearing the cutest romper!

It was red with white stars, the perfect little outfit for the upcoming 4th of July holiday.

I jumped at the opportunity to make her a headband to complete her look :)

Let's dive right in and see how this little beauty was made!

DIY Burlap Stockings

Disclosure: I received one or more products for free in exchange for an honest review on my blog.

I feel like my blog has been a little bah-humbug, Christmas is just 1 short week away and I haven't had a chance to do much!

It makes my heart happy to finally get my butt in gear and bring you a cratfy Christmas related post!

I was contacted a few weeks ago by a representative of a company called Burlapfabric.com to see if I would like to receive some of their products to review.

(Ok, you HAVE to go check out their website, they have so many types of burlap to choose from!

Light, dark, chevron print, ribbon, bags, colored, banners, you name it!)

I have been wanting to make my own stockings for years.

I never got around to it because I never knew where to start.

When I opened the box from the company and I saw the contents I knew what I wanted to make.

It was like the stars aligned so I could finally check this off of my crating bucket list.

This is the only stocking I have completed so far, it's mine if you can't tell :)

Over the next couple of days I will be whipping some up for my husband and my 2 boys.

I just LOVE how this one turned out, so I had to share it with you!

Super Easy DIY Spider Costume

Yes this is a Halloween post.
In the middle of November.
Just think of it as me helping you be really prepared for next Halloween.
You're welcome :)

A few weeks before Halloween I asked my son what he would like to dress up as. His immediate response was something scary so he could scare people. 

If I can use what I have around the house and not spend a lot of money on something he will only be wearing for a few hours, I am all for it.
So, I started looking through his closet to see what we had to work with, and we found almost everything we needed for a vampire costume!

He was so excited because he knew that would scare people :), and I was excited because it didn't cost me anything!

However, we found out that his vampire costume would just have to be for trick-or-treating though.

He is in Kindergarten this year and at his school the kids aren't allowed to wear anything gorey, undead, bloody, violent, etc.

If the kids wanted to dress up, they needed to choose something from history or something from classical literature.

Dracula is a classical character, but his behavior and story are quite dark, so vampires were out.

My son still wanted to dress up at school so I told him we had to pick something we could make that would be super easy and cheap.

After some thought we chose a spider, because in my son's mind it is still something he thought would scare people, but it is also in some classical stories and nursery rhymes.

So here is our super easy and cheap spider costume.

Halloween 2x4 craft

With Halloween being next Friday I thought I would finally get around to a Halloween post!

Back at the beginning of October I thought to myself, 'I don't want to start decorating now, it's way too early'...and then the month snuck by without me even knowing! Oops.

I know I'm not the only one this has happened to...right? :)

Anyways, back to our craft.

A couple of weeks ago there were some guys finishing the basement in the house next to ours. I had come home from picking my son up from school and I noticed a huge pile of 2x4 and plywood scraps lying on the driveway.

I went to the basement window and called down to the workers to see what their plans were for the wood. They told me it was all to be thrown away, but if I wanted to I could take any of it.

GOLD MINE!

I ran to the other few homes on our street and told the other moms about our awesome opportunity, you should have seen us, we were like vultures buzzing around picking out what we wanted. We all had our kids loading up their arms with little piles of wood, and ideas were racing through my mind of what we would should make.

This is our first project.

'Yoda Best' FREE Valentine Printable

Yes. This is a Valentine's post, in March...
I feel like I have kind of been all over the place lately...Don't worry people, I'm trying to get organized!
So, this will hopefully come in handy for you next year :)
My son is in preschool this year, which means it was going to be his first time handing out Valentines.

I had been thinking about what he would take to school for weeks...I get really excited around holidays, especially since I have kids. They make everything more fun and magical :)

So if you remember, a few months ago my son requested a Star Wars themed birthday party.

Well, we were still loving Star Wars, so my son said he wanted to do that for Valentine's Day.

This was so fun to make because we did all of the planning together.

I gave my son some ideas and he said he wanted to give out something with Yoda and light sabers (glow sticks).
This is what we came up with.

Easy DIY Clay Ornaments

First off I just have to say how much I LOVE that chunky little footprint :)

Ok, so for Thanksgiving on my family's side after we had our big dinner we helped my parents decorate for Christmas. Since we were all together we thought it would be fun to make some Christmas crafts as well. 

We usually do a craft on Christmas when we all get together, but this year we wanted to do it on Thanksgiving so we could admire our little decorations all season long!

An Extra Stocking

Christmas is my most favorite time of the year.

It's even more magical with children :)
With all of the exciting things going on it's really important to us to keep Christ at the center of our Christmas.

We want our son to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

When I was growing up, every year at the beginning of December my parents would take my doll's cradle and get some hay. Throughout the month of December we would do acts of service for each other, and each time we did we would put a piece of hay in the cradle.

On Christmas Eve we would place a doll (representing the baby Jesus), in the cradle with all of the hay.

The hay was symbolic of us giving back to the Savior by serving others.

Last Christmas I decided I wanted to start a new tradition, I liked what my parents had done for us, but I didn't have access to any hay.

My son had just turned 4 at the time and on the first Monday in December we had a Family Home Evening where I explained to him that Christmas is when we celebrate Christ's birth. The Wise Men took gifts of specific importance to the baby Jesus because they knew who He was. I then told my son we needed to give a gift to Him as well.

I then told my son that when Jesus was on the Earth he told the people to love one another. So a gift to we could give to Him was to be kind to one another, love one another, and serve one another.
I wanted to somehow keep track or our service to one another, so this idea was born.

An Easy Halloween Breakfast

I know Halloween was already almost a whole week ago, but I am finally just getting around to this post...that might tell you how crazy my week has been!
Holidays are so much more fun with kids!
My son was so super excited for Halloween, and the night before (yeah procrastinator I know...) I decided I wanted to make his breakfast a little special to start the day off right.
Since my decision was so last minute, I didn't have a lot of prep time.
This is what I came up with.

So first thing in the morning I whipped up a batch of pancakes from an old recipe I've used forever.
My husband once made chocolate chip pancakes for my son, and he loved them, so I decided to make a pumpkin face out of chocolate chips.
It doesn't look as glamorous as it did in my head, but it still worked!
For the 'ghost milk' I just grabbed a glass cup and painted on a face with black acrylic craft paint.
*Let the paint dry completely so little fingers don't get dirty!
(And don't worry folks, the paint was super easy to clean off. I just ran it under water for a second and wiped it off with my fingers.)
The most important note is my son's reaction.
He LOVED it!
He loved it so much, the next day he asked for 'pumpkin orange juice', and even though Halloween was technically over, I had to give in :)

This was such a hit that I think we'll have to do it again next year!