Golden Handprints

Better late than never is the motto in our busy house with four kiddos running around. I've had these canvases for over a year now so instead of one year old hand prints, we now have two year old hand prints. Which may be easier to accomplish since you can explain to a two year old how to hold out their hands.

I started off putting tacks under the back side of the canvases, this way, you can paint the sides without sticking to the surface underneath. A paper plate for easy clean up and it makes a great spot to squeeze your paint. I painted two coats of Martha Stewart Surf in Satin onto the canvases with a foam brush. Then waited a day before pulling out the gold.

I started by letting my two year old rub her hand around in the gold (Martha Stewart Metallic Green Gold) paint and then flipped it over to paint the missing spots and take off the excess paint, so it wouldn't smear, with a clean foam brush.

 

Talking her through the steps and showing her with my hand what she needed to do, I helped push down on the back of her hand gently and then helped her pull it off of the canvas. We washed in between hand prints to keep the mess at bay. I think they turned out great and I'm glad we did both of them so we can remember her sweet little handprints for years to come! 

The gold was a fun touch and would make great gifts for family members with the holidays coming up. If you need to make more than one, trim up a piece of watercolor paper and you've got the perfect gift for Grandparents!

Hoppy Easter Footprint Card

If you're looking for a quick and cute way to impress

the Grand or Great GrandParents this Easter

and you happen to have a little one to use as a human stamp,

then try your hand at this cute Hoppy Easter handmade card!

I used my 9-1/2 month old's wee little bunny foot and inked

it up with a bit of craft ink (it washed right off with soap and

water, as soon as we were finished stamping) and then sprinkled

white embossing powder on the image. After heat embossing her

sweet little foot, I used a brayer to roll the blue background onto 

my white cardstock. I guess I could've just used a blue cardstock

instead but I was trying to go for a different look...

I then took a piece of dry swiffer, to buff the blue ink off of her

footprint and then started on the rest of my card. I wanted the card

to say Hoppy Easter, so I just combined two stamps and voila, 

a new saying! The 'from your little bunny' I printed off of my

computer and stuck everything down with doubled sided sticky

tape & snail adhesive.

I hope our Greats and Grands love it as much as I do!

Making Valentines

Another year of kid friendly Valentines and this

year with two of my little people in school, we had

double the amount.

We used acrylic paint for the hand and foot prints, then

I let the older three go crazy with glitter glue and stickers.

The perfect project to send to the Grandparents

for their Valentine wedding Anniversary!

I always keep my eye peeled for fun crafts or projects for

my kiddos. Since they see Mommy crafting all the time, they

like to get involved too. I picked up three boxes of cards at

Target and the kids stuck their Valentine greeting to the front, 

then wrote and stamped inside for their friends.

We taped candy hearts onto each card with a bit of 

Washi Tape for all the classmates. The teachers and school

staff will be getting these fun chocolate -one is a million- candy bars 

and other assortment of Valentine chocolate candies.

My daughter made her Valentine box about two weeks ago

and just jazzed up the heart banner with a bit of glitter glue.

Washi Owl Tags

It's almost been a month since our forth little peanut was born, hard to believe! and I'm way overdue for a blog post...here are some washi tape owl tags I whipped up to attach to some homemade goodies for a couple of friends.

Vintage Horse Themed Birthday Party

I still can't believe my first born babe is now 8! 

She's infatuated with anything that has to do with horses, so after she helped me pick out the color scheme, I got to work on the invites and everything else fell into place. 

A simple invite tied with thick rope twine. I attached
our address label to the backs to let the party girls know where the
sleepover was being held.

The Birthday Girl posing in her PINK cowgirl hat.

I wrapped the two wine pictures we had hanging above the sidebar
in the kitchen to make for a rustic backdrop and to help the color
scheme flow. 

close up of the party invitations

cupcakes for her school classroom

The party girls enjoyed painting their own shirts, cowgirl style...and then a simple peel and stick horse themed craft of bookmarks and a foam boot before pizza dinner, cake and ice cream.

Then popcorn, movies and sleeping bags in the living room and waking up to chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, a great party indeed!

Pink streamers and a few balloons made for an inexpensive but
impressive backdrop behind the kitchen table.

A roll of wrapping paper was the perfect table runner with stamped
horseshoes, punched out with pink hearts.

And treat bag thank you's for the party girls, some rope Twizzlers
with a message from the Birthday Girl.

"Thanks for coming to my party, I hope you had a ropin' good time"

 What's your favorite party theme?? 

I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I enjoyed putting it all together!

2012 Handmade Holiday Gift Guide with Monika

Looking for just the right gift for your loved ones this holiday season?? Monika, who blogs over at Life With Lovebugs, put together this wonderful Holiday gift guide that includes all handmade shops, if you have a second, come check out all the lovelies she's found for you!

and happy shopping!!