GIVE ME AN S.P.I.R.I.T....

Although it it hotter than Hades outside (as my friend would say), this time of the year brings an excitement in the air. Kids are shopping for school clothes, parents are helping their kids move into their college dorms, and FOOTBALL is getting ready to start. For a while there we were really unsure if we would be able to partake in America's favorite sport which would have made me pretty sad. I'm sure we could have found a reason to have a tailgate party even without football, but I'm pretty sure grilling and drinking in a university or NFL football stadium parking lot without an actual game going on is prohibited.

As I drive though my neighborhood I am treated to the array of school flags hanging outside of the homes. It is not unusual to see the Red River Rivalry going on in the front yards on many streets. We do love us some football here in Texas and even have several movies and a TV show to display our proud spirit for our teams.

Well I've come up with my own school spirit decor. I made this for Preteen's teacher at the end of this year. She is an Arkansas alum and her daughter will be a freshman there this year. She LOVED it!!

What a fun gift to give your college students.

Here is another one I made for a friend who bleeds Aggie maroon.

The possibilities are endless with these things. Sororities, school names, teacher names. Great way to show school spirit!

Note: Make sure to follow me on FACEBOOK. I do fun giveaways every now and then and you don't want to miss out.

I'm linking up to these parties!! Go check them out!

MONOGRAMMED PARTY FAVORS

I love to make fun party favors. But they really have to practical. I can't tell you how many times I have found the little squiggly eyed poppers at the bottom of a closet or in the car, and they eventually made it into the trash. So when it was time to start planning Pre-teen's birthday party, my creative wheel's started turning. She decided that she wanted to have a swim party, and it had to be a Luau theme. Okay perfect, since at the time the Dollar Store had lots of cute Luau themed items. From tiki cups and leis, to fun little signs and grass skirts. We did it all. But when it came to the party favors, I wanted the girls to be able to really use them. It's my mommy side... if I'm going to pay for it, I want them to be used.

So I decided to make some monogrammed towels. Now I don't have a fancy sewing machine that does monogramming so I had to get creative. And I really wanted to include some fun fabric. I found a fun black and white polka dot fabric and used it to add each girl's initial to their favorite colored towel.

What do you think?

I love how they came out. Each towel cost about $5 to make, and was totally worth it. The girls loved their towels and were so surprised to find that they got their favorite colors.

My daughters are now asking for all their things to be monogrammed. I think I'm kind of having a Laverne and Shirley flashback.

NOTE: Make sure to follow me on FACEBOOK. You never know when I'm going to do a giveaway there. Don't miss out!

Linking to these parties... Go check them out!

BACK TO SCHOOL ALREADY?? ALMOST

We only have 28 days left until our little ones head back to school in our little part of the world... not that I'm counting, and I was itching to make something cute for Drama Queen to use as her backpack this year. Last year it was a combined use of a "roller" backpack, which can cause some minor accidents and pileups in the hallway at school... not my favorite backpack, and this tote bag that I made for her last year. I still love to see my girls use them.... So in true Drama Queen fashion, this year's bag had to be stylish, fun, and different. 

After a visit to my favorite (hubby's least favorite) store - HobLob - I was back home with this...

and this...

After a little sewing (only to make the ruffles) and a lot of fabric glue (made it so much easier) I came up with this.  

 You've gotta personalize this tote, I mean someone might get it mixed up with theirs.

So how stylish, fun and different is this??

SUPER fun and a super easy way to create something unique for your little one to go back to school with.  How fun would one be with tulle all around it for a ballet bag?  

*ciao*

Deb

I'm linking up to these parties... Go check them out! 

Home Stories at AtoZ

APRIL CRAFT-A-PALOOZA

For the last few months, I've been hosting a Craft-a-palooza. In it's simplest terms its a craft marathon where a group of friends gets together as soon as we drop off our kids at school and we craft until it's time to pick them up. Lets face it, it's always more fun to craft with friends, so that's what we've been doing. Now granted, trying to nail down a day when everyone is free is a challenge, but we manage and it;s always so much fun.

So a few weeks before we start to scour the web for fun craft ideas to go along with the theme of the month. Obviously this month's theme is Easter... and all I can say is with the crazy schedules we all have right now, thank goodness Easter is late this year.

We found so many wonderful crafts that some very talented women have made and posted to their blogs. We put a little spin on some of them, downright copied others, and then created some of our own.

We made these... that we altered from this idea



We loved these PB knockoff eggs and just had to make our own



I absolutely loved this wreath and HAD to make one of my own. What a brilliant idea. Although I decided not to use the spray foam and opted to use grocery bags to add the padding to the wreath. Great way to be "green" while crafting... I thought.




Then we made this fun and simple little frame. I love the idea that life is "renewed" in the spring.



And finally I used a silhouette template I found on the web to make this little guy...



I love how he turned out. As you can imagine... after all this crafting I am exhausted! Fun but super exhausting day.

Stay crafty

A VALENTINE PILLOW... MY WAY

We seriously had a hard weather week last week. We were iced in... and snowed in... and we really need to get out of here. Don't get me wrong, I love being at home, but seriously - we were going on our 4th day of being at home and not because we wanted to. We just weren't brave enough or maybe it's crazy enough to venture out on those crazy streets out there. Although the crazy was starting to set in at one point, and if we were forced to stay in another day we would have had to have found us a sled and some dogs somewhere.

I wish I could say I was super productive and cleaned my house from top to bottom and was just super crafty... but I wasn't. I spent WAY too much time on a little site called Facebook. Have you heard of it?? It's evil. Too bad Zuckerberg doesn't make money based on how much time people spend on Facebook, because he would be so much richer than he already is I tell you. (The Junie B. Jones hasn't worn off yet... sorry!)

Anyway, I figured that since I was at home I should at least attempt to do something creative. Hmm, what to do, what to do... when you can't run to Hobby Lobby because you might get stranded and the hubster would so not be happy about that.

Once again I was forced to use what I had on hand. I'm starting to realize that I have a lot on hand.

I used this...



and this...



and a template from this blog...

Then I used this...



and cut off this...



to make this...




and in the end I had made this....



I love it!! And it looks so pretty on my chair. I loved it so much that I had a little drawing on my FB page and gave one away. So now I'm thinking I need to make some more of these for other parts of my house...



*ciao*
Deb

A GIFT FOR A FRIEND

So often I see things in boutiques that I really, REALLY like, and I think, "I can totally make that." Then I think, "But will I make it?" and then I see the price and I know I will totally make it. This was one of those times. I recently saw some super cute frames with crosses in them. Of course this was during Neath the Wreath and I'm totally not shopping for myself, so I put it into my mental "I Can Do That" folder, and move on. So I've been collecting frames, and crosses and ribbon and... well if you could see my craft room you'd see I'm collecting a lot of stuff for future projects.

So a good friend of mine was having a birthday, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make one of these super cute frames. I started out with a nice black frame.



Then I covered the glass with some cheetah fabric I had left over from my Christmas tree skirt I made this year.



I then forgot to take pictures of the next two steps. I hate when I do that. So you'll just have to imagine it. I made a double layered bow out of some pretty brownish ribbon that I had and I hot glued it to the top of the frame. Then I hot glued two different crosses to the center of the frame. I love this layered look. And if you have a good imagination, this is what you get...



Okay, now I have to make one for myself!

A LITTLE V-DAY LOVE

I have been so super busy the past month and really just haven't been all that crafty. Subbing for a first grade class will do that to you. So when you get that sudden "craft itch"... well, you've gotta scratch it. (Does that sound inappropriate... oh well)

So earlier this week, I noticed that my house just wasn't feeling so festive. I mean Vday is just around the corner for God sakes, and I didn't have a heart in sight. February is my birthday month, and I want to be surrounded by fun and beauty I tell you. (I've been reading a lot of Junie B. Jones this month, so "I tell you" has suddenly become part of my vocabulary. Go figure I would actually pick up something.) Well in an attempt to add some love to my house, I set out to make something with what I had on hand. The thought of going to Hobby Lobby at the end of the day with two very tired little ones, dinner to make and papers to grade was just honestly too much for me to attempt. So I searched and moved, and emptied and, well just basically made a huge mess of my craft room. But in the end I found what I needed and what I thought would work. I can honestly say, I am super proud of what came from the mess of a craft room. Who knew that MDF, scrapbook paper, modge podge and furniture tacks could look so cute?



Hmmm, well now I'm thinking there must be something else in that huge stash of stuff I can use to spread even more love. So guess what I'm doing today??