Fabric Headband Tutorial

I know school has started because the germs have started making rounds.  Vapo Rub, Robitussin, Sudafed, Advil and Kleenex surround me.  I am in the midst of a chest cold that has really slowed me down. 

Yesterday I started to feel a little better in the afternoon.  It was naptime for the kids and hubby was watching his MSU game.  My Bruins didn't play for a couple more hours, so I decided to craft a fabric flower headband with my burst of energy and rare little pocket of free time.

I had a packet of circular, elastic, work-out headbands from the grocery store, including a white band.  These hold my sleek, straight hair better than a normal headband.  I dug into my fabric pile and found some oatmeal fabric scraps that were soft and fluffy.  Perfect!

I found a mason jar and used the inner lid as my circle template.  I traced one on white felt for the bottom of my flower, and then I traced about 9 or 10 large circles on the oatmeal fabric and about 8-10 small circles (I used a water bottle) to be filler petals to add volume. 

The process and tutorial for these flowers and folding the circular petals is found on my earlier post here.  As you can see, my flower headband is using more petals than my tutorial link, and, because of that, it looks fuller and thicker.  I did not use any cardboard in my base like I did in the tutorial for the flower pins because I wanted the felt base of the flower headband to mold to the shape of the head and not look rigid.   

I always start adding petals on the base edge first and work my way to the center of the flower.  I just keep hot gluing the folds until it looks full and pretty. 

This can be worn in a hipster, forehead manner or as a normal headband style.  I was feeling adventurous and, despite my not so hipster age, I went for a more hippie look.  I paired it with a flowy, chiffon blouse over skinny jeans and went out for a casual family dinner feeling very fun and almost forgetting I was sick.

Have a healthy, blessed week, everyone!

Desk Pad Project

Chevron Prettiness

My hubby is proud to see my crafting hobby is bringing in a little fun money through my Etsy shop of scripture signs.  What he wasn't excited about was my computer and Silhouette machine always sitting out on the kitchen counter with paints, canvases, brushes and vinyl scraps. 

We decided I needed a little desk space where I can store my computer and Silhouette, so he cleared out a wall in the office and gave me some work space.  He also gave me our laundry room cupboard space for all my paints, crafts and other goodies.  (He also installed a lot of shelves into our garage to hold all my fabrics and craft supplies I only use occasionally). 

So, I went to Cost Plus and bought a simple white desk.  My husband had a black computer pad from work that he wasn't using anymore that he gave to me so I don't scratch my desk.  Awesome--except for the black, water-stained, plain look to it. 

Ugh.

Double ugh.

I finally took myself on a trip to Hobby Lobby for fabric and got some beautiful gray and cream chevron fabric.  I simply hot glued the fabric to the bottom of the pad and covered it tightly on top.  Gorgeous!

Much better!

In progress . . .

Now I need to find a mustard or gray chair with arms for my desk.  Any leads?  We will also get white shutters for the window soon.  It was trash day, so you couldn't see it, but usually our lovely trash cans are stored right outside and you can see the tops of them as you look out--awesome.  The white shutters will finish the window and hide the trash cans outside.  Add a pop of color in sky blue or mustard on the desktop wth a vase or accent piece and voila!  I'll be sure to show you all the final product when everything is done.  It is a blessing to have a workspace that is just for my computer and stuff!

Little Thank You

I LOVE giving little thank yous and unexpected encouragements.  Whether it is daily notes and doodles on my kids' lunch napkins, texts or notes of love to my hubby, or little gifts of thought, it makes me really happy to do those little things.  It not only is a joy to others, but it blesses me tremendously--probably WAY more than them!  Every time I do something like this, I think, "I need to do this MORE often!"  I can get my kids involved with projects too--always looking for a way to teach them gratitude and thoughtfulness to their daddy, their teachers, their Sunday School teachers or their friends.

We are having about 70 leaders over to our house in a couple of days to have dinner and train for our upcoming year of ministry in our church marriage ministry.  These couples do SO much discipling and give up tons of free time to serve in ministry.  I wanted to have cost effective, cute little notes of thanks scattered around the tables at the training.  It is the little things that add up into big things!  A continual attitude of support, thankfulness and encouragement are so helpful when people are volunteering and serving. 

I bought little clear goodie bags at Party City= 50 for 1.99
I got 2 bags of mini Mounds and 2 bags of York Peppermint Patties= about 3.00 each bag
I bought 10 pages of scrapbook paper for .45 cents each
Finally, using my Silhouette (you could easily print a regular Word Doc and use scissors) I cut out the labels.

Do you have anyone that needs a "sweet", little note of thanks?  If you are only giving away a couple, you can use larger clear bags or cut the top off a sandwich bag and use full size candy bars.

Have fun blessing someone!

The assembly line of goodies. . .

Airplane Party

Micah's airplane party was so much fun!  We had about 50 people over for lunch, a glider throwing contest, bounce house time, and cupcakes.  God gave us a day of sunshine--78 degrees in early March! 

As usual, I didn't take the best pictures.  I don't know how people prep, decorate, hostess the party, interact with guests and take fabulous pictures--I haven't discovered how to do that!  You can get the gist of the party, though.  Enjoy!

Dessert table--almost EVERY pictures has our patio cover lines all over them.  Sorry, folks.  I made a backdrop with blue fleece and "clouds".  I made the center cloud into a 3 for the birthday boy.

I made 60 cupcakes and designed a plane cupcake topper on my Silhouette to stick in about half of the cupcakes.

Forget cupcakes next time.  All the kids swarmed the marshmallow lollipops, which were the easiest thing to make EVER.  I used white chocolate to dip onto the end and added sprinkles.

I made 50 boxed airplane lunches.  The cute boxes are from Polka Dot Market.

I picked up croissant sandwiches from Costco and individually wrapped them in wax paper.  I also added a bag of apple slices and a bag of chips.  This required some prep, but serving lunch and cleaning up was SO easy!

Picnic lunches all around the yard

I made a "pin the propellor on the plane" backboard for a game, which also served as a photo op background.

My mom being a good sport

My five year old posing with the pilot's hat we had as a prop.

Around the yard I hung "cloud" bunches of white balloons with cutouts of planes flying under them.

I had a beverage table labeled "jet fuel."  The straws were from Polka Dot Market.  I designed water bottle wrappers that said Micah is 3!  Nearby we also had a blue bucket full of sodas and juice boxes for the kids.

This is a HORRID picture (but at least you can see my large patio cover which slotted all my pictures), but I had traditional paper airplanes folded in orange hanging all over the patio on clear thread.  We had a fun breeze that kept them blowing around throughout the day.

Of course I made a banner in the party colors.  It welcomed people onto the lawn area with the bounce house, swingset and small toddler climber/slide.

I've mentioned this fact on my blog before, but find some friends you trust and go in together for a bounce house.  We went in with two other couples and got this bounce house and have used it too many times to count.  We found ours at Costco.com.

We had a glider throwing contest.  There is the birthday boy in front.  The kids loved this.  I picked up a pack of 75 gliders from Oriental Trading Company, and it was a HIT!

A lot of the dads got in on the fun!

The birthday boy!

The same candle we used for Carter's 3rd birthday.  Aw!

Blowing out his candle . . .

We had some fun balloons from Polka Dot Market.

Entryway right as guests walked in the door.

Goodie bags--2 lollipops, a glider, and a chocolate covered Twinkie.

Chocolate covered Twinkies! 

What a great "flight" we had!  Thanks for sharing our adventures!

I linked up to:

Repurposed Project: Car Trash Can

              

Better Homes and Gardens blogged about using a plastic cereal container and turning it into a trashcan, and I saw the finished idea pinned on Pinterest. 
               

A few days later, I was about to throw away a giant, dishwasher gel pack container that was empty when I realized IT was the perfect size to do the same project. 

(container with Mod Podge on it, ready to apply fabric)

Because the container was clear, and I didn't want an ugly trashbag showing in my car, I used some cute fabric scraps to Mod Podge onto my container. 

That was it!  SO easy.  I want to put down some velcro on the bottom of my container to keep the container stable and still in the car, but I am excited to finally have a place to put wipes, napkins, straw wrappers, gum, etc. 

(Applying the fabric)

All done!

My little trash generator likes it too!  Let's take it to the car!

Camp Compass Craft Week

During the week of July 18th, I was overseeing the crafts for our 5th and 6th graders at our church VBS called Camp Compass. 

I had 2 crafts to prep and teach for about 90 students.  God sent me an amazing group of volunteers, and I enjoyed EVERY moment of serving!

On Monday, the electricity went out about 20 minutes before our kids arrived (about 5 minutes after I took these pictures).  We are in a wherehouse room with no windows, so we pulled all 10 round tables into the dim light of the doorway and got a few emergency lanterns. 

If you can believe it, 90 kids plaster casted their feet in close quarters, with almost no light!  We were even using iphone flashlight apps to help us see all the materials.

God is good!  My volunteers didn't even flinch in the "hiccup" and just moved forward with joy! 

We also made a velcro ball catch game that had to be restrung as the glue we bought didn't dry.  Again, my volunteers just smiled and jumped into action! 

Enjoy the pics!  It was a beach themed week--we live about 15 minutes from the real deal, but the beach is always a fun theme!  I had to dig back into my "teacher decorating the room" talents!

God was glorified!

A sandcast plaster foot example

We needed a screen near the door to block our work area and streamline the kids into the room.  We tied rattan beach mats together and made a very cheap and really workable "screen"!

Each door leads to a little workroom/office where we stored supplies for the week!