A Holiday Update

Hi guys, Sorry that I haven't updated for a few weeks. The weeks before Christmas everyone in my house ended up catching like a super mega cold, and I seriously had trouble just doing simple things like changing diapers, etc. let alone making crafts and craft how to things. We are finally starting to get better finally so I figured I'd do a update.

The kids had a great Christmas, they got lots of cool stuff, and mostly everything they asked for. I did leave out one present that Madi wanted for Christmas because her birthday is in two months, and I am saving that present for her birthday and she'd already got soo many presents I just figured I'd save this one back. She had wanted a Baby All Gone and a Fur Real friend, so Santa brought her the Baby All Gone, and the Fur Real friend is put up. Lucas got his first monster truck from Santa, which it's pretty neat. Him and I line up cars and then push the lil button and make the monster truck run over them. He loves doing that. And it's a Dodge so it's just like daddy's lol. They got tons of other things like movies, clothes, doll's, games, etc. They had a ton of fun seeing all their family for the Holiday and playing with all their cousins. I was able to surprise Josh and order him a knife for Christmas which he really liked and needed because he is constantly braking them. He is really rough on his pocket knifes. And the kid's picked him out a Dallas Cowboy's cap that has a D on it. Madi said it was D for Daddy lol. I took the kids and let them pick him out some clothes and such so that was really fun and he likes everything. This was the first year that I got everyone the correct clothing size yay for me.
I got a bunch of cool stuff, mostly Hello Kitty stuff to add to my collection. My mom n law got me a Hello Kitty coloring book to use while Madi and I color which I love. A couple cute shirts, and a lot of money so I was finally able to buy myself a new handbag and wallet. I haven't bought one in over a year so I'm really excited. I had to order it online because they didn't have the one I wanted in the store, so I'm waiting on that to come in. It's Hello Kitty, who woulda guessed.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Holiday. I'll try to post some more How To posts but we will be preparing for a move, and for my daughter's birthday coming up so I might be busy lately. But I'll try. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! :)

How to Make a Duct Tape Wallet

So when I was in my junior year of High school this fad started. It was duct tape wallets. Boys all over my school went around make these wallets, which then spread to duct tape hats, ties, and finally an entire suit made of duct tape. Anyway, I never made one back then, and so I suddenly thought..ok...I'll make one. So this is how I did it.

For this Project you'll need:

• Duct Tape
• Scissors
  
• Velcro (Optional)
• Clear Tape (Optional)

So first you'll need duct tape. You can use regular old duct tape or if you want something more modern you can go to Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, or another store and buy print duct tape. They come in all styles and prints. I think this one was $3.00. Ok so what I did was took my wallet to measure the length which I think came out to about 8.5 inches. I really hate measuring things, I don't know why but I usually don't do it which is why I measured my strips of tap up against my wallet and not a ruler. But you could use a ruler if you wanted. Once you have a length cut out several strips. I cut out about ten strips this length to start with.

After you have strips cut out, you are going to lay one down sticky side up, and then lay another strip on that one sticker side down. What I did was measured how thick/wide I needed my wallet to be, then laid my strips together like this until they were "thick" as my wallet. Once you have the bottom half, your going to flip the strips over, make sure there are no sticky area's exposed on the back. Then, on top of this piece, lay another strip of tape, leaving half of the sticky area hanging over. Now flip your piece back over. Ok, now your going to take another strip of tape and lay it on top of the flap of sticky tap, leaving just a little line of the sticky side of the bottom peice exposed. This is where you will fold your wallet. Once you have that line, keep added strips until you have a top and bottom half the same thickness.

After you have both sides the same size, fold them over like I have mine in the picture to your right. You can cut off any extra pieces and make sure that except for your sticky line you left, you have no other sticky spots exposed. If so, cover them with another strip. OK, so fold your wallet in half with the sticky line inside the wallet. After you'd done this, take your wallet and measure how much tape you are going to need for each side, and cut two smaller strips and fold them over each side of your wallet, taping the two sides together. This is going to be your money slot.

OK once you have both sides secured, fold your wallet in half again. I folded mine, and folding it the other way, and then back again just to get it a crease. Now we are going to make the card slots. So you'll need to measure how big you have made the side of your wallet. Also, I kept a Sam's card next to me to make sure my slots would fit a regular sized card. You'll need to cut 6 strips the same size, then stick two together, and repeat until you have three strips of tape. Cut off any sticky edges. Now you'll lay the strips on either side of your wallet, one a little higher then the other, and once you have all three in place, cut two thin strips of tape and tape the edges of your three strips down. Make sure you don't tape them sides to close inward because your cards won't fit. Once you have this done, you can either do the same to the opposite side or you can make a ID slot like I did in mine. For this you'll need clear tape. I call it clear duct tape and my husband hates it because it's not actually duct tape. But you know what I'm talking about lol. You'll need to cut 2 pieces of this and stick them together like you did the card strips. Then leaving one side open, so you can slip a card in it, you'll place three thin strips of tape on the three edges. This will leave a opening for you to put your picture/ID in.

Once this is done, you could call it done if you wanted to. I don't like my wallets to have to closure on them so what I did to mine, is added a Velcro strap. It's really easy to do. You can buy heave strength Velcro at Walmart for like $2, and it's got 'sticky' on the back so all you have to do is peal and stick. So you'll want to cut a strip out before you peal the back off. To start, you'll cut two strips of your duct tape, and tape on end on the outside of your wallet in the middle. After this you'll cut your Velcro to fit on your flap and peal and stick the Velcro on the strip and hold down for a few seconds. It sticks really fast. Now do the same thing on the outside of your wallet. Make sure they line up before you peal/stick. If they line up fine, them go ahead and stick your Velcro to the outside of your wallet and hold again. Now you have a nifty closure for your wallet. And I was really bored when I was making this so I got out my Glitter Glue. You can also
buy this at Walmart, it comes in all colors. And I drew a little Hello Kitty on the outside of my wallet. You don't have to decorate it if you don't want, its yours. But this is what I did. Anyway, now you have a Duct Tape wallet. I think this would be really cute stocking stuffers for girls. So here is a picture of my finished project:













Feel free to post any questions, and I hope ya'll have fun making these! :)

Yay a Cloth Diaper Update!

So finally got things somewhat organized after all that turkey and pie. My mother also sends back like a agillion boxes of stuff for the kids when we go to visit her so I had to find a place for that, but now I'm back. She also sent me home with this wonderful antique sewing machine...which I think is really cool and it has nothing to do with this post but I just this its great. Anyway... I said I would do a update to share my traveling experience with cloth diapers so here it is yay!

So our drive was four hours give or take so what I did is packed about 12 changes worth of prefolds, gdiapers, bum genius, etc. and stuck them in my "go bag" (thats what I call it) and threw those in my diaper bag. I premade all the diapers, so I had my gdiapers already filled so all I had to do was slip them on, same with the Bum Genius's. With the prefolds, I added my extra "padding" in them, and stuck them inside a cover, so all I would have to do is take them out and slip them on him and there we go. It wasn't actually as hard as I thought it would be... I put him in a Bum G. to begin the trip that I had extra stuffed so it would be more absorbent. So we drove for about two hours before we had stopped, at which time I changed him into prefold/cover and just threw the wet Bum G. in my wet bag and we were go to go again. And he was good until we got to my mom's. He probably coulda been ok with just one diaper the whole way, but I don't like to take chances so I just went ahead and changed him. It actually wasn't anymore work then a disposable except I don't really know what you would do if the place/person's house your staying at does not have a washer/dryer. My mom does, so when I got to her house I just threw my wet bag contents in her washer and there yah go. Sooo I had a great first traveling experience. The gdiapers were great for during the day while we were there because I just kept a few liners ready for them to be changed out, and at night I'd just use a prefold/cover or Bum Genius. Actually my main concern the entire trip was if Luke would sleep in a playpen or not because he is usually really picky about sleeping. Usually he'll only nap/sleep in his crib, in our house. But it was like he knew he was on a vacation because he didn't give me any trouble, he laid down with his dog and his Pal Scout playing his bedtime music and he was fine.

Yup! So now that I've gotten that experience out of the way I would totally do it again. Sorry if my grammar is blah in this post, Luke's on my lap hitting keys so I'm trying to make this a quick post. I'm going to attempt to make a home made pull up later. I'll post a How To on that if it turns out the way I'd like it. I also have some cotton inserts to make, and a bunch of other projects I'd like to try. But anyway, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! TTFN!

How to make a SnowMan

Hi again! Today's project is a SnowMan. there are several ways you could make a simple Snowman. If you are not a sewing person, I'd suggest going to a Hobby Lobby or other craft store and purchasing the different sized white Styrofoam balls and making your snow man out of that. All you'd have to do is glue those together and you'd have your basic body for your snowman. I enjoy recycling stuff instead of buying things, so in this how to I'm going to show you how to make a snow man out of a old white piece of cloth. This material could be a old blanket, shirt, scarf, etc. It doesn't matter. If you wanted you really could use any color or material for your Snowman. It's yours so you make it how you like it.

For this project you'll need:

• Glue Gun
• Glue Sticks
• White fabric or some kind.
• Pipe Cleaners
• Buttons
• Needle and Thread
• Stuffing
  

So your going to start by taking your material and cutting on three different size circles like I did in the picture below. I made my bottom circle a bit bigger to steady my snowman so he doesn't fall over.
Once you have three circles cut out, take your bottom (biggest) circle and run the thread through it like the picture below. Once your done, it should look kinda like a lil pouch. You should be able to pull on the thread and the "bag" should scrunch up. Now your going to add the stuffing in to it. Make sure you add just enough to where it fills out but not to much that you can't close it. I also added some of my white fabric scraps to the inside of the bottom circle so it would be heavier on the bottom.

Once you've done this to all three of your circles, you can stack and sew them together like this. If your sewing isn't great you can always reinforce this by adding a bit of glue inbetween the balls and holding them together. Now you can add decorations. This part is just you added what you like. Take some buttons and hot glue them to the front. I always use pipe cleaners for the arms. And could give him a hat or antlers. Orange pipe cleaners are perfect for a carrot nose. You can even grab some other scrap fabric and make him some clothes. It's totally up to your imagination.

This is the one my daughter and I made last night.

So I hope this helps anyone out there. I'll probably not post anything for the Thanksgiving Holiday because I'm going out of town so Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Just an Update

This post is just a entry about my cloth diaper adventure thus far. I've tried several different kinds now and so far my favorites are the G Diapers, just because of how easy they are to use, and I can reuse them without washing them. I have several Bum Genius's which are my 2nd favorite and I also have one Bum Genius cover which I also LOVE. And 3rd would be just a regular prefold with a snappy/cover. Since I was just getting use to cloth diapering I haven't been using one at night for changing because I wasn't sure about it, so I told myself I'd wait until he ran out of disposables to use the cloth ones over night. And he ran out of his pampers two days ago sooo for the past two nights I've been using my Bum Genius over night. Though G Diapers are my fav, I wouldn't recommend them for over night use just because they tend to link more then the bum's do. But so far they haven't been any harder then changing a pamper at night.

We don't have a washer/dryer in our house which does make it harder to cloth diaper, but not impossible. I've found several web sites that can give you tips on how to wash them without washer dryer. So usually what I'll do is fill up a wash board bucket I have around the house here, with some of my detergent. I use the Gain "Free" on my diapers. And a little bit of tea tree oil. Then I just let them soak a while, scrub them and then rinse them out and hang dry them. It's not really that hard. Then when we do our laundry, which is twice a week, I'll take all of them and machine wash them.

We are going on our first road trip on Wed. which is going to be about a 4 hour drive there and we will be staying for a few days. I was a little nervous about taking a trip with the cloth, but my mom's house has a washer dryer hook up so it shouldn't be too hard. I've also watched a few videos on tips for traveling with cloth and I went out and purchased a few more diapers just to have extras for our trip.

So it was hard at first because I had no idea what I was doing. If you are thinking of trying it don't give up because once you get the hang of it, get a routine to what you are doing it isn't that hard. I'll do a update post on how the trip went with them. :)

How to make a Santa Ornament

Making this type of Santa Ornament requires:

• Glue Gun
• Pipe Cleaners
• A colored Ornament
• White Paint

Ok so you are going to start off by painting the bottom half of your ornament white. So it should only have a red "hat" part left. My advice would be to paint them about an hour or so before you start to glue other wise you'll be blowing to dry them with a kiddo asking if they are dry yet lol. Anyway, after the ornament is dry, spread a light ring of hot glue along the edge of the hat and the what paint. Apply a white pipe cleaner to circle around the ornament to form the ring of the hat.

You will want to pre cut the lil black pipe cleaners to make eyes and a nose.



Now it is as simple as adding the glue and sticking on his two eyes and a nose. After this step you will apply a generous amount of glue along his "chin" and mustache area and using pillow stuffing you can add this to create his beard. I just used some stuffing from a old pillow. And thats it :) Let it dry and you have a little Santa Ornament. This is a really fun project to do with your little ones, my daughter had a great time making these with me and it's something to remember every Christmas when you hang that ornament on your tree. :) Have fun!

How to Make your own Wet Bag!

Hi again! Today I'm going to inform you on how to make a 'wet bag' out of a shower curtain and a zipper :). Yes, a shower curtain!




You'll Need:

• A Shower Curtain
• A Zipper
• Sewing Machine, or you can hand sew if your talented. *I'm not lol.*

You can buy a shower curtain at Walmart or a dollar store pretty cheap. But if you REALLY want to save money you can go to the Dollar Tree and buy one for $1.00. I bought two for this project because I double layered the bag but you could use only one.
In this how two I'm going to be showing you how to make this bag with two layers for double wet protection lol. So to start you will lay both curtains flat on the carpet or floor. What I did to make this easier on myself because I had kids jumping on them is if you know around how big you want your bag, cut the curtains in half or even cut that half in half and you can fold the rest up or let your kids build a fort or something out of it to keep them busy while you do this hah. So to measure how wide you'll need your bag your going to lay the zipper on the edge of your curtain. I just stacked the two pieces of shower curtain on top of each other so I would have to cut less. Then starting at one edge of the zipper, you cut down as far as you want. The farther down you cut the deeper the bag will be. Then just cut across for the bottom, and then up and finally meeting the other edge of your zipper. After you have done this you can take one of those squares of curtain and lay that on top of your uncut curtain and cut the next two piece out so they match the size and shape of the squares you just cut. When your done it should look like this:

So after you have four pieces of curtain you will take your "outside peice" or the side you want on the outside of the bag and lay it on top your inside piece. The piece that wont be shown and pin those together with bobby pins. After you have done this to both sets of squares, you'll take one pinned square and align your zipper up. This is about the hardest part of this project because shower curtains are slippery. To make sure you have your out side piece showing, your going to lay the zipper upright under the edge of your square. Then you'll slightly fold the curtain over at the top and pin that to the zipper edge. After your done pinning, you can then sew that piece onto the zipper. Once you get that side done you repeat with the other piece.


When your done it should look like this. Now that's finished fold your squares over on top of each other so the bag looks inside out." Pin the edges together and unzip the top of your bag. Don't forget to UNZIP the bag or you won't be able to turn it out right. Now you just sew these sides together. Should look like this when your done.


So now your going to reach into the zipper and pull the bottom of the bag out through the zipper turning it inside out so the pattern you wanted on the out side will now be showing. Smooth it out with your hand and that's it! Your done! These are great for wet swim suits or towels when you go to the beach. Or wet clothes and diapers from kids when your on the go. I use mine for dirty cloth diapers when I'm on the go. This whole project cost me a total of two dollars because I already had a few zippers and a sewing machine laying around. :) Good luck!

How to get creative with a wipe case!

I'm going to start with this project because its very simple to do and fast.

You'll Need:

• Glue Gun
• Glue Sticks
• Material
• Ribbon
• Wipe Box

OK, you'll start with buying a travel wipe case, or you might already have one laying around. If not, they are really cheap. I bought the one I'm using in the pictures for $1.27 at Walmart. You'll need material, which you can buy from a fabric store, or I even think the dollar store carries just pre cut squares of fabric you could use. I love to reuse everything, so this material was actually a dress my daughter out grow two years ago, and I loved the pattern so I recycled it. It also saves on the cost of material :). To start off you'll lay the case on the material you want and basically what I do is just cut about a inch away from the case around it. So you're square of material will be bigger then the box to start off.

After this your going to get your glue gun and right above where the case shuts together, your going to spread glue along that line and press the end of your material along that line. It doesn't have to be perfectly straight or anything, you will be laying ribbon over it so no one will be able to tell when your done. You'll do this with your material on each side, slightly pulling and stretching the fabric so it obtains that flat look to it. After you finish with the glue, you can trim your excess material away from the box.

Now to add the ribbon, you lay glue along the edge of your fabric and lay the ribbon along the glue and press. Make sure if your using ribbon to scorch the edges so it doesn't fray anywhere. And your done! :)

This is the one I did for my son, those are his initials, which I just added in ribbon because I ran out of iron on's but you could use those as well. Tip: you have to iron them on BEFORE you lay the material on the wipe box or it will melt. I know that sounds obvious but you never know lol.

I hope this helps somebody. I didn't even know that people did this with my first child and once I saw one I had to have one for my son! If done right this project might cost $5-10. It didn't cost me anything because I already had a glue gun, sticks, and ribbon laying around and as I said I recycled the material. Soo good luck! Get crafty!


OUR NEXT POST: How to make a "wet bag" out of a shower curtain :)!

Just Getting Started

Ok, this is my first post. I should be posting later today with my first project I'm going to blog about. I just started this blog as a way to share / receive tips and ideas and various projects. I'll be sharing my crafting projects, tips on how to keep to budget and hopefully I help someone out there or maybe I'll get some help myself :). I'll be back tonight because that's my crafting time lol. After the kids go to bed!