Blast From the Past: Turkey Plate

I sat down one day and decided on all the keepsake crafts I was going to do with my grandchildren each year. On their very first Thanksgiving, I'm making these adorable little Footprint Turkey Plates! It wasn't my intention to do turkeys first BUT it is so much easier to do footprints with under 1's!!

As you have probably come to realize - I get my most recent inspiration from Pinterest. Nothing is different in this case either lol I took 3 ideas off of my Grandbabies:: First Thanksgiving board (which needs a new name cause this actually holds ideas for like the first 10 years!!). The ideas are this one, that one, and the other one. These three ideas are a cached image found here, My Rural Mommy which has several cute ideas, and SheKnows Pregnancy & Baby.

So, you see what I did there? I combined them! Feet all the way! I tried to use the hands and quickly realized trying to do baby handprints with paint or ink simply is a FAIL! Do not try it unless you are elast-a-mom with 8 tentacles - just don't do it.

I will tell you what you can do with baby handprints though - that's clay impressions or tracing! I did a little of that as well - tracing that is. But that's another post for another day.

This was a super cheap craft for me to make such a precious memory. I already had the paints so all I had to do was pick up a plate from the dollar store and wah-lah! Later, I had to spend a couple more $$ on a way to hang the plate (notice I had to rig up a display in order to take a picture ... there was simply too much glare when it was laying flat). Still well worth the price! The little man was so cute doing this - it tickled his feet to have them painted but he was such a good sport!! He was a little captivated by the whole process lol His favorite part was getting to sit on the side of the sink and playing in the water - such a ball of cuteness!! This was pretty much an all day activity between having to wait for paint to dry and naps before moving on to the next color. Experience is teaching me how to get better at getting those sweet little impressions. Now watch it be different for each baby!

So what's my plan with these little plates, you ask? I'm so glad you asked! And I really can't wait to show you - this coming November ;-) I bought some little hanging plate holders. They have springs so that it is adjustable to the size plate you have. I knew I wouldn't have enough flat "table" space to display the number of plates I will eventually have.... so I was a wee bit excited to find those little gems so I could hang them on the wall without having to attach some funky equipment that might come loose and risk breaking these precious plates that I can never replace.

God-willing, every grand child will make one of these on their first Thanksgiving! The ones so far away will be more difficult but at the same time will be all the more precious because of the distance.

Clay Hearts

What I was going for and what I got were two different things! Heh, not everything can go wondrously ;-)

I used a different recipe than the normal salt dough I typically use. While I do really like it better than the salt dough, it took a little working with to get it the right consistency - which took up a lot of my time I wasn't prepared to give. Anyway, I used a recipe calling for baking soda and cornstarch rather than salt and flour. I found it at Tips From a Typical Mom blog. I decided to try this new recipe for two reasons:

1) It just looked nicer in the photos, and...
2) I'm allergic to gluten and have to wear gloves when working with salt dough

Just makes sense to use the cornstarch recipe instead.

I think I baked them a little too long, rather than allowing the final cooling stage to completely dry them out. Some warped and cracked during the final baking phase I put them through - an hour longer than called for in the recipe. Even at the end of that hour, when I flipped them over there were "not completely dried spots." I decided at that point to let them air dry. Three cracked so badly they broke right there on the pan without me ever picking them up! I was so careful when handling the rest of them!!

As it was, I had wanted to make conversation hearts out of these, but didn't realize I didn't have enough cornstarch to make multiple batches. See, you add color to the water if you want to tint the dough. Makes me glad I used red first so that I at least had pink hearts instead of all orange or green!

I have seen these adorable hanging works of art where green ornaments are hung in a manner that they fall into the shape of a Christmas tree. I love the concept - a lot! So I thought, why not hang the hearts in the shape of a heart?? Cute in idea concept, not so cute in actuality when I don't really have the proper way to hang said hearts. I had wanted them to hang from my chandelier as seen in this photo on Pinterest. The idea comes from an article on SheKnows. In the past couple of years, I had been hanging these little paper doily hearts via ornament hooks on the chandelier. It was kinda cute the first year, but not so much the second. Hence, why I wanted to find something else to do this third year. I probably should have stuck to simply hanging them instead of getting all cutesy with a 3D, floating shape!!

The center heart has an XO stamped in the center of it. I had done that when I thought I was going to be making a bunch of conversation hearts. Perhaps next year!

 

Did you notice my un-paper towels laying beside the stove?

Blast From the Past: Love Garland

A little history:

I really can't stand Valentine's Day. I couldn't stand it so much that I threatened my husband that I would break up with him if he even recognized the holiday. He complied and has respected my disdain for the money-making scheme of a Hallmark holiday. I've been perfectly content in him getting small somethings for the children and nothing for me. I loved how he respected me so much that he didn't celebrate it with me.

So then, how did I start making these Valentine crafts you see in these last several posts, you ask????

I found a few years ago that my husband really loves the holiday. He enjoys doing things for the ones he loves. I sort of took that away from him. Granted, by not celebrating with me, he was doing something for me - he wanted to do more. BUT he was willing to never do anything for me and "waste his hardearned money on V-day crap" (as I have been known spew in the past) in order for me to be happy.

When I found this out, my heart changed toward him. I decided right then and there that I would surprise the mess out of him! The first year I did this (2 years ago) I laid out everything I wanted to make and do (fancy menu included) and waited for him to go to work. I set out making craft after craft and cooking and baking all day long.

His face lit up like a child on Christmas morning when he walked into our home. He just couldn't understand what made me, Mrs. Bah-humbug of Valentine's, decorate the house in all things Valentine's! AND to come home to a cute and delicious meal with dessert to boot was nearly too much for his little heart to bear.

Now don't get me wrong, I still don't want presents, but I will let him take me out to dinner if he wants to do so. We've had a tradition of celebrating the 13th of every month ever since we met (which just so happened to be a Friday the 13th)... and it was his doing! The romantic that he is :-D  We were also married on the 13th of the month (a different month than when we met). So rather than fight the crowds on the 14th, we've been setting out the night before celebrating our own little version of Valentine's :)

So, that first year, I made this little love banner. I've since lost where I got the idea from ... perhaps I shall run across it one day and then I'll post it. The first year that I strung it up, it was at our bar but I think I like it across the small bannister of our stairs so that you can see it right as you come in the front door.

I had to do a little repair work on it this year so I truly hope that it lasts for several more years to come, as it is my favorite and I didn't realize how much it meant to me to have it until I had to repair it! It is the only surviving original decoration that I made that first year. There is a portion of another decoration that is surviving which is my second favorite. When I redo the whole thing, I will post it under another Blast From the Past post.

The hearts are a gold toned scrapbook paper that has lots of love words written in darker gold tones. The smaller hearts are white tissue paper with a thin smattering of red glitter glue to set it apart. The red letters are of a red scrapbook paper using a stencil I had. They are all connected with a burgundy and gold rope/twine. Hmmm, I think I need close ups ......

So here are some close up shots ....

 

 

Framed Hearts

I have a small affinity for framed work - not all framed work, mind you - very specific types of framed art. I saw a similar piece, again, on Pinterest. I just had to try my hand at it. This idea is found at Scrapstudio. I had no newspaper so I used an old book that I never planned on reading again. I chose 5 pages in which there was talk of love - not physical love, but real heartfelt love - my favorite being about a son who sat down to have a serious conversation with his dad in which the son simply wanted to make sure his dad knew that he really loved him.

Then I sat down with a bunch of scraps, that I normally would have thrown away, from making other crafts and cut hearts of different shapes and sizes. As I began placing the hearts, I realized I needed more as I wanted to connect them all just a little bit. I think it turned out pretty good. If I could change the polka dot hearts to have at least the merest of outlines I would, but I'm not sure how to do so without ruining them. I'll think on it or run across an idea eventually and then *maybe* I'll attempt to change them!

For now, this my framed work. I think it turned out decently, even if I do think the idea I ran across is much better!

The First Footprint Flower in the Garden

I saw an idea on Pinterest and wanted to use it for something a little different. The idea at Tippy Toe Crafts is for a daughter to give to her mother. (It's about 1/3 of the way down the page.) Obviously, this is not appropriate for me considering I'm the grandmother! However, when I saw these adorable little footprint flowers I had a vision of a "garden" of footprints on my bar :-D Thus begins my "collection" of grandbaby footprints for the express purpose of making flowers! I've already determined that I will make each grandchild's footprint different in scope of background and ink color ... possibly even in positioning to make different "flowers." That portion is yet to be determined, though.

The only thing missing is the sign I haven't made yet. It will say "Mimi's Garden."

Without further delay here is the first flower in the garden!

Mind not, the dying plant behind my newly bloomed flower. It is left from my mom's funeral and I just can't quite throw it out yet.

Kisses

So my honey is going to his mom's tomorrow to stay for a couple of nights while father-in-law is in the hospital. I miss him when he's gone even though we both do this from time to time for our parents when they need us. So to let him know I'm thinking about him, I made these cute little kisses to take with him.... but he won't know he's taking them until he unpacks his bag! I have this pin on my Pinterest board but they are located at illbelovingu (which is a 'by invite only' blog).
Originally, I was going to make these for Valentine's Day and surprise him when he got home from work by having them hidden around the house ... but since the plans were made to go to his mom's a few days ago, I decided to change how I used them. Hence, why these are on my Past Events:: Holidays:: 2015:: Feast of Saint Valentine :-D

On the back....

 

There are 12 kisses and they say....

You're the most thoughtful man I know.

I love spending time with you!

You make me feel like the only girl in the world.

Still not sure why you picked me. But glad you did!

Thank you for listening to me rant.

I trust you unlike any other.

Need a kiss?

I like going out with you.

Thank you for making me feel wanted.

Love how you make me laugh!

I miss you when you're gone.

I simply love you for you.

Furniture Makeover

First off, I'm working on obtaining a photo of this dresser while it was solid red!

This dresser is a dresser that my daughter essentially inherited from my mom when she died last November. It was in the kitchen with this same 55-gallon fish tank on it. Mom used it to store the fish things and kitchen linens. Faith however is using it as an actual dresser for her clothing as well as the stand for the fish tank in her bedroom! I really like the effect she was able to achieve. Artistry runs in our family and I can't wait to see what this child brings out as she gets older :)

 

Please excuse all the wiring - we're still getting a shelf for above the tank and her TV is hanging above the tank plus all the tank wiring! We're working on making it all presentable :D