St. Patty's Day Hair Clips

St. Patty's day is almost here and I am ready to celebrate with my green on.  It isn't everyday that you can wear that much green and get away with it!  I saw a cutie headband with some felt shamrocks on it and I immediately wanted to make it for Miss Priss...and then I remembered that she won't wear headbands and will only wear hair clips and bows for a little bit before she rips them out destroying the hard work that I did trying to get those teeny tiny strands of hair up in the first place!

I pick my battles when it comes to fixing her hair and save those ponytails for special occasions until I can get her to keep them in longer.  This is a fun day and even if she only keeps them in long enough for a picture that will work for me. 

They are super easy to make and I already had all of the supplies and so I went ahead and made them, even though I may end up being the one wearing them before the night is over! Sigh...

St. Patty's Day Shamrock Hair Clips

You will need:

• pieces of felt
• needle  & matching thread
• scissors
• hot glue gun
• alligator hair clips

Pick out your felt in the colors of green that you would like your shamrocks to be cut out of and pick thread that matches the felt colors that you picked out. 

Cut a 4" x 1" piece of felt for each color that you want to make.  Each piece will make one shamrock.  You can cut one slightly smaller if you want to vary the sizes so that they are not the same.  Cut each piece into 4 equal sections.  If you use the measurements I did then you will cut every 1" across the piece of felt.

On one size of the square round the edges as shown in the picture below.  They dont have to be perfect...you can round them and correct your cuts as much as you like once the shamrock is complete. 

Insert your needle as shown below into the first piece of felt. 

Using the same needle and thread do the same to the next three pieces of felt.

Pull the thread tight until your pieces of felt begin to form a circle in the middle (or start to look like a shamrock!)

Pull them together as tightly as you can so that you can not see through the middle of the shamrock.  and fasten off your thread on the back side by weaving it in a out of the felt and tying knots.  Dont cut your thread just yet though.

This is what they will look like once they are done.  You can now use that extra thread to attch a cute button in the center or a pearl or a small ribbon or anything else that you might have laying around.  After much debate, I chose to leave my like they are and so I just cut off the remaining thread.

I then hot glued them to my alligator hair clips and that was it!  (I will have to get a good picture, as I seem to have lot the ones I took of this part of the tutorial.) 

You can then attach them to a headband or just put them in your hair directly like I did with Miss Priss here.

This tutorial shows you how to make a headband, but since Miss Priss won't wear headbands, I wanted to create mine as hair clips.  The shamrock tutorial itself is the same (since that is where I got it!)

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

Time for dinner on a rainy day...what to make?  It is kind of a soup day, but I don't have (or know how to make) any good homemade soups.  My next favorite meal for a rainy day and really, for any day because they are so easy...is a casserole. 

I modeled this recipe from one that I found at Live Better America which is an excellent source for healthy meal ideas, but didn't like everything they used in theirs and so my version was born.  I have made this a few times in the past, but it has been a while since I made it and I randomly thought about it this week and have been waiting for today to make it! 

I do like Mexican food and so it should be no surprise that this is one of my favorite homemade casseroles.  I love it every time I make it and it never gets old!  We had a friend over for dinner and he enjoyed it as well as we did.  I got out some tortilla chips to add a little extra crunch to our plates.  I even used the casserole as dip a few times and it was amazing! 

If you want a quick and easy Mexican dish for your family...this is perfect for you!

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

Servings: 8  Calories: 200

• 1 can 98% fat free cream of chicken soup
• 1can (4.5 oz) chopped green chilies
• 8 oz light sour cream
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 1/2 cups shredded chicken breast, cooked
• 8 corn tortillas, torn into bite-size pieces
• 1 can Rotel or diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Mexican or other favorite cheese blend

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray a 9 x 13" glass baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mix together soup, green chilies, sour cream, milk, chili powder and cumin until well blended.

 

Add chicken and tortillas and mix well.  Stir in tomatoes and 1 cup of cheese.

Pour mixture into the baking dish and spread evenly.  Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.  Uncover and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes uncovered until cheese is melted and begins to bubble.  Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Alternative Ideas:

• If  you that like bell peppers, chop 1 medium green bell pepper to add to the mixture.
• Use tortilla chips instead of corn tortillas for a slightly crunchier result.
• Chop one large fresh tomato to use rather than canned tomatoes.
• Replace cooked, shredded chicken with canned chicken for easier preparation.

 Click here for a printable version.

How To Make Cricut Mat Sticky Again

I have been using my Cricut a lot lately with all these new blocks ideas and orders I have been making, and I was beginning to lose a lot of the stickiness off my mat.  I am frugal and like to get the most out of things and so I had just continued using the non-sticky mat and when it would mess up my letters, which was happening very frequently, I would recut that letter and move on. 

I finally got to the point where I was having to reprint too many letters and even some letters more than once and so I decided that was it...I was going to get a new Cricut mat!  Then, other things happened and life just got in the way and I never made it to the hobby store to get a new mat and I needed to cut some more letters when I remembered that I had come across a blog post about making your old Cricut mat sticky again.

I went back and found the post to see how this was done.  I wrote down the name of the glue that it recommended I use and when I was at Wal-Mart the next time getting groceries I looked for this glue that I needed.  I found something a little different, but again didn't want to go to a specialty store and so I decided to try what I had found.  

By the way, that is why I love Wal-Mart so much...you can get everything you need there, not just groceries...all in one trip.  A lot of people don't like Wal-Mart, but I don't see how you can dislike a place where you can get everything that you want in one trip!  And at good prices too! 

To my relief and disbelief, it worked and now I am telling you how to be frugal and reuse your old Cricut mat over and over again until you wear it completely out with cuts!

Here is my old mat.  It is hard to tell in the picture, but it had hardly any sticky parts left, old paper still stuck to it and is starting to get pretty cut up.

And here is the glue that I found.  Elmer's 2 Way glue stick pen thingie.  I squeezed glue all over the board and then spread it out as even as I could until the entire mat was covered in glue. 

You will want a thin layer of glue on the entire mat so try to cover the entire thing evenly without any clumps of glue.

I actually have some clumpy areas on my mat, which is how I know to tell you not to do this.  Just do the best you can or those spots will be super sticky and will make it hard to remove the paper after you have used it.

Lay the mat down somewhere to dry.  Once you are sure that it is completely dry you are ready to try it.  You can see how readily it sticks to the palm of my hand when I put it on the dried mat. 

When you start to use your mat again, be careful not to press the paper on too hard.  If you do press too hard, then your paper will stick to the mat so good that you wont be able to get it off!  Especially in areas that have clumps, which is why I warned you about them before.  Just barely lay the paper down on the mat and do your cutting.  Once you see how well it sticks, you will be able to better judge your pressure on the paper next time.

This was a time and money saver for me not having to get a new mat and I hope you find it helpful as well!  If you are making something that needs to be more perfect than perfect you might want to go ahead and get a new mat, but for my fun little crafts, this will work just fine for me for another several cuttings.

      

Care Bears Party {First Birthday}

Last month my baby girl turned one!  I love watching her grow into a beautiful little girl with the most precious personality, but I don't want her growing up too fast!  There just isn't enough time to watch her laugh and smile and play...melts my heart when I see that gorgeous smile.

I wanted to do something extra special and super cute for her first birthday.  I went back and forth for a while before I made a final decision for a Care Bear birthday party.  I love Care Bears and last summer I went a little crazy on EBay and bought a few Care Bears for Miss Priss.  Okay, not a few, a lot!  More than I really needed too, but they are all so cute and I couldn't help myself.

The most special part of this birthday theme is though that my nursery was Care Bears.  What a wonderful reason to pick it for my little girls first birthday party!  I am not the only one that likes Care Bears though...Miss Priss loves to carry her Care Bears around the house and drag them out of her closet after I pick them all up.

I was so excited for the Care Bears theme and the rainbow colors!  We had the party at the public library and there were several stipulations about hanging things on the walls, balloons, etc.  By the time I got through with the list, I realized that we couldn't do anything except for table decorations and so I had to get creative.

Colored tablecloths were draped in order across the table and bright blue plates and napkins stood out on top of the pastel rainbow colors.  I am not big on pink...I just hate that everything for girls is always pink!  I don't mind pink being a part of the party, but I didn't want it to be ALL pink just becuase it is for a little girl.

My aunt and I made rainbow pinwheels with colorful buttons in the middle to place on the tables.  I found some cute tins in the dollar spot at Target.  They were perfect toplace the pinwheels in...and since I recycle gift bags and tissue paper, I had paper in every color to help hold the pinwheels in place.  And of course, I had to sit some Care Bears around too. 

I printed a few Care Bears pictures off the internet and placed them in painted frames from the Dollar Tree.  Rainbow candy was placed in bowls around the cake.  Jolly Ranchers, Licorice, M&M's, Gumballs and Life Savers are the candies that I chose that were rainbow colored, though there are a lot more that you can choose from.

My mom is awesome!  She spent two nights after work making that rainbow with colored tulle glued onto a piece of cardboard which is attached to a bent piece of rebar cemented into two plastic cups.  We used pillow polyfill to cover the cups and look like clouds.

My mom even had the help of my sister and aunt from time to time and it still took that long to make.  We decided that we will have to find a way to fit it into every party we throw from now on since it took so much time to make!  LOL

Strawberry and orange flavored cookies and sherbert punch finished up the tables goodies.  Oh, and another Care Bear!  :)

I made a few rainbow wands for the little girls at the party to keep them entertained as well.  Winter birthdays can be hard to keep the little ones entertained inside so I thought this might help.

Check out the Rainbow Ribbon Wand Tutorial and Template here.

And finally for the cake!  The cake was super yummy and exactly what I was wanting.  I was going to make the cake myself because I have taken some cake decorating classes, but had so many other things to do that I decided to keep my stress level down, buy a cake at the grocery store and focus on the rest of the party. 

I wanted a cake with blue icing, Care Bear figurines, a rainbow and clouds...everything that represents what we all know about Care Bears!  It turned out just like I wanted and it was so good!  Yeah!

And just like every first birthday, a smash cake for the birthday girl was made to match.

Miss Priss just loved opening her presents and sitting in her birthday rocking chair that memew and poppa got her. 

Oh, and I almost forgot...for all the other Care Bears that we had that wouldn't fit on the big table, we put on clouds of polyfill in the middle of the guest tables for a little Care Bear touch there too.  I just love those cute little Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins too!

After presents we let Miss Priss have some cake too!  She wasn't really that into it and I think by the time it was over with she had more cake on her feet than her hands and I think I might have had more icing on me than she had on her!  I knew to take a change of clothes for the baby, but no one ever told me that I would need a change of clothes for myself!  LOL

And then of course, every first birthday has to have an episode like this..

It was a simple, yet perfect birthday party for such a perfect little girl!  Love those Care Bears and love the baby girl even more!



Party Planning #2 {Printable}

More party printables for your use! 

I created some party printables a few months ago when I was planning a baby shower, an anniversary party and a birthday party and needed to keep myself in check and not confused.  After using them for these and other events I found some modifications that I wanted to add to make them more to my liking.

These new printables are more user friendly and allow more options without having to write so much by hand.  You will see what I mean..

AND, these are pdf forms that can actually be edited and printed as a pdf!  You can also save your edits so that you come come back and make changes as you please.  What a time saver...and much easier to read than my sloppy handwriting.  When I have ideas running through my head I am a much faster typist and it is much more legible when I am done!

Click on the links below to download a printable version, which can also be edited before printing.

 

 

Party Printable Form #1

Party Printable Form #2

 

 I used the Sahlin Studio The Carefree Day scrapbooking kit to design my activity planning worksheets.  You can download this kit for free personal use here:

Sahlin Studio Freebies

 

Check out the first party printables post here!

Valentine's Printables

Valentine's Day!  Valentine's Day! 

I had to get in just one more fun project before Valentine's Day actually got here!  As I have said before, I really enjoy printables...printables for home organization, grocery and to do lists, labels and holidays.  I especially like the ones for picture frames that I can swap in and out easily. 

Just print them on the printer and snap them into a frame.  When you are done, you can change it out with the next holiday or seasonal printable you want to display.  I also like printables with quotes and lyrics to some of my all-time favorite songs!

My first set of Valentine's Day printables are all about love...in pinks and reds and even purples.  Purple is my favorite color and so I always have to include it as well when I am creating printables!  The especially like the font on this one since it looks like it was handwritten, much like a love letter.  Aww...so sweet!

Love Is {Red} 8 x 10

Love Is {Red} 5 x 7

Love Is {Purple} 8 x 10

Love Is {Purple} 5 x 7

Who doesn't like Conversation Hearts?  I remember getting these as a kid...in my Valentine's box at school...and oh, they are so yummy too!  I still like them today...they are cute and fun and tasty all at the same time. 

Trying not to eat a lot of candy for V-Day...how about another way to bring Conversation Hearts back into your home for Valentine's...as a printable?  There are more than plenty of phrases and colors to choose from and more modern and tech savvy phrases have become available over the last several years, but I picked out a few colors and phrases that I like best and created some small printables from them.

Wouldn't these be cute in some small white picture frames?  Pick two or three of your favorites and make a collage of photo frames!  These would also make a cute little gift for your Valentine or that special person in your life.

U R Special 5 x 7

 Kisses 5 x 7

 Hugs 5 x 7

 Luv Ya 5 x 7

 Be Mine 5 x 7

 True Love 5 x 7

Happy Valentine's Day!  Hope you have a wonderful day with someone special!



Valentine's Heart Art

Valentine's Day is almost here!  Only a few days away!

Although we don't usually make a 'real' big deal about this loveable holiday around my house, who doesn't enjoy a day all about love?  About hugs and kisses?  Hearts?  Infinite shades of pinks and reds?  A day all about admiration? 

Just thinking about Valentine's Day makes me smile and one of the things that I love most about holidays is decorating my house...so what better time to do something that you love but for Valentine's Day.

I made these hugs and kisses blocks a while back and almost forgot about them!  I got them out this weekend and when I put them on my buffet in the living room, it just looked a little plain.  I wanted something else, something that jumped out at me when I looked across the living room.  I have lots of picture frames and so I decided to make something similar to an idea that I found online a few weeks ago.

Valentine's Heart Art

You will need:

• old frame
• pencil with eraser
• white cardstock
• scrap piece of paper or cardstock
• colored Sharpies (or colored pencils, crayons, markers, lipstick)

Cut one piece of cardstock the right size to fit in your frame.  Fold the scrap piece of paper and cut out a heart that fits on the cardstock that you cut out for your frame.  Lay your heart on the cardstock to make sure that it is the right size.  You can continue to shape your heart until you have it the right size and shape that you want and that it fits on the caardstock that will be in the frame.

Lay the heart on the cardstock and trace around it lightly with a pencil.  Remove the heart and make sure that your outline is correctly placed in the center of the cardstock.  I then erased the pencil marking until it was just enough for me to see, but light enough to be covered when you begin coloring in your heart.

I used three different colored Sharpie markers...light pink, pink and red...alternating, to scribble inside the pencil outline of the heart.  You can use markers, crayons, colored pencils or even lipstick to create your art.  You can use a variety of colors, you can use shades or purples, blues, or whatever you would like.  This is your creation!

After you have created your art, snap it in your frame and don't forget to smile each time you see it!

This piece of artowrk can be altered for a baby room, bedroom, wedding decor, or other events in a variety of colors.  You can do a tree for Christmas, a shamrock for St. Patrick's Day...hey, that is an idea! 

There are many different ideas that can be created from this concept.  It was such an easy project, I have a feeling I will be using it again very soon!