Here is a look back at my top ten crafts from 2011
(in no particular order)
Let's hope 2012 is just as good as 2011!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
2 x 4 Snowman
I made another 2 x 4 project to put out after the tree has been taken down. I found it here. This one my son really enjoyed. He loved picking out the buttons and deciding where everything should go. This one cost me maybe two dollars at most. I had everything but the hat brim on hand. We love our cute little snowman!
Monday, December 19, 2011
I Spy Bag
My family a long time ago was given an I Spy bottle that had the items in it mixed with bird seed. The lid was super glued so that you could dump it out and cheat. My mom then decided to make some smaller bottles that were church related and those were a hit with the primary kids she gave them to. Well I saw the idea to use a pencil case to make an I Spy bag. So my mom dumped the church I Spy bottle items into the pencil case and made one for my son. He could spend forever looking through it and sometimes I find myself looking through it.
Here is what she included:
Pom Poms in Red, Blue, Yellow (Primary Colors)
Foam #8 (Eight is Great)
Dime (Tithing)
Bee (
Sun (Sunbeam song)
American Flag button (
Rock (Build your house on a rock)
Fish (Be Ye Fishers of Men)
Crown (Royal within you)
Smiley Face Eraser (If your happy and you know it)
CTR Ring (Choose the Right)
Moroni statue blowing the trumpet
Candle (Let your light so shine)
Ring with temple sticker attached (Eternal Marriage)
Apple (Adam and Eve)
Heart (Love one another)
Paper Foot (Walk in the footsteps of the Savior)
Button that had one it two of the same animals (Noah's Ark)
Back to back stickers of the Book of Mormon and Bible (Doing them back to back makes them stronger in the bag)
Back to back stickers of Jesus
Back to back stickers of Joseph Smith
Back to back stickers of Future Missionary sticker
Back to back stickers of a shield with the word Faith on it (Shield of faith/Armor of God)
My son wants to take the church I Spy everywhere we go if he thinks we have to wait long. Well I don't like taking things out of the church bag and using them during the week (Then they wouldn't be entertaining on Sunday) So I decided to make him another one from things I found around the house. Here is my pile of stuff
So here is what is in that pile (Mind you I just really walked around my house finding these things. A lot came out of my scrapbooking bins but a lot came out of the silly toys my son gets at random places):
Anchor (Used to be a magnet on an old magnet board and I just pulled the magnet off the back)
Red ball
Chipboard airplane
Bat key chain
Keyboard key
Eraser
Ninja
Safety pin
Bow
Shell
Noodle
Flower
Basketball brad (I clipped off the brad prongs)
Penny
Butterfly tack (I clipped off the tack part)
Rock
CTR ring
Candle
Car
Button
Paper clip
Star paper clip
Light bulb brad (I clipped of the brad prongs)
Blue pebble/marble
Key
I shoved all these things in the pencil case and added Polyfil beads (used inside stuffed animals) and zipped it shut.
Then to make sure he couldn't unzip it I hot glued a piece of ribbon over the zipper. I think this just might go in his stocking for Christmas.
I had everything on hand for the whole project so it was just really using what resources I had. I love projects that are practically free and just using up leftovers from other projects!
Monday, December 12, 2011
Christmas Rag Quilt
I have been working on this blanket for a long time. I have had the fabric for almost 2 years it just wasn't at the top of my project list. Then once I got it started I would work on it and then another project would get started and this one would get put aside. I finally said enough and just got it done.
My fabric tastes have changed since I picked the fabric line but what do you do! This particular line has snowmen, snowflakes, berries, trees, checks, mittens, and solids. I may rethink the Christmas blanket down the road but for now this is my Christmas lap blanket.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Advent Calendar Made Again
So last November my siblings and I were talking about an old advent calendar we used to use. My mom pulled it out and my brother so kindly asked me to duplicate it for each of my siblings. I got it done finally after much procrastination!
So here is the original:
My mom really came to my rescue and still had all of her old Artex paints (30 years old) and the original Pellon that she used including the green Pellon she used. She also had left over ric rac that was, I am sure, the same age as the paints and Pellon.
So I began the task of duplicating it which was not easy. I traced the tree on paper and made a template and then squeezed 5 trees out of the green Pellon. 
I laid the original rectangle on the roll of Pellon she had and cut out all the backgrounds. Then I added the ric rac around the edges. Traced the original handwriting of the numbers and traced the calendar onto each calendar. I then got to sew 48 pieces of tiny Velcro to the tree and calendar. This had to be the worst part of the whole thing. I put it off for 3 months because I didn't want to do it. In fact I have yet to do mine. I just got my siblings done and will worry about mine later!
The ornaments aren't quite like the original. All of them are reversed since I had to trace each one from the original. I was also dealing with 30 year old paint and some of the colors that she used originally had dried up so I had to improvise with different colors. I do think though that it turned out pretty close to the original and my mom said they looked great which totally made my day.
I did make one modification to the original. It lacked a place to store the ornaments when we were finished with it. My mom always stored them in a container separate from the calendar and we would wait for what seemed like forever for her to find it in our Christmas decorations. So I added a pocket to the back for easy storage.
My siblings were all excited to get theirs which made all the time spent completely worth it. However next time they ask me to duplicate something my mom did I will think twice before saying yes!
My mom really came to my rescue and still had all of her old Artex paints (30 years old) and the original Pellon that she used including the green Pellon she used. She also had left over ric rac that was, I am sure, the same age as the paints and Pellon.So I began the task of duplicating it which was not easy. I traced the tree on paper and made a template and then squeezed 5 trees out of the green Pellon. I laid the original rectangle on the roll of Pellon she had and cut out all the backgrounds. Then I added the ric rac around the edges. Traced the original handwriting of the numbers and traced the calendar onto each calendar. I then got to sew 48 pieces of tiny Velcro to the tree and calendar. This had to be the worst part of the whole thing. I put it off for 3 months because I didn't want to do it. In fact I have yet to do mine. I just got my siblings done and will worry about mine later!The ornaments aren't quite like the original. All of them are reversed since I had to trace each one from the original. I was also dealing with 30 year old paint and some of the colors that she used originally had dried up so I had to improvise with different colors. I do think though that it turned out pretty close to the original and my mom said they looked great which totally made my day.I did make one modification to the original. It lacked a place to store the ornaments when we were finished with it. My mom always stored them in a container separate from the calendar and we would wait for what seemed like forever for her to find it in our Christmas decorations. So I added a pocket to the back for easy storage.My siblings were all excited to get theirs which made all the time spent completely worth it. However next time they ask me to duplicate something my mom did I will think twice before saying yes!
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