Christmas Stars....for free!

Beautiful stars that were virtually free!
Thank you rice crispie box and acrylic paint! ;)

 For the white star, I added a navajo pattern after a dark layer of paint with my glue gun!

For the small stars, I simply traced my Christmas tree topper and folded it into the 3D shape. 

For the larger one, I cut out 5 diamonds and glued them together with a glue gun (put a little tape on first!)

Vualla! Paint them up! I made sure to paint a dark colour underneath so that after the light colour, I could rub the tall corners to look like worn tin. I also used a sea sponge for dark texture on the large star. 

Mother's Day Bookmarks

With mother's day just around the corner, I wanted to make something for the moms in our life. Inspired by our new son, I decided to create "Grandma" bookmarks.

My husband recently finished the electrical writing in our basement, leaving us with plenty of left over copper wire to play with! It was very easy to work with as I bent and twisted the pieces with a regular pair of old needle-nose pliers. I used a press to make them nice and flat do they wouldn't crinkle pages. 

maskHappy mother's day!

Bread Box Creation!

I literaly was able to do this for $0 out of pocket...thanks to plywood and paint kicking around!

 This old school lettering was so cute.

 I stole a couple of hinges from an old box i had...i can still use the box for decoration without hinges...

A tip on Eggs

Coffee Filter Wreath

My sister sent me a 'Pin' fit this fun craft the other day! It took me allot longer than I expected, but I'm happy with the results.

Here is the link to the tutorial I followed:

http://lovelycraftyhome.com/2012/01/30/the-coffee-filter-wreath/

I didn't have a foam wreath and I could handily buy one in the small town I live by, so I had to get creative with what I had. My hubby had some extra tubing lying around and I happened to have a few soup can lids to spare!  :)

The tubing was not going to work with hot glue very well so I hole-punched the taped part of each flower and used twist ties to attach them to the wreath.

I believe I used over 300 coffee filters! This wreath is almost all white filters that I painted, but I'm thinking I might do one for the fall and use BROWN coffee filters because they pick up the rich colour so nicely with a sort of earthy feel.

How-To Diaper Storage Bins

So being a new mom, I've discovered that my home now has an endless supply of diaper boxes and I didn't want to just toss them all. When I saw some pretty floral duct tape in a reduced bin at the store, I knew it was project time!

Like many projects recycling diaper boxes, this one only requires a few materials:
  - 2 colours of duct tape (I actually found a fun green masking tape, so my project today has 2 rolls of duct tape + 1 roll of masking tape)
  - diaper box(es)
  - utility knife
  - scissors

So first of all, take your empty diaper box and cut off the flaps with your utility knife. Also cut off the flaps that are inside the handle cut-outs. (Watch your fingers!)

Next, cover the entire outside of your box in duct tape. I started with covering the underside and then putting strips around starting at the bottom, working toward the top. (In my case I used plain grey tape here and then covered it again with masking tape to achieve my desired colour)

take a pair of scissors and clip the tape at the handle openings to fold to the inside.

To "top it off", simply use your second colour of duct tape for the top edge.

All done!

Wipes boxes would alsi be handy for smaller items or shallow shelves.

DIY Babyfood, even healthier!

So today was baby food making day! My little one will soon be able to try these tasty dishes so I'm getting a head-start.

A couple of healthier choices I made for my baby food:
1. Garden Veggies grown at home - I know not everyone is lucky enough to have their own garden, but if at all possible I believe the best and most nutritious stuff is grown at home. I plant non-GMO seed in my garden from Livingston Seeds.
2. I've chosen to steam my veggies and fruits rather than boil them. Steaming results in a more nutritious food than boiling because fewer nutrients are leached away into the water, which is usually discarded.

So first thing's first, cut up your veggies and fruit to start things off. I'll be doing one vegetable at a time as it's better to introduce a baby to one thing at a time rather than a mix in the beginning. I cut and peeled off anything that will not take to being blended later (zucchini skins, bean stems, ...etc). Then the items were cut up into medium sized chunks and set in my steam tray inside of my pot, already filled part way with water. Boiling for about 20 minutes did the trick (give or take depending on how full tray is).

The next step was to fill the blender with steamed items and blend them well. I let a little water go with the veggies into the blender; this allowed them to blend smoother as my blender isn't top-of-the-line. 

Once everything was blended I poured the smooth veggies into ice cube trays. These are perfect portion sizes and won't take long to thaw on the counter (&avoid the microwave!). :)

I have Tupperware Ice Cube Trays which come with a lid and are great for stacking and keeping the food clean.

After each batch was frozen I dumped the tray of food into my Tupperware Freezer Mates. Any freezer bag or container would do just as nicely. I was sure to label everything cause sometimes it's hard to tell what you're looking at after it's all blended!

I'm going to make sure to utilize all of this year's home-grown produce! There are so many great foods to prepare!