Chica Schmica

I said I would post this Thursday, but I changed my mind. You don’t mind, do you?

First, I have to give a little background about my inspiration for these. I’ve been seeing alot of mustache crafts around the blogosphere lately, and they always make me smile. Not long ago, I saw these and immediately thought, “Oh, how cute, a pencil topper!” Upon close examination, I realized they weren’t pencil toppers, but tiny little staches on sticks. Still cute, but I really liked the pencil toppers, so I decided to make my own!

I had a blast making these pencil toppers for my school-aged nieces and nephews. They’re a snap to make and tons of fun. If you’d like to make your own, just download the template and follow these steps:

Gather materials
craft foam
glue gun
scissors or exacto knife
pencil or marker
template (printable PDF)

Cut two mustaches (or lips) and one rectangle

Apply thin beads of glue along the two long sides of the rectangle

Smash together, making sure not to let the glue spread to the center.

You should still be able to open it nice and wide.

Apply more glue to one side of the folded rectangle

and attach to one side of the mustache with the whole facing downward.

Add another bead of glue to the open-facing side of the rectangle

Position the second mustache piece on top of first so that all of the sides match up.

Add more glue to the ends so that both sides are attached securely.

Stick in a pencil.

Take copious amounts of goofy mustache pictures.

With Spring-like days becoming more and more common, we’ve had some especially blustery days. On a whim, I decided to “try” to make a kite with the girls. It was very spur-of-the-moment and I had no idea how it would turn out, but it ended being a wonderful way to spend our morning.

The photo at the top is the original kite. I took pictures of a step-by-step later using a brown paper bag…both flew just fine, but I think I should have made the width a little longer on the latter.

Materials
Paper (I used cardstock and brown paper bag)
Scissors
3 Straws
Ruler
Twine
Tape

First I marked the same distance from the corner to either side of the paper (7-8 inches is probably best).
Then I used the ruler to meet both marks down to a point. It figures I don’t have a picture of this step…but you’re making a diamond, so I think you can figure it out.

Then I taped two of my straws end to end.

And attached the last straw with tape and twine. Eyeball on your diamond-shape to see where the straws should intersect. Leave a long tail on your twine…this is how you are going to hold your kite.

Tape to your diamond shape….and you have a kite!

Now wait for some good wind to come along and watch your children delight in the physics of nature!

That was Annabelle after my first demonstration of the kite…dying to have a turn!

And the kite DID fly…although it was hard to get a picture.

Of course, nobody wanted to come inside after such a fine morning, so we had a picnic!

And then I pretty much had to drag two very reluctant toddlers inside for their naps.

But, the kites have held up and they still ask for them sometimes when we go outside…we just need some more windy days!

Hope you make a kite!

For as long as I can remember, the only thing that was ever exciting to me about Valentine’s Day was the chocolate. Not much has changed, really, which is why you probably won’t see much more about the upcoming holiday here. But, I do have my two little ones now and I try not to let my biases get in the way of their fun…too much.

In the spirit of being festive, I figured we’d make some V-Day inspired decor…3-D hearts!

I’m posting a tutorial for this easy project, not to insult your intelligence, but because I like taking pictures and I know some people really prefer to look at images rather than read.

What you’ll need:

painted cardboard (the girls painted the backs of oatmeal boxes).
ribbon
stapler
hot glue gun
scissors

First cut out small, medium, and large hearts. I used the same template that I used for our heart scarf then eye-balled the other two hearts from there.

Fold the smaller two sizes in half and layer all of them on top of the big heart. Then staple right in the middle. I covered the staple with a little dab of paint. Use the hot glue gun to attach the ribbon…and you’re done. That’s it.

When I originally added the ribbon, I intended on using it to hang the hearts. But that’s silly. These will only be up for a few weeks and I’m not about to puncture my wall for some fleeting decor. So, I used wall putty to stick them to the wall. That being said, you can forgo the ribbon if you’d like, thus alleviating the need for a glue gun!

We also went to the library a few days ago and brought back some Valentine-y books.

One particularly worth mentioning is the one on the  bottom: Secret Valentine. Just a simple story about a little girl who, with her mother, decides to skip the greeting card store and make all of her own valentines.

So sweet it just warms my heart right up.

She even makes one for her kitty.

Surely there are other decent Valentine’s books out there. Any suggestions?

Here’s the tutorial for the repurposed dress I posted yesterday. It’s reeeaaallly easy, so if you’ve got a dress collecting dust in your closet that you’d like give new life to, go ahead and turn it into a wreath. Your door will thank you!

Here’s what you need:
     *dress
     * foam wreath form
     * batting cut into 4 to 6 inch strips
     * scissors
     * glue gun

Starting from the bottom, cut in a spiral all around your dress so that you end up with one long piece:

Roll it up and set aside:

Grab your batting and use the glue gun to attach one end to your foam wreath. Then start winding around:

Keep winding until you’ve gone all the way around, gluing ends down as you go:

Now take the end of your dress and glue it onto the batting:

Wind all the way around until you get to the end of your dress:

Uh-oh! Did you run out of dress? It’s ok…just unwind a bit and rewind a little looser this time:

Once you’ve got your dress going all the way around, trim the tail so that it ends on the inside of the ring. Glue that baby down and  you’re pretty much done!

I used the straps on the dress to hang it, but I’ll admit it’s still lacking a little something. Use this guide as a starting point and embellish with buttons, ribbons, bows, bells, sparklies…anything pretty!

Now have fun and enjoy your new wreath!

And, as always, please feel free to comment or email me with any questions!