Dry Embossed Card

 This month Valerie dry embossed a Birthday Card for a friend.  She used Cardstock, Pastel Chalk, Lightbox, Brass Stencil, adhesive, embossing stylus, and stiff brush to complete this project.

Pastels Used

Line up the stencil on the card where you want it.  You can use temporary adhesive to hold it in place.  Flip the card over so the stencil is face down on the light table.  Rub the card surface with wax paper.  Use the stylus to dry emboss the card, following the design.

View of the card after the stylus has been used to trace stencil and the card is still on the light box.

Flip the card back over so the stencil is facing you.  Keeping the stencil in place, use a stiff brush and chalk pastels to add color to your design.

Finished Design!

I Spy Bottles

For the Toddler Busy Bag Exchange Jessica made I Spy bottles.  She placed rice in empty water bottles along with buttons, a penny, a frog, swirl paperclip, erasers, poofs and a jingle bell.  Then she hot glued the cap on.  Before putting the items in she took a picture of what to look for, printed it out and then laminated it.  Here are some of the websites that gave inspiration: here and here.

Pool Noodle Lacing

This month's craft is similar to many others already posted. Gail asked us to be a part of a Toddler Busy Bag swap. We were so busy that I almost politely declined but I have to say I'm glad I decided to participate. I made a pool noodle lacing game taken from an idea here: http://planetoftheapels.blogspot.com/2011/09/busy-bag-swap-day-2-pool-noodle-lacing_01.html. I bought the noodles cheap at Target and used a sharp knife to cut them into 1 inch slices. Each bag got 9 numbered noodles and then various pattern cards for creating patterns with color or numbers. I also bought large bouncy balls and my husband drilled holes in them so that the noodles wouldn't slip off of one end of rope. This was very simple and very cheap to make! Hopefully kids are enjoying these, I know my daughter loves it. We're looking forward to getting our bags next weekend!

Birthday Underwear!

One of my friends has a birthday on Monday and as a joke I decided to make her some 'day of the week' underwear and a card to go with the theme!  I used pink zebra iron on letters and star studs from Michaels (and maybe my May project will be refinishing our kitchen table as my towel I ironed on was not as thick as a I anticipated and I may have turned a portion of the wood white...oops!)  Anywho... just peeled, stuck, and ironed... can't wait to see her reaction when she opens them! Oh and the card quote came from pinterest of course : )

Toddler Busy Bag - Geo Boards

My craft for this month is my toddler busy bag submission - Geo Boards.  To do this project, I used an old board we had stored in our barn and cut it into 7x7 squares using a chop saw.  I then sanded all the blocks, nailed in a 5x5 grid of nails, and finally spray painted them.  I also provided 6 strips of shapes from an online template to make on the boards using cloth loops.

Solar Lights

This month Kelly did some updating of Solar Lights. She had seen this idea on Etsy.  After using supplies she had around the house and some picked up from the Dollar Tree she removed the stake from the light and super glued the light into the shaker that was filled with glass gems.  Easy and cheap.

 Supplies Used: Solar Yard Lights, Glass Parmesan Cheese Shakers, Super Glue (All purchased at Dollar Tree for $5 total).  Kelly already had the glass gems on hand. 

Finished Product!  One of the lights has the solar panel on top and the other has it overturned so that the gems are surrounding the light.

Word Families and Counting/Addition

 For this toddler busy bag, I used paint chip cards to create a words family set.  You match up the cards by color and then read the words.  The word families I did are at, an, en, ip, op, ug, and ing.  I laminated these with clear laminate contact paper.

 
I also made a number card set.  For the younger kids, there are pom-poms that they can place on the card and count and learn their numbers.  If you flip the cards over, there are addition problems that add up to the number on the back. Kids can either use the pom poms, or simply count the dots that are on the cards.  I laminated these with clear laminate contact paper.

Easter HTV Shirt

Allison and I also made this shirt for Allison's brother, Peter.  We used my Silhouette to cut out flocked HTV for the yellow, white, and pink peeps and smooth HTV for the "my peeps" writing.  The font we used is Smiley Monster.

Easter Baskets

Allison and I made Easter baskets this month for my children.  Allison made the one on the left and I made the 2 on the right.  They each took about a day to make.  With the help of a  pattern from here and some step by step instructions from this book, we made our first round baskets.  I stained them using a light oak stain.

Foam Shape Match

I coordinated a Toddler Busy Bag Swap with some moms and this is the project I took on. I was inspired by looking here, here, and here. I took a package of foam sheets and then used a Sharpie to make grids. I then found 2 sets of each shape. One set I glued down (with foam glue) onto the sheets and the other set I placed into a jewelry bag. I tried to make the sheets different levels of difficulty since we have a pretty wide range of kids that are the recipients of the busy bags.

Exploding album interior

I made this exploding album for my niece's baptism. I received one of these from Gail for my daughter's birthday. There are simple steps to making this album which can be themed any way you choose.

Easter Fun

I used my Silhouette to cut out the baskets and then I pieced them together. (Thanks for the tip on these Amy!) Vicki made felt colored eggs to use as a matching game.