T-Shirt Necklace with Hair Clip

If you read my earlier posts about my lil' man's school having a Mardi Gras festival, you know that the parent's of the school donated all the prizes that the children won playing the different games.  Well, I did not want to donate any little cheapy thing so I decided to make things I thought the kids would like to have.

Here's the first thing I created and donated.

Funny thing about this was that some of the volunteer mom's went crazy over this.  I had a mom approach me and tell me to join a show she is attending so I could sell this type of  item.  I'm definitely considering it but it's next month so I've got to get busy if I'm joining.  Yikes!

Oh... I did add a flower clip to this necklace. It's made with the same material - a t-shirt.  I just cut out random flower patterns varying in size and then sewed them together.  I was going to make it a pin but then decided to make it a clip so the wearer can either use it as part of the necklace or wear it as a hair clip.  I love it when things can be used in more than one way.

Next thing I donated was a T-shirt Scarf.  Stay tuned...

Another Diaper Cake for a Girl

My aunt is at it again with another diaper cake request.  I wonder what kind of water her friends are drinking because there seems to be a lot of pregnancies around her circle lately.

This time it's for a baby girl.  Again, she provided all the supplies (except the glue gun) and I just put it together.

Front

Back

I wish she would give me more to decorate with but oh well.  Oh!  And that swing thing on top of the cake?  Not my doing.  She purchased that.  It was a little difficult having it stay on top.  I anchored it into the diaper using the plastic safety pins she gave for decoration. I cut the bottom part out and used it like a "U" shape to push down into the diaper while holding the legs down.

So there you have it.  A little bland but presentable.

Mardi Gras Feather Hair Clip

I wantd to get into the spirit of my lil' man's Mardi Gras School Festival so besides the usual beads and masks, I made a hair clip using mardi gras colored feathers and a mardi gras coin.  What do you think?

I placed it on the side of my head and the feathers stuck up on top.  I thought I looked cute!  LOL!!!

Here's the back side ...

OH!  If you didn't notice, these are the extras I had leftover from decorating the Mardi Gras Shoebox Float.  So yeah... I matched the float. 

2nd Place - Mardi Gras Shoebox Float Winner

So the school had their voting for the Mardi Gras Shoe Box Float competition and my lil' man won 2nd Place!!!  Woo-hoo!  So there's no pizza party but that smile he had on his face, which went from ear to ear, was the best thing a mom could ever see for their child.  He was so proud, just as I was.  Look at the smile on his face.  It was so big his eyes couldn't stay open. :-)

After he received his second place ribbon, it was time for the yearly Mardi Gras Festival at his school.  It was crazy but so incredibly fun for the kids.  My son (as well as a lot of the little kids) walked off with a lot of prizes from playing the Pick-A-Duck game.  Every duck was a winner and it was only $.25 to play.  And the prizes that they won were worth way more than .25 cents.  The parents of his school went all out and donated some really nice prizes. 

But Pick-A-Duck wasn't the only game.  They had a lollipop tree game, a bean bag in the clown mouth game - all of which were winners no matter what.  They they had games for the older children like a toilet paper throw, cupcake walk, jailhouse, golf, plus more.  There was free coloring (and if you colored you got a free coupon for a Rita's ice cream), and also nail painting.  The super older children had the gym just for themselves where they all got to wear pajamas and get their face painted and their hair sprayed with color and there was a dj for them to dance.  It was truly a party.   "Best day ever!" says my lil' man.

Mardi Gras Shoebox Float

My lil' man's school hosts a yearly Mardi Gras festival.  They are having a competition on shoebox floats and this is what my lil' man and I came up with. 

Most of everything we used were from the dollar store.  I did buy a bag of feathers for $1.00 at Michael's and purple streamers for .79 from Party City (since my local dollar store didn't carry purple).  Of course, I did most of the work because it was a bit tedious.  It was easy but can get very boring for a 6 year old after a while.  But he did help.  He helped to cut out the squares, he rolled up the streamer squares, he applied it to the float, he designed the cross in the front and designed and decorated the final decorations on the front of the float. 

We did all this so hopefully he will win and his class gets a pizza party for winning.  All this for pizza!  Maybe I should have just bought the class pizza but then again I wouldn't get the same look of enjoyment and being proud to carry this masterpiece into school.  There's no amount in the world to see the big proud smile he had on his face.

Here's the side views of the float...

 Hope it inspires you if you ever do a shoebox float.

Flower Petals Frame - In Memory of my baby

So, a little over 4 years ago, I lost my little girl.  She passed while still in my womb.  She was my last one.  I never saw her, just a picture, but we named her Olivia.  In her memory, I had made a frame for the only picture I had of her.

I took a regular frame and covered it with yellow petals.  I used yellow because I  always heard that yellow represents "I'm Sorry".  Well, I am so sorry that she didn't make it.  I don't know if it's something I did or didn't do (since the doctor's never did say), but it's my way of saying I'm sorry.  Anyway, I trimmed the inside part of the frame (to hide the petal edges) with a black ribbon and added black ribbon on three corners.  On the one corner I placed a full flower bloom and put her name in a bottlecap in the middle of the flower.

Tah-dah!  Here's where the picture sits, next to the ashes of my baby.

 "Wish I could have met you Olivia.  One day I'll see you and get to hold you.. I Love You! ~ Mommy"

Eggshell Pendant - Faux Stained Glass

I recently saw a post on Happybird's blog with a tutorial on how to create a necklace pendant using eggshells to make it look like mosaic or stained glass.  She used alcohol inks, which I didn't have, so I just used plain ol' acrylic paint and I think they turned out pretty good.

My little man helped me make some of them - painting the pieces black, applying the eggshell, and painting it too.  I applied the Glossy Accents and the bail.  Here's the one he painted...

And here I am wearing his beautiful creation!

To see the tutorial for this craft,  visit Happybird's Crafting Haven.

Diaper Cake - Last Minute

Today, my MIL calls me and asks me if I could make a diaper cake for her sister and that she needs it by Tuesday.  Wow!  As if I don't have anything else to do but roll diapers all day.  LOL!  It's family so how could I say no.  Her sister bought the supplies, dropped it off, and here is what I made from what she gave me.

Personally, I think it's really plain.  It doesn't have enough "umphh" to me but this is what she gave me to work with.  I don't have time to run out and get more things to decorate it as I have some studying to do for my class.  Yes... I'm taking night courses now to get my state certification to teach preschool again.  I'm so excited!  I've missed teaching preschoolers.

Anyway, back to the diaper cake... As I said, I think it's plain.  I would have loved to add some ruffles or even tule around each layer, maybe have ribbons streaming out the sides more.  Oh well.  It didn't really take me too long to make this.  Makes me think that maybe I could offer this kind of service where people just buy the items and I'll put it all together for them for a small fee.  This way they have some control of the type of diapers used and the ribbon colors and toys they want to give.  It's a thought I might just follow on.  Will let you know.  In the meantime, here's another diaper cake that I created previously.  I love this one!

Raven's Flameless Candle

What a game!  It's too bad we didn't make it to the SuperBowl but that's ok.  Next year!

Here's a Raven's flameless candle that I created using Dollar Store flameless candle, tissue paper, Raven's graphic, modge podge, black ribbon, and my printer.

All I did was create a graphic design on my computer, printed it on white tissue paper, cut it out, pasted it on with modge podge and allowed it to dry.  Then decorated (actually hid uneven cuts) with a black ribbon.  Tah-dah!  Here it is lit at night.

Not too bad, right?  I'm actually a fan of this.  It does have some wrinkles because ... my is that modge podge super tacky!  The second I put the tissue print on it, it was stuck.  Oh well.  I still like it.