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Spring Fancy Strands|Door or Window Craft Decor|Giveaway (Closed)

April 11, 2011 By Laura 11 Comments

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I find spring-time to be such a craft-inspiring season.  Although winter & spring has been taking turns around here in the past few weeks, I still like to think of it as just spring, as it should be.  Time for garden planning, enjoying the new warmer, sunnier days, and looking for those very exciting signs of spring.  They are popping up all around us, despite the occasional surprise snowfall!  With spring comes all kinds of cheery colors and symbols always associated with this season of new life.  It just makes me feel like crafting!

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This is a craft you can do with ANY kind of doors or windows in your house!

The French doors between our sun room, which is always bursting with sunshine or a soft natural light, and our living room, has been the focus of my craft quite a few times!  All of the rectangular panes of glass  strike me as mini picture frames, calling for some little artwork.  This past Winter, I made beautiful sparkly snowflakes on blue ribbon, which is a craft I am saving to share later this year. There was a functional twist of an idea I used with them, and I think some of you will rather enjoy using the idea for yourselves next year, when I’ll have the opportunity to share it with you in time to use the idea.

My craft idea for Spring is very similar, although strictly and adorably decorative, using very simple Spring shapes, ribbon and colorful card stock.

I designed a small collection of Spring Shapes in Photoshop, to use as stencils again and again.  I will share these with you by the end of this post. But here is a peek at what I came up with.

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The supplies needed were few and simple:

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    Spring Shapes, printed on card-stock to cut out
  • 6 full rolls of thin ribbon
  • Card-stock in cheery bright Spring colors
  • Scissors
  • Hot Glue Gun
  • *Any little embellishments you like.

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I found this block-pad of linen card-stock in beautiful colors, at the craft store.  I knew it would be perfect, to use for my Spring shapes, that I wanted all relatively the same size.  It was a pleasant surprise to realize they were sticker paper too! That was going to work out nicely, for adding the centers on flowers, etc. And if there was no need for sticky paper, I just left the backside on.But you can use any colored card-stock, that comes in sheets, as well.

Alright, so I didn’t take photos of every step.  That’s needless really.  But the simple directions are, that I cut my Spring Shapes out of the white card-stock I printed them on, and used them as stencils on the little square card-stock pieces.  There was a whole lot of tracing stencils, and cutting out, going on.  Then it was sticking or gluing pieces together, to make little happy die-cuts of art.

 

I have to tell you, as crafty as I am, I HATE CUTTING STUFF OUT!! With scissors.  Thankfully, my kids love it! It’s great practice for scissors-skills for them.  I did do a lot of the cutting for this project, but they enjoyed helping when ever and wherever they could.  I was thankful for every bit.

window-door-craft-decor-5 Using almost an entire roll of ribbon for each row of windows top to bottom, attach one end on top of the door, and center of the row.  Run it all the way down, to attach to the bottom of the door, again keeping it center.  Cut off any excess before attaching. We use a tack at the top, and glue on the bottom.

Then just dab a little hot glue onto the center of each die-cut one at a time, and apply it to the ribbon in the center of each window.

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Here are my doors, all done!!  CUTE, or WHAT??

Such a simple project, but just a lot of cutting.  This was a craft for the kids and I to do together, from the get-go, so  I knew which part I’d be letting them do some of!  Hopefully you have a few of those happy-cutters, too.

You know, you don’t have to have French doors, to do this project!!  You can do the same thing, in grid picture windows, or make horizontal strands as a Spring-themed decorative garland!

 

window-door-craft-decor-7  I can tell you, by the time we had made 24 die-cut pieces, trying to make them each a little different, we got to the last 6 and wondered if the doors would look cute enough still, with nothing across the bottom row of window panes.  And then I had the quick and easy idea, to wrap up this craft, in 6 simple letters:

S P R I N G

Seeing my Spring-ish doors makes me smile anyway.  But what really warms my heart, is the words spoken by my little boy the other day: “Mama, every time I see my butterflies that I made, that you put up on the door, I get a really happy feeling inside.”

Dang if that doesn’t make me really happy inside, too.   I love doing projects with my kids.  It’s so rewarding, for all of us, in so many ways.

 

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Just so you know….our French doors are rarely closed like that.  Our 4 season sunroom, is open to the rest of the house most all of the time.  It’s surely a cheery passage-way now.

 

window-door-craft-decor-9  When spring turns to summer, I’ll be taking these strands down, but keeping them to use again next year, just as I did the winter ones! They are easily re-usable, for at least a few years if not more, if they are stored nicely.

 

window-door-craft-decor-10 On a side note….I do struggle with displaying fake flowers in my house.  I prefer fresh of course.  But it’s just not budget smart, year round.  Unless I can cut fresh flowers from outdoors now and then, and I do when I can. But in between….fake it is.  I just like to have some especially, in my old milk jug.

So just for fun, I decided to design a little collage, to show you some of the pieces a little closer up.  Naturally, when posting photos on a blog, some detail is lost.  But it’s still a closer look.

And then I thought the collage came out so cute, that maybe it would be a fun idea, to have a Give-Away!  It will printed as a 12 x 12 photo (such as it is), and mounted on a sturdy backing.  It will be sprayed with a protective coating, so it can be popped right into a 12×12 glassless frame. (I never use glass in my frames.  No need when they are mounted and sprayed, and they look so much nicer without the glare.)

The collage of these mini-photos, is of course, of little paper art.  But how cute would it look on display, near your Easter tree, in your kitchen, or in a little girl’s room!  It would look cute anywhere!

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If you’d like to try and win this Give-Away, all you need to do is the following:

1.)  Follow our blog, via Subscribing or our Facebook Page, in the sidebar. (If you are not already.)

2.)  Leave a comment below, saying anything you wish, or letting us know you are now following our blog!

3.) Link up a crafty idea of your own, right now, if you can!!  (Not required, but we hope you share something if yours if you’ve gotten creative, and blogged it, lately!)

I’ll do a drawing from the comments by the close of the week!

Want to do this craft yourself?  Here are the pdf links to my Spring Shape Sheets:

Spring Shape Page 1

Spring Shape Page 2

I hope those links work for you anyway If not just email me, and I will send them to you. I did free-hand draw a few on my own, that are not on the sheets, but most are here. You can add idea of your own too.  Just keep the shapes simple.

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ENJOY!

******

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Giveaways, Kids Arts and Crafts, Seasonal Crafts and Creations, SPRING Crafts and Creations, The Big Picture Tagged With: crafting, decorations, developing-kids-scissors-cutting-skills, door-and-window-decor, easy-crafts, french-door-decor, home decor, kids-arts-and-crafts, spring-crafts

Announcement of SUMMER FLAG Giveaway Winner!

July 7, 2010 By Laura 7 Comments

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THANK YOU to all 12 of our commenting participants for the Summer Flag Giveaway!  I thought it was a bust at first, and it got me down, but you all came through, and got me excited again, because we have so many AWESOME Giveaways coming up!  Our best yet!!  So if you didn’t win this time, keep joining us and you are BOUND to win something great!

So far, we have chosen to choose winners via the random drawing generator from the numbered comments.  We love all of our visitors and commenters, and are so happy you all participated, we’d have a hard time choosing ourselves.  But some day, we may try a different method.

Ok, on to the WINNER!!

If you can believe it……the random drawing generator from the numbers 1 through 12 chose:

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The first commenter!!

(We laughed out loud.)

Ohh…..WHO was the first commenter?

KIM from ‘The Inadvertent Farmer’

(Here is the link to the comments/post for this Give-Away.)

I like to call her ‘Kim the Farmer’, because for 1, I have a sister in law Kim who comments here sometimes, so it helps keep them straight.  But also, I just love that she lives on a farm.  Heck, I love her. And I love her blog!  You’ve got to check it out.  Always fun stuff going on, and ‘fabulous photos, too. Plus, you think having a hedge hog is strange?  Wait until you see what SHE has!!

CONGRATULATIONS, KIM (the Farmer)!!   Send me us an e-mail with your mailing address please, and we’ll get your gift right out to you!

Now, naturally, I have a few comments to your comments!  I couldn’t comment before, or I might be at risk for winning my own summer flag!  (hee hee.)

So yes Everyone who inquired, Michael is having a beer on his break, sitting on the roof covered bench. Was anyone surprised? I think we surprise people a lot, somehow.  Neither of us are big drinkers in the way of intoxication.  lol. But we do both have a drink or 2 on weekends.  Lately, Mike’s Hard Lemonade has been my refreshment drink of choice.

Thanks to Everyone who just said nice things!  Sorry if you didn’t win….but again, lots more coming up!

Rene….We have done mostly annuals in the past, but will be getting more and more into perennials as our landscaping/front yard transformation really starts coming to life.  No herbs yet…..good thought.   We got tons of strawberries, and are in between the 2 varieties right now.  The gardens are looking fab, and hopefully still will when you get here!  I will save a few strawberries for my freckle-faced girl.  They are in the freezer.

Teri…..What a dream come true it would be, to have you sitting there on our bench.  Even if you were just drinking and spewing pearls of your supervisory wisdom!

Paula……I didn’t expect you to be a bit impressed, with the gardens YOU have grown!  So your comment meant a lot, even if you are lying because you love us.

Laura S…..We did not know that about the cosmos!!  Thanks for that info!  They have grown HUGE this year so far.  More like trunks, than stems.   Can you comment or send us an e-mail, with a little more specifics about what you do with them?  Like…directions. lol

To Everyone Else….who mentioned about being excited to watch how the pumpkins grow, US TOO!!  Boy do we have an update blog post on that.  We have SO MUCH to blog about…..and so much work at the same time.   So bare with us, and see it all as something to look forward to!  Because we’re excited to share it all, even with slight delays!

YOU ALL ROCK!!!

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Filed Under: Giveaways, Giveaways, The Homestead Tagged With: giveaway-winner

May Basket Delivering! – SO FUN!

May 1, 2009 By Laura 6 Comments

Our May Basket Delivering Day was so fun! We wanted to share it all with you.
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There was no schooling on our agenda today – just delivering our May baskets for May Day, and the kids could not have been more excited! But, first, I had to have some of my own fun, taking just a few more photos, as detailed memories.

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rose

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Ok, now I was ready. So next the kids loudly debated about which May basket was ‘theirs’, based on the tag they made, and who was going to who’s door, ringing the doorbell, and running for their life.   Once that was settled, they were very eagerly ready to go!  But you know I’m getting a photo of them first, and they know it too.

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I was so grateful that the light rain we had going on, went on hold for us once it was time to get down to business.  I didn’t mind the gray overcast day—it’s actually better for the photo taking. : )

Our first stop was right at the end of our road……

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This is the home of a lovely elderly couple who have nearly ancient history in our neighborhood. This home of their is new, but it is built right in front of the old and smaller home that they raised 11 children of their own in!  They are so sweet.  So {A} placed the basket on the porch, rang the doorbell and ran. We were ‘seen’…..their visiting daughter opened the door as she and I were climbing back into the van up the road some. Last year their visiting son saw us the same way. Now…our hopes are always that our intended receivers would come to open the door, because that would give us more ‘get-away’ time, if you know what I mean. ; )

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Next stop was up the main road a bit……

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{J} was up for his hit and run.  lol. This is the home of Sr. Jeremy—the long time nun resident of our parish.  She has done marvelous and wonderful things within our church family. We love her dearly…..and she loves children, DEARLY!!  She is a HOOT, if you know what I mean, and she has no reservations about speaking her mind. Ever. My kind of Girl!

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I was hiding behind a bush with my camera, and I couldn’t have been more tickled pink with getting this shot!! Look how his feet aren’t even touching the ground!  He was hysterical, trying to run before the door opened. We got away in time, but did spy with our little eyes, Sister open the door, see the May basket, and look everywhere for the sneaky one. lol

Next stop was a little ride, and it was {S’s} turn…..

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This is the home of a lovely older couple from church, who dig us. And we dig them. We always sit all together in 2 pews in front or behind each other. They adore our kids, and are smitten with their church behavior.  They are probably in their late 70’s, and have great senses of humor.

Now, I have to tell you…THIS was a tricky one. And we got TOTALLY BUSTED!  See, here’s the thing. We were pretty sure these Peeps were going to be home. The brick sidewalk leading to this door, is very windy. It actually does a zig, and then a zag. So sidewalk is actually shifted very much to the right side, walking towards the door, and then does a zig to straighten head on to the door. So as we are walking, we are looking RIGHT IN the big window door-right. And we see movement in there. Oh dear!  So {S} puts the basket down, and tries to hurry ringing the door bell, which is of course door right….

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…and as he rings, he finds himself face to face with Mrs. G….coming to the door. DAG NABBIT!! Do you see her?  Need help?

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Do you see her now??  No??  It’s ok…it’s ok…it happens to the best of us. (Well, not really….I just don’t want you to feel bad…)…look again…

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Now?? Because that’s really all I can do to help you. lol

So anyway….she’s coming, {S} sees her, but he starts ringing the doorbell anyway, and again, and again, because really….he was NOT missing the opportunity to ring a doorbell like everyone else! (We don’t have one on our house…lol).

Mrs. G opened the door, and laughing she said “WHAT are you DOING?”…and {S} said “Happy May Day!“, and she replied with a big laugh, “Aren’t you just the sweetest thing!“….and he has been repeating that all day. I think he believes her! lol. No…he is. So anyway…I was laughing so hard, from the nerves and getting caught, I forgot to take photos of her standing there, pleased as punch with their surprise.  Then we ran away, with her yelling after us…‘Thank youuuu!!!”

We had ONE more stop, and it was {O’s} turn……

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This is the home of our friend, Dr. Ann. She is a veterinarian, and she has become quite attached to our kids too.  (And us, her.) We also know her from church, and we also sit near her.  (She saved a pew for us on Sunday morning, because we were running late, and it was JAM PACKED because it was a First Communion Mass….bless her soul!! We were so thankful!)   Anyway, she calls the kids ‘The Children‘….and if you heard her voice.  LOVE her voice. She’s a lector too…which is so lovely hearing her read Sunday readings to us…and she is also a singer. (She got us all tickets to her concert this Sunday!) Anyway….she knows all of he kids names, but she always says to the kids “So how are THE CHILDREN today??!!  HmmMM??”….and they all giggle, and say, “Gooood.”  She’s a doll.

We knew she wasn’t home, because her car was not there, and she works long hours at her business in town, her own Veterinary Hospital.   But…the kids enjoyed the fact that her cats were in the window watching us. lol.  So at least SOMEONE saw her in her cool hot pink slicker, even if they did have fur!

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That was the last of our May basket deliveries!  Met with BIG groans and sighs by ‘the children’.

As we all climbed out of the van in our driveway, they were still talking about how they wish we had more homes to go to.  They had SO much fun.  WE ALL did.  We just LOVE doing these kinds of things. Especially for other people. The whole process….planning surprises for others, shopping, making and baking things, and just having fun making someone’s day.

Here they all with mission accomplished:  Basket-less!

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Later on tonight, we got a call from the old woman at the end of our road. She left the sweetest message on our machine, expressing how wonderful that May Day gift basket made her feel, and the memories it brought back to her of the May Pole at school when she was a little girl. If you heard her sweet, sincere and shaky little voice, well….

That’s what it’s all about.

We can hardly wait until next year.  I’ve heard the kids talking, and I can see this getting WAY out of hand next time.

But who cares??!!

Hope you all had a wonderful May Day!

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Filed Under: Celebrations, Crafts & Creations, DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Project, Giveaways, Giveaways, Holiday Crafts, Homemade/Handmade Gift Ideas, The Big Picture, Traditions Tagged With: Catholic, Catholic-family, Catholic-kids, delivering-May-baskets, developing-thoughtfulness-in-your-children, kids-May-activities, May, May-basket-ideas, May-basket-inspiration, May-baskets, May-celebrations

Winner of Our 1st Giveaway Received….

April 20, 2009 By Laura 4 Comments

For those of you who have been itching to know what the winner of Our First Giveaway received, this is the post you’ve been waiting for!

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 For those of you who are new to our blog, and have no clue what we’re talking about here, these links may help:

Announcement for our blog’s First Giveaway!

Winner Announcement

Now that we’re all on the same page, here we go…….

The first thing the winner received, was the box itself, that we put all of our hand-made gifts in! I’m telling you, I just loved this box.  We did not make it, we bought it.  It was just the perfect size, sturdy, and simply lovely. The cover had a front flap that magnetics closed!  I opened and closed it several times, just for the fun of it!  :  )  The cover adorned the phrase:  Live well, Laugh often, Love much.   Wise words we try to live by around here.  It really was a great box.  One could use it to store all kinds of things, like letters, cards, drawings from your children, or any kind of special momentos.

But here’s what WE put in it…..

….an assorted collection of handmade gifts.

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One of my favorite handmade gifts was this sign….

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This was my idea and I designed it, but Michael actually made it.  We bought the sign unfinished, and Michael painted and lettered it. The paint is not solid, but more old looking, which is also one of the things that I love about it.  It’s rustic, and humble, and I think he should make me one now.

Next, I made glass stem bracelets….

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For those who are unfamiliar with these little doo-hickeys, these bracelets go on the stems of wine glasses or pedestal mugs.  They are made with wire rings and beads, and any other functional charms. These glass bracelets have a couple of purposes:  The first is simply to make your glass sets more festive and pretty. The second, is for social gatherings involving several guests, and therefore several glasses around. The assorted bracelets help people differentiate which glass is theirs, on the counter or table-top.  This was my other favorite gift we made. I think they are beautiful, style-ish, and frankly, I feel fancy and clever having them on my wine glasses.

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I made a set of eight different bracelets.  It was really hard to photograph them together, and make all of the sentiments readable, so I labeled them all for you, because I have a thoughtful side.  : )

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Also, while I was making them, I was mesmerized by all of the colorful beads on the table, and lost control with my camera once again.  I loved this shot, so I’m throwing it in here to share.  There are people out there who understand this problem I have, in needing to take such photos, and they appreciate it!

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Next up……..I bought this wooden carved word, which is very important to me, and many of you:  FAMILY.   I painted it pale yellow, and then just rubbed on some floral and ladybug decorations.  That came out like this…

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(Candle not included.)

The soaps we made as Christmas gifts were a big hit, so I made a few more (one of each color) for the Give-Away.  I love glycerine soap, and we scented it a lovely apple aroma.  I didn’t take a new photos of the new soaps alone, though….this photo is from the Christmas batch, just for a closer look…

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I also threw in some bookmarks, which honestly were from the abundance of leftovers we still have from making them as Christmas gifts.

Lastly, a charming little hand-painted pot….

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Michael painted this, and even pulled the painted stripes free-hand around the pot, with a fancy long-haired brush.  I think it came out really cute.

That would conclude the up-close review of the hand-made gifts given to our First Giveaway winner.  We plan to plan (lol,) another Giveaway, of some sort,  soon.  We’d like to wrap up our over-due ‘Michael Project’ we started first.  IF, that is, you all are interested, in another Giveaway??  If so…speak up People!  We’d love to know what kind of interest is out there.

The Regan Camp reports that the favorite items were the sign and the soaps.

What would your favorites have been?

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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Giveaways, Giveaways, Homemade/Handmade Gift Ideas, The Big Picture Tagged With: giveaway, handmade gifts, handmade-gift-ideas

We are wicked happy to have you here! We hope you find much inspiration, help, humor and enjoyment here.




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