Valentine's Day Paper Bag Album Layouts

Lisa and I had a blast getting together last week and making about a dozen of these love and Valentine's Day themed mini albums for our MadAboutScraps shop.  I am personally going to use one for preschool Valentines Day Party photos.  Kamille might also give one to her preschool teacher as a Valentine's Day Gift. 

 I made a pocket by cutting the mats in half on a diagonal.  I used gems to make it look like it is attached with brads.

 I layered up some prima flowers for dimension and used a large brad for the center.

 I love to embellish my tags with some simple stickers. 

Instead of using ribbons for the pull-out pocket pages, I used stickers to create a tab.

Easy Christmas Ornaments Crafting Roundup

I decided over the weekend that it is time to start Christmas Crafting.  This is partially due to the shows Lisa & I have coming up, but also due to the fact that I always find myself awake at 3am on Christmas Eve putting the finishing touches on gifts (sometimes even on Christmas morning.) I usually also have a stack of partially finished things that I just give up on.  Maybe I aim too high, but why not?

So, a few times a week I am going to start putting together some small treasuries of things to make from Christmas this year.  This roundup is simple, easy, and dare I say cheap Christmas ornaments.  Looking at these, I think that any one would be great for kids to make.  Kamille and Maggie would love making the beaded ornaments. 

Santa & Snowman Ornaments   Beaded Christmas Ornaments  Quilled Christmas Trees

Poinsettia Felt Ornament  Pompom Ornament  Snowman Glass Ball Ornaments

My Favorites - Handprint Christmas Ornaments 

I think that I will start making these every year.  What a wonderful way to watch your child grow up.

Snowman Ball Ornament   Handprint Salt Dough   Reindeer Handprint Ornament

Halloween Ideas Roundup

 
 Halloween Tree    Ghost Lanterns   Treat Pillows

Halloween Pops        Pumpkin Tray        Candy corn Treats



Mini Apple Muffins for a Healthy Preschool Snack

I am snack mom again.  It seems like it was just a week ago, probably because it was.  None the less, I came up with this great little recipe for mini apple muffins.  I "frosted" the minis with whipped cream cheese that I sweetened with a small touch of honey.  Mostly, I figured that "frosting" might get the picky eaters to try these little muffins. 

These muffins are low fat, lower in sugar and high fiber. 

Here is my recipe:

Preheat your oven to 375. 

Mix 1 egg, 2 tbs butter, 1/4 low fat sour cream, 1/2 brown sugar, and 1 tbsp milk.

Mix dry ingredients: 1 cup wheat or white flour, 1/2 cup flax seed meal, 1/2 wheat germ, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder

Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients. 

Mix in 2 medium apples diced

Bake about 8-10 minutes in the greased mini muffin tin.


"Frosting" - 1 package low fat cream cheese & 2 tbsp honey - whip with mixer for 5 minutes until it is really fluffy.  Then, pipe it on with a small star tip.  Keep these in the fridge. 

We used fresh apples picked from our local apple orchard, Spicer's on our Friday preschool field trip. 

Pumpkin Patch Popcorn Recipe

This is a little recipe I started making a few years ago for my niece's preschool.  All of the preschools are peanut free now so it's sort of hard to find things to make.

The recipe is

1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp baking soda
8 cups of popped popcorn (2 microwave bags or air popped popcorn)
assorted candy

Directions
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.  Put popcorn in a greased 13"x9" pan and put it in the oven. 

In a heavy bottom sauce pan mix butter, sugar, salt, and corn syup. 

Over medium heat, bring to a boil.  Boil at a rolling boil for 5 minutes. 

 Boil for 5 minutes.  If you have a light pan, you are really going to need to stir so that it will not burn.  In a heavy pan, you can stir occassionally.  Turn off the heat and add the baking soda.  It foams up (photo on right).

Take your popcorn out of the over.  Pour your caramel onto the popcorn.  Stir until the popcorn is totally coated.  Keep it in the oven for 1 hour stirring even 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and add your sprinkles, candy corn, mini marshmallows, m&ms, etc. 

Kamille likes helping - she was counting the candy.  Big surprise!

Happy Crafting!

C is for Chenille - Roundup and Tutorials

Making Your Own Chenille

This is a great tutorial on making your own chenille fabric from freshvintage.typepad.com.

She does a wonderful job of explaining exactly how to create the traditional chenille fabric.  I actually thought that the piece of fabric she created and then used to make the doll body would have made a beautiful chenille baby blanket.  Click here for her full free tutorial on chenille.

Over at the Happy Things blog, she has a wonderful tutorial on making simple baby bibs backed with commercial chenille. 

Click here for her free chenille tutorial and to take a look at her beautiful blog.  

I have long loved vintage chenille and I always see vintage chenille bedspreads at really affordable prices at flea markets, garage sales, and antique stores. 

Here are some of my ideas to making things out of old chenille:

Bibs

Diaper Bag

Pajamas

Pillow cases

Baby/Toddler Jacket

Baby toys

Dolls

Monsters

Slippers

Nursing Pillow Cover

Window Valance

Bunting for baby room

You could cover those huge cardboard letter in chenille. 

You could also use chenille to upholster a chair for a child's room or to create a sweet cushion cover for a rocking chair.

Basically, you can look at a vintage chenille bedspread as a huge piece of fabric.  I know some people don't like the idea of cutting up vintage linens, but what good is it just sitting in a closet somewhere.

I would love to see a vintage chenille bedspread made into a whole gift set for a baby shower: burp cloths, bibs, a small crib blanket, baby booties, diaper bag, diaper organizers, mommy journal or photo album cover.  How sweet would that be to present at a shower?

  HAPPY CRAFTING!



Saving Art

My 3-year-old daughter has repeated her personal affirmation so many times lately.  Truthfully, I don't know where she comes up with this stuff.  But, I love her motto. 

"I am going to be an artist.  If I can't be a good one, I'll be a bad one."

Up until about a week ago, all of her art looked pretty much like this.  She would present me with a drawing and proclaim, it a rocket ship, or a princess, or a garden. 

Last week she brought me this drawing and said it was an ocean full of animals. 

They actually look like something.  I guess she had a breakthrough. 

Her latest art project from her first day of preschool:

It actually inspired me to start scanning her artwork into the computer to make a photo book for her.  I am going to keep all of the projects, photographing the 3-d versions and mix in some photos from this year.  At the end of 2010 I am going spend a few hours and make a digital scrapbook on snapfish for this year. 

Happy Crafting!

Sarah