Clearly you haven’t received the memo that you are my favorite month because so far you have disguised yourself as your Summer buddies July, August and September.  I’m doing my best to give you the benefit of the doubt, but our weekly forecast is showing no break from the heat, and I am not a fan.  My spicy candles have been burning all day long, my boots are lined up, and my sweaters don’t think they are going to see the light of day anytime soon.  It’s been difficult to get into swing of this month’s festivities, but we are still doing Halloween in a big way over here in hopes that  FALL will finally come pay us a visit.  We decorated our house this weekend and hit up a (very empty) pumpkin patch in hopes of lifting our hot Halloween spirits….I think it did the trick!  What do you think?

How have you been celebrating the arrival of Fall?  Are your Halloween costumes all picked out?

Time for me to hit up Pinterest for some more Halloweenspiration….I’m covering every inch of this house in spiders, cobwebs and pumpkins and hiding in the A/C until Fall decides to show up!

Amidst all this chaos I have completely spaced that Nathan started Spring Break yesterday (I literally would have been at his empty school on Friday), and I have put zero effort into Easter.  Well ok, we dyed a few eggs and I have been on a Cadbury Mini Egg eating binge, but other than that I haven’t even thought about it.  I have no Easter decorations up, no festive wreath on the door, and I haven’t crafted a single thing in months.  I decided to make a bee-line to Michael’s yesterday without a plan for what I was going to make.  I sometimes think I work better when I don’t plan things out, so I just grabbed a bunch of random stuff that I thought I could turn into something with the kids and came up with this.

If you are feeling anything like me and want to get in some last minute Easter crafts with the kids, this was a really easy one that Nathan could basically do by himself with just a few items that needed my help.  I have tried the whole handprint or footprint thing so many times but I have decided that toddler boys do not have the patience for this (or at least mine don’t) and it always ends in a disaster when they take off running and still have paint all over their feet and hands.  Not into it!  Stick to this on…here’s what you’ll need:

1- Burlap canvas board.  You can pick whatever size you would like ours was 11″ x  14″.  You could also use a regular white canvas and have them paint the background a fun color as another option.
2- White pom-pom balls
3- 2 pieces of stiff felt- we used white and pink
4- Paint brushes & wine cork- for painting tools
5- An assortment of acrylic paints- make sure you have white
6- Wooden eggs/ovals- Michael’s should have these, flower shaped ones would be cute too.
7- Plastic wiggle eyes
8- Black plastic lanyard rope- pipe cleaners could work too, the rope was just on sale for like $.30 so I got that
9- Ribbon of your choice
10- Elmer’s glue
11- Piece of chalk

DIRECTIONS:  

It’s pretty self explanatory from the photos but I will share the parts Nathan did and the parts I helped him with.

- First I started by drawing an oval for the bunny body and a circle for the bunny head with chalk
– I squirted some white paint in the middle of them and let Nathan fill in the two shapes with a brush
– After it dried a little I put Elmer’s glue on a plate and had Nathan outline the shape he just painted with glue dipper pom-poms.  It’s better to have them do the outline first, and then it was easier for him to fill in the rest after.
– We put the eyes on together and I cut a little nose from the pink felt that he added glue to and put on.
–  For the whiskers I cut three long strands the lanyard rope and put them together and tied one knot right in the middle and trimmed them then glued them on.

-  I cut out two white ears from the felt, and then two pink parts for the ears as well.  I gave them to Nathan to glue and assemble and add to the top of his bunny’s head.
–  Nathan said he wanted to add a bow-tie and I thought that was a GREAT idea.  I cut one out of the ribbon and he glued it on and was quite happy with his idea :).
– While the bunny dries I put out the wood eggs and had Nathan paint them with his brush and then use the wine cork to add any dots he wanted to.  After those dried we glued them to the canvas.
–  If you want to hang your canvas I took ribbon and tied a double knot bow, then stapled the two long ends of the bow to the back of the board.

And that folks is all there is to it!!   He was proud of this one!

And Mama likes it too…

Chances are this will be my last post until next week with the way things have been as of late….soooo HAPPY EASTER and happy crafting to all of you!

Once I got home I realized I didn’t actually buy enough to make anything so it was time to gather some supplies I had around the house.  As I rummaged through my craft bins all I kept thinking of was Glitter Deer Head project I did for Christmas.  I had the gold glitter, the paint, and the canvas…ah ha, I would make another but for upstairs in our room.  I bought the wooden L.O.V.E letters with Valentine’s Day in mind so I thought this would be the perfect project for this month.  It could also be great for an anniversary gift, or just really any occasion….who doesn’t want some year round love?

Here is what you will need:

• A canvas (mine was 12″x 24″)
• Black gloss acrylic paint and a sponge brush
• Gold glitter
• A yard stick & pencil
• Blue painters tape
• Wooden letters
• Elmer’s glue & glue gun
• Clear enamel spray

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1- Using the sponge brush coat the wooden letters with Elmer’s glue and lay on a piece of newspaper.  Sprinkle gold glitter generously to cover each letter.  Shake the glitter off and lay the letters on another piece of newspaper.  Save the excess glitter.

2- Let the glitter set for a couple of minutes and then lightly spray with the clear coat enamel spray.  Leave the letters to dry while you prepare the canvas.

3- Take your canvas and yard stick to mark off the size of the lines you want.  I did 2″ thick lines.  Draw lightly with a pencil where each line is.

4- Using blue painters tape, mask off the lines that you want to keep white and keep open the ones you want black.  Make sure you really rub the tape down so it doesn’t bleed under the tape.  Make sure to run tape around and paint the sides as well.

5- Take a clean sponge brush and lightly paint the black gloss paint on the lines you want to be black.  Let it dry a little and then go in with a second coat.

6-  Once dry, remove the painters tape.

7-  Glue gun on your gold glitter letters.

Easy peasy right?  The deer head project was definitely more labor intensive….so this gave me the same look that I loved so much about the first one but was WAY easier.  This would also totally be fun with red glitter for Valentine’s Day.  I was also thinking of buying a wooden heart and doing that in red glitter and replacing  just the “O” with that.  Had I been thinking straight while at Michael’s I may have thought of that beforehand….next time!

And there you have it…a Valentine’s Day inspired project that is super simple and classy that can be displayed year round.  Definitely give this one a try!  Happy crafting!

]]> http://heylaurenrene.com/uncategorized/diy-glitter-love-canvas/feed/ 39 http://heylaurenrene.com/diy/diy-glitter-deer-head/ http://heylaurenrene.com/diy/diy-glitter-deer-head/#comments Tue, 03 Dec 2013 06:22:00 +0000 http://heylaurenrene.com/?p=1972 [...] ]]> So in typical holiday-obsessed fashion, I completely decked the halls all day Sunday.  It may have been 80 degrees outside but our house is twinkling, glittery, and smells like “Sparkling Snow” 24-7.  I love it!  I don’t really think I have any corners or wall space left for more Christmas DIYs, but I just had to find a spot for this one.  I’ve been wanting to make this glitter deer head canvas the first time I saw it on Pinterest.  I wanted to change it up just a little bit so I added some thick black stripes to the background.  I love how it turned out, and from a crafting difficultly level I would rank it a 6 out of 10.  Which basically means….TRY IT!  Here is a simple tutorial on what you will need and how I made mine.

SUPPLIES:

- First go ahead and print out THIS deer head template onto cardstock (scroll down two photos)

- Canvas (mine was 12″x 16″)

- Gold glitter

- Small bottle of black gloss acrylic paint

- Large and small paint brush

- Pencil

- Yardstick

- Liquid gold marker/pen **I’m convinced this made all the difference

- Blue painters tape

- Elmer’s glue

- Clear enamel spray or hair spray

Step 1:  I printed out the deer head then enlarged it by 20% on my printer/copier onto two sheets of cardstock.  Taped them together and cut out the silhouette (you can leave it an on an 8×10 if you want I just wanted mine a little larger)

Step 2: I marked off 2″ wide stripes on the canvas with a pencil and the yardstick (just divide evenly based on the size of your canvas)

Step 3:  Use blue painter’s tape to mask off the stripes you don’t want paint on.  Wrap the tape around the sides to the back so you can paint the edges too.  Once the blue tape is on, paint the black gloss paint on the alternating stripes.  Allow to dry.  Then remove the painter’s tape.

Step 4: Place the deer head cutout on top of the canvas and trace with a pencil.

Step 5: Once you have traced the whole template, remove and go over the pencil with the liquid gold marker.  This is a huge step a lot of the tutorials skipped, but I think it’s so important.  It’s hard to get clean edges with the glue so the gold marker will give you a perfect outline.

Step 6:  Use a combination of your large and small paint brush to fill in the outline generously with white glue.  The thicker you put the glue the more dimensional it looks.  Try to stay slightly within the gold outline so the edges stay crisp.

Step 7:  Dump on the glitter and let it set for about a minute.  When done shake off into a paper grocery bag (so you can pour the excess back into the container).  If there are any spotty areas you can touch them up with glue and glitter.  I also used a dry paintbrush and brushed away any glitter that fell outside the lines.  When done give a light coat of enamel spray or hairspray to keep the glitter in place.

I think by now you know I am a bit of a craftaholic.  Let me tell you…this is one of my favorite DIY projects I have ever done.  I just love how it turned out and keep moving it all over the house because I can’t get enough of it.  The only problem I am left with is which household items should I choose to cover in all that leftover gold glitter?  Lookout mason jars, I think I’m coming after you next!  Happy crafting!

Looking for the Get Fit Giveaway?  Just give a click HERE to find out more ways to enter and win! 

Well it’s happened.  I opened one small box of Halloween decorations, put out a pumpkin here and there…and you know what comes next right?  200 trips (ok 3) to Michael’s, crafting while the kids nap, blowing up my Pinterest Halloween folder full of ideas, and hanging up way too many spiders and cobwebs than I care to even count.  It’s that thing that happens when we get that little taste of cooler Fall weather…we snap and head right into Holiday crack out mode!  And maybe crafting isn’t your thing, but you know you started baking something, bought new warmer clothes, or looked up Halloween costumes already!  If not, that’s ok…it just means you aren’t crazy!

So here it is…the START of the Halloween happenings around our house!  I’m still stuck on what I’m going to do outside but I have until October 1st right?

Have you gotten into the spirit of spook yet in your house?

We headed out to the store and got the following ingredients: Flour, Vegetable oil, Salt, Cream of tartar and Kool-aid packs in various colors

Here is the simple recipe we followed:

• 1-2 packets Kool-Aid
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 cup boiling water

In a large bowl, add all dry ingredients and mix well (salt, flour, cream of tartar, Kool-Aid).  Then add the oil and boiling water to the dry ingredients and mix this with a large spoon until it becomes very firm.   It should be cool enough to handle after a few minutes of stirring.  Lay out some wax paper and flour for the last step.  Use your hands and roll it in some more flour if it feels too sticky.

I pre-measured all the ingredients and put them on the table for Nathan so he could be the little mixologist.  He thought this part was really cool…that way he could tell Daddy he “made it all by himself”.  (Mommy added in the boiling water though!)

 The Kool-aid is the best part.  It makes the dough smell really yummy…so yummy that Shane took a little nibble and was definitely shocked by how much salt was in it.  At least he won’t be doing that again!  I was so surprised by how awesome the texture of this play dough was….it really felt like the real thing but smelled so much better.

We took out cookie cutters, Legos, and other utensils and the boys each took a huge ball of play dough and went to town!  I think they had a piece of the dough in their hands at any given point of the day.  I could see why Nathan thought this was so cool at school and wanted to recreate the fun at home.  We sealed up the play dough in Tupperware containers and popped them into the fridge.  I read they should keep for a long time this way.  If not, we will gladly have fun making some more!

Such a simple activity that kept the boys busy for hours and obviously put a smile of their faces.  Great idea Nathan!

]]> http://heylaurenrene.com/uncategorized/homemade-play-dough-recipe/feed/ 3 http://heylaurenrene.com/uncategorized/diy-mothers-day-tote/ http://heylaurenrene.com/uncategorized/diy-mothers-day-tote/#comments Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:31:00 +0000 http://heylaurenrene.com/?p=633 [...] ]]> DISCLAIMER: IF YOU ARE MIMA OR NANA STOP READING NOW  

Yesterday the boys and I worked on part of the gifts we are going to send out for Mother’s Day in a few weeks.  My mom and Greg’s mom live across the country from us so we know they love anything tangible that is a reminder of the boys.  What’s better than seeing their little hand prints on something they made and knowing they can carry them around anywhere they go?

These totes are great on their own, or you can use them as a gift bag and fill with other goodies for Mother’s Day….photobooks, a frame, gardening tools, candles, jewelry, bath and body products, baked goods etc.  Here are some simple instructions for how we made ours.

What you’ll need:

-Canvas tote (Micheal’s had a huge selection ranging from $2-$10 based on size & quality-these are just the $2 ones)

-Fabric paint (green for grass/stems, black for the writing, and whatever colors you would like for hand print flowers)

-Paint brushes

-Pencil (to sketch out placement of writing)

-Paper grocery bag or cardboard

I used a paper grocery bag and slipped it right into the canvas bag.  It fit inside the tote perfectly so the paint wouldn’t seep through to the other side of the bag.  Next place the bag on a hard surface and paint on the grass and where you want the flower stems.  I did two flowers so there was one for each boys’ hands.  If your child is old enough they can definitely help with painting this part.

Once the green paint dries it’s time to have your children come help with their hand prints.  Nathan liked squirting out the paint on a paper plate and rubbing his hands all around in it.  This didn’t work for Shane (complete mess), so I suggest just applying paint directly on your child’s hand if they are younger.  Wait for their hand prints to dry then go back in and touch up the leaves & stems if you need to.

After the flower hand prints dry you can add any writing you would like.  I went in with a pencil and sketched in where I wanted the lettering to go, then went over it with black paint.  Let the paint dry completely and then remove the paper bag.  Fill with their favorite things or give it to them as is.  Hope you give it a try….Happy crafting friends!

All the supplies I used were from Michael’s. You will need:

1 large twine wreath (I believe this is a 16″)- $5

1 bag of Spanish moss- $4

1 large roll of burlap- $6

1 wooden birdhouse- $1

1 branch of Easter eggs- $1 (you can use whatever kind of egg you like.  I just picked these for their size and because they were the least expensive)

1 birds nest- $2

1 small bottle off white acrylic paint- $.50

Of course I used some coupons, and took 50% off that burlap roll.  I ended up spending less than $15 for everything.  You will also need a hot glue gun, glue sticks, scissors and a paint brush.

I started with painting the bird house and 3 of the eggs in the off-white paint.  You can get creative here with color or you can go the more simple route like I did.  I also cut off the rope from the bird house and painted over where it was originally connected.

Then I made a huge mess and started glue gunning on the moss.  I would add a pretty good amount of glue and add moss in about 6″ sections.  1 bag will stretch nicely across this size wreath.  Use the whole bag and shape it when you are finished, filling in some patches you may have missed.

I then used my glue gun to attach the eggs inside the birds nest, and then attached both the nest and birdhouse to the wreath with the glue. You could also use wire to attach these items, that way you can take them off if you would like and add other items with the changing of holidays.

Then take your burlap roll and cut a really long piece that you can trim after you are done according to the length you want to hang it.  I cut about a 9′ piece.  String the burlap through the wreath and pull it right to the center so the wreath is dangling from the middle point of your burlap ribbon.  Hold the burlap on both ends and tie a knot about 12″ up from the top of the wreath.  This is where you make a bow and pull the loops out as big as you would like them.  Fluff them out a little and shape them to the size you would like.  Let the additional burlap hang down and trim the ends so they are even.  Then cut again at an angle to give it a more finished look.

Hang on your door with a wreath hanger from the point of the bow’s knot.  This will make sure it is securely attached to your door and at a strong point on the wreath.  Stand back and enjoy your beautiful new wreath that took about $15 worth of materials and about 15 minutes of your time!  Happy crafting and bring on that Spring weather!