Quilts for little boys bunk beds

I have two little boys that are best buds every afternoon when the first grader gets home from school.  They both love the color orange.  They were also in need of spreads for their bunk beds.  The end result...

 long slender quilts to fit the top of the mattress,

 with fish applique,

 and fish quilting!

 Uneven stripes with a large rectangle of the main fabric.

Center rectangle with border of 6 inch squares and 3x6 inch rectangles.

These quilts were so simple to cut and piece together...too bad it took me over a year to complete them.  Sometimes life gets busy.  I am so thankful these little boys love their new bedding.

Summer, boating, family reunions, soccer coaching, swimming, and numerous others have been enjoyed these past months.  I need more crafting time!
I have done some crafts, and hope to post about 2 quilts soon, but until then I have a few pictures to get me back on the blog.

Pink ruffle skirt for my girly girl!  Inspiration: http://meaningfulmama.com/2012/03/day-79-rainbow-ruffle-skirt-tutorial.html

Card swap: 


I am ready to craft!

Teacher Appreciation Door Decoration

Next week is Teacher Appreciation week.  I am thankful for wonderful, caring, kind teachers.
I was crazy or lucky enough to decorate two doors this year.  Sick kids for the last week did not help.  I worked hard today and successfully made the deadline!  Happy day.
Here  are the two doors:

Cupcake Birthday Card

A crafting friend just celebrated her birthday!  A simple card just would not do.  Happy Birthday Julie.

Stampin' up cupcake punch, paper, and stamps!

Feel the Love

Better late then never . . . it is February 15, the day after Valentines day, and I just finished baking sugar cookies.  Pink frosting and heart sprinkles and happy kids.  Just continuing the sugar high!

I made a "Love" banner to decorate.  Can I just say I love my new Silhouette Cameo!  I got it for my birthday back in December.  I have so much to learn and explore.  I cut my letters out of an iron on glitter fabric.  I used felt in hot pink and black and an 1/8 inch silver ribbon to hook them all together and hang.  Not too shabby for a first try.

Hope you are feeling the love.

Sugar Cookies--best ever
1 cup soft margarine
1 cup sour cream
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

--In large bowl with hand mixer, mix together.  Add:

1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
4 tsp baking powder
5 cups flour

--Mix well.  Cover dough tightly and refrigerate overnight.
Roll out dough on well floured surface 1/4-3/8" thick.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.  Frost when cool.  Makes 4 dozen medium cookies.

Luke 2 Printable

Neglected blog, maybe.  Busy schedule, most definitely!  I am thinking of Christmas and enjoying the November days being thankful for a warm home and family.  Here is my latest attempt playing with fonts/colors.

Enjoy
Kathy

Chocolate Chip Cookies

My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe is a large batch.  I don't need that many cookies beckoning me to eat them.  The solution:  scoop cookie dough and freeze for instant cookies another day.  Fresh homemade cookies without any fuss or mess.

I bake about 3-4 dozen and freeze another 3 dozen dough pieces.  Scoop onto a pan, freeze for 30 minutes or more, then place in a freezer bag to save for another day.  I recommend using the frozen cookie dough within 6 months, not really a problem for me.  Frozen dough takes about 3 extra minutes to bake, or can be thawed and baked as per the recipe.

FYI:  Make someone happy, share a bag of frozen cookie dough!

Christmas Card

It is cold and snowy today.  I have plenty of sewing, wrapping, and laundry to do.  I set the work aside and made my first subway art:  a Christmas card!

 multicolor 4x6 or

red 4x6

I hope you enjoy.  I had fun creating.  I am feeling the Christmas spirit.  Peace, love and joy to all.

Halloween

Halloween banner fun.  Good times with some of my sisters.  Fun times for the cousins.  Hooray for digging in and using some of my paper stash.

My banner.  My favorite pennant is the mummy!

The kids made this banner.  Well my daughter made most of them, little miss crafty!

Rapunzel Costume

I have had a lot of fun creating and sewing this dress.  I bought a costume pattern but ended up altering my favorite easy pattern to make this fun costume.  Simplicity 2377 has no zipper or buttons so it is easy for little ones to dress themselves.  My princess was not in a photo mood, she was too ecstatic to play in her new costume.

I love the shimmery pink ric rac trim, it is a great finishing touch!

General Conference Handout For Kids

I have crafty things to post, but for today,it is time again to prepare for General Conference for The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints.

I have put together a two page handout (front/back)  for my primary kids, it folds into a small booklet.

There is a variety of wonderful conference ideas out there.  I was inspired by several and loved the simplicity of Sugar Doodle's.  I simply want to share, in hopes this can help others prepare for next weekend.

 

Enjoy General Conference.  I am looking forward to hearing from the Prophet and Apostles.
Photo's, coloring page and ctr maze are from lds.org

Added April 2013:  New front/back page (no printed date) and space to take notes of other speakers.

Apricots

I spent last week picking and preserving apricots, a lot of cots.
My family loves dried apricot halves, fruit leather and jam!

Apricots are so easy to work with.  Simply wash, pit and go!

Wash in cool water.

 I used wire drying trays and the amazing sun, very old school, to dry apricot halves and fruit leather.  Two days in the hot son equals dried to perfection.  Simple delicious fruit leather made with apricots and a tiny bit of corn syrup to sweeten, approximately 6 cups pureed fruit and 1/4 cup sweetener.  Wash, pit and blend.  I prefer to use small plastic lids (from butter, sour cream or yogurt) to dry the puree into perfect little portions of fruit leather.

 I had the dehydrator running round the clock drying more leather and cots.

 After several days of cots, my family joined in the pitting process.  Behold, even an 18 month old can help with cooking.  He was so proud of each pit he removed.

Finished products:  27 half pints apricot pineapple jam, 24 pints jam, 14 quarts of apricot puree, 20 cups frozen puree, gallon of dried apricot halves, and tons of leather.  So glad to be done!

Apricot Pineapple Jam

5 cups apricots (wash, pit and puree)
1 cup crushed pineapple un-drained (puree with apricots)
3 cups sugar
1 small 3 oz orange jello

Place 6 cups fruit puree and 3 cups sugar in sauce pot.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce to medium heat and simmer/boil for 15 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add small jello stirring until dissolved.  Ladle into jars, water bath for 10 minutes.  Yummy!

Makes 7 half pints, soft spread jam.
Try substituting Strawberry, Cherry or Lemon jello for different flavors.

Corset back wedding dress

June project:  alter wedding dress for this beautiful bride.

Shorten dress (was 6 inches too long), shorten to cap sleeves, remove extra width/put in a corset back and bustle the train.

To make the loops for the corset back I followed these instructions.  I opted to use double sided tape instead of pins...of course I removed the tape after I sewed the loops to the interfacing!  This made the project quite quick.

The finished product!  The happy couple!

Bubble Painting

 Having lots of fun this summer.  We tried a new craft, soap bubble painting from here.

Blow, print and dry!

It was super fantastic and quite messy.  We went outside for blowing paint, but I highly recommend using a drop cloth or layer of newspaper to help make clean up quick!  We put the paint/bubble solution in bowls and blew bubbles for about an hour.  All the kids ages 3-12 found the craft interesting, although my 3 year old had a few mouthfuls of bubble paint, yuck.  We tried one color prints, but really liked the multicolor ones best.

What to do with all the artwork?  Make cards!

Cards for any occasion, made with love!

Go, have fun bubble painting.

Oh What Do You Do In The Summer Time?

I am ready for summer.  I have grand ideas of lazy summer days, sprinklers, reading, swimming and lots of sunshine.  I have seen so many fabulous ideas (love pinterest) and finally made my summer fun to do list!!!  Hope some of these ideas inspire you...have fun this summer!
 

A few links to many of the fun ideas:

ice cream sandwiches.  http://www.cometogetherkids.com/2011/07/cake-ice-cream-sandwiches.html
Chocolate dipped pretzels http://www.chickabug.com/blog/2011/07/last-minute-4th-of-july-desserts.html
candy kabobs http://www.momendeavors.com/2012/02/candy-kabobs.html
Rainbow pudding http://www.makeandtakes.com/mixing-and-layering-rainbow-pudding

Sock game http://www.lds.org/friend/2012/05/run-jump-play!?lang=eng
Snail hopscotch  http://www.birthdaypartyideas4kids.com/sidewalk-chalk-games.htm
Magic Milk http://www.modernparentsmessykids.com
Balloon Rockets http://alittlelearningfortwo.blogspot.com/2010/11/balloon-rockets.html 
Amoeba Tag http://imom.com/tools/seasonal/summer/15-fun-backyard-games/
Blow painting http://raisingsparks.com/craft-activities/blow-painting/


Enjoy!

Four Layer Cake

I have been wanting to make this cake for a while. A double birthday celebration for two sisters seemed like the perfect occasion.
I used two white cake mixes, food coloring and 8 inch round pans. I wasn't sure about the green layer of cake (it looked a fairly odd color when it came out of the oven) but when we cut into the cake it made for a beautiful springtime cake. I am a frosting snob :) Had to have a delicious home made cream cheese frosting to top off this beauty.

It was fun to say we had a rainbow surprise, and the little girls loved it when we sliced the cake.

General Conference Pages for Kids

General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is next weekend. Here is what I made for my kiddos!

The photos of the Apostles are from lds.org

I also plan to print off bingo cards and coloring pages from conferencegames.lds.org

I am looking forward to listening to the Prophet and Apostles speak. It is a treasure to hear the word of the Lord.

Enjoy!

I plan to print in black & white, but I do have the following color option:

Spring Wreath

Spring is upon us :) The daffodils have been about to open for several days. On Thursday, which happened to be a craft day with my sisters, the blooms were bursting forth. The signs of Spring are all around.
Craft day needed to be a spring project. This is the easiest and quickest project I think I have ever crafted with my sisters.

Fabric wrapped springtime wreaths!

Supplies:
wreath form

tear 2 inch strips of fabric--approximately 2"x45" (you will need 3-4 strips)
glue gun
silk flowers

Here are the finished wreaths.

Great tutorial and inspiration from
http://www.craftaholicsanonymous.net/burlap-fall-wreath-tutorial