Safety Pin Flag

These are cute and fun to have your older kids do.  You have to help a bit so that they don't poke themselves. But they are so cute.  These were pearlized beads, but I think next time I would use more sparkly ones. :-)

First you pick whatever size safety pin you want.  These happen to be like the middle of the road size...not the itsy bitsies...Not the giant ones, but right in the middle...about an inch in length.




Now you start making your design.  I start with the blue and white to make the stars,  Then move on to the stripes.  On these pins you just thread the bead onto the pin.
(the pins I'm using to demonstrate with are the larger ones and gold)

Next you need to gently straighten the loop out some so that you can slip all the safety pins that you bead, onto the one you're going to pin on.
Remember the top of the flag will be the first bead you thread on.  The top will be the end closest to the loop.  I just found a mistake in the one I made above.... oops!!   For the red and white stripes you need to start with red and end with red and make sure that your star pins start with blue and end with a red one at the clasp end.

Remember to only pull it apart enough to slide your pins around the loop, or you will 
have trouble getting it closed again and in the right shape.

Remember when you are done threading all the pins around the loop to make the flag, close the loop by squeezing it back together.  Have fun and have a happy Independence Day!

Bridal Bouquet and Boutonniere

Well, I have made my very first attempt at making a Bridal Bouquet and Boutonniere for a friends wedding tomorrow...I watched some youtube videos for help and am very pleased with the results...I only wish I would have been thinking in time to make a video of my own.  But the pictures will have to speak for themselves.

A couple of pointers that were very helpful were, one..to start with four flowers.  One for the center...probably the one that is the most open and then 3 surrounding it.  Once you have them where you want them use your floral tape to make them stay in place and then you can start building around that.  Once you have all your flowers where you want them go ahead and tape the whole stem...enough for a nice handle.  After you've wrapped it with floral tape then cover with white ribbon all the way down and back up and then secure at the top with a pin.

Leave enough of the stem that you can store them in a vase of water in the frig. if it has to be overnight, like mine do.

Right before the wedding I will cut the stems so they are just below the ribbon.

I did do a video of the boutonniere, but we'll see if that makes it on next week...it was made in a bit of a hurry....I was getting tired.

It was really fun....so give it a try.  Now I'm praying that they make it until tomorrow afternoon.

Color coded Keys

I think I saw this idea on a Pinterest board somewhere and thought....what a great idea....I need this system badly, but I'll have to tweek it a bit.   I have at least 6 keys on my key ring that I have no idea which one goes to what door....So you know what that means...whenever the door gets locked, I spend at least 5 minutes trying to figure out what key goes to which lock....

I decided that I would color code them to each door and then write on them which key goes to the top and which one goes to the bottom lock.  The "ones" are for each dead bolt and the each key batch is color coded...

So....I have one color for the front door which are numbered to tell me which one goes to the deadbolt (#1) and which one is for the bottom lock (#2) and in the case of the front door, the screen door will have a #3.

Now...the tricky part is remembering which color goes to which door.  (I may have to put the color code on the wall in the garage...so sad   ;-/  )

I would like it so much better if each key could be a different color....but even though they would be prettier, I still wouldn't know which one went to what door.

I painted the keys with nail polish and then coated them with a clear silicone spray...hopefully they won't chip.

A funny story to add to this post would be the one last fall...which didn't seem so funny at the time.  We were leaving at 4am in the morning to go to the airport and head to Disney World.  We had the van loaded and were making sure we didn't forget anything and I was getting ready to shut the door and asked my husband if I should lock the door. (on a daily basis we don't lock the inside door to the house)  I felt it would make our home more secure.  My husband said, "no, It will be fine.  If they are going to kick down the outside door, they will just kick in that one too, so don't worry about it" .  I looked at him concerned....the wheels just a cranking inside my head and going through the whole scenario of someone breaking in and that it would be harder for them if the door was locked....right?  So I looked at him and said..."I would feel better if it was locked."  To which he replied, "fine, lock it."  (why did I ask him in the first place if I wasn't going to listen to him???)

As soon as I locked it and pulled it shut behind me, he said..."do you have your keys to get in?"  The horror must have flashed across my face as it registered and I said sheepishly...."no".  He looked so disgusted with me and I felt horrible as he told me, "well there is nothing we can do about it now, we'll worry about that when we get home".....which was about 10:30pm the next week when we returned home and he had to tear off the molding around the door and use the sawsall to cut through the lock and get us into the house.  And this ladies is why you should listen to your husbands...

I felt horrible that he had to cut through the bottom lock and then buy a replacement and install it.  We had just recently replaced the doors and locks and we all had new keys and I hadn't used them much or even gotten them on the key ring....and that is just one more thing added to the list that I will never live down...it goes right next to telling my kids that we couldn't have a tornado in January because it was too cold....(little did I know that it was 76 degrees that day....who knew??? now I know)  It's all a learning experience...

Is This a Craft?

So, I don't think this is technically a craft....but to me anything that involves cutting some ribbon can be considered a craft. Right?  


Also, I don't like to do crafts that aren't practical and....well, this is practical.


We bought these "wrap" holders to put on the cabinet doors years ago, and I have
fought with them from day one.  They don't seem to fit most of the wraps and things
that I have and I either have to smash the box to get it in there or the box is too small and
they tend to fall out...


So Today, most of that ended when I tied them in...once and for all...

So this is before when they were falling out every time I opened the cabinet.

And now....they aren't going anywhere...HA HA!  Take that you stupid thing...

Paper Clip Creations

My Daughter, Amy, got a book at a garage sale that has all kinds of ideas for making things out of paper clips.  We found a box of metallic colored clips at Walmart for $1.88 or something like that.

She has been busy making all kinds of cute things.

Supplies you will need are:  Paper clips, beads, wire cutters, pliers and a round pipe to bend your paper clips around to make rings.


Here is a picture of the water bottle marker she made...very cute and dangly.  What girl doesn't like dangly things.  hee hee.

For the ring we used one clip for the bottom and one to bead at the top and then connected them.

Paper clips reshaped to make different paper clips

Little Word-O-Grams...

Well my creative niece has been at it again.  :-)  She has another wonderful gift idea for anyone, although she used it for her kids teachers.  (Notice that we blocked out their last names....)


Take the person's name and write (nice) words around it that describe that person. :-)


So you can make it with different fonts of stickers or write it yourself.  You could also use different marker tips. Have your kids decorate the backgrounds.  


This would be really cool for fathers day coming up.  :-)

 I made this one for my daddy.