Second time's a charm. Or something.

So.  Did you check out my last photography contributor post over on Hi! It's Jilly!?  

Today my second post is up!  And it's all about:

Yep.  There's only 5, so not overwhelming.  And it's for any camera.  Any person.  Any scenario.  So I think that includes, well, all of you!

Check it out!

WAIT!  There's more!!!

Have you ever wanted to know why those bears loved their porridge so darn much?  Wonder no more, folks, because today is the day I spill all the beans.

I'm the foodie contributor over on A Girl And A Glue Gun and it's my mom's recipe for 3 Bears' Porridge up on her blog today!  However, it's a family recipe that I've been sworn to secrecy on, so don't tell anyone.

It's so easy to make, so tasty and sooooo very comforting on these super cold mornings... so go over and check it out!  (Just don't tell my mom about it.)

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!

Hand-Stamped Golden Arrow Pants

After I painted mini's black shoes with a gold heart, I realized she could wear them on Valentine's Day, provided she had a cute outfit to match.  I was planning on doing some kind of freezer paper stencil on a shirt and went to walmart to buy a plain t, when I found this cute little heart top on clearance:

All the shiny, metallic gold hearts... it was meant to be.  Which meant I need a bottom of some sort to coordinate.  I pulled out an old pair of mini's black leggings to complete things... but they seemed lacking in some way.  I realized those hearts needed cupid's arrows, and that if I put those arrows on the pants, they'd be wearable all the time, not just Valentine's Day!  (I love arrows right now.  Am I the only one?  The geometrical thing is pretty cool, but arrows.  I'm all over that.)

Here's what you need for these cute little pants:

The first thing you'll do is follow the instructions on the textile medium for mixing it with the paint.  Also, you'll need a nice, skinny brush instead of that big foam thing.  You will also need a craft knife of some sort to cut those erasers.

A note, about the lines... I decided to just hand paint them with a skinny little brush.  I happen to like the imperfect, flawed, distressed look this gives the pants - even when some of the lines are a little closer or angled a bit.  If you don't like this, you could use the edge of cardboard or card stock to stamp lines across, or you could freezer paper stencil them.  End note.

1. Lay out your pants.
2. Begin by paintings horizontal lines all up the legs starting at the cuffs.
3. Once the legs are done, paint lines up the rest of the pants to the waistband.  
4. Flip them over and do the same to the backside.  You'll want to lay them out in such a way that you'll see the very end of the lines you've already painted so you know how to match them up.

5. Cut a small triangle in the end of one of your erasers and a tiny straight line in the end of the other eraser.
6. Dip your triangle in the paint/textile medium and start stamping the triangles along the lines, all facing the same direction, at random spacing.
7. Dip the line in the paint/textile medium and start stamping a ways behind each triangle - this is the fletching, obvs, and I did two right next to each other, but I think just a single line would look a little cleaner.
8. Stamp all triangles up the pants on one side, then flip and do the other side.
9. Then stamp all lines up the pants on one side, then flip and do the other side.

You'll likely have to redip your eraser stamp into the paint every two marks or so.

Let them dry, and voila!

Cute little cupid's arrows to complete your gold heart look!

And that's how you make hand-stamped golden arrow pants.  Yea!

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!

Easy Girlified Canvas Tennies

I was going through part of my stash... well, let's be honest, it's more than a stash now. It's more like a GIANT CRAFT MONSTER in the dungeon-like basement.  It's starting to creep stealthily up the stairs and take over the rest of the house, which means I really need to go tame the beast in a major way.  But really, that's neither here nor there.

Point is, I was going through the STUFF and I found these cute little slip on canvas tennies I'd bought on clearance at Walmart a loooong time ago for bug... but they're now 2 and 1/2 sizes too small.  Whoops.

So I decided to make something cute for mini with them.  And since it was Valentine's Day recently and I suppose I was quite influenced by that, this is what I came up with.

And there're no super fancy ingredients for this tutorial.  It's simple in design and easy in execution.  You need nothing special.  Just canvas shoes, metallic outdoor paint and a brush.  (note: I started with a foam brush but it was just too big so I switched to a smaller regular one.)

You might also want a pencil.

1. Draw a large heart on the toe of each shoe with the top of the heart touching the sole of the shoes on the tip of the toes at the sides.
2. This line will be very faint and is only a guideline.
3. Fill in the heart with your gold paint and a small brush.
4. This first coat will have a lot of spotty areas and will have a very soft edge.
5. Here you see where I started to add another coat, and started to sharpen the edge - it's quite a difference.
6. Left shoe = one coat, soft edge.  Right shoe = 2 coats, sharper edge.

You'll probably want to do three coats total, but it will depend on the paint you use and the look you're going for.  I used outdoor paint on purpose since shoes, you know, go outdoors.  Below you can see the progression from one to three coats and the sharpening of the edge of the heart.  

With a small brush that has fairly stiff bristles, making a nice, straight, sharp edge shouldn't be too difficult.
Here's the right shoe all done.

And though they're just a tiny bit too big for mini's petite feet, they sure are cute.

Or maybe it's just the girl who's cute.

Or maybe it's both.

Check out my other shoes:

Sloppy Joe's Shoes

Glitter Zebra Shoes

Interchangeable shoes and headband

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!

Another use for HOT COCOA (like you need one...)

You guys.  The black plague has hit my house.  Ok.  Not really.  But close.  I've never had more than one kid sick at once - sometimes in quick succession, sure, but never at the same time.  I am exhausted.  Between holding hair back, clean-up duty, rubbing backs, wiping mouths, brushing teeth, nursing infant, etc, etc, I slept not a wink.

I'm sure you wanted that run down into our daily lives... in any case, now you can understand why we've been a little quiet here (we're still recovering) and why this post is short and sweet and to the point.

These pictures don't really do it justice.  I love a good mousse.

I fancied our cocoa mousse up with some crushed cookie sprinkles.  You could use plain chocolate sprinkles too.  So delicious!

Here's the printable recipe for you!

The absolute best part of this recipe is how versatile it is.  You can literally do this exact same thing with any hot coca flavored packets you want.  We tried milk chocolate and rich dark chocolate.  I am dying to try mint chocolate (which I think we will do for St. Patty's day) and white chocolate.  Don't think that would be amazing???  

Be warned, you MUST MUST do this with REAL whipped cream.  Do not shortcut with the fake stuff.  You'll be sorry!

Happy mousse eating!  

(The kids were convinced I found a moose in the backyard and tried to serve it to them.  It took a lot of explaining to get them to try this delicious dessert!)

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!

More stuff with popsicle sticks.

Apparently there's some kind of popsicle stick obsession over here. What can I say?  Craft sticks and kids go together like peanut butter and jelly.  Don't believe me?  Behold:

For this episode of

we combine a number of our current obsessions, including bright colors, cute ribbon, craft sticks and - OF COURSE - washi tape.  Yea!
Want to make some with your kidlets?
They really are as easy as they look.

You'll need:

Let me take a moment to have a bit of an aside here.  I am not a spokesperson for crop-a-dile (or whoever makes them.  Is that a Stampin' Up thing?) nor do I sell them, own stock in them or receive anything at all for endorsing them.  BUT.  I just want to say, these things are really great.  Two different sized punches, a small and even smaller size, that punch through pretty much ANYTHING.  For that alone they rock, but they also do eyelets.  So yeah.

Anyway, that's why I like crop-a-diles.  They punch right through a wood craft stick.  RIGHT THROUGH.  And now, so this doesn't sound anymore like an infomercial than it already does, let's just move on, shall we?  Great.

So.  

1. You take a craft stick.  (or three)2. You decorate your stick with washi tape.  Any old way you want.
3. You use your crop-a-dile and
4. punch a hole in the top of the stick.

Then...
5. You cut some ribbon, twine, yarn, what have you.  
6. Fold it in half.
7. Stick the loopy middle part through the hole, 
8. put the two ends through the loopy part 
9. and pull tight.
10. VOILA!

My son was pretty overjoyed when I gave him free reign over my "fancy tape."  He loves this stuff as much as I do!  He made a bookmark for each of his aunts and uncles for Christmas, and Zoe made one for her oldest cousin.

The only part they needed help with was feeding the thicker ribbon through the little hole.

Because they're super easy - and fun - to make, you can whip up a bunch in no time for Valentine's Day for your classmates!  

If you want to hand yours out for Valentine's Day, here's a free printable!  (You can click on it down at the bottom of the post)

Just print out the printable on card stock, cut out the cards, cut a slit on the top and a slit on the bottom and slide your stick through.  There's a front and back to print out on the same card stock, so your kids can write names and sign the back.

(Also, I got the Valentine themed washi tape in the dollar section at Target.  Hello??  Love that spot.  Go get some, quick!  I should perhaps point out that bug insisted on "boy" bookmarks as well, since apparently boys like neither hearts nor pink.  Hence the mustaches on yellow.)

Ah, love...

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!