CTR Towels

Okay, I know this blog has been so dead lately. I'm slowly getting things back in order to get posting again.

I wanted to post this though. In our church I was just called to be the teacher for the CTR 7 class. That means that all the kiddos in my class are the ones that will be baptized when they turn 8. So, I wanted to find something special to make for them. A long time ago I saw this tutorial on one of my favorite blogs,
Made With Love and Glue and put it in the back of my brain (and also bookmarked it on the computer) as a fun thing to do as a gift for someone. Anyways, I made it for a girl getting baptized tomorrow.

It was such a fast easy project and pretty much the same thing as these but Rachel has a great tutorial here, and there is also a really cute poem that goes along with it, of course not pictured here. Here is the one Rachel did on her blog...

Such a fun gift to give!

Valentine Jars...

If you've read my blog before you know I have a hard time throwing things away. One thing I keep a stash of is jars. Spaghetti, salsa, spices, you name it. There is so much potential. I made these jars pretty much like the Thankful jars here. Just different goodies. You really can't mess these up and can make them for any holiday. Cut a strip of paper wide enough and wrap it around your jar. I decoupage mine but you could use tape or a glue stick or whatever you have to make your paper stick together at the ends. Just make sure you pull it tight so it stays after the glue dries. Then do the same thing to the edge of your jar lid. Then fill jar with sweets. So easy!

Don't forget to give it a little bling bling. I used ribbons and chip board letters on these. I just used a hole punch on the chip board letter big enough to feed thin ribbon through and tied it.

I have a space in my cupboard that I keep my stash of jars. Some are ones I decorated a while ago, waiting to be used. And don't worry about the sticky labels on the jars. A little goo gone and they come right off.

What do I use the cinnamon jars for?

It just so happens that when you buy these on clearance after the holidays. Like cheaper than a quarter clearance.

You can mash them up into fine powder (or really fine chunks) and they make a cute little jar of something sweet to give away with hot chocolate or sugar cookies or whatever you can add peppermint powder on. It takes a good beating to get them powdery so it might help if you think of something really frustrating and let it all go as you're beating your candy canes.

They already come with the little tops for dispensing powder so it's perfect.

Next time you make spaghetti or nachos don't throw the jars away. Store them for a rainy day and [re]beautify them into something cute!

Tomato Cage Trees

Every year at Thanksgiving my mom, sisters, aunt and I do a craft. This year we did tomato cage trees. My sister's ward did them as a craft and we loved the idea. So here's how we made ours...

Start with tomato cages. I bought all of these at home depot for about $2.80 each. They were the larger 4 tier ones.

Then we started by bending down the points. This was a team effort. The purpose for this was to give a place on top of the tree to add the bow. It would just sit in the middle of the bent wire.

Then we found some garland at wal mart $4 for 9 ft. Later I found some for $2 for 9ft but it wasn't as thick. I bought it later and used and it worked fine though.

Start at the bottom and work your way up. We wrapped the garland around the outside of the straight sides and then every once in a while wrapped it around the round layers to hold it in place. Once you get to the top you can just cut the excess garland off with wire cutters.

They work perfect in kids rooms. As soon as we got home the kids each picked a tree and took it in their rooms to decorate. A strand of 100 lights filled the trees perfectly. I had other ideas for the trees but the kids were so excited about them that I just let them have them and decorate them how they wish. I had bought some pretty Christmas ribbon for a bow, some berry garland and red beaded garland but oh well.

Sorry for the bad photos.

A purple one for Sydney...

and blue lights for Theron. Seriously, how cute is this...

I think the total cost per tree was about $12 including the lights!

Here's a way to [Re]beautify something, give a fun gift and help keep kids germ free during this flu season. O.k. there is no such thing as a kid ever being germ free but you know what I mean.

These are going to Theron's teacher...

The funny thing is that This popped up on my google reader this morning. No way! Someone was totally on the same wave length or something. We have to be friends. I need to meet her! Our projects look way to much a like for us not to be friends. How cool is this?

Easy home made potpourri

This stuff will make your whole entire house smell soooo good. So good, you might just start licking your walls.

Here's what you need:

• 1 lemon
• 1 orange
• 3-3 inch cinnamon sticks
• 6 bay leaves
• ½ cup whole cloves

Combine all ingredients in a pan with water and simmer on low all day. Keep filling with water as needed.

One of my favorite things about this time of year is all the yummy smells. The cinnamon, vanilla, sugar cookies, fall, pumpkin, spice, fire places, hot chocolate, thanksgiving turkeys, Christmas trees. All of it. I love it! This is the perfect scent to welcome fall. Even though it's still in the upper 90's here, I'm doing everything I can to make it feel like the summer weather is almost over.

Thanks Jackie Lee and Stacey for the recipe!

Last fall I was busy with my enrichment calling and other things. I didn't get anything done that I wanted to. So, this year I'm starting early, to make up for lost time. First off, pumpkins...

Go here for the tutorial. Holly is so cute and creative. In fact go to her blog anyways so you can see how the pumpkins are supposed to look. Good thing I was going for the homemade look and not perfection. Mine turned out so ugly they're cute.

Here's a couple more ideas for the candy buckets

York peppermint patties

scraps of paper torn...

hershey's hugs...

This hugs bucket was kind of a pain. The wrappers took longer to get off and they tore really easily. I had planned on making a design with the lines on the wrappers but since most of them tore, they just got slapped on there every which way. I thought it still worked because the flowers and ribbon with the embellishments don't make the lined stand out too bad. I think the bucket should have been spry painted brown first though. Maybe I'll just try to paint the handle or add brown ribbon. We'll see.

Alright you crafty people, grab a bucket and [re]beautify it... and then send me pics. I'd love to see them!
shamoms[at]cox[dot]net

My super cute sister Tiff made a starburst bucket. So fun!

Crazy Candy Wrapper Buckets

[Giveaway Closed, Thanks everyone!]

The kids needed a new bucket for their crayons. The old plastic Willy Wonka lunch bucket from Sea World could only hold up so much longer. I wanted something fun and different. I [re]cycled tootsie roll wrappers, this is what I came up with...

I love how crazy it turned out. I was going to do a tutorial but I forgot to take pictures as I did it. It's o.k. though, you can make one too, it was sooo easy. You'll need:

a bucket (any size)
brush
mod podge
candy wrappers (enough to cover the bucket)

My bucket was from the dollar spot at Target. I just unwrapped all the candy and then tore the ends of the wrapper off. Then, brushed on some mod podge, big enough to hold a wrapper. Applied a little more and added another wrapper. Work your way all the way around the bucket overlapping wrappers until it's all covered. Then apply one or two more coats of mod podge and let it dry.

Then I double knotted ribbon around the handle. I think I used 7 different kinds of ribbon. So fun. Be creative, you could use a fun bucket like this for anything.

*put the unwrapped candy back in the bucket as a party favor or table setting at a shower or party.
*holding hair ribbons or bows
*a perfect bucket to hold a small gift for a friend


My sister made one with starbust candy and it was cute as well. Tiff send me a picture of your finished product.

If you like this super fun bucket, you're in luck because I made an extra one. (made from tootsie roll wrappers but it still looks a little different) Leave me a comment and I'll have the kids draw one lucky winner Wed, July 29!

I always struggle with ideas for gifts for Theron's teacher. He's a guy and a lot of the ideas I have seen and wanted to make are way too girly. I came across this idea on another blog and thought it would be perfect. It's not girly and Theron could help me make it.
Of course, before starting a project I have to scrummage through my craft supplies to see if there is something I can [re]use first. I found this 2 pack of frames that I had bought on clearance and got stepped on by one of the kids. Oops!

That's o.k. though, I knew there was a reason I couldn't part with those frames even though one was broken. I paid $1.24 for those bad boys. I was too proud to let my cheap find go to waste.

I did buy a new 24 pack of crayons. I figured I could splurge $2 for the project.

There wasn't a tutorial on the blog I got the idea from so I kind of had to figure it out as I went. Which wasn't hard but there might have been easier tools to use. The girl said she used a tool but it made such a mess with little crayon shavings every where that I just used a steak knife. It worked fine and there was minimal mess. Theron and I just guessed and played around with the sizes to form the letter J. It really wasn't hard. Just a little time consuming. I kept wanting to get anal and make the crayons the perfect size but I kept reminding myself..."this is Theron's gift".

I removed the broken glass and paper from the frame so I could see the inside of the back part of the frame. You know the piece that has the stand attached to the back. So basically it's just the frame and the backing chipboard part that has the stand. Does that make sense? The J is actually on the inside of the back piece.
maybe this photo will help

I attached a white piece of card stock and used that as my background of the letter. I couldn't find my low temp hot glue gun so I used the mod podge to attach the crayons to the paper as well. It's holding up great so I'm not worried.

Then I just wrote his name in it. Vinyl or stickers would have been so much better but Theron was so excited to get it done that I just wrote it quick. Theron loved helping with this and glued most of the crayons himself. I think it turned out pretty cute. The J looks a little like a stocking but Theron is sure proud!

Since we're all about [re]cycling and the cut up crayons are too little to color with, we took the left over crayon pieces and removed the paper. We lined a muffin tin with cupcake liners and threw the little crayon pieces in there. We only had enough to fill 2 papers but that's okay. Baked them at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes or until the crayons are liquid and then take them out of the oven to cool. Remove the paper liner and voila!
The perfect way to [re]use tiny crayon pieces

I'm still learning how to write great, clear, understandable, informative tutorials so please let me know if you have any questions.

A Touching Gift

Since I've been posting about gift ideas, here's a gift I got today from my friend Lani. It made my whole day. It was the perfect gift and so thoughtful. Isn't this the cutest idea?

Inside this cute little tin...

were these adorable little magnets...

The thing that touched me the most about this gift was that she spent the time choosing images that describe our family for the magnets and made the magnets by hand. The B for Bryan, the superman for Theron, love for our family, Sydney loves ladybugs. It was all just so thoughtful and I loved it! It was her way of saying Thank you to me and I feel like I can't say thank you enough to her.

[Re]furbished Frames

Another idea I sampled was these frames. Super cheap. I think these might even be from the dollar store. I bought these so long ago, I can't remember where they're from, but any wood frame would work.

I basically sanded them down, painted them red, sanded the edges some more, added ribbon and a rub-on. viola!

Thanksgiving Mix

Anyone who knows me well knows I keep everything. I'm a pack rat. My wheels are constantly turning, trying to come up with ways to [re]use things I already have, which forces me to keep everything. In this case...spaghetti jars. I also kept a little poem that was given to me by some amazing visiting teachers I had for about a year after my son was born. Combine the two and you'll get a cute little jar of Thanksgiving goodness.

Start by thoroughly cleaning the jars and removing the label.

I didn't use any measuring for the next step. I simply just cut a fat strip of paper and decoupaged it on. I love projects where I can use my scrap paper. I just found a bunch of scraps with fall-ish print.

Wrap the paper around the jar and glue it end over end. Make sure to pull it tight enough so it won't come loose and slip down. You could even apply Mod Podge to the jar since it dries clear and the paper would stick to the jar. I was just using the "quick, throw it together, not think about what you're doing" method. I use that method a lot.

Trace the lid on matching paper cut it out and decoupage it on the lid.

Fill the jar with Thanksgiving Mix ingredients and screw lid on.

Add embellishments.
Here's a picture of what goes into the jars and what it means.

The bugels were bugels brand, found in the chip isle at the grocery store.
pretzels were the braided pretzels
candy corn was the regular brachs candy corn
fruit was the sugar fruit slices that come in the shape of orange slices
peanuts were regular peanuts.

Super easy and cute too! Makes for something fun to give to a neighbor a child's teacher or a friend you visit teach. We gave one jar to our pediatrician.