Tip Junkie is having a huge Dot Com Birthday Bash with lot's of fun giveaways. She has changed her site around and there's lot's too see. Go check it out! Her link is on the sidebar too.

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 couple of things:

First: I actually learned the other day that I have more than 3 followers. Ha! I had no idea. My sister was hounding me telling me that she was tired of there not being a new post. Ever since then I have been trying...I promise. It has been pretty busy around here. For instance:

younger brother moved in with us
we celebrated both kids birthdays
new calling in church
getting ready to take a little weekend trip with no kids (which means house has to be grandma worthy so I'm not to embarrassed when she's here for the weekend to watch the kids.
getting audited for 2004 (our accountant was a scum bag and being audited sucks, anyone that used this guy that year is being audited so I'm sure there are a lot of people as annoyed with him as we are).
soccer practice/games
dance class
putting my blog into a blurb book and that is way more time consuming than I thought.

see! I really have been busy. I would give anything to have things slow down for a while to share some of the ideas I have come across and been brave enough to try out.
When I do get time it will be good I promise! I promise!

So, thank you to my 4 followers who even care that I share crafts Ha! You're the greatest!

Second: I changed the name of the blog to the idea I had originally had, but chickened out. I mean, I do like Martha and love her magazines but not enough to name my blog after her. My original idea was to share ideas on how to [re]do, [re]use, [re]cycle, [re]furbish anything to [re]beautify it. So, I'm sticking with that.

Welcome to [Re]beautify!

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.

Cookie Exchange

I was invited to a cookie exchange last Friday. It was so fun! I spent the whole day baking my cookies. I was told to bring a 1/2 dozen cookies for each person attending the exchange. There were 19 people attending so I had to make 19 half dozen cookies. I went with one of my favorite cookie recipes. I've posted this on my personal blog before and also my family website but you can't go wrong with these. They're so good! It's another cookie recipe that involves a cake mix, which equals an arm work out, so they're sooooo worth it in the end. You have to work for these bad boys so dig in!

Chocolate Rolo Cookies
1 devils food cake mix
1/2 c. butter softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 bag of Rolo candies

Mix by hand 1/2 cake mix with softened butter, vanilla and eggs. Stir until smooth. Add remaining cake mix. Stir until smooth. Wrap dough around the unwrapped Rolo, just enough to cover the Rolo. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Although the recipe doesn't call for the company of an adorable 4 year old, I recommend it. It makes eating the cookies so much more fun!

[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!

Ribbon Tag Blanket

I got this idea for a blanket from my friend Jill. It took about 3 hours from start to finish. Here's how you make it: (and don't be afraid to post any questions in the comments section. I'm not so good with the step by step thing).

Choose your fabric and ribbon. You can do as much as you want with the ribbon. It will get more expensive with the more ribbon you use. I had all of this ribbon on hand so I didn't have to buy any, that's why I used 6 different kinds. You could use different ribbons or you could use the same ribbon. Either way would be cute! The thing that attracted me to the blanket was the cute ribbon and the soft textured material. I don't even know the name if it but it is sooo soft and sooo cute. I bought it at Hobby Lobby for $12.99 a yard but use a coupon and you an get it 40% off.

First thing you do is decide where you want to place your ribbon. I just did mine on 2 ends of the blanket. Cut your ribbon in 4 inch strips. Fold it in half and iron it so it will stay creased and it will be 2 inches. This ironing the ribbon part is what took the longest to do. Everything else went by so much faster.

After the ribbon is ironed, pin it to the good side of one of your fabric. Make sure to pin it on with loop of your ribbon facing in towards the blanket. Pin the raw edges of the ribbon and the fabric together. Here's a couple of photos to maybe make a little more sense...

Once you have your ribbon pinned on... sew it together.

Like I said I did ribbon just one 2 sides of my blanket. My friend Jill did 4 sides of the blanket she made and it was adorable. Once the ribbon is sewn on you'll lay the piece of fabric with the ribbon on top of the textured fabric. Good sides facing each other, in this picture I just flipped up the corner to give you an idea of which way is correct. Good sides touching...

and pin it together to stay in place while sewing. Pay attention to where you start sewing because you're going to sew all the way around the blanket. All 4 sides. When you get back to the side you started on leave a good 3 inch opening and end your stitch there. You want the the opening because this is where you turn the blanket right side out. So your good sides of the fabric are on the outside. Make sure you remove the pins before you turn it though. They're hard to remove when the pins are on the inside of the blanket. I didn't take a picture of this step... I forgot because I was too excited to see the final product. Once the fabric is turned right side out stitch the 3 inch opening closed by hand. I think Jill said at this point she actually sewed all the way around the blanket but I just left mine.

I don't know how I forgot to take a picture of the final product but I the only one I have is while it's being used. Ha!