2011 Top 10 and My Favorites

    Well it has almost been one year since I began this little blog. Before this I had never blogged before. It has been a definite adventure of learning and fun. There are two things that I really like about the blog world. One, the creative chronicling of my own projects throughout the year. Two, viewing the creative blog world out there through ingeniously creative minds. I love the uniqueness of it all. It truly is a fantastic way to get to know the world. That being said, I will share with you the top 10 all time viewed posts on my blog and some of my most favorites.{Click on a Pic and it'll take you to the post.}

1. Preschool Fun

2. Summer Headbands

3. Firework Dresses

4. Organization in a Flash

5. Fabric Flower Headbands

6. Patriotic Pom Pom Sparklers

7. Printable: Christmas

8. Strawberry Pinata

9. Thanksgiving Subway Art

10. Christmas Advent Calendar

Here are some of my 2011 favorites.

Looking forward to a fun creative 

Happy New Year! 

Much Aloha to you and yours! Mahalo.

~Christie

 

Strawberry Pinata

   Birthday parties are on the rise here in our home. With school starting soon...this is no easy feat. But, we like to celebrate and have fun together. Who doesn't?  
    Little girl decided that she would like a Strawberry Shortcake birthday party. Well, I kind of swayed her since she had it in her mind that she would have a fantastic birthday party themed with Tinkerbell, Princesses, My Little Pony, Dora the Explorer, and rainbows of course. Seriously, we took her to Target and went down the party aisle and she choose all items pertaining to these themes and carried them in her arms while stopping to add a very large pinata to her purchase. lol. Anyway, yeah...that didn't happen. So, we decided on Strawberry Shortcake and made a pinata. The four were so enthusiastic about it. Everyone wanted to help. Then 15 minutes into it only one was left standing to finish it up. And she was ever so happy to have this project to do with me.

 

Strawberry Pinata

Materials you will need for this project are:

1 balloon, newspaper strips, white all purpose glue,

tissue paper, tape, and scissors.

You begin by blowing up your balloon. Then combine 1 part water to 2-3 parts white glue in a bowl. 

Stir it up well and use this mixture to dredge your newspaper strips in one by one as you apply them to the balloon individually. Make sure that remove the excess mixture from the newspaper strips with your fingers before adhering it to the balloon. This is important because it makes the drying process successful.

 Once you are finished layering the balloon with papier mache then you must let the pinata to dry over night.

I hung ours out on the laundry line and it dried perfectly.   

After the pinata had completely dried, I taped a twisted tissue paper stem in place. 

 Now it is time to decorate your pinata. 

I opted for the tissue paper look. 

Cutting long strips of tissue paper and fringing one side for the decoration. 

At the bottom of the pinata be sure to leave an open space for the candy to be inserted 

as well as the balloon to be popped and removed.

Using the fringe material glue to the pinata starting at the bottom in a layered rotation form.

 Keep overlapping the layers of fringe.

 When I finished the layering, I then added leaves made out of tissue paper.

Black cardstock cut seeds were glued in place.

  An added polka dot bow makes it Strawberry cutesy. 

Now you can pop and remove the balloon.

Fill with candy and goodies.

Use a piece of newspaper to seal up the open space with glue. 

Then a piece of coordinating tissue paper to conceal it.

Once it has dried it is ready for the party!

I also have to show this drawing my son did of 
Strawberry Shortcake for his sister's birthday. 

It is so beautiful. 
What a talent!

 He did it all freehand and I was blown away at the fact that 

he drew it so quickly and perfectly. Such a proud mama!

 

~Christie

Rainbow Ribbons

 Oh, I love this one. 

I've been looking for creative ideas to use in music, movement and rhythm fun for the 

upcoming school year. 

I've seen ribbon bracelets where there is one large ribbon connected to a fabric bracelet. 

I thought it would be fun to make a ribbon bracelet that reflected a rainbow. The bracelet, white, like a cloud. The ribbons, one of every color, like a rainbow. I think it turned out really cute and my girls were quite thrilled. 

Here is how you can make your own Rainbow Ribbon.

  I used white satin cut into a 19"x7" rectangle. One 3/4" elastic cut into a 7" long piece. I also used 1/4" Polyester ribbon cut into 24" lengths.(One of each color of the rainbow.

First stack and sew the ribbons in rainbow order .

Then iron your rectangle in half and fold up the ends 

so that you can sew down the side 5/8".

Make sure you pin your rainbow ribbon at the end of your rectangular strip so that you can sew it in place.

 Reinforce stitch the ribbons in place. 

                 Carefully trim the edge of the seam.                         

Turn out the satin piece, thread the elastic through and

sew the elastic ends together.

Then over lap the satin ends, pin and then sew into place.

Basically, it's like a scrunchie with ribbons flowing out of it. 

Super simple!!!

Finished!

Gorgeous!

 

Ready for some music.

~Christie

Rainstick

 I have been trying to encourage my boys to work 

on their merit badges for Boy scouts.

So, this morning I helped my younger son work 

on a project for part of his music merit badge. 

He was required to make an instrument and 

learn how to play it. 

So, he decided on a rainstick. 

It was fairly easy to make.

 He used a mailing tube and filled it with beads, 
different sized dried beans, rice and 
 dried macaroni for sound.  
You can play around with the contents
to get the sound that you want.
Sixty one inch nails are to be nailed into the tube 
1/2 inch apart around the spiral of the tube. 
Then wrapped the tube in tape to hold the nails in place. 
This provides a place for the beans and stuff to 
bounce off in the tube for sound. 
 Then he covered the tube with brown packing paper.

Then glued on 9 strips of ribbon for decorative purposes and two circular foam pieces on the ends of the tube.

We will definitely use this later on with the little girls for music time.
 It makes a nice sound. 
Now he just has to wait for it to rain and play along? 

Life is humorous that way. Don't you think?

Summer Headbands

I was out and saw some really cute girl headbands. I looked at the price tag and saw five dollars a headband. I said, "What? I can make that." With using supplies from what I already had in my closet I was able to sew up seven headbands for nothing. I like that. Using what I've got to make something practical and cute. 

 I made a pattern from a wide headband. Then I measured around the head for a complete headband measurement. There are 5 pieces. Two pieces for the band, two pieces for the strap and one elastic piece to be inserted into the strap.

 Quite elementary and satisfying to sew. 
The worst part? The turning out of the strap and band. 
Inside trick? Sew a few stitches on the end of one piece of the band then pull your thread longer than the band length. 
Tuck it in between the two band pieces right sides together. 
Then sew down the sides of the band, leaving the ends open.
Take your long thread you tucked away 
and use that to pull the band right side out. 
Do the same for the strap. 

Fold in the ends of the band. Thread the elastic through the strap. 

Place straps inside of the folded band ends. 

Then sew and reinforce stitch in place.

 Make sure you have enough elastic in the strap 
to fit comfortably around the head. 
If the headband is too tight...no one will want to wear it.

 Ta da. Easy as pie.

Finished in a blink. And oh so darling!