Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Elf on the shelf 2013 week 3

We are having so much fun withour little  mischievous elf Bob Twinkles!  This week he is really outdoing himself...  

Day 14: oh oh, someone needs to clean their room!

Day 15: this one was amazing!! Bob set up his own profile on the kids xbox (twinkletoez2012) and then proceeded to play minecraft! He made a whole new world and called it the north Pole! It even had his home which was a little ski lodge!! Matty was blown away!

Day 16: my hubby took the kids to see the Hobbit yesterday so today we found Bob with the one ring and surrounded by elves from the movie! I think this means he's the new elf king!!






Tuesday, December 10, 2013

FREE Elf on the shelf Minecraft Printable & Tutorial


Minecraft is a really popular game and so is Elf on the Shelf so I decided to merge the 2.  I found the images for the creeper, Steve and the diamond ax using Google search and resized them to fit our elf.  I thought it would be nice to share the file I made with other Mom's and Dad's out there!  It's formatted to an 8.5x 11 sheet of paper and includes the instructions.  The Steve face had a small pink border which I just cut off except for around the little side tabs I created.  You can kind of see them in my picture. The tabs just made it easier to tape onto the elf.

To see more of my elf on the shelf fun click here: Elf on the Shelf 2013 week 1


Elf on the shelf 2013 week 2

It's week 2 of our little elfs adventures!  The kids are really enjoying looking for Bob Twinkles around the house every morning! On Day 8 he was getting a quick workout in to prepare him for all the toys he'll be lifting on Christmas eve.  Good think Frosty was there t spot him!


Day 9:  We finally decorated our tree but hadn't put the star on.  Thank goodness for Bob who did the honors!


Day 10: Bob hid 6 candy canes around the house for the kids to find.  Here are just a few of the hiding spots...


Day 11:  If your boys are anything like mine, they are completely addicted to playing Minecraft!  Well apparently so is Bob Twinkles!!  We found him doing a little cosplay!  I have posted the FREE printable I made for this here: Free Elf on the Shelf Minecraft printable


Day 12: Bob Twinkles got into the shaving cream and left a message for the boys on the mirror.  What a messy elf!

Day 13: Bob was in our cereal box! I had no idea he was one of the rice crispy elves!

Day 14: yikes! Bob asked the littles to clean their room!





Did you miss week 1?  You can find it here: week 1

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Elf on the shelf 2013 week 1

We are so excited to have Bob Twinkles back in our home! On day one he brought us a North Pole breakfast to celebrate his return.  He even brought all the kids Christmas cups!

On day 2 he had clearly watched us put up the tree last night so he decided he needed one of his own. He made this one from Lego's he found around the house! 

Day 3:  Bob Twinkles spent some time looking at the ads and circling some good deals.

Day 4:  It was my oldest son's 17th birthday and we found Bob hanging out in his room with a balloon and Happy Birthday wishes.  How sweet!


Day 5:  Bob made a candy cane swing.  Guess he saw how much fun the little's have on theirs.


Day 6:  Oh boy.  Looks like Bob got himself into a jam in the cupboard!  Stuck in a cup....Yikes!


Day 7:  Bob brought a little yearbook full of pictures from last years elf fun! He was originally supposed to bring this on day 1 but he was a bit lazy to get it started.  ;)


For week 2 of our elf fun check here: Elf on the Shelf 2013 week 2



Thursday, October 24, 2013

Halloween Picture frames


Last year I bought a couple of wooden frames at Michaels and dressed them up for Halloween with a little paint, paper, stickers and goggly.

This one is of my son Nicky on our first trip to the pumpkin patch in 1998.  He was 10 months old.

This one is of my littlest son Andrew with his buddies at the patch in 2011.  He was 8 months old.
They are some of my favorite halloween decorations! 

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Tooth Fairy Bear Tutorial



When my older  two sons Nick & Aaron were little I made them tooth fairy bears.  They were made out of felt and had a little pocket on the tummy for them to place their teeth and receive the money the fairy left for them.  Now that Matty is 6, I figured it was time I made him a tooth fairy bear of his own! I took him to Joann's to pick the felt for his bear.  He went with a very pretty teal blue. I was surprised he didn't stick with the traditional browns like his older bros had but I love the way it turned out!! Very rock star just like Matty!
Step 1: cut out 2 teddy bear shapes out of 2 sheets of felt
    Step 2: to make the face, I draw it onto tissue paper first.  Then pin the tissue to the felt bear.  Using embroidery floss I do a satin stitch to "color" inthe corresponding   colors.  And viola! A cute bear face is born!
Step 3: from the scraps left over, I cut out a half circle for the pouch.  I cut a tooth shape from white felt I had and covered it in glitter then sewed it onto the pouch.  Then I sewed the pouch to the bears tummy leaving the top unsewn to make the pocket for the teeth.
Step 4: using the same tissue method, I embroidered  Matty's name onto the bears chest above the pouch.
Step 5: now the the front is complete, it's time to sew the back onto the front stuffing the bear as I went along with cotton.  When I got to the top, I added a strand of ribbon so Matty will be able to hang it on the edge of his bed.  This is particularly  helpful if you have a child in a top bunk!

And there you go! One rock star of a tooth fairy bear for one rock star of a child!! I hope he will cherish this as much as the older boys do! They're teenagers now and their days of baby teeth are well behind them and even so, they keep their bears in their room!

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Hollywood Baby Shower Wrap-Up!

I hacked into Veronica's blog so I could tell you more about the shower! This was such a fun party to put together! I absolutely loved how it all came together...and more importantly Mommy-to-be loved it too!

PARTY DETAILS...
Morgan, the Mommy-to-be loves hollywood so the shower theme was obvious! She's expecting a boy so we rolled out the blue carpet...literally! Adding blue to the glitzy gold, red, and black made for a perfect glam blend.

DECOR
I have to admit...I'm addicted to Pinterest. So some of the party decorations may look familiar. I did find some of the ideas there...but I created some of them myself! And, I bought most of the supplies at the dollar store!

1. Backdrop: A DIY Photo booth & Backdrop made out of PVC pipes! My dear friend Gina at Thrift Town created this a few months back for Good Day Sacramento. It's super easy to put together. I've used it for so many parties!
  To cover it up--plastic tablecloths from the dollar store, taped to the pipes...blue ribbon to gather the red "curtains"...the gold tassles were a fun and cheap embellishment I picked up -- for less than $2 each -- at Joann's.

2. Hollywood Star: this is one of my favorite pieces! I wanted this to be BIG...really BIG so I used the cricut to cut 5 different triangles -- in shiny blue and gold -- then put them together to create the star. I used an extra piece of blue to fill in the middle. The letters and baby image came from the cricut too. I glued the star to black poster board from the dollar store then tied it to the PVC pipe using ribbon.

3. Red Ropes: I wanted red sanctions to line my blue carpet, but they are so expensive! For weeks I searched for a way to do it myself and found nothing. Then one day as I'm walking through the patio I glance over and see a pool noodle on the table -- BAM! It hit me -- pool noodles covered with red table clothes!
I bought noodles and table cloths at the dollar store. I threaded gold string (joann's) through the noodle to hang to tie to the PVC pipe. For the ropes outside -- I randomly found shepherd hooks on clearance at Joann's for $1.80!! I bought 4 and used those on the front walkway. Blue carpet = felt...$2/yd at Joann's.


MAIN TABLE DECOR
This table turned out FABULOUS!! I was so happy with it! My dear friends Lisa and Lori did such an awesome job putting it all together! I made all the pieces...but they put the puzzle together!

1. DIRECTOR SLATE: this was super easy -- black poster board from the dollar store and white duct tape! I used the cricut to cut out the letters and chalk for the written details.

2. MOVIE CAMERA: I taped black scrapbook paper to a wipes box and spray-painted a styrofoam piece from the dollar store for the lens. For the the movie reels -- 2 styrofoam wreaths from the dollar store,  covered with blue and black scrapbook paper, blue duct tape around the wreath . I used the cricut to cut the circles in black paper and make a gold star for the side.



3. MARQUEE LETTER 'C'...IN HONOR OF BABY CRUZ: I saw this all over pinterest! I really wanted to use lights, but opted for the less expensive DIY from Fiskars.




4. DIAPER REELS: Instead of a cake...a diaper reel! I rolled up the diapers and held them together with a rubberband. I used 2 bags of newborn diapers for all 3 reels. I wrapped blue duct tape around the diapers...then taped blue and black scrapbook paper to the top and bottom. Again, I used my cricut to make all the circles.

5. CHANDELIER: Loved how this turned out! Super easy and cheap! Dollar store hula hoop spray painted gold and hung stars with string! I bought some of the stars at the dollar store...I also made some using the cricut ...just to give it a little variety! I strung the stars like garland...I hole punched the top and bottom of the stars ...threaded the gold string and tied it to the hula hoop.


6. BABY BOTTLE OSCARS: Veronica actually saw this on pinterest! I love it!! Super cute and easy!
My daughter is past the bottle so I found 4 old bottles, spray-painted them gold then hot-glued them to a small circular styrofoam...spray-painted black.

PRINTABLES...
I do all my printable shopping at Lil' Party Animals . Veronica did such an awesome job with all the labels and signage! I love the glitzy SWAG sign!








FOOD...
This was a summer shower and on this particular day temperatures hit 100+ degrees so we wanted food to be easy but fun and filling! My friend Lori suggested salads -- brilliant! We made 5 different salads and put them in jars -- as seen on Pinterest -- and it was a total hit!

I think that's it! This shower was a success because of my awesomely creative team -- Team Cray Cray. Thank you!
Thank you for letting me share!
Julissa