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Category Archives: Crafts for Kids(and mom, too!)

12 Crafts of Christmas {You & Me Books}

Written on November 30, 2011 by Bridget in Crafts for Kids(and mom, too!)

When Carter and Lydia were little-little, I wrote monthly letters to them.
(Unfortunately, I haven’t kept that up with that.)

When they got a little older, I had books that I made called:
“The World According to Carter” (or Lydia, as the case may be).
Whenever they would say something amusing or interesting, I’d jot it down in there.

(I’ve done neither for Asa or Anna Alden.
I have scraps of paper shoved in a box with notes.
That has to count for something, right?)

And then somewhere out on the wild, wild web I saw an idea that I loved:
A mom talked about starting a shared journal with her teenage daughter.
Things they couldn’t say a loud somehow managed to find its way into the notebook.
When I saw that I decided to tuck that away into my memory bank for ‘someday’.

That is…until last week.
I was cleaning out a big box of papers that all belonged to my children.
Mixed in with the lists of sight words and hoot owl art work,
I found hundreds upon hundreds of little slips of paper.
Most of them said To: (Insert Family Member’s Name Here)

My children, like most children, love to create masterpieces and do.not. want to throw anything away.
I want to keep some of their art, but oh, my! That’s a looooot of paper!
So while I was sitting in the middle of the floor and sorting papers,
I decided it would be nice to have one spot for all this.

And I remembered the mother-daughter notebook.
I could make a notebook for each child and they could write or draw in it to me.
And I, too, could write or draw in it to them.

So I picked up some composition notebooks, pulled out my scrapbook paper and mod podge and got to work!

photo1 1024x1024 12 Crafts of Christmas {You & Me Books}

I had a 12×12 sheet of scrapbook paper that wouldn’t cover the front and the back, but I wanted to cover the spine, too.
So I cut it so that the top is completely covered and the back is partially covered(seen below).
Then I cut it out, slapped down a layer of mod podge(you could probably use regular glue) and smoothed out the paper.

photo 21 1024x1024 12 Crafts of Christmas {You & Me Books}

I wanted to label my book, so I used some scrapbook stickers to spell out “mommy & me”.
But the letters were blending in a little too much with the paper so I outlined them with a fine tipped black sharpie.

And then because my Lydia is the Bling Queen, I decided to add some jewels.
All I did was hot glue them on (and burn my finger tip once).

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I can’t wait to see what stories will be told and pictures will be drawn.
I am so excited about this idea!

And I’m actually considering making a few for some friends, too.
You could mail it back and forth…like old-fashioned pen pals! :-)
(It’s cheesy, but you know you love it, too.)

*******
12 Crafts of Christmas 2011
1. Personalized Necklaces
2. Button and Lego Wall Art
3. Personalized ClipBoards
4. Fabric Covered Wire(Wall Art)
5. Stationary
6. You & Me Books
7. Personalized Welcome Mat
8. Personalized Dessert Carrier
9. Kid’s Artwork Cup
10. Ornaments
11. Sewing Tutorials
12. Photo Display Block

12 Crafts of Christmas {Stationary}

Written on November 28, 2011 by Bridget in Crafts for Kids(and mom, too!)

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I really love getting letters in the mail.
Once upon a time I was really great about sending letters in the mail.
Now…I just cannot manage to get it done.

But I loooove stationary and my once very full stash has dwindled to nearly nothing.

So here are a few that I’ve been working on:

I fell so in love with wrapped wire letters that I brought it over to stationary.

First I used a smaller gauge wire and made my letter, leaving a little bit of the wire sticking out.
After wrapping the letter, I punched a tiny hole in the card and inserted the uncovered wire.
Folding it down, I secured it with tape.
Since I didn’t want the card recipient to see the taped wire, I used red cardstock to make a liner.

And I recently also fell in love with hand embroidered paper. It’s super easy.
For both of the ones you see below, I drew the design by free hand in pencil,
but you could easily print out a design from your computer.
(You’d probably want to print in light gray, not black.)

I took a sharp tipped needle and pre-made the holes.
Then I simply sewed up the line with embroidery thread.
(What you see on both of these is 3 strands of thread.)
I obviously haven’t finished the bottom one yet. :-)

And I because my kids like to craft as much as I do, I decided to do one that was kid-friendly.
Carter and Lydia fell in love with leaf rubbings this fall. (And, honestly, I’d forgotten how fun it could be!)
And so I decided to cut out a Christmas shape and do a rubbing of it.
(I used a tree for this one, but plan on using other shapes, too – maybe Santa silhouette or stocking or reindeer.)

Suuuuuper easy once you cut out your shape.
Don’t feel confident that you can draw the shape you want?
Google “Christmas tree coloring sheet” and you’ll get tons of line-drawn options that are perfect for this!
Print it out from your computer, cut around the edges and color away!

12 Crafts of Christmas {Fabric-Covered Wire Art}

Written on November 23, 2011 by Bridget in Crafts for Kids(and mom, too!)

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A while back, I saw this idea in Family Fun magazine.
I kept meaning to try it, but never ended up with the time or resources.

A few weeks after I saw it, my friend Jesse told me that she’d seen the same thing.
Only she actually made it and I just thought about making one.

So tonight I sat down and started working on these.
They don’t take long, but they are addictive!

I was planning on doing just one and ended up doing 5!

Soooo…you’ll need some kind of thick-ish wire. (I had some 14 gauge galvanized wire left over from another project.)
A pair of wire cutters and a pair of pliers. And fabric scraps.

photo 10 1024x764 12 Crafts of Christmas {Fabric Covered Wire Art}

For the first one, I wanted to make something Christmas-y, so I bent the top part of the wire into a star shape and then just zig-zagged the rest of the way down. (Mine is about 10″ tall.)

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Then I tied one piece of my ribbon onto the wire and started just wrapping and wrapping and wrapping.
When you get to the end of your piece of fabric, just tie on another one and keep going (making sure to wrap up the knot you just made).

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Once I had wrapped up the entire thing and tie off the end, I cut smaller bits of multi-colored fabric and added “ornaments” to my tree.

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And as if it wasn’t late enough last night (about 1am), I decided that I had to make something else.
So I made a little wire flower to match Anna Alden’s room. (I think I may make a bunch of them and put them on her walls.)

photo 4 764x1024 12 Crafts of Christmas {Fabric Covered Wire Art} photo 11 764x1024 12 Crafts of Christmas {Fabric Covered Wire Art}

And then I was on a roll and thought, “I should make a monogram one!”
So I did:

photo 9 1024x764 12 Crafts of Christmas {Fabric Covered Wire Art}

photo 3 1024x764 12 Crafts of Christmas {Fabric Covered Wire Art}

What other designs can you think of?
I was thinking a Mickey Mouse would be cute.
Or do the whole alphabet and put it on the wall.
Gosh, y’all! I better go buy more wire.

12 Crafts of Christmas {Personalized Clipboard}

Written on November 21, 2011 by Bridget in Crafts for Kids(and mom, too!)

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Ok, so I’ll admit something to you. This craft wasn’t nearly as easy as I thought it would be.
So I’ll show you what I did and then I’ll tell you how you should do it if you want to save a lot of time.

Carter had two student teachers who finished working with the kids last Friday, so I made personalized clipboards for them.

wordle clipboard 12 Crafts of Christmas {Personalized Clipboard}

Each teacher’s name and the date are written long-ways down the side followed by the year.
And then the names of all the students they teach are listed in a ‘word cloud’.

First I went to wordle.net and used it to help me create a template for all the names.
(Click ‘Create’ at the top of that page to make one of your own.)

Once I did that I figured out which names I wanted to be which color.
For the clear clipboard, I used white, black, and red.
For the pink (which looks red in pictures), I used hot pink, lime green and white.

Using my Silhouette HD, I designed a wordle of my own (based on what I created on wordle.net)
And cut out three different sheets (one of each color) with all the names on them.
Then I removed and discarded the names I did not want in that color.
(This wasted a good bit of vinyl, but was a pretty big time saver when I was trying to put all the names on.
And it made it much easier to keep everything straight.

photo 2 1024x764 12 Crafts of Christmas {Personalized Clipboard}

I put the names on one layer at a time: all the red names, all the black names, all the white names.
And ta-da! I was done!
(It doesn’t sound like it took me long, but ask Marshall.
He was dealing with 4 screaming children while I was working on it.)

Soooooo….you could make one of these with the vinyl -
I really, really love how it turned out and I will probably make more of them -
BUT I know that not everyone has access to a Silhouette machine and not everyone wants to spend forever on one project.

So here’s a faster, cheaper easier way:
You’ll need a wooden clipboard, some pretty paper, some plain coordinating paper, Mod Podge and a brush(I like foam brushes).

First you’ll start by mod podging the pretty paper onto the top of the clipboard.

While that is drying, go to wordle.net and create a word cloud.

They do offer an advanced option if you want to weight certain words.
For example, I wanted the teacher’s name to be bigger than all of the children’s names…
so under ‘Advanced’ I typed:

Ms. Hancock: 400
2011:300
McKenna:120
Brent:120
Miles:120
etc.: 120

(The bigger the number, the bigger the word.)

Once you get the sizes right, you can play with color and layout and font.
Here’s a super quick one that I just made:

wordle 12 Crafts of Christmas {Personalized Clipboard} (I’m a little tired, can ya tell? :-) )

And when it is perfect (or at least good enough), simply print it out.
(If I were doing it, I would print it on a light colored paper that coordinates with your decorative paper.)

Then mod podge that paper on top of the decorative paper and wait for it to dry.
I hate that I don’t have a picture to go with this, but I simply ran out of time.
If any of you make a mod podge one, send me the pic and I’ll post it!

12 Crafts of Christmas {Button and Lego Wall Art}

Written on November 16, 2011 by Bridget in Crafts for Kids(and mom, too!)

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When I first saw these on Pinterest, I knew that I would be making at least one as a Christmas gift.
I l.o.v.e. the way they turned out.

flower 8 1024x682 12 Crafts of Christmas {Button and Lego Wall Art}

And you only need a few things: a canvas (this is 8×10), legos or buttons or beads, paint, paint brush, glue gun

flower 1 1024x682 12 Crafts of Christmas {Button and Lego Wall Art}

For the girl one, I used left-over paint from Carter and Lydia’s room re-do last year.
For the other one, I used some old red paint I already had.
When the paint was almost dry, I gently applied a liiiiiitle bit of white to give it a little distressed look.
(You could, of course, leave the background one solid color.)
(Or mod podge on some scrapbook paper or fabric.)

I initially only planned on doing a cutesty girl one (hence the jewels in the above picture that didn’t make the cut),
But decided that you could easily do a boy one with something like Legos or tiny plastic bugs or coins.

After the paint was completely dry, I laid out all my pieces onto the canvas.

For the flower button one,
I figured out where I wanted everything to go and I hot glued it into place.

For the lego one,
I started by gluing the legos directly to the canvas, but couldn’t get it straight enough.
So I decided to hot glue the pieces together and then glue the whole thing onto the canvas.

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I am so excited about these! Aren’t you?

flower 81 1024x682 12 Crafts of Christmas {Button and Lego Wall Art}
What other materials might you use?

12 Crafts of Christmas {Personalized Necklace}

Written on November 14, 2011 by Bridget in Crafts for Kids(and mom, too!)

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In October of last year, I started a little series here called “12 Crafts of Christmas” where I showcased a idea or two each of the 12 weeks prior to Christmas. I knew I wanted to do it again this year, but when October came I wasn’t anywhere near having my act together. I was just trying to make it to Halloween with all 4 children healthy. (We made it!) But I still wanted to do 12 crafts, so I have decided to do two crafts a week for the next six weeks.

Today’s craft is a little jewelry tutorial. I did originally see this idea on Pinterest and it was linked to a tutorial.
But sometimes I see people post things that they’ve made and I think, “It can’t really be that easy, can it?”
This was one of those times, and I’m here to tell you: This is seriously easy, but it does take a little patience.

For this project you will need:
A hammer

Ribbon

Jewelry bead

Sharpie

Wet wipes

Scissors

Fray Check

A steel stamp set like this one from Harbor Freight.

Metal Washers (I bought three sizes starting with 1/4″ and going up)

Start by placing the washer on a flat and sturdy surface.
(I would not recommend doing this on your kitchen table!)
Using the letters of the stamp set, carefully hammer in the letters you want to use.
(Be sure that the letters aren’t facing backwards before you hammer!)

Once you are finished hammering, use a Sharpie to color over the letters.
Make sure the ink gets down into the grooves.
Before it gets too dry, gently wipe off the excess with a wet wipe.

Thread the ribbon through the washer(s) from front to back (as shown).
Push the ribbon through the hole created and tighten.
Add jewelry bead to secure the spot of the knot.
Trim the ends of the ribbon and then use FrayCheck to keep it from unraveling.

For these necklaces, I simply tie a bow in the back.
But if you really wanted to, you could easily add a clasp.

See, wasn’t that easy? I will admit that I threw away several washers that I ruined at first.
It takes a little practice to get used to lining up the letters and hitting it just hard enough.
Over all, it took me about 10 minutes to make one necklace.

***

Want a fancier version of this necklace? Click here to see how to add a pearl.

Want to make a bird nest necklace? Click here to find out how.

Want something with a little less sparkle? How about these tee shirt bracelets?

We know subtle.

Written on November 7, 2011 by Bridget in Crafts for Kids(and mom, too!), Parenting

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Last year Carter was in Kindergarten.
This year Lydia has the same teacher.

Around this time of year, they send home a paper turkey and ask you to decorate it as a family.
In the directions it says:
“As a family, disguise Tom or Tracy Turkey so that he won’t be eaten for Thanksgiving.”

If you’ve been around these parts much, you may remember Carter’s ‘well-disguised’ turkey.

And here is Lydia’s that we finished today.

Obviously, we know subtle.

Lazy Girl’s Guide to a Painting Party

Written on January 13, 2011 by Bridget in Bridget Blogs, Crafts for Kids(and mom, too!)

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I guess you could actually call this a “Pregnant Girl’s Guide to a Painting Party”,
Because I probably would have done more if I weren’t so enormous and exhausted.

We’ve never done a “friend” party because we’ve always(up to this point) just done a family thing.
But Carter has begged and begged for a “real” birthday party…a painting birthday party, to be exact.
He has been asking for months and I kept putting him off because I knew that the new baby might interfere with any plans.
But he is one insistent little sucker, and I finally gave in.

He was allowed to pick 10 friends.
(The first one his list? His “girlfriend”, who is actually in 5th grade!)

I bought a magnet painting kit along with some extra paint brushes and some glitter glue.
(Everything looks better under a layer of glitter glue, right?)
I also pulled out all my plastic cups to use for rinsing water.

Jan 13 2011 6 1024x682 Lazy Girls Guide to a Painting Party

Instead of making or buying a cake, I decided to follow through with the painting theme.
Each kid will get a chocolate cupcake and will be able to DIY(Decorate It Yourself) with icing and sprinkles.

Jan 13 2011 3 1024x682 Lazy Girls Guide to a Painting Party

Don’t be too impressed!
Those cupcakes are made from a box mix and the icing and sprinkles are store bought.
I used food coloring and 3 cans of frosting to make the rainbow icing options.
(1/2 can of icing plus an insane amount of food coloring per color.
I used Gel Food Colors -for all but the blue and yellow- because they are so bright.)

And, of course, no party for my kid is complete without Sprite.
(The kid really loves Sprite.)

Here’s hoping my doctor’s appointment goes well and I actually make it to the party!

12 Crafts of Christmas{Homemade in a Hurry}

Written on December 20, 2010 by Bridget in Bridget Blogs, Crafts for Kids(and mom, too!)

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12 crafts of christmas edited 1 1024x172 12 Crafts of Christmas{Homemade in a Hurry}

I cannot believe that this the final Craft of Christmas! It seems like just yesterday that I was typing up the first post in this series! And because I imagine that most of you are like me and need a few little last minute gifts, here are a few of my favorite quick gifts: Beaded Bookmarks, Holiday Scented Ornaments and Chunky Crayons…as well as a few links to other fun and fast ideas.

Beaded Bookmarks

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You will need: beads(I used glass) and string (I used hemp cording)

The only thing you need to be careful about is making sure that the holes in the beads are big enough for the cording/string to be threaded through easily!

Grab a large book and use it to measure out how much string you will need. When you place the string in the book to measure, you’ll want to make sure that you have at least 2-3 inches of string extending beyond the end of the book. (My typical length was about 15″-16″.)

Tie a knot close to one end and thread a few beads onto the cording. Then tie a knot to secure those beads in place.

Go to the other end and tie a knot in about 3″ from the end. Add beads and tie the final knot to secure the beads in place.

Beaded bookmarks 3 1024x682 12 Crafts of Christmas{Homemade in a Hurry}

Chunky Crayons

These are perfect for the under 3 crowd!

What you’ll need: old crayons, muffin tin, oven

Grab all the half-used crayons you can find and peel off the paper.

Go ahead and preheat the oven to 250°-300º.
Break them up into small pieces(an inch or less) and fill each muffin cup with broken pieces.

Chunky Crayons 1 1024x741 12 Crafts of Christmas{Homemade in a Hurry}

Then place it in the oven and wait for them to melt, somewhere around 15-20 minutes for my oven.

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Once the wax is completely melted, remove from oven and let cool significantly.
When the pan is cool enough to touch, place in freezer. This will make the wax shrink enough to pop them out easily.

But don’t put them in the freezer and forget about them! Because *ahem* they’ll crack.
If that happens, just pop them back in the oven and re-melt them and then re-cool them.

When they’re cool, pop them out and enjoy:

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To wrap, try stacking them like this and tying them up with ribbon or string.

Chunky Crayons 5 162x300 12 Crafts of Christmas{Homemade in a Hurry}

Grab a coloring book from the Dollar store and you’re golden!

Holiday Scented Ornaments

(No picture because my camera apparently got the plague I had last week.

I’m hoping she recovers quickly…seeing as how Christmas is FRIDAY!

And we have two more birthdays and a birth day coming up soon.)

You will need: 1 cup of applesauce, 1 cup of ground cinnamon(that’s roughly one regular size spice container full), plain white glue, cookie cutters, straw, ribbon

Mix all ingredients well until it forms a nice semi-firm dough.
(I had to add cinnamon because it was a little runny, so make sure you have extra cinnamon on hand.)

Roll out your dough and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes.
Then use the straw to punch out holes at the top so you can later add a ribbon.
I found that it was easiest to cut them out on paper plates and leave them there to air dry.
(Trying to move them while still “wet” was really hard to do.)

You can either let them air dry on the plates, OR you could transfer them to a baking sheet and bake them until they’re hard.

We made some of these 3 years ago and they still smell yummy.
So yummy, actually, that the dog ate one! So make sure to put them high up on the tree.

Other fun, fast ideas:
Easy Tank Top Tote from Dollar Store Crafts
Custom iPod Cover also from Dollar Store Crafts
Decorative Soap Dispenser from Just A Girl
Homemade Lacing Cards for the little kids from Thru My Peepers (You could also do ABC ones!)
Cardboard Shoes for the bigger kids from ikatbag

********
Want to see more of my crafty creations?

Check out the other 12 Crafts of Christmas:
Week One: Silhouettes
Week Two: Personalized Wall Clocks
Week Three: Glass Etching
Week Four: Fancy Fingerpaint Art
Week Five: Freezer Paper Stencils
Week Six: Tie-Knot Fleece Blanket
Week Seven: Jewelry: Ribbon & Pearl Bracelet, Wool Ball Necklace, DIY Button Earrings
Week Eight: Chalkboard Paint Ideas: Glasses, Chalkboard, Candle, Love Box
Week Nine: Frugal Finds
Week Ten: Personalized Pendants
Week Eleven: Edible Edition
Week Twelve: Homemade in a Hurry: Bookmarks, Crayons and Scented Ornaments

12 Crafts of Christmas {Edible Edition}

Written on December 13, 2010 by Bridget in Bridget Blogs, Crafts for Kids(and mom, too!)

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12 crafts of christmas edited 1 1024x172 12 Crafts of Christmas {Edible Edition}

For some folks (myself included), there is no better gift than the gift of food.
I love me some homemade goodies!

So today I’m sharing some of my favorite recipes that I’ve found here and there over the years:

Easy Oreo Truffles by the lovely Rachel (Marshall’s favorite)

Butterfinger Cookies from Taste of Home (My BIL’s favorite)

Saltine Toffee from Taste of Home (Marshall’s other favorite) (aka Candy Crack)

Cream Cheese Finger Cookies from Taste of Home (Best all-around!)

Reindeer Cookies from Me(circa 2007) (Kidlet favorite)

And three of my favorite recipes: two of my own and one from my friend Noelle.
(No pictures this time though because I didn’t think it was wise to try to bake while struggling to breathe.)
(Dear cold, you’re killin’ me. Please go away!)

************

Shortbread Cookies by Noelle

1 1/3 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/3 cups flour

Heat oven to 275º.
Butter a 9×13 pan and line with parchment paper.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add salt & vanilla, and beat to combine.
Add flour one cup at a time on low speed until just combined.
Press dough into pan and use a butter knife to cut the dough length-wise into 9 strips.
Cut cross-wise into bars and use tines of a fork to make indentions in each cookie.
Bake for 70-85 minutes, or until a pale gold (not brown).
Cool in pan and cut along lines to break into individual cookies.

These cookies get better with age…if they last that long!

*********

Crunchy Nut Clusters

2 cups(12 oz) baking chips – you choose what kind: milk chocolate, white chocolate, dark chocolate, peanut butter, peppermint, butterscotch, toffee…
2 cups nuts – you choose all of one kind of nut or an assortment of several types
Rice Krispies(optional)

Melt baking chips in the microwave according to package directions.
Once melted, add nuts (and Rice Krispies if you want).
Mix well.
Spoon out into either mini-muffin tins or small paper candy cups and freeze until set.

*********

Lace Cookies
(We used to make these and gingersnaps with my grandmother-Mama Jo-every Christmas,
so these are the definition of “Christmas Cookie” to me.)

1 egg
1 cup sugar
1 cup oatmeal
3 heaping TBsp self-rising flour
1 stick butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

Mix egg, sugar, oatmeal and flour.
Pour in butter and vanilla and mix well.
Cover baking sheet with tin foil and butter well.
Drop small spoonfuls of dough onto buttered surface.
(These will expand significantly!)
Bake at 400º just until cookies begin to brown.
Turn off oven and leave cookies in until they are a nice brown.
Cool completely and then slowly and gently remove from foil.

*********

And if you still haven’t found a recipe that just hits the spot,
check out the Christmas cookies that my friend Mary has been showcasing on her blog! YUM!

*********

Want to see more of my crafty creations?
Check out the other 12 Crafts of Christmas:
Week One: Silhouettes
Week Two: Personalized Wall Clocks
Week Three: Glass Etching
Week Four: Fancy Fingerpaint Art
Week Five: Freezer Paper Stencils
Week Six: Tie-Knot Fleece Blanket
Week Seven: Ribbon & Pearl Bracelet, Wool Ball Necklace, DIY Button Earrings
Week Eight: Chalkboard Paint Ideas: Glasses, Chalkboard, Candle, Love Box
Week Nine: Frugal Finds
Week Ten: Personalized Pendants
Week Eleven: Edible Edition