Animal poster

Hi everyone! Today, when trying to organize some stuff, I ran across an old match game from a nature magazine. A little idea sparked. So I painted a cartoon-ish tree, and cut some of the animals out of the cards (along with a few from an old trail map) Stuck the animals to the tree and surrounding area, and then gave them some speech bubbles, and something to say. so here it is, along with a few close- ups

one of my favorites in the picture is the female cardinal  saying "Hey hun, could ya bring home dinner?" and then the male cardinal (picking berries) says "Sure hun" LOL i just thought it was kind of funny for some reason. . . 

"Come on dear! it's time for dinner!"  if you look of the other side of the tree there is a fawn saying "OK!" ( yes i know, this is a male deer. )

"IM STARVING!" "OH! I AM FAMISHED!" " HURRY! WE'RE STARVING!" "Hold on darlings!"

"Who woke me up?" "peck peck peck peck peck peck Oh, Sorry sir!"

                          

Printed Nails!

So, I decided to try something new with my nails :)

I saw a picture of something my friend had done with her nails, where she had transferred magazine print to her nails! Here is her tutorial  http://whimsyhive.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-do-magazine-nail-art.html

So, instead of print, I decided to do Flowers! :) The result was not exactly what I expected, but I think they turned out pretty good.

   So, here is what you need.

1.) A white, or light colored nail polish (for the base coat.)

NOTE: the color of the base coat will affect the color of the flowers. I used the pink sparkly nail polish shown above, and my blue flowers (also shown above) are now a lovely shade of purple (I expected it to turn purplish.) So, if you use, say, a green base coat, and red flowers, the result could be brownish flowers. I'm not sure. ( mixing all three primary colors usually results in brown or black. Since red is a primary, and green is a mixture of yellow and blue which are primary colors, it could turn out not what you were wanting.)

2.) Flowers, cut out from a magazine.

I used a blue rose of Sharon, cut out from an old "Michigan bulb co." magazine.

3.) Rubbing Alcohol (you will need the cap too.)

4.) Clear top coat 

In the picture, it looks hot pinkish. The bottle is tinted pink, so that's why.

5.) A hard surface, like a bathroom counter (what I used )

6.) Something absorbent like a papertowel, napkin or toilet paper.

so here we go.

Step 1

apply base coat and wait for it to COMPLETELY DRY!

Step 2

Pour the rubbing alcohol into the cap, and place on a paper towel, napkin, or toilet paper.

Step 3

Dip your finger into the rubbing alcohol. (nail side down)

Step 3

quickly place one of the cutouts on you nail, print side down. Press firmly and hold for about 30 seconds. 

Step 4

gently peel off the cut out. 

Step 5

repeat steps 1-4 with your other fingers

(picture before top coat)

Step 6

GENTLY apply first top coat.

if you don't do it gently, The ink might start coming off! ( I did it too fast the first time, and now that finger's picture looks kind of faded to me. It also looked like there was a purple tint to the brush, so i think it may have come off a bit.)

Step 7

apply one or two more top coats, just to be on the safe side ;)

DONE!

Lenten Pretzels

Today I made my very first batch of homemade pretzels! I needed to bring a snack for my American Heritage Girls unit, so since it is Lent, I decided to make pretzels, which are a traditional Lenten food. I used this recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Soft-Pretzels-II/Detail.aspx

I also included a little bit of information on how pretzels became, and how the name originated. I got the information here http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0535.html

Here are a few pictures :)

Altoilds catapult!

Today I made an Altoids catapult using these awesome instructions! http://craziestgadgets.com/2009/07/13/altoids-tin-catapult-curiously-childlike/
Click on the little thing that says "Instructibles" at the end of the little description thing. It takes through step by step instructions on how to make it. I used a peppermint altoids tin, while the instructions used an altoids gum tin. I also used a half teaspoon, where as the instructions seemed to use a teaspoon.

The range isn't perfect. I think I can only get it to go maybe five feet, but that's not bad considering it's made of a few simple things that are probably already lying around your house. Just make sure you wind the rubber band up real good.

Anyways, this little bugger can shot any thing from marbles, to hairclips, to dog treats! (yes I tried that. That's what happens when you are sick and can't really do any other fun things. LOL)
And, if you take the little spoon out of the holder and place the handle part under the holder, (or push it real far in the holder) you can close it up and voila! You have a mini catapult disguised as some altoids! There is even some room for small ammo to hide in there too!

Appreciation

If it weren't for the Rain, the Sun would not be special.
If it weren't for the Noise, the Silence would be loud.
If it weren't for the loneliness, Friends would not be appreciated.
If it weren't for the tension, Peace would not be so refreshing.
If it weren't for the cold, what would be so great about warm? If it weren't for the sadness, why would happiness have a name? If it were not for the clouds, there would never be a rainbow.

Happy valentines day!

Happy valentines day! We were thinking about going to Ihop today for pancakes, but sadly, some of us are sick today :( so Ihop came to us! Well, not really. but Heart pancakes, homemade pink whipcream and maple syrup is pretty close!

Wildlife birthday cake :)

Here are some picture of my Little Brother's Birthday cake.

Here's the bird's eye veiw. The animals are all plastic. It would have been cool to try sculpting them out of fondant, But I've never tried it and that would have taken a long time i think. I used Icing tip 233 for the grass (Wilton)

Here is the mountain. I made a much smaller cake and cut some pieces off of it, Put the cake on top, and arranged the pieces to look like rocks. Then out the icing on. The Cougar is Stalking the Deer. (it might be a young elk, we can't tell.)

the Wolf is thinking about going after that elk (at least that's what we think it is LOL )

And here is Mr. Beaver, Working on his Beaver dam, Made of pretzels.

Here is the River

The Mountain.

The bear has a fish in his mouth, but you cant really tell in the pictures because it's a green fish.

The goats. actually i think the brown one is a big horned sheep or something

the whole cake, almost bird's eye view.

Mr. Moose is feeling a bit peckish. he's looking for food in the river.

and the bear :)

Dolls

Well, I found this Cute little idea on pinterest, Mermaid dolls. That picture lead me to this tutorial of how to make 'Bendy Dolls' Here http://theenchantedtree.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-bendy-dolls-and-tutorial.html
I make mine a little differently than the tutorial says. I bout my supplies before I saw that there was a tutorial, so I bout wooden balls instead of wooden beads, and I hotglue that head and hair on. The result is a little messier, but it's still cute :) :)

This one is one i made for my little sister. Its looks like her when she makes a funy face that we call her "Gnomey Face." so I made her a doll, that looked like her Gnomey face. And she wanted me to make it a mushroom dress. So here is Gnomey, Dressed in her Magical Mushroom dress, as camouflage for when she goes to the Magical Mushroom Forest. (i made the mushroom snail too, a long time ago)

and here are two mermaids i made. The one on the Left (Green tail, pinkish red hair) Is supposed to be Ariel from the little mermaid. My Neice Absolutely LOVES mermaids, (Especially Ariel) So i thought she would like these for her birthday which is coming up in Feb. The one on the Right is supposed to be her as a mermaid.

Imagination

Mount on the horse named imagination,
Gallop away to the land of dreams.
Imagination can take you to anywhere you please.
You can fly through a magical cloud of mist,
That makes you feel at ease.
You can run through a field of wildflowers,
Feel sweet breeze through your hair.
You can wall through the forest,
See beautiful things, and breath the beautiful air.
You can stand upon mountain tops,
Dance in the rain, and skip upon lily pads.
Smiles become rainbows, laughs into sunbeams, and giggles, into butterflies. Anything you ever thought of, can always happen here.
You never know what you may find, a treasure, or a foe? You could go back in time, or maybe to the future. Maybe into a fairy tale, or maybe somewhere new.
Your beautiful white horse, Imagination, is always at your side. He often nudges you with his nose, but you have to decide to ride.

Thanksgiving.

This thanksgiving, I am thankful for alot of things. God has given us so much to be thankful for, it is a shame that we take so much for granted sometimes. Everyone does it though. But don't forget to be thankful for the little things too! I have noticed that Kids are good at coming up with little things to be thankful for. My mom teaches a CCD class at our church each sunday before Mass. She does the 2nd graders, and I usually sit in on the class and help out if she needs me to. They where talking about thanksgiving, and my mom had Turkey coloring pages, so they could put what they where thankful for on the turkeys feathers. So they where coming up with what they where thankful for. First the things that have a big impact on our lives, that we always think about at thanksgiving but often forget how blessed we are to have them the rest of the year. Food, Family, Friends, Houses, clothes, Etc. But then they started coming up with things that we don't normally think of, but should be thankful for. Ladybugs, and flowers, little things that we enjoy, but sometimes forget about. I think it was really neat to see then coming up with all these things, that I might never have thought of! And don't forget there's those things that we don't enjoy, but we still need to be thankful for. I don't like Brussels sprouts, but I think I should still be thankful for them, because they are food and some people don't even have yucky old Brussels sprouts! So this Thanksgiving, I am going to try To remember to be thankful, even for the little things, All year. First the big things, My Family, My Friends, My House, Food, Water, Air, The Earth, Clothes, Etc. Then the little things… Butterflies, Clouds, Bubbles, Imagination, Soft warm blankets, little baby giggles, dragonflies, Etc. And then even Yucky old Brussels sprouts, and doing the laundry (because that means I have clothes to wear!) and the dishes ( because that means I have food, and plates to eat off of!) and cleaning out the cat litter box ( because that means I have soft furry kitties to pet!) and all that stuff. But most of all, We should be thankful that God made us, and that He loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, down to earth, to die for us on The Cross. So everyone have a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving, and don't forget the true meaning of thanksgiving!