OUR CRAFTY 4TH OF JULY WEAR

Chaitra called the other day out of pure boredom. She recently accepted a new job where she works 3 nights then she is off 4 days in a row with the kids. NOW she understands my sheer boredom and lack of desire for the stay at home mom gig!! Avani had been at her friend's house and had just come home. Chaitra says, "We are going to have to do some crafts or something with the kids. They are bored. I'm bored. Plus, Paige's Mom did crafts with the girls and she is making us look bad." NOT to be outdone, I quickly head out to buy supplies after looking up various easy crafts online! Avani spent the night Saturday and Sunday AND my nephew spent the night Sunday after we went to go see fireworks. Because I obsess about my kids matching for outings for fear one will get lost and I can say, "he is wearing this...." showing the other child AND I like them to look good in pictures for their scrapbooks they were so cute and easy, we made........

PATRIOTIC FIREWORKS T-SHIRTS

Go here to watch the how-to video.....it is even easier than it looks!!

We used red matte, blue matte and gold sparkle fabric paint on white shirts. It was really easy and they made them ALL by themselves except I made Logan's since he was not there that night. It was cheap too! Hobby Lobby had their $2 tees 50% off, the paints were 99¢ then 50% off and the chenille stems were 77¢ at Dollar Tree. SO for around $6 they made four cute custom fireworks shirts to wear Sunday night at Rockets over Rhema.

Woo hoo! We and by we I mean "I" will not be outdone!

Visit the Rockets over Rhema post to see them wearing the shirts!

We also planned to make some hats! WE meaning I ended up making the hat and I wasn't real impressed. I ended up cutting the straws to make it look better. It was.....hmm.........well only making one should be a clue! It wasn't necessarily hard just tedious for the outcome. You are more than welcome to go here for the instructions and try it yourself. I should have tried a different hat but I already had most of the supplies for this one so I caved.

Here is Isaiah's after alterations:

After all my work he only wore it for this photo then went to play and the dog ate it.............

Then I came up with these little cutie patootie sunglasses for Zay! I just used leftover 4th of July streamer and revamped a pair of foam sunglasses with the ever crafty stapler!! Although he appears less than enthused, he loved them but was over the whole "photo shoot" and ready to go play.

ALPHABET CRAYONS

After the splash pad, we came home to make alphabet crayons. I had seen them on many different blogs but finally found the molds on Let's Explore. I had bought the Letter Ice silicone molds aka alphabet ice cube trays MONTHS earlier with the intention of making them but I completely forgot. Now I see they also offer number molds and ideas for other uses for the molds. Guess I will be trying them too! After cleaning out Elijah's back pack the night before and organizing the left over school supplies I realized they have a ton of broken crayons.

What do you do with broken crayons?

Throw them away, right?

NO SILLY!!

You make alphabet crayons!!

The night before we all sat on Elijah's bedroom floor and peeled the paper off of all the crayons. That part is the most tedious. I have a suggestion ~ once a crayon breaks peel the paper off and save them in a bowl or jar for later use that way you aren't spending tons of time peeling the paper off of tons of broken crayons at once!!

First you stick the broken crayons (NOTE: Do NOT use washable crayons!) into the Letter Ice silicone molds. We decided to make them multi-colored and just stuck random broken crayons into the molds breaking them if needed to fit properly.

Place the molds onto a cookie sheet and put them in the oven at 275 degrees.

The instructions say for 20 minutes but I did it for just 15 because of the nagging children and the crayons came out fine. I also ended up lowering the temperature a bit after several batches and they turned out fine too. It said to let them cool in the oven if you are doing the multi colored crayons so the colors won't mix and turn brown BUT again the nagging children would've sent me off running to the funny farm SO we just took them out VERY CAREFULLY and placed them in the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes. Don't leave them in the refrigerator or freezer too long or they break easier during the take out process.

Finally the moment came and the crayons were removed!

Aren't they cool!!

Some of the letters were harder than others to remove without breaking. They do not stick at all but some are harder than others to get out of the grooves. It gets a little easier with each batch but some letters were impossible for ME. For instance, in about six batches of the complete alphabet (I said we had TONS of broken crayons!) I only managed to get one N, one S, no M and no H. Oh well we had plenty of other letters!!

What do you do with alphabet crayons?

Color with them like any other crayon

Display them in their room spelling out their name

or

use them as a little add on gift at a birthday party like we did when Elijah went to a birthday party the next day. We spelled out his friends' name and wrapped them separately. His friend thought they were cool and they thought I was crafty ~ win win if you ask me!!!

Needless to say we have tons of alphabet crayons now!

We sent some to his friend. Some went home with Avani. The rest I put in a jar so they don't get broke all at once and they look very colorful in the jar on their dresser until they use them all! I will probably give them away at parties too. They wanted to display their name on a shelf BUT since both the boys' have an "H" in their name and we broke every singe "H" this wasn't happening. Maybe next time!!

CANNED GOODS

I did another craft today not realizing there wasn't much for the boys to do on it. Boo hoo for them but few moments of quiet for me!! I am calling it Canned Goods. I will be buying marbles or pebbles and the boys will be given one each time they do, say or act "good". I am hoping that by purposely watching for good in my children that maybe I won't just point out the bad and discipline them. I try to point them out but hopefully I will be looking out for them now. The boys will be given a pebble/marble to put in the Canned Goods can with each good act and a predecided special outing will be earned once the can is full. The can is a little larger than the average can of vegetables but maybe it will entice them to act better and maybe we as parents won't just be pointing out the bad.

WEATHER WHEEL

Elijah had a fever this morning and was sounding croupy which didn't surprise me b/c many on his team have been sick lately so it was just our turn I guess! During the I'm bored phase of the day I decided to do a couple of the crafts I have been planning on doing with the boys. First was the weather wheel in hopes that once complete it will assist the boys in knowing what to wear or if they need a jacket plus it was cute. The original is from another blog and I am sorry but I cannot give credit b/c for the life of me I cannot find that blog where I thought it was. Thanks for the idea anyway! Originally it was on a paper plate with paper suns and snowflakes but I wanted something that could possibly last longer....with my boys and dogs that is a must! I went to Hobby Lobby bought a wooden circle, a wooden snowflake and cactus w/ sun. I think it totaled under two dollars...the supplies definitely NOT the trip to Hobby Lobby!! You don't know me AT ALL if you think I left Hobby Lobby for under two dollars!!

First, we painted the entire piece blue. I used ribbon to divide the wheel into four sections and simply placed a large button in the center. Next we glued on the wood cactus and snowflake after embellishing the snowflake with some glitter glue. We glued on a cotton ball for a cloud and I am still wondering what I am going to use to signify wind. I used stickers I had for scrapbooking for the "getting wet" rain section then again embellished with glitter glue. I still need to get a clothespin and attach an arrow of some sort to tell what the weather will be like that day but then it is done!

MINOR OBSESSIONS MONDAY

Time for Minor Obsessions Monday which includes my not so "minor" obsession of scrapbooking my millions of photos of the kiddos. The new blogs that I LOVE this week are Jills Paper Jems who also posts on A Little Birdie Told Me. She is a fellow scrapbooker with some AMAZING layouts that she sells on ebay. I thought about scraplifting them however with time restraints I decided to simply buy them off of ebay besides the fact that I have no clue how she does the bears!! Go ahead take a looksie but DON'T GO TO EBAY AND OUTBID ME! LOL

BABY ADDISON'S PAINT CAN

My newest (actually finished) project

I finished one of my many planned craft projects today. Luckily it only took about twenty minutes and it was cute. I was needing a paint can for another project I have planned for the boys but I had to buy a 3pk of cans. Not knowing what to do with the other two, I decided to make one of the projects pictured on the label. I did it for my friend Chaitra who will be having her second girl Addison in a few weeks. What exactly she will do with it, I am unsure! Hair bow container maybe but I did it in brown and pink to match her room. Since I don't have girls and have a love of pink, whenever I can use pink for "my" girls Avani, Quinlynne and Addison I will!

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