The North Pole Sign Holder

I just had to share this quick and easy North Pole Sign Holder I created for our school holiday celebration with you.  It's super easy and is so cute to put on display.

I made a base about 11" square from a 1x12" board.  For the pole I used a 6' 2x2" post.  Then I topped it off with a 3" knob ball from Hobby Lobby.  I think I made the whole thing for about $15!

I painted each part seperately and knew I didn't want to tackle stripes going up it, so I picked up some cute holiday ribbon I wound up the pole.  I secured it with hot glue.

I screwed 2" screws along the board where I wanted my signs to hang askew.

For the signs I cut out arrows from 3/4" thick MDF that were about 18" wide.  This size easily accommodates cute scrapbook paper with letters cut from my Cricut.  I attached little D rings on the back for easy hanging.

Easy and fun!  You could personalize it any way you want!

I have some great Posts I created to partition off the area for Santa too I'll share next!

Happy Monday Friends!

Wood You Like To Craft Baby Jesus Ornaments

We are so excited to kick off the week over at Wood You Like To Craft!
This month the gals decided to do an Ornament Exchange with a Baby Jesus theme.
(enter SQUEAL of delight here!)

Make sure to head over and check out our full tutorial at Wood You Like To Craft.
Then make sure to check back each day this week to see what Wendy, Melinda and Krystal will share!

Also, I joined in this year with an online ornament exchange. I haven't done one for years and this was so much fun!  Do you do ornament exchanges too?  We'd love to hear your tips and fun stories!  Here's the first one I got in the mail~isn't it so cute?  I'll keep sharing them as they arrive~it's like Christmas every day when the mail comes!

Happy Monday friends!

Two Weeks Late Halloween Fun!

I know, I'm more than 2 weeks late sharing Halloween pictures.

Plus, we Crafty Sisters have basically fallen off the edge of the planet.

I was going through my pictures today and couldn't help but smile looking at my little girl who is not so little anymore.  Stop growing!:)

 She was Winnifred Sanderson from Hocus Pocus this year.
Trying to find a pattern that would work.....impossible.  Trying to find the right colored material......even harder.  I was pleased with the result even after scrapping the gold printing that should have been down the front of the jacket.

We found all of our fabric at JoAnns. The shoes were an absolute lucky find at the thrift store for $4!  Her necklace I put together from bead sets and a brooch from Hobby Lobby that was all on sale 50% off.  The wig was found on ebay for a steal~it's actually Disney's Queen of Hearts wig.

I got such a hoot out of her getting into character.  We had Candace's youngest with us that night since Candace and the rest of her boys were running a room in their local neighborhood haunted house.  They spent the night autopsying aliens while we begged for candy.  We hit my folks neighborhood this year and used their house as home base.  I'm not sure which I enjoyed more, watching the kids dump their stash out on their floor to count it or watching my parents watching them,  It was a sweet night and the most beautiful warm weather!

As for Crafty Sisters......The last few months and even the last year have really been one of personal retrospect.  I turned 40.  Yikes,  That seems like a swear word almost...hee hee.  I celebrated 20 years of marriage to my man, that's even more eye brow raising.  Our families are the most important and when you start to feel like they aren't, it makes you take a step back.  When I have more pictures on my computer of crafts than my kid......it makes you take pause.  I've actually taken time in the last few months to craft for myself.  And I haven't taken any pictures of them.  Candace and I and our Sweet Little Mother have all been put back into serving the youth in our church~so we've got lots of fun projects we've been doing and want to share...they just might not have a picture by picture tutorial, but it's the idea that counts right?  We've loved being able to share with you and we've missed you!

We've got a few Christmas ideas to post this week even!  Hooray!

Happy Wednesday...school is almost out for Thanksgiving!

Crafty Sisters WYLTC June

Just in case you missed last week's Wood You Like To Craft "SUMMER" theme~make sure to head over and check out the fun ideas!

Wood You Like To Craft

We shared our super easy and quick Garden Stakes made from cedar wood fencing and other spare parts.  We made ours in the shape of our feline friends but you could do just about anything.  A great project for the summer with the kids!

Happy Monday!

Teacher Appreciation Door Decorations 2014

Finally as promised~Teacher Appreciation

 Door Decorations for 2014!

This year I got to do 3 doors, one for my daughter's teacher:

                                        

This year they have been learning all about Idaho State History~so Cowboys, Indians, Pioneers and all things cool about Idaho the famous Gem State and producer of Potatoes!  Mrs. West has been phenomenal and I'm glad that my girl got her for a teacher since she is retiring. I found an old movie poster for my inspiration and painted a version of her.  It's really quite hard to do something~paint, paper~whatever on a scale this size.  I've learned to "GO BIG OR GO HOME"!  My daughter helped me paint and I cut all the letters out with my Cricut.

One for our Librarian:

This one was easy~just the idea since we were seated near our favorite librarian when we went to go see Wicked a few weeks ago.  Can I just say~WE LOVED IT!  There is no other music played in the car or house right now except Wicked music.:)  I cut everything out of paper and painted on the skin color for Glinda and the facial features.  Letters I cut out with my Cricut.

One for our Head Janitor/Mr. Does Everything for our school:

I painted this one again.  Paint sounds crazy right~it actually is a lot easier than trying to cut all that paper to scale.  I cut him out of paper first and then painted him.  Mr. Ernie collects all thing Ernie, as you can imagine, and knew this would be perfect for him.  I was delighted to hear that he was going to have it laminated to hang up later.  Cool!

Here are the other doors this year~some really fun ones!  I especially liked the Rock Star one, The Minion was hilarious and still makes me smile every time I walk by it and of course the Taco's for the Lunch Ladies.

We decorate every staff members doors for the week and they keep them up until the end of the year.  It doesn't seem like a very big deal but our teachers absolutely love it!  I have offered to do all the door decorations next year~sorta like my parting gift to the school as my daughter will move on to Middle School~oh, that sounds like a curse word to my ears!  I'm thinking I'm a bit crazy and I didn't think the PTO would take me up on it!

I'm always loving to hear what everyone else does for Teacher Appreciation Week.  We provide a potluck lunch every day for our staff, usually with a theme like Baked Potato Bar, Soup, Salad Bar, stuff like that.  We do gift card drawings each day for our teachers.  We decorate their doors and then each class has their own list of things to do each day~anything from a sweet treat, bringing in a flower or even just a thank you card.  It's really a tender week for all involved and it feels so good to give back.

What do you do at your school?

Dollhouses

Looking for a fun project to do with your kids?
This Dollhouse from Creatology was a perfect project for rainy days.

Do you remember the Gingerbread houses Candace and I put together using these same wooden puzzle dollhouses?

We picked them up at Michael's~and if you use a coupon you can get them for less than $10.  They come in all shapes and sizes.
                                               
It took us a couple of hours to put it together, making sure to glue it together along the way. Then we did a quick coat of spray paint inside and out, adding some contrast to the roof, windows and railings.

The funnest part was heading down to Hobby Lobby and picking out our flooring and wall paper!
We used felt for the flooring and scrapbook paper for the wall paper.  It actually wasn't too bad installing it.  We hot glued on the floor and Mod Podged on the paper.

My daughter even made "artwork" for her walls from images she found on the internet.

It turned out pretty cute and is now hauled all over the house leaving a trail of dolls and toys behind it.  Not bad for less than $20 right?  Now to create the rest of the block.....

Guess what's coming in less than 2 weeks?  Teacher Appreciation Week!  My head is whirling with door decoration ideas!  What do you do at your school to show your appreciation?

Happy Monday friends!

Because of Him

I'm up early and putting the finishing touches on my Easter lesson for my little Sunday School kids, making sure the Easter baskets are filled, treats all in place.  I've watched this video several times and love the perspective it gives for what Easter is really all about.  Enjoy it and we hope you have a wonderful day filled with family!

Fat Cat Daddio's

 

I'm not sure where this last month went~seriously!
Part was scrambling to fill orders before Spring Break,
then 10 days visiting my in-laws in Tennessee without my husband~yes, I know weird but fun!
Then it's been scrambling to catch up from being gone.

Oh, did I mention that my computer died and I thought I lost everything~because really, who backs stuff up over the last 9 years?  Not me.

Amidst it all though my daughter has the chance to be part of the Holiday House Spring Boutique in their new Kid's Crafting Section, which is a brilliant idea!  So as parents we thought this was a unique idea and challenge for our little 10 year old.

First I told her to create a Company Name and Logo:

This is her original drawing but she liked her second one better~at least the colors.

So we told the logo guy to run with whichever image he thought would work.
This is the final result:

My husband has a great contact for logo's, Deeper Designs~this guy is brilliant, amazing and wonderful!  We had so much fun working with him on the logo!  It was so fun to see her drawing come to life!

This last summer we grew a ton of catnip!  It's amazing stuff and so potent!  Our kitties go crazy for it!  We've packaged it up and it's ready to please the finickiest of kittens! (My daughter is going to love that I used "Finnick" in some way referring to her~ahhhhh swoon!)  Stuff you get in the store just doesn't compare so she was really excited to put her Fat Cat Daddio's seal of approval on it!

We of course had to print up some shirts!  I have to admit it was pretty adorable to see my hubby sporting his Fat Cat Daddio's shirt to lacrosse practice to show his boys.  He's a good Daddy.:)

Last but not least are the fun Greeting cards!  Avery is always busy drawing~always.  We buy her more notebooks than toys if you can believe it.  I thought it would be fun to share some of her little drawings since her homemade cards are the favorites or our family and friends.  We printed off some of her cute drawings and mounted them on cute colored polka dotted cards.  Did I get a decent picture before taking them over to the boutique~no!

Fun stuff right?
I even spent most of the day creating her own little Etsy store, because I love Etsy!

Fat Cat Daddio's

 There are so many great things there and I love that they are handmade.  If you get a chance make sure to check it out~I think I need to work on her little banner some more.  Any and all feedback is welcome!

So what do you guys think?  Crazy to do this?  Funner than 100 degree heat Lemonade stands?
Happy Friday Friends and here's hoping you have an AMAZING weekend~SpRiNg is here!

WYLTC Welcome Spring!

With all the crazy weather going on across the country lately we thought 

this month's theme for Wood You Like To Craft was quite fitting~ Welcome Spring!

Here's our Grassy Mound of Flowers that we put together!

Pretty simple and easy!

Make sure to stop by to see what the other Gals have put together~Wendy did an adorable kite yesterday

that we just love!

Happy Tuesday friends~we hope the sun is shining wherever you are today too!

Happy Valentines Day!!

Happy Valentines Day from Crafty Sisters!
Had to share the very very last moment Valentines we hurried to throw together last night.
Of course we had to follow our tradition of pictures with pets and these kitties were such good sports wearing their pretty dresses again.:)

I let my daughter add some scraps of paper and sticker her heart away this year.

I love how easy Picasa is to use to add text to pictures.  Valentines are easy to make this way!

We hope you have a wonderful Valentines Day!
XOXO :)

Ottomans Part Three!

Remember these beauties Candace recovered a few years ago?

Well 4 boys later.....she was ready to toss them in her house purge she did over Christmas.
Of course I was more than happy to be her charitable recipient.

I found some really cute and super thick quality upholstrey material at Home Fabrics for about $20.  It's a gorgeous houndstooth pattern that is almost a taupe/dark grey color on a creamy white.  An hour later I now have these!

I didn't try to make a pattern from her old material~I just measured each of the sides so every thing would be a crisp square.

One thing I did do was seam around a square piece to cover the bottom.  I hate that black cloth that most furniture pieces have on the bottom~besides where do you find that stuff and why does it rip so easy?

This was super easy and makes the ottomans look even more finished.

What do you think?

Phoebe

Callie

Now if they survive these two kittens.....that's another story.  

Yes, I'm feeling like an animal hoarder.  This is what happens when your daughter baby sits the neighbors cat who also happens to be pregnant....and then she baby sits the kittens......it was bound to happen.  They were her birthday present and I told her "these are the last pets we will ever have while she lives under our roof."  And yes, those are Build A Bear outfits~they fit little real kitties too!

WYLTC Valentine Love Birds

This week Valentines is in the air for the ladies at Wood You Like To Craft!

We are up first with our "Love Is Tweet" Love Birds.

Head over to Wood You Like To Craft to check out our latest project and make sure to check back each day this week to see what Wendy, Melinda and Krystal have up their sleeves!

P.S.  Where did January go?

Pinewood Derby Time!

It's Pinewood Derby Time of year!
How many of you participate in the Boy Scouts of America Pinewood Derby with your kids?
Above is a picture of our two oldest brothers sporting their winning car and trophy.  They'll probably kill me for putting it on here but I couldn't resist!
Candace is busy preparing for her son and I got the chance to cut one out for a neighbor boy.
I never, ever, ever, did I mention ever....thought I'd be doing this but how do you refuse a little boy who brings a picture to your house and begs you to help him?

I seriously stressed bullets over it~I did manage to snap a quick snapshot before I turned it over to  him.  The actual car next to his reference picture.  I tried~I'm going to go to the race to cheer him on now!

My Dremel was the most successful tool~I don't know what else you could use to carve these guys out.
My daughter and I spent some time peeking for more inspiration cars and here were a few of our favorites from around the web.  Enjoy!
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Aren't these fun?  Last night my hubby actually arrived home as we were polishing the axles and it was so fun to hear his stories from childhood about his cars.  I learned all about the art of the axle, the perfect wedge...and it was hilarious to hear him insist on us shining the car up with a thick coat of polyurethane.  Yes, my hubby talking about paint and "crafts".  I will admit I had a glisten in my eye as I listened to him.:)

What are your most successful cars?  
Best shapes?  Best tips?  Do share!
Have a fabulous weekend!