I made my traditional friendship bracelet but decided to add a little bling.  I added three pink beads in the center of the bracelet.  To do that, all you do is place the bead on the middle two strands of floss when you get to the place where you would like one, and then continue on.

We're working on a Mother's Day project now.  The girls traced their hands on a piece of felt and we are backstitching around the outline.  If we have time this week, I'll teach them french knots but I think most of the time will be spent finishing up these projects.

We're going to cut out the handprint with pinking shears and stitch it to another piece of felt.  I think I might go and pick up some lavender or something to put inside and have it be a little sachet.

I'm making one for my mom.  Don't  you think she'll be super excited to get a hand embroidered handprint sachet from her middle-aged daughter?  I thought so, too.

Here's another project from years ago.  This is the Pinwheel Jacket.   You can find the free pattern at Elann.com but you need to register there to have access to it.

I made this sweater using Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.  It held up surprisingly well over the years.  My daughter is still able to wear this sweater.  It has grown well with her.  The nature of the pattern really allows for it to grow along with the child.  As they get bigger, the collar gets smaller and smaller and you can unroll the sleeves.  I don't think it will last until next fall, but two years worth of wear for a child's garment is not too shabby.

I used a basic grosgrain ribbon to tie the front.  Even that ribbon lasted this whole time!

The pattern is also available in adult sizes.  I may go through my yarn stash and see if I have something suitable to make this for me!

You can use different materials to make these beads as fancy as you'd like.  We used some glossy paper that I had on hand.  Think about using scrapbook paper rolled up and finished with a clear lacquer and then mixed with glass beads for a funky bracelet or bookmark.  Maybe I should try that...

Supplies:

junk mail (magazine paper, brochures, etc...)
toothpicks (we couldn't find ours so we used matches)
Elmer's glue
scissors
string

1. Pick out your paper. We used  paper cut from one of those playground brochures.

2. Get your stick.

3. Cut your paper into triangles. The longer the triangles, the thicker the bead. Experiment with the size you like best. Then, starting with the largest side, start rolling them (right side down) onto the stick.

4. When you get to the end, put some glue along the tip and then keep rolling. You want to have a little excess so you can roll it across the rest of the bead. Your fingers will get a little messy---that's what crafting is all about! Using Mod Podge would be a better option if you're making beads for more than just play.

5.  Here are some of our finished beads. You can then string them onto string, yarn, or beading cord. We just used some old crochet thread I had lying around (turquoise/silver...oooh la la). The girls loved them!

The book comes with 4 plastic strips that you lay on top of the pages.  You move from one line to the next adding drops of the glossy band gel in the pattern shown.  There is enough gel (in pink, purple, blue, and green) to make at least 14 bracelets.  We were able to make more than that.

The gel could get a little messy (especially letting my 5 yr. old do it herself) but it is really easy to clean up off of tables, books, and hands.  If you aren't able to wipe it up right away, let it dry and it will just peel right up.  Some of her bracelets turned out a bit lopsided because she wasn't able to squeeze out the gel as evenly as an older child might, but she loved them all and enjoyed the process!  That's what matters, anyway.

The bracelets take 24 hours to dry.  Once they are dry, you just peel them off the plastic and put them on.  Squeezing the ends together helps them fuse.  You are able to take them on and off  but after a few times, they start to lose their shape.  They certainly aren't meant to be long-term.

There is another version of the book that is a little less expensive.  That is a drawback to this product considering the bands don't last forever.   I also don't know where to find more glossy band gel.

I asked Eva for her final thoughts:

Favorite part: making the bracelets

Sad part: that the gel is all gone and it was messy

My final thoughts?

I loved being able to watch my little girl be creative and mix the colors and patterns.  She was so proud of her creations and wanted to share with her friends and mine.  Because we could only make 4 bracelets a day (because of the strips and drying time) she was able to make something several days in a row.

Do you have a favorite Klutz book?

This book was a gift from a representative of Klutz but I was not asked to write a review.  These opinions are my own.

Fresh off my crafting disasters, I went to a craft day held by our local group Lincoln Handmade.  I thought I'd keep it simple and just make some flower barrettes.  My daughter really loves putting those in her hair now and all of the supplies were on sale at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago so I figured I'd go for it.  Easy enough, right?

Supplies:

artificial flowers

wire cutters

glue gun

alligator hair clips

Using your wire cutters (thanks to Christine for letting me borrow hers), snip off most of the stem.  Or, you can get the flowers that slide right off the stem.  Guess what?  Most of them do.  I was an idiot and snipped most of them before realizing that I could have skipped this step.

Next you want to put a big glob of hot glue over the hole.  You should still have a little bit of green plastic in there from the top of the flower.  Make sure you cover that with a big bit of glue.  That should hold all the layers of your flower in place.  Add a strip of glue just below the hole and place your clip on top.

I held the clip open so I didn't glue it shut.  I didn't even have to learn that tip the hard way.  I thought of it before it happened.

Things got a little crazy after I was finished.  I ended up making 25 of these.  I know we don't need that many but I used up all the clips and flowers.  Now I have some quick birthday gifts on hand.

The box was packed so nicely!  I received two jars of applesauce, one jar of cinnamon, a bunny cookie cutter, a couple of recipes and instructions.*  We decided to make the bunny place holder.  You know those ornaments you make at Christmas using applesauce and cinnamon?  These are one and the same.

You mix 1/2 cup of applesauce with one jar of cinnamon.  This was the beginning of the end for my bunnies.  I put a little too much applesauce in the bowl and never quite recovered from that.  I thought I could make up the difference with flour...which you can, for small amounts.  Let's just say, you should measure.

The instructions say to mix it up with your hands.  Enter: kids.  My son tried it.  It was really mushy.  *remember to measure*  He didn't last very long.  But, he did hang around with me and told me I was doing a good job.  I love that kid.

Next you'll want to roll it out on wax paper.  I took this picture before I added more flour.  It was still too wet.

Cut out your bunnies.  This cookie cutter is really cute.  You can make them any shape you want.  I had some dough leftover and made an egg.  Okay, it looked more like an oval and less like an egg.  I tried.

The instructions clearly say to mix in all the flour so no white is visible.  The instructions mock me as I don't heed them.  I did follow the instructions and put some cinnamon on the wax paper.

Bake them at 200 degrees for 2 hours.

Once they are cool you can decorate them with glitter, ribbons, etc... and make them super cute.  They are meant to be place card holders but mine are destined for the blog and the blog alone.  They do smell really great.  Maybe I'll wrap them up like a sachet and put them in my underwear drawer.  Or not.

I hope you all enjoyed this craft adventure.  I'm sure you can learn from my mistakes and put me to shame on this project.  The kids like them and had fun.  But, they like the applesauce even more.  Yum.

We're going to dye Easter eggs this afternoon.  I hope I can end my string of horrible Easter craft luck.

*I received this product for free from Musselman's. All content provided in this post is my own opinion.

image via MarthaStewart.com

I just spent 20 minutes cleaning off my table and getting it ready to dye Easter eggs.  I bought some basic dye kits and was going to make them special by adding vinyl stickers to the eggs for some really cool designs.  But, I've been out of town for a week and now I can't find where the dye kits are.  I know where I left them.  I also know I have two kids that kept moving them.  They have no idea where they are either but they are not denying that they moved them.  So... instead of a lame tutorial by me, I'll show you what Martha did.  Of course, she's got over the top designs on some but the sheer amount techniques is astounding.

I now present to you, Martha's gazillion ways to dye an Easter Egg.

Hint:  save those colorful eggshells!  I'm going to show you how to use them in other projects!

I personalized the bucket for each girl using my Cricut Expression.  I cut out letters using the Simply Sweet font cartridge.  I can't remember the exact size I used but it is around 1".  I cut them out of green vinyl.  It only took me a few minutes to add the names to the buckets and it was well worth it.  It added a nice little touch to the party favors.  A little personalization goes a long way!

We filled each bucket with some lip gloss, nail polish, a brush, some ponytail holders, a hairband, and a flower clip (made by Wendy).  These four and five year old girls loved it all!  They had such a great time.

I can't wait to see what Target has waiting for me this week!