DIY Archives - Page 13 of 13 - A Golden Afternoon: Simplified Home Living

Camper Crayons

My little buddy and I decided crayons in the shape of a camper would give his 4th birthday party an extra touch of awesomeness. I immediately ordered the only camper mold (super good deal) I could find. What I didn’t expect was this project to be one of the most relaxing, child-involved projects I’ve done TO THIS DAY.
Start with any chocolate mold or even the synthetic rubber ice cube trays from IKEA would work.

Now the fun part. What phrase is always said while kids are using crayons?

“Please, don’t peel the paper off”.

How cool would you be to say, “Please, take the paper off of all 64 of these crayons”? Very Cool.

They did this for 45 lovely minutes and never fought once. We had a great chat about our favorite colors.

Any method is acceptable. Boots are optional.

These crayons are non-toxic.

I love them.

Leonard caught between his morning nap and mid-morning nap.

Melt desired colors in microwave and pour in the mold. My molds were not microwave safe. Leave them to set for 20 min on the counter or put them in the freezer to speed up the process.

My molds were a little big but I would definitely try this again with smaller molds and my stash of crayon nubs.

The 5 minute hair bow

For those of you who have not yet discovered the ease of creating with felt:

Felt requires no hemming, tweaking, or edge finishing. It hides a multitude of mistakes and doesn’t demand hours of attention for a successful project.

I had an hour to myself on a lovely (and quite golden) Sunday afternoon. My wonderful husband took the kids on a nature walk (I know…yes, he is quite awesome). I love making things with the kids, but sometimes it’s nice to start and finish a project without glue spilling on an antique chair (yep…whole bottle of Mod Podge. I couldn’t find the picture), putting paint on our dog’s tail, or just the constant questioning of my technique and whether I’m sure I am doing it the right way (Faith is very creative so she comes up with a LOT of alternatives).

What to make?

Faith asked for a red bow for school to make her uniform less boring.
I have a lot of extra red felt from a Christmas project I had good intentions for but never started.
I’ve been try to find a worthy use for some lace my Grandma gave me.
I want to actually finish this for an immediate sense of completion.
I just got new Martha Stewart glue I’ve been wanting to test for fabric usage.

The 5 minute red felt hair ribbon with lace was created!

Start with a 1 inch wide by 12 inch long piece of felt.
Cut a “V” on the ends for the ribbon shape.
Put the base of the cut “V” shape at the ends of the hair clip being used. Secure with glue along both sides until they meet in the middle.
Take the remaining piece of felt from the middle and push down until it forms 2 loops. Glue to felt below.
Tightly wrap a piece of lace (or even a piece of the felt) around the middle a few times and cut so the seam is underneath. Glue.

DONE!

Old to New

I LOVE finding old things that are just aching to have life again. This window (glass removed in this photo) is on its way to a wall in our home. This project has been super easy to make and I just finished hanging it up yesterday (*smiles ear to ear*)! Stay tuned!

Owl cupcakes to celebrate 1 year!

Craziness! It’s already been a year!

The official time I started my blog was actually back in August of 2010, but I wanted to get things just right on the design end before posting. It’s kind-of a joke when I think of it now because it was FAR from nice and my posts were pretty sad-looking. I knew they were not awesome, but you have to start somewhere, right? I did like my first real banner above, though. I kind-of miss it.

It’s been a great year for this little space. I started my first month of viewers with just a few of my closest buddies and some obliging family members. Now, I am astonished at grateful at having over 15,000 people visiting in just a single month!! Wow, people! There must be something just a teeny tiny bit likeable goin’ on here.

*blush*

In honor of this special day, I am sharing a cupcake with you all. Yeah, I kinda thought you would like it too. My sister actually made these back in April for my Miss F’s birthday I just totally forgot to post them. I guess it was meant to be. I saw them on Pinterest and asked my sister to make them and since she’s awesome, she said yes.