Handmade Valentine's Coloring Card

So Valentine's Day is nearly a month away. I just made some of these for the boys' school treats next month. I'm considering on selling these (LOCAL TO ME ONLY). I figure it can save you the time from searching for treats at the store. Bonus is that I'll do the work for you 😉. 

Selling 24 for $18. You get to choose up to 3 designs. They will include the crayons and treat bags with an adhesive seal. For an additional $2 charge I can also include the names for the "To" and "From" with a name list that you will provide to me. 

Lmk, if you're interested! Mahalo!

80's Style NYE Party

This past NYE we hosted an 80's themed party and dressing up the part was required. Everyone's costume could be anything 80's related so sky was the limit and this would fare for a fun and interesting evening. Since everyone would be coming in costume we decided to also set up a photo booth with a few props.

For our family of four it was pretty easy to decide on what we would wear except for my hubby who kept changing his mind on his costume. With the holiday season being so busy we didn't have enough time to get too elaborate on our costumes and I wanted to use things that we already have or could find easily at the Goodwill or elsewhere for cheap.

Our two boys were totally easy to dress up, they ended up being Run DMC. All they needed were a pair of black track pants, black shirts, fedora hats, and gold necklaces.  Real simple! The lil kid already had a hand me down Run DMC t-shirt from his big brother, so that was perfect.  I also was actually able to find the lil kid a black Adidas track jacket at the Goodwill for $3.99 :) and fedora hats from The Dollar Tree.  For the gold necklaces they just wore some gold beaded NYE necklaces that I got for party props.

For myself I pretty much had an idea on what I was going to wear but the decision on how to coordinate the outfit was the more daunting task.  After searching on Pinterest and googling ideas I got set on some kind of Jazzercise'ish/Let's Get Physical outfit. When I found the lil kid's jacket at Goodwill, I also found for myself a pair of bright pink and black jogging shorts that were still brand new with tags on salvaged item from Target for $3.99. I already had on hand at home a pair of black tights, an old t-shirt that I cut up, and a white tube top.  All I needed to complete my outfit was a pair of leg warmers and gloves. I didn't realize how expensive those things were! I knew there had to be a way to DIY it myself on the cheap. 

I remember on Pinterest that leg warmers would be easy to make by using the sleeves of old sweaters. So I went back to Goodwill to hunt for some cheap sweaters on color tagged special but that was a bust until I saw something at the end of the aisle.  There were pairs of cheap colorful socks and I also remembered on Pinterest seeing how to make baby legs from socks...also a friend of mine has done so herself. I examined the socks and figured that they were stretchy and long enough for me so I could experiment. 

 Based on tutorials when making baby legs you'd have to cut right where the heel part is and that would be a perfect length for a baby after sewing up a seam. However, I needed that extra material to fit for an adult. So I just snipped off the toe area and sewed a seam. Then since the heel part tuckered out, I snipped a little bit off so it was sticking out so much and sewed the hole right back up.  Then there you have it a pair of cheap DIY adult leg warmers ;).

Now for my gloves I found a similar matching in color pair of socks at the dollar store. I snipped a little bit of the toe part off, sewn a seam, and sewn finger holes. Since I was pressed for time I just snipped a little hole for the thumb parts and put some anti fraying liquid to keep it from unraveling. Threw on my outfit, did a half up pony tail to the side with a cotton headband I used as a "scrunchie", slapped on some makeup, and used some of the NYE beaded necklaces.  Outfit complete!

Now for my hubby he kept going back and forth on his outfit.  He had the bright idea for us to go as American Gladiators or as Prince and Apollonia in the movie Purple Rain.  If we had time I so could make that happen but there was no way I'd be able to pull that off in the few days had to prepare.  Then I came up with the idea of him going as Bob Ross from that PBS painting show, he had the outfit all he needed was to borrow an Afro wig. Another option was to go as Tom Cruise in Risky Business, but hubby doesn't own tighty whities and I wasn't about to go buy a pack just for the party.  Then I came up with the wonderful idea of him going as Cheech from the movie Up in Smoke ^_^!

I didn't have the yellow tank top/tee, red beanie, or red suspenders so I had to improvise a little.  I could've sworn that my hubby had a black vest but it must've gotten lost in our moving shuffle from the year before. So I ended up doing a DIY vest of my own instead.  I had an old black t-shirt and just  cut off the sleeves and shaped the front to look like a vest. Since I was making photo booth props that consisted of mustaches there was one perfect to be a Cheech mustache. I traced the handle bar mustache onto some black felt and added double sided tape for hubby to wear. Then hubby threw on a pair of khaki pants, a white ribbed tank top, the DIY vest, the mustache, and a black beanie. Hubby normally shaves his head so he was supposed to wear my old mullet wig under his beanie but he opted out from doing so. It wasn't necessary since his costume was still easily identifiable even if I didn't have time to DIY a huge fake "joint" ;)-.

We had Bruce Springsteen, Ghostbusters, Marty McFly, a few more 80's exercisers, Sloth from The Goonies, Mr. T, 80's teeny boppers, Madonna,and Punky Brewster join the party.  The night was filled with lots of food even if it was just a pupu potluck, laughs, and fun with the photobooth. When it was time to countdown to the new year, we all gathered outside and did four countdowns since we kept going by people's different clocks times. LOL! Nonetheless, we Chee Huu'd a few times and rang in the new year with everyone.

The party turned out to be a success and a few of us talked about doing another themed party in a few months. I think we settled on a superhero theme for the next one and I've already got ideas for our family costumes. I'm already thinking up ideas on how to improve the backdrop for the next photo booth.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 EVERYONE!

xoxo,
Adriana

Made By Me Monday: Wrapped Earbuds

I know I'm not the only one who has neatly put their MP3 player earbuds neatly in your pocket or bag and to only take them out later and they're a knotted mess.  This not only has happened to me everytime but the worse time was when I accidentally washed my earbuds in my gym jacket and it took me FOREVER to untangle them. See...

So of course while perusing Pinterest I find a DIY on how to prevent your earbuds from tangling by wrapping the cords with embroidery thread.  Hmmm....makes sense since it will make the cords thicker and the rubber won't "stick" to each other. The one site that intrigued me was Kiss Me Awake's post that does a friendship bracelet type of weave AND she included a video tutorial!  How cool is that? 

I had never weaved friendship bracelets before as a kid so I felt a little intimidated trying this one out but after watching the tutorial it actually helped out a lot. I got my supplies from my toy store Joanns and got going a few days ago.  Once I got started it got pretty easy to do and started coming out pretty cool. I had hoped to finish the whole thing today but I still have one side of the earbud to finish.  These kids kept demanding my attention LOL...well my lil manapua kept running a fever since I think he's starting to teethe and has been super grouchy and only wants mommy. 

Go and check out Kiss Me Awake's tutorial on the how to and here's how mines turned out so far.

Made by Me Monday: Sponge Water Toy

Today marks the first installment of "Made by Me Monday", it will be posts about things that I have made craft wise, food wise, and such. Hopefully this will be a weekly thing so that kind of gives me the incentive to try out one easy craft project a week.

So the first easy craft project that I'm going to share are the cheap and easy sponge water toys. I found it on Pinterest via Makeandtakes website. This easy craft project ONLY needed THREE materials that you can easily find at your local dollar store. I already had two of the three items at home and I bought a 10-pack of sponges from the local dollar store. I have yet to take pictures of the lil booger in action with the sponge toys. This past weekend would have been perfect but it was too hot for him to play in the backyard since we don't have good shading. I'll have to update this post when I do have pics of that. In any case here's the how to.

SPONGE WATER TOY

Supplies:
Sponges
Zip ties
Scissors

Directions:
-Cut sponges lengthwise into threes.
-Gather sponge pieces and wrap zip tie around them in the middle
-Pull on zip tie to tighten.
-Snip off excess portion of zip tie
-HAVE FUN!!

Rah Rah Ah Ah Ah...

This post isn't about Lady Gaga, but making my own homemade pom poms. Heh, that part of Bad Romance just popped into my mind and gave me the idea for the post title.

Anyway, it's college football season and we were lucky enough to catch the season opener game for the University of Hawaii on our recent trip home. Also, this weekend we get to watch another UH Warrior football game in Las Vegas. Whoot Whoot!! We got a bunch of Warrior gear and we're all good to go.

However, I felt we were missing something and after watching another game on tv it dawned on me that it was pom poms. I was watching the crowd in this particular game and they were shaking around pom poms in the school colors. Then it gave me the idea to make on my own so I went to the best tutorial site...YouTube.

I found some that were made with crepe paper and they looked pretty lame. Until I found a tutorial that really caught my eye and seemed really easy to follow. I can thank Pinellas County HIPPY Helps for this tutorial. I'm currently writing up this post on my phone so I'll have to update with the actual tutorial later.

For this pom pom creation it only cost me less than $5 to make and I just used three materials. Here's the how to with a minor addition.

Homemade Pom Poms

Materials:

Plastic tablecovers (In any color you like.)
Scissors

Electoral tape



Directions:

Open up the tablecloth completely, fold in half, and cut in half. Keep cutting the tablecloth in half until you get squares around the size of 12"x12" or 14"x14" depending on the original size of the tablecloth. When done cutting they would look like this below.

Next start layering your cut pieces in alternating colors using a total of 20 sheets. I used clothespins to help hold the sheets together so they don't slip around when cutting.

Once the sheets are clipped together start cutting about inch wide strips one half of the sheet stopping about a half inch toward the center. One half will look like this below.

Then continue to do the same on the other half.

Next take off one of the clothespins and start gathering the uncut center. I gathered the center in a fan like hold till I reached the end.

Once gathered, wrap the electrical tape tightly around the center about five times.

Lastly, start fluffing each piece on both sides. Separate each piece gently to alternating sides. Once done the pom pom will be full and you won't even see the electric taped center. Here's how they will look.

I'm going to make another set using the other UH colors. Can't wait to bring these to the game this weekend.

GO WARRIORS!!

Here's the tutorial video that you all can watch.  Happy crafting!



Colored Balls...

So with this whole phenom of Bakerella's Cake Balls I jumped on the wagon in making these now. 

The thing I didn't mention in my previous post when I first made them is that I found a WAY cheaper way to get candy melts.  Rather than using pre-packaged Wilton brand candy melts that you can find already colored, I actually found chocolate and vanilla candy melts in the bulk foods section of my local grocery store at Winco.  The Wilton candy melts come in bags of 14 oz. at around $2.99 regular price.  Whereas, in the bulk bins I got my candy melts for $2.38/lb! Even though I would have to use oil based dye to color the white melts it still cheaper than buying the melts pre-packaged and I can deal with the coloring part. 

If you have a bulk foods section in your local grocery store go and look if you can find the candy melts.  I've been shopping at the grocery store for the past 10 years and have only really discovered it in the recent months.  I don't know why I never thought of buying most of my grocery items in that section, it would have helped me save some money in the past.

With that said this past Easter I made some Devil's Food cake balls just to play around with flavor.  With this batch I ended up using vanilla flavored candy melts and used oil based dye to color them baby blue and lavender. 


I had to play around with the dyes a bit to get the color I wanted.  I first started out with the blue coloring and used a toothpick dipped into the dye and let it drip into the melted chocolate.  After a few tries I got the color I desired.  With this batch of cake balls I think I made about 80, so I colored half of it blue and the other half lavendar.  When the first batch was done I still had some blue coating left, so I just added more candy melts and added red dye till I reached the lavendar shade I wanted.

After this batch was done and taste test commenced.  I got a thumbs up from my Lil Booger and friends!  Although they still preferred the red velvet cake instead LOL.  It was good experimentation for me and try to get the cake balls coated nicer. 

Here's how they turned out and a few pics of my supplies.

Vanilla Candy Melts



Oil Based Candy Colors

Vanilla Melts Colored Lavender

Light Blue Colored Cake Balls



Lavender Colored Cake Balls



I WON!!

I totally forgot I had entered a giveaway at the blog site Rad Linc Crafts nearly a month ago since March was National Craft Month.  The giveaway was for a book on how to create nylon flowers and a small kit to get me started. 

I absolutely forgot that I even entered this giveaway and only remembered when I had seen a comment posted on my DIY Nail Polish post made be Fe at Rad Linc Crafts telling me that I won.  Again, sorry Fe that I didn't get in touch with you any sooner.

I am so excited that I won since I've been wanting to try my hand in making nylon flowers since I've already made fabric ones already.  I don't have a picture sample of my own to show you how a nylon flower looks like but you can check out one of Rad Linc Crafts' tutorials on "Making Nylon Flowers, Part 3: Making Plumerias" to get an idea.

In addition to checking out that tutorial, check out her entire blog.  She's got other great craft tutorials and recipes as well.

I can't wait to receive my giveaway prize and start making some nylon flowers.  I'll of course be sure to write up a blog when I do ;o).

It's T-Shirt Time! Criss Cross Technique...

After doing the weaving technique I wanted to try out other ideas, so I went back to YouTube to find other cool t-shirt cutting techniques.

The one idea that caught my eye was by Salinabear and she has several other tutorial vids that are just as cool.  She did this really cool criss cross technique that intrigued me and I had never seen before.  It looked a little complicated so I had to use an old t-shirt of my hubby's as a guinea pig before I even started on the actual shirt that I was interested in cutting up. 

This technique requires you to cut tiny holes into the shirt for weaving the strips into.  I ran into a little problem with that since I had a hard time finding where I actually cut the holes.  I should actually clarify that the video tutorial says to cut tiny holes but I ended up just poking holes with my scissors instead since I wanted to make sure that when I weaved the strips through they would stay put and not fall out.

Anyway if you follow my technique of making holes, I HIGHLY recommend that you mark your holes with tailor's chalk on dark material or disappearing water soluble pen on light material.  I ended up missing a hole when I practiced on my guinea pig shirt.

Here are some pics of my cutting process along with the actual tutorial vid.

Cut back into strips and stretch out.



Separate your strips to be tied in 4 different sections.

The final project.





I followed just the criss cross cutting technique and adjusted the shirt to fit me better since it's one of my hubby's old XL t-shirts.  Here is the video tutorial by Salinabear and be sure to check out her other tutorials as well. 

Happy Cutting!