Altered Candy Box Dots Gift

I am so excited for tomorrow night! I get to go to dinner with my long time friends who I don't get to see nearly enough! We are just going to Panera, but with my friends, it might as well be Disneyland. :) I love those ladies!!
Anyway, we get together to celebrate the birthdays that happen during each month and so, there are 4 friends we are celebrating tomorrow. I don't have a lot of money to spare right now (especially since we pay for our own dinner,) but I still like to do some kind of something crafty, just because I love to do those sorts of things. I will share with you what I came up with.
Super easy... I bought 4 boxes of candy from Dollar Tree. Then I sat down with my Silhouette machine and went to town. I printed an "L" and a greeting, which I cut into strips and dovetailed the ends to make them look oh-so-chic, and cut out white circles to act as a background for the "L"s


... and yeah... That's about it! I just used my tape runner to attach them to the boxes and that was it. Super easy and hopefully they will think I am super thoughtful too. They will, right?? They know I don't have a ton of money. Just keeping it real. ;-) Happy Birthday friends!! Love you!!

Starry Eyed Craft Idea for MOPS/MOMSnext 2016/2017

I am so excited to be on my MOPS/MOMSnext leadership team again this year!! I am heading up the creative activities for another year. It is my absolute favorite thing to do in this world, aside from going to Disneyland and eating lime Tootsie Rolls. Anyway... I thought I would share the crafts that I am doing this year since I tend to get a lot of questions about what our ladies' favorites have been etc. I am happy to share my plans (as I discover them.) ;-)
Feel free to take away any inspiration that you find!

So, here we go:

Craft for September- Painted Wood Beads and Tassel Keychain with Shrink Plastic Theme Charm

I used 20mm natural wood beads that I painted in theme colors, or at least as close as possible to theme colors. I found the beads at Joann in the jewelry making section. 

I bought the leather jewelry cording at Hobby Lobby, also in the jewelry section, along with the jump rings and keychain rings. 

I used a 2 1/2" star shaped punch to cut shrink plastic and edged the shape with a silver paint pen and used a permanent ink pen to write the theme in the middle. I also punched a hole before I shrunk the plastic and then added a jump ring to attach it to the key chain split ring. 

I followed a very simple tutorial to learn how to make the tassel, using this Youtube video.  

And then I just assembled all the pieces. It was that easy! It ended up averaging out to be around $1.50 per mom, and I planned for 65. Hopefully the ladies will love it as much as I do!

Thanks for stopping by!

2x4 Grateful Thankful Blessed Pumpkin Duo

Chocolate Dipped Jumbo Marshmallows

I am back really quickly to share a project I just finished. This coming week we will be celebrating Valentine's day. I am in charge of some kind of cute snack for my son's class party, and this is what I came up with. I bought these jumbo Campfire marshmallows from WalMart, 28 for $3. Of course, I needed 30... SO, I got a second bag. I can say, they are almost as good naked as they are dipped in white chocolate. (However, chocolate always wins over no chocolate.) ;-)

I am hoping they are just as popular with the class as they are in my family. It is going to be hard to keep them off of these babies. I am scouting out a hiding place as soon as I am done with this quick little post.

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

Burlap Candy Corn Banner

I wish I could take credit for coming up with the idea for this super adorable burlap banner, but I actually found it in the motherland (A.K.A. Pinterest.) I came up with a pattern and got started. There are actually 6 pieces on this banner but it was too hard to get them all in the photo. You'll just have to trust me. ;-)

This project is simple. Just cut out triangles in burlap, paint them (and allow them to dry in between colors,) polka dot them (with the end of a foam brush,) then fold down the top edge about 1/2 inch and sew a loose zigzag stitch across the top and stitch them to twine, which has been hidden in the fold. Then cut various ribbons and rick rack and tie them in between the triangles. Then trim up the edges to get rid of the fraying burlap. Voila!

I keep on selling these so I am guessing that I am not the only one that thinks it is cute. I finally had a surplus and was able to keep one for myself. I think that is the hard part of being a professional crafter. You make them for others, and then miss out on having them for yourself! Oh well. It is fun to send my projects to new homes. I kind of like the fact that they value my work enough to pay for it. Very vindicating. (See kids, the messes are worth it! Yes, you can buy more Pokemon cards...) ;-)

Happy that the weather is starting to change around these parts. Can't wait for the cooler weather to stick around. Happy that pumpkin spice EVERYTHING is happening now. So fabulous. Happy Jen is happy! :)