May Day

May Day...May Day...

it's another ChambersMade family 1st...

we've never really lived in a neighborhood that we could really 'celebrate' May Day...

 now we do...
I've been collecting cans for a few weeks now...
I have a plan for them and this summer...

but I figured I have plenty cleaned & up in the cupboard that I could spare 4 so the kids and I could have a little May Day fun...

we wrapped wire around the groves in the cans and made a handle with the wire...
printed up a little May Day Tag and tied it with twine
and then cut some mini roses off our rose bush...

the kids sneaked up to the doors...

rang the door bell...

and RAN as fast as they could...

...

fun times...

all in all it took 30 minutes...

from creating and printing the tag,

to wrapping the wire around the can and creating a handle

tying the tag onto the can

cutting the roses

and then the delivery...

and cost us $0.00

we will hopefully make this a ChambersMade family tradition...

and hopefully our neighbors are pleasantly surprised by the little can of flowers on the door knob!

have you ever participated/celebrated May Day?

Crafty Shower

Okay so I blogged last week about my friend, Rayna's baby shower...

and how, per Rayna's request, we play zero games!
I was okay with that
     (even though I love a good game)

together we talked about what to do instead of games
you do have to do SOMETHING
this would not be good...
Hello, welcome to the baby shower...
put your presents there...
okay now were're opening presents
okay, thanks, that was nice, good bye!
well, maybe you could, I think it's a little rude...um...odd...

So for the shower activity we decided to make oneies for the coming baby...

some onesies created by guests at the shower...
(btw 3 of these were created by kids the dino top middle made by  my boy child,
animals top right, my girl child, whale bottom left by a friends 11 yr old drama queen)

This is what you'll need...

time for a shower

a sweet baby shower!

I had the pleasure of throwing a pintrest inspired baby shower for my friend Rayna....
she's pregnant with baby boy #2!

yesterday I shared about my cake pops or lack thereof for this shower....

I started pinning shower ideas to my 'party on' board
& was watching Rayna's 'Baby Rush #2' board

how to turn cardboard into rock...

...rock-n-roll that is...

the girl child was invited to a rock concert birthday party...

and asked to dress the part....

so because I'm so nerdy hardcore I decided to make her a pink guitar to take as part of her costume...

...I'm also trying to convince her to go as a rocker chick for Halloween...and was hoping a rockin' home made guitar might help convince her....

step one...trace guitar hero...or rock band...not sure which this belongs too...guitar onto oversized piece of cardboard...

step two...cut it out...

step three...take it outside and spray paint it pink...or other rock color of your choice...

step four...using the ring of a pint jar lid as a stencil, spray paint silver circles randomly onto pink guitar

step five...attach turquoise curling ribbon and hang on adorable rocker chick

step six....pick up friend other band members... embarrass girl child by lecturing them about no drugs or boy kissing at rocker party...

step seven...have them come up with rock band name...'glitter sis'...

step eight...continue the embarrassment by following them into party and taking pictures as we go...

introducing 'glitter sis' the newest chick band!

can you sense the, 'come on mom, get out of here' that girl child is oozing???
yep, me neither!
..........Rock On!.........

A+wesome

so the boy child's version of this shirt is done...

I had planned on making the boy version yellow...
like the yellow memo paper...
i heart those yellow pads of paper...

but, um, yeah, he has his own opinion
and he said NO...
never...
not going to wear it if you do it yellow...

so I went white like he demanded requested

 seriously mom...

 well, I know I'm cute, but really mom...

 are you almost done...

pure torture!!!
since it's sort of hard to see all the pictures on my oh, so patient model...
looking at it, the top left (his right side) stars and music notes...
our right his left is an orange guitar with flames and "Rock On" under it
then below the stars and music notes on our left/his right is "A+wesome"
then under the guitar on the right/his left is a rock...he wanted a rock under 'Rock On'...
then under the "A+" on our left/his right is a bike riding up the red line of the 'paper'
and lastly on the right/his left is a homework eating plant with the words 'Math Yum'...

 

I suggested strongly sketching out all of your images ON a piece of lined paper so you can see how it looks...
and then also using a sewing/fabric/disappearing ink marker to do the sketching onto the shirt before you break out the permanent markers...

i heart art

my girl is a little nervous about going back to school...
5th grade is making her nervous...
so I made her a little shirt to help calm her down...

I saw this cute shirt on a blog last Friday...

source-The 36th AVENUE

I liked her version of the Old Navy shirt...
but actually liked the ON one better...

Old Navy version...via The 36th AVENUE post

so...I bought the girl a plain white t...
washed and dryed it...
gathered all the materials...

ruler
washable fabric pen (to sketch the lines and doodles before using the sharpies***)
***sharpies***

and have some fun...

I really liked how it turned out...

...but then...then I learned a very painful lesson...
***Sharpies*** aren't as permanent as I once thought...

and yes, I heat set the shirt before it got wet...

I let the girl wear it to church on Sunday and then...
then... the 'popcorn incident of 2011' happened...
and well, popcorn butter...water...and bleeding of sharpies...

***Blog Note***...do not attempt to make this shirt with Sharpies unless you like the bleeding look...
...so now off to the store to buy REAL fabric markers...

wow...they aren't as cheap as Sharpies...and Sharpies aren't cheap!
and I couldn't get a decent package with a good combo of colors...
I really liked the color combo of the first Sharpie shirt I made, but couldn't find that color combo in a single package of fabric markers and I was NOT going to buy two different packages...YIKES...
so anyways, I had to settle on a different color combo...
but this combo won't bleed like the Sharpie version...

 hey, you have a birdy on your shoulder...

mom, you said NO pictures of my face...

and the girl is very happy with it also...
now the boy child wants a boy version...off to create!

take 2!

okay so you all saw my post a few weeks ago about having our Spring Open House and Craft Boutique....
well...
the problem was that March happened...
and March didn't get that whole memo about
'In like a lion...OUT like a lamb'
and it decided to just embrace the whole LION concept...
so basically our open house was a bust with crazy....
I MEAN crazy weather...
and we had tons of people say,
'wait, I wanted to come, really we did, but the weather was just too crazy to be driving around in'...
so, since we love all our friends and family and other people that like to buy our stuff...
we are having our
 3rd Open House and Craft Boutique...Take 2!!!
minus the wind, rain, hail, and crazy!

and we also all said...
'wow, we won't have to make anything for it, we have so much stuff already!'

...and guess what...we're all liars and made more stuff...more spring/Easter/Mother's Day stuff....

cutie little birdie block that wants to go home with you

some 'harlot' pendents that Mrs. Smith has been making....

bowl of eggs and a sweet bird...all for the taking

need a sweet bow tie for your little boy this Easter?

Mrs. Smith unique facet necklaces....

so even if you came last month...come again and check out our new stuff...
and if the weather kept you in last time...we promise we won't call you names like sissy and chicken
...we'll be nice...

so just come and have a nice time shopping and hanging out with the ladies!
visit our Open House and Craft Boutique facebook page for directions.....

Just Doodling!

my mom was a doodler...
I'm a doodler...
my kids are doodlers...
not sure if it's genetic...

anyways...I bought some plain brown paper eggs yesterday...
my plan was to just keep them brown...

and then I saw the Sharpie just sitting there...
and the eggs looked so lonely....
and I started doodling away....

think they turned out fun...I need a whole dozen...

too bad my purple Sharpie ran out of ink...and my kids ran out of quiet...
so the fun ended and the parenting started!

One Mother's Junk Mail

is another mothers answer to boredom

what to do, what to do...

kids and Christmas break

and junk mail overload...

Junk Mail Snowflake Monsters
needed
junk mail (we just used 1 Ford flyer that had about 6 pages inside)
scissors
tape
children

fold junk mail and cut to make snowflakes

cut snowflakes up
tape back together into monster shapes

my kids (ages 5 & 10) spent 2 hours cutting, taping, creating this morning...

monsters all in a row

and then we decorated their bedroom with the snowflake monsters

tis the season

to DECORATE!

just wanted to take you on a little tour of some of my favorite new Christmas decorations that were FREE
did I just say FREE Christmas Decorations...
yep, these are all 'new' decorations this year
that I made with things around the house....

front door wreath...made out of leftover fabric scraps from the tree skirt...

paper garland made from the leftover paper scraps from making the bubble wrap advent calendar...

close up...I just cut 2 different size squares...and then cut them into triangles...and sewed them in a long strip...

two pieces of Christmas 'art work' that I did using my silhouette sd...using paper/cardstock I already had and then I just taped right onto the glass of things I already had framed in the living room...adding just a little more Christmas flare to the corner of the room!

the 'subway art' one I just cut of different Christmasy type words in different fonts, sizes and colors and arranged them onto some paper...

the tree one I just cut out 5 trees in 2 different styles using images from the silhouette library and glued them onto paper...

for both of these I chose lime greens, sliver and turquoise...to help pull the colors out of the tree skirt that I had made...

my bowl of pears on the piano...I collect pears (my kitchen)...

and then just stuck these into a pretty vasey-bowl thingy I had and put an old berry wreath around the bottom...

I love Christmas and all the decorations...

but decking the halls can get spendy and over-the-top...

so finding cheap/free ways to change up the decorations from year to year is always good!

do you stick with the same decorations every year?

do you have a 'theme' that you do?

do you have any great free decorations that you have stumbled upon?