What's Happening: Crafty Fun!

Spring is here and it's been busy!
Here is a little of what I've been up to lately:

Camo Hearts

A few weeks ago I was adding patches to my valentine quilt and realized that the Little Man is underrepresented.  For some reason, he is lacking in pink and red sparkly clothing :D

Since it was time to go through his clothing again anyway (the kid is growing like a weed) I decided to take one of his camouflage shirts and make a few valentin-ey patches out of it.  By flipping the fabric over and using a heart shaped ornament, it was easy to trace and cut out a few heart patches.

I stashed the patches away with the valentine quilt until next year when I work on that sort of thing again.

(You can click here to see the valentine quilt)

Holiday Paper

I was browsing through the craft section of Wal-Mart when I found a package of holiday themed scrapbooking paper.  I have been wanting to purchase this pack for awhile now, but just never did.  Since it had been marked down to $2.50 and was the last one in stock, I snapped it up!  

Some of the paper I will use for actual scrapbooking, but the rest (pictured here) I plan on using as part of my holiday decor.  Many of the sheets I will probably cut into various sizes and frame on their own while others will make a nice background sheet for family photos (I like to switch out framed family photos with my holiday decor).  Time will tell, and I'll keep you posted!

Birdhouses

In keeping with one of our spring traditions, the kids painted new birdhouses.
The Little Man's is on the left and Baby Girl's rainbow house is on the right.  I love the way she did this one!

(You can click  to see last year's birdhouses)

What else has been going on?  Lots of fun faux cake making, prepping for the re-launch of my Etsy shop and the upcoming Easter holiday, and planning for a couple of wedding sets involving orchids and succulents...whew!

I'll keep you posted on everything as it comes.  But for now, I hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2016

Christmas Hand & Foot Print Art (2015)

Let's give a big thank you to Pinterest for the inspiration needed to create these cute holiday paintings.
Check them out:

Reindeer Feet

A couple of eyes, a red nose and a pair of antlers transforms a footprint into and adorable reindeer.

Fingerprint Lights

For this one is was easiest to: sketch out the curvy line first, then place the colorful fingerprints and follow up with a  little more black ink for the bulb detailing.

Tip:  Make sure your colored paint is dry before adding any detailing!

"Mistletoes"!

A few red dots of paint to serve as berries and these cute prints are transformed into mistletoe.

I hope you enjoyed this crafty post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Easy Classroom Party Favors

In addition to Baby Girl's birthday celebrations at home, she was also allowed to bring in a special snack to celebrate at school.  She chose to take small chocolate cakes and we sent along colorful birthday plates/napkins to make things a bit more festive.  

(Thank you Ms. Campbell for making the classroom a fun place to be!)

In addition to the chocolate treat I thought it would be nice to create some sort of small favor for each of Baby Girl's classmates.  I didn't want to send in any more sugar, so after walking through Dollar Tree (my happy place) for a bit I came up with these simple birthday flags; take a look!

Supplies

Pencils, birthday stickers and colored index cards were all we needed to create fun birthday favors.

(Everything pictured here was found at Dollar Tree for a total of $3)

Step 1

After cutting the index cards in half, we taped one to each pencil.

Step 2

Add stickers and sign.  You could do as much or as little detail here as you want; more stickers, fancy paper, etc...

And that's all it takes to put together a fun and useful birthday favor for 22 students!


I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Mother's Day (2015) - How We Celebrated

I had a great Mother's Day! Baby Girl and I spent Saturday morning treasure hunting (photos coming soon) and then Sunday was spent with a whole lot of relaxing.

Husby is good about making sure I get to sleep in every Sunday, but this time he made breakfast in bed too.  I actually lazed around and watched HGTV while he did the cooking.  Then he and the kids brought me food, cards and an adorable Kindergarten gift (that you will see below).

Family Humor:  If Mommy gets breakfast in bed, the kids think it's a party!  They were both in bed next to me before I even got all of my food.  Then they sat there like two little birds each waiting in turn for bites of my eggs!  I called out to Husby that he didn't need to bother with serving them individually, as fast as they were eating up my breakfast he could just add their food to my plate too! :D

-Read on to see photos from my weekend-

Polka-Dot Box

Mother's Day weekend started early for me when I came home to find this adorable gift (from my Mother & Father In Law) waiting for me.  Can we just take a minute to admire the polka-dots and the 'rose' bow? Two of my favorite things right there!

Stained Glass Seashells

THIS is what was in the box!  It is a stained glass piece created by Papa himself!  My entire master bathroom is decorated in seashells, so this fits in perfectly.  Right now I have it hanging in front of the big mirror, but one day (when I have one in my bathroom) I'll hang it in front of a window.  If you think this is beautiful now, you should see it with light passing through the glass!  I can't decide what I love more, the watery blue sections of glass or the Nautilus - that's the big seashell in the center.

(You can see the rest of my master bathroom decor by clicking here)

Wildflowers

Husby made sure to bring me a big bouquet of wildflowers.  I don't know what these are, but they smell soooooo good!

Family Humor:  When Husby asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day, I told him I would like it if he found me some flowers.   It was after spending a day in the woods mushroom hunting that he came home covered in dirt with a huge bouquet of these.  He said he had to climb down into a ditch to pick them, but he got the job done.  He is so awesome!  :)

(You can read more about the pretty vases they are in by clicking here)

Pencil Holder

Baby Girl decorated this beautiful pencil holder at school.  She made sure to take it out of her backpack and hide it under her bed until Sunday.  (I know this because she asked me not to look under her bed or behind her bookshelf in her room - I made sure not to look or notice anything!)   She also made me me a few beautiful cards.  The cards will be going into my scrapbook, but the mug now sits proudly on my desk. I love it!

Dinner

I didn't have to cook dinner either, Husby took care of that by grilling chicken shish kabobs with lots of veggies!  He created an Asian inspired marinade this time by mixing up teriyaki and a few other seasonings - it was really, really good!  And since he grilled them outside, the mess was minimal ;)

That was my wonderful Mother's Day weekend, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Cute & Easy Teacher Appreciation Gift

You may remember from this earlier post that Baby Girl will be graduating from Kindergarten very soon.  Of course I am proud of how much she has grown this school year, but I am also completely amazed at how much she can now do.  This child is adding, subtracting, multiplying 10's and reading at the second grade level!  That kind of learning doesn't just pop out of nowhere, it is cultivated by a very talented teacher.

 I've been wanting to give my thanks to Ms. Sandberg for some time now.  It was hard to turn over my precious first baby to the school system, but Ms Sandberg cared for her wonderfully!  Since last week was teacher appreciation week at Baby Girl's school, it was the perfect opportunity to say thank you.

 I sifted through Pinterest looking for ideas for teacher thank you gifts.  I saw a lot of floral bouquets and potted plants with tags that read "Thanks for helping me bloom!" I really liked the wording, but I wanted to come up with a gift that would be easier to get home (no vase of water to spill) and didn't need immediate attention (no plant to maintain, water or transplant).  I also wanted it to be a lasting gift that was (at least partially) useful in the classroom.  I came up with this:  A bouquet of flowers (seed packets on pencil 'stems') arranged in a coffee mug vase - perfect! 

Keep reading to see how easy this was to put together.

 Supplies

A ceramic coffee mug, pack of 12 pencils and a dozen seed packets were all we needed to put together this thank you gift.

Side Note:  You could certainly choose any kind of seed you wanted; flower, herb, vegetable.... but I stuck to flowers.  I wanted the arrangement to look like a big bouquet of flowers so I chose my seeds based on their packaging.

Step 1

Simply tape a pencil to the back of a seed packet.

(I left the pencils un-sharpened, the wider base made it easier to keep them in place later on)

Front View

Here is what the seed packet on a 'stem' looks like from the front.

Side Note:  Personally I would have chosen pencils in various shades of green to serve as my stems, but Baby Girl insisted on a pack of orange, red and pink.  Since this was just as much a gift from her I thought her preferences should be honored ;)

Added Sentiment

To make things a bit more special, we took the time to add a little note to the back of each seed packet.

This one was written by Baby Girl herself.  It reads, "Thank you for teaching me math".  Awwww :)

A Dozen Fowers

All lined up and ready to go!  

Whenever possible, I tried to match up my pencil color to the coloring on the seed package.  It's those little details that keep your composition from looking cluttered or thrown together.

Step 2

Add a bit of tissue paper to the coffee mug.  The tissue will serve to hold the pencils in place as you create your bouquet.  We chose blue to complement the pattern of our mug, but any color is fine.

Step 3

Start adding in your 'flowers' by gently inserting a pencil here and there as you see fit.  Continue adding pencils throughout the mug to create a full and round bouquet.

Tip:  If you have enough tissue paper in the mug, your pencils will stay in place nicely.  If your pencils are falling over, you might want to add more tissue.

Side Note:  I drive Baby Girl to school myself and walk her to the door, so I was able to help her carry this arrangement inside.  If your child rides the bus, or otherwise travels on their own, you may want to tape the pencils in place.  Another option would be to nestle the entire arrangement into a gift bag.

Step 4

Add your tag.

Our tag was a simple handwritten note, but you could really get creative here if you wanted to!

The Completed Arrangement

I was very happy with how this appreciation gift turned out; cute, colorful and meaningful!

Not to mention very easy to put together ;)

As always, thanks for stopping by
and...

Thanks for helping ME bloom!!!

I really appreciate all of my readers, all around the world!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Painting Easter Eggs (2015)

Ok, so I have this thing with Easter eggs.  I don't know what it is, but I can't resist collecting them.  They are... Just. So. Pretty! 

I have plenty, way more than required for any reasonable egg hunt....but Easter rolls around...or I'm out treasure hunting....and I see a color or design that I don't already have...you see where this is going....:D

(Right now Dollar Tree has plastic eggs that look like baby chicks.....I have resisted)

So needless to say, I already have a ton of plastic eggs (two big bins full) and then I discovered ready-to-decorate foam eggs at Wal-Mart last year.  Ohhhhh snap!

So now I can have Baby Girl paint faux eggs for the same price as dying hard-boiled eggs and then I get to keep them forever???  Love it!  

(I still boil up a dozen real eggs for her too, it's just something you got to do)

Read on to see the eggs we have painted so far this year!

Materials

Foam eggs, brushes and lottttts of paint.  

I like using acrylic paints for these projects.  They are permanent, easy to work with, economically priced and readily available.

The paints on the left are, I mean were, mine and Baby Girl's are on the right.  You can see that her's were a little worse for wear.  She used up what was left and has now worked her way into my stash as well ;)

Toothpick Trick

So in my head I thought I was going to poke a toothpick into the end of each egg.  That way I could hold the toothpick while I painted and then stick it into some Styrofoam to dry without touching any wet paint.  Well, it turns out that the foam eggs are just too hard.  I didn't really want to have holes in them any way.  

I decided to paint one side at a time, but the darn eggs kept rolling over every time I set them down.  I figured out that if I set them down next to a toothpick they would be wedged in place.  See? I did need those toothpicks!  :D

Just be careful when letting go of the egg.  For some reason many of the eggs seemed to have a heavier side and I never knew which way they were going to roll!  After a few messy smudges (and a handful of curse words) I figured out how to hang on until the very last minute.  That way if I needed to I could move the toothpick.

My Eggs

You may have seen photos of these already from my Etsy shop post.

If not, you can view that post by clicking  here.

Baby Girl's Easter Eggs

(These are the same eggs as pictured at the top of this post)

  I love the colors that Baby Girl chose.  She also globed on lots of paint, so they ended up with a fun texture.  So pretty and so faux, and I get to keep them!  I made sure to take a Sharpie and add her name and the year at the bottom of each one also.

Those are our Easter eggs so far.  I'll be back with an Easter decor post soon.
Thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Spring Footprint Art (2015)

It's March 12th!
It's Spring! (As far as I'm concerned)  :D

I put all of my Valentine decor away and got out all of my Spring the first weekend of March.  There are still a few piles of melting snow outside, but that's ok.  Inside I have daffodils!

Right now I'm working on photos of a few spring decor items that didn't make it to the blog last year.  I'm also brainstorming some really cute Easter Egg designs.  But for now, I'll share with you my Spring print art.

I made these last year after seeing similar designs on Pinterest, check it out:

Baby Girl is Pretty in Pink

After sketching out the designs I wanted, I used green paint to create the foliage.  A bit of pink paint on Baby Girl's feet and there you have it; Spring blooms!

Side Note:  I took this photo before going back to erase the extra pencil markings.  I thought it would be helpful to see that the markings provide a general plan for the art piece, but the paint doesn't have to be exact.  Just go with the flow and clean up the excess later :)

Lavender for the Little Man

I followed the same technique for Little Man's prints.

Side Note:  It is rare that the prints look perfect on their own and often I go back in with a brush to fill in any empty spots.  This time I left the prints as is.  The half missing toes on the left remind me how my only 3 month old baby would not sit still for this project.  He thought he could stick those little feet into all the paint at once :)

(You can also see from this picture that the pencil marks erase quite nicely.)

I have both of these prints framed and displayed with the rest of my Spring decor.  I love walking through the house and seeing all of the pretty flowers.

I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!
If you have a minute, let me know how you are getting ready for warm weather and sunshine.

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2015

Fall Hand & Foot Print Art 2014

Recently I shared the print art that I have framed as part of my Halloween decor, today I am sharing my 'fall' pieces.

These cute little pumpkins come out for September and November, take a look!

(Inspiration for each of these was found on Pinterest)

Baby Girl's Pumpkin

A simple orange painted circle and brown stem were all it took to create a pumpkin for this piece.  A bit of green paint on Baby Girl's hand and we stamped on a 'leaf'.  I used a Sharpie to add in the details after all of the paint was dry.

Little Man's Pumpkin

This year marks the first ever Fall season for the Little Man, so I wanted to add his footprint to our holiday decor.

Should have been pretty easy to do, right?  Nope, he's a strong and determined little booger, and stomping that foot just once wasn't enough.  He made sure to give a good stomp on me too, right on my cream colored leggings!  It came out in the laundry, but I'll always remember the determination that baby had to carry out his wishes :D

That determination is also the reason he 'paints' with his feet and not his hands; there is no way that child is letting me make anything resembling a hand print!  Maybe in the future.....

Design Tip:  Always, always. always pay a little more and get the washable paint/ markers/ etc. for the kiddos.  Your walls, furniture, carpeting and wardrobe will thank you ;)


I hope you enjoyed my cute little prints, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Halloween Print Art 2014

Because I'm not already busy enough (hee hee) I had to make time for some Halloween print art.  Each of these are framed and on display as part of our Halloween decor, check them out!

(Inspiration for each of these was found on Pinterest)

Hand Print Spider

This is Baby Girl's 2-year-old hand (Awwwww!) that has been turned into a friendly spider.  I used a plain piece of orange paper for the background and hand painted a simple spider web design with white paint.  Next we used black poster paint for the hand print and I added the facial details in yellow.

Now if you want to be accurate, a spider should have eight legs.  This can be achieved by making two hand prints that overlay at the thumbs.  In other words, you will place your child's hand down once, rotate the paper and place the hand down again with the thumb on top of the previously made thumb print.  

For me it was more important to have a clear representation of Baby Girl's adorable little hand.

If you know me at all, then you are aware that I am a complete and total science lover.  Years of graduate studies have left me obsessed with data collection, accuracy and quality of research methodology.....and here I am making five-legged spiders.....Mommy-Hood changes you, friends, it changes you!  :D :D :D

Hand Print Jack-O-Lantern

This one is also Baby Girl's, and was a little more challenging to make.  First I cut out a pumpkin shape before cutting out holes for the eyes and mouth.  I taped a piece of yellow paper to the back of the pumpkin to provide the 'glow' of the eyes and mouth. I taped the pumpkin to an 8x10 white background sheet before adding a green hand print 'leaf' and painted the stem in brown.  Once the paint was dry, a black Sharpie took care of all the detailing.

 Foot Print Jack-O-Lantern


It's the Little Man's first Halloween, so his perfect prints had to join the party!  Now, where Baby Girl was always happy to patiently sit and let me paint and place her hands, Little Man, not so much :D

This little booger wants to stamp, smack, reach and contort his body in any way that might give him access to the wonderfully messy paint.  Hence, he gets foot prints instead.  It's the only way I can semi control how the project turns out, but you can see there are a bit more smears!  He had fun and now I have another memory.....maybe I can get an hand print out of  him in a year or two....;)

Foot Print Ghost

Little Man also got a foot print ghost.  This one is probably the easiest I have ever done; a little white foot print, some Sharpie detail and the ghost is complete!  .....If only you could see the way he giggled having his foot painted, such sweet memories :)

It's not too late to break out the craft supplies and make up some Halloween pretties.  In the meantime, I'll be working on a Halloween cupcake post for tomorrow :) 

Hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

4th of July: Home Decor & More! 2014

The fourth will be here soon, so I'm addressing all of my holiday happenings in one post! 

*****Holiday Decor*****

 Most of my holiday items are photos of the kiddos celebrating in their red, white and blues, but here are a few I can share.

A jar of sparkle, a couple of pin-wheels in the garden, and wind socks at the front door.

 Of course we have a couple of patriotic ducks in the kids bathroom!

 *********Hand & Footprint Art*********

I like to do hand or footprint art for each season/ holiday.  It's another item I can switch out (along with my photographs) that reminds us how much the kids have grown and brings back fun memories.  They are framed and displayed with my holiday photos.

(Inspiration found on Pinterest)

 This one belongs to my Baby Girl.

 And this one we just did for the Little Guy.



 *****Holiday Quilting*****

 My 4th of July 'quilt'

A few of the patches I'll be adding this year.



Here's the thing about my 'quilting', they aren't really quilts..heeheehee!  They are called 'cheat quilts' and I learned about it on Pinterest.  All you have to do is find a quilted comforter to use as your base and hand stitch your patches on top.  Once you fill it up, you can sew through all of the layers to give it  a more quilted look, or leave it as it is.

I started these because I really wanted to keep many of my Baby Girl's baby items, but didn't know what to do with them.  A quilt was the perfect way to keep all of the adorable fabrics (and the memories that go with them), however I was very hesitant.
I was even considering hiring someone to put it together for me, but then Aunt Jan said, "Oh I know you can do this yourself".  That was it, I found the Pinterest idea and jumped right in! 

Once I finished the baby quilt I started making one for each holiday season as well.  Now we have one for the 4th, Halloween/ fall, Christmas, Valentine's and the beginnings of one for the Little Man.  It's memory madness, I blame Aunt Jan!  ;)

Since the kids are still growing the quilts are by no means filled up yet, but that's ok.  I like having them as 'patchy' throws on the back of the couch.  Especially since each patch is a different memory from a different year.

Here is something to consider:
In a standard quilt each piece of the top section is stitched together before being attached to the middle and bottom sections (sort of like a sandwich).  When you make a 'cheat quilt' the way that I do, the patches are added one by one, over time.  This means that there are raw edges of fabric exposed, which over time will fray.  I am ok with this look (when quilts are made this way intentionally they are called rag quilts I think), but if you desire a more finished looking piece you should sew all top pieces of your quilt together first.  This will require that you wait until all of your patches have been collected before you can finish and begin using your quilt.  I suppose you could also hem each patch if you wanted to make it over the years and avoid fraying.  Just something to consider. :)

That's it for now, hope you enjoyed!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Summer Footprint Art 2014

Can you tell I love making memories?  And I love recording them just as much!
  One of my favorite things about my kiddos are their tiny hands and feet.  I want to remember them always so I make hand or footprint art pieces for each holiday/ season.

With inspiration found on Pinterest, I went with butterflies for our summer print art.

This is the new butterfly I just did with the Little Guy. Since it's difficult to hold, paint and stamp with a squirmy, kicky baby, I decided to keep it simple with only one color.  I like the results!

You can't tell from the picture, but these are really tiny feet ;)

This one is my Baby Girl's.
Since she is quite a bit older I could get her to sit still long enough for multiple colors.

Before framing I always add my kids name and date to the picture. This is so we can easily tell how old they were as the years pass by.  (That's what the blur is in this picture).

That's all of the summery print art I have so far.
Hope you enjoyed, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014

Playhouse Wreath 2014

A few weeks ago, Baby Girl and I were treasure hunting when she found a few craft supplies.  She decided she needed to make a wreath for her playhouse door :)

(You can read about her playhouse here)

The sparkly 'gem' stones and star-shaped sequins that she couldn't pass up.

She already had these miniature flowers and grapevine wreath in her craft box.

I pulled out some plates leftover from a previous birthday party to organize her supplies.  Once that glue was poured, she was ready to go!

The finished product, not bad for a 4-year-old!
And, it only cost .50!



 

 Another view of her playhouse, complete with wreath.


I always enjoy it when I can share my love for crating and decorating with my little ones.  Hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014