Yikes...

I'm remiss in my blogging duties! More to come soon...Promise! Keep on crafting :-)

Garden Stones

Spring is in full swing here in the Southwest and we've got our garden started. We wanted to add some fun, inexpensive decorations to the garden. So we made some beautiful garden stones!

Old box lids make great paint trays

Here's what you need:

Large river cobbles and/or old bricks

Bricks

Acrylic paint (the cheap stuff that you can buy for like 75 cents a bottle works fine)

Paintbrushes of various sizes

Clear spray paint (or shellac - but the clear spray paint works just as well and is about half the price)

Here's what you do:

1. Wash and dry the cobbles/bricks.

2. Paint fun designs or words on them.

3. Let them dry.

4. Apply a few coats of clear spray paint (otherwise the paint will wash away relatively quickly when you water your garden or it rains). This is a job for an adult. Oh, and make sure to do it OUTDOORS when it's NOT windy, or you'll get a headache and your house will smell like nasty paint fumes.

Easy Hair Bows

My girls are all about fun hair stuff. Cute bows and barettes can get expensive. Here's a quick and easy way to make lots of them for little money...you can make enough to match all their favorite outfits! They're especially fun to match with bandana dresses :-)

Here's what you need:
Plain hair clips
Satin or grossgrain ribbon (1/2" - 7/8" in width)
Hot glue gun
Scissors

Here's what you do:
1. Cut approximately 4-6 inches of ribbon.

2. Turn ribbon over so non-printed side is facing up.

3. Place a small dab of glue in center of ribbon and place one end of ribbon on glue.

4. Place another small dab of glue in center again - on top of first glued-down end.

5. From the side, it should look like this:

6. Cut a small, approximately 1.5-2" length of ribbon.

7. Place a small dab of glue on top of already glued ends - glue down one end of small piece of ribbon.

8. Put two small lines of glue on top of already glued area (yep, AGAIN) - and glue down the top of the barrette.

9. Open barrette, wrap other end of the small piece of ribbon around the front of the bow, and glue the other end of the small piece of ribbon to underside of open barrette.

10. Enjoy!