Category Archives: Do It Yourself

Jan
31

Puffy Heart Kids Craft

by: debbie

I Love Valentine’s Day. So when this time of the year comes around I keep my eyes open for fun ideas that I can do with my grandkids. After making these myself-I discovered that even adults will like making them. They are so easy and inexpensive to do!

You’ll need:
• Scrapbooking paper
• Ribbon
• Scissors and glue sticks

Directions:

1. Place 6 pieces of construction paper together and fold them in half. Cut out half a heart along the seam. (You’ll end up with 6 identical hearts. If you cut them all at once, it may be a job for strong adult hands.)

2. With the hearts still folded, glue one half to the next half. (Don’t get any glue inside the folded hearts.)

(If you decide to write numbers on the back of each half to help your child, make sure that you use a writing utensil that doesn’t bleed through the paper.)

3. Before you glue the final heart half to the first one (to get the 3-D effect), lay a length of ribbon or yarn as close to the inner fold as you can. When the final heart half is glued down, the ribbon will be in the middle of the hearts.

4. Gently open out the hearts to arrange them evenly.

Helpful Tips:
• If you can, cut out all the hearts at once so they will be identical. Or — if they don’t match perfectly — trim them once they’re glued together. You can also trim hearts with scalloped edged scissors
• Experiment with colors. How about a pink, purple and white heart? Or make your puffy hearts using heart shaped doiles.

1 Comment

Children, Design Studio, Do It Yourself

Tags: DIY, kids craft

Dec
07

DIY: Nativity

by: keighley

The holiday season is complex. There are many traditions and faiths that influence how holidays are celebrated. Some spend the month of December reflecting on religious beliefs, others focus on family, and many revolve festivities around a Jolly man in a red suit. Although we all spend the holidays celebrating different things, it’s always a season of peace, joy, and gratitude.

The following project is for people who incorporate the Nativity into their Christmas holiday.

This nativity set is from Walmart and cost $5.

I was disappointed to find out the figurines were glued down to the cheap plywood. In order to make this particular set work I had to pry the figures off the wood and soak each piece in a bowl of warm water. After 10 minutes of soaking the glue and wood attached to the bottom peeled right off!

To finish my $5 nativity, I sprayed a few layers of flat white paint onto the figurines.

All in all, an easy and cheap way to spice up the Walmart special.

~keighley

1 Comment

Do It Yourself, Holiday, Keighley

Tags: Cheap nativity set, Christmas DIY, Nativity

Nov
22

‘Tis the Season for All Things RED…

by: debbie

Just the other day I saw this red Christmas tree at a store around the corner from my house. I fell in love with it and my mind started racing with all sorts of ideas of how to decorate it. So when Keighley mentioned her idea of doing a video segment highlighting our tree decorating tips I knew it was a sign from heaven.

It was as if an angel came down from heaven loudly blowing a horn prior to announcing: “Debbie, you must get that RED tree! Do it for the blog.”

So tomorrow I’m running to the store to puchase it. Then the Bella girls are going to decorate it using our left-over decorations, items we have around our house and some very well thought out Dollar Store purchases.

This should be funny.

And creative.

And helpful.

And RED.

I think we’re up to the challenge. And believe me, we will be doing more to our tree than just adding “white” ornaments. It’s going to be a fabulous tree.

Because that’s what the angel told me.

Happy Holidays

Debs

3 Comments

christmas, Do It Yourself

Tags: Christmas ideas, Christmas tree decorating ideas, red christmas tree

Nov
18

Baby Cakes…

by: debbie

It’s raining babies in our family!

This next year there will be 3 new additions “flooding” our family. And the fun has already started with the first baby shower being held this past weekend for Jennifer-my hubby’s “baby” daughter. When I was asked to help out I thought it would be fun to make her boy baby his own special Baby Cake.

These cakes have become quite popular because they are original and creative. I love how you can add your own personal touch to this gift and, when I’m hosting a shower, I think they make a very cute and impressive centerpiece for the party. I decorate them to match the theme or to match the baby’s nursery. The nice thing about this party decor is that every item on the cake can be used later on when the baby arrives .

For Jen’s shower the Baby Cake was put onto a silver cake tray and used as a centerpiece for the dessert table. It looked quite impressive when surrounded by all the great sweets.

Here’s what you’ll need if you want to try doing this for the next baby shower you host or attend.

Ingredients for a diaper cake:

• 60 diapers (depends on how big you make it) You can use either disposable or cloth – I like to use cloth diapers for the bottom layer and disposable for all the others.

• Ribbon, 1/2 or 1 inch wide, patterned to fit the baby shower theme. Pink, blue, or yellow are good choices.

• 36-60 small rubber bands (depending on how you want to “build” the cake-You can eliminate these if you just roll your diapers and slip them under a rubber band that you have placed around a large roll of paper towels.

• 6 large rubber bands for holding all the rolled diapers in place.

• 3- 8-oz baby bottle filled with candy.

•Items for top of cake: stuffed animal, one 4-oz baby bottle or sippee cup, small toys, etc.

• A cardboard or plastic cake platter and one roll of paper towels to arrange the diapers around.

• Cake decorations – for example, baby confetti, baby sock roses, artificial flowers (you can even make flowers from small baby washcloths), etc. Hint: your local dollar store is a great resource for these items.

• Baby items for placing berween the diapers: Pacifiers, bottles, lotion, bibs, receiving blankets, miniature stuffed animals, baby towel, onesie, wash cloths, baby hygiene products, toys, etc.

Here’s an up close look at what I put on Jen’s Baby Cake. I believe that the more you add the more fabulous the cake looks.

To make your cake: Roll up the cloth and disposable diapers that will make up the body of the cake. After rolling each diaper I place it under the rubber band to hold it in place (rather than putting a rubber band around each diaper) and keep adding diapers until the roll of paper towels I’ve used for the center of the cake is covered.

Be sure to use 1-2 heavy duty rubber bands in order to hold everything in place. Then add all of the other decorative items that you’ve purchased like baby wash, receiving blankets, lotion, baby bottles, etc. I put as many items inside the rubber bands as possible without breaking it. (Fortunately, I’ve never had one break while assembling my cake.) Then I cover the rubber bands with the ribbon I want to use on the cake.

Once the body of the cake is put together, decorate your cake anyway you want. I like to use 3 different patterns of ribbon and I even string additional decorative items on the ribbons. Then I decorate the bows with additional baby supplies.

So here’s a close up look at how Jen’s Baby Cake looked like when I was finished.