Cd photo cube

Maybe the rest of you already know about this project, but when I found it, I was ready to make hundreds.  I LOVE this!  It is a culmination of all the elements that I love in my life...Family, pictures, crafts, organization, paper, doodads, recycling, trash to treasure, low cost gifts, you name it.  All wrapped up in a thing called a CD PHOTO CUBE.  I got the idea from a blog called "Paper Jewels".

 

On her blog, she has a video tutorial that explains exactly how to make these little pieces of happiness.  She also has a gallery of ones that others have made.  I have been saving CD cases forever and now have a great way to use, display and give them as nice gifts.  If you decide to make one, please post it for all of us to see.

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Words to live by!!

 I went to a friends house and saw this plaque sitting on her kitchen counter.  

I fell in love with the saying....

 This was so easy to recreate.  I plaque from a craft store, some paint, stamps or stencil letters and there you have it!  I can't wait to make one for my home!

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I think we're turning Japanese I really think so.

 Birthdays at our house are a big deal, and we have always pulled out all the stops. But when my son was turning thirteen, he approached me with a dilemma. 
  Our parties have become sort of infamous in town. Kids start asking Noah what he is going to do for his birthday months in advance, and start jockeying for invites. Their moms on the other hand, really dislike me, but I don't mind. I live to see that grin on my boy's face when I know that once again, we have pulled off something epic. Why do the moms hate me, do you ask? Because we have raised the bar so high, they get in trouble with their kids when they want to have a birthday party at McDonald's. We have had Pirate parties with real treasure hunts where you have to dig something up. We have done Army dude parties where the main event was shooting stuff. We have bonfires and let the kids stay up all night long. I will lay out the plans for my other kid parties another day, which brings me back to Noah's dilemma.  He came to me all concerned because he didn't want to hurt my feelings, but he had kids asking what he was going to do for his party, and he was afraid I was cooking up something...babyish. Being thirteen is all about being embarrassed by your mother apparently. He said, Mom, don't get me wrong, I appreciate everything you have done in the past, but I really will die if we play pin the tail on anything. 
  So I had to get thinking about the mind of the teenage boy. What would they like? Food, yes.  Candy, yes. And fun that makes them feel slightly grown up with out being stuffy, boring or too grown up. The other thing I wanted to avoid is giving in to the tendency among lots of parents to treat junior high kids like they are small adults, ready for things like horror movies and co-ed parties. 

  So I came up with the idea of an Asian Party. When I first floated my ideas to Noah, he was skeptical. But it turned out to be one of the most fun parties we have ever had. I didn't do much in the way of decorating, other than a black tablecloth and red balloons, because teenage boys don't even see stuff like that, so I could save money for food. We ordered a ton of Chinese take out. I also made up an entire case of Ramen noodles. Let's face it, Ramen is fun, I don't care how old you are. I also made endless trays of eggrolls all night long. For a really special treat, we also brought home some sushi from the specialty grocery store in town. 

I got some Pocky and put it in a blue and white vase.  
I handed out chopsticks to all. The guys had a great time eating Ramen with chopsticks, and Noah, who has always been a foodie, was jazzed with the sushi.  While I got this all together, the boys waged a supersoaker war in our backyard- we have a huge treehouse, and a couple of acres with woods, so this took several hours to render everyone soaked and muddy.  They were so glad to come in, towel off, put their pj's on, and shovel their faces with take-out. When they were done, we had a movie marathon which included every Godzilla title I could rent from the video store, The Karate Kid 1,2,and 3, which most of them had not ever seen, Bruce Lee, and this weird movie called "The man with the Secret Kung-Fu" that I found for a buck at Wal-mart.

It turned out to be so bad it was good.  I was surprised that most of the kids had never seen the classic Godzilla films, and they had fun making fun of them. I made tons of popcorn, and handed everyone a take-out box full of Jelly Bellies. We also opened and read fortune cookies.  By far though, the best part of the night was Bobbing for Ho Hos.

To play, you fill a large bowl with milk, float a couple of boxes of Ho Hos in it, and let them bob for them. Yeah, this was the talk of the head-shaking moms this year. I think if you follow the rule of thumb that you do what the kids would like, and not what adults would like, you are going to have a home run every time. 

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"I See a Monster" Sock Puppets!

Last month was my nephew's 1st birthday. I thought about what I wanted to get him, and I knew I wanted to do something that was a little more personal than a store bought toy. I can't remember where I saw this idea but I came across something similar to this:

You give the gift of The Very Hungry Caterpillar  book along with a sock puppet that looks like the caterpillar, and food with holes in it that he can eat through.

I liked that idea and went to my local Walmart and found a book I knew a little one year old boy would love:

This book is a touch and feel book all about the different kinds of monsters this little boy sees.


If you click on the book it will take you to Amazon, but it was cheaper at Walmart. Then again, what isn't cheaper at Walmart? 

So I went over to the socks department and picked out a few monsters from the book that I liked and thought I would give it a go at making resembling sock puppets.

SOCK PUPPET TUTORIAL


Materials Needed:
Fuzzy Sock(s)
hot glue and glue gun
cardboard
felt
googly eyes

pom poms (optional)
pipe cleaners (optional)



I couldn't find any fuzzy socks that were long so I had to get a few pairs of ankle socks.

 

I cut a hole into the toe of one and hot glue them together like this (sorry the picture is a different pair- I forgot to take the first picture until after the puppet was already made):

IMPORTANT TIP: I found that when you are gluing the two socks together, it helped to have your fingers stretch the socks out as the glue was drying, otherwise it would dry and not be able to stretch at all when you try to put it on. You may get a few glue gun burns, but its not really a good project unless you do right?!?

Then I cut an oval out of cardboard ( I think I just used an empty snack box from my pantry) and I just eye-balled the size I wanted. This will be the inside of your puppet's mouth:

Then I hot glued some felt onto the cardboard. I used a different color than the sock itself so it would stand out. (Think Sesame Street puppets).

Then I cut the toe off of the top of the puppet, adjusted the cardboard so that it would work as a mouth. I folded the cardboard so that it was similar to the shape of my hand shaped as a C:

and then I glued the edges of the sock to the cardboard as if it were sewn (the outside of the sock was rolled under and glued):

Now comes the fun creative part. Decorate your puppet however you want using googly eyes, pom pom balls, felt, and pipe cleaners. I ended up making three puppets and here's the finished results:

Enjoy!

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We're Participating In:

Coloring Books

The magical minds at Crayola have devised a way to turn your kid's memories into customized coloring book pages. To see the transformation: Upload digital photos at www.crayola.com/colorme. Try it for free anytime, but you need a code - in specially marked boxes of crayons ($5 for a box of 48) to print your creations. 

I thought this was a great gift idea. Print out a bunch of pages and make your own color books.Subscribe to One of a Kind Gifts here!

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Truckload of Chocolate

Got me a new cool resource: thetoymaker.com

This little truck is just one of dozens of cute paper toys that you can print out right from her site for free! I am loving this cute truck- you could fill it full of chocolate kisses and say, you deserve a truckload of love, or any other cheesy thing. Her paper toys book looks pretty neat too. Most of it is geared toward children, but lots, like this truck, just take a little imagination for lots of different uses. Happy paper folding!

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Quiet Book Part 1

I am making my daughter a quiet book that we can take with us to church in hopes that it will keep her little fingers and mind busy so we are not constantly running up and down the hallways. I scoured the web collecting all of my favorite ideas from numerous places. I decided to do an ABC book, but I am afraid it may be too thick, but we'll see how it goes.

Quiet books are awesome and can be passed from child to child, and even become a family heirloom if made to last.

If you were to make this as a gift for someone, like a little niece or nephew's birthday or Christmas present, or your own child's Christmas or birthday present, you could make a much smaller version and not make it ABC specific if you are feeling intimidated.

I find that I can get about one page (one side) done a night, so that may help you to plan accordingly.

I am no where near being done so I will post an updated version later, but here are some of my pages so far to give you some ideas.

Here is my page for the letter "E". The flowers are removable from the buttons.

Here is my letter "G" page representing a grandma. The hands are velcro'ed together. When you open the hands up:

Gramma plays peek-a-boo with you!

Here is my letter "M" page. Its not quite done, but I haven't decided how I want to add words on the page yet. But its a mailbox that is snapped closed. When you open it:

 

You get a letter from Mommy, which also starts with M.

This is my Noah's Ark page. I still need to add a few more embellishments and the water at the bottom but I ran out of blue felt. Inside the zipper are these little animal finger puppets. I have a pig, chicken, zebra, cow, and giraffe.

We have a weimaraner dog named Toby. But this could be made for any dog. His ear flips up and down to show a pink underside. The leash and collar buckle together.

I have another page thats in the beginning stages of a shoe that you can tie using the "There was an old woman that lived in a shoe' nursery ryhme. I started this project last Saturday and I have been working on it after my daughter goes to bed, so if you have more time you could do a cute little book relatively quickly. When all the pages are done I plan to sew them together and punch three holes along the edge with eyelits and then bind them together with metal rings.

Here are a couple of websites that gave me the most inspiration and have details on how to get started, materials you need, and even free pattern printouts:

Homemade by Jill - her posts in April go through each page individually
How to Make a Quiet Book

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The Romantic Rubik's Cube

My gifting style tends to lean towards things I can do with photographs. I love taking them and editing them, and finding cool new ways to display them is fun too. I found this idea over at Love Actually:

These look really cool and seem very easy to make! Here is the tutorial from her website:

Click Here for Tutorial

These would obviously be great for wedding gifts, but you could also do any picture you want and use it for any occasion. Here are some more ideas on how to use these:

- Stocking Stuffer
- Home Decoration
- Gift for a spouse who enjoys puzzles
- Bridal shower or small wedding gift (using pics of the couple)
- Father's Day/Mother's Day

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Photo Memory Game

Here is another post about making memories with your kids and a super cute gift idea. Playing games with your kids is a great way to make lasting memories with them.

I found this at Jamie's Digital Designs.

My son is only 2 1/2 but he loves the game memory. I am so happy that I found this post. I am going to make him his own personalized game for his 3rd birthday. Thanks so much for sharing Jamie.

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Take Along Totes

These are probably cutest gift ideas I have ever seen hands down. Pretty much pick a theme and you can make an unbelievely unique gift for very little money.

Cupcake Take Along

Check out the step by step tutorial here by Nichole Heady

Movie Kit Take Along

  

This one is by Lauren Meader and there are lots more pictures here.

Sewing Kit Take Along

This on is also by Lauren Meader and can be found here.

I am so excited to make a Take Along for my next gift project.

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