Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Melted Wax

Like most folks that I know, I am a member and a fan of the website Pinterest.   I heard about this site a while back but was incredibly hesitant to join.  I was afraid it would suck me in and take away my time and thoughts from more important matters (aka children, mister etc.)

One day my friend came over and showed me her wedding board and talked about how it makes it easier for her to gather her ideas and not lose them.

That was all the convincing I needed.

So I joined up and I have found 

  • SO MANY useful tips and ideas to help me on my never ending decluttering journey.
  • Lots of fun crafts for me and the girls to do together
  • Lots of ideas to make delicious and frugal meals
  • 5 hundred thousand million home decorating ideas
  • millions of different fun hair styles for Rhiannon and I to try out.
  • etc. etc. etc.
One thing I noticed right away was the freakish crayon art craze that is going on right now.  Have you you heard of it?  Where you use your hair dryer to melt crayons for some crazy looking art?  I bet you have, because....... 

 Seriously. 

 EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHER IS MAKING CRAYON ART!!!

I had to admit it looked like a TON of fun to make so I decided to jump on that bandwagon for a quick spell......

There were a few different ways to go about this, Rhiannon and I tried three.  Unfortunately I don't have pictures of one of my projects (they were Christmas presents) so I will only tell you about two today.

This is the one Rhiannon did.  She wanted to make a rainbow effect.  We started by picking out a canvas to glue our crayons on, I have quite a few of blank canvases that I painted black for when I was in school.  Now that the project is all said and done I am glad she chose the black over the white.  It made her colors pop more.

Rhiannon chose her colors and used hot glue to keep them in place.


So the next step is to use your hairdryer to melt the crayon wax however you want.  You see that "drop cloth"  I put up?  It didn't do any damn good, so if you are going to do this I suggest going into a garage.  We also found that it would melt and go about 2 inches and cool and harden.  We tried heating up the clumps but that only resorted in the clumps going down further instead of breaking up.  (This was a very dramatic moment in the making of this art piece.  Rhiannon was sure I ruined it.)  If you do this and are using a larger canvas I would suggest putting the hair dryer to the back instead of on the front of the crayon.  Also, we were going back and forth horizontily over the crayons.  I would go vertically on one color until you get it how you like and then move on to the next color. 


Here is the finished product.  This was kind of fun, but only kind of.  Rhiannon is 11 and this took about an hour and a half.  Around halfway through this she got really bored with it so this is definitely not a project to do with little ones.


The next one I did was a lot more fun for me.  I might have Rhiannon make one of these because the possibilities are endless on what you can do.  (I don't have a completely finished picture of this project, sorry.)


I started this piece out by drawing a cartoon interpretation of my friend.......(She doesn't really have knobby knees, that is just my bad drawing skills)  I used sharpies to color her in.


I then added some bling to her belt :)

And now for the fun part!

I started off by taping tin foil (all I had in the house) around the umbrella and girl so no wax would get on them.  I used my hot glue gun and pushed different blue crayons through it to create a rain effect.  I used the eraser end of a pencil to push the crayons through.  Also, you are going to need to take the wrapper off BEFORE putting it into the gun.  While the wax was still wet I sprinkled some blue glitter on top to give it a bit of a sparkle.  

This was what it looked like when I first took the tin foil off......


After this picture was taken I added a bunch more wax to the bottom half of the canvas.  I also added some more on top so it would look like it was "dripping" off of the umbrella, brightened the girl up and drew in some puddles at her feet.  

This project really was so much fun, and for those of you wondering, NO it will not ruin your hot glue gun.  It will, however make your glue turn into fun colors, so if you do an all white project after something like this I recommend getting a different gun.


I hope everyone is enjoying their week with this RIDICULOUSLY nice weather we are having!  Tomorrow is going to be all about one of my favorite things......FOOD!!!!



Monday, January 30, 2012

Parties are exhausting!

It has been a month since I have posted last and this is why:  Holiday/Birthday party madness/Wedding crunch time has taken OVER our lives!  We have........
  • had three christmasses
  • survived new years (and it seemed as though every year the girls wear less and less clothes on new years.  its COLD ladies.  at least wear pants that cover your entire bum, or, dresses that do not have holes cut out in them.)
  • Hosted a successful 1-2-3 birthday party
  • knocked about 35 items off of our to-do list for the wedding (which is an alarmingly 61 days away!  where's my paper bag??? I need to breathe......)
And if it wasn't bad enough that I have been ridiculously busy I have now succumbed to the ever addicting pinterest.  I was worried that it would suck all of my time away and make me want to just sit on the computer all day.  I was very pleasantly surprised to find it has done the EXACT opposite!!  I have made so much yummy food and made so many cute crafts with the kids since I joined that site!  Plus I have a stockpile of more fun and useful ideas to keep me busy for months!!!  I plan on blogging about all of our fun new things we have been making starting tomorrow.   

Here are a few captures of the past month in the life of us....

The Puppy came back home!  After what was the longest two weeks of frustration I have FINALLY broke him from pooping all over my floor...... 

(Clara is mocking Buehrle)


Christmas Umbrella!!!!
These clear umbrella's are a wonderful thing to have in this city when you are not tall.  You can protect your face from the rain AND from other peoples umbrellas!)


Family Sledding Day!!!!!  
Clara enjoyed the sledding, but hated the not being able to walk in her snowsuit!

New Years Eve with my Love while being surrounded by scantily clad women.

Aunt Dawn's Birthday Shot!!!!!

Christmas with Gramma and Papa


Birthday Madness!!!!!!

Since my sisters kids were turning 1 & 3 and Clara is turning 2 all around the same time she came up with the brilliant idea for a 1-2-3 birthday party to make it easier for the family to get together to celebrate.  

She did such a wonderful job taking care of all the big stuff for this day!  Thank you Christi!  I could have never pulled this off!








Setting up is over now lets get this party going!!!!






Clara with two of her favorite people....Ju-ju and Amana.


It really isn't a birthday party if your mom doesn't make you cry.......right?
(worst mom ever)

Cake Time!!!!!

(Ju-Ju tried to blow his candle out with his fingers...)

Here Clara is still to timid to touch her cake since I said No no no! while trying to get a before picture.  (Once again, worst mom ever.)

PRESENTS!

Clara says thank you to all her friends and family who came to make her birthday party a success!  She is having so much fun today with all of her new toys!!  

(She refused to eat breakfast unless "tangled" was eating breakfast with her and then did her hair for a good 30 minutes.)







One last thing I want to add directed towards my Aunt and Uncle, I know we said this 500 times yesterday, but THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for helping us out and watching the kids yesterday!  We would have never been able to find such a perfect outfit for the Mister to wear for our wedding if it were not for you.  The girls had so much fun with you, Rhiannon didn't want to leave and told me that next time I need a sitter I should always take her to your house!

Times like these I am reminded of just how lucky I am to have a family who not only loves each other unconditionally but also never questions that family comes first, ALWAYS.  

I am very blessed for the family I was born into and I hope each and every one of you know that I love you SO much and am so happy to see each and every one of you this weekend!!!