January

January was a busy month. Chris interviewed for medical schools in North Dakota, Reno NV, and for the WWAMI program here in Laramie. It was cheapest to drive to Grand Forks, ND so we packed up the car and headed out. The trip was so much fun. We stopped at MT Rushmore to break  up the driving. Emily loved it. I do have to mention that she loved throwing rocks into a puddle more than the actual rock that we were there to see. After that we stayed in Mitchell SD, home of the Corn Palace! (yay) and then drove up to Grand Forks. Emily loved swimming in the pool at the hotel (thank you again Shane!) and then we went across the river to Minnesota to Cabela's, which happens to be one of our favorite places to shop, explore and hang out at. After he interviewed, we headed home, but before we did that, we stopped at the Cabela's in Mitchell, and in Rapid City. Amazing that we hit 3 Cabela's in 2 days! whew, busy busy.

A week after North Dakota, we sent Chris off to Reno NV. His flight was delayed and so it was dark by the time he arrived. Chris has never experienced Nevada at night, so when he drove into the casino district where his hotel was, he was, a little nervous. But he found his way around and had a good interview there. He went to the Cabela's in Verdi and then came back home to us.

The WWAMI program interview was in Laramie, which was amazing and pretty uneventful. But after the interviews we just had to wait, and wait and wait for results.

Here are some pictures from January and 1 from Christmas since I didn't get to post that either.

Emily loved sitting on Santa's lap, in fact, she had to sit on his lap 3 times.

She loved throwing the rocks into the puddle.

In the gift shop were these magnet rocks, which provided Emmy with the perfect entertainment.

I sure love my Emmy Bug, she's awfully cute ;)

St Patrick's Day Wreath

This has to be one of my favorite St. Patty's Day projects!
I got the inspiration from Rebecca Cooper's blog.

What you will need for this project:
an old book
green paper
buttons
yarn
a stapler
Scissors
Silhouette Cameo or shamrock stencil

Total Cost: $0 since I didn't purchase anything new, at most $2 for buttons, paper and a old book.

1: Decide how long you want your banner and pull out enough pages from your old book. I took a book from the hubby while he was at work and told him about it when he got home. Luckily he liked the banner enough he was ok with losing a book :)

2: Cut your pages to 5x3 rectangles, then snip a triangle out to make the points, I could have used my Silhouette, but I chose to do them by hand because cutting each page was faster than placing each page on the mat and cutting and repeating.

3: Using the Silhouette (or cricut) cut out 2 1/2 inch shamrocks for each page. I created my own shamrock, for that file, please email me. Glue the shamrocks on the banner, then add the buttons to the centers. (I used small glue dots to stick the buttons on)

4: To finish your banner, fold the top of each page over the yarn and staple in place. Make sure you leave enough room so you can slide your pieces along the string to adjust.

Wah-Laa! You are done. Hang it up and enjoy your new St. Patrick's Day banner!

Coffee Filter Wreath

What you will need for this project:
1 package of coffee filters, (200 ct)
1 large Styrofoam wreath (10-16 inches)
*I used a willow wreath from Dollar Tree since I already had it, so I just wrapped it with a long scrap of fabric*
Inkpad, whatever color(s) you want
a marker, pencil or whatever to help glue the filters on (saves your fingers)
Glue Gun
Ribbon, to tie a loop to hang

Total Cost of this project: $3

1: Taking a stack of coffee filters, flatten them with an edge hanging over the side of the table. Use your inkpad to 'distress' the edges, make sure you are thorough, you don't want to miss any filters. Turn the filters and continue to distress the entire edge of the filters.

2: Put your ribbon around the wreath, and create a loop to hang it. The loop will end up being covered by the filters unless you make it a huge loop.

3: Take 1 filter and center it on the marker, on the end, put a dab of glue and stick it to your wreath. I started with the outermost edge and did several rows, then worked from the inside. Leave the middle for last, it seemed to work out pretty well for me.

I loved this project, I was surprised by the size of the finished wreath. It was meant to go on my front door, but there wasn't enough room between the door and the screen door, so it now sits gracefully above my kitchen table.

Lucky

Another great St. Patrick's Day project cost $1, that's right, $1! All I bought was a new white frame from Dollar Tree, so technically the project cost $1.06 including tax :)
Inspiration came from Blooming Homestead. I just loved her lucky sign and had to create my own.

The Subway Art came from eighteen25.blogspot.com . And since I did not have a frame large enough for her original, I did a screen print and then cropped the image, resized it and printed it.

What you need for this project:
green paper 4x6 inches
white paper
4x6 frame
glue
Silhouette Cameo

Using my Silhouette Cameo I created the shamrock using 3 hearts. and then vector drew the stem. Email me for the file. Then I typed L CKY and left enough room for the shamrock. Resized the image to 5 inches wide. Then I cut it out and glued it on to the green 4x6 paper.

It's a super simple project that adds a lot of class to a St. Patrick's Day display.

Strawberry Banner

After much deliberation I decided on a "Berry Special Occasion" for my Emily's 2 year old birthday party. To say she loves berries would be an understatement. We didn't want a Strawberry Shortcake themed party and couldn't find ideas online that truly 'sang to me'. So I created a banner, and invitations to jump-start my creative process. By using paper I already had, I spent $0, that's right, absolutely no money, the cost of the materials if I had gone out and purchased them would have been about $3-$5 for the paper. (the cost depends on availability of craft stores in your area)

What you will need for this Project:
      Invitations:
           Printer
           Silhouette Cameo
           Green, black, red and white cardstock (8.5x11 or 12x12)
           Glue Stick
      Banner:
           Silhouette Cameo
          Green, black, red and white cardstock (8.5x11 or 12x12)
          Glue Stick
          Tape
          Yarn

Using my Silhouette Cameo I was able to find a strawberry clipart graphic, save it as a jpeg, and then imported it to Silhouette Studio. From there, I used the trace tool to create a cut-able object. If you would like my banner and invite files (silhouette studio file) for free please contact me to bypass all of those steps.



Here is the Card with all of its components.

Please note that each part needs to be cut separately on its respective color of paper.

I used the print and cut feature to print the wording on the white card, and then cut the cards out. I was only able to to do 2 cards per page. After cutting all components, it is time to glue them together. And its that simple and that cheap!

The steps of the banner are close to the card. Instead of using the double white background, you use the single which is included in my studio file. Again, cut all items out and glue them together.
Now it is time for the lettering. Open a new page and decide what font you want for your banner, I used Maiandra. type out all the letters needed for the banner. After I had cut the black letters, I noticed that they needed something more to ground them. So I cut white backgrounds for them.

First, you need to increase your letter spacing to at least 125, or just use trial and error to find the correct distance so the white backgrounds don't overlap each other. After you have increased your spacing, then use the "Offset" tool. I moved my offset distance to .15 but you can do whatever size you prefer. Once you have the backgrounds where you want them, you can then move the text and cut the letters, then the bubbles!

To finish your banner, after everything is glued, I laid out a long piece of yarn, again something I had in my stash, and just taped it to the yarn. I did it this way so it would be super cheap and easy, and because it is a birthday banner, it does not need to hold up for a long time.

I hope these instructions help you out when making this project or a project inspired by this one. Email me your completed projects, I would love to see them!

Updated Blog

So I am working on updating things around here. First on the list was posting pictures of the watchbands I made for the Craft Fairs. Check them out, I still have some in stock and can always make more!

butterflykissesonline.blogspot.com

I promise to add photos soon.

Spring Break

Ahh Spring Break. How wonderful to take break from it all... Actually Chris and I got a ton of stuff done since we stayed in Laramie all break.

-we changed the oil in the van, actually, Chris did that
-we washed the van, Guess what! The yellow paint that wasn't quite dry from when they painted the lines on Grand that I accidentally got on the van are nearly all gone!
-we vacuumed and conditioned the interior of the van
-Chris fixed both bikes, he sure is a good fix-it man for all of my honey do projects
-Chris studied for the MCAT and his BioChem test on Wednesday
-I made my first ever corned beef and cabbage, needless to say, it needs a little work
-I ran all sorts of errands, like post office, groceries, etc
-Had Brian and Maddie over for a game night
-Took Emily for a walk, every day
-Slept in.... til 7:10
-We took Emily swimming and she loved it!
-I started working on another bag, this one is for Grandma Flash, (I'll post a picture of it when it is finished)
-Finished another purse!
-Talked to Aunt Amber in South Africa
-Spent some awesome time with my sweetheart

All in all, our spring break was wonderful. Hopefully we will be able to go do something fun next spring break!