day forty two: smartie pants treats

smarties trouser treats!

day forty two and its time to reward my hard working kids!  they have been doing a fantastic job with their maths this week, they have had some new maths ideas to work through and have done a great job so i am going to reward them today with 'smartie pants'!  this is a fantastic gift idea from the muddy princess kimberly, and i have pinned it to my gift wrapping and gift ideas board on pinterest.  kimberly has so many wonderful crafty ideas on her blog its well worth checking out.

the template and the trace :)

this is nice and easy so you could do multiplies pretty simply ... i have a class of two so no worries for me!  i used some scrap card and made a pattern, then traced around it for the rest of the trousers. after some gluing, a bit of pen work, a couple of brads to make them a little more robust, and an investment in some smarties, i'd say you are good to go .... !

just need some smarties in these cute little pants!

outcome:  these are really fun to make and totally rewarding to give :)  the joy of giving them is thanks enough, seeing there cute little faces light up is SO cool. i can think of so many ways you could adapt them so you could use them for valentines day, christmas, birthday favours, all sorts :) if you need to give a lot of little people a boost or a thank you then you need go no further than these ... sweet, simple, and fun to make!

he was so chuffed at being a smartie pants!

big, big thanks goes to the muddy princess for having such wonderful crafty ideas on her blog, it makes being inspired to give it a go so much easier :)

day forty one: pretzel hugs

my pretzel hugs

day forty one and its the day of our home school bush battle so its another recipe to feed the hungry troops for p365 today.  the hugs are pinned to my recipe must do's board and it was pinned there from food gawker.  very cool website for finding out what people are making and loving :)

ready for the oven!

the kids should love these as a treat and they are going to take no time to make on a busy day :)  just what i need!  speaking of need, all you require for this recipe are hersheys, pretzels, and m&ms ... i am making a largish amount so opted out of the hersheys in favour of chocolate melts :)

there really isn't a recipe for this, the instruction even fit on the pin! turn oven on to about 150C, spread pretzels out on an oven tray, put chocolate on top.  once the chocolate has gone soft take out of the oven (around 2/3 minutes) and put an m&m into the melted chocolate before the chocolate hardens!

so good :)

some of the hungry bush battlers!

outcome:  i made a huge amount of these little gems and they were into them completely!  and the funny thing was the adults loved them just as much as the kids ... these are a definite to make again and again.

if you love food check out the recipes at food gawker, really inspiring ideas from a wide range of people!

day forty: hot milk cake

my hot milk cake :)

day forty and tomorrow i am taking the kids off for a 'battle in the bush' with a big group of home school kids! they have to make camo forts and design a flag for their group and generally spend some good ole' fashioned time outside getting exhausted.  at some point during the afternoon we will have to feed these mighty children, so todays pin is on my recipe must do's board, is from taste of home and its their hot milk cake.  i have never heard of such a cake so this will be exciting!

the batter ready to hop into the oven

the immediate thing that draws me to this recipe is that it doesn't require any unusual ingredients and most of them i have at home most of the time ... good news if this cake tastes good :)  the other good news is it doesn't require icing!

i gathered the ingredients (eggs, sugar, vanilla, flour, baking powder, milk, and butter), combined and my first surprise was how much mixture this cake makes!  its also a really runny mixture ... but into the oven it went while i checked the recipe to see what i had done wrong ... couldn't find anything :)

slice of cake anyone?

outcome: the cake was a big success ... it took an hour to bake but i have just realised the cake tin i put it in was really small compared to what was suggested in the recipe!  ok pays to read what tin size to use, metal note for the future :) family is stoked with this cake, super cool and totally doesn't need icing.  it tastes somewhere between a soft cupcake and madeira cake ... it definitely makes the list of make agains!

taste of home is quite a new recipe site to me but i am totally loving the recipes from it ... some are easier than others, but the effort is worth the result :) i am very grateful to the lovely people of taste of home it is a fantastic resource, thank you!

day thirty nine: 15 bags in 15 days clean out!

the 'bag' of clearing from the tv room bookcases!

found this cute pin for day thirty nine 40 bags in 40 days and as we are about to put our house on the market, i thought this type of clean out would be very timely :).  the pin comes from a really neat blog  little lucy lu ... a little bit of pink in the country (her blog had me at the title!) and you can find it on my ideas for organisation board at pinterest.

working on my list :)

 i don't have that many spaces to clean out ... small but quaint is were i live! so i am doing 15 bags in 15 days ... this will work really well with the spring clean i have going on :)  made my list in word and then printed ready to tackle today's bag!

the finished list with one crossed off!

outcome:  ok it ended up not being a bag but a table full of books and a couple of kids toys but the tv room bookcase now has about a third less books than it did have ... love the list and hopefully one a day won't seem a burden ... super hyped about this organisation list!

many thanks to bec's from  little lucy lu ... a little bit of pink in the country, for the fantastic idea which is totally going to help me unclutter my house without in being a major burden ... love great ideas and blogs and bec certainly fits into both those categories :)

day thirty eight: mod podge coasters (or wall art!) for halloween

the finished mod podged halloween tiles!

the day has dawned and its time to mod podge ... mod podge some ceramic tiles to be exact.  pinned to my paper crafts board on pinterest is a great tutorial about mod podging tiles from lindsay at the cottage home blog. she has loads of tutorials, mostly sewing patterns, tips, and tricks ... and she makes the most beautiful childrens clothes.

i really liked her idea for home-made coasters and immediately thought i could do a collage of them on the wall for holiday decor ... we aren't the best users of coasters in this house at present! i had a 6 x 6 pad of halloween paper that needed a project so i went with a halloween theme for this set of tiles.  my papers are from the pink paislee hocus pocus collection, love the petite pads because the design sizes are easy to work with for little projects, like this one!  got my supplies together, if you are making actual coasters, you will need some felt for the backs to prevent them marking the surfaces they sit on.

supplies for the project :)

i have some handy hints for this project:

• i always cut out a transparency the size i need the paper to be so i can make sure i am happy with the pattern on the square i am going to end up with.  this is also really good to do if you are going to undertake this project with photos, takes all the guess work out of where to cut the picture!
• as some of you will be aware i'm not a fan of raw edges :) so when i cut paper i tend to edge it with a distress ink (my favourites are tim holtz ones) ... for this project i used frayed burlap first to vintage up the edges of the paper and then walnut stain on the very edges to give it a bit of depth. i think the end look gives each piece of paper its own little border and i really like that.
• i have used mod podge paper matte for this project because they are going to hang in a sunny area, so i don't want them to yellow and the matte will help limit the reflection more than a gloss would
• and finally, fyi i put three layers of mod podge on these little babies :)

hopefully you can pick up the transparency in the picture
... see how easy it is to figure out where you need to cut :)

outcome:  whats not to love ... this is going to be another one of those projects that i am going to change with the holidays and decor of my home ... i am going to get steve to put 9 hooks up on a wall and just change the tiles according to the holiday, with a set of 9 i can keep up that match the rooms decor at other times of the year (these ones i am going to put family photos on).  i am completely stoked with the outcome of this wall art and if we ever need coasters, i won't need to buy some, i'll just make'em!  bring on halloween!

nine tiles to hang on the wall, love collages!

huge thanks to lindsay from the cottage home for the inspiration, she has beautiful tutorials, they are really easy to follow and i can't thank her enough for this awesome idea :) if you are into sewing children's clothes or for that matter buying them, check her site out, its fantastic for inspiration and buying opportunities!

day thirty seven: inchies seasonal wall craft

the summer inchy layout for the wall :)

day thirty seven and its time to look forward ... lets get some summer wall art done now! i thought i would create a summer version of the autumn inchies craft by craft ideas.  love how when you look at her autumn one, it just makes you look forward to all that autumn/fall offers ... love decor that does that.  lets hope i can recreate some of that feeling with my summer one.  this craft is pinned to my seasons board on pinterest :)

the beginning of the project!

got the supplies together and decided to ignore the fact that christmas occurs during summer.  i figured i would make one for the festive season and this one could just concentrate on all the other things that make summer so wonderful in new zealand.

my inchies are doubles ... 2" by 2" ... all the things i had at home were a little large for conventional inchies!  most of the bases were done using some little water colour cards i had and the rest were in scrap pattern papers.

summer on an inchy :)

outcome:  because i didn't go and buy things especially for this project, it took me a long time to make it work with the bits and pieces i had ... i like repetition and for me i struggled with the fact i didn't have a lot of "things" that worked perfectly together.  i think when i do the next season (spring) i will look for a spring line from a scrapbook company and base the project around that to make it easier!  it needs a shadow box to go in, but apart from that i feel really happy to have some interchangeable wall art for the changing seasons (even if i can't yet use it!).

my thanks goes to craft ideas for a truly awesome idea ... i absolutely love their autumn one and can't wait to make one for each season :)

ben and his goodies

update: the kids LOVED their scavenger hunt and where out today collecting their goodies, my sweet husband thought it would be a really good idea for a party game, so start collecting your egg cartons!

pollyanna's collection

day thirty six: winter scavenger hunt

the finished scavenger hunt boxes

day thirty six and its time to have a scavenger hunt for the peeps of the house ... its time to stop hiding from the rain and head outdoors for an adventure, so with that in mind i am using i am momma, hear me roar's fantastic egg carton scavenger hunt for todays p3645 creation.  the carton is also pinned to my home school projects wall on pinterest :)

getting the scavenger hunt printables done

so the concept is the kids are given the egg carton and then go outside and place the 12 items in the carton, i would love to have used i am momma's collection of 12 so i could have just printed it off but it didn't quite work for nz in the winter! not to worry, i made a table in windows and used clip art to provide the pictures, then laminated the bits (of course!) and attached to the cartons.  i was totally stoked with the outcome! i managed to do it while the kids were busy playing so hopefully it will be a nice surprise for them to do tomorrow and of course there is the silver lining that if they complete they receive a reward :)  sounds like good saturday fun to me and then they can recover from the wind and rain in front of the computer!

ready to laminate and attach!

outcome: really happy with how easy the concept was to put together, not only that its a great idea for a winters saturday morning. as for how the kids go with it and whether they found it any fun, i will update you tomorrow :)

big thanks goes to i am momma, hear me roar, cheri has awesome ideas on her site, this being one, but there are many, many more, she has a great attitude, check her blog out, i'm sure you will love it to :)