facebook timeline cover: MINT

Just thought I'd share this one, too. :)

make your own facebook timeline cover

While Facebook does not offer the large timeline cover image for pages, you can certainly deck out your profile if you have a little Photoshop knowledge.

Recently I saw a design site offering templates for $40. Ahem. Here's a very simplistic way for you to begin making your own and saving your dough (if you have Photoshop).

Here's the short version of how I did mine. It's short because I'm going out on a limb to think you might have a little knowledge and I don't have much time. When I have more time, I'll give a step-by-step.

• Start with a canvas sized 851 pixels x 315 pixels.
• Fill in with a solid background color.
• Use brushes to create a flourish (mine are hearts in the top left and bottom right). My brush is part of a package called My Heart Brushes by ~mcbadshoes. It's a free download and you can get it here. After installing the brush in Photoshop I was able to use it. I added a drop shadow to each flourish. I performed a Free Transform on the upper left flourish to turn it around.
• For the images, I opened the ones I wanted to include, reduced their size, and drag-and-dropped them onto the canvas. 
• For the framed image, I used the Custom Shape Tool and chose Frame 7. I kept the color of the frame the same as the quote text and added Outer Glow.
• As a placeholder for my Facebook profile pic, I added a white box and applied the same frame style around it. The profile pic appears 2 cm off the left and extends approximately 10 cm up into the canvas. The box should be about 10 cm x 15 cm. 

Photoshop 7.0 screen-shot

Inserted into Facebook

Will this help you generate some ideas? I'll hope to have more of a tutorial later. To help me know if that's necessary, I'd love to hear from you! Please feel free to leave a comment. And don't go spending $40 for someone to create one for you.

square stick wreath

My babies and I enjoyed picking up sticks in the yard yesterday and breaking them down for this wreath.

We used our four biggest sticks as the frame, twisting wire around the corners to connect the pieces. We used wood glue to secure the sticks to the frame.

The wreath was allowed to sit and dry overnight - probably a full 24 hours, but even so, two or three sticks fell off when we picked it up.

I was going for a very simple wreath to display right now in the dead of winter. No extra frills. The wreath is hung by a piece of burlap garland (buy it by the roll at Ben Franklin for about $5) and a piece of twine which I wove through the garland to avoid ripping it. Once the garland was cinched to create the twine hanger, I tied a simple burgundy ribbon on it. I didn't buy any special ribbon especially for the project, just used what I had. I think this would really reflect the season with a wide white ribbon. Maybe on my next trip out ...

Happy Crafting,

crayola art

So I fibbed. Here's another Pinterest-inspired craft for the day ... the Crayola art that everyone seems to love.

Let me say that it's a little trickier than I expected it to be. It's a two-person job. One to manage the heat gun (or blow dryer) and another to manipulate the canvas if the colors start going where you don't want them to go ... or if the colors just flat out don't go anywhere cool.

I bought two boxes of 24 Crayola crayons and two 8x8 canvases - one for each of my children - plus grabbed a handful of good-shape crayons we already had to mix it up a bit. The canvas on the left is for my son and the crayons are roughly in color order (or at least pleasing to my eye). The one on the right is my daughter's. She arranged the colors and suggested they run to the middle (it's a tree, don'tcha see?). He is four and she is nine. He doesn't care and she does (i.e. Mommy has creative control on the little guy but not so much with the big girl).

Tips:
1. Two people, as said before.
2. Melt from the top of the crayon, not the bottom (if you melt from the bottom, you blow the colors all over the place).
3. Use the end of a pencil to depress the canvas and encourage pooling in various spots.
4. We used a heat gun because my husband is on a power trip. A hairdryer might be a better tool because it won't heat the crayons as fast and you don't risk burning yourself as bad.
5. Work slowly. Turn the gun or dryer off every so often and let the wax cool and pool (I should trademark that!).

If I could do them over (or when I do them over), I'd go ahead with the bigger canvas and I'd be sure to go heavier with the green on my son's canvas. I would also insist that my daughter choose some brighter colors and omit the brown and black. She had a cool idea, actually ... but we had already started her canvas ... She suggested a line of pink and green alternating (maybe blocks of three at a time?) as an homage to Sweet Frog. That would be totally awesome. Maybe we'll end up with our own Crayola art gallery.

Other ideas for Crayola art:
1. Camouflage?
2. School colors (I'd opt for "old gold and blue" for my alma mater.)
3. Christmas red and green
4. Mix in several whites and get pastel effects in the pooling.
5. Pick one solid and go for it. I can see needing a punch of red in a room and this would be a neat way to accomplish it.
6. What if you leaned the canvas diagonally and all the wax ran to a lower corner instead of vertically?
7. Can you tape sections to create a shape in the middle that the wax runs around?

Hmm ...

If you have any tips or have created Crayola art canvases before, leave and comment and let's share ideas!

of pinterest interest

So after pouring over the wonderful craft finds that are to be had on Pinterest (thanks, Pinners!), I got crafty today.

{Honestly, I had this fear wash over me (okay, not real fear, but I was a little shaken and disturbed) that I was accumulating all of these fantastic, simple craft ideas and not acting on them. In the way that I've decided to use Pinterest, the goal is to find and create, not collect.}

From my For the Home board and re-pinned from Kristen R, is my rendition of the "tree of love" ...

My four-year-old son has already requested that we add grandparents! The two twigs are steadied with floral foam and I filled in around them with little red foam balls I found at the Dollar Tree. They're labeled "decorative container filler," and will surely last longer than red hots or red jelly beans. The little wooden signs had been stashed away in my "wood pile" in the craft cabinet. I have some small hearts, too, that I may paint and add to the tree. I can see this staying out all the time, not just for Valentine's Day. After all, family love isn't seasonal.

Today's second craft was inspired by Lindsey St. Louis's twig luminaries that I pinned to my DIY Gift Ideas board. While I still may make those luminaries, I went in a slightly different direction today.

I bought a small pillar-sized candle jar (not the votive size) at the Dollar Tree, wrapped twine around it and then wove the twigs through the twine. No glue or mess. I probably would have woven more twigs in, but the twine became too tight to manage such a task. And mama, I know you're reading ... this is one of your birthday gifts. :) Act surprised next month, okay?

I have one final twig craft for the day, but it's not finished. Stay tuned ...

Hey Mama: Save on Vinyl Wall Art at Michael's!

Michael's was on my to-do list for today. I need a new wreath for my door, so I thought I'd go check out the floral offerings. My trip is never complete until I browse at least 75% of the store (I skip the sewing sections as sewing isn't my forte), and I was quite shocked by the deal that awaited me.

If you're a mom looking for quick ways to decorate your kids' room, vinyl wall art may just be the way to go. My daughter has a purple room with lime green polka dots, but when I saw the large pink butterly and starbursts, I couldn't leave them. Not because they're super-cute (which they are), but because the were drastically marked down. I was sticker-shocked so I honestly failed to recognize the actual price (must have been around $17.99-$19.99, I would guess). I walked out of Michael's with this huge butterfly wall cling kit for $1.99.

No good mother would get wall clings for her daughter and not her son, so I took home gigantic cars with my butterly. Amazing. Those big boys were originally $24.99 and are now $1.99. (The photo is not the actual kit; the kit I purchased included two very large cars rather than four medium-sized cars.)

Furthermore, we host Neighborhood Bible Club at our home (VBS to most of the rest of you) each summer and this year's theme is "Storm the Castle." I lucked out and found a castle cling set for the purpose of themeing up my dining room in August. It was also only $1.99. Score!

If you have a Michael's nearby, run (don't walk) to the cashier and ask where they keep their Hip in a Hurry wall cling selection. Hopefully they'll still have something good by the time you get there. :o)

making fruity pebble treats

A few have asked for the Fruity Pebble Treats recipe. It's easy!

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 5 cups mini marshmallows
• 6 cups Fruity Pebbles

Melt the butter in a saucepan then add in the marshmallows. Stir until the marshmallows are liquid. Add in the Fruity Pebbles, mixing it all together. It's sticky and you must act quickly! I placed mine in cupcake liners so I wouldn't have dishes to clean up, plus they're easier to serve that way. Dip two spoonfuls of the mixture into each cupcake liner and let them set up for maybe 10 minutes or until they cool. That's it! Done! (See a photo)

a shower of purple and green

My sister-in-law is pregnant with my third niece and I was the fortunate gal who helped to throw her baby shower yesterday. (YAY!) Below are some pics of the goodies, if you're looking for any ideas.

I found the wooden words at the Dollar Tree and brought them home for prettyin' up. I painted each one with acrylic paints and touched them with silver accent paint. Since there are three of them, my SIL can choose which of the three girls she wants to have which word.

In the background are favor boxes that I made using a die cut at Memories Galore. It's awesome to be able to purchase cardstock and ribbon at a scrapbooking store and have access to their tools for free! In the boxes are either tootsie rolls or a scented tea light candle. The duck favor boxes were picked up from the Dollar Tree. (I ran out of time to go back to Memories Galore to make more boxes.)

I created single-tier diaper cakes for table centerpieces. Each tier included seven size one diapers and sprigs of silk hydrangeas, all tied up with purple and sage green ribbon and twine.

I must say, the Fruity Pebble Treats were my own pure genius. :) Rice Krispie treats just weren't colorful enough for me. These were a huge hit!

You can't tell it here, but I made purple cupcakes! I used a strawberry cake mix and added blue food coloring to it to make them purple. That's buttercream icing on top and my daughter gave each one a sprinkle for color. Thanks to my dear friend, Jane, for the use of her beautiful cupcake stand!

Photos by Casey Higgins

shutting out the madness

Do the thoughts in your mind fly so fast that you quickly forget what you were even thinking about? It's kind of like walking into a room and forgetting why you walked in there (which happens to me at least once a day). I have a hundred things on my mind at once, just orbiting around, focusing into thought and then back out.

I'm jealous of those who can honest to goodness meditate. How on earth do you possibly stop all stream of consciousness and clear your mind? It's impossible. For me, at least. What I wouldn't give to just stop thinking. To be able to narrow it down to one thing at a time. I guess that would make me an ape or something though, right? Lesser than an ape, even.

What I have learned to do, however, is narrow my focus. When I think about God, some of the noise lessens. If I concentrate on Him, I am rewarded with little treasures - little nuggets of precious thought, or at least thoughts that I wouldn't have otherwise given real attention to. A sweet memory, a "light bulb moment," or rational reasoning (for once). I have a couple examples.

• My husband and I looked at a house in our neighborhood last week. It presented an exciting opportunity and, of course, I was a little giddy at the thought of moving out of this cracker box we call home. I was optimistic about it for a day or two, but then had a moment of enlightment. It was a moment when my mind was turned to God (see "do you ever have a song in your heart" to learn how I best connect with Him) and for a moment, all thoughts did cease and He said (not literally - duh!), "that house is too close to the sketchy activity on the corner that you worry about." A ha. Yes, Lord, so it is. The lil' thugs on the corner would have much easier access to my home and children if we lived there. I think I'll stay right where I am ... the cozy cracker box in the cul-de-sac (or "cuddle sack" as my mother-in-law says).
• Creating something relaxes me. Be it writing, painting, shooting the camera, or knitting, I can feel the stress release its hold if I'm in a creative mode. Last night I thought, "I wonder if that paint-your-own-pottery place has an annual membership or some other offer to knock off the $8/piece studio fee." Today I received an email from that SAME PAINT-YOUR-OWN POTTERY PLACE that said, "Come paint today! No studio fee from 5 til closing!" What. Do. You. Know.

...
...
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But that's where my story stops because my husband was late getting home and I didn't get to go paint. So here I am, utilizing my other creative outlet. Letting ... go ... of ... the ... stress ...

sharing information is good!

Wanted to share some new finds with you:

• Free Thanksgiving Crafts E-Book! If you click around, you'll find several free e-books to download, all overflowing with crafting ideas.
• $10 off a $25 Yankee Candle purchase with this coupon. Valid through 12/12/09!
• Download the Martha Stewart Thanksgiving Recipes E-Book for free!
• Download Paula Deen's Holiday Hosting Guide for free, too!
• Free holiday supplement of The Old Schoolhouse. Great kid activity pages included!

Thanks to The Frugal Girls for freely sharing these awesome deals and steals!

finding craft ideas

I have found some of the neatest home-related gift and craft ideas in the Lowe's Creative Ideas magazine. The subscription is free! See the sample magazine for instructions to make a jewelry box from fencepost caps and pressed flower acrylic coasters. Those two projects will tide you over until your first issue arrives.

Go where the crafters go (or at least one of the places crafters go) - Michael's! Check out their awesome Handmade Holiday Guide for free instructions to begin molding your next great gift. I've already found an idea that I plan to put together for at least one person - the Peppermint Holiday Candlescape. Talk about super easy (and pretty cheap). This one's a "well, duh!" See the Michael's calendar for free demo days, too.

Consider this. USE ideas from one place but purchase the items SOMEWHERE ELSE. I can't over emphasize the savings that can be realized at the Dollar Tree. Seriously. Why pay $10 for a candle and another $10 for a glass plate to create that Peppermint Holiday Candlescape? I know I can pick up the plate and the candle for $1 each at the Dollar Tree. Not to mention peppermint candies. I'll have to investigate the cheapest place to buy a hurricane lamp glass. Michael's might actually be the best bet on that piece of the puzzle. For the red balls seen in the photo, check out the Christmas decorations for cheap beaded garland. If you find it, cut it apart and use the beads for this instead. :o)

I forgot to mention one of my favorite crafts from quite a few years ago. I made several of these for Christmas gifts and even had one or two of my own. The Mason jar soap dispenser! It's easy and if you know someone who has a country or primitive influence in their decor, I encourage you to give this one a whirl.

Supplies:

• Mason canning jar with seal and lid (size doesn't matter and the old zinc lid won't work for this)
• Cheap liquid hand soap with a pump dispenser
• scrap fabric and twine

Find something to puncture a hole in the middle of the jar seal. It needs to be big enough to fit the soap pump into. (I say "find something" because that's how I work. I rummage through the junk drawer until I find one of my husband's screwdrivers or something to push a hole through metal. Not safe, but that's how it works in my house.)

Cut a piece of scrap fabric in a square large enough to cover the seal, be screwed on underneath the lid and still hang out along the side of the jar a little bit. Think old fashioned jelly jars that your Aunt Millie made your mom every year.

Cut a hole in the center of the fabric only large enough to let the soap pump through.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER: Fill the jar about 2/3 full of liquid soap. Put the seal on the jar, followed by the scrap material. Push the soap dispenser down through the material and the seal. Screw on the ring. Tie a piece of twine around the lid. Just knot it. Nothing frilly. Leave a length of no more than one inch.

As my two year old would say, "Ta da!"

Perhaps I'll make another one of these jars soon and post a picture. I looked through Google images but didn't find one like what I've made in the past. This tells me that if you make one of these, it will be a unique gift!

crafty christmas, part ii

As promised, I brainstormed and remembered some other crafty (or cheap) Christmas gifts from the past.

• Peppermint Cocoa! You know, I had a "made from scratch" recipe but I'm unable to locate it at the moment. Here's the next best thing ... Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa is like .97/box at Wal-Mart. Buy a box, open all the packets and dump them in a bowl. Open a bunch of peppermint candies and toss them in a food processor. Pulse until it's really fine and then dump the peppermint into the bowl with the cocoa. Mix well and then pour into an air-tight container. I have found that Mason jars work well. You can add a scrap of fabric between the lid and the ring, tie some twine or raffia around the lid, and add a nicely decorated tag with the measurements for mixing. By the way, that's about a third of a cup of cocoa to a cup of boiling water. ;)
• Favorite Family Recipes. There are two ways to go about this. Find a nice set of recipe cards, write out the recipes, and tie them up with a ribbon. Or, go to http://www.blurb.com/ to create your own really nice book. They're priced $4.95 to $59.95. I have not gone this hi-tech route because I've always liked the personal touch of writing the cards myself, but when I'm ready to gift recipes again, I think I'll invest the time to actually make a cookbook.
• Beeswax Taper Candles. Buy sheets of beeswax at most any craft store with candle making supplies. Also buy wicks. Cut the wick to the length of the beeswax sheet and begin rolling the beeswax sheet tightly around the wick. It's cute when you gift these in pairs. Tie them with raffia or a pretty ribbon and give them away.

crafty christmas

At first I was bummed at the thought of Christmas this year, as far as gift-giving, anyway. I'm a giver. Always have been. And I'm no stranger to crafty Christmases. I thought I'd share some of the gifts that I have created in the past, in case you're having a strapped-for-cash year, too. Some of these aren't necessarily crafts, but just really cheap gifts.

• The name Vistaprint sometimes induces a snarl. I have yet to figure that out. I love Vistaprint. I created address labels and personalized note cards to combine as a stationery gift one year and hardly spent any money. Sign up for their enewsletter for really great deals - often free stuff.
• Marbled Ornaments: Buy clear glass ornaments (a 4 or 6 pack is just a few dollars at Wal-Mart) and a couple of colors of cheap acrylic paint (again, only about .75-.99 each). Squeeze a bit (no more than about 1/2 teaspoon) of one color at a time into the ornament and swirl it around. Repeat with as many colors as you wish, but beware that too much paint = yucky non-drying blob. Once you've coated the inside of the ornament, place the ornament with the hole faced down inside of a plastic cup so that the extra paint will drip out and allow the ornament to dry overnight. Replace the cap and tie a ribbon or twine around the loop for decoration.
• Clear ornaments go a long way. Fill them with small bits of potpourri, sprigs of evergreen, glittery artificial snow, or use a fine tip paint pen to decorate the outside.
• Make scented bath salts! Mix three cups of epsom salt, two cups of baking soda, and one cup of table salt in a bowl. Add food coloring, keeping in mind that the more you add, the darker the salt will be. Add your choice of essential oil to scent the salts. It would be good to make the scent kind of match the color. Know what I mean? And make it kind of strong so that a little of the salt goes a long way for each bath. To package, find an air-tight jar. I'll bet you can find some for .50 at Goodwill. They always have a lot of glass knick-knacky items.
• Kids to buy for? Make them a coloring book. Google "free coloring pages" and you'll get page after page of results. My faves are Crayola and Coloring Book Fun, which has Christian Christmas pages. Choose your pages, print them, and then create some kind of booklet for them. Wrap up the booklet with crayons and colored pencils for a quick gift.

• Little ballerinas or dress-up divas on your list? You'd be surprised how easy it is to make a tutu. Get your girl's waist measurement and cut a wide piece of elastic about an inch shorter. Purchase your choice of colored tulle and cut it into various lengths (from about 12 to 20 inches). Then settle in to begin knotting the tulle around the elastic. I found it helpful to stretch the elastic over the back of a dining room chair to tie the tulle on. Fill the elastic with as much tulle as possible to create a fun, full, fluffy tutu. Embellish if you want. I have tied ribbon sporadically in between the tulle for a pop of color and shimmer. Small irridescent beads are also a nice addition.

• Are you the shutterbug of your family? I love Shutterfly and their photobooks are superb. Just upload your images and their new Simple Path book creator will do the rest. It's a smart utility, pairing like images together on a page. Of course, you have the control to edit the layout completely, if you choose. The 7x9 soft cover book is on sale right now - 20 pages for $12.99. A 20-page hard cover 12x12 is on sale for $43.99. Makes a great gift for grandparents.

I'll give my past Christmases more thought and follow up with additional ideas in a few day. Thrifty Christmas!
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UPDATE:
Yu-um! Here's a gift I think I'll try this year. Add the dry fixin's in a nice mug so my recipient can make their own "Cake in a Mug"! Looks super easy and wa-a-a-y good.

building a bombus terrestris

The SECOND science project of the year has rolled around just three weeks after the first. And my kid is only in first grade. I don't remember all this work as a six year old.

Anywho, with a great deal of help from her father, my daughter created a Bombus Terrestris, or a Bumblebee, if you prefer. It's ginormous, to be perfectly honest. Way bigger than I imagined it would be. The parts, laying separately, didn't look like they could create a finished product the size of this bee. It boasts a wingspan of 16" and it's length is 10". A pretty substantial furry bug, if you please.

Elements include
* floral foam (the head, abdomen and thorax are carved from it)
* thick gauge floral wire (the wing frames)
* yellow and black pipe cleaners (wrapped the body and created the legs)
* tissue paper (for the wings)
* black and white paint, either tempra or acrylic (white for the wings, black to paint the foam before covering with pipe cleaners)

happy day cake!

I've twittered about this a few times today and keep coming back to it. I just love the ideas presented here for a really fun, colorful birthday party! Except it doesn't have to be a birthday party - I can see making this fun cake and melting crayons any ol' day of the week.
Thoughtfully Simple is a great blog with crafty and creative things to do. And as we all know, crafty and creative is THE way to go in these penny-pinching days.

thinkin' birthday

Baby girl's birthday is coming up and I, fortunately, stumbled on this really awesome cake pan from Wilton! Think big picture. Yes, it's absolultely adorable as a giant cupcake with confetti (or decorated for Halloween), but then there are all these other ideas, too!

Baby girl would love to have a Hannah Montana birthday party, but I haven't decided yet. She'll still be a tender age. Her six year old mind and body is a good hiding place for her 13 year old attitude. Gosh. I can't believe she's almost six years old. Everyone says it, but it really does feel like "just yesterday" that she was the tiny, fragile preemie that I couldn't let go of. But again ... 13 year old attitude. Not so hard to let go now. ;-) So yeah, maybe Hannah Montana would be a good fit for this already hormonal little girl. Lord, please grant me patience these next 12 years.

Fonts for Kids!

Fonts for Kids!

A great site for typefaces & "dingbats!"