Love Letters of the future

If you have read any of my blogs lately, you know that my son is getting married in August.  All of this preparation is bringing back memories of when my husband and I were getting ready for our August wedding back in 1984.  We lived in separate cities during the summer before we got married. There were two ways to communicate.  One was phone calls and calling long distance was very expensive (at least according to my mom). But we could send letters. There was so much more to write too than I could say over the phone where others might hear or I could be interrupted.  

Well, times have changed and methods of communication have changed also.  Couples have their own cell phones, text, IM, chat, and many more ways to communicate.  Letter writing is almost extinct but expressing your love never goes out of style.     My son expresses himself on Face Book so sweetly and honestly.  This is a sample of his Face Book page.



I decided to print out all of his precious typed thoughts- his professions of love and create a collage. Face Book is a wonderful way to collect pictures, thoughts, and events.  I was able to keep clicking the "more" button to keep accessing his posts.  I copied them to Paint where I could crop them up, and print them out on card stock.  I cut them out and pieced them together.  I took the collage to Office Max where they printed a copy on to glossy photo paper.

Didn't I tell you he writes the sweetest things?  

Lots of work but it was definitely well worth it!

Twirling, twisting fabric

First day of summer break and I spent the morning searching for the perfect craft.  I've got a number of weddings and baby births coming up this summer and fall.  As a teacher I don't have much free time until summer.  Yeah! for me!  Any way I saw on Carolyn's homework blog how to braid t-shirt fabric strips and create coasters.  I took a break to look for old t-shirts.  My family has plenty but I couldn't find the colors I wanted so I went to my fabric stash. I saw one on Pinterest that used strips of fabric. Would regular cotton material work?   Looks like it did.  Has a shabby chic ravily (stringy) look to it, but they are nice thick coasters that will go with any decor.

Here's how I did it.
1. Rip the fabric into 1 inch strips (or so). 3 strips per coaster.  I didn't measure mine but they are the width of typical fabric. I ripped selvedge to selvedge.

2. Knot the 3 strips together and begin braiding.

3. When you get to the end or the length that you want it. Knot the strips again.
4. Begin coiling the braid and using a threaded needle, secure it as you coil. If you use a coordinating thread no one will ever know.  The Pinterest connection used glue but I'm a needle and thread kind of girl.  I'm afraid if it gets too wet the glue might not work.

The coasters are ready to use or give away. They will make the perfect gift.

One summer day down and 60 more to go!  Lets see- what to do tomorrow?.........

Go to Carolyn's Homework blog to see her beautiful set of braided t-shirt yarn coasters. 

It's also on Pinterest at this spot.

 

Saying his goodbyes

My grandson along with his mom and step-dad are moving.  They've been so busy packing that Joey wanted to come stay with us.  We talked about making new friends and how exciting it will be to have a new house and new school.  He seemed a little apprehensive about leaving his friends and school.  So we decided to make his friends and teachers a little something.
I looked back on Pinterest and found the cute little gift that I made and gave out on Valentines day to a few of my friends.  He loved the idea so we bought enough Starburst to make those for his classmates.
He did all the work too (well just about all of it).  I printed out the tags and he filled in the names.  All of the names,  from memory, too.  He put 12 Starburst into each jewelry bag but couldn't quite get it to lie flat so I helped him with that.  Then I folded the tags and he stapled them on the bag....  So cute...  Such great work for a 1st grader!  He was so proud of himself too.

I have a cricut machine so I added each teacher's initial to a double sided glass to make a cute gift.  He wanted to add candy to make the cup extra sweet!

I hope he had a good last day Friday and will have a great first day tomorrow.

Wedding Invitations: Their Style

I just love that Pinterest site.  It has so many wonderful ideas!  As the overexcited mom of an engaged son, I was on a search for the perfect invitation.  I found several and showed them to my son and my daughter-to-be.  They are both outdoorsy and very, very, simple informal people.  I knew I didn't want to copy someone's invitation nor did I want to buy one either.   But I read one tip on a blog that did it: " Find a free picture on a website that sells or shares stock photos..." or something like that.  Perfect idea!  I downloaded (for free) 5 pictures and created the card around those designs. I used watercolor paper and white card stock to print the cards on.  Snapped a picture and messaged it to her.  Eureka! She loved the first one I sent.  Which means that she also chose my favorite! :) 

When they came over to visit again, I pulled out all my card stock so she (they) could decide on the background color.  Through my former investigating I found very neat pocket folder invitations with templates and directions.
She chose a brown/tan color- kind of like a Kraft paper and I, following the pattern, cut out the pocket folder.  It really worked out! 

Next was a trip to Joann's, Michael's, Staples, and then Wal-mart.  But I couldn't find 12 x 12 Kraft card stock or any solid color card stock besides white and black for that matter.  I also couldn't find any watercolor paper at a reasonable price.  So it was time to re-evaluate.  Back to the internet...  I found a website where I could order a pack of 250 12x12 Kraft sheets for under $50 bucks- Woo Hoo!  Next day I went to Office Max and found this super Stardust card stock- perfect.  It even had envelopes to match.  Super!!

Here they are; my son is cutting out the invitations while she is working on her college assignment. Such a cute couple......
Can't wait to see how this is going to turn out.

And the count down begins....

My son proposed tonight to his love and happily she said yes!  He planned a family and friend cookout for the occasion that she knew nothing about.  Surprise, Surprise....  I was so proud of him to taking care of all the notifications of her friends and family.  Soo sweet... 

Anyway, I decided to do some crafting and baking for it.  I finally got to show off my save-the-date magnets.  Everyone thought they were soooo cute. 

I saw this super looking count down chalkboard sign on "GroupDealz" and decided that I could make that. So I did.  I bought a cheap- I mean- less expensive frame from Big Lots. The frame was plastic and black so my husband scruffed it up some so I could paint it white.  I tried giving it some texture by applying glue along the frame. Then we sprayed the frame white with Krylon paint for plastic.  It looked just perfect.  Then we applied 2 coats of spray on chalkboard paint to the particle board backing.  After the board dried, I measured and cut out the words "days until" with my cricut.  Too cute! and super simple.......

I tried to grow some wheat grass for a table decoration. I saw on pinterest the other day how beautiful the grass was on a decorated table.  But it didn't grow.  So instead I went to Wal-mart and bought some daisy-like flowers, some potting soil, and a plastic flower bowl.  After the flowers were planted, I placed the flowers in a round cheese box/container.  I thought it would be cute to add some pictures of them to the container.  They kind of look like flower seed packets.  I gave her mom one of them and I kept one to put on my fridge.

Doesn't the table look nice?

Repurposing Sweaters

Take a look at Ashley's Make it and Love it hats from old sweaters.  I can't wait to try it myself.  They are so cute, so easy, and so cheap if you've got some old sweaters.  Those with a bottom rim make a great hat brim.  I think I'll go and look right now.

Save-the-Date Magnets

My son is getting married in August to a wonderfully, sweet girl.  I'm so happy for the two of them.  I'm chomping at the bit to get started planning, but it's not my wedding and they haven't hired me to be their wedding planner (yet).  Anyway I wanted to do something.  I spend most of my free time on Pinterest finding all kinds of neat wedding ideas.  I post them as my way of sharing my ideas with them.  Hope it works; at least I'm not putting my ideas out there verbally and being overly annoying.  

I decided to create some Save-the-Date magnets to give out to guests at their engagement party.  It will be a surprise to both of them. If they like them, then I can just make some more. 

I found a tutorial months ago for jewelry pendants with glass tiles and thought they were gorgeous.  So I went back to etsy and found a good deal on large glass tile circles.  When they got here, I got on my computer and created some cute designs.  It took several tries to get the right size to fit the tiles.  I used mod-podge to affix the tag-board paper to the back of the tile.  When that was dry, I turned it over and put several more layers of the glue on it.  When it is all dry, I'll add a strong magnet with E6000.                                  
I even found some flattened marbles large enough to use.  I may not put magnets on those.  They'll fit just nicely in a man's pants pocket. 


I hope they like them as much as I enjoyed making them.