DIY Thursday: Sock Snowmen

Look at these little guys and tell me they are not cute! My 5 year old daughter had an assignment in preschool to make a snowman but without any snow. I gave her a couple ideas and even showed her some examples on pinterest and she decided she wanted to make a sock snowman. I was totally expecting her to want to make something like a paper plate snowman but no she chose the most crafty one! So one afternoon her and I built our snowmen. Sock snowmen are really easy to make and little hands can do most of it on their own. My daughter was so excited with the finished product and couldn't wait to take it to school the next day. I think they turned out pretty good too!

To make your own sock snowman start with a white sock, one that is knee high or mid calf. This is a great project you can use those socks that end up missing their match or that have holes in them. You will then cut the sock at the heel.  Here is my sock cut in half.

Next take the part of your sock that has an opening now on the top and the bottom and put a rubber band on one of the ends. Make sure the sock is inside out!!! When the rubber band is on take the sock and fold it so the rubber band is inside and you cannot see it.

Now you will fill your sock up with beans or rice. I had lots of beans so that is what I used. Make sure to put a lot in there because this is the body of your snowman. When the sock gets full and really close to the top tie on another rubber band.

I didn't take a picture of the next few steps so I apologize. I was having fun creating and forgot to take pictures of all the steps! You now have a sock full of beans or rice. Now you will take another rubber band and tie it around the sock and form the head. You can add another to create three "balls" so to speak or just do one rubber band and have a chubby snowman like ours.

Next you will cut another sock, a cute colorful one the same exact way as we did the white sock and use it as the clothes. Slide the part with a hole on the top and bottom over your snowman. Use the toe part of the sock as the hat. Next you can embellish/decorate your snowman with buttons, flowers, jewels, etc. You can cut a strip of the sock off and make a scarf like I did for my snowman. I used a small black jewel for a nose, but orginally was going to cut a toothpick, paint it orange, and use it as a nose. I didn't have any orange paint though and couldn't run to the store cause my baby was sleeping. It just goes to show you can get creative and use whatever you want!

Now go make yourself this cute winter craft/decoration!

DIY Thursday: Brown sugar & vanilla sugar scrub

 This year for Christmas I ended up giving my sister in law and one of my sisters this sugar scrub. Sugar scrubs are really easy to make and you can make some really yummy smelling ones. Homemade scrubs work just as well as store bought ones at making skin super soft. Sugar scrubs work great on heels, elbows, anywhere you want to soften your skin. This particular scrub only needs 3 ingredients: sugar, coconut oil and vanilla. Simple enough right? I had fun making this and it really does leave your skin nice and soft. I'm excited to experiment, try new scrubs, and share with you.

Vanilla Brown Sugar Scrub:
 1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1-2 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and add more brown sugar if needed. Put in a jar/container and wrap with ribbon or whatever else you may like.

*Tip-You can save containers and reuse them instead of buying new ones by just removing the labels off of them*

DIY Thursday: Olliblock Coupon Codes

Are you looking for a fun inexpensive gift for your kids for Christmas? Well I give you Olliblocks.



If you are addicted to Pinterest as much as I am you might have seen these adorable blocks flying around. Awhile ago I pinned them as an idea for Christmas gifts for my boys and a few days ago I went to their store to check them out.

SO CUTE! They have a bunch of different styles and they are all cute. To purchase the files to make a set of three (that's 9 blocks) it costs $12. But being the cheapskate I am I went searching for a discount code.

There are a bunch of blogs who have promoted Caravan Shoppe. (Where Ollieblocks are sold.) And all of these sites were given 20% off discount codes. And they still work!! Yay!! It looks like you can use one coupon per item you purchase. So I bought the starter pack and the Zoo booster pack. Originally $24 I got them for $14.40.

Here are a few of the codes I found and the super cute blogs they are from.
http://www.thecoterieblog.com - code - welovecoterie
http://www.sisterssuitcaseblog.com - code - suitcaselove
http://www.doeadeery.com - code - lovedoeadeery
http://frockfiles.com - code - welovefrock

Caravan Shoppe also has their own discounts you can take advantage of.

For 20% off an order of $25 or more, use the code itsaparty.

For 30% off an order of $50 or more, use the code caravanconfetti

Well I hope this helped with some of your holiday stress. Love you all and happy crafting!

DIY Book Safe

I try really hard to get people gifts that I know they will love, but there are some people that are harder than others. Like my brother in law. Love the man to death bu the is hard to shop for. So for his birthday this year I stalked him on Pinterest to try to get some ideas. And amid the video games and the pictures of tanks I found this fun idea. Make your own book safe. 

DIY Thursday: Thanksgiving kitchen dress towel

A few days ago my mother in law gave me this cute towel that she made. I thought it was too cute not to share! I'm not one who sews, but it looks as if it would be incredibly easy to make. All it needs is some fabric, a dish towel, and ribbon. I took a picture close up so you can see how to exactly attached everything. Go ahead and try to make one! If you're not someone that sews I know that Quilted Bear sells some cause I was just in their yesterday and saw a booth with some! Wouldn't this be cute and good to use on Thanksgiving Day!?!

DIY Thursday: Peace Craft from Crafty Wood Cutouts

 Hey everyone it's Tifany! I had the opportunity to do a craft for Crafty Wood Cutouts. For those of you who may not know anything about the store, they are similar to the Wood Creations store that we have done guest posts for before in the past. I enjoyed creating and want to thank Macie at Crafty Wood Cutouts for the opportunity to do a craft.  These guys are located in Orem and have lots of cute unfinished wood crafts. Check them out by clicking on the links. You can find them on Facebook, Pinterest, and their Website.  

 My finished product

 What you need:

• Scrapbook paper
• Paint that matches your paper
• Mod Podge
• Wire
• Ribbon
• Hot glue gun
• Jewels or any other kind of embellishments

This is what the craft looked like when I first got it: I just needed to sand a few of the edges before beginning to paint and create.

Step 1:  First I traced and cut out my letters on scrapbook paper. You can use sandpaper to file off any excess paper that hangs off the edge of the wood.

Step 2:  Paint the letters as well as the star, and baby manger. The front surface of the letters doesn't need to be painted because that is where the scrapbook paper is going to go.

 Step 3: Apply a THIN layer of mod podge on each letter, doing so one at a time, and carefully place your scrapbook paper on. Smooth out your surface and let dry. It should dry pretty quick.

Here is all the letters with the scrapbook paper on them.

Step 4: Once your mod podge has dried, file off any excess paper that is hanging off. You can use sandpaper or I have found that using a nail file works really well. This is pretty easy.

Step 5: Apply your finishing touches. Apply another thin layer of mod podge over the paper to seal and protect it, curl your wire if you wish and glue it on, glue together the manger, tie on some ribbon, and place on some jewels if you wish. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but I also put some glitter on the star and then mod podge over it to seal it. Once you do that you have a cute new Christmas craft!

Now go out and get your own PEACE letter set!

Trash Bag Spider Webs and Garlands

Here is a fun easy cheap and cute project that will cost you at most $1.00. Black Trash Bag Spider Webs! I got this idea from How About Orange created by Jessica Jones. Such a cute site by the way. Now I will allow her to tell you how to make the spider web, because she has a really great explanation but I want to show you another variation that I came up with my mistake. Trash Bag Spider Web Garlands.

Aren't they cute? This was totally an accident, I made by first spider web and it was awesome but the second time I forgot to follow the directions. he he. And I did not just do it once I did it twice. Sooo I really know how to do this well. First you just need to fold the trash bag just like you would for the spider web. Cut it into a square and then fold it three times to get a triangle that looks like this.

Now one difference in what How About Orange and I think is that she says to just do one side of the trash bag at a time. But that took me forever so i found that if I taped it like she said to, and was very careful,  that I could do two webs, or garlands at once. Now if you look above you will see the difference of how you position the triangle so you get the web or the garland. In the picture it kinda looks like I just flipped over the triangle but that would make no sense so let me talk or write through it. If you position the triangle with the center of the square or the completely folded side on the bottom you have the spider web. But if you rotate it so the top left point is now on the bottom then you have the garland version. Then you just continue with the steps. I draw my web with a sharpie like she suggested, then you cut it out.

Now when you open it up it will look like this. So don't freak out, it is alright.

Now all you have to do is cut two strips from one side like this.

How cute right? And if all else fails just wing it. I had another mishap and created a chandelier so just have fun with it and Happy Halloween!!

DIY Thursday: My Little Pony Birthday Cake

So this year when I asked my daughter what kind of birthday cake she wanted she immediately replied saying she wanted a my little pony cake. I know my mom used to make us all sorts of character cakes for us kids when I was growing up so I asked her exactly how she did it and I went ahead and used her idea:) It was pretty easy and my daughter ended up really enjoying her cake which of course is the most important thing of all!

 Isn't it cute!

My little pony cake tutorial:

I first started by finding a picture of a my little pony character off the internet. You can also use one out of a coloring book if you can find a my little pony coloring book.

 I traced the outline of it on the back of the paper and then divided the picture up by equal spaced lines both vertically and horizontally.

I then traced the outline of my pan and then drew the outline of the pony using my scale I created. My pan was a large one, I think maybe a 12x15 or something like that, but I know that you can also use two round cake pans and create your shape that way as well.  Either way you are going to use to cake mixes.

 Bake your cake, lay it out on a cookie sheet and then place your outline on the cake. You will then cut around the outline to get your shape. This works best if you freeze the cake prior. It will also make frosting the cake easier as well.

 I then frosted the whole cake with some homemade strawberry buttercream frosting, focusing on barely covering the tail and maine area since I would be adding more frosting to those areas.

I outlined the shape of the pony using a red colored gel-You know the kind you can write with.

I then piped some more pink and then some purple frosting over the mane and tail area. I also used some purple to make a cutie mark for the pony.

The final step was to make the eye. I ended up drawing the eye on some paper and then carefully placing it on the cake.

Now you know how to create your own My Little Pony cake for that little special gal in your life! Any questions feel free to ask away:)