Griddle Crayon Art

 I sure I'm not the only mom who stocks up school supplies when back to school season rolls around. As soon as I see the .25 and .40 cent crayons, I go a little crazy and start throwing tons of boxes in my cart....because who doesn't love getting 24 of something for so cheap! So when I get home with all my pretty boxes of nice, new, unbroken crayons, I have to figure out what to do with the old broken ones.I just can't throw them away, even though I only paid .40 cents for them and surely got my money's worth out of them last year! If you are looking for something to do with your old crayons, this is the perfect craft to make with your kiddos to keep those crayons out of the trash and add a little bit of fun decor to your fridge {or art clothesline/wall}!

 Start by peeling the paper off of your old crayons. This is a great task for the kiddos to do while you get everything else set up:)

 Next get out your griddle {or a hot plate would work too} and a box a aluminum foil.

Tear off a couple pieces of foil big enough to cover your griddle. This is to protect your griddle from stray/runaway crayons:) I used three pieces just to be safe, but if you are using heavy duty foil one piece is probably enough. After the griddle is covered with foil, turn your griddle on low to warm up. When you get started, you may need to adjust the heat up some just be sure to not make it too hot!

To make things easier, cut your paper to the same size as your griddle. The sides of the griddle will help keep the paper in place. You could also use a small piece of tape to keep the paper in place just be careful not to tear your foil when you remove the tape.

 Hand your kiddo the crayons...

 ...warn them not to touch the HOT griddle {and supervise them closely}...

 ...then let them create!

Eli had a blast gliding the crayons over the warm paper and we even managed to come away with a pretty cute work of art. We added a few stems and leaves, and turned his orange 'scribbles' into a pumpkin family perfect for fall decorating!

Guest Post: Card Making

Hello Friends!  My name is Kelli and I blog over at Outside My Kitchen Window.  I am beyond honored to be joining you here today at *Random Thoughts of a SUPERMOM!*  I have been blog friends with Kelli for over three years now and I adore her name (hee, hee) and all of the great crafts ideas and fun (and yummy) recipes that she shares.

A little about me...I am a child of Jesus, wife, & mother of two.  I love pizza, colored pens, notebooks, Coca Cola, dolphins & sunflowers.  I am also passionate about organization and card making.
Today I would like to share with you the reason that I love making cards...thoughtfulness.  I love to take the time to appreciate a person and giving a card is one way to do that.  I like to take it a step further by making the cards myself.  I discovered this over two years ago when I attended my first Stampin Up! (the products that I use) workshop and haven't looked back.

Thank you cards are the cards that I make the most and I have some pictured below to share with you.  I have even talked about making simple thank you cards here.

I design the front of the card mostly.

But, it is also nice to add a little something to the inside:

I enjoy making cards for my kids' teachers...there are so many reasons to say thank you to them.

I tend to lean more towards brighter colors.  I love the simplicity of this card and how the white makes the colors pop!

Then there are times when I want to say hello to a friend and thank her for just being her.

I just recently opened up an etsy shop.  You can find it here if you are ever in need of a special way to say thank you (or thinking of you, happy birthday, I'm sorry, etc...I make a variety of cards).

Lastly, for fun I also like to make my Christmas cards each year.  It's almost about that time to start this year's card.

Thank you Kelli for having me and thank you Friends for joining me today.

Happy Stamping :)

Guest Post: Felt Napkin Rings

Hello, Random Thoughts of a Supermom readers.  I’m Paula from Sweet Pea and I’m delighted to be guest posting today for Kelli.

When I was a child, I remember my mom and grandmother making felt napkin rings as party favors.  I never forgot them and always wondered how they were made.  This spring in Southern Lady Magazine, there was a feature on these cute napkin rings that I so fondly remembered, but no instructions.  Following the picture in the magazine, I figured out how to make them.

I played around with felt and came up with these three samples.

Aren’t they fun?  Would you like to make some?  I thought you would! 

Supplies Needed:

Felt in colors of your choice

Scissors and/or rotary cutter

Ruler

Sewing pins

Make the Napkin Ring:

Make the napkin ring which also becomes the center of the felt flower by cutting 7” x 2” strips.  (My pictures show three strips.  Cut as many strips as you need to make your desired number of completed napkin rings.)

Fold each strip in half and secure with pins.  This will make cutting the felt much easier.

Cut a heart shape on each end of the strip, stopping a little less than half-way through the width of the strip.  Then cut from heart to heart.  This is difficult to explain, so I roughly sketched in red how you should cut but be aware that the heart on the right doesn’t look so much like a heart.

They should look like this once cut.

And should look like this when you open each strip.  (Kind of like a bone!)

Make the Flower:

Cut a 4” square for each flower.

Fold the square into fourths and pin.  (Sorry for the color switch.)

Cut a half circle starting from the halfway point of one side and ending at the halfway point next to it.  (Cut from black dot to black dot.)

Do not make a half circle on the side that contains all of the folds.

Now make a small clip across the folded end.

It should look like a flower when you open it up.

Make the Sepals:

Cut a 4 1/2” square for each sepal.  In nature these are green but feel free to choose any color you wish.

Fold the square into fourths and pin.  Cut a sailboat shape out as shown below. (Another felt color change..I made quite a few versions.)

Cut off the folded tip to make a hole in the center and it should look like this.

To assemble the flower, place a flower on top of the sepal, lining up the holes in the center.  Wrap the napkin ring part around a napkin and then bring the ends through the lined-up holes and you’re done.

Felt is inexpensive and this idea could be used to coordinate with the season.   Here I’ve used two for a fall place setting and one for a summer one.

This project makes a great table favor.  Pink or blue could work for a baby shower or all white could be used for a bridal shower.

I hope you enjoyed this project and that you might consider trying it.

Many thanks to Kelli for having me today.  I’d love it if you’d stop by Sweet Pea sometimes for a visit.

Disney Crafts: Mickey Toes

I'm going to preface this post by saying that I'm really not a big fan of feet...they kind of gross me out! So sharing a picture of my feet on my blog is kind of a big deal, but this was such a fun thing to do for Disney that I decided to share it with you:)

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To start your Mickey Toes, you need a base coat of bright red.

Then you need to gather your supplies: black nail polish, contact paper, and a hole punch or two.

 Using your hole punch, punch three circles in the shape of a Mickey Mouse head into your contact paper. I ended up using a standard hole punch for the head and a smaller punch for the ears. You can make it work with the standard punch too it will just take some practice. {The top one is done using only the standard hole punch and the two bottom ones I used the smaller punch for the ears.}

 After you've got the perfect Mickey, peel off the back of the contact paper and stick it on your big toe. You can face the Mickey head towards you or away, but I figured I would be looking at it more so I faced it so I could see it:) Press down all around the shape to make sure it is sealed good and no polish will run under the edge.

 Paint a coat of black polish over the cut out Mickey and allow it to dry. You can do more than one coat, but with black you really only need one coat to cover really well.

 Now your toes are ready to head to Disney and visit Mickey Mouse:)



Disney Crafts: Personalized Mickey T-shirts

...and place adhesive side down on your shirt.