A Framed Toast

A Toast

Are you like me? Are you lucky enough to have best friend who you think is just wonderful? A person who is outgoing, funny, beautiful, strong, and independent? If so, lucky you (and lucky me)!

My best friend, Maggie, is one of my favorite people. She has been since the day I met her, our first day of college. She's a BIG personality, and everyone around her just adores her. All through college, I found myself wondering who she would end up marrying. Who could possible be good enough for her? Who could balance her and let her be herself at the same time? Who deserved to be with the awesome girl? There couldn't possibly be anyone out there good enough for her, could there?

And, boy, was I wrong. Maggie met her husband, Michael. And everything changed. Here was this guy who was so different from Maggie, but still so wonderful. While she's outgoing, he's a little more reserved. He takes her independence in stride, and is such a patience person. He's thoughtful and wonderful in so many ways. He has become one of my other favorite people.  I couldn't have thought of a better partner for Maggie. 

The Finished Product

Then, two and half years ago. Maggie and Michael got married! It was a beautiful, rainy day with umbrellas and imperfect flowers. Maggie looked gorgeous and they were so happy. And I was lucky enough be asked to be Maggie's maid of honor. 

Materials: paper, canvas, frame, mod podge, sponge brush

I was so happy that I could be involved in Maggie and Mike's wedding. I had so many things to say about these two wonderful people. I thought and thought about my speech.

Cut paper down to 8x10 size

When I was visiting my parents that summer, I found a cute little plaque that said "And they lived happily ever after" and knew just what I wanted to say. Maggie is a strong, beautiful woman who has been through so much, and finally found her prince charming, Mike.

Mod Podge the paper to the canvas, and let dry overnight

When their wedding day finally came, I was so nervous and excited to share my speech. I got through it, shaky voice and all. Mike told me how nice it was and that he'd like a copy.

When dry, place in frame.

So, one beautiful baby and two and a half years later. I finally got around to giving Mike my toast as a birthday present. And, in about four and half months, it's Jeremy and my turn to get married. Maggie will be standing up there with me and Mike will be marrying us. I couldn't think of two better people to stand with us on our wedding day.

*A note about how I made the project. It was an easy one! I used an 8x10 frame and canvas and the spacing of a normal piece of printer paper working perfectly with this size. I used Microsoft Word to type of my toast on a plain sheet of paper. I inserted one of their wedding pictures as an image and set the text to wrap around it. If you aren't sure how to do this, just type "wrap around image" into the help section on Word. I changed the words to brown and changed the coloring of the picture to sepia to match the brown frame.* 

Until next time, keep crafting!

SB

Love Deck

52 Reasons

As you all know, Tuesday was Valentine's Day. Jeremy and I are big fans of Valentine's Day. Usually, we take a trip right around this time (over President's Day weekend) and celebrate on the trip. Since we planning a wedding (four and half months!!!), we decided to celebrate in Chicago this year. We decided to go inexpensive on Valentine's this year, and go out to a nice dinner.

Jeremy and I have a different ideas of how to go inexpensive on a Valentine's gift. I decided to hide little Boston Terrier Valentine's cards all around the apartment for Jeremy to find when he was getting ready for work (see the Etsy.com link to the cards Jeremy's Valentine's Cards). And, of course, I decided to go crafty. (More on Jeremy's Valentine's Day to me later).

Here's my finished product!

This project uses a deck of cards and a lot of imagination (and tons of Mod Podge)! Start off by writing a list of 52 reasons you love your significant other...make them silly, serious, and/or full of inside jokes!

Next, print off little squares that have reasons 1-52 on them. I used about 5 different fonts for all of the reasons, so the cards didn't look so uniformed. You are going to Mod Podge them onto the backs of cards (the colored side without numbers). You will actually need 53 cards, as the first card only has the cover on the front (see picture) and "Reason #1) on the back. I used one of the Joker cards in the mix of my cards.

After you Mod Podge, let the cards dry overnight.

Next, you are going to write the 52 reasons on the front of the cards. Here are the different ways I spiced up my cards...

Pictures from the Internet

Use labels from food

Use the content on the card (for you non-euchre players, Jacks are important)

Use your pictures

Use stickers, like the football

Just write on the card

Make sure you punch out two holes before you Mod Podge, so you can put the rings through. Let them dry overnight, then put together your book!

Have you figured out my gift from Jeremy yet? He got me a new camera!!! YAY! Can you tell the difference in my photos? I know I can! He didn't quite stick to our low budget Valentine's Day, but he knew I really WANTED a new camera for my blog. Also, we are looking forward to using it for our honeymoon! He also got me BEAUTIFUL flowers from my favorite flower shop in Logan Square. See if you can spot them in my blog next week!

I was SO excited to give Jeremy this gift, and he said it was the BEST Valentine's Day gift he'd ever received! Who can blame him? Who wouldn't like to hear 52 reasons they are GREAT?? I know Valentine's Day has passed, but this would make a great birthday, Christmas, or everyday gift! I can't take credit for this idea though, I found it on Pinterest. I couldn't find directions on how to put it together, so I hope you other "Pinterest-ers" will find this blog helpful!

I'm off for another fabulous weekend day with Jer and the pup! Next week, a quick, easy, and thoughtful gift!

Until then, keep crafting! 

SB

LOVE-ly Valentine's Craft

LOVE Letters

Last week, I promised a love-ly craft! Here it is!

I saw yarn wrapped letters on Pinterest. Now that Jeremy and I have a cute little apartment (if I do say so myself), I thought it would be fun to start decorating for all the holidays! Luckily, I have VERY good holiday decorating mentors in my mom and future mother-in-law (you should see their houses on Christmas-AWESOME). But, I realized that I have no Valentine's decorations...so I decided a cute little craft could take care of that!

So, let's get started. You will need:

• wooden letters
• yarn
• hot glue gun
• lots of hot glue
• scissors

First, cut the yarn into LOTS of 6 to 9 inch pieces. 

The beginning and ends of the letters are the hardest part. When I was starting and finishing each letter, I put a big glob of hot glue, then tried to make a spiral with the yarn on the tip of the letter.

After you have gotten the yarn onto the letter, make sure that yarn is fitted snug into each other (you don't want to see the letter through the yarn). Then, just start wrapping tightly and snug around and around and around until you come to edge of your yarn. Put a dab of hot glue onto the letter. Put your yarn into the hot glue. Hold it there for about 5 seconds.

Then, quickly put your next strand of yarn into the same hot glue dot. 

While your hot glue is cooling, cut off any excess yarn left over from your first strand. 

 

Then, just repeat. At the end, the back of your letter should look something like this:

Here's a close up of one of the letters.

Some of the shapes can get a little complicated to wrap. In that case, extra wrapping and lots of hot glue work wonders! The back of the O is definitely the prettiest back, which is why it made it on the blog!

This program is really easy, but TIME CONSUMING. It took me a little over an hour per letter. The only other hazard of this project is a lot of hot glue on the yarn, the table, your hands, pretty much everywhere. FYI hot glue doesn't feel great on your hands. Small price to pay...

I really like how this turned out. I actually have the letters on my bookshelf now (it's too dark to take a picture). There's lots of possibilities with this craft. I think that doing a Halloween "BOO" with orange, yellow, and white would be really cute! 

Unfortunately, I had another part of the Valentine's Day project that didn't turn out at all! Boo! I'm pretty disappointed that it didn't work, BUT I'm working on it. Maybe another project for another week. You live and learn, right? 

Anyway, my wonderful fiance has been cooking all the meals, taking care of the pup, and waiting patiently for me all day to hang out with me. Love that man. Next up, his Valentine's Day present. So excited to give it to him!

Until next time, keep crafting!

SB

Reading Response Fishing

Have You Ever Been Fishin' on a Bright and Sunny Day?

Happy Superbowl Sunday! I'm currently blogging and watching the game (well, let's be honest, the commercials). I had any fabulously fun and busy weekend, including a concert and a trip to an infamous college bar! So, of course this means I'm a little behind on my blog...oh well. :)

I decided to kill two birds with one stone for my project this week. I wanted make a new, fun way for my students to decide what they need to write about after they have read their books independently during reading centers (we call this a reading response). I also promised a non-sewing craft for this week's blog.

Here's what I came up with:

The general idea is that the students will take the fishing pole and dip it into the "pond". Each fish has a different idea for a reading response. 

Here's what you will need:

Pond:

container  (I used a Foldgers coffee container)

scissors and glue stick

hot glue gun

construction paper

Fish:

fish cut outs link to my cut outs

scissors and marker

magnetic strip

Fishing Pole:

yarn

magnetic disk (or other object)

stick (I used a skewer with the pointy tip cut off)

Starting off with the pond...make some waves! I used some blue construction paper. I made a 2 sets of waves on one piece of paper.

Next, cut out and glue your waves onto your background using a glue stick. I choose a yellow background, for a bright and sunny day. Glue your two pieces of background paper together using a glue stick. Now, take your container and roll it across the length of background (on the back side). Stop every few inches and use a pen to mark the height of your container. You could also measure the height of your and measure this with a ruler. BUT you know how much I like quick tricks and hate measuring! Cut along the line.

Next, use the hot glue gun to glue the background to the container. I found it easiest to first put a line of glue on my container, then stick the paper to the container. Then, wrap the background around the container. For the second edge, put the hot glue onto the paper, then press it onto the container. If your paper was longer the the circumference (yup, used a fancy math word!), don't worry! Just let it overlap your first layer. A HUGE benefit of construction paper is that it is thick enough to not show the colors underneath. 

CAUTION! While using hot glue, be careful!! It is very hot and sticky! Take care to not get the glue on your hands or your fiance's iPhone (I'm sorry, Jeremy!!)

Now your pond should be done!! Hooray!

Use the link (or your own fish) to printer out about 15 to 20 fish. Color them if desired (I didn't not desire). Then, write out the options. Cut out. 

Use scissors to cut off half inch pieces of magnetic strip. Remove label and put the on the back of the fish! 

Tie your desired length of yarn to your fishing pole. Find a piece of metal. Test it with a fish to make sure the magnetic force is enough so that the fish will lift out of the "pond". Tie it onto your yarn.

Tada! you are done!!

I like this project because I had almost all of the materials I needed around my house. I only needed to buy the magnetic strip (I have big plans for the left over strip). It was fun to make, and I think my students will really enjoy it! I have found the anything that makes writing into a game is a sure fire way to make my students interested.

There are other ways to use this project. Teachers, exchange reading response ideas for early finisher ideas, or any other need. Non-teachers, if you are a mom to young kids, it could be used for a lot of ideas. If you kids are bored, you could write ideas of what they could do (draw a picture, play outside, play with legos, watch a movie, play on the computer). Or maybe you could write chores on the fish. 

Next time, in honor of Valentine's Day, I will do a LOVE-ly craft!

Until then, keep crafting!

SB