Valentine "Heart" Door wreath

This project was inspired by a wreath I saw on pintrest. 

http://donablogg.blogspot.com/2011/11/hej-fran-kransverkstaden.html

I ended up changing it up a bit.  

What you will need:

• A wire Hanger
• Fake plant greens. You want them to be on the long side so you can wrap them around the wire.
• Wooden Heart
• Red, White, Black or Brown Paint
• Red Ribbon
• Floral wire and wire cutters

How to make it:

First I took the wire hanger and shaped it into a heart. 

Next I cut lengths off my greens and started wrapping them around my heart shaped wire hanger. In certain places I used the floral wire to re-enforce the greens onto my wire. once i covered the whole heart. 

I painted the wooden heart, tied on my ribbon and then attached my wooden heart to the bottom. 

A beautiful door hanger for a Loving season. :)

Keep Creating!

Amy

Painting Artist party

 

When i had my art party business "The lil Artist" people would hire me to come to their homes and do some kind of painting or craft with the kids. Here is Amy & Emily's 6th birthday party. 

I had so much fun with all the girls!

 All the girls had fun creating a one of a kind piece of art. They created 3D art.
They painted a scene on the canvas then painted wooden shapes and a wooden letter (first letter of their name) Next we glued them onto their canvases.

 Next all the girls took a turn mixing in various drinks, soda, and juices for some yummy Artist Brew.

Then the all the girls painted on one canvas for a colaborative piece of art for the girls room. They also had a art scanvenger hunt and found photos of paintings and art supplies.

 Here is the cake and decor.

 Party favors: Art sets and a drawing notebook.

 Here i am with my two assistants. I miss my art party business. 

One day when my kids are older I will definitely start it back up.

(Photography by: Jenner Rose Photography in orange county)

http://www.jennerrose.com/blog/

The Adam robot

 

I mad this precious robot for my good friend Jenny's baby, Adam. His room is vintage robot themed. So i wanted to create something that would fit right in. 

I set out for Michael's craft store and went to the wood and paper mache box isle. I started looking at all the various wood pieces and started designing him in my head. What would make the best head, arms, legs, hands and feet. Then I came home rummaged through my husbands tool box in the garage. 

And this is what i came up with. It was really fun to try to figure out what things would work best to create him, and to use my imagination even as an adult. 

Here is a link to baby Adam's amazing nursery. 

http://www.jennerrose.com/blog/?p=2158

Pirates treasure Reward system.

In our house we have created a great reward system for the kids. It has been a great way to create responsibility and better helpers in the house. 

 I went to Michael's craft store and purchased wooden treasure boxes, two clear paint cans, and the jumbo sized gems.I wanted to get clear cans for the gems so the kids could see the gems they could earn. Next i let them paint their treasure boxes.

Then we determined all the things they could do to earn gems. Some activities are worth more gems than others. 

Some good chores for kids are:
-pick up toys
-put clothes in the hamper

-put their dish in the sink

-vaccume

-sweep the floors

-take toys upstairs

-help set the table

-clean their room or playroom

I also included things that sometimes they complain about doing that are not necessarily chores but i figure if it could eliminate an argument or tantrum.

Such as:

-Get ready for bed

-Brush your teeth

-wake up for school

-going potty

-eating well

-getting along with sibling

-playing nicely 

-getting in bed and not getting out 100 times. :) 

-sleeping in their beds all night

Then once they have earned all the gems they get a reward. It usually takes about 3 weeks for them to earn them all. 

They don't always have to be toys but if it is it is usually a $5.00 or less (dollar store sometimes)

or we do a fun activity my daughter likes to get her nails done, my son likes to go to the ice cream shop. 

I have also taken gems away for bad behavior or have threatend to take them away and it seems to work pretty well.

Silhouette Gifts

What you need: 

• A digital photo of a persons profile
• A computer with a photo program (in my case I used adobe photoshop)
  
• a picture frame

 Bring up your photo in photoshop, and delete your background like below.

Then use your paintbrush tool and paint in the photo. I painted in a bow on my daughters head

Next print out your image and then frame it for a more classic silhouette.

For a more modern twist you can add their name, and place it on a colored background

Growing tree Flower collage

My daughter started Kindergarten this year and me being so nice (snicker) volunteered to be room mom. This is the classroom gift that we created for my daughters teacher.

I decided to have all the kids in the class draw and color pictures of flowers in various sizes on a plain white piece of paper.

Then I cut them all out. 

 Next I drew a tree branch on the canvas, and stuck sticker letters on the branch. 

Paint your background then the branch. Once your branch is dry, peel the letters off and go over the letters lightly so you can still see the word Grow

 Next place all your flowers on the branch and paste them down with mod podge. Once that dries go over the whole canvas with modge podge... and your done.

Perfect gift for a teacher, grandparent or mothers day gift!

On the back around the canvas I wrote: 

Thank you for showing us how to grow, and then wrote all the kids names. Kindergarten 2011 

Supplies Needed:

• Flowers drawn and colored in different sizes and styles.
• Modge Podge
• Canvas 16x20 
• acrylic paint
• sticker letters
• black sharpie marker

Jude the Dude turns three!! Vintage Train Themed party!

This train party was sooo much fun to plan. Jude is a huge train fan so it was a no-brainer when deciding what to do for his 3rd birthday. I came up with some fun ideas and also searched the internet and found some really great ideas, to make this a awesome train party!

The day started out super windy which was a challenge when setting up outside but we rolled with it and the party turned out to be wonderful!

LOCATION: Goat Hill Junction (in Costa Mesa, CA) such an awesome location to have a party. They have mini train rides for all your guests. The public ride days are conducted on the 3rd Saturday and Sunday of each month from 10:00 am - 3:30 pm. Check out the website. http://www.ocmetrains.org/first.html

INVITATIONS: I created these in photoshop and had them printed on linen paper. There was a front and back design.

BIRTHDAY BOY SHIRT: I had this shirt made from a cute etsy shop Planet Pudge
http://www.etsy.com/shop/planetpudge

 

DECORATIONS: I made some signs in photoshop to use at the party.

I ended up buying one very cool old suit case off of ebay, a old coca cola crate, a orange suitcase from land of nod, and some wood crates from Michael's craft store. I added dry flowers to my crates and also made a bunting banner with train scrapbook paper.

PARTY ACTIVITY: I had purchased wooden trains from discount school supply and had markers and crayons for the kids to color their own train.

They also road the train. This was the best part about the party.. the majority of the time the kids were off riding the train. :) I think my kids road it all 5 trips and they avrg. about 15 min rides. 

The CAKE: I made the cake myself using three loaf pans, three mini doughnuts that I made in my baby cakes doughnut maker, mini oreos, regular size oreos, a ice cream cone, and popcorn.
HOW TO MAKE IT: I trimmed the top off one loaf that was my base. (I also cut the corners off the front so it looked like the front of a train) Next I trimmed off the top of my 2nd loaf and, cut about 1/4" off that, then cut it in half and sandwiched them together and placed it on the first loaf sitting towards the back standing up. (that was the main car of the train) I also used one of the tops to the loaf and cut it to fit on top of the train car. Next you place the mini doughnuts in front of the main car. (I used toothpicks to hold them together) Now to prepare your coal car. Cut the top off then cut 1/4" off. Next cut into the the center of the car only half way deep and cut out a rectangular shape. Crumb coat all your cakes and put it in the fridge. Take it out and ice your cake. Decorate it with all your goodies. I had a thin metal wire that I strung the popcorn through for the steam. The smoke stack was the ice cream cone that i dyed with food coloring. You just need to cut the bottom half off to stick it into your cake. Put your wheels on... crush some oreos for your coal and tada you have your train cake. After I made it I had to keep telling myself that I am not a professional cake maker and that I am just a mom.... but everyone was impressed with the cake so that was cool and it tasted oh so good which is all that really counts anyway. :) (not sure if my instructions are easy to follow but I thought I would share.)

I also made mini doughnuts. I stacked two in a cupcake liner. I also dipped oreos in chocolate and made railroad signs. They tasted sooo good!

The Cake and Mini Doughnut Platform: Aimee with The Beach Barn made this beautiful cake platform. It was such a beautiful addition to the party! I think it made my cake look a bit more polished.   http://thebeachbarn.blogspot.com/

The TABLES: I decorated the inside of a suitcase to hold the plates and napkins and made a railraod sign.

THE GOODIE BAGS: We had two sets of goodies. One for the kids to open at the beginning and one to take home. The first one I used blue bandannas and tied them up like hobo bags. Inside I had a train hat, a train whistle, and a chocolate coin for train fare.

The Other goodie bags. I made to look like little luggage. They turned out great! Inside I had Cracker Jacks, pixie sticks, and train cookies that came inside cute little cardboard train boxes  from: http://www.trainparty.com

Me and my sweet boy! (photo taken by Jenner Rose Photography)

OUR PARTY GUESTS: They are always what make our parties the most fun! My husband and I are so fortunate to have such wonderful family and friends. All of our friends joined us and even some family from out of state were able to make it out for Jude's special day!

THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS DAY WONDERFUL!!
Check out my video of all the party guests.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Popsicle Stick Flowers and Flower Box

For mothers day we decided to make my mom "Nana" to our kids a crafty gift.

Materials Needed:

• Popsicle sticks (roughly about 50ea depending on the size,  I just got out my big box) 
• Liquid Water Color. (you can also use food coloring and water or just watered down paint)
• A photo
• Card board
• Decorations Optional (buttons, gems, glitter glue, card stock letters)
• Hot Glue
• Styrofoam Block
• Cups for your liquid water color 
• Glue (we used hot glue because we needed to have these dry quick)

Ok lets get started: 

First prep your materials, give your kids the Popsicle sticks to dip them in the cups be sure to have them dip both ends. They can also paint these with a paint brush or even Q-Tips.

While they are doing that cut a circle into the card board and your photo as well. Glue them together.

 Let your Popsicle sticks dry... I'm loving how some look tie dye.

Once they are dry cut them in half. (Be sure to leave a few sticks whole, you will need it for the stem of your flower and two for the front and back of your flower box.  Line a few up across the front of your Styrofoam I cut my block so that it would be the length of a full Popsicle stick. I glued the full stick down across all the smaller ones, then glued that to the Styrofoam. Do that on all the sides. I also then added my Card stock letters to the front.
(See photo below)

Your next step is to glue your stem on to the back of your card board circle.

 

I did two sets of petals. First I glued down the half sticks.

Then I cut about a 1/4" off of the remaining sticks and glued those in between to fill in the gaps. 

Then we decorated them with buttons. 

 

All done for a Crafty gift for someone you LOVE! :)