Today I made 2 matching games for the kids. One for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. I printed these images out onto Avery 8293 1.5 inch round labels and stuck them onto milk jug lids I've been saving up for just such a project. I am considering using about half of the Christmas ones to decorate a small tree that the kids can play with. Hopefully this will keep them from playing with the one in the living room! I can't take credit for the images. They all are from Microsoft Office. I hope to get a picture of the kids playing with these but right now the camera is out of batteries...again!

Boy oh boy. Just reread that last post and sometimes I get a teensy bit cranky. :) I'm better now and have scanned some of the Wordles I made and am going to post them now. Hopefully tomorrow I can post a real, live, honest-to-goodness post. (Once again, if you're on Facebook you've already seen these.)

Thanksgiving Word Art

Audrey's Word Art

Edgar Family Rules

Easton's Word Art

Just found a fun site called Wordle. It is super easy to use to create cool art. Just type in any text you want and it will randomly generate a "word cloud" for you. I made 5 different ones tonight. One for my kitchen with spices/herb names, one for my living room as a decoration for Thanksgiving (words like turkey, stuffing, family, gobble, thankful), one for each of my kids with their nicknames and date of birth and one for "family rules" (eat your vegetables, use your manners, count your blessings, use nice words). It is SO addicting!
Here's a link to my most boring one (the spices one). Didn't realize you could save them and link to them until I was doing the last one!
Have fun with it and be sure to let me know if you do one of these. Seriously, I played with this for hours after the kids were in bed!



P.S. GRRR!! NOTHING HAS GONE RIGHT TODAY! The first time I try to blog in forever and I can't get the stupid link to work. I am going to bed and hoping I have more patience to fix this soon. I am so mad! Whatever. I'll try to fix it soon.

Since finishing up with my last class, the Crafty Lil Devil is back in full swing. I've finished so many craft projects in the past week! Two paintings, party favors for E's big 3rd birthday party, two Halloween costumes (a ghost for Easton and a bat for Audrey) and a Halloween wreath. It's been really fun finally getting to do something I want to do for a change! These pics are from my phone. My camera has eally and truly bit the dust. Now my camera phone takes pretty good pictures for a camera phone but it can't really do justice to my two little sweeties or capture the colors in a painting, etc. But they'll have to do until we get a new camera. Maybe at Christmas. I don't even know what kind of camera to buy if we do get a new one. I'd like a big, fancy schmancy DSLR but that is REALLY not in our budget...even at Christmas time! Jason says his Canon at work is really good so we might look at those. There are so many choices! All I know is my little Kodak is history. I used it a lot and loved it (Thanks mom!) but now it's all beat up and the lens is stuck all wonky and can't be fixed.

wonky old camera

Here are some pictures I took with my Blackberry. It is SUCH a pain to get pictures from my phone to my computer and then to Blogger!

If you're on Facebook you have probably seen these already:

Oh happy day!

Painting for my mom (sorry to ruin the surprise Mom! I'm no good at secrets!)

Audrey's bat girl costume

Spooky, spidery Halloween wreath

My precious little ghost boy.

Easton and Audrey like to go around the house saying "GHOST!" in their creepiest voice. It cracks them up and they laugh so hard they almost choke. Too funny!

That's what I've been up to. Craft projects and dishes and laundry and all that good fun stuff. So happy to have more time for me now that I'm finished with school!

P.S. Guess who got an A on that last final paper? Me! And that means I got an A for my overall grade in the class. And that means I have truly and properly earned the words "graduates with distinction". Oh yeah! SO glad to be done with homework for good! Or until I am crazy enough to go back to school to get my Master's degree when the kids are old enough to go to school. But until then, Crafty Lil Devil is back at it again!

Man, I really needed that break! Things just got a little chaotic there for a while but have calmed down to a dull roar now so maybe I can manage this blog a little better. Too much has happened in the time off to completely catch everyone up to speed but let me just tell you the most important:

I graduated from college! Finally, after all these years... I can proudly say that I am a college graduate. No more checking "some college" on surveys. Sorry to brag but holy cow I am proud! I made an A on my final paper, which earned me a grade of a 96% in the class. That means I graduated with distinction and will be on the dean's list. I am so proud! Two friends are planning a small graduation party for me and I am so happy.

I've only been finished with school and homework for four days but I've already finished four craft projects. I will attempt to upload pics soon. They'll be kinda crummy camera phone pics because my regular camera is all but unusable. I have no idea what we'll do at Easton's birthday. Maybe I can borrow one from a friend. Katy? Amanda? Jessica? I'd really appreciate if I could borrow a camera from someone. Even if it's just for the day. Thanks!

That's all for now. It's late and I've got a lot of crafting to do tomorrow. Hooray! Crafty Lil Devil is BACK! Pictures and how-to's coming up.

One more quick post. It seems I either have no time to post and a lot to talk about or a lot of time (though not lately!) and nothing to talk about. Sorry for the erratic nature of these last few weeks. Sometimes that's just the way it goes with me, I guess.

I love being able to give gifts to my friends and family. It really makes me so happy to give someone something I've worked hard to make.

Here's the cute craft project/recipe I found at How Does She? Oreo Cookie Sucker

Then of course I had to make something to hold those cute little suckers so I adapted this to make a cute gift for my friend for Easter. Sucker Holder It's basically a 2x4 that has been cut, painted, decoupaged and then had a coat of clear sealer added. SUPER EASY! Add some holes to the top for suckers and you're done. I had all of this stuff on hand and Jason cut the board for me from some scraps in our garage. Nice!


Oops! Forgot to take a picture of all of the steps. Melt "candy wafers" (or white dipping chocolate) in a large bowl. Take the tops off of the Oreos. Place a small bit of chocolate (or in this case white chocolate) inside the Oreo. Add a sucker stick. Place top back on cookie and allow to set. Cover cookie with chocolate, decorate and allow to harden and dry on waxed paper.


Wrap in lollipop bags and tie with ribbon or use twist tie to close. Then of course you need something cute to put them in!


These are some hastily taken, very off centered and not doctored in any way photos. Sorry! That's the kind of gal I am lately. This is the front of the sucker holder.


Back of sucker holder


Now put in your cute little Oreo suckers and enjoy! Good thing I made one for myself too! :)

Linking this to Just for the Joy


and Show Off Your Stuff





P.S. Nana, Easter pics and pictures of Audrey's first tooth coming. Sometime. I promise! Maybe even before next Easter!

I am finally getting a short time to blog. Let's start with a couple cute pictures of the rainbow rice project we did last week.






For instructions, check out Pink and Green Mama. For the link, scroll down a few posts. It's late and I'm being lazy. Will link up again when I get a chance.

We both loved this project. I think maybe I loved it more than he did but he did like it. :) Something about those rainbow cupcakes got me all rainbow-obsessed. Nothin' wrong with that, right? :)

This is gonna be a short post because it's late and I need to get to bed.

Tomorrow I'm going to start making up some "lesson plans" for home preschool with E. He's really interested and loved going to the "preschool store" today. (Teacher supply store in Winchester). I'm planning on using some of my stuff from when I taught at Braddock Street so it should be fun and fairly easy. The hard part will be the planning and getting it all ready before hand so there's no waiting around for E during the day. He's really into counting right now so I bought him some counting bears. They're little plastic colored bears and they come with cups to help with sorting and matching, etc. He really seemed interested in them at the store and they were cheap and cute. I also got him a numbers puzzle so we'll try those out and see how it goes. We're going to start out with only a few things here and there and see how it goes. He's still really young yet but I think he'll do well. He knows all his colors, most of the uppercase letters, can recognize his numbers (mostly) from 1-9 and can count from one to "firteen" (13).

This isn't part of our official "preschool"stuff...that won't come til much later. Lots of planning yet to do. Anyway, tomorrow we're making "rainbow rice" from Pink and Green Mama

photo borrowed from Pink and Green Mama. Can't wait to see how E reacts to this! I hope it dries quickly because I can tell you he is not gonna be able to wait very long to play in it!


P.S. I want to be just like Pink and Green Mama when I grow up. She has such great ideas! And she lives relatively close to me too....Northern Virginia. Pink and green are Apple Blossom colors. OK seriously I am not a stalker but don't you just wanna meet her and hang out with her while she does all these cool projects? I'm gonna stop now before I start sounding real crazy but really I'm just so in awe of some people's creativity!

I've decided it's a "give homemade gifts" kind of year here at the Crafty House. If we would normally give a store-bought gift, I'm making something instead. As a result, I have piles and piles of craft supplies around my already very crowded house. It's crazy. In order to work on one of these projects, I must first have no kids around, which means only at naptime or after they're in bed for the evening. I must also have no homework due. And lastly and most far-fetched, I need to have a clean dining room table. (Ha!) Sometimes in order to quickly clean off the table temporarily, I've been known to pick up piles of books, papers, etc and put them on the bar. Then I have to scrub the jelly/yogurt/mashed bananas/whatever off of the table so I don't get it on whatever I'm working on. And that takes away more valuable time I just really do not have in the first place.

I'm really beginning to wish I'd just bought stuff on Etsy and saved myself the headache. Who am I kidding? I have NO TIME for this! Note to self: when making lofty goals such as this, consider first "Do I have time or money or energy or room to make this?" Probably not. Want a good article to help you decide if you want to DIY or not? Head over to Ohdeedoh and read this. I wish I would have read this before buying all of this fabric for projects! :)

I am continuing to work on E's vehicle-themed room. I took a few pictures of signs and some cars and trucks he likes and had them printed out and framed. Today he helped me choose pictures for a book about cars and trucks. Right now we'll just print this out and make into a book but when it's time we can also use these same pictures to practice handwriting and/or spelling. Just thought I'd post here in case anyone else might be interested in this. E's vehicle book

I've added links to some of my favorite crafty websites and also added more favorites, new and old. Take a minute to check out some of these sites and leave them a comment if you do.

P.S. If you have a blog, let me know. I'd love to add your blog to my favorites list!

FINALLY! The CraftyLilDevil's been at it again. Sometimes staying up til 2 am to finish projects is the only way I can get them done but I've FINALLY got some things crossed off my craft "to-do" list! Here are some pictures of projects I've done and/or cheap games for my kids. They really do have TONS of storebought gifts and things that they love but I enjoy trying to make things for them too. And sometimes the things that have been the biggest hits are the cheapest!

Easton's fleecy Bedlam blanket and 2 pillows. Go Pokes! Stacking game. Just a simple paper towel holder from dollar general and some links we had already. E loves stacking these and will do it over and over. Cost for this project: $1
Audrey's new bib. This pic makes the opening look really crooked but it's not. Cost: $1.25
Dyed noodles and shoestring for stringing. Cost: $1
Beanbags. Cost: $1.69 for beans

Watch for more projects coming soon!

I finally got to do more today than clean and take care of my little ones. I've been wanting to finish some beanbags I started making months ago for Easton. All I had to do was finish the edges and I was finished! When the kids were sleeping today, I finally got the chance. It took me less than 10 minutes to do all 12. When he got up from nap he was really excited to play with them. He had fun putting them in and dumping them out of a big plastic see-through container. I'll try to get a picture of him and his new (cheap!) toys soon.

I also made a little something for Audrey. I am a regular reader of a site called "Dollar Store Crafts". Today I made a crinkly baby toy for Audrey and I'm really pleased with how it came out. I recycled a crinkly baby wipes wrapper and used up some fabric and ribbon I had in my craft stash. I can't sew a straight line for anything but I think that will get better with practice. And who better to practice on than my kiddos, right? My camera battery needs to be charged so I'll have to get a pic another day.

Click here for baby toy instructions. Hmmm...now that's an idea for a cheap and easy baby gift!

It felt so good to finally be able to work on something fun! This site is called "crafty" little devil for a reason but unfortunately this mama has had no time lately for anything other than diapers and cleaning and homework. Hooray for naptime for both babies at the same time!

Frames, cards, and hand-stamped gift bags 

Finally something in this blog about a craft project! Here's directions on how to make a baby diaper "cake". I saw this on tv and thought I could copy it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Step 1 - The Supplies You'll Need to Get Started
Here are the supplies you will need to get started "baking" your diaper cake centerpiece:

Approximately 50 medium size disposable diapers. The cake I completed used 48 diapers, but since diaper brands vary in size, I'd keep a few extra on hand just in case. You can always give the extras to the mom-to-be.
A large platter on which to build the cake. I purchased a 16" disposable cardboard platter in the party store.
Approximately 70 feet of narrow ribbon for tying the rolled diapers (1 ft. per diaper), and tying together the tiers.
Approximately 8 feet of 1" wide ribbon for finishing the tiers.
One tall baby bottle.
Small candies to fill the baby bottle.
Adhesive tape.
Assorted baby necessities such as pacifiers, teething rings, combs, brushes, rattles, bibs, etc.

Step 2 - Roll 'em Up
This next step is the most time consuming portion of this project.

Cut 48 feet of the narrow ribbon into one-foot lengths.
Decide whether you want the printed decoration on the diaper to show on the cake. If you do, roll each diaper from the fold outwards, keeping the decoration on the outside. If not, roll with the decoration on the inside.
Tie each rolled diaper with a length of narrow ribbon.

Step 3 - Assemble the Tiers
You will be creating three tiers for this cake. It would be helpful during this part of the process to have an extra pair of hands helping you hold things together as you tie.

Begin with the top tier.

Fill the baby bottle with the purchased candy. Stand five or six diapers around the bottle and tie them tightly around the bottle with a length of narrow ribbon.
Create the second tier with approximately 15 diapers. Once again, tie tightly together with the narrow ribbon.
Create the third, and largest tier using approximately 27 diapers. To make the tying simpler, first tie an inner circle of diapers together. Then stand the final row of diapers around this circle and tie once again.

Step 4 - Finishing the Cake
Now you're up to the fun part!

Place the largest cake tier on the platter. Using several pieces of adhesive tape on the underside of the diapers, tack them to the platter. Don't use so much tape that the diapers will tear when the mother disassembles it.
Place the second tier on top of the base and attach with tape to the lower tier.
Place the smallest tier on top and attach as you did the other tiers.
Tuck the various baby accessories inside the ribbon, all around the cake. Make sure they fit snugly, and tie with more ribbon if necessary to keep them from falling off.
Finish the cake with the one-inch ribbon wrapped around each tier to help secure the accessories and provide a finishing touch.

Directions borrowed from www.about.com Search for "craft project diaper cake" and this is what you'll find.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The baby cake I made cost about $25.00 plus tax and took about an hour and a half to make. Pretty easy and my friend who will be receiving this knows I love to bake and do crafts, so she'll be expecting something "from scratch". Hope she likes it!

Just a note if you attempt this: Make someone help you! All they need to help with is tying the stuff, but an extra hand or two comes in very handy!

Now it's off to clean house before we leave for the holiday weekend.
See ya later, baby cakes! :)