Bestie's Broncos Barrettes

My mom and sister have been bow and barrette making machines this week!  I found some Denver Broncos material in the scrap bin today and just had to make matching Broncos barrettes for me and my best friend, Trisha!  I had my mom show me a cloth flower barrette that she had been working on and just copied her design.  These were so easy to make.  It only took me a few minutes to make each one.

Can't wait to wear this with my Tebow jersey next weekend!  Go Broncos!

DIY Wall Decor

I saw some wall decor on Etsy at the Pretty Foldings shop and thought I'd try my hand at making my own.  I started by making paper flowers and butterflies as seen in my previous post.  I then painted an 11x14 canvas with black and white acrylic paint until I liked how it looked. 

 

I then hunted for some twigs outside on our property.  I used high temp hot glue to attach them to the canvas.  I originally thought about painting the twigs black but I liked their natural look better.

I used the hot glue to attach the flowers and butterflies.  I placed the top butterfly on the end of one of the twigs that is not glued down to give it a bit more dimension.  I am thinking about doing two more of these to line up across my bedroom wall.

  I took these pictures with my Droid so the quality is not the best and the lighting in our basement made the canvas look a bit grayish.

Gettin' My Paper Crafting On

My sister is visiting from New Mexico for the Thanksgiving holiday and we spent the day at my mom's house.  The morning immediately turned from browsing Pinterest to full on crafting in the basement.  While my mom and sister worked on hair bows for little girls, I was determined to learn how to make paper flowers after seeing a really amazing piece of artwork on Pinterest that incorporated canvas and paper flowers.  I found a pretty good tutorial for Simple Paper Flowers. 

I made my first flower with yellow printer paper and then decided to try some out of newsprint.  I found an old textbook from high school and began tearing out pages.  I also made a few paper butterflies and attempted several rolled paper flowers (these did not turn out the way I envisioned them). 

I'm hoping to pick up some canvas and turn these into some wall decor for my bedroom.  I will post a picture of the finished product if it turns out how I'm hoping. 

This Flower

As part of our study on plants, the preschoolers planted seeds for Mother's Day.  We planted Cosmos, Morning Glories, California Poppies and Pansies in clear plastic cups.  (We planted 3-4 weeks before Mother's Day.)  The Cosmos and Morning Glories grew best.

 Before giving our gifts, we wrapped our plastic cups in colored tissue paper 

and secured the paper with a rubber band.  We also attached the following poem:

This Flower

This flower is for you, Mom.

It's a (flower name), you see.

It's growing more and more each day.

It's really just like me!

So I'm giving you this flower

With a note that's oh so true.

And when you watch this flower grow

You'll remember, "I love you."

- Unknown 

Students whose seeds did not grow attached the following poem to their cups:

I planted some seeds in hopes that they'd grow.

Something went wrong. I just didn't know.

Instead of some flowers, it's a cupful of dirt.

I love you! I hope your feelings aren't hurt!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

- Unknown

(I found both poems in a folder I compiled during college.)