The book has instructional tips, interesting exercises where you can learn a little more about how your child sees the world, or, rather, has been taught to see the world, followed by 3 different nautical inspired drawings.

My current email subscribers have already received their free copy and if you follow me through other means, facebook, twitter, pinterest, you too can get your free copy by subscribing to receive updates in your email.

Why should I subscribed to your email list?
As you might have realized, I love email subscribers. The fact that you have subscribed to my list means a lot to me and in order to make it worth your while I occasionally share patterns, drawings and ideas with my email list that I DO NOT share on the blog. My goal is to help you do more with less impact to your wallet so staying subscribed to the list is a smart thing to do.

Join the club – be a daisy picker and grin like an idiot.

]]> http://www.grinninglikeanidiot.com/2013/03/announcing-my-free-ebook/feed/ 0 http://www.grinninglikeanidiot.com/2012/12/how-to-make-a-snowman-tree-topper/ http://www.grinninglikeanidiot.com/2012/12/how-to-make-a-snowman-tree-topper/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2012 07:52:51 +0000 Stephanie http://www.grinninglikeanidiot.com/?p=2997 This year we decided to have colored lights on the tree, and because of this one change I needed to make some decorating changes – the gold and white angel on top such a vibrant tree just wouldn’t cut it.  So I came up with a Snowman Tree Topper.  Hope you like this tutorial and are inspired to make one too!

LilMan thought it was a puppet at first

The kids just LOVED it! This year our tree is so fun, festive and kid friendly – I must say I like it a lot too

Here is a list of everything I used (some items not shown in the picture above):

• 10 Inch Styrofoam Ball
• Glitter
• Glitter Blast Clear Sealer
• Glitter Blast Black Spray
• Stiffy Fabric Stiffener
• Ribbon (the Green Ribbon I decided not to use and used Red instead)
• Black Felt
• Orange Felt
• Random decoration in the floral department
• Square dowel rod
• Elmer’s Spray Adhesive
• Acrylic stones
• Zip Ties
• Liquid Nails (or a hot glue gun)

I cut the dowel rod down to 16 inches and poked into (not all the way) the Styrofoam ball.

By using the dowel rod, you’ll be able to zip tie it to the top of the Christmas tree with it toppling one way or the other (that was the only thing I didn’t like about the Angel).  And with the dowel rod in place you can handle the ball a lot easier.

I sprinkled glitter on the ball and then sprayed it with the Glitter Sealer.

While glitter and glitter sealer was setting, I sewed a simple top hat using black felt.  The pattern I used is the same that I used for the Snowman Kit (with one exception, I didn’t bother with a liner). While I used the same size hat for Snowman Topper, I used different size nose, eyes and mouth pieces.  Click here to download the eyes, nose and mouth pattern.

Once the top hat was ready, I brushed Stiffy Fabric Stiffener on the brim of the hat and on some of the sides (but not all of the sides so I could fold it in a bit for styling).  Then let that dry overnight.

The next day, the hat was dry, I then took the Black Spray Glitter and sprayed it all over the hat.

While the hat dries again,  I used a good old standby – duck tape to stand up the snowman ball so I could place the hat, eyes, nose, mouth and decorate the hat.  I used Elmer’s Spray Adhesive on the back of the ribbon and placed the ribbon on the top hat.

Some fun details:

• The hat decoration was a floral piece.  I cut a small hole in the hat and poked it through.
• To add a little sparkle to his eyes, I glued some acrylic gems.

How fun is this!

This is definitely a decorative pillow – all those buttons wouldn’t feel very good to sit up against.  If you make this pillow, all you need is burlap material, canvas material, buttons and patience.

This pillow was another pillow in which I spent some quality time with Em:  I sewed on the buttons while watching a Barbie movie with Em.  Em would hand me the buttons to sew (and sometimes she we would even thread them on the needle) and once I had sewn on about 10 buttons, I then tied it off, that way if it breaks at some point, I only have to mend a small section of the pillow.

It was an odd way to spend quality time with Em, but that was the first time I’d let her handle a needle and I know I poked myself way more than she did.

Christmas will bring a whole display of sparkle that I’m just not ready for yet.  I’m not ready for the “Holiday Rush”, “Black Friday” – seriously they make Christmas so hectic and negative sounding, and frankly that’s what it has become.    In a time when everything is moving so quickly and we have so little time to just enjoy the moment – can’t we just stop for a moment and enjoy the colors in front of us.  Who knew a pillow would make me so nostalgic…

Take a moment, give thanks for everything you have been blessed with, my hope is you have a Happy, Safe, Warm Thanksgiving and may God bless your families.

The inspiration – a Turkey votive candle holder.  Other materials used, glue gun, foam board, burlap material and pretty flowers and feathers, all found at Hobby Lobby.

I just love it!

Isn’t he cute!

Do you see the ghost?  This is another pinterest must do! (A previous must do is: Better Smelling Mattress)

I found this chicken wire ghost on Pinterest, it took me a while to track down the original site because it wasn’t pinned properly. Found on Wackyarchives.com

Here is another one that I found on pinterest, but I couldn’t find where it originated.  If you know the originator please let me know and I can correct my pin and update this post to give proper credit for this fantastic craft.

So this is not my original idea but I just LOVED it and it was a fun project where I pulled my hair back, put on long pants, long sleeve shirt, gloves and went to work with wire cutters in hand.

What you need:

• Chicken Wire
• Gloves
• Wire Cutters
• Zip ties

FYI – I tried putting it on a dress form first to make it, but honestly it was so much easier to make it free form.  I originally wanted to make just the dress, but after I got started I went ahead and made the shoulders, neck, arms, head and a bun.   Once you get somewhat of a form, you can crush or expand the chicken wire to get the look that you want.

I’ve seen people do double takes when they walk by my house

Here are some other cute idea’s for corks:

Found on Simplyem.blogspot.com

Cork Board that you can buy and customize at the Obaz shop

I’ve pinned these to my pinterest board: My Style – feel free to follow!

What are some other cute cork ideas that you may have pinned?  Let me know your Pinterest handle so I can check them out!

The night before a school parade I found out that Tyler needed a costume of his favorite nursery rhyme, so we went through a book that I’ve read to him once about 4 and half years ago and picked out a nursery rhyme character.  Thankfully, I have Hobby Lobby within driving distance:   while there all I had to pick up was a Black t-shirt that was 30% off (for a total of $2.36 ).  I already had Mouse ears, felt fabric, fabric paint and a Silhouette Machine.  Now I can share with you all the template I made so you can make a Mouse Costume for Hickory Dickory Dock!

I made two stencils using the Silhouette Stencil Vinyl with Transfer Tape.

While waiting for the fabric paint to dry (I used Tulip 3D Fabric Paint Puffy), I cut a piece of black felt 36″ long by x 6 ” wide, folded it over and sewed it together.  To tie it onto his jeans, I sewed on a piece of ribbon long enough to make a bow.

Both Ben and our LilMan were impressed that I did this in less than an hour (including designing the templates)!

What fabulous costumes have you made that are 1) Quick and 2) We likely have the stuff around the house?

DOWNLOAD TEMPLATES

Print and Cut Tips and Tricks

• Turn on “Registration Marks” and increase the distance between the top of the page and the registration mark.  The purpose of the registration marks is to signify to the Silhouette where the images are positioned on the paper so that when it cuts it aligns correctly (otherwise, Silhouette will guess and get it wrong every time.)

• What I had found, sometimes my printer would start the registration mark before the printer ink touched the page.  So I moved the registration mark further into the page.  The default is .65, I increased it to 1.25.  Ensure your print and cuttings are inside the registration marks.

• Review where you Cut and Print.

• Anywhere in Red, is a cut area.  To make it an No Cut area, you simply select the area and click No Cut.  (Hint: if you have already grouped your image, you’ll need to ungroup it to select the area that you don’t want to cut).

• Print a draft first on plain white paper and then cut as well (despite how many times I reviewed the cut area there were sometime cuts or something I didn’t like or the size wasn’t just right).  Use the “Send to Silhouette” option rather than send to printer (if you send to printer first then send to Silhouette the program will prompt you to send to printer or skip send to printer – just fewer clicks).

• You can always skip printing, if you’ve already printed using the “Send to Printer” option.

• Always try to Detect Registration marks automatically first.  You’ll know that it registered when Silhouette actually moves from top to bottom and then upper right.  If the Silhouette machine only stays in the upper left it did not register  (even though the message will say it registered – it didn’t).  If that is the case, then you’ll need to manually register.

• If you need to, you can manually register.  To enable Silhouette to manually register, click the arrows to align the cutter over the black box in the upper left (which is the initial registration box).  Once you have the cutter over the box, then select “detect registration marks”.  Once this happens and you see the Silhouette machine move from top to bottom and then upper right.  You can then cut. (be patient if you need to manually register, it will find it).  Another Note: it will ask you if you want to skip registering and the answer is NO – otherwise your cuts will be completely off.

Feel free to download the below template by clicking on the below image.

Materials I used:

• Silhouette Printable Silver Foil

A friend and colleague of mine asked me “Do any of your projects mess up or turn out bad?”  My response “Oh, yeah definitely!”  And I gave her the example of the Glow in the Dark Spider Balls, it took me 3 tries before I figured out I needed vasoline to prevent the string from caving in when I popped the balloon.

And what is funny, is while I was talking with her I had been on my third attempt of painting “Candy is Dandy but Liquor is Quicker” onto glass.  Before I did it on my pretty cannister, I tried on a old Famous Dave’s pickle jar 4 times:

• 1st time I used glass etching paste, and I didn’t leave it on long enough,
• 2nd time the glass etching paste turned out but I wanted it to show up more,
• 3rd time I tried it with acrylic paint which peeled right off,
• the 4th time I used acrylic enamel paint – it worked!

The 5th time was the charm – technique wise…execution:  see if you find the mistake.  

Technique: I printed out the vinyl stencil again, carefully lined it up, painted the lettering twice with acrylic enamel (the paint used on model cars and planes), waited for it to dry and peeled off the stencil.

It turned out exactly the way I wanted it!  I even used it at a family gathering and you know what?  No one noticed the mistake.  I didn’t even realize it until 20 minutes ago when I was looking at the following picture:

LIQUOR not LIQOUR… 

After I saw this, I went downstairs and told Ben about the spelling mistake and he said “I thought it didn’t look right…”

Well on the plus side, perhaps people will think it’s an intentional thing or won’t notice, but you and I will know that this idiot can’t spell.

COMMENTS PLEASE:  What crafting/cooking mistake have you made?  no judgement here, let us learn from your mistake. Please