Framed Scrabble Board

 Thanks for stopping by the Things I LOVE Blog Hop featuring the Thankful Thursday Design Team!

If you came from Sharon's Blog (Simply Sweet by Sharon) you are in the right place.

If you just came across this hop and would like to start from the beginning, please go back to Jenny's blog (Crazy About Cricut).

Today, my two boys are sharing a fun and easy project for your kids to help create!

We made this Framed Scrabble Board for my Mother-in-Law, Sue. Including my kids, she has eight grandchildren! We really wanted to make one for my hubby's grandma too, but she has 12 great-grandkids and we simply couldn't fit all the names on one scrabble board!!

For this project you'll need a scrabble board, tiles (we needed two sets of tiles so we had enough of the more frequently used letters), hot glue / glue gun, and a shadow box frame.

We hit thrift stores by the batch to try to find a scrabble board and tiles with no luck. I ended up having to buy two scrabble boards for this project. I hated having the brand new tiles and boards, I really liked the more aged look of our old board (it's dated 1942).

This is the board that came with our new games.... long story short, my boys traded me their cool old, aged Scrabble board for this shiny new one. :)

See, don't you like the age and character of the old one better? Anyway, we set out all the names we needed to include, added a couple little touches to the corners and some love too. 

Then we glued everything down with hot glue. Try to keep your spacing uniform between the letters, they don't all butt up together to fit nicely on the playing squares.

I didn't like the nice, clean, new, unused looking tiles, so I hit the letters with my heat gun. I just used my heat embossing gun, but a hair dryer might work too. This little bit of heat gave the tiles a lovely darker sheen that I just LOVE!

Next, I found the 16" x 16" shadow box frame at Craft Warehouse. Now, my board was a wonderful 14 1/4" square, but the new board I bought was not the wonderful square that my fun old board is. If you plan on making one of these fun boards, you might want to take that into consideration when choosing your board.

I glued the board to the top of the mat that came with my frame.... and wallah!! LOVE IT!!

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Your next stop in the blog hop is:

Heather @ Paper Junkie Designs

Little Monsters Blog Hop

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Little Monsters Blog Hop

If you came from Jenny's blog (Crazy About Cricut) you are in the right place.

If you just came across this hop and would like to start from the beginning, please go back to Jenny's blog (Crazy About Cricut).

My project is a Reading Log Bookmark.  These would be fun for a classroom Halloween treat or a simple motivational fun for your young reader.

I created a PDF file that goes with this project. Please feel free to download the file. You are free to use it as much as you'd like for your personal projects, but it is not to be used for commercial purposes. If you'd like to post the PDF or this project on your own website or blog, please link it back to the Cards by CG blog (cardsbycg.blogspot.com).

This is a jpg of the pdf file.

I included three file share programs for you to download with. Hopefully you'll have no

problems, but please email me if you need me to attach the pdf in an email directly to you.


http://www.scribd.com/doc/35248427/Reading-Log-Bookmark-Cardsbycg
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/48837762/Reading-Log-Bookmark
http://www.4shared.com/document/1gHbShW1/Reading_Log_Bookmark_cardsbycg.html

On to the project:

Step 1: Print out the PDF onto card stock. I use white for my projects, but any color will do. You will have enough reading logs for two bookmarks each time you print the pdf file.

Step 2: Cut a book mark from card stock. The measurements are 2 1/4" x 8" - you can cut a total of four bookmarks from one sheet of standard 81/2" x 11" card stock.

Step 3: Cut out the reading logs and mount them on the colored card stock, there will be one side with a large blank spot at the top of the bookmark. This is where you or your child will add decorations (we chose to use Cricut Cuts from Mini Monsters). The second side (the long one) will be added to the back of the bookmark. - see second picture -

Step 4: My kids used the Crop-a-Dial to punch holes in the top of the bookmark to add ribbons.

Step 5: We set eyelets with the Crop-a-Dial.

Step 6: Cut ribbons to add to the top of your bookmarks, we used 8" for each bookmark.

Step 7: Cut your decorations. We used Mini Monsters and our Cricut Expression. All our cuts fit perfectly using 2 1/2" for all layers. Both my 7 and 10 year old sons love using the cricut (as you can see from the pictures)! :)

Step 8: Once everything is cut, assemble your decorations. We used a Zig two-way glue pen for the assembly of each monster cut.

Step 9: Attach the decoration to the top of the bookmark with Action Wobbles (super fun addition for small batches, you may want to use pop dots if making a lot of bookmarks).

Step 10: Have your child write his/her name on the bookmark. Here my 7 year old is using a Gelly Roll white gel pen.

Now my little monsters have their own little monsters to help them read. My 7 year old finished his bookmark and immediately went to his room to pick out a book to read.... if you ask me that is a wonderful result for this little 15 minute project!! :)

Thanks for visiting me today. 

Before you jump to the next stop, please leave a comment

(and don't forget your contact info) 

to be entered in my drawing for some blog candy...

a $20.00 gift card to either

Michael's or Joanns -- winner's choice!!!

Drawing will take place on Monday, November 5th, 2012.

FYI: I don't post winners to my blog, I email the winner(s) directly.

Your next stop in the blog hop is:

Sharon's Blog @ Simply Sweet by Sharon

Pinwheel Card

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Twine it up Blog Hop

If you came from Sharon's Blog @ Simply Sweet by Sharon, you are in the right place.

If you just came across this hop and would like to start from the beginning, please go back to Jenny's blog (Crazy About Cricut).

Today I have this fun card to share with you. The card base measures 6" x 8". I created the pinwheels first, selecting paper from Echo Park's Dots & Stripes paper pack. The pinwheel papers measure 2" x 2". I then added these adorable sticks (they're actually coffee stir sticks) and hot glued them together. 

Each pinwheel has a simple button at the center although it would be wonderful with a brad in the center so the pinwheel could still spin. The background paper is some Coordinations paper that is pre-embossed with a small polka dot. 

If you are unsure about making these cute little pinwheels, I assure you, they are EASY!! These (along with about 10 others) were made by my two boys!! :)

This cute sentiment is from Hero Art's "Thank you for being my friend" stamp set. I hand cut a little banner for the sentiment and them paired it with a 1/8" border of black to match the body of the card.

This terrific twine is from The Twinery. I just love the red and white. I added a little bow I tied with my Bow Easy and hot glued it to the pinwheel sticks. I wanted a little more twine on the card so I added these little white corners (simply 1 1/2" squares cut in half on the diagonal) and attached a little strip of twine there too.

The inside of the card received a sentiment from the same Hero Art's "Thank you for being my friend" stamp set. I also added similar layers to the card front.

Thanks for visiting me today. 

Before you jump to the next stop, please leave a comment

(and don't forget your contact info) 

to be entered in my drawing for some blog candy...

a $20.00 gift card to either

Michael's or Joanns -- winner's choice!!!

Drawing will take place on Monday, October 1st, 2012.

FYI: I don't post winners to my blog, I email the winner(s) directly.

Your next stop in the blog hop is:

                      Amber @ My 3 E Scrapbooking

Happy 1st Day of School Pencils

Please scroll down for my Ginger Snaps Scraps DT post.

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Back to School Blog Hop

If you came from Sharon's Blog @ Simply Sweet by Sharon, you are in the right place.
If you just came across this hop and would like to start from the beginning, please go back to Jenny's blog (Crazy About Cricut).

My boys and I made these candy pencils for their teachers, the Librarian, the music and PE teacher and their principal too.

Here's what you'll need for each Rolo Pencils:

1 pack of Rolos

1 Hershey Kiss (we used almond)

a strip of pink cardstock

a circle of pink cardstock

a strip of mirrored cardstock

hot glue, quick dry glue or redline tape

a paper crimper if you have one

I've included free printables for this project. Click here to download the free printable in PDF format, or scroll down for the file in jpg format. This printable fits 2 pencils on each page. Cut the paper down to 4 1/2" x 6" and run it through the paper crimper to add the texture. This really helps is look like a pencil. :)

Cut the metallic mirrored paper to 1/4" x 5" (you can also use aluminum foil for this part). This will be the metal crimp of the pencil that holds the eraser on. I used red line sticky tape for this paper. Cut a strip of pink cardstock to 1/2" x 5" and a pink cardstock circle with a 1" punch or diecutter.

First glue the Hershey Kiss to the Rolo pack with some hot glue. Add adhesive to the yellow cardstock layer. I used ATG tape and my two sons found this easy enough, all not all the labels were super straight. :) Make sure to align the "no. 2" pencil label with the end of the Rolos that don't have the Kiss on it. This will be the eraser end.

Next, we used ATG tape runner to add the pink strip to the eraser end and then added the pink circle to finish of the eraser. Try your best to put all the strip seams to the back of the pencil. 

Next, attach the mirrored strip over the eraser end.  Again, try to keep your seams to the back of the pencil. We did trim our paper strips to keep them hidden if we needed to.

See, doesn't it look like a pencil eraser? :)

So this is what your pencil will turn out like. We loved them so much that my two sons and I made a total of 12 of them to give to all the wonderful teachers in our lives. 

Here is your printable for this project if you'd like it.

Right click on the image to save it to your computer in jpg format, or 

Click here to download the free printable in PDF format.

Simply print the free file onto a piece of 8 1/2" x 11" yellow cardstock, cut to 4 1/2" x 6", run it through a paper crimper is you have it and attach it to your Rolos.

Thanks for visiting me today. 

Before you jump to the next stop, please leave a comment

(and don't forget your contact info) 

to be entered in my drawing for some blog candy...

a $20.00 gift card to either

Michael's or Joanns -- winner's choice!!!

Drawing will take place on Monday, September 3rd, 2012.

FYI: I don't post winners to my blog, I email the winner(s) directly.

Your next stop in the blog hop is:

Amber @ My 3 E Scrapbooking

What we've been doing this summer!

Hi! Thanks for hoping with us along

 Whatca been doing this summer Blog Hop!! 

If you came from Leah's blog (Leah's Card Designs), you are in the right place. 
If you just came across this hop and would like to start from the beginning, please go back to Jenny's blog (Crazy About Cricut).

So, my two boys and I have been doing TONS of yard work... including taking out an unneeded flower garden space and moving their playground with clubhouse. This is by no means a new playground, but it too fun not to include in our newly re-landscaped backyard!

Here is the playground. The last three years, we've planted a garden under the clubhouse. But, once we moved the structure (a huge job on it's own) we added 6 yards of cedar bark-chips and the boys decided the didn't want the garden in the new space. Now, they wanted a cafe to serve the neighborhood kids snacks and drinks. :)

So, here are the pieces we came up with....

First of all, we stained some scrap shelving wood and used vinyl to create all the signs we need. Using "Robotz", we created the letters. The sizes range from 1"-3" tall. The little bottle and drink cup on "The Bros. Cafe" is from Everyday Paper Dolls (cut to 3" RDS). The "Open, come on in" sign is double sided. :)

We made an "order here" and "pick up here" signs as well as a menu board... complete with chalkboard paint so the boys can change the menu items as the snack change. 

Here is the pick up window.... the idea is that the neighborhood kids can order at the front window (the side of the playground closest to the front yard), then they can climb into the clubhouse, play with the pullies, chalkboard etc and then slide down when their order is up. That takes them to the backside where the pick-up window is.

Here are the snacks of the day... we have strawberries, cherries, Capri Suns, water, fruit snacks, granola bars etc.

This is my son, Bryce, under the clubhouse. He's eagerly awaiting a customer. As you can see, we also built a bench under here where my boys can enjoy their own lunches and escape the heat a little.

And if we are away from the cafe, here is the "Closed, see ya soon" sign. All the signs were stained, then the vinyl letters were added, then all of them were sealed with a clear coat of spray sealer.

You can almost see the pride on my son's faces!! They are having a great time with their little cafe! My mother-in-law actually made them their own little aprons to wear while they are out playing!! :) We added some flocked iron-on letters to spell out their names... they just LOVE them!!

Thanks for visiting me today. 

Before you jump to the next stop, please leave a comment

(and don't forget your contact info) 

to be entered in my drawing for some blog candy...

a $20.00 gift card to either

Michael's or Joanns -- winner's choice!!!

Drawing will take place on Monday, August 13th, 2012.

FYI: I don't post winners to my blog, I email the winner(s) directly.

Your next stop in the blog hop is:

Amber @ My 3 E Scrapbooking