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Sewing Photo Book Gift Idea for Grandma

July 3, 2012 By Brandy 7 Comments

We made this sewing photo book of many of my grandma's sewing projects, and gave it to her for her birthday. It was so fun watching her go through each page and reminisce. A great gift idea for legacy seamstresses!

Sewing Photo Book Gift Idea

A few months ago I shared the project for my Grandma that I was working on. A book, documenting some of the many sewing projects that she has made over the years. The book ended up being 275 pages, and only covered a percentage of the dresses and quilts that she has sewn. Truly AMAZING.

I created a Facebook photo album, only accessible to family, and everyone added photos of Grandma's sewing projects. Old photos, and recent photos with items that they still had. We all had a great time pulling out old quilts and dresses. My cousin, even modeled some of the dresses that Grandma made her when she was a tween. She is 30 and they still fit her. Not fair, haha!

3 Simple Quilt Projects

Kids Scrappy Quilt

Easy Pinwheel Quilt

Gingham Baby Quilt

The photos came out bright, clear, and beautiful (although the photos I took of it don't do it justice with the glare). Each with a caption and date (if known) underneath.

open photo book with photos of homemade dresses

Kaylee enjoyed looking at it before we mailed it to her. She said she wanted me to make her that dress.

It was A LOT of work. Hours of organizing, re-touching, and proof-reading, but it was so worth it. Grandma LOVED it and has shared it with many people who have stopped by to visit with her. Since I used an online photo company, the book can be ordered by any family member. Several aunts and cousins ordered a copy for themselves. She has left such a legacy for our family and now we have a little something to help us remember the love and dedication that was put into each project.

I am looking forward to browsing the book with her when we move to California and hearing the stories behind the projects, from her point of view!

Click here to view the entire book. I created it on Blurb and shared the link with everyone in the family so that they could order their own copy. Many did and we all have this book to look through and cherish.

4th of July Cardstock Wreath {Kids Craft!}

July 2, 2012 By Brandy Leave a Comment

Here is a fun and quick wreath to make this week with the kids, or without, but it is easy enough to do with them 😉 To make it even simpler, you can just cut out the stars and glue them to the base instead of making them 3-D, but I think the 3-D stars are fun and aren't hard. Either way, it will brighten up your front door this week!

Click here to go to the one we made last year and the tutorial!

Here isÂ a quick picture of my kiddos last year on the 4th of July! We added food coloring to their pancake batter to make red, white, and blue pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream!

For more summer fun ideas for the kids, check out the summer link party!

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

June 21, 2012 By Brandy 2 Comments

buffalo chicken wrap on white plate with small bow of ranch

I LOVE buffalo chicken! Wings, pizza, you name it. My favorite buffalo flavoring is Texas Pete's wing sauce. Usually when you make wings you combine hot sauce with butter. Not with Texas Pete's. With this, you simple toss your chicken in the sauce. Done. The flavor is awesome. Not too spicy, but enough kid to be buffalo sauce. I used some inspiration from Skinnytaste and came up with a dinner that we really enjoyed. And the chicken was just as flavorful and juicy the next day for lunch!

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

4 chicken breast halves

2 T. chicken base (I use Tone's brand. Bouillon cubes work too)

½ c. diced onion

2 garlic cloves

¾ c. buffalo wing sauce

shredded carrots

lettuce

tortillas/wraps

dipping sauce

Cover chicken with water in a medium sauce pan. Add chicken base or bouillon and dissolve. Bring to a boil and add onions and garlic. Reduce heat to medium and simmer about 30-40 minutes.

Remove chicken and shred. Toss with wing sauce.

On a warmed tortilla, add chicken, lettuce, carrots and any additional topping you'd like.

Serve with your favorite dipping sauce

shredded chicken lettuce snacks shredded carrots inside tortilla

Hello Kitty Sandwiches

June 14, 2012 By Brandy 2 Comments

hello kitty shaped sandwiches on colored plates

So I've really been having fun trying to makes lunchtime fun. Especially when friends come over. It doesn't take long to make the sandwiches. The tedious part is searching the cupboards for things to use and the clean-up. So I might as well make them when lots of kids can enjoy them...if I'm going to put the effort into it anyways!

The boys have been enjoying time at Cub Scout Day camp with Derrick this week. Kaylee is always the one left behind and doesn't have as many play dates. So we decided to do a very last minute invite to a couple of friends for lunch and see if anyone could come! Two were available to play and she was so excited.

So I thought for 3 little girls, a Hello Kitty lunch would be fun. The sandwiches look like pretty little cats, not so much Hello Kitty. At first I couldn't figure out why, but I think I should have put the whiskers closer to the edges of the sandwich and not in the center....But the girls loved them and shouted "It's Hello Kitty!!!" when they saw their plates. So I'll call it a success!

I made the sandwiches, then used a knife to cut out the bread around the ears. Kitchen scissors worked well to cut out the round head. Then I used mini M&Ms for the eyes, nose, and flower center, and a slice of apple (peel facing out) for the flower.

The whiskers are black icing from a tube that I had, but pretzels would have been fun too or maybe some fruit leather strips.

A little cup of grapes and another of spring shaped marshmallows and they were set!

3 little girls eating sandwiches at kitchen table

Kaylee set up a little tea party and the girl shad a wonderful afternoon playing together!

You can my attempt at Angry Bird Sandwiches here.

Road Trip Binder for Kids: Road Trip Games, Map Activities and More!

June 11, 2012 By Brandy 64 Comments

Don't even think about going on your next road trip without a road trip binder for the kids! Filled with road trip games, activities, maps, and fun printables! The kids won't mind taking a break from their electronics to have some good old fashioned fun!

So the countdown is on until the day of our big move and we are preparing every day. Today I cleaned out the cupboards and freezer and washed all of my dry foods containers. Also went through and got rid of a ton of plastic food containers that didn't have lids. Now onto the next item of business...

One thing that we don't have to worry about anymoreÂ is keeping the kids busy on our trip. It's crazy how road trips have changed from when I was a kid! Holy cow! My parents never went out of state, we usually just stuck within a 1-2 hour radius from our house and I still remember being BORED to tears!Our kids are spoiled, but they've also been across so much more territory than I ever did as a child. We've driven from California to Alaska. From Alaska to Ohio and from Ohio to Utah (twice) on top of trips to Niagara Falls, Pennsylvania, etc. So I guess a bit of extra effort is required since we drag our kids all over the country! With a portable DVD player, books on tape, a new DS (ugh...yes, we caved and finally let our children get one to share on the trip), toys, new chapter books, and these new travel binders that I made, I think they will have fun!

Road Trip Binder for Kids: Road Trip Games, Map Activities and More!

The boys' binders are identical. Kaylee's is a scaled down version with lots of coloring pages and stickers instead of educational worksheets.

Each binder has a map of the US that they can check out and follow along. The front of each binder has our trip mapped out for them as well. They can follow along with little post-it flags.

open binder with printable license plate game in page protector

The first several pages are road-trip games. Links to any printable I show can be found at the bottom of the post. Yay for free printables! What a time saver! The first is a state licence plate game. Both of our cars have Alaska plates so they can check those off....or should we make them find other cars with Alaska plates? Probably!

Next is an I-Spy game. I put post-it tabs and flags inside the binders to use as markers for games like bingo and to mark what they found.

black binder open with printable games in page protectors

A slug bug game (although I think we'll just look for cars in these colors too) and an Alphabet game. Those two are games we always played as kids, while traveling, and I play them with my kids now. I never thought of putting them on a printable to mark off though. Genius!

Another version of the I-Spy game with things to find.

page protector for holding tickets and brochures in binder

I have a section for them to keep their ticket stubs and brochures from the attractions that we visit.

pocket for holding tickets earned on road trip

Also a place for them to keep their bonus travel tickets. The kids can earn tickets by catching Derrick or I saying the "Word of the Day". For example, if the word of the day is "Car", anytime we say it, and they catch it, they earn a travel ticket. Tickets are worth money and can be used to buy souvenirs along the way!

printable road trip activities in page protectors

There is also an itinerary packet for each day of the trip in its own page protector. It tells them where we will end up each day, has a list of things to look for, tells them what the word of the day is, and includes a joke as well. The jokes are all different so they can share them with each other.

Each packet also includes a journal page for them to write or draw on.

There is also a math worksheet to do daily.

And a fun worksheet, like this hidden picture page. I found these books at Joann's awhile ago and the kids love them. There are word search, hidden pictures, mazes, educational worksheets that correlate with their grade level, etc.

I know that we could just give them snacks and a ton of movies and they would be happy (we've done it before and we will still do that this time too), but we would also like to create memories, and have them and interact with each other. So hopefully these games will help with that!

Since Derrick and I are driving in separate vehicles and I will be the one primarily driving with the children, we can use all of the fun interactive, and boredom buster ideas we can get!

3500 miles and 18 Days on the road, then another 2 months of hotel living before our house is finished......BRING IT. 😉

2016 Update! I've added more pages! These seek and find pages are so fun and the kids love them. Put them in page protectors and use a dry erase marker to mark off each picture! I've included the links at the bottom of the post with the rest of the free printables. Enjoy!

Printable Hidden Picture Travel Games camping themed

Printable Hidden Picture Travel Games beach themed

This is a very old post, and some of the blogs that I originally linked to are no longer around. Here are the printables still available:

License Plate Game

Slug Bug, I-Spy, Alphabet Game

Printable Jokes here and here.

Seek and Find Printables

Angry Bird Sandwiches

June 5, 2012 By Brandy 6 Comments

You can only read this post if you promise not to laugh....too hard. I wasn't sure if I was going to share this since they are the craziest little angry bird sandwiches ever, but the kids and their friends LOVED them. Seriously thought they were the best sandwiches ever....even with cheese eyebrows on top of strawberry jam and couldn't stop talking about them. Dallin even said to his buddy, "Did you know that my mom used to be a waitress? She knows how to do restaurant stuff." I didn't tell him that I didn't learn how to make sandwiches during college and when I waited tables, but that's ok. I'm glad he was proud of his mama. It was sweet.

I didn't have much time to think about these. Ruby was going to wake up from her nap soon and I wanted to make something fun for the kids after they went swimming.

I just cut out circles from bread with a mason jar, made the sandwiches, and then covered the top with jam for the pb&j ones and cheese for the meat & cheese ones. Then trimmed the yellow bird to a triangle. The eyes are marshmallows and mini m&ms and the beaks are cheese as well. The top feathers are gummies and the black eye brows are from a food pen. Everything was just raided from our pantry....our very empty pantry since I refuse to go shopping before we move except for fresh stuff!

That's about it.

Ok, I guess you can laugh if you want to. The picture makes me laugh 🙂

Snap Trap Wallet {for the boys!}

June 1, 2012 By Brandy 5 Comments

I feel like I am always sewing for my girls, but not as often for my boys. So when the need arose for a project for the little men of my life, I was excited to get to work. We had a yard sale recently and the kids had a lemonade stand set up. They were absolutely darling and did a great job. And when it was all said and done, they needed a place to store their little pile of cash.

So I decided to make them each a wallet.

Do you remember the slap bracelets we had as kids? Well, they are back and this wallet utilizes the "slap" function in keeping the top pocket closed. And do you know what you use to make it snap? A metal measuring tape! You learn something new every day! Thanks to Just Another Hang Up's tutorial, I was able to make these wallets for them and they were perfect for their needs.

kids wallets with names ironed on the front

A zippered pocket on the front...

With a slap style closure on the top.

wallet zipper open with dollar bill sticking out

Perfect for their bills and coins....

And an area for gum or a small toy.

(The slap closure secure enough for larger items, but not for coins.)

Aaron thought it was just about the coolest thing and couldn't figure out how I did it. Was it a snap? Was it magnetic? Magic?

Nope, just a measuring tape!

I can see myself making these for birthday gifts for the kid's friends. Maybe with a few bills stashed inside the pocket and a treat inside the snap pocket. Perfect! and such a great way to use up some scrap fabric.

Tutorial

Monster Cupcakes

May 21, 2012 By Brandy 1 Comment

blue tshirt with felt lettering and felt monster

Monster stuff in May? Did I get ahead of myself and post 5 months early? Nope! Aaron's kindergarten class did a Monster unit right before school got out. Monster activities, snacks, costumes, movie, games, etc. It was a blast!

The kids were asked to dress in costume and we didn't have any monster themed outfits for him to wear. The night before costume day, I sat down and added a bit of life to this stained t-shirt.

I used felt scraps. I began cutting and sewing, cutting and sewing...about 30 minutes later I had this tee and matching eye ball headband for him to wear. He loved it and I loved that this old shirt looked new again. Projects like these are fun. No pattern....just go with it!

I bought a bag of chocolate eye balls after Halloween since I knew that his class would be doing Monster week in the spring time. Talk about the easiest cupcakes E.V.E.R! They were super fun and quick to make.

And here is out goofy little monster all ready for school! He had a GREAT week and loved seeing all of the costumes that day. Including his teacher with feathers and a tail 😉

Micro Canvas Masterpieces {Gift Idea}

May 4, 2012 By Brandy 6 Comments

My little artists have been busy cranking out these fun little canvas masterpieces for Teacher's Appreciation gifts as well as gifts to Great-Grandmothers out in California and Oregon. I think they turned out darling and should be pretty easy to mail out next week.

mini canvases on newspaper with small easels

I found these little art easels and canvas squares at Joann's. They are only 3-4" big and the little easels are the perfect compliment to them. They are $1.99 each, but I saw that they were having 50% off all canvas that day so I got them for $.99! So I bought enough for gifts and a few extras. When I got home I showed them to Derrick and he thought they would be great for Cub Scouts, so I went back a few days later and bought 20 more sets.

The kids didn't use brushes. Just their fingers. I showed them this little sample board that I made for the Cub Scouts.

Just a few ideas of ways they could use their finger/thumbprints to make pictures. My kids didn't really go off of that board, they just came up with their own. The only rule I had was that I wanted lots of color to fill the canvas.

child painting flower on canvas with finger

And here are the little masterpieces. Ready to go. A few of them have a bit of detail work that they added with a Sharpie. And they signed the corners.

The kids named their paintings and I made tiny tags that just slip between the wood and the canvas in the back.