We Were Thankful

Technically we still ARE thankful, but this was how we remembered our gratitude during November.

After we started piling up our leaves I thought it would have been fun to make a leaf out of a bunch of leaves. Kent spoke before I could and decided that he wanted to line up all his blue ones and then make them connect to a line of leaves from the other side. So let it be written. So let it be done. The leaves were just cut out of cardstock using my Silhouette and we taped them to the wall. Easy peasy. I might choose fewer leaf types next year (if I remember).

Some favorites from the leaves:

Jason is thankful...
-for bed time
-for his eternal family
-for the occasional overtime
-for the right to bear arms
-that Mary gets to park in the garage
-for a stapler

Mary is thankful...
-for Costco samples and happy kids
-for chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese
-for fabric
-that my talk in Sacrament meeting is over
-for an early morning jog on a beautiful day
-for smiles

Clark is thankful...
-for spending time with family
-for school
-for watching a movie
-for Minecraft
-for stinky farts (hey...we should be thankful in all things, right?)
-for turkey

Kent is thankful...
-for doing Christmas lists
-for singing
-for the letter "t" and coaches
-for doing up and over (to get his coat on)
-for my Wolverine costume
-for big football guys and small, tiny, tiny football guys

Kara couldn't contain her gratitude to a little leaf. :)

Family Glass Block

I'm helping out with our ward's Super Saturday again this year. But this time I'm only doing one project. This might be the one...

I saw this project just after we had decided on last year's Super Sat. projects and knew that it would be a great one for this year.

So here's my version with instructions on how to make your own.

Gather your supplies:
-glass block
-glass etching cream
-rocks
-2x3 picture frame
-ribbon
-button
-vinyl stencil
-(not pictured) family picture, paper towels, glass cleaner, needle, thread

1. Clean your glass block and apply the stencil. I made this stencil on my Silhouette using the Great Vibes font. Then I did an Internet search for the swirl. I can't remember the site where I found this one. Use masking tape if you are worried that the glass etching cream will spill out over your stencil.

2. Liberally apply glass etching cream over the entire stencil. Make sure to brush up and down and back and forth for the best coverage. Let sit for 10 minutes.

3. Wipe off the glass etching cream and return it to the jar. You can reuse this stuff! Then rinse off the block with water. Remove the stencil and then clean the glass with glass cleaner.

4. Fill the block with some rocks or sand or shells or beads or anything really!

5. Place the picture frame on the rocks and ensure that it is straight.

6. Tie a ribbon around the block and sew a button onto the middle of the bow.

Ta da!

Christmas Was Coming

A little Christkindlmarket fun! This year it was COLD and crowded. I guess that's kind of like every other year that we've gone. :)

I saw these half eaten gingerbread ornaments by elsie marley early in the year and knew that I wanted to make them for friends and teachers. I love how they turned out. All those little nervous, frightened faces. Nothing says Christmas like fear, right?

I also attempted to make three quilts just like this one for Christmas. One for Kelli, one for my mom and one for me. The gifts are finished, but mine still needs binding. Maybe I can get to it before Christmas 2013. I just made up the pattern on some graph paper. It's a nice lap size quilt. 60ish x 80ish.

I just love the matryoshka nativity print. It was such a perfect find. And the red and white striped binding just finishes it off perfectly. It's quilted with a loopy pattern.

On the last day of school this year, Clark brought home this cute little reindeer ornament. It's now my favorite ornament on the tree.

We made these CTR ornaments for the Primary kids for Christmas this year. I cut the vinyl on my silhouette and then we put them on shatterproof ornaments. No glass here! It's just so cute.

You can use this .png file with your Silhouette if you'd like! Simply click and save. Just a note: it is rather small. We put it on little ornaments. Enjoy!

It's amazing, I feel as rushed writing about these as I did when I was working on them. Good thing I can cross them off my list now!

Merry Christmas

Hope you all have a SUPER Christmas and New Year!

Happy Halloween 2012!

Happy Halloween! Clark has been asking to be a devil for months. He's always so willing to play the part too. He loves getting in character and posing. Kent was giving us a hard time on picking a costume. We would suggest things and he would just say that he wanted to be nothing. We thought about making him nothing, but then settled on a hockey player. Once he got in costume and was handed a hockey stick and puck...there was no turning back! He was in love! Let's face it...for these boys, it's all about the accessories.

We tried to black out some teeth for Kent, but the tooth wax was a little harder to work than we thought. So the black eye had to be enough. I went for the more subtle look of the black eye below. Jason created the one in the photo above. Nothing subtle about that black eye.

He's ready for the ice.

Are you scared yet? This is THE bad guy of all bad guys. I wasn't quite sure where to go with the costume, so I asked Clark what a devil looked like. He told me in great detail, "Black pants, a black shirt with a red skull, a red cape, a red face, red hair, and a pitchfork with a skull on it." I got to work and made the shirt and cape. I worried about getting the right pitchfork, but Party City came through with this Pitchfork of Doom. Love it. The horns drove me nuts though. They kept sliding down so sometimes he looked a little more like a bull than a devil.

His hair was really an experiment. He wasn't allowed to wear accessories to school, so we wanted to give him horns without the horns. At trunk or treat we just spiked it kind of like last year.

Having some Halloween fun

The trick or treating crew. They didn't last very long...not even through the whole neighborhood. Lightweights.

I got to go to Clark's school to help with their Halloween party. It was a blast to be back in a classroom. At the end of the day the kids walked around the school for a parade. Clark brought up the rear.

Can't wait to see what our costumes will be next year!

I've Been Crafting

It's that time of year when I start crafting! I may have the motivation to create tutorials for these, but maybe not. I created them all with just a picture, so you might be able to also. 

Here's a photo board that was inspired by a photo board that we saw at the Odeum craft show. Then I found one online by good old Martha Stewart. She does have a tutorial for her board - though it is much bigger. The one I made is approx. 18x22. I think I have a little too much bend in my pics, so I might trim the pics down a little. 

This was a craft we saw on Pinterest. I did find a tutorial here also. I made mine with 8x8 shadowboxes found at Michael's. I created the vinyl design on my own based on the one I saw. Oh I think it's so cute!

I loved the Jingle All the Way shadowbox and thought there might be a way to make it a little more Christ-centered for Christmas. So I came up with this idea. I bought a woodgrain scrapbook paper and applied the vinyl manger to it. The vinyl lettering is on the outside of the glass. I used raffia as the straw.

I love the idea of fabric covered magnet boards. They are a lot of fun and the magnets are so easy to make. I made both marble and bottlecap magnets. I thought I would like the bottlecap ones better that I do. But it was worth a shot. We're going to hang this in the boys' room.

My safety pin beaded Christmas tree ornament! I love this little thing. It was a bear to try to figure out, but I did it! I'm most likely going to post a tutorial for this one. I'm also going to use red ribbon...that way it will stand out a bit more. This is my grown up version of this Oriental Trading kit. It's just so cute!

Etched Glass Picture Frames

I saw this idea on The Tidy Nest a while back and knew it would make a great Super Saturday project. It's inexpensive and can be personalized!! We are having everyone bring their own frames, so we are only charging $2.00 for the stencil and etching materials. Sweet deal!

Time: 20-25 minutes

See?

Supplies:
Picture Frame
Vinyl Stencil
Tweezers
Masking Tape
Etching Cream
Brush
Paper Towels
Ruler
Pen or Pencil
Glass Cleaner

1. Cut (or buy) a stencil. I cut mine using my Silhouette. I love that thing. I only wish that the paper would stay on the vinyl instead of coming off onto my mat...sigh.

2. Peel out the letters of the vinyl stencil using tweezers. Be sure to leave the counter (defined as: The partially or fully enclosed space within a character) in your stencil.

3. Draw guidelines on your stencil and your frame so that your etching is straight. Trim your stencil if needed.

4. Remove the paper from the back of the stencil. Adhere the stencil to the frame using a vinyl rubbing tool or a credit card or....

5. Remove the transfer tape from the stencil and protect the other glass on the frame with masking tape.

6. Apply etching cream to the glass and let sit for 10 minutes.

7. Remove excess etching cream and put it back into the bottle...it's reusable!! Clean the glass with glass cleaner and reassemble frame.

All done! Some day we'll get a family photo and I'll put a photo of all of us...until then, we just have the Wilde boys.

The Great Godzilla Gala

When Clark told me that he wanted a Godzilla and Gorilla (King Kong) party, I was a little scared. I secretly hoped that he would change his mind before I had to pull this off. But he didn't, and I had a great time putting things together for it. Here's Clark's Great Godzilla Gala!!

Jason decided that he wanted to make the cake this year. We tried to do frozen buttercream transfers, but we didn't use buttercream...oops. I think it would have turned out better if we had. The frosting we used was too soft and didn't set right. Anyway, I think the cake looked fabulous!!! Way to go Jason! I had fun designing a little logo for the party...the Godzilla holding the number 4. We used it on the favor bags, Clark's birthday shirt, and the cupcake decorations (not pictured).

One of my favorite things that we did was create a little scene for pictures where the kids could be Godzilla and wreak havoc on Chicago. Here you can kind of see the set up of the scene. I used a full 3'x4' picture for the background. Then Jason cut out the front buildings with a jigsaw and we mounted that 2' in front of the full picture. The kids (and some adventurous adults) would put themselves in the middle and act like Godzilla. Such fun!!

Godzilla vs. King Kong

Here's the full cast of characters!

Jason taught the kids how to make marshmallow gun and then we had them shoot them at a Godzilla target. That lasted for about 5 minutes and then they just shot the marshmallows at each other. Then Uncle Dave got in on the fun and really got them going. Poor kids.

One of Clark's requirements for the party was a pinata. We were originally going to make a pinata, but instead we opted for a store bought one. Made our lives much easier! And this is a good enough representation of Godzilla. Let's say he's in his party clothes. It was fun that Clark took the winning swing!

Clark was one REALLY happy kid to be four years old!

And I'm pretty sure he had a great time at his Great Godzilla Gala!!