Earrings

For this project you can find everything you need at Hobby Lobby or any craft store. This is an easy project and it is also something that you can pour your own creative interest into.

To start with you will need needle nose pliers or something simliar to help manipulate the wire. You will also need two pieces for the earrings, Hook earwires and eyepins. You can use headpins if you desire, they don't have an eyelet at the bottom. From here you can bend the eyelet to create any shape you choose, or you can bead it. I usually connect the eyelet on the bottom of the eyepin to the eyelet at the bottom of the hook. This is upside down but I find that it is easier. After you finish beading or bending take the needle nose pliers and open the eyelet on the eyepin, just slightly. Slip it into the Hook eyelet and then pinch it closed. Below are some examples.

Let me just say that these are very basic designs. You can get incredibly creative and there are a lot of fun things out there to add to your earrings. This website has wholesale prices of MANY options worth taking a look at. Millions of beads and fun things! www.firemountaingems.com

If you live in Logan, UT, a great place that offers beading materials is Beadles Original beads. It is a great little store that also has a huge supply of fun beads.

Family Calendar

Sometimes it is difficult making sure everyone in our family is on the same page...I wanted to have a Family Calendar, but I wanted one that was cute, easy, and cheap....So this is what I came up with....

What you need:

1 Picture with Glass (Plexiglass might work too) mine is 11 x 14 from Walmart

2 sheets of 12x12 cardstock

A ruler

Marker

Stamps (optional)

I first hooked my scrapbook paper together and then cut them to fit inside the frame...I traced the fake picture insert that came in the frame.

Then I marked out how big I wanted my calendar squares with the ruler and drew my lines with a magic marker....I used yellow because it matched my paper.

I then stamped my days on using a stamp kit by Autumn Leaves (I love it!)

Put it under the glass in the frame and hung it up!

I use a dry erase marker to write on the info...

I love this because I can change it with the seasons, add more decorations or keep it simple....

capes for kids

I have been wanting to make a cape for Andrew for quite awhile. So the other day when his Batman-loving friend Kenzie came over and got him excited about Batman, I knew what project had to be next. I found this simple little tutorial on how to make capes HERE. This project took a Saturday afternoon and cost me maybe 7 or 8 dollars to make two. Andrew now insists that while he wears the cape we call him "Batman" not "Andrew."

The above link has great instructions that are probably easier to understand than mine. I am posting my pictures and comments just so you have more than one place to look, but I would suggest using her tutorial if you make one yourself.

You start by picking up 3/4 yard of black fabric and 3/4 yard of red fabric (or you could do different colors). If you want the cape longer than the cape above, you will need more. On the tutorial, she didn't have a specific template for the it, but she gives good enough instructions to figure it out on your own. Fold the fabric selvage to selvage and draw your pattern, then cut.

You then pin it to the red fabric and cut out that piece.

If you want a batman/superman cape, go to the website above and use those templates. She also had a link for other templates if you don't want those. These are what mine looked like cut out.

Use heat n' bond fusible backing to attach the symbols to the fabric. If you do superman, remember to cut the bottom yellow piece slightly smaller than the top red piece so that the yellow doesn't show through.

Use a zig-zag stitch to keep it in place.

Your two pieces should look somewhat like this now.

Turn them right sides together and pin. Then sew around the outside leaving a hole to turn it out. Turn it out and do a top stitch all the way around it. Attach your small piece of velcro (I suggest doing that by hand. I had a heck of a time sewing velcro with my machine).

Ta Da! It's finished. My kids were in love with them. I can tell that Andrew feels really cool by wearing it. :) You can experiment with different colors of fabric or different symbols, there was even a princess symbol for all of you with daughters. I made one for Andrew and one for his friend Kenzie, but I would like to make another pink one for Olivia. I hope your kids enjoy them as much as mine!

-Megan

Cheap Cardboard fun

I am a huge fan of closet organizers. Just about any store you go to now will supply a person with any size, shape, or color of a carboard box with which to organize your closet. However, as fun as these boxes are they are surprisingly expensive, for cardboard. Until I can afford to go crazy buying fun little boxes I have come up with a different solution.

I buy a box of luv diapers once or twice a month. This is a lot of cardboard and I have decided to put it to use. These boxes are the perfect size to store all my daughter's winter/summer clothes but just for fun I made the box a little pretty.

Start with your ordinary cardboard box, it doesn't have to be a diaper box. I painted mine white so that I will be able to read the lettering that I paint on it next.

After the paint dried I used a pencil to outline winter on one side, summer on the other. At this point any stencil can be used (flowers, words, whatever floats your boat!).

Then I simply painted in the letters.

Now I can put my daughter's winter clothes in the box and face the side of the box with winter out. Then in October when I want to pull out the sweaters and stash all the shorts I just flip the box around with summer on the other side which now conatins all the summer clothes.

Be forewarned, should you go upstairs and start blogging about your new closet organizer and leave red paint for a three year old child to get into, you may find some new additions to your box.

They aren't the fanciest boxes for storage but if you can't afford to buy a matching set from the store and want to make use of cardboard you have around this might work for you!

Braided Rosemary Bread

You know when you go to those expensive Italian restaurants and they bring out delicious bread to dip in seasoned olive oil? Well this week I was craving that and also learned a helpful trick in my cooking class. Bakeries are able to make breads with hard outside and soft inside with the use of a steam oven. The trick to making this kind of bread at home is to put a handful of whole ice cubes in the bottom of your oven when you put your bread in. By the time the ice starts steaming, it will produce that hard exterior on your bread.
To start, I just grabbed a cookbook (Good Housekeeping) and looked for the Italian breads. Below is the recipe I used for Braided Herb Bread.
You will need:
1 TB salt
1 TB rosemary
2 pkg or 4 1/2 tsp yeast
about 6 cups flour
2 1/2 cup water
1 TB butter

1. In a large bowl, combine salt, rosemary, yeast and 2 1/2 cups flour. In sauce pan over low heat, heat water and butter until very warn (120-130 F).
2. With mixer at medium speed, gradually beat liquid into dry ingredients. Beat 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Add 1 cup flour or enough to make a thick batter. Beat 2 minutes on high, scraping bowl occasionally. With spoon stir in 3 cups flour to make a soft, sticky dough. (You don't want to knead it at this point or it will be too tough, just mix in the flour).
3. Place in greased bowl; cover with towel. Let dough rise in warm place, away from draft, until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
4. Punch down dough and turn onto a well- floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Divide dough into 6 equal pieces; roll each piece into an 18-inch rope. On one side of a large cookie sheet, braid 3 ropes. Repeat with remaining ropes. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubles, about 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 450 F. Bake 30 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped with fingers. Remember to add a handful of ice cubes in the bottom of the oven at the same time you put the bread in. Move to racks to cool.

I recently bought some dipping seasoning from Pampered Chef. It was very delicious with this.

~Linds

And the winner is...

According to random.org, the winner of these adorable booties is comment number 8!

Dayna Ady!

Congrats! Send me a message with your address and I will send them right away.
Thanks for entering everyone! Stay tuned for more giveaways in the future.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

Enter the giveaway HERE!!

In the mood for chocolate? You have come to the right place! These chocolate molten cakes are TO. DIE. FOR. They look like a regular old cake on the outside BUT when you take that first bite, mounds of chocolaty goodness come oozing down your fork. They are pure heaven. The good news is that they are also super easy to make. They are perfect for impressing friends and can be whipped up in no time with ingredients you probably have on hand.

I got the recipe from Martha Stewart's website, she even has a video showing how to make them. See that HERE. I doubled it because I wanted more than 6 and who wouldn't? It made 16 which was just about perfect for just me...

Molten Chocolate Cakes

• 1 cube butter, room temperature, plus more for muffin tins
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar, plus more for muffin tins
• 6 eggs
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 16 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted in microwave (I used chocolate chips)
  
• Powdered sugar, for dusting
• Whipped cream, for topping

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Generously butter a muffin pan and dust with sugar. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Beat in flour and salt until just combined. Finally pour in the 16 ounces of chocolate (minus however much you ate because you just couldn't handle seeing melted chocolate without tasting it) Beat until just combined. Spoon in about 1/4 cup of batter into each cup. Mine looked like this at that point.

Place the muffin tin on a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes and then turn them out on a cooling rack or plate. Dust with powdered sugar, top with whipped cream, and enjoy your little piece of heaven.

It's okay to have more than one.
-Megan

Fixing Mozart

This is a project I have been working for a long time. About two years ago, my bust of Mozart was accidentally swept off the piano by a power cord that was still plugged in due to my carelessness. He got a couple really small dings, but one corner was completely destroyed. I glued what could back together and then tried to fill the rest in with Cellu-clay (an instant paper-mâché). The Cellu-clay shrunk in the drying process and Mozart sat bewildered on my piano in his broken, eye-sore way for the next two years.


Fast-forward to the present. While thinking of what to do for the Desire 2 Create blog I decided to focus on projects that I have started and just not completed, with a few new things added for variety. Mozart floated to the top of the list.


Here he is in his two-year crumbled state.

Here is the corner after I added the air-hardening clay that I bought the same time I bought the Cellu-clay. I added a bit of water to it so the clay would go on more like a putty. Then let the poor man rest over night.

Once Mozart had dried out, I lightly sanded the clay area with fine sandpaper. I mixed two colors of metallic acrylic paint to come up with the closest possible color. Here is the first coat of paint on the corner.

I painted the whole bust because there were little dings everywhere that didn't need repaired other than a coat of paint. I used a foam brush and then a stiff brush from my daughter's water color set to make sure there were no globs of paint and that everything went on even. Here is the man half painted. Can you tell what side is painted and what side is not?

The shinier side is the new coat of paint. It had not yet dried. Pretty close in color, eh?

After the first coat of paint, I re-sanded the corner and painted again. Then to bring out some of the depth and detail I used my darker metallic paint as a glaze. I simply watered it down a bit. Painted over the highly detailed areas and then immediately lightly wiped the area with a rag so the darker paint would only stay in the crevices.

Here is the finished Mozart. He is not perfect, but at least I can put Beethoven in from of him and he won't be such an eye-sore in on my piano. My husband says he looks like Mozart is smiling more now. I know I am.

Easter Decorations

Easter has come and gone, and it left a bunch of plastic eggs. I decided to make myself some Easter decorations. All you need is your leftover eggs, a glue gun and stickers.

I arranged mine in a pattern and glued the bottom row together first. Then I glued the top eggs individually to the bottom. Then I added the stickers.


It didn't stand up on its own so I did have to add eggs behind to help it stand up.

I had even more eggs so I decided to make a wreath. All you need for this project are your plastic eggs, a drill, gauged wire (20 or 22 gauge), ribbon and a glue gun just in case.
I started by drilling holes in each end of the egg. Then I threaded them onto the wire. I tied the wire ends together inside of an egg so it would be hidden.
I did add a little glue to help them stay a little better.
Then I added the bow.

I tried using only glue, but they kept breaking apart and it was harder to get them even. By threading the eggs on the wire, it will help it to last longer.

-Lindsey

Super Easy Mosaic

I have to apologize... due to some technical difficulties I am posting today instead of yesterday. Sorry :)

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I recently saw a mosaic at Pottery Barn, which was SO cool, but way TOO expensive for our budget. That mosaic was made of wood and tile, which must be really really heavy too and somewhat dangerous. (What if it fell on one of my children!?)

What you need:

ModgePodge

Scrapbook Paper

Foam Brush

Foam Core or Art Canvas

What I did:

1. Get your scrapbook paper. I wanted a mosaic that was monochromatic, so all of my paper was red, but some were darker and had different patterns.

2. Cut or Punch a lot of squares. I have a square punch that is about 1 1/4 inches and that is what I used. I don't have any idea how many I punched, I just kept punching until I had a large bowl full.

3. Get out your ModgePodge. I used an art canvas board (from Walmart) for this mosaic. (I took a ruler and made a straight line through the middle, but I wouldn't worry too much about having everything perfectly straight and square. I tried to think and plan out how it would look and it almost drove me crazy.)

Mix up your squares in your bowl and pull one out, using the ModgePodge align it to one side of your canvas. Grab anough piece (totally random) and stick it on next moving from Left to Right. When you get to the end you might have a square that hangs off the edge and that is ok, we will fix it later.

Now do the same thing going from Right to Left. Repeat until you have filled your entire canvas.

4. Spread a nice layer of modgepodge over the whole thing and let it dry.

5. Take a pair of scissors and cut off the squares that over hang and then take a rough sandpaper and rough up the entire edge of your mosaic. And you are done!

You can tell that my squares aren't perfect, but I love how it turned out.

-Magen

Our first giveaway

As a way to kick start our new blog, we will be giving away these adorable newborn baby booties. I know lots of people are often in need of a last minute baby shower gift idea, so even if you don't have a baby, enter and give them as a gift! If you would like to win these cute little things, leave a comment below and you will be automatically entered to win.


Additional entries will be given for:

1. Blogging, Facebooking, or Tweeting about this giveaway – please leave separate comments with the link.
2. Being or becoming a follower of this blog. - leave a comment saying you became a follower.
   

Winner will be announced April 17th! Good Luck!

-Megan

Birthday Pillowcase

Now that the major holidays are over, our family swings into birthday mode which lasts until Halloween when the major holidays swing back into action. So with birthdays on the mind, mainly that of our almost 3 year-old, I have come up with this simple project.

Growing up we always had this little bear that sat on our dinner plate on our birthdays. It was just a little something to note it was your special day. Here is a twist on that tradition.

We will need:

• 3/4 yard fabric #1
• 1/4 yard fabric #2
• Spool of washable ribbon

Iron your fabric & then cut off selvage edge if you need to resize your fabrics. We want the width of the fabric to be about 42".

Cut ribbon to measure non-selvage length of fabric + 1", about 43".

Pin & sew lengths of fabric together (non-selvage edges). This will now be known as seam A.

Iron seams open. *I was told in my last sewing class the easiest difference to spot in a professional sewing job and a novice one is the professional one will iron all seams and cut all strings.*

Pin & sew new length of fabric creating a border at one end. This is seam B. Once we have sewn this edge, we should have a tube of fabric with a border of fabric #2 at one end.

Iron 3/8" hem into fabric #2. Then pull this down to cover seam & pin & sew.

Now turn tube right-side-out. We need to cover the seam A and the last section of sewing. Pin ribbon on starting a smidgen past seam B. We want the ribbon to just barely cover seam A. Gently sew side of ribbon that covers seam A. If there seems to be extra ribbon, that is okay. Extra is good. When you get to the end fold the extra ribbon under creating a nice edge which matches up with seam B.

Time to sew the other side of the ribbon. There is no need to pin this one as the ribbon is already in place. The concern to watch for is to make sure you are covering the stitching from sewing the border down on the inside. Once this is done, repeat the fold at the end of the ribbon.

Turn the tube back inside-out. Pin the bottom and sew, making seam C.

Cut the corners on a diagonal making sure not to cut the seams. This helps the corners lay better and be bulky when turned right-side-out.






Because I don't have a serger, and have never had much luck using the zigzag method with my machine, I solve my fraying problems with this:

Fray Check is my friend.

Lightly cover all the raw edges with a little Fray Check, making sure not to touch the material that creates the outside of the pillowcase. Fray Check dries hard and if it saturates the main part of the pillowcase, you will have a little rough spot.

Let dry and turn right-side-out.

When it is birthday time at our house, the birthday girl/boy gets to sleep with this special pillowcase the night before and night of their birthday.

Isn't this fun? The red pillow is another one I made 10 years ago. I made one for each of my roommates and myself for Valentines day. The possibilities are endless.

-Aimee