Crafts: Cross-Stitch Pattern I Just Ordered

Photo Credit Wee Wonderfuls blog.

I haven't cross-stitched in about 9 years but this pattern has so inspired me to start again from Wee Wonderfuls.  I'm not a crafter by any means, but cross-stitch is actually pretty easy.

Photo Credit Wee Wonderfuls blog.

She gave us a glimpse of this "super" pattern back in March and I'm so glad it's available finally.

Enjoy!

Link Love

Link Love

I love love love to read blogs, especially crafting blogs as I'm still so new at it.  Here's some wonderful ideas I discovered on blogs this week:

Filth Wizardy's Sewing and Emroidery with Kids Using a Dollar Store Shelf Bed Liner.  This would be a great project for me my Girl Scouts to learn embroidery.

I am a sucker for free printables and just about fell out of my chair when I saw all the free ones over at The Toy Maker's website.  Everything from gift boxes, puppet theatres, paper dolls, to Brownie printables.  Everything is so beautifully illustrated.

Over at Little House in the Suburbs she has a Free Beginner Garden Plan which is perfect for a newbie like me.

I found a nice idea for a Homework Hanger clipboard on a Girl Scouts blog.  I've never decoupaged before but it can't be that difficult, eh?

Last night while hubby and I were surfing for Thai recipes (yes, we do this for fun), we came across the funniest video on YouTube for PARIandHARVIN.com - Crank Dat Curry Sauce Music Video.

Enjoy!  Sarah

From the book "The Big Golden Book of Poetry"
Edited by Jane Werner, Illustrated by Gertrude Elliott
1949 by Golden Press

Frugal Friday: Free Printable Paper Dolls

I saw a link on Happy Hearts at Home for Free Printable Paper Dolls so I printed one for my daughter.  When I gave it to her she exclaimed, "What's a paper doll?".  What?  She doesn't know what a paper doll is?  I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but it's true.  With Barbie's, Polly Pockets and all the cheap dolls nowadays, girls don't really need to turn to paper dolls... or do they?  Of course every girl needs to know about paper dolls.

So, for Valentine cards for her class we selected a paper doll and made cards with them.  We did this instead of attaching a candy to the Valentine.  The doll we selected for the girls found here and boys found here.  Another place we checked was About.com: Family Crafts where there's links to all kinds of free paper doll printables.

After printing the dolls on card stock, my daughter cut out heart shapes from felt and sewed them on using a button.  For the boys, we selected a football paper doll and she cut-out and sewed a felt monster on the front with two buttons.  Aren't they darling?

Babalisme has some amazing printables on her blog that she's created.  Make sure to check out her Printables to Print section under labels and pepare to be amazed.

Christmas Dolls on Bablisme here

Bablisme links to Paper Doll Printables & Magnetic Doll Instructions here.

A friend of mine was looking for a Wonder Woman paper doll for her daughter.  I haven't found anything for her yet, but found more free printable paper doll links here.

Enjoy!  Sarah

See more Frugal Friday ideas over at Life As Mom.

Martha Mondys: Postcards

Today for Martha Mondays over at Martha and Me we're making postcards. I was excited to select this week's project.

I selected homemade postcards as found on her website here. On this site you'll find lots of interesting free templates and clip art to use in your crafts. Another template from this site I have on my list to try is the decorative jam labels.

The postcards were so easy to make. You simply download the template and print it onto medium (printer-safe) card stock. Then glue a 4x6 photo onto the front - voila! I decided to challenge myself and see if I could actually print the picture on the back instead of gluing it.

I couldn't get any of my photos to line up correctly, so I tried our MOMS Club logo. I needed some MOMS Club postcards to send as thank you notes. This worked out very well, as it was much easier to line up because I didn't have any borders to worry about.

I will continue to play around with printing on the front of these postcards, and will use this template often. Another idea I'm going to do, is to have the kids draw pictures on the front of these cards. We live away from all our family and I'm sure they'll appreciate these. They'll make a nice display on their fridge.

To see how this project turned out for others participating, go over to Martha Mondays at Martha and Me. If you'd like to participate, simply sign-up here where each week we take turns selecting what we'd like to try next. If you love all things Martha, this is a nice way to give her projects a try.

Girl Scouts: Always Be Prepared

I am proud to say that I'm a new 3rd Grade Brownie Girl Scout Leader! We had our first meeting last week and now that I've gotten my feet wet, I'm ready to run with it!

My co-leader, thankfully, is a music teacher and is enthused about helping. We already have our Cookie Mom as well, who's on her 3rd year of doing this. So, you see, with all this support how could I refuse to volunteer?

I firmly believe in the role of Girl Scouts and their Mission Statement sums up nicely why:

GIRL SCOUT MISSION STATEMENT

Girl Scouting builds girls of courage,

confidence and character,

who make the world a better place.

So, off we go with my craft ideas! I'm not a crafter by any means and was, frankly, never that interested. But now that I've got to come up with ideas of what to do, I'm slowly getting "hooked"! I'm even going for coffee with a friend of mine this week so she can show me how to sew some simple stitches that I can teach the girls... you read corretly, I can't even sew a button! :)

Check-out some of the cool craft ideas I saw in Family Fun magazine:

Handmade Bandana Sit-upon

Homemade Stained Glass

Flower Power (we're gonna pin these one the plain baseball hats I picked-up)

Yarn Painting (how cool is this!)

Painted Photo Portraits

.. now to just tie these awsome crafts into a badge, hmm maybe I'm doing this all backwards?

I also made a cool (password protected) website for our troop today using http://www.clubspaces.com/. It's free, was pretty easy to set up and now I've got a great place to communicate with the parents.

Cookie sales start soon and it's such a great fundraiser for the troop. Last year the girls troop saved enough money from sales (like over $1000 bucks) to go on an overnight resort waterpark trip. Many of the girls in the troop likely would not have experienced anything like this had it not been for girl scouts. How great is that?

I'll keep sharing all the fun we're having! In the meantime, buy some Girl Scout cookies when they come knockin at your door ;o)