Keep Calm and Drink a Beer

Since I like homemade gifts for Valentine's day, I thought I would make one for my husband.  It's the golden rule right? Do unto others?  So, crafty things for guys doesn't always turn out that awesome or well received, however that I made is awesome and was well received.  I can't really put into words what I made him, so here's the picture:

  I, of course, found the idea on Pinterest.  It was a super simple and relatively inexpensive thing to make.  I got a 11x14 inch shadow box from on clearance at Michael's for $10, cut a slot in the top big enough for the bottle caps to go in, and put on the vinyl quote I cut out using my Silhouette Cameo. This can also easily be done without a machine by using stickers. (In full disclosure....I accidentally put the vinyl on upside down so the slot is on the bottom of the frame now, but eh, it still looks cool and it functions.)

If you aren't as frugal as I am, they do sell shadow box frame at Michael's for $40 that have a sliding top just for the purpose of dropping things into the top. The display picture is of wine corks.

So to tie the gift together, I bought my husband some beer. I went to Hy-Vee and the Wine and Spirits manager could pick up at my blank stare at the wall of beer that I needed assistance.  He happily helped me pick some beer that "have the same taste pallet as Spotted Cow", which is one of my husband's favorite beers.  I don't know if I should take it as a compliment or not that the manager then didn't card me.... 

After my craft efforts and the subtle hints of the Valentine's advent calendar I made for my husband (discussed in a previous post), I was pretty positive I was going to get something nice on Valentine's day.  Yeah....you what they say about assuming...you make an ass out of u and me.  That's what I did. My husband didn't even have a card for me.  He did make me an omelet for breakfast and put a candy bar in my car when he started my car to warm it up for me. (The warming up the car thing is a daily thing per our agreement that allows his beloved sports car take up my spot in the garage.)  So I know I really shouldn't complain because I won't allow him to spend much money, but really? He couldn't even take a crayon like he did last year and scribble out a card?  I thought for sure when I got home from work in the evening that there would be a little surprise for me, or at least a hand written note since I had given him 14 plus nice handmade valentine's card.

Yeah... I need to keep calm and have a beer.  Probably shouldn't take one of the special ones that I bought him, though, huh?

May the Force Be With You

My oldest son loves Ningago, star wars, and the color green.  He wanted to tie all of these in to his Valentine's card.  He and I browsed Pinterest for ideas since the store didn't have any that really popped out at him.  We settled on a photo card with a glow bracelet inserted in it to look like a lightsaber.   After some editing on PicMonkey, this is what our cards ended up looking like:

 Can you tell that he's a ninja Jedi?  K, cause I really can't either, but he says that that's what he is and I'm happy that he's super excited out his Valentine's cards.  Sam's Club photo made these super cheap in the wallet size (you order one print and it's actually two that you cut apart yourself.)  The glow bracelets came from the Dollar Tree. I bought a pack of 15 for $1.

And now I know why there is adhesive card stock!

I saw a really cool grandparent's printable on Pinterest that someone was selling on Etsy, so I thought I would try my hand at something similar.  This is the pin that I saw from JackandJillyDesigns on Etsy:

My mother in-law has four grandkids and I think that there are no more coming, so I thought this would be a cute thing to try.  I found a quote on a similar designed stating "My greatest blessings call me Grandma."  I know my mother in-law laments never finding anything with "Grammie" on it, so personalizing this is something she would really appreciate. I used my Silhouette Cameo to design and cut out something like this and use the middle square as a picture frame.  I wanted to add more pops of color so I added scraps of paper behind the cut out area.  I thought this would be pretty simple, however, finding the fonts that worked well together and the sizes and all that was a little harder than I thought.  Then, I stupidly cut it out on card stock. I had to hand glue all the little insides of the letters.  Wow, I learned something on that one: Adhesive card stock is worth it!  Also, maybe a printable isn't so bad!  It would probably have looked nicer since on the really thing cursive font, it kind of gummed up the paper, particularly on the "s" and "g".

This is my product, with out the picture in it or having it in a frame yet, but you get the idea.

Subtle Daily Valentine's Reminder For Husbands

So Valentine's Day is coming up pretty quickly.   Since I have a mom that loves the after holiday sales, I have a lot of holiday hand towels and gel window stickers so BOOM...I'm now decorated for Valentine's day!
My husband really isn't a holiday kind of guy, particularly not Valentine's day. That's fine by me most of the time, because his idea of gifts is different than mine.  I LOVE heartfelt things. He prefers to purchase items.  Don't get me wrong, the year I got my Nikon DSLR I was all for commercialism! I've used that camera AT LEAST a few times a week for 3 years now.  My favorite gift from him, however, was a heart he welded out of muffler piping and wire coat hangers.  He made it for me our first official Valentine's day together 8 years ago.  This is a picture of us using it as a photo prop when my oldest son was 2 weeks old.

I haven't gotten anything handmade since...Okay, I take that back.  He made me this card last year:

Anyway...I saw this idea on pinterest  from the Silhouette America Blog for a Valentine's Day Advent Calendar.

I loved that idea!  I changed it a little.  I didn't include numbers and I titled mine "I love you because..."  Here is mine:

I got the frame for $1.99 at a thrift store and used cross-stitching floss for the "wire."  Michaels sells a set of mini clothes pins in variety of colors for $19.99. (I know I will do more with all the other colors of the clothes pins.)  You can also get a small package of white clothes pins there as well.  Then I used scrap book paper to make the envelopes and cards.  I didn't use the cutting machine like the original person did on the Silhouette blog. Mine was all by hand.

My husband really loves it and I hope this will serve as a reminder that Valentine's Day is coming and handmade simple things can mean a lot!  We'll find out in a week and a half!

The Hands of Time Keep Moving

I'm just going to throw it out there...I don't like sports.  I was invited to a Super Bowl party with my husband, but politely declined as I didn't think having a toddler around a bunch of grown men yelling at a TV would be fun for anyone involved.  My husband went with my older son and I was left with said toddler.  I was not broken hearted in the least! We had a lot of fun and made a HUGE mess.  You see, he LOVES to paint.  (Fortunately, the paint we have is washable.  I don't even pre-treat the clothes or anything!!)  So we painted :)  As I'm slowing decorating my office, I realized I needed a clock.  I got one at Walmart for less than $4 with the intention of taking it apart to just use the hands and make a custom collage clock.  Well, that plan quickly changed as I got sappy with my little guy and how big his handprints are getting.  I decided to frame his handprint in the clock.  I was surprised how easy this whole task was.

Supplies:

-Clock (Mine is a Walmart Mainstays $4 clock)

-Philips Screw Driver

-Artwork or picture

-Scissors

Instructions:

Step One:  Take the clock apart.

My clock had 5 screws on the back that separated the front frame from the back.  Just unscrew them and take it apart.  You'll then want to pull the hands off the clock.  They may bend, but that's okay, you can bend them back.

Step Two: Customize your Clock

I took the frame and traced the circle around a handprint so I would know where to cut.  I then put the handprint on the clock and pushed the clock hand holder thingy (yeah, so technical) through the paper.  You can then use the scissors to may a nice smooth opening.  You'll want it fairly big because if it's too snug around the protruding thing, the hands won't move.  The hands will cover up a lot, so don't worry about having the hole too big.

Step Three: Put the Clock Back Together

Snap the hands back into the clock and straighten them out if they got bent.  Test them by turning the time knob on the back of the clock.  If they all move, that's great!  If they don't, either cut more paper around the "thingy", snap in the hands farther, or you put the hands together in the wrong order.

Put the glass and frame back on and screw in the screws and you are done!