4th of July Decorating

Today I made a little decoration for the 4th with the kids. My daughter was so excited and proud to hang them up. Nothing too special. Just made some lanterns (they are supposed to look like fireworks exploding) and stars from paper I had laying around. Add some ribbon and you're in business. We really love decorating for holidays. The kids love helping with all the different projects!
It's so fun to bond with them and teach them about what traditions we have and what the day is about. I was telling my daughter that the 4th of July is about our country's freedom, but she couldn't get passed the fireworks. So if you ask her what it's about she'll say fireworks. But hey, as a kid, isn't that what it's about?
I know as she grows she'll come to really understand, and be proud to be an American and for our freedom. For now I'm glad that she's proud of her lantern, because I love to see that girl smile!

Easy Office or Neighbor Gift

You know those gingersnaps I gave you the recipe for yesterday? I made them AGAIN along with some chocolate mint cookies for my DH to give to the guys at his office. Of course I had to wrap them.
So here's what I did. I took some old containers that I've had lying around waiting for a project just like this. (Tell me that I'm not the only one who saves stuff like this! You know what works REALLY well that I wish I saved, is baby formula containers.)
Anyhow, grab some glue and scrapbook paper too.

I covered them and then put wax paper inside. You can use tissue paper, but I think with cookie the waxpaper works nicely.


Fill them up with cookies. (Crystal lite containers are the perfect size for these!)

Then I just wrapped them with ribbon and extra ornaments I had.

Hope they enjoy them!

I'm done!

And not a moment too soon! Our church party is tomorrow night. Can I just say how much I like working with vinyl? It made making the logos, mask, straps and belts so much easier and cute. They're all happy with their costumes. I'm glad.


I'm just happy that my sons turned out! That was my very first time making pants and a shirt with sleeves. I wasn't sure I could do it. I traced my pattern from pants and a shirt he had and hoped it would all work out. For the muscle shirt I made two sides to the front of the shirt and sewed the muscles between the layers and just filled them with polyfill. For the Superman logo I traced the red part on the paper from the computer then cut it out and traced it again on the vinyl. Then backed it with the yellow vinyl and sewed them together.

He said, "Mom, I look like a tiny little action figure toy!" I guess that's a good thing.

One down, two to go!

I'm a little late this year on making costumes. Luckily they all wanted to be super heros, so they are easy to make! My oldest wanted to be Wonder Woman. She's been bugging me ALL month to make it and yesterday she said, "Mom, you just need to buy my costume cause you aren't going to make it in time for my Halloween parade at school!"

Wanna bet?!

She is extremely please. I think she makes a cute super hero! When she was trying it on she said, "I'm not sure if I can do this. I think everyone will think I'm the real Wonder Woman and ask for my autograph." told her to practice her spelling and that I think she can pull it off. Too funny!

Maria, remeber that bag of vinyl I bought at DI that day? It sure is coming in handy. That's what the crown, belt, arm cuffs and logo are made from. Just goes to prove that you should always go with your gut when buying that kind of stuff, you never know when you'll need it!

My other daughters costume is almost done, I'll share that one later. I'm a little worried about how my son's is going to turn out.Wish me luck!

Cheese Cloth Ghosts

This was the cheese cloth ghost I made for the example at our RS meeting. Super easy!

1. Just create a form. I used a bottle for the body, wire for the arms and foil for the head.
2. Then you just cut your cheese cloth in different widths of strips,
3. soak them in liquid starch and then drape them over your form. Make sure the bottom has plenty of starch because the base it what holds it up when it's dry!
4. After it's dry carefully remove your form.
   

You can use a sugar and water mixture, but the starch was really cheap and I think it dried faster. Good for the activity. We used hairdryers to speed the process along.

You Don't Start Celebrating Halloween on Oct. 1st?

Neither do I. We actually started decorating on Sept 29th this year.