Train Car Photo Holder

 We were at a train show a few months ago and came across this train car that was tossed in a for sale box.  My heart skipped a beat because the company name on the car was of a company my father worked for many, many years.

 

As a gift for my father on his 82nd birthday, I thought it would be great to convert this into a photo holder with some dimensional images of his grandchildren.

In order to get the scale correct between the 2 kids, I put them in the back of my husband's truck and took their picture together. 

 Afterwards I just printed it out on photo paper, then spray mounted it onto white foam core.  With a sharp craft knife, I cut around each image as best I could, and used sandpaper to smooth any rough edges.  With some glue I adhered it to the inside of the car. I filled the car with some chocolates.

Cowboy Turns 1 Birthday Party

This little Outlaw is on the run and causing such a ruckus along the way!  If anyone finds him and returns him to the jailhouse, there will be a huge reward! Who knew that turning 1 would be this hard!  I peppered the house with these wanted posters.

Again I entrusted Publix to do the cupcakes and I embellished with plastic Sheriff badges and some gold sugar sprinkles.  (One day I AM going to get around to baking my own cupcakes!)  The badges came from Hobby Lobby and they turned out great!

Obviously the little birthday Outlaw  was hungry  and did some generous digging into the cake.  Not a bad job.  By the way....I did bake this little tasty treat myself.  

Here's the invitation to the party. 

By the way, you cannot keep a hat on a 1 year old.  I took a million pictures and there is only about 4 that doesn't have my hand in the shot or the hat off his head.

Since all adult family members were at the party, I put together little Reward Favor Sacks filled with Hershey's Gold Nuggets and Beef Jerky.

Ah Ha!  The little Outlaw WAS Captured!

Fireman Birthday Party

My little guy turned 3 last year and I'm just now posting some ideas for a Fireman in training.

I made it a little easier on myself by ordering the cupcakes at Publix and then making my own cupcake picks. I even bought a large punch to do the scallop circles and glued them to lollipop sticks.

I must proudly show you this fire truck made out of cardboard boxes! I just taped and hot glued in a few areas, cut out the holes and rolled on the red paint. I actually overlapped some of the flaps inside the boxes to add some extra durability and it really held up very well.

I used a satin finish paint just so it didn't have that chalky feel. The lights on top are simply...a UPS tube! I just cut it down and wrapped in paper. The kids could enter from the back and crawl to the cab. It was a lot of fun and, of course, it was destroyed post-party. Oh well. (Sorry for no in-process photos.  I was in the basement and just got so caught up and excited that it was going so well that I kept working until the end.)


Then we can't forget the invitation...

No, this isn't Pull the Tail on the Doggie, but rather a pinata from Party City with the pull string releases for little ones. They all took a turn with their little fire hats on.  The hats all came from DollarTree. Now for you to be inspired and have a Fire Fighting Good Time.

Little Dragon Valentine

I stumbled across a little inspiration that I couldn't resist. In searching amongst the tons of free images available on Microsoft Clip Art on-line, I found this little dragon that would make for a perfect Valentine for family and Hudson's little daycare friends.

I created a simple layout in Word and cut the card down to fit a business size envelope. In just a few minutes, I had this done...and a child with a very red hand from the rubber stamp ink I used.

Altered Vintage Print

My sister met a woman who's hobby is going to flea markets and yard sales. The woman gave her a bag of old prints she bought because it was too good of deal not to buy it. For a bag of about 15 or so very large old prints she paid $0.50 for the entire bunch!

My sister saw them and immediately thought of me knowing I would think of some creative touches to add. I saw so much artistic potential in these crumbly things and was so excited to alter one right away. So I talked my sister into visiting the "Craft Shack" to do a joint project together.

Here's the almost before picture of the original print. (I keep forgetting to take pictures before I get started.)

We smudged some paint in the background, painted her nails red, added some extra golden curls in her hair and then added rhinestone jewelry and accessories. All she needs is some fake eye lashes and a mole.

Itsy Bitsy Spider Card

While on vacation we crafted this year's Halloween card.

Though my 1-1/2 year old took over the stamps and ran around the condo stamping himself. But I managed to get him to focus for 2 seconds to "wham bam" crank out some cards.

Baby Dean Card

For this baby shower card, toss together a chipboard letter embellished with rhinestones and mini pom poms.

Add some flocked alphabet letter stickers to spell out the rest of the name. With a fine point black pen, outline and dot around the letters. I love sketching around stickers for added effect.