Reindeer Candy Canes D.I.Y. (Very late post)

Hi Everyone! and Happy New Year! Yes, this post is super late and I apologize. When it was my turn to "lead" my son's Christmas party this year I had to really research on some fun interesting activities for the class to do for 2 hours before their dismissal. I found some really cool crafts on www.orientaltrading.com and most especially on Pinterest (my go to fave site).

I had a hard time of thinking of give aways for the students to take home, I did not want a goody bag of stuff they will never use, so I stumbled upon these really adorable and festive Candy Cane Reindeer's on www.pinterest.com !

I'm glad I started making these like weeks before the party as these could be time consuming but yet fun to do once you have everything prepared.

Here's what you'll need:

Candy Canes
Yarn (light and dark brown)
Hot Glue
Wiggly Eyes
Mini Pompoms
red satin ribbon (1/8 in x 10 yards)
mini jingle bells
scotch tape

Store: Michael's Arts and Craft Store

1. Take two candy canes and press them together with them facing opposite sides (resembling the antlers), grab the end of the yarn and start wrapping the 2 candy canes together.
As you can see from the picture below. To make it look clean, I scotched tape the bottom of the candy cane so that the extra plastic does not look like the reindeer's have feet!

I recommend to hot glue the ends of the yarn to secure it. I tried Elmer's glue but overnight, the yarn started to lift.
Once you have the body all wrapped up, you can hot glue the Wiggly Eyes! Look, they are coming together.

2. Next, hot glue the Nose (Red pompoms):

3. Next, get an 1/8 in x 10 yd red ribbon and tie it around the reindeer's loosely, BUT before I hot glue, I insert a mini jingle bell (it really jingles! from Michael's Art/Craft store) and then hot glue both ends to make it look like a belt. 

TIP: Do not glue the belt too tight around the reindeer as the mini jingle bell will be awkwardly sticking out, it just doesn't look good. 

4. I wish I had taken a photo of the final product, but I was not able too. I'm sure if you can see it from the picture below (the girls Candy Canes on the Left of the photo).  I've also added the names of each student, divided by the girls (light brown and I added a ribbon) and the dark brown are the boys. 

I actually enjoyed making this craft, I think it turned out pretty cute! You can also use the same concept and buy the pastel colored candy canes for an Easter Class Party or Birthday Party to make it look like a Bunny, just change the color of the yarns and nose! 

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Cheers,

Darlene

What to do with Empty Jars?

Yes, we all have it in our kitchen whether it be empty spaghetti bottles, water bottle, baby jars and your wondering what to do with them? California is really big on recycling things so what better way to do so by recycling those bottles and turn them into beautiful art!

I was suppose to show you a craft that you can do with your kids in this post but I realized I was missing a couple of things needed to complete it, I was going to make a snow globe but that will be for another post, sorry about that!

In the meantime, I'm sharing some ideas on what to do with those empty jars you have at home instead of throwing them back in the recycle bin!

I've gathered some of my favorite ones:

Silouhette Jars from laurenelisecrafted.com

Glowing Firefly Jars from www.curbly.com

Vintage Photo Jar from http://shannoneileenblog.typepad.com

Terranium

Chalk Jar from diycraftyprojects

Polka Dot Jar/Luminary from savedbylovecreations.com

Floating candles emmalinebride.com

Decoupage Jars arrowandapple.com

Paper Tissue Flowers.. Halloween Inspired

I came from the store and I was so in love with all the Halloween Decorations that are out now, the colors of Orange, Purple and Black are just a great combination of colors without it being too scary/dark but yet it has a festive feel to it.

While walking around the store, I couldn't help but think of a fun craft to do. A craft that I've actually done before when I was one of four room parents assigned last year when my son was in Kindergarten. We made this craft as a nice gift to present to the Principal, the school was celebrating "Principal's Day".  Since the class had 37 kids, yes 37! the room mom's split up the number of Paper Tissue flowers but of course not with these colors, it was more of pastel & primary colors :-)

With all the time spent making it, it came to a beautiful bouquet of flowers and inserted into a vase. I wish I had a picture of it to show it you on here. I just love this craft as One, the "flowers" won't die on you, and second, you don't have to water them!

I was thinking, this craft can be done most of the year to celebrate a holiday or any occassion! Ok, let's get to making these Halloween Inspired Paper Tissue Flowers:

What you'll need:
Paper Tissue (Orange, Black & Purple)
Scissors
Pipe Cleaners (any color)

Step 1:
Remove the colors that you only want to use from the pack. When I went to the store, some of them had other colors in the pack so I just separated them as you can see below:

                                               

 Step 2:

 Take your scissors and start cutting them in squares, about 4 inches x 5 inches:

As you can see, when I took the picture, it did not quite show the full square..oops!

         

Step 3:
I suggest taking about 6 square paper tissues and alternating them, like the picture below:

the second paper tissue from the right, looks like it's pink but I guess a different hue of purple, it turns out!

Step 4:
After gathering the paper tissue, stack them up with no color in order, but I suggest, like in Step 3, alternate the colors. If you want just one solid color, that's totally up to you. The outcome will still look beautiful!

Step 5:
In the picture below, after stacking them, what you want to do is fold the stack of paper tissue (short side) start to alternate the fold, over and back, about 1centimeter wide. It will start to look the a accordian once your done.


                                    

 Step 5:
Once done, you will notice that the paper tissue does not get folded evenly at the ends. That's actually just fine, Don't need to worry! This is why I love this project.

Now, here's where you want to add that "rose" effect to it. You can definitely leave the ends Uncut, but for me, I love the paper tissue flowers to look like a Rose so I ended up Snipping off each side of the folded accordian.

Step 6:
Now that were done snipping off the ends, take your pipe cleaner and let it go over the folded paper tissue about 1 inch or so,  then fold the pipe cleaner over to the other side, so that end will meet with the remaining of the "stem", then you want to start to twist it until it's secure.

Step 7:
You want to make sure the Pipe Cleaner is in the middle of the accordian, if it's not just adjust it. Here's the fun part!. Spread the paper tissue on both sides and slightly flatten it. You would want to take one layer from one side and lift up towards the center (see below pic). Then once one side is pulled towards the center, grab another layer from the other side and do the same thing.

Step 8:
Keep lifting up each side of the flower until you come to this:

                                       

see how beautiful it turned out!

                                             

                                               

Step 9:
It depends on how many of these you want to make, if your having fun, then I'm sure you'll be making more than just 10! I've already pre-made other colors but I just wanted you to see how it will look along with the other flowers.

Give this craft a try one day, I made this for both my mom & mother in law for Mother's Day last year and it was a delight to see their reactions!

Paper Bead Jewelry

I stumbled upon a video on YouTube a couple of weeks ago and saw Paper Bead Jewelry! This woman has amazing creations just by using any kind of paper (newspaper, restaurant menus, scrapbooking paper).
I decided to give this a try and yes I bought a kit (as seen below) that are ages from 8-11, but that did not stop me from trying this new hobby of mine.

The kit was pretty inexpensive, it was about $12 from Amazon. Upon the arrival of the kit, I was so excited to start on it. The kit comes with pre-cut paper, paper tool, glaze (to seal the ends) and of course step by step instructions.

After rolling the pre-cut papers, I placed them on a toothpick to dry for about an hour before I can assemble them:

I've tried both the BEAD and FLUTE designs:

I'm still in the process of completing my earrings, once they are done, I'll post some on here! Give these Paper Bead Jewelry a try someday!