Inspiring Creativity {a giveaway}

I love fun, unique, creative gifts for children. Add to that encouraging them to write and keep connected with loved ones and I am completely sold.

That is why I love Kerry's store, Capturing Creativity.


This year for Lilly's birthday I really wanted to get her a card making kit. She loves making cards for people and I just knew it would be something she would really enjoy. I googled...and was really surprised that there wasn't much out there for children. That is why I was so excited to find Capturing Creativity.


This would be the perfect gift for any children in your life. Son/daughter, grandchildren, nieces/nephews...is your child going to a birthday party any time soon? What a special gift!


Look at that cute paper!


Stickers and Ribbon, oh my!


Tags for a variety of occasions.


And as a special touch, she puts each kit in an adorable little box.

And lest they be forgotten...


She makes boy kits too!

And guess what? You can win one of these kits!
One reader will receive either a boy or girl kit (winner's choice).
Exciting, huh!?

Each kit includes:
- 8 blank white cards and 8 white envelopes
- Plenty of patterned paper for 8 cards
- An assortment of paper flowers or other shapes/embellishments
- Approximately 3 yards of ribbon
- 8 sentiment labels/tags
- Plus a few stickers!
- And it all comes in the colorful handmade box

Head on over to Capturing Creativity right now to see the two kits that are up for grabs.


Giveaway Details:

One card kit

ONE winner will be chosen at random

One entry per person

Giveaway ends Sunday April 24th at midnight (EST)

To enter leave a comment below answering this question:
What was the best gift you received as a child?

Winner will be announced on Monday.

Tell your friends and good luck!

(photos courtesy of Capturing Creativity)

Crafty Endeavors:: Nesting Dolls

(Yes. That is laundry and lego's in the background.)

When I was a little girls I had a fascination with Matryoshka Dolls. I remember just loving to play with them. I really wanted to get a set for my children but as I looked around on the internet they were either too expensive or well....just plain gaudy. I wanted a sweet set that my children could hold onto forever. Time went by and I finally forgot about them. As I was checking out some craft websites I stumbled across this post. A little light bulb went off in my head. "Wait a minute," I thought "I can do that!" Only one problem...I am not a painter. Of all the crafts out there, hand painting has got to be the one I fear the most. But, these dolls were so cute, I took a deep breath and made my way to Hobby Lobby. With many encouraging words from my husband and the reassurance from the sales girl that if I messed up I could just wipe it off and start over I purchased a set of nesting dolls for around $6.

It took me about 3 days of painting in small increments to get these done. But I love the way they turned out! I stayed pretty true to the tutorial except I had one extra doll to paint.

And this little girl?

She loves 'em. Which makes this mama's heart smile. :)

Check out Jill's website here and her tutorial to make these fun dolls here!

Creative Inspiration :: Doilies

Hello. My name is Amanda. And lately I have been slightly obsessed with....(whispers) doilies. I don't know how this happened. I remember when I was getting married my mom and I had totally different tastes. She was very much into lace, frills, and sparkly things while I was much more plain and simple. But some where along the way my taste started to change and I have been so drawn to pretty lacey things...especially doilies.

I really don't consider myself a very crafty person. But I do like to look and I do appreciate beautiful things in my home that make it a cozy and warm place to live. I also think when giving a gift, it makes it so much more special when it is homemade. I don't spend a lot of time or money on crafts or decor. My rules are it has to be cheap and/or I have to be able to make it myself. The Lord has called us to be good stewards of our time and money and I try to keep that in mind when it comes to all things crafty.

With all that being said I thought I'd share a few pictures of what has been inspiring me lately...and yes, they involve doilies. :)



Sources: Doily Stationary, Doily Clock, Doily Canvas Bag, Pillows, Doily Vase, Tablecloth, Framed Doilies, Table Runner

The table runner is the project that started it all. I love the look. I also bought the tablecloth from K-mart for 50% off. Deal!

What do you think of doilies? Are they just for old ladies or are they making a come back? Would you decorate with them?

Be blessed!
~A

Crafty Endeavors

I, by no means, claim to be a crafty person. But something has happened to me recently. I am actually enjoying creating things. Maybe it's the fact that my children are growing up. For the first time in 6 years I don't have a baby or am not pregnant. (Does a 15 month old still count as a baby? I'm not sure!)

I've also found myself wanting to create special little keepsakes for the children. Something that they will look at when they are older and say "Aw. My mom made that for me." So, here are my two latest projects for the girls.

I've really been loving the look of embroidery hoop wall art that I've seen here and there. Easy, cheap, and really cute! My only rule of decorating is that if I am going to put it on my wall it has to have some sort of spiritual significance. I want the things we look at every day to lift ours eyes to things above. So I decided to make each hoop for a different fruit of the spirit. My original idea was to use Emily's idea. But I was on the 3rd letter of the 1st of 9 stencils and realized this was NOT going to work. I didn't have the time. So I resorted to free handing with puffy paint. I didn't think it turned out too bad. Actually, I really like it. I used a mixture of leftover fabric from Lilly's quilt and some that I got on clearance from Hobby Lobby.

I saw this next project on Centsational Girl and instantly fell in love with it. What's funny is the very day before I saw it Lilly was asking if she could have some throw pillows for her bed. I knew I had to make this for her. I found a really cute tea towel on etsy for $3 and let Lilly pick out the fabric she wanted from my scraps.

I have a 2 other pillow ideas for her bed that I am working on. After that on to something for the boys. My! Crafting is fun!

Yep. He's listening.

Just in case I ever doubted that God does, indeed, care about the small things going on in my life....

My previous post was me lamenting over my very unorganized craft supplies and today on Heart of the Matter ( a homeschool sight I LOVE) there was this article. Thanks God! I knew you were listening!

~A

And thanks to all of you who left your suggestions too! I think there will be some major re-organizing in my future.

A place to sew

If you had asked me about 6 years ago if I would enjoy sewing, I probably would have laughed hysterically. I had taken a one sewing class when I was a child, had a mother who loved to sew, but me?? No way. Ah....but times have changed. I now consider it such a joy to be able to sew for myself, my family, and for our needs around the house.

I have been doing a lot of sewing lately. Spring is just around the corner for us south Georgians and Lilly is in desperate need of some dresses (she just keeps growing!). I had a couple ladies over a couple weeks ago and we spent the whole afternoon cutting out fabric for her dresses. I was so incredibly blessed by that. If it took 3 women a whole afternoon to cut out dresses I can't even imagine how long it would have taken me by myself. For the past two weeks I've been using every spare minute to work on her dresses, in hopes I can have them all done by the middle of March.

So, I thought I'd give you a little peek at my sewing spot. Why?? I have no idea. :) Since it's been consuming so much of my free time lately....I just had to blog about it!

This is my table. I wish you could see the details of the table. It becomes a catch all for the household. I see a lighter, one of Lilly's memory games, and a sippy cup. At least once a week I have to go over my table and remove everything that doesn't belong there! There is also 3 half finished dresses, 5 dresses I have cut but have yet to start on, and a whole slew of zippers.

I also keep a stash of these behind my sewing machine (out of plain sight :)) It's my reward for sticking with it!





This is my ridiculously unorganized pile of things I don't use very often. A whole tub of scrap fabric, patterns, batting, and that pile of fabric is my mending pile. I'll get to it....one day.

Here is where I hang the clothes when I'm done. That's 2 dresses and 2 nightgowns Lovely, huh? Normal people would probably go ahead and hang them in the closet but it's not quite warm enough for her to wear them yet and I know they will inevitably wind up on the floor getting stomped on. So, I will keep my dress chandelier just a little longer.

This last picture is my next project after the dresses are complete. I'm going to be making an "I spy" quilt for the children. These are 6 of 100 little squares. They are all different designs. I think they will LOVE it! I'm not quite sure what I am getting myself into. I've never quilted before but am hoping I can figure it out! I'd love to have it done by Bradley's birthday at the end of March but I'm doubting that will happen. It will all depend on when Lilly's dresses are done. And then there is Kate who will need dresses in the near future too....oh my.

So, those are my projects and my little sewing spot. Do you sew? Do you have a sewing spot? I'd love to see it! Any organization tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for checking in!
~A

Hello, old friend!

Back in the day, when Lilly was younger, I actually used to sew most of Lilly and my clothing. But, then I had 3 more children and life got a little busy. I hadn't sewn anything in the past year and a half. My last pregnancy was VERY exhausting and then with having a newborn, I felt it was better to hire someone to do my sewing for me. My church ladies were even so very generous as to hold a special sewing day just for baby Kate. I came home with a whole 6-9 month wardrobe for her! But, the sewing bug has been getting to me lately. I miss it. So I dusted off the old machine, bought some fabric, and slooooowly started working on a church dress for Kate.

Not too bad, right? You can't tell too much from the picture but it's a really sweet shade of green. And yes, I know that that's Lilly holding the dress and not Kate actually wearing the dress. Kate wore the dress to church on Sunday but I forgot to get a picture. Sorry! I didn't grow up sewing and this was my first baby dress I've ever made. And considering the pattern didn't come with any instructions, it turned out pretty well. My friend the seam ripper and I had a couple dates while making this dress but, all in all, it wasn't too hard.

So, now the sewing bug has really bit me. Kate and Lilly don't need any more dresses. I think I'm going to make some cloth napkins out of a slip cover that has seen better days and I'm also wanting to buy this:

I've been waiting anxiously for the release of this book. It looks really good! Full of crafty goodness for your home. Amanda Soule has a website soulemama.com where she shares lots of ideas and wonderful ways to get children involved in crafts.

My decorating style is...simple. Somehow, I just don't feel right going out and spending lots of money on making my home more fashionable. I suppose I feel there are better things I could spend my money on. But this book repurposes old fabrics into new things. Plus, it's things I could make myself. Sounds interesting!

Free time will be low once school starts but I'm looking forward to doing some sewing and chipping away at my mile-long reading list.

Thanks for reading!

~A

Arts and Crafts Time!

As most of you probably know, I home-school. I love it and am thankful I have the opportunity to do it. I try to stay pretty balanced. I realize that academic learning is valuable but I also realize that there is a lot more in life than "book work". So usually during the week I try to set aside some time for art, music, physical exercise, etc. I've said it before, I am not a creative person so sometimes coming up with art projects can be kind of challenging for me. That is why I love Family Fun! They have lots of great ideas for children of all ages. Our latest one was a collage house (and garden for Luke- the only catalogs I had left were seed catalogs!) It was really fun to see them be creative, to see what Lilly would pick out to have in her house and what Luke had for his garden. I must admit, I had to help Luke a little. When I came to see what he had cut out he had a whole pile of tools! No greenery, whatsoever. Ha! What a boy! So, we looked through the catalog together and picked out what he wanted. Here are some pictures.


Here are my little artists hard at work cutting away. Lilly found one of those advertisements for books and cut out about a million tiny little pictures of books. It took her forever to glue them all down.


Here they are, again. I love the look on Lilly's face as she contemplates which pictures to glue next. Such a little thinker! Luke's philosophy was the more glue the merrier. So, we wound up with dollops of glue about the size of quarters. But at least none of them will fall off.




And here they are with their finished products! I was actually very impressed. Lilly even separated her house into rooms and Luke gave his garden a flower border all the way around (is that normal for a almost 3 year old??). Maybe they inherited their daddy's creative gene!

So that was art class with the Washburn's. Anyone else have any creative ideas for 3 and 4 year olds?? Again, if you are looking for something crafty for your little ones to do check out www.familyfun.go.com It's got lots of goodies, even fun recipes to try. Thanks for checking in with us!

Running the race,
~A