Printable Pages for Kids!

If you have younger kids, here are two great websites that will give you links to hundreds of printable pages for kids! Printables For Kids and Free Stuff 4 Kids. I know when my girls were younger, I often printed pages off the web for them to take with them if I had to take them to meetings with me. I also used Word Searches and Word Finds when I was leading Girl Scouts and they were a huge hit!

Check out these sites and see what you can find!

Jesus Painting

Please take the time to watch this YouTube video. It's pretty long, but so worth watching! Very touching. Very beautiful. Very powerful.

Jesus Painting

God Bless You all....

Bev

Gotta Get Goals!

I've been tagged! MK at Coffee Shop Chatter tagged me and challenged me to list my top goals. So I had some thinking to do! Since I'm actually pretty new to blogging, I've made some short term goals, but haven't really thought of any long term goals...

I tracked this challenge back to Gayla at Mom Gadget and then even further to Alex Shalman and it looks like he is the one that started this.... Here are his rules:

1) In a new blog post, list and write about the top 5 to 10 goals that you gotta’ get so that you can truly say you have achieved your wildest dreams in life. These have to be your best, most exclusive, and over-the-top goals that you can pick off your goals list.

2) In the introduction of your post, explain what you’re doing with the Gotta’ Get Goals project and “put a link and/or a trackback to this post”, for the purpose of giving them the full rules and for me to compile the master list of all participants that I’ll link to in a future post.

3) As with Simply Success Secrets, don’t forget to put a link or trackback to the blogger who tagged you for Gotta’ Get Goals in order to let your readers follow the conversation around.

4) Sharing your Gotta’ Get Goals with your own audience, will also share them with the blogger who tagged you and the bloggers you tagged, as well as their whole audience!

5) There is no limit to how many bloggers you are allowed to “tag”, so go crazy. It will help their exposure as well as your own when they tag back to your Gotta Get Goals post. That’s how meme’s work.

6) Sit back and enjoy the show. As Aaron would say, “watch the [gotta get goals] and the crossover audiences start rolling in!

So, here are my top "Gotta Get Goals":

1. Family. It's been a rough year... my oldest daughter had a cancerous tumor removed in November 2006 and has been through a lot. My family goal is to spend as much time possible with all of them as often as possible. Becca received a Make A Wish because of her cancer and we are heading to Florida in June to swim with dolphins at Discovery Cove! I want to make this the best vacation we have ever taken!

2. Faith. My faith is very important to me. I have been feeling like there is something additional that I need to be doing for God and my goal is to do a lot of praying to find out what that is. God has been my source of strength throughout my life and He has always been my rock, and if he has something for me to do, I plan to do it.

3. Financial Freedom. Ahhh, this one is going to take some work! I'm working outside the home full time right now, but my goal is to start making enough money online so that I can stay home and be there for my girls and their activities. Then after that is achieved, I want to be able to have enough extra money to do all that we want to do, without having to worry about it! And, I want to be able to pay for the girls' college educations without worrying about loans and grants...

4. Travel. Kind of goes along with Financial Freedom... We love to travel as a family and my goal is to start doing a lot of it! The trip to Florida is the first real family vacation we have taken as a family that wasn't in Pennsylvania. The girls have never flown in a plane and have only been in a handful of states. My goal is to have enough money so that we can go on a real vacation at least once a year.

5. Home Improvements. We have a lot of things that need done to our home. My goal is to work toward making those things happen. My outrageous goal is to be able to purchase our dream log home and live on 5 acres in the country! But my reasonable goal is to build a new deck on the side of the house connecting to our pool and to replace all the windows in the house.

Since I was tagged, I am passing this tag on to some fellow bloggers and ask that you post your goals on your blog. Don't forget to link back to this post!

I'm tagging the following bloggers:

Justamommyhere

mywahmlife

adventuresinbabyfat

simplesahm


Have fun!

Bev

Kid's Activities While on the Phone

A friend and I were talking today about how difficult it is to make business phone calls during the day when you have little ones under foot. Luckily, my girls are older now (13 and 16), so this isn't something I've had to worry about for quite some time. But my friend has a 2 and a 4 year old who think that as soon as mommy picks up the phone, it's time for them to need mommy's full attention!

When my girls were toddlers, I can remember having a box of special toys that only came out when I was ready to pick up the phone. My girls were actually excited when I said it was time to make calls because they knew the special box would come out! They were not allowed to play with those toys if I wasn't on the phone. They would often beg me to "make one more call, mommy!" just so they could play longer!

I also would sometimes have crafts ready for them to do if I knew I'd be on a special conference call. When they were really young, I'd put the little one in the high chair and give her a paint brush and water and she would "paint" the paper. For my older daughter, play dough, crayons or watercolors worked great.

I can remember one time, my oldest wanted to be just like mommy, so she got hold of one of her dad's old briefcases and asked me to fill it with "important stuff". I added a play phone, some old catalogs, pencils, old order forms and a calculator so she could do her "business" while I did mine! She told everyone how she worked when mommy worked!

Just use your imagination and you can keep the kiddos occupied while you do your "business!"

Online Art Classes?

My 16 year old daughter is very artistic. She can draw, paint, is a terrific photographer and is also very talented on the computer with graphic designing. So, we are looking into colleges or art schools for her as she's a Junior in High School this year. It will be quite an interesting journey as we watch her choose her own path as she creates her masterpiece.

We are getting more and more information about Distance Learning... while it sounds great, she could live at home and not worry about a commute, I'm having a hard time understanding how you can learn about art without any hands on experience. A very good school that is near us is the Art Institute in Pittsburgh. They are offering an online program for all kinds of careers in Art! That just amazes me.

I'm going to have to do some more investigating. While I know she wants to go away to school, this might be a way for her to earn some credits in her senior year before she goes away to college.

I'm sure I'll be posting more about her art career in the future! I'm going to have to scan some of the pictures she has drawn and post them.... wonder if she'll let me???

Silly Putty Recipe!

Remember the old days when we got some of that silly putty in an egg? Well, leave it to the Girl Scouts to again make this stuff and send it home with the girls! lol! My daughter had a blast with it last night!

Here's the recipe to make your own:

Silly Putty

Ingredients

1 cup white glue (Elmer's)

1 cup liquid starch

food coloring

First combine glue and coloring in plastic container. Next add starch a little at a time, stirring constantly. Keep stirring until

mixture looks rubbery and like putty. Add more starch if it is too gooey. Store in a plastic bag or an airtight container.

Bounce it, stretch it, make transfers of the comics — very useful stuff.

Story Books for toddlers

Our Sunday School is always looking for ideas on how to keep little ones quiet during church services... so I'm passing on this idea to them.

They have quite a few old story books with pictures in them of Biblical characters. The kids never seem to read them any more and some of them are very old with ripped covers and torn pages. I'm suggesting that they let the kids cut the characters out of the books and then use a glue stick to put those pictures into a notebook of some sort, possibly using a Composition Notebook. Then the name of the Biblical character could be written under the picture. As they are putting them into the book, the teacher could talk about each character so that the child knows who it is....

For example, if the child put a picture of Noah in his book, the teacher could talk about the big flood and could even help the child draw water and an ark around Noah.

The child could sit in church and go through the pages, looking at all the pictures and remembering the story of each character!

I saw a great website that teaches ELS to kids in Japan and she was looking for craft ideas for the kids using simple English. I think this would be a great craft for her to do with them, using any type of magazine or book. She could have the kids cut out pictures of common items, such as pets, or jobs, and then they could write in English, a description of the picture. Kids love looking through books, especially one they made!

Bev

Why I started blogging...

I admit it, I'm addicted. I never thought it would happen to me, but I am loving blogging!

It all started innocently enough... I wanted a place that I could post pictures of the craft projects I completed and I really wanted to share the rag quilt I had made with some of my friends and family. So, I started the blog to do that.

Then I started investigating all the possibilities out there for bloggers and I was blown away! Next thing I knew, I was an affiliate of a couple of businesses and was joining different places where I get paid for posting about things that I already love! What could be better?

Now I'm learning more and more through the Link and Blog Challenge! It's so much fun!!!

I have a feeling I'll be starting a new blog soon... Now that I have this one running, I getting an itch to try another one... hmmm, so what will my topic be??? I'll let you know when I get it set up!

Have an awesome day!

Bev

I got a pond and waterfall!

I am so excited! Next Saturday is my birthday and today after church, hubby took me to Lowe's to purchase my gift.... a garden pond!!! I was so excited!

Here is what the kit looks like....

It has a waterfall and a fountain. It's not very big, only a 90 gallon pond, but it will fit perfectly under my big picture window in the front of my house.

So, when we got home, hubby cleaned out the flower garden that was under the window already and started digging the hole for the pond. He got the hole dug, but still has more work to do. He plans to work on it this week after work, then finish it next weekend.

I can't wait to pick out rocks to go around it and then purchase new flowers for all around the pond! We're still trying to decide if we'll get fish for it or not, because it's not deep enough to stay unfrozen all winter... what would we do with the fish over the winter?

I'm thinking that as long as we keep the motor running on the fountain, we shouldn't have too many problems with mosquitoes or other insects that like water!

I love being a home owner! There are just so many possibilities with this house!

I'll take some pictures this week as he works on it and post a final picture when it's done! What a wonderful Birthday present to me!!!

Assembling Crafts At Home...

Okay, I know I'm probably crazy, but I'm thinking about purchasing a kit to make crafts from home to sell back to a business to sell. Normally I wouldn't even think about this, but I've been following several posts over at www.wahm.com in the craft forum, and there are several ladies who are doing pretty well with one company. I've always been crafty and things that are hard for others seem to come naturally to me. So I think I might give it a try.

We just found out that we'll be taking a trip to Florida in June, so I really need to make some extra money for when we go... and this seems like it might be a good way to earn some extra money from home.

The company I'm looking into is called NEC (New England Crafters). Their website can be found at Magical Gift.

If you know anything about them, either good or bad, I'd appreciate your comments.

Have a great day!

Bev

Craft sayings for any project!

I was looking for something to print on a Thank You note for an Appreciation Dinner I'm helping to plan and I found a great website that offers free sayings for your craft projects! It's a great site. They have different categories for all kinds of things. Just click on the link and you are taken to a long list of sayings!

Free Craft Sayings

Check it out and use it the next time you need a saying!

Bandana Purse

This purse is so easy to make! There's no sewing... just cut and knot!

You can buy bandanas at almost any dollar store or department store. Purchase two of them. Lay the bandanas out, wrong sides together, lining up edges as best as possible. Using fabric shears, cut 1" around entire bandana "sandwich" in one piece and set it aside to use as the handle. Then cut a slit every 3/4" cutting up to the most inner printed square on the bandana on 3 sides of the bandana. You will be cutting out the corners and discarding these small squares of fabric. Beginning at one of the corners, take one of the fringes from the top and one from the bottom and tie them together in a double knot. Tie one on each corner. Continue tying all around except for the top. This will be left open.

To make the handle, cut each long scrap into two equal pieces. Discard one piece and braid the other three together knotting at each end. Knot an end to each side of the bag. Iron the top fringes down on each side.

Very quick and easy! Little girls will love this!

Blogvertise!

I know this isn't a craft... but I'm very excited about a new direction I'm taking with my blog. I've found a great new way to earn money while I'm sharing my love of crafts with everyone! It's called Blogsvertise.

I will be directed to websites featuring crafts by advertisers of Blogsvertise. I will write up entries here in my blog about those websites and agree to keep them on my blog permanently. I'll be reviewing if I like them or dislike them, and generally just talk about them. In exchange, the advertiser will pay me for having their link posted at least 3 times in my blog!

Isn't that great? I'm very anxious to get my first assignment from Blogsvertise. Since the websites that will be sent to me will be about crafts, I think this is going to be a lot of fun! I can't wait to get started!

Girl Scout Beaded Pin

My youngest daughter is a Cadette Girl Scout. Look what she made last night at her meeting! I think this is really neat. It's one craft I've never done myself. You get one large safety pin, then 11 smaller safety pins. You put the little beads onto the little safety pins in a specific order and it turns it into a design! If you can't tell by looking at this picture, this is the Girl Scout trefoil logo with the two girl faces.

Here is the design that they used, plus two other designs with GS in the trefoil.

I'm going to have to look up other sites and make some of these! I really like them!

Want some facts on the famous Girl Scout Cookies? Check out my friends blog at Merry's Kitchen! You'll find all kinds of interesting information!

Yo Yo Angels

Our church is having an Appreciation dinner for the volunteers who help with our Angel Food Ministries program. I wanted to make something unique to give each volunteer and a friend suggested that I make Yo Yo angels! I thought these were adorable and very easy to make.

This is how you make them:

Cut two circles from fabric in a 3" diameter. I made one in a print and one white (for the wings). A drinking glass can be used as a pattern. Hand sew (about 1/4" inside edge) a running stitch around the outside of fabric. Gather so that fabric pulls into a puff with right side of fabric out, knot and tie tightly. Since the centers are going to be covered, it is not necessary to turn the edges of the fabric. Finished yo yo's will be about 1 3/4".

One yo yo will be the body and one will be the wings. For the wings, sew a running stitch from the top of yo yo down to the hole in the center, pull thread to gather and tie off. This makes a heart shape. Hot glue the body onto the wings as shown in the picture, both holes facing front.

Glue on a 1/2" furniture plug for the face. Try to find the ones without the back or cut the back off. You can put them in a small padded vice to cut. Put tacky glue on the head and dip it into tiny glass beads. Dot the eyes with black paint on a stylus, paint brush end or toothpick. Decorate the center with a button or novelty item to depict the angel. Hot glue on a pinback or hanger for an ornament. Wrap a piece of 20 gauge wire around a Sharpie marker to get a halo shape and glue with tacky glue between the two yo yo's so that it shows behind her head.

I made up a little card with this saying on it and attached an angel to each one:

Volunteer Angel
I'll watch over you
as you volunteer,
helping others and
spreading good cheer

Lion & Lamb Noteholders

I thought these were adorable!

You can teach your kids the art of quilling, a decorative paper-rolling technique, then round up a set of these message-bearing spring icons.

MATERIALS:
Colored paper
Toothpick
Card stock
Glue
Googly eyes
Clothes pins (2 per note holder)
Magnetic strip (optional)

Time needed: About 2 to 3 Hours

1. For each, start by cutting a few dozen 1/8-inch-wide strips of colored paper, each at least 4 inches long.

Curl each strip tightly around a toothpick.

2. Next, cover a rounded, 3-inch card stock body with glue and attach the curls. Cut out a card stock face and ears, adding googly eyes and other facial features, and glue them all in place. Allow the glue to dry.

3. For the legs, which also serve as note holders, glue 2 clothespins to the back of the body. Stand the critter on a table or attach magnetic strips to the back and stick it to your fridge, then post your message in the clips.

We made chocolate covered pretzels!

Yummm! I picked up some chocolate wafers at the local craft store and some mini pretzels at Walmart and the girls and I made some chocolate covered pretzels!

First, we melted the wafers in the microwave in a 2-cup measuring cup. When the chocolate was smooth, we put the pretzels into the cup. We mixed them up till all the pretzels were covered. We used a straw to take the pretzels out of the cup then set them on a piece of wax paper. We let them set for about an hour till they hardened. Then we wrapped them in a treat bag and tied a ribbon around it. Now we have little gift bags to give out to friends and family!

Someone suggested that we should sell these at Christmas time or for birthday parties, but that's not something I want to get into... operating a home bakery has so many rules and regulations, that I don't even want to think about it! So we'll just give them away!

Uses for glue...

Crocheting...

Anyone like to crochet? I made several crocheted afghans about 15-20 years ago; the really big ones that would cover a bed. First I made one for my hubby (then he was just my fiance) 20 years ago, then I made one as a wedding gift for friends about 15 years ago. I had help when I made the second one.... my cat used to like to sit on my lap while I was crocheting. When I got to one end, I'd have to lift her up and set her back down on the afghan! I washed it several times before I gave it to them to get all the cat hairs off it! lol!

Now my daughter Jillian has gotten into both crocheting and knitting. She's still just learning, but not doing too bad. She made a headband to keep her ears warm. It looks very similar to this one.....

Next she wants to make a pillow. I'm anxious to see how that turns out!

Rag Quilts

I love making Rag Quilts! I made my first one about 5 years ago after a friend showed me hers. I found the directions online and told my daughter Becca she could pick the material she’d like for one. She wanted butterflies… then Jillian wanted one with wolves on it! Next thing I knew, I had made half a dozen of them for people!

It’s been a few years since I made one, but I decided to make a baby rag quilt to send to Florida for a cousin of mine whose 4 year old granddaughter has a rare brain tumor. They are holding a benefit for her and are auctioning off items to help out the family. So, I found an adorable frog material and made this baby quilt.

Aren't the little frogs just adorable?

Bev

Intro!

I love to make all kinds of crafts, and I’ve passed that joy on to my daughters as well. I’m planning to use this blog to share all of the crafts that we have made and also ones that we plan to make some day!

I plan to have different categories for the crafts so that they can be easily found. If there’s every a craft that anyone would like to share, please feel free!

Have a great day!

Bev