Diy washi tape

This video shows how to make easy cheap washi tape, out of stuff you have at home. I hope you enjoy and if you have any different ideas, please let me know.
                                                               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pygfthKNKL8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Summer Fun with the Kids

Here's so ideas of free or cheap things to do this summer with your little ones

• Dive-in's (if there's still any open in your area)
• Go bowling (check out kidsbowlfree.com if you sign up your kids get two free games a day, I'm sure  it don't come with shoe rental lol )
• Go somewhere and feed the ducks
• Lay in the grass and look at the clouds
• Movie night at home with popcorn
• Color the sidewalk with chalk
• Make a fair garden
• Read a book under a tree
• Bon fire (also great cause mom don't have to make dinner)
• Library (look into your local library. Most of them have some great summer programs at low or no cost)
• Picnic in yard
• Go to a park
• Blow bubbles
• Water fight
• Music in the park (look into your park service in your area but most the time they have music or plays in the park, at little to no cost. Remember to pack some snacks)
•  Go out to eat (lots of places has kids eat free)
• Go hiking

If you have anymore ideas please share. Remember guys pack snacks, most the time I spend more on food and drinks then anything else

DIY pizza lunchables

My kids love pizza, and even more when they get to take them to school for lunch. I'm not crazy about all the "stuff" they put into food anymore, so I try to find ways to make them myself, oh and by the way most the time it's cheaper. So this is how I make pizza lunchables mom style

I start with a simple thin crust pizza recipe

3/4 cups warm water (you should be able to put your fingers in it without a problem)
1 teaspoon active-dry yeast
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt


1. Mix your yeast into your bowl of water and set it to the side.

2. Preheat oven as high as it will go. Mine is 550

3. Mix your flour and salt together in a bowl, then add your yeast water mix. Mix together then need until you have most the flour mixed in.

5.You don't have to let it raise. I use a rolling pin to roll it out as thin as I can get it, maybe 1/8 a inch or so.

6. Cut into a size that will fit in a sandwich bag. I use a cookie sheet or a pizza pan to cook them on. I place a thin layer or flour before and place in over.

7. Rub some oil on top and use a fork to make some holes, then place in oven

8. Keep an eye on them because they will be done quick. In my oven it's 5-7 minutes.

When lunch times comes around, send the little ones with some cheese, pizza sauce, and pepperoni if you want.

I made a double batch and it'll make about 10 meals for my kids. I keep some out for fresh and flash froze (place on a cookie sheet in a single layer, without touching) and put in the freezer for an hour or so. Once it's froze some you can place in a large bag for freezing. Flash freezing makes it where you can pull one out at a time, not just have a big frozen lump.

Fully loaded crazy good nachos

Last night dinner time comes around as always, and I never failing question I have what's for dinner? I got some pre cooked chicken out of the freezer, now what to do with it?
Nachos? Yummy! So what I did was I cook my chicken up with some taco seasoning, cook some rice, and got a can of beans out. What's my chicken was cooking my rice was done, I put some tortilla chips on a cookie sheet, added some cheese to help everything stick, now the fun part adding all the toppings. I just put everything on top the chicken in the rice and a beans, and added some more cheese to top. I threw it in the oven at 350 4 maybe 5 minutes, just until  tell cheese melts is really what you're going after.

I should've taken a picture before we had dinner but this is what was left over. The whole point is to have fun with it you can add whatever you want. I can eat a buffalo chicken nachos and that's really yummy.
I hope you enjoy and have fun cooking.

Easy teacher gift

Ok so here's what I used:
Small jar from dollar tress
Smarties
And a sharper
Ribbon

I maybe small note that when on top that said Thanks for making us smarties and sharpies
I already have the ribbon , but all together this won't cost more than 5 hours, and the teachers seemed to really love it

How to make your own Laundry soap

What do you need you ask
2/3 cup bar soap (you'll want this grated)
1/2 cup washing soda ( not baking soda lol I've done it)
1/2 cup borax
A large bucket

Put a pot on the stove with 6 cups water and your soap, heat up until all the soap has melted. Set your heat to about medium, I never do and it seems like it's boiled over and I got to clean my stove at the same time. This step takes the longest, maybe 10 minutes but I've never timed it.

Once your soap is melted add the washing soda and borax, keep on heat until it has dissolved.

Move soap mixture to bucket, carefully it's like lava, and add 4 cups hot water ( as hot as your tap water will go. Give this all a good stir, then add 1 gallon and 6 cups (16 cups) hot water.

Let it sit and cool for at least one hour, stirring occasionally. Then just put it into some form a storage container,  I use rinsed out 2 liter bottles and that seems to work pretty well. I just kept one of my old Laundry detergent bottles that I fill up. Use 1/2 cup per load, same as my Landry detergent bottle lid.

Yes it takes some time, but it's pretty cheap to make, and good for sensitive skin. It makes me 3 to 4 2 liter bottles worth of soap, so with my family and how much laundry we have only really have to make it once maybe twice a month.

You make me sparkle

Don't think this calls for a very long post. Buy some nail polish, make a take that says you make me sparkle or something like that, add note to nail polish, and done.

Make a Dry erase board

Okay so here's a project that was super easy to do.
I picked up a picture frame at a yard sale. You'll also need a sheet of card stock, you could use lined notebook paper.

Remove your glass and trace it on your paper, cut your paper. I wrote the days of the week on mine, just so everyone can see what's going on for the week.

Put your glass back in the frame, add your paper, and the back of the frame, hang. There I told you it was easy.

Glitter dividers

I made my first video today. I hope you enjoy it. Share and pass it around.  Glitter planner dividers: http://youtu.be/WxD2lyL2FW4

Mommy needs coffee

Good news I can walk on my broken foot again, the down side the house needs cleaning. My husband has done a great job doing both of our jobs, and keeping the home running. Now that I'm up and moving it's time to give a good cleaning. My crafting has had to take a back seat :-(
This morning I woke up to get to work. Time to get a cup of coffee and get started. What do you mean I don't have coffee creamer?

I like this one, it's just caramel, but sometimes hard to find (they like to add vanilla ). Well I was out, so I made some up.

All I needed.
A jar
Measuring cup
14Oz sweetened condensed milk (one can)
1 3/4 cups milk (I used whole milk)
2 tablespoons of caramel ice cream topping
Put the sweetened condensed milk, milk and caramel in jar. Put the lid on the jar. Not hard so far right? Ok here's the hard part, are you ready? Time to shake, shake, and shake. Done

Now time for my cup of coffee, and then get to work.
This website  http://fun2bfrugal.com/homemade-flavored-coffee-creamer has a lot of different flavors to pick from.
I love this creamer and now I'm ready to get to work.

Mom is this trash?

I love making books. This is one of my favorites, it’s quick to make, and you can use reclaimed material. I used scraps of construction paper, cereal box, and some thread. But you could use just about anything. My kids can make this, well besides the cutting part.

I cut the cardboard down to about the size of the paper. I do a final cut so I’m not worried about it being to big.
I folded the paper first. Then the cover by its self. Put the two parts together. I used an awl, but you can use a nail, a needle, anything sharp. I went with a super easy two hole.


Ok time to thread, are you ready?  Start from the inside, go through the top hole all the way through to the outside, then back through the bottom hole into the middle again.  Then just tie the two ends together.

Using my cutting mat, I trim the edges to make it looks nice. You could use sand paper at that time to smooth the sides. You could round the corners.


4 done in maybe 15 minutes. My kids love to get new "special books ", this would make a good gift, and so much more.

Mom can we play slip and slide...

Slip and slid down the stairs that is. Well that's what it felt like anyways. We live in the woods, so our steps always seemed to be damp with some kind of film. Not nice stuff, not at all. We tried grip tape but after about a week or so it would come off. Was I cursed? My dad came to visit and we got to talking about it. More me tell him to be careful. My dad has worked construction most his life, why I didn't think to ask him before is beyond me. He gave me the best idea.
Paint your steps first, while the paint is still wet cover with sand. After the paint is dry brush off the extra sand, and put another coat of paint on it. How easy is that? Now we may have to do it again at some point, but I'm sure it'll last longer then the other stuff.
I thought I would share this with everyone.

Yes it's very red lol

Mom can we make chicks...

Ok again maybe more my idea, but they've been bored and needed something to do. I had this great idea in my head, but it didn't come out as great as I had thought. There was a lot I had to do, and not as much for the kiddos to work on. But I'm still going to share, maybe you'll come up with a better idea, or maybe your kids are older so they can do more.
I started by cutting out little feet, a beak and a small square for it to seat on.

Then got out my trusty hot glue gun and put them together.

Part one done. Now I took a fork and wrap the yarn around it.

After I got a pretty good amount on there, I just wrapped another piece around and tied it around to hold it in place.
Here's the part that was a pain. I had to take scissors to cut all the hoops of yarn. Then its hot glue time again

Here is our family of chicks. I think I'm going to come up with some type of bowl that looks like a nest for them to seat on the kitchen table.

Mom can I have milk...

My little one's use to love milk, but with them starting school it seems like they are always trying to fight a cold. As soon as I hear a cold coming on I hate that question, because I would take them off milk. The kids were great about it, but I know they missed it. Well I got the idea to try soy milk. You should have seem my face when they LOVED IT!!!! My son can be kinda picky. So I wanted to share with you how we make soy milk... Don't tell anyone but it is so easy.
First Soak a cup of dry soy beans in water over night. Drain water off
.
Take one cup on beans and 3 to 3 1/2 of water and blend, and blend. You want to see all the beans cut up to small pieces.

Stain off the liquid from the parts of beans.

OK this may have been a bad time to take a picture. It won't all look like this all the time, it will run out like water. I found this really cool bag somewhere but cheese cloth would work too. You want to ring it out to really get everything good out of it.
Repeat and repeat until you are out of beans. It takes me three times.

You'll see that there is a froth that floats on top. I take a spoon and remove it. Well most of it anyways.

Now put it in a pot and start heating it up. You need to be able to dissolve sugar, and mix in some vanilla. Do you have to add that no, but my family likes it. I add about 1/2 cup of sugar, and a good splash of vanilla, but make it how you want it.
Oh a helpful hint if you go to an Asian market you can get the soy beans so much cheaper.
So mom can we have milk, is no longer a question I fear. Problem solved.

Mom can we make something for our teacher...

Well that's what they would have said, if I hadn't already thought of it, that is :-) In trust they have a great teacher and I'm room mom, so I wanted to do something nice for her at the end of the year. Here's what I came up with, I'm calling it "why you do this job" book lol. We all know sometimes we have bad days and needed to remember why we do it. I know I do.
I started with 12x12 cardstock,I cut it done to about 12x9. No need to be perfect, you just want it over lap your book by about an inch on three sides.

Have you checked out Sea Lemon? Can I ask why not? Ok check her out she's on YouTube and may other places. Back on point, that's where I got the idea for the tiger print (our mascot is a tiger). So with my trusty sharpie I got to drawing. I made two, know they're not the same, I know. I've never seen a tiger (on tv) that is uniform lol.

I did trim down my paper a little, so that my pattern looked right. Ok glue stick time. I'm sure there's a better glue for this, but it's what I have and seems to work just fine. You want to really cover you book. Get a real nice layer, trying not to get clumps. Now line your paper up and press it down.
Now to fold the paper over and give it a nice edge. What I did was make small cuts in the corners. Now more glue. I like glue :) I start with folding over the corners, then the top, and side. That stag is done.
 
Inside time. Cut another paper About an inch smaller than your note book cover. I did round two sides so that it looked pretty. OK now glue, glue, glue.

And there you have it!!! The one next to it is another one I made with just some scrapbook paper I really liked it.

That part is all done now. Now to fill it. I know at some point I said I was making this for their teacher right? lol I want to get each child in class to write a little note and draw a picture for her, and let other parents write a note if they want. I'm just going to glue them into the book once I get that far.

Mom Can I help...

I guess I got bored and tried to walk on the top of my foot, and for my effort I got two broken bones. One of the hardest things is that I have to stay off of my foot for 3 weeks. I knew it would be hard not getting up and doing all of things I normally do, but I never thought I would have so much guilt. Yes we're a family and we work together, but my 6 year olds should not be the ones taking care of me. Even when they go play they come out every few minutes to check to make sure I'm ok and don't need anything. Isn't that my job to be the one taking care of them? Most Sundays they spend the day with their grandparents, but even that's been hard to get them to do. "But what if you need something and we're not here". That one gave me such mixed emotions. On one hand it's great their that caring, but they shouldn't have to worry about me. My husband has had to pick up the slack and do both of our jobs. Yes I'm sad that everybody's had to do so much to help me, but it sure has given me a whole new appreciation for my family.

Mom what key is it again?

My kids are at the age where they want to help with everything, and really its pretty nice to have their help. Right now they have been working on trying to unlock the doors for me, and its pretty helpful when you have your hands full of bags. Until you get to the "what key is it again."

Here's a picture of what my keys look like, and we wonder why they can't find the right one.
So I loved the idea of making the house key stand out in some way. There are a lot of tutorials out there, so I'm not going to make another. This is the tutorial that I used. www.cremedelacraft.com/m=1 The thing I did different was I placed two coats of mod podge gloss over it after I was done with the floss, and let it dry.
I liked the shimmer it added.I made one for my truck key too... Why I don't know because it was pretty. You can kinda see it behind the purple one, it's red to match lol.
Yes I know I could just go get a key made that looks different, but as my husband has said many times "why don't you just buy something like that?" (said in my best male voice). To me the answer is easy, I want something that's me, something I made, something personal. I hope this helps you.