On Monday I mentioned that I hosted a table at the Help a Mother Out benefit tea a few weeks ago. To be honest, I’ve never really thought of myself as the type of person to host tables at benefits. I strongly support the work that HAMO does though, so when my friend Lisa asked me if I was interested in hosting I decided I should step out of my comfort zone and give it a try.

My main jobs as a hostess were to invite people to sit with me and to set a pretty table. My friend Heather agreed to split the inviting task with me and I set to work on the decorations.

I decided to go with a sort of whimsical theme in bright candy colors. Think stripes, polka dots and rainbow colors.  I decided to stick with plain white for the dishes because there was no need to worry about matching colors and also because those are the only dishes I have.

Basic linens were provided for us in a pale grey color, but I felt that was a little boring so I make a quick table cover by hemming a large square of orange polka dot fabric. When I laid it on the table at the venue, I found it was exactly the same size as the table. Score! I also brought bright red and yellow tea pots from home and bought a big bunch of multi-colored tulips on the way to the tea to use a centerpiece.

A few days before the tea I saw this cow creamer at Target and had to get it. Hecka cute, isn’t it?

I decided each place setting needed a little something more so I also put together these pinwheel place cards. I used little bud vases from the craft store as the base, then made the pinwheels from materials I (mostly) had on hand.

Here’s how I did it:

This is what I used to make this:

• Pins with balls on the ends
• 3 inch square pieces of double-sided paper. I used paper from this pack with stripes on one side and dots on the other.
• 8 inch cookie sticks — these are kind of like lollipop sticks only bigger

Start by boring a hole into the end of the cookie stick. This is the hardest part of this project and a bit of a pain in the patoot.  I started off by poking the hole with a thumbtack, but I had to work really hard to get it all the way through, so then I switched to pounding a small nail through the stick with a hammer. It took a couple tries to get the hang if that but it was much easier once I did.

Next, Poke a hole in the center of your paper with a thumbtack. Cut slits in your paper starting from each corner and stopping about 1/4 inch from the center hole.

You also need to poke a hole in one of the sides at each corner. It doesn’t matter which side you go with, but be sure to choose a side and stick with it — always on the right or always on the left.

Start making the windmill shape by poking one of your pins through the holes in each of the corner.

Once you have the pin poked through all four corners, poke it through the hold in the center of the paper.

Then poke the pin through the hole in the stick.

You can just bend the pin down to secure it at this point, but I was afraid that someone would poked themselves on it and turn against Help a Mother Out and tea parties in a blind fury* so I clipped the pointy end off with wire cutters and then twisted into an un-pokey circle with needle nosed pliers.

* (It’s possible I’m a little bit prone to worrying.)

Like this! See? No longer pokey!

And now you have a cute little windmill! Ta da! They don’t turn around very well, but they are mostly meant for show, so it’s OK.

Have you hosted a tea party lately? Ever?

I love me some tie dye, that’s an established fact. There’s something freeing about rolling and squirting and making a big mess and I love breaking out the dye every now and then. But the fact is, there are only so many spiral dyed shirts a family of four can reasonably support. Sure, I could send my kids to school in hippie shirts every day, but every one is going to get tired of that really fast. That why I rushed to accept when Tulip Tie-Dye issued the challenge to create a trendy project using one of their dye kits.

We swapped out the beige slip cover on our sofa for a bright blue one last year and I’ve been deeply unsatisfied by our brown throw pillows every since. I decided I wanted to replace at least one of the covers with something bright and fun so I formulated a plan to make a cover featuring a rocket ship flying across the sky.

Wanna see how I did it? Of course you do!

Here are the materials I started with for the tie-dying stage of this project:

• Tulip “Carousel Tie-Dye Kit
• Natural color cotton canvas
• Natural color zipper
• Tulip Surface cover (not pictured above)

I’ve used Tulip kits before and they are absolutely the way to go when you want to dye a project. Aside from the item you are dying, they include everything you need to get started immediately: squirt bottles with dye, rubber bands, gloves and an instruction booklet with lots of ideas.

Before we get into the project, let’s start with a reminder that tie-dye is messy. Put your gloves on first thing!! Some of the dye powder must have gotten loose in my box because I managed to dye my hands before I even started. Also, be sure to cover your surface well. I put the surface cover over our patio table and it helped a lot to keep the mess in check. It’s also helpful to wear an apron and keep a roll of paper towels nearby in case anything dramatic happens with the dye.

OK, so like I said, I chose the ombre technique. I wanted my background to progress from light at the bottom to dark at the top so it would look like the rocket was headed up toward space.

To begin, wet the fabric, then gently gather it and mark it off into three sections with rubber bands.

Next, fill the blue bottle with water up to the line and shake it to mix. Be sure the cap is on tight or that your finger is securely plugging the hole so dye doesn’t squirt out everywhere.

Now squirt one of the outer sections to cover with the dye.

Once you’ve used about 1/3 of the dye, fill it back up to the line again. This will dilute the dye so the next section will be lighter than the first.

Take off the rubber band separating the middle section from the section you just dyed, then squirt the middle section to cover.

Fill the empty space in the dye bottle to dilute as you did a moment ago.

Remove the final rubber band, and squirt the dye on the remaining un-dyed section. While you’re at it, dye your zipper. I forgot to do this and it worked out OK, but I wish I’d remembered.

Roll the fabric up, place in a zip top bag and let sit about 6 hours (or overnight).

After the six hours are up, rinse the fabric under running water until the water runs clear. Dry the fabric. The  ombre effect on my pillow is subtle, but I love how it turned out with all the streaks and variegated colors. So pretty!

Next, make the cover for your pillow. I’m not going to show all the steps to do this because there are many tutorials online that demonstrate the process better than I could. I used this excellent guide from Prudent Baby to make mine.

Now it’s time to add the rocket to your pillow! For this part of the project you will need:

• Your finished pillow cover (you can do this part before you sew the cover if you prefer)
• Wool felt in red, two shades of orange, and yellow (my felt is from the Purl Soho Dahlia kit)
• A small piece of black felt (not pictured above)
• Orange and red thread
• Scissors
• Pins
• A couple of pieces of paper for sketching templates (not pictured)

Begin by sketching out a retro rocket ship shape on one of the pieces of paper. I searched for “rocket ship” on Google images and came up with lots of good images to use as a guide.

Fold your paper down the middle of the rocket ship and cut it out. This will ensure your rocket is symmetrical.

Fold the red felt in half and pin your rocket template to the fabric with the folded edge of each together. Cut the rocket out, then trim any jagged edges so they’re smooth.

Next, draw some flames onto a piece of paper and use the template to cut the flames from the darkest orange felt. Sketch another, smaller set of flames inside the edges of your flame template (see above), pin it onto the lighter orange felt and cut it out. Repeat this step, making a final small set of flames cut from the yellow felt.

Line everything up to make sure it looks OK and make any necessary adjustments.

Sew the yellow flame onto the lighter orange flame. Then sew the light orange flame onto the dark orange flame.

Line everything up on the pillow to determine the desired position of the rocket and the flame. Pin the flame down and sew it onto the pillow cover. This can be a little tricky to do if you opted to sew the pillow cover first, but it’s not too bad. Once the flames are secure (pictured above), pin the rocket down and attach it.

Ta da! Now your rocket is ready to fly off into space!

If you are interested in trying your own tie-dye projects, Tulip has put together easy to follow instructions for the basic techniques:

Tulip Tie Dye Kits are available at Walmart, Walmart Canada, Michaels, JoAnn, A.C. Moore, Hobby Lobby, Hancock Fabrics, Meijer. Tie dye kit contents and colors may vary by store.

Learn more about tie dye techniques, Tulip Tie Dye kits, and I Love to Create:

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/ilovetocreate (@ilovetocreate)
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ilovetocreate and http://www.facebook.com/ILoveTulipFashionArt
• Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/ilovetocreate

Disclosure: I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with iLoveToCreate.com and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.

I’ve always loved Eric Carle’s books. I loved them as a child and now I love them as an adult. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a favorite with pretty much everyone in the world, of course, but I like some of his lesser known books as much or more. A few months ago I was reading Pancakes, Pancakes! to Augie at bed time and I started really studying the illustrations. I knew that Carle works primarily with collage but I’d never really taken the time to try to figure out how he put them together. After Augie dozed off, I slowly flipped through the pages of the book to see if I could determine what the artist’s process was. As I looked at the illustrations, I knew I had to try his technique!

I thought a little bit about what sort of project I could do and I decided to make some art for the wall of Wyatt and Augie’s room. I wanted something bright and effervescent so I came up with a plan to decorate a canvas with polka dots and a big monogram for each of the kids.

Here’s how I did it.

Begin by gathering your supplies. You will need:

• 18 by 24 inch canvas — or any other size canvas you would like.
• 4-5 sheets of white tissue paper — you can also use other colors as you like
• Mod Podge in gloss finish
• Assorted colors of acrylic paint — I used satin and glitter paints
• Paint brushes in assorted sizes
• Other paint brushes designed to achieve decorative finishes — I used sea sponges and a dragging brush
• Large circle paper punch
• Scissors

This is a pretty messy project, so the first thing you should do is fully cover the surface you’ll be working on. I used cut-up paper grocery bags which have replaced newspapers as my favorite surface covering. They are super sturdy and can be used many times before they need to be recycled.

The first step of this project is also the most fun because you get to play and experiment with paint. Spread a sheet of tissue paper out flat on your work surface. Choose a paint color and dilute it slightly with water. I chose bright colors — red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise — and some glitter paints in orange and green. The paint will need to be a bit of a thinner consistency than what comes out of the bottle or it will cover the tissue too well and be boring. Much of the beauty of this project comes from imperfection, so you want the paint to be streaky and leave brush marks on the tissue paper.

You might need to experiment a little with the consistency of the paint before you get it right, but because mess makes it interesting it’s virtually impossible to screw it up. I used  some of the colors just as they came out of the bottle, I mixed some together to make new colors and I also put two colors on my brush at once to get a sort of striped effect.

I divided most of my tissue sheets into blocks of three colors, but I painted a few sheets all one color to use for the big letters. I assumed the boys would pick red and green — their favorite colors — for their letters but they both ended up choosing green, so I was happy to have plenty of tissue to work with. It’s very difficult to see it in the photos, but there is a lot of variety in the paint on the tissue paper. I streaked and swirled the paint with my brushes. I doubled up colors (orange and lighter orange up on the top, blue with green on the bottom). I used the sponges to remove paint in some places and dab it on in others. The dragging brush was a lot of fun too. I used that to create circles and swirls — especially on the green sheet.

Here I used a sheet of yellow tissue for richer color. The top of the sheet uses satin paint, but the bottom portion is painted over with orange glitter paint.

When you have finished painting your tissue, allow your sheets to dry thoroughly. I stopped at four sheets of painted tissue which was plenty for this project, but I would have been quite happy creating more.

After your tissue is completely dry, it’s time to cut circles. Cut your tissue into long strips about 8 inches wide, then fold them lengthwise a few times so that you have a piece four layers thick. Use the paper punch to cut the circles. This was a little worky because the tissue paper got caught in the punch pretty frequently. When that happened, I just used the scissors to cut out the stuck part (or I just tore it out). I also used the scissors to cut some of the circles free-hand.

Next, cut your letter from the tissue. I used a half sheet of tissue for each letter. Sketch your letter on the back of the tissue paper. My kids’ names start with “A” and “W” so I could just write them on the back of the paper normally but if you are cutting a letter that isn’t symmetrical (like “R” or “S”), you will need to sketch the letter reversed. You can also sketch it on the front if that’s easier, but you’ll have to be careful to keep the lines hidden when you cut it.

Cut the letter from the paper.

Now you can begin gluing!

Pour some of the Mod Podge into a cup and dilute it a little with water. You want it thin enough that you can easily spread a very thin layer of glue on the tissue paper. I use a cruddy old paintbrush for this purpose

Randomly place your circles on the bottom half of the canvas. Rub each circle with your finger to be sure there are no air bubbles and the edges are fully adhered. I tried to keep a pretty good balance of color and I overlapped the circles frequently. I think it would have looked cool to do alternating rows of single colors too.

Place some of the circles over-hanging the edge of the canvas as well. When I did this, I just wrapped them around the canvas.

Keep gluing and layering circles until you are satisfied with the background.

Lay your letter on the canvas to decide where you want it to go. When I put my “A” down, it was directly over a few green circles and I was unhappy with how it looked. I layered a few orange and blue circles on top of the green to provide a bit of extra contrast between the monogram and the letters.

Spread glue on the back of your letter and then, working quickly, place the letter on the canvas. Be careful not to let it double over when you are lifting it up. You can get it apart pretty easily, but it’s kind of a pain. Ask me how I know. You’ll have a few minutes to lift up your letter and rearrange it before the glue dries if you don’t get the letter in just the right place the first time but you increase the chances of ripping it if you do that so do your best to get it where you want it the first time. Again, rub the letter with your finger to remove air bubbles.

I had trouble getting some of my letters to stick down, so I just ran the brush under those edges to add a bit more glue. I also found my tissue wrinkled up a bit , but I liked how it looked so I didn’t sweat it too much.

Allow the canvas to dry thoroughly.

When the tissue and glue have dried completely, seal the canvas. Again, pour some Mod Podge into a cup and dilute it with a little water. Using a large brush, cover the entire canvas with a thin layer of glue. Be sure to cover the side of the canvas if you wrapped any circles around the edges too. Repeat this step two or three times, allowing the glue to dry completely between coats.

Hang your canvas and enjoy it! I made one of these for each of my kids and I’m planning to put them over their headboards.

If you’d like to learn more about Eric Carle and his art, his web site has a wealth of information. I especially liked the slide shows showing how he paints his tissue paper and then how he uses his tissues to create his illustrations.

Disclosure: I was not compensated to write this post, but I did receive all the Martha Stewart painting supplies I used as part of a previous campaign I worked on. I liked them enough that they have inspired me to create this project of my own free will.

When I was a little girl there were very few things that frustrated me more than the racks of little license plates with names on them that are found in the gift shops of touristy destinations. I wanted an awesome license plate fastened to the back of my bike that told the world my name was Wendy more than just about anything. Were there any to be had?

No. No there were not.

Wendy was not a terribly weird name for a little girl in the 70′s, but apparently it was just  strange enough that it usually didn’t make the cut for personalized items. The harder it was to come by customized mugs, pencils and magnets, the more I wanted them. It became something of a family quest to find them but they were rare as hen’s teeth. My anguish was real.

So what did I do when I became a mother? I gave my children even rarer names than my own. While I sometimes came across a Wendy item at a truck stop in Georgia or Nebraska, my poor children — Wyatt and Augie — will likely never be able to buy something with their own name on it off the rack.

To assuage my guilt, I decided to make them their very own name stamps. They’re not terribly fancy, but they’re fun and the kids love them. Here’s how I did it:

I started by gathering my materials:

• a piece of paper
• a pencil — mine was sparkly!
• a small block o Speedy-Carve carving block– mine was about 1 x 1.5 inches
• Speedball linoleum cutter assortment — this comes with a knife and carving blades in five different sizes. The blades store in the handle.

Begin by cutting a piece of paper just slightly smaller than the width of your carving block.

Write the word you want to you on your piece of paper, centering it as well as you can. Go over the text with your pencil a couple times so that there’s a relatively thick layer of graphite on the paper.

Turn the paper over and put the word you’ve drawn face down on the carving block. You will probably be able to see your word through the back of the paper so you can put the image where you want it on the block. Rub your fingernail across the back of the paper a few times to transfer the image to the block.

When you pull up the paper you’ll be able to see your word written in reverse. This will be your carving guide.

Insert the smallest carving blade (pictured at the top) into the handle.

Use the blade to carve out the word you’ve drawn on the block. If you’ve never used a carving tool before, it’s crazy simple. Don’t be intimidated to try it at all. Basically, you put the pointed tip down parallel to the carving block and then gently push it away from you. The blades are sharp so you can use a light hand. They’ll easily glide through the block. Carve out the entire area covered by the pencil. I found it was sized perfectly so I only needed to do one pass with the small blade.

After you’ve carved your work, draw an oval around it. This will be the edge of the stamp.

Fit the deep V-shaped blade into the handle.

Carve a groove around your word following the line you just drew. As you go around the curves go slowly and turn the block so the tool follows the curve rather than rotating the carving tool itself. You’ll have a lot more control that way and your tool will move more smoothly.

Next, fit the wide square blade into the handle.

Use this tool to remove some of the extra block around the outside of the oval. This will give you a little breathing room when you cut the edges off the block in the next step.

Now cut all of the block that isn’t part of your image off. Be careful to cut straight down. Don’t cut any of the block under the image away or your stamp will be unstable.

Finally, ink up your stamp and test it out on a piece of paper. Often you’ll be able to see little imperfections that weren’t apparent just by looking at the block. Clean up your stamp by carving away any extra bits with the small blade. Be careful not to get too carried away though. I’ve ruined a few stamps by getting a little overzealous “cleaning” them.

If you look at the image above, you can see a few subtle corrections. The bottom stamp was my first test. I wasn’t happy with the “M” so I decided to clean it up a little. You can see in the middle stamp that I introduced a little line on the bottom left side of the letter. The top was my final version after I fixed that.

Have you ever carved your own stamps? Do you think you’d like to give it a try?

Mother’s Day is only three weeks away. You are aware of that, right? That means it’s time to get your bum in gear and come up with a gift for that nice lady who birthed you (or possibly the nice lady who birthed your children).

Last month I received a huge box of craft paint and painting supplies from Martha Stewart for Plaid and I was asked to use them to create a Mother’s Day project. Check out what they sent:

There were satin and glitter paints in twenty different colors, four packages of reusable stencils, a heat tool, stencil plastic and brushes of all sizes, shapes and purposes and a bunch of other stuff too. I completely freaked out when I opened it.

Hello, my darlings! Come to Mama!

The paints are beautiful and they come in all the wonderful colors you would expect from Martha’s crew, but what makes them really special is that they work on nearly any surface: wood, glass, metal, plastic and fabric. They’re indoor/outdoor too. All in one bottle!

Because I had barely any limitations, my mind started spinning with all the fun projects I could make. Finally, I focused on my mom and her interests. One of her passions in life is growing plants and flowers so I decided to head in that direction and make a painted flower pot.

Here’s what you’ll need for this project:

• Large plastic flower pots — I made two for a matched set
• Martha Stewart Crafts multi-surface satin paint in a variety of colors — The colors I used were green olive, carrot, raspberry ice, pool and habanero.
• Martha Stewart Crafts Four Seasons stencils
• Martha Stewart Crafts stencil tape
• Assorted Martha Stewart Crafts paint brushes — Mine were from the basic and large assorted brushes sets.

You’ll also need:

• Martha Stewart Crafts stencil adhesive spray
• Martha Stewart Crafts stencil brush

(I forgot these when I took my original supplies photo.)

Begin by painting stripes of different widths on the top and bottom sections of your pot. I had originally planned to use the stencil tape to get a crisp line, but the pots I bought had ridges on them so I decided to use them as a guide and paint my stripes free-hand. The edges of my lines came out a little wonky, but I kind of like them that way. If you’re a precision crafter, use the tape.

I found that I needed a minimum of two coats of paint to prevent the color of the pot from coming through. Some colors — especially the blue — needed a third or fourth layer of paint. Be sure to let the paint dry completely between layers.

Once your stripes are dry, it’s time to add the flowers. I used the hydrangea stencil. Or maybe it’s a dandelion? I have to admit that I’m not entirely sure what flower I put on my pots, but I like it so whatevs.

Lightly spray the back of your stencil with stencil adhesive then let it sit for a while until the stencil feels sticky but is no longer wet (more on that in a minute). Press the stencil onto your pot, taking care that the edges of your image are adhered tightly with no bubbles or gaps. This will give you a nice clean edge and will keep the paint from seeping underneath the stencil and feathering. (I learned this the hard way.) I also covered the nearby portions of the adjacent stencil images with stencil tape to keep the pot clean in case I got a little overzealous when it was time to start painting.

Lightly dab paint over the stencil with an up and down motion, rather than brushing it on. You’re better off doing multiple light coats than one thick one because the paint tends to collect on the edges of the template.

As you finish painting each flower, remove the stencil and reposition it. The adhesive will stay sticky for for three or four repositions after the initial one, so there’s no need to re-spray each time you move it. I alternated the paint colors on each flower, painting the three orange ones first and then circling back around and painting a red flower in the three empty spaces.

One problem I had was that the first time I pulled my stencils off after initially spraying them with the adhesive, it left a ton of sticky residue behind. I asked around a bit and the consensus was that I probably sprayed too much adhesive on the stencil and I didn’t let it dry long enough. (I am an impatient crafter.) So, be sure to use a light hand and let the stencil sit around 10-20 minutes before you use it. I easily removed the sticky residue by rubbing it gently with a paper towel with mineral spirits on it. I was nervous that this might smudge the paint, but it came right off and it didn’t affect the paint at all. Nice.

When you’ve finished all your painting, let the pot dry thoroughly and then plant some pretty flowers in it. I chose some bright orange marigolds to match the bright colors on the pot.

Finally, give it to your mom, along with a big smooch! (You might want to apologize for your teenage years while you’re at it.)

If you’re interested in seeing some of the other Mother’s Day projects created by the talented bloggers participating in this campaign, be sure to follow Plaid on social media: Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest. You will not be disappointed.

Disclosure: I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with Plaid and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own. You will see how much I like the products I got in this goodie box as I show you the other things I’ve been making with them in the coming weeks.

Thank you to Hunt’s for sponsoring this post and encouraging my culinary skills! Visit Hunt’s Signature Recipe Collection to find tons of delicious ideas for using Hunt’s tomatoes in your meals.

I’m can’t put my finger on exactly what’s changed this year, but now that Wyatt is in second grade we are really busy during the week. PTA, play dates, scouts, work projects — we’ve been doing all these things for the past few years, but suddenly we’re finding that we have something going on almost every day. I’ve always been about fast and easy for our week night meals but now I’m really about fast and easy.

Chicken with tomatoes and olives is one of my favorite meals to throw together when I have to make dinner quickly. I’ve been making this dish since I was a bachelorette living over a bakery in Berkeley  (say that three times fast) and it continues to be delicious and satisfying almost 20 (!!) years later.

You only need three ingredients to make this dish: kalamata olives, canned, diced tomatoes and chicken breasts or tenders. I like to use tomatoes that are pre-seasoned with basil, garlic and oregano, but you can use plain canned tomatoes and season them with spices you have on hand if you like. You can also sub green olives for the kalamatas if you prefer. And come to think of it, you can sub chicken thighs for the chicken breasts. This recipe is totally flexible!

Start by cooking the chicken over medium high heat in enough olive oil to coat the pan. Chicken tenders will only need 2-3 minutes per side. Breasts or thighs will take longer. Once the chicken is cooked through, remove it to a plate.

Next, dump in two cans of diced tomatoes and as many olives as you like. I used the entire jar of olives pictured above. Drain the juice off the olives before adding them to the pan, but be sure not to drain the tomatoes because you’re going to use that juice to make a little sauce. When the tomatoes start to bubble, scrape up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan and stir them into the sauce until they dissolve. They’ll give your sauce extra depth and flavor. Continue to cook the tomato mixture at a steady bubble until the juices have reduced and thickened to your taste.

To serve, put the chicken on a plate and top with the tomato mixture. I usually serve a steamed green veggie and some rice on the side and sometimes I sprinkle a little crumbled feta on top of the chicken which is extra delicious. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should tell you that when I make this my kids eat the chicken and sometimes eat the tomatoes, but they always pick the olives out complaining bitterly the whole time.

What do you cook for a fast dinner on school nights?

Thank you again to Hunt’s for sponsoring my post. Find more ideas for cooking with tomatoes at Hunt’s Signature Recipe Collection. I was selected for this opportunity by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own. #HuntsRecipe #spon

I realize that many of you are up to your necks in real snowflakes at the moment, but here in the SF Bay area it has been bone dry all winter. I’m not trying to say that we would normally be strapping on our snow shoes at this time of year or anything but we’ve usually had at least a little rain by now. In order to bring a little bit of that wintery feeling into our house, I’ve been making paper snowflakes and taping them to our windows.

I learned to cut paper snowflakes back in elementary school, as I’m sure you all did too, but I didn’t start liking how they looked until my mom — an expert snowflake cutter — shared a few tricks with me. Today I’m going to share everything I learned from her with you!

To start, you’ll need a piece of paper and a pair of scissors. I like scissors with really sharp tips, but they’re not necessary.

Your first task will be to cut your paper into a square. To do this, fold it in half diagonally, matching the top edge of the paper to a side edge as pictured above.

Now trim off the extra little strip along the edge. There’s no need to be super precise about this.

When you’ve finished cutting, you will be left with a right triangle.

Fold your triangle in half again by matching the two sharpest corners. Crease the fold with your finger.

This next part is a little tricky because instead of folding it in half again — which would result in an eight-pointed snowflake — we are going to fold the paper so that we will end up with a proper six-pointed snowflake. Like in nature. You want your paper snowflakes to look like they came from nature, right?

Unfold the triangle you just made so it’s folded in half with a crease down the middle. Now bring the edge over so that the crease on the right side of the paper crosses over about a third of the way into the left side. (Look at the picture if my words don’t make perfect sense). Flatten the crease on the paper about a half an inch up, but don’t flatten it all the way up! You just want a little crease at the bottom right now, because you probably don’t have your fold right quite yet.

Now bring the opposite edge across and match it up with the edge of the fold you just made. Again, crease the new fold about a half inch or so. Open the fold and check to see if you’ve made three same-sized sections. You probably haven’t so fiddle around with it a little until you’ve divided the half triangle into equal thirds. Once you’ve got it to your liking, flatten the folds with your finger all the way up to the top edge.

Fold your triangle in half again and then really press down on the folds to make a sharp crease in the paper. I like to use my scissors for this. Sharp creases will make it easier to make precise cuts.

Finally, cut off the points that are sticking up above the top of the folded edges. This will ensure that all of the cuts you make for your snowflake go through all the layers of the paper.

Now for the fun part: cutting the snowflake! I start off by cutting the top edge of the snowflake. This will define the basic shape of the flake. My preference is to cut it so that one edge is higher than the other because that gives it the classic six-pointed snowflake shape. If the two edges are the same height, your snowflake will look like it has 12 points. (Which is also nice.)

A note about unfolding: you are going to be tempted to unfold your snowflake while you are in the process of cutting it. Don’t do it!  The more you cut, the more delicate your paper will be and it will be really hard to refold it properly. Besides, if you unfold it before you’re done, you’ll ruin the big surprise at the end and that’s no fun, is it?

After you have your top edge cut, start cutting into the folded edges of the snowflake. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind as you’re cutting:

1. This one may seem obvious, but it’s so important that it’s worth mentioning: do not cut through both folded edges of the triangle with the same cut! If you do, you will cut the center out of your snowflake!
2. In my opinion, the snowflakes that look best have very few chunky bits of white paper in them. To avoid this, I try to cut out as much paper as I can while simultaneously leaving enough paper to keep the snowflake from ripping. It’s a fine balancing act, my friends!  I find that leaving between 1/8 and 1/4 inch between the cut-out areas is just right (but don’t get out a ruler or anything).
3. After I’ve cut the top, I use that edge as a guide for my next cuts. I cut through one of the the folded edges in parallel to the top edge but about an 1/8 of an inch down. Once I have finished the parallel cuts, I’m a little more loose about where I cut, but I eventually bring the cut line back to the original fold.  Does that make sense? It is really hard to explain with words, so you’re going to want to look at the photos up above.
4. As I work my way down to the tip of the snowflake, I alternate which folded edge I start cutting from and I always use my previous cuts as a guide for the subsequent cuts.
5. If I find myself with some bigger chunks of paper in the middle of the triangle, I like to make a few smaller  jagged cuts into it (see above right photo). This gives it that authentic, crystallized look. These types of cuts also look great along the top edge.
6. The snowflake I’m cutting in these photos only has straight cuts, but I love the look of curvy cuts too. Experimenting with different types of shapes is all part of the fun!

When you are done cutting, your snowflake will look something like the photo above on the left — not very much paper, lots of cut-outs.

Gently unfold it. I like to fold each crease back onto itself a little as I go to encourage the snowflake to lie flat.

Ta da! Once it’s all unfolded, marvel at the beauty you’ve created!

Do you like to cut snowflakes out of paper? How do you use snowflakes after you’ve made them? I’d love it if you shared any tips you have for us down in the comments!

In the last few years, it’s become apparent that I’m a little bit crazy for advent calendars. So far this year, I have three lined up! I say “so far” because sometimes one of the kids’ grandmas or someone will send them an advent calendar too. I say: Bring ‘em on!

Advent calendars weren’t a fixture of my childhood, but they did make an occasional appearance. I always like the ones with chocolate, of course, but my favorite advent calendar of all time was a paper one from Germany with beautifully drawn pictures behind each door.

This year, like last year, I bought Wyatt LEGO advent calendar. We all thought last year’s was awesome so when I heard they were releasing a Star Wars version it was a given that one would be coming into our house. Augie is still a bit young for the LEGO calendars so I bought him an Imaginext advent calendar that’s a little more his speed. These toy-based calendars come out of the budget for the kids’ gifts and they’re one of my favorite things to give them because they get almost a full month of play and happiness from them.

My favorite advent calendar is our activity advent calendar. I tried this for the first time last year and it was great for a few reasons. First off, it helped us all focus on the fun of doing things rather than getting things. It also helped me pace myself a bit. I’m occasionally prone to going crazy and trying to jam a whole bunch of fun into a short period of time. By selecting just one Christmas-y activity per day, I kept myself from going overboard and getting burned out on holiday fun well before Christmas day.

Here is my list of activities for this year:

1. Assemble paper Christmas train.
2. Assemble paper Christmas village.
3. Bake Christmas cookies and decorate them.
4. Build Christmas sculptures with Legos.
5. Create a snowscape with shaving cream and action figures.
6. Cut snowflakes out of paper.
7. Decorate the Christmas tree.
8. Decorate the gingerbread house
9. Do some Christmas Mad Libs.
10. Donate to the school food drive.
11. Draw pictures of fun Christmas activities we’ve done.
12. Eat dinner by candlelight.
13. Go out to look at Christmas lights after dark.
14. Go outside with blankets to look at the stars.
15. Have a bubble bath
16. Have a family dance party
17. Have breakfast for dinner (I’ll make Snowman Pancakes. So freaking cute!)
18. Have hot chocolate with all the fixings
19. Make a card for a loved one and send it in the mail.
20. Make gifts for teachers.
21. Make ornaments for the tree (I’m thinking salt dough ornaments.)
22. Purchase a present for Toys for Tots.
23. Read a Christmas book together.
24. Recycle some toys to share with others.
25. Set up the Christmas tree.
26. Sing Christmas songs while dad plays the guitar.
27. Tell everyone in our family why you think they’re cool at dinner.
28. Watch a Christmas movie before bed.
29. Write a letter to Santa.
30. Write a list of 5 things you are thankful for this year.

A lot of these activities are things we do every year  and some are ideas I’ve collected online (sources: Kiddley, Kid’s Craft Weekly, Family Fun and Ali Edwards). I repeated a lot of the activities from the list I came up with last year, but I’ve added a few more and removed some of the ones that just didn’t work for us. I don’t really schedule the activities in advance and I’ve put more than 24 activities on the list so I have the flexibility to choose things that fit with our schedule from day to day. I also anticipate adding fun ideas and events in as I hear about them. For example, last year a local organization trucked snow into a parking lot and I quickly added playing there as our activity on the day I heard about it.

We use this little advent house thingy that I got on sale at Target a few years ago for our advent calendar. Last year, I just wrote the activities on little pieces of paper but since we’re repeating so many this year, I decided to make something I could print out year after year! And while I was at it, I decided to make it cute. And since I did all that work anyway, I thought I’d share them with you so you can download them and print them out for your advent calendars if you like.

Page 1:

Download Advent Activities Page 1

Page 2:

Download Advent Activities Page 2

(These were made with the Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas Elements #1 pack purchased from JessicaSprague.com)

Just print these out (they look great on photo paper) and then cut the squares apart with scissors or a paper cutter. Not every activity will appeal to every family, of course, so I’ve included five blank spaces on each sheet so you can write in your own activities. I’ll be using these for impromptu activities myself.

Is your family going to have an advent calendar this year? Are you planning anything fun?

Thanksgiving is just a few days away and I think it’s fair to say that the holiday baking season has officially started. For me, the only acceptable Thanksgiving dessert is pie. PIE, I say! And with all this pie baking going on in the States right now, I want to be sure — absolutely sure — that everyone knows about pie treats!

“What in the heck are pie treats?” you ask. Pie treats are only the very best way to use up the extra scraps of pie dough you cut off the edges of your pie after you crimp the crust. My mom used to make them for me, and my Grandma made them for her. I looked forward to eating them every time she made a pie and now I’m equally excited every time I start rolling out my own crusts.

They are ridiculously easy to make:

Gather up your scraps and roll them out into a disc about an eighth of an inch thick. Spread the disc evenly with butter and then sprinkle with a thick, even layer of cinnamon sugar. You should put on more cinnamon sugar than what is pictured in the photo up above. I ended up adding more after I took it.

Roll the dough up jelly roll-style and then cut it into 3/4 inch slices. You probably won’t get very many — I usually get about 5 or 6. Scarcity is part of the reason these are treats! You can put them on a baking sheet however you like — either standing on their edges or swirly side down like a cinnamon roll. I baked mine in our toaster oven for 5 minutes at 350 degrees. You can also slide them into the oven with your pie. Either way, keep a close eye on them because the sugar can make them burn really easily.

After a few minutes they’ll be light, flaky and cinnamon-y. Yummy!

Do you make pie treats? Is there another tiny little holiday treat that brings you joy?

I hear from a lot of people who are interested in packing bento boxes lunches but don’t know where to begin. A friend tells them about bento or they stumble across a few links and they’re interested, so they spend some time looking at bento pictures online.  After scrolling through a few dozen photos they’re overwhelmed by the possibilities of what they could do. Lots of questions run through their heads: Do I need a bunch of cookie cutters? Will I have to “glue” food with mayo or honey? Do I have to dye rice? Do I need to mold food into decorative shapes? Should I sketch out a plan for my bento box before I begin?

My advice: Start small. Just do one thing.

If you want to make elaborate scenes in your lunches and try out a million techniques — sure, go for it! That stuff is fun. But, if you’d rather just dip a toe into the bento waters because you’d like to entice a picky kid to eat more or you want to treat yourself to a pretty meal on your lunch break, I think it’s best to start small.

Most mornings I don’t really have time to execute a bunch of decorative techniques for my kids’ lunches but I’ve found that if I jazz up one item in the lunch, then surround that with colorful fruits and vegetables it goes a long way toward making lunches cute and attractive to the eye. It also makes lunch packing speedy.

Here are a few of my favorite — EASY — techniques:

Cut something with a cookie cutter

Here I cut an elephant shape out of tofu, then layered it on top of the rest of the block of tofu. The rest of the lunch was filled out with some broccoli and strawberries.

Fold (or roll) up some lunch meat

Fold slices of salami in half or cut turkey into strips and roll it up (see the photo at the top of the post) and put that in the lunch box. Once I finished with the salami, I tucked in some cubes of watermelon, a purchased mini muffin and some crackers.

Write something with a food marker

Here, I put fruit and diced leftover chicken in a bento box, then cut a dinner roll in half and wrote a simple sentence on it with food-safe markers for my kindergartener to read. (This inadvertently rude message still makes me giggle.)

Arrange fruits or veggies

Arranging fruit or vegetables in a neat and tidy way (rather than just dumping them in the box) can make a lunch look prettier. Here, I put some clementine wedges in a baking cup and then arranged the top layer in a circle to make it look kind of flower-ish. Everything else — turkey, veggies, muffin, grapes — was just dropped in the box.

Poke it with a pick

Finally, one of the easiest ways to add a little cute to a lunch is to poke a decorative food pick into something. You can put almost anything on a pick, but I tend to go with cubes of meat or cheese or firmer fruits and veggies like grapes or edamame.

What’s your favorite, easy technique for making lunches cuter?