The Idea Fairy

Oh my sons remember remember...

2011-11-23T23:34:00.000-08:00

I am giving a first shot at making my own printables so I don't always have to hope someone already did them, and hope they are free, and hope they are awesome. I love this scripture and it is just what I want my son to remember. Even though he can't read yet I still want to remind my husband and I to constantly be striving to teach him these things. If you want it I can email it to you, just leave a comment. :)

stuff I've been working on

2011-08-11T07:38:00.000-07:00

Restoring Grandma's little bench that survived the fire...

New lampshade to change this Ugly lamp into an awesome one!

I know its been a while, but I'm back in business!

2011-08-11T07:25:00.000-07:00

I recently redecorated Parker's office and here are the pics

Janice's Pickles and Ice Cream Baby Shower

2010-12-06T01:41:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the Pickles and Ice cream baby shower. My good friend Janice was having a surprise baby so we had to keep it gender neutral... although she was pretty sure it would be a boy. Anyway, here's what we did...

This is the living room. I put pompoms up through out the house.

We had a little area for signing a mommy advice book

The book was called " Advice for when mommy gets in a pickle"

I just love pictures of babies so I had them in frames all over the house.

The whoppers were prizes for the games we played

Since this is their first baby I decided to make a daddy survival kit for Jeff. It had everything for changing a baby and other fun tasks. It had gloves, goggles, wippies, diaper rash cream etc.

These were the party favors. I can't take total credit because Julie gave me the ice cream cone idea and I tweaked it a little. So it's an ice cream cone with Starburts at the top to look like ice cream.

When they first walked in they put on name tags that said what they crave... Either pregnant or not.

This is the food table. Jeff's family brought the savory dishes which were delicious. In case you can't tell those are baby socks hanging above the window.

What's a baby shower without a diaper cake. I think that getting diapers at a shower is essential so we hooked for up in style!

Here is the lucky mom to be who just today delivered a healthy baby girl named Patricia!

Exciting new venture

2010-08-17T00:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while... Since I found out that I'm pregnant I have been going crazy making baby stuff for my new addition but I have also been getting ready to open my Etsy store! It's so exciting! For those of you who don't know what Etsy is... It's an online store where you can buy and sell homemade goods.

I will be featuring Baby stuff ( headbands, tutus, onsies, blankets etc.) and grown up headbands and rings.

But I'm really excited about my party packs. They will have everything you need to throw an awesome themed party ( birthday, bridal shower, baby shower etc. ). I will be starting with just a few packs but I'll get more soon. I will also have dinner party packs that will be fun too! Let's see, I'm also going to have cards and invitations. I am working on Christmas cards now so that we can have them good and ready for the holidays. It's been a fun adventure and I'll let you know when I'll have it up and running. I will features pictures of all my products here as well so ya'll can see:)

Wish me luck!

A party to "Eclipse" all others! hehe

2010-07-01T12:26:00.001-07:00

I have to start my giving mad love to this book. It is my favorite in the series so naturally I have been waiting for this movie since I found out they were making the series into movies. It didn't disappoint but more on that later! :) So we had a party at my mom's house in Auburn the night of the midnight release. The theme of the party was "Fire and Ice" Because this is the book where she makes her final decision about whether to be with Jacob the werewolf (fire) or Edward the Vampire(ice). We also wanted to make little displays of our favorite things from the book so here is what we did!

Of course we had to drink blood at dinner.
I want "Smore" Twilight!

Actually outside my mom has a patio area that has sand around it so we put up some tiki torches and played beach sounds out side and made it "La Push beach" ( the werewolves reservation). We had a pit fire and chairs around so they could make smores.

These balls hanging from the ceiling are my new favorite thing. they only cost one dollar each to make and they are so easy. I'm gonna post a tutorial later this week cuz they are awesome!
But anyway... here is what the whole room looked like the night before the party.
Okay so here are the "vignettes" we made from different parts of the book

In this corner we did a little graduation party, because in the book Alice throws a huge graduation party where important things happen.

This was our Fire and Ice candy bar. The bags in the middle had quotes and "Twilight" buttons in them. They got to gather up some candy for the show!

I love jeopardy trivia games before the movie because it helps people remember details they might have forgotten and can look for in the movie. I never forget because I re-read them all the time:) The prise for the winner was the new Stephanie Meyer book " The short second life of Bree Tanner".

I thought it was important that everyone have a ribbon since the cover of the book has a red ribbon on it. And of course bookmarks for when they go home and read the last book cuz they can't wait for the movie.

Here is another vignette. My favorite chapter in the book is called Fire and Ice... hmm I didn't even make the connection that that is also the name of the party. ha. Anyway, it is the "tent scene" where in the book Jacob, Edward and Bella are waiting for the fight to start and Jacob and Edward have a little heart to heart. It's great so in the little conversation bubbles I had blips of the conversation that went on inside. It was a very last minute Idea but my favorite!

This wasn't in the movie so Boo to that but in the book Edward has to go hunt and leaves a note on Bella's pillow that says, "I'll be back so soon you won't have time to miss me. Look after my heart - I left it with you." I know, love it!

On hostessblog.com (which is on my blog list on the right hand side of this page) I found these downloads of quotes from the books. They were really nice so I put those around and about.

Another vignette. Ode to Charlie ( Bella's cop dad). In the book there are all these mysterious disappearance in Seattle near their town so the book tells about the newspaper headlines. I took the headlines and made a newspaper and made up my own stories... Good times...but the headlines are straight from the book. And we borrowed my dad's police belt and police mug.

And we had a t- shirt decorating contest. Because you have to have a cool shirt for the premiere.
This was my shirt. I really wish that I had taken pictures of all of the because they were awesome! The prize was a ring that looked just like Bella's engagement ring. It was beautiful and I secretly wanted to win it but I alas I did not.:)

The only thing I didn't get a picture was of the outside in front. as you walked up the pathway to the house there were human footprints that we drew on with charcoal that came up to a pile of torn up clothes and them you saw wolf prints leading into the house! Love it!

Okay now to gush about the awesomeness of this movie! It was the best one so far and they did it so closely to the book that I really thought it was perfect. Yeah for Twilight!

Father's day idea

2010-06-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

I'm kinda hoping my dad doesn't read this blog but I wanted to share this idea before father's day cuz I think it is so cute. I cool take on the usual coupon book idea. I'm not gonna say what mine will say just in case Dad does stubble on this page! Go to

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=108250540042311584

and you can download the tokens for free! Happy Father's day!

I love Tulle

2010-05-30T19:55:00.001-07:00

I made this headband that I love! I just started with a piece of white elastic that I sewed together.

Then to make the ruffle I just folded up a strip of tulle and sewed it down the middle and gathered it. Then sewed it onto the elastic. Then I made three different sized flowers and sewed them on next to the ruffle. Super easy, took no time at all and costs $1.50! My favorite part!

Transfoming something ugly

2010-05-14T09:36:00.001-07:00

I found this huge paper clip in the YW closet left over from our old birthday box. Not cute, but I like the idea so I covered it in cute paper that goes with my living room and threw our initial on it. I love it now!

Fonts

2010-05-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

I made my own font! crazy huh? It was super easy. There is a website called yourfont.com. You print out a sheet that has a box for each letter and symbol, then scan it into your computer and send it to them. You can preview it and pay 10 bucks and submit it. Within 2 minutes it is ready to be installed. really cool. Other sites wanted to charge 40 bucks and then they could sell it and give you 10% of the profits. Whatever! I just wanted font. So, if you have cool handwriting check it out. Its kinda of weird to type something on the screen and have it be your handwriting!

Easter rings

2010-03-28T10:53:00.001-07:00

I wanted to make something for my beehives for Easter but it's fast sunday so it cant be food. I saw a similar kid of ring on a blog. This is my version. First of all you can make probably 50 of these for just a couple dollars.

Supplies: small strips of tool
Elastic
small circle of cardboard ( I used a toilet paper roll because it's thinner card board)
a small piece of felt
a glue gun
Take the tool and twist it up and wrap it around itself, while hot gluing it along the way. Tuck the end around to the back and glue it. Then glue the flower to your circle of cardboard. Make a ring out of the elastic by sewing it in the size you want. Hot glue that to the card board. Then hot glue on the small piece of felt, which will keep it secure and it will feel better on your hand. Note that these are not water proof! haha.

more st.patricks day

2010-03-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

I made these for my Visiting teaching sisters and for our friends who came over for dinner. I wen at midnight and dropped them off on there porches ( which felt really creepy by the way). One of the gals told me on Sunday that she had told her kids ( ages 6 and 4) that a leprechaun was gonna come so they made a leprechaun trap. The next morning she had the house all messed up with green water through out the house and the kids couldnt believe that he came. then when they left the house this was sitting there an they got really excited! haha it worked beautifully. I went up to the six year old and said, "hey I heard a leprechaun came to your house" and he got all excited and said, " OH YA! let me tell you about at... " and he went on for a long time telling me how they almost got him and on and on he went. He our favorite kid in the ward.

Happy St. Patty's day

2010-03-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

So we decided to have a last minute St. Patrick's day dinner party so When I got off work early today I realized that I really need to decorate to get in the spirit. Otherwise we would just be eating corn beef and Irish soda bread. So, I got together some quick decorations that didn't cost one penny!

(We are Lucky picture)
I found this old frame matting and just threw some cute paper behind it and cut out the lucky letters freehand and wrote "We are". Super fast and super easy decoration!

I found these cute tags on www.Howdoesshe.com. you can download them for free and I just made napkin rings out of them. And I used the leftover green napkins from my Superbowl party. Score!

To keep it green I just tied little green ribbons on the water cups.

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I love these buckets that Target sells for a dollar. I have too many of them. Well, on St. Patrick's day you need a Pot of Gold. So I used this and spray painted it black and filled it with gld ribbon and cut out a couple four leaf clovers. It works perfectly as a center piece for our teeny tiny table.

Pillows with flowers make me happy

2010-02-25T17:56:00.000-08:00

My mom made us a great lap quilt for Christmas and gave me the left over fabric so I made these cute little pillows to go with the blanket.

The little flowers are the best (if I do say so myself!). I took a long strip of fabric and floded it in half and twisted it, and wrapped it around my finger to form a flower. I sewed through the flower to keep all the layers together then hand stitched it onto the pillow where they are safe and sound. I love this fabric too!

Sorry the lighting is so bad in these pictures.

First project on my new sewing machine

2010-02-22T15:48:00.001-08:00

I have the ugliest pot holders ever. I have had more than one friend ask, "Why do you have roosters?" I agree. Thats fine for someone else but not me ( they were a gift okay!). Well, Mom and Grandma bought me a brad new sewing machine. It has been a long time since I have sewn anything. I decided I wanted to make new pot holders because they would be easy. Well, it took me two hours! Im sure the rest of my family could have busted it out faster but Im just getting my feet wet again. So, here they are...

I was at the fabric store and found this great tomato fabric and decided to make salsa pot holders because my husband is the king of making salsa! So, if it's not obvious there is an onion, pepper, and garlic. Your right grandma I did need the applique stitch.

I was wandering around the store trying to figure out what to put in the middle that wouldnt melt ad the lady at the counter said to put old jeans in the middle. It worked perfect. I cut up a pair of old jeans and used 2 layers of that in the middle. I love them.

Happy Valentine's Day craft

2010-02-11T14:31:00.000-08:00

I wanted something to hang on my door but because I have very limited storage space I needed something I could throw away after February. So I came up with this...

I cut out a heart from cute paper and put on of my favorite quotes on it and laminated it put a little ribbon at the top and hung it up... Total time for the project : 5 minutes

Super Superbowl party

2010-02-11T14:03:00.001-08:00

I started out with a football field table cloth. I just got a green plastic table cloth from the dollar store and used medical tape to make the stripes. Make sure you put the right amount of lines... they will count.

All of the paper print outs I got on the site Paper and Cake. I have a link under my blog list. Its really cool because they have all the stuff you need to make an awesome themed party and you can print it off your computer. So the napkin rings below I printed off of that.

And the TOUCHDOWN banner
I got this great football bowl at Target for a dollar. It tied things together nice. The oreos on the end had football pictures on them. I was excited to find those.
This was my favorite thing. We had diet root beer vs. regular root beer. I used the carrying cases they come in and cover the sides with paper printed the helmets from pictures online. Then I put the drink tags on them but put the teams symbols on them instead of leaving them plain. I also love the referee napkins.

This was another idea that came with my party package on the Paper and Cake download. they are burger holders. Well I made protein burgers because everyone was on a low carb diet.
I have been trying out different cupckes and frosting decorating things so I used my piping tip that makes "grass" and then make cake pops ( *see Bakerella.com) into little foot balls

Now for me the Superbowl is all about the commercials, since I could care less about the game so I made a commercial Bingo game. Good Times!

My Great Grandma's Dresser

2010-02-11T13:47:00.001-08:00

Before: This was part of a whole set and this is the only piece I have left. It's from the 1940s. It even still has old newspaper ads in one of the drawers. Look at the home prices advertised!

There are 5 bedroom homes listed here for 7,000-10,000 dollars. Pretty cool. BUT the problem was, was that it just didnt fit my style. So, I decided to paint it and get new handles for it. Just a little face lift.
After: I bought black paint intending to just make it black since I didn't want to have to sand the whole thing and stain it. When I went to paint it the finish on it made the paint look like a stain so I just went with it. I was thrilled with how it turned out. It's better in person but here's the pictures

I was Featured!

2010-02-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

The New Moon party was featured on the

creativepartyplace.com!!!

I love this site for awesome party ideas, definitely check them out... they obviously have good taste.

Cookie monster Cupcakes

2010-01-18T16:33:00.000-08:00

I am bringing dinner to a woman in our ward that just had her baby and she has two other little kids at home so I thought it would be fun for them to make cool cupcakes. It also gave me a chance to use my new decorating stuff.

I used two cupcakes and cut the bottom of one and glued it to the other with frosting. Then frosted them together to give me the shape I wanted.

Then I used my "grass" tip to make blue fur.

The eyes I used the cake bottoms and squished them into little balls.

Then I just added white frosting for the eyes and put the little balls in the center and put a cookie in his mouth. I saw another cookie monster cupcake on line but they had a bunch of fancy stuff on it so I made my own. It's not perfect but little kids won't care. :)

YW Birthday gifts

2010-01-18T14:04:00.000-08:00

Here is what we are doing for the Young Women for there birthdays. I got this pan that make giant cupcakes. They loved it and the primary kids in the hall just about died! Never mind the fact that I made this tag and the girl's name is Emily! Her sister who looks like her twin has the name Chelsea and I couldnt believe that I did that. I always mix there names up. As soon as I saw her walk in I realized what I had done. I quickly pulled out the tag but it was too late, she had already seen it. I hope she will forgive me.

Parker's Penguin birthday

2010-01-15T10:23:00.001-08:00

Parker's birthday this year was really fun. We made it a penguin theme because he loves penguin's! So here are some of the things I did.

Yeah for penguin cupcakes. All the penguin cupcakes I found online were really lame so I made my own.I just did white frosting and piped on the black and the eyes with those ready to go icings you find at the store. The mouth and feet are fondant and stuck in with toothpicks.
I made "icicles" out of icy blue paper and I made " falling snow " using a thread and those little round labels you find in the office supply section. I just stuck them together back to back so that they stayed on the thread. Everyone kept asking if they were glow in the dark or something because they look really cool. when the light hits them the actually look like they are sparkling. Very pretty. those were all over not just on the window.
I love these penguins from Madagascar. So we printed pictures of them and placed them around the table. I also mad those "Ice blocks" you see them standing on by wrapping a bunch of boxes from around the house in white paper. Those were also stacked all over the house.
This was the most popular item. Candy sushi! The wrapping on the outside was fruit roll ups and the inside was Rice Krispy treats. I used Swedish fish as the fish and I used colored Twizzlers and gummy worms for the sushi roll filling.

I couldnt resist buying these fish bowl looking jars! I love them! All of the side dishes we served were penguin colored so black, white and orange. What a fun night. Of course we ordered a huge amount of real sushi, being that penguins eat raw fish. ( I also got sandwiches for people like me who cant stand sushi! ) Oh, ya I forgot to get a picture but the sandwich picks I replaced with little penguins I printed off line and put on toothpicks

Christmas Ideas...

2009-12-17T11:48:00.000-08:00

I know these are maybe a little late but maybe not. The tag above is a tag that will go on Muddy Buddies (Best treat ever!) You can find the recipe on the back of the Chex cereal box.
My silly mantel. I always want to do something homemade So this year I made a couple of Penguins and the letters JOY. And then I just put together these large tags and hung them by our stockings.
Merry Christmas and happy crafting for the rest of the season!

Julie's bridal shower. New Moon party below!

2009-11-15T23:30:00.000-08:00

I know it's from earlier this year but I'm trying to keep all my party stuff in one place... maybe you can still use some ideas. This was my aunts bridal shower that I threw for her. It was really my first big party, so here are some pictures....

This game we played was a price is right game. I would recommend buying everything in one place and saying where because then people can make a better guess. We also played a game called Famous Couples through out history. It was a sheet of paper that we had the guys on the left and girls on the right and you had to match them.

We just put out a silver tray to hold all of the cards she got.
On the gift table I took all of her engagement picture and clipped them onto a "tree" (branches I painted white)

These little dresses were the party favors. They were filled with candy and a giant diamond rind that was a key chain ring.

I found this cake I think on a link at thetipjunkie.com. My aunt is an Esthetition so this a good cake for her.

New Moon Party!

2009-11-15T13:14:00.000-08:00

"You don't know how long I have waited for you"... the movie that is! I've been wanting to do a Twilight party so I did one for the release of new Moon. It was supposed to be the night of the premiere but I had a conflict so a week before it was. Here is what I did... first thanks to Cafemom.com for downloads and bellaandedward.com for Twilight fonts.

This is just the walkway up to the party... Thanks Jen for the use of your awesome house!
This is the entry way... We made a poster that said "Why do you love me?" so everyone can spill what they love about Edward and Jacob. They were all pretty funny.
I always always have a party favor to take home at my parties but this time I let everyone make there own. So, I provided the bags and let everyone pack up the snacks they wanted that were all around the party.Someone asked me what these were for and I don't have a reason but it was one of my favorite things... just a bag of glitter that said "I Heart Boys that Sparkle".

In the entry way I had a set of Twilight journals that Tina had given to me. They were so pretty I had to display them.In the spirit of "new moon" we had stars and moons hanging up.

These truffles were a gift from the Volturi. There was a sign next to them inviting everyone to take a tour of there building and that lunch would be served at the end of the tour... (* For those who didn't read it, the Volturi lured tourist into there building promising a tour then killed them and drank their blood.)

At the party the rooms were divided into : Human, Werewolf, and Vampire. This was "Bella's Birthday". I had a cake that tried to be similar to the one in the movie and there is a bag of blood being drained into the cake and there were bandaids and qoutes all over the table

This was the Vampire room. We had quotes and vampire pictures ( I found all of them in a calendar) all around the room.
Everyone brought an Italian dish so naturally expecting garlic I made these match books that had mints inside and on the card it says "I don't know if Vampires are actually offended by garlic but why take a chance?" I got the idea from the brilliant Julie Nervo.

I found these candy blood packets from the Oriental trading co.

I made candied apples that said " be safe" in Edward's handwriting since that is a note that Edward leaves for Bella in the book.

The napkin rings are Vampire teeth.
Thirsty? I really wanted to do some kind of red (blood) drink, So in honor of the scenes in Italy we did Italian Sodas. so the jars marked as blood were different flavor mix ins.
The wine charms were made with those round tags you find in the office supply section and I just put pictures of the movie on each one.

The party games:

We had a T-shirt contest. I found a bunch of t-shirts at the dollar store and I gave everyone a permanent marker and a list of ideas I found on line. then we mad our shirts and voted in the best ones.

This shirt was drawn by my cousin Sage. She won first place. Second place was a friend Amy who was pregnant and on the shirt she wrote " It's Edwards". A couple other funny ones were
" Edward, do you want to spoon... In Forks?" "If you don't sparkle I'm not interested" " I like my men cold, dead and sparkly."then we played a New Moon Jeopardy game. I thought the questions were to easy but they ended up being just hard enough.
The Werewolf table...

I made popcorn balls that said, "Come learn to 'Pop-a- Wheelie' in the Swan*Black Motorcycle stunt class"

and more werewolf quotes...
I don't know if you can see in the back but there are bags of muddie buddies and the tag says, "Werewolf kibble"

And Fun Gals make the night perfect!! Thanks everyone for coming, I'm so excited to see the movie!

New sites

2009-11-05T09:33:00.000-08:00

I've decided to share all of my favorite sites with you! I know I am so selfless! :) On the right hand side I posted more creative blogs, a spot for my FAV party sites and places I go to get new blog backrounds! I check these sites all the time and I can't get over how clever people are.

I have been neglecting this blog a little because I am planning this really huge party and it is taking up all my spare time and crafty ideas so after November 12th I'll have a ton of pictures!

New Fonts!

2009-10-29T23:37:00.000-07:00

I was sick of all the fonts Microsoft office has but I assumed you had to buy programs to get new fonts until one day I ran across this awesome website...

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/freescrapbookfonts/download-new/

They have a ton to choose from and then they take you step by step how to put them in your office program. Look for the button that says download all the fonts on the website. It's way faster and easier and then you will have like 80-100 cute new fonts.
It has made all my handouts, parties and scrapbooking stuff way cuter. This is a handout I made for my Article of Faith lesson in Young Womens. Cute font eh?( In the middle I attached a little box of Nerds ).

Wine Glass Tags

2009-09-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

This is a cool way to carry a theme in a party and help people remember what cup is theirs.
I just used those paper key tags and you can decorate anyway you want. I just stuck a flower on it and put a little bling in the middle. The cup I just got at the dollar store and the top comes off so it's really easy to put the tags on. Even though we don't drink doesn't mean we can't be fancy too right?

Hurray for glitter!

2009-09-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

I am really excited about this discovery... because... well come on it's glitter that I get to wear!
So Sorry you have to look to look at my feet but isn't the polish great!

Get started by painting your nails the color you wish but don't let it dry...

Martha stewart has a great collection of very fine glitter that is the best but any fine glitter works. Sprinkle the matching or complimentary colored glitter.

You don't have to wait to put a top coat right over the glitter and I was surprised that the glitter didn't come off onto the brush... lucky huh?

When you are done you have glittery nails. How girly!

Yummy crafts

2009-09-11T01:13:00.000-07:00

This was my first real experience with fondant. I made the fondant myself cuz it's expensive!
Obviously I need a lot of work, but in my defense I didn't have a rolling pin, so it's a little thick.
Um... word of advice. When adding color to the fondant do it in small batches, it will keep you from getting arthritis. Also the color stains your fingers so my hands are green.

The words spell Nathan if you were wondering. of course I am not talented enough to make all the decorations out of fondant so the letters and stars I just freehand cut and I used fettuccine noodles to hold everything up. ( necessity is the mother of invention). so if you feel like taking a stab at playing with fondant here is the recipe...

16 ounces white mini-marshmallows (use a good quality brand)

2 to 5 tablespoons water

2 pounds icing sugar (please use C&H Cane Powdered Sugar for the best results)

1/2 cup Crisco shortening (you will be digging into it so place in a very easily accessed bowl)

Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave or double boiler: Put the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted. It usually takes about 2 1/2 minutes total. Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix.

Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY (palms, backs, and in between fingers), then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle. (By the way, this recipe is also good for your hands. When I’m done, they are baby soft.)

Start kneading like you would bread dough. You will immediately see why you have greased your hands. If you have children in the room they will either laugh at you or look at you with a questioning expression. You might even hear a muttered, “What are you doing?”

Keep kneading, this stuff is sticky at this stage! Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking. If the mix is tearing easily, it is to dry, so add water (about 1/2 tablespoon at a time and then knead it in). It usually takes me about 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake.

It is best if you can let it sit, double wrapped, overnight (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see them, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water.

Prepare the fondant for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic-type wrap product and then put it in a re-sealable or Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible.

MM Fondant will hold very well in the refrigerator for weeks. If I know that I have a cake to decorate, I usually make two (2) batches on a free night during the week so it is ready when I need it. Take advantage of the fact that this fondant can be prepared well in advance.

My New Calendar

2009-08-21T00:32:00.000-07:00

Okay I know I need cute paper behind it but, this was my latest project. I love these dry erase calendars! Now, because I am super cheap and I didn't want to spend the 25-30 dollars to buy one so I made it! At Walmart I got this poster frame that cost 5.50. I took out the "glass" (It's actually plastic) and using Sharpe I drew on the inside so that nothing could rub off
over time. As far as the letters for the week days go, I used a dry erase marker to write it on the front so that I could just trace it from behind and didn't have to write backwards. So, right now there is just cardboard behind it until I can find some kind of cute wrapping paper or something to go behind it. I'll post it when I do.

Party Waters... This one's for you Julie

2009-08-14T17:48:00.001-07:00

I love these. It is a tag that has a pocket in the front with one of those Crystal Light mix ins. Of course you can customize the tag for whatever theme you want. But I just like that it's a different option than soda and yet super festive still!

Chexie the object lesson

2009-08-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

I made muddy buddys while reading this lesson....

I started with all the ingredients ready to go on the table.

"Chexie was a girl kinda like you. she was clean and pure. She had great friends and always chose the right.

When she got into high school, things started to slip."

(With each sin I poured more chocolate mixture into the bag filled with Chex)

" - She started to sleep through seminary
- then she started hanging out with the wrong people
- then she started swearing
- soon she was going to bad parties
- and that lead to drinking. "

(Now I shook the bag and covered her in chocolate so she all muddy with sin.)

"One night she drove home drunk and got into a car accident. that made her think. Where did I go wrong. Life used to be so much more simple. But does Heavenly Father still love me after all that I have done? The answer is YES! Through prayer and repentance she was truly forgiven."

(Now I poured the powdered sugar in the bag and shook it up. Initially I didn't put enough sugar in so it didn't turn white and one of the girls said... see how much harder it is to repent, it doesn't happen right away... i thought that was cute)

The savior said " though you sins be as scarlet ( or chocolate) they shall be as white as snow." Isaiah 1:18

Then I passed out little baggies that had that scripture on it and they filled up there bags. It rocked.

Fridge Magnets

2009-07-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

I really needed some more magnets that could actually hold stuff but I hate the look of random magnets.
So I went with our last name. It is uniform and personal. They're also really sturdy and can hold more than just a piece of paper. I just matted some letter stickers then on the back I have self sticking magnet that I got at Walmart for .89. I put a small square in each corner and a strip down the middle.

Homemade Baby Wipes

2009-07-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

I found this recipe for baby wipes and thought it would make a great baby shower gift. I am trying to come up with a "money saving basket". Wouldn't that be cool. I'm looking into recipes for homemade baby food and other things but i was thinking about making some of the wipes and then giving her the rest of the ingredients so she can continue to make them. Here is the recipe...

3 quart container
1/2 roll of Bounty paper towels (or other soft towel)
1 tbls. baby oil
1 tsp. baby soap
2 cups of water

Mix together and pour over towels.

I also included a recipe card with a magnet on the back so she doesn't lose the recipe.

Journaling

2009-07-24T19:58:00.001-07:00

I found this great outline for leaving a "journal behind" that someone used for girls camp. There is an adult version and a teen version. I am having a blast filling it out. It really has great questions that are thought provoking and if someone were to read it they would have a good sense of who you are. Copy and paste this address in your address bar and click on the adult or teen and just print it out. Great family home evening project!

http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/2009/07/life-story-pages-to-print.html

Life sized paper doll

2009-07-06T21:43:00.000-07:00

The Young Women's retreat theme is A.R.M.Y. which stands for A righteous Mormon youth. We used this doll we are calling Molly Mormon. All of her clothes and hair and lips come off. They are on velcro. All the pieces mean something...

Sally can start with a short intro. then we will all put pieces of Molly's outfit on her and they will all represent different things. so for each part you are assigned just talk for about 2-3 minutes about the topic and say how these these things help us be righteous Mormon youth. Jen, if you want to come up with some short conclusion that would be great.

Sally- Intro/ Smile (Let your Light Shine!)

Jen- Shirt (Modesty)

Candice- Pants (Prayer)

Jody- Shoes (Actively doing good works/service)

Candice- Hair (Grooming)

Sally- Helmet (Clean thoughts)

Jen- Backpack (Keeping the gospel of Christ close always)

Jody- Medals of honor ( Being Honorable)

Candice- Dog Tags ( Remember who you are)

Chinese Food!

2009-07-01T21:30:00.001-07:00

I invited Mom, Dad, Grandma &Grandpa over for dinner and I decided to do Chinese food. Then I thought Chinese food would be more fun if it were decorated Chinese! My table is small so my decorations had to be functional.

You can see in the back I made a Chinese takeout box and filled it with rolled napkins and found Chinese characters online and wrapped them around the box.

I also made bigger takeout boxes and filled them with rice and attached the Chinese character on the sides
Also everyone had a name tag with a different panda picture. Pandas are so cute!

How I "proposed" to Parker

2009-06-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

I recently had someone ask how I gave Parker his wedding ring. (He actually did the proposing I just made giving his ring just as special as when he gave me mine. Why should we have all the fun.) Here it is. As soon as we got engaged I knew I had to present his ring in a cool way. Maybe this is kind of girly but he LOVED it. I started by wrapping a paint can opener.
Then he had to get the can and open it and attached to the lid i put a string of sayings thats were lovey dovey. Like, "With this ring I thee wed" And the scripture " the greatest of these is love".

At the bottom it says " will you marry me" and I had the ring box attached. this would be a good way to present any small but special gift. It was a hit... hence he has kept it ever since. It's kind of a special reminder of those fabulous days in our lives.

Father's Day gift

2009-06-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

So for Father's Day Mom gave me a list of songs that dad wanted. And I couldn't find the songs but it gave me this idea. My dad used to sing all the time. Still does a little.
I put together a list of songs that reminded me of him when I was growing up.
There are songs that we used too sing together in the car and songs he used to just start singing all the time around the house.
It was really fun to walk down memory lane while putting this together.

Baby Shower Card

2009-06-19T15:47:00.000-07:00

These are just a couple baby shower cards I've been working on.

The pictures aren't clear... sorry... I need to upgrade my camera. :) this card says sugar and spice, then on the inside it says ... and everything nice... Isn't that nice?

Mom Food

2009-06-18T15:39:00.000-07:00

So here is a shout out to my amazingly creative mother. For Christmas she made all of us kids these recipe books that had all of our family favorites growing up. She even put pictures of the ingredients so we were sure not to mess it up.

She had the ingredients at the top then instructions on the bottom. Loved it!

New Pillows!

2009-06-07T20:07:00.001-07:00

EW! I really hate these pillows... except they are comfortable. They needed to go. but being cheap, I decided to cover them instead of buying new ones. Pillows can be expensive... Lame.
I found this fabric @ Joanns for 3.99 a yard and only needed on yard. So, I say this was a good deal. I sewed it like a pocket so i could remove and replace the pillow if I wanted to. I just closed it with stick on velcro dots. My mom loaned me a tool that makes those cute yo-yo flowers and I found cute sparkly button out of her button jar. Viola! They are the perfect color for my living room.

Humes Family Binder

2009-06-02T23:02:00.000-07:00

On my family blog i was talking about this binder. It is my strange attempt to prepare myself for being a more fabulous housewife and mother. So in it i collect things that I want to work on or ideas to give me a head start.
For instance, one portion of this binder is just for family home evening ideas. I am in a FHE group in my ward so I collect all that.
I am also collecting things to do with kids as fun activities that Icome across.

And right now This is what I'm really working on and that is keeping a super clean organized house. I have found some awesome blogs on the subject!

Blanket basket

2009-05-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

This is a tradition I learned from Grandma Wright. She would make quilts and keep them in a stack so when we came over we always had a quilt to snuggle and get comfortable with. It is a tradition learned from Grandma and Mom to always make everyone who comes in your house feel like they are home. I, of course, don't have a collection of handmade quilts but there is always plenty of blanket to go around.

Treat bucket

2009-05-31T14:45:00.000-07:00

I found this bucket @ Beverly's. It was only 6 dollars I think, but I love it! I use it all the time. Whenever I see a sale on candy I grab a bag and stick it in here. Anytime you need a last minute treat... it goes anywhere. I use it for lessons at church, mutual activities, Parties at the house or last minute guests... and of course when I NEED something sweet, it keeps my portions small.

Scrapbook the whole house why dontcha

2009-05-29T22:12:00.000-07:00

So, I was trying to think of a way to scrapbook my house and this is what i did.

I used frames with no glass and scrapped a few pictures and literally just taped them to the wall.
I have glitter and words and embellishments and popout squares on them which you couldn't do in a real frame.
Sorry the pictures are not super clear. I need to learn to take better pictures. lol.

Wedding Gift

2009-05-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite gifts for weddings and even baby showers and birthdays. First off you do have to have pictures... so that is the hardest part. but thanks to email they aren't too hard to get. these accordion books were really cheap and you can find them on clearance a lot at scrapbooking stores. I always stock up when I can. It is such a personalized gift that only you can give. They actually are easier than they look because the picture takes up most of the page. Sometimes, I'll do a page that is completely filled with the picture. If you are a scrapper, this is a great way to use a bunch of those scrap pieces we hang on to forever.

It's all about the accesories! Ribbons and stickers and borders and brads and chalk! I love it all so much!!

Graduation Party

2009-05-28T11:28:00.001-07:00

Sorry the pictures are not that clear. Our good friend graduated from Sac State so we did a party. On the party bags i used a picture of him that i found on his facebook (very sneaky) and the Sac State logo.

I made this graduation hat by circling a band of black paper and attaching a square on top. then i used a brad and some ribbon to make a tassle. Can it get any easier?

The congrats banner i just made little flags and put them on a string using cloth pins. what's nice about this is you can reuse it by changing the name underneath and it all comes apart really easy for compact storage( which is sooo essential @ my house) i used the same idea but with pictures at my aunt's bridal shower.

I also made cupcakes and put his face on toothpicks and stuck them on top but i forgot to get a picture of it. They were pretty funny. Wewerehaving so much fun @ the party i forgot to take pictures... bummer.

Birthday Take Out

2009-05-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

We made these stand up decorations at New Beginnings. In this one i cut out chipboard in the letters with an exacto knife then covered it with paper. But it was a lot of work so we had one of our girls use her cricut machine to cut out the letters in heavy cardstock and that worked pretty well.

In the back I used left over scraps from the cover paper to make a little stand in the back. *TIP* make the stand lean back a little by cutting it at an angle so it doesn't tip forward. And I have to give credit to someone on Sugardoodle who made something like this out of blocks and then I took the idea on from there

These Clipboards are way easy and cheap to make. I use them all the time and make great little gifts. I get the clipboards from Walmart for a dollar or the Dollar Store has them sometimes. I find my favorite paper (usually the one that it so pretty that i hate to cut it or use it) then I trace the board and cut it out starting underneath the clip. Then I cut seperate pieces for the corners. Trust me, it's a lot easier than trying to make it all one piece. Then I just use a spray adheisive and I always put double sided tape on the edges to secure it.

I took apart a Takeout box and traced it in to cute paper and used the metal handle from the box to finish it. Super Easy. Then i just made and accordion ruffle around the edge. I originally made it for little birthday gifts and cards for the girls.

"Idea!" Ping

2009-05-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

I saw that everyone was making blogs about stuff they're good at and I am good at ideas. I think. So why not share them here instead of cluttering up my family blog? Young Women's provides me with lots of opportunities to be creative and there are never to many ideas to help make lessons and mutual more awesome! Hope you like it. :)