Make Borax Crystal Flowers

Why make borax crystal flowers?  Well, do you love the look of freshly cut flowers sitting in a vase?  I do.  But I never buy them because of my cursed black thumb.  While most people's cut flowers last for weeks, mine always start turning brown and wilting within a day or two.

Boo, black thumb!   

Last week our craft store had a sale on fake flowers.  I was so tempted to buy them, but they looked kinda cheesy and screamed, "I'm fake and I attract dust."

But I ended up getting the flowers anyway, because I wanted to make something pretty with them.  Here's what I came up with:  Crystal Flowers 

Make Crystal Flowers!

Yes.  My fake flowers are covered with real crystals... that I grew from Borax.  Lovely, aren't they?

Would you like to make your own frosted-looking flowers?  Read on!
  

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Temporary Contact Paper Kitchen Cabinet Decorations

So, this is apparently what happens when you give me some paint pens and contact paper.

Yup.  Those are flamingos.  And yes, they're all over our kitchen cabinets.

I know it's September, and officially autumn, but I refuse to cave in to the cold weather just yet.  Oh no.  This gal is holding onto every last drop of sunny, warm weather fun.  And seriously, what's more fun than pink flamingos?

Exactly.

Here's how I made my temporary pink cabinet decorations. 

Materials

• Contact paper (No need for the fancy stuff, I just got cheap rolls from the Dollar Store)
• Paper
• Scissors
• Exacto knife 
• Cutting mat
• Paint pens
• Masking tape  
• Ruler (optional)

Directions
1.  Make paper templates of your cabinet doors.  (I simply placed sheets of paper on top of cabinets and traced.  I was too lazy to pull out a ruler.  So, my lines came out a bit crooked.  Not a big deal for me.  If you want lovely, clean, straight lines, pull out your ruler and measure away.)

2.  Then, doodle your design on your paper.  Cut out your design and make yourself a stencil.

3.  Cut out sheets of contact paper that are the same size as your paper templates.  Tape the paper template on top of the contact paper.  Use your paint pens to decorate your contact paper.

4.  Attach your decorated contact paper to the cabinets.  (You'll probably want to make sure the cabinet doors are clean.  And, you'll probably want to go slowly.  Attach a bit of contact paper and then remove a bit of the backing.   Then continue until your entire sheet of contact paper is securely attached.)

Enjoy your new flamingo kitchen cabinet decorations.

Just realized, this would be a really easy and cute way to decorate for Halloween too.  Give the kids the paint pens and have them doodle monsters or spiderwebs... or whatever they want onto the contact paper.   Then, stick their scary decorations to your cabinets (or windows... or walls...) and boom, instant, personalized Halloween decorations.

(Special thanks to hubby for supporting his kooky wife's pink flamingo dream... and for photographing the tough kitchen shots.  We get such little light in there and I'm amazed that his shots look as good as they do.)

Happy crafting!

Make Homemade Sidewalk Chalk

I'd been meaning to try my hand at making homemade sidewalk chalk out of plaster of paris for awhile now.  But I never got up the nerve to try it out until this past weekend.   As I stared at my craft cabinet filled with dozens of empty toilet paper rolls, I felt the crafting itch take over.

Armed with my Michaels coupons, I took the plunge and bought myself some plaster of paris.  Then, a day later, Chuck and I made these:

Like the two colors?  Me too.  Now we get both pink and blue all in one piece of chalk.  Whoa.  Mind blowing.

What's up Chuck?

Hi friends! 

How was your weekend?  Good, I hope.

After our previous week of activities, we mostly stayed around our neighborhood and took things easy.  But on Saturday night the traveling bug bit us full force.  We just had to go out.  So, we hopped aboard a bus and took an impromptu trip into the city. 

It was Chuck's first time seeing Times Square and Toys-R-Us.  I think he was quite dazzled by all the lights and hubbub.

Bright lights... big city...

I kept waiting for this guy to move... but he never did.

Ack! Humongous dinosaur in Toys-R-Us.  Hrmm... I wonder if was lifesize?

Can you believe this Green Hulk is made out of Lego?

Whoa.  They have a ferris wheel inside of the store!

Here we are riding the ferris wheel.  (Tee hee hee. Chuck's eyes are as big as saucers from seeing all the sights.)

Peeking out of car

Happy Monday!

Blowing up balloons with baking soda and vinegar

Did you ever make homemade volcanoes as a kid?  I made one in elementary school and remember being amazed by the chemical reaction.

A week ago Chuck and I played around with that classic baking soda and vinegar combination.  But this time, instead of making a volcano, we blew up some balloons.

(Note:  I can't take credit for this idea at all!  I saw in on Pinterest and then found some really clear directions on Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas.)

Materials:

• Balloon
• Plastic bottle
• Funnel
• Vinegar
• Baking soda
• Food coloring (optional)
• Chopstick (optional)

Directions:
1.  Fill your plastic bottle a little less than half way with vinegar.  (I added some blue food coloring so we could see the reaction better.)

2.  Using the funnel, fill your balloon half way full with baking soda.  (If your baking soda is full of clumps, like mine, a chopstick will help to break those up so the baking soda falls into the funnel.)


3.  Attach the balloon's mouth to the bottle, but don't let the baking soda pour out just yet.

4.  When the balloon is attached the bottle, empty out the baking soda and watch the reaction unfold. The combination of vinegar and baking soda will bubble up, and the gas released from the reaction will blow up your balloon!

Balloon magic!