My Crafty Daughter...

When my daughter, Isabella, saw me putting together this blog she asked, "Can I make something for you to post on your blog?". And that's exactly what my crafty daughter did! She came up with this wild scenario, made the trees with fuzzy sticks, the animals out of clay...

As the proud mommy that I am, I found it all very creative of her!

The "seashell bug"!

Today I finished work on another seashell craft; I've called it my "seashell bug"! This will also be a part of Isabella's party favors. Now that I've finished the hand crafted portion of it, I will put together the gift bags as the date draws nearer.

This was very easy to make. I ordered the seashells via the Internet (there are several websites available). I used Tiger Clam shells for the body part and Ring Top Cowries for the feet. I then finished it off by glueing the wiggly eyes. I think they look quite cute!

This will be a nice little souvenir for her friends to keep and remember her by!

200 Visits!

200 visits to my blog in three days! Wow!! Thanks everyone! Leave me comments, tell me what you think!! I want to know all about your crafty ideas! Go on the Crafty Mom Message Board: http://craftymom-pittsburgh.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general

The Bug Collection Party Favors!

Sophia's ladybug party favors inspired me to expand! So here it is! My new Bug Collection Party Favors, all hand crafted! We've got it all: bees, butterflies, spiders, flowers! Check out more pictures on my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crafty-Mom-Pittsburgh/120182924672284

Starfish earrings...

Isabella will turn 8 years old next month and has decided that she wants a Summer/ ocean theme to it. For her party favors, I have therefore decided to hand craft seashell items. I started work on these today and this is the first of what I've come up with: starfish earrings!

Isabella loved it and decided to put them on immediately! We have decided that each of the girls present at the party will receive a pair... More crafts to come soon!

Teacher Appreciation Day

For Teacher Appreciation Day, I decided to find a way to thank all the teachers in my daughters' life for the amazing job they have done with them! My daughters and I have been living in this city for less than a year, and adapting to this new environment would have been much harder had their teachers not been so amazing!!

So thank some 15+ teachers, it was important to find a creative but inexpensive way... two things came to mind: apples and nature! So basically I put together little kits with that theme. In my kits I included apple-scented candles, bath salts, back massager, notebook and pencil (both made from recycled materials), and candies. To add to that earthy vibe, I put apple-cinammon scented potpourri and tied the celophane wrap with raffia. To my hay-bow I attached a "Thank You" card...

Overall, the effect was incredibly nice and was what prompted the teachers at my daughters' daycare to tell me that I should make a business out of gift bags!!

Christmas fireplace...

Yes, I know... Christmas is long past gone! But I wanted to share my big Christmas project with you all!

We had recently moved to this apartment and my daughters were upset that there was no fireplace to hang stockings on. So we decided to make one! This was definitely one of my more ambitious projects but fun to make nevertheless. The structure is made of styrofoam, all of which was covered in brick wallpaper. For the "fire" portion of it, I bought a ready made flame lamp (you can find them online) and surrounded it with real logs. You can actually make your own "fake fire" (check out http://www.ehow.com/how_2009963_make-fake-fire.html), but I felt it was easier to just buy it...

To finish it, we decorated it with lights and Christmas decorations. It was beautiful!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Just a small note to wish all the moms out there a very wonderful Mother's Day!

Enjoy this day since it's all about you!

Sophia's Birthday: Ladybugs!

Sophia's 2nd birthday was in April and to celebrate this special occasion I decided to throw her a little party at her daycare. This little celebration had the cake, treats, party hats: EVERYTHING!

To prepare for this party, I first decided on a theme: ladybugs! Sophia adores anything and everything related to ladybugs, so I found this theme to be very fitting (and cute!). I can't bake cakes (not even the Betty Croker kind - that's how lousy I am!), but had one made... I did put my crafty skills to good use to put together her party favors! None of the ladybug treat bags I found to purchase were quite what I was looking for, so after some thought, this is what I decided to do: I found at Walmart red plastic cups (4 for $1 - cheap!) and then headed to my favorite craft store to purchase:

- Wiggly Eyes

- Black Furry Sticks

- Black sticky paper

- Celophane

- Ribbon

Basically, I made a ladybug out of the red cups! After filling the cups with treats, I wrapped it with celophane paper and tied it all with the ribbon. To the ribbon, I attached a small comemorative picture of Sophia! The effect overall was very cute and quite a hit among kids, parents and teachers!!

The Crafty Mom... An Introduction!

I want to start this blog by firstly introducing myself: I am the mother of Isabella and Sophia. Isabella will be 8 in June, and Sophia just turned 2. I am a single mother and work full time for a large corporation.

I have always loved crafts - my favorite store is Michael's! However, being so busy, it's something that I have very little time for. I love however celebrating all the important dates in my daughters' life and find that actually putting something together myself instead of simply purchasing ready-made products gives it a personal touch!

Today there was a Teacher Appreciation celebration at my Sophia's daycare. In the spirit of all things Sophia, I put together gift bags for each of the teachers. What they said? "Wow, you really go all the way with the treats you put together! You could make a lot of money selling these!"... If only! I wish! It would be fantastic to do this full time, however I do need the certainty of an income... after all, I am the sole provider here!!

The teachers' remarks did give me the idea of sharing all of my recent "crafty" ideas... Most of them are quite easy, they only require a good dose of creativity! For now, I only make these for my daughters and their events, but the door is always open... if anybody wants to hire me!!!