Patriotic shaving cream prints

I have been wanting to make marbled shaving cream prints with the boys for a long time and never have...........until today. I recently saw these on a blog, but when I just checked now, I can't find where. If you know who posted this recently, please leave a comment so I can give proper credit. To do this activity you need shaving cream, food coloring, and paper (I used cardstock which I think is better because it is more sturdy).

I took a glass casserole dish and squirted shaving cream all over (I just bought the cheapest shaving cream they had at Wal-Mart) then smoothed it out with a butter knife.



Then I dropped blue and red food coloring into it in various spots as shown here.



Then I gave each of my boys a plastic fork and they pulled the colors through to mix them as shown below. You could also use toothpicks to distribute the color, however you want to be sure you don't mix it so completely that the individual colors are obscured.



After mixing the colors, gently place your paper or cardstock facedown on top of the shaving cream then carefully lift it up.




The next photo isn't great, but I was holding the paper covered with cream in one hand and trying to snap the photo with the other hand. You can see all the shaving cream glopped onto the cardstock.




The next part is the coolest part. Using a straight edge (I used a wallpaper thing; I think you could also use a ruler or whatever you have), scrape the shaving cream off. This leaves a marbled look on your paper. I was really excited about how it turned out since I've never done this before. I just took the scraped off cream and threw it away in a paper towel. It didn't make sense to me to add it back in with the rest.

Below you can see one of our finished pieces. We just painted 2, one for each boy, but I think you could make a lot more using the same shaving cream mixture.

And here are our two finished prints. All ready to decorate our home for the 4th of July! I think we'll do these again to make some cool artwork for every season.

Tie-dyed shirts

Yesterday I saw that Marie from Make and Takes made some really cute tie-dyed t-shirts for her family for the 4th of July. I haven't done tie-dye in ages, perhaps not at all in adulthood and thought it would be fun to try. Last summer I painted some super-cute flag t-shirts just for the boys using the freezer paper stencil technique. You can click over to my other blog to seem them. This year I copied Marie and made one for everyone in the family. The boys and I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some red and blue dye. You can see what we got below. It was a little pricey ($5.99 per color), but the kits with primary colors were sold out. That's what always happens to me because I don't think about doing seasonal crafts until the holiday is upon me and then the choices are picked over by moms who plan ahead better. Oh well.......





One good thing about what I got is that there were plastic gloves and rubber bands included in the box along with great directions and the dispenser bottles. That really helped me get the dye in the right place. Below you can see one of the shirts with the bands on it. I showed the boys some different designs and they wanted ones with concentric circles. I think that's actually one of the easiest designs to make. So I put 4 rubber bands on each shirts as shown.



Then I used the dispenser bottles to squirt alternating colors of red and blue dye onto the sections as shown here.




Next you are supposed to wrap the damp shirts in plastic wrap and let them sit for 6-8 hours. I didn't have plastic wrap, so I wrapped them each in a plastic shopping bag and then bagged the bags in large Ziploc bags. I figured that would keep them reasonably damp.




After about 6 hours I checked them. You can see that the blue dye really leaked into the red section. The directions said to cut off the rubber bands and fill your washing machine with the hottest water for the material you are using. I filled mine with HOT water and added a little soap and washed them all together.

I was nervous because when the wash cycle began the water immediately turned dark purple (you can't see that in the photo) and I thought all the shirts might be purple when they came out.

Luckily, they did not turn purple after all. I was surprised at how much the colors faded during that one washing. You can see three of our shirts below. My little boy is wearing his shirt right now and is in town with his daddy so I couldn't get a photo of it. It's pretty much the same as the others. He is a little clothes horse and had to put it on immediately this morning. I am pretty happy with how these turned out. My husband even likes them and remembers a time when he tie-dyed with his mom and sisters as a little boy. So........we'll be a matching family for the 4th!!

Update on Buzz

I forgot to write about our dog, Buzz. Well, he started having seizures again, but we called the vet (of course) and they had us increase (actually, double) his dose of Phenobarbitol, so we did. Within 24 hours that seems to have resolved the seizures. He's feeling much better, and we are relieved and glad.

A sneak trip to the thrift store today..........

..............after I got my hair cut...............landed me this set of three cool metal signs. It was a fun trip to my favorite store because when I pulled in the parking lot there was only one other customer car there and it was my friend, Amber's, van. So that was cool. We always talk to each other about going there, but have never ended up there at the same time. I was disciplined in that I told myself if there was nothing I loved, I wouldn't buy anything and I had to limit myself to the amount of cash in my wallet which was $8. This sign set was $6.50. I liked the colors of it and thought they would look great with my newly redecorated living room/dining room/kitchen.



Now one of the words "lives" on each of my top three shelves of my baker's rack. I think the colors in them will even look okay when I change out the items this fall to more seasonal things.

Bean Bag Toss game

Yesterday I saw a great idea on my Google reader from Chica and Jo. As soon as I saw it I wanted to make it. Therefore, the boys and I ventured out to Goodwill to pick up 2 pair of 99cents blue jeans. I cut the pockets off the jeans (leaving the denim back part on), freezer painted red stars on them, filled them with green split peas (71 cents per bag at Hy-Vee), and sewed the top closed on the sewing machine. Voila! 4 totally cute beanbags. I loved the idea of using pockets to make beanbags. I am already thinking of making up a bunch to use in my Montessori classroom this fall. The Chica and Jo post also had really cute painted "spots" made from terra cotta saucers. I actually got out some saucers from our garage last night and cleaned them and was thinking about making them, but decided they might be too breakable with my two boys. So I opted for the easier (albeit not as cute) way and made my "spots" from Chinet plates with the numbers written on with Sharpie markers. I think the boys will still enjoy them as much. I'm thinking of picking up some plastic flower pot saucers and spray painting them, however. That would make a fun outdoor game to have on hand.

Anyway, below you can see the 4 beanbags I made. I copied Chica and Jo and painted the red stars on them. However, think of all the possibilities for embellishing these. You could add cute ribbon trim, rick-rack, buttons, fringe. So many options!!

It feels good to actually make something for the boys. Ever since we decided to get chickens, it seems that much of our time has been spent renovating our shed into a chicken coop. Therefore, some of the "great ideas" I had for projects with the boys this summer have fallen by the wayside. I'm trying to make up for it with some fun 4th of July activities such as this one and a few others I'll be posting soon.

Thrifted goodies

I haven't been going to thrift stores as much lately. Since we started the chicken coop, we've been investing our money there as well as some home repairs that we are getting done this summer. So.........I'm supposed to be "watching the checkbook". However, I wanted to share a few things I haven't shared here yet. Today the boys and I ran several errands and did make a quick stop at Goodwill to pick up something I needed for a 4th of July project. I wore a skirt that I had purchased a few weeks back at the same Goodwill. I got the skirt for $3.49 and it's so cute and summery. I had to take a photo of it into our hallway mirror, so the quality isn't great, but you can see that it's a summery yellow print with a "jaunty" polka dot "ribbon" just below the waist. I've been wearing skirts this summer quite a bit. It was one of my 40th birthday goals to wear skirts more. For one thing, I HATE to wear shorts unless I'm working out. I just don't like the way they look on me and I haven't worn them for a few summers. And skirts are much cooler than capris, which is the only other thing I wear out and about in the summer. Plus, if you watch TLC's What Not to Wear, Stacy and Clinton have said many times that skirts are much more flattering on most figures than shorts. I totally agree. The A-line skirt like the one I wore today is supposedly one of the most flattering types of skirts for many different figures. Since I'm a mom of 2 boys, I also like the fact that skirts make me feel more feminine in a testosterone-driven household.

The metal AUTUMN tealight holder (you can put tealights behind it) in the next photo is one my mom bought and gave to me (THANKS, MOM!) at a garage sale we went to last weekend. They had this marked as $5, and neither my mom or I would pay $5 for it at a garage sale. I told my mom to ask if they would take less, which she did, and she got it for $3. I guess it never hurts to ask. Honestly, I usually don't try to barter a price at a garage sale myself. I usually just walk away and don't buy the item if I think it's priced too high. I try to really price things to sell when I have a garage sale. It's the only way you can truly get rid of things. If I have something that I want more for, I try to sell it on Craigslist.

The AUTUMN sign will look great on the baker's rack I bought this summer at a garage sale. I'm trying to collect items (inexpensively) to decorate my baker's rack for each season. I bought the little pumpkin pitcher below (it's only about 4 inches tall) at Goodwill today for 59 cents.

And this pumpkin tealight holder was also 59 cents at Goodwill. It is amazing how many very cute seasonal decorations you can find for a steal at Goodwill.

This little bunny statue was $1.99 from Goodwill today and will be put on the baker's rack next spring.



And finally, my original intent in going to Goodwill today was to pick up 2 pairs of blue jeans for a 4th of July project. Today blue tag clothing was 99 cents, so I made sure to pick 2 pairs with blue tags. Since I'm using them for a craft, it didn't even matter if they were mens or womens or what size they were. Tomorrow I'll show you what I did with them. I got a Ralph Lauren pair and a pair of Levi's.

Here we go again

I am sad to report that after a month of no seizures, our dog, Buzz, started having seizures again last night. As of now we are increasing his medication, but so far even with that increase, the seizures have continued. Hopefully we can get it under control again.