How to make a Red Ant Angel... AkA the Red Ant Destroyer!

Yupper...  the picture says it all!!!  Ok, so I just read about this and it makes PERFECT sense!  If you live in Florida you know that red ants SUCK!!!!  They are everywhere and as soon as you treat one anthill, they just pick up and move a couple feet over because you never get the QUEEN!  Good times, NOT!!!  So, before the next rain...  grab some instant grits (Confession... I had to go buy some because I haven't eaten them since I was a kid, and my husband being from Canada had NO IDEA what the even are)  Anywho, back to my story!!!  Take a pack of instant grits and sprinkle it over the anthill. In theory, the ants will carry these delightful grits back through the anthill and to their queen.  Then, it rains and here comes the fun part!  The movie theater popcorn effect as I call it!  The queen gets thirsty, drinks the rain and BLOATS up because of the grits and DIES!!!  Thus the red ant angel, and I just thought it was a cute pic!  Kind of like the old Seagull & Alka Seltzer effect, but don't try that one, no seriously DON'T!!  This article would've been super awesome to have read before Tropical Storm Isaac, but still great to know!  Going to try it as soon as the next storm approaches, let me know if you use it and if it works!!!!  Good Luck!

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Perfectly Unique Jewelry Organizer

Checkout the Super Cool Jewelry Organizer that my Very Crafty little sister came up with!!  Take Old Florida license plate and some fishing hooks... voila!!  She lives in Oklahoma now, so what a cool way to remember The Sunshine State!  Love This!!!

EASY DIY Color Sorting for Toddlers

So EASY to create and a total hit with my daughter!!  We've worked hard the basics since she doesn't go to Preschool!  She picked them up easily but now we need to practice, practice, practice!!!  I had picked up a bunch of these bins for random stuff around the house, and for some reason it was sitting on my counter empty!!  I would later realize that it had been holding the toys that I had JUST dumped out on the floor for her to play with...  oh wells!

Ok, if you have an X-Acto Knife, grab it!!  If NOT...  GET ONE!!  LOVE LOVE LOVE this thing!! Use it way more than I'm willing to admit!  Take X-Acto and press against lid and turn in circles until you have a hole big enough to fit a pipe cleaner through.

USE WHAT YOU HAVE!!!!!!  USE WHAT YOU HAVE!!!!!  Can't stress this enough!!  Got a pack of pipe cleaners, or whatever they're calling them these days in the $ Dollar Section $ at Target!  Cut them into smaller pieces so they'll fit down into the bin once pushed through hole!  Grab coordinating colors of constructions paper, you'll need like a 2 inch piece of each!  Cut paper into circle and punch hole in middle!  Hot glue cirlces on top of the hole in the bin's lid! 

DONE!!!  Give to Toddler and enjoy! 

Kept mine so busy that she got to the end and asked for MORE!!!  I ended up having to add 2 more colors to keep her going!  LOVED IT!!! 

Remember...

MAKE IT YOURS AND MAKE IT FUN!!!

Dry Erase Weekly Planner

This has become one of my favorites!!  All you need is the photo frame that holds 8 pics, I got mine at Wal-Mart!  I think it was $10!!

Then I hit my Scrapbook Paper Drawer, and grabbed some colors that matched the kitchen as that's where it would be hanging!  From here, all you do is cut the scrapbook paper to fit each photo spot.  Before you place it in, write the day of the week.  Make sure you do it along the side or bottom so there's room to write on the glass with dry erase marker!  Once you've got the paper perfectly cut and the days written...  Put it all together!  Once you're done, just grab a Dry-Erase Marker and make your plans!  My family loves this because it's hanging on the way out to the garage, so it's the last thing they see!  Make it Yours & Make it FUN!!!

T-Shirt Remix

First...

If you aren't familiar with the Genius behind P.S. I Made This, you should be!!  She's AMAZING!!  I took her idea and tweaked it just enough to make it mine! 

Here's her link:

P.S. I Made This... Ruffle Shirt

SERIOUSLY...  follow her, pin her!!  Great ideas!!

So I took her idea of taking a Men's T-Shirt and making an Asymmetrical Masterpiece!  Well, instead I took 2 leftover Women's T-Shirts ( bigger comfy ones that I wore while pregnant ) and went to work!

First I cut from under the armpit of one sleeve up to the top of the shoulder of the other sleeve.  This is your main shirt, set aside for now!  Take 2nd shirt and cut strips, the more ruffles you want the more strips you'll need!  Clearly I used every bit of that 2nd shirt to make ruffly perfection! 

Once you're done cutting strips, you're ready to pin!  I did one row at a time and sewed before moving on, so fold and pin one row, then sew it!  The original plan said to hand sew, but since I got a machine...  I've become wicked lazy, so I used it for this project too!  

Pin and sew as many rows as you'd like to make it your own!!  Make it Yours & Make it FUN!!!  Here's Mine!!

Still a little baby belly to get rid of, but we're all friends here so BACK OFF!!!  LoL!!  Enjoy!!!

Crinkle Taggie Blankie

My favorite thing to make!!

Give to any 4 Month Old and they'll fall in love, the secret?  Sewn inside is an empty wipe package that crinkles like no other material on Earth!  They can't get enough!  And for my own Lil lovebug I have modified and started adding a corner taggie long enough to hold a pacifier or teething toy. For this and most of my other projects, I like to use what I have as much as possible!  Extra ribbon = Perfect!  1 yard of each fabric should yield at least 4 blankies.  Here's how to make it!

Step #1

Grab some super soft fabric, remember they will be chewing on this and rubbing against their soft little faces!!  Cut a square of each fabric about 12-14 inches.

Step #2

If you have a friend that uses wipes, have them start saving them for you!  Trust me, once you give one of these away you'll be making more for sure!!  I make my own wipes (another blog for another time, lol) but I highly recommend Target's Sensitive Skin wipes! 

  Anywho... Grab one empty wipe container and carefully take top plastic piece off if equipped with one, and cut as close to side edges as you can. Then cut along closure seam. You'll end up with something like this!

Step #3

Time for pins!!  Grab some sewing pins, and let's put the first piece together!  Take one of your pieces of fabric and flip it over so you're pinning to the back.  You'll only be able to pin the long sides of the wipe container, so go along each long side and pin leaving room to sew.

Still with me??  Pretty easy so far right??  Most of this project lies in the prep, and once you make one you'll fly right through that as well!  Like anything, it just takes practice, but this was my very first sewing machine project after waiting in line on Black Friday to get my very first sewing machine!  Good Times, NOT!!

Step #4

This is where your all that extra ribbon you have just crammed into a drawer comes into play!  Cut 8 pieces of all different width, color, pattern varying the length between 6-9 inches long, and one skinnier piece of ribbon about 9-11 inches for the paci/toy attachment if wanted.  You'll see that I don't like things to be too perfect, it's handmade for a reason!  Ok, once you've cut your ribbon you'll need to pin it.  On the front of the piece of fabric that you just attached the wipe pack.  Two pieces of ribbon per side of the blankie, and the long paci/toy piece off one of the corners.  Make sure you take your time on this step and look at the pic, it tricked me a few times!

Here's how you'll start your next step!

Step #5

Almost ready to sew!  Take your leftover piece of fabric and place face down on top of what's pictured above, and pin it around the outside leaving enough room to sew.  This way when you're done sewing, you'll just flip it inside out

Step #6

SEW IT!!  FINALLY RIGHT??  I told you...  this first time, it seems like it takes forever to prep!  Sew a straight edge on 3 of the 4 sides, leaving one open to pull the insides out!  Kind of the way you would when sewing a pillow, said the girl who knows almost nothing about sewing!  Once you do that and before you flip it to the right side, you'll want to trim the excess off the edges.

Step #7

Ok, now it's time to flip it!  WAIT...  be SUPER CAREFUL on this because you have the 5,000 pins that you used to hold it together inside there, and it'll feel like a bad game of Fear Factor if you rush in!  Once you flip it, you'll remove all of the pins.  Even the ones on the edge that hasn't been sewn, trust me we'll reattach those 2 pieces of ribbon back on!

Step #8

Tuck the final side into itself and pin the ribbons so they're pointing out like the rest now are.

Step #9

Let's finish this thing!!!  We're going to now change the sewing machine to the zigzag stitch and sew a border close to the edge all the way around the blankie.  You'll want to get as close as possible to the edge on the open side.  AnnnnD...  YOU"RE DONE!  How's it look?  You won't know exactly how well it's turned out until you place it in the hands of a 4 Month Old.  I say 4 Months, because this is around the time they start to learn to grab things and when they hear that crinkle... it's on!  I gave one to my friend's daughter at 4 Months and now at almost a Year Old, she doesn't go anywhere without it!  SCORE!! 

Don't forget to Make it Your Own & Make it FUN!!





Easier DIY Felt Flowers

Ok... so I've tried making these adorable felt flowers a few different ways now!  I think that I've finally found a way that works and it's a lot easier than alot of the tutorials I've seen!!  After making my first few, I told my friend that I would NEVER make them again!!  Too much work and too many hot glue gun burns!  AnnnnnnnD then I was asked to make one by a photographer friend for her own upcoming newborn shoot, clearly I needed to try this again!  So here goes...

Step #1

Go to Wal-Mart and buy felt sheets, I've used a finished flower to give you an idea of sizes on pics : )

Step #2

Cut sheet of felt into squares, 1 sheet should yield about 12 squares

Step #3

Fold squares in half and cut into a circle, you notice there's a lot of cutting involved!

Step #4

Fold circles in half and cut into flower shape.  These do not need to be perfect as they'll all be folded and smashed together in the end!

Step #5

Make sure you leave 1 circle, as that will be you base!

Time for the hot glue gun!!! Take note, you're going to be working with small pieces and these next steps involve folding so BE CAREFUL not to burn the heck out of your fingers!!! Now then, put a dot of glue in the middle of flower and fold flower in half, but not exactly even so the petals are all 4 showing! Like this...

Step #7

Put a dot of glue in the middle of that and fold again, pinch until dry.  now set that one aside and continue to do these 2 folds with the rest of your flowers.

Step #8

Now you're are ready to assemble your flower... finally, right?

Ok... take the circle that you left to use as your base.  Glue 4 of your folded flowers down like so.  Doesn't have to be perfect, you can trim at the end to make it the way you like.

Step #9

At an angle so they are not exactly lined up, glue 2 more folded flowers on top of this.  I use scissors to press down until the glue dries, lesson learned from many burnt finger tips!

Step #10

Fluff and trim to perfection!  You are DONE!!!!  Here's the 2 I used for my friend's newborn headband.  Once the little princess is born I'll post a pic from the photo shoot!

These are some of my faves, found felt with a print on it at JoAnn Fabrics, so I used it on the white headband.  Added leaves and rhinestones for fun too!!!  Make them your own & Make it fun!!