Easy Valentine's Craft for Kids

I found this craft on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect for Children's Church as their craft project last week. You just need a magazine or catalog with colorful pictures, construction paper, glue stick and scissors. 

Fold construction paper in half and cut down the middle. This will give you 2 pieces about 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in size.

Lay one piece to the side and fold the other piece in 1/2 again.

On the folded piece, take a pen or pencil and draw 1/2 a heart and lay that piece to the side. 

Next tear some pages from your catalog or magazine with pretty pictures on the page. Cut the page so it is the same size as the construction paper 1/2.

You should cut more than one page so you can create the mosaic effect with different pictures. But they should all be the size of the 1/2 sheet construction paper.

Then start cutting your pages in strips about 1" - 1.5" wide. 

You should end up with some assorted picture strips. (Note: I pre-cut to this point for class because we have so many kids. But if you are doing this with your grandchildren, they will love cutting the strips and they don't have to be perfect.)

Next, pick a strip and get started. We didn't encourage them to do a pattern or anything. They just picked what they liked. Then you take a glue stick and run it down the back of your first strip.

Press it down on the edge of the paper. 

Continue the process of placing them side by side until the whole sheet is covered. If any were hanging over the edges we just trimmed them off.

Next, take your folded piece and cut along the outline of your 1/2 heart.

Lay it flat and smooth it down.

On the back side (where the pencil mark was) run your glue stick around all the outer edges and around the edges of the heart.

Lay it on top the magazine strips paper and press down all over to make sure it is nice and smooth.

And wah-lah! You have a cute little mosaic valentine. Some kids took them home as is for Mommy to frame.

Some wrote Happy Valentine's Day on them. And it being Children's Church we always have foam stickers on hand so some decorated with little foam hearts. 

Either way, they all were cute as could be. Each one was unique in its own way because we used so many different magazine pics to cut the scraps. The kids loved it.

Prayers for Ms. Norma

My heart is heavy this morning as a very dear, close friend of mine is suffering through some health problems. Ms. Norma could really use our prayers today. If you have a moment, any quick prayer is appreciated. Ms. Norma is a lung transplant survivor. In 2003, she was told if the transplant worked it would buy her about 5 more years of life at the most. Here we are today almost 12 years later and this dear lady is still holding strong to her faith in God. She had some breathing problem a few days ago and was admitted to the hospital. As they were working on her esophagus, they caused a tear in it. There were 3 options for repair. Two are not even options for Ms. Norma because she is a lung recipient. They talked with her about the 3rd option which was not without risks or she could simply let them make her last days comfortable. She did what she always does and put her faith in God and went for Option 3. The emergency surgery was a success, but she is still not out of the woods. She suffered a setback yesterday morning and had to have breathing tubes inserted. Fluid is building around her heart and lungs. She still needs prayers. Please pray for my sweet friend. If you would like to learn more about her story, which is amazing, I interviewed her in 2011 and you can read her story here Does God Still Perform Miracles?

Thanking you in advance for your prayers.

I forgot....

I forgot to write a post yesterday. End of the month and closing out the last year has kept me on my toes. So good to know I can relax today.

UPDATE: Turns out I DID post yesterday. Looks like I need a day off. Thanks Ms. Debbie for letting me know. :)

I guess I should say "good to know I could relax today". 

I don't have anywhere I need to be. I'm not going out to do any shopping or window shopping or idea gathering. I am staying right here in my nice warm house and cleaning. 

I have been trying to finish rearranging and organizing my craft/office room at home.

I have a planner that I am hand making that I want to finish.

I am working on a scrapbook project that I need to get done soon.

I want to redecorate the grandchildren's room.

I want to store away items I no longer want to decorate with and "shop" my house and closet to find fresh decorating ideas for a couple of rooms. 

And I want to make some peanut butter candy and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies today.

So I ask myself why am I sitting here on the computer if I want to accomplish so much? Good question. I guess I will get to work now. Have a great day.

My Pyrex trades this week....

I am so excited that I couldn't wait to share my latest trades in my Pyrex group. My first ever pink daisy. I am thrilled. Love it. She's a real beauty.



I collect the Town and Country pattern. It is one of my favorites. It comes in what I call a medallion Hex pattern and in the 8 point star pattern. I don't have any of the 8 point star so I traded an Early American to get one. I. am. in. love. It was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. It is perfect in every way. I just can't believe I got one because I have never seen one in person.

The lady that I traded with put me a little extra something in the package. This beautiful little bell. She had no idea about my love of pink flowers. 

And it went perfect with my little pink display I showed you the other day.

Now for the moment I have been waiting for since early last week. I had a Cinderella set I needed to trade. I posted it in my Pyrex 4 Trade FB group; hoping that somebody would want to do a good trade with me for the whole set and that I could get something I really wanted. The trade was a success and I came home today to this box. 

It weighed 15 pounds. So I knew it was my long awaited for trade. The one that made my heart pound in anticipation. 

I cut it open and she had lots of wonderful packing and padding to prevent breakage.

I pulled the empty egg cartons and the newspapers out to get to the goodies. 

I dug around in the peanuts to make sure I found all the pieces 

I laid them all out on the counter so I could start the process of unpacking.

SCORE! Look what I got for trading one complete Cinderella set. I am so happy I can't stand it. I have longed for something, just anything, in the Horizon Blue. And now I get all this. My very first Horizon Blue. I haven't even seen one in the wild around here so that makes it even more special.

Now to figure how where and how to display them. They are mint condition and deserve a place of honor. I see some rearranging in my near future...like tonight!

.

It's not about the beer.....

I can't help it. I love the Budweiser commercials. Every year they come out with a new one for Superbowl. If you have never paid attention to them go to You Tube and search for Budweiser Super Bowl 2014 commercial. 

They carried the theme forward again this year. 

SPOILER ALERT

Here is the one for this year if you want to watch it. 

Dollar Tree Crafts

My daughter-in-law showed me this yesterday. She knew I would go crazy over it. I have go to make some of these. I visited the site and she has step by step instructions at Crafts by Amanda.

That triggered my creative juices so I went to my Facebook and Pinterest pages that had Dollar Tree crafts on them. Check this one out. It is so simple and so cute. I need a bigger branch to put my 5 grandkids on. I am waiting for a response on where she got the pattern for the tree. 

I love crafts that use glass vases and this one was a really good idea. I never know how to fill the bottom to bring the candle up toward the top without costing a fortune or having it plain with just a tall candle. Here was a cute easy way....coffee beans. I may have to try that sometime. 

You can turn trays from the Dollar Tree or yard sales into shadow boxes simply by adding scrapbook paper to the bottom.

These are just too cute. Dollar Tree wine glasses, Vellum sheets from the Scrapbook Store, and little tea lights. Too cute for words.

In addition to loving vases from the Dollar Tree, I love their candle sticks. Check this out. What unique picture frames with just a few dollars and a minimum amount of time. These would make awesome gifts to give Grandparents with picks of their grandbabies. I may have to make one for Mom with the grandkids in it. 

Simple, but elegant. And just $3 each at the Dollar Tree and a little big of glue.

Here is a cute idea for reusing pickle jars. One lady says she paints her glass candlesticks by mixing Rit Dye with Modge Podge. I would never think of that in a million years. 

I am so in love with this. Frame and candlestick refinished from Dollar Tree items. Not sure where she got the bird, but the little finial on the top is from Home Depot or Lowe's. On a side note, Google lamp finial. You will be amazed at the collections. I may have to blog about that some day.

And yes, I know Christmas is a long way away, but oh my goodness I love this. Dollar Tree pizza pans and a cookie sheet painted up for a specialized gingerbread man. 

I thought at first these were more pizza pans. Nope. They are range burner covers. The spindle would probably be from Home Depot and cut into thirds. They used scrapbook paper as liners. I am just amazed at the talent out there.

And with Super Bowl Sunday just days away, here are a couple of ideas to spruce up your party. Duct tape over your water or soda pop bottles. That is such a great idea for any holiday or gathering. And cheap. A roll of Duct tape goes a long way.

If you are lucky, you could even find some of the sports teams and do one for the Seahawks and one for the Patriots.

And one last thing. This isn't so much a craft as just something that caught my idea that would be great for gatherings. Don't have matching chip and dip sets? Tired of tons of assorted bowls cluttering the buffet. Visit the Dollar Tree and get you a big bowl for your chips and a large wine glass for your dip. Instead success.

Hope you enjoyed today's post. Will be curious to see who makes a Dollar Tree run this weekend. These are crafts that even the faint of heart can do. With a few bucks and 15 minutes spare time, anybody can craft from these ideas. 

Peanut butter and toast

How many of you eat peanut butter and toast? Growing up in my family, just about everyone of us loved it and I still do today. It is my favorite "quick fix" breakfast. I normally fix it just in the toaster then slather it with peanut butter. But once in awhile, I take the time to make it the way my Mamaw Eden made it for me. She would butter the bread and put it under the broiler and let it "toast". After it got done, she covered it with peanut butter. Then she stuck it back under the broiler for just a few seconds. It totally changes the taste. It is like eating fresh roasted peanuts. I love it this way. I had to have some for breakfast this morning. It makes it so ooey gooey. Yum. It was delicious.

Of course, I always have to have it with a big old glass of chocolate milk. 

There is just something about chocolate and peanut butter.

What a great way to start the day.