Mother's Day Homemade Gift

It feels good to be back. I have not posted in a while because something was wrong with my account, but I got it all straighten out with blogger and I'm glad to be back. So much has changed since the last time I blogged, but I will update you as I go.

As of now I would like to share with you my last little project that I made for Mother's Day. The best part was that it was an easy project and under $5 to make. As a Mother now, I have learned, that it's not always the amount spent on the gift, but the thought put into it.
All I used were a mason jar bought at the dollar tree, a set of butterflies also bought at the dollar tree and a bag of chocolates. The most expensive part was the bag of chocolates, which was about $3. I also used ribbon, which I already had and a glue gun that is not pictured.

I first glued the ribbon around the edge of the mason jar lid along with the butterfly. I put the chocolates inside and added a little poem. That was it. It was a fast and easy project to make. The Mother's that I gave it to loved it, most said they had never received a home made Mother's day gift before. The best part is that the jar can be used again and again to store other things. Here, is what it looked like when I handed it to them.

I hope every mom had an awesome Mother's Day.

Wannabe Instagram Pic Collage

As I have mentioned before I love taking pictures, I have hundreds of pictures in my hard drive and a few dozen in a box. I hate that I have so many pictures just sitting there without being able to show them off. My second other favorite thing right now is Instagram, I love how the pictures look and how they come out if you are able to find a cheap place that prints them right. So one day as I was doing some "research" on Pinterest I got an idea on how to show off my pictures and how to make them look like Instagram pictures (without the hassle and cost of printing them online).

Here are the materials I used (the project cost me about $10 to make):
Foam Cord Boards $1 at The Dollar Tree (my favorite store, if you haven't figured it out by now)
Pictures you have or want to print (11 cents a print at Sam's Club is the cheapest I have found)
Double sided tape $1
Scissors
Decoration (OPTIONAL)
Coaster as a template to cut pictures (I'll explain)

I first chose the pictures I wanted and used a coaster, yes a coaster, as my pattern for cutting the pictures.

As I mentioned above I wanted them similar to Instagram prints, which are smaller than 4x6. My coaster is about the same dimensions to an Instagram picture when it is printed. I cut all my pictures and made sure to go back and round of the edges to give them a different effect.

I took this picture from the back, so that you can see the round edges I gave my pictures.

Here is a look of the front of the picture.

This is also a neat little trick to do with pictures that have too much going on in the background and you want to bring the focus to an actual person or object. Such as this picture:

I then used double sided tape to attach the pictures to the foam board. As you can see I aligned my pictures in a certain way and left some room in the outside, but it is not necessary to do so.

Once I was done with this, I added a few little decorations on the edges to top it off, but again it is not necessary. The Hubbs actually said it looked better without it, but not for my taste. Here is the finished product:

I love how the pictures actually look like Instagram prints because of the way they were cut. From afar you can't tell they are wannabes because of the dimensions. I will be doing a couple more of these boards to hang up in my stairway area. Once I do that I will update this post with how they look.

Summer Home School

Summer vacation is finally here! My son's last day of school was yesterday and although that's one less thing to do during the day, I know I have a long busy summer ahead of me here at home. The Hubbs and I agreed to put my son in some sort of summer school or summer camp, but tuition for these places are ridiculous. I'm not sure we're going to find any within our budget, so while the search continues, I came up with the idea to home school him meanwhile.
In first grade he began learning about different states in the U.S., but they didn't fully get into it. I'm sure this lesson will come up when he's in second grade, therefore I made a mini size poster that we can hang up in his room for him to study.

The map was purchased at The Dollar Tree. All I did was use double sided tape to tape it to scrapbooking paper and hung it up on his wall. He stares at it every night before going to bed and has even been able to memorize some names.

Another thing we want him to practice is his penmanship. My son has horrible writing and it was something his teacher struggled with in first grade. A few weeks ago I was at Target and saw they had a mini white board with lines on it.

It was a dollar so I picked up a couple to have him practice at home. He is currently obsessed with white boards so it's a win win situation for the both of us.

Last, but not least I want him to improve his memory skills. He has a hard time paying attention at times and forgets easily. A lot of the time I have to repeat instructions to him because he won't stop and listen. His teacher suggested we play memory games to sharpen this sense. When I was at Target AGAIN(I feel like I live at that store) I saw they had a memory card game at the dollar section and decided to snatch it up.

He loves playing with cards and I knew it would be great for him. Since I bought them we have played every other day with them. It was a dollar well spent in my opinion.

Although I'm looking forward to all the fun we are going to have this summer, I also want my son to stay on the ball when it comes to school. I don't want him to forget what he has learned and have to struggle when he enters second grade. With so many cheap ways to help him stay on track, I don't see how I cannot help him.

Teacher Appreciation Craft

It has been a while since I posted. I have been extremely busy with church, my son's school and of course my job of being a stay-at-home mom. Needless to stay it has been a hectic last couple of months and somewhat stressful. However, another school year is coming to an end and I will have more time to post and share some of my crafts with you.

Since the school year is ending I wanted to get my son's teacher something special for her hard work and dedication, but nothing at the store seemed original. Then I got the idea of doing something for her, something she can actually use at home or her classroom. I came up with making a personalized pencil, pen, ruler holder from a recycled formula tin can and the best part was that my son was able to help out.

The materials used were:
Black scrapbook paper (1 piece)
A recycled can of formula (got it from my sister in law)
Wood letters I got at Michael's for about $1.50
White and orange acrylic paint
Hot glue gun
Flower stickers I got at The Dollar Tree for $1.00...lol



Here's how I did it. First, I measure the can and cut the paper accordingly. I used my glue gun to make the paper stick to the tin can. Once the glue had dried, for a decorating effect I glued some ribbon on the top and bottom edge.
Second, I painted my letters white and orange to fit the color theme. Once the letters were dried, I once again used my glue gun to attach the letters to the tin can.


Here you can see the ribbon decor and letters being glued on.

Once the letters where done drying, I added some more decor by attaching some flower stickers I got at The Dollar Store.


I love how nice and detailed the flowers are and they only cost $1.00.

Once I added the flowers I was done. I stuffed the tin can with some goodies from Michael's that were 50 cents each.



In total I spent about $5-$7 to make this project. I love it because it is something she can always use and hopefully she likes it.

Stop the Bullying

This past Sunday a woman at church was telling me with tears in her eyes that one of her daughter's was been bullied at school. The worse part was that she went to speak to the principal of the school and she did nothing about it. I could see she felt incredibly helpless. A few weeks ago the same thing was happening to my cousin's son and it made me wonder why it is that bullying is trending right now.
My opinion is that the kids doing the bullying are in need of attention or have self-esteem issues. If more parents were involved with their kids and actually spoke to them on a daily basis we wouldn't have these issues in our society so commonly. I try talking to my son everyday about what he does at school and I try bringing these issues up. I want to give him the trust to be able to come to me if he ever does have these kind of problems at school.
These issues scare me because my kids are young and to think they have to deal with this at school brakes my heart. However, even with that fear I know I have to learn to deal with this because it is real. Hopefully my children never have to deal with this, but if they do I want to be able to help them through it as best I can.

Boston, Mass.

Today the U.S. is reeling yet again from another tragedy that has taken two lives and injured many others.If you haven't heard or live under a rock, we had another terrorist attack, in Boston. It happened at a marathon race being held in the city of Boston, Mass. Someone detonated a couple of bombs at the finish line and set other ones at other locations in the city. Thank God not all the bombs went off, but what an incredible act of cowardice.
From what I have seen in the news an 8 year old little girl died and it brakes my heart to pieces. I have children and I cannot imagine the pain that her parents are going through. She went to a race to walk for other little children, also victims of a nut job, and she lost her life. It scares me to realize that my children will have to grow up with that kind of fear because a few nut jobs feel they can be God. Long gone are the days where families could attend public events as this one and feel safe. It is a sad reality that my children will have to grow up with.
My prayers are with these people in Boston, but my heart goes out to the families of the 2 persons killed. I'm sorry that it had to happen at all, but most of all I'm sorry that such evil is allowed to keep breathing while a little angel can no longer do it. There is a lot I could say about this, but for now this is it.

New Beginnings, New Responsibilities

I have been extremely busy lately. My parents are head Pastors at a local church here in my hometown. They have asked me to help out with the youth ministry and it has been consuming a lot of my time lately. I'm not complaining however, I actually like it.
I grew up in a Christian home, but when I turned 18, I decided that it wasn't for me. I decided to leave the church and do my own thing. I met the Hubbs got married had my son and I still didn't feel the need to go back to church. However, right before I got pregnant with my daughter something inside me clamored to go back to church and not so much church, but to seek God period. Something inside of me needed that relationship and I decided to seek him in truth and in spirit. I began by renewing my relationship with him first and then decided to go back. Since then I have attended the same church I grew up in, but with a different perspective on faith. I don't go because I have to, but because I want to. As the cliche goes I have a faith not a religion, there's a big difference.
I went through a lot when I decided to leave my faith. Some were good experiences, some not so much. I want to be able to share some of my experiences with the youth of my church and if it can help them in anything, I will feel extremely blessed. It will be a hard task, but it will be one that will bring me much satisfaction.