CD Tops!

When people find out you are "crafty" there is no end to the things they ask if you want. Earlier this summer I was given two boxes of old CD's Not quite sure what I would do with them I held on to them until I figured out a project or two. When I came across a how to for creating tops out of CD's I knew I had found a winning project.

The directions called for "shooter sized" marbles,  or ping pong balls, but the thrifty queen in my balked at the price. I had literally hundreds of these tops that I could make and didn't really want to pay $5 for 2 dozen marbles of the correct size. I decided to look elsewhere. Looking at Oriental Trading Company, I found small rubber balls that were 3/4' in diameter, and in addition to being the perfect size for this project, happened to be $5 for 144, much more friendly on my budget! Besides the Cd's and marbles, I would need wrapping paper, mod podge, soda caps and a hot glue gun to complete this project.

Then it was time to call in the troops.

About 10 of us, traced the Cd's onto the wrapping paper, then cut out the circles. These circles were mod podged to the CD's and when dry, we glued the rubber ball inside the hole of the Cd and then glued a soda cap on top as a handle. The result were some adorable Cd tops that spun surprisingly well. In our morning of crafting we finished around 200 of these guys to put in shoebox gifts for Operation Christmas Child.

I will say that we had difficulty with the glue sticking when we used a lo-temp gluegun. We found we needed the high temperature glue or the handles would peel off. To find the original directions I based this project from visit: Mama's Little Muse 

Upcycled Mirror

I love this wood mirror I got at a church rummage sale, but the stark wood was just a bit to plain for my girls who love girly frilly froo froo! So I decided to give it a bit of a make over.

To do this I needed 2 cans of Krylon Spray Paint (one a shade darker than the other,) masking tape, hot glue gun, flower trim.

Make sure to paint the frame first, that way you don't see the wood through the flowers peeking through. You can shade the flowers with the darker paint, or add some highlights with the lighter shade.

The girls loved the finished project and can't wait to hang it above their dresser. To see more Krylon projects check out the ebook by Fave Crafts from their Make it Yours contest Krylon Free Ebook.

Order Out of Chaos!

Almost 20 years ago, I became involved with a project called "Operation Christmas Child"  OCC as it is commonly known sends gift filled shoeboxes to children in need all over the world. Shoebox gifts contain; school supplies, personal care items, small toys, hard candy and more and for some children are the first and sometimes only gift they will ever receive in their lives.

My involvement with OCC expanded to becoming a project leader and then finally an Area Coordinator for our area. I currently oversee a project called "Shoebox 1k" named from a challenge one of the boys in my children's ministry issued one year to do "A THOUSAND BOXES." Currently just working on our third year, news of our project has spread far and wide. Being the case we need LOTS of storage space. In the past I was able to have a back room in our church building, when the building was sold, the Christian Youth Center of Morris graciously allowed me to move the operation in there.

Naturally when one thinks of filling 1000 shoebox gifts you would think about how many supplies are needed to accomplish this goal. Our packing date is November 1 and being close to the date of our packing party obviously have mountains of supplies to accomplish our goal. Imagine my surprise and dread when I was notified, I had to MOVE everything over two bays in the storage area less than one month before everything was to be moved out?

Rather than just putting everything into piles in the new area, I enlisted the help of my father, my son and some other fine gentlemen to create a shelving unit able to withstand not only the amount of supplies we would need in for our project but the weight of cartons of shoeboxes. School supplies, and cartons of soap aren't light!

 It took the 5 of us 2 days and several hundred dollars of donated wood and screws to create the shelves. But the result was oh so worth it! There are 6 sets of shelves 8 feet by 4 feet. In addition we created two sorting tables, that can double as supply tables during the actual shoebox packing party!  I love the new space, and it should make it very easy to stay organized this next year.

A HUGE thank you to my father Ken, my son David, and friends Mike and Ed for all of their hard work!!!

(For more information on Shoebox 1k and how you can get involved in our local efforts, check out the link above or click on "Shoebox 1k" at the top menu.)

Something Only a Mom Would Do

As a mom you know there are certain things that only YOU would do. Saving a lock of hair from a first hair cut, or that first baby tooth that fell out, a sample of handwriting or handprints to cherish when your babies are grown. But would you save them on your wall?

My mom did. A large portion of this year was spent cleaning out my mom's house to turn over to be sold. While cleaning out the laundry room, imagine my giggle when I found this:

Yes that is my forth grade handwriting, on the wall, of the laundry room. I so remember writing that, but have no idea WHY I wrote on the wall. My mom's initials were MEP and mine were actually EAP but since everyone calls me "Betsy" I choose to initial it "BEP" to be like her. 

On the other side of the laundry room, were two handprints. I have to admit those were mine as well. I was in 4th or 5th grade and was asked to start a load of laundry and my hands were wet and wanted to see my wet prints on the wall, thinking it would just evaporate and not realizing there was just enough dirt on my hands to leave a muddy print. These too were still on the laundry room wall. The whole house has been painted several times, and as you can tell the walls got pretty grimy but mom choose to keep things "as is" vs. covering over her sweet little vandal. *grin*

The Gift of Art!

As I was growing up mom was always drawing, always creating. This bode well for my sister and I who followed in her footsteps, and loved to get messy with a craft project or two, not to mention her students at school that benefitted from awesome bulletin boards in their classroom, and fabulous art projects during class!

When Mom retired she took up painting again, she had learned to paint with her grandmother whom everyone called "Nana." She told us how Nana would have her paint and repaint pictures over and over practicing brush strokes and techniques. She mostly worked in acrylics but dabbled some in oils. 

Cleaning out mom's easel and paints was the one of the most difficult parts about closing up mom's estate.  (Second only to her music collection.) Mom loved creating, painting, that form of creative expression of taking an idea in your mind's eye and transferring it to a visible media. How do you just put them away to be silenced forever? 

Her easel sat for quite some time, I had a difficult time touching it. Mom never expected to be in the hospital more than a few days, her painting was there waiting for her to finish. Just like my sister and I kept feeling like we were waiting for her to come home. But she never came home, and so there her easel sat on the sun porch. Patiently waiting for someone to come use it. There her painting sat waiting for mom to finish it...but she never will. 

I saved some of her paints and brushes for my personal use, but I never mastered painting let alone drawing with any major skill.  I  didn't have the space for the easel and knew mom would want them to be used. So with my sisters blessing, I was able to share mom's easel and some supplies with my BFF's husband. Sherri and I have known each other since birth and she is part of the family, her husband Jason, fit right in with the rest of us and connected with mom because of his love of art and ability to paint. Use them well Jason!