Paint-To-Go: Watercolor Tutorial

I love pinterest. It rocks. Except when I spend, literally, hours pinning and repinning all the coolness that is out there.

I have been making a conscious effort to actually make or do some of the things that I have been pinning. I thought I would share this one with, well, anyone who might be reading :)

Today I am sharing how to make your own Paint-to-go activity sheets using liquid watercolor paints and watercolor paper. (Here is the pin that I got the idea from, and here is the website from where the pin originated.)

Materials Needed:
Watercolor paper - I used a 22"x30" sheet and cut it into 25 4x6 pieces. (about $3)
Watercolor paint- The liquid kind that comes in a tube. I bought the least expensive ones I could find (8pk for $5), next time I will splurge a bit for the more expensive ones, but only in the primary colors (we like to mix our own colors).

I decided to add black just because

Put a small dot of the desired colors somewhere on the page.  

As you can see, I do not make perfect dots. 

Allow the paint to dry. We left ours overnight. Then give them a test run. 

Just messing around with the paint. 

I was really impressed with how they worked out. We made up a bunch to give out as gifts. Emma and I also did a few more test pages. You can check that out by visiting us here. 

A few tips to pass along now that we have played with them a bit. 

1. Make your dots as flat as possible. Some of mine looked like little mountains, and that made some of the pieces break off. 

2. When stacking the unpainted pages together, it might be a good idea to layer in a piece of scratch paper or tissue paper between the paint and the page above it. The dry paint will leave marks. 

3. These work best with a paint brush and just a bit of water. We tried q-tips and they held too much water. 

Happy crafting!

Fun with Words

I just found this cool site called Wordle. I found it from this site here. So much fun, go check it out! Here are a few of the cool things I created.

A few I made before I realized I was suppose to be doing something else =)

Hand Print Gift Ideas

I don't need to remind anyone that times are tight right now. Lucky for me though, I love crafting and giving. Even better for me, most things I make I created from recycled items. A great way to cut costs even more.

Holiday gifts will be handmade this year. I even convinced my sister to jump on my band wagon :)

I have to tell you, I love my daughters hands. Ever since she was a baby, my favorite thing to do with her, is trace her hands or paint them and make hand prints. It is a great way to follow her growth in a fun and different way.

So, here are a few projects we have made. I have added a link for where I found the idea, and they all over tutorials, so go on over and check them out!

Hug Pillows (found here: From An Igloo)

This will be a pillow for one of the grandparents (if you happen to be reading this, pretend to be surprised at Christmas). We have 4 of the 6 grandchildren on here.
For this project, I actually purchased fabric. I really try not to purchase fabric, but if I do, I make sure to shop in the clearance section and use a coupon. Some of the fabric for this pillow did come from clothes destined for the thrift shop, so I guess it can be considered partially upcycled.

For the hug pillow, I also created some less...formal ones.

These are made from upcycled clothes. The stuffing and thread are new.

High Five Pillows (just a slightly different take on the hug pillow).

These are my nephews pillows. Emma and the boys had great fun using them for a pillow fight.

This project came about due to an oops. A few weeks ago I had Emma and her 3 cousins make some tie dye t-shirts. In a moment of laziness, I bought each of them a package of 5 plain white under shirts. Apparently, they run small :( The shirts for Emma and her youngest cousin, T-Bear, didn't fit. We were able to use the shirts from Emma for T-Bear, but I wasn't sure what to do with the shirts from T-Bear. My sister suggested making them into t-shirt pillows. I loved it! Having 5 t-shirts, and 4 kids, I made a t-shirt for each. I thought adding their own hand print to their shirts would be fun.

Hand Trees (found here: At Second Street)

My oldest nephew didn't want to make one of these so it was just Emma and two of her cousins. I was a little frustrated that Emma and G-Man didn't want to add more leaves, but it is their trees, so I decided to butt out (and not add more after they left the table).

So, this is some of what we have been up too. I hope to get more pictures, but it is slightly slow going as my camera eats batteries. I manage to take about 10 pictures before the batteries are dead. So, now I remove the batteries after each picture taking session. I hope that helps.

Thanks for reading, I hope you find some inspiration here!

Feature Friday - Baby in a Fish Bowl

The newest member of the Shops with Less Than 10 Sales is Baby in a Fish Bowl.

Some fun stuff to be found here!

We could really use something like this at our house, especially now that the weather is getting nice and we are spending more time outside.


I have started loving skirts. Not sure what it is, but I love them. I want this one.


And how cute is this! I love the idea of being able to buy one piece of clothing for Emma and having it last for a few years!


At Baby in a Fish Bowl you can also find baby carriers, wood working, and a bunch of other fun goodies, so make sure you stop buy and check them out!

Instant Feltification - Tissue Holders

Ok, I am a big fan of little effort and big reward. Call me lazy, I am ok with that. My favorite form of crafts are the ones that take just a few minutes and end up cute and functional. This tutorial from Kris at Resweater, is the perfect example.

I bet your are thinking, "Tissue holders. What am I suppose to do with those?"

Well, my answer would be, "Put tissues in them."

Of course, if you are not someone who carries around little packs of tissues, then this won't really appeal to you. I don't typically carry them around, but these cute tissue holders might make me change my mind. I also know some other people who carry tissues around and it would be a fun little gift to surprise them with.

I mean, who wouldn't get a kick out of this fun little thing?


For the nature lovers out there, the combination of recycled wool and this fun design would be just right.


All of them a pretty fun, and they are easy to make. The star, squares, and circle ones? Emma (my 4yo) did all the needle felting on those. We had a blast! I cut the rectangles, she needle felted, I sewed them up. She loves to be able to help and she loves to use the adult tools. I figure by the end of this year she will be using my sewing machine...

Anyway, here are the individual shots of the rest I made. Already excited to make more!!






If you want to make some of these for yourself (or someone else), Kris has been nice enough to make a tutorial on her site, Resweater.

Happy Felting!!