Dry Erase Sudoku Book

Today I made a couple of dry erase Sudoku books for Christmas gifts. I recently bought a Bind-It-Allmachine and this was my first binding project. It went great! I was pretty nervous I was going to screw up my project, but after practicing a little and getting the hang of it, it went pretty quickly and was easy. Binding was easy compared to getting my printers to print the way I needed them to! But I won't get into that ;-)

I created a cover in Photoshop, laid out some printable Sudoku puzzles I found online (just do a search, there are tons!) and I made an answer key on the last couple pages. I printed everything on regular paper and laminated the pages so they would be dry-eraseable. Then I cut the pages in half since I laid out 2 pages per sheet of paper. I trimmed the extra lamination off with my awesome paper trimmerand stacked the pages in order. Then I used my handy dandy new Bind-It-Allto punch holes in the tops of the pages and then put the binding wirein. And there you have it!

Its easy to correct mistakes as you play and you can complete the puzzles again and again if you'd like. I hope their recipients like them! =)

Monogram Wreath

Some friends and I have been getting together at our church once a month for a craft night. This month we made these twine wrapped initial/monogram wreaths. Here is how mine turned out:

Pretty fun! I really love how it turned out. If you want to make one too, click here for the tutorial that inspired this activity. To learn how to make felt rosettes, click here.

Initial Wreath

Well, it certainly has been a while! I have missed blogging and my blogging buddies, I hope some of you are still out there!

I decorated a grapevine wreath (that's been hanging on our door plain for a long time!) recently and wanted to share it with you all. All I did was stick some greenery from a couple of our evergreens into the wreath.  For the initial, I cut a letter out of cardboard and out of burlap using a template I made on the computer. Then I glued the burlap letter to the cardboard one to make it sturdy (I painted craft glue onto the cardboard with a paint brush to even it out so it wouldn't gush through the burlap). Once dry, I hot glued a piece of jute to the top of the letter and then tied the letter to the wreath. I made a simple bow out of strips of burlap looped and hot glued together. I added a wire to the back of the bow and tied it to the wreath. Hung the wreath on the front door and all done! Here is the finished product:

I hope everyone is well and you are getting excited for the holidays!

Where Have I Been?

I didn't blog last week....I posted my photos on my Cross Creek Farm blog, but didn't post anything here. Well, here is what I have been working on. This is a tutu and a princess hat I made for my best friend's daughter's 3rd birthday. I love how they turned out! Makes me want a little girl, maybe that's what we are having. Only 5 more months until we find out! But anyway, I made the tutu by cutting pieces of tulle about 6 inches by 20" or so and then knotting them onto a piece if 1/2 inch elastic. The tutorial I used can be found here. For the princess hat, I just found a photo of one that I liked on Etsy and followed this tutorial to help me along. I made a couple adjustments to fit my liking. I added a pair of butterfly wings (I found them on clearance while at Jo-Ann's getting the fabric) to the present. And voila! A cute little fairy princess outfit. I think it was a hit. When Jocelyn opened it, she put the hat on right away. It was so cute!

My First Giveaway!!!

I mentioned a giveaway last Friday didn't I? Alright, well here it is. In honor of our new puppy, and in remembrance of our sweet Duke, I am going to give away an 8x10 Custom Pet Portrait done by little 'ole me. The winner will be able to choose what medium they want it in: color pencil, black & white charcoal, oil painting, acrylic painting, or watercolor. The winner will be required to send me a photo of their pet so make sure you have a good one in mind! We will talk more about that when we email each other.

All you need to do to enter is leave me a comment and tell me what pet (name, type of animal) you would want a portrait done of (and don't forget your email if I don't have it!).

I forgot to add that this contest is open to residents of the US and Canada only! =)

You will have until Midnight (eastern time) Wednesday, October 7th to enter. The winner will be chosen the old fashioned way, out of a hat, by little Jimmy =) and announced on Thursday October 8th sometime.

A little fyi: This will be the first time I have done a pet portrait for someone. I am hoping that doing this will help me get back into doing more artwork! If it goes well, you can be sure I will have more artsy giveaways in the future =)

A New Turtle, a Drawing and a Stargazer

Where HAS Ali been? Well, I have been a busy little bee! Here is a little of what I have been up to.

Remember this post? Remember the part about the turtle sandbox? Well....I FINALLY found one with eyes (lol, I am pathetic I know)! A friend of mine told me about one last week, her friend was selling it for $5 and she didn't think it had eyes anymore, but at this point I didn't care. Just wanted to get one so Jimmy could finally play in the sand with his toys his grandparent's got him for EASTER! So we went to pick it up and it turned out it was in great shape and DID have eyes AND the lady selling it even threw in some of her son's sand toys & hotwheels cars he didn't want anymore. What a great $5 deal! Here are some pics of the little man enjoying his "new" sandbox:

Awww, yay! It has eyes! ;-)

Not sure he likes the feel of the sand:
Thinking the sand is alright, but still not willing to get too into it...he sat like this pretty much the whole time. I love how his little toes are all curled up!

Oh, cool, Daddy built a racetrack!

Ok, now remember THIS post? A LOT of you won't because it is from FEBRUARY! But anyway, I started this drawing back then...and am still working on it. Now you probably think, geez is she slow...but in all honesty, I have probably only worked on it for about 20 minutes MAX. I just haven't sat down and FOCUSED long enough to get it done. Another 20 minutes or so would probably be enough, so now I just need to git 'er dun! Oh yeah, here it is.

Not bad for not having drawn in I don't know how many years. I will have to do a post of some of my old stuff, I found a bunch of pics from my old geocities website, so I already have them on my computer. Maybe I will show them to you next week....


And finally, there was this post. And now there are these:

GORGEOUS! My beautiful Stargazer Lilies are blooming, ahhhh I just LOVE them! My very favorite flowers, they just make me smile =)

Besides all that, we went to a garage sale of a friend's on Saturday and got soaked in the rain, major downpour! Sunday we went to church and a chicken roast afterwards and then today a friend came over and brought her 2 kids and we had a nice playdate. It was great to be able to talk to another ADULT for once ;-)

Ok everyone, thanks for stopping by and I will hopefully be catching up on my visits to y'all's blogs in the next couple days, I am so behind and miss knowing what is going on with everyone! Have a great (rest of the) week!

Goodwill Party

Thrifty Decor Chick is hosting a "Goodwill Party" over at her blog. This is right up my alley, as I have been shopping there since my mom took me when I was a little girl and now I really find it hard to ever pay full price for ANYTHING. I love all the great ideas everyone has. They really help me have a better "vision" when I go thrifting.

Here is mine. I am sure this has been done a million times before, but I thought it was pretty cute so here is mine. I found one of those wire hanging fruit baskets, this one with two tiers. I think it cost $1.49. I have been looking for one for in my kitchen, but I want a 3-tiered one. I couldn't pass the 2-tiered one up though, so I found another use for it. I made it into a hanging planter. I spray painted it black, lined it with moss from the dollar store and then I added potting soil and the flowers. Here is the end result:

Once the flowers get bigger they will fall over the sides and look just gorgeous! I can't wait! =)

Easter Egg Tree

Since my Oma (Grandma) is full German, my mom passed on a lot of German holiday traditions. One of them was the Easter Egg Tree. She and Oma each made one every year. So this year I decided I would do it. They always used blooming Forsythia or Pussy Willow branches, but since my Forsythias are just getting started, and I don't have a Pussy Willow yet, I had to use Maple. Soo....

Here is my Easter Tree. I was a little late putting it together, but I am so glad it is finished. I wasn't sure which direction I wanted to go as far as design/style for decorating the eggs, so I did a plethora of styles. Maybe next year I will go all in one direction or even paint/dye the entire egg, we'll see.All I did was cut 3 small branches from a big fallen Maple branch, then I tied a ribbon around them to keep them together. I stuck them in in my rectangular vase with river rocks in the bottom and green moss on top.

For the eggs, I had started collecting them a couple weeks ago. I just poked holes in both ends with a pin and blew them out for Jimmy's scrambled eggs. I then rinsed the shells and let them dry. Then I pulled the ribbon through with a piece of wire - loop at the top and tied a knot on the bottom. Then I painted them. Easy as pie!

I just found out about the Round Robin event over at "Keeping Up With The Schultz Family"

so I thought I would add this post. So head over and check out all the other blogs!

A Valentine for Daddy

Jimmy making his first Valentine (mommy helped) =) Mommy made him a couple of potato stamps, we had fun!

Wooden Signs

Here are some wooden signs I painted by hand (well, I traced the text from a print out - with a sharpie because I didn't have any carbon paper - and painted over it by hand). =)

Birth Announcements

Here are the birth announcements I did for my nephews. (I was not paid for these - no money made on the mouse that looks just like a famous one...It just matched Conner's room's theme!!)

(edited to remove last names)