I wanted to share with you a guest post I did a couple of weeks ago.  It was a totally “crafty” thing, but it was fun to make.

A few weeks ago, my son, Luke, came home from church excited about something he had made in Sunday School.

It was a DIY beaded sun catcher {made with beads and a disposable pie pan.}

It was such a cute, easy craft.  He said, “Mom, you should show this on your blog!”

I agreed, except I added a little twist to mine.

I decided to make a mobile for the fourth of July.

Here is how simple it is…

First, line some metal pans with a single layer of beads.  {Any color you choose.}

For fun, I used metal cookie cutters to create some stars.  Be sure to get some of the translucent beads so that the light will shine through them when you turn them into sun catchers.

These can be baked in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or on the grill.  They do stink when baking, so if you do it indoors, I suggest you open some windows and turn on an exhaust fan.

To avoid the stink, I just melted mine on the grill.  You can set your grill on medium high heat and leave the beads on the grill until they are fully melted.  You want all of the “bumps” in the beads to disappear before removing them from the grill.  They should look smooth like glass.

Set aside to cool.

Once the melted beads have cooled, you can easily pop them out of their containers.

I used a small drill bit to drill some holes in my stars according to how I wanted to hang them.

I used a piece of leftover wood I had in my house to create the top of my mobile.  I painted it white and drilled holes in the top and bottom.

If you don’t want to use wood, you could use something like foam board.

Then I just used a blue sharpie marker to write “Happy 4th” on the wood.  I was going to use my Silhouette to make some vinyl letters, but I know that not everyone has a Silhouette, so I wanted you to see it is just as cute using a marker.

Aren’t the stars beautiful?  I just love them.  And my boys think they are the coolest!

This is a super easy summer project that you can do with your children this summer.  Let them each make their own sun catchers using the color of beads that they choose.

Then just hang them up inside or outside and enjoy their simple beauty.

Have you ever made a beaded sun catcher before?

I think it would be fun for kids to make a suncatcher for Dad as a Father’s Day gift too!

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Hey friends!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and Mother’s Day!  I am trying to recuperate from our 4 day trip down to the Ky Opry!

Jonathan did a GREAT job, but didn’t win. 

But I was so proud of him.  He placed second in the junior division and third overall.  The talent was so amazing, and I will share a whole post about it with you this week, along with his videos.

Today I wanted to share some easy projects with you that I have done on my blog over the past few years that make great teacher gifts.

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The first project is Dressed Up Post-it Notes.  These are fun and easy to make, and they are something that every teacher uses.

I made these as Christmas gifts a couple of years ago, and they were super easy, super inexpensive, and super cute.  I was able to personalize each note pad for each person.

You can read the full tutorial of how to make these HERE.

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The second project is DIY tile coasters.  I originally made these as Christmas gifts too, but they could be used for anytime of the year.  You could use your teacher’s initials or just a pretty pattern on your coasters.

This is my most pinned project on my blog with over 248,000 pins!  Isn’t that crazy?!

These tiles are from Lowe’s and only 16 cents a piece!  This project is a simple as using mod podge and some paper or napkins to create a design.  Then hot glue some cork on the back and you are finished!

You could use your teacher’s initials or just a pretty pattern on your coasters.

Tie the coasters up with a pretty bow, and you’ve got a cute little gift for your child’s teacher.

To view the complete tutorial on this project, click HERE.

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The third project is a little more expensive, but can be made for less than $10.00. It is a super cute DIY magnet board!

You can cover the magnet board with any type of material you want to get the look you are after.

I have covered mine in all types of material before.

You can also make your own magnets if you want.  I hot glued some buttons from Hobby Lobby onto some round magnets for mine.  You could make a magnet with your teacher’s initials on it.  That would be cute!

You can view the complete tutorial for this project HERE.

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I also have another Teacher Gift idea floating around in my head for my boys’ teachers this year.  If I make it, I will be sure to share in on my blog.

Do you have a favorite gift idea for your child’s teacher?

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Hey Friends!

I am so excited to share something crafty with you today!

Since Valentine’s Day is coming up soon, I thought this would be a fun “treat” to make for your friends or loved ones.  {I made these for my sons’ teachers.}

It’s a “sock cupcake!”

Which makes it a “sweet treat for your feet!”

To make this gift, I bought some colorful, cozy socks from Walmart.  They were two for $2.50.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to make the cupcake liners.  {You could probably find some extra large cupcake liners at a craft store, but I have been wanting to find something I could make on my new Cameo, so I used Silhouette’s online store to buy my template.}

The paper I used is called “Uptown Flair” and is  from Hobby Lobby.  {I used my 40% coupon to make it affordable.}

The paper in this pack is sooo cute!  It’s a heavy cardstock and some of the pages have glitter on them.  Lurve it!

I enlarged the cupcake liners a little bit because the socks were so thick.

Once the cupcake liner was cut, I folded and taped it up.

Then I rolled a pair of socks up to look like a cupcake.

I wrapped the sock in tissue paper to hold the sock inside the liner since it didn’t have a bottom.

After trimming the tissue paper, I created some tags on my Cameo as well.

I wrote “A Sweet Treat for your Feet” on the tags.  Then I wrapped each “cupcake” with some ribbons that I had in my craft closet.  To hold the tag to the cupcake, I used a yellow tipped sewing pin that I found with my sewing supplies, stuck it through a pom pom, through the tag, and into the sock.  Worked like a charm!

You may come up with a better way to hold it all together, but this worked for me.  I wanted the cute little pom pom on top of the cupcake, but didn’t want to glue it on the sock, so the sewing pin worked for me.

I love the way they turned out, and the boys are excited to give them to their teachers on Valentine’s Day.

If I wanted to make these sock cupcakes for my boys, I would just used some boyish colors for the cupcake liners and socks.

Funny story:  I thought I was being all creative and coming up with the idea of a “sock cupcake” all by myself.  I thought, “My readers are going to love this!  I’ve never seen anything like this!”  Then I made the mistake of searching for “sock cupcake” on Pinterest just to prove that my idea was an original.  Bad idea.  Then I googled it.  Worse idea.  People have been making sock cupcakes for years!

Dagnabit!  My “original” idea went out the window.

Oh well!  I still love it and think it is cute.  And hey,  it’s NEW to me!

I hope you like it.  I had fun making them and taking pictures of them.

Have a blessed day!

Linking to Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

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