Valentine Canvas Paintings

Who loves a girl's craft night? I do, I do!!! A couple weeks ago I indulged in a much needed crafting girl's night. I love doing crafts and it's much more fun when you are with someone. My friend Denise joined me in the fun! We went the Valentines decoration route for this craft evening.

Originally, I had much smaller canvases purchased for this project but my little girls were jealous and I didn't want them to feel left out.... or whining the whole evening. I already had these larger canvases stored in the closet, so I gave the girls the smaller ones and I opted for the larger.

These were both done with a free hand. Okay, maybe those diamonds were traced from a cut out but the chevron and heart were definitely free hand.  If you can notice the heart shape is slightly off and not centered... I'm my own critic.

Materials used:
Acrylic paint (Black, metallic gold and pink)
Pencil
Gold glitter
Rose pink glitter (this glitter was awesome)
Mod Podge

The love and the heart are coated in glitter. I first painted the lettering and the heart. Once it was dry, I went over it with the Mod Podge and sprinkled the glitter all over. It was messy! I softly jiggled the canvas around to make sure the glitter covered all the area and emptied out the excess glitter onto a piece of paper.

I really liked the way theses pieces looked on the fireplace mantel. I do think the smaller canvases would have worked a little better but it was worth it when the little ones were so excited to be participating in the crafts. Happy Valentines Day!

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Mocktails and an easy DIY for New Year's Eve

Just because you're not drinking alcohol during this holiday season, there is no reason to not partake in some bubbly or fun festive drinks! What's even better is having a fun sparkly drink stirrer to go with your favorite mocktail.

Pink Fizzy

Ingredients

Pink Lemonade (I used the Organic Trader Joe's kind)

Ginger Ale

Frozen fruit (blueberries are shown in the picture)

I used a 50/50 ratio between the pink lemonade and ginger ale.

Add your frozen fruit for a garnish and to keep it cold.

Sparkly Stir Pick

long wooden skewer

sparkle poms (comes in assorted sizes. I used a 1/2 inch pom)

You can hot glue the pom pom on to the dull end of the skewer. This would be the most efficient method to keep the pom in place.

Or

You can poke the skewer with the sharp end through the pom pom and slide it to the other end. Be careful not to poke yourself!

*you can also use pom poms on tooth picks for festive hors d'oeuvres.

What is your favorite non-alcoholic drink?

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Girl Scout Daisies Holiday Meeting: Ornament Making

Happy Holidays!!!!

We had our 5th meeting of the year this past week. I wanted to keep it low key as it's close to the holidays but also have some fun!

We opened up the meeting as usual in our Daisy Circle. We recapped on our Cookie Goals from last meeting and said the Girl Scout Promise and practiced the Girl Scout Law. Then we went straight into the fun activities!

Girl Scout Daisy Ornament

What you need:

Green pipe cleaners

Green and White pony beads

Blue flower bead

ribbon to hang on the tree
hole puncher

Print out for your daisy troop.You can download the publisher file I created here: Daisy Ornament Tag 

I set out a couple of plates with both the white and green pony beads. I handed each girl a blue bead and myself and a couple of adults helped the girls string the beads on the green pipe cleaners. 

Once the girls had the desired number of beads (15 on each side worked best) we twisted the pipe cleaners and trimmed the edges. I twisted them a couple of times to ensure they would stay. 

Then you string the ribbon around the twisted area and make a knot. 

Slide the hole punched tag through the ribbon and make another knot to keep it in place. 

Lastly, make another knot at the ends to create a hoop that can allow the ornament to hang on the tree.

What do ya think?

Our second activity we decorated snowflake sugar cookies with white icing and blue shining sprinkles. I put out a couple of ramekins of different toppings through out the table and we passed around the bag of icing to each girl. I would have liked to have another bag of icing to speed up the process as we have ten girls but surprisingly the girls were pretty patient.

The girls had so much fun doing these two activities and it took up the full hour for the meeting. We also played some festive music in good party fashion. You can serve snacks or cookies and milk. We did not because our meetings are in the evenings and as parents voted it was best not to feed them that late.

If you would like other ideas...

This idea is super cute: Tree ornament with beads

This one is my favorite!

Check out Play Trains website: DIY pipe cleaner trees

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and have fun with your little Girl Scouts!!

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Favorite things Friday: Fall decor

Its that time of year. You wouldn't think I would enjoy the change of season so much, especially when its on its way to the dreaded cold winter, but Fall has to be my favorite feel good season, the colors, the smells, the crisp weather and scarves.

It also is a time when crafters induldge in decorating their homes and preparing for the upcoming holiday's!! This week I wanted to show you my pinning favorites for fall decor! In no particular order...

Pinned from : tinywhitedaisies

Source: unknown-let me know so I can give credit!

I love this fall landscape!!! Something about orange against white.

Source: www.bhg.com

Pinned from: jmanning79

Pinned from: Etsy

Source: Whimsys Workshop on Etsy

Source: www.bhg.com

Waffle Brownies!!

Has anyone else ever tried this? The first time I did I was inspired by Rachel Ray. It must have been over two years ago. Since then, I have become obsessed. Why? Because they don't take as long as normal brownies to cook!!!

I used a regular packaged brownie mix from the store and prepare as normal. I get my waffle iron nice and hot and butter it up and bake like a regular waffle! I usually only eat the crunchy part of the brownie anyways that's why these are so perfect. The entire "brownie" is crunchy!! 

This is really great as a sundae, or topped with fruit for a brunch! I have to admit I even served this as a legitimate breakfast. Yes, very shameful. It's just as bad as Nutella on toast for breakfast!