Cracked Marble Necklaces

A few months ago I finally did a Pin from Pinterest that I've been dying to do for like forever.  Cracked Marble Necklaces.  I saw THIS tutorial and began brain storming how I could use it as a youth activity for my church.  The funny thing is, at the time I wasn't even serving with the youth! I was ready to do a tutorial all my own, but decided that she did the job just fine.  What I would like to do is share my analogy that I came up with to make it church worthy.

 finished without the chain. :)

before and after

We start with such beautiful glass marbles.  They are clean, clear and pure. The marble represents us as human beings.  The oven (place marbles in oven for 20 minutes at 425 degrees) represents the trials in our lives.  The hard times.  (Place HOT marbles in a bowl of ice) The ice is our Savior.  We don't get to choose what trials we go through, and they can be HOT! But when we turn to Jesus Christ he helps us through them and we come out more beautiful than when we started (cracks.)  

I know it's simple, but I'm quite proud of my little story.  I know our trials can make us stronger and better, especially if we turn to the Lord.  I'm so grateful for this knowledge.  I know this activity is not my idea, but the analogy is and I would appreciate the acknowledgement (just mention you found it here) instead of claiming it as your own. 

Mother's Day Bookmarks

So, at church I am a leader of girls ages 8-11 (Activity Days.)  We have 1 hour meetings twice a month mostly doing things that will help them become closer to Christ and become good women and mothers one day.  ANYWAY, at our meeting today we are making Mother's Day bookmarks for their moms.  I thought I'd share my work with you in case this project might come in handy for you too!  They are going to color them and put it on a colored piece of card stock.  Then they are going to think of words that start with each letter and we will laminate them and add a ribbon to the top :)

I am hoping that just clicking on the image and printing them will work.  Let me know if it doesn't and I can email them to you.

Modge Podge in a Doll House

Well, what fun!  After a year and a half of having this doll house sitting in my garage with my husband begging me to throw it away and me almost agreeing, my daughter and I finally finished it! PHEW! And the reason I am sharing it here is because I used the homemade Modge Podge to do it!  I don't have specific link to this pin because I don't know that I ever actually pinned it.  I saw it enough times to memorize it! LOL!  But then, how hard is it to remember equal parts white glue to water?  Hehe!  I got my white glue on sale during back to school for 25 cents and used the entire bottle to do all the "wall paper" in the house.  I painted the walls with it and then painted the back of my scrapbook paper and put it on like wallpaper.  Turned out pretty good in my opinion.  You be the judge...

This is a little closer view of some walls. :)

I have before pics, should I post them? hmmm...

Lots of projects

Right now we are working as fast as we can to finish up our house (and some tips and helps I've found on Pinterest!) So, I've been slacking with the blog.  I have a few things ready to post, but just haven't done it, but this one is the next project I want to do!......

The Family, A Proclamation to the World is an amazing proclamation made by beloved leaders of my church expressing how important family is in this crazy world and explains the various roles in family.  So, why not make a craft out of it?  My friend Lisa made this one with her family pics all around and then put her FHE (Family Home Evening) chart underneath! Genius! I've made our *FHE chart, but never got around to doing the names so we could all rotate jobs.  Now's my chance to do both projects!

*FHE is a once a week thing we do with our families.  Generally it's a short lesson and a fun family activity, kinda like game night that a lot of families do, but just add a moral/scriptural lesson to it! :)

I'm so excited!  Thanks Lisa, for the idea/motivation!

My Jewelry Shelf

I'm sure most of you have seen the huge variety of this being turned into jewelry holders.  I've seen a ton!  I decided that his shelf, that no longer had a home in our house, would be the perfect redo for my jewelry hanger!  I desperately needed one and this cute little shelf was just sitting there with nothing to do!

 Before

 Here are my little helpers!

 Aren't they cute?

I took the hardware off and gave it a little light sanding, so the new paint would adhere.  I wiped it down when I was done to get all the extra dust off and began spray painting!  The greatest thing is that after I did my first light coat of paint I realized that with this original finish and the black paint I was using, it gave it the same kind of look as our bedroom furniture.  The cappuccino finish, with some lighter touches of "wood" shining through.  So, instead of doing it jet black I just did one more really light coat of black to fill in any spots that still needed a little more color and I have this...

I'M SO EXCITED!!!  I've been waiting to take a picture because I was waiting for my husband to hang it on the wall, but I decided to just do it myself! :P  I couldn't be happier!

100th Day of School Project!

Valentine's Day just happens to be Kennedy's 100th day of school!  And she's in kindergarten, so of course they are celebrating 100!  I saw this idea somewhere on pinterest.  No idea where, but I cutified it!  We drew a heart around her monster instead of a circle and made hands and feet.  I think it's pretty cute!

 Just glued them on with fabric glue that is okay to wash and wah lah!  I used dry erase marker, for the reason of, it's what I had and I've learned from my experience as a mother that it doesn't come out of clothes! LOL!

The sun was in her eyes, but I think it's pretty cute, and will look even better tomorrow with jeans! :)

*And here she is all ready for school!

Ruby Cake!

(From Max and Ruby) Not bad for my first attempt.  Sad thing is I did this cake so I could play with my new Cricut fondant cutter, but I procrastinated making it so long that I didn't have time to take it out and play.  I think it would have been way cuter if I had!  But, I'm pretty proud of myself!

Reegan just LOVED it!  The only tragedy was when I took the head off to cut the cake!  She was a little taken back and not too happy, but we all laughed and she got over it! LOL!  I got the recipe for the fondant from HERE. I thought about doing instructions on here for it, but really I couldn't do it justice.  So, go check out the instructions on that blog and start making cakes!