DIY: Snow Globes

Here is one of the fun activities Lucy and I did together this Christmas. Homemade Snow globes!

Materials:
- Three empty and clean glass jars
- Bottle brush trees (Walmart)
- Pearl branches (from dollar store)
- Fake snow (Walmart)
- Hot glue gun and glue
- White spray paint

Wash empty jars in the dishwasher and use an adhesive remover like Goo Gone to clean off any leftover sticky residue from any labels. Rinse and dry. While waiting, take the clean lids and spray paint the color of your choice. Let dry. 

These pearl sprigs were from the flower arranging aisle.
I used them a few years ago to make Christmas corsages for the widows at church.  They made perfect trees!

Hot glue the trees on the inside of the lid.
Make sure to give enough room on the edges so that it will still close.

Add snow to the inside of the jar holding the open end of the jar up, and turn the trees upside down to put the lid on. Gently slide the trees into the glass. Screw tightly, then flip over and gently shake until the snow covers the "ground".

If you are worried about small children opening them you can add hot glue to the inside edge of the lid before closing.

I like the variety of the three different sizes of jars. If I made these again I would love to find a mini deer or other woodland animals to add as well. 

Lucy loved helping mom with a project, and scooping in the fake snow. This activity is probably better suited for an older child, but Lucy still enjoyed participating.

I love snow and miss having a white Christmas, so any excuse I can find to bring a little into our home, I take!

Merry Christmas!

Fill A Frame

I have a thrifted frame that I refinished that I wanted to include on my gallery wall for the guest room, but didn't have a plan of what to put in it yet. I tried putting my mini Turkish rug in it, but later found a better fitting frame for it. I decided to just spray paint the cardboard backing and let Lucy draw all over it in the same colors as the other pieces in the gallery. 

I love how it turned out for a short project for Lucy and a temporary solution for what to put in it. She points it out to me every time we go in the guest room that there is her "artwork".

Mini Turkish rug in frame = No go

The end product!

Down the road we will probably put something else in this frame (possibly another Lucy original), but for now it serves it purpose by filling up an empty frame so that we can add it to the guest bedroom gallery wall.

Lucy's Room: Gallery Wall

One of my goals for the year was to frame and hang old treasures and I have been meaning to make a few gallery walls.  I finally got around to it and made a mini gallery in Lucy's room.

The configuration is not the best/most balanced but ultimately I was just happy to get them up on the wall and out of the guest room! I would also like to paint the frame of the cross-stitched poem white to match the rest of the gallery, but it is professionally framed and I would have to take apart the whole thing to do so. We will see!

Gotta love double light switches!

The final product!

Before: Two pictures hung on random nails that were already in the wall

Before: pink/peach frames

After: White frames

This was an early Christmas gift from Zach's parents when Zach and I were dating.  We went to meet his family in Iowa for Thanksgiving.

The whole deal.

Cross-stitched for Zach when he was a baby by a dear family friend and passed down to Lucy and Peter.

Gift from dear friend when Peter died.

Lucy loving her baby brother.

Fin!

Dating picture of me and Zach in a pressed flower frame from my old YW leader,  baby picture of me, thrifted lace table runner.

Happy Father's Day

Lucy and I have been working on this project for awhile and we finally completed it! 

Happy Father's Day, Zach!

Lucy's artwork is on the top, and mine is on the bottom.

I thrifted the frame a few months ago and this is what it looked like:

Oh, you're wondering "what is bread?" Don't worry, here is a close up.

Mmmmm.

I took the bread print out of the frame, washed the glass, sanded the wood frame, spray painted the frame white, and cut a white poster board to fit as the new mat. 

I did a crayon drawing and then painted over it with watercolors to start the project.

Lucy used crayons in the color scheme I had already chosen to do my piece in, and then painted over the crayon drawing with watercolors for the final touch. 

After both paintings dried I centered the two pieces where I wanted them on the white poster board mat and used clear photo corners to secure them in place. I reassembled the frame with the new artwork in it, and voila! A masterpiece! 

You can't stop at one! I pulled out a second crayon drawing of hers to work on while we were at it.

Additional Father's Day Gift: Thrifted tie for Sunday

The final product.

It looks great it it's new home! Lucy loves talking about her artwork and explaining to me that it is "her artwork" and "mom's artwork".



PS. This morning when Lucy was saying her morning prayer over her cereal and banana, this is what she said: "Father in Heaven, thank you for artwork and artwork. Name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Music to my ears!

Love that girl.