{button} thumbtacks

I am always looking for a new crafty project and love to repurpose things around the house.  And it makes me more excited to find a purpose for something when there is an owl involved! 

I picked up this owl corkboard in the Target One Spot section a year or so ago.  It was hanging in Little Bit's room with all her Disney pins on it until she got so many pins we had to get a new board!  So I was left with this cute little guy that was begging for a new home!  ;)  I had the perfect wall in my laundry room that needed some embellishing. 

I wanted to dress him up with some cute thumbtacks.  So I gathered my supplies...buttons, flat head thumbtacks, and glue dots.

I picked out a few buttons that matched the laundry room color scheme, placed a glue dot on the flat head thumbtack and attached the button.  It was really that simple!

 Here he is adding that perfect touch of cuteness to my laundry room!

Happy Valentines...

I had a valentines party today with one of my classes and have another one tomorrow.  Little Bit has her party tomorrow too.  So we have been busy making valentines and filling goodie bags!  

We found these heart mazes at Deals {a local dollar store} and there were just enough in the package for all the kids in her class...score!  Little Bit thought they were great so we went with it.  I instantly thought of the phrase {to an "a maze"ing friend}!  She wanted to draw a stem on them to make the heart into a flower.  I think they turned out pretty "amazing"!

Then I was looking around pinterest for a teacher gift idea and found one that had nail polish and a nail file.  I tweaked the phrase to include teacher and we got {to a "toe"tally awesome teacher}!  I let Little Bit pick out the file and color of polish.  We also included a caramel heart!  I sure would enjoy receiving this gift!  

Here is the valentine I made for my little kiddos!  I used an owl body template that I had from last valentines.  Then I used a heart punch to do the eyes and some glitter hearts upside down for the wings.  I cut the tip off some smaller glitter hearts for the beak.  Whoooo doesn't love a cute little owl?!  ;)

What kinds of valentines are you creating this year?

Linking up here...

{OWL} craft and cute book...

I saw these cute owls made out of a toilet paper tube in some magazine a while back, think it might have been Parents but totally not sure.  So I thought I would give it a try.  

I started with an empty toilet paper tube and folded the top ends in towards each other to create the ears or owl tufts. 

Then I took a cute cupcake liner and cut it up.  By layer these overlapping on each other I created the belly of the owl! 

I punched out some circles for eyes and cut a small triangle for the beak.  Finally I cut a piece of cardstock to curve around the back to create wings.  I love how he turned out!!!  So simple and just using things I had lying around the house. 

 

While we are on the subject of owls, I thought I would share this super cute book that we read recently.  It is called "Lacey Walker, Nonstop Talker".  It is about the cutest little owl who talks all the time.  This of courses causes her some problems.  When you talk all the time you can't listen very well.  One day she wakes up and can't talk...at first she is upset and wonders what she will do.  But then she starts listening and realizes what she has been missing out on.   Such a great story!  Little Bit and I both loved it!!!

new tree!

Man it sure has been awhile since I have blogged....sorry if you've missed me...lol!  Life just gets busy and I haven't put a high priority on blogging.  I do miss it sometimes though...it's a good creative outlet.  So to jump back in I thought I would show you what has been keeping me busy lately.

We knew moving into our new house that come Christmas time we would need a new tree....due to the 11 foot ceilings in our living room.  So we have been on the lookout for a 9 foot tree that we like.  After exhausting all the stores in town we went online and found this one at Sears...

It is a pre-lit Frasier Fir....I love that it is real looking, without the mess {or smell} of a real tree.  Sorry but I am not a fan of pine smell. 

 

Next we knew we would need more ornaments...so another search began.  We ended up going with pink, green and teal assorted balls and bell shaped ornaments from Wal-mart. They were a great deal and add some great color to the tree!  I used our existing snowman ornament collection too.  But I wanted to add a few more new ones.  AND you know that I love owls...so I was super excited when I found these at Target...

They were the perfect colors to coordinate with our new "bright" ornaments.  So our snowman collection is becoming an owl and snowman collection!  ;)

I know we haven't gotten through Thanksgiving yet, but we go out of town to be with our families and I just like to get a jump start on getting the tree ready for the Christmas season! 

Do you have your tree up yet?  What kind of color/ornament theme to you use? 

owl canvas...

I saw this gift bag at Target and knew that I wanted to use it for some sort of wall art.  I orginally thought I would cut it apart and frame the owl on the branch.  Well, it wasn't the right size for a standard frame...so I went back to the drawing board.  Then I saw a painted canvas set that my friend made with an owl on one and a scripture verse on the other.  I decided I would create my own version using this gift bag owl.  

So I started by removing the handle from the bag.  Then I cut out the owl and branch.  I saved the sides of the bag, which were blue, and used them to make the circles on the canvas with the verse.  The yellow circles just came from some paper in my stash.  I picked up a 2 pack of 8x10 canvases from Michaels on sale and I also picked up some black letter stickers from Hobby Lobby.  I used Mod Podge to adhere everything to the canvases! 

I just love how they turned out!  Here they are hanging in my classroom at school!  ;)


Linking up with...

Made by you Monday @ Skip to My Lou

{whooo's} been trick or treating?!

My little owl...that's who! Little Bit sure has been enjoying dressing up in her owl costume!

It was fun and super easy to put together. I found the hat first....at County Market of all places! Then I used this tutorial for the owl body {jacket!}. I paired that with brown pants and had the perfect little owl costume! It was so much fun putting it together....and seeing how much Little Bit loves it!

Here is a sampling of all the fun we've had the past 2 weekends! School party, fall festivals, yummy food, games, getting treats!, library storytime and craft,....even trick or treating from Abe and Mary Lincoln!

Tonight we are off for more tricks and treats! Hope you have a fun and safe Halloween!

a {hoot} of a treat bag...

Little Bit is having a Fall party at school this week and I signed up to take treat bags. I had lunch sacks already on hand so I decided to use those and jazz them up a bit!
You know how much I love owls....so of course I took this opportunity to turn the treat bags into owls! I started by cutting a point at the top of the sack. Then I folded it over and this created the owls head. Then I punched scallop circles out of patterned paper and layered a white circle on top creating the eyes. I then cut a triangle from some orange paper for the nose. To finish off the owl I cut a hill shape out of coordinating patterned paper using scalloped edge scissors.

Here is a glimpse at what I filled the bags with. I tried to keep it healthy and fun at the same time....knowing the kids will probably be filled with enough candy come this weekend. ;) So the bags included animal crackers, raisins, pumpkin straws, pencils, notebooks and glow sticks!

I did two different versions of the owls....pink and stripes for the girls, blue and circles for the boys!

Hope the party is a hoot! ;)


Linking up to Take-A-Look-Tuesday at Sugar Bee Crafts!

{whooo's} ready for school?

My Little Bit...that's who! I so can't believe that she is starting preschool in 2 weeks! Well, back to school means she needs a backpack. And look what one we found.....an owl one of course!!! When we brought it home, she wanted to wear it around and fill it up...it pretty much swallows her up but she just loves it.

{We found this backpack at The Children's Place!}

free owl print!

You know my love of owls....so you can guess how super excited I was to see this freebie my friend Lisa informed me of....A FREE OWL PRINT from Very Jane {deal from Kathryn Divine}! I have downloaded it and saved it to my computer. I am going to try having it printed at Walgreens later this week! This will make another great addition to the other owl artwork in Little Bit's room!

Hurry if you want this because it looks like they are only giving away a limited quantity for free!

a {hoot} of a baby gift...

This past weekend Little Bit and I traveled to a baby shower for my cousin's wife. She is such a cute little preggo! She is not finding out the gender of the baby so gifts had to be neutral. I chose to go with an owl theme...cause they work for girl or boy and who doesn't love owls?!

I decided to embellish a white onesie with a little owl. I just freehanded a pattern and cut out all the pieces, using brown and green fabric. I used Wonder Under to adhere all the pieces to the onesie. I then sewed green buttons on to enhance the eyes.

I also made a couple burp cloths. I found a cute owl print at JoAnns that looked pretty gender neutral and paired that with some fabric I had on hand. They coordinated great! Here are some girly burp cloths I made a while back....{tutorial link is in that post}.

Little Bit helped pick out 2 books with owls in them to complete our owl themed gift!

I also included a little zipper pouch filled with some {new mommy necessities}!...hand sanitizer, lip gloss, lotion, kleenex, shout wipes, ibuprofen & gum.

recipe shelves...

We have these 3 open shelves in the corner of our kitchen. They are used to house our cookbooks, recipe cards, phone books and a few small appliances.

After I read a cooking magazine I would either throw the whole magazine on the bottom shelf or rip out a recipe and place it on the pile. Also the basket was overflowing with recipes. The mess was getting to me, so I finally sorted and tossed and got this space organized!

There were several small manuals and recipe booklets that I didn't want to get lost mixed in with the larger cookbooks, so I made them a little home all their own. I took a cracker box, made a few cuts and added some cute paper to turn it into a small magazine type box.

Here is the after....less crowded and way more organized. The top shelf is pretty much the same, just moved the coffee maker and added the file box. On the second shelf, I eliminated a duplicate phone book and added a few decor items. {The 2 owls are from Target's dollar spot and the red jar is from Michaels.} Now my red plate stand has a home on the bottom shelf next to the recipe box and coffee maker. All the recipes I kept from the huge pile and basket were either filed in my recipe binder or written on a card and placed in my fairly new recipe box!

Linking up to We're Organzied Wednesday!

{heart} day reads...

We LOVE this book! Have you checked this one out yet? If not run to the library or your local bookstore and read it. It is just too cute and I love how all the animals are made out of hearts!

My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall

We do have a love for owls....so we made this one, modeled after the one in the book!

Here are a few other Valentine's books we {checked out}...

The Day it Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond

If You'll Be My Valentine by Cynthia Rylant

Max's Valentine by Rosemary Wells

My Valentine for Jesus by Laurie Lazzaro Knowlton

Letter Oo

"O" topics...owl, ocean, orange

{Circle Time}

Calendar...Talk about the month and days of the week and put sticker on the day we are discussing.

Reading...days of the week book...Wise Owl's Days of the Week by Jane Belk Moncure

...theme books...My "o" Book by Jane Belk Moncure

Owl Babies by Martin Waddell

WOW! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood

Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton

A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na

I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry

Songs/Rhymes...The O says...

{Letter Craft}

O is for Owl...{this one is my design}

{Activities}

Coloring...Letter Oo

Letter Identification...

find the letter worksheet

...do a dot letter printables

...letter tracing o is for owl

Spelling...We worked on spelling OWL this week. I wrote the word and drew a picture on our dry erase board. Each day I had Little Bit spell and sound out the word.

...tray with magnetic letters and cards with words {OWL, ON}. Little Bit placed the corresponding letters over the letters on the cards...while sounding out each letter.

Owls...dot to dot owl. This is a great exercise for getting letters in the correct order and drawing lines!

...owl mask. We cut a paper plate in half and cut out eye holes. Then Little Bit glued cotton balls all over and a paper triangle for the nose. I then taped the mask on a craft stick so she could hold it up to her face.

...toilet paper roll owl! I got the idea here. Gracie loved gluing the pieces on the roll to create an owl and then coloring it to add more personality!

Activity shelf...pom pom transfer w/tweezers; snowflake matching; marble transfer to star suction mat; number matching {must clip the correct numbered clothes pin to the same numbered snowflake}, "snow" sensory box {filled with all things white....pom poms, cotton balls, candle, pipe cleaners, beads, bowl, scoop}; nuts & bolts match up; orange lacing card

Computer time...Starfall {we worked in the ABC section with the letter O}

...Little Bit also loves to get in some computer time when we go the library. They have computers set up in the children's area with games, stories, etc. She loves working on Jump Start PreK!

Snacks....check out this owl sandwich...similar to the reindeer we did at Christmas time!

owls, owls & {more owls!}

OK, so owls are starting to take over in Little Bit's room! I made this owl pillow awhile back. It now has a home on the top of her book shelf....along with a cute little ceramic owl container I found at Walmart during Easter. I also found this neat site where you can print some art for free. I printed this cute owl art and trimmed it down to fit in a 5x7 frame. The graduation owl on the 2nd shelf I found at Goodwill for less than $1!

This wall shelf was full of Cherished Teddies when the room was all bear decor. We have weeded out most of the bears but still like them...so they all aren't banned from the room...hehe!

I found the little glass owl at Pier One. The polka dot one I made! I just freehanded a pattern and used some Amy Butler fabric to whip him up. I cut the eyes and beak out of felt and added some buttons to the eyes. Here is a close up...

Creative Corner...owl bag {whoot!}

Several months ago I was in Target and found this little bag in the dollar spot. It was in a section marked 75% off...so I got it for ONLY 25 cents! I thought the style was cute {and would be a good size for Little Bit} but wasn't crazy about the image on it...a great candidate for some altering!I am a little obsessed with cutesy owls right now. So what better to applique on the bag! I sketched a pattern, making sure it was large enough to cover the image already there. I used mostly felt for the owl but wanted to tie the colors together somehow. The cute dot print was perfect for that. It was just some cotton fabric I had on hand. It worked great for the wings! I whip stitched it all on the bag with embroidery thread.

Then I added some Basic Grey buttons to enhance the eyes and tied some ribbon for a bow. {I wanted to make sure she was girlie!} I just love how it turned out! Here is a close up...

Little Bit loves her new bag and is having a blast "shopping" and filling it up! {I did have a thought to add her name across the band at the top of the bag...but that will have to come later!}

Creative Corner...{mommy & me}

Just a random scrapbook page I did a few weeks ago. I just loved the colors in the photo and how they went perfectly with the lemonade papers from Basic Grey! For some reason I have a love for {owls}...at least little cute stamps of them! The little guy I used here is from Michaels dollar stamps. I stamped him in turquoise, cut out and added pink buttons for the eyes!

Creative Corner...EtsyInspired Challenge #60

Here is my first go at an EtsyInspired Challenge. This week's EtsyInspired shop is Vivikas. She has the cutest little felt owls! I just love them!!! I chose this one as my inspiration...but they are all darling!

Recipe:
Paper ~ white, saffron, k&company dp
Stamps ~ studio g owl stamp
Ink ~ black, copics, saffron marker
Accessories ~ modern label punch, rhinestones, pop dots

Creative Corner...Owl Pillow

I have seen several variations on owl pillows lately and just thought they were too cute not to try and make one. So I free-handed a pattern and this is what I came up with! I just love how it turned out! This pillow will go on Little Bits bed once she moves out of her crib...not that I am wishing that anytime soon!

Creative Corner...Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there! Here is Little Bit's card for her daddy...

I had a few of these stamped owls lying on my desk, leftover from a previous project, and Little Bit kept asking for the "whos". So she would sit on my lap and entertain herself for a bit looking at these little owls. She always made it a point to show daddy the "whos" whenever she was playing with them. I decided what a perfect thing to use for a father's day card. So I went with the sentiment..."who" loves you...and there you have it! Hope he likes it!!!

Recipe:
Paper ~ white, kiwi kiss, SU designer paper "good morning sunshine"
Stamps ~ SU "forest friends"
Ink ~ brown, choc chip marker
Accessories ~ ribbon, button, key tag punch