The Crafty Baby: DIY Snow Globe Ornament

Recently we had a few younger cousins in town & with Christmas just around the corner I turned one of my ornament designs into this super simple DIY.  And with my hand holding his, baby Coops painted his first ornament, making this artist mama beyond proud. 

Snow Globe Ornament

*Acrylic Ornament Ball (can be found at a local craft store, or HERE)
*All Purpose Acrylic Craft Paint (I used Martha Stewart in Black & Orange, found HERE)

*Mini Styrofoam Balls (available at Hobby Lobby, or HERE)

*Small Paint Brush
*Ribbon

Empty the Styrofoam Balls into a large Ziploc bag, remove the metal top of the ornament & scoop the "snow" inside. Adding a little Styrofoam means you can shake the ornament for a snow globe effect, more Styrofoam (like we used) gives a a solid snowball appearance. 

**Messy Floor Warning: the Styrofoam balls are INCREDIBLY static-y & will stick to anything, so depending on your kiddo's age keep an extra eye on them for this first part.**

Once the snow is inside the ornament, put the top back on.  Then paint two black circles for the eyes & four for the mouth, followed by a long orange triangle for the nose.  

I also added the year "2016" on the back of our ornament & am debating whether or not to put Cooper's name there as well.

Next up- an adorable footprint snowman Coops & I are putting together to gift to family this holiday season, & at less than $15 for A DOZEN pieces we saved A TON by going handmade for Christmas!!

DIY: Footprint Pumpkins

For Grammie's birthday this year we decided to forego the usual gifts or flowers in lieu of helping Cooper craft his first pumpkin to decorate her home. 

What You Need:

Black Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Acrylic Craft Paint 

White Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Acrylic Craft Paint 

1 Small Foam Brush

1 Small Paint Brush 

2 Small-ish Pumpkins

Then came the prep work. I covered Cooper's bouncer with puppy pee pads (yes you read that right & you can thank me for that tip later), stripped him down to his diaper, strapped him in & put a full container of baby wipes within arms reach.

For the Ghosts:

I used a foam brush to paint Cooper's feet white, flipped the first pumpkin upside down & touched baby heel down first, then pushed the rest of his foot gently down all the way to the end of those cute little toes. It took 3 tries to get 2 prints (use the baby wipes to wipe away excess paint when baby decides to start kicking the pumpkin #truestory).  

Then once dry add 3 short black lines for the  eyes & mouth.

For the Bat:

Follow the same steps as the ghost, but use black paint & only one footprint in the middle of the pumpkin. Then add one wing to each side of the foot & a silly face on the heel.

Immediately following either design- wipe, wipe, wipe that paint off those wiggly toes & we decided to follow that with a bath to get what the wipes missed.

After finishing the ghost pumpkin for Grammie, & a bat version for our own home, I realized that I wanted a bit of Halloween wall art that could be put on display for years to come. So I found a wood pallet plaque buried in our craft bin (similar HERE) & got to work, adding a couple bats & words to make THIS October keepsake <3

Backyard Oasis: Part 1

When moving into our new place last winter we DOUBLED the size of our back yard (hallelujah). So after seeing this DIY by Marianne over at Craft Project Ideas Eric and I started to plan out our own Backyard Oasis.  A space that I've always dreamed of having but never in a million years thought we'd get around to creating.

We took Marianne's DIY & made a couple changes- mainly make it bigger.  We wanted our Backyard Oasis to be for more than us.  To surround that fire pit with friends over for beers or s'more making on family holidays.

Here's the before pic (just look at that giant EMPTY space saying fill me with something fun)-

We started with this pile of stones from an Aunt's recently dissembled garden & power washed them to save money, which didn't take too long at all.

While I power washed (for the FIRST time EVER, don't worry friends- hubs gave me multiple demonstrations & warnings on the dangers) Eric dug down a bit for the center of the hole and hammered the back of each stone to force them into that nice round shape.

Three more levels, 4 hours & a LOT of glasses of lemonade later we had this-

The best part came a couple days after that when we stained these two Adirondack chairs & spent our first night outside with the pups roasting hot dogs & toasting Backyard Oasis: Part 1 with a couple beers.