Signs of Spring from the #SCBH2015, Favorites from week 4

There is still time to link-up your St. Patrick's Day crafts to the Spring Craft Blog Hop! This is the final weekend for the current Spring Craft Blog Hop! The current Hop closes on March 17, and will re-open on March 18th with a new link-up including Easter crafts and continuing on the general spring theme. Thanks to My Pinterventures for organizing and all the other hosts for making this link-up party so successful!



I promised I would feature more St. Patrick Day crafts this week, and it wasn't hard to find some amazing projects. Creating these round-ups has been a breeze, because I already start out with great content linked up thanks to all of you! Lots of shamrocks in this round-up today, to bring you plenty of Irish Luck!

Rainbow Potato Stamping

We are taking advantage of all the sunshine we are getting by crafting outdoors! While the east coast is covered in snow, we are romping about in tees and shorts, soaking up vitamin D and getting our fingers dirty making potato prints. This art project is perfect for learning about color blending and easy for small kids to do because halved potatoes provide excellent grip for small hands.

 

I think its pretty obvious with my rainbow-themed projects this year, that I miss the rain! We have gotten 5 days of rain in the whole of 2015 so far, and this winter has felt more like an extended spring. I swear I'm going to sound like a weather nerd in the next statement, but I jump for joy anytime there is rain predicted in our forecast (and I get mad at the meteorologists when they are wrong).

Anyway, enough weather woes, whether (hey, see what I did there...) we are complaining that it is too hot, too cold, too dry, too frozen... Lets get on to the project!

Signs of Spring from the #SCBH2015, Favorites from week 3

I have the pleasure of co-hosting the 2015 Spring Craft Blog Hop with an awesome group of bloggers. This round-up features entries that caught my eye that are linked up to the current hop (St. Patrick's Day and Spring), running through March 17th. Be sure to link up your relevant projects anytime for a chance to be featured in future round-ups!

March is here, which means Spring is around the corner, and so is St. Patrick's Day. For the next 2 weeks, I'm going to focus on the St. Patrick's Day crafts that I have been seeing on the Spring Craft Blog Hop, and pick out a few of my favorites! We've gotten an amazing assortment of crafts, from kids crafts to décor and inspiration for outdoor projects - if you haven't checked out the Spring Craft Blog Hop, I suggest you pop on over!



I love how all of these crafts are made with basic art supplies to create new unique art pieces! These crafts could decorate a front window, or a fireplace mantle, or an entryway to create a fun vignette.

St. Patrick's Day Printables for a Mini Gallery Wall

St. Patrick's Day is less than 2 weeks away, so it's time to get decorating, right? I have seen some great decorating inspiration on the Spring Craft Blog Hop, from all the co-hosts and the almost 100 entries so far. I have always wanted a fun gallery wall full of photos, printables, and other decorative things, so for St. Patrick's Day I though I would start one! I bought a variety of white frames in 8x10 and 5x7 sizes. I created a couple of printables, and finished the look off with green polka dot scrapbook paper and a swatch of themed fabric.

I plan on changing out the printables and fabric with the seasons, and eventually they will be filled with family photos, so I felt like I will get a lot of bang for my buck that I spent on the photo frames. Since it's March, I went with green and shamrocks as my uniting factor. I was lucky enough to have the scrapbook paper and fabric already, so the only thing I had to buy for this project was the photo frames.

 

 



Rainbow Rolled-Brim Knit Hat

This post is part of the Spring Craft Blog Hop 2015, the second in a four-part spring craft blog hop challenge for the spring season! This hop will run from February 18 - March 17. We challenge you to create a craft project that reflects St. Patrick's Day, Palm Sunday, or a general Spring theme. Please join us in this challenge and link up your crafty creation to be seen on 20 blogs!

I love to create projects that can be gifted. In November, I re-taught myself to knit to keep my hands
busy, and to be able to create wearable gifts. I could spend hours at the knitting store or browsing online for yarns, thinking of the beautiful creations I could make. For a hat with a fun St. Patrick's Day twist, I created a rolled-brim rainbow hat that is made using 2 worsted weight yarns knitted together.

 

Using white and rainbow-colored ombre yarn knitted together creates this unique design in the knitting and makes a thicker, warmer hat that is perfect for cold weather. This pattern is simple enough for beginning knitters that know the basics. The whole hat is knit using the knit stitch (which creates stockinette when knitting in the round).

Spring Craft Blog Hop - St. Patrick's Day and Spring

I'm so excited to be a host of the Spring Craft Blog Hop 2015! A huge thank you to Erlene over at My Pinterventures for arranging this whole hop and keeping us all organized! I hope you all enjoyed the first installment of the hop. Now that Valentine's Day is over, we're moving right along through to March for the second installment of the hop. Bring your green for St. Patrick's Day, Palm Sunday, and other Spring themed crafts!

Welcome to the second in a four-part spring craft blog hop challenge for the spring season! This hop will run from February 18 - March 17 and we're challenging you to create a craft project that reflects St. Patrick's Day, Palm Sunday, or a General Spring theme. Please join us in this challenge and link-up your crafty creation at the bottom of this post to be seen on 18 blogs!

Meet all 20 hosts!

Each host will be sharing their own craft to kick off the Spring Craft Blog Hop challenge, so make you visit each host to see their fabulous creations!

Emerald Isle Jigglers

Jello is definitely a treat for my children, since I try not to make it often. I think these Emerald Isle Jigglers are the perfect little way to celebrate St. Paddy's Day, and they couldn't be simpler.

 

Emerald Isle (Lime Jello) Jigglers
Makes one 9"x13" pan

You Will Need: 
3 large (6-oz) packets of lime Jello
1 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
Boiling water
Cooking spray
9x13 pan

This is a two-step process, but each layer is equally simple. The first layer is lime Jello Jigglers. Let it set and add a creamy Jello layer with the addition of condensed milk. This was such an easy dessert, my two-year old helped make the first layer before we put him down for bed. I finished the second layer before I went to bed and let it set up in the fridge overnight. (Hence no pictures of the step-by-step process, but it's so easy, you probably don't need them!)

For the bottom layer: Add 2 packets to 2 1/2 cups of boiling water. Stir and let dissolve for 3 minutes. Spray your 9x13 with cooking spray, then carefully pour your Jello in. Pop any bubbles with a toothpick and place in your fridge (uncovered) to set up for 1-2 hours.

For the top layer: Add 1 packet to 1 1/4 cup boiling water. Stir and let dissolve. Pour in 1 1/4 cup of sweetened condensed milk (I eyeballed it from a 14-oz can). Stir gently to combine. Slowly pour on top of the first layer, popping any bubbles. Return to fridge and let set 4-5 hours, or until really firm.

To serve, set your pan onto a hot towel for a few minutes, and slice with a sharp knife. Alternatively, you can cut with festive cookie cutters for even more St. Patrick's day cheer!

St. Patrick's Day Kiss Party Favors

Happy St. Patrick's day! I have been having fun these past few weeks putting up a few decorations and making sure I have something green to wear. I made these little favors for fun, but you could use them to decorate a mantle or surprise your kids/spouse with a bit of chocolate goodies. These would also make a cute place card/favor for hosting a dinner party. I had all the supplies on hand, making this a no-cost craft (my favorite kind!).

First things first, the supplies.

• Tall shot glasses: I bought these at Target in the dollar section a few years back. Try your local dollar store, thrift store, or even a restaurant supply store for inexpensive shot glasses.
• The printable: if you are following this blog you might recognize these from my St. Patrick's day photo props. They are the perfect size for this!
• Craft sticks, glue, and a bit of tape: to put the printable "on a stick"
• Hershey's Kisses and mini M&Ms: I simple separated the green ones out, or you could pick up a bag of green M&M's from your local party store. Really, any small green candies would work in this.

1. Stack 3 Hersey's Kisses inside your shot glass.
2. Pour some green M&M's on top, gently tapping to get them all the way to the bottom.
3. Stack another 3 Kisses on top.
4. Pour in another handful of M&M's, tapping them down a bit.
5. Add your printable on a stick, and there you have it. Super simple, super cute party favors!

 

 

 

Decorating for St. Patrick's Day: Photo Prop, Free Printable

With St. Patrick's Day coming, I think most people are a little "green" with envy. But why should those with Irish blood have all the fun? Here are two printable photo props so we can all have a little fun! I got the inspiration for these from last month's Valentine's Day on a Stick.

Kiss Me I'm Irish Printable

 

 I'Rish I was a little bit Irish printable

Cut them out, fold them over a craft stick, and get snapping! Or use them to decorate around your house, maybe stick them in a potted plant, or in a candy dish on the mantle, or hide them somewhere for that special someone to find!

 

See how I used these printables to make fun party favors!

 





Decorating for St. Patrick's Day: Lucky Shamrock Bunting

Wow, what a whirlwind weekend! My youngest turned 2 years old, we had family come for a visit. Since we will be having a joint birthday party at the end of the month for S and Big Brother, we just had a low-key birthday dinner with cupcakes for dessert Saturday night. This weekend, Elder Scrolls Online hosted a beta event, so I stayed up a bit later than usual. Yes, I play video games on occasion. More like I try to play video games but at the end of the day, sleep usually wins out.

 

I also created this bunting to decorate for St. Patrick's day, using items I had on hand. Remember our marble painting from last week? I told you I was going to use them in a St. Patrick's day craft, so here they are!

Our green and gold marble painting were perfect for this. They got a little curled after they dried, so I flattened them out under a stack of heavy books overnight. I created a template from a quick search on Google images and traced it onto some cardboard. I punched holes in either side, and strung it up on cream colored yarn. I made the bunting to fit my fireplace, but then moved it to the windows in our breakfast nook to keep little hands off of it. I made two smaller bunting for the small windows using a similar template. The length of the larger bunting is 56", the smaller ones are 26". I hung them all using small Command hooks, that way I didn't have to use unsightly tape or drill holes in the wall.



It is really difficult to take pictures of my breakfast nook during the day since it is completely backlight. Here you can see what the finished product looks like, as well as see the two smaller buntings that I added to the side.

I love the way it turned out! It was a lot of tracing and cutting (17 four-leaf clovers and 10 three-leaf), but otherwise a simple craft to take an afternoon on, and a great way to showcase my son's art!