Show Me the Money Lei

Last week my brother-in-law turned 21 and we went to a surprise party for him. Rather than write him a check, I decided to make a money lei for him to wear at the party. It was super easy to make, but took awhile to assemble. It's the perfect thing to do while sitting around watching tv.

First, cut a 10 foot piece of ribbon (this will seem really long, but trust me when I say that you can always cut some off and you don't want to realize that you don't have enough ribbon when you are half way through.) Fold the ribbon in half. Tie a knot leaving a loop at the top.

Take a dollar bill and lay it flat.

Fold the dollar bill in half horizontally. Then unfold the dollar.



Then fold the dollar vertically. Fold the end in about 1/2-3/4 inch.



Continue to accordian fold the dollar bill until you get to the other end. (Kids love to do this part--the folds don't have to be perfect.)



Fold the folded bill in half. (this is where the horizontal fold makes it easy to fold in half)

Place the dollar bill in between the two ribbons.

Tie a double knot at the bottom of the dollar bill.

Take a plastic drinking straw.

Cut a small piece (1/4 inch) of the straw.

Thread the piece of straw onto the two pieces of ribbon. The straw will serve as a spacer and will give the necklace some structure.

Tape one side of the dollar bill together.

Tape the other side together.

Repeat with another dollar bill.

Keep adding bills until you have the amount that you want on the necklace. The necklace above has $62 on it--I was going for $100, but it would have been too long. $50 is probably the perfect amount.

When you are finished with the necklace, tie it together and cut off any extra ribbon. You can add a medallion if you want. I printed a 4" x 4" white 21 on a black background. (I used photo paper so it would be glossy) I then used my circle cutter to cut it out. I attached it to the lei using clear elastic thread.

It was a huge hit!

I am linking up to these parties today. Go check out all the great crafts:

I Am Done!

At least I think I am! I finished a scarf (my first one that is totally finished) the other day. I added fringe and washed it and now it's ready to be given to my BFF, Alden. It's a little long and she's a little short, but I hope she will like it!

I heart these clear "paint" cans from Michaels.

A lot of the cousins love gift cards and they are so boring to wrap. I try to come up with something creative to pair with the gift cards. Here is an example of one for my nephew who is in college.

NOTE: Grandparents (if you are reading) STOP!

These photo ornaments are my absolute favorite thing to make. I used 2 inch wood cubes that I got at Michaels for $1 a piece. Then I printed out 6 pictures (thank you Lidia). I used photoshop to make 1.8 inch by 1.8 inch prints. I then ran them through my Xyron machine and made them into stickers. I placed them on the cube and then I put a screw eye in the top of the wood block. A piece of ribbon and a charm finished the ornament.

I used a chipboard box from AC Moore to store a set of ornaments of each child for the grandparents.

I covered each of the boxes with scrapbooking paper and then covered them with Triple Thick. A ribbon and a handmade tag finished the gift.

Now I just need to clean my house. I'd rather be making something else!

Season's End

Soccer is over for the season...

Tristan had a great year at Stopper. He was a co-captain and he took all of the free kicks and the corner kicks on the left side. It's exciting to see him playing with such confidence.

My friend's son, Jay, took these two photos.

I think that I have about 500 of this exact shot!

I captured this one...not sure how he did this (or what happened next)!

The team had a pizza party after the last game and we presented the coaches with these collage frames that I made with a picture of each player and four additional team pictures.

Now, it's on to basketball. There's no rest for the weary!

Photo Collages

Last year, I made a photo collage for my friend, Lynn. These are images of the campus where Lynn works. She has breast cancer and last fall, she was in the midst of her treatment and away from school.

Then I made a photo collage for our church silent auction. We are in the process of a capital campaign so that we can renovate the church and once we begin, the look of the church will change significantly. These are pictures that have been taken over the past 20 years.

Last December, my friend, M, had an online fundraiser to raise money for a cancer camp in her neck of the woods. Everyone who donated money was entered in a drawing for various handmade gifts. I donated a photo collage to M's fundraiser and Julie won. She sent me pictures of her family that were taken on Mother's Day.

Julie, your prize is FINALLY on its way!

Photo Puzzle

I love making gifts for my kids' friends. One of my favorite gifts to make is a photo puzzle.

I buy wooden blocks at Michaels or AC Moore. For this puzzle, I used sixteen 1.5 inch blocks. They fit perfectly in this wood box that I also bought at Michaels. I then cropped a picture to 5.75 inches x 5.75 inches in photoshop and printed the picture on photo paper. (This is slightly smaller than the 6 inch x 6 inch square that the blocks make up, but this way the photos fit nicely on the individual blocks) Then I cut the picture into 16 equal squares. I put each square through my Xyron which laminated the photo side and created a sticker on the back side so that I could stick the photo directly onto the block. I did this 6 times so that every side of the block was covered.

I then printed out the six pictures and laminated them as well. This way, whoever is working on the puzzle can take a picture and figure out what the end result should look like. This is really important when there are 16 blocks--this puzzle is a little difficult. I have made it with 9 blocks before and that is perfect for little kids.

This is what the finished puzzle looks like for this one picture.

This project is really easy and the puzzles are fun to play with.

When Life Gets In The Way

I have been away for awhile.  My computer crashed and is currently at Best Buy being repaired by a Geek Squad member.  I cannot wait to get it back!

I've been busy in my absence.  This weekend, we are going to Philadelphia to celebrate Mother's Day with Tony's side of the family.  With 7 nieces and nephews on that side alone, there are always a couple of birthdays to celebrate too.  This little monkey is turning 4.  He is a busy bee 

so I had a lot of fun picking out a present that would keep his interest (at least I hope it will)

Target has the cutest gardening stuff for little kids.  I lOVE this cow line. We bought the gloves.

We bought these adorable rain boots.  I apologize in advance if he wants to wear them all the time, but really, is there anything cuter than a young boy in rain boots on a sunny day?

I put it all together in a bucket with a shovel, rake and sunflower seeds.

The close-up view of the bucket with all the loot.

I made the cow bucket.  I just printed his name in a cow spot font and then I found cow spots that I could trace on google.  What ever did we do before the internet existed? Gotta love those sharpies too.

It's also this guy's birthday too!  He looks guilty, doesn't he?  This picture was taken on Easter when he was pulling the Golden Egg out of my gas tank.  Great hiding spot thanks to my older boys. His present is almost done and I will post pictures soon.

Finally, the last thing I've been working on is a Girls' Weekend Cookbook.  For the past several years, a bunch of women from Baltimore go to Bethany Beach and stay for a weekend.  Two women own houses and each night a different house hosts the "PARTY".  All the people staying at the house provide appetizers, desserts, beverages and breakfast. I have compiled recipes and have been trying to put together a cookbook for 2 years.  I have finally accomplished making the first one...well sort of, it still needs ribbon and a few additional embellishments, but it's mostly done.  We are going next weekend and I need to finish a total of 16-the first one is always the hardest!  When it is totally finished, I will post pics.

Check back tomorrow for Where You Live Friday.

Giving Well...Mom Don't Read!

My mom's birthday was back in October. Since I haven't seen her, I haven't been able to give her the gift that my brother's family and I have put together for her. I took a class at Big Picture Scrapbooking and the first assignment was to put together a gift bag full of things that we love and then give it to someone. I asked my brother and sister-in-law for some of their favorite things and this is what we all came up with.


Anyone who has seen this site knows that I love this cookbook. Every recipe I have tried has been great.

My brother loves Scor bars. Boy are they hard to find. I finally found them at 7-Eleven!

These are my all time favorite candy. They are sea salt caramels and they are to die for. I would eat the entire bag if they were for me. Bonus is that some of the proceeds are donated to cancer research and efforts that heighten public awareness of cancer associated problems.

My favorite Merlot (actually the only Merlot I like)...Henry's Passion. I bought a case a few weeks ago. There are only 59 cases left in Maryland and once they are gone, the wine is no more.

My sister-in-law's favorite coffee. It's very bold (and stinky if you ask me being that I don't like coffee)

We included a cd that my husband put together for my daughter, Allie. She went away for a week and he made it and gave it to her upon her return. I happen to think that it's one of the nicest, most meaningful things that he has ever done.

Songs include:

All That Matters by Addison Road

Unbreakable by Fireflight

We Live by Superchick

Stand In The Rain by Superchick

Never Alone by BarlowGirl

Set the World on Fire by Britt Nicole

Shine by Krystal Meyers

Mighty to Save by Laura Story

In My Arms by Plumb

I Need You to Love Me by BarlowGirl

You by Britt Nicole

All I Need by Brittany Dillon

Thirteen by The Rubyz

A book from one of my brother's and my favorite authors, David Baldacci.

I put it all together in this great straw basket that I got at Eddie's...my favorite grocery store.

We will be giving this to her today as we celebrate Thanksgiving. Hope you have a great turkey day! We will be back later with pictures and the results of our Turkey Cook Off. Mom will cook her turkey in the oven and my family will fry ours in the turkey fryer.