Barbie Thank You Notes

I finally got around to writing thank you notes to my family for my daughter's birthday presents. We couldn't stray from the Barbie theme, so I used the Cricut to cut a silhouette of Barbie.  Not a fancy card, but it was quick and exactly what she wanted. You can find the Barbie svg at the Mardenz blog.

In a Jar

I've been racking my brain for a month on what to make for thank you gifts.  My sister inlaw, Ashley actually gave me the idea.  She gave my mom a ghirardelli cake mix in a jar for Christmas and I thought this would be a great gift especially when you need to come up with 8 identical gifts.  Instead of the cake mix I went with brownies.  I found the jars at the craft store and went with the smooth Ball jars.  Then here are the ingredients you will need.

1-1/2 cups of sugar

1/3 cup of cocoa

1 cup of flour

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1/4 tsp of salt

1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips

1 cup of white chocolate chips

Mix the baking powder and salt in with the flour.  Then you can begin layering the ingredients into the jar. Start with the sugar, then cocoa, flour, chocolate chips. 

I then made a label for the jar with the cooking directions.

Baking Directions:

Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour an 8" square baking pan.

Combine 1/2 cup of softened butter with 2 eggs in a large bowl.

Pour in jar contents and mix. Spread into prepared pan.

Bake for 35 minutes. 

I topped them all off with a bow that I hot glued to the lid.  They were pretty simple to make and a great gift for just about anyone. 

Koozie Screen Printing

We are back from our wonderful vacation.  I must say it was nice and relaxing.  There's nothing like spending the week at the beach.  I actually did complete a project while I was there.  As a favor to my sister, who knows I wouldn't do this for just anyone, I helped her screen print 20 koozies for an upcoming bachelorette weekend.

I put my Cricut to use for this one since it was a bunch of lettering.  I used freezer paper on the cricut with the shiny side up so it would stick.  Just remember when you do this, you need to mirror the lettering. That way when you iron it on to the material, it reads the right way.  I also learned that freezer paper will stick on a neoprene.  I had my doubts at first, but I just needed to heat the iron up more before it would stick.  It worked out great.  I do recommend cutting out multiple copies of freezer paper for the stencils.  I only had two copies and they were getting gummed up with paint.  Thankfully, they held out till the end and we were able to finish all twenty koozies.  It turned out to be a cute project and I hope the bachelorette party likes them. 

Barbie Girl

So, I made the "Birthday Cake" for my daughter.  Remember she had a very specific idea in mind in one of my earlier posts.  I wanted to try and fulfill her request.  So, here it is. :)

Introducing Surfer Barbie.  She wanted Barbie surfing on her cake with a wave in the background.  She loved it and of course that is all that matters.

Tack Bench

Here's an interesting concept for the beach.  It's called the tack bench.

It's made to stick down in the sand and sit on.

The bench is designed by Monocomplex Design Group, based out of Seoul, Korea. To see more designs from them, click here.

Upcoming Project

I haven't started on this project yet, but I wanted to practice on the fabric first before I do the real thing.  It's a project working with neoprene and fabric paint.  The paint worked just fine and I'll be getting ready to crank out this project soon.  Some lucky members of my family are going to get to help me with this one.  :)

Pool Poncho

This project has been on my to do list for the last few months and I finally made time to get it done.  It is a very easy and quick project!  I'm not sure why I've been putting it off for so long.  I found a great tutorial at Sandy Toes and Popsicles. I tweaked a few things since I made one for my little guy and niece.
Here is what I changed for their size.  Since beach towels are so big, I had to cut them down.  After cutting it down, it still didn't seem to lay right on my little one, so for my niece's I cut off the corners and rounded them. I used bias tape on the edges I cut off.  I'm hoping to get a picture of her in it at the beach.

For the hood, I had to cut a bunch off.  It works better to just keep trying the hood on your little one's head to get the fit just right.  I found the beach towels at Target and paired them up with a matching hand towel.
They turned out super cute and we tried them out today at the pool.  The kids loved them. Here they are hamming it up on the swings.

Here's a view from the back of my little guy picking blueberries.

Counting Down

This project is dedicated to my sister, Annie.  She's the whole reason I made this paper chain.  We are all getting excited for the beach.  My daughter is especially excited and every day asks me if we are going to the beach today.  So, here's our beach themed paper chain. My daughter and I made waves, palm trees, suns and tropical flower paper chains.

She loves to rip a chain off each day and has ceased asking if we are going to the beach today.