Hairpin Tin

A spiffied-up Altoids mints case to hold my daughter's bobby pins and hairpins for ballet. This will make my life so much easier! This will go in her Christmas stocking, so shhhhhh!

I free-handed the embroidery on felt. Other tools: my good ol' pinking shears and trusty E-6000 glue.

Scripture Brief Cases - Missionary Style

I finally made the boys some scripture/church cases. This is another one of those projects that has been a couple years in the making. I knew I wanted some manly briefcase-style scripture totes, but I didn't find the unfinished cases I wanted until just a couple weeks ago (Hobby Lobby for about $7, if I remember right. AND, by the way, Alexander's already needs a new latch!).

Once I had the right cases I still didn't know what I wanted them to look like. I knew I wanted their names on the outside and the missionary name tag popped into my mind. Then the whole shirt and tie just came together after that. I already knew I wanted some fun patterned paper, although I had considered vinyl for a leather look. My mom and I had fun making the name tags in Photoshop from an image of a real missionary tag. Then we put the kids' names on them in a font that turned out to be surprisingly authentic-looking (after a bit of stretching). FYI, I blurred out the last names for privacy on the www.



The white paper is textured so perfectly. It looks like a woven shirt. I had such a hard time with the Mod Podge, though! You can see I got wrinkles in all three papers, even though they were of various thicknesses. What's up with that?

 These scripture cases were the boys' Easter present from me. They found them under their Easter baskets.

I wish I could say I have some really cute pictures of my kids in their Sunday best holding their missionary scripture cases. And lovely photos of the interiors, all neat and organized with the perfect-sized 6x9" writing/drawing tablets, writing utensils, and scriptures all tucked inside. All those have really existed at one or two points in the last week and a half, I just don't have the pictures to prove it. I could wait and post this after (and if) the stars align and I get some awesome pictures later. But my blogging has been so sparse lately that I think I'll just post it as-is. So you have these photographic gems to look at:
:)

P.S. Did you spy what the Easter Bunny brought me? No, not Pat the Bunny and a wooden castle. Those are Ivory's. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

There's so much I'm thankful for. I'm especially grateful for my husband, two boys, and a little baby girl I have yet to get to know. Have a delicious, meaningful, safe and fun Thanksgiving!



This is a set of autumn-themed paper mache boxes I made a few years back to sit on my desk at the office (back when I was a full-time employee). I kept Tootsie Rolls in them. Now I can't do that or my kids will eat them all at once! but I still set the boxes out every year with my Fall decorations.