DIY Silhouette Wall Art

I wanted to give my mother something unique for mothers day. Instead of the typical flowers, jewelery or chocolate. I made her wall art of her favorite little boy, her grandson! I started off by getting my son to stand in front of a window. I made sure to have him look straight ahead, then I snapped a picture quickly.

Afterwards I uploaded the image to my computer, and enlarged it to the size I wanted. I then cropped it and edited it to my liking. (I used the ''vivid" setting on my picture editing program. It brought out the black, and made Tyson's silhouette pop!)

I gathered all the supplies I needed to create the silhouette wall art. I purchased a 12x16 canvas, paint and paintbrushes. I also printed out the picture I edited of Ty's silhouette, and cut it out!

Trace the silhouette using a pencil. Don't worry if it's not perfect, you'll be painting it, and it can be fixed easily.

Paint the silhouette using black paint! (Or any color of your choice!)

Once the silhouette is completely dry, add a background color. I wanted to keep it neutral. (You will then be able to fix any mistakes with the background color.)

This part is optional -- Since this is a gift for my mother, I wanted to add a little extra something. I painted my little guys hand and foot, then made prints of them on the canvas.

I also painted "Nana's Boy" on the bottom of the picture. (Oh, and I can't forget the three little hearts!) Ta-Da! :) A very simple, and great keepsake! It's not perfect, but, we know Nana will love it!

How To Make Microwave Popcorn

This is an incredibly simple way to make popcorn. It's also very inexpensive and a great alternative to commercial bagged popcorn!
All you need is:
All you need is:
- 1/4 cup popcorn kernels
- Paper lunch bag
- Microwave
Optional: Butter/oil and seasonings

Place popcorn kernels into brown paper bag, and fold the bag a couple times. (If you plan on seasoning your popcorn, adding butter/oil first will help the seasonings stick to the popcorn.) Then place the bag into a microwave. Cook at full power for 2 minutes, or until you hear pauses of about 2 seconds between pops. Carefully open the bag to avoid steam, and pour into a serving bowl.

DIY Earring Holder

This simple DIY earring holder only cost me two dollars to make. I purchased the materials I needed from my local Dollarstore. If you're interested in creating your own, all you need is:

- A frame of your choice

- Shelf/door liner

- Scissors

Once you have all the materials, measure out how much liner you'll need to fit your frame. To make sure I had the correct measurements, I used the paper backing that came with the frame as a guideline.

Then, place the liner in the frame, along with the paper backing, glass and the back of the picture frame. 

Once everything is placed together, your frame should look similar to this.

 I added a small butterfly decoration for color. But, this is of course optional. You can make it as fancy as you want, or leave it plain.

And, here is the final product! It took a maximum of 10 minutes to put together!

Cauliflower Pizza Crust Recipe

Recipe:
1/2 Cauliflower "riced"
1 cup shredded cheese
1 egg
Spices of choice
Toppings of choice
Pizza sauce
Cooking spray

The first thing you want to do, is grate the cauliflower. To do so, I used a standard cheese grater. You can also use a food processor.

For this recipe I'm doubling it up. I'm using a whole cauliflower, instead of half. This will make two nine inch pizzas, instead of one.

 
Once the cauliflower is grated, place it in the microwave for 8 minutes. The moisture from the cauliflower will allow it to soften. There is no need to add water, or other liquid.

Add all ingredients and mix well. The texture will look and feel somewhat like an actual dough. For spices I used garlic powder, onion powder and chili spice. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Grease a pizza pan, and evenly devide the "dough". If you wish, you can add extra spices on top of the pizza. Basil and oregano are great choices! Put the dough into the oven to bind all the ingredients together. Allow to cook for 12-15 minutes.

while the dough is cooking, you can prepare your toppings. For this pizza I used chicken, red onions, green peppers and marbled cheese.

The pizza should come out of the oven looking similar to this, It should have a golden brown shade.

Place all toppings onto the pizza as you wish, then bake until all the cheese is melted. You can also broil the pizza if you prefer crispy pizza

 And, here is the final product! It's absolutely delicious, and even my 4 year old LOVES it!

The pizza cuts great too! :) I hope you all enjoy! It's a favorite in our home!

Haircut Gone Wrong

My fiance decided to give our son Tyson a haircut, for the first time... Well, let's just say he took a little too much off... I've always been the one to cut his hair... But, we decided that a little (remember, I said little..) buzz cut would be cute.

When my fiance went to use the razor, the extensions weren't working properly. So, he decided to take the extension off and just use the blade!!! After the first swipe, there was no going back. Tyson was so excited when he looked at his hair in the mirror! He thinks he looks just like daddy, and he loves that it's "crinkly and prickly!" He also said to me "Daddy and I have matching hair. It's prickly and crinkly. YOU need to have the same hair. Get the scissors..." What a little comedian!

Before:


After:

Chalk Day

It was a beautiful day today, and we made the best of it. We live in a large apartment building, with very little yard. So we decided to have a chalk day! We had a blast drawing and coloring on the pavement. We didn't do anything too exciting, but the time spent together was nice. Especially on such a gorgeous day! I'm excited for summer, the beach is calling our names!

Concentrating! :)

Playing hopscotch!

This picture was all his idea, hahaha!

I asked him what he wanted me to draw, and of course he wanted "red bird".

Recycled Crayons (Earth Day!)

Since Earth Day is soon approaching, I wanted to do something special with Tyson. We have tons of used and abused crayons, along with new ones from a recent art project I did. (The other project I did was called "crayon melting art". I'll post a link at the end of this blog if anyone is interested in learning more.)

 I got inspired from Pinterest once again, and decided to try out recycled crayons. First what you want to do is take the paper off the crayons. Then place all the crayons in cold water. Let them sit for an hour, and most of the paper will slide right off!

 Afterwards, I chopped up crayon bits, and placed them in colored groups. The one I'm making here is for the "earth". We only made one of these, but I was very impressed on the way it turned out. For the other crayon "cupcakes", I didn't bother to chop them up. I let most of the crayons stay in a larger pieces.

 For the earth: I added blue, two different shades of green and a small amount of white crayons. I then placed them in a muffin tin.(Make sure to spray your muffin tin with cooking oil. Or, you can use a cupcake liner!)

 Then, for the rest of the crayons, I let my son group the colors he wanted together. Make sure your oven is preheated to 275 degrees.

 I allowed the crayons to melt/bake for about 6-8 minutes. The time varies with each oven. Keep a close eye on the crayons, and as soon as they are completely melted, take them out. Allow them to cool completely before removing from the pan.

 This is the final product of the earth crayon!! I'm very happy with the results, and my son thought it was very pretty.

 Here are the multicolored crayons, along with the earth! These would make really cute gifts as well! You could use a heart shaped muffin tin, and give them out as valentines. A great alternative to chocolate, and inexpensive as well.

The crayons colored nicely on paper! At first Tyson was a bit intimidated of the circled crayons, but he soon got the hang of it!

Here is the project I was talking about at the beginning of this blog. Please feel free to check it out! I love crayons, and I love even more I was able to make this awesome art with them!

Homemade Bath Paints!

 I was inspired by Pinterest to make bath paints with my son. All we used was shaving cream (cheap dollarama brand) and liquid food color. To hold the "paint", we used an ice cube tray. And, To stir everything together, we used a popsicle stick.

 My little guy mixed and picked all the colors! He was very impressed with himself! He did a great job! ♥

 I was very happy that the food coloring didn't dye the tub, or Tyson!

 By this point, all the colors were mixed together, but still worked fine! :)

We will definitely be doing this activity again! I have to admit, I even enjoyed being able to paint on the walls!

Barnyard, fourth Birthday Party!

This was my sons most recent birthday party. It was held at our apartment, and we only invited a few children. My son loves animals, so my fiance and I thought a barn/farm themed party would be perfect!

This was the first year I decided not to get a customized t-shirt made for his big day. Instead, my son dressed up in overalls and a plaid shirt. We asked all guests to get in the barn/farm spirit and wear their favorite plaid shirts and jeans. To make my little guy feel extra special, I got him to wear a birthday boy ribbon. He loved it!

 Since the guest list wasn't very large, I decided to make eight cupcakes and a small cake. I made a barn, sheep, dogs and pigs! The kids thought the animals were super cute.

 I got into the spirit and painted my nails! I also wore a cowboy hat, jeans and a pink plaid shirt!

I create a photo cutout from cardboard. I free handed the picture, and painted it with acrylic tole paint. I made sure to get a picture of each kiddie looking like a pig. The pictures turned out great!

 For the goodie bags, I picked up some brown bags. I decorated them with stickers and wrote each child's name on the bag. Inside there were tons of farm themed items. Everything from plastic animals to animal candies!

 I had a painting station for the children. I purchased animals from the dollarstore and made sure to have extras just in case some of the kiddies wanted to paint more than one. Other activities I had for the kids was pin the tail on the donkey along with a few others. But, the kids loved playing in my sons room so much, we didn't get around to play all the games. As long as they were all happy, I was happy!

For decorations I purchased checkered table clothes, made a few homemade pictures for the walls and created cow print balloons. I picked up plain white balloons, took a sharpie and drew cow prints on each one. I tied a red ribbon on them, and stuck them the the ceiling for a helium effect!

I also create hats! I already had the paint, and glue, so all I needed to buy was the foam hats and extra foam. I used a hot glue gun to stick everything together.