Dr Seuss Graduation Open House Banner

As some of my readers know, my "baby" sister graduated high school in May. And now that she is off to college and has started her first semester *sniff, sniff.* I thought "better late than never" sharing what we did for her Graduation Open House. I know, I know this is long over due and I know school is back in session for most and you aren't even thinking about graduation, but if you have a senior or even a little one that you will be planning a graduation event for let me tell you, it is NEVER to early to start planning!!! So I decided to go ahead and share this post with you and will probably re-share as graduation time approaches.

So my sister decided she wanted to use Dr. Seuss' "Oh The Places You'll Go" as her theme and wanted to include a "candy bar." Quick funny story, when my mom was explaining the idea of the "candy bar" to my dad she said "And she wants to have a candy bar" he said, "what kind?" So mom had to explain she didn't want a candy bar, but rather a bar full of candy...  I LOVED it and just started laughing, he he,  sometimes guys just don't get us do they?!? :-)

Quick & Easy Garlic Pizza Bread

Hey all today I have a super quick and easy, yummy post for you today!  It is no secret around here that my little guy and I LOVE pizza. We could eat it most days of the week and we wouldn't be bothered by it at all. We even do pizza night once a week, we try to mix it up so we aren't having the same thing all the time (although I have NO problem with a classic pepperoni pizza - it's my Fav!!!) and it gives us something to look forward to. Anyhow, while we were watching the Olympics my little guy saw a commercial for a garlic bread pizza and said, "We have this tonight?" I was thinking, "Um, no, we can totally make this on our own!" but politely said "Maybe on pizza night!" :-)

We've actually been eating this as a side where we would normally have garlic bread, but soon we won't be eating it all the time. Garlic bread has a lot of sodium and butter, something we try to limit, but while it's a new thing in our house we sure are loving it!

Happy Blogiversary To Bean Bug Crafts!

So I've totally been busy doing other stuff this summer rather than my blog and Etsy shop and I just realized my blogiversary just recently passed! Bean Bug Crafts Blog and Shop have been around for a whole year! I can't believe it!!! It has definitely been hard at times trying to figure the direction of both the blog and the shop, but I'm happy with doing both part-time and keeping my primary focus on my family.

Bird House Hair Bow Holder

Hello everyone! Remember me? I'm still around I have just been super busy enjoying every bit of this summer that I possibly can.

Well, since I'm here how about a tutorial?  I'm pretty excited about the tutorial I'm sharing with you all today for several reasons. 1) because it's been SO long since I've shared a tutorial 2) if you are like me and have a little girl then you probably have tons and tons of hair bows and need a place for all of them 3) I was given a $30 gift certificate for the online store Lots Of Buttons, through the Totally Tutorials Supplier Exchange Program,  to help me with my project!!!

Fabric Flower Tutorial

I wanted to share with you all how I made the fabric rosette for the Chevron Card I did for Mother's Day. The technique that I do in this tutorial is the same one that I used for some fabric lollipops that I made for my sister's graduation open house. (Be sure to watch for those posts. I CANNOT wait to share all the fun things we came up with!!!)

Stairway Photo Collage

Hey everyone! I've been on a much needed vacation and have spent some absolutely wonderful Quality Time with my family and it has been wonderful! The heat and hot weather hasn't been to bad either! :-) 

So I was trying to come up with something to share with you and and realized I never shared the Photo Collage that we did in our Stairway. I know photo collages aren't something new, but I do love them and think they are fun and a great way to get a lot of favorite pictures up on the wall. 

I actually bought 3 sets of different sized frames from Target on "Black Friday" and it took forever for us to get them up but I'm so glad we finally did. 

Here is the stairwell before, just kind of plain. 

Hubby used the cardboard that the frames came in to make a template. This is especially a good idea if you are working with funky angles and extras like the lights and hand rails. 

After the template was all cut out. We laid the frames on the cardboard and traced and marked the sizes and orientation that we wanted the frames to be on the wall. Here we are double checking to make sure we like the layout. (We did use a tip of nail to go through the cardboard to mark on the wall where to put the frames. )

Making progress!

Doesn't it look so much better?!?!  I love it and can't wait to start putting pictures in the frame! 

When we were done hubby said "You are going to make me paint the wall next aren't you?" Well, of course!! 

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Chevron Card Tutorial

I know Mother's Day is over, but I still wanted to share with you the card I made for my mom. (I had to make sure she got it in time before I shared and luckily she did...whew!) 

This card can easily be adapted to any holiday or occasion, just by changing the stamped sentiment. 

Supplies:

8 1/2inches x 11 inches White Cardstock: for card and mat

Two cordinating colored Cardstock or patterened paper (5 1/4 inches x 4 inches & a scrap piece for sentiment)

Ink Pad: I used black

Craft Knife

Ruler or straight edge

Stamp for sentiment

Fabric Flower

Scrap Fabric for leaves

Scissors

Adhesive

Hot glue gun. 

Chevron template or you could use Chevron printed paper

(Download the Chevron Template Here) *I've updated it so it will hopefully download on own. Please contact me if you have any problems.) 

Optional: Sewing Machine and Thread

First you will want to trim your cardstock down to 5 1/2 inches x 8 1/2 inches

This will give you a standard card size of 5 1/2 inches x 4 1/4 inches when folded in half. 

Next you will want to cut a mat 5 1/4 inches x 4 inches

The mat is where you will be putting your chevron background on. 

Use your choice of Chevron pattern, it should be the same size as your mat (5 1/4inches x 4 inches). This one was hand drawn by me so it is by no means perfect, but I think it still worked great!

The next thing I did was mark in pencil B=Blue and W=White so I wouldn't lose track of how I wanted the pattern to be on the card when I cut it out. 

Apply adhesive to a couple of the different "white" spots on the back of your template. 

Adhere the template to the blue piece of cardstock (or whatever paper you chose).

Using a craft knife and straight edge, start to cut out the chevron shapes. Trim the blue cardstock down to the mat size.

Once cut out, lay the chevron pieces out and adhere them to the white mat. 

Now cut two-three leaf shapes out from the scrap piece of green fabric ( I free-handed my leaf shapes). 

You could use paper here if you want, I just wanted to use fabric leaves to go along with the fabric flower. 

Now you could stop here and be done and just assemble your card, or you can add stitching all around like I did on the right. I just used yellow thread and my sewing machine and stitched along the edge. I didn't want it to be straight, I wanted it to be messy. 

I stamped my sentiment on a scrap piece of coordinating card stock then cut it out and made a banner shape.

I then inked around the edges of the now assembled and sewn chevron mat. 

And now I have everything ready to assemble. 

I used hot glue to adhere the fabric flower and leaves to the mat. Then using regular scrapbook adhesive attached the sentiment under the flower. Once everything was on the mat I then adhered it onto the card front using scrapbook adhesive.  

I ended up only using two leaves, but I really like how it turned out.

 I think I'll be making this one again. Maybe for a birthday or friend. What do you think? 

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