Our family had such a blast this past weekend, with all of the quality family time, swimming, fireworks, parades... and crafts! There was something for everyone it seemed! My niece and my youngest daughter worked on this super-cute flag painting. Each girl had their own canvas to paint, the mommies taped off the lines where it was needed, put stars where it was needed and let the girls have at it! My little one did not want any of the paint on her fingers, so she used the sponge brush. My niece, on the other hand, had more paint on her face and apron than on her canvas! It was so much fun watching the girls with this project and both flag canvases turned out really great! Our older two kiddos made red, white and blue tin can luminaries. They picked out the design that they wanted, my daughter chose a fireworks template, and my son did a simple USA. They taped it onto their can, took a nail and hammer and started punching little holes in the cans. Once it was all punched, they took some metallic red, metallic white and metallic blue paints and painted their cans with two coats of paint. Once dried, we placed a flickering LED tea light in each can, turned the lights off and it looked soo cool! They were very proud of their efforts! Later in the day, my sister and I made this delicious and oh-so festive firecracker cake! It was so easy! Simply get a boxed white cake mix from the store and prepare the batter according to the instructions. Then, we had two little bowls sitting to the side and put 1 cup of batter in each bowl. To the bowls, we added either blue or red food coloring. The Wilton food coloring gels are absolutely perfect for this, the colors are so bold and it doesn't affect the consistency like liquid food coloring can. In a greased bundt pan, evenly layer first with the red colored batter, then the white and lastly with the blue. Cook according to directions. Once baked and cooled, decorate with your favorite icing. Separate into three bowls and add red food gel to one and blue food gel to the other. We put the frosting into three Ziploc baggies and used the baggies to pipe the frosting onto the cake in a firework pattern. This was so easy, so cool and so fabulous! I'm thinking I might try to do some more fun cakes like this but in different colors! My dad, son and brother-in-law worked on smoking meat the whole weekend. My dad has a passion for smoking meat and does an absolutely phenomenal job every time, so was teaching my son and brother-in-law some of his tips and tricks! He made smoked sausage, smoked shrimp, smoked ribs two ways, and smoked brisket. He made enough not only for this past weekend, but so that my sister and brother-in-law had some to take back with them, as well as some to stick in the freezer to have another day. The meats were all seasoned and cooked perfectly, the rib meat was falling off the bone, brisket was dripping in juices. All-in-all, we had a really fun time, lots of great memories and just quality family time! We loved watching the fireworks, my little one was so sad on Friday night when the fireworks were over - she wanted them to keep going! Hope you all had a fun and safe Independence Day weekend! |
© Cruzin' Thru
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Last night, my kiddos and I had a great time painting! I have been wanting an Easter "He is risen" canvas for our home, so my daughter and I worked on that while my son was painting the Golden State Warriors on his canvas. What can I say, he loves sports! Anyways, the best part? Since I had most of the needed supplies at home already, I only needed the canvas, which I purchased at Hobby Lobby, on sale, for $4.99 for pair! For supplies, we used: Two canvases Acrylic paint: pink, purple, teal, yellow, green and white Foam paintbrushes Masking tape Peel and stick letters I started by making a cross using the masking tape. Next, I used a pencil and ruler to create a straight line to use for our sticker letters. Be sure to press the edges of the tape and lettering firmly to the canvas so you have clean lines and no paint seeping into the white space. After that, I let my little girl pick the colors that she wanted, squirted them onto a plate and let her have at it! She loves painting and had a great time with this! © Cruzin' Thru | 2015
Our kids had the best time today working on their gifts to give their daddy tomorrow. The best part is that it was all pretty easy and quick and turned out so awesome! Their gifts were rock themed, one is a paperweight that says 'dad rocks' and the second is three individual rocks wrapped in jewelry wire with pictures of the kids and one of the millions of reasons why they love him. Like I said, these came out beautifully and are things that he can use in his office and show off his children's handy work! Here are our older two having a great time working on their gifts and getting their hands dirty!
I finally am able to post the Christmas wreath that we made. Everything that I used I purchased from Hobby Lobby, and it was all less than $20!
I used a large grape wreath, picked up several different ribbons in varying colors, widths and patterns, some additional ornaments/decor and that was it! First, plug in your hot glue gun. Second, I just laid things out to figure how I wanted it to look. I started by wrapping the thick red/white ribbon around the wreath and glue down the cut ends on the back of the wreath. Next, I placed and glued the green curly pieces followed by the ribbons. I cut the ribbons at varying lengths and simply tied each ribbon in a knot. I then hot glued the red ornament and the Noel onto the wreath, and hung the cross at the center of the wreath. I am thinking about picking up some additional ornaments and decor to add to the wreath, but love how it looks so far! Enjoy and please share pics of your completed wreaths! © Cruzin' Thru | 2013 I love all of the different Christmas Advent calendars, but I haven't really found 'the one' that I wanted for our family. So... I made my own! First, I didn't want something that was huge and would take up a lot of storage space and I didn't want to put any holes in the wall. So, I purchased some small clothes pins and stick-on magnets from Hobby Lobby. My kids helped with this part and painted the one side of the clothes pins in red, white or green. Once dry, they trimmed the stick-on magnets and put on the back side of the clothes pins. I used these to hold the daily packets which are located on the side of our refrigerator but is still a very focal point in our kitchen! Next, I used four different Christmas-inspired scrapbook pieces of paper, cut into six pieces to make the 'envelopes'. Simply fold in half and glue so it makes an open ended envelope. While those were drying, I created and printed the numbers for each days packet as well as the 'Countdown to Christmas' title at the top of our calendar. I used a 1 1/2" circle punch to punch out the numbers, so quick and easy! Now, the most important thing to include in the calendar, for me, was the telling of Jesus' birth, in a way that is easy for our kids to understand the significance and importance. I found exactly what I wanted with this great {free!} printable from LovelyIndeed. I paired that with a great conversation question or Christmas activity to do. I found an equally great printable from Creative with Kids. I love the ideas including several that give back to the community, a lot of fun, family time activities! So each day has a meaningful study of the birth of Jesus as well as an activity or conversation piece! I feel that this will really reinforce the magic of the season, create beautiful and lasting memories, and it's something that our kids are already looking forward to! They keep asking when is December 1st, so they can open that first envelope! Below are the printables that I created. Please feel free to use for your own advent calendar! Seasons Greetings! © Cruzin' Thru | 2013
We have been busy getting our craft on! This is the first of three posts with all of our crafty fun!
I have seen so many cute ideas for Christmas decor with the word 'Joy' and have been looking forward to creating our own for a while. The fact that our kiddos were a huge part of the painting makes this all the more perfect to me! First off I did get most of my supplies from Hobby Lobby... Love love love that store! I used the cardboard letters for J and Y, and a wooden O that had a little more swirl-factor going on. Started off by painting the J and Y in red, and I ended up spray painting the O in white. Once the red paint had dried, the kids painted on the white dots. Meanwhile, I added just a thin layer of modpodge onto the white O and sprinkled a fine layer of silver glitter onto it. Once everything was dried, I cut a small green ribbon, looped through a silver bell and tied onto the O. Very quick, super easy Christmas craft and love that our kids helped out! © Cruzin' Thru | 2013 |
AuthorHere you'll find my craft adventures, ideas and products. A lot of my 'ideas' come from Pinterest, and I love crafting and coming up with new ideas or twists. Archives
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