Dad's Favorite T-Shirt

My kiddos love to draw on daddy's back with body crayons. LOL The only problem with that is, it's messy. The body crayons are fun and I didn't want them to not be able to do something fun with their daddy. So when I saw this idea HERE. I knew it would be fun for all of them.

We made ours by just looking at the original photo and just hand drawing it on. I used a pencil, then used fabric pens to finish. If you don't want to draw them on, you can visit The Blue Basket to use their printouts.


Here is our shirt. The fabric pens bleed a bit, but it still turned out great. Plus the kiddos and daddy love it!

We added a bit more to ours. A Welcome to "Daddyville" Sign with a population. 37 MPH sign (all the kids ages added up). We also added Dad's Favorite T-shirt to the front.

Don't they look like they are having fun!?!

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Gifts for grandma and husbands

Hey there everyone, sorry for being absent on the blog last week, I was enjoying time with my family and didn't feel like spending any of that time on the computer...

So I owe you two weeks worth of gifts. Gifts for grandma and gifts for husbands.

There were a few things that my mom mentioned when I asked her about what the kids could make
for her that she would like to receive. She said she loves any handmade gift from the kids and
especially anything made with handprints. So, we did the handprint calendar for grandpa but obviously
grandma gets to enjoy that as well. She mentioned things like placemats, mousepads, an apron with
handprints on it...and while I think these are all great ideas and hopefully we'll still be able to make some
of these things before Christmas, we made something different. My parents are missionaries right now
over seas and they don't have a lot of the "comforts of home" with them over there. So, I decided to have my kids paint them a picture. I just gave the kids a square canvas board and let them use their own creativity to paint them a picture. Canvas boards can be found at JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby and Michael's. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby and it was a package of 6 boards for $7.99 and I had a 40% off coupon so each board only cost me about 80cents, and I already had the paints on hand so this is a VERY inexpensive gift idea.

These paintings usually happen in "sessions", they paint for a bit then stop and add more too it at another time. They LOVE to paint and ask almost everyday if they can paint. I like to keep those square canvas boards on hand for times like these. They make great personal gifts. I didn't take a photo of the finished project because I don't want to spoil the surprise for my mom!

I don't have any photos of what I am getting/making for Greg...but I can tell you about it quick. I ordered some personalized products with some photos that my aunt took for us on Thanksgiving. He's in need of a new travel mug (takes his coffee to work with him every morning) so I ordered one from Shutterfly. I also ordered a desk calendar for him from Vistaprint (I got the same one as a wall calendar for free). And the thing I am making for him is pajama pants. He told me that he was a little sad last Christmas when the kids got new jammies but he didn't. SO, I  went to goodwill and had Micah pick out a top sheet that he liked (he picked solid navy blue) and I bought that and one flannel sheet for the girls and I plan to sew pj pants for the whole family out of those sheets. Sheets are so much cheaper (especially from goodwill) than buying that much yardage of fabric at the fabric store. Plus, isn't it nice to crawl into your sheets wearing sheets?! Ha, we'll see. I have a pair for myself that I cut out of some old vintage orange and yellow flower sheets about two years ago...maybe I'll actually sew them for my Christmas present this year!

Hope I've given you some ideas. I need something else for my hubby though, so if you have any good hubby gift ideas I'd love to hear them!! Have a great week!

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Gifts for Daddy's

First off! Sorry to be gone so long. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family! Took more family photos with everyone! They look awesome and I will share them soon! We spent the rest of the weekend playing games with the kids, went to the movies and took a couple family drives. Sorry again...Check out some Daddy gifts below!

This week for our 12 Weeks of Christmas Gifts....

The gift is for Daddy's...!

Here's a pic of my hubby with the kiddos! We have some cute ones of them giggling in this same pose too!

Visit HERE to see past and upcoming Gift ideas.

And please visit HERE to view the gifts we have already posted!

Don't forget to grab the Christmas Gifts Button in the sidebar!!!

For Daddy...

For my hubby's birthday, the kids gave him the pic I shared for Papa's! The one with their feet saying "We Heart Daddy". And I gave him a framed photo of him with his silly bitter beer face. LOL He loved them! Said they were the best gifts ever! So that is why we are giving him more pics for Christmas! He loves the ones from our family photo shoot. So we thought it would be fun to put them in a frame as a series. He will be so excited.

More For Daddy...

In case you don't have any photos to give, I thought I would share some more great Daddy gift ideas!!! Click on the photos below to learn more.

    

    

These are some great gifts! Make sure you go visit them and tell them how great these are!!! These are all on our list to make for Daddy this year! Of course, if you notice the shirts in the larger picture, we made those this past fathers day and I wanted to share them again. I think they would make a great Christmas present too!

Have a great week everyone!!!

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Memory Tree

We made another gift for DADDY today! Although this can be made anytime of year. I will proudly display this in our home for many years after Daddy opens it! ;-)

This is a quick project that you can do in minimal time. So perfect for last minute gifts. And you will most likely have the supplies if you are a crafty person like myself. LOL

Here is what you will need...

Hard Board (size of your choice, ours is 16x20)

Newspaper (torn in small to medium pieces)

Matte Medium

Gesso

Paints (different greens for each child's hand and grass, blue for the sky and brown for the trunk)

Sponges and paintbrushes

Paper Plate for paints

Spray craft varnish

First start with your Matte Medium and Newspaper pieces. Paint a little Matte medium on the hardboard. add the newspaper and paint more matte medium on top. Do this on the whole board. This gives your board some texture and dimension. Set aside to dry.

Once everything is dry, grab the gesso and paint over the paper. You will have to do a minimum of two coats to cover the paper. If you are wanting to leave it a white background, you will need more white coats. We wanted to paint ours different colors, so we didn't worry about covering everything. Again, set aside to dry.

TIP...in between coats, wrap your paintbrush in foil and stick in the fridge. This will keep is moist between coats. You won't have to worry about constantly rinsing out your brushes.

Now that you have your textured board ready to go, you can now sponge on your sky blue and grass green. I just used a kitchen sponge and cut it up into squares. It covers fast and gives it a nice effect. Make sure you paint your green down low. You want a nice tall tree to put those hands on.

Here comes the fun parts. It's beginning to look like something fun! Get out your brown paint. Use a brush to outline your tree. Give it some branches, then fill in the trunk with a sponge.

The really, really fun part is adding the kids hands. Each of my kids had their own color for their handprint, giving the tree cool look. I like it too because it makes each of their handprints stand out. We also filled in areas with finger prints of each color. It made it look like little leaves.

And you're done! A perfect gift for any occasion. And with Father's day this weekend, it's perfect! ;-)

Another look at our tree!

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Father's Day Freezer Paper Shirts

Today we are working on Father's Day shirts! A little behind, I know! Eeeek! I just designed these this morning. Daddy is working out in the shop on some customer cabinets, so he has been home a lot. I keep telling him, warn us when your coming in so we can hide your presents. LOL This is why we are a little behind on gifts this year. And I can't have the kids make their Papa's gifts in front on him either, because they are similar.

Here is what we are making.... SHIRTS!

Below are the images I made for the shirts. Please use them if you like!! And if you do, I'd love to see the happy Daddy and kiddos wearing them. 

For Daddy (and/or mommy too)

For the Kiddos

 

Just use the FREEZER PAPER method to make your shirts.

I bought a shirt for daddy and shirts for all the kids. Our plan is to have daddy open up all the shirts as one gift. Then when we take daddy to lunch, they will all wear them. I can't wait to take pics of them all wearing them.

We are finished! Here are our shirts! What do you think? We love them!
We had a little bleeding of paint. One, we used a little too much paint. (kids were generous, lol) and the girls shirts were ribbed, so that was a little tricky. But you can read them, and the kids made them for daddy, so I'd say they are perfect! ;-)

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Christmas Shirt Applique's & Giveaway

First, don't forget to go by and enter our {Brassy Apple} giveaway
2 winners will get to choose from 2 different scarf pattern ebooks.


Giveaway for Applique's below Post... Don't forget to enter


This Christmas I decided to make applique shirts for our family's christmas photo. I waited in line for an hour to get my fabric. Seems like everyone is sewing projects for gifts this year. I didn't mind waiting because I had the perfect fabric and I loved hearing everyone talk about what they were making. I also loved the suggestions I got for the other fabrics I got. 

When I started planning I decided of course that the boys would get ties. Yes! HUBBY said he would wear an applique shirt. He even said the shirt looked cool! YEAH! So their shirts were easy and done quickly. I originally was going to make the girls matching but I already had matching fabrics, that was good enough. I wanted to make them all different but with the same fabric.

So here is what we ended up with. Love them all.

I chose black shirts on all of these because I really wanted the fabric to stand out. I like how these turned out. I really love that Santa is in different places on each tie. That way the boys don't feel too identical. Ha! Ha! So the one on the right is hubby's and the left is my sons. Both love them and look so handsome in them. 

Here are all the girls shirts. I can't say which is my favorite because they are all so cute! 

 The reindeer of course was fun to make. I made sure I added a lil bow on one of the antlers to make this a girl reindeer. This applique required a bit more time than the others because there were so many little parts. But that's what makes it so unique. I also did not change the thread when sewing around the eyes because I had little hands helping and she wanted red. It is also not the best sew job, but my lil girl will always remember getting to help me make it. Thats all that counts to me!

The stocking is adorable. I am loving this one and actually am making another one tonight for a friends daughter. This particular applique will be quick and easy for those of you who want to whip out some last minute shirts for Christmas this year. Only 4 things to sew, then simply add a bow and loop. Very quick.

Next I made the word JOY but used an ornament as the letter O. It turned out very cute too and is another quick applique to do on short notice. I love the lil white bow on this one. Gives it a little dimension. The letters are a little tricky to maneuver around with your sewing machine, but just take your time and make sure when you lift and turn, that you keep your needle down in the fabric. That way you are messing up your line of thread too much. Mine again aren't perfect, so I am not a good example. No the best seamstress. Hee! Hee! That's my flaw.

Then there's my shirt. I decided to make Christmas trees on mine, but I didn't want them to be solid in color so I cut strips out to make my trees. This took some time sewing but what a beautiful reward. I love it and can't wait to wear it around. I also added bows on my trees. Thought they were pretty cute.

I wanted to point out that when I stitched these on, I used a type of zig zag pattern instead of just a straight stitch. Using a straight stitch could have made this project much quicker, but I liked the zig zag look.

One more thing...

I made headbands for the girls to wear with their shirts. Cute! Cute!

Hope you enjoyed our family Christmas shirts. Please share with us your holiday projects with us Wednesday during our Creative Share Link Party.

You can also link up every Wednesday with any of your projects, recipes, ideas ect. It's a fun creative day for us here at Trendy Treehouse! If you are interested in learning more about this link party as well as our others, you can stop by HERE to read more. 

A big THANKS to {The Girl Creative} for letting me stop by today to share my Christmas Shirts.

{GIVEAWAY}

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED

WINNERS...

DIANA Won randomly twice! 

Winners will be contacted by email. I can't wait to send you your applique's!

Please Read Below Before Entering....

You will have until December 19th @ 9:00 p.m. Pacific Standard time to enter this giveaway. The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced here. If the winner has provided an email address I will contact you. If you don't provide your email, you will want to check back here and see if you are the winner. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to those living in US, CANADA & AUSTRALIA. You must be 18 years or older to enter. Thanks for entering at Trendy Treehouse. Good Luck and Have Fun!!

The featured product {s} in this post were provided to me free of charge by the manufacturer or pr company representing the company. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by anyone. By entering this giveaway you agree to Trendy Treehouse Disclaimer/Terms of use

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Date the alphabet

I feel as though I'm a dry well.
I have so many creative ideas popping around in my head.
I have so many things I've been trying to get organized
so that I can get things done before the babe comes.
*Homeschooling plans
*Halloween Costumes
*Cute fall decorations
*Handmade Christmas presents

But time has not been on my side lately.
My daughter woke me up in the middle of the night
on July 31st to tell me "I puked"
then she proceeded to do this for TWO weeks.
Now, luckily she did not puke EVERY morning,
and luckily she knows how to puke in a bucket
but seriously it was weird...and tiring.

We still don't know what was causing this to happen
and still don't know if our pukey mornings are behind us
but we're hopeful!

So, in spite of my best intentions for getting organized
and making my crafts, I've been too consumed;
with cleaning up puke, resting on the couch
and playing with kiddos, to get much done.
Not to mention the ginormous task of
designing a few projects for church related activities
and a 24 page wedding album for a client...

I just feel as though I don't have the time to do what I want to do.
And well, I do waste lots of some time just sitting around
blog surfing and stalking and reading and crying with people.
That's my own fault and I'm totally aware of it.
It's a bad addiction that I need to get fixed.

On top of all this my husband found out yesterday
while we were at church with him having lunch
that his grandpa may not live through the night
*side note*
isn't it amazing how God puts us in the right place at the right time.
The kids and I hadn't been out of the house since Sun morning
(since we all got sick at some point last week)
and then yesterday morning Greg mentions that we should
come to church and have lunch with him.
(which isn't totally weird we just haven't done it in a while)
While we're at lunch Greg gets a phone call from his dad,
turns out his grandpa was taken to the hospital via flight for life
and isn't expected to live very long.
Grandpa made it to heaven at 11pm Friday night.
I'm glad God saw it in His wisdom for us to be there.
*end of side note*

Okay, I know that was WAY more than you bargained for this morning
but bear with me...there's a point to all of this.
We've heard it a 100 times, maybe even a couple thousand,
cherish each day,
live each day as if its your last....
but do we really?

Don't get get so consumed in the rat race that life seems to have become
that we forget what's really important?
Don't we want the absolute best for our kids sometimes to their detriment?
Don't we sacrifice on family time in order to make sure they're
well balanced with sports and academics?
My kids are still young and have never been involved in
regularly scheduled activities (except a week at VBS)
but I see the temptation to make sure they have it all,
to make sure they experience things I didn't get to,
to make sure that they're liked by their peers and not made fun of.

But more and more lately,
I want to make sure they know they're loved.
To make sure they know JESUS!
To make sure they love their family and siblings
and to make sure that they know how to love others
(even those who are "different")

So I'm not sure where all that came from,
this stuff below is what I really wanted to tell you about this morning.
So please excuse my diarrhea of the mouth up there...

My husband started a new thing with Naomi this month.
He's going to "date the alphabet" with her.
Each month he will take her on a date that starts
with a letter of the alphabet and work through the alphabet
one month at a time.
He's making sure she knows that she is loved!

So, on August 1st (or as close to the date as schedules allow)
he took her to Applebee's...it starts with A.
Then on September 2nd he'll take her somewhere that starts with B,
(it doesn't always have to be a restaurant)
October 3rd will be a C
November 4th will be a D
and so on and so forth.
The cool thing is that since there are 26 letters of the alphabet
this will take over two years.
I think that's awesome because she'll really come
to look forward to their dates and wonder where they might be going.

I hope to start this tradition with Micah as well...
and one of us will do this with the baby
(we still don't know the babe's gender)
when the peanut gets bigger.

We also plan to make an ABC date book to keep photos and stories
of all their dates...here's the first one...
sorry about the quality it was taken on Greg's phone.

So what do you think?
Where should he take her for their "B" date?

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Slanket Review

The Slanket ~ The Original Blanket with Sleeves!

It's time to get cozy.... Slanket style! The Slanket is a gigantic fleece blanket with sleeves. A very soft to the touch, lightweight, but warm fleece blanket with large, loose sleeves designed so you don't feel like you're wearing the blanket, simply wrapped up in its wonder. The Slanket is designed to keep your entire body covered and cozy while you still retain the use of your hands. Simplistic and practical, its innovativeness opens up possibilities, but still can replace any normal blanket. Size: 60"W x 95"L

★ I received the Slanket a few weeks ago and I can't believe I ever lived without one of these. This wearable blanket is so cozy and comfortable. I have to fight off the kids and my husband to use my Slanket. We are going to have to ask Santa for a few more of these. I wasn't too sure how the Slanket worked at first, but it is very simple. It is basically a blan

ket with sleeves. Silly me, I thought it was placed over your head and had sleeves. But you just drape it around you. I love it because I can be comfortable. And at the same time, I can jump up quickly if I have to take care of a kiddy spill. If you know what I mean. I have seen other versions of this blanket on the market, but nothing compares to the quality you will find in the Slanket. It is made with a thicker material than the others and is in my opinion much softer. With that kind of quality, I know my Slanketwill last after many washes. I think every person in the family should have one of these to cuddle with. ★

Things that I love....

• So soft and cuddly - you will love how comfortable you are with the Slanket wrapped around you.
  
• Durable - quality made, your Slanket will be around for years and is machine washable.
  
• Over-sized sleeves - 60" x 95" Great for many different heights.
  
• 100% Polyester Microfibers - Big words for Super-Soft.
  
• Stay warm - Keep your arms warm as you reach for the phone or remote with the Slankets comfortable sleeves.
  
• 4 different Slankets to choose from - There is the original, Kids, Travel and Siamese Slanket. Siamese is fancy for 2 person Slanket. Great idea!
  
• Many colors to choose from - you will definitely find your favorite!
  

The featured product {s} in this post were provided to me free of charge by the manufacturer or pr company representing the company. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by anyone. Disclaimer/Terms of use.

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