I don’t know about you, but it is a CHALLENGE to get my kids to sit still and watch a show quietly.  Kids and quiet don’t seem to mix…

Twice a year the members from our church have the coolest opportunity to listen to our prophet and leaders speak to everyone, right from our TV.  It’s something my husband and I really look forward to, but struggle to get our little kiddos to pay attention to!!

UNTIL…

I came across these brilliant ideas!! 

I’ve already bought all the supplies to make these treat buckets, I saw over on Brown Paper Packages!!  LOVE this…

A Mama B’s Crafts and Recipes made the cutest lei, to bribe help her daughter listen, so clever!

And I think these Conference Packets are genius!  What kid doesn’t love to color and do puzzles:)  Thanks to Alison over at Oopsey Daisy for these free printables!!

Hi Everybody!!

Do you remember seeing this little project from last week…

Well, I’m going to show how you can make one of your very own!!

So this was the project I entered into Heidi’s competition last week, for our “Chess Theme.”  You can change this up to fit your family’s favorite game…  I’m going to show you how I made a chess/checker board.

Supplies:

• magnet board
• paint (for board and game pieces)
• game pieces
• scrapbook paper, embellisments, stamps, etc…
• adhesive magnets
• glue gun
• mod podge
• brush

Step 1:

Prep your magnet board.  In this case, mine was a dirty old board I found in storage, so I had to wipe off and clean it. 

I wanted to paint mine the traditional chess color of black, so I taped it off and brushed it on.

Step 2:

Measure your game board space to determine the size of your paper squares.  For this board I cut each square, 1 3/4 X 1 3/4 inches.  This would leave a nice border for a pop of color around the game playing space.

Step 3:

Attach you paper pieces.  I measured the space, and marked each corner so I could lay out each row as straight as possible.

Brush the mod podge on the back of each paper square and lay them one at a time, side by side to form a row.

Continue with each row until you have all eight rows finished.  Next add your border pieces.

Brush another thin layer of mod podge on top of the paper.

Step 4: 

Make your game pieces.  Paint your pieces desired color.  These were metal to start out with, so I needed a few coats.

When your pieces are dry, attach magnets to the bottom.  If the magnets aren’t adhesive, use hot glue.

Step 5:

Embellish your game board.  I printed out the words I wanted to say on teal cardstock, and cut out each letter.  I used some fun stamps and coordinating paper to create some flowers.  This was meant to be a pretty girly board; you can’t tell though right!!!  (My husband said he would never play chess on this board, heehee)

I just laid everything out on the board and tried to mod podge them on.  It didn’t work!!  Hot glue does the trick though…  After all the letters are attached, brush on another layer of mod podge.

Done!!! You got your perfect game board!! Play on the bed, the couch, the car, you’re set!!

Checkers anyone?

Have fun!!

Remember, this week’s theme is “On the Farm.”  The competition is tough!!!  I kinda really need your vote:)

Check it out at Made By Heidi!!

Thanks a bazillion!!

I’m linking up with these fabulous blogs!!

Including:

Can I just tell you how easy and so much fun this was to make!!! 

So, I just finished my quilted table runner (super fun and cute, tutorial next Tuesday), and had lots of scraps, as usual.  Of course I needed a patriotic centerpiece to go with it…

I had this fun jar I got for 50% off at Hobby Lobby.   That was my inspiration.

Supplies:

• Large glass jar with lid
• Scraps of fabric long enough to wrap around your glass jar
• Ric-rac long enough to wrap around
• Embellishments you want to use for the side and or lid
• Hot glue gun
• Scissors

Step 1:

Cut your fabric to desired width and length.  You want it to wrap around with just enough of an overlap to glue.

Step 2:

Secure the end piece of your fabric to the jar with hot glue. 

Wrap around the jar securing with hot glue as you go. Glue the other end of the fabric piece over your starting place.  As you can see, mine isn’t exactly straight but the ric-rac covers it up.

Repeat that step using whatever ric-rac or ribbon you would like to use.

Step 3:

Use whatever embellishments you have to cover the ugly overlapping area, and the lid of the jar.

You can stop now, and use as a cute centerpiece or get some function out of it as well…

So here in Utah, we celebrate Pioneer Day on the 24th of July.  Our patriotism extends through the month of July. 

My kids and I decided to make this a conversation jar, filling it with questions about our patriotic holidays.  We put enough strips in the jar for us to read a few together each day throughout  the month.

I had my little helper rolling the strips and stuffing them in the jar…

Soooo fun huh!! I can’t wait to play:)

Linking up with these fabulous blogs this week…

Including: