Easy homemade keepsake for next to nothing!

So my experiments with oven bake modeling clay began with a friend making a remark about wanting a bacon pendant for a necklace...yeah don't ask...

Anyways...I made a batch of some homemade clay (recipe here) and when I was done with that project, I had a ton left over.  Even though it was super cheap and easy to make, I hate to waste, so I thought up this cute and easy project.

I babysit a 6 month old a few days a week and he was the perfect "model" for my project.  Although, the most difficult part of this project is probably getting the baby to put their feet in the clay properly....

Dough/clay balls on a cookie sheet with wax paper.

Anyways, I started with my clay.  A smaller ball of it, I dyed a pretty blue with food coloring. (Yes, my cuticles are still blue....).  I also turned the oven on to 200 degrees at this point.

Next, I added glitter to the plain dough and kneaded it until there was a uniform (sorta) distribution of the glitter.

Using the pocket method to catch the glitter inside and then kneading helped minimize the mess

I rolled it out into the shape I wanted.  I used a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet and it made it easy to move the shape around and get the baby positioned right over it to put his feet in.

Now the tricky part...getting a baby to hold their feet still in clay and not scrunch up their toes...well good luck.  It took me about 3 tries to get something I was relatively happy with.

Next roll out small circles of dough and flattened them. Then carve out the letters with a knife.  Use a small tool to cut out tiny holes and tap in any "torn" edges.  I like to use a wooden skewer for this.  I have tons of them and they work really well. 

 Place the letters how you want them on the footprint shape.  Now, I made mine rather big, but if you are making these with a younger (and smaller) child you can make them into ornaments which makes a lovely gift for people around the holidays.

Place the letters on the shape and gently press them into the dough a little bit. Note: you dont have to press hard at all! Just enough to give them a little stick.  I love the raised letter look so I hardly pushed mine down at all.

 Make holes for hanging.  If it is smaller, you can make only one.

Depending on how thick you made it, it will need to be in the oven for 1 - 2 hours.  About halfway through, when it is no longer soft anywhere on the face to the touch (be careful), turn it over to help bake the back side.  (If you made it really thin, you wont have to flip it).  It's done when it turns hard, remove it and let it cool. 

Once cool give it a coat of clear enamel spray paint on both sides.

String your ribbon through the hole(s), hang up, and enjoy reliving the memories of how tiny they once were.

Yeah...the ribbon i have on it right now is not ideal...gonna go hunting for something prettier this weekend. 

Oh and by the way, if you end up making holes so tiny it makes getting the ribbon through them difficult, a unbend paperclip and a pair of needle-nose pliers comes in super handy!

:) Happy crafting!

Custom Pool Safety Rope for $6!

Ok, so our house has this beautiful in-ground pool that we love (in fact, the pool was one of the main reasons we went for this house).  We throw a Puddle Jumper (<--- by the way, this is the best children's life jacket I have ever seen.) on our toddler and she swims around like a little fish.   My only problem with this is, she seems to be very attracted to anything even remotely dangerous....like swimming into the deep end.  Now, she doesn't swim unsupervised, thus doesn't ever make it to the deep end, but constantly having to fight with her about it became quite tiresome for me.

I started looking into the safety ropes for the pool and was kinda shocked at the prices on them!  It was around $30 - $40 for them and the floaties that came with it were tiny and cheap looking.  Definitely not worth the price in my opinion!

So one day I was at the Dollar Tree (I love the Dollar Tree, by the way....) and I saw some blue and white packages of laundry line.  It was plastic and it even looked like the "rope" you get in those $30 - $40 sets from Namco.  It was a bit on the thin side, but I thought I could do something about that.  I picked up two packages of the rope and 4 pool noodles with which to make my floaters from.

I started with the rope.  The packages are 70 feet worth so I was thinking I would braid 3 strands together to make it more substantial.   Remember, when you measure your pool to get the length of rope you need, make sure to add a few extra feet on.  Braiding will shorten the rope as well as tying the knots. 

I tied the middle of the rope to a knob on a closet door and began braiding. If you don't tie it off and start with a shorter side, it's quite hard to braid a 20 or so foot rope (Doorknobs work great for this!).   Once you get one side done, tie off the end and lightly melt the knot a bit with a lighter.  This will ensure that the knot doesn't some loose at some point.  Then untie, and retie it to the knob using the already braided portion as close to the end of the braid as possible and continue braiding the other half of the rope.

Now for the fun part!  I cut the noodles into relatively similar lengths with a butter knife and began putting them together with some more laundry line.  You can glue if you wish, but I wanted to keep them simple and water resistant (glue + chlorine just seemed like a bad idea to me).  You can get super creative here and use all sorts of color combinations and different floaties!

For the triangle (or stacked) shaped ones, I simply stacked three pieces together and "threaded" the rope through the center of the noodle until they were all held together as I wanted them.   Think:  In one side and out the other, then in a different noodle and so on....make a triangle with the rope on either end. 

For the "wrapped ones" I simply split two pieces of noodle down the middle then wrapped them around a different colored noodle and tied with some of the rope. 

If you find that your floatie slides around on the rope too much, simply stuff a little piece of noodle into the hole and it will tighten things up ( I had lots laying around because I'm terrible at cutting noodles with straight ends....). You can also melt the knots holding the floaties together for extra holding power, just be careful not to melt or catch fire to the noodle or melt the knot so much the rope breaks.


So, here it is, my pool safety rope for about $6!  (And I have some pool noodle and rope left over for repairs or other projects.)

Note:  I've had mine in the pool for a few weeks now and it seems to be holding together beautifully and it is an effective deterrent for children seeking the deep end!

Linky Party! 

So I suppose I should introduce myself...

Hello to anyone who may stumble across this blog and decide to read it.

My name is Katy.  I'm a housewife in Pennsylvania and a mother of one very active toddler.  I loved crafting when I first started making things at a young age and through my teen years.  Somewhere along the line, life got too busy and I stopped crafting things for about a decade.  Recently, I've begun finding my way back into the world of creating, renewing and beautifying mainly because my husband and I bought a house last year that....well....is ugly.  Couple an ugly house with a very, very, tight budget and pretty much if I want it done, I have to do it myself (I also have to figure out some way to pay for it!).


 This blog is intended to be a chronicling of my return to crafting and the redecoration of my house, making it into my home. 

Thanks for reading!
~Katy

Teacher Gift Set

From this

To this!

Cute little gift set for a teacher made from dollar store items! 

What I used: 

1 -2 boxes of gold thumb tacks ($1 each)
1 fake foam apple ($1)
Tissue paper ($1 or on hand)
Small piece of fabric (on hand)
Gold paint (on hand)
White Glue (on hand)
Mod podge or a homemade alternative like I use (link here )
Glitter (on hand) *to glitter the stem and the leaf
Craft foam ($1 or on hand) * to make the leaf
Paint brush (on hand)

Starting from the bottom of the apple and working up to the top, layer the thumb tacks like scales or shingles.  Cut a leaf shape from craft foam (use a toothpick or the end of a small paint brush to make indentations for the veins of the leaf)  use the paint brush to cover one side with glue, then cover with glitter. Allow to dry and repeat with the other side, the edges and the stem.  Once dry, you can poke a hole in the leaf with the stem and stick it back into the apple.

Next, take the box from all those thumb tacks you just used. using the glue and tissue paper, decoupage the inside and outside of the bottom of the box. I then cut a small piece of fabric to fit the indentation on the lid and put a layer of mod podge both underneath and on top of it, securing it to the lid.  Once dry, I painted the trim with the gold paint.

And, ta da!  A lovely little gift set with a box that's just perfect for a gift card or a nice piece of chocolate and a thank you note! (and all for around $4!)