Project Twelve: Handprint Birds

Since my Dad received a handmade gift for Christmas, of course my Mom would need one too! For her picture, I found the image below. I have tried to find who this image belongs to, but I cannot. I've actually held off on this post because I wanted to give credit to the rightful owner!

As always, my paint supplies were on hand. I used a canvas I had stored in my cupboard. I had the paint too. So I sat down at my dining room table and began to paint. Here is my tree branch. This took no time at all. The longest part was waiting for the background paint to dry so I could paint the branch.

You would think I have learned that my son does not cooperate on these projects, but I guess I'm a dreamer. You can see in the finished product below the paint was not thick enough on his hands. And hand prints aren't exactly something you can try for again or make an exact match over the top.

Once the hand prints dried, I painted on the eyes, beak and feet. I think the birds turned out very cute! My Mom also loved her painting. I think my parents enjoyed how different each of their art was - one hands, the other feet. I highly recommend this project. Very easy to do!

Project Eleven: Pretzel Snacks

Yummy, yummy, yummy! I love these treats, but have never made them. A lovely lady I worked with used to bring them in around the holidays, so this is in honor of her. Thanks, Jean!

The picture below is from Pinterest. The caption states to bake these for 3-4 minutes at 225°.   

Here are my supplies. For the life of me, I cannot find the pretty, round pretzels like in the picture. I tried, but had to purchase the mini twisty pretzels. They work just fine and taste the same.

The very first step is unwrapping the needed amount of Hershey's® Kisses. Now it might take even longer if you play the "one for me, one for the recipe" game. Next, I laid out all the pretzels on the cookie sheet and sat the Hershey's® Kisses on top. (Please note that I purchased new cookie sheets for my husband for Christmas. Yes, I realize how awful those look. Hmm... Maybe my next project will be bringing cookie sheets back to life. I certainly have the supplies!)

Here is my finished product! I left the pretzels in for 4 minutes, but ended up putting them back in for longer. I'd say 6-8 minutes was more accurate. Once you take the cookie sheet out of the oven, simply "smoosh" the M&M's® onto the Hershey's® Kisses. These will take about 15 minutes to cool but I do not recommend leaving them on the cookie sheet. The chocolate starts to melt under the pretzel and it becomes a bit messy.

Project Ten: Box Of Candy Money Gift

We've all seen this picture, right? How adorable! Take a box of chocolates as a unique way to give money for any occasion!

When my husband asked what exactly I was doing as I tried to explain the idea, I showed him the picture below. His comment was, "Really?" And not a nice really. A "my wife has nine heads" really.

Now, I thought, "How rude to put down my wonderful idea!" This image has been repinned a million times, so it MUST be a good idea. I'm here to tell you, this project is a total fail. A stinker. A bomb. An awful idea that ruins a child's Christmas.

I bought the box of candy from the dollar store, because why spend too much on candy you're probably going to throw away. Let me just say, the only perk of the project would have been me actually eating the chocolate! I asked my husband to get the money for me, asking for various denominations so it could be all cute like the box in the picture. That didn't happen. I also thought the box of candy would have the cute little wrappers like the picture. That didn't happen. And the money sits so nicely in the picture. That, also, didn't happen. And the procrastinator in me waited until Christmas Eve to work on this little project. That probably didn't help.

Here is my finished product. I had to tape down the money into the spaces. It looked awful. It was for my 8 year old niece, who looked highly disappointed when she received a small box of candy. When I prompted her to open it, she still looked disappointed. It was the second time in two days I received the "you have nine heads" look. She would have been far more excited to open a $20 bill in a card. I've seen it happen. Let me state again - Epic. Fail. 

Project Nine: Footprint Backhoe

The holiday season was AWESOME for completing Pinterest projects. I have even more still pinned that I wanted to work on but ran out of time. Do not be surprised if I have a "Pinterest Christmas in July" segment!

This project was inspired by the lovely footprint John Deere tractor below. I would love to give credit to the artist, but when I went to click on the link I received a warning. Bravo to whomever on their cute artwork! I enjoyed using it as my inspiration!

It looks like they used a Cricut® or a Silhouette Cameo® to create nice accent pieces. Since I do not own either, I hand painted the whole picture. My dad owns an excavating business, so a backhoe seemed like an appropriate trade for the John Deere. I wanted to make sure the foot was still seen and of all the heavy equipment options, I think I made the right choice.

I luckily had the supplies on hand. I did purchase the frame from Menard's (of all places). I think it was $12 and maybe on sale. The paper is just heavy stock paper. I purchased a huge package of it for another project a few years ago. The paint is cheapy acrylic craft paint. This stuff is amazing and costs so much less than nice acrylic paint!

I used the matting that came with the frame to trace out the space to work in. You can see the pencil marks on the paper below. It was nice to know my boundaries. I highly recommend this step! 

Of course, actually making the footprint was a chore. My one year old never wants to cooperate with Mommy's artistic vision. This went much better than the Christmas Tree painting, but it still took my husband holding on to him to make this work.

Here is the finished product! I finished the edges in black to make it "pop" more. Waiting for the yellow paint to dry so I could finish the edging and tires was the longest part of the project. It seriously took no time at all to complete. The final piece was writing my son's name and the year. I did cheat and use an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie®... Writing in paint is not a strong suit of mine. 

I think my Dad was very pleased to open this homemade gift. And since it was from his grandson, he loved it even more! Big Christmas win, huge!