1 Link Party Wrap-Up

Each Thursday I feature projects that were linked up with the week's link parties. Make sure to grab a button if you are featured. :)
Check out these amazing projects that were shared:

4 What are little boys made of? #114

OH MY!  I just realized that I never picked a winner for last weeks giveaway from Little Chic Bowtique!  We went away for the long weekend and had no internet access and when we came back my cat was (still is... yes, my heart is heavy) missing and this just slipped my mind.  So today I am happy to announce the winner of the $25 shop credit is:
a Rafflecopter giveaway  
We have another awesome giveaway this week so don't forget to enter to win
Amy Anderson's new book, Mod Podge Rocks! Decoupage Your World!

Grab the button!

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7 Sugar & Spice #113

Don't forget to enter to win Amy Anderson's new book Mod Podge Rocks! Decoupage Your World!

 Grab the button!

Copy and paste into your blog.

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The party guidelines are: 1) please link to your blog post (not your blog main page) so people can go directly to your project 2) Don't forget, these should be GIRL RELATED (can be for us grown up girls too)! 3) AND PLEASE grab my button and add it to your post so that other crafty ladies can come join the fun.

5 Mod Podge Rocks! and everyone knows it!

I love Mod Podge.  I remember the first time I used it.  I was 8 and I had put together a humongous puzzle and my mom brought home this bottle of "glue" to help hold it together and give it a nice sheen.  I thought it was the coolest thing ever... and my love hasn't faded.

Here are a few projects I've created using this versatile medium:

 1. Birdhouse Party Decoration
2.  Memory Can
3. Custom Guitar Pick Neclaces
4. Custom Tile Coasters
5. Updated Dinner Tray
6. Dollhouse Wall Embellishments
7.  Popsicle Stick Bracelets

2 My Updated House

My house renovations are complete... for this year at least!

0 DIY Marionette

Olivia received a really cute Marionette kit for her birthday.  It required putting it together and decorating it using stickers, bling and more. Mason was just as into it as she was.  He kept asking, do they have a boy one mom?  I really want one!  And after she was built they kept taking turns and inevitably arguing whose turn it was.

4 Spoil Daddy this Father's Day!

Today is the last day to enter the Little Chic Bowtique giveaway!  I am unsure if I will have internet access at the campground we are staying at this weekend.  If not, I will announce the winner next week.

I have updated my Father's Day Room Service free printable and made it available for download on Google Docs.  Help your children spoil Dad with breakfast of his choice IN BED!  My husband enjoys sleeping in on Father's Day so I have to convince the kids to wait until at least 8 before we bring him his breakfast... I'm nice like that!

4 Link Party Wrap Up

Below are the standout links to me for this weeks parties.If I feature you here, don't forget to grab a button!

 Seriously?  No sew and super girly?  I love it and I bet both of my daughters would too!  Visit Free Stylin' to find out how to make one!

1 What are little boys made of? #113

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Party Guidelines: 1) please link to your blog post (not your blog main page) so people can go directly to your project and 2) Enter your blog name and in paranthesis add the name of your project so we can clearly see what it is 3) Don't forget, these should be BOY RELATED (Big Boy projects are accepted too)! AND PLEASE grab my button!

7 Sugar & Spice #112

Happy Birthday to my SIL Rebecca!

You will always be older than me lady! HE HE! 

{BTW - have you noticed every Wednesday in May has been a birthday in my family?  Busy month!}

And don't forget to enter the Chic Little Bowtique Giveaway!

 Grab the button!

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The party guidelines are: 1) please link to your blog post (not your blog main page) so people can go directly to your project 2) Don't forget, these should be GIRL RELATED (can be for us grown up girls too)! 3) AND PLEASE grab my button and add it to your post so that other crafty ladies can come join the fun.

2 Giveaway with Little Chic Bowtique

You guys do not want to miss out on this fabulous giveaway!  Heather from Little Chic Bowtique made my daughters GORGEOUS June bow that she wore for her Little Einsteins Birthday Party.  In fact, Olivia is wearing the bow again today. :) 

28 A Little Einsteins Birthday Party

It's here!  The day I share my daughters Little Einstein's birthday party with you.  We lucked out yet again this year and had AMAZINGLY gorgeous weather.  80+ degrees!  We made sure to have lots of water and placed to sit in the shade.  We also opened up the pool this weekend and a few of the brave kids jumped in.    As a recap, these are the invites I sent out:

(Luckily I noticed the spelling error AFTER photographing these and was able to print more to mail, UGH!)

3 Link Party Wrap-Up

Oops!  I just realized this never posted on Thursday!  Soooo..... I've decided to get back into featuring some of the great posts you all are linking up to my two weekly link parties.  I will post the party wrap up on Thursday evenings, so make sure to stop in and see if I featured you.  And if I do....  make sure to grab a badge and show off! Here are my three favorites from yesterdays Sugar & Spice party:

3 Random Points of Interest

Today is my daughters birthday party and I'm running around getting everything set up and ready to go, so make sure you check back next week to see the wrap up post. I'm a little down since my mom is still in the hospital and will miss today's party, but I'm determined to have a great day anyway. I'm going to share with you some random projects I've been doing that don't really warrant their own post. First, party related items:My daughter requested a birthday hat last minute, so I whipped this up with supplies on hand:

2 A Mini Gumball Machine

My niece turned 6 earlier this month and I each year I give her a small gift based on gum... she LOVES gum.  This is well known.  She could spell GUM before she was two.  No joke.  She can sniff gum out from a mile away.  This year, in addition to the mini sewing machine I gave her, I also made her a miniature Terra Cotta Gumball machine:I used a tiny terra cotta pot, this was not the smallest size, but one step up... 2" I think... and a votive holder for the glass portion.

6 What are little boys made of? #112

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Party Guidelines: 1) please link to your blog post (not your blog main page) so people can go directly to your project and 2) Enter your blog name and in paranthesis add the name of your project so we can clearly see what it is 3) Don't forget, these should be BOY RELATED (Big Boy projects are accepted too)! AND PLEASE grab my button!

10 Sugar & Spice #111

My baby turns three today.  How is this possible?  She is my sweet little pumpkin, full of sugar and spice... maybe a little more spice than sugar, but nothing wrong with that!  HA.  We will be celebrating her birthday with friends and family this weekend with a Little Einsteins themed birthday party, so make sure you stop by next week to see all the fun!

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The party guidelines are: 1) please link to your blog post (not your blog main page) so people can go directly to your project 2) Don't forget, these should be GIRL RELATED (can be for us grown up girls too)! 3) AND PLEASE grab my button and add it to your post so that other crafty ladies can come join the fun.

6 DIY Jewelry Bust

I am participating in an upcoming campaign with {styled} by Tori Spelling, a crafters dream jewelry line.  I needed some way to display the pieces I created as well as make it easy for you all to see the steps I took to create the complete look. 

0 Retro Swing Top

I sat down with some fun print fabric from the Ty Pennington Collection purchased via The Ribbon Retreat and ended up with this Retro Swing Top for my daughter:

 Darn sun makes it hard to smile without squinting!  I got the cute lace leggins through Pick Your Plum a short time ago and have been waiting for something to go with them.  This top was perfect!

  I also had a fat quarter just hanging out in my stash (also from The Ribbon Retreat) and it was the perfect coordinating color to the fabric so I made a nice wide headband to keep her hair out of her face.

She pretty much loved the whole ensemble and showed it off all day long.

1 Fostering Creativity - Create a Board Game!

I love being a mom.I love my children and the joy they bring to my life.So to all the Moms out there,HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY.And in the spirit of being a Mom, I'm going to brag a little about my children today.***** I love fostering creativity in my children.  I encourage them to try new things, and to also think of ways to entertain themselves beyond that big black box with moving pictures.  So when they ask if we can go to my craft room and color, or cut or glue, I say "Let's go!" That is exactly happened with my son one Saturday morning.  I had sewn a new top for my daughter the night before and went downstairs to pick up my mess and he followed me down.  I have a game I created for one of my college art classes that was created out of wood, a wood burner and paint and we played a round of that.  Afterwards he got out my paper cutter and asked if he could cut some paper and I said yes.  And out of that he amazed me with this expansive game board:

0 How To: nRelate Related Posts Widget

I know most of you have heard of LinkWithin, but how many of you have heard of nRelate?  It is the same concept, but a little more of a heavy hitter with added features.  For instance, with nRelate you can add in sponsored links to earn a little bit of extra money, they give you the option to have the links show up on your posts only or both homepage and posts (I shared a way to do this with LinkWithin a little while ago, but with nRelate it is just a click of a button!), etc.  On top of that I have heard through the grapevine that LinkWithin actually takes a user "away" from your page, through their site and then back to you (not that the user can tell that), so all those clicks are coming from an "external" site rather than staying within yours.... what's all that mean?  Basically it can negatively effect your SEO. Let's get back to some of the features that nRelate boasts: 
Relevancy Level Control - Does just what it says, lets YOU control how relevant your post results are.Choice of Thumbnail Size - That's a biggie for blogs with smaller post areasAutomatic Content Sharing from your Favorite Blogs - This lets you spread the love to some of your fav peeps in your blog roll.Choose to include nRelate link - You can choose whether or not to display a link to their site.  And if you are on WordPress, nRelate offers you a Popular Post widget and a Flyout widget.  I went ahead and implemented nRelate to give it a go and see my thoughts.  Just an FYI, after you install the widget it does take approximately 10 minutes to go into effect and show up live on your site, so don't freak if you aren't seeing it right away! I'm not saying I'm pro nRelate or LinkWithin, but so far I am loving the control I have with nRelate vs LinkWithin.

8 An Army Birthday

Mason, my soon to be 5 year old son (gasp!  Is it really possible that my sweet little babe is turning 5 in two short months?!?) requested an Army themed birthday party this year.  He makes me laugh because he is JUST like me.  As soon as he made that announcement he started making plans on what he wanted included.  Example: "Mom, can you find those Army Men with the sheets above their heads, you know, the 'chutes?  I want those in the goody bags please.  Wouldn't that be cool?"  Yup, I think I'll keep him!
I brainstormed for a short while on the invitations... and when I say brainstormed, I really mean browsed Pinterest.  I saw a handful of invites and really liked one that was a draft notice.  I closed my browser and opened Illustrator with a "draft notice" style in mind and then ended up with these:

Isn't funny how our creativity gets away from us sometimes?  I don't know how my draft notice invite evolved into dog tags, but I'm pretty happy with them.  I bought a 50  ball chain key chains for $5 on eBay, so these puppies will be pretty authentic, in a flat, paper sort of way.  The invitees name will go on the front one and the party details on the 2nd.  They look pretty cool hanging, but my camera lens busted and I just couldn't manage to get a good shot with my long range lens.  The above picture was just the prototype, but I don't think I'll be making any changes.
Have you hosted an Army or Army Man party?  Share some of your ideas!  I'm in full planning mode and would love to see some fun examples.

2 What are little boys made of? #111

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Party Guidelines: 1) please link to your blog post (not your blog main page) so people can go directly to your project and 2) Enter your blog name and in paranthesis add the name of your project so we can clearly see what it is 3) Don't forget, these should be BOY RELATED (Big Boy projects are accepted too)! AND PLEASE grab my button!

5 Sugar & Spice # 110

Taking a quick moment to say Happy Birthday to my Mom!  Love you Mom!

Hope you have a wonderful day.

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The party guidelines are: 1) please link to your blog post (not your blog main page) so people can go directly to your project 2) Don't forget, these should be GIRL RELATED (can be for us grown up girls too)! 3) AND PLEASE grab my button and add it to your post so that other crafty ladies can come join the fun.

6 You Inspire Us! Mother's Day Printable

Looking for a sweet little card to give to your Mom this Mother's Day?  Then check out this free printable I put together for MY Mom this year. 

4 DIY Paper Bag Pinata

 Browsing through some party sites I came across this cool concept on how to make a pinata, the super easy way!  Have you ever heard of paper bag pinatas?I had not, but once I saw them I was totally on board.   

9 HOW TO - Enhance your SEO with Post Search Description & Picture Properties

I recently shared how to add a search description to your blog (that little blurb that appears under your blog name in search results).  You will need to take this step before being able to add a post search description.

With the new Blogger interface, Blogger has made a few changes that are a great benefit to us Blogger blogs. You can now enter a post search description for EACH post!   It is really easy.  Working in the new interface, go to a post.  See the sidebar with the post settings?  Click on search description and add a little description about your post (keywords are important!).  Now click done and that's it.
Next up - changing your Picture Properties:Insert an image and then click on it.  In the little pop up click Properties.You can add an image title and alt text (alt text is text that will show should your image have a problem loading or takes too long loading).
Doing both of these steps helps enhance your SEO ratings, so definitely take the time to do them.

1 My Creative Classroom Giveaway Winner! Is it you?

The winner of the My Creative Classroom is:
a Rafflecopter giveaway Congrats and check your email Angela!

3 Pedestal Birdhouse - DIY

Browsing around Pinterest one day I came across several really cute Birdhouses on pedestals and just fell in love.  They just look so sweet.  One of my favorites were some DIY from Sugar Bee Crafts. Of course that put me on a mission to create my own.

0 DIY Feather Bouquet and Table Decor

 

Today I participating in the Crafterminds Wedding - a day full of DIY wedding ideas!

There is a linky at the bottom of this post with links to all of the other creative ideas that are being shared today so make sure to check them out!

***

My little sister got engaged earlier this year.  We've been brainstorming ideas here and there and one thing I came across and knew she would love is Feather Bouquets.

3 What are little boys made of? #110

Don't forget to enter the My Creative Classroom Giveaway!

Grab the button!

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Party Guidelines: 1) please link to your blog post (not your blog main page) so people can go directly to your project and 2) Enter your blog name and in paranthesis add the name of your project so we can clearly see what it is 3) Don't forget, these should be BOY RELATED (Big Boy projects are accepted too)! AND PLEASE grab my button!

5 Sugar & Spice #109

 Grab the button!

Copy and paste into your blog.

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The party guidelines are: 1) please link to your blog post (not your blog main page) so people can go directly to your project 2) Don't forget, these should be GIRL RELATED (can be for us grown up girls too)! 3) AND PLEASE grab my button and add it to your post so that other crafty ladies can come join the fun.

1 Giveaway with My Creative Classroom

Today we have My Creative Classroom here to introduce themselves...

and also offer you a chance to take one of their classes for free!

My Creative Classroom is an online arts and crafts learning center. Our interactive and in-depth courses are instructor led and filled with wonderful projects and techniques to help you get the most out of your supplies. This Spring MCC will be offering over 100 courses. From the Cricut to Primas, to mixed media and rubber stamping, to scrapbooking, sewing and more; we have something for everyone. Don't miss out on some wonderful classes starting now:

• Magical Inky Techniques II
• Flea Market Finds
• Focus On Photos
• Parchment Craft
• NEW! Steamed Designs
• The Art of Teabag Folding
• All About Ribbon

You can view our entire class list on our website at My Creative Classroom.
You can also view classes on our Facebook Page too!

One lucky winner will receive a free seat to a class of their choice.....Good Luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway