Crafty Kids: Apple Edition

Fall is my favorite season of the year. I love the crispness in the air, crunchy leaves underfoot, hot coffee, cozy sweaters... and apples! There are so many things that you can do with apples {besides eat them of course}. I scoured the web and found some of my favorite kids crafts that are inspired by the almighty apple!

Apple365 shows off some adorable apple stamps.. such a cute idea!

Family Fun took the same apple stamp and put it onto a cute tote

Craftberry Bush used the apple stamp to make a darling wreath

Kindergarten Hoppenings has tons of apple book, poems, printables, and art ideas!

Kiboomu shows you how to make a Johnny Appleseed handprint apple tree

Totally Tot's makes a "a is for apple" 

Preschool Daze has some fun apple activities perfect for preschoolers

No Time for Flashcards made a cardboard apple with a fruit loop worm!!!!!

What are your favorite apple activities to do with your kids? I would love to hear em'!

Melty bead fun with the kids!

**not super sure why my pics are sideways, and I have fiddled with it more than I am okay with so we are going to leave it up to the computer being crafty also and just ignoring the fact that you have to tilt your head**


I was supposed to post last Tuesday. I had a fabulous project all started that I planned on sharing with you guys. It's easy, it's cute, it's FREE! Well, that project came to a screeching halt when the kids found a giant bucket of Melty Beads that my son's teacher gave me at the end of last school year.

Baby #2 {aka Chelsey made these for my hubby}

We added magnetic strips to the back and viola! magnets for his desk at work!

Organization Week : Craft supplies

I am one of the lucky ladies out there that happens to have a craft room! It doubles as a guest room/our son's room when he is home every other weekend. But for the most part, that room is MINE! I love it in that room. All of my fantastic crafting items are in there. My beloved glue gun is in there *sigh*. My husband's grandmother gave me a fantastic wall unit that covers the better half of one wall and is perfect for storing all of the crap precious items that I have amassed collected over the years. This is how I keep the chaos low and my wall unit looking tidy until the day that the doors get installed {hint hint, husband o' mine}.

Fabulous, right?! And this is just one hunk of that room! It is Heaven you guys, I will do a whole post about it when I get it just how I am wanting it :) Pretty much everything is grouped in like items.

Beads and jewelry making things are in plastic cases and color coordinated and put into photo boxes. I have tons of jars that hold my fabulous button collection, some chipboard odds and ends, safety pins etc. This is my favorite shelf...

Baskets hold little wooden things that will go into my fairy garden and another holds magnetic stuff. My goal today is to get tags on all of the baskets so it is easier to see where things are at a glance.

Last but not least are the cigar boxes. They are the perfect size for holding markers, jewelry making tools, cards etc. These too will be labeled by the end of the day. I saw a fabulous idea a year or so ago on a blog using little pulls so they are easier to pull out of a stack. I need to hunt for that article... how do you store your crafting supplies?

coffee filter pom-poms {three ways}

Some business first: Starting in September, Hey sis will have a themed week, the first week of every month. Is there a certain area of crafting that you would like us to feature {i.e. parties, holidays, gift giving, etc}? Let us know!
Our first themed week will be next week {August 29th- September 2nd} and it is all about organization. If you have a great organizing tip you would like to share with our readers {or something that you need help with}, send us an email at heysisblog@gmail.com and let us know!

Alright, enough business... on with the good stuff!


I was recently given a huge container full of coffee filters. They have been sitting in my office, staring at me, taunting me. I knew that there was something cute I could do with them, but I had no idea what.

I finally made a decision to use them to make some pom-pom puffs. I totally winged it {isn't that what I always do} and I came up with three different ways that turned out so cute {and if I am being honest, I came up with a few others that were hideous}. The beauty of this project is that it was 100% FREE!


Pom-pom #1: Classic Look
Items Needed:
~ Coffee Filters
~ Hot Glue Gun
~ Piece of Trash {wadded up in a ball and wrap in tape}
~ Wooden Dowel {optional}

{one} Put your finger or the wooden dowel in the middle of the coffee filter and wrap it.
{two} Place a dab of hot glue on the end of the coffee filter and push onto your ball o' trash.

{three} Continue adding coffee filters till you get the desired fullness you want.
Helpful Hint: Start covering the ball all over very loosely. Then fill in the bald spots. This will make your pom-pom look more even in the end.
{four} When you have the desired fullness, use a pair of good scissors to sheer away any bumps you don't like.

Pom-pom #2: Water Lily Look
Items Needed:
~ Coffee Filters
~ Hot Glue Gun

{one} Grab 3 or 4 coffee filters and place on top of each others. 
{two} Fold the coffee filters in half a few times till you end up with a triangle.

{three} Cut the ends off in a triangle . 
{four} Continue to do this step to four different stacks of filters. With each stack of filters cut a little smaller than the last. 

{five} Start with the largest coffee filters, and hot glue a small dab in the middle and stack one on top of the other. When stacking place them on top of each other so that they are not all exactly turned the same way. 

{six} Continue to do this with each size. Hot glueing all the coffee filters together. 

{seven} Flip stack over.

{eight} Begin scrunching in each layer once at a time, till you end up with something that looks like a water lilly. 

Pom-pom #3: Classic with a twist. 
Items Needed:
~ Same as Pom-pom #1


{one} Start by cutting your coffee filters the same way as pom-pom #2, but keep all your coffee filters the same size {instead of all different sizes}
{two} Hot glue your coffee filters to your ball o' trash the same way as you did with pom-pom #1. 

The beauty of this pom-pom is you don't have to worry about trimming it in the end because it is supposed to be different levels!


I linked up to the following:
Blue Cricket Design 
    
Go and check out other amazing projects to get even more inspired...

{little girl} hair bow

Last week a friend called me up and asked if I would help her with a bow she wanted to make for her soon-to-be baby girl {it is one of the same friends that I celebrated with a few weeks back}. I had made a variation of the type of bow she was wanting to do, but not the exact type she was wanting to try. However, I am always up for something new, so I told her to come on over and we would try it out. The bows that we made were seriously the easiest bow ever!!!! EVER!!! {I can not emphasize this enough} E.V.E.R!

When she was over we made a sweet little headband for her baby to wear home from the hospital, as well as matching bows for her other little girl and for Soph. 

We made the three bows in about 30 minutes. And that was the first time we made them... love when things are easy and don't take me all day to make!

{What you need}

~ fabric {you can use any type you want... you can use anything from organza to burlap}

~ hot glue

~ alligator clip {or a headband, or really any type of clip you want}

{one} Cut circles of different sizes {small, medium, and large}. The size of circle depends on what you want your bow to look like. For the bow I made I cut 2" circles, 1 1/2" circles, and 1" circles. {I cut about 6 of each size of circle. You may not need that many, but it is nice to have lots of each size to choose from when you start glueing}

{two} Hot glue one of your 1" circles to the inside of your clip as a base {if you are using a headband, glue the circle to the underside of your headband}

{three} Take one of your large circles and fold in half, and then over once more. I like to fold mine not exactly in half. This makes the layers uneven and gives nice fullness. 

{four} Hot glue your folded circle to the clip at the center of your base circle. 

{five} Continue folding your large circles and glueing to the base till you have the base circle completely covered. 

{six} Fold your other circles in the same fashion. Glue them into place where needed to get the fullness you desire.

{variations} For the bow that I did, I took a few of my 1" circles and scalloped the edges before placing them in the middle. You could also add a couple of buttons or beads to the middle for something different {we added three white buttons to the headband and it was very cute... just wish I had taken pictures}


And just to remind you how d-a-r-l-i-n-g this bow is on top of a little head, I leave you with this...

Happy Bow-ing!

It's Ladies Night!

I love a reason to go out and celebrate! Job promotions, holiday's, heck I have even been known to go out and celebrate a good deal that I found at the store... 


So, when one of my good friends suggested that we go out and have a girls night before I had Sophia last year, I was all for it. Fast forward to one year {almost exactly}, that friend and another friend are 'bout ready to pop, so we went out to enjoy a last hurrah before their lives were overtaken once again with sleepless nights and dirty diapers. 

It was so much fun to go out with just the girls and celebrate. We went to dinner at PF Changs and then went and grabbed some Frozen Yogurt and sat outside and talked and laughed {I know we are wild and crazy... right?}

And since I can't go anywhere or celebrate anything without making something to commemorate the occasion, I made a cute little pull tab mommy emergency kit. I got the idea from the site Our Best Bites. It was originally a Mother's Day gift idea, but I thought it would be so perfect for a getting-ready-for-a-new-baby gift too. 


Items Needed:
~ Pull tab can
~ Hot glue gun
~ Treats for in the can {candy, candle, trail mix, etc}
~ Baggies
~ Card stock
~ Ribbon
~ Printer {to print the little signs for the can}


You can do this with any size of pull tab can that you want. I used a larger soup can, because I wanted to be able to put more stuff in it than I would have been able to with a tiny can. 


To create this, all I did was remove the bottom of the can with a can opener and cleaned it out really well. Then once it was dry I stuffed it with little baggies of candy, a candle, and some trail mix. You could put whatever you want in the can... that is the beauty of this little project. 


Once it is stuffed with good stuff, I hot glued the bottom back on, and decorated the outside of the can with some craft paper and ribbon. I modified the words that Our Best Bites used, by just removing the happy mother's day, and recreating the same thing in a word document. 



Once it was all put together I added a little baggie {which was just a sandwich bag, cut way down with little scalloped edges} that had a pair of ear plugs with a little note that said, "For added enjoyment, use these while consuming contents of this package." 

Hopefully, these will come in handy for those days when the mom's just need a little break!

Cupcakes in a {baby food} Jar

Having a 10 month baby in our house there are some things that we have LOTS of: {dirty} diapers and baby food. I had been saving these tiny little jars because they are so cute and I thought that there just had to be an adorable way to repurpose them... up until now I have not found an idea that I loved enough to try. However, I was beginning to collect lots {read: way more than any person should ever have.... EVER}. Then the skies opened up and the most beautiful idea was born! I made the cutest tasty treat with these jars and they are so darling that I just had to share it with you~

I have seen all over the web cake in a jar as a gift. When I have seen these they have always been in the big mason jars... that is when my wheels started turning. If you can put cake in a big mason jar, why can't you put it in  a baby food jar? I decided that I wanted to bake the cake in the jar so I could fit the maximum amount of deliciousness in each jar. OK so to be honest this made me super nervous so I totally googled if you could cook cake in glass jars before I started. I figured that about the same amount of batter went into these little jars as a normal cupcake, so I just followed the directions on the back of my boxed mix {what you didn't think that I was making the cupcakes from scratch, did you?}

They turned out PERFECTLY! I was so excited that it had actually worked. 

While they cooled, I took all the lids and got to decorating!

First I painted the tops of all my lids black to cover the words. Then I tried three different ways to decorate the lids. 

For the first lid I made a yellow flower using the same method as the Monogram Wreath I told you about last week. 

Next, I made a puff on top of the lid out of some red tulle that I had laying around. All I did was cut some 6 inch pieces and pinched them in the middle. From the center out I started hot glueing to the lid. Once I got the desired fullness I got out my scissors and trimmed it until I had the shape that I liked. 

Lastly, I did a really simple one to even out the craziness of the other two. I covered the lid in a cardstock circle and added a sticker "S" {the S is in honor of my daughter, Sophia}

Once the cupcakes were cooled, I cut a few strips of matching cardstock, wrapped them around and glued them on. To finish it off, I embellished it with a little "S"

I am in LOVE with these! How cute for a little gift/treat for your co-workers, neighbors, or for a birthday party {I am totally doing something like this for my daughter's 1st birthday}


Check out where I linked up this post!