Archive for the ‘make it’ Category

I spent today with my Mom, sister Brooke, and Marcie, my sister-in-law and and Jen, sister-in-law-to-be.  Can I just say I love those women.

We were busy with plans and decorations for the upcoming wedding of Josh (my brother) and Jen.

I am so excited about the creative “Make it Do” ideas we have for the wedding… it’s going to be beautiful.

The reception will be outdoors on a patio of a local restaurant.  We are so lucky that the restaurant has a large pergola and trees surrounding the patio from which to hang lanterns.

So the project of the day was to make Mason Jar Lanterns.

We found a wonderful tutorial for the lanterns on one of my favorite websites One Pretty Thing.

Here is the link to the tutorial.  To make this project you will need:

• Mason jar
• 2 1/2 – 3 1/2 feet of wire
• wire cutters
• pencil
• pliers
• sand or potting soil
• voltive candle

Here’s how we made the jars:

1.  Start with about 3 1/2 feet of wire (the tutorial suggests 2 1/2 feet, but this doesn’t hang low enough off the pergola as we needed.)  We are using wire that has been wrapped in a fiber… found at Micheal’s (with a coupon of course.)

2.  Measure 8 inches in from one end and twist the wire around a pencil.  Twist a second time to secure.

3.  Wrap around the Mason jar just under the large lip.  The narrow mouth jars work best.   Twist it tightly to secure. Then use your pliers to twist it again to make sure it’s good and tight.  (We don’t want Mason jars dropping from the sky on the wedding guests heads!)

4.  I placed the pencil through the side with the loop to give it one last twist to secure.

5.  Thread the long end through the loop to make the handle.

6.  Now twist both sides up around the handle.

7.  Use your pliers to make sure the twist is secure.

8.  Fill with potting soil or sand.  Add your candle.

One down and 39 more to go.  It’s a good thing I collect Mason Jars.  I will tell you the story of my mana (I mean Mason Jars) from heaven sometime.   Let just say I should have enough to can to my hearts delight and light up the wedding.

These are going to look great lit up and lovely all around the wedding reception.  I can’t wait to see it.

It’s an old joke that children have more fun with the box their gift came in, than with the gift itself.

I can vouch for that!  My children have always had a thing for cardboard boxes.  Apple boxes became cars when they were smaller… shoe boxes have been made into leprechaun traps… and they love to paint boxes and cut out windows and doors to use with their favorite action figures…

That’s why I knew I had hit a jackpot when I found Mr. McGroovy’s Website.

Ben’s birthday was coming up and he wanted a pirate party.  I was looking for ideas and ran across Mr. McGroovy’s instructions to make this pirate ship out of refrigerator boxes.   I know our ship isn’t fancy… especially compared to the the ones on the website… but it was a major hit and lasted for almost 2 months after the party.  (…and saw many swashbuckling adventures, I might add.)

I had to call around town to find the refrigerator boxes.  I finally found them at a large furniture store’s delivery warehouse.  They were free.  Then all it took was a little time and paint.  I didn’t order Mr. McGroovy’s grommets, because I didn’t have time to get them before the party, so we made two holes about an inch apart and looped a cable tie through the two holes.  We did this at every spot you were supposed to use a grommet.  Once it was constructed and everything pulled snug, we trimmed all the loose end of the cable ties.

We made the pyramid for Ben’s 8th birthday party last year… an Indiana Jones party.  The door looks ripped because it is.  I created the door with butcher paper covered with hieroglyphic symbols that the kids had to decode before entering the pyramid.  Once inside it was filled with plastic snakes, green glow sticks to make a spooky aura, and glow in the dark paint hieroglyphics on the walls… and their treasure of course!  This party goer said he didn’t like the snakes…

The pyramid was equally fun and long lasting. And even though I didn’t take the time to paint the pyramid, the kids didn’t seem to mind.

If you are looking for cheap adventure for your kids… why not transform an old cardboard box into something really fun.  I know we enjoyed making the projects as much as the kids loved playing in them.

Check out Mr. McGroovy’s very groovy site… there are lots of free instructions for wonderful projects.