A sane mom’s guide to Easter eggs…

Who says painting eggs is just for kids?!

I would consider myself a fairly craft person, but I know my limits and I am not that fun mom that pulls out the dye and lets the kids go crazy dying eggs. It’s far too stressful and chaotic. However – I’m a huge fan of using markers to decorate eggs – and I’m a bigger fan of decorating wooden eggs that stay cute for years to come!

Life with Fingerprints: Wooden Easter egg crafts

Here’s what you need:

Life with Fingerprints: Wooden Easter egg crafts

I found 2 1/2″ wooden eggs on amazon (here), some leftover Rustoleum stain in classic gray and the same Sharpie oil-based paint markers  (here).

Life with Fingerprints: Wooden Easter egg crafts

Stain your eggs your desired color and let dry completely. Using the paint markers, go to town making all sorts of fun designs. I found that on some areas of the egg, the paint really seeped into the egg and I had to go over it a couple times to make it pop. I’m assuming if you sealed the eggs after staining you wouldn’t run into this problem.

You could also paint the eggs white and use fun color sharpie markers to decorate them. Either way – the kids (and moms) will stay entertained for a while!

Life with Fingerprints: Wooden Easter egg crafts Life with Fingerprints: Wooden Easter egg crafts

Christmas craft week…

I’ve had both the table and miter saw out and they’re getting all sorts of use. Unfortunately, none of it is fun Christmas decor. Just boring old trim work – baseboards and casing. We’re lucky we have a tree and garland up – Steve wanted all Christmas decor on the chopping block until our home was completely put back together – which is going to take some time. So our happy medium was put some of the decor up and continue to push through some finish work on the home. Slow and steady progress – but I’d really like to be making Christmas decor! Here’s a few that still adorn our home…

Life with Fingerprints: DIY Holiday Star, Christmas Crafts
Life with Fingerprints: Christmas Craft, holiday forest out of 2x6 wood
DIY Easy Christmas Crafts - Paper straw tree: Paper straws and an Ikea frame
Life with Fingerprints: Christmas Crafts, pillows made from store bought napkins
  Christmas craft using a wood burning tool

 

Valentine’s Printable Banner…

After the Christmas decor comes down and I’ve finished sweeping the red and green glitter – I like to get my house back in order. It always feels like Valentine’s sneaks up on me and it seems I’m never quite ready to deck the house out again in holiday decor. Don’t get me wrong – I love to decorate for the holidays, but some holidays I go for simple and Valentine’s is one of them.

In the past I’ve made many red and pink crafts including the Valentine’s rag banner that hangs along our entertainment center. I also think it’s fun to get the kids involved and have them help make some decorations. Here’s a printable banner I designed for them to color.
Valentine's Printable Banner for Kids
Valentine's Printable Banner for Kids
Valentine's Printable Banner for Kids
Valentine's Printable Banner for Kids
Valentine's Printable Banner for Kids
For full instructions and the free printable download, go to howdoesshe.com.

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Turkey love…

We’ve got some turkey love for this special week. Cannon’s preschool has been more than festive and every day he came home dressed in something new. I didn’t even get a picture of the first day, but it was another turkey! Today they had a Thanksgiving feast and dressed the part.

Turkey Love

Turkey Love

Turkey Love

Briggs made his own turkey with his nursery class – although I’m pretty sure he wasn’t overly helpful in the process – its far too cute to be made by a toddler. I’ll take it and display it either way. 🙂

He’s starting to learn the art of picture taking. He no longer runs from the camera and it only took me 30 photos to get smiling and not blurry from his movement. Progress is being made!

Turkey Love

Turkey Love

Turkey Love

And because I was shooting photos on the patio and saw this guy again – I figured he deserved to be on the turkey love post as well.

Pallet Turkey

Happy Turkey Week!

 

It’s a wonderful life…

A while back, I saw this sign on etsy, It’s a Wonderful Life. Steve loves this movie and we find ourselves watching it every Christmas. I would’ve snagged the sign up in a heartbeat, but it was no longer available. I waited a couple months thinking that it might be restocked and it wasn’t. (Naturally, it was restocked at the beginning of the year, after I cut all but one letter!)

So I got familiar with the scroll saw again. It had been a year since I had made the Noah’s Ark set and I was a little rusty. I had all intentions to give it as a gift to Steve for Christmas as part of our traditional homemade Christmas presents. But as luck would have it, the saw broke on my very last letter and I was unable to get it finished and the saw was unrepairable. So it sat unfinished in a Wal-mart bag in the garage for far too long.

Only 8 months later, I was able to get the last letter cut, the letters painted and the sign complete. Merry late Christmas Steve. Or even better, merry early Christmas.

It's a wonderful life

It's a wonderful life