School Fun Entry Way

There's nothing like a friend stopping by to get me in a rush to change up my decor.

I thought it was time to take down the 4th of July decor and put up something for fall or back to school.  It's a little to early for me to put up anything really fall, so I went for Back to School.

This project took me about an hour, and that's because Mr. C wanted to cut paper and use the tape right along with mom.

I knew one of my neighbors was going to be dropping by for a visit today and I wanted to put something new up in my entry way.  I went looking through my craft supplies and pulled out a brand new stack of construction paper.  I haven't used construction paper for a long time, but thought it would be perfect for this project.  It's bright and easy to work with.  And did I mention, inexpensive if bought last year during back to school sales!

This is how I made my banner. 

I got 1 sheet of every color I wanted to use and cut them in half.

Then I took one of the papers and made a template for the rest

I laid my template on top of the remaining papers and used scissors to cut them out

Once all the flags for my banner were cut, I used washi tape to decorate them

 Then I folded down the top 1/2 inch of the flags and using a glue stick,

I strung them on some bakers twine.

 I printed off some apples from my computer and glued them on the end flags.

My intention was to get out my cricut and cut out some letters to attach.

I hung up the banner before my friend arrived, and I kind of liked it without any words.

I may print off more apples and glue them on or end up spelling

smartie or school or something.

But for now, it's plain.

 What would a LizzieJane entry way be with out a printable right?

So I created one that went with my theme.

If you would like to use this print in your entry way,

Click on the print to be taken to download page. 

This is designed to print out at 5x7

anything larger may look fuzzy

I'm excited for Mr. C to start up preschool.  I think he will love his new teachers and the school.

It is right down the street from our house and is in a separate little building from the house.

Although it is painted to look like the teachers house. (it's really cute)

When I told him he was going to be going to a new school, he told me,

"I don't want to go to the BIG school."

We live by an elementary school and that's the BIG school.  Hopefully by the time he is supposed to go to the BIG school, he won't be afraid.

Good luck with all the preparations!

Tasty Tuesday - Better than Buttercream: Chocolate Frosting

I LOVE Cupcakes!!

I especially love cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  Yum.

I use the best cream cheese frosting recipe that I found at Anne Strawberry.  Whenever I make cupcakes, this is the frosting I make.  

When I had to make some cupcakes for my niece and nephews recent baptism, I knew that I needed to have a little variety with the cupcakes. Of course I would use my go to frosting, but I have never made chocolate frosting before.  One of the reasons is, I'm not a huge fan of chocolate.  GASP!

I know, I know.  How could it be?

Don't get me wrong, I like chocolate, but if I have a choice, I don't usually choose that first.

So it was high time I found a recipe for some chocolate frosting.

I searched the web for a good chocolate frosting recipe and found a pretty good one here at Savory Sweet Life.  I like a frosting that will hold it's shape after piping, and I thought this one had potential.  The only problem, I'm not a big fan of butter creams.

 Is there anything Liz likes? Geez.

I didn't really find another recipe that looked like it would work for me.

So what did I do?

Combined the 2 recipes I liked and came up with 

1 fantastic frosting recipe.

Click on the recipe to be taken to the download page

I have to admit, for a girl who doesn't love chocolate frosting, I was licking the spoon with this one.

The cupcakes turned out perfect and the chocolate frosting was the

"icing on the cake"!  Haha!

 As you can see, I wasn't the only one who liked to lick the frosting off the spoon.

 Beautiful cupcakes for a beautiful occasion.

We are big fans of these yummy cupcakes.  I'm sure they will make frequent appearances at our house.

To the detriment of my waist line. :)

Happy Baking!!

To see where I link up, click the Linky Party People tab at the top of the blog

100th Post Giveaway Winner

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

That's all I can say.

To my friends (new and old),

To Sara and Amy for their donations,
For all the comment love,

To those that entered!

I want you all to keep coming back!
 I hope I can keep LizzieJane fun and inspirational for you so you'll want to.

So...do you want to know who the winner is?

Congratulations . . . Jess @ Cox's Corner!
Check your in box and email me back!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm excited to see what you'll whip up with your new supplies!

I can't wait for the next milestone giveaway!

Hugs!

Baptism Subway Art

Today's an exciting day!

I am doing a guest post over at Cheap Crafty Mama!  

Kate was nice enough to let me share a tutorial on her blog today.  

The tutorial I'm sharing over there goes along with these cute subway art prints I made up for my niece and nephew.

It is a big exciting year for our twin niece and nephew.  They turned 8 this year!

Which means they were able to be baptized.

I wanted to make something special for them to remember this exciting event in their life.  My sister in law really liked the subway art idea for a baptism date.  I decided to make up a subway art printable for each of them, using a photo they had taken by the amazing Troy Brinkerhoff. 

I tried to use colors from the pictures for the wording, so it would all tie together.

To take it a step further, I wanted to try out the:

transferring photos to wood idea I'd seen on pinterest.

Oh she makes it look so easy.

I bought all the supplies.

 I even printed out a mirrored image of my subway art, applied the gel and let it set over night.

 This is how it looked. 

 Needless to say, I didn't love the final product.

It was a monster failure for me.

I did realize that the directions said use a laser print of the photo and I think I used a jet printer.  So I'm thinking there is my problem.  (My nieces dark pink color bled a lot.)  But I didn't want to pack up the kids and go looking for a place to print me out a mirror image laser print.  

If you know of somewhere that will do that, please let me know.

I didn't want to just hand them a simple 8x10 picture and call it good, so I made something else for each of them to display their fun subway art.

Want to know what I did?

Go check it out at Cheap Crafty Mama!

Don't forget, the giveaway for my 100th post ends tomorrow night!  If you haven't entered yet, don't miss out!

Have a great weekend!

Surprise Supply Buckets - Back to School

School Starts in TWO (2) Weeks!

Can you believe it!

The summer has flown by and although I only have one going to preschool, I can't believe it is already that time of the year!

Mr. C isn't in need of many things for preschool in terms of supplies, but we have some cousins starting back up and one who is going to school for the first time!

We wanted to make something fun to give them and wish them luck for the new school year.

And really who doesn't LOVE school supplies?!?!

I might be slightly addicted to buying school supplies.  Especially when they are on sale!

 I found all of our supplies at Target.  Boy do I love Target.  I can wander the isles for hours.  

The kids call Target the popcorn store!

I found some cute buckets in the dollar spot that already had the chalk board labels!

We bought some pencils, eraser tops, glue sticks and a pencil sharpener.

 I created a printable to go along with our supply buckets.

Supplies to help you start the school year off right!

 I added some shredded paper to the bottom of the bucket and then the pencils.

Mr. C carefully counted out and added 7 erasers to each bucket.

 Then I added the glue stick, pencil sharpener and of course, a treat or two!

I put their initial on their bucket and attached the tag.

You can use either bakers twine or I punch a hole and then made a slit, and it slipped right onto the handle of the bucket.

 So there you go!

Super simple and super inexpensive.

I'm sharing these tags with you so you too can make a supply bucket for your friends and family.

click on the tags to be taken to download page.

Good luck with all the back to school preparing!!

Tasty Tuesday - Chocolate Peanut Butter Puff Treats

Today for 

TASTY TUESDAY

I'm sharing a recipe I specially made for the hubs!

He is a HUGE fan of Reeses Peanut Butter cups and the Reeses Puffs cereal.

I decided to make up a yummy treat using the Reeses cereal, real peanut butter and chocolate.

The result:

A rich delicious treat!

Click on recipe to be taken to download page

 If you're not a fan of semi sweet chocolate chips, sub with the chocolate you do like!

Make sure and have a cold glass of milk ready to go along with this peanut buttery deliciousness!

Happy Cooking!

There is still time to enter my 100th post Giveaway!!

Good Mom

I often wonder if I'm a good mom.

Do any of you wonder that too?

Or a good dad if you're reading this. :)

I always try to start off the day with a good attitude and fun spirit, but somedays, I'm just not the nicest mom.  I can usually tell early on in the day, when nice mom has left the building.

With an almost 4 year old and almost 2 year old, bothering each other, not sharing, teasing, on and on and on, sometimes I'm so ready for the day to be over.  Mostly so I can start over again tomorrow.

Don't let their cuteness fool you! ;)

I really enjoy being home with the kids.  Watching them grow and play (sometimes together! :).  And as I watch them, it makes me want to be the BESTEST MOST PERFECT MOM!!

Well, time and time again, I have proven to myself that I'm NOT the most perfect mom, and I'm not going to be perfect.  But I can be a pretty GOOD ONE!

I have a quote hanging on my office wall from Jill Churchill that I love!

I took that quote and made up this printable to share with you.

I added to it just a little.  So it isn't just for mom's who are having a bad day, it's for everybody.  For everyday.  To remind us that we're not perfect and it's ok.

Click on the print to be taken to the download page

It will print up to an 11x14

Hope you can find a place to put this that will remind you too, it's ok to not be perfect.

Have a great week!

PS. If you haven't already, don't forget to enter my 100th Post Giveaway!

100th Post!!

WELCOME FRIENDS, TO LIZZIEJANE BABY'S 100TH POST!

This news may surprise some of you since I've just recently been seen around blog land.

But I actually started LizzieJane Baby in 2009!! 

After my son was born in 2008, I had a hard time finding any cute boy stuff (onesies, binky clips, burp rags, etc.) for him. My mother in law and I came up with some things to make for my son so he could be all cute and frilly manly! :)  (after all he's a boy)  I started LizzieJane Baby in hopes to sell some of the things my crafty mother in law makes for babies.

sidenote:  LizzieJane is a combo of our names and the baby because we featured baby items!

Well at the time I was a new mother and I had gone back to work full time at my, cough.. government, job.  It was hard to really put any attention and focus into LizzieJane Baby at the time when all of my attention and focus was going to more important places and people.  

I mean, come on!  Who wouldn't want to spend all their time with Mr. Cuteness?!?!

It didn't thrive as we had hoped it would and I didn't post anything on here the entire year of 2010.  (The year little miss was born.)  It wasn't until I decided it was time to be home with the kids and they became a little more independent, that I was able to make LizzieJane Baby into more of a crafty, recipe, diy blog.  

You can still find all our baby items available for purchase, but that is not my main focus.

I'm enjoying this new part of LizzieJane Baby.  Crafting is a great outlet for me and doing projects that include the kids makes it even more fun!  I'm still trying to figure it all out and get more into the social media aspect of blogging.  I'm inspired by so many bloggers and hope that I can inspire people through this blog too!

I keep this notebook by my bed to write down all those ideas that keep me awake at night!

Since it is my 100th post I wanted to do something fun!

Nothing is more fun than a giveaway right!?!?!?

So I am  giving away some of my favorite things!

One person will win:

*a surprise box of my favorite crafting supplies ($25 value)

things you've seen me use here at LizzieJane Baby!


*3 pack burp rag set from LizzieJane Baby ($10 value)

you can choose which 1 of these 3 sets you'd like
Red & Blue, Vintage Toy, Pink Mint

*a digital scrap pack from Happy Heart Creations($2 value) 
(your choice, any in shop, over 250 to choose from)

from my new favorite digi scrap store on Etsy 
Thanks Amy

Amy and I collaborated on something for Mr. C's upcoming birthday party!

*And an 11x14 print from A Vintage Poster ($14 value)

you pick print & color any $14 print
Thank you Sara for sharing your talent!

I used some of Sara's cute prints in Mr. C's Room. Seriously cute stuff

I am in LOVE with this Red mixer print!

A prize worth over $50!!

So do you want to know how to enter?

It's simple and there are multiple ways to enter!
Just use the Rafflecopter Widget Below:

This contest is open to US Residents and closes Friday, July 27th at midnight Eastern Time
I will notify winner within 48 hours after contest closes.  Winner will have 48 hours after my email to respond, or another winner will be chosen.  Thanks.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope that as you've visited this blog, something has caught your eye, inspired you and will keep you coming back!

Thanks friends!  And here's to the next 100 posts!!!

Cheers!

Character I Spy Bags

 One day as I was clicking through blog land, I saw this cute I spy bag that Allison of Oopsey Daisy made for her son.  I had been wanting to make an I spy bag for the kids for awhile because they love the one my mom has at her house.  When I saw the Kermit the Frog bag on Oopsey Daisy and I remembered that my mother in law gave me a HUGE amount of Red felt!  I came up with these characters.

 Like I said... A HUGE amount of RED felt!

The first thing I did was find pictures out of coloring books with the faces I wanted.  I blew them up on the copy machine to the size I wanted.

 I decided where and how big my I spy opening would be.

 I pinned together 2 pieces of felt and cut out the shapes.  Remember to only cut out the I spy opening on (1) ONE of the pieces of felt.

 Here they are, ready for me to cut out and sew on the extra pieces of their faces.

For Elmo: eyes and nose

For Spiderman: the black around his eyes

I sewed on the faces first and then sewed on the plastic sheet.

 Here is Spiderman front all done.

I sew terribly, so please don't judge the finished products too harshly!

Then I put the wrong sides together and sewed around the edge.

 Make sure to leave an opening that you can turn it right side out and use to fill up the bag.

I didn't leave a big enough opening the first time and had to pick apart some of the seams.

Another tip, make sure your plastic is really attached all the way around before starting this step.  It is a pain to come back later and have to fix it! ;)

Then I filled it with Poly Pellets (found at JoAnns, Hobby Lobby) and the items to SPY!

I found so many cute little buttons at Hobby Lobby.  Animals, crayons, vehicles.  They came in a package of about 6 for $2.

 To close it shut, I folded in the edges and did an easy whip stitch.

 The kids (and their cousins) have enjoyed playing with these and spying all the goodies inside.

 Although, I think Mr. C would've preferred this to become a SpiderMan mask!!  :)

 I had a fun time making these even though I had to unpick more than I had hoped.  They are perfect for church and kept the kids entertained.

The day I made these was a day we were having one of our famous AZ monsoon storms!  So as I took pictures of my progress the sunlight was in and out.  But it was a perfect day to make a project!

Just a heads up.  I am approaching my 100th post!!!  (this one is 99) Can you believe it!

It will be a fun one that may or may not have a GIVEAWAY!

Keep on the look out!

Have a great week!

My entry into Terrific Tuesdays @ Adventures of a DIY Mom sponsored by Appliances Online and their best Range Cookers.