Video: Handmade Stamps

Last week I was invited to share a summer project on WDRB in the Morning. I chose to make beach themed "rubber" stamps using craft foam and wood blocks. This project can be made very easily for not a lot of money!

Plus, this project is a lot of fun! If you would like to see the full instructions, you can find them on my blog here.

Soaking up the Sun

We are soaking up all of the summer sun and FUN over here! This time of year is truly so much fun, especially when I get to hang out with my nephew. It's his birthday week and we kicked it off with a bang by going to the Louisville Science Center, the Georgetown Drive-In, and swimming!







What fun summer activities are you doing? I'd love to get some ideas before my nephew goes back to school. What do you like to do?

Handmade Stamps

Looking for a fun Summer project? Grab some craft foam and wooden blocks and make your own stamps! This project is easy and can be a great way to spend an afternoon, with kids, or with friends! Use these handmade stamps to make cards, scrapbook, or make gifts. For your handmade stamps you will need: Craft Foam Wooden blocks (can use old toy blocks) Glue Foam brush Wave silly scissors Regular scissors I made a few different stamps including waves, a circle for the sun, a thin triangle for the sun ray, and a starfish. To make the first stamp, take the silly scissors and cut out 2 lines of waves from the craft foam. Using white glue (like mod podge), attach the waves to an old wooden toy block. Once the stamp has dried for a few hours, you can use the stamp to ink the image on white paper. Cut out the image and glue it to the other side of the stamp. Coat the whole side of the block with the mod podge or white glue to seal the image. This completes your stamp! For the sun stamps, cut a circle and a thin triangle from craft foam. Glue each piece to their own blocks. Repeat steps from above to attach the stamp designs to the other sides of the blocks. For the starfish stamp, cut out a star shape from craft foam. I chose not to cut out a perfect star, so that it looks like it is in movement. To add texture to the stamp, use a flat pin head. You can push the pin into a pencil eraser to hold it, and then press dots into the star. These pressed dots or holes leave white (or negative spaces) in the stamped image. Here are the finished stamps. I had a lot of fun making this project. The possibilities are truly endless! The last thing to do is grab some ink pads and start stamping!  Have fun using your beach stamps to make artwork, note cards, scrapbook embellishments and more!

Free Printable: Movie Night Invitation

If you've read my blog before, you might guess how much I like themed parties! I love planning all the details it takes to pull off a fun party. Most recently I had a small movie night sleepover with my nephew. Inspired by that, I decided to make a set of printable movie night ticket invitations.
  Oh, and it's free!! Download the free printable movie invitation here. 
 
The invitation is meant to print on a 8.5 x 11 size sheet of white cardstock paper, 3 invitations to a page. The tickets are blue, yellow, and red, and the text fields can be filled out once you download the PDF file.

These tickets fit perfectly into a business envelope (size #10) so that you can mail them as invitations for your next movie night party! I hope that you like them!
As always with my printables, I'd love to see photos of how you used them. Remember that each printable is free for personal use only. Enjoy!

Movie Night

If you are looking for a fun theme for your next party, a great idea is "movie night!" It would be fun to mail movie ticket invitations to guests and invite them for a sleepover complete with popcorn, candy and great movies. At our house we did a simple movie night so we could watch a classic: "Space Jam!" We were big fans of Michael Jordan growing up, and I am happy to report that "Space Jam" is just as good these days as it was back then! Of course we had to have some yummy popcorn and classic movie snacks like Reese's Pieces, Junior Mints, Sugar Babies, and M&M's. Grammy and little C got snuggly for the movie with snacks in hand! We also got some fun plastic cups with swirly straws. These would make a great party favor for a movie themed bash! I'm sure my nephew would have loved to have tons of friends over for our movie night, but at least Bugs Bunny and the gang were able to entertain him! I love this candid shot of Grammy and C laughing at those wacky Looney Tunes! I would definitely recommend a movie night for your next family night or kid's party. You could customize the snacks and party decor to your movie of choice.

4th of July craft on WDRB!

Yesterday I was invited to demonstrate the 4th of July tin can windsocks on WDRB in the Morning. It was a lot of fun to present this patriotic project! I hope you enjoy and have a wonderful 4th of July!

You can find more of my craft videos on my Craft E Magee youtube channel.

4th of July Craft

While I was looking around for some Independence Day craft inspiration, I stumbled upon this project by Random Thoughts of A Super Mom. I loved the tin can windsocks she created and decided that I had to make one of my own. 

This project is easy to do with the kids and makes a really nice decoration for 4th of July celebrations. 
You only need a few supplies for this project: Contact paper (to cut star stickers) 1 Large Tin Can (I used a big tomato sauce can, size 1 lb. 13 oz.) Red & White Ribbon (1.5 inches wide) Jute string Metallic Blue Spray Paint

First, remove the label and clean the tin can. Next, go to a well-ventilated area and spray paint the can blue. Next cut the stars out of the white contact paper (I traced a star pattern that I printed from the computer).

You can attach the stars to the can while the blue paint is still tacky, or if you stick the stars on the can once the paint is dry, you can coat the can in mod podge glue (glossy finish) to secure them. Once the stars are attached to the can and it is all dry, hammer two holes in the bottom of the can with a nail.

Insert the ends of the string into the holes in the bottom of the can and tie a knot in the string inside the can. The next step is to cut 8 pieces of ribbon (4 red and 4 white pieces) that are around 23 inches long. Using a glue that can stand up to being outside in the heat or sun (like E6000), attach the ribbons around the inside of the can.

You will use 8 ribbons, alternating red and white around the inside of the can.

Once the windsock is completely dry, you can hang the decoration up, inside or outside!

Whether you are decorating your dining room for dinner or your backyard for a barbecue, these windsocks will add the perfect amount of Holiday flair to your 4th of July party!
You can check out Julee's 4th of July project over on D.I.Y. Louisville too! Happy 4th of July!