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Surprise Ball: For Your Dude

I have been struggling with what to name this thing… I mean. How do I even name this without it sounding dirty? It was hard, but I think I did it. Say hello to the Surprise Ball: For Your Dude. Yup. It’s a surprise ball…. for your man. Ha! A man surprise ball package (see dirty, or maybe it’s just me).

What’s a surprise ball you ask? Well, it’s a ball of crepe paper and goodies. Typically these are for kids. In fact, I made about 10 kiddo surprise balls for R’s birthday party in December. The kids LOVED them. They were all distracted for a good 34 minutes. For Christmas I made a “lump of coal” for my uncle. It pretty much had everything in it as this ball, but in the center was a gift card.

This last week my husband celebrated his birthday. SO, I thought this would be a ~~fun for me~~ fun gift for him. I filled the ball with all things he can use and likes. I took a before picture…

What was in there? Well…

- two small packages of coffee

- shaving Cream

- two 5 hour energy bottles

- Siracha

- Ranch Corn Nuts

- pumpkin seeds

- a whole package of Reese’s easter eggs….

- beef stick

- four Slim Jims

- two pairs of socks

- 8 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

- 8 Kit Kat Bars

- a bottle of Session beer

- small deodorant

- chapstick

- annnnnnd gum

How do you make a surprise ball?

You need quite a bit of crepe paper. I used 5 rolls of black and one roll of white. I didn’t pay attention to how much was in each roll, but I’d say getting 6 – 7 would be safe. Try and put the larger items in the center. Some people like to do one continuos strip of crepe paper. I don’t. I tore off 1 – 2 yard sections to wrap each prize. I started with the Siracha, then shaving cream, and beer. From there I just tried to place items to make it look more like a ball. The socks and snack bags were helpful to soften corners. Wrap, wrap, wrap. Surprisingly… it only took just over an hour to wrap the whole thing.

When you’re done maybe add a bow? Pretty ribbon wrapped around it? A tag? Give to your favorite dude in your life, and have fun. If you’re curious about the actual scale of this surprise ball I placed my Chihuahua, Angus, next to it. He’s 6 pounds. P.S. he always looks terrified.

ALRIGHT! Happy Monday to all of you. Have you ever made or received a surprise ball?

- Chelsey

Posted by Chelsey on February 25th, 2013
Tagged: crepe paper, gift, present, surprise ball
Category: birthday, diy, fun, funny, gift, Gift DIY, paper, tutorial
562812Surprise+Ball%3A+For+Your+Dude2013-02-25+12%3A10%3A55Chelsey

A lovely Valentine’s Day!

We started the day with preschool, followed by a trip to the bakery (see above), and headed home. We found a wonderful bunch of goodies when we came home (turns out my man came by and brought me some fantasticalness). Bubbly, chocolate, flowers, and cured meats.

FOOOOOlllllowed by my kiddo and I sharing a Valentine’s gift for the Dada of the house (see below). I asked R what she wanted to get him for Valentine’s, she said socks. SOOooooo, she picked out these wonderful dinosaur socks (from Target) and he is wearing them to work today.

We ended the day with food and playing with ponies. Pretty much: a wonderful day. I hope you had the most wonderful Thursday, and a happy Friday to you!

- Chelsey

Posted by Chelsey on February 15th, 2013
Tagged: gift, laureli, Ruari, valentines day
Category: family, gift, laureli, ruari, ruari style, valentines
55529A+lovely+Valentine%27s+Day%212013-02-15+12%3A03%3A49Chelsey

Day 45: “Poop” Treat Labels

Day 45: Poop. Yup, poop. Poop is funny. Well, fake poop is funny. The word “poop” is funny. When I was a little girl, I received a little “Snowman Poop” treat bag. As an 8-year-old… I’m pretty sure that was the FUNNiest thing ever. Ha! Since that time, I’ve seen many different versions of these treat goodies. It’s time for me to share my own. I’m sharing three different labels with you: Elf Poop, Snowman Poop, and Reindeer Poop.

There are two different sizes you can print. The smaller size is around 3 inches wide, and the larger is around 5 inches wide. Click on one of the links below to get your freebie! Right-click + Save. Print them, cut them out, fold and attach to some sort of bag with “Poop” Treats inside. For the reindeer I used chocolate covered raisins. For the elf label, I used peppermint chocolate pieces. Then, for the snowman I used mini marshmallows.

3 inch wide printouts:

- Elf Poop

- Snowman Poop

- Reindeer Poop

5 inch wide printouts:

- Elf Poop

- Snowman Poop

- Reindeer Poop

Chelsey

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To keep up with my 50 DIY Days, click here:

Posted by Chelsey on December 18th, 2012
Tagged: 50 DIY Days of Christmas, elf, freebie, gift, poop, printable, reindeer, snowman
Category: 50 diy days of christmas, freebie, gift, print, printable
50165Day+45%3A+%22Poop%22+Treat+Labels2012-12-18+15%3A00%3A03Chelsey

Day 41: Laminated Tablet Sleeve

DAY 41 is brought to you by, the lovely Jill of Baby Rabies: Okay, so maybe you can’t afford to give all your friends and family new tablets for the holidays, but you can give them something to keep those tablets (that hopefully someone else is bringing them) safe and dry.

This is an easy sewing project. Really, all you need to be able to do is sew a straight line. I know because that’s all I can do. Except don’t look too close at my lines because they aren’t all the straight.

What you’ll need:

- 1 yard of laminated cotton (or oilcloth)

- 1 old sweatshirt or towel

- measuring tape

- scissors

- sewing machine and thread

- the dimensions of the tablet you’re making the cover for

For the purposes of this tutorial, I’ll give you the dimensions I used for my iPad2 in a protective case. I measured with the case on, and came up with 11″ x 9″. Then I added a 1/2″ to each measurement. That was the final dimensions of I needed the sleeve to come out to- 11.5″ x 9.5″.

I cut my laminated cotton fabric to 28″ x 10″ and the sweatshirt to 26″ x 10″.

The formula for figuring this out based on your own tablet dimensions is as follows:

Start by adding .5″ to your final width. This will be the same for both fabric pieces.

For the laminated fabric, double your final height measurement, then add 4.5″. The total will be your length of laminated fabric you need to start with.

For the sweatshirt, double your final height measurement and add 2.5″. This will be the length of sweatshirt (or towel) you need to start with.

After you’ve cut out your pieces, lay your laminated fabric right side down. Place your sweatshirt on top of it, with the side of the material that you want exposed to the tablet. I chose the inside of this old sweatshirt.

Pin your two pieces together, leaving 1″ of laminated fabric extending past the sweatshirt fabric on either side.

Stich the 2 pieces of fabric together .25″ from the edge, then fold the 1″ of laminated fabric over each end of the sweatshirt, pin and stitch down. No need to double fold here. The laminated fabric won’t fray if you leave a raw edge, and it won’t be visible when the project is complete.

Lay the piece right side down again. Fold the bottom of the fabric up to a few inches below the top. Fold the top of the fabric down until it overlaps the bottom by 1″. Pin all the way around, then stitch together each long side, 5/8″ from the edge. Don’t do anything to the horizontal opening.

Remember to adjust your machine settings to allow for such thick fabric! You might need to loosen your tension and lengthen your stitch.

Trim the edges of the fabric as close to your first line of stitching as possible (.25″ in), then carefully trim your corners at a diagonal CAREFUL not to clip the stitching.

Finally, turn the project right side out, using a pencil or a crochet hook to really pop out those corners.

When you’re finished, you’ll have a water-resistant tablet cover that’s sure to be the envy of everyone at the coffee shop. I mean, they’re totally not envious of the actual tablet, right? Just the gorgeous, handmade sleeve it lives in.