My Mom Lists: It’s Cloudy with a 90% Chance of Wine

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My Mom Lists: It's Cloudy with a 90% Chance of Wine My Mom Lists: It's Cloudy with a 90% Chance of Wine

My Mom Lists: It’s Cloudy with a 90% Chance of Wine

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and that got me thinking about motherhood. Being a mom is exhausting and amazing all at the same time. Before I had kids I had unrealistic ideas of what it would be like to have a baby and run a business from home. When I was pregnant with my first daughter I assumed when she was born I could put her in the bouncy chair while I finished my work. Now I’ll tell you how that all worked out: It did not.

Let’s just say that a glass of wine at the end of the day is very welcome. To really dig deep into what it’s like to be a mom I poured myself a glass of melt in your mouth JaM Cellars Butter Chardonnay and wrote out a couple of “mom lists”.

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Categories: about me, family


DIY Felt Plantable Flower Garden – For Kids

Disclosure: This DIY Felt Plantable Flower Garden post is sponsored by, Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom. DIY Felt Plantable Flower Garden for Kids - thepapermama.com

My DIY Felt Plantable Flower Garden was inspired by the beautiful imagery in the series, Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom. The show takes place in the Little Kingdom, a tiny land where flowers and grass grow above the tallest towers! This DIY is the perfect toy for this Summer and Spring! I hung this sweet garden on the wall and my daughters LOVE picking their flowers and planting them over and over again. My oldest even requested gardening gloves while she played. We do a lot of real gardening at our home, but sometimes it’s nice to have something fun and creative for my kids to do indoors on rainy days… or days I don’t want to take the kids to the playground.

I’ve created flower files for you guys, my awesome readers, to make this for yourself. I have files to cut it on a Silhouette machine, if you have one, or images to use as patterns and cut by hand.

Are you ready to get crafting?

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How To Tie a Bowline Knot

How To Tie a Bowline Knot

Learning How To Tie a Bowline Knot is one of the most handy tricks I’ve picked up along this DIY journey. I craft a lot of everything (that’s pretty obvious) and I’m often tying knots for these projects. It’s important to know how to properly tie a knot and there are many knots with hundreds of uses. The bowline knot (pronounced “boh-lin”) is one of the most versatile and easy to tie. Even though there are quite of few different bowline knots out there this version I’m sharing is popular because of it’s strength and it’s simple to tie.

Are you ready to learn how to tie a bowline knot?

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Categories: diy, Tips and Tricks


Venus Fly Trap Pumpkin Candy Holder DIY

Venus Fly Trap Pumpkin Candy Holder DIY Venus Fly Trap Pumpkin Candy Holder DIY

It’s just about Halloween, and I needed a new candy holder to set outside. That’s why I created this Venus Fly Trap Pumpkin Candy Holder. Because I have two young children to take trick-or-treating, I won’t be around the house to hand out candy. So this year I’ve made a Venus Fly Trap Pumpkin Candy Holder. All I need to do is toss a bag of candy into the mouth of this carnivorous plant, attach it to my door, and we can head out on our Halloween adventure. The neighborhood kids can help themselves to a piece of candy, or one teenager can help themselves to all of it. Haha!

It might look complicated, but it was quite easy to make, and you don’t need to be an amazing artist to create this plant friend.

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Categories: diy, Holiday - Halloween


Rainbow Vertical Garden DIY

What do you do when you have a small yard and chickens that eat all the plants they can find? You build yourself a vertical rainbow garden! I’m sure a couple of our more sneaky chickens will find a way into some of our newly planted veggies, but for now it will work just fine.

One of our main goals this summer was to clean up our small backyard and make it more livable. I’ve said this before, but our yard is just a big dirt pit. We tore down our detached garage a couple years ago and it’s so sad back there. It needs so much work and our vertical garden is a step in the right direction. It’s amazing how such a small update can really change the feel of a space. I love the bright pop of color against our fence.

Do you want to make this vertical rainbow garden for your yard? As long as you have a few basic tools it’s pretty easy to make.

Supplies needed:

  • 8 wooden crates (mine are from Michaels)
  • a variety of colorful outdoor spray paint (I used Rust-oleum)
  • clear acrylic spray sealer
  • 4 – 2″ x 2″ x 8′ (actual 1.5″ x 1.5″ x 8′) treated lumber
  • 64 – 1 3/4″ exterior wood screws
  • landscape fabric
  • potting soil
  • plants

Directions:

Step 1: In a well ventilated space (preferably outdoors and wearing a mask) follow the directions on the back of the spray can and paint your crates. Note: Only paint the outside of your crates. Don’t paint where the dirt will be inside of the crate.

Step 2: When you are happy with the color of the painted boxes you can seal the boxes with the clear spray (this will help the boxes last a bit longer outside).

Step 3: Plan out a pattern for your vertical garden. Be sure to consider what kind of plants you want. You might need more crates with more vertical growing space for most plants.

Step 4: When you have your pattern figured out, measure out and cut the treated wood posts to the length you need (be sure you cut posts for the front and back of the vertical garden). Add about 3 inches to the length of each post so the boxes don’t sit right on the ground. Cutting tip: if you don’t have a saw to cut the wood, don’t worry. Most home improvement stores will cut the posts to length for you if you have your measurements ready.

Step 5: Connect the posts to the sides of the crates using wood screws.

Step 6: Measure inside the crates to find out the size you need line the inside of the crate with the landscape fabric. Cut out 8. Line the inside of the crates with the landscape fabric and fill with dirt. Use some scissors to trim the excess fabric.

Step 7: Plant all your veggies and you are done! Since the vertical garden is tall and skinny you might need to secure the piece to something, like a fence!

What do you think? Do you love my vertical garden? I do. SO much. Every time I look out my window into the backyard I get to see this colorful garden and it makes me smile.

With over 800 new styles of craft paint, Michaels has more paints for more surfaces! Check out some of their new finishes including ultra metallic & watercolor and get started on your next DIY! Looking for even more inspiration? Make sure you visit Michaels’ blog, The Glue String, to see the rest of the Michaels Makers’ DIY projects!

– Chelsey

P.S. I was provided with a Michaels gift card to share this craft paint DIY with you.


Perler Bead Bracelets Kid Craft!

As my daughter gets older our crafting days get more fun! She’s able to do so much more and I love how creative she is. Most recently we decided to get crafty with some Perler beads that I picked up from Michaels. I thought it would be a fun challenge to turn our Perler beads into 3D jewelry, so we made some bracelets.

Making bracelets out of Perler beads was a bit of a challenge at first, but once we figured it out it was pretty easy and fun. All of the bracelets we made are too small for my wrist, but fit my daughter perfectly. If you do want these bracelets to fit an adult wrist, I made a note of how to do that in the directions below.

There are a few items I recommend for this project to make it easier, but they aren’t completely necessary. I’ve also provided some patterns you can use with the Perler board that I used with an iPad. Or make your own! My daughter made one of the flower patterns on her own. When making your own pattern just remember to have 2 or more beads on each end that will meet up when you turn it into a bracelet.

Supplies needed:

Directions:

Step 1: Measure your wrist. You will need to be able to slide the bracelet on and off. When you have that measurement, find a glass that measures about the size you need for your wrist. I used a small juice glass for my daughter’s wrist.

Step 2: Plan out the pattern! You can do that freehand, or use the Perler App (it’s pretty fun to use). Make sure the ends of the bracelet will match up. Save my patterns to your iPad and open the image if you want use them.

Step 3: Follow your pattern and place the beads.

Step 4: Following the directions for the Perler beads, place the ironing paper over the design and heat up that side with your medium heat iron.

Step 5: While the beads are still warm, wrap the ironed bead side around the glass. Place the ironing paper over the beads and seal the edge to secure the bracelet. Let that cool down and then iron the rest of the bracelet. You want to iron it enough to get the beads to attach to each other.

Leave the bracelet to cool on the glass and then you are done!

Note: If you want to make a larger bracelet and your board isn’t long enough, don’t worry! You can add another section of bracelet on another part of the board and just iron the pieces together. Easy.

That’s it! My favorite bracelet we made is definitely our breakfast piece. So cute. My daughter wants to make more and give them to her friends. I bet we will be making a lot of these during the summer. Michaels is your Kids summer fun headquarters! They have everything you need to spark creativity in your children.

Looking for more inspiration? Make sure you visit Michaels’ blog, The Glue String, to see the rest of the Michaels Makers’ summer project ideas.

– Chelsey

P.S. I was provided with a Michaels gift card to create this fun project and share it. I use affiliate links.