I'm sure you've seen those websites out there that offer to help you prove that Santa was in your home by capturing him on camera for you. "Upload a photo of your tree or fireplace and for $10 we'll put Santa in your photo!" I'm here to tell you, that with a little effort, you can do it yourself for FREE! Don't worry, I'll walk you through how to do it step by step: I'll start by saying that I first posted this tutorial on my other blog (Mommy's Camera). Rather than re-watermarking every photo, I'm just using the Mommy's Camera watermarked photos (trust me, they are mine!). Also, this is Lindsi's fireplace. At the time I started writing this tutorial I did not have my house decorated or my tree up so I asked Lindsi to send me a photo of her house. She's an over-achiever ya know. Ok, on to the tutorial: Step 1) Download my favorite FREE photo editing software Gimp. If you have Photoshop you can still follow this tutorial. You just have to make adjustments for that … [Read more...]
Archives for December 2011
Fun Stuff Fridays (#3)
Remember when Linkys were all the rage in blogging? They were a great way to find and get to know other bloggers before social media and Pinterest became mainstream. It didn't hurt that they brought a ton of traffic to your site too. Lindsi and I started our Fun Stuff Fridays linky back in 2011. We kept it going for 20 weeks before it fizzled out (or we got sick of doing it, I'm not sure which happened). It is now soon to be 2017 and at lot of the links in those linkies no longer exist. Plus, I've let my link up subscription lapse so you can't get to them anyway. Instead of deleting the Fun Stuff Fridays posts, however, I have decided to clean them up and make sure our featured links are still valid. After all, on a rare occasion I get traffic from one of these old posts. The linky may be gone but the featured posts are still valid as of December 2016... ---------- Welcome to Fun Stuff Fridays. Last week we skyrocketed to over 120 link ups! We sure do appreciate everyone … [Read more...]
Fun way to teach your kids how to spell their name
My sister introduced me to this way of teaching my girls how to spell their names and it definitely works! Unfortunately for me, it is hard to explain in black and white. Fortunately for you, you get to watch me make a fool out of myself in a vlog! Without further ado: What do you think? Do you think your kids could learn their names and phone number this way? … [Read more...]
Candy Cane Vase
My oldest (5yrs) and I really love candy canes. If I am being 100% honest with you (and I always am) I purchase boxes and boxes and boxes of candy canes every time this time of year comes around. I love to eat them and decorate with them (and he does too!) This year we made a fun and really easy festive vase for our table out of candy canes. Here is what you will need: a glass vase (either square, rectangle or circle- a vase with a neck doesn't really work for this) some holiday ribbon candy canes low-temp glue gun Gage how much space the candy canes will take up and use the remaining amount to fill in with ribbon. I used ribbon around the base of the vase. We kept our candy canes wrapped to avoid sticky fingers (and sneaky licks). Using a low temp glue gun apply a ribbon of glue to the candy cane (not the vase- it will harden before you have a chance to apply the candy cane). Once you have covered the vase with the desired candy canes attach a bow around … [Read more...]
Reindeer pops
Have you ever wondered how people made those adorable cake pops? (You know, the cupcake-like treats on a stick). Well here you go! Let me first preface this with "it is NOT like you thought." Both Jamie and I originally thought that somehow you baked the cake batter into ball shapes by using molds. NOPE! First thing you do is to bake a cake according to the box directions (or if you are a show off you can make a cake from scratch "insert eye roll here"). Once the cake has completely cooled you cut the cake into quarters and take each quarter and crumble it. Once you are done crumbling it, it should look like this: After crumbling the entire cake add 3/4 of a can of frosting to the cake and stir. Roll into 1inch diameter balls and place on a cookie sheet. Refrigerate the "balls" overnight. Cover them with wax paper to keep them from drying out. Once the cake balls are chilled insert some sticks into each ball. Carefully melt your chocolate in a double … [Read more...]
Make Your Own Snow
Wanna play with snow inside and not have it melt all over the place? Make your own fake snow! It's great for decorating , letting your kids drive their toy cars through or just plain playing in! You'll need: A few unused disposable diapers (It would be super gross to use dirty diapers.) Water A container to mix in silver glitter (optional) Ok, now this is so easy you are going to think you missed something! 1) Cut open the diaper and pull out the inside absorbent layer. 2) Put it in the container and slowly add water 3) Mix until it becomes snow consistency! For powdery snow use less water, for slushy snow use more water. 4) Add a bit of glitter for some sparkle. (optional) My girls had a TON of fun playing with the snow! We attempted to add more water and make a snowman but it wasn't really successful. My girls did however, enjoy adding more and more water to see how slushy they could make their snow. We are currently freezing the slush … [Read more...]
