10 Things Tuesday - Awesome Blogs You Should Be Reading

As a blogger, I make it a habit to visit other blogs regularly and leave as much comment love as possible.  Usually, when visiting one blog, you can discover several others that you may not have ever heard of, but are really amazing and beautiful.  That's where today's list came from:

I want to share with you 10 blogs that I have recently discovered, and for one reason or another, they have drawn me back again and again.  Enjoy!

{1} Brooklyn to West

I found this blog through Instagram, believe it or not.  Once you see Ariele's work, you'll understand why I have been drawn in.  She creates the most amazingly beautiful wood pieces that she sells in her shop and shares on her Instagram feed.  Her photography is lovely and classic, as well. 

And I have a soft spot for her furry friends.

{2} Mom's Crafty Space

I don't remember exactly how I discovered Mom's Crafty Space but man oh man, is it chock full of fabulous ideas!  Check out the Outdoor Chalkboards, Homemade Pop Tarts, & the Repurposed Drawer to Storage Shelf.

{3} Story of My Life

Stunningly beautiful photography graces page after page of Jenni's blog.  The photos speak the story of her life, while she shares fashion, interior design, and social media goodies.

{4} Because My Life Is Fascinating

I love everything about this blog, honestly.  Hillary is cynical, honest, hilarious, and transparent.  You'll feel like you're having a cup of coffee with a friend as you read through her blog posts.  One of my personal favorites - 20 Mommy-Daughter Dates.

{5} Going Home to Roost

Ok, simply gorgeous.  Tips on organic eating and gardening, beautiful home decor, and an amazing community of loveliness.

{6} We are THAT Family

Kristen is a woman who fears the Lord and freely shares her faith, emotion, and grace throughout her blog.  She and her family are beautiful, inside and out.  She and her family founded Mercy House to support people in Kenya.  This is a must-read.

{7} Good Morning Girls

This is my daily dose of inspiration.  I'm currently enjoying the "Anything" Bible study, but even when these Godly women aren't leading a study, they are sharing their hearts and following God's call for their lives - ministering to women and sharing their faith.

{8} Paging Fun Mums

This is such a fun blog!  It's jam-packed full of awesome craft projects, tips for making meal time with kids fun and easy, hosting birthday parties and tons and tons more.  Love this blog!

{9} U-Create

There's so much goodness on U Create, from delicious recipes like banana bread, to Travel Tin Dollhouses, to baby shower ideas...you'll simply swoon!  Tons of really sweet free printables, too.

{10} Addicted 2 Decorating

Want to know anything and everything about transforming your home on a budget?  You can most likely find it here.  Ooohh and aaahhh over the Before-and-Afters and learn from the tips and tricks.  Simply fabulous!

Well there you go - 10 amazing blogs for you to visit and love.

Happy Tuesday!

Summer Fun Camp - DIY Fingerprint Zoo

It's Week 2 of Summer Fun Camp, can you believe it?!  It's finally here!  We had SO MUCH FUN during our first week of camp, and lots of wonderful photos of campers making their crafts!  In case you missed any of the fun, go HERE for a full recap of our awesome camping adventure!

Also be sure to stop by our website and Facebook page to keep up with all the fun!

Me and my crafty friends are very excited to bring you some fun Zoo-themed crafts and activities this week!  Let's get right to it, shall we?

  

Today I'm going to show you how my daughter made this insanely cute DIY Fingerprint Zoo!  We had so much fun playing with paint and creating little animals, and I hope you will, too!  There are a ton of photos, so consider yourself warned!

First, grab your supplies.  For the Fingerprint Zoo, you'll need:

• White paper (copy paper works great)
• Paints in lots of fun colors (we used acrylics)
• A pencil and a pen
• Scotch tape (shown below)
• YOUR HANDS!  Well, your fingers, anyway...

Lay out 4 sheets of paper and tape them together to make a big piece of paper, creating a:

Now, depending on the age of your child, you might have to help with this part.  My daughter is 11 and drew our zoo on her own.  Using a pencil, draw your zoo!  Make areas for all the different animals you want to include.

Marley drew the zoo, including enclosures for the animals, a stream, bridges, and a picnic area, in pencil first.

Once she was satisfied with her outline, we traced over the pencil with a black felt tip pen.  Be careful if you erase the pencil lines, making sure not to smudge the pen.  

Now it's time to draw your animals!  

A couple of notes first:

* I highly recommend practicing on scrap paper first.

* You will have to do the bodies with paint, then allow them to dry before adding features, like legs and faces.  We used acrylic paint, which took about 30 minutes to dry.

Giraffe:  Use your thumb to make his body and head.  Use the side of your pinky to make his long neck.  Dab a bit of orange and brown on a pencil eraser to make the spots.  Also use the edge of the pencil eraser to make the tail and horns.

After the paint dries, add legs and faces.  :)  We made a momma and baby giraffe!

Flamingos: Use your thumb to make the body, then slightly above and to one side of the body, use your pinky to make the head.

After the paint dries, add legs, neck and a beak.  We made some flamingos with one leg folded, just like in real life!

Turtles: Use your thumb and smear it a little to make it big and fat for the turtle shell.

After the paint dries, add legs and a head.  We used our handy pencil eraser to make fish, too!

Marley added an anaconda snake to our zoo using her pinky.  (Check out all the paint colors on her hand.  We had fun but this is a messy craft!)

Marley took a step back to examine her work.  When she decided she had all the animals, we took a break to let the paint dry.

As you can see, it looks a little funny before you add legs and faces.  It's just blobs of paint for the most part.  

After the paint dried, we added the legs and such to the animals, then used our crayons to completely decorate our zoo.  Here is the finished result!

Isn't it fabulous!  Marley did such a great job making her zoo!  We added a few people, a clown handing out balloons, a picnic area, and an entrance and exit.  Let me give you the grand tour...

Our first enclosure upon entering the zoo is the Lion Den!  We have two not-so-ferocious lions, male and female.  "Roar!"

Just a few steps down the path is our Bird Aviary!  Here we have a variety of exotic birds (we used our pencil eraser to make these cute little fellas).

Across from our Aviary, we have our little Turtle couple relaxing in the cool water with some seriously cute fish friends!

Continue down our path, sharing the pond with the turtles and fish, we have our fun Flamingo friends!  One of them has bed head apparently.

Take a break from the heat and step inside our Reptile House!  Here we have a variety of slithery friends in all shapes and sizes!

If you aren't too afraid, stop by and visit our Anaconda!  He's HUGE!!

As we exit the Reptile House, we loop around to see some GIANT friends!  Mr. Elephant appears to be cooling himself by spraying water from his pond out of his trunk!  Momma and Baby Giraffe enjoy the shade of a tall tree.

Finish the loop around the zoo with a visit to the Monkey enclosure!  We have a big fat poppa gorilla and two small monkeys!  Behind the monkeys is the Tiger family!  Grab a balloon from the crazy clown dude on your way to see the Bears!  Don't feed them, though!  They really like picnic baskets!

Thank you so much for visiting Marley Moo's Zoo today!  We hope you enjoyed your visit and we hope you'll visit again soon!

I'd like to give a big THANK YOU to this week's sponsor, The Hair Bow Company!  Offering way more goodies than just hair bows, The Hair Bow Company provides craft supplies, tutus, accessories to create your own hair bows, and more!  

Enter to win a $30 gift certificate from The Hair Bow Company!  And be sure to stop by The Grant Life tomorrow to see what Kelley has to share!  Happy Camping!!

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Linking up:
Craft-O-Maniac, On Display Monday

Shine on Friday!

Ok, for starters, y'all are AWESOME!  The talent we get linked up each week for Shine on Friday is phenomenal.  I really love being a part of this party each and every week!

Since it's storming over, like, half the country today, it's the perfect time to pour a tall glass of sweet iced tea into a mason jar, sit down with your laptop, and peruse the fabulousness that is Shine on Friday...  Let's do this!

Let's check out the features from this week, shall we?  :)

{1} Washi Tape Flower Vase by Craft and Repeat

{2} Painted Basement Stairs by Smart Girls DIY

{3} Swing Set Tire Ladder by Exploring Domesticity

{4} Distressed Mason Jars by Bargain Bound

{5} Custom Martha Stewart Necklace by The Pin Junkie

Awesome!  If you are one of those featured, head over to my Button Up page to grab your button!

So, for the last three weeks, we have been introducing you to each of the four co-hosts of our little party.  Today is the last, but most definitely not least, co-host in our group.  I'm very happy to introduce you to my bloggy best friend, Amy, from One Artsy Mama!

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Hey, friends!  I'm Amy, aka One Artsy Mama, and if you've ever visited my blog or Facebook page, you probably already know that I'm obsessed with all kinds of crafting, ballroom dance, Silhouette Cameos, and Starbucks.  I'm also totally in love with my husband and our almost-five-year-old "Little Crafter."

I started One Artsy Mama in the hopes that it would be a place to create, share, love, and inspire, and I truly hope that's the case!  I post about all kinds of projects, including kids' crafts, jewelry, home decor, painting, stenciling, sewing, fashion ideas, and more!  I recently posted a series and free e-book called Crochet 101 to teach the basics to beginners with step by step photos and instructions.

When I'm not on my blog, you can find me contributing at Somewhat Simple, Engaged Marriage.com, My Favorite Finds, and Luckymag.com.  I love sharing ideas with my readers and especially interacting on Facebook with all of you!  I hope you'll stop by to visit!  Have a fabulous weekend!

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She's so awesome :)

Ready to Party?  I thought so!  Just follow a few simple rules:

- Follow all 4 co-hosts (see links below)

Happy Go Lucky, One Artsy Mama, One Tough Mother, Young and Crafty

- Grab a party button and put it somewhere on your blog

- Have fun and visit some other friends

- Please do not link up any commercial sites or shops (thanks!)

<a border="0" href="http://onetoughmotherblog.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/onetoughmother/Blog%20Buttons/shine_on_friday_zps63440b68.jpeg"/></a>

DIY Fabric Pennant Banner + Craft Room Organization

On Monday, I showed you the latest updates of my craft room now that it's painted and organized.  I have some DIY projects yet to do but I'll get to them eventually.  I'm just glad to have a space that inspires creativity and looks clean and put together!

Today I want to show you a couple of quick projects that I've already implemented in my craft room.  They are super easy - check this out:

Let me show you the pennant banner first.

So, I used to sell Thirty-One (if you don't know what that is, it's bags and stuff), and I had a bunch of old fabric swatches that I wanted to do something with.  I picked the brain of one of my bloggy besties, Bethany, and she suggested a banner, so that's what I did!

Seriously, I had a bunch.

First I laid them all out until I was satisfied with the patterns in a certain order.

I cut each swatch into a triangle shape, then found some grosgrain ribbon to use along the edge.

I used a hot glue gun to attach the ribbon to each triangle.

I left some of the grosgrain ribbon hanging on each end, and added a little bit of satin ribbon to dress it up a bit.  Then just hung them on each window!

Cute, right?  I'm quite pleased!

Then there was the issue of all of this:

And this:

And all the other craft supplies that had not even made their way into the craft room yet...

I hit up the local dollar store and found these bins:

I pulled out my plastic zipper bags to further sort some of the smaller craft items.

Then I started sorting.  Every bin is for a different type of craft supply, like this:

My bins:

• Adhesives - glue guns, glue, Mod Podge, glue dots, etc.
• Kraft items - tags, boxes, etc.
• Wood items - clothespins, frames, etc.
• Foam items - cones, balls, blocks, etc.

• Fabric
• Stamps & stencils
• Twine & tape
• Scissors & punches
• Kid's craft supplies - fuzzy sticks, foam sheets, googly eyes, etc.

• Glass & ceramic items
• Floral embellishments
• Miscellaneous craft supplies

I also used one of my large plastic bins to hold my larger scrapbook items, like the long sheets of stickers and other embellishments:

Finally, I had to find a better way to store my ribbon.  I took it out of a wall-mounted ribbon holder and put it in bins that I can grab when I need it.

Organized by color...because I'm OCD.  :)

I have two smaller bins for ribbon as well - one has my large wired ribbon, and the other holds my ribbon scraps.

So there you go!  That's all I've done in my craft room up to this point.  I have a lot planned, though, so stick around!!