Ah, it’s Friday. <deep sigh>

What are you all doing this weekend? We’re looking forward to a geeky Star Trek date night, a meeting with our beekeeping club (more on that later!), and of course, lots of Tried & True crafting. After a week filled with sad and “meh” news, I’m looking forward to a little zen crafting time.

Here’s a little review of the last week courtesy of the Tried & True Instagram feed. (Click through to the bottom of the post for the awesome Photographer’s Dream Giveaway entry form!)

Everyone have a nice Mother’s Day? This was my favorite gift of the day. Jim drew it and Jack colored it in. I love that he didn’t make me as pasty white as I am in real life!

I pulled these shelves out of the garage, added some hammered metal spray paint and threw it up in my craft nook. It seriously is a nook so I need all the storage space I can get!

My son slept over at my sister’s house for the first time this week and my little heart broke. Check out his sleep over bag…it’s from the ’40s. Jim bought it for me for our first year anniversary. Who would have known!

We pulled the clear easel my sister made for Max’s birthday outside and made art under the hot Texas sun. The kids loved it…and then started painting each other. :^/

After waiting waaaaay too long, I finally got my hair cut! Well, really, it was just a trim but I’m thrilled that the ends don’t look and feel like a bristle brush.

Made this cute little Glittered Rainbow Frame in 15 minutes! Well, actually it was a bit longer than 15 because I had to stop and take pictures but I’m sure you could whip it out in 15 without a camera in tow. Love love love the glitter tape!

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for daily craft nonsense!

And now for the giveaway!!!

 Enter for a chance to win a $1000 Photographer’s Dream Shopping Spree!

Oh man, I so wish I could win this one! You can choose anything from a  new camera to some of those fancy accessories you’ve had your eye on. Having a hard time deciding what you want? Opt to have the $1000 USD transferred to you via PayPal! Are you excited yet?

There are quiet a few amazing bloggers and vendors who came together to make this amazing giveaway possible including Spaceships and Laser Beams, Yumtastics, Go Against the Grain, Life Revolves Around Them, Mimi’s Dollhouse, Not Just A Mommy, Angelina´s Dream Parties, Twinkled Spice Boutique, Hello My Sweet, Party Snobs, Inkberry Cards + Design, UR invited, Petite Bebe, Party Printables, Unlimited Party Themes, Party On! Designs, Vanessa Hankins Photography, My Garden Party, Dorothy Kurzydlowski Photography, Sugar Sugar Cakes, DimplePrints, Creative Juice Cafe, Miss Party Mom, PaperCandee, Creative Designs by Toni, Paige Simple Studio, Calamity Kate’s Kitchen, Simply Creative Printables,The Way The Cookie Crumbles, Michelle’s Party Plan-It, Paper and Style Co., And Everything Nice, Samantha Walker Designs, Simply Sweet Parties, Events by Kate, Cupcake Wishes & Birthday Dreams, One Inspired Party, Kima’s Konfections,This Nest is Best, Triple M Good Parties and Myour Stories Designs. And that’s not even everyone!!!

More than 60 people are contributing to this contest. To see the complete list, take a look at the Rafflecopter form. As small businesses and blogs, we would never be able to offer such a cool prize, so it’s a lot of fun to be able to combine forces and giveaway something so special.

Prize Details: The winner can select up to $1000 in camera equipment or supplies (including all sales taxes and shipping) to be delivered to the single destination of their choosing. The winner has the option of receiving $1000 USD in PayPal funds in lieu of receiving their prize.

The winner will be selected randomly via Rafflecopter. The odds of winning are dependent on the number of people entering. Should the winning entrant(s) not respond within 48 hours of being emailed, another winner(s) will be selected. Please ensure spaceshipsandlaserbeams [at] gmail [dot] com is on your safe email list. We would hate to have to redraw another winner!

Rules: This contest is open worldwide from May 17, 2013 at 12:01am EST to June 6, 2013 at 11:59pm EST. All entrants must be the age of the majority in their own country. Should unforeseen circumstances occur, this contest could be cancelled at any time. Void where prohibited by law.

Enter Using Our Rafflecopter Form

Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This blog did not receive any money to participate or promote this contest. This giveaway is in not way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, PayPal or any camera-related company. As one of many participants, we are not responsible for logistics or prize delivery. If you have any questions, please contact Stephanie at Spaceships and Laser Beams by emailing spaceshipsandlaserbeams [at] gmail [dot] com.

Let’s get started…

Glittered Rainbow Frame

Materials:
- 2 cheap frames (you’ll be using the glass from both of them but only the frame of one)
- Glitter Tape
- Craft Knife
- Spray Paint (optional)

Instructions:

1. (optional) Depending on just how cheap your frame looks, you may want to spray paint it. (Mine were thrifted Dollar Store frames which is a new level of cheap. Love it!) I had some hammered metal spray paint left over from my Mason Jar Toner Pump Tutorial so I went with that.

2. While the frame is drying, cut a piece of scrap paper to the size of the glass. Fold in half and cut out a heart shape. You may or may not have to do this a couple times to get a heart that you’re happy with. Turns out I suck at cutting out hearts. Who knew?

3. Affix the glitter tape to one of the glass panels. Don’t you just love glitter tape. It’s shiny and sticky (and cheap!)…I think I want to wrap the world in it.

4. Trace the outline of your heart onto the glitter tape and slowly cut around the edge with a craft knife. Take your time! This is a 15 Minute Craft not 15 minutes of raising your finger above your head to stop the bleeding.

5. Remove tape from the inside of the heart. Eee, it’s the big reveal….

6. All that’s left to do is sandwich the tape between another piece of glass, add a sweet little picture of your chubby-cheeked baby to the back, and securely place everything into the frame.

You’re done!!! You had 15 minutes of crafting bliss and now you’re feeling recharged and ready to restart your day, right? Right!

Want to check out other craft projects that you can finish in 15 minutes? Click on the banner below to find a week’s worth of awesomeness. Thank you to Angie and Carolina for hosting!

We’re big fans of tea over here…like ten different loose leaf varieties sitting on our tea shelf at any given time kind of fans. We also enjoy a good cup of joe on occasion (like when a certain little boy doesn’t sleep well!) but tea is definitely our beverage of choice.

To celebrate that century-old, elixir of the gods, I’m offering a free printable that you can cut out by hand or with a cutting machine. Because, really. Some days, a cup of tea is all I need. :)

Depending on your mood and your tea choice, you can change out the background to completely customize your art. I think this one looks like a Chai Tea kind of morning.

This one is definitely a fun mint Green Tea. One of my absolute favorites!

This is how I arranged the original print I made a couple years ago. By the look of it, you can tell we were on a bit of an English Breakfast kick.

So whether you’re a fan of Oolong or Matcha, x-acto knife or Silhouette, you can make this art 100% your own! Click on the links for either the pdf version (hand cutting) or Silhouette (machine) file.

So fill your cup with some nice hot tea and have a wonderful day!

This project is a part of The Silhouette Challenge hosted by The Thinking Closet . Stop by each month for a new and exciting free tutorial and studio file. Here are my projects from previous months:

February: Martin Luther King Window Art
March: We’re Better Together Card
April: Montessori Sandpaper Letters
May: “Celebrate Differences” Autism Awareness Tee

Check out all the other TSG projects for this month:

Spring Hoop Home Decor - Daily Dwelling
I Heart Labels: Flour & Sugar Jar Edition - The Thinking Closet
Bleeding Heart Card with Free Flower Download - Creative Turn
A Numbers Game – Learning Numbers with Your Preschooler - Lil Mrs. Tori
My First Silhouette Challenge Group Project - Tanya’s Creative Space
Personalized Garden Post & Grandma Book (Silhouette Mother’s Day Presents) - Whole New Leaf
Girly Superhero Decor - Coley’s Corner
“A Cup of Tea” Customizable Art Printable - Tried & True
The Lady in Hat “Thinking of You” Card - An Elegant Touch

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Tried & True!

Partying with: From Dream to Reality

I will be the first to declare that I am the absolute worst at cake decorating. Seriously, absolute worst. So when I came upon a few tutorials (Moey’s Heart & Hearth, Hipknitized, Sunshine and a Summer Breeze) on how to decorate a cake simply by copying a coloring page…woo-freaking-hoo! We had a Vintage Batman birthday party for my 2 year old son last weekend and it was the perfect opportunity to give this a try.

The process is super easy. Just tape the image you want to be on your cake (here’s the Adam West line drawing we used) under a pane of glass. Then tape a sheet of wax paper on top of the glass. Don’t forget the image will be reversed when you flip it onto the cake. Won’t matter for some images but we wanted Batman to be on the left side of the cake so had to flip the image accordingly.

Whip up your frosting. It can either be store bought or homemade. I went with the Easy Vanilla Buttercream Frosting recipe that Moey’s Heart & Hearth recommended. I ended up using a cream cheese frosting on the rest of the cake though. (Big fans of cream cheese frosting over here.) Using a pastry bag and a small tip (smallest I had was #2), start outlining the image with frosting dyed black. Color in anything that is the color of your outline as well.

Mix up all the other colors. I kept mine rolled up in cellophane wrap and then pulled it through the tip of the pastry bag  when I need that color. It’s easy to just trim the edge of the cellophane down, screw on the tip, and then squeeze away. Makes clean up a breeze as well!

Continue coloring in your image until completely covered and then stick the whole thing in the freezer to harden. Ok, this is the part where I mention doing as I say, not as I do…Keep the frosted image in the freezer for a really really long time. And by “really really long time,” I mean more than a few hours. I’ll show you why in a second.

When the frosting has hardened all the way, you’re going to remove the wax paper with the frosted image and flip it on top of a completely cooled and frosted cake (the wax paper should be facing upward). Gently peel back the waxed paper to reveal your awesome cake decoration!

You see the hole in the middle of Batman’s head? That was a result of me not having enough time to let the frosting harden completely. If I was more prepared (sigh), I would have made this a day or two before I needed it and just let it sit in the freezer.

I just smoothed over the areas of the frosting that didn’t transfer as well. Turned out ok but if you look at the picture above, you can see that area of Batman’s forehead looks like a different shade. Meh, looked good enough for the 30 seconds it took to sing to Max and then the whole thing was devoured.

I’m thinking this little one didn’t care too much about the mistakes! Hope this helps all the other seriously inept cake designers out there!

Partying with: Weekend Wrap Up

While you’re there, you can also check out the reusable Summer Bucket List tutorial I posted! You can write in your own activities, wipe them off at the end of Summer, and use again next year!

Also thought it could be a Mother’s Day Gift from Tried & True to all the hard working mamas out there! You are absolutely amazing and an inspiration to everyone. So, on your special day, take some time to make a hot cup of tea, print out this free printable, and color your heart away as you remember the day you became a mother.

So, here you go, you all know the routine. You can print out the free “The World Smiled” Coloring Print and then use whatever medium you desire (watercolor, colored pencils, markers, etc) to color it in. Please refrain from selling or using in any commercial manner. For personal use only. Hope you all enjoy it!

Also, don’t forget to enter the “There’s Only One You” giveaway from Tried & True and some amazing blog friends of mine! Just enter using the Rafflecopter box below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Partying with: Weekend Wrap-Up

We’re in full swing prep mode for Max’s 2nd birthday party over here! I gotta admit, I was a little hesitant about having a Batman themed birthday party for a two year old but Max is kinda obsessed with him right now so here we go…another superhero party. (We just had a Fantastic Four party for Jack’s 4th birthday in December…man, I’ve got to upload the printables for that!)

Max only knows of the vintage 1960′s Batman (which he calls “Doo Doo Batman” on account of the opening song) so we’re going full on camp for this party. Seemed a little more appropriate than the more recent Christian Bale/Heath Ledger version. ;)

So yeah, super busy over here. Wish I had a tutorial to share with you all today but I’ve got to cut sound effect bubbles, make favor bags, and finalize the birthday boy’s t-shirt. God bless my Silhouette Cameo!

Two years old? My poor poor little heart…where does the time go?

This post contains affiliate links to outside websites that help support Tried & True. More support means more free tutorials for you. It’s a win/win!

A few years ago, we decided (and by we, I mean “I decided” and dragged my boys along!) to try and cut out as many chemicals from our regular routine as possible. You know, clean up the things we clean ourselves up with? Well, some of it was super easy to change out (hand soap and face toner), other stuff not so much (“no poo”).

One of the easier things in our routine to swap out with something more natural was body wash. We made the switch to Dr. Bronner’s early on and after figuring out that the peppermint variety was a bit too harsh on some of our neatherbits, we’ve been using the Almond Castile Soap ever since.

Now, before I get much further, I should say that this post is not, in any way, anti-Dr. Bronner’s. I absolutely love everything of theirs (including the crazy label!) but we were going through so much of their soap and it’s not cheap. I’m not pointing any fingers here but someone in our house is a bit heavy in the hand when applying the liquid soap. (Hi, Jim!) You add in the fact that we also use a diluted version of the soap for our diaper wipes…and well, we’re going through a lot of this stuff!

Something had to be done…

Thanks to a recipe I found on numerous websites (so many of you can’t be wrong!), I was able to make three quarts of body wash for $4.99. Awesome, right? Granted, I already had the glycerin so the next time I make a batch of body wash, it’ll cost a little bit more but glycerin is pretty inexpensive and can be found at most drug stores.

Homemade Body Wash

Materials:
- pure Castile soap bar, grated (I like Dr. Bronner’s Almond)
- 12 cups water
- 2 tbsp glycerin

Instructions:

1. Bring the water to a soft simmer, add the soap and stir until completely melted.
2. Turn off heat and add glycerin.
3. Cover and allow to set for 24 hours.

After allowing to set, just transfer the soap to either an old body wash bottle or to mason jars. I added a silicon gasket to my lid for easy pouring. We’ll see if it helps with conservation efforts! (Hi Jim!)

So there you have it. Depending on what type of soap you buy, you could feasibly make three quarts of body wash for under five bucks! Which leaves you money to buy more of all the other awesome natural products (like Dr. Bronner’s) out there! :D

Yesterday I showed you how to use masking fluid with my latest “Whatever Our Souls” Coloring Print to make a watercolor relief art piece (You can find the full tutorial here!) but of course, I couldn’t just stop there. Here’s the same print but colored in with Spectrum Noir markers instead.

Same great quote, totally different feel!

Don’t forget that it’s totally easy to get your own customizable copy of my “Whatever Our Souls” print! Just sign up for the monthly Tried & True newsletter below and the free download will be delivered to your inbox. Hope you enjoy it!

Don’t forget to check out all my other original Coloring Prints!

So Lucky Coloring Print

"I'm So Lucky To Know You"

Little Man Free Coloring page

“He has mud on his nose and stars in his eyes. A good man in a little boy’s body.”

I Love Everything Free Coloring Page

"I Love Everything About You"

"Let It Go" Coloring Print

"Just Let It Go"

Nights and Years Free Coloring Page

"The nights are long but the years are short."

Whatever Our Souls Coloring Print

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same" Emily Bronte

I loved this quote the second I heard it and knew that I wanted to make a Coloring Print with it. You’ve got to love a little Emily Bronte/Wuthering Heights in the morning, right?

I played around a bit with the coloring technique by first covering the letters in masking fluid and then layered a thin wash of blue watercolor over everything. (finally pulled out my new watercolor set!) I’m kinda diggin’ it. Not sure if it works the best with this quotation but I’m positive it would look killer on something for a beach or vacation home!

Definitely going to want to make sure to cover all the letters in the masking fluid before adding color. You can’t go back once the watercolor is down!

Allow to dry completely and then…

Start rubbing to remove the masking fluid. This was sooo much fun. It felt kinda like when you use to put school glue on the palm of your hand and then slowly pulled it off as it dried…wait…you don’t know what I’m talking about? I can’t be the only one that did that!

Don’t worry too much about mistakes. Adds to the organic feel of your art piece! Of course, if watercolor isn’t your thing or you don’t want to run out  and buy some masking liquid, you could always color in the print with markers or colored pencils similar to my “So Lucky” or “I Love Everything” prints.

Want to make your own “Whatever Our Souls” art print? It’s super easy! Just sign up for the Tried & True newsletter where you’ll get monthly updates on new projects and exclusive access to Original Coloring Prints. Don’t worry, I promise you’ll only get one or two messages a month from me and I wouldn’t even think of selling your information to anyone else!

Once you sign up and confirm your account, you’ll receive an final “Thank You” email and be able to download my hand-drawn “Whatever Our Souls” coloring print! Use the Light version if you want to play around with masking fluid or don’t want to see the outlines.

Don’t forget to check out all my other original Coloring Prints!

So Lucky Coloring Print

"I'm So Lucky To Know You"

Little Man Free Coloring page

“He has mud on his nose and stars in his eyes. A good man in a little boy’s body.”

I Love Everything Free Coloring Page

"I Love Everything About You"

"Let It Go" Coloring Print

"Just Let It Go"

Nights and Years Free Coloring Page

"The nights are long but the years are short."

Whatever Our Souls Coloring Print

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same" Emily Bronte