The Jolliff Family

Today I am going to show you how to make a diaper cake. A little over a week ago, Amanda and I hosted a baby shower for Tanya, who is expecting a girl in just a few days!! As part of the decorations we decided on a diaper cake. I had never made one before, but figured it was pretty easy. So here is what you need... a platter to hold the cake, some pretty ribbon, scissors , a bottle of lotion or soap, diapers, string or curling ribbon and any decorations you may want to put on the cake. First cut tons and tons of curling ribbon. The diaper cake had 80 diapers total, so cut the appropriate number of pieces. Then roll your diapers up and tie them up. And roll and roll and roll.... After you have rolled all your diapers, put the lotion in the middle of the platter and start lining up your diapers around the lotion. To get the diapers to stay nice and tight, I would occasionally tie a piece of curling ribbon around the entire thing. My first "layer" of the cake had thre...

How do you make a great trip? Giving some deserving children a new toy, maybe their first new toy ever! Loving on some orphans. Giving 50 new pairs of shoes out! Playing with the parachute! Acting silly with some street kids. Can't wait to share all the great things that made a wonderful trip to Ethiopia. But for now, my head is full and my heart is heavy as I process this trip. I can't wait to begin sharing more pictures in the days ahead! Love you all!

I made the boys some Christmas Shirts and they are super easy!! I remember that my mom has a footprint and hands reindeer ornament my brother made when he was probably 4 years old. She puts it on the tree every year and I thought it would be fun to make shirts for the boys similiar to that ornament. After Christmas, I plan to cut them out and put them in open picture frames to be part of our Christmas decorations for years to come, I'll show you that come January! The pictures are not very good because I did not have willing partipants! Happy crafting! Can you believe Christmas is THIS week?!

Today I will show you a cheap and fun project to give as gift's for the children in your life. I decided to make crayons for the kids in Sam's preschool class. It is really easy and I'm sure you did something like this when you where little. Here goes... Supplies: Muffin container (mine is Christmas tree shaped) Labels Crayons Gift Bags All you do is take the papers off your crayons and break them into pieces to fit into your muffin tins. Maybe your child will be willing to help you with this step... mine wasn't!!:) Then, place them in the oven and heat until melted. It took about 12 minutes on 350 degrees. Let me warm you that it stinks while they are melting. Don't say I didn't warn you! After they have melted, take out of the oven and place in the refrigerator to solidify. Again, this only took abour 15 minutes. Pop them out and place them in your gift bags. Sam also picked out a fun coloring page to give to each of his friends that he placed in ...

I have really fallen in love with felt lately for crafting projects. It all started when I saw the tutorial for the flowers that we made for the Belle's Brunch. So easy to work with and really versatile! So, for my next project I decided to make some picture ornaments. I like to get a picture of the boys in an ornament for each year. This year I decided to make one myself. Super easy and I think cute! Here is what you need: Your small pictures, cute to the size you want. (I used wallet sized) 1 piece of felt (1 piece will make 3 ornaments) Pinking sheers Hot Glue Gun Ribbon To start, cut your piece of felt into strips with the pinking shears. Make the strips a little bigger than your picture as this will frame your picture as I did below. After you cut into strips, cut again into a rectangle to fit your picture. You should have two rectangles the same size. Then with 1 of the pieces cut a small window, again with the pinking shears, so that you can see your picture sandwiched bet...

I have decided to add a new feature to my blog called Make It Monday ! Each Monday I will feature something that I have made. It might be something I baked, sewed or crafted in some way. I will try it out for about a month and if I can keep up with it, I will continue it!! Banana Bread!! Yummy. I made this for Sunday School breakfast, but wrapped in a nice holiday towel with a ribbon around it, this banana bread loaf would make a great present for a neighbor for Christmas! Ingredients: 2 cups all purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 cup butter 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 eggs, beaten 2 1/3 cups overripe mashed bananas Instructions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease (and I flour) a loaf pan. 2. In a large bowl, combine flour, soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir this mixture into the flour mixture; stir until just moistened. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. 3. ...