Ceramic Tile Dry Erase Board

Scripture memorization is a big thing in our house.  Both of my boys memorize bible verses for church on Wednesday nights and for school each week.  I needed a way to keep the assigned scripture for the week handy without having a piece of paper floating around on my kitchen counter (my kitchen now has twice as much counter space as my previous kitchen and I swear we could still fill up more!).

It needed to be easily accessible, it had to change weekly and it had to be nice looking.  Well, this is what I came up with and I really have enjoyed it.  And it was inexpensive, super simple to make and it took only minutes from start to finish.

I bought a 6x8 white ceramic tile from the hardware store (less than a dollar).  I decided I wanted to tie a ribbon at the top and chose to drill a couple holes with a masonry bit.  I just eyeballed the spacing.  You can tell I spent a lot of time making sure I got them level (my writing is as wonky as my "eyeballing"!).  It isn't noticeable once the ribbon is in.

Of course, you could skip this step and just hot glue the ribbon on but I wanted to impress my husband by asking (imagine serious tone, thoughtfully grasping chin and furrowed brow) "Do you think I should use a masonry bit to drill into this tile?"   I think he was pretty impressed!

Then I laced through some ribbon (this is just what I had on hand that would match the kitchen) and tied a bow.  I like that the ribbon softens it up a bit.  Then I cut a fleur de lis on some black vinyl with my Cricut (I love that darn machine!) and put it in the lower corner.

Next, I needed a way to display it.  I thought about hanging it but decided to keep it on the counter instead.  This way I can lay the tile flat to write on it.  I had some of these picture holder thingies (for the life of me I can't think of what these are called!) and decided this would make a great stand (and it keeps the marker handy, too!).

Now if I were going to give this as a gift, I would take the time to cover the back of the tile with some coordinating felt.  But it's just us and I'm the only one who writes on it (maybe it's a little too "femmed up" with the leopard bow and fleur de lis for the guys!).  We keep it in the kitchen on the counter and the boys and I go over their verses while they eat breakfast and I gulp sip my coffee in the morning.  It's a great way to start the day!

We use ours for scripture, but you could also use it for honey-dos, love notes to your hubby, jot down notes by the phone...lots of things,really!

Christmas Gift Ideas from I Heart Naptime and Under The Table and Dreaming

While making my rounds on my favorite blogs I've come across some really fantastic gift ideas.  My list of "Things to Copy" is long but here are a couple that I've done over the last few of days.

Thinking of all the people on my gift list this year, I decided to start with these clever "presents".  The idea came from Jamielyn at I Heart Naptime.  She made some for Fall/Thanksgiving and some for Christmas.  They are irresistibly cute!  I decided to make these for my volunteer teachers at church on Wednesday night.  I needed 10 gifts that were gender neutral, had no food allergens and were inexpensive.  These Christmas blocks were exactly what I was looking for!

I just used some old 4x4 scraps that we had leftover from a fence building project, some paint leftover from painting our shed, some vinyl I already had and some ribbon I had scraped from other projects.  As you can see, the price was right!  And I was very pleased with the results!

I loved them so much, I went out and bought another 4x4 to make some more (some for gifts, some for me!)!

To find out how to make your own, all you have to do is head over to I Heart Naptime!  But before you go, check out this other fantastic gift!

My second list of people to gift were my boys' teachers.  I could go all feminine here!  Something I would love to have.  We'll, I totally found the answer from Stephanie Lynn at Under The Table and Dreaming!  Her Pumpkin Spice Sugar Scrub is exactly what I was looking for!  The Pumpkin Spice fragrance is good for the winter time and she also has recipes for a couple of other fragrances!

 I decided to dress my jars up with some homemade "cinnamon men" (instead of gingerbread men) made with some cinnamon dough.  There are a ton of recipes on the web for this.

All you have to do is visit Under The Table and Dreaming to get the recipe!  Stephanie Lynn also offers printable labels to go with her amazing scrub!  How sweet is that?  Be sure to keep some for yourself (I sure did)!

(Now, if your one of the boys' teachers, please act surprised when you get this!)

Be sure to check out both of these wonderful women's blogs.  They are loaded with great ideas!  Then you will see why my list of "Things to Copy" gets longer every time I log onto the internet!

Giving Thanks for the Little Surprises!

I have horrible sleeping patterns.  I get up at weird hours during the night.  This morning's wake up was at 3:55am.  This works out well for blogging, though.  At least I'm not up watching reruns of The Nanny or knitting another hat.

Well, this morning I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me in the kitchen!

I stumble in to make some of this:

(Sorry for the obnoxious flash!  Remember, it's 4 o'clock in the morning and the sun isn't out yet!)

And what I saw was this!

Aren't these the cutest things ever?!  I made them last night for Little Bits Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast.  I didn't even take pictures along the way thinking these would turn out "okay" at best.  They're K'ers, they don't care about table decorations!  

But the results blew me away!

So here's a quick rundown of what I did.  It's super simple.

Supplies:

• small pumpkins
• a Cricut personal cutting machine
• a Paper Dolls Dress Up Cricut cartridge (thanks for letting me borrow this Kendra G!)
• brown craft paper
• markers
• Mod Podge
• foam brush

First I cut out the shapes I wanted using my Cricut and Paper Dolls cartridge.  They came out with some accent lines cut into the paper that were hard to see.  This is where the markers came into play.  I just used them to highlight where the cuts were (the musket and the hat were colored in completely).

Next I put down a layer of Mod Podge on the pumpkins using my foam brush.  Then I put my pictures on top and covered with another layer of Mod Podge.  I just used my fingers to smooth it down as much as possible.  Flat paper + round pumpkin = lots of bumps!  Mostly smooth is good enough (it feels very secure this morning).

Then I went to sleep and woke up to this wonderful surprise!

I also made some candy corn trees.  Just bigger versions of what Mitzi A did on her kids Thanksgiving table (see my post Home for the Holidays Part 1).  In fact, she gave me two of her little trees and two leftover bags of candy corn!  The pots I had out in the shed and the limbs I cut from the trees behind our church after work yesterday.  Total cost:  $0!

And I couldn't resist putting this in.  It's what my Little Bit is thankful for this year.

Ethan, Blair (two friends from school), Dad, Mom and Miss (his teacher).

Pardon me while I get a tissue! (sniff, sniff) 

I can hardly wait to give thanks with Little Bits class this morning!  I have so much to be thankful for!

"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"

2 Corinthians 9:15

Have you given thanks to God today?

If you liked what you saw (and I really hope you did!), would you consider following me or leaving me a comment?  That would make me very happy!