Accordian Book/Card

Aaaahh...Valentine's Day approacheth. The day of love and chocolate and CARDS! I can not lie... I am a huge fan of handmade cards made complete with personal messages of love. (Wish my husband would clue into that...It would save him a lot of stress and money every year.)

I always love finding a new approach on the handmade card. A friend taught me how to make these cool accordion book/cards last year. They're perfect for any occasion, but I thought they would make extra-special valentines. This year I am making one for my husband and each of my kiddos. My printer won't cooperate so I haven't been able to finish them, but I wanted to get this posted so you had a chance to make one before V-Day. I included pictures of three I made last year for my sisters and sister-in-law. (See bottom of post)

I am often found two steps behind the rest of the group, so hopefully you have not already made this ages ago in Homemaking meetings across the globe.

Don't mind all the pictures. Maybe you're like me and more of a visual learner. In that case: You're welcome! Ü

To make one accordion book/card you will need:

3 pages of 8.5 x 11 card stock
1 piece of cardboard (you could cut up a box)
1 page of patterned paper (12 x 12 sheet)
ribbon
your preferred crafting glue (I use a glue stick)
a glue gun and glue sticks
scissors or paper cutter
additional craft supplies you want to use to personalize the middle
Optional: clear tape



Cut all three pieces of card stock into perfect squares (8.5 x 8.5).



Fold square in half. Make the fold sharp, precise, and defined. Fold it back and forth a couple of times to make it flexible. (Take your time with ALL the folds. Be careful and precise. It's not difficult; it just needs careful attention.)



Unfold paper, rotate, and fold in half again so that you will have perpendicular folds that will divide your square into four equal squares. Again, make your folds sharp and defined.





Fold your square diagonally into a triangle. Just as before, make sure folds are defined. ONLY FOLD ONE DIAGONAL FOLD. DO NOT ROTATE AND FOLD IN A TRIANGLE AGAIN.





Bring opposite corners that have been folded in triangle (If you look at the above picture, it's the bottom left and top right corners) together. Allow them to collapse so that the two squares that were NOT folded in the triangle sandwich them.



Repeat these steps so that all three pieces of card stock are exactly alike.

Unfold papers and lay them together as show in the picture below. Place the middle paper on top of the others. Match up the squares as perfectly as possible and use a glue stick to secure in place. Be generous with gluing. These pieces are going to move often and you want them to be secure.



Now you have the accordion part of your book! You may have to play with it a bit to figure out how it collapses and expands.



If you folded things right, your accordion book should have 4.25 inch squares.

Next you will make the cardboard covers. Cut two 4.5 x 4.5 inch squares out of cardboard.



Now take your patterned paper and cut out two 6 inch squares to cover the cardboard.



Next you will secure the patterned paper to the cardboard. I like to use my glue gun for this. Glue sticks just aren't up to the task. Hint: Fold the paper on like you are wrapping a gift, dotting hot glue along as you do.



Although they should be square and not really matter which way is up, I like to draw arrows on the side that will be glued on the card stock just to help my scatterbrained nature.

Before you glue the covers onto the innards you need to glue on ribbon pieces. The ribbon will be used to tie around the finished book to keep it from falling open. There is probably a better way to do it than the way I do it, but all I know is what I know, so here is my technique.

I glue two separate lengths of ribbon onto the top and bottom of the cardboard cover that will sit on the top of the book. (Another reason I put arrow markers on there.)

Hint: You could use tape to temporarily secure your ribbon and see how it works for you. (If you are having trouble figuring out how to piece the three pieces of card stock together to make the accordion, you could also use tape to figure out the mechanics of it before committing to glue.)



Below is the front of the book with the ribbon wrapped down and around the back and tied in front.

Hint: I used a lighter to melt the ends of my ribbon so as to prevent fraying. Works like a charm!



This is the back of the book with the ribbon wrapped around.



Now I use my handy-dandy glue gun again to secure the card stock innards to the covers. Work quickly, but make sure you are aligning your squares neatly AND securely.

You could glue your innards on however you want, but I like to do so that when I unfold it, it lifts from the bottom right corner and expands up and to the left. Did I confuse you more by adding that?? Sorry if I did!



The semi-finished result! (I just realized that my book is technically upside-down in the pictures above and below...Disregard that. According to the directions I've given you, the ribboned cover would have been on the top. You may not have even noticed; I'm just telling you in case you had and were confused that my picture looked different than what the instructions had dictated. SORRY!)



Now, you can fill the innards to your heart's content! Go crazy! Use pictures, quotes, accessories, flowers...the sky is the limit! The book has some give when folded up so don't worry too much about making it "too" thick.

JUST REMEMBER, THE FOLDS FOLD WHEN IT IS COLLAPSED SO DON'T GLUE THINGS OVER THE FOLDS. You can cut pictures in half or place words around the fold.

Again...Sorry I don't have this one finished to show you, but here are some pictures of others I made (I think it was for Mother's Day...). Click on pictures to zoom in.







Hopefully, between pictures and instructions you can figure out how to make this great accordion book/card. If you have any questions, put it in the comments, and I will do my best to answer it.

And let us know how yours turned out! Send me your pictures at claytonevelyn@gmail.com and I will post them or post it on your blog and leave a comment with the link!

Happy crafting and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! ♥♥♥

The Magic of Santa

While we all know the real reason for celebrating Christmas...pondering the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ...I also love the magic and thrill of Santa Claus. I loved it as a kid but I love it even more as a mom. Here are some fun activities to add to the magic...

Last year we tracked Santa all during Christmas Eve to see where he was dropping off gifts. Once we saw him getting closer and closer we knew we better hurry and get to bed. The kids were very excited! You can track Santa's movements HERE.

This year, my husband also had a personalized message from Santa sent to each child. Aside from telling them they've been good and giving specific information unique to each child Santa also let them in on a fun (and magical) secret...like how his reindeer fly or what he does during his summer break. You can get Santa to email your child by going HERE.

Christmas Music

I love the Christmas season! We have had our tree decorated for over 2 weeks but we've just started listening to Christmas music. I get one Christmas cd every year. I'd like to know what your favorite Christmas cd is. I'd also like to know if you have some great children's Christmas music as well. My daughter loves to listen but some of them get boring for her. I love the Josh Groban Christmas cd, we got that one last year.

So, what do you love listening to during the holidays?

Child Costumes

Dear Mommies,

I never loved Halloween until I had children and now it is one of my favorite holidays! We know it's early (ok, really early) but we recently added a Child Costume link under our "Mom Friendly Links" section that we wanted you to be aware of.

I just spent the last 10 minutes looking through the site and thinking of all the fun ideas we could be for Halloween. The Sunflower is my favorite flower...how fun would it be if I dressed up like the Sun and had my kids dressed in this...they follow me around everywhere anyway, right?!

And probably because I think everything is cuter when it's smaller I especially loved this costume for a baby. It just makes me laugh!

Happy Halloween (5 months early)!

Jelly Bean Bracelets

If you're looking for a last minute Easter activity or something to do with all those jelly beans, this was a fun one! My kids and I made these jelly bean bracelets. I actually decided it would have been a better idea for me to do them myself and stick in their Easter baskets because it was kind of hard for the kids to stick the needle through the jelly bean and they ended up just handing me what one they wanted to go on next instead. But they were very happy with the result, and had very sticky arms the rest of the day! :)

I got this idea from here: JELLY BEAN BRACELETS

Happy Easter!!

Easter Eggs

One of my favorite activities every Easter is dying eggs. And since having kids I have loved doing it even more! I love how it brings the family together and I love the anticipation of what the final result of your egg will be. Every year we have the tradition that the last egg to be dipped takes a turn in every color...leaving us in the end with one ugly brown egg.

Click on the links below for some fun ideas to do with your children and your eggs...feel free to comment and tell us what you plan on doing!

• Animals from Family Fun: Mouse, Pig, Sheep (I'm pretty sure I've fallen in love with these!)
• Dying Techniques from Amazing Moms: Egg designs
• Or if you are out of Paas packets you can always find a more natural way to dye them here.

Have fun this year dying eggs with the kids!

Valentine Dinner

Well, my hubby and I have only celebrated valentines once.... I mean really celebrated where I planned a special meal, we ate it after our little boy was in bed, candles, chick-flick movie, everything. I even made a "mix" for our ipod that had all romantic songs on it. So, that one time it was really fun and we decided we need to do that every year, yet somehow, it just slips away from us and we just end up saying things like "We should watch a movie tonight" ( thinking that just because we said something it makes it different from every other night that we watch a movie.) My goal is to try to start celebrating the smaller holidays more, in simple ways. So, this year, so far, we've made heart shaped cookies, decorated them, wrote notes to dad on a whole bunch of paper hearts and taped them to our door, and we are making valentines tonight. Then tomorrow we are doing activities at playgroup, and Saturday we are celebrating with cousins.

I think we did pretty good this year.... now, I'm sure I've kept you all on the edge of your seat wondering what that one meal I made was...... here you go:

SCONES! They were delish. We made scones (the easy way, with Rhodes rolls), and had navajo tacos, and some with honey of course. We also had sparkly Italian soda in pretty glasses with floating cranberries. And for dessert, I think we had some sort of ice cream and brownies. It was yummy, and I even used my nice dishes for it!

Chilled Christmas Punch

I needed a quick christmasy punch last week and found this one on allrecipes.com. The cinnamon really gives it a christmasy kick. My husband liked it so much he asked me to make it again for Christmas dinner.

Enjoy!

{Christmas Gift Ideas on a Budget}

The last couple of years I have given my family calendars. I buy them for $3 at Office Max or Staples they are the big desktop kind and they have lines for writing. I can't write straight so having lines is a must for me....lol Then I buy stickers for every Holiday, Birthday. and Anniversary so that it looks more personal. I then add every one's birthdays and anniversary's. Each family is different. For example for my sister I added all of our family then I was able to email her husbands sister and I got all of his family members birthdays and anniversary's. I was only planning on doing it for one year but everyone wants it every year.

My sister makes a music CD every year with a song that represents each family member for that year. We only include my Mom and Dad, their children and spouses. The grand kids are not included. This is something that we look forward to every year and it's fun to see what song they have picked out for everyone. My song this year was called "Soccer Mom" It fit me perfectly.

Go Fish (or Memory)

For the last few years I tried to personalize our gifts for my nieces and nephews by making them their own set of Go Fish cards or a Memory game. It takes a little work but makes a lasting, exciting, inexpensive gift for Christmas.

Here's what I do...I print 2 pictures (I got a little over zealous one year and made 4 pictures...bad idea) of every family member (extended family too...which in my case isn't that many...or you could do all the cousins, etc.) The pictures don't have to be the exact same...one time I used a picture of my sis-in-law making a silly face and another of her smiling. You want the pictures to be closer up so it is mostly of the person and not of the background.

Then I cut...I cut all of the pictures to be the same size (you can keep them as 4x6s but I thought that was too big to play with) and then I also cut up colored card stock to be a little bigger size than the pictures. For my gold fish game I stamped fish all over one side of the card stock and I glued the picture on the other side. (It's important to keep the non-picture side all the same though!)

Then to make the game a little more lasting (and just when you thought you were done!) I cover them in clear contact paper. Then I cut them out so they are all the same size again.

Next I find a good small box that the game cards will fit in. I type up rules to the game personalizing them to the family I am giving it to (i.e. instead of saying "player" I type the child's name.) And I paste it to the inside lid of the game. I think I also print out the name of the game and paste it to the outside of the lid.

And voila!

Party Ideas

We have 3 kids with birthday's on Aug 10-11, so we do big parties. To make them all feel special, I did three separate themes that they chose. Each got their own decorated table and cake. They really loved feeling special. We also sang to them separately.

Pinatas are always a hit!

Father's Day

Father's Day is this Sunday! A great time to celebrate our great Fathers and Husbands. I am wondering what everyone is doing for the men in their lives. For my husband I was thinking about making him a nice dinner, something he really likes. As for a gift...I am not sure yet. Last year we had just moved so I got him 2 books. One was a trail book for the Shenandoah National Park (which is really close to our new house) and a book of Virginia Birds (he has some nice binoculars). These were a hit and we have used both books quite a bit.
Some girls in my ward got together yesterday and their kids made a Father's Day craft but we couldn't make it. I thought that was a fun idea. So what do you have up your sleeves, I love all of your ideas!

Husband Help

I am stumped. My husband is having a birthday soon and I have no idea what to get him. Why are men so hard to shop for? Every year when I ask him what he wants he always tell me the necessities...socks, collared shirts, etc. We are still on a student budget so I can't do anything extravagant...like 2 round trip tickets to Italy. He'd like that right? I need help. Any suggestions? How do you shop for men?

A Christmas Tradition

So I love Christmas. I love the magic. I love the extra reason to talk about Jesus Christ with my kids. I love the smells, the tastes and the memories of it all. I love Santa too. I love giving gifts...and is this terrible...but I love getting gifts too. And I love traditions.

For Christmas we do lots of the normal traditions...an advent calendar all month, leave Santa a note with milk, and share gifts Christmas Eve. Growing up, I recall drinking Orange Julius and eating waffles made by my mom Christmas morning after rummaging through all of the great stuff Santa left behind. My husband's family acts out the nativity on Christmas Eve and although I am not by any means good at role playing I look forward to dressing Kara up as Mary and Jared as Joseph or a shepherd in the coming years. My own little family adopted the tradition to do something special on December 8th. This was the day my husband and I exchanged gifts our first Christmas (before we were even engaged) and it happens to be the day that Christmas "starts" in Italy (my second home!) I have dreams of doing service or being more organized so as to enjoy the traditions more fully but alas I'll have to try again in 364 days.

My point? What are some of your Christmas traditions?

Gifts for Teachers

Any ideas on what to give a preschool teacher and aide for Christmas? I really don't want to go the gift card route.

Candy Cane Kisses

I'm with Bridget here, this isn't really a recipe, but I absolutely LOVE these little devils. They only come out around Christmas time, so last year I bought like 4 bags just to get my fix after Christmas... don't ask me how long they lasted, it is shameful. I didn't even share them with Scott, I kept them hidden! I'm terrible. Anyway, if you haven't tried these, you should, they are yummy. This year I also saw a whole bunch of other holiday kisses, hot cocoa, mint truffle (very good), and a toffee crunch. Looks like I'll have to do some major stocking stuffing so I can try them all!

Peppermint Icecream with Brownies

Okay, so this isn't really a "recipe", but one of my favorite things about Christmas is peppermint ice cream with chocolate sauce on top. I eat at least one bowl-full a day because it just screams Christmastime to me. And, to make it extra delicious, sometimes I make brownies to go underneath the ice cream. This is my mother-in-law's wonderful brownie recipe that is super versatile. You can add nuts or any kind of chip (chocolate, swirls, etc.) and they are great. Also, adding icing on top never hurt either! Enjoy the brownies and definitely grab a carton (or two in my case) of this ice cream the next time you're at the store. Merry Christmas!

Chewy Brownies
Blend well:
2 cups sugar
2 cups butter/margarine (2 cubes)
Add:
4 eggs
2 cups flour
1 t. salt
1/2 cup cocoa
1 t. vanilla
Optional Add-ins:
1 cup chips, nuts, or coconut

Bake at 350 for 22 minutes
(I usually put this in a medium-sized cookie sheet to cook).

Parade of Elves

My sister found this site and I thought it was so cute! My kids were cracking up when they saw their faces on ours, so I thought it would be fun to do some for the Mommy blog!
Can you find your little elf??

Little elves 1: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1202565667

Little elves 2: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1203030778

Little elves 3: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1203346448

Enjoy! :)

Fun Turkeys

MIke and I are the Nursery Leaders in our ward. We are in charge of the Sr. Nursery too. These are the snacks I made for Nursery tomorrow. The kids will love them. Its fudge striped shortbread cookies, mini reeses pieces, candy corn, graham crackers and chocolate frosting to glue it together. You may think it looks like a lot and it is, there are 15 turkeys, we actually have 18 names on the roll (for sr. nursery alone). We generally have between 10 and 12 show up, but just in case there's more I'm prepared.

Gobble Gobble Gobble

We made this turkey with Kara the other night and it was really fun! I love that it uses both her hands and her feet. I have never been good at crafts like this but this one was really fun!