Free Habit Tracker Download

It's been a while guys! I have been all over the place with homeschool, planning our next trip, and trying to get this holiday season started. But I just made this habit tracker inspired by one I saw on Instagram and I just had to share it with all of you. I'm excited to start developing good habits next year. I want to work out regularly, not go months without creating, and making sure I blog every week.

I'm not sure if you're like me or not, but one thing I love is checking a box. I make a ton of lists and checking something off my list is just so satisfying. It's gotten to the point where I start my list with 'finish making list' just so that I can check it off when I'm done. Pathetic, I know.

Anyway, just in case anyone else would like to join me on my path to better habits, here is what I came up with: Click here for a fully editable version

Making Coasters with Sharpies and Rubbing Alcohol

Here's my last post before my son and I leave on our roadtrip! I can't wait to tell you all about it! But for now, we're talking about alcohol coasters. My son and I signed up to do this fun craft at our local library. We showed up and had a blast!

First, we sat down at a table where there were white tiles laid out and there were buckets of Sharpies everywhere. We were told to color the tile however we wanted. Then, we should use q-tips and dip them into small cups that contained rubbing alcohol to blend what we colored.

Tip: If you want large splotches, load your q-tip with a lot of alcohol and make large drops. If you want tiny little dots, squeeze out some of the alcohol on your q-tip and lightly dot directly onto the coaster.

I decided to do an underwater scene.
In order to make this, I put all different shades of blue in the top 3/4 of the coaster and tan and browns on the bottom 1/4.
Then, I used the alcohol and made large splotches all over.
I decided to use the alcohol and a corner of a paper towel to rub off a spot to leave an empty space to put a fish in.
I made sure to let it sit for a minute to completely dry. The nice thing about alcohol though, is that it doesn't take very long to dry.
I looked up a couple fish on my phone and used those as inspiration for the fish I drew.
Finally, I added some seaweed and coral and a jellyfish to complete my design.

My son wasn't really feeling the alcohol look at first and decided he just wanted to make a Snorlax (he loves Pokemon!).
I looked up an easy 'how to draw' on my phone for him to follow and he drew the outline of the Snorlax.
Then, he colored his design in.
I convinced him it would look cool to add a background and then use the alcohol to add a dotted look. He reluctantly agreed.
So, he colored in some grass, the sky, and a sun.
Then, I helped him out by lightly dabbing a mildly damp (with alcohol) q-tip just in the background.

When we were both done, we handed our tiles over to a library employee, who sprayed our designs with a sealant. I wish I had looked closer to see exactly what they used. But alas, I didn't. They said it would be dry in about 15 minutes so we went into the library to look at some books. Then, when we came out, they were ready for us! Now, these coasters sit on our shared desk in our homeschool room. I think they're awesome. And the possibilities are seriously endless.

Tell me in the comments some other fun summer crafts we can tackle! I'm always looking for new ideas.

Taco T-shirt

For my son's birthday (back in March) I told him that I would make him any shirt he wanted. We were going on vacation so I figured a short sleeved shirt would be perfect. I wanted it to incorporate something that he loved so we made a list of some things that he was really in to. We came up with Minecraft, Mario, tacos, running, his echo dot kids edition, the Switch, Pokemon, and plenty of other things. We came up with a couple funny sayings that incorporated these things. But eventually, we decided tacos would be there perfect theme for this t-shirt.

The first thing I did was look around Wal-Mart for a plain shirt that wasn't just a single-colored tee. And I found the perfect one! It was a dark grey with green sleeves. I love the different colored sleeves idea.

Then, I designed a couple things in Design Space so that I could cut it out with my Cricut. I found a cute picture of a taco and added that. It was so fun. I hadn't really tried layering yet, so this was going to be a simple design.

I made the shirt for my son and now he LOVES it! Seriously, he wears it so often. It quickly became one of his favorite shirts! I love that I am able to make him things that he treasures so deeply.

Let me know in the comments if you have any awesome ideas for more shirts I can make my sweet boy!

Travel Shirts

I'm currently dreaming about all the awesome things my son and I are going to do on our 2 week roadtrip. I'm a little nervous because it's going to be just the two of us. Normally, my husband would be joining us, but he just couldn't take that much time off work so I decided to brave it on my own.

So, speaking of traveling, I made some cute shirts for our last trip. We'll be bringing a couple of these with us again so I thought I would show you what I've made!

Some of these, I designed myself in Design Space. I hope these can inspire some travel shirts for you!

Mailbox Makeover

About a month ago, my sister asked me if I could make her a mailbox decal showing her address. She had just gotten a new black mailbox after a snow plow had taken out her old one. She sent me a couple examples of things that she kind of liked off of Etsy. Then, her husband chimed in with "make it have a fox!" He thought this was very clever because they live on Foxford Drive. I wanted to make sure it still looked somewhat classy while incorporating the fun aspect of the foxes. I came up with a couple options and my sister chose her favorite.

This is what we came up with!

Before:

After:

I created this design on Cricut Design Space and then cut it using my Cricut. I made sure to cut two of them so that one could be applied to each side. Then, I weeded them and brought them to my sister's house. I used Duck brand clear contact paper to transfer the design. Here are the steps I followed to apply the design.

1. Clean the mailbox thoroughly with alcohol.
2. Remove the backing and position the design where you would like it. Use the scraper tool to ensure the design is stuck to the mailbox.
3. Carefully and slowly remove the transfer sheet. Make sure to pull at a 180 degree angle. If you pull directly toward yourself, the design is more likely to come off and not stay on the mailbox while you're removing the transfer sheet.
4. At this point, I lightly rub the design again to make sure it is really stuck on there.

Since mailboxes are outside (duh), I like to look at the forecast and make sure there is no rain predicted for the next 48 hours or so. If there is, I'll either wait for a better time or like I did with theirs (since my sister lives 2.5 hours away from me), I applied the decal on Saturday after their mail had already been delivered, put a large trash bag over the top and tied it in place using string. I instructed them to just take the bag off Monday morning before they left for work. The decal is still sticking nicely and they have the best looking mailbox in their neighborhood. This is such a simple way to add a little curb appeal.