Easter Printable

As Easter is fast-approaching this year, I suddenly realized that I needed to change out my 5x7 frame in my kitchen!  And if I can make my kids chuckle at the kitchen table while eating their cereal in the morning then all the better.

As usual I created it in both 5x7 and 8x10 sizes for all y'all.

5x7

8x10

Link parties I participate in: Tip Junkie, Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Craftomaniac, Today's Creative Blog, Flamingo Toes, Skip To My Lou, Thrifty Decor Chick

Easter Mantel

I got my Easter decor up last weekend.  The only thing I am sad about is that Easter is so durn early this year.  What is with that?  And if I know myself, and I think I do, the second a holiday is over I get this overwhelming urge to take down all of said holiday's decor.  That means I will not be able to enjoy this for very long this year but still, always worth the effort, right?

First of all, I LOVED my rainbow boards from my St. Patrick's Day mantel.  So I thought I'd use them again for my Easter mantel.  I only had to paint three of the boards and voila!  Instant Easter colors.

I had this cute egg topiary and egg wreath that I got at, I promise, a grocery store about 8 years ago.  I think an 8 year old grocery store purchase is allowed a little makeover, don't you?  So I did what any self-respecting crafter did and I spray painted the heck out of those things.  I wanted something crisp and white to go against those boards and this was my solution.

My baker's twine eggs were a perfect addition to what I had going on up in here (pronounced hee-yah).

I also added one of my Etsy Easter boards, reused the white flowers from my St. Patrick's Day mantel, added some polka dot ribbon and I was done!

It's beginning to look a lot like spring!

PS I am actually writing this live, here at 3:30am since I just got back from the Hunger Games movie and am completely wired.  It was. so. good.  WOW.  I can't even pick a favorite part!  Jennifer Lawrence was the perfect choice for Katniss.  End of story.

Link parties I participate in: Tip Junkie, Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Craftomaniac, Today's Creative Blog, Flamingo Toes, Skip To My Lou, Thrifty Decor Chick

Hunger Games Cake

Tomorrow is an exciting day, my friends. 

It is the day my favorite book of all time comes to life on the big screen!

I will be attending the midnight showing of The Hunger Games tonight with my 12 year old son and I am going to try not to bawl my head off even though I have yet to see the previews without getting a little misty eyed.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share with you something some friends of mine and I did way back in 2009.  We were lucky enough to catch wind of this amazing book early on, read it for our online book club, and have been devoted to it ever since.   

To celebrate the release of Catching Fire, my friend decided to do a Hunger Games cake contest on her blog.  What does cake have to do with The Hunger Games?  I don't know.  And really, does it matter?  It was awesome, that's all I know.  We were to create a scene or idea from the first book out of cake, take pictures and send them to her.  She then compiled them all HERE and people voted.  If you go there and look you should know it was completely rigged, people cheated and so on and so forth.  But that's another story.  My friend is hilarious, by the way.  You should go look just to see her intro paragraph to the contest.

Hopefully you have read the books and will get the cakes.  If not, you need to go read them and then come back.

Here is my cake I created.... it was called "Yes Frosting, the Final Defense of the Dying."  

I mean, right?

You should have heard my squeals as I pressed those goldfish into that frosting.  I had never decorated a cake before so I just made it up as I went along.  The leaves are made out of melting chocolate I drew onto wax paper and the sticks are chocolate dipped pretzels.  

What you can't see is that 30 seconds after taking these photos, the entire top part of the cake slid off onto the table.  ::sigh::  I guess I'll never be a professional cake decorator.

Go HERE to see the rest of the entries.  Hilarious.

Then, in 2010, when Mockingjay was being released, we decided to do it all over again.  This time your cake could be from either The Hunger Games or Catching Fire.  

Ready for my submission?

It's called "The Catalyst." 

::said in a whispered tone::

(super deep, right?)

Those are nightlock berries, in case you were confused. And my subtitle was "It must be very fragile, if a handful of berries can bring it down." 

Since this was a cake contest via photos I knew taste did not matter.  So, I went and bought an angel food cake, stuffed Twinkies in the center and frosted over the whole thing.  I thought I was quite brilliant.

You can see the rest of the entries for our Second Annual Hunger Games Cake Contest HERE.

So tell me, have you read these amazing books?  Are you going to the midnight release tonight?  I should have won both of these contests, right? :)  What scene would you have tried to recreate?

I'm giddy, can you tell?

Link parties I participate in: Tip Junkie, Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Craftomaniac, Today's Creative Blog, Flamingo Toes, Skip To My Lou, Thrifty Decor Chick

Baker's Twine Easter Eggs

For the past few days I've been working on putting together my Easter mantel.  I sort of settled on a color scheme and overall style and then realized I needed some cute Easter eggs to go along with it all.  

I love the cute jute wrapped Easter eggs I've been seeing but that really isn't the look I was going for this year.  So I decided to apply the same principle only using baker's twine instead!  

Here is a quick tutorial on how I made them:

1.  Pick a cheap plastic Easter egg in a similar color as your baker's twine.   The egg will inevitably show through in places so it's best to have them close.

2.  Hot glue the end of your baker's twine to one end of the egg.  Allow to dry.

3.  Apply mod podge part-way down the egg and begin wrapping the baker's twine.  No need to pull it super tight.  Some close-yet-loose winding will do the trick.

4.   Continue mod podging and wrapping until you reach the point where the egg begins to taper again.

5.  After a few frustrating attempts at wrapping the egg continuously from one end to the other, I began to realize it is almost impossible to keep the twine close and even when going from the fatter part of the egg to the skinnier.  It works like a charm from skinny to fat, but vice versa?  Fuggetaboutit.   I finally figured out that I needed to just cut the twine mid-way down the egg and begin again from the other end. 

6.  Mod podge and wrap until you meet the other half of your wrapped twine, trim it off and snuggle it down in there.  After taking this photo I adjusted the twine a little to make the gaps less noticeable.

7. Repeat with desired colors and end up with a basket full of baker's twine cuteness!

Link parties I participate in: Tip Junkie, Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Craftomaniac, Today's Creative Blog, Flamingo Toes, Skip To My Lou, Thrifty Decor Chick

One Year Anniversary Giveaway WINNER!

A big thank you to all who entered my Anniversary Giveaway!!  That made it EXTRA fun for me to celebrate!

The winner (as chosen by Random.org) is:

Congrats Jana!  Email me at landeeseelandeedo (at) gmail dot com with your address and I'll send it your way!

Landee Turns ONE-- Giveaway Celebration!

So this week marks the one year anniversary of the start of Landee See, Landee Do!  I plan on baking myself a cake and then sitting in just a diaper and eating it with my bare hands.  A tradition is a tradition.

Obviously, this blog has grown beyond my wildest dreams and has given me some wonderful opportunities as a result!  I am so grateful for each of you who choose to subscribe and follow along with my projects and snarky commentary.

Here's a little Landee See, Landee Do By the Numbers

108: posts I've done since starting.

2000+: number of subscribers via GFC

3500+: number of subscribers according to Feedburner

87: number of times one of my kids has asked "Is this for your blog?" as I'm making/doing something.

87: number of times I answered "yes."

15000: ideas I have for things to do around here.

5: spare minutes I have to do them

1: Etsy shop I've opened!

0: number of dining rooms I have now since I've taken it over as a craft room/office.

23: spray paint cans I've emptied

0: number of blogging conferences I've been to... but I'm going to SNAP!

3542: photos taken to get the "perfect shot"

1: number of national magazines who have called and want to feature one of my projects (eeek!) complete with interview and professional photo shoot!

1,500,000: times I've thought "Wow, craft blog readers and writers are SO NICE."

As a thank you for all of your kind words and support over the last year, I've put together a little giveaway chock full of my favorite things!   This is a fun prize to win and also maybe a way to get to know me a little better?  It's always interesting to see what people like.

1. I. love. these. pens.  I don't even know why. My hand writing looks better when I write with them.  I love the colors.  I love the sound they make when you write with them.  I know, it's weird.

2.  $10 gift card to Target.  Target: Where Dreams Come True (or something like that).

3. $10 gift card to Sonic.  My sister claims that she's never had a time when she has called me and, at some point during the convo, she didn't hear "Wait hang on a second.... ::muffled:: Um yeah, I'll have a Route44 Diet Dr. Pepper and that's it.  Thanks!  ::unmuffled::  K, so anyway..."   I might have a slight issue here but, as my husband says "It could be a lot worse."

4.  $50 store credit to Landee On Etsy!  This has truly been such a joy to open and run!  It doesn't hurt that I have the most fabulous business partner in the whole world, my SIL Shelly!  She's hilarious and very business-minded.  I have no business sense whatsoever but love to design new products.  See?  The perfect team!  Hopefully you will be able to easily spend that $50!

5. $10 gift card to iTunes.  I'm constantly listening to audiobooks as I work on projects.  I recently listened to BossyPants by Tina Fey (read by Tina Fey which makes it even more hilarious) and then The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.... that was.... interesting.  If you've read it let me know what you thought.  Or you can just use the gift card download some Adele or something, right?

6.  Anyone who has been paying attention will tell you that I wear silver hoops almost every single day.  However, if I do branch out and get brave in my accessorizing, I go with something like these!  I love them and have some in almost every color scheme.

7.  Shadow Insurance by Too Faced.... holy miracle product.  It's like primer for your eyelids.  No more  faded and creased eye shadow at the end of the day!  It stays on just how you put it on in the morning.  Miraculous I tell ya.

8.  Another fab product my best frousin (that's friend+cousin in case you thought I had a typo) introduced me to years ago.  It's a leave-in serum for your hair that gives it just the right..... I don't know.... shine, body, healthy look.  If I forget to put it in, it's noticeable.

And finally, I will stuff the rest of the small flat-rate box with Dove milk chocolates (they will still be wrapped though)!!  I eat at least two of these a day... usually around 3 or 4 pm.  And the combination of chocolate and Diet Dr. Pepper????  Nothing better.

So there you have it!!  Ready for how to enter to win?

1. Be a follower/subscriber of Landee See, Landee Do.
2. "Like" Landee See, Landee Do on Facebook.
3.  Pin your favorite project I've done this past year.
4. Leave a comment telling me you've done it (just one comment for all is perfect)!!  

I'll pick a winner from the comments so make sure to leave one!!  Winner will be chosen Sunday night, 11pm MDT.

Again, thank you for a fabulous year!   Hopefully it will only get better from here!

******EDIT******
This giveaway is now closed.  Thanks to all who entered!

Spring Fling

Guess what yesterday was!  My one year anniversary of starting Landee See, Landee Do!  Time flies, no question, but more on that later.  I'm working on a fun little giveaway to celebrate but in the mean time, I thought I'd go back and share some of my SPRING projects from last year!  It's so fun to look back at these and realize these were some of my very first projects I shared here.

This first one was my very first attempt at any kind of a printable.  I was (still am) madly in love with subway art and I couldn't wait to try it myself!

Easter Subway Art

This next craft is still one of the most enjoyable projects I've ever done.  I just sat down one afternoon and PLAYED.   I painted, cut vinyl on my new (then) Silhouette, added bling, experimented, painted some more, used glitter,  craft failed on a couple, craft succeeded on some others, and loved every second of it.    This is actually a great reminder that I really need to do more of these kinds of projects.   

Easter Egg Bling

Here was another Easter themed treat I played around with after spotting the egg-shaped marshmallows at the grocery store one afternoon.   Again, I just played around with different colors of melting chocolate, dipping and drizzling to my heart's content!  The chocolate peanut butter eggs were sooooo good.  So good.

Eggmallow Treats

And finally,  my second attempt at a printable (because I needed one for the kitchen).  I had found this quote in a magazine or something and loved it.  I might use it again this year.  I can just imagine that little hairy-armed nutcase (Robin Williams) saying that too, can't you?

Spring Printable

I am working on my Easter/spring mantel but this year is a little annoying with Easter being so close to St. Patrick's day!  I'm going to have to hurry and get it all up the second those leprechauns leave!

By the way, I'll have my one year/giveaway post up in the next couple of days!  Party!

Rainbow Roundup

According to my St. Patrick's Day Mantel this year, I'm obsessed with rainbows.  How had I forgotten about this natural beauty?  I mean I've liked rainbows fine but this St. Patty's Day has given me a whole new appreciation for it.  That and the six year old girl who lives here.  It makes me happy when my kids can remind me of something I once loved.  

So, in honor of my wanting to ask Roy G. Biv out on a date, I've done a little round up of some of my favorite rainbow ideas I've seen around the web (click on the link below each picture to take you to the original post).

This first one caught my eye last year and I actually made them for my kids on St. Patrick's Day!  They were super excited to see them waiting on the breakfast table in the morning.  

Beth Proudfoot Pot O' Gold Printable

 This idea is a little different take on the Beth Proudfoot one above.   Super cute all coiled in a jar like that.   I might even go Rolos on bottom, marshmallows (as clouds) then the rainbow colors.  Then a little tag like the one above attached.... you know what?  I'm doing that this year.  I just decided.  Well, that was easy! :)

Rainbow Jar

 Next are some cute rainbow party decoration ideas.  If I were to go all out, these would definitely be some things I would love to do.

Isn't that crepe paper streamer rainbow so freakin' cute?

Rainbow Party Decor

And, of course, one must have tissue paper pom poms hanging from the ceiling at any given event.  It's a rule.  So yeah, rainbow colors it is!

Rainbow Tissue Pom Poms

And oh my goodness... who can I pay to make me one of these ruffled table cloths?

Rainbow Ruffle Table

Now, as far as goodies go, apparently the sky is the limit on the rainbow front (get it?  Cuz rainbows are in the sky?  Get it?  I know, that was lame).  

Obviously this cake is way beyond me but it might not be beyond you.  If you have these kinds of skills then you are very fortunate indeed.  And I want to go to there.

   

Rainbow Cake

But see, now here's an idea I could probably do!  A simple white fluffy cake and some adorable rainbow pom poms!  This might be one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

Rainbow Pom Pom Cake Topper

And the adorableness of these rainbow cupcakes is beyond comprehension as well.  I think even I could probably pull these off.

Rainbow Cupcakes!

But if baking isn't your think/you just don't feel like it, what about these superdeeduperdee cute pudding cups?  My daughter would squeal with delight if one of these were set down in front of her!  And I would too.

Rainbow Pudding Cups


If you were ever wanting to rock a St. Patrick's Day breakfast, this year is your chance because it's on a Saturday.  I may need to do this just to blow my kids' minds.  They will literally think I've gone off my rocker since my idea of making breakfast for them is (and ALWAYS has been) that I am the one who pours the milk in their cereal rather than them.  I make breakfast for dinner all the time but breakfast for breakfast??  Unheard of around here.  Yes, another decision has just been made.  I will officially knock their socks off this St. Patty's Day by cranking these babies out for a magically delicious breakfast!  

Double Rainbow Pancakes

So there you have it, my Rainbow Roundup 2012!  Isn't this post just cheery as all get out?  Rainbows have that effect on people.  

Side note: One week from today is my One Year Blog Anniversary.  Can you believe it?  I'm thinking a couple of giveaways will be in order to celebrate.  Be sure to stop by!