how to make your own pet prayer rock

Hey guys.  So, a couple of weeks ago I was asked to give the lesson in the Gospel Doctrine class at church.  I gladly did it.  It was on prayer, and since we do handouts, I decided to make some pet prayer rocks.  And man, they came out better than I thought they would.  They also were a hit at church, everyone loved them.  The girls thought they were cute, and the guys were playing with them with each other during class.  Oh, and did I mention this was a young single adult ward?  Yeah... so they are good for all ages.  They are super easy, and I bet you can figure it out on your own, but I'll let you know what I did.

The concept of a prayer rock is pretty easy.  You put it on your pillow so you remember to say your prayers at night. Then during the night it lives on the floor so you stub you toe and remember to say it in the morning.  I actually just have mine on my nightstand.  I thought the bathroom would be a good place for one to live.  Or oddly enough I say my prayers in the car before I leave the house, so my dashboard would also be a good choice.  (It already has a neopet there, so I don't think I'll put one there.)

Step 1: Find rocks.  My family grows rocks, so we had plenty in the backyard.  Granted, after nearly 30 years, they are starting to not grow anymore, so maybe there is some sort of luck.

Step 2: Wash rocks.  I washed mine in the kitchen sink with some dish soap.  Classy, I know, but it got them clean.  I would guess you could just do it in the backyard with the hose, but it was cold out...

Step 3: Gather supplies.  You'd be amazed at the things I have in my basement, I know I am from time to time.  I gathered up some googly eyes in a variety of sizes, love those things, and some curly doll hair, as well as my glue gun, and a paper bag so I didn't ruin the kitchen table.  (In architecture school, we didn't care if we got glue on the tables, so I have a bad habit of being very messy with my glue gun.)

 
Step 4: Glue on eyes.  I would move my rocks around to figure out the best place for their eyes.  I tried to make it so that they could stand.  But, I noticed that even when I passed them out, some people saw their rock in a different way than I did, and I was fine with that.  It was at this step that they all started to get personalities.  Who would have thought?

Step 5: Glue on hair.  I think I had too much fun during this step.  Some I might have gone overboard with the hair, but they were so cute.  The ones with hair seemed to be more popular, and for the most part were much cuter.  Some got short hair, some got long hair, some got mustaches.  Yep, to much fun.

Step 6: Photograph for proof you really did the work yourself and didn't outsource.  :)

I really hope you enjoyed my rocks.  I did.  I loved everyone of them, and it was hard to say goodbye.  That is why I took so many pictures, so that I could remember them after they were gone.  When I was driving to church, I found myself driving super slow to protect the little guys.  And yes, the irony that I was making sure rocks didn't get hurt was not lost on me.  Now, go and make some of your own!

How to make a 3D family tree chart

So, in honor of memorial day I have decided to share with you my latest project. 

You know how you see something in your head, and it is amazing, and then you make it and it doesn't look the same?  Well, this came out SOOO great, and just like my head.  I love it! 

I actually made it for my mom for Mother's Day, and she loved it.  I also loved it, and now want to make one for my father with me on the end.  So without further ado, let's get started!

Step 1: Gather Pictures

I know it seems slightly obvious, but this project is kind of hard to do without pictures of your ancestors.  When I went, I visited FamilySearch.org and found how many of my ancestors had pictures already.  I bet you would be surprised at yours.  I then decided how far I wanted to go back by how many I had full pictures of.  I guess you could go as far back as you had pictures, even if it isn't complete.

Step 2: Format Pictures
Now, I took all of mine in and turned them black and white, and tweeked them to look good.  Some of mine needed more tweeking than others (doesn't my mom look cute there?)  I also made sure that the picture was the right size for the blank I was using by having a circle outline.

Step 3: Print

I printed mine out just on a sheet of photopaper, a little 4x6 I think.  I made sure to not let it stretch or shrink in size or else the pictures wouldn't have been the right size.

Step 4:  Get the Blanks
I got these from Michaels.  I whipped them out of course.  I looked at a lot of things that came by themself, but decided on the bracelets, this is three I put together, because I am weird.  I actually decided it would make a nice necklace choker.

 

Step 5: Separate Blanks

I just took them apart because that wasn't the configuration I wanted.  I might have had too much fun with this step actually.

Step 6: Cut out Pictures
This was very handy that I had my bright pink border.  I just cut them out with scissors.  I thought about other things, and maybe you have a fancy cutter, but I just stayed simple.

 

Step 7: Glue on Pictures

I have this glue, called Duco Cement.  I could only find it locally at one place.  Love the stuff, works great with arcylic, wood, metal, just about anything.  Love it.  I call it Magic Glue. Just make sure when you glue something on it is facing the right way.  I decided to have all of mine faceing upright.

 

 

Step 8: Order Charms

This is the really fun part.  It is like a game.  See if you can remember who is who and where they fit in your tree. Honestly, it was like a puzzle, trying to find where everyone fit.  I did pretty good on a lot of them, but did struggle on others.  I got my cheat sheet out, and was able to fit them all in.

Step 9: Attach Jump Rings
You really need a lot of jump rings for this project.  I started with the highest level 3 each, the next level had 5 and the lowest had 7.  Yeah, a lot of jump rings.  I just attached them to each other first before connecting the charms.  That way I knew where they all were needed and how many I still needed.  It worked out well.

 

Step 10: Connect Charms

I then started to attach things together.  I started with just attaching the rings to the bottom, than the mothers to their children, then finally the fathers as well.  That is just how I did it so I could keep straight who went with who and which side they went on.

Step 11: Magnets
I had been pondering how to hang this for a while, and decided that magnets on the fridge would work well.  So I grabbed some sticky magnets and attached them to the back of the top row of ancestors.

 

 

 

Step 12: Hang on Fridge

I then took it and hung it on the fridge.  Be careful, it can get so mixed up as you carry it from place to place.  I actually gave it to my Mother in a box, and man, it was just a mess of metal.  It looks cool when hung, but when not, it is not pretty. It's kind of another puzzle when hanging to figure out who goes where with the parents on the right side and everything.

 

I hope you like it as much as I do.  I had also thought about framing it, but did not.  I also thought it would be cool as a bib necklace, but man, that is a lot of bib.  Let me know what you think.  If you make one, please post a link to it so we can all see it as well.  Love ya!

have a good safe memorial day

I have no special plans for memorial day.  My family isn't a big fan of crowds, so we don't go out to visit the graves like most people.  But not to worry, we do visit our dead, but we do it the Saturday before Mother's Day.  So, while you are out fighting with people and having near death experiences yourself, I will be enjoying the comfort of my home.

Happy Birthday Mother!

I just wanted to wish my mother a happy birthday, and since I know she reads this, I am sure she'll see it!

6 great tips for using twitter

I know that we all enjoy using the latest social media outlet to help promote ourselfs and our wares.  So, I have found some articles that will help us use twitter to the best of our advantage.  Check them out!

1-  First off, the twitter help center who knew that this was actually out there?  So much helpful info on the basics, stuff that a lot of us don't know.

2 & 3-  Now, I know that a great headshot isn't what you always think of when you think of twitter, but this is amazingly important really.  It is important wherever you are online really.  Great headshots
Even better headshots

4-  My favorite tip here is the last one, to clean up who you follow.  I do this regualry, too many people to follow.  However, when I used tweetdeck on my computer since my kindle doesn't have it, I could actually filter and only be bothered by those I wanted.  7 great tips

5-  Great graphics on how to get more out of twitter than you already are.   Get more power

6-  I actually really liked this infographic, and need to study it out to get more out of twitter.  Have yet to truly study it.  Let me know what you think!   Great infographic and research site

Harmony's House Plans

Hey guys, as I have been looking back at my old AutoCAD drawings, I have found this whole set of house plans. That's right, a whole set. If you really wanted, you could take them all to the city and get them approved to build, along with paperwork of course. However, I wouldn't, because first, my cousin lives on the property and you'd have to demolish her house. And second, as I have learned, since I made these, like eight years ago, it isn't that great of a design, and has issues. Anyways, I hope you enjoy looking at them anyways. If you ever wonder why it takes so long for architects to design something for you, we have to design and come up with all of this, so.... be patient.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mother's out there!  Especially to my Mother!  I love her, always have and alway will.

the blood moon photoshoot

I know that I am a little late on posting this, but here are my moon pictures from the last eclipse.  I had a blast with it.  If you didn't get to watch it, it was so cool.  My learning how to use my camera, and tripod came in great.  I also guess that my stupid sleeping schedule that doesn't let me sleep until the wee hours of the morning paid off this time.  Enjoy.

reusable bags

I know what you are thinking, bags are bags.  I haven't really jumped into the reusable bags ideas, I tried it once at the store, long ago, and the cashier put it in a plastic sack before putting it in my bag.... yeah....  But, I have collected some ideas for you.

First we have the old fashioned, buy them with the stores logo shopping bag.  Slightly boring, but very sturdy.

Next we have a linen one.  Very study as well, and can nicely roll up in a ball.  I like these, but that may stem from my childhood we had tons of these bags all around for various adventures.  Each place we would go had a different bag.

Then we have the cool foldable ones.  I for one like small things, so if anything can be folded up into a tiny size, I am all for it.  Most of the time these seem pretty flimsy to me, but no more than the plastic bags they are ment to replace anyways.

Then we have the great T-Shirt bags.  Easy to make, simply cut off the arms and sew up the bottom.  Or, get a tank top for added strength of handles, and just sew up the bottom.  Works great.  For an even better tutorial, go here.  I haven't decided how I really feel about these quite yet.  They seem to work lovely, but I almost feel like I need to buy a new shirt just to destroy it to make a bag.  Seems like it would work for all those shirts that you are given free for advertisements.  Hum...

Well, there you have my collection of fun ones.  At the very least, try and cram whatever you can into the bags you are carrying.  I worked in a department store, and was surprised at how many bags ladies would walk out with that only had two things in them each when five could have fit.  So, I want to know, what do you use to go shopping with?

ancestor poem part two

Funny thing happened as I was trying to find where I had got my last ancestor poem from, I found another one.  This one is anonymous, so I have no idea where it came from, or who wrote it.  But, I love it as well.  Enjoy!

decided to clean the curtains....

So today I got in a cleaning mood, every so often it happens, and I just go with it.  Well, today amoung other things I decided to clean the curtains in my parents room.  I also cleaned the walls.  They were some simple curtains my father (that's right, my FATHER) made out of a sheet, and it looked very good.  Well, they haven't been cleaned since they were put up, like 20+ years ago.  They looked in good shape to me, nothing like the living room that is falling apart.  Well, I put them in the washer and dryer.  And now, ah, they look like this.

I think I owe my parents a new set of curtains.  Good thing they are simple to do.