Shop Handmade on Mondays - {Linky}

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

With Mother's Day less then two weeks away, we wanted to share this beautiful hand stamped necklaces from Regina Ann Designs!!  What an awesome unique personalized gift!!

♥♥♥♥♥

And now it is time again to promote your handmade items!!

I have so much fun selling our Handmade items in our Etsy Shop and I know so many others out there feel the same way I do:)  That being the case I have decided to promote handmade items every Monday by hosting a weekly Link-up party...YAY!

So for all of you small business owners selling handmade items (on Etsy or elsewhere), please feel free to join in on the fun and promote your items!!

<center><a href="http://twosasters.com"><img border="0" src="http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee412/TwoSasters/SmallBusiness2.jpg"/></a></center>

After you have linked up your handmade items we would LOVE it if you:

♥ Follow Two Sasters (via GFC or email)

♥ Visit other shops that have linked up

Link up here!! Note:  It would be helpful if you could include a description of what you sell in {}'s - for example: CGCDesign {children} 

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Letter of the week - L

Our letter of the week?  L!!

My little peanut is 27 months old!

We did ALOT of crafts this week.  I kinda made the mistake of showing my little one my Letter L Pinterest Board.  After that she told me (in which order) all of the L crafts that she wanted to make.

First up...our Ladybug craft.

My little one started out by painting a plate red.

We waited for that to dry and then I cut out black circles.  I placed glue dots on the red plate and my little one added the black circles.  She did a great job of only placing the black dots on the glue!

Lastly, I added an antenna made of a black pipe cleaner.

Next, we made a Tree with green leaves!

I freehanded a tree on brown construction paper.

My little one then glued this down to a blue piece of construction paper.  I cut out a bunch of green leaves and she handled gluing them down on the tree.

This is what we ended with:)

Our last craft for this week was a cute little white lamb.

I finally got around to buying cotton balls!  Believe it or not, they were hard to find!!

I put glue on the outside of a white paper plate and let her add on the cotton balls.

Once that dried, I added two googly eyes, a cute black nose and two black construction paper ears!

We will continue on next week with our Letter L week:)  Stay tuned for more fun stuff!!

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TGIF #17 - Share what you did this week!

TGIF!!  Happy Friday!!

As always, thank you so much for taking the time to share what you did!!  It is so much fun to look over all the different crafts and recipes linked up each week!  We are truly inspired!

Can you believe that it is almost May?  Are you ready for Spring and Summer!!!!!  I am!!

I love these two recipes that were shared by Brilliant Like Fireflies!!  They will definitely get you in the Spring mood!
I am especially looking forward to making the Jello Milkshake!!  YUM!

♥♥♥♥♥

And now onto the party!  What have you done this week???

<a href="http://twosasters.com"><img border="0" src="http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee412/TwoSasters/TGIF.jpg"/>

After linking up we would LOVE it if you:

♥ Follow Two Sasters (via GFC or email)

♥ Grab a button and place it somewhere on your blog

♥ Visit others, get ideas, be inspired, make friends :)

♥♥♥ By linking up your photo, you give us permission to use them in features ♥♥♥

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Bloglovin' Blog Hop!

I am super excited to be co-hosting a Bloglovin' Blog Hop with Jenny from The NY Melrose Family,  Randee from Randee's Organized Chaos, and Amy from While Wearing Heels for the month of April. 

What's Bloglovin' you ask?  Well, only the greatest way to keep track of the blogs that you love.  With the discontinuation of Google Friends Connect, I decided that I needed to find another way to keep up with all of my favorite blogs that are not hosted by blogger.  I signed up for Linky Followers and I've had great success with gaining new followers, but I’m finding I don’t get any traffic to my site from Linky.  I also do not enjoy reading my favorite blogs from there.  I stumbled upon Bloglovin' and I am in love!  It is very similar to Google Reader, in that you can see the beginning of the post and the first picture attached to the post.  Plus, Bloglovin' automatically updates your posts, unlike Linky Followers, which you have to manually update each time you write a new post.  I don't know about you, but I just don't have the time to do that every time.  Another added bonus is there is a Bloglovin' application for IPhone and Android devices.  Woohoo!  Like I don't spend enough time reading blogs.  Now it's a simple touch.  Love it!

***These are the complete instructions for sign up, so skip to the rules if you already have Bloglovin'***

In order to participate in this hop you need to sign up for Bloglovin’.  Go to Bloglovin'.   Hit the green sign up button in the right hand corner.  Next enter an email address and create your password.  You will get a confirmation eamil that you will need to follow a link back to Bloglovin' to continue the process.  Once you click on the link you will be brought to a page where it says to choose blogs to follow.  You don't need to do this.  Click next in the bottom right hand corner.  The next screen let’s you know about the mobile app so just click next again.  This screen will show that you are not following any blogs.  Click on Account in the upper right hand corner and toggle down to widget.  Choose the widget you want displayed on your page.  Put your url into the search query and it should pull up your site.  Click on your site and it will say display this icon.  The next page should bring you to a screen that has you display it into your layout.   Once you hit publish you’re done!  If you view your blog you should see the icon and now your followers can add you to their Bloglovin’ feed.  Seriously, so simple! 

So let’s get to the blog hop.  This is a party so make sure to have some fun and mingle.


 There’s only a couple of rules:

1.       Please follow your host – The NY Melrose Family 
&
Your co-hosts Randee's Organized Chaos, Two Sasters and While Wearing Heels.

2.      Add Bloglovin' to your blog.


3.      Post our button for the blog hop on your page to promote the fun.

 


<center><a href="http://www.thenymelrosefamily.blogspot.com/"><br /> <img src="http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj590/russej10/bloglovin-1-1-1-1.jpg" border="0"/><br /> </a></center> 

If you're interested in cohosting next week shoot Jenny an email at russej10@gmail.com. 

Alright, so let's have some fun and mingle!

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Sparkled Clothespin Magnets

I had pinned these clothespins that Jenny from The NY Melrose Family had made and decided to try them out myself!  They looked super cute but I modified them a bit as I needed some new magnets for my little ones art work:)

Here is what I did.

Supplies:

Mod Podge

Glitter Scrapbook paper (a color that matched my kitchen)

Clothespins

X-Acto Knift

Magnetic Strips

I traced the clothespin onto the scrapbook paper and then cut out the rectangle.  I used Mod Podge to adhere it to the clothespin.

Lastly, I cut out a piece of the magnet and stuck it to the other side of the clothespin (one side was sticky).

This project was so simple and did not take me very long to complete.  I love the way they look on my fridge:)

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Wordless Wednesday with Linky

I asked her to smile for the camera with her new sneakers...she did this...

...and then went for a test run around the coffee table:)

Happy Wednesday!!

Feel free to link up your Wordless Wednesday posts...we LOVE looking at them!!

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Techy Tips on Tuesdays - using an image as a link

We have gotten so much positive feedback from our Techy Tips series and are so glad that you are enjoying them and learning something new (hopefully)!

If you have not already checked out our tip on hyperlinks, you may want to before continuing reading below (the tips build on one another).

When I created our social media buttons, I knew that I wanted to have a user click on the image and send them directly to our facebook, twitter, pinterest, etc pages.  If you are wondering how to do just that...read on!



 To start off, let's take the hyperlink code that we were working on last week and add to it:

<a href="www.yourURL.com" target="_blank">TEXT to display to reader</a>


Instead of displaying TEXT for the reader to click on, we want to display an image.  So we are basically going to have to replace the blue code above.


In its simplest form, this is the code to link up an image:


<img src="www.yourphotoURL.com" />
{please take special note of the "/" at the end...this is important}


The PINK text is the URL, or website, where your image is located.  Personally, I use Photobucket to store my images.  It is free and (I think) simple to use - you can sign up here.  Once you have finished editing your image, you just upload it to Photobucket.

So now let's put the two pieces together.  
This is what your new code would look like:


<a href="www.yourURL.com" target="_blank"> <img src="www.yourphotoURL.com" /> </a>



Let's move onto an example, and I will show you how to add on additional variations.

This is the code I used for my Facebook Social Media Icon (top right side of the blog).

<a href="http://www.facebook.com/CGCDesign" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee412/TwoSasters/Banner/facebook.jpg" height="95" width="95"  style="border: none;"/></a>

Red = Facebook URL (which is just www.facebook.com/NAMEOFPAGE)

Green = The code to open the link in a new window (see last week for more details)

Blue = Location of Image (I used Photobucket to store my photos)

Orange = You can vary the height and width of any image.  After playing around, I landed at 95 each.

Purple = This code is if you do not wish to have a border around your image.  It will override any of your default borders.

Remember, you can use this tip for any image.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments, or send us an email.  We would be happy to help:)

Thanks for stopping by and talking a little more about HTML!!  

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Shop Handmade on Mondays - {Linky}

In honor of Earth Day...take a look at this Fully Insulated Reusable Lunch tote from Soft Sparkles!!  Beautiful and environmentally friendly...LOVE it!

♥♥♥♥♥

And now it is time again to promote your handmade items!!

I have so much fun selling our Handmade items in our Etsy Shop and I know so many others out there feel the same way I do:)  That being the case I have decided to promote handmade items every Monday by hosting a weekly Link-up party...YAY!

So for all of you small business owners selling handmade items (on Etsy or elsewhere), please feel free to join in on the fun and promote your items!!

<center><a href="http://twosasters.com"><img border="0" src="http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee412/TwoSasters/SmallBusiness2.jpg"/></a></center>

After you have linked up your handmade items we would LOVE it if you:

♥ Follow Two Sasters (via GFC or email)

♥ Visit other shops that have linked up

Link up here!! Note:  It would be helpful if you could include a description of what you sell in {}'s - for example: CGCDesign {children} 

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Letter of the week - K (Part 2)

My little peanut is 26 months old!

We finished up our K activities this week!  I actually found it easier to spread everything out over the course of 2 weeks.  It gave us more time to do some other fun activities (like cutting, playing outside and baking together); that I may actually continue that trend going forward.

We played more then usual with our kitchen set.

We got a new table this week from Ikea (thanks Mom!).  For $20 bucks, I highly recommend it!  It is perfect for doing art and crafts, eating meals and setting up for a tea party:)

Here we are on the table gluing letter K's.

This is our final product!  I could not find too many "K" words/items in the magazines I had around the house.  So instead I cut some out of paper and my little one colored them!

Our felt board this week consisted of 5 kites and 5 pieces of yarn (which also sticks to felt in case you were wondering)!

She loved it and just got annoyed placing the yarn on the kites.  But I think it was good for her fine motor skills...

I also added a piece of contact paper (sticky side out) onto our easel.  I then cut out some K's from construction paper and had my little one add them to the easel.  She really liked doing this a few weeks ago and was excited I did this again for her!

I also made a big "K" on a piece of paper for her to color...

...but she preferred to tape it to the window and color that way:)

That pretty much sums up our second K week!  Hope everyone has a great week!!

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TGIF #16 - Share what you did this week!

TGIF!!!!  Happy almost weekend time:)  YAY!!

♥♥♥♥♥

This Gallery Wall shared by See Sew and Seedlings is amazing!  I love everything about it, especially all the different, bright colors! 

For the kiddos, Vixen Made shared this great Art Smock Tutorial, which I HAVE to make for my daughter!!  I love that she used tablecloths!!

♥♥♥♥♥

And now onto the party!  What have you done this week???

<center><a href="http://twosasters.com"><img border="0" src="http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee412/TwoSasters/TGIF.jpg"/>

After linking up we would LOVE it if you:

♥ Follow Two Sasters (via GFC or email)

♥ Grab a button and place it somewhere on your blog

♥ Visit others, get ideas, be inspired, make friends :)

♥♥♥ By linking up your photo, you give us permission to use them in features ♥♥♥

Share Tweet

Wedding Cards Keepsake Book

Last week we shared this post over at My Darling Days, but in case you missed it, we wanted to share it here as well.

It has been about 4 years since I tied the knot:)  AND I still have my wedding cards sitting in the same bag I used at my reception!!!!  I saved every single one in hopes of one day doing something with them!

I {of course} turned to Pinterest for inspiration.  Many brides save their cards, as I had done, but they opted to turn them into a keepsake book.

This is my version and how I did it.

Materials:  Hole Punch, Binder Clip, Cardboard, Embellishments, Wedding Cards

Step 1:  Gather all of your wedding cards and if you are OCD like me, put them in some kind of meaningful order (I sorted by size).

Step 2:  Punch a hole in the top left corner of each card and add it onto the binder clip (or you could use string/ribbon).

Step 3:  To make the front and back covers, I took an old shoebox top and cut it to size, but you can use any cardboard that you have available to you.  

On the front I glued the front of our Thank You card and on the back I glued down the menu from our reception.  I added a few stickers that I had too.

Step 4:  Lastly, I punched holes in the front and back covers and added them on.  This is the final product sitting on display!

I am so happy with how this turned out as it is now displayed instead of being stuck in a closet:)  It was simple to do with supplies I already had laying around.  You can do something similar with your Bridal Shower cards, birthday cards, etc - the possibilities are endless!

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Wordless Wednesday with Linky

She walked all over the house like this...

Feel free to link up your Wordless Wednesday posts!  We love looking at them:)

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