Valentine's Bouquets (with Paper Flowers and Fabulous Flowers)

Last year, I made some Klutz: Fabulous Flowers to bring spring to my winter garden. Those pretty paper petals have been on my mind ever since! So, this Valentine’s Day, I’m sharing my floral obsession with all of my sweetie pies! And I’m adding in Chicken Socks: Make Your Own Paper Flowers to the mix, so all ages can play.

Each of these colourful kits comes with tons of fun floral pieces to mix, match and mount; with pre-cut pieces and pipe cleaner for the littles (ages 4 and up), and punch-out shapes and wire stems for the more advanced bouquet maker (ages 8 and up). First, I made our house a little more festive with a pretty bouquet on a cute cake stand. Next up, this one-of-a-kind watering can card, with a little gift tag and sweet Valentine note that my momma will love. And finally, I popped some fabulous flowers in an old milk jar and brought them to my BFF. With these pretty little blooms shining bright on her windowsill, she won’t even notice the snow storming outside!

I hope your Valentine’s Day is fabulously floral and fun! For more Klutz Valentine’s Day fun, check out what I got up to last year.

Sticker Shock (with Sticker Design Studio)

My love of stickers began one hot summer day when I was nine and my mom took me to the Sandylion Warehouse Outlet. I stood amid rolls and rolls of stickers, and wondered how I would ever choose just one to come home with me. The shiny stars? No... the fuzzy puppies! But what about those glittery hearts? I needed the glittery hearts!

Unable to cope with the pressure of this monumental decision, I threw a total fit and sobbed for my mom to buy them all. This (obviously) didn’t have the intended effect and instead my mom swept me out of there, empty-handed and brokenhearted. I don’t think I’ve ever really recovered…

Until this!

  

Sticker Design Studio is pretty much the coolest thing to happen to stickers since the sticker book! With page after page of cute, funky, and even sparkly stickers to colour, I felt the hurt of my childhood sticker trauma start to disappear. I might have even stayed up into the wee hours of the morning because I just. couldn’t. stop. colouring!

The next day, I confessed the embarrassing source of my sleepiness to my friends and one chimed in with a story of her own. She had purchased Sticker Design Studio to share with one of her babysitting charges. But when she set the little girl up to start colouring, the glittery stickers caught her eye and it wasn't long before she plopped the girl in front of a movie and stole the sticker book for herself.

Stealing stickers from a baby… Oh yeah, it’s that good!

Get Inventing! (with The Book of Inventions)

Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes. Give me some paper, glue and ribbon, and watch me get to work. My friend Lisa, well, she couldn’t craft to save her life, but she writes some of the most beautiful stories I've ever read. And Karen, she could McGuyver her way out of any situation!

If your creativity tends towards the latter, you have to check out the Klutz Book of Inventions. It's packed with tons of cool, crazy, can’t-believe-they-don’t-actually-exist creations that will inspire you to start inventing!

I found so many wacky contraptions that could have saved me in the past. Like the Storytelling Sling which would have spared me the embarrassment of having to repeatedly explain how I broke my leg skiing in my backyard or how I dislocated my knee jump-kicking off my parents bed.

And I bet my parents wish they thought of Sibling Blinders for my sister and I when we got cranky on the way up to the cottage.

But most importantly, how much do I want a Snack Shirt with a pocket made just for ice cream cones? Mom and dad, take note, I know what I want for my birthday!

After nearly 200 pages of wacky inventions, Klutz challenges you to design your own. They even break down all the ways they came up with their out-there ideas to get you started. 

I sat down with a pencil and notepad and started to think...

For me, waking up in the morning is the worst! It’s a daily battle between hitting the snooze button and sinking back into sleep,  or getting in the shower like the clean, responsible young person I should be! I'm embarrassed to tell you how often sleep wins… Therefore, I think I’d invent a shower bed so you can take that extra 15 minutes of sleep while you get squeaky clean. I’m still ironing out a few design kinks, but expect to see my Shower Sleeper in stores in 2014!

Crazy for Quilling (with Twirled Paper)

Typically, after the crafting craziness of Christmas, I like to take a little break from my favourite hobby and spend some time seeking inspiration for the new year.

Then one day, while at a craft show, I spotted a booth filled with some seriously cool paper art. I went over to tell the artist that I loved all her stuff, and she happily introduced me to the art of quilling. This simple twirled paper art form looks seriously complex, but in truth, is super easy to do. Easy enough, in fact, that I decided to break my crafting hiatus and give it a try. And wouldn’t you know it, Klutz had its very own, all-in-one quilling kit to get me started.

Twirled Paper comes with tons of brightly coloured strips of paper, a handy little twirling tool, and some quick dry glue. With just those three ingredients, plus a dash of imagination, there's no telling where quilling will take you.

Now, I've caught the quilling bug and this easy, post-Christmas craft has blossomed into full-blown obsession.

Six Bands a-Beaded

On the first day of Christmas, Klutz gave to me…

 Beaded Bands under my tree!

Okay, so Christmas is still a couple of days away, but this is one present I'm sure glad I opened early! Beautiful, Beaded Bands has everything you need to make super chic and totally on-trend bracelets that look too good to be homemade. This year, I'm spreading Christmas cheer with these pretty little stocking stuffers.

On the sixth day of Christmas, I'll give six bands a-beaded to some very lucky friends!

And you can win your very own copy of Beaded Bands from Scholastic Canada.
Click here to enter! 

The countdown is on, only three more days to go...

Merry Christmas fellow crafters! See you in the New Year!

Merry Christmas Mischief (with Gotcha Gadgets)

Dear Santa,

I have been such a good girl this year — doing all my work, keeping my room sparkling clean, even being extra-nice to my little sister — that I think I’ve earned myself a place on the nice list. So I hope you’ll forgive me this wee bit of naughtiness in the last weeks of December, because I've got a Christmas gift that's sure to get me into some mischief!

Gotcha Gadgets is a practical joker’s dream. This boxy beauty comes complete with four customizable electronic gizmos and a book filled with tons of mischievous ways to put them to use. Make a door alarm, motion sensor, sound machine and more to play pranks and jokes or catch people in the act! And with four hilarious sounds to choose from, like a bloodcurdling scream or a silly sound from the bathroom, the opportunities for hilarity and hijinks are pretty much endless! I’ve safeguarded my diary with a light sensor, planted a gaseous sound machine under my Lil sis’s dinner chair, and watched and waited for the mischief to go down, laughing all the way (ha! ha! ha!). And, hey, I even learned a little bit about the science of electronic circuitry along the way!

If you catch a glimpse of me setting a sound trap or playing whoopee cushion pranks, please try to remember the angelic Lynn of the last 11 months, and not the prank master that I’ve become.

Thanks and Merry Christmas!

Sincerely,

Lynn.

A Pretty Great Gift (with Disney PIXAR Lightning McQueen Build & Race)

When I was really little, my favourite thing to do was play with dolls. But my little sis, Annie, preferred playing with her toy cars. I would watch her play for hours on end, driving those cars around the imaginary carpet town and, I must admit, I never really got what made it so great. My dolls could be doctors, teachers or princesses with just the change of a costume, but what kind of stories could people who could never leave their cars tell?

Time went by and I never bothered asking, and eventually I forgot all about it. Then one day, I was sitting at home watching Cars, and as the opening scene flashed across the screen, it clicked. Of course it wasn’t the people inside of the cars that my sis was directing in her playtime stories… It was cars themselves! Call me crazy, but I didn’t get it until then.

 

With my narrow mind newly expanded, I knew what I had to do. I dug into my magical Klutz drawer and pulled out Disney PIXAR Cars Lightning McQueen Build & Race, and with some help from my sis, I discovered a whole new way to play!

We built our favourite characters (mine: Guido, hers: Fillmore) and set out the giant fold-out mat complete with tons of cool peel-and-stick stickers to customize our cars with. We whizzed and zoomed around the racetrack on one side, then flipped it over to ride around Radiator Springs, stopping at all our favourite spots, like Tow Mater and Casa Della Tires. And when the fun was all done, we parked our cars in the cool pop-out garage to rest.

This year, think outside the box when picking presents for your family and friends, because you never know what someone will get out of it. This year, my sister gave me a new way to play and that’s a pretty great gift if you ask me!

If you're looking to be inspired by the bounty of Klutz, head over here for a complete listing of books.