Anyway, my point being, the first thing she did was to personalize the wallpaper and settings on my old iPod to make it more her own. I recently stumbled onto some inspiring iPhone/iPod wallpapers from eighteen 25, and I absolutely love this idea! She saw how I had personalized my phone screen and she wanted to do the same. That sparked our latest crafty creation together – albeit computer generated – we loved creating some inspirational iPhone/iPod wallpapers together. And we wanted to share them with you if you so choose to use them.

Here are the four I did:

For the iPhone, simply save them onto your desktop, email the desired wallpaper to yourself, open up the email on your phone and save the image into your camera folder. Then select from your camera folder, hit the share icon and select “Use as Wallpaper” from the menu. Easy-peasy! They are little affirmations to see every time you pick up your phone, and if you are like me, that is a lot!

Here is the one Maggie designed (and I will explain the significance):

Recently, Maggie has been coming home with the initials “NEGU” marker tattooed on different parts of her body – something she scribbled on herself sometime at school. When I asked her what it meant, she explained it means “Never Ever Give Up”. Well, I am all for that affirmation for my tween! I did a little more digging, and she recently heard about it from one of her friends who heard about the story of Jessie Rees. The “NEGU” campaign started by a Southern California tween who recently passed away from brain cancer, but not before her and her family were inspired to start The NEGU Foundation and distributing JoyJars. I cried once I learned more about this Foundation and its cause. It amazes me how much joy for others can come out of such sadness for one family, and how much inspiration can come from one tween girl.

We hope you enjoy the wallpaper affirmations for your phone of iPod… be Inspired, be Awesome, be Brave, dream Big, and by all means, Never Ever Give Up!

Beads, Paper, Scissors is a crafty business created by Olivia DeMirjian. She strings handmade paper beads, creating colorful, fun and different bracelets that can be worn alone or in bunches. Each style bracelet has a unique name such as Tutti Frutti, Happy Fever and The Tasha. A portion of the profit from each bracelet goes to charity. She can also make bracelets to order.

I had the pleasure of interviewing her recently, and here is what she had to say:

Club Chica: What inspired you to start your crafty beading business and website? and how old were you?

Olivia: I was 12 when I started making these paper beads. I became inspired when I saw my mom’s art teacher’s work, making similar bracelets. I thought I could do this, so one-day I began designing my own papers and rolling my own beads. I know I couldn’t get this far without my mom’s help. She also inspired me because almost every other Tuesday she comes home with an amazing piece of artwork that is so perfect in every way. I wanted to be just like her. I started my website by myself not too long ago.

Club Chica: Besides your paper bead designs, what are your other favorite things to do?

Olivia: I love to play volleyball, spend time with my family and friends and sing in my free time.

Club Chica: What inspires you to donate a portion of your proceeds to charity? And which one do you donate to?

Olivia: My aunt has stage 4 breast cancer and I just couldn’t handle everyone in my family being so sad. I wanted to do something about it. It isn’t much but I just new in my heart I needed to do something about it. I donate to 3 charities: 1. Breast Cancer 2. Pet Orphans 3. St. Jude’s Children’s hospital

Club Chica: What advice would you give other tween girls if they wanted to start a crafty business?

Olivia: I would stay if you really want to start a new business you have to stick with if even when it gets challenging. You shouldn’t just give up. Believe in yourself.

Club Chica: We are all about girls crafting with their mothers. Do you craft with your mother? If so, what types of things do you like to craft with her?

Olivia: Yes, I craft with my mom. We love to spend time together. My mom is an artist so she is always coming up with creative activities for my older sister and I to do together. Sometimes we paint on canvases or free hand draw on paper. We also like to bake cakes, cupcakes, and cookies together.

Club Chica: Do you have any big plans for the future?

Olivia: Yes, one of my best friends wanted me to name a bracelet after her. Her name is Alice. We both immediately thought of Alice in Wonderland. In the future I would really like to pursue this idea.

Olivia was recently featured on Craftzine, and you can find a great DIY on how she makes her paper beaded creations there. I know I was inspired by her, and I can’t wait to try and make some paper beaded jewelry with my tween!

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For the homemade teacher’s Christmas gift we made a half a dozen red roses on red pens, put them in a jar filled with holiday colord M&Ms and tied it up with a holiday bow. This Valentines Day we were inspired to make more for friends, since they were so well received, and so easy to make. This time we made some hot pink ones, and some mixed duck tape patterned ones and dressed them up with Valentine tags and ribbon. We made a colored marker bouquet, and some red pen ones too, but you can really cover any pen or marker you choose. If you want to create a duck tape pencil, just make sure not to cover the whole pencil so you can still sharpen it.

Check out the easy DIY below, and here is a free Valentine Gift Tags Printable you can use for the tags.

What you will need to make your own duck tape flower pen:

• Decorative Duck Tape (I used a variety of pink, red, and pink patterned, plus green for the leaves)
• Scissors
• Pen or markers for wrapping

• To get started, you will first need to wrap the stem of the pen or marker. Cut a length of green duck tape a little longer than the length of the pen or marker. Make sure you don’t go past where the pen or marker cap would be so you won’t have trouble reattaching after use. Carefully wrap all the way around the barrel of the pen. Twist at the end and cut off any excess.
• Now, cut a small piece of duck tape (about 1/4″ wide, use the same color as you want the rose petals). Wrap on the bottom of the pen to cover up the rough edges of the green tape, and so as the inside of your rose flower will be all the same color.
• Create the petals by cutting about a 2-3″ piece of duck tape and fold down the corners of one side to create a triangle point. I like to work on my self-healing mat surface and line up a number of petals in preparation for wrapping around the pen (making sure not to stick them onto each other). You can use as many petals as you wish – it just depends how thick and full you want each flower. I used between 12-16 for each rose pen.
• Now take your first petal and wrap tightly around the bottom of the pen to create the center. Continue by wrapping the petals around in an alternating pattern so that the petal points don’t line up exactly. Once you have wrapped 3-6 tightly around the center, you can start wrapping them looser and pulling out the petals to create some fullness. Keep wrapping until you are satisfied with the fullness of the duck tape rose. Don’t worry about the rough edges at the bottom of the petal, when you attach the leaf next, it will cover it all up.
• To finish off, cut about a 9-12″ piece of green duck tape. Fold over about 4″ onto itself. Then cut a leaf shape on that section. Wrap the exposed sticky section of the green leaf tightly around the pen stem and around the bottom of the rose. You are done!

You can arrange your duck tape flower pencils into a glass jar, fill with colorful M&Ms, and finish off with a festive ribbon and tag to create a great homemade gift!

Or you can decorate a recycled can with stripes of decorative duck tape and fill with this great set of duck tape rose markers and give to a friend. Or there certainly is no shame in keeping for yourself. This set my tween has actually nabbed as her own.

Whatever you choose, these will be a huge hit, and a super fun craft to do together with your tween.

One more bonus, here a quick how-to video on how to make your own duck tape rose bouquets.

Roses are red, violets are blue, I made this duck tape rose DIY just for you! = )

And for a laugh, check out the Duck Tape® Tron video here.

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Last fall I made these rosemary butternut squash ravioli for a small dinner party, and they were a huge hit. I thought I could use this same technique and fill with one of my tween’s favorite food groups – cheese, cheese, and more cheese!

I was inspired by the cheese filling from this recipe from Snaps & Blabs. I mixed 2/3 cup of cottage cheese with 2/3 of fresh finely chopped spinach (because I have to sneak in veggies somehow), and mixed in 1 egg along with 1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese into a bowl.

• To make, take two pieces of wonton wrapper and cut out a heart shape using a cookie cutter.
• Place a spoonful of the cheese mixture in the center of one, and using your finger and some water, wet the edges of the wonton wrapper and attach the other one on top. The water acts like a glue to seal the edges of the wonton wrapper.

• Assemble the remaining ravioli, and place on parchment paper or dry wire rack until ready to boil.

• Drop a small number of ravioli in saucepan filled with boiling water (just enough that the ravioli aren’t too crowded so they won’t stick to each other). Cook just until the wrapper starts to wrinkle and becomes translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Pull out cooked ravioli with a slotted spoon and place on plate. Serve immediately.
• You can drizzle with a little olive oil, sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top, and finish off with fresh cracked pepper, or spoon on some marinara sauce and sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top as well.

I think you can guess which way my tween preferred! = )

This is a great family Valentines dinner idea. So simple, your tween will want to get involved and help cook as well! Enjoy!

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This paper bag painted rose bouquet would make a great home decoration, or crafty homemade gift, especially with Valentines Day coming up. Real roses die, these beautifully painted ones won’t. And the best thing is, they are super simple to make! You and your tween will have a blast creating your own painted paper bag rose bouquet. There really isn’t a way to mess this one up, all you need is a desire to paint, cut, and glue.

Here is what you will need:

• 2 grocery size paper bags
• various colors of paint (I used acrylic, but tempura would just fine too)
• paintbrush
• scissors
• glue gun
• green pipe cleaners

Here is how to make your own paper bag painted rose bouquet:

1. Start by making the roses. First prep one paper bag, by cutting two slits down the side of the front of the bag and opening up so that it lays flat. It should look like a big “T” shape. Paint one side of the bag in a variety of colors. By all means, mix colors to get a painterly effect. For me, this was my favorite parts, because I love to paint, and there is no wrong way to paint color on the bag. I didn’t paint the bottom of the bag because when it comes to cutting out pieces for  the roses and folding, the creases will make it a little too hard. Let dry and then paint the other side. Here is the cool thing, paint the other side a different color than the front to get a cool effect. Let dry again.
2. On the second paper bag, cut out one front piece and paint both sides a variety of greens, letting one side dry at a time just like the paper bag for the roses. This will eventually become your leaves for the bouquet.
3. Cut out circles from bag on painted parts about 6″ diameter. I used a small paper plate as a guide. Don’t worry, the circles don’t have to be perfect. I was able to get 9 circles cut out from one large grocery bag.
4. Now you need to cut a spiral shape out of the circles. Starting from the outer edge, work your way around in a spiral with your scissors keeping about a 3/4″ width. Once you get close to the center, stop until you leave about a 1 -1/2″ circle.
5. It’s time to wind your roses into shape. Starting from the outer edge again, start wrapping the spiral into a tightly wound cylinder until you get the center again. Then place on the table and let it unwind to create a beautiful rose shape. Continue with the rest of your circles to make as many roses as you would like in your bouquet.
6. With a heated up glue gun, squirt a little glue in the center of the wrapped rose circle on the inside and press the spiral petals into the glue to secure. Voilá! You have just made a paper rose. Continue with the rest of the paper rosebuds.
7. Now, it’s time to make the leaves for the bouquet. With your green painted paper bag front, roll into a cylinder along the shorter side. Then with your scissors, cut slits along the side about 2/3 of the way down. Place in a small vase and let it fan out. Touch up the leaves by cutting the slits into pointed leaf shapes.
8. To finish up your flowers, it is time to make the stems with green pipe cleaners. Twist one end of the pipe cleaner into a small spiral. With your glue gun again, now glue the bottom of the paper rose onto the spiral end of the pipe cleaner. Place in the center of the paper leaf stems, and continue with the rest of the roses. The cylinder center of the paper leaves with help hold the pipe cleaners upright and help make a beautiful bouquet arrangement.

Now, wrap a ribbon around the vase and gift it to someone – makes a great homemade gift! Or keep for yourself and enjoy your beautifully upcycled paper bag bouquet. No one will ever guess that it started from a simple, ordinary paper bag.

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And of course this spawned a whole other gaggle of ideas – if I could string perler beads on my ipod headphones, what else could I string them on – how about bike spokes? how about embroidery thread? What if I melted them after stringing them on embroidery thread? Well, that is what evolved for today’s crafty inspiration – the “melted bead love necklace”.

And being the month of “love” with all of the Valentines decorations everywhere, I knew I had to try a love beaded creation. Here are the basic steps of how to make your own:

• Start by stringing some perler beads onto embroidery thread. I used a big embroidery needle to make it easier to string.
• Shape letters, word, or shape of choice onto hard non-meltable surface (I used a cutting board) lined with parchment paper. (Note: I did the word backwards because we wanted the flatter side to be on the back.) Place another piece of parchment paper on top.
• With a hot, dry iron, and with a litte pressure, melt the beaded design between the parchment paper. (Tip: you could flatten one side with iron, flip over and iron the other side to make flat as well. It will just give you a little different effect.)
• Let cool a little, then pull off of parchment paper. Trim off the excess embroidery thread, and you are done.

To make into a necklace, I attached thin colored elastic cording on each end to the desired length. You can see it modeled below. As you can see Maggie loves her “love” necklaces. = )

If you didn’t want to make a necklace, you could create a design, work, or initial letter and attach to a gift, decorate your wall with it, etc. Make one for yourself and gift one to a friend. This craft is super easy, and the colorful beads are so sassy! And if you haven’t tried making your own melted bead bowl, check out our DIY here. Have fun making your own melted bead creations!

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With Valentines Day just around the corner, I couldn’t resist trying out this recipe again, but with a twist and a few modifications. We added cherry food flavoring and just enough red food coloring to make the yummiest shade of pink. We finished off with a sanding of red and hot pink colored sugar.

The next task was to make the chocolate cupcake shells that would create the “bottom” of the cupcake. After a little experimenting, I figured out how to make hard-shelled chocolate cupcake cups and I just had to share.

I own a set of regular-sized silicone cupcake baking cups like these and a set of mini-cupcake silicone baking cups like these. And if you couldn’t tell, I love to bake with Candy Melts. I can admit I have almost every color in my food crafting collection! Anyway, after melting a small bowl of chocolate candy melts in a microwave safe bowl (1 minute usually works for me, then stir until smooth), I spooned in a large tablespoon of chocolate at the bottom of the the regular-sized silicone baking cup. With even pressure, I pressed down the mini-sized silicone baking cup until the chocolate oozed up the sides just as high as the mini baking cup. I also melted some red candy melts to create some red cupcake cups as well.

After creating a dozen chocolate cupcake cups, I put them in the refrigerator to harden and set up (about 5-10 minutes). Then, I peeled off the bottom regular-sized silicone cup carefully, and then the mini-cupcake silicone cup. Voilá – hard-shelled chocolate cupcake cups!

While the cupcake cups were setting up, I whipped up some instant chocolate pudding for the filling. (You can also use whipped cream as another option.) Now that you have all of the components for the perfect Sweetheart Filled Cupcake, the rest is a “cake walk” without the cake!

Serve them up on a pretty plate and share these sweet treats with friends or sweetheart. We had some extra meringue, so we piped some pretty hearts perfect for a sweetheart of a celebration! Enjoy!

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1. Chalkboard Jewelry – Need I say more? I know both myself and my tween would love these crafty customizable chalkboard jewelry ideas. This mini chalkboard/clipboard craft from Poppies at Play. Or the chalkboard earrings – so cool!

2. Chalkboard Wall Decals – You can purchase these from a variety of places. I found some fabulous designs on Wallies that I know my tween would absolutely love, like the house & tree set, or the vintage girl/boy set. Or you can put your crafty hat on and paint designs on a wall using a stencil, or cut out designs using Chalkboard Contact paper. I love this chalkboard wall calendar from the Simple Shapes Etsy Shop.

3. Chalkboard Mugs or Wine Glasses – This one I love, and it would make a great homemade gift idea. Can you just see a cute mug, customized with chalkboard paint, wrapped up with some Starbucks® Via or gift card and handed to a teacher for a fabulous teacher gift idea?  I totally can. The wine glasses are great for parties, or a fabulous hostess gift idea. Love this coffee mug idea from Wit & Whistle, or this wine glass chalkboard tutorial from Just Short of Crazy.

4. Chalkboard bottles, labels, and organization ideas – I think this is a perfectly cute and clever way to get organized and to do some crafty home decorating. Loves these label ideas and pots from The Brides Diary, and the chalkboard vases inspiration from Domestically Speaking.

5. Chalkboard Upcycled Toys – I am drooling over this idea from WhipUp from Creative Kismet – recovering an old board book and giving it new life by covering it with chalkboard paint. Brilliant! Or covering wood blocks with chalkboard paint, and creating your own gameplay from Playful Learning.

Now, there are a variety of chalkboard paint and supplies I thought worth mentioning if you are inspired like I am to get your chalkboard crafting on.

First, love this DIY on how to make your own chalkboard paint in any color from The CSI Project.

You can find chalkboard paint at your local hardware store, but the less messy version is certainly Chalkboard Contact Paper or Wallies Peel and Stick Paper.

And I am dying to try these Liquid Chalk markers to see if they truly do “work like a marker, but dry like chalk”.

Hope you are inspired as I am. I will have to show you what I finally crafted with my chalkboard paint. Let me know if you have any other inspirations or suggestions below. Now let’s get chalkin’! = )

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We thought it would be a great idea to gift lucky red envelopes as a sign of friendship and love – and to glam them up with a little glitter. And who can resist something sparkly? I know my tween can’t. We had so much fun yesterday glitter writing on our friendship red envelopes. And with Valentine’s Day right around the corner, a sparkly red envelope seemed like a perfect crafty excuse to include some love and heart related designs.

I’ve included free Lucky Red Envelopes Printables for you to use. Simply print out your envelope pattern of choice, grab a bottle of Elmer’s glue (or any other standard white glue with a tip) and different colored glitter. We used the glue bottle like a pen, and traced over the dotted lines on the templates. I included the Chinese lettering for “friendship” and a sweet cursive “love”. To help contain the mess, we used baking trays and gently shook glitter over the top of the wet glue lines.

You can then shake the paper a little and move around the glitter to make sure all of the glue is covered. Shake off excess into a small cup to use again or onto the baking tray.

You can keep adding more lines or designs with glue and shake on a different color of glitter – like in the glittery rainbow heart design.

When you are satisfied, set aside to dry. We let ours dry overnight. Once we got started, we couldn’t stop! I loved how my tween made her own designs and glittery embellishments.

Once the glue is dry, cut out each envelope and card. Fold the flaps of the envelope in (shortest side first), then the bottom. Insert your card, treat, or money, and finish by folding in the top flap and secure with a sticker. You can even dress up a simple circle label with some glitter designs!

Hope you enjoy this glittery DIY. I also included additional chinese characters that you can try on your own envelopes or paper. Get it all in the free Lucky Red Envelopes Printables here. Hope this year brings you loads of luck, friendship, and love. Happy glittery crafting!

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Send someone a Happy New Year ecard today!