Featured Content Archives - sevenclowncircus.com

DIY Clothes Hanger Belt Organization {gift idea}

May 20, 2013 By Angie 1 Comment

How to organize belts using clothes hangers is super simple with a little DIY work. All you need to do is drill a few holes into the bottom of a wooden coat hanger, screw in some hooks and you have the perfect DIY belt hanger organization that is sturdy, functional and best of all, space saving. Once you’ve made one of these belt hangers, you’ll never want to use anything else to organize your belts! Inspired by my DIY Clothes Hanger Jewelry Organization project, this makes a perfect gift for dad!!!!

Clothes Hanger Belt Organization

How to Make Belt Hangers:

Find/Purchase wooden hangers to use for belt organizers.
Mark the bottom of hanger where you’d like your hooks to be placed. I used a sharpie marker and marked about a 1″ distance on one hanger and 2″ on another. The nice thing about this project is that you can organize your hooks however works best for your belts. If you have bulky belts, you might want lots of space in between the hooks. If you have dainty belts, you might only want .5″ between the hooks.
Drill a hole in each spot that you’ve marked so that it’s easy to screw in your hooks if you have a screw driver and drill bit. If you don’t, you can just screw in your hooks, it will just take more elbow grease.
Arrange your belts on the hooks.
Hang belt hanger in closet and enjoy! {{or give it as a Father’s Day gift like my kids are planning!}}

Belt Hanger Perks

Clothes Hanger Belt Organization

It’s FUNCTIONAL

It’s STURDY

And it is SPACE SAVING! See how it fits perfectly in the closet?

Clothes Hanger Belt Organization

This is one of my favorite DIY crafts because it’s so easy and functional, and my husbands belts will soon be hanging right next to his pants instead of lying on the floor.

How to Make a Braided Sock Bun {hair tutorial}

May 18, 2013 By Angie Leave a Comment

How to Make a Braided Sock Bun is the most time consuming of my top Up-Do styles for the summer. It’s easy to do, but takes a bit of time because it requires a few small braids within the bun and those will take a few minutes. The pictures don’t really show how pretty the braids are within the bun. They really pop and add dimension to the hair do that is unexpected and super pretty. I just love the braided sock bun up-do! Here’s how to do it in 5 easy steps!

Braided Sock Bun

How to Make a Braided Sock Bun

Braided Sock Bun

Step 1: Put your hair into a high pony tail. make sure all your hair is smooth.

Step 2: Next, put a sock bun into your hair and spread your hair out over it.

Step 3: Take small sections of hair and start braiding them, then tying them with elastics. You can make as many as you want, but I think 6 is a good number.

Step 4: Put a bigger elastic over the top of the whole bun. Once you have the bun secured, take the elastics of the braids out.

Step 5: Twist the rest of the hair and pin it around the bun. Pull the braids out, just a little bit, to define them. Spray with hairspray if desired.

How to Make a “Twisty” Bun {hair tutorial}

May 11, 2013 By Angie 1 Comment

How to Make a “Twisty” Bun is one of my favorite Up-Do styles for the summer. My thirteen year old daughter does this style for me and it never fails to draw tons of compliments. The undo is perfect for the summer because it gets your hair up and off your neck so you’ll stay cool, and it also looks really pretty. I just love that this “twisty” bun can be dressed up or down. It’s super simple to do, too! Here’s how:

Twisty bun

How to Make a Twisty Bun

Twisty Bun

Step 1: First, split the hair in half. On one side, start twisting all the hair. Twist the other side, then tie together with an elastic. (If this step is hard for you, you can use a topsy tail to flip the hair under itself to create a similar look)

Step 2: Next, make a “two-strand braid” (just twist two sections) out of the hair coming out of the pony tail.

Step 3: Make a bun out of this hair and use bobby pins to secure it into place.

Step 4: Fix any stray hairs and hairspray the hairstyle for good hold throughout the day.

How to Make a Sea Shell Flip Bun {hair tutorial}

May 10, 2013 By Angie Leave a Comment

How to Make a Sea Shell Flip Bun is one of my favorite Up-Do styles for the summer because it looks so summery. The silhouette actually looks like a sea shell and of all the updo’s my daughter does for me, I have worn this one the most. It can easily go from casual to formal, and that’s one of the things I love most about it. Here’s how to make a Sea Shell Flip bun, with a video tutorial for making a princess lace braid in case you don’t know how. You can also make this braid without the braid and it looks lovely.

Sea Shell Flip Bun

How to Make a Sea Shell Flip Bun

Sea Shell Flip Bun

Step 1: First you start making a lace braid starting at the part. Start ending the lace braid once you get behind the ear, then just braid the rest of the hair regularly. Repeat that step on the other side of the head, then tie together with an elastic. If you have trouble with this step or you don’t know how to make a lace braid, watch the video below.

Step 2: Next, gather all of the hair into a ponytail. It should be about the height of where the elastic is. Don’t pull the hair all the way through the ponytail, leave it as a bun like in the picture. If your hair is long, you can make two of these.

Step 3: Make an opening above the braids and carefully start stuffing the opening with the ponytail-bun hair. Put the ends into the opening first so that they don’t stick out the top.

Step 4: Adjust the hair so that it looks neat and smooth. If there is anything sticking out of the top of the bun, you may have to bobby pin it down. Finish with a light mist of hairspray and enjoy your hair!

FREE Teacher Appreciation Printable {SODA-lighted}

April 18, 2013 By Angie 7 Comments

Can you believe Teacher Appreciation week is coming up? I ADORE trying to come up with clever, fun and inexpensive ways to tell my kids teachers that they are appreciated, valued and not taken for granted. This year I’ve taken to drinking far too much SODA so it’s no surprise that the first thing that came to mind to give my kids teachers for teacher appreciation week was their favorite SODA. I have the perfect printable for room parents and parents with multiples in the same class!

Soda-lighted printable

Teacher Appreciation Printable

teacher appreciation tags

Since I have twins in the same class and am no stranger to being a room parent, I had tags designed that say, “We’ve been SODA-lighted to have you for our Teacher this year”. This way, room moms have something to give to the teacher from the class AND if a parent has two children in one class, they have a printable they can use as well! Plus, the colors work great for either male or female teachers!

Free Printable File!

SODA-lighted printable (2137)

These adorable printables were designed by Tricia Rennea. She can design just about anything, so if you ever need printables, she’s your gal!

The Tags come with two options for wording

One says, ”We’ve been SODA-lighted to have you for our Teacher this year!” The other says, “I’ve been SODA-lighted to have you for my Teacher this year!
I’d recommend printing on white card stock.
Then cut out and use on Soda bottle or can to embellish gift for teacher!

SODA lighted printable

I’d love to hear how you used these printables. Did you use ribbon, twine, etc.? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Other DIY Gifts for Teachers You Might Enjoy:

Filed Under: Crafting, Featured Content, Printable Tagged With: free printable, teacher appreciation

Hockey Themed Birthday Party – {how to}

April 11, 2013 By Angie 2 Comments

How to Throw a Hockey Themed Birthday Party can be downright fun if given enough ideas. My sister throws amazing Themed Birthday Parties, and this was no exception. She designed the party around her son’s love of hockey and favorite team, the LA Kings. She used a purple and black color palette and her son’s hockey gear for decorations. So, if you are wanting to throw a Hockey Themed Party, this post should give you plenty of ideas to get you started!

Invitation

How perfect is this NHL hockey ticket invitation?! She found it on an etsy shop, Fancy Invites. Once the file is purchased all you have to do is print them and they are ready to go.

Decorations

For decorations, she had an LA Kings Printable pack designed by Shy Socialites which included a banner, cupcake toppers, place cards/food cards and favor tags. She even used some leftover snow from the twin’s Science Party . (It was used on the dessert table, you can faintly identify it under the gloves and helmet.)

A hockey party wouldn’t be complete without a score board. She simply glued purple card stock to a black tri-fold board with printed numbers and used chalk to write “home, period, visitor”. The black tri-fold board was purchased at Hobby Lobby for around $3.99. And, the entire project only took about 20 minutes. {wow}

Hockey Pucks

Oreo cookies and Little Debbie’s snack cakes made perfect hockey pucks. Simply stack them in a pyramid fashion. You should have seen how quickly the stacks disappeared!

Cake & Cupcakes

There were two choices of cupcakes, strawberry or chocolate. Cupcakes are great to have in addition to cake because kids usually prefer the cupcakes over cake. Plus, they are fun and easy to decorate with cupcake toppers.

The cake was two delicious layers of vanilla and chocolate with fresh sliced strawberries and homemade whipped cream filling. The secret to the smooth frosted cake is the new Cool Whip frostings. They’re light, not too sweet and perfect for frosting cakes. It’s also easy to work with.

The cake topper was made from scraps of card stock, a circle hole punch, sticker letters, twine and shish kebab sticks to anchor the banner. It was simple to make, anyone could do it!

Lots of smiling faces equals happy kids. I’d say they all had a great time! {{wink}}

Party Favors

The party favors were one of my favorite parts of the party. Each child took home some L.A. King’s paraphernalia and a hockey lollipop.

L.A. King’s whistle
L.A. King’s wristband
L.A. King’s pencil
Homemade chocolate hockey lollipop

And that’s How to Throw a Hockey Themed Birthday Party.

Other Parties/Ideas I’ve featured:

Filed Under: Featured Content, Parties

How to Make Tissue Paper Flowers {ombre}

April 1, 2013 By Angie 3 Comments

Making Ombre Tissue Paper Flowers as a Craft are easy as 1-2-3 with this DIY tutorial! They are even easier to make than tissue paper balls, and making them in ombre colors is SO in right now! All you need is tissue paper, scissors, pencil, plain sheet of paper and a stapler.

Materials Needed

4-6 packages of tissue paper in complimentary shades
Stapler
Scissors
Plain sheet of paper (to make template)
Pencil

Instructions for Making Tissue Paper Flowers

To make the template: use a plain white piece of copy paper, fold it on the diagonal to make a square. Trim the excess edge off. Fold the paper in half again (it is now in four folds). Use a pencil to free hand draw a scallop edge. Note: it does not have to be perfect, you won’t notice once you assemble the flowers. Using scissors cut along the scallop. Voila! You now have a template.
Cut each shade of tissue paper into 7″X7″ squares. Note: You need 6-8 square sheets per flower.
Fold each flower stack of 7″x7″ squares in half and then half again. Lay your template (still folded up) on top of your tissue paper and cut along the scallop. Once again, it does not have to be perfect.
Once you have cut the tissue paper, unfold it and place two staples in the center. Follow this process for each flower.
Pull up the top layer of tissue paper and gently squeeze it together and crimp the base of it near the staple. Do the same thing with the remaining layers except the last layer. This will be the base of the flower.
Once you have finished this process with all of the flowers you can display them as a beautiful centerpiece.
After your party you can use them as beautiful present toppers.

Assemble the Flowers

I arranged my tissue paper flowers in an ombre pattern to display as a beautiful centerpiece. I was inspired by this post.

And that’s how I made an easy peasy DIY Tissue Paper Flower Centerpice that’s perfect to make with the kids and will be a perfect accent for your next celebration. Happy Crafting!

Other Easy Crafts

Filed Under: Crafting, Featured Content Tagged With: ombre, paper craft, tissue paper craft

Sweet Easter Popcorn {recipe}

March 21, 2013 By Angie 6 Comments

How to Make Sweet Easter Popcorn is easy and perfect to make with little helpers because it’s fun to mix with your hands! I’ve found a few variations of this recipe online and decided I had to try it because popcorn with add-ons just makes me happy. Plus, I’ve tried a variation of this recipe with Chex mix {Vanilla Chex Mix} and my kids loved it. This Easter Popcorn Recipe uses popcorn, white chocolate chips, shortening (makes all the difference in consistency) a lemon cake mix (yummy), and candy sprinkles. The mix is perfect for Spring or Easter because it’s light and just looks and tastes cheery! It’s a great homemade gift idea for friends and neighbors, too!

Sweet Easter Popcorn

Sweet Easter Popcorn Ingredients

Sweet Easter Popcorn

12 oz bag melted white chocolate chips
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup lemon cake mix
8 cups plain popped popcorn
food coloring {optional}
Sprinkles

Directions {step-by-step}

Sweet Easter Popcorn

MELT white chocolate chips in microwave safe dish in microwave. My 12 oz. bag took about 2.5 minutes. I’d recommend melting your chips in 30 second increments.

Sweet Easter Popcorn

ADD the vegetable shortening to the melted chocolate. This is key is making the mixture the perfect consistency for mixing.

Sweet Easter Popcorn

ADD food coloring if you want. Just add enough drops for desired color. Stir in.

Sweet Easter Popcorn

ADD cake mix to the chocolate mixture.

POUR the chocolate mixture over the 8 cups of popped popcorn {make sure you don’t have any un-popped kernels in there!}. I’d recommend digging in with your hands to get it mixed if you have little helpers because it’s fun for them, but if you are doing this alone, using a spatula works just fine and is way less messy.

Sweet Easter Popcorn

SPREAD mix onto wax paper and then add sprinkles.

LET cool.

Sweet Easter Popcorn

ENJOY, or GIVE as a GIFT!

Other Recipes You May Enjoy:

Filed Under: Featured Content, Recipes Tagged With: easter, poporn, recipe

Sausage, Fennel and Cauliflower Soup {recipe}

March 8, 2013 By Angie 2 Comments

How to Make Sausage, Fennel and Cauliflower Soup is easy, and I can’t tell you how delicious the soup is. I’ve made this for my family on MANY occasions and taken it to various get togethers and it always gets good reviews. The sausage adds the perfect “kick” of heat, and the fennel adds flavor that I just adore. The soup is hearty enough to be served as a meal, which is nice, too. The great thing about this Recipe is that you can change things up a bit. If you don’t like pinto beans, try cannellini beans, or try other vegetables instead of cauliflower. The only two staple ingredients I wouldn’t change are the sausage and fennel.

sausage fennel cauliflower soup