Waterproofing My Kids

My family has been planning an awesome road trip for the end of summer. Two weeks on the road, DVD players, salty sea air, fresh fish, GORGEOUS scenery, and rain. The problem? We're desert dwellers. With the exception of the strange rainy season Salt Lake just experienced, we don't do rain. Not that we don't like it. We do. We just have no protection from the wetness besides an umbrella (or rain-brella as my 2-year-old calls it). As our vacation has a great possibility of being damp for a good portion of the time, I figured my kids will need rain jackets. Luck was on my side. I found these adorable little rain coats at Target (on clearance even!). I got them home and made my kiddos try them on immediately. Sadly, the jackets were too short in the sleeves on two of my 3 kids. Here's how I solved my problem for about $1 per jacket. The jacket: I bought 2 different colors of ribbon (by the yard-1 1/2" wide on both pieces). Measure around the cuff of the sleeve and add a little for your seam.** Since I was using 2 pieces of ribbon, I glued them together using my favorite glue, E6000. Starting at the inside seam of the sleeve, I glued the ribbon all the way around. Add a little embellishment. That's it. When I showed my hubby after one sleeve, he didn't realize I was showing him the "finished" side. He was amazed. (And why shouldn't he be?? ;) ) The best part is it fits her!! **To give your grosgrain ribbon a finished look on the raw edges, I used a propane lighter (like the ones for your grill) to burn the edge. No more fraying!

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

In my own haste to get ready for a first-time trip to New York City, I forgot to add our brand-new feature to the blog. Before you read the rest of this post, take a gander over to the top of the left column to see our new Creative Concept corner. Sometimes, you just need a small word or idea to send you into a great creative mindset. This month the theme is: travel. So many of us have recently traveled or are about to go on our summer vacations and there are a lot of ways crafts can make your trips easier or more fun.

This very theme inspired my craft for today. It was also inspired by an odd book called The Big-A** Book of Crafts by Mark Montano, pages 142-143. The author says to laminate a color copy of a map, cut it to the desired size, punch a hole in the corner, thread a key ring through it, write your info on the other side.

It sounds easy, but I think I've made it even easier (and less sharp around the edges).

I used these great easy-to-use Photo Laminating sheets from 3M.

I printed off a map of where we spent our recent vacation from Yahoo. I wrote my info on the reverse side and even added the quote I put in the title of this post. I glued the map and info back to back and slipped it into one of these sheets. Easy! I then cut a small slit in the top and threaded an unused hair elastic through the slit to attach it to my luggage. I even added a small ribbon for good measure and to cover the metalic connector on the elastic.

The finished product:

-C