Annie Lang's Blog!

Have a little creative fun by dying and decorating fake eggs for Easter this year!  I'm always on the lookout for new crafting surfaces so when I stumbled on these fake eggs that were pre-packaged in cartons at Walmart, I just had to take them home to play with.  Unlike shiny plastic pull apart eggs, these are actually solid lightweight plastic with a lightly textured realistic feel matte surface.  Unlike real eggs, you don't need to boil them or keep them refrigerated until Easter, they don't crack when you drop them and the price is right.  It so happened that my 4 year old granddaughter was visiting the day I tested this new product and thought it would be a fun crafting project for us to work on together.   Here are a few supply suggestions and tips if working with this kit.  Make sure the work area is covered with plastic.  Dye will wash out but you should have plenty of paper towels and baby wipes nearby.  Pitch the tiny little plastic bags that come with the kit and

As one of my favorite holidays approaches, it's time to start planning our Thanksgiving feast.  This year, I had a little help from my 4 year old granddaughter who helped create turkey napkin holder place settings for each guest.  With a few basic supplies and a sky filled with blustery snow flurries, we completed this project together and had a lot of fun chatting about our many family blessings.  So go right ahead and invite a turkey to dinner this year.  I hope you'll give this fun project a try and enjoy the smiles! 

There's a chill in the air as the calendar page turns and the pumpkins come out! In case you missed it... here's a fun post from my 2013 BLOG   I'm sure you'll enjoy if you haven't already seen it.  All month long I'll be sharing fun pumpkin projects, "JOLLY JACKS" themed posts and fun autumn themed features to keep you smiling throughout this festive season. AUTUMN SMILES, EVERYONE!

If you enjoyed my  Wishing Witch project, here's a few more ideas as to what you can make for Halloween with basic craft items you may already have on hand.  All the projects shown here were originally published in magazines nearly 20 years ago and the directions/patterns are no longer available but with the character project ideas are timeless.  Hope you enjoy...and don't forget to share this link! This Candy Holder was made with painted flower pots.  The cape can also be made with a black plastic table covering or black felt. This project is just as easy as can be...just sponge paint a canning jar and add the face with a black permanent marker if you don't want to hand paint the details. My Peek-A-Boo Pumpkin character pattern can be found in Annie Lang's Scarecrows in the Pumpkin Patch line art design book and you can download the pdf from my Annie Things Possible website!    These pumpkin characters were painted on gourds, but you can appl

Don't throw out those wrapping paper, paper towel or cardboard mailing tubes just yet!  You can easily upcycle them for fun holiday decorating and gift items in no time at all. Here's just a few project ideas of how I used them to brighten up the holidays.  Make some holiday visitors and hide them anywhere!  Use large mailing tubes if you want your character short and stout or gift wrap tubes for long and lanky house guests.  Whether it's boots, socks or fuzzy slippers, I'm sure you'll find the perfect footwear in your closet or sock drawer to make your visitor whimsically  festive.  Tubes can be painted white or cover them with white paper.  Spray the paper with adhesive, lay it flat o a table and then roll the tube and press the paper in place.  To make candy stripes, I wrap it with red masking tape spiraling downward and pressing it in place. This idea is also great for making glittery tinsel fairy legs or black and orange striped witch legs for Halloween decorat

Recycle empty paper towel or bath tissue rolls to make festive rings for any occasion.  These rings will also hold battery operated tea lights. You can print your own paper print image files, use wrapping paper you have on hand or right click Annie Lang's FREE full size patterned print below to get started!  Enjoy... Right Click and SAVE full size printable to your computer

Have you seen a baby bird or bunny hiding inside a cracked egg lately?  If not, here's a fun and FREE printable project that will "crack you up"!  Simply cut out and wrap the character mask around any egg and then go ahead and hide them in the grass if you'd like!  To download the full size project, just right click the project page and save to your computer.  Enjoy!

Valentine's Day is long gone, but here's a great way to spend an extended weekend with the grandkids while their parents take a winter break.  We began planning several weeks ago and it's amazing as to how many great ideas a 6 year old can have!  Since the girls were spending several nights, the schedule needed to be filled with plenty of fun activities, games and projects.  We decided to call it our Festival of Hearts Party and with a little luck, it may become a February tradition.  The first night of the party began with dinner, a heart cutouts house decorating activity, reading storybooks, a quick bath, tooth brushing, pillow fight and then an early bedtime to insure they would be well rested on Party Day.  To decorate the house, we were able to get a lot of Valentine decorations on sale at 75% off because of the post Valentine's Day sales.  We also cut and colored small hearts, stapled them to straws to use as pokes and hung a few from strings to make orname

Here's 6 fun ideas to turn those empty Pringles snack cans into fun and useful items you can make in no time at all!  Enjoy...

Wondering what to do with all those wonderful greeting cards you've been saving up?  Here are 15 fun DIY ideas you can try to get you started.  Enjoy this fun video and Happy Greetings!

A trip to Grandma's house always includes at least one fun learning activity and here's a simple project anyone can do together with preschool age kids.  All you need is a handful of pebbles, a bottle of Tacky Glue and a surface like wood or paper mache.  I just happened upon this rustic handmade birdhouse feeder while visiting a local cider mill and it turned out to be the perfect surface for our activity of the day. I began by first applying a coat of Thompson's Clear Wood Sealer to the entire surface and allowing it to dry overnight.  The next day, a pile of pebbles was placed onto our work surface where my granddaughter could select which ones she wanted to use on the birdhouse feeder. A plastic knife was the perfect tool for spreading a thick coat of Tacky Glue onto the wood area to be embellished. Pebbles were placed one by one onto the glue and gently pressed down into place.  Not only were her little fingers kept busy for an hour, but she was more than able to s

Chances are most preschoolers already know the "ABC" song. But when it comes to identifying individual letters out of sequence, they may experience a little difficulty associating the correct letter with a "sound alike" word. While my preschooler granddaughter was visiting, we came up with a fun activity which involved both of us taking snapshots with our digital cameras.  I had her find "alphabet treasures" that we could take photos of as we walked around the house and yard and we snapped away!   In about an hour, we had all the photos we needed so we sat at the computer together and unloaded the digital file that we would save.  I let her be the decision maker as to which ones we wanted to use for her book.  Thus ended the first phase of our project and we then moved on to making lunch! When she returned a few days later, Maryann found that each photo had been placed on a digital document (most likely by the digital fairy!) which featured each lett

I've always wanted to make a few birdhouses from gourds but never seemed to actually get around to actually making them until now.  I recently picked up a few gourds for $5 each while visiting the Past Tense Arts and Antiques Store in Lapeer Mi and within a week, these 2 birdhouses became part of my home landscaping!  Hopefully next spring I will find them fully occupied with happily nesting feathered families.  DESIGNING ...   Since no 2 gourds are exactly alike, it's difficult to create patterns for these natural surfaces.  I prefer to play with a variety of design ideas with my Photoshop image editor before grabbing my craft paints and brushes.  I first take a digital photo, open it in my editor, cut out the areas around the shape which I can then use as my basic shape template.  Digital designing allows me to experiment with the design without worry. Because I create a new layer for each design element and color, correcting unwanted errors is as simple as del