crafts

I spent yesterday morning photographing some finished samples (posters, printables and wrapped canvases) made with the SignsByAndrea Family Rules Art Builder. 

It's pretty cool to see the finished product of design-it-yourself artwork!

Have you tried it yet?

While Ben was out of town for a few days and the kids were both sick and watching movies, I started itching to do a small project.  I settled on this scrap wood framed print of our personalized "Places We've Lived" subway art.  (It's easy to make your own! Just use the Subway style and add your "locations" with my Custom Family Rules Builder).

It was pretty easy to do, and only took about 10 minutes - truly.

I had already ordered the 8" x 10" poster print through my Zazzle store a while back (though you can also get an instant personalized downloadable version for only $9, and print it at home on cardstock or photo paper).  It features all the important places in our lives together -- which started almost 18 years ago!

I had recenly collected a bunch of 4" scrap wood that had some really cool color and grain, so I rough-cut a few boards down to size - three 18" boards for the back, and two 12" boards for the front. They aren't perfect, but that's kind of the point. :)

I used some brass screws that we had at our workbench in the garage  to attach the front two vertical boards to the three back horizontal boards, and then used more brass screws and washers to wedge a page protector (trimmed down to 8" x 10") onto the front of the board. An 8" x 10" piece of plastic would work well too, but I didn't have any on-hand, and the page protector covers both the front and the back of the print, which seemed like a good idea.

Since the wood was pretty soft, I didn't have to pre-drill, but if it had been harder wood, I'd recommend pre-drilling.

That's it. Then I just propped it up in the corner of our bookshelf and admired it.  (Then I probably had to go clean up some vomit...the kids were sick, remember?)

I've been looking to find something substantial in size to put at the top corner of my living room bookshelves that wasn't a vase or a photograph (I have plenty of those!). So, this "Places We've Lived" print and some natural wood seemed like a good choice, since I've started using a golden yellow as one of the accent colors in our livingroom, that I've been slowly working on redecorating.

Now if I could just find a coffee table that we both like...

When you're little and it's hard for you to write your letters and you get *so frustrated* when they just don't come out right (especially when you have to write a "P" on a whole class worth of Valentine cards), crafty little tricks can come in handy. 

I saw this genious idea on Pinterest the other day, and knew it would be a good way for Paxton to be involved in his Valentines, without making it too hard (and frustrating) for him. 

Just combine small wood alphabet stamps together to spell out the word (in our case it was "Paxton") and put a rubberband around them.  That keeps them together and turns the word into a single stamp.

{source: The Frugal Crafter}

Easy enough for an *almost* four year old...Now that's easy!

You know I have an affinity for favorite old t-shirts.  I simply cannot throw away a sentimental shirt.  Especially the Chicago Fire Department shirts that my dad has given us.  We wear them till they literally start falling apart, I alter them to fit better so I'll wear them more, and now I've begun using them as wall art! 

Paxton has grown out of his animal-themed nursery.  So gradually we've been turning his room into a more big-boy room.  He already had a giant fire station (Kidkraft Deluxe Fire Rescue Set) that he got for Christmas last year, plus several larger fire trucks, so we decided to continue that theme.

Lucky me. :) I had several old authentic CFD t-shirts and a few red record album cover frames that made the perfect (and cheap) wall-art project for his big boy room.

This t-shirt framing idea would be really cool in a teen's room - maybe to display old sports team tees or jerseys, or favorite concert t-shirts, etc.

I used several different t-shirts for all the frames.  The back design for three of the shirts were put into these red frames.  I took the backing of the frame out, wrapped the design on the back of t-shirt around the wood backing, and placed it in the frame.

Next, I cut the rest of the t-shirt off and secured it to the board with good ol' duct tape!  No one sees the back -- it's okay that it's not pretty.

I still had the front emblems from the t-shirts leftover that I didn't want to throw away, so I used those in some smaller frames that I had spray-painted red.  I used duct tape again to attach the fabric to the the back of the white photo mat.

I like how this 5-minute project turned out, and I think it gives his "big boy fire station" room a more grown-up feel. 

I still have a few projects I might work on to finish off his room:

• maybe a custom-painted sign that says "PAXTON FIRE DEPARTMENT" to go below the t-shirt frames
• or a fire-bell lamp above his bed
• paint the walls
• add a big life-sized dalmation figurine at the foot of his bed
• a white ladder shelf above the bed on the side wall
• and wouldn't it be cool to have a brick wall installed alongside his bed? (okay, I probably won't really do that one). 

But for now, this is a good upgrade (along with that headboard I got from craigslist & the little red dresser that was about to be tossed in the trash by my neighbors - a good sanding and a fresh coat of glossy red paint, and it fits right in!)

He seems to like it too.  That's important, right? :)

In need of a quick personalized gift this week, I decided to make use of some oversized picture pebbles that I inherited from my mom's craft stash (you can also buy them here: 20 Round Clear Glass Tile Wafers) and make this cute little "Sweet Home Alabama" magnet for a friend who just moved to the state.

It was easy to make. 

I just picked the background paper (a yellow gingham) and cut the "sweet home alabama" text from black vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo Electronic Cutting Tool.  Simple monograms or labels like "Shopping List", "This Week's Calendar", etc. would be cute too.

Then I glued the clear pebble to the design using E-6000 Med Visc 1-Ounce Adhesive (best adhesive for the job-hands down!). 

Once the glue was dry, I cut around the edges to remove the excess paper. 

If your patterned paper is thin, you might want to also glue a piece of white cardstock to the back too.  Otherwise, it's possible that the magnet and glue will bleed through your patterned paper.  That's no good.  It looks terrible. Trust me. I know. ;)

Use the same glue to attach a heavy-duty magnet to the back of the design. These work well: Magnum Magnetics Corp ProMAG 3/4" Round Magnet 50-Pack

I added a little black ribbon around the outside of the pebble and tied it at the top for a little bit of extra decoration, gluing it in 4 spots, so that it wouldn't fall off.

To wrap it all up, I just used a piece of tulle and ribbon. 

Tada! An easy, customized, finished project.  These make GREAT teacher and grandparent gifts at Christmas -- and it works especially well with photographs.

Supply List:

• Magnum Magnetics Corp ProMAG 3/4" Round Magnet 50-Pack
• E-6000 Med Visc 1-Ounce Adhesive
• 20 Round Clear Glass Tile Wafers
• Silhouette Cameo Electronic Cutting Tool
• ribbon
• patterned paper
• scissors

Saturday morning, we hosted Ayla's 6th birthday party in our front lawn. 

She had requested a "Strawberry Shortcake Festival" birthday party.  Can't say no to that!  We turned it into a summer fun festival, and planned a morning of water sports and "fair food".  Here's how the party went down:

Invitations:

I ordered these "Strawberry Sweet Berry Birthday Party" invitations from Zazzle and just change the wording to fit our party. 

Tip: I always like to include a drop off and pick up time and mention whether a meal will be served at the party on the invitation.  Helps answer a few questions parents are likely to have in this strange inbetween age where parents are often expected to stay at parties with their kids.  I got several comments from moms that were SO glad to see that information on the invitation!

Decorations:

Decorations were pretty simple for this party. We borrowed some pop up tents from our neighbors for a festival-like atmosphere, set up a few tables for food & gifts, and put out lots of water toys spread across the lawn.

I made a chalk sign on the driveway for a great "welcome" sign and photo backdrop.

For one of the tents, I made a quick "Happy Birthday Ayla" banner (tutorial here) with some colored cardstock, ribbon and my Silhouette to cut the letters.  The kids layed their towels under this tent to eat lunch and open presents.

Under the other tent, I added some red and turquoise fringe that I ordered from ShopSweetLulu.com.  We had two tables set up in an L-shape with an adorable strawberry tablecloth (from Target) and a plain pink plastic table cloth on the other.  One table was for food, the other held gifts and party favors. 

Speaking of party favors...

Each kid went home with a bubble wand. I snagged all the pink and green ones from our local Dollar Tree.  We added a strawberry candy with a tulle baggie and a cute (and free!) chevron printable "thank you" card.  Then Ayla added a Strawberry Shortcake sticker to each wand.

Food:

We tried to keep it simple, but feature "fair food" for our festival.  So our menu looked like this:

• Popcorn in green chevron bags
• Corndogs (from Sams)
• Strawberries in Berry Baskets
• Watermelon
• Strawberry Fanta with red & white paper straws
• Cupcakes with pink & white icing (Target)

I bought plain cupcakes with sprinkles and added a slice of strawberry to the top to fit the theme:

Activities & Games:

As everyone arrived they played in the yard with all the water toys.  We set up three baby pools full of water with sponge balls, water shooters, a sprinkler and a slip-n-slide for the kids to run wild -- which they did!

The night before, Ben and I filled about 200 water balloons.  I bought pink & green ones from Dollar Tree to match the Strawberry Shortcake colors.

The water balloon toss was a little chaotic, and I had to do lots of shouting to try and get them to (hear) and follow the instructions. 

Next we played a relay race game where the kids ran to a kid-sized camping chair and sat on a water balloon to pop it and then ran back.  They liked that game a lot - and got plenty wet in the process.

After a few rounds of that, we just let them loose on the big bucket of balloons.  Pure FUN!

The only other formal game we played was with some really cool sponge balls that my neighbor had made and let us borrow.  Each team had to carry a wet sponge ball down to the bucket and try to squeeze out the water with their neck into the bucket.  

They started cheating quickly.  But it was still lots of fun.

And that was pretty much it!  Two hours of glorious weather (thank goodness!), lunch and lots of running around the yard.  I think it was successful and fun for all the kids.  Hard to say...I was running around like crazy the whole time! :) I'm not sure I'm meant for party hostessing....but the planning sure is fun!

It's teacher appreciation week at Paxton's school, and BOY do I appreciate those teachers! :)

Each day has a theme, so I tried to comply as much as possible:

• Monday: "Cards of Love" - a super-cute free teacher appreciation printable from Balancing Home
• Tuesday: "Pamper the Teacher Day" - scented hand sanitizer from the $1 bins at Target
• Wednesday: "Bouquets of Love" - hand-made fabric flower pins
• Thursday: "Special Luncheon" (no gift necessary)
• Friday: "Sweet Treats" - whoops! I better make cookes for Friday!

The tutorial for making the fabric flower pins can be found here.  Though this time, instead of cutting flowers, I just cut circles - same result, easier cutting!

Next, I found this adorable free Teacher Appreciation printable last week and thought it would be perfect for the "cards of love" day. 

I downloaded it - which gave me this (8" x 10) print in gray and white.

Next, I opened the PDF file in Photoshop Elements and used the used the paint bucket tool to change the background to teal to match my pins & the hand sanitizer labels.

Then I used a "wallets" action from The Coffee Shop Blog to turn one image into 9 wallet-sized cards. 

Then I printed them, cut them out, rounded the corners and signed Paxton's name to the back.

Finally, I added punched star-shaped tags to the hand-sanitizer, and called it a gift.  Easy Peasy. 

Here's a look at last year's Teacher Appreciation Gift: Chapstick Pockets

I've made a few of these baby's first year albums for family and friends, and thought I'd post a quick little tutorial for how to make them.  They make great baby shower gifts or even a good way to get an easy album for your own kids made before the baby is born!  Plus, it's easy to fill in and keep up with!

Start with a 3-ring binder album. I like the We R Memory Keepers Faux Leather albums with a bookplate spine.  This one is navy, though it looks black in the photo.

Next, pick a patterned paper collection to use throughout the book.  For this album, I used the Basic Grey Oliver Collection.  The collection pack comes with some alphabet stickers and themed stickers as well.

Create a front page.  I like to leave a photo mat for a 5 x 7 photo.  I like to think it'll be filled in with a newborn photo.

Each month of the year gets a calendar journaling page.  I just made a template in Microsoft Word, added the correct numbers for the month, and then printed it on gray cardstock.

Once all the pages are printed, to make it a little more handmade I add a stamped month & year and a few strips of patterned paper.  These pages are housed in regular 8.5" x 11" page protectors.

Next, for each month, I make double-sided journaling tags, and fill in the spaces of a 2-up photo sleeves page protector.  Each tag gets a journaling stamp & some patterned paper details.  Later, the tags can be filled in with journaling information about the photos that are added from that month.

The last page for each month is a printed "milestones" page to record important details like height, weight, eating and sleeping habits, etc.  This page is also printed on gray cardstock with patterned paper details.  I made the template for it in Microsoft Word. For this particular album, I used my Silhouette to cut the numbers for each month as well.

All that's left is a "one" page at the end of the book.  Again, I left a photo mat for a 5 x 7 photo to be added later.

It's a pretty easy-to-make, assembly-line style album and can be completed in a couple of days. Since it's handmade and can be personalized to match the decor for any nursery or with the baby's name, etc., it makes a special gift.

Here are some other versions of the album that I've made before:

Twin Books:

Gender-Neutral Baby Album:

Inspired recently by the really cool white pumpkin w/black lettering trend, my sisters-in-law and I had a girls night and made our own versions. 

Here's how we did it:

First, design your lettering and graphics to cut out of black vinyl.  We used my Silhouette software and the font BlackKnight FLF - which is a fabulously Halloween-y font - to make the designs. 

Peel back the excesss vinyl, leaving the lettering and design.

Then press the transfer paper to the design so that you can place it easily on the pumpkin.  We used large artificial white pumpkins (purchased at 50% off from Michaels.)

Gently peel back the transfer paper and press the vinyl onto the pumpkin, revealing your design.

We decided to add a thin coat of matte Mod Podge over the design, to be sure it stayed put (since the adhesive vinyl didn't seem to be well adhered to the pumpkin.  Plus, we thought we might display our pumpkins outside and wanted to help keep them from peeling. 

I was so happy with how they turned out, and amazed at how easy it was to do!  Here's a look at all three of our creations:

We aren't the only ones with awesome black and white pumpkins.  Here are some versions around the web that inspired our evening:

Looking for a fabulous new addition to your fall decor?  How about a custom Sign by Andrea?  For a limited time only, these seasonal custom-designed hand-painted signs are only $20!*  

Trick or Treat? - black w/white lettering - 2ft x 6in - $20
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Count Your Blessings - brown (as shown) or black w/white lettering - 2ft x 6in - $20
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*$45 regular price.  $20 fall special runs through November 9th, 2011. Both sign designs are also available with optional beveled edges (+$5).

Don't forget to check out my other personalized sign designs when you order so you can combine shipping costs.  It's not too early to start thinking about holiday gifts!