Fish Birthday Tshirt

My colleagues husband is turning 65 this weekend. She asked if I'd could make a special shirt for him. Of course I said yes!

Supplies:
T shirt
Freezer paper
paint
Sure cuts a lot
Cricut

First, I found a very simple fish stencil online.

Then I traced the image using my software.  I then copied it and made the second fish a little smaller. To add a birthday touch I added birthday hats to the fish.  To do that I added a 'V' and turned it upside down. For the top of the hat I added an '*'. Voila an easy hat!

Once done I cut it with the cricut.

TIP:
I like to cut my designs on paper first. I allows me to check placement, size and it shows me what size piece of freezer paper I will need.

Once I liked the size I cut it on freezer paper.

Final step is paint.  I like to use puffy paint. Gives it a little bit of depth.

The final product details...

Kids Masterpieces

I want my boys to enjoy creating and I think that means we start young.

For an easy afternoon project I let the boys go to town on their own 8x10 Canvas. 

Supplies:

Canvas (any size)

Paint - I used washable finger paint

Cookie Cutter (optional)

I like to put two colors on a plate and let the boys do with them as they want.

My youngest was a little disconcerted by the feel of the paint. But soon he was having fun.

My oldest loved using the cookie cutters to make shapes. But he LOVES to get it all over his hands.

And the finished products hanging in their bedroom.

Little People Magnets

I decided to pull out my Cricut and play with the cartridge Paper Doll Dress up and Everyday Paper Doll. It has been a while since I have used a cartridge; I mostly use Sure Cuts a Lot.

My Fridge has been faily bare and decided it needed some pizzazz.

With 3 adults and 2 boys in the house I figured we could all have our very own magnet. I can use the boys' to pin up their lunch schedules or art projects.

Supplies:
Craft Paper
Clothes pin
Magnet
Hot Glue

Lil Man is my rock star, has been interested in Music since birth.  For him I created a Guitar Rock star complete with Microphone and guitar.

Munchkin is my pirate, always plundering Lil Man's toys. He gets a pirate, complete with Hat and Treasure Map.

My hubby is my knight in shining armor

My roomie is the wizard.

I cant forget me, I am Super Mommy, or so I try to be.

I made one for my sister....

Nuff Said!

Thank you notes

I love to include the birthday boy in the thank you notes.  They are both too young to write them themselves so they usually are included in the decoration.

For the first birthdy parties for both boys I let them go crazy with finger paint on plain 8.5 x 11 paper.  When their masterpieces dry I cut out squars or rectangles (depending on the size of the notecard) and and attach the drawings to the front of the notecard. I can then write and sign the inside of the card and the gift giver gets a thank you note from me and a personal drawing from the birthday boy.

Super simple but personalized.  

The plague

Our house has been visited by the plague. All four of us were coughing. sniffling and down right miserable.  I think I see the end of the tunnel...I hope to start posting again soon.

Gift Card/Picture Holder

For the holidays I created a simple gift card holder that could also double as a picture frame using my favorite dollar canvas from Michael's. These could be changed to fit your holiday. Red and Pink for Valentine's Day, Primary Colors for Teacher Appreciation...so on..

Supplies:
Canvas
Paper Clip
Paint
Scrapbook Paper
Embellishments
Hot glue

First paint your canvas, I painted my a dark blue.

Next, glue some pretty paper on your paperclip

Find matching embellishments, I used green flowers and different colored brads for the center of the flowers to match the colors in the paper.

Finally assemble.  I hot glued the paperclip to the canvas. Then arranged the flowers and hot glued those down.

For the gift card I printed a gift card holder using the Cricut that I found here...

Voila, a simple gift for teachers for the holidays!

Lamp Redo

As I recover from my Pirate Birthday weekend I will share a Lamp decoration project I put together in one night...

I was given a spectacular lamp from my MIL.  It sat on my hubby's piano and when we confiscated inherited the piano it came with it.  In my post about the dollar canvas here I took a look at the lamp. It was plain and boring.....I could snazz it up.




I have had a chunk of remnant fabric with music notes all over it forever. What better way to decorate a piano lamp than with music notes!

I followed the tutorials for two different fabric flowers I found on this page and this page using my music fabric and a little felt for pizzaz.





Once the flowers were made I took some black ribbon I had and hot glued it around the top and bottom of the lamp shade. Beginners mistake: Make sure that you start glueing the ribbon at the same place the lamp shades meet, this way you won't have to worry about covering up the lip of the ribbon....




Next I hot glued the big flower to the center. 






Because it might be fun to change out the smaller flowers I hot glued those onto alligator clips.  That way I can easily change them out for holidays or just because.

Voila, a gorgeous piano lamp!








And the best part, I can change out the smaller ribbons if I so choose!

Bathroom Reveal

My New Bathroom

I LOVE IT!!!!!

Supplies:
White Semi Gloss Paint
Green, Yellow, Red, Blue Satin Paint
Small sample paint (light blue, purple, orange)
Purdy Edging Paint Brush
Roller

Using a roller I put two coats of white paint over the bland beige and let that sit over night.

The next day using a Purdy Edging paint brusy I went to town with my colors. I found that if you did one half of a circle starting from top and going to the bottom you could get a pretty good circle. The Key was to have enough paint to avoid the feathering. With enough paint you got a good clean line. The paintbrush made it almost too easy to make circles.

The vanity is just painted, I my go back and seal it later but with two little boys I figured I would be changing the colors or fixing their bangups anyway.

Pirate first Birthday Shirts



My Munchkin turns ONE! I can't believe a year has passed. Just this time last year I was recuperating from the holidays and getting ready to be done with being preggos. Little did I know that munchkin would take me seriously and come 4-5 weeks early!

Front



Back





Tradition has it that the birthday boy gets a special shirt to wear.  For Little Man I bought this great embroidered shirt special to him. This year I figured with freezer paper, heat and bond and my Cricut I could do it myself!

I wanted two shirts. One for his actual birthday and one for his party. Now the question is which to wear to which event!





Front



Back



Funny things my kids say...

So, last night we were at Costco.  My roomie took the boys to get a treat and sit down out of the way while Dad and I finished shopping.  Lil Man was super excited.

Flash foward we are in the car going home.

Lil Man: I want my smoke.
Mommy: Smoke?
Lil Man: My smoke, Mommy. Roomie took my smoke

I am thinking holy moly it begins at 3! We went back and forth for a bit until I asked him to point to what he wanted.  He pointed to the smoothie in Roomie's hands!

3 year old translation
Smoothie + Shake = SMOKE!

Alphabet Name Board

I have finished the polka dots and the final coat of paint on the vanity. I hope to have the big reveal tomorrow!

I have been super busy with the Munchkins First Birthday Party this weekend. I have created two shirts for him and will be making lil pirate magnets for the kids in attendance. I will post pictures soon.

In the meantime, one of my very first crafts was a name board for my soon to be Lil Man.  I had not found the glory of Cricut, mod podge or hot glue so it was rather basic. I love its simplicity!

Supplies:
Foam board
Wood letters
Wood Decals
Paint
Glue

We planned to do Lil Man's room in Jungle Theme so what better way to decorate than with lil animals.  First, I found a foam board that matched the color scheme. Second I painted the wood letters the same color as the accent wall in Lil Man's room.  Once that was dry I placed them on the foam board.  I love to do things zig zag for many reasons...I love how it looks but most of all I don't have to worry about it being straight on the board!

Once I had the letters placed where I liked them I started to experiment with the wood animals.  I placed some above the letters, some below and some on top. As added accents I used wood leaves.  Once I had them all placed I began to glue it all down letter by letter and animal by animal.

Originally I applied to t the wall with double sided tape but when we moved we realized just how hard that was to get off.  This time around I nailed in a picture hanger on the back and some green felt to the front (to cover the nails) and hung it up on the wall!

Boy Bathroom

I have finally started decorating the boys bathroom.  I have done a monster theme for the accessories and to compliment I plan to do multi color polka dots on the walls.

This  weekend I painted the base coat on the walls and the vanity.  I hope to polka dot tomorrow....

For now, here is a before picture....

Alphabet Name Canvas

For Lil Man I created a name board for his room. With the addition of munchkin I wanted to do the same but thought it would be fun if it was a little different.

I created this before I thought to enter the world of blogging so I don't have pictures of the process but I can let you know how I did it....I can't take credit for the idea - I found it for sale at a print shop.  It was geared towards girls and I have boys, also it was more than I could afford. I realized, with my Cricut, I could fashion my own version of it and went to town!

Supplies:
Canvas
Cricut
Colored paper
Mod Podge

I figured out how many rows I needed based on my kids names.  Using trial and error I found a font size that would allow 8 rows on my canvas.

Once I figured out the height of the letters I used Sure Cuts a Lot to place the letters on the mat. I am sure you can do this without Sure Cuts a Lot, you would just cut the letters using the cartridge font of your choice.

Now the fun begins...again with trial and error I spelled out my rows.  If you planned ahead I am sure you could write out the rows and then cut only what you need...as I am not that prepared I just started by cutting a lot of letters. I wanted Munchkin's name in bold colors so I cut those in fun bold colors.  The rest of the alphabet is cut on black paper. Aligning his name to go down the canvas in a diagonal I filled in the alphabet around.

For example the second Row is the first letter of his Name "J". I placed it towards the left of the canvas.  I then filled in the gaps.  So the row starts with H, and I in black.  The J is in a fun color and then K, L, M, N, etc contiues in Black.

When it is all done his name pops agains the black.

Once the rows are configured comes the glue.  I spread a thin layer of Mod Podge on the canvas and placed the first row.  Then I spread another thin layer on to to seal them. I went row by row until they were all attached and sealed.

Once it dried I had a fun sign for his room!

I have linked this to:
mommaskindacrafty

Don't Forget List

I have 30 minutes to get myself showered and dressed, the Munchkins bottles prepared, Lil Man's breakfast heated and packaged, my lunch packed, and both boys dressed (with the groggy help of my hubby) and out the door for work. Needless to say I am frazzled and tend to forget stuff....

Enter the Don't Forget Note.

Supplies:
5x7 Cardstock
Laminator
Alphabet Letters

With the laminator all nice and ready I ran a cute pre cut 5x7 cardstock through the laminator. Attached some letters that spell "Don't Forget" and taped it up with blue painters tape right by the door. Now I can mark the important things the night before while I am thinking of them and when I am rushing out the door I can take a quick look to make sure I have everything!

Dollar Canvas from Michaels

In the dollar section of Michael's they have these preprinted canvas made for kids to color. For one buck I have found they make a great starting point for many different crafts.

For my sister's new baby I used them to make a name hanging. Add paint, paper and modpodge and you have this:

For a holiday gifts for my boys' teachers add paint, clip, flowers and glue and you have this:

Simple, cheap budget friendly crafting!

Freezer Paper Stencil

This is my new favorite thing! It is amazing what you can do.

They were super simple...using Sure Cuts a lot I found an image that I liked, traced it and then I cut it with the Cricut, ironed it on and then painted. 

My mom LOVES fancy jeans..I had some trouble getting the freezer paper to adhere and I think it was because of where I placed the design...I want to try it again along the sides or maybe the front area.

Lil Man had a Dr Seuss Party and the whole family had Dr Seuss Themed shirts

I saw a great Star Wars shirt at H&M and I realised I could totally do that!

Glass Jar Menorah

So, I have a LOT of baby food jars...I mean A LOT! 

I have kept most of them for use "later"   We all have "later" projects...my craft closet is full of things that I will use "later" So when Hanukkah rolled around I found a way to use some of them "now."  My boys are little...fires are not good around them because they still want to touch.  Enter baby food jars and flameless candles....

Supplies:
Baby Food jars (8 small, 1 larger)
Glass etching creme
Blue painters tape
Cricut or some means to cut out numbers
Ribbon (optional)

I found a font that I liked and using Sure Cuts a lot and my Cricut I cut out the numbers on the blue painters tape. I placed the outline of the numers on the baby food jar and applied the etching creme. Following the instructions I left the creme on the jar.  For the large baby food jar I cut out a Star of David.

Jars, prior to creme application

When the time was up I collected the excess creme and put it back in the jar (waste not want not) and removed the tape.

Voila! I had 8 jars that would count the 8 nights of Hanukkah and one Shamash. For some added color I hot glued blue, silver and white ribbon around the top.

Now, we can light one flameless candle each night and my boys can help but not get hurt. a win win in my book.

Also when they get bigger the jars can help with their counting - put items in the jar to match the number and the boys can practice counting!