Chica Schmica

Last week, The Toby Show posted about a  domino game she recently purchased for her son and mentioned how easy it would be for someone to recreate it. I’ve been wanting to put something together with textures ever since I saw this, and I happened to already have some pre-cut wooden boards cluttering up my crafting area. So, I set forth to see what other textures I could gather.

It probably took me less than an hour to find the supplies and glue the pieces onto the wood.

For the textures, I used:
red craft foam
green felt
corrugated cardboard
corkboard
rubbery shelf-liner
chenille stems

I just cut the pieces into 2 inch squares and hot-glued them onto the wood….soooo simple!

I only had six boards, but it ended up being just right for my toddler. Enough to be fun without being overwhelming. She can play by herself or with a friend (aka Mommy) and she can finish the game quickly with a feeling of accomplishment. As she gets better and is no longer challenged, I’ll pick up some more wood and add more textures to the mix.

Sandpaper would be nice. Maybe something spongey. Really, there are so many possibilities. Any other ideas?

For as long as I can remember, the only thing that was ever exciting to me about Valentine’s Day was the chocolate. Not much has changed, really, which is why you probably won’t see much more about the upcoming holiday here. But, I do have my two little ones now and I try not to let my biases get in the way of their fun…too much.

In the spirit of being festive, I figured we’d make some V-Day inspired decor…3-D hearts!

I’m posting a tutorial for this easy project, not to insult your intelligence, but because I like taking pictures and I know some people really prefer to look at images rather than read.

What you’ll need:

painted cardboard (the girls painted the backs of oatmeal boxes).
ribbon
stapler
hot glue gun
scissors

First cut out small, medium, and large hearts. I used the same template that I used for our heart scarf then eye-balled the other two hearts from there.

Fold the smaller two sizes in half and layer all of them on top of the big heart. Then staple right in the middle. I covered the staple with a little dab of paint. Use the hot glue gun to attach the ribbon…and you’re done. That’s it.

When I originally added the ribbon, I intended on using it to hang the hearts. But that’s silly. These will only be up for a few weeks and I’m not about to puncture my wall for some fleeting decor. So, I used wall putty to stick them to the wall. That being said, you can forgo the ribbon if you’d like, thus alleviating the need for a glue gun!

We also went to the library a few days ago and brought back some Valentine-y books.

One particularly worth mentioning is the one on the  bottom: Secret Valentine. Just a simple story about a little girl who, with her mother, decides to skip the greeting card store and make all of her own valentines.

So sweet it just warms my heart right up.

She even makes one for her kitty.

Surely there are other decent Valentine’s books out there. Any suggestions?

I began my journey with the only person for whom God intended me.

We’ve been nuzzling ever since.

And our schnozzes are still vying for space.

May we continue to have such problems well into eternity.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetie!

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As an aside, we will be flying into New York tomorrow to celebrate our anniversary and I am so. friggin. excited!  Any tips on restaurants or places to visit?

I know that potato stamping is traditionally a child’s craft, but I’ve also seen some pretty impressive potato stamps out there. With that in mind, I thought that creating a potato stamp for some homemade Christmas cards could be a cheap resourceful and creatively satisfying project.

In case you can’t see it, this is supposed to a star shining over Baby Jesus. After carving it, I envisioned a stack of carefully stamped and thoughtfully composed Christmas cards that would be sent out to our family and closest friends. Upon stamping, however, it became obvious that I had no idea what I was doing. It came out looking terribly gloppy and, well let’s just say Baby Jesus wasn’t exactly looking his best.

What did I do wrong? First, I think I didn’t dry the potato enough before stamping. Second, I didn’t take any precautions to keep the paint on the just the image. I recently saw this video of Martha Stewart making skull potato stamps. In the video, she used a paint applicator which I think would have really helped to keep the print a little cleaner looking. I think my final mistake was not having really clean lines between Jesus and his cradle, so it really just looked like a big blob.

Take 2

My second attempt went much more smoothly. I used a real ink pad instead of paint and carved deep into the potato…probably a good 1/4 inch. I think that made all the difference in the world.

You can see how much cleaner the lines are on my second attempt:

especially when you look at the image.

Potato stamping, and stamping in general, has so many possibilities. I could definitely see myself getting into this more if I had the time to experiment with it in more depth.

If you ever find yourself with a potato in hand and a few moments to spare, go ahead and take a knife to it. It’s more fun than you might think. And, if you’ve read this post (as opposed to just looking at the pictures and moving on) then you should be all set to do it right the first time!

Here’s the tutorial for the repurposed dress I posted yesterday. It’s reeeaaallly easy, so if you’ve got a dress collecting dust in your closet that you’d like give new life to, go ahead and turn it into a wreath. Your door will thank you!

Here’s what you need:
     *dress
     * foam wreath form
     * batting cut into 4 to 6 inch strips
     * scissors
     * glue gun

Starting from the bottom, cut in a spiral all around your dress so that you end up with one long piece:

Roll it up and set aside:

Grab your batting and use the glue gun to attach one end to your foam wreath. Then start winding around:

Keep winding until you’ve gone all the way around, gluing ends down as you go:

Now take the end of your dress and glue it onto the batting:

Wind all the way around until you get to the end of your dress:

Uh-oh! Did you run out of dress? It’s ok…just unwind a bit and rewind a little looser this time:

Once you’ve got your dress going all the way around, trim the tail so that it ends on the inside of the ring. Glue that baby down and  you’re pretty much done!

I used the straps on the dress to hang it, but I’ll admit it’s still lacking a little something. Use this guide as a starting point and embellish with buttons, ribbons, bows, bells, sparklies…anything pretty!

Now have fun and enjoy your new wreath!

And, as always, please feel free to comment or email me with any questions!

Hello Door. 
  

What’s the matter? Why so sad?

Is it because your owners have lived at your house for over a year now and still have not taken off those ugly security stickers?

No?

OH! I know! It’s because you see all of the other doors have lovely wreaths hanging from them and you feel left out.

I’m sorry, door. I don’t have a wreath to hang on you.

Meanwhile….

Hi Little Red Dress.
 

I know. You’ve been hanging around here for a few weeks now and you’re getting bored.

Frankly, I’m just not sure what to do with you.  The thing is, you’re really not a good fit for me. Furthermore, I picked you up at a garage sale, so I’m afraid I can’t take you back where you came from.

You’ll just have to hang out a little longer until I can find something for you to do.

What to do…what to do…

Hmmm….

Wait!

I know!

Little Red Dress, meet Door.
Door, meet Little Red Dress.

There. Now everybody’s happy! You two look very cozy together!

Happy endings make me smile!

Tutorial coming tomorrow:

The girls and I took to the yard yesterday to work on some glass jars I’d been collecting. I’m sure I saw this idea on the Craft blog but now I can’t find the link anywhere. Anyways, the person used glow-in-the-dark star stickers and frosted glass spray paint to make some decorative lanterns out of glass jars. I borrowed heavily from this idea.

I used letter stickers on big spaghetti sauce jars (and one jelly jar) and let my little munchkins play around with the star stickers and little artichoke hearts jars. It was a gorgeous day and the girls enjoyed alternating between playing in the yard and sticking stickers on their jars.

Actually Charlotte had her own ideas about where the stars should go.

Later in the day I sprayed over them with the spray paint. Just a note for those interested in doing this project…get more paint than you think you’ll need. The jars look better with a few coats of spray paint. I only got one can and after seeing them with the candles lit inside, there is definitely a difference between the first jars I sprayed and the ones that got sprayed towards the end when I started running out of paint.

Also, you have to be very careful when lifting the stickers not to lift the paint off, too. I would suggest doing a practice jar to kind of get the hang of it.

Some of my stickers left a little residue behind, so I used a q-tip and some Goof Off to carefully remove it.

They look beautiful along our entryway leading up to our door. Plus, I got a nifty new banner out of it!

On Saturday I was blessed with the opportunity to facilitate one of the craft tables at our church’s Advent fair. There were several crafts being demonstrated and I’m so excited about sharing some of them with you over the next couple weeks! 

I decided to post this one first because the Advent Season is fast approaching and some of you may want to create this wreath as a way to count down the weeks ’til Christmas with your kiddos.

In this picture, you’ll see the kids wreath in front of a beautiful olive leaf wreath.

To make the kids wreath, you’ll need the following:

*4 toilet paper rolls
*a paper plate
* yellow tissue paper or a yellow plastic bag
* blue painter’s tape
* glue stick or other adhesive
* and cut-outs of green holly and red berries (I made a cardboard template of a holly shape similar to this one then traced it all over a sheet of green construction paper)

First glue all of the holly and berries onto the back side of the paper plate:

Then wrap the painter’s tape around the toilet paper rolls:

Stick some tape to the inside of the toilet paper roll:

Fold inward and press tape down onto the plate to adhere the rolls:

Use your yellow tissue to make "flames" coming out of the "candles."

Now, push all of the paper down into the tubes and, starting on the first Sunday after Thanksgiving, have your little one "light the candle" by pulling them back out again.

The Advent Wreath is just one of many ways we can teach our young ones about the meaning behind this season’s excitement. The wreath itself is a symbol of God’s eternal love while the candle’s represent the "light of the world" (aka Jesus). There is one candle for each week of the Advent Season, and blue is the color of hope. So much symbolism in one little craft!

I made these hats for The Upcyclist Party Contest sponsored by Craft and Singer, but they were so easy and fun I thought I’d share how I made them!

What you’ll need:
party hat template
plastic bags of different colors
iron
scissors
parchment paper
magazine/catalog cut into strips
glue gun
super glue
pins
twine

Prepare bag by cutting handles and bottom, then fold over until you have at least 4 layers (consult this video or this month’s Craft for detailed instructions). Lay on top of parchment paper. Do not fuse yet!

Cut contrasting colored bag into strips:

Then cut across strips using different angles to make confetti:

Gather confetti and sprinkle evenly all over the bag:

Carefully place another sheet of parchment paper on top:

With the iron set at a low to medium temp (depending on how thick your plastic is) iron evenly all over the plastic bag until it is fused together to form one piece. Allow the bag to cool before lifting the parchment paper so that it keeps its shape.

Once your bag is completely fused, turn it over and trace your template onto the back:

I added about an inch and a half to the template to make it a little bigger. You can adjust the size as needed:

Cut along your outline:

Now take your magazine strips:

and use your glue gun to glue around the strips about 4-5 inches into one side:

Use a helper or clothespins to help you keep the strips gathered tightly while gluing:

Cut the unused end and superglue into place on hat. Allow a few minutes for the strips to dry:

Dab more superglue along edge of hat where the ends will overlap and pin into place:

Push pins all the way through to hold the ends together tightly:

Allow to dry…and you’re done!

Now go out and have some fun!

If you’re also interested in the bunting you see in the background, simply fuse more bags, cut them into triangles and sew to ribbon or hang from twine!

Let me know if you try this, and please feel free to comment or email with questions if you have any!

For more great upcycled party decoration ideas check out the Upcyclist Party Flickr pool!

As I was smack dab in the middle of learning the ins and outs of plastic fusing, Craft decided to have an upcycling contest! As a result, my attention has been diverted to coming up with upcycled party decorations….using fused plastic, of course! Here’s a glimpse.

Can you guess what it is? Be back soon with more!