Personalized "China" - Dollar Store Craft!

I saw a photo tagged on Pinterest that gave a very short, easy description on how to personalize a mug:

http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/06/his-her-sharpie-mug-diy.html

Of course, I HAD to try it! So very addicted to the Dollar store now *sigh*. It keeps my crafting costs down though! So here are the supplies you will need to do this at home:

1.) Sharpie Marker
2.) Plain white dollar store ceramic mug or plate
3.) Small bowl of water
4.) Cotton pad
5.) Oven

The first thing you want to be sure of is that the plate is free from fingerprints, dirt, and/or smudges. Next, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and pick your design. I am in the midst of slowly redecorating my kitchen/dining room into an Alice in Wonderland theme, so I chose an image and phrase from the book.

Next, begin to draw out your design. If you mess up, dip the cotton pad in a bit of water and wipe the marker off; if you do it somewhat quickly, it "erases" quite easily. If you are a bit further along and decide it isn't right, you may have to scrub a little more, but the cotton pads are great at taking the marker off.

Once your design is in place and you are satisfied with how it turned out, bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I went out and mowed the lawn and accidentally left it in the oven longer than 30 minutes, but it still turned out beautifully:

I haven't tried using other colors of Sharpie yet, but I am thinking I need a mug to match so I am going to try them. I would imagine it would work the same way, and Sharpies come in lots of different shades which means this project can be personalized in lots of ways. This would also be a great gift idea and is something most children could do with supervision.

I have a few more crafts to post including more of the stuff I found in the shed, so stay tuned!

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

This week, I have been covering in the church office for the secretary who has been on vacation, so my crafting time has been limited. However, I did get to one of the projects I had on my list: using the empty frame, I created a little wedding vignette.

This project was really easy and cheap! The frame was probably from the dollar store, but was missing the glass. I scanned a copy of a wedding photo and cut it out in photoshop, then added text from Ephesians 5:21-33 in The Message paraphrase. I really love how it talks about husbands cherishing their wives, and wives supporting their husbands. The language is so romantic! Any romantic poetry or verse can be used, song lyrics or even an old love letter would work for this part. When I was happy I printed it.

For the matting, I took an awesome silvery printed Tiffany looking sheet of card stock and ModPodged it to the mat. I used a craft knife to cut it after I glued it so it was the perfect size. The rings were tied to a ribbon and draped across the top corner of the frame. The men's ring was one that I found when the former owners moved out of the house - they had left it in a jar of nails. The "diamond" ring was one I had since I was a kid, and I love the touch of sparkle it adds (though I wish my wedding ring diamond was that size, hehe!) and both rings echo the silver in the matting.

Lastly, I added the year we were married on a little placard at the bottom of the frame. I really love how it turned out! This month my husband and I will have been married 14 years (!) and I wanted to do something special to honor that.

I have moved over 11+ times in the 14 years we've been married, so a lot of my wedding stuff has been broken, lost, or destroyed, but I do want to try and make a wedding shadow box at some point. I think this is a wonderful project to preserve this memory though, even if much of our things haven't survived to make it into that shadow box.

If you have a project like this or try this one out, post a link in the comment below and show it off. I'd love to see what you come up with!

Happy 4th!

Easy-Peasy Book Holder

So today I had an amazing find! When we bought this house last summer, the old ladies who lived here left a lot of stuff when they moved out. Most of it is in a shed in the back yard, so since I was putting in the air conditioners today (Please, summer, get here already so I can use them!) I stumbled on some fantastic stuff!

A picture frame with no glass, an old story book, a frosted glass globe from a ceiling light, some rope, clothes pins, and burlap! I have so many exciting crafts planned, but first on to today's mini make over part one.

Em home schools and has had some difficulty in claiming a space for school. She was using the dining room table, however it proved to be too much of a distraction - Jay loves to ride in his plastic car around the island in the kitchen, and you have to pass through both rooms to go from the living room to the bedrooms or the bathroom. Also, it appeared the allure of the TV was a bit much for her at times as well.

Our den has a built in desk and it is usually piled up with crafts, toys, books, and junk the girls don't want to put away. I have been going through each room of the house systematically attempting to recycle, donate, upcycle, corral, or trash the constant flow of junk that seems to continually threaten our home. The den was pretty much last on my list, being that it is out of the way of the rooms we use every day (and the ones company sees, hehe). Frankly it seemed a bit too over whelming and I had other places to clean first, but giving Em a place she can work is now a priority.

First of all, I cleaned all the junk out of the room. It took three garbage bags! One bag for DI, one bag for recycling, and the last bag was split between garbage and craft items we didn't need anymore that I donated to the church.

Second, I looked at the walls and tried to figure out something fun to do there. We had STACKS of board games that Jay had gleefully pulled apart and lost pieces to, so I grabbed my trusty hot glue gun and assembled as much as I could of the game boards, then hung them on the wall.

I wasn't thinking about showing the step by step when I did these so there are no "in progress" pictures, but basically it was just an act of a girl and her glue gun. Very easy-peasy.

Now, Em needed a place to keep her school work where it was organized and safe. I saw this idea on Pinterest somewhere, but evidently didn't pin it but I did remember it. It's really easy though!


First, you need a cereal box, then you need ModPodge, a craft knife, scissors, ruler, black marker or pen, and cool paper/pictures. I measured up 3 inches on the corner of the box, then made a mark. Then I took the ruler and lined it from that mark, across the cereal box, up to the top corner.

I repeated this step on the other side, then connected the two lower lines with one straight line across the thinner end of the box. Then I took my handy craft knife and followed the lines, slicing the box apart.

I cut off the last box tab left then went back with scissors and evened out all the edges so they were smooth. Next I cut some of Em's favorite pics out of this old book I found in the shed:

...then added ModPodge to the backs and pasted them onto the box. I also used some cute scrap book paper Em picked out, then put a label at the top so she could write her name on it. The finished project:

Now Em has the perfect place to keep her school books, and a place to work in peace without Jay and Bea bothering her. I am going to keep working on the den, and promise I will add pics of the room as it continues in its transformation.

Have a great weekend!

No Sew Super Hero Cape!

So I heard on the radio today that there are 300 registered superheros in the United States. What?!? Really??? I wonder what the qualifications are for that, and how did they form a registry anyways?

But it got me thinking about my own little superhero, and how to make him a cape. So I came up with this really easy, no sew cape that you can use for dress-ups or costumes, birthday parties - whatever!

Step one: Get a shirt in the color you want your cape to be. Lay it out on a table/flat surface face up. If the shirt doesn't already have fold lines, you may want to iron it so it does. It makes cutting easier later.

Step two: With chalk or wash out marker, trace out the following pattern on the front of the shirt:

Up the sides across the corners, and around the collar.

Step three: Turn the shirt over so the back is facing up, and mark it like so -

run the line from the top of where it ended on the front up to the side of the collar on both sides.

Now you have your cut lines!

Step four: Cut the sleeves and the front of the shirt off, following your cut lines, keeping the back and the collar intact.

You should end up with a triangle shape topped by the collar of the shirt.

Lastly, clean up your cut lines to ensure that there aren't any funky cut marks and everything is in line. I also took some fabric paint and added a letter "J" to the back, using tape to help make it straight:

So Bea was watching me do this part, and she said "Oh are you adding an ego?" 

"A what?" I asked.

"An ego, you know," she said.

"You mean a logo?" I questioned.

"Yeah, ego, logo, evo, pickle - what ever," Bea replied.

Man I love that girl, she's always good for a laugh.

It took about 2 hours for the fabric paint to dry. I pulled off the tape and walla! One happy superhero :) 

Jay loves this thing, and one of the best parts is that he can put it on and take it off himself. No need to worry about tying, or it coming undone while he's flying around fighting crime. And if it gets dirty, we can throw it in the wash easily. If you don't want to add a painted logo you can skip it, use an iron on transfer, custom make an iron on transfer with a special kit from the craft store, or just leave it off entirely. 
*Update, found this site sugartotdesigns.blogspot.com that has easy superhero logo tutorials - brilliant! Use these if you like to add an insignia to your cape using felt.

Bea has already claimed the scraps to make into a shrug, so I will be posting that tutorial later.

Happy crafting!

Super Easy T-shirt Vest

I found this amazing blog through Pinterest (so addicted to that site) called Wobisobi and the blogger there, Ann, has this incredible fashion sense that she has used to create tons of tutorials for making and upcycling your own clothes. From one of her tutorials I made this:

This vest took about 10 minutes to make, start to finish. Ann's tutorial is here. If you are super fast you can make this in 5, but I went back and redid some of the cutting to make it fit better. One of the great things about Wobisobi is that Ann really takes the time to explain it step by step, so even the most craftily challenged among us can tackle this project easily.

The shirt was bought at Walmart for less than $4. My husband seriously thought I was out of my mind for cutting up a brand new shirt, but he was impressed with how it turned out and admitted it was a good idea. Did I mention this project has NO SEWING involved???

You can personalize this a little more by dip dying the ends, or adding buttons or fringe or some cute fabric stamping, or even lace trim. The possibilities are endless! One small alteration I made to the tutorial was to cut the hole a little more to one side than the other; I wanted a slightly wider back and smaller collar. You could, if you wanted to do a bit of sewing, add a back panel of some stretchy lace (if you don't want to sew, use fusible webbing and an iron to attach).

Do yourself a favor and stop by Wobisobi, you will be so glad you did!

Weekend Recap

So this weekend I spent an amazing amount of time perusing blogs and finding some great ideas from really talented women. I have to say I enjoyed a ModPodge day on Saturday and created a custom book cover for my Kindle.

I saw these covers selling on Etsy and had to make my own. I am going to come up with a tutorial when I do my next one; this is just the prototype I figured out on my own and while pretty and functional, it needs some extra do-dahs to class it up.

The necklace is the one I made Friday, and it was super easy to create. The discs with the hanger already attached were $3.99 for 6, and the chains were $3.99 for 4. The paper and embellishments I bought on sale, but alas I had forgotten my coupon so I had to pay full price for the ModPodge (boo! But it's ok because this stuff is amazing!) So for a grand total of $2.00 you too can make this amazing necklace! For a step by step tutorial, visit simplymodernmom - she has an easy one with pictures.

These little necklaces are selling like hotcakes on Etsy and other sites, and are really easy to personalize. You can add other little metal charms, change the chain or even hang it on ribbon, and include a special message to make it uniquely you or perfect for someone else.

One of the other things I have been obsessing over lately is birds and bird cages. *The Graphics Fairy LLC has an extensive collection of pictures and clip art, everything from silhouettes to Victorian inspired illustrations. I found some amazing paper from K&Company by Brenda Walton:

(You might recognize the cover page as the one I used to create the Welcome Sign) 

I am already planning another necklace using paper from this pack and printing an image on it of a swallow from the Graphics Fairy site. 

Keep your eyes peeled for the rest of the week as I will be posting more pictures and the tutorial for the eReader cover!

ModPodge Luv

The only time I have ever used ModPodge was one time in college to decopage a picture frame. But lately I have been seeing all these amazing crafts people were doing with the stuff, and inspired I felt the need to go to the craft store and pick some up.

Of course I needed a project to work on, and I found this sign for 60% off (!) so decided it would be my first victim subject. I also picked up some more scrapbook paper and accents (also on sale for 40% off!) to help add more embellishments and fancy it up. Plus, some of the paper had glitter on it and I can never say no to glitter.

I am really digging the vintage, cottage, shabby chic look and birds, so I chose a piece of paper that had that feel to it. First I positioned the sign on the paper, then I traced around it to give me a cut line. After I cut it out, I played with it a bit to get it just right on the sign, then using a brush laid down a coat of ModPodge.

I wanted to be sure the birds were on the sign, but they were at the edge of the page, so I had to get a little creative with the placement. It worked out ok still because I was able to take some of the scrap left over from the rest of the page and fill in the gaps. A few more embellishments over the seam and some more ModPodge and you wouldn't be able to tell at all (unless you read my blog since I totally just spilled it there).

Then I took a black marker and scribbled over the raised lines of the word "Welcome" to draw more attention to them. The finished sign:

It totally came out cute and so one of a kind! And since I had the ModPodge out anyway, I made the necklace at the same time. The cost of making the sign was about $7. Total crafting nirvana found - bliss!

You can do the same with a regular piece of wood or tin - maybe even redo/upscale one of those dollar store ones. 

DIY Organizing - Chore and list chart

It's kind of funny the different turns life often takes us on. Finding myself suddenly jobless has allowed me more free time I wasn't planning on, and completely turned my life upside down.

But in a good way.

For example, I have been able to start and keep organized when it comes to housework. When I was employed, I would inevitably come home exhausted and frustrated, so I would never do any chores around the house on days I worked. This meant on Saturday I was forced to do them all at once, which was no fun and my only "day off" was then spent working frantically to get it all done. Which of course, I didn't.

With a now virtually empty row of days stretching out before me, I found myself glued to the computer and continuing to put stuff aside (especially because I am so hopelessly addicted to Pinterest). However, I found some amazing bloggers who had great ideas for projects, crafts and home organization, and stumbled across this gem:

(courtesy http://www.5ohwifey.com/2011/10/diy-weekly-family-planner.html)

I thought, wow, I can do that!!! So I did a little more research and found this:

(courtesty http://time-warp-wife.blogspot.com/2011/12/free-printable-daily-housekeeping.html)

My idea was coming together: combine the frame idea with a chore chart. Now to implement! This meant a trip to the dollar store, one of my favorite guilty pleasures. The dollar store is so great because they have so much stuff you can get on the cheap and upscale with a little crafting ingenuity and some work. I used dollar store frames, a clip board, some dry erase pens, and some pretty scrapbook papers to create this:

I bought one 8 x 11 frame, four 8 x 7 frames, and a clip board. It was really easy to put together with my handy, dandy glue gun. The center frame I wrote in my nicest printing "Daily," "Weekly" and "Monthly" chores. Because I am a little lazy I used the edge of the glass from a frame to draw lines making boxes under each column (but you can use a ruler if you are really particular), then I wrote out the different chores for each category. I made sure to leave some blank lines for anything I forgot, so I can always add more later. I made a frame for our house rules, and put in a cute little poem I found on Pinterest (of course!) that I really liked. In another frame, I listed the chores I wanted the kids to do daily and added check boxes for them as well. The next frame is open for notes, and the last frame is for events and dates to remember. The clipboard was from the dollar store too, and holds invitations, important papers to be signed and sent to school, tickets to events and anything else that needs remembering. 

I laid the frames on and moved them around until I was happy with their placement, then hot glued everything together. Lastly I hot glued the dry erase pen caps to the board because frankly, not having one means not being able to mark stuff off, and that defeats the whole purpose!

So far, I have been using this for a week and it has been awesome! Stuff gets done every day, the kids are really getting a kick out of marking off their chores, and I know exactly what needs to be done and when, as well as what I have left to do. Unfortunately, two panes of glass broke because dollar store frames do have very thin panes of glass, so if you make your own be sure to do it up on a table and be especially careful with them! I think I am going to go back and use ModPodge to dress up the clipboard now, as I am thinking it looks a little left out...

Happy decorating!