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!

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!