Pin 'M'e up!

On display in Peaches' room

A long time ago, and I a mean, loooooong time ago, I bought a piece of "art" from a local craft store that was on clearance.  I didn't care at all for the picture in it, but loved the frame and at $5, I couldn't turn it down.  

Fast forward several months (or perhaps a year), and I decided it was time to put that baby to use after I found this cork board 'M' on clearance at Fred Meyer's.  We already know that I can't say no to any 'M.'  God forbid Peaches forgets what her name begins with!

Cork board 'M' that Peaches already used to display her art

  The frame had hideous little "sequins" all over it, so I started by removing them.

Frame with the sequins removed

I then realized that I had thrown away the "art" and no longer had a backing to use.  Off to the craft store to buy some corrugated cardboard to cut to size.  

No reason for choosing pink - it was just all they had!

I took a couple of quick measurements by flipping over the frame to see what size the cardboard needed to be to fit it.  Once I cut it, I covered the cardboard with the fabric I had chosen.  I used Elmer's Craft Bond Spray Adhesive, but in hindsight, I would've used something a lot stronger like 3M Super 77 - that stuff really works!

Fabric for covering the cardboard

I used this spray adhesive, but recommend something stronger

The toughest part of covering the cardboard is making sure everything is smooth.  Just keep at it!

After the cardboard was covered, it was time to attach it to the frame.  I simply used a staple gun and I love the one that I have - it makes it so easy!  I just made sure to have one side of the staple go into the cardboard, and the other one in the frame.

You can see one of the staples - one point in the cardboard and one point in the frame

Next came time to add the 'M' to it.  The letter actually came with a couple of Velcro dots, but it wasn't strong enough to stick to the back, so I used good old Alene's Original Tacky Glue which always helps in any crafting situation!

The Velcro dots the letter came with

Alene's Original Tacky Glue to the rescue!

And that was it!  I used a nail to hang it up in Peaches' room and she loved it!

The finished project in my craft room

Peaches loves it!

It's Party Time!

Somewhere along the way, I realized that I love almost all things crafty (though don’t ask me to paint a picture, or draw, I’m terrible at that).  This revelation was a shock to most people who knew me, especially my mother who, while extremely (reluctantly) talented in her own right, never enjoyed much crafting herself.  I still remember when I asked her to make invitations for my 8^th birthday party and she drew what I thought was the most beautiful horse ever.  She claims to this day that the horse was hideous, but I remember it as being amazing. 

Where am I going with this?  Well, with work being what it is lately, I haven’t gotten to do much of my own crafting. However, there is one person who will always be more important than work… Milla.  The main reason for this is that she is ever so appreciative of what I do. After just a few of her decorations went up, she exclaimed, “I love it mommy!  I love everything you make for me!”  This promptly led me to furiously take on more projects for more affirmations.

This was the first year that I was going to do away with the St. Patrick’s Day theme because I figured she was old enough to tell us what kind of party she wanted.  However, after hearing that she wanted a Princess, Barbie, Ballerina party I decided that I would still incorporate some of the massive amounts of St. Patrick’s Day decorations that I have accumulated on account of having a St. Patty’s Day baby!

Here’s what I did… and I’ll start with the easiest!

Polka-dot cups

I thought of this one on my own and I’m kind of proud of it.  All I did was use my Silhouette Cameo to create hundreds of different-sized circles on a sheet of sticker label paper (like this) and randomly stuck them on the cups.  But you could also use a circle punch or vinyl!  It classed up the cheap-o-cups and made them super cute!

Floating Ballerinas

Next was tackling the ballerinas; not literally of course.  I found a free outline of a ballerina and then also a snowflake outline with a large center and used my Silhouette Cameo to cut several out.  To assemble them, all I had to do was place the snowflake over her body and it rested on her tutu!  Then I took fishing line and hung them from the ceiling.

Tissue Paper Tassels

I have seen these everywhere on Pinterest and always wanted to make them so I used this tutorial, but made it my own by using the Martha Stewart Fringe Scissors (cuts down greatly on hand cramping since you can create more fringe each time you cut). 

Coffee Filter Flowers

Now we’re moving on to the more time-intensive projects.  I had seen these everywhere and wound up referencing a tutorial but you know me, I had to find some shortcuts for it.  So first, I took a ton of coffee filters (I purchased a pack of 400 or so from Costco); and then I dyed them in my kitchen sink with several drops of red food coloring. Obviously, the more drops, the deeper the color.  Then, I put them out to dry (just like the tutorial told me to do) and waited days until I realized that if I separated them, they’d dry more quickly.  Shortly thereafter, my house was littered with pink, damp circles. 

The next steps were to fold them in quarters and staple at the bottom.  Then I shaped what would become the “petals” and varied how I did them.  I used my Martha Stewart Fringe Scissors on some and they looked like Chrysanthemums; then I used regular scissors and made waves which resembled Peonies and then I made zigzag cuts which looked like Dahlias. 

The next step was to open them up and “fluff” them.  Basically, carefully, pull apart the tissue petals.  Here comes my shortcut… the tutorial advised using floral wire to keep it all together, but I just used another staple.  Faster and easier, just my style. 

To hang then, the stapes definitely came in handy.  I wanted to hang them vertically from the ceiling, so I took a needle and threaded it with the fishing line and ran it under the front of the staple so that I could still move the flowers if need be, but they would also stay where I wanted them.

One of the Chrysanthemums

Tulle Pompoms 

The process itself is pretty easy; but the sheer number that I made was not.  First, I advise you to buy tulle on the roll.  This will save you from having to wrestle the tulle and cut it into strips.  If you are cheap thrifty like me, you will buy tulle by the yard at the fabric store and cut strips while cursing your frugalness. 

I then took a piece of cardboard about the size of a playing card and wrapped the tulle around until I got to the end of the strip.  It doesn’t have to be berfect, at all, it just all needs to be relatively taught.  Then I very, very, very carefully slid the card out (I wasn’t successful everytime and had to rewrap the tulle many times) and then I took fishing line (I should buy stock in it after this post) and tigtly tied a knot right in the middle.  Then I took my scissors and cut each side out and “fluffed” them.  Here’s a little tutorial I referenced.

To string them together, I did the fishing line trick that I mentioned above and just sewed right through the middle of the pompom and then hung them from the ceiling!

So that’s that.  Did I also mention that I made that banner and the mini-pendant lamp?  Yeah.  I may have gotten a little out of control.

Thanks. Thanks a lot.

I'm a Pinterest junkie... I have over 1,200 pins and I strive to tackle at least one pin a week. I don't always get around to blogging about them, but when I do, it's because I think it's easy enough and cute enough that anyone can do it.

So for this week, I made a burlap pennant flag with the word 'Thanks' on it.   You may ask "Why the sarcasm in the title of this post?"  Well... have you seen the brick background?  I'm so thankful for many things - my husband, Peaches, my job, etc. but I HATE the brick in our kitchen.  It's so dark and dreary.  Alas, I have a roof over my head so who am I to complain?

Here's what I did...

First, I cut burlap pennants and I used the same template that I use for my pennant flags that you can purchase on my Etsy site (yes, that's a shameless plug).  I found that the rotary cutter was much easier than using scissors since burlap can be difficult to cut.  Here's the template I used

I then used my Silhouette Portrait and some dollar store vinyl to create the stencil.  You don't need the Silhouette machine, you can always use scissors to do the same thing and create a stencil out of anything - including paper.  If you like the look of my letters, here's a template for you!

I placed the letter on the flag (no rhyme or reason where, I just eyed it), put some cardboard under it (the paint will bleed through) and I used black craft paint and a pouncer and made sure to fill in each letter.

The supplies

Once the paint was dry-ish, I folded the top of each flag about 1/2 inch and ironed it so that I could hang it on the twine. I also cut off the edges that overlapped when I folded them over so that they looked nice and neat.  Not sure what I mean by that?  Check it out in the picture below - see that piece of burlap sticking out in the upper left-hand corner?  No bueno.

Lastly, I used a glue gun and ran a small amount of glue under the 1/2 inch folded flap so that it would hang on the twine.  Don't have any twine?  No problem - use string, use ribbon, even dental floss! You can also use any kind of  glue, I just like to burn the crap out of my fingers at least once during a craft session; it's great evidence that crafting is a dangerous sport.