Father’s Day Gift – Part 2

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Jennifer

In addition to the printables the boys filled out for Derek, we put together a few snacks for him to take to work.

I bought 3 of these containers from Target

Filled them with snacks: honey roasted peanuts, “kisses for Dad,” & sweet candies

Wrapped a ribbon around the sides – secured with tape

Alex created some labels for each jar: Super Dad, #1 Dad, We love you

I desperately wanted to edit the labels Alex created by enlarging the word size, changing the font but I held back. How it looks is really not the point. In the end, Alex was so proud of his labels and so was I.

I chose these containers because they are stackable and would take up less space on Derek’s desk at work

At Target we also found some firework paraphenalia – pops & confetti bombs

So we made personalized sign covers for them. Cheesey I know.

Pop sounds like Derek is 75 years old but we just went with it

Here’s the final Father’s Day gift: the 3 containers, the father’s day printables, the dynamite gifts, and messages written on hand tracings. (Some people are having trouble printing out the printable. Please email and I will send you a copy if that happens.)

Andrew’s says, “You’re my best dad.”

For the record, Derek is Andrew’s only dad. 🙂

Lego Mini Figure Party Boards

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Jennifer

For Andrew’s Lego party we created large wooden character boards.

During the party we took pictures of each guest behind the boards. When Andrew sent a thank you card in the mail, each guest also received a photo of himself as a Lego mini figure.

Below you can see Andrew is “Jay” from the Lego Ninjago sets.

On the back side of the boards are different characters I painted for our Halloween party. Since we already had the boards cut, it was a simple tracing and painting process to complete this set.

Below – “Penguin” from Batman Lego sets

Steps to Create Lego Party Boards:

1) cut board into desired size

2) use a tracer to copy image directly onto board

3) cut out head section

4) paint

5) cut large blocks for legs so the structure will stand up.

“Batman and Robin” mini figures

Below: The large board slides into the ground blocks in order for the structure to stand.

In case you missed it, we also played Lego Bingo – go here for a copy.

One more Lego party post coming soon!

Kitchen Bench

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Jennifer

We have a window seat in the kitchen which the kids use to sit on when they eat. The table gets pulled up close so they can eat easily. It’s practically been a year since we moved into our house so we thought we’d give them something comfier to sit on. Here’s the before picture:

Derek started by cutting two boards into the needed size. The seat is 116 inches long so two boards were necessary.	Next we bought 4 inch foam from the craft store & spray adhesive.
The craft store used an automatic knife to cut the foam so we decided to cut our foam this way too. Great idea until we realized we didn’t have an automatic knife. Turns out stores don’t carry these unless it’s Thanksgiving. We finally found ours at Dillard’s.	Derek is cutting the foam – I would have loved a chance to try but I think he was enjoying it too much.
Next, we put the boards on top of the fabric. We used a staple gun to secure the fabric on either side. We spent plenty of time trying to get the pattern on the fabric in the center.	Once the long sides were secure, we folded and stapled the short sides.
Here’s a shot of one completed board. (I originally bought a different fabric for the project but it was about 5 inches too short – Great measuring from a math teacher!)	Close up of the pattern: Waverly Sun N Shade Parterre Indigo – I bought outdoor fabric since it’s described as durable, and in this family, we need durable. When we finished making the boards, we used scotchguard to further protect the fabric.

The final product! I love it and more importantly, I think the kids do too.

My next goal for this area is to ~~figure out~~ buy some artwork for the wall.

Have you completed any home improvement projects recently?

Spring & Summer Wreath

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Jennifer

Our front door has looked rather bare the last several months so I decided to make a wreath for it.

On a recent trip to Goodwill, I found a huge bag of raffia for fifty cents – score! I bought a styrofoam ring, brought out my glue gun, and went to work.

It took a little while to wrap the entire ring but I finally got it covered. Next, I cut off all the raffia pieces which were hanging off.

At Goodwill I also found this sisal grass in a bag. Since it was fifty cents I thought it was a great deal – wrong, I will never buy this again. It’s a PAIN-IN-THE-REAR. When you pull it apart, millions of little pieces fall off. Huge mess.

I managed to get a few chunks of it to glue around the wreath.

I bought three wooden pre-painted flowers for 69 cents each and glued them onto the wreath.

Here’s the final product – I thought about adding the word “spring” to the wreath but decided this will probably be a spring/summer wreath so best to leave it blank.

Have you completed any crafty projects recently?

Lego Man Cake

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Jennifer

Alex had a Lego party for his 9th birthday. Derek suggested making a Lego brick for the cake but I quickly dismissed that suggestion since it did not seem like a challenge. Alex provided me with this figure as inspiration for the cake. So I went for it and think it turned out all right.

Step 1: You need: 2 boxed cake mixes, frosting dye, and 5 large containers of frosting. No, I don’t even consider making my own frosting.

Step 2 – Place both cakes side by side and then carve out the general Lego man shape. Follow up with an initial layer of frosting. Place the cake in the fridge – it’s easier to put the next layer of frosting if the first layer is more solid.

Step 3 – Create the bodysuit? armor? training clothes? with orange icing. I used clear icing bags and a basic frosting tip for the rest of the icing.

Step 4 – Use gray icing for the equipment and part of helmet. I started questioning my cake decorating abilities at about this point – hmmm… 2 hours till the party, I wonder if the grocery store could make a lego brick cake in such short notice?

Step 5 – Using a wider icing tip I created the white sections of the helmet

Step 6 – The first attempt at making “Lego skin” was too pink (very bad in the eyes of a 9 year old boy) so I tried again and got a brown color. Good enough.

Step 7 – I added the black icing sections.

Step 8 – I added the red sections and called it done.

There were certain parts of the cake I wasn’t thrilled with but Alex was excited with the cake and that’s all that counts in the long run.

Display Board for Kids Room

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Jennifer

Do you have a large frame you haven’t used in years? We have several and I decided to turn two of them into something useful for the boys’ room. Since our marathon displays have been in a closet for probably five years I decided it was time to change them up.

After taking the back off of the frames, I sprayed them with red paint. The boys have red beds in their room so I decided the frames would coordinate nicely with those.

I had some chicken wire lying around and decided to use it. Yes, I know. We do not live on a farm and I just happened to have some chicken wire lying around. Last summer I was going to make a jewelry holder using a frame and the chicken wire but I never got around to it. So, yes…I had the chicken wire just sitting around.

The frames were 22 x 26 inches so we cut out a piece of wire that was 24 x 28 inches. This gave an extra inch on each side for bending and stapling.

I declined to include pictures of our bloody hands from the wire. This was for the benefit of everyone with a weak stomach.

Derek bent the wire edges roughly 90 degrees using pliers. The bent section was the extra one inch of wire initially added on.

He then stapled the wire in place.

We hung the boards on the wall using the same wire that was originally on the frame.

The boys were able to each place their special papers (drawings of their imaginary soccer teams) and ribbons on their own board using clothespins. (We didn’t make a cork board for the boys since having the push pins around would have been dangerous for Caroline.)

If I was a true “crafter” I would have decorated the clothespins with glitter or scrapbook paper but frankly that seems like too much work to me.

The final product – I love it!

Tree Mural

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Jennifer

Why is it projects always take 14 times longer than you plan?

I knew I wanted to have a tree mural in Caroline’s room so I began searching for inspiration pictures in December.

I looked on Janey Mac vinyl but didn’t find exactly what I wanted so I combined the designs below:

Classic Tree Swirl w/Birds, Crazy Swirl Branch w/Owls, Swirl Tree w/Birds, Owls, Flowers

I took pictures all along the way: blank wall, the tracer, the tree, etc but they got lost in the world of technology so all I have are pictures of the finished product.

I printed out the vinyl pictures, enlarged them, and traced them onto the wall using a tracer.

I started with the tree first. I used the basic shape of the inspiration tree but then added several more branches.

The birds and the owls came next.

The initial green I used was too light so I darkened it up about 50%.

Everything on the wall needed about 3 coats. Ugh.

Probably would have gone faster if I had painted in increments longer than 15 minutes.

After many painting sessions I was done at the in the middle of February.

I told my husband I will seriously consider shelling out the money for vinyl next time.

Only 6 weeks to paint a tree. In terms of project completion, that’s got to be some sort of record around here.

Master Calendar/Schedule

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Jennifer

Since we have 5 people in our family we naturally have 673 things going on at any one time. While I have my personal calendar and Derek has his own, somehow we would still each miss recording events. This miscommunication often lead to frustration by both of us so I decided the solution was a master schedule.

We determined the master schedule needed to be in the kitchen so everyone could glance at it or add to it when needed. We placed it above the chalkboard and next to a magnet board we brought from our old house. The magnet board is a great place for the dry erase markers since they have magnets on the back of them.

We used a 38 x 26 frame we had sitting around. Besides the cost of the dry erase markers this was going to be a completely free project. That is…until we broke the glass. Off to the home improvement store Derek went to buy new glass and we were back in business.

I printed off some days of the week labels while Derek stuck two large pieces of paper together. After I glued the days of the week at the top of the blank pages. Derek divided it into appropriate sections. Each day is roughly 5 inches x 4 3/4 inches big.

Here’s an example of a light day: 6:00 soccer for Andrew & 6:00 lacrosse for Alex.It also reminded me of what I needed to bring to Caroline’s school for a teacher luncheon.

A busy, yet typical Saturday

My favorite part is that it’s easy to wipe on and wipe off with a cloth.

Anyone else have a Karate Kid moment there? Wipe on, wipe off, Daniel-san!

Do you have any fun organizing tips? I’d love to hear them.

I’m sharing my schedule here:

IKEA Elephant Off My Back

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Jennifer

Why is it projects always take 98% longer than you think they will?

I bought this IKEA chair back in January. It was in the clearance section since it didn’t have a bottom.

I picked it up and thought, “Great project for the weekend.”

I don’t know why I still think I will get anything accomplished the first weekend it’s on the to do list. By now I should know once I put it on the list it may be completed within the same season it was initially written down in. For instance, my list for this weekend had 12 things on it, we accomplished three of them – actually, not too bad for us.

One of the projects was – FINISH BLUE IKEA CHAIR

Supplies: oval wood disk, batting, fabric, staple gun

Fabric: Urban Circus Laurie Wisburn Elephant blue – bought here

We used two layers of batting for the “comfy bun” factor.

Stapling

Uhhh, more stapling

FINISH BLUE IKEA CHAIR

This project was frighteningly simple and it took us just 15 minutes to complete.

That is, 3 months and 15 minutes.

Moustaches for the Masses

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Jennifer

When looking around blog world I noticed many handmade Valentine’s. I especially liked the idea I found on Cupcakes Kisses n ‘Crumbs and thought my boys would too.

Steps we took to make Valentine Moustaches:

1) Alex found a mustache shape he liked on the Silhouette machine. We played with the size until he was satisfied with “the look.” The machine then cut out 50 moustaches from black card stock.

2) Next I took paint pens and wrote “Happy (Heart) Day!” Alex then wrote his name.

3) Buy a ridiculously huge bag of Dum Dum lollipops since it’s the only bag at Walmart. I’m talking 300 Dum Dums people. I’ll have these for the next two Halloweens. Well, at least till the beginning of March.

4) The tricky part was getting just the right size hold to place our lollipop in. We made the hole by using an awl.

5) We then simply slid the lollipop on.

Here’s a look at the finished project. Not the best photo. It was bedtime and I thought this was good enough at the time. Probably should have been patient for another photo.The boys were thrilled with the lollipop moustaches and can’t wait to give them to their friends.

Do you have any Valentine’s Day creations or plans?

Big D & Me

Life with a Canook, a Belle, and a Pile of Kids

Category Archives: crafts