Lego Minifigure Wall Storage

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Jennifer

I am sure those of you with girls are saying “Yeah, another Lego post!”

But even if you don’t share that same enthusiasm, this project may still be useful to you.

Instead of Lego mini figures insert – barbie accessories, strawberry shortcake paraphernalia, or porcelain figures

Just trust me and keep reading

Started off with wooden boxes which previously held a stamp set and a puzzle

Painted them white – two or three coats

Anchored them into the wall

Placed a small collection of Lego mini figures into the boxes

The boxes were placed next to the red display boxes we made a few months ago.

We added shelves I bought almost two years ago when a Container Store was going out of business (75% off baby!)

I need to add something above the boxes to finish out the space but for now it’s done.

The desk has papers covering it, the floor is covered in paper, and there are Mardi Gras beads in the shot. Just keeping it real. Many bloggers would have cleaned up their space before taking the pictures.

I did not….. Why?……. #1. I hate cleaning #2. It’s their room #3. I wanted the boys in bed so I could run downstairs and enjoy a bowl full of ice cream and magic shell.

Worked on any house projects lately?

You Are My…

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Jennifer

Look what I just bought for my breakfast nook wall!

Go to The Williston Letter Company to find this print

I also love these…

I LOVE ETSY!

Killer Cake & Entry Way

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Jennifer

Finally, the last installment of Andrew’s Lego party.

Go here for part 1 (lego bingo) and here for part 2 (lego party boards).

Andrew decided he wanted a “Killer the Croc” cake. Actually Killer the Croc was a third choice since I vetoed the first two choices in the name of difficulty. I need to watch a few more episodes of “Cake Boss” in order to tackle those particular mini figures.

So, who is Killer the Croc you ask? Apparently, he’s a bad guy from the Batman Legos.

Step 1: I made 2 sheet cakes and placed them next to each other. I then iced over both cakes and outlined the shape of Killer the Croc with a toothpick. With the outline already drawn, it was easy to know where to cut the cake.

Andrew wanted a strawberry and vanilla cake. Ask and you shall receive!

Step 2: Spread the colored icing for his body and his pants.

Step 3: Add white icing for his mouth

Step 4: Add red icing for the eyes

Step 5: Use a thin icing point and outline the eyes, teeth, and muscles? scales? in black

When Andrew saw the cake before the party he said,”This is my best party ever.” Now that’s a pretty good review even before the party started.

I put together a simple Lego display guests saw when they first entered our house. The boys created the “6” and chose the minifigures to display. I copied a picture of Killer the Croc, and gave him a word bubble which said, “Andrew, we love you to pieces.”

I’m pretty sure we will have another Lego party in our future so I hope to use some of these ideas again.

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?

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