Cook and Clean Play Kitchen

I knew I would regret not taking a before picture of this piece of furniture. My brother and sister-in-law picked it up at a thrift store for us and it has waited a long time to be re-purposed. It had two cabinet doors opening up on the bottom and it's previous life was probably as a TV stand.
I had a lot of help with the creation of this and I love how it turned out. Now I need to decide if it's staying for my kids or for sale.

Painted Frame Art - Girls' Room

I'm happy with how my daughter's room looks now that I completed their main wall with painted solid shapes and simple profiles of them.

The main reasons I did this project were:

1) I already had painted the left shape on the wall back when this was my youngest daughter's baby room and I didn't want to paint the whole wall to cover it up now that it wasn't centered over a crib.

2) Because this wall is over my daughter's bed, I didn't want anything heavy or potentially dangerous hanging on the wall.

3) I wanted something that would combine something personal for both girls and celebrate their sisterhood.

 This project wasn't very hard. The most time-consuming part was painting 3-4 layers of the pink paint for each shape. I designed the shapes using a yard stick, pencil, a level, a drinking cup to trace the scallops, a sheet of computer paper to create a template for 1/4 of my oval and a large piece of cardboard folded in half to cut out a stencil for the left shape (what is that shape called??).

Once the shapes where sketched with pencil on the wall, I painted them with pink paint using a medium size, high density foam brush.

I created the silhouettes of my daughters by taking their photo, putting the digital photo in a Word document with the margins as small as possible and the photo as large as possible, printing it, cutting out the silhouette how I wanted it and then tracing it with a box cutter into white contact paper. It was pretty fast and easy this way. I used my Silhouette craft cutter to make the "and" also out of cheap contact paper. The contact paper is staying up on the slightly textured wall very well. I am curious to see how long it stays tight to the wall and looking bright and clean. The girls have been commanded not to touch them!

Little Step

A quick project with my 18 month-old girl. 

She loves seeing everything happening outside our front window (neighbor cats, trash trucks, people walking dogs, etc) and each time she either wanted me to hold her up or she would stand on not-so-stable toys and things to give her an extra few inches. 

We had a day together without big sister (with grandma and grandpa) so we took a trip to Michaels to see what we could find. We scored an unfinished step stool that was broken (just the staples had  come loose on one side), so being the cheap shopper that I am, I asked if I could get it discounted since it was damaged. They gave it to me "as  is" for $2! I was very pleased. We came home and repaired it with some wood glue and an extra nail, sanded, spackled, caulked, primed and painted it. Then distressed it, since it will experience some natural distressing anyways being a toddler's step stool. 

My sanding helper...

This step stool was a fun, small project and it get used so many times a day. 

~ Chelsea ~

Photo Frames ~ Magnetized

 I'm not a big fan of a lot of clutter on our refrigerator.  So, I painted these wooden frames, put a little touch of bling on them, added magnets on the back and enjoy changing the messages, scriptures or pictures quite often. It is so much fun! Especially when the pictures are of our Grandcuties!  They are precious and we love them dearly.

 I love Christmas too! Because I love Jesus Christ!

Merry Christmas! ~*~Lynda~*~

Fun, Fast Manners Placemats

I am a leader of Activity Days in my church for the 8-10 year old girls in my area. They meet at my house twice a month and we learn together and do fun crafts with the major goals of increasing faith, confidence and experiences.

This past week, we made simple place mats by using freezer paper stencils and fabric paint. Idea from this book.

The place mats are from thrift stores from 25-50 cents each. I drew out the design of the stencil, basing it off the idea in the book. Then I cut along my pencil lines through 4-6 layers of freezer paper at once using a box-cutter/exact-o knife. I made 12 stencils, then ironed them to each of the place mats before the girls came.

Since the place mats I purchased all have ridges, we painted lightly and didn't get paint into all the cracks. It gives it a nice look and doesn't use up so much fabric paint.   

The girls loved the project and it was fast enough to have them completed and nearly dry within the hour activity time. We also talked about table manners and phone manners. I would call the activity a success! I hope that these place mats will serve as reminders that consideration and manners are the most important part of the place setting.

~ Chelsea ~

Painting method - Make a Stamp & Ink Pad

I received a really neat book for Christmas from my brother. It's called Print Workshop, Hand Printing Techniques, Truly Original Projects.

I've tried out a few ideas in this book and I have enjoyed them thoroughly. 

The first one I attempted was making my own stamp and stamp pad using a small block of wood, string, piece of glass (from a 4x6 picture frame), a small piece of felt, paint and table salt.

The paint is on the piece of glass. The table salt is added to the acrylic paint to thicken it. It gave the painting a shine too. Then, the felt is placed on top, creating a stamp pad.

To make my stamp, I wrapped some random leather string from a jewelry making kit around a small block of wood. In the book, twine is used and produces a much more subtle design.

Here are my patterns on card stock paper and a canvas (the white one).

I then made the canvas one into the piece of art below. I painted the record with a foam brush and used aluminum foil for the metallic details.

I've used the papers for a few different projects and cards. 

This was fun and I will be doing it again with variations in my string, patterns and mediums.

~ Chelsea ~

Funny Free Craft for Kids - Lunch Sack Babies

Shea, my 3 year-old, had one of her best friends over and I wanted to have some fun activities for their creative minds to enjoy. Every idea I thought of needed special materials that I didn't have. 

Then, I stumbled across this simple idea in this book...

And adapted to what I had in my crazy craft box.

Materials needed:

small paper lunch sack

a few pieces of newspaper/ads

short piece of string/yarn

markers, stickers, ribbon, etc for kids to "decorate" their baby

Construction paper to make arms and legs

Tape (I used clear packing tape)

Basic Idea: Stuff the newspaper lightly into the bag. Tape the top closed. Tie the string around the middle to make a neck. Attach arms and legs with tape. Decorate and give the baby features like eye,s nose and a mouth. Play and pretend with your new friend. :)

Shea and her friend worked on their babies for about 45 minutes and had a great time chatting together as they colored and stickered their babies. 

Great inside-the-house craft, not too messy and best of all - FREE! 

~ Chelsea ~

My Girl's Room - ABC's and Easy Art

A few simple additions to my girl's room:

I found some wall stickers at a nearby dollar store (Dollar Tree) and put the alphabet along a boring window wall in my daughter's room. My 2 year-old loves singing the ABC's.

Also in the last few weeks, I used a fancy software called Microsoft Word (haha) to put the words "I love to see the temple" onto a black and white photo I took of my daughter at the Mesa Temple. Then, I printed it out on normal copy/printer paper and used decoupage and smoothed the print onto an 8X10 sized canvas. I picked up this canvas in a pack for really cheap at Michaels awhile back during a sale.

I like making art on these canvases because they are easy to hang and I like the canvas look. 

I love how this looks with the contrasted black and white. Shea loves it too.

~ Chelsea ~

Bright Baby Room - for the Window

This bubbly valence is the result of many hours of envisioning, some fabrics I already had along with a few purchased additions such as wide quilt binding and jumbo ric rac. 

I started by measuring the window and curtain rod and then drawing a sketch of my idea. Then, I made a template for my "semi-circles" (more like semi-ovals). I cut out all the fabrics, each piece has a white backing piece cut from a cheapo Ikea sheet. I sewed the round edges and left the tops open to insert a piece of quilt batting cut to the same shape (I made a template for that too). Then, I laid all the pieces out on the floor to align them how I liked them and overlap them enough to achieve the right length for the curtain rod. I pinned and sewed the pieces together. Then, I sewed on the quilt binding which served three purposes; to piece the semi-ovals together, cover up the raw edges and create the tubing for the curtain rod. Then, the white ric rac added a little more interest and covered up the raw edges that could be seen through the white quilt binding. 

I was excited to hang it up, so excited that I risked waking my baby up and snuck into her room ever so quietly to see my creation up on the window.

See my other Bright Baby Room decor: WALL ART AND COLORS.

~ Chelsea ~

Felt Fun

Today, I made a little felt book for my daughter using a baby wipes case that was given to me. The case was embellished by someone else, so is very cute on the outside. 

I didn't use it very often, so I turned it into this.

I sewed a layer of quilt batting to two rectangles of felt and hot glued them to both sides of the interior. The quilt batting allows it to have a softer padded surface and prevents the hot glue from seeping through the felt. 

Then Shea helped me decide what colors to make the different felt shapes out of. We had a good time making it and I think it will make a nice quiet toy for her to imagine with. 

I love the simplicity of felt. It doesn't fray and it comes in so many bright colors.

~ Chelsea ~

Valentine's Day Infant Outfit

I love Valentine's Day! Whether there is a special someone or not, it's a wonderful time to show the people in my life that I care. I especially love celebrating with my favorite little people, my kids! Today I made a special outfit for the newest member of my family. I wanted to do something representative of Valentine's Day but also versatile enough to be used other days. In addition, baby legs were on the menu since her little knees are in contact with the floor a lot these days. I found some cute knee-high socks with hearts on them at my local dollar store and that was my inspiration. Using other fabrics from around my house and my friends house (we crafted together today), I whipped something up. I am pleased with how it turned out, but mostly I just think my daughter is adorable! I asked her to model the outfit for me and she obliged (although, she was moving around so much my camera could barely keep up). I hope you like this non-pink Valentine's Day outfit. Maybe you'll want to craft something "love"ly of your own!
<3 Crystal