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Fairyland Inspiration + Free Download

(Photo from Lil' Blue Boo)

I was so excited to find this sweet Box O’ Princesses @ Lil Blue Boo! If you have never been to her site it is a MUST see! I thought it was a perfect gift idea for Ella who is six. So, I grabbed a tin I had and painted princess dolls. Then I printed the FREE download and voila a perfect gift that is well loved!

I wanted to do something similar for Natalie, who is almost nine and definitely BEYOND princesses. So, I thought I would create something similar, but with FAIRIES, because Natalie loves fairies. I illustrated the fairy homes and printed it onto white cardstock and then painted a set of wooden fairies. I used tulle for the fairy wings and made a few leaf sleeping bags that I had seen. It turned out super sweet and Natalie loves it. She has colored in the houses and today had her fairy village set up in front of her computer making a fairy movie! Too stinkin’ fun!

Just another set of two semi-handmade gifts that were made for Christmas this past year.

Here is the FREE download for Fairy Land if you want to create a fairy land of your own! Download Fairyland

Happy New Year + Semi-Handmade Gifts

Happy New Year! I gratefully say goodbye to 2011 as it has been one bumpy ride. We finished off the year with our furnace and water heater going out in the same week. Yes, the same week. To top that off it happened two weeks before Christmas. Oh, and let’s not even discuss the dollars that had to be poured into it. Yes, I am happy 2011 is over. I am ready for a fantastic 2012.

I have been busy over the holiday. I created a semi-handmade Christmas this year. I am thrilled to report all of the handmade gifts are well loved! Yeah! Now that Christmas is over and I have no more surprises to keep I thought I would share the gifts that were made this past holiday at my house.

The first two gifts I want to share have to do with the two old suitcases I shared in December. Well…one of those suitcases smelled VERY musty. I am working on getting out the musty smell, but thankfully had an extra suitcase at home that I could use in place of the musty one.

I was inspired by a dollhouse suitcase I saw on Pinterest, that was made for a dolly. Ella LOVES Calico Critters, and really wanted a house for them for Christmas. I just couldn’t see spending over $100 for a house made of plastic, so I created this dollhouse suitcase for her critters. The best part is that it holds ALL of her little furniture and critters, plus fits under her bed when she is finished with it! Needless to say this was a complete hit at my house.

I created the little house by cutting a piece of cardboard to fit inside the lid of the suitcase. Then, I covered it with batting to make it soft and squishy. I just did a rough cut and stapled the bad boy to the cardboard. Easy peasy.

Next, I placed the covered cardboard onto my background fabric and cut out the back ground fabric. I left enough fabric to later wrap around the cardboard and staple in place.

Then I cut out strips of fabric to create a door, windows, and curtains. After cutting them out I stitched them onto the background fabric. I planned to add more details, but Christmas was coming and I had lots more to create!

Next, I created a floor for the house. I did this the same way that I created the house detail insert. I just used some fun fabric and core board instead of cardboard, because it is what I had on hand.

Also, I wanted to use the suitcase as storage for Ella's little Critter's, so I used coreboard and made padded siding for the base of the suitcase for the floor lid to rest on.

She loves it and actually is playing with it as I type right now!

The whole idea of a suitcase being the storage container for a toy or project inspired me to create a crocheting kit for Natalie. I included the super cool Kids Crochet book and bought her all of the supplies that are listed in the book to get her started. She LOVES it and is happy to be crocheting beyond a simple chain!

The book fits inside at the bottom and everything has a home. Just got to like that.

These gifts were fun to create and are well loved by my kiddos. Who said a semi-handmade gift couldn’t thrill a child?!

Today's post will be taking part in the following link parties: Fireflies and Jellybeans, Homemaker on a Dime, Made By You Monday , Today's Creative and Tatertots and Jello.

Creating Christmas Gifts + Vintage Finds

I have one more project that we worked on during Art Week. We created sculptures and worked on them for three days and they still are not finished, but we will be finishin them during our next Art Week. I will show you pics of our process to date later this week.

I wanted to share a few vintage finds I picked up yesterday to create Christmas gifts with.

Super cool, huh?! I am very excited to get to work on these gifts and then I will reveal what they will become. A hint...one will be a gift for my 6 year old and the other for my nine year old.

I just finished making these pillow mats for my kids, and nieces and nephews in black, green, and blue. This is totally not my idea, but one I LOVE! I followed the blog instructions and added personalization with felted names on each. These have been my late night projects to keep out of view of the little eyes. I think they will love them. Each pillow mat cost $15! Whoohoo! The online price for them is listed at $145!

 

Creating Christmas Gifts + Vintage Finds

I have one more project that we worked on during Art Week. We created sculptures and worked on them for three days and they still are not finished, but we will be finishin them during our next Art Week. I will show you pics of our process to date later this week.

I wanted to share a few vintage finds I picked up yesterday to create Christmas gifts with.

Super cool, huh?! I am very excited to get to work on these gifts and then I will reveal what they will become. A hint...one will be a gift for my 6 year old and the other for my nine year old.

I just finished making these pillow mats for my kids, and nieces and nephews in black, green, and blue. This is totally not my idea, but one I LOVE! I followed the blog instructions and added personalization with felted names on each. These have been my late night projects to keep out of view of the little eyes. I think they will love them. Each pillow mat cost $15! Whoohoo! The online price for them is listed at $145!

 

Art Week - day one!

I am back. I know completely MIA for a while, but I needed to live life in real time and focus on my family. And today's projects are created by my family and students I work with.

So, I figured out my uploading issues, and want to share what we have been up to.

Part way through the school year I decided I needed to spend more time creating art with my kids. I decided that about every six weeks we would take a week off from our normal school work and spend a week creating and learning about different art styles. This kids LOVED it. This week I want to share our first official ART WEEK.

On the first day of Art Week we created self portrait collages. This was perfect for using up my scrapbooking scraps and the kids really loved the results. I found the idea at Better Homes and Garden.

Olivia created the portrait above. The girls each drew an outline of how they felt their face is shaped and then started gluing torn pieces of scrap paper in the correct color hues of their skin, hair and eyes. They then did the same for a shirt.

Next. we cut out the final portrait and using dimensional squares adhered the portrait to some patterned background paper.

This was a great project to kick off Art Week, because everyone felt super successful.

 

It took some patience, but because we had an entire day to work on it the kids didn't feel any pressure and ejoyed the creativity.

Tomorrow I will show you some of the mini art pieces we made.

Inspired to create by chalk board mugs!

A couple of weeks ago I was looking at back to school ideas and I stumbled on this.

This is on my pinterest board and can be found at Funky Junk Interiors. I knew immediatly that I didn't need this as a teacher's gift, but needed it for my house. We go through glasses constantly because no one can remember whose glass belongs to them. I didn't want the mug, so I hopped to the store and picked up four glasses thinking this would make glasses and drinks during school more manageable!

This project took maybe 30 minutes top and the kids and I are already loving them. I am not certain how they will hold up to wash after wash, but lucky for me I have more chalk board paint!

The first thing I did was to mask off the areas that I didn't want to paint.

Then I shook up my can of chalk board paint and sprayed away...I used 2 - 3 coats of paint. It was a hot day and it dried VERY fast.

After the paint dried I pulled off the tape.

Super easy, very useful, and even my 12 year old LOVES her glass. the kids like to draw pictures on them as well. Fun.

I still have some more paint, and thought I might make the girls dance teachers a glass to take to them on their first day of dance class! I LOVE pinterest and the inspiration it provides. Happy Friday!

Love is life changing - 100 life changing moments

Love is life changing. That is what moment four is all about for me. My grandmother was able to connect with me as a small child across state lines and over telephone party lines! This is amazing to me. I think sharing this connection is so important now since my children will never know her. I want them to know that even though my mother died when I was young I still had someone who was my world.

I can't imagine what path my life would have taken if we had not had this connection. I hope my children experience this connection with a relative at some point in their life.

It was fun looking through old photos of my grandmother when she was a young girl and photos of us together. The vintage photos take me back to stories my grandmother had shared with me of her life as a little girl growing up in Austria...living in downtown Linz, afternoons in their courtyard and summers at the castle. I also remember stories of the war, why she left Austria, and my five week trip to her homeland when I was 18 years old. There are lots of stories I can share of her life and I want to write down these stories as well, but this page is about MY relationship with her and the little things that I remember and treasure, but seldom are a part of everyday discussion.

Capturing these life changing moments and sharing my story is what my 100 Life Changing Moments is all about. Have you began thinking about your life changing moments? Began a few pages or even started an album for this process? I'd love to hear how it is going for you and answer any questions you might have.

This is an ongoing project for me, not one I am rushing through to finish. I just know that every time I write a story for this album I cry, simply because of the impact each story has had on my life and the friends and family who are a part of my story. This is powerful stuff!

Canvas Art and Home Decor

Over the past couple of years I have been slowly creating a series of 3 canvas art pieces that I can change with the seasons. This is the summer set! I LOVE how these look side by side on the wall.

Super easy and the trio can be made in a weekend.

I have to make a fall set this month to put up in October and then I will have all four seasons created.

Would you like a tutorial on line? Let me know what you think!

Trick-or-Treat Bags Completed!

 

I am absolutely thrilled with the trick-or-treat bags I created this weekend. I decided to make the bag out of burlap and used a LARGE bowl to help draw the basic pattern for the bag. I used orange flannel to trim off the top with black ribbon for the handles. Then it was time to embellish!

I knew I wanted to personalize each bag with the girls names. I used my Slice to cut out the patterns for the letters. Love when I can use tools for scrapbooking with other types of crafting. 

 

I really was wishing I had some heat n bond for these letters, but I managed with what I had. Note to self need to restock that in my craft arsenal!

After creating some patterns to embellish the front of each bag, I laid out the pattern pieces to ensure a great fit.

Ella requested a pumpkin bag. I am really happy with the results and most important so is she!

Natalie requested a witch with bats on her bag. She is excited to collect candy next weekend with her new bag!

The pattern pieces were sewn with my machine and some that were on the small side were sewn by hand.  
 
  
At the last minute I added gingham ribbons to the base of each handle. Can you say super SWEET?!

There is still 1 week before Halloween ... there is still time to create heirloom trick-or-treat bags...or save the idea for next year. It will make a great gift!

Hope you are having a fun creative weekend!
 
 

 

Weekend Halloween Project!

Halloween is fast approaching...CRAZY!

This year I am making each of my kids their own trick-or-treat bag to haul around all of their sugary loot.

I am headed to the store to pick up all of the necessities. Here are a few ideas I found to inspire me to create and personalize my daughters treat bags this year.

 
Love this! On a larger scale this could be adorable!

 
Found this...super cute.

 

 

 

All three of these I found at Better Homes and Garden! Plus there are directions!

I am not certain which I will create yet, or maybe my own version of pieces from each...I know my girls will be completely delighted with our outing for the day. And I will love getting creative.

If you create bags this weekend leave a link here so I can see what you have created. I will post my finished bags next week!