Baby Shower Tags

How can you attend a Baby Shower without a tag on your gift?!

My MIL dropped off a gift at my house without a tag, gasp!
So I made one for her gift, and one for my gift.

Pretty simple:

1. Brown card stock with pink paisley patterned paper (wow say that 10 times fast).
2. I cut a matching paisley from some of the left over paper
3. Added pink hot foil dots around the outside, and purple hot foil dots in the inside - I'll do a tutorial on that later.
4. Then added double stick tape and plopped it right on top of the existing paisley on the paper.
5. little rub on sentiment from of the dollar tree, two mini hole punches on top, and ribbon to tie it off.

Inside:

1. A smaller size pink square - because writing on brown doesn't show up very well.
2. Cut out another paisley from the scrap paper
3. Inked all edges for added interest.
   

For the MIL tag..

1. A simple small tag shape cut out of pink card stock. This is cut long than folded over to open.
2. Pink and Green patterned paper
3. A little green ribbon
4. light pink button - attached by a glue dot.
5. That pink brad and thingy that holds the tag closed. The brad goes through the ribbon on the back.

Now our gifts have tags.

Teacher Appreciation Week

This is what our PTO did for Teacher Appreciation Week...

Monday - Give your teacher something that smells good.

Tuesday - Give your teacher a compliment.

Wednesday - Give your teacher something yummy.

Thursday - Give your teacher something to look at.

Friday - Give your teacher a high five or hug.

For Thursday I made these personalized photo albums. I figured the kids could put pictures or cards in them and the teachers would always have them.

Ribbon Organizer

I've seen A LOT of ribbon organizers in my day, but nothing suited the way I use and organize. I wanted something where I could see just how much ribbon I have left, easy to access, and doesn't take up a lot of space. This is what I came up with...

This is my Before: a box of ribbon mess.

Now Here's how I made my clever ribbon organizer -

as far as I know I'm the first to do this...

Years ago I hung curtains (in my old house). I used drapery hooks and hung them on curtain rings, removing the clips that came with it. So I ended up with a big bag of clips.

Before my flash of genius I tried this method of ribbon organization - wrapping them around a piece of cardboard and 'filing' them. This took WAY TOO LONG!




I decided sash rod + drapery clips = Perfect Organizer

The sash rod was $2.50 for two.






And the perfect place for it? Inside the cabinet door of my new 'library' storage cabinets. And right next to my crafting supplies.







My little trick to hang it straight? I taped it first then added the screws.

I love how it only takes an inch of previously unused space! Just clip off and clip back on!

Linked to:

Sorry to those I linked to and it's not showing - explorer crashed before I saved all the links!

Please leave the link in my comments! Thanks.

i-made-it-without-my-hubby

Roman Soilder Costume

At church we participated in a small dramatization of the Savior's life. I was asked to provide the costume for the Roman Centurion present at Christ's Crucifixion. (Mark 15:39)

I decided to give it a try 'on the cheap'.

Here's a Tutorial on How to make a Roman Solider or Centurion Costume...

First I gathered my materials:

1.5 yards of broadcloth in neutral color - tunic

1 yard red soft velvet like fabric - cape

Scraps of leather - belt, cape, and sword handle

Metal medallions - decorative on leather and helmet

Red feather package - plume

Cardboard, newspaper, spray paint - shield and helmet

Here's what I came up with, a n0 sew few day project.

I actually used my card making tools to pull this one off!

I cut my scraps of leather into long strips with my rotary cutter on a self-healing mat.

Then I used my eyelet hole punch and setter to make holes in the belt...

It sliced through the leather with no problem - then I knew this would be fun!









After setting eyelets (the regular kind for paper crafts) on the belt I laced it together so it would be adjustable and snug.

It looks pretty cool too! (Shown: toddler version)

I then attached additional strips of leather to the front of the belt with an brad (from the office supply store) through the metal medallion. So that the other strips would hang from the belt.

Here's an up close view of the Belt: toddler version...


Notice that each strip was cut with a point at each end. And that the toddler version has three strips and the adult version has five. I also added a circle of leather behind the middle medallion to give it a bit more detail...

The helmet and shield was made from paper-mache. A balloon inflated to fit inside the wears baseball cap. Then paper-mached to create the form (took 2 days to dry) trimmed to shape, and cardboard decorative pieces to front and top. Then spray painted silver. I added the feathers in between the corrugated parts of the card board they fit nice and tight. Then added another medallion to tie it all together.

The shield was the cardboard piece that comes from the bottom of the freschetta frozen pizza!

I taped another round cardboard on top of that and then a paper plate for dimension: Paper mach ed the whole thing and again with the spray paint. I poked a few brads evenly around in a circle to look like rivets. And hot glued a plastic star in the middle that I had laying around.On the back I just made loops for the arm with duck tape.

The Sword was made from a yard stake. I sawed the end off and nailed it as the cross piece. Then spray painted the end and wrapped the handle with scrap leather. Some of the children thought it was real!

I also made an arm cuff with more leather scraps - I added some snaps.

I found the fabric, medallions ($.10 a piece) and GENUINE LEATHER (by the pound) at SAS fabric all for really cheap!

The feathers and brads at Michael's

And spray paint at Lowe's.

Now you know how to make this costume or just borrow mine!

Linked to:

frugalicious-friday

We have a Winner....

Congratulations to Kimberly at Kimberly's Korner

She the winner of the Personalized Notecards from the blog share give away at my dear trash



Check it out at http://kimberly-kimberlyskorner.blogspot.com/2010/04/mindless-thoughts.html

Inspiration on One Shelf

I thought I'd share my inspiration for decorating this one shelf...

1. Antiqued Mesa Arizona Temple I purchased from The Paper Elepant she emailed me the file and I had it printed at Costco. The frame from the Clearance bin at hobby lobby .
2. My blown glass pumpkin I purchased while visiting Seattle it's an imperfect example from an apprentice of an apprentice of Chihuly .
3. Stackable boxes - my first garage sale purchase ever! Thanks to my dear trash for inspiring me to go "garaging" - I think they were $1 for both.
4. Grapevine wreaths I purchased at the dollar tree for $1 a piece I spray painted them black. Thanks to shanty 2 chic for inspiring me with "Whitney's Mantel Makeover"
5. A Brass pitcher my Grandma gave to me years ago.

The big picture.

Built-In Bookcases

I've been reading a lot of blogs recently and I decided to broaden my blogging scope. I don't need to have all my blog post about what I created with hot foil do I? So here are some of my other projects and creations:

I finally got my built in bookcases:

I needed a place for projects and homework and the dining room was where I decided to create my faux library. Rarely do we use a dining room - so I purchased a small round conference table from craigslist and new leather chairs from ballarddesigns .

This is where I now make cards, help with homework and of course play games.

To really make it work I needed a large bookcase to store all the "stuff" that goes along with those activities. And I needed cabinets below to hide it all

- after all it still is part of the Living Room....

So after having cabinet makers quote us prices ($4000 - $12,000), and searching for the right piece of furniture (especially the height - it's only 8' tall right there & 11' wide) I found the perfect piece to fit by parker-house and it was gorgeous. I almost bought it too and I would've loved it.

Isn't it pretty? The sale price as just over $3000 I went home to think about it and count my pennies, the sale expired and I waited for the next sale...

Then finally after searching everyday for at least 8 months I found the right size bookcase for sale on craigslist. A family was moving and couldn't take it. It wasn't perfect and it wasn't as pretty but they only wanted $250! and for another $40 they delivered it - SOLD!

I had to remove the pull out/swivel TV part attached to the middle section, and then I hired my favorite handyman to attach them to the wall and install the crown molding - didn't he get the crown stain to match perfectly?

The one thing I convinced myself I had to have was drawers on my bookcase - to hide crayons and coloring books etc.

I haven't had those made yet but I found this handy caddy at IKEA for now.

Now I have my $.10 on the $1.00 built in bookcase.

I'd love to hear your comments!