Duct Tape baseball caps

This week has gotten away from me.
We started swim lessons.
Had 2 sports physicals for swim team.
I've been making swimsuits for all sorts of peeps, both others and for my own girls.
I forgot to take pics of 4 of the ones I did for custom orders and already sent off.
It has rained off and on all week.....blech!
However, we did get one glorious day of swimming at our friend Mary Ann's pool.  Thanks!!!

So with the wishy-washy weather here is one of the things my kids have been doing.

My youngest three, mainly my oldest son, are obsessed with duct tape.
We have this cool place called Ax-Man Surplus where you can buy large rolls for $5.
They make all sorts of things.
For awhile there it was lots, and lots, and lots of weapons.

However, just since school has been out last week, son #1 has been making hats.

He was nice enough to make his younger siblings each one too.




Complete with personalization.


And new glasses.






They sort of look like thugs, but they are all happy with their hats.
Daughter #3 even wore hers out in public the other day and got some nice comments from a cashier.

Link to video how-to is HERE

Enjoy your weekend and Happy Father's Day to all!

I hope to post swimsuit stuff next week.

Scrappy Owl Applique T-shirts

This year I am the camp leader for our young women's group at Church.  We have camp the last week of June and it should be a fun time.  (We're staying in cabins this year as opposed to tents last year and I couldn't be happier)

The theme of the camp is "SOAR" and each ward congregation is assigned a bird and a young women's value--we are owls and knowledge (and the color assigned to knowledge is green).

So in keeping with the theme we made our camp t-shirts last Wednesday night.  I found this fun owl applique on Pinterest.  I had to enlarge it and actually did two different sizes for the girls to choose from.  Then I brought my scrap bags and let them choose their design.

I always like to see what the girls will pick.  We'll be the same but different.  The girls had no problems seeing how fun their owls would look with crazy combos of fabrics.  The women, on the other hand, were trying to be too matchy-matchy and it wasn't producing the look they really wanted.  We had to have a short little lesson with them on "unmatching" fabrics.  They just couldn't envision the scrappy look.  In the end we had some awesome little owls.




Here's a couple up close and personal.
Each with their own particular personality.









As one of the girls said...We are going to have the best shirts at camp.
I'm just happy that they got excited about the project and are happy with their results.
And yeah, we're going to have the best shirts at camp.

Details:

• Shirts from Michael's (or Jo-Ann's) when they go on sale. I found ours earlier in the Spring for $1.97/ea.  
• Variety of cotton fabric scraps (including white for the eyes and some browns for branches)
• Black fabric marker for the eyes
• Pellon WonderUnder for $2.49/yd. from Jo-Ann's (use a coupon if you can)

NOTE:  I took all the shirts home with me and topstitched the ironed on pieces.  For mine and my 2 daughters' shirts that we did ahead of time to use as examples, I sewed each piece as I went along.  I prefer that method.  So if you have enough time or aren't trying to get 12 shirts done in about an hour and a half, I would recommend you sew each piece as you go and not try to topstitch it all down at the end.

Whooo Whooo! Enjoy your weekend!

Recycled or Rainbow Crayons for Valentine's Day

Recently I found this idea in the book "Smart Kids Activity", pg. 16, while browsing at the library for ideas for a school Valentine's party (that I now don't have to be in charge of--whew, so happy about that!)  After seeing the book I remembered having seen this years ago in a Family Fun magazine--and sure enough when I went looking online I found it right off--Crayon Hearts.

I am sure that many of you have a similar container of crayons that resembles this:

Broken bits, papers removed, a big 'ole mess of leftover crayons dumped together into a bucket at the end of the school year with the hopes that they will get used again, ... sometime.

Basically here is what you do to make the "new" crayons:

1. Find all the little crayon pieces without papers in your "stash" and use those first.  If you need more, remove wrappers and break into pieces that will fit into your muffin tin. **Family Fun used heart tins, but we didn't have those.

2. Heat oven to 170ºF. 
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the wax has melted.
4. Remove and allow to cool. 
5. If they don't come out easily, place them in your freezer for up to an hour--they should pop right out.

Here is what they look like hardened in your muffin tin.

But here is what the other side looks like once you pop them out.  Totally COOL!

We'll add some sort of note with each that says something like:

You color my world

Valentine, you make my heart melt

Have a happy Valentine's Day, for "crayon" out loud!

Friends are the Rainbows of Life



***We ended up doing 2 batches--the first was a practice run for the 2nd grader's Valentines, just in case they didn't work out like we hoped.  They did, and B. loves them.  And so did the rest of the kids--they wanted some for themselves to make and use. 

Library Book Storage Box

We love our local library here at home. We probably go at least every week or two to get new books, movies, or attend story time. However, with 5 kids, even if I limit them to only 4-5 books apiece we still end up with lots of books floating around our home. And really, they have a hard time limiting themselves to just a couple books. I'm not sure I want to limit them either--after all, we're talking about them being excited about books and reading.

Anyway, I used to have a basket sitting under one of my lamp tables in my living room to store all the books in one place. It has worked out really well, until recently when the basket has been so used and abused it is literally falling apart in front of us. I've tried to find another basket that I like and figured what I really needed was something more substantial since it will get so much abuse.

Years ago I saved this project sheet for some stacking totes (scroll to pg. 151 if viewing it online) out of the Reader's Digest magazine, Feb. '06, pg. 213. The pattern actually comes from the Reader's Digest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual, check with your local library too--mine had some copies of this book.

I asked my favorite hubby if he could come up with a similar box--complete with handles and rolling casters so that we could have a new book box. Luckily in HIS shop he had some scrap wood that worked out just great for this project. He put it all together for me and then we attached the casters and I spray painted it to protect it somewhat.

It holds more books than the previous basket and I won't have to worry about it falling apart. The finished box measures 11" H x 15" W x 18" L, not including the height of the casters. Here's to reading!

Leaf Rubbings

I have a great view of the mountains near my house. (The canyon is only 5 minutes away.) So when the leaves start changing I get a front row seat!

We took a drive up the canyon with our kids the other night and they kept saying, "It looks like a painting up here!" I couldn't agree more. The canyons are so beautiful right now!

While we were up there we collected leaves for a project I like to do every year -- Leaf Rubbings. I'm sure you've all seen this before. It's a fun and easy project you can do with your kids no matter what their age. I've done this a bunch of times with my kids. And even as they get older, they still seam to enjoy it.

So, here's all you need: Broken crayons with the papers torn off of them, any size/color paper you choose -- I prefer brown postal wrap (you could also use the inside of a paper grocery sack) or white butcher paper, and any size/shape of leaves you can find.

Directions: Put a leaf under your paper with the right side up, lay your crayon sideways on the paper, and rub until your leaf starts coming through. Voila! Instant fall leaf pictures! (I find it easier to do one leaf at a time.)

I turned our masterpieces into place mats for our dinner table. My local copy store charges less than $2.00 for hard lamination sized 11" by 17" -- the perfect place mat size.

Once upon a time I had visions of doing these rubbings from the leaves of the trees from each of the houses we have lived in and then framing them some cool way. It hasn't happened, but I still think it would've been a cool way to have something from the many places/cities we have lived.

Tie-Dye Jack-o-Lantern Tees

Directions for this project came from the Family Fun magazine, Oct. 2008 issue.


We used RIT dye, bought at craft stores for about $2.99 a box, color Sunshine Orange--Mixing 2 boxes, instead of 1 box, to the 3 gallons of water for our 7 t-shirts. We let our shirts "stew" for about 20 minutes, each kid taking his/her turn stirring the pot. We are very happy with the color that they turned out--O.K. so maybe L. isn't exactly thrilled with orange, but she was a good sport and went along with the rest of us.
Hint #1: Depending on how you decide to dry your shirts (line dry or dryer) you will definitely need more than one day to do this project.--tying, dying, and drying on one day and embellishing the jack-0-lantern faces on another day or two. If you put faces on the back of the shirt you will first have to let the front side dry and then embellish the back of the shirt.Hint #2: If you have really small people at your house, you may want to do the majority of the rubber banding yourself before letting them "help". It doesn't take a terribly long time but, if like our house, you have a number of kids who require help all at the same time then it could get frustrating for the helper and the helpee.
One of the more exciting parts of this project for the kids was cutting off the rubber bands to get the big "reveal" of the design they each created. This was their first tie-dye experience and so they weren't sure how it all would work. We had a bigger kid help a little kid do the cutting, but then the little kid could unravel the rubber bands tied around the shirt. Here are a couple of the finished products. At our kids' school they cannot wear costumes, so they all plan on wearing their shirts on Thursday for the class party day. Lucky us, we don't have school this year on Halloween. I can't wait to sleep in!

Magnetic Bulletin Board

I originally saw the idea for a magnetic bulletin board from Martha Stewart. I had planned on making it as is, but my plans changed slightly. I also looked at the framed bulletin board project from Martha and sort of did a combination of the two bulletin boards for my own. Emily and I had a good chuckle today as it seems that we are on the same wavelength with a number of our projects. This project you can do if you cannot find a magnetic board already assembled as she did.

Awhile ago one of my children, who shall remain unnamed, kicked off a shoe towards the shoe bin and instead of it landing where it was intended it hit one of the pictures hanging above the bin and busted the glass. Thank you very much. And this was a child that really should know better than to do that. I finally decided this week to replace the glass. I was just going to buy the replacement glass alone at Michael's; however, this week their frames and glass were on sale ($4) and cheaper than buying only the glass (about $6-7).

So with the new frame, glass removed and put into the old picture frame, I decided to turn it into a bulletin board, for said child who broke the glass in the first place. Basically I followed the instructions about buying a piece of sheet metal and put it into the frame after I covered it with two cute pieces of scrapbook paper. You could also use a piece of cute fabric--but I couldn't find anything in my stash that I thought this kid would like so I went with the scrapbook paper.

Sheet metal--(galvanized panning is what they called it) bought at my local Home Depot store in the ductwork section for $5.49 for a 16" X 36" piece. Check to make sure it really is magnetic. Hubby informed me that not all galvanized material is magnetic. The 16" x 36" piece would make 3 - 11 X 14 size boards. We cut it to size using tin snips. Mark the size you need with a permanent marker and straight edge before cutting.

Here's a little trick to help you before you spray paint your frame. On the back side of your frame pound in slightly a nail at each corner.
Then when you flip it to the right side it is raised up off your work surface and you can easily paint the sides without having to get your hands dirty.
Cut to size your galvanized panning and scrapbook papers. I used Elmer's Craft Bond Spray Adhesive. I sprayed the back of the blue denim paper and then smoothed it directly onto the metal. Then repeated the process with the floral paper. I had borrowed a friend's scallop cutter beforehand to make a wave on the floral piece. I like how it turned out.
Here's a little tip about the spray adhesive. Sometimes it it isn't always easy to get the spray off your hands, if you've accidently sprayed yourself, with just soap and water. This trick we got from Grandma J.--she taught it to us when we were refinishing some furniture. It takes off wood stain slick as can be if you get it on your hands. I tried it today as I got my hands sprayed slightly and it works for this too. Rub your hands with margarine really well before washing with soap and water and the stickiness (or stain) will come right off.

Finished project--I have plans to make some fun magnet buttons and will include them with the board. I think I will be saving this for a Christmas present for the kid. Total cost--$6

For another idea--this would be a good size if you wanted to display "framed" any of your children's artwork. With some nice magnets you could put their art projects in the "frame" and then change it as needed.
I used the remaining galvanized panning to make myself a magnetic board too. I bought a clearance (goof-up custom order) frame--16" X 24" at Jo-Ann's today for $10, a piece of foam board--I cut it to the size of the back of frame and put it all together. Total cost for this board--around $15. I'll have to attach something to hang it also. I may spray my frame red, but for now I am leaving it as is. I also haven't decided yet if I will be using it as my own inspiration board, or a message center in my kitchen.

I'm making one

I've seen these dolls mentioned on several blogs before and I just love them. But I'm way too cheap to pay $40+ for one. Imagine how happy I was when I came across the pattern online. Sweet!! I'm not into doll making, but these are too cute and so modern that I must give it a try. L is getting one very soon. The creator was kind enough to share her pattern. Thank you, thank you!

Want to make one too? See instructions here

Wouldn't it be cute to make the doll's dress out of fabric from one of Baby L's outfits?

Photo Board

This was a really easy project for me! It took about 30 mintues to do!  I just took an art canvas, layered with with alittle batting and fabric.  I used a staple gun to hold everything into place.  

My canvas was about 12x18, so I just purchased a "fat quarter" of fabric so I didn't have any left over.  I got three different types of ribbon (1 yard each, should have got more so I had more options on where to place each color).

Total Cost : Around $20.00