Sharpie Shirt

This was a quick afternoon project. I read about it in “Wondertime” magazine and decided to embellish one of Julia’s shirts.

Basically you put fabric over a cup and rubberband it still. Next, trace little dots in Sharpie (or other permanent marker brand) around a coin, bottle cap, or similar round thing. Remove the object and with an eyedropper, moisten the center with rubbing alcohol. The more alcohol, the more the ink will spread out.

I made a large blossom in the middle and then added details in Sharpie pen when it was dry. I also softened the stem and leaves with a paintbrush dipped in alcohol.

Julia had a good time doing her own dots on an old burp cloth and watching the flowers we were making “grow” when I added the alcohol.

Magnetic Wall

I keep a small notebook hanging in the kitchen to write down house-y things I need to buy or do with the keys. Then I see it every day, and when I get a free block of time I can flip through and pick something that will fit my time alotted.

This evening’s project was inspired by

a) trying to organize my kid’s artwork in a way that doesn’t clutter and bug me, but honors her artistic spirit

b) Much needed new paint all over the house. Figured that was as good a place as any to start making the rounds.

So anticipating an easy weekend this week, I ordered a gallon of magnetic primer paint earlier this month from

http://www.magnamagic.com/

I got the chance this evening to tape off and clean the largest section of the hallway going to all the bedrooms. It’s across from Julia’s room and previously we’d hung two curtain rods and used curtain clips to display her art.

Well, turns out the kid LOVES art. She produces way more than two rods could hold!

While I was happy with the curtain clip solution for a while, I decided to just give her the whole wall.

The paint is thick — almost like molasses. But other than that it is a very easy product to use. Stir it up well before applying  a coat, and plan on several coats before the final coat of regular paint over it. It’s not smelly, and it dries fairly fast. It washes off with soap and water quite easily. I was worried a little bit because this stuff is black!

I took on the bulk of it with a foam roller and I let Julia help with a little foam brush.

I tried a magnet on a dry part and it already is sticking. So I’m confident by the time I get the other coat or two done it will be sticky enough to hold up even her larger poster type artwork.

Here we are in progress:

Julia’s sticking up one of those “business card magnet” things from our fridge.

She’s enjoying the novelty of having a HUGE magnetic wall in the house.

 

Felt Board

I’ve been laying low. It’s been 106 days since my last period and this one is particularly rough. I got really grouchy and burst into tears last night and Paul tried his best to comfort me.
[...]

I’ve been wanting to make Julia a felt board for a long time but I didn’t get around to it until this week. I picked up a large poster frame at Target that had a sturdy rim — a brushed metal look.

I opened the frame up like I was going to stick a poster in it. I lay the plastic “glass” down on a large felt piece. I decided that was a bit flimsy by itself so I lay down the cardboard backing as well. These were my cutting templates. I cut out the felt leaving 3 or 4 inches extra around the edges. Next I folded these edges inward so I could tape it to the backing with packaging tape. That way the front side was all nice and tight felt for the background. I didn’t really care if the back looked a little wrinkly with tape because once assembled in the psoter frame nobody sees it. Last was putting the plywood-ish back of the poster frame on.

Then I printed out page 10, 11, and 12 to this preschool “camping” theme lesson.

I had enough little pieces of felt laying around so I could get most of the pieces cut. The only ones I didn’t have were brown for tree trunks, white for clouds, and some other color for the ranger station but Julia didn’t seem to care. She’s been having fun arranging and telling me stories about the sun going up and down and it being day or night in the camp. She also made Granddad play felt with her when he came over to visit. That time they just used the pieces to make faces all over.

Now I have to go get mirror hangers so I can screw this guy to the wall so she can’t knock it down while playing with it.

Cost-wise this isn’t an expensive project. The frame could be spendy depending on how nice of a poster frame you get. I got one to hold a 24 x 36 inch poster at Target for $25 or $30. I picked a metal edged one that had a nice weight to it because my kid and her playmates can be hard on toys.

For a background you can use either felt or flannel. If you feel like piecing things, you can make some blue sky and grass, some under water scene, a floor plan, whatever. I jsut use one solid sheet this time but when it gets to be time to change it out I might consider doing a background that is more that just one color.

I used all blue because I got that free when I changed a bulletin board at school. It was going to be trashed but I brought it home thinking I’d use up the felt making some other craft project or I’d let my nurery class paint on it. I came across it in my craft closet so it prompted me to get a frame and just do the felt board.

The little felt pieces I got at JoAnn’s and Walmart from 10 – 20 cents a sheet… one of those sale days where I just pick up things thinking I’ll use it in my sunday school class sooner or later. Those sorts of things are just useful to have around for kiddie art and I just happened to have a small pile of assorted colors that would work for a camp scene.

For now I’m sticking to basic shapes, though I read you can use T-shirt transfer paper on white felt to make fancier things. I suppose I could use embroidery floss to embellish parts too. Or if there’s some paper thing you like a lot, you can laminate it, and then use adhesive velcro on the back to back to make it stick on the felt or flannel.

Many possibilities.

green resolutions and living room!

Cat – where did you get that tutu?  We must have one!

I have had a great break!  Since it has been lots of family time, I have been updating my family site a lot, including pics from my christmas craft project.  The train table came out great and is Iz’s favorite new toy. 

I still have a few days off before returning to work and have several projects I want to tackle around the house including working on the lawn and painting the living room, foyer, and kitchen.  I don’t know how much I will get done before I start work again, but I have a feeling there will be paint on the walls somewhere in the house before the weekend.  After a long debate and an even longer time flipping through books and magazines at B&N, Mike and I have decided to paint the living room green tea, the foyer denim blue, and the kitchen/breakfast room butter yellow.  The study is already eggplant and Iz’s room is lavender, no beige on these walls yet!  I even have a fairly decent idea about new furniture/picture groupings/lamps we want to do in all rooms, but no good clue about what to do above our mantle.  That mantle will be the end of me!  I want to do an organic, flowy metal/stain glass art piece, Mike wants something more square, a “regular” piece of art, a mirror or a clock.  I will be building a new TV cabinet which won’t be too hard except for the doors.  We have a big widescreen tv and I would love to have doors to hide it away, but the doors would have to be too wide.  I am investigating a couple other options.

Our living room isn’t the only thing going green, our new year’s resolution is to start going green.  I have been searching the web and investigating local source till my head is spinning.  Cat – do you have any good suggestions?  I want to start with the basics and work my way up. 

Our yard has been driving my crazy lately.  The neighbors had these professionals come in and re-do all their landscaping and it looks so nice.  I asked the guys for an estimate and the sticker shock caused me to drive straight to the hardware store and buy a lawnmower.  We have a couple problems we can’t handle though.  We have two out of control trees that need to be topped and an old stump that is growing back up in several places in our flower bed.  We have tried to dig the flower bed out, but it is so full of wood, the whole thing just needs to be tilled. We are getting an estimate to take care of just those things tomorrow.  Another major outdoor project is to clear a flower bed in the back of brush, mulch it, and prep it for a play structure for Iz that I am going to buy (or build!) this spring. 

A longer term project for the backyard is to rip out the flower beds than line our fence and put in a dry creek bed (ie, lots of stones) with a pond or water feature at one end.  The flower beds are there because that part of our property acts as run off for our little cul de sac.  It is always wet, making it difficult to mow.  The flower beds, however, are just a mess and impossible for us to maintain.  Instead I want to add some bushes that attract butterflies along the creek bed.  We have a lilac bush already that is covered in butterflies in the summer, so why not add some more? 

Those are my big plans.  Have you noticed that I haven’t mentioned any kind of weight loss or exercise goals?  They are coming.  I am still coming off the buzz of the all the sugar I have been eating over the holidays.  My sis and I are going to formulate a good fitness goal for the summer linked to a trip we are going to take (right Mary?)  You will be the first to know…

Costume Inventory

I picked up a mess of patterns when I went to go get one for the kid size nativity people.

 

There was a $1.99 pattern sale on Butterick and McCall’s and I got half costumes for me and Julia and half regular clothes for me. Not sure that I’ll get around to making them all, but at that price? Why not?
Julia’s been obsessed with the yellow Disney “Belle” princess outfit she’s seen two of her friends wear and keeps asking me for “a yellow Airy-Oh (Ariel) princess dress.” She’s confused, and I’m banking on that so I can just get yellow fabrics and knock her up one of these once the pageant is over. I’m going to try to get it done for her birthday next month. I dislike store bought costumes because for the money, they usually are not very well-made and/or inappropriate for this climate. Besides, if I make it it is more fun for me.

 

I was hanging up costumes in the hallway and taking note of what I’ve sewn in the last 2 weeks or so….

• 1 silk brocade A-line skirt for a birthday gift (done!)
• 2 star skirts (done!)
• 4 Kwanzaa skirts with kerchiefs (done!)
• 1 reversible tablecloth (done!)
• 1 “Mary” outfit (needs hemming and sleeve, veil, sash details.)
• 1 King tunic w/ sash (needs hemming)
• 1 red cloak (needs hemming, trim)
• 1 “wind” costume (needs hemming)
• “Joseph” (cut out, needs everything)
• 3 Kwanzaa poncho-like things (needs hemming, trim)
• sheep (needs hoodie ears and tail)
• 2 more king robes (not even cut out!)
• 2 more king tunics (not even cut out!)
• Buy Jesus a white onesie

I decided to just pick up Jesus a plain white onesie to wear when I go drop pictures to develop. I just don’t want to deal with another costume if I don’t have to!

Julia was wathcing me fluff and hang and she piped up with, “Mommy? Am I going to be Jesus?”

The way she said it made me laugh.

wall mounted magazine rack for children’s books

I described how I made it here.