Etched Glass

I LOVE the look of etched glass and I had no idea how easy it was to do!! This is a new favorite project for me, especially when it comes to gift giving!! You have to try this! I wanted to test it out on something simple first (in case I messed it up big time, it wouldn't be a huge upset). I just grabbed a wine glass from the cabinet and away I went ( I also thought this would be  a great idea to remind my husband which wine glass is mine, and not to be drank from :-) ). Here is what you will need to get started:

Something glass (anything you like)

Adhesive backed vinyl

Transfer Paper (cling wrap, contact paper)

Glass Etch and something to apply it

Something to cut your vinyl, either a Cricut (or like machine) or just an exacto knife (if your good at free hand, which I am not)

I used my Cricut to cut out the letter that I wanted (normally I probably would have done a J for our last name, but I already had an A done and my name is Alison, so it worked). If you can't tell I am all about using what you have on hand, aka cost efficient!! After cutting out what I wanted I trimmed around my letter to remove the excess vinyl, then applied a sheet of transfer paper over the letter. Make sure you rub the transfer paper firmly over your vinyl to get a good stick.

Nap Time is Playtime For Mommy...Distressed Canvas

I have seen numerous "pins" on how to do a distressed canvas and have been really wanting to give it a try. So during my boys nap time I decided I would give it a go! They were relatively easy and the end product is very cute! I did one for each of my boys room as practice but next I would like to do a larger one for our living room (maybe above the fireplace??). Here is a list of materials you will need:

Canvas (whatever size you would like, mine are 8x10)

A photo of your choice, same size as canvas, needs to be from a inkjet printer (also make sure this is a picture that with look ok reversed, since the image will be flipped)

Spray bottle of water

Mod Podge (optional, and I like the clear)

Gel Medium (I use Golden Regular Gel, gloss)

Brush

To start you will put a layer of gel medium onto your canvas. You want this to be a nice coating, to thin and your image will not transfer well and to thick and its gonna be a big mess. 

After you coat your canvas, grab that picture! I again stress that this photo needs to be on regular computer type paper and printed by an ink jet printer. Take your picture and spray the ink side lightly with water. This is going to help your image transfer better. Place your picture, image side down, onto your gel'd canvas and smooth it out. Now you will want to let this dry overnight or at least 6 hours. Below is a photo of what it looks like dry.

After your image has completely dried then you can begin the next process. First you need to spray your image with water until the image is clearly visible through the paper (photo below).

The Sweet Shoppe "Part II"

Okay here is part II of the how to's with your DIY baby gifts! This is a run down of how to make the Baby Lollipops out of baby washcloths! 

Here is a list of what you will need to get started. There are two options on how to make this so you may not need everything listed, just depending on which option you decide to use to make your lollies...

2 4packs of baby washcloths

clear tape

hot glue gun and glue sticks

Lollipop sticks (I actually prefer the cookie sticks, they are bigger)

scissors

ribbon

cellophane bags or shrink wrap

floral wire

4 rubberbands or twist ties

metal bucket 

styrofoam

paper "grass"

To get started you will fold one washcloth in half and then fold in half again (you can really use any baby item to make your lollipops, blankets, onsies, socks, etc). Repeat on another washcloth and stack the two on top of each other. Then just begin to roll both washcloths together.

Once you finish, secure your washcloths together with a few pieces of clear tape.

The Sweet Shoppe "Part 1"

This is such a "sweet" project! I found this idea on Pinterest (my favorite place) and have been dying to give it a try, and now I have reason! A friend of mine's daughter is having a sweet baby girl soon and I thought this would make a great gift! I actually did Baby Blanket and Onsie Cupcakes and Washcloth Lollipops (the tutorial is in Part 2). What you need for the entire project (lollipops and cupcakes) is as follows...

4 Receiving Blankets (mine are 30x30)

4 Onsies

4 Washcloths

Clear Tape

Hot glue gun and glue

Around 20 Large Coffee Filters

Scissors

Ribbon

Bakery Box 

Measuring Tape (optional)

4 Rubber Bands 

Floral Wire (optional)

Cellophane Bags or Shrink Wrap

Lollipop Sticks

Vinyl (optional)

And here is what you need if your just planning on doing the Cupcakes.

4 Receiving Blankets

4 Onsies

4 Rubberbands

Around 20 large Coffee Filters

Ribbon

Bakery Box

Vinyl (optional)

Scissors

To start unroll your blanket (its probably already around 8in wide). You will need to fold the top down around and then the bottom up to make your width around 3 inches. I played around with doing them a little bigger but they did not seem to fit in the coffee filters as well.

This Old Window

I love, love, love this project! I asked my husband (who works in construction) to keep a look out for any old windows, etc. that they pull from houses being redone. Well not a week went by when I got a picture message from him one day at lunch with a picture of an old wood frame window. In the picture it looked like a light brown small window, so originally I planned to sand it down and paint it then do a little lettering on it and put it somewhere in our house. That night my husband comes in carrying this huge 40 lb window and I got so excited. What he did not show me his picture message was the beautiful white side of the window! It was aged and old and PERFECT! So I quickly decided I would NOT be painting! 

Instead I removed the old fixtures and hardware from my beloved window and did a little sanding. Then a nice rub down with a wet cloth and some intensive window cleaning (although the glass still has that aged appearance, which I adore) and she was ready to go. Its kind of ridiculous how easy this project was! 

A Picture Perfect Project

Brace yourselves I am about to gush about my husband! Not only is he the love of my life, an amazing husband, fabulous dad and my best friend, but he is also really really handy with power tools. In this case a saw to be exact! You may recall the post I did about my beautiful craft table, that he helped with. Well as another Christmas surprise he took the leftover pieces of wood and cut me 4 different shaped plaques! To say the least I was thrilled! I toyed with different ideas on what I would do with these plaques and finally settled on staining them to match my craft table and mod podging family photos on them. What you need is wood plaques, if you don't have extra wood lying around then you can get them at Hobby Lobby for $2.99, Mod Podge (I like the Gloss but you can use Matte), a brush, photos, and stain or paint (whichever you prefer).

I started out by applying two coats of stain (Miniwax Polyshades in Mission Oak) and then let those dry overnight. Then I was ready to start with my photos. I selected the ones that I wanted to use and printed them off of our computer (you could also go to a print shop and get yours printed off in the sizes to match your plaques) and trimmed them to the size I needed. Next your going to podge your plaques. Place your pictures on the podged plaque, but be quick you only have a few precious seconds to get your picture centered and where you want it to be, after that your going to have a mess! Once your picture is in place start working out the air bubbles. I use my fingers and hand to apply pressure and work out all the bubbles (use whatever works for you). On my first plaque I wasn't quite fast enough and ended up with a few bubble I couldn't get rid of but it still looked great and I was pleased with the end product.

The Fabric "Pom" Pen

I found a tutorial for these fabric pens (listed below) and fell in love! Originally I made about 60 of these for all the nurses I work with for Christmas. I used some Christmas fabric and they were so cute! Then I had to make some for my boys birthday party (pictured on my Thing 1 and Thing 2 Have a Party). Now I am just obsessed with them. They are so girly and fun and when I ran across these two squares of fabric on sale at Joannes I knew they would also become a new pen for my craft area.

First things first, you need to cut a 1 inch strip of fabric (this will wrap around your pen). I used fabric scissors that are made to prevent fraying but they still look fine when they fray (or you can use fray check). Then cute a 4 inch strip of fabric from the material that will become your pom. You can use all the same fabric (which I did for my Christmas pens) or multiple fabrics (party pens), its just personal preference. With the 4 inch strip of fabric I do not use the non-fraying scissors, just regular old fabric shears (the fraying looks great, in my humble opinion, on the pom).

After you have cut your strips of fabric, you will want to take your 4 inch strip and fold it in half width wise and press with an iron. Then you just want to take your scissors and cut slits into your non creased side of fabric (your fabric should be able to open up and still be connected at the base).

Shabby Chic DIY Coasters

I love this DIY project! Its quick, easy, and cheap! Not to mention it makes for great gifts!! What you need is 4 4x4 tiles, whatever you like (I get mine at home depot for 13 cents each), clear acrylic spray, mod podge and brush, felt or cork-board for the bottom of the tiles, and scrapbook paper. You could do this with fabric, leftover wrapping paper, photos, etc., it just depends on what you like, the possibilities are endless. For the mod podge, I like the gloss, but you could definitely use matte if you prefer. Just a side note, I like the real deal mod podge, not the homemade kind (water and Elmer's). I have used both and I like the finished product much better with the real stuff. You can always use a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby so it will only be around $4.

Ok, first thing I did was pick out the scrapbook paper I wanted and cut it into 4 squares (4x4 each). Then I simply podged my tile and placed my square on the tile. You have a few brief seconds to make sure your square is straight and where you want. After that don't mess with it! It will end up being a gooey mess. Once its in place go ahead and start pressing it down firmly to help get rid of any air bubbles (I just use my fingers, but use whatever works for you). Repeat the process three more times (on your other three tiles) then let all four dry about 15-20 min.

The Craft Table Project

Well one day while pining away on Pinterest I ran across a beautiful crafting table. I decided to check out the blog that had posted the "how to" of this craft table and found out that it is a knock-off of a Pottery Barn craft table. It was a thing of beauty so I decided that I would sweet talk my hubby and get one of my very own!

My husband does construction so he was my big helper with this project. We went to Home Depot and got a sheet of wood (hardwood/plywood a step above cabinet grade) because I really wanted to stain it. You could just use MDF and paint but I love the stained look. Anyways, we got the wood, the stain and wood conditioner, as well as the "legs" of the table. The legs are actually Martha Stewart (or you can use closetmaid or whatever you like) 9 cube storage shelves ($39.98 each and you will need 2). You can get these in white or expresso. Obviously I opted for the expresso. Cost for all of our material ended up being just shy of $200, but considering the Pottery Barn original goes for over $1100 then I was OK with that! He cut our board in half (length 38, width 36, table height 36) to "thicken" up the top of the table and then trimmed it. We applied one coat of conditioner and then two coats of stain.

The stain that we used was Miniwax Polyshades Mission Oak Satin. 

My Old crafting area.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 Have a Party!!

Since my boys birthdays are so close together I (when I say I what I really mean is my husband and I) decided to let them have a joint party. We decided to do the party closer to when Sam (the "baby") turned 1. My oldest, Will, turned 2 the month before. Yep they are 1 year 1 month and 1 week apart (and 36 minutes, but hey who's counting). When I was thinking about party ideas I came across another mom's blog for her son's Dr Seuss party and I LOVED it! After consorting with my husband the theme was chosen! Then I became ob-seussed I should say with finding the perfect party decorations. After a little research I decided the pre-made ready to buy decorations were WAY to expensive for a small town family of 4, so DIY was my other option! I started my "projects" about a month and a half before the party and had a BLAST doing them! Almost all of my decorations were DIY and cheap and easy to make. The boys had a wonderful time at their party and so did the adults! Here are some of the things we made...

I found the idea for this on another great blog and it turned out so good! It only

took me an hour and a half and was less than $20 to make! It now hangs on the door to my kids playroom (minus the sign). (http://www.thehighheeledhostess.com) 

Loved using the Happy Birthday to You book by Dr Seuss as the "guest book", each boy had

their own book for everyone to sign and leave them a special birthday message. I made the ink pens with scraps of fabric! Super cute and Super Easy! (http://sewsara.blogspot.com) 

Again really easy and cheap! Just used some scrapbook paper, stickers, and a free 

Dr Seuss font I found on the web. The frame came from the dollar tree and I painted it with

some leftover paint from the kids bathroom (yea, its Dr Seuss too).

I made the boys their own birthday banner with the leftover scrapbook paper and ribbon!

I just traced two sizes of circles (two different sized bowls) and cut out the letters (I have HORRIBLE penmanship so I printed the letters off the computer). I glued it all together and hot glued it on to a long strip of ribbon! They turned out so nice that I made them both high chair banners... I am 1 and I am 2!

These were so fun and easy! I just molded some paper plates, used a little hot glue and covered them with scrapbook paper! Add some fluffy stuff (from a boa I found at Hobby Lobby) and DONE!