Owl Chalkboard Sign

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon in the garage mending my poor little scroll saw. I had neglected it for far too long. It was creaky, dusty and lacked the necessary blades. But what it needed more than anything, I think, was some love. SO that is what I gave it. Cleaned that puppy up and it is good to go! I used to make projects all the time with my scroll saw- sold the stuff even. Somewhere along the line it got pushed to the back of the hobby closet of life (I think it had something to do with my kids growing up and needing me...) ;-)  I am so excited to be able to do my wood crafting again! Trends have definitely changed in the last decade though. I need to find my current style that I identify with and go for it. Finally, I decided that I would make some kind of owl project. Didn't have any definite plans other than that. I sketched out a pattern on the back of a package of sandpaper, traced it onto my pine boards and cut away! I also loved that it gave me a chance to used up some of my ridiculously large scrapbook paper stash and mod podge stuff. Woohoo! I can't wait to figure out what I will make next!

EEK! A Rag Wreath!

I needed a new wreath for my front door since the last ghost one I had made fell to its' death last Halloween. I had seen some wreaths made with plumbers insulating tubing and so I bought some at Lowes to give it a shot. I loved it! Only .50 cents per wreath form! I will make sure to use that idea a whole lot more in the future. This particular wreath is pretty straightforward. Just cut the tubing, tape the ends with strong tape (such as duct tape,) start wrapping it in fabric strips until it is covered and then add the embellished letters using craft wire. The sky is the limit with this!  I added the googly eyes after I thought I was finished. Seemed like it needed a reason to have "EEK" on it. I am supposing that googly eyes do the trick. (Or at least that is what I am telling myself.) I think overall it turned out to be a cute little non-scary front door greeting and has just enough whimsy for me. Happy? Yes.

The other half of the tubing will be turned into a Christmas wreath probably. Unless (I am hoping...) my sister carries through with her threat to come over and make one of these on her own. She was loving it too! (I love crafting with a buddy.) So...We shall see!

Painted Muslin Candy Corn

I bought myself some muslin recently to make a project for my son's birthday. I ended up having some extra. (I may or may not have planned it that way... I will never tell...) Anyway, I went to my treasure trove of inspiration (Pinterest, of course) and came out with a couple of cool ideas for what to do with my new fabric/toy. Here is one of them. So, that got me thinking. This is what I ended up with! Super easy and very primitive/folksy/countrified. Haven't done anything like that in awhile. It felt kind of nice.

Got a couple of other things in the works today, including a framed pumpkin and a "eek" wreath. Busy busy and loving every minute of it. :)

Purchased tag is stamped in dark brown ink
 then edges are inked too.

Make a template and trace around edges.
Cut out and sew pieces together with 1/4 inch seam allowance.
 Leave 1" opening, turn to the right side.
Stuff with fiberfill. Top stitch opening closed. 

Paint each layer with candy corn colors
and allow to dry completely.

The one on the right is distressed.
I like it better that way. Adds character.
Used medium grit sandpaper.

Finished Product!
Twine ties them both together.
 Also added a purchased berry stem for even more fall-ish flair.
Sitting on an aged doilie on my shelf.  

Mickey Birthday Party Wrap-up

Very proud 7 year old pinata conqueror. He still has the remnants (that he insisted on keeping) in his closet. I wonder how long until it hits the trash. (I have already posted about the pinata, if you would like more details.)

It has been a couple of weeks since my youngest son had his 7th birthday bash and I am a bad mommy blogger. I took a bunch of pictures (when I wasn't herding children all around the house from activity to activity...) and had the best of intentions to post them all, but life gets in the way sometimes and I just didn't get around to posting them all in some fabulous creative way. What I have decided to do, so I can move on to bigger and better things, or at least THINK about bigger and better things, is to just post some of the photo highlights from his party. It was a huge success, I can tell you that! Tons of fun was had by all and we loved every minute of it, even though it was 102 degrees that day!! Now, I get a little reprieve from giant birthday parties for awhile since my next child's birthday is in January. Of course, there is a little something called THE HOLIDAYS thrown in there, just in case I get too relaxed...

The cupcakes that took the place of the traditional layer cake. I used my die cut machine to punch out the large circles and hand punches to cut out the smaller ones then attached them to a toothpick. Couldn't be easier!

Here is a closeup of one of the yummy cupcakes. I punked out and went with a store bought cake mix, but made the buttercream from scratch and practiced my piping skills with a pastry bag and added sprinkles.

                     

I bought some Double Stuf Oreos and red chocolate melty discs (found at Michael's craft store) and couldn't figure out what to do to make the buttons on Mickey's "pants." Then I found tapioca pearls at WinCo in the bulk section and thought they would work perfectly. I think they did! These were almost as big of a hit as the caramel corn.

Red Vines had to be a part of the celebration, according to my son, so I wrapped them in Mickey Mouse scrapbook paper and put them on a tray. Tada! Simple.

This is the yummiest caramel corn that I have ever tasted. I did a blog post on it already so I will spare you the details, but, OH MY!! It is good. Check out the post on it for the recipe. :)

Found this idea on Pinterest.com. I thought it would make an adorable centerpiece. You can't tell, but the pail it's in used to be hot pink until it was spray painted black along with the styrofoam balls.) 

I got this goody bag idea on Pinterest too. I found the black bags at Hobby Lobby and used white vinyl punched out and cut red cardstock for the bottom.

This was the "private" cake that my son requested. It need a cake topper but would have looked funny with one of those tiny ones from the other cupcakes, so I whipped this one up LITERALLY at the last minute (which explains the lopsided edges.) I just sketched the shapes free-handed and taped them to a skewer and plopped them in the middle of the cake as guests were walking in the door. REALLY should have planned ahead for that one. Kinda stressed me out a little. lol...

These are cake stands I made from thrift store finds- random plates and candlesticks. I just used E6000 glue to attach the candlesticks to the plates. The red and white ones got a coat of spray paint and the clear stayed clear, of course. Less than $5.00 for all three! I love that! I just cut the shapes out of vinyl with my Cricut and can change them up for the seasons later. 

One of the games we played was a classic, the bean bag toss. I sketched out a Mickey head shape onto muslin, cut them out and then sewed them and stuffed them with rice. I then spray painted them and added a vinyl Mickey head shape to the front of a white bucket we already had. This was a pretty good game and worked well for all age groups. I mean, how can you go wrong with beanbags?! Pretend that you don't notice the 2 liter bottle of fruit punch that my son has in his hands. Just move along. Nothing to see here.) ;-)

This game was a fun one too. However... I can't believe this is the ONLY picture I have of it. Dang it. I called it the Hidden Mickey game. Originally, I had planned on making this an outdoor game but since it was so hot that day, we had to move it inside. I printed a Mickey head silhouette on regular printer paper, cut them into squares and added point values to the back of the paper. Then shoved about 125 pieces into rice that was filling a HUGE Tupperware bowl. Then they were blindfolded and they had to use one hand to pull out as many Hidden Mickey's as they could in 45 seconds. Whoever had the most points, won. Messy but FUN!! Even the grown-ups loved it!

Can't forget the birthday shirt! Yet another not-so-fabulous photo. Can't win them all! I made this after I showed the idea to my son and  he loved it. Another Pinterest idea. He looked so cute in it, I must say. Super fun! (Check out my blog post about this shirt if you would like to know details.)

Mason's Mickey Mouse Birthday T-shirt

I saw a version of this shirt on Pinterest. (I am so thankful for that site. Still finding inspiration for projects every day. How did I live without it?!) I loved this idea for a "cool dude" shirt for my son to wear at his 7th birthday party. I showed a picture of the idea and he gave me his enthusiastically typical thumbs up sign. Hooray! It just so happened that the shirts were on sale at Michael's that week so I picked one up and came home to get started. First step was to cut out the shapes or design that I wanted to use and then I attached them to the front with double-sided adhesive tape. (I used scratch paper but if I did it again, I would  use card stock or vinyl letters. It turned out to be hard to keep the letters crisp and firmly attached to the shirt. Luckily I am not a huge perfectionist. (though the "o"  and one of the legs on the "m" still bug me to this day. lol.) So, once the letters/shapes are firmly attached, put a plastic bag inside the shirt so the back will be protected and tuck under the sleeves. Then fill some kind of spray bottle 3/4 full with bleach and 1/4 full with water and then spray away! I left the shirt on the bushes in front of my house for about an hour in the full sun and it was completely dry and ready to use in that amount of time. I really loved the results. Obviously each one would be unique and depending on which color shirt you choose, the effect will be different too! I saw a pink one (on Pinterest) that had white accents when bleached. I want to try a red one and see what will happen. Seems like a fun thing to do at a slumber party. I am keeping this idea in the memory bank for later. ;-)