DIY Tuesday [Toy Story Shirt]

Last week the twins Auntie Jess placed an order with me for a Jessie [from Toy Story] Shirt. Auntie Jess was going to a Toy Story birthday party and she wanted to dress up like Jessie, such a cute idea!

The twins and I love Toy Story so I was more than excited to do this project! I hand painted the entire shirt [front & back] and it didn't take too much time.

Here's how I did it...

DIY Tuesday [Mickey & Minnie Mouse Painted Shirts]

We got a chance to go to Disneyland yesterday with some friends [for free], we were so excited and extremely thankful.  So, I decided to make all of the kids shirts as a way to thank to our friends  and their family for getting us in. We had a total of 4 kids, two boys and two girls. Naturally I chose to make Mickey & Minnie Mouse Shirts!

I hand painted all of these shirts and they were pretty easy to do.

Quick Craft [Twine Ombre Easter Eggs]

I saw these super cute twine easter eggs the other day and I knew I wanted to do something like this for my Easter/Spring Mantel. They looked cute alone but I want color on the mantel [its so white on its own] so I made these eggs Ombre!


They came out just how I pictured.... Love it when that happens.

They were really simple to make.

Quick Craft [Valentine's Day Onesies]

Happy Valentines Day!!!

So I may or may not have woken up early this morning due to a wild hair... I literally whipped up these onesies in less than an hour. They are really easy. First I went through the twins white onesies that were in the "they don't wear" pile. I mean if I'm going to make shirts they will only wear once I might as well use onesies they almost can't even fit into any more, right?

Here is what I did

DIY Tuesday [Photo-booth]

I love photo-booths, they seriously make parties fun! I've painted two backdrops for photobooths and I thought today I'd share how I made them and tips I've learned from it.

The first photobooth was for my twins' first birthday, it is still my most visited post. I guess everyone LOVES Sesame street.

What you'll need...

DIY Tuesday [Miss you Mugs]

One of my best (and oldest) friends moved to Australia 5 years ago this Valentine's Day. I've been lucky enough to see her through some major life events (our weddings & the birth of the twins) despite the geographical difference, thanks to her ability to fly home about once a year. I think about her often and miss her like crazy and I know she's probably not moving back to the states, ever. So I wanted to make us something we could use every day and think about each other. We share a love of coffee so naturally this was the perfect project! 

Around the House [Valentines Day Mantel]

Its February 1st which means Happy Month of Love! As you know I've been working on my Mantel for a couple of weeks now and I'm excited to say its finished and I'm ready to show it to you.

I've been doing lots of little crafts to help give our mantel a personal, loving and family feel.

Each of these items means something to us as a family. Its even got a photo from the day that started this family, our wedding... front and center.

DIY Tuesday [Valentine's Day Quick Crafts]

I've seen some really great ideas on Pinterest and I knew I just had to recreate a couple.

The best thing about these two crafts? They require very little materials to make.

I personally only needed to buy wooden hearts and sweethearts candy.

[Halloween Costumes]

Halloween was so much fun when I was a kid so naturally with the twins walking and talking (kind of) we're dressing them up this year! Last year they were a little to young to care and I think they still are but oh well, it will be fun for Joe and I.

I naturally want them to coordinate and most boy/girl costumes are couples... (mickey & minnie, donald & daisy, etc.... ) and it would be odd to dress them up that way... but then I remembered their baby shower... Thing 1, Thing 2! Perfect!

I went browsing online only to find this age is hard to buy costumes for.. so I'll just make them!!! (not entirely)

I can knit a little so after a few beanie (much too big..) attempts I came up with a simple pattern, on straight needles [I haven't learned how to use circular needles yet]

Knit:

Cast on 35 stitches (Ends up about 16")
*Knit a row then
Purl a row*

Repeat until the beanie is about 4.5" (toddler beanie)

then
[Row 1] k4, k2tog*repeat
[Rows: 2, 4, 6 & 8 Purl]
[Row 3] k3, k2tog*repeat
[Row 5] k2, k2tog* repeat
[Row 7] k1, k2tog*repeat

Then I sewed the ends together to make a beanie!

I then ordered some plain Red Fleece PJs from here

They just needed a Thing One Thing Two sign.... so I bought some felt and used a black paint pen and made the signs....

Here's the pjs with these signs!

Finished Costumes!

DIY Tuesday [Painted Canvas Art]

 I'm currently working on my fall mantel which I will debut here on the first day of fall. I am VERY excited about it all; fall, pumpkins, cool crisp air.... and my first home with a mantel to decorate!!!

Ok now for some painted canvas art!

I was thinking of something fun I could do with the kids that would look good on my mantel... I saw this on pinterest [the pin] (where else?) and I immediately knew I had to do this with the twins.

Quick DIY: 

You'll Need:

1. Craft Paint:  Black, Orange and White
2. Letter Stickers
3. Paint Brush
4. Canvas (8x8)
5. Little Feet (not pictured here....)

I painted Orange where I was going to place my BOO! Stickers...

After the paint has dried....

Place your stickers.... (I did a little over kill with the orange but eh)

Paint your canvas... Black! Over the stickers...  I totally held my breath as I painted over these!

Let your canvas completely dry... I did two coats of black paint....

Here's the fun part... you'll need these

and these

SO I'd love to show you pictures of how I painted their feet and made the footprints... HOWEVER... This operation took both me and my husband, which left no one to take pictures... 

I had envisioned both feet for both kids but we thought it would have been a little crowded so we went with one for each.... 

Here is the after:

Audree's on left and Aidan's on the right

Now... for the big reveal...... I had my fingers crossed. 

I used an knife to lift up the stickers. I took extra care to not cut the canvas or scratch the paint underneath. 

IT TOTALLY WORKED!!! And I LOVE the way it looks!

I added eyes and mouths to the ghosts and a small 2012 in the corner.

Halloween Canvas Art

Looks good on the mantel :)


More mantel pieces to come ... :)


This craft was shared with:

I'm Topsy Turvy

Live Laugh Rowe

Ginger Snap Crafts

DIY Tuesday [Painted Onesie]

Two things bought on this super cute DIY project...

First: a while ago I saw this super cute post, I loved it and was inspired by it...

Second: I saw this a few weeks ago on pinterest [the pin]....

Today I was cutting into a celery and honestly everything came together! 

Here is my attempt at a painted onesie for my little girl 

Materials Needed:

Onesie

Baby Qtips (I got these off brand ones and they SUCK but they were great for this project)

Fabric Paint 

Celery Stalk

Yarn or string

First I made my celery rose on the Onesie.. and I really like the way it turned out!

Celery Stamped Rose

There are many ways to do this but I kind of wanted to do something quick and easy.. so I used yarn.

I draped it in a three chain necklace way and taped the ends to the top of my onesie. Next I dipped my Qtip into black paint and made guide dots over the yarn... this was just to give me an outline.

I removed the first string and filled in the rest of the chain.

Repeated that process for all three chains. 

And heres the finished product:

I think she likes it! :)




This craft was shared at these link parties:

Im Topsy Turvy

Lil Luna

Ginger Snap Crafts

One Little Mama

Live Laugh Rowe

Fox Hollow Cottage

Painted Wooden Wall Art

Last year I at this time I was VERY VERY pregnant with our twins. I was spending a lot of time dreaming up the perfect nursery... then I came back down to earth and settled on a very functional one. With some adorable wall art.

I've seen tons of different letters on Etsy and instead of spending about 7 bucks a letter.. (the twins names would have cost me about $80) I asked my dad for some help. It just so happened that he had the right tool for the job.

Here's a mini tutorial...


Materials needed:
*Computer
*Printer
*Particleboard (can be purchased at any home improvement place)-One piece should be enough
*Dremel tool (dad had one.. no need to purchase.. borrow one from someone..)
*Paint
*Command Velcro Strips
*Cardstock
*Sander

Step 1. Choose a font you like... and print it the size you want on a thick cardstock.. I think we went with font size 550 or something like that. Either way you want it to be the right size for your wall.

Step 2. Cut out each letter from your cardstock, these will be your stencils

Step 4.  Trace your letters onto your Particleboard

photo from my dad's facebook album :)

Step 5. Cut... Cut... Cut....

Step 6. Once all of your letters are cut out... Sand them down to a nice finished look

Step 7. Plan your design. 

I wanted to match the letters to their bedding.. Here is Aidan's bedding (sorry about the photo quality; took pictures from the internet)

Here's Audree's Bedding

They share a room and these bedding sets "match" in style and theme so I chose to do their letters similarly. I drew my designs out first... deciding on the the bed skirt and sheet style for every other letter and patterns from their quilts for the other letters. (you'll see what I mean in a couple of steps) I highly recommend drawing it out on paper first to see what you like, dont paint until you have a plan!

Step 8. Color Match! I made test colors and painted them on scrap pieces of particle board to make sure the colors would match the fabric when dry...

Step 9. Paint away

We Painted the sides of every letter a dark brown and the top of each letter according to my plan... Here is a partly done painting photo:

The white letters are the "bed skirt and sheet" and the colors are matching the Quilt..

Close up of the one letter... this pattern is found on her quilt, one of the inner squares

The U, R and E match the squares in her quilt and his I and A match his... (his I was later changed....)

The white letters then got a brown stripe down the middle this broke up the "bed skirt" from the "sheet"

The next stage of painting I dont have pictures for (by this time the twins had arrived..) But I can tell you that they were free handed by my husband, who is very artistic.

Step 10. Hang on your wall... we found that using command velcro strips were the easiest way and very secure.. I didn't want these falling on my babies!

Her finished name on the wall..

His finished name...

What you can't see from this photo is his "sheet" painting, its blue swirls and bananas... super cute

***After his name was finished I decided that I didn't like the print throughout the whole letter so we went with a palm tree that was on his quilt. I like it MUCH better....

And there you have it... Hand painted wooden letters, far less than 7 bucks a letter... I think the whole project cost about 25 bucks? and time.. lots of time.

Thanks to my Dad and my husband for all of their help.