Children's Art Wall

We have 5 kids and they make a lot of pictures for us to enjoy.  Our refrigerator is stainless steel, which means it's not magnetic, and therefore the only way to display their art was taping it to the wall.  Um, not ideal.  So I saw this idea on Pinterest (originally pinned from The Project Girl, who found it in the Utah Valley Parade of Homes):

I loved it!  The only deal breaker is that it's white.  5 kids and 3 dogs and white are not a match made in heaven.  So I picked up a bunch of blues, greens, and purples to make my background.

I picked 8 different colors and then spread each color all over a piece of plywood and mixed them together in the brush strokes.  Don't worry about it being perfect, just splatter it randomly around.

The entire sheet was done in about 8 sections so the paint wouldn't dry before I got to mixing it together.

I cut it down to 4' x 6' and then nailed it to the wall with my nail gun.  I screwed eyelet screws into pine boards and then nailed all the trim on top of the background.  Then I added picture wire between the eyelets for the kids to hang their artwork on.

A quick little close up:

I finished it off with a little paintable caulk to fill the holes and painted the pine boards to match the rest of the house trim.  Now the kids can hang their art as they finish it and change it out on a whim.  The best part is that they have a dedicated art space in the center of the home where it has a place of honor and everyone can enjoy it.

Tomato Cage Trees

I found an idea on Pinterest (originally from Lucy Designs) that I wanted to try out. But, since she doesn't have a tutorial, I thought I'd explain a few things about it that I was wondering as I went into this project.





What you need:
2 urns/pots
2 tomato cages (these were 56 inches from tip to end)
Garland (for my size of cage it took 6 of the 9 foot garlands, or 54 feet, for each tree)
Lights (I used two 100 light (24 foot) strings per tree)

The total height of my finished trees is 67 inches. As I was buying the tomato cages (yup, they do still have some at Home Depot) I checked the fit of the cages to the pots and it was perfect to sit in there as they were. They are not in any way secured to the pots and can lift right out. I love this because it means I can store the trees and use the pots throughout the year and when the plants die in the fall I can just set the trees over the top of the pot and into the rim.



Since I just bought these pots, the inside is still completely empty. If you live in a windier area I would suggest filling it with dirt or rocks. You could also stick a piece of pipe into the filler to tie the cage to so it wouldn't blow away. Luckily my entry way is protected so I didn't have to do this, despite the amount of wind we get here.



At the top I used a small piece of wire (twist ties would probably work as well) to secure the ends together.



Two people have come over so far and neither noticed it wasn't an actual tree till I told them, though it helps that the wreath is real so the front porch smells like trees. :) I may still put some ribbon on them, not sure, but for now I think they look really pretty.



I also really like the nighttime look of the cage and lights without garland, though I'm not sure how pretty it would be in the daytime. (See it here)

Dollhouse: Stairs

The rest of the dollhouse story can be found at
Part I - The original derelict
Part II - Fixing her up
Part III - Repaired and pretty

A couple months ago I showed you the dollhouse I had when I was little that I fixed up for my kids.



Now I thought I might show you how my dad built those original stairs that stood up to all those years of abuse. The stairs are built from a single board, just one piece of 2x4. You can use a radial arm saw or a circular saw (you may want to make a jig for the second option). The blade is tilted at a 45 degree angle and the cuts are made 1/2" apart. Cut all of the angles one direction, turn the board around and cut them the other way. Now it looks like teeth.





Now it's just a matter of tipping it up to nail it in place and you have sturdy stairs that will stand the test of years and kiddos.

300 posts, a Tutorial, and a Giveaway

300 posts! My little blog is getting so big. As promised today I am doing a giveaway, the info is at the end of this post. (This giveaway is now closed but the tutorial is still good!)

This is the necklace I showed you yesterday and today I'm going to show you how simple it is to make if you want to try it out.



You need beading wire, a small piece of tiger tail or a beading needle, seed beads, and 1-2 dozen larger beads that have a hole small enough the seed beads don't fit inside.



If you are using tiger tail you can fold it in half and crimp the end (as pictured) to make a threading needle that will hold your thread. String 16 seed beads, 1 large bead, and then 5 more seed beads.



Count back to the 11th bead of the 16 (leaving 5 after it before the large one) and run the thread through that bead a second time in the same direction as you did originally.



Pull the loose thread through and this is what you will have. Now repeat this until the bracelet/necklace is the desired length. Now just tie off your ends and secure to your fastener and your creation is done!



I now have a bracelet to match the necklace, made in about 40ish minutes.



(This giveaway is now closed)
And now for the fun GIVEAWAY details! In order to thank all of you wonderful followers for visiting me I am giving away the bracelet below, handmade by me, to one of you. If you are a follower of this blog (or become one), leave a comment below to enter for it. I'll pick a random winner on Saturday at 12:00. That's it! If you don't have an email in your profile you can leave it in the comments (but use "at" instead of "@" to keep junk mail from picking it up). Good luck!

Upcycle: Curtain Hooks to Magazine Rack

Day 11/31:



I'm a romantic. I'm so romantic that for my 1st anniversary I made my husband something that goes in the bathroom... To be fair it was because all of the reading material in there is his and I knew how much he hated having it on the floor. Picking something he would want and would use everyday seems like the good way to go. And, he likes it so that's good.

This was our magazine situation before



See? We couldn't even open the door fully. Boo.



Out in the garage I found all this junk and decided to give it a new purpose. 3 curtain hooks that don't match anything else in our home and scrap wood left over from other projects around the house.



It needed a couple quick cuts on the saw, a little pre-drilling, and a handful of screws.



A little sanding on all the edges and 3 coats of spray paint were next.



After it dried overnight I hung it on the wall. Always make sure at least one of the screws hits a stud, two if possible. In this case I just screwed directly through the back since the magazines will cover the screws up anyway.



Does anyone else find it odd that Martha Stewart baked a Wii cake? Since she doesn't own a microwave I'm guessing she also doesn't own a Wii so it seems out of place somehow. Am I crazy (about this)?

Wax Paper Stained Glass

Day 10/31:



A fun craft almost anytime of year is making fake stained glass with crayons and wax paper. You just lay down a sheet of wax paper, add crayon shavings, and top it with another layer of wax paper. Cover with a paper towel, lightly iron, and cut your shape out after it rehardens. Nice and simple.



It makes a pretty window hanging and the kids can do it, too. So I tried that this weekend and decided that, although really pretty, it didn't quite look like stained glass. Something was missing. See it there?



Yup, there aren't any lines on it. I started thinking about how to put lines on it and puffy paint (a sensation for almost every girl raised in the 80s) came to mind. Since my stash dried up somewhere around '95 I went to the store to get it and was bummed they didn't have any black or dark brown. But they did have gold so I decided to work with that.

To know where to put the lines I put my stained glass picture over the wax leaf and traced with a knife where the lines should go.



That left me with this:



Then I started outlining. I messed up on a couple of spots on the left and it made a mess but I just left it to dry and cut that part off later.



And it's stained glass! It does actually look fairly realistic and a friend that came over this weekend thought it was stained glass till I told her how I did it.



I also made a bat for fun. This might have turned out better with less crayon shavings (less crayon = more see through) but it was a good first try.





Have you tried making these before? Do you have any tips or tricks you found useful in the process?



also sharing this at:

Coin Art

Day 5/31:



Ever since I started using the stones for my cabinet doors I started thinking about other things I collect but don't get to visually enjoy in my home. I have a fairly large foreign coin collection but they all just sit in a jar on a desk. Occasionally we dump them out and look through them but usually they are just, well, there. They aren't worth anything but they're pretty and I wanted to highlight them somehow.



I had a couple of frames in the closet so I grabbed those.



I removed the back and started filling in with all the coins that would fit.



I added a drop of Elmer's Glue-All (which is fairly quick drying) to each coin to hold them in place. Originally I did try a spray adhesive but that failed quite miserably for this project. The Glue-All is holding well.



After I put the backs on again I flipped them over and left them to sit for a bit while the glue dried. The reason that I flipped them during this time is so that all of the coins, thin or thick, would get contact with the back and glue correctly.



I hung them in the downstairs hallway and now I can enjoy them every day instead of just once a year!