Spring Break Crafting & Honey-Do's

During Spring Break, I had some extra time to complete some honey-do items. 

First, I started with a mirror that we had at our old house that was gold. We no longer wanted it to be gold, so the spray paint came out!

I used painters tape and newspaper to mask off the mirror area. I used 3M painters tape. 

We didn't want the spray paint to be flat, so we tried this Forged Hammered finish silver spray paint bought at the local hardware store. 

The end result was very nice! This Forged Hammered finish allows for any little imperfections to look natural. 

The next item I worked on was hanging the flag. We bought a nice mount for the the flag and used a standard mount for it. It's starting to look and feel like home!

Finally, I bought two hooks from Ikea to hang some folding chairs in the garage. 

It was a little hard to hang the hooks, but the overall effort was worth it! I think I'll buy a couple more to hang more chairs. These hooks will hold three chairs. 

Monthly Baby Onesies

I wanted to give a unique gift to a friend who recently had a baby. So, I decided to make onesies that had 1-12 on them for her to take a picture as the baby progresses each month. 

I made sure I washed the onesies before I started and used simple iron-on transfers purchased at Michael's. 

Then I found a square box to put them into and wrapped it nicely for a little girl. I did make the onesies pretty gender-neutral. I also bought various sizes so the kid could grow into them!

How to Make Hand-Painted Signs

I used my Michael's coupons to get wooden signs very inexpensively! So, I had to decide what to do with them. So I'm making a variety of signs to sell at a local craft sale. 

Here's my technique and supplies:

Wooden signs

Sayings printed on paper

Ball-point pen

Charcoal sticks

Acrylic paints and brushes

Start by painting the signs with the desired color. 

While that dries, color the backside of the paper with printed sayings with charcoal. I only colored the printed areas. 

Flip the page over onto your sign. You can tape it down if needed. Then using a ball-point pen, outline the words of the printed sheet so the charcoal transfers to the sign. 

Using the acrylic paints, fill in the letters. This does take a steady hand, but looks great. 

After a couple of mini touch-ups, I can see the final product on a little girl's treehouse or bedroom door. 

I did another one for a laundry room sign as well. This sign came painted white already. 

When it's dry, I will outline this sign with a thin Sharpie marker to make it stand out more. 

Give Thanks Banner

For Thanksgiving, I wanted a banner for the mantle, so I found a pre-made burlap set at Hobby Lobby. I then used a variety of scrapbook paper to cut out the letters. I used Photoshop to type the letters and reverse them. I traced the letters from the computer screen with the printed side face down (so the pencil was on the backside). 

I then cut out each letter and glued them to the banner using Elmer's Craft Bond. This was an easy craft to help make the house warm and ready for Thanksgiving. 

Coffee Table Revitalization

Since the move, we have been working on using some of the furniture we had already and sprucing it up. This is one of those said projects. 

We started with an ordinary coffee table. 

Pretty unsuspecting and drab at best, it had some dings to it, but structurally sound. 

Next, we used a primer to paint the whole thing white before we used our furniture paint. I bought all of the painting supplies at Lowe's. 

After we let that dry (overnight), we used a Valspar furniture paint and had it tinted with their Moon Shade color. 

It took two coats of paint, allowing for dry-time in between the two coats. 

The finished product turned out awesome! 

Crap Wars

So if you ever watch those "war" reality TV shows where people compete against each other, you'll know that they can get a little ridiculous. One of those such shows is "Craft Wars." The project I recently created was inspired by "Craft Wars." Every time my sister and I watched the show, we thought they were saying "Crap Wars," so we would laugh hysterically. 

I wanted to make a sign to designate our crafting area in our new house. I found a blank sign at my local Michael's. 

I measured and divided the board into equal parts according to the number of letters in "Crap Wars." I researched different font styles I liked online--I wanted a retro-style and something I could easily draw by hand. I made sure I used my ruler to help me along the way. 

Then I used the lines as a guide to cut out to use the paper as a stencil. An Exacto-Knife would work fine to cut out the letters. 

Next I drew the lines in pencil on the board. I used this as a starting point to fill in using Sharpies. Fine-tip Sharpies worked well. 

I liked the color-fade of these colors. It reminded me of a beach sunset. 

I think my sis liked her present for her 30th birthday! 

Pinterest Inspiration

A while back, when I needed an awesome housewarming gift for my dear friends, Melissa and Mark, I decided to use inspiration from a pin on Pinterest. 

First, I found a great silver tin with a see-through top at The Container Store.

Secondly, I purchased a variety of cupcake papers for different occasions from my local grocery store. While arranging them in the tin box, I separated and divided them up so they looked varied and colorful. I also bought sprinkles to decorate cupcakes. The more colors, the better!

Next, I found cute cupcake accessories (spatulas, recipe cards, and cake tester) from Crate & Barrel. 

The final product was very cute. I was sure to find cupcake wrapping paper and a cupcake-themed card for the couple. This was a fun and easy diy gift! Thanks Pinterest! This will be the first of many "updates" now that summer has begun!

TCAP Promo 2013

To promote TCAP excellence at The Academy, we created a couple of videos this year. As always, thanks to everyone who participated! Can't wait to start brainstorming ideas for next year...

Yellow Rock Science Presentation

TCAP Promo 2012

Each year at The Academy, the teachers have an annual assembly to get our students pumped up about taking the TCAP test (formerly known as the CSAP). It has become a tradition to also make a movie featuring teachers and students getting ready for the big day!

We decided we needed to up the ante some from last year's movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzjeZn_n1AM&feature=youtube_gdata_player.

So here is the final 2012 TCAP movie product:

Dry Erase Calendar

Again, inspired by Pinterest and with the abundance of time these days (winter break ends tomorrow), I decided to take on this dry erase calendar project. 

I modified it to work with the frame I had. I found an 8x10" frame on sale at Staples for $4. In some ways, I wish I had found a larger frame. I wouldn't recommend doing this for anything smaller than 8x10" for the simple fact that it's more work. You have to measure out the space available for each square, which doesn't equal an easy 2x2" block as the original project suggests.

Supplies:

Frame (12x16" would work best)

Paint chips (choose your favorite colors)

Glue ( I used a scrapbooking glue stick, but even Elmer's would work)

Dry erase marker

Cut paint chips to the size needed. I cut and measured everything before I glued them down. I just used the paper already found inside of the frame to glue the chips down. If the frame does not come with one, you will need a sturdy piece of paper to glue all of the paint chips together.

I love how easy it is to change the calendar! It's a nice decorative piece. You can also add embellishments to the days of the week, since those are standard. I left them blank for now and drew on the glass with the dry easer marker. I might go back in and design something more permanent on the actual tiles later.

First Christmas Together Ornament

After perusing pins on Pinterest, I saw and loved an ornament idea, so I decided to make it for my lovely friend Jennifer who recently got married. I had saved her save the date card, wedding invitation, and little embellishments from the wedding day itself. 

 First take an empty ornament bulb. Be sure you can remove the top.Cut out the important details from the wedding invitations and any other documents you wish to preserve.  I used decorative scissors to cut out each piece. Roll the pieces of paper along a pencil so they will slide into the ornament. 

I bought this amazing glitter set from Martha Stewart. I chose the best colors that matched their invitation and poured an abundence of glitter! I have to admit, larger sized glitter works best.   
           

Then I hot-glued the lid on top. After that, I added a red bow to finish the ornament! It was a lot of fun to make, and I didn't feel bad throwing away the wedding invitation afterwards. I knew the event was preserved and the couple will have a little token to remember their very first Christmas together!

It was super easy to make and inexpensive. The inspiration of others on Pinterest is incredible!