Ballerina Bag

My daughter has been in love with ballet for quite awhile now, and it seems like we spend more and more time at ballet practices and programs. We used to just throw her stuff in whatever bag that was laying around the house, and I would always see all of the cute ballet bags at the studio and contemplate spending way too much money to get her one. Until today. I finally decided that I would attempt to make her a bag myself. I remembered that I had kept her backpack from preschool and thought it would be a perfect size. It is just a little bit smaller than regular size backpacks, so it is perfect. This is what it looked like to begin with:

 

I decided that a ballet bag definitely had to have ribbons and fuzziness, so I dolled it up a little bit more. I started out by taking a cute piece of fabric and sewing it to the front pocket.

 

I also found some super fuzzy yarn and crocheted it into a single chain and placed it all around the edges of the fabric. This not only made it cute, but it also made it unnecessary for the fabric to be absolutely perfect on the seams of the bag.

 

I definitely wanted to put a cute little ballerina on the bag, but I had one problem. I recently ran across a way to be able to run fabric through your printer to print directly on it, and I thought this was a brilliant idea. The directions said that you need freezer paper and a spray adhesive agent. The only problem was I didn't have either of those things, so I decided to improvise. I used a 4x6 piece of photo paper and sprayed it with hairspray before laying my piece of fabric on it. I then cut the fabric so that it was perfectly the same size as the photo paper. And then I said a prayer....It worked!

 

 

Add a little pink ribbon as an outline and tada, cute little ballerina  :)

 

Of course I had to add a bow for my princess. I changed her embroidered name from purple to black with a black sharpie, and it worked out so well.

 

 

Claire's new bag. I hope she likes it! A cute bag for a cute little ballerina.

 

 

 



Calendar

With three kids life keeps getting crazier and crazier, and I definitely needed a good calendar to have out for everyone to stay on schedule. The only problem is that most calendars I have found at the store aren't the cutest looking things, so I decided to just make my own. Here's the finished product:

I started out by buying a regular white magnetic dry erase board from the store.

 

I also found some cute packages of scrapbook paper in the craft section and some precut circular magnets. (I had bought magnetic sheets as well but they didn't work out very well.)

 

I had an old mirror that I wasn't using, and I really like the frame on it so I decided to use the frame for this project.

 

 

I used the clear piece of a 20" x 30" poster board frame for the front of my calendar. I measured out and drew a calendar grid with permanent marker on the plastic piece.

 

 

I then took the scrapbooking paper and mod podged it to the dry erase board.

 

 

Because the plastic piece was bigger than the board and the frame was bigger than the plastic piece, I created a mat frame around the calendar by covering cardboard with white paper.

 

 

I made the numbers by covering the circular magnets with the scrapbooking paper and then printing off some numbers to glue onto them. This will make it easier so that you don't have to write new numbers at the beginning of every month. I also made a special section on the board to write the month. The design possibilities are really endless here.

 

 

This was definitely a fun project. I would recommend buying some dry erase markers othen than the ones that come with the board because they aren't always the greatest quality.

Hope you like it :)

 

 



Hairbows

Right now I'm working on a project that has taken longer than originally intended. I have been meaning to put the pics up on here, but since it's not done I decided to share some of my bows that I made last fall. I know a lot of people are making bows now but I decided to make these because they were cute and different. Some of these bows were very time consuming while others didn't take long to make at all. Let me know what you think :)


Pumpkin Bow

Little Miss Spider

Pink Turkey

 

The Harry Potter Room

Like most kids his age and half the world, my son has read all of the Harry Potter books and watched all of the movies. He loves it so much that I decided to make him a Harry Potter themed bedroom. I've been working on this project for a long time, and I'm so excited that it is finally complete. I didn't take pictures along the way because I was still toying with the idea of creating a blog, so I apologize for that.

I went for the "dorm room-like" feel to try and replicate Harry's room at Hogwarts. I got the curtains from Walmart for $10 a piece, which I felt was a great price for these curtains and the look I needed.

This picture shows the entrance to his "dorm".  I used made this sign with a pre-cut piece of wood and some paint.

 

These are the "potions" that I made. I purchased the glass jars from Hobby Lobby, and found the printable labels with a tutorial here. I made the yellow and green liquid by putting highlighters in the water and letting them sit over night. It worked perfectly. I also made the bubbly look just by using gorilla glue. It naturally bubbles up like that, so I just helped it run down the side. I decided to super glue all of the potions to a wooden decorative dish that I had already had in the garage. I figured this would keep from having bottles get knocked over everywhere.



 

I also had an anwesome find from a rummage sale. This is a little trunk that originally had some ugly floral design on it.  I just painted over it and mod podged the Hogwarts seal onto the trunk.

 

The robe was super easy for me. I just graduated from college, so I used my robe from graduation as the wizard robe. I crocheted a red and yellow scarf to go along with the robe. I also made a custom broom for him because I couldn't ever find a broom that I liked in the store. I found the broom bristle at Hobby Lobby in the floral section, and my husband found the stick in our neighbor's yard. I just tied twine around the bristle to attach it to the stick...... instant magic!

 

 

This was one of my favorite projects....the lamppost! I hand painted the signs on small pieces of wood and purchased the top of the light.  For the rod on the lamp I used a curtain rod that I had already had in my garage. My husband assembled the lamp and ended up using a plastic piece from the garden section of the store for the base. I can't explain all of the ends and outs of how he made the rest of it because I'm no electrition.

I also custom made some furniture to match the room. I took a dresser and night stand that I had found on Craigslist and an entertainment center/armoire that I found for free and repainted them. I was super excited about trying a matte/gloss stenciling technique. Overall I feel like they turned out well; however, if I had to do it again I would change a few things. When stenciling the furniture, I first painted everything a flat matte black, after that I stenciled on a black paint in gloss to get the effect of the stencil. I ended up creating my own stencil so that I didn't have to pay $30 for one. I simply found a pattern that I liked online and cut that pattern out of a plastic folder that I got from the dollar store. Looking back, I should have added a top coat over the matte paint before I added the gloss paint because I could not find a top coat that I could use on both of them without losing the pattern.

 

 

I was also really excited about how the wall decor turned out. I made floating books for the wall. I got this idea from a tutorialthat I found online where they used book ends to hang the books. I couldn't find book ends so I just used large L brackets, and it worked out really well. The prize find for this design was the melting clock I found at Hobby Lobby. It really made the wall look super cute.

 

 

I also created a box like the letter Harry received as the acceptance to Hogwarts. I made the top of the box look like the letter by printing some pictures off and mod podging them to the box. I then dirtied the box up a little to make it look well traveled.

 

 

I went ahead and put his Harry Potter wand in the box for safe keeping.

 

 

I made this wand out of a dowel rod, some paper, and a hot glue gun. It was really fun to make. Here's one of the tutorials that helped me.

 

I also decided to frame some quotes from the book.

 

 

 

I decided to add a little charm to the light switch.

 

 

And of course he had to represent his team!

 

 

The lampshade I decided to poke holes in to let a design shine through. I just printed a design off and taped it to the lamp shade. I then poked holes in the lamp shade with a needle.

 

 

And of course no Harry Potter room would be complete without Hedwig with a handmade Gryffindor scarf....

 

 

 

First Timer

Well I know how much I enjoy reading other people's blogs, so I decided to start one of my own finally. This is just a walk in the life of a Mommy with a bunch of crazy kids. Enjoy :)