Craft Time! Celebration Banners – 3 Ways

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a crafty post.  Since my main little crafter hasn’t been as interested in crafting lately (hello, it’s too nice outside, Mommy…) I decided to do a post about crafting for kids instead of crafting with kids 🙂

For the last little while, I’ve been noticing a lot of fabric celebration “banners” popping up all over the internet.  Basically, they are reusable banners meant to replace disposable, cheapy paper banners that are so popular at birthday parties, baby showers, weddings etc…  They are for sale on Etsy, and are all over the DIY section of Pinterest.  So, being the I-can-totally-do-that-myself type of person that I am, I decided to take a crack at a few myself.

Since I am so NOT a sewer, I only tackled the types that require scissors, fabric scraps, string and a glue gun.  Even letting me use a glue gun is pushing it, but I managed not to burn myself 😉

The first type I tried was the most time consuming.  I used scraps of flannel that I actually bought from the fabric store (clearance bin).  It hurt to spend money on this, but I was going for a certain look.  I measured and cut out the triangles and glued them, spaced evenly, to the ribbon.

View from the front:

View from the back:

And the final product:

I really liked doing this one.  It took me two evenings to make; the first night to cut, and the second night to glue.  Difficulty level: 2/10, only because a glue gun is involved.  I like the unisex color scheme and plan to use this one at home for birthday parties.  It folds up nicely when it’s not being used and can be stored easily in a drawer or a closet.

I think I’ve disclosed to you before that I am a terrible hoarder of craft supplies.  By far, my favorite items to collect have always been tape and glue (that’s totally normal, right?) but coming in a close second, is string and ribbon.  I just love them.

So for my next type of banner, I decided to only use items that I already had.  This included some waxed twine and scraps of fabric leftover from some old clothes, curtains and cushion covers.

Isn’t this string pretty?  Ha ha!

For this banner, I cut out some squares of fabric and cut some slits in the top of each square.  I threaded the twine through, making loose knots as I went along in order to keep each square in place.  I didn’t measure anything with this one, just eyeballed it as I went.

Here is the final banner.  I made loops at the ends of the twine so it could be hung easily.

Another view.  I liked how this one looked a little more casual, almost like it could be used outside for a backyard type of party.  Difficulty level 1/10.  Requires knowledge of scissors 🙂  This one only took about 2 hours to make.

And for my final banner, I decided to try more of a “streamer” type of look.  You’ll recognize some of the same fabrics in this one.  It was by far the easiest one I made, and had a totally different feel to it.

All I did was cut my fabric into long strips, and loop them onto the same waxed twine.  My strips were about two inches wide, and as long as the fabric scraps I already had(somewhere in between 2′ and 3′ long), keeping in mind that the fabric strips will be folded in half.  The beauty of this type of banner is that you can do anything you want and it is SO easy!  Seriously, I can’t stress how easy this was.

Here is a close up of the “knots” on the twine:

I used about 40 strips total to make this one, but it can be as wide as you like:

The final look:

This one was simple enough that you could easily justify making one over buying one, because you can finish it faster than it would take you to drive to the store.  It took my about 20 minutes to make this.  Difficulty level 1/10, only because scissors are involved.

I think this one would be a great project for older kids who have a bit of patience, because it is so forgiving.  It would be an awesome thing they could help make for their own birthday party.  Think camouflage colors for an army themed party (like Griffin had last year), or pinks and purples for a princess party – how awesome would that look?!

I totally loved making these.  I think they are a great use for leftover fabrics (and I know a lot of you save fabric scraps), and are environmentally friendly.  Just say NO to dollar store plastic decorations!!  These ones can be used year after year.  And OMG, think of the possibilities at Christmas time…. 🙂

Have you ever made celebration banners at home? 

The Evolution of Kiddie Crafting

If you’ve been following along with us for awhile, you’ll know that we (particularly Griffin and I), spend a LOT of time making things together.  It’s our common ground.  I may not be great at having army battles, or playing video games, I can whip up a boat or an army tank out of paper like nobody’s business.  I love that I’m the one Griff comes to when he has an idea about something he wants to make, or when one of his homemade toys needs to be fixed.  And I totally love that he spends just as much time playing with his cardboard toys as he does playing with his yucky plastic ones.

Here’s the problem though.  I’ve created a monster.

His bedroom is overrun with his creations (I mean, they are everywhere), and I regularly catch him digging through our recycling bin to look for supplies for his projects.  I still feel bad about the day he was rummaging through our paper recycling bin and found several of his own items in there.  Oops.  (Parenting tip #231 – be more careful when throwing out your kids’ stuff).  Much to Ken’s delight, we even have people who save their egg cartons/bottle caps/paper towel tubes/cardboard/boxes/bread tags/popsicle sticks/corks, and deliver them to our house, because they know how much we use.  Hey, it’s art AND recycling 🙂

I totally love it.  BUT, there is a downside.  This is what our kitchen table now looks like full-time:

We now eat on the floor, picnic-style 🙂

I can put up with the mess, but this is what I’m struggling with… He doesn’t need me anymore.  All I am to him is the supplier of the goods and the wielder of the glue gun.  Gone are the days of scouring Pinterest for cool ideas and working together to create something amazing.  Now it’s, “Mommy, you need to buy more tape,” and “can you move?  I need more space.”

Sniff, sniff.

But I love his focus and determination, and how he works towards making whatever it is he sees in his head.  I even love moving all the furniture out of the way so he can make an epic-ly large castle for his G.I Joe figures:

Here is one side of the castle. He drew tanks all over it and put an electric fence along the roof to keep the bad guys out. Cool huh?

I am happy to put up with the crafty messes he makes, and the personal rejection because I believe so stongly in art for kids.  Music and sports come in a close second, but for me, art and creativity will always reign supreme.  It is problem solving, it is co-ordination, it is balancing and calming.  Like exercise for the soul.

And while Griffin is busy becoming an independent artist here at home, I’m not too upset that he may not need me as much anymore, because I’ve got another protege coming up through the ranks.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our newest artist-in-training…

“Ooooh, stickers!”

It’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it?

How important is art in your home?  What kinds of things do your kids like to make?

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Happy Friday to everyone, and Happy March Break to the Nova Scotia kiddies!  We’ll be hanging around close to home next week if anyone wants to come over and build something.  BYO toilet paper tubes 🙂

 

The Day I Tried To Make a Cake

So I haven’t been around too much these days and I have some really good reasons as to why I’ve been M.I.A.  One reason is that I’ve just been unusually busy doing the photography thing lately.  Another reason is that it’s cold and I’m kind of lazy.  But, my best excuse is that I’ve been working on masterpieces like THIS!

Let me explain…

Sunday was Jace’s 2nd birthday.  Since I was busy with photo shoots and a wedding show all week, we decided to celebrate with pizza and cake on Saturday night.  I realized that I would not have time to do everything myself, so I bought all the food, drinks, and presents…things I would normally try to make.  But I decided that I could totally make the cake myself – heaven forbid we buy a cake at the store.  Griff and I had big plans to decorate it with chocolate cookie crumbs and gummi worms; it was going to be awesome.  My job was just to make the cake and get it ready for decorating.

The cake came out of the oven looking good – cooked perfectly in the middle (I struggle with the whole baking thing, so I thought I was pretty freaking fantastic at this point).  I even let it cool off for awhile before I decided to slap the icing on (amazing restraint on my part).  That’s when it all started to go downhill.

That b*tch of a cake started to tear, slide and crumble.  I swear at one point I heard it laughing.  I spend the next 15 minutes or so trying to patch that sh*t up, and it just got worse and worse.  I honestly don’t know what happened, I mean, people do this every day, so I couldn’t figure out what went so horribly wrong.

After hearing the cursing and crying, Griff wandered into the kitchen.  The look on his face went from shock, to confusion, back to shock.  At one point, I seriously thought he was going to cry.

Do you like his new Lloyd Christmas haircut? Ugh.

But then, his wheels started turning, and he said, “Can I eat it?”

Because he has sugar running through his veins just like his Mama, of course I said yes.  And we dug in.

And then Ken walked in.  And we saw the same look of shock and confusion on his face.  And then he did what any good Daddy would do…

Best day of Griffin’s life.  Poor Jace was sleeping and missed it all.

So that’s the story behind the photo of Ken you may have seen on Facebook the other day.  From now on I’ll splurge on the $8.00 cake from Sobeys and not kid myself into thinking I can do it myself.  Leave it to the pros, right Christine?!

So what about the new cake?  Did Jace like it?  You can be the judge…

It ended up looking just like my cake in the end 🙂

Happy Birthday Jace!

Redecorating on a $0 Budget – Painting Furniture

While January can be a b*tch of a month as far as weather and finances go, I do like the fact that things slow down a bit this time of year.  We stay home more and we can get some things done around the house that we wouldn’t otherwise get to do when the nice weather begs us to get outside.  Evenings are spent drinking wine under cozy blankets on the couch or working on projects around the house instead of playing outside until until dark.

It’s also the time of year when I find myself looking around the house at our decor and thinking, “Ugh, I don’t think I like that anymore,” or “WHAT was I thinking when I bought that?”  I like to change things up in the house once in awhile, but because we’re in the post-holiday financial pinch that a lot of people are in, there’s not a lot of extra money in the budget for shopping.  And because we’ve gone to one steady salary, it’s getting harder and harder for me to sneak purchases into the house without Ken knowing.  So I’ve had to get creative 🙂

Last weekend I was up for a little project, and it involved this little beauty that I’ve had since I was a teenager (yes, while other teenage girls were spending their money on clothes and makeup, I was hoarding furniture and dishes for my future self).

This is a cabinet that I commissioned my father to make for my birthday about 16 years ago (yikes!).  After all these years and being dragged around to countless apartments and houses, it was still unfinished and found itself sad and forgotten about in the basement.

After 2.5 seconds of thought, I decided that it needed a facelift.  So we brought it out to the kitchen and I went to work priming and painting.

This paint was leftover from painting the studio last summer.  Two quick coats of paint, some new knobs (I already had these in my junk stash, they are from Michaels $1.50 bins) and it was done!

Total time: One evening

Total cost: $0

So what did we do with our “new” piece of furniture?  Well, we’ve had this empty space in our kitchen/dining area for awhile that was begging for something new, and we also needed closed storage for our overflowing craft supplies.  This cabinet is now working double duty as a craft supply cabinet / message centre in the kitchen.  Take a look:

I spiffed up the top of the cabinet a bit with a jar of pens, some paper and a calendar.  You know how you can NEVER find a piece of paper or a pen when you need them?  Well, I’m hoping this will solve that problem for us.  Luckily, there is also an outlet behind this thing, so we have an official place to plug in our cell phones now.  Ahhhhhhhh!!  Can you hear that?  I think it’s angels singing…

Here is what the cabinet looks like on the inside:

It’s full of paper, stickers, tape, popsicle sticks, crayons and markers.  Now the kids have the freedom to help themselves to the kiddie craft supplies without my help.  It’s  a beautiful thing 🙂

Oooh, a highlighter!

I painted the cabinet a lighter color on the inside to make it more interesting (again, leftover paint from the studio).  The color is Benjamin Moore’s Robin’s Egg Blue.  And see that piece of unfinished wood in the middle?  It’s an old piece of salvaged wood from my grandfather’s boat shop and I couldn’t bring myself to paint over it.  My Dad is always sneaking thoughtful things into his creations 🙂

Top of cabinet

Oh, one more thing.  Did you notice that awesome calendar on top of the cabinet?  Well, you can head on over to Jackie Bowman Designs and give her some props because this is one of her designs.  Isn’t it amazing?  Here’s a close up:

You can check out Jackie’s Facebook page here, and her website here.  She does some pretty amazing stuff!

So that’s it, a quick weekend project that scratches the itch for something new and colorful in the house on a zero dollar budget.  It was easy enough that I’m now looking for other things around the house that I can paint!

Have you ever repainted a piece of furniture?  Do you have any other ideas for sprucing up your house for little or no money? 

One last pic – a photo bomb from Rex.  Have a great weekend!

P.S. Sorry for all the cell phone pics lately…I’ve been lazy.  I’ll do better next time, I promise!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our First Snow Day!

I found out on Facebook yesterday morning that school was cancelled.  It’s one time my addiction to social media has come in really handy, because if I hadn’t have checked what my friends were doing at 7:30 am yesterday morning, I would have been standing out at the bus stop in the snow wondering where the hell the bus was.

Because here in Nova Scotia, we have a history of cancelling school when it’s not that bad outside and keeping school open when it’s the worst winter day ever outside.  It’s a real point of contention around these parts that’s become almost comical and predictably unpredictable.

Yesterday (in my completely inexperienced opinion) the weather wasn’t that bad.  In fact, we had a day that was much worse on Friday.  But whatever, Jace and I were home anyway, so it wasn’t a stretch for us to include one more little body.

So, between bouts of running, screaming, and running while screaming (the kids’ favorite activity), I tried to fill the gaps with crafts.

Griffin’s new favorite crafts?  Retrofitting old crafts to meet the needs of his new “army.”

An old “oil rig” becomes a new “hospital” for wounded army guys

That roll of toilet paper? Material for army tents, of course

Hatching an evil plan….

Griff could sit there all day, cutting and taping.  Jace?  Well, he’ll sit there and stare at me with a devilish grin until I turn my back.  Then he’ll eat a marker.

We found a very cool tutorial online to make origami army tanks.  They’re actually very easy and were a big hit with Griff.  Here is our first attempt:

When I can pull off something like this, I’m the coolest Mom ever

Not bad huh?  Here is the tutorial for the paper army tanks.

So the day dragged on a bit.  The kids were wound up, and going outside wasn’t an option.  By the afternoon, this is what the scene in our living room looked like:

“I think we all know who’s in charge around here – tee hee!”

Yup, I lost control.  The TV was on age-inappropriate cartoons all afternoon and I just pretended I didn’t see the mess, the pants-less-ness, and the chewed up food on the floor.  It was a three-coffee kind of day.

But we survived.  The house almost didn’t, but we did.  And that’s all that matters 🙂

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What did you do yesterday?  How do you survive snow days when you’re stuck inside?