Dinosaur Bathroom

WEEK 13, PROJECT 15

I am very excited about this week's project,  the boys' new bathroom.  I'm pretty proud of myself as I did it all myself,  from spackling holes, to taping,  to painting,  and all the crafty decorations too. 18 weeks pregnant and feeling amazing has definitely helped me keep up the energy! Grand total spent: $70 (curtain, towels, rugs, paint). 

Next big project: the baby room!!!

BEFORE:

All the creations I made.

Cardboard Box Rocketship

Week 12, Project 14

I was excited to make this cardboard box rocketship today to go with the new robot we made. Zayden thinks I'm one cool mom right now. :-)  He's having a lot of fun with his imagination, which is really the whole point! 

Robot Costume/Decoration

Week 11, Project 12

Ok, I couldn't resist working on another little project this week. Friday we found out we are having another boy in August! Hooray!  So, I decided to do his baby room in an outer space theme and to get my son Zayden and I in the spirit of everything outer space for the next few months,  our first craft was to build a life size robot! I thought it would be a fun play costume and double as a cute decoration in the room too. Zayden was very excited,  and helped out a lot. I just need to make some arms but it looks pretty cool so far.  I plan do to a big space ship too...once I find a bigger cardboard box.  

Primed with white primer to hide dark colors.

Painted 2 coats of silver with acrylic paint.

First time in full costume.  I needed to open the eye slots a little bit.

Proud of his new robot!

Added details with misc items around.

Grandma's 80th Birthday Decorations

Week 11, Project 11

80th birthday decorations.

Yesterday was my Grandma Bouman's 80th birthday.  She had a fun weekend with all of her daughters.  We then a fun lunch and had everyone over for desert and a small party at my house.  Turning 80 is definitely something to celebrate, so I had a lot of fun decorating especially for it.  Here are a few of the things I made for her big day:

The first thing I made, with the help of my mom and aunts sending me pictures, was a Shutterfly photo book with pictures of her and everyone over the years.  It took quite some time to scan in the pictures, and layout everything, but it was worth it when I saw the look on her face how excited she was about it.  I'm not going to share the link of the finished copy though, for privacy reasons.

The next thing I made was this banner.  After scanning the pictures in to my computer, I used photo shop to crop her face out of pictures, set them to black and white, and had them printed on a 4x6 photo paper.  I then just cut around them, glued on cut out triangles of scrapbooking paper, added a fuzzy ball, and she had the perfect party hats.  I had extras, so I used them to decorate all over the house.  :)  I also used photo shop to transform the two pictures on the mantle to look like a pencil drawing.

I found a couple neat ideas on Pinterest for 80th birthdays.  Here are a couple that I thought were clever.  I used Scrabble letter pieces for the one on the left, and just used a word document for the one on the right.

I also made this sign, using the extra grandma heads, and scrapbook paper and stickers.

The next thing I made her was a a Scrabble theme frame with words that were family related.

I also had the great grandkids work on a couple of art pieces too for her.  I just painted the tree trunks, they did the rest with their fingers.

Zayden also made her and my aunt a plate and mug with Sharpie markers, but I must not have taken a picture of that.

Here are some other fun pictures from my grandma's birthday party:

  

Engagement Box of Goodies / Jazzing up a Bench Cushion

Week 10 Project 10

This past week I have been super busy with quite a few little projects instead of one big one.  So I'm going to break them up a little into 2 different weeks, and maybe take next week off. ;)  Probably not though, because we just found out the gender of our baby so I'm sure I will come up with some kind of decoration for the room or something for the new baby!!

For this post, here are 2 quick and very easy to do projects.

Engagement box of goodies.  Total cost = $20

I'm sure I'm not the first one to come up with this idea, and I'm sure the ideas are all over Pinterest.  But here was my version of a little nice box of goodies for the newly engaged couple-my sister and future brother in law.  I found a bunch of things that were either love, wedding, etc and then wrote them a little letter that incorporated each of those things in it. Even the box is a photo box that they can use to organize all of their wedding receipts and ideas.  If you can't read it the letter says:

"Happy Engagement Emily and Luke!

Emily, I’m so happy that you have found your MR. RIGHT!  If he is the SMARTIE pants that I think he is, he will know that you will always be MRS. NEVER WRONG.  Luke, you are one LUCKY DUCK, and we are all so glad you finally put a RING (that POPs) on it.  We can’t wait to celebrate with you, drinking margaritas with SEA SALT with our toes in the SAND.  In fact, after a few drinks, I might even embarrass you both with my WEDDING SINGER moves.  It might give you a good laugh!

Love, hugs, and KISSES to you both!

Your super excited sister, Kelly"

The Mr. Right and Mrs Never Wrong mugs were my first jab at the Sharpie marker on ceramics test.  Supposedly if you bake the mugs at 400 degrees and then let cool in oven, the marker should be permanent.  We will see if it works.  My handwriting is horrible too, but I just had to try it.  They were my guinea pigs for that. :)

Jazz up a cushion.

My second little project this week was reupholstering a cushion on a bench in my son's playroom.  Originally bought from Target a couple years ago in a tan color, it got stained rather quickly and it was driving me crazy.  I bought a yard of fabric that I liked at JoAnn's for only $5.  I just wrapped it around the cushion tight and secured it underneath.  Then used Velcro strips to secure the new cushion to the bench so it doesn't slide.  Quick, easy, and I think it looks so much better.

Before:

 After: