Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts

Monday, April 16, 2012

Spring Cleaning

You accumulate a lot of stuff when you have a baby. A lot. A lot of stuff. I don't think I can type that enough to get across the true horror of baby accessories. Suffice to say, it's a lot. This doesn't look like it's going to end any time soon and we were kind of running out of space.

this may or may not be our house

To avoid winding up on Hoarding, Mom and Dad elected to get rid of a lot of their stuff. Yes, that is how much we love Austin and seeing the floor. So we cleared out a lot of things, which was actually a good thing. And in amongst the things, Mom saw two opportunities to rescue from Goodwill. Which means it's time for arts and crafts!

Our first project today is, of course, for babyman. Mom neglected to take any "before" pictures, but... it's just a muffin tin. You know what they look like. It was rusty. I painted it with chalkboard paint. Now it's a toy. You could use it to teach numbers...



 Or colors...


Leave secret messages...
Or maybe instructions
You can even make your own ghetto eraser with a piece of felt wrapped around a dowel and secured with a rubberband:

This is the paint I used, purchased on sale for $3... not enough for the fridge I covet on Pinterest, but enough for about 100 more muffin tins.



Next, Mom made something for herself! YES! Daddy has had this shirt forever. Like, since maybe before he even met Mommy. We don't remember anymore. Anyway, it had some moth holes and uh, it's not exactly something you wear to work:

Unless you want people to think you're awesome
Mom could not bear to let it go. And it didn't fit her. And there were the holes. But wait! It totally fits on this canvas:

Get a nice fat one unless you want to frame it
Run him through the dryer to help loosen up those wrinkles...

This tip does not apply to real old celebrities, just ones on t-shirts

Position him the way you want on your canvas and use a staple gun to secure around the stretcher. Fold the corners over like you're wrapping a present, so the edges look nice and neat. Don't pull too hard unless you want to add 30 pounds to your subject, you just want the fabric taut enough to look like a print. After you're done, use scissors to snip out the back of the shirt, behind the staples, so it can be hung on the wall.
Excuse me, I believe someone Shat on your wall
Enjoy!

Friday, March 9, 2012

A Festival of Colors...




...Mostly on our pants. We celebrated Holi this week. Holi is a Hindu festival, celebrated by flinging lots of brightly colored powders all over your friends. Mom has always loved the pictures of the celebrants and decided this was right up our alley. And because she is an equal opportunity partier, she shoe-horned some early Easter fun too...






Awesome idea, Mom.













First things first, we liberated the eggs.


















We're all about dumping.















The aftermath...

















This was so much fun that we did it again the next day. We obviously couldn't get any authentic Holi powders and the recipes I found for making them at home were pretty time intensive. We might do that next time, but as usual, this time Mom had to be resourceful. The first day, we used some materials we happened to have. Turmeric worked brilliantly for gold. The unsatisfyingly grayish blue was made mixing food coloring and flour. Green and red were powdered jello, which were too pale, although they did smell interesting. On day two, we hit a winner: grated sidewalk chalk.



Sometimes, Mom is brilliant. Special thanks to GM Kaki for the grater:


 

We borrowed an idea from another blog Mom's been following, called, Play Create Explore. Jessie has some really amazing ideas for toddler crafts! We took some regular old contact paper and taped it sticky side up to our tarp.










DUMP!


















As usual, the feet must be involved.



















A lot.













As you might notice in the video, he was having a hard time opening the smaller eggs. He started handing them to Mom to open, who would carefully hand them back for inspection.















Whereupon he dumped it in his face...
this is why Mom prefers non-toxic chalk

 
Update!
Yes, the contact paper footprints stick to glass! Here are instructions if anyone wants to try it: http://aiitx.blogspot.com/2012/03/contact-paper-prints.html

Friday, December 16, 2011

A Tree Of Our Own









We are an excellent decorator, once we got tired of ripping it off the wall...