The Twin's My Little Pony Themed Second Birthday Party

And birthday month comes to a close!  This month has been insane!  My husband's birthday, along with the twins and my grandfather's... not to mention Easter.  Nuts!  But it's over now, and we're prepping for Mother's Day in two weeks!

I thought I'd share a few pictures of the twin's birthday party.  As you know, it was My Little Pony themed.  They had a really good time!  I'm sad I didn't get more pictures, but I was so busy.  

This was our table spread, nothing too amazing!  I had tulle in rainbow colors coming down from the ceiling against the windows as a backdrop, with white paper lanterns to simulate clouds at the top.  I loved it.  When the light went though it, it was gorgeous!  Decorating was a lot simpler than I thought it would be.  I just got all the girl's Ponies and placed them everywhere - even on the cake!  I believe in reusing things as much as possible.  The other small detail that was one of my favorites, and I'm sad I didn't get a closer picture of, was the silverware and container.  The kids had a BUNCH of jelly beans from Easter, and I needed something to fill a vase so I could put the silverware in it.  So, I filled up the vase with jelly beans by sorting them by color, and then placing them in the vase in rainbow order.  You can see it in the photo above, really tiny! 

Needless to say, the twins got a lot of gifts.  Our kids are very lucky, and very loved.  We went all out this year, instead of making everything by hand, we saved ourselves some time and bought themed items such as tablecloths.  In the picture above you can see the girl's presents from us.  We took them to Build-a-Bear in Austin and they chose a Pony to make for themselves.  They loved it, and hey! They turned into more decoration!  You can also see their themed outfits.  The girls got a My Little Pony shirt each, which by the way is very difficult to find in 18 month size!  Our girls are small for their age, even though they were full term. Our solution?  eBay. 

For the cake, I kept it pretty simple.  By the time I took this picture, the frosting was beginning to melt from the heat of so many people in our house.  But - still cute!  I made an ombre cake and put the small $4 Ponies on the top, with some small bunting made from felt scraps I had lying around, ribbon and wooden skewers.  Then each girl got one candle to blow out!

Did I say I was getting an office?  Yep!  And my husband is getting one, too!  We have an impossibly large living room in our house.  I'm talking over 20x20 feet. So, we moved our dining table to the breakfast nook (which fits an eight seater table comfortably), and the dining room (which will be my husband's office once we get walls up) is temporarily a play room while we do construction on the living room to make a part of that my office.  Confusing, yes.  I live in a state of flux here, when it comes to construction.  Any way, this is the kid's playroom.  We got a fold out table for extra seating, and you can see our Pinkie Pie pinata being used as temporary decoration before the kids were set loose upon it.  Up on the ceiling is a balloon dragon I made up for my husband's birthday, and he didn't want me to pop him just yet.  He was on-theme, so I kept him out for the party.  There ARE dragons around Ponyville, you know! More on him later in my next post!

 And finally, the pinata.  What kid doesn't like to beat something and get candy for it?  My kids sure do.  However, their daddy had to deal the ending blow!

That was it!  Our My Little Pony twin's second birthday party.  It was a lot of fun, a lot of work, and the kids had a great time so of course it was all worth it.  My son is saying he wants a Sonic or Angry Bird's birthday in September.  We shall see.

DIY Dry Erase Weekly Calendar Frames

Hi guys!  This week has been super hectic for me, with numerous trips to the doctor with sick kids (my oldest one has spots, even... viruses. Sigh..)  So I have a quick and easy project! I'm a little obsessed with calendars, and keeping track of dates.  It makes life so much easier when I can just look at my notebook and see what's going on that week.  The rest of my family, however, isn't so schedule-oriented.  So, to help, I decided to make this neat little dry erase set of frames!  This took me a little over an hour to do, and cost me less than $10 total.  

For this project, you'll need:

7 frames 

Scrapbooking paper (for each frame)

Alphabet stickers

Scissors

Pen

And that's it!  I went to my local dollar store for the frames.  Can't beat a dollar a piece.  They aren't the highest quality, but they surely do the job!  The stickers and paper I had in my scrapbook box.  I absolutely always check out the clearance section when I go to my hobby stores.  Their sticker packs I find there may be missing a few letters here and there, but the price reduction is well worth a missing sticker. 

To begin, take apart your frames.  You can keep the glass in the front of the frame, you don't need to remove that.  Simply take the back of your frame, and trace it on to your scrapbook paper.  Then cut it out!  It should fit perfectly into your frame.  Double check before adding stickers!

Once you're sure the paper fits, spell out a day of the week on your paper with the stickers.  Remember when you do this, there is a lip on the frame that will cover part of your paper, so don't put the stickers directly in the corners or they will be covered up a bit!

Put the paper into your frame, close it up and voila!  You're done!  Now just to repeat it six more times with the other days of the week!  

The twins had a blast with this one.  They didn't get to help much, but they thought they were (which was adorable and made them happy!)

Once you finish all of your frames, hang them up!  You can use any old dry erase marker on the glass, it will wipe right off.  You can also use ribbon, decorative stickers, or anything else that will fit under the frame to decorate these and make them super cute!  

I'm working on a few stuffy patterns, so those will be up soon! Happy crafting!

Baby Name Embroidery Hoop Art

The twin's birthday party is coming up, and one of the people we have invited has just had a baby girl.  I felt like I couldn't leave her out, but she is much too small for a goody bag like her brother would be getting... so I went to Etsy to see what was trending for baby!  I saw a ton of these embroidery hoops with baby names, but they were charging an arm and a leg for them.  So, to the scrap closet I went!  You can make your own hoop, too... If you know basic sewing like a back stitch, and can use a pair of scissors, this is completely easy (and cheap!)

For this project you will need:

Scissors

An embroidery hoop (I used a 6" wooden hoop)

Fabric to fit your hoop

The name you want to use, printed

A writing utensil

Felt, soft and stiff

Thread (optional: Embroidery thread)

Needle

Ribbon (optional, for hanging)

You'll of course want to start with the prep work!  Go on to your computer and choose a font you like (one that you think will be easy to cut out).  I used Pump Demi Bold in Photoshop for my text.  Choose a size text good for your sized hoop.  The longer the name, the larger the hoop you will need. Print!   You will then cut out the letters of the name, and trace them on to the felt you chose for the name.  Be sure you flip the letters backwards when you trace.  This way, if any marker/pencil/what have you is left on the letters after you cut them out, it will be on the back side of the felt!  For the bunting, you will need to cut out triangles of different colored felt.  Mine were a bit over an inch a piece.

I used cotton quilting fabric for the background of this hoop.  Wash, press and stretch your fabric inside of the hoop you want to use.  Before you lay down your felt pieces to sew, be sure your screw is at the very top, so it will hang straight later. I used three strands of embroidery thread and a running stitch to sew the bunting on, using three stitches per each triangle.  For the name, I used a back stitch and three strands of embroidery thread.  I simply stitching through the middle of each letter.

Backing your embroidery hoop is an optional step.  Some people like to leave their hoops open, but I prefer to close mine to give them a more finished look.  I use stiff felt for backing.  Simply take the inner circle of your embroidery hoop (preferably before you start making your project) and trace around it onto the stiff felt.  Then cut the circle out.

Next, you'll need to fold the fabric into the back of the hoop, like the photo above.  Use a running stitch to tightly hold the fabric into place.  Then place the felt circle you cut out earlier over the back of your hoop.

Start by bringing your thread through from the back side of the felt, then use a whip stitch around the entire felt circle securing it to the cotton fabric underneath!

Usually I use a matching thread, so the stitches are less visible, but I used a nice pink so you could see what it looks like completed!  I had the twins "helping" me ... they seem very amazed by sewing, so please excuse the wonky stitches.

Since you can't hang your closed embroidery hoop by the back anymore, you will need some other way to hang it up.  I make a ribbon hanger.  It's really simple!  Just take about one foot of ribbon, and double it over.  You will want to tie a slip knot about half way down the length of your ribbon.  After this is done, place the knot behind the screw at the top, and tie a bow around the screw, underneath it.  

It should look like this when you're done!  Just trim  up the ribbon and you have a hanger!

Ta-da!  Super cute, right?  I think I'm getting a bit obsessed with hoops, now I want to make an entire wall of them for my house...

A Budget Dresser Re-do

There has come an age in every single one of my kid's little lives thus far, where they have decided the most fun they can have is throwing all their clothes out of their dresser drawers and then climbing into them... and jumping.  You can imagine the havoc that has been wreaked upon their poor dressers.  The twins even have gone so far as to climb into one drawer together, and with their forces combined... broken the drawer.  I will admit, we didn't get them the best furniture.  Budgets are a pretty strict thing in my household, what with one full-time income and five of us total.  I have to cut corners and save a few dollars where I can (and honestly, who doesn't?)   But, in the past few weeks they have efficiently broken the dresser beyond repair, and it was relegated to their closet until it could be replaced.

Well, my mother in law got wind that the kids had demolished their dresser, and she told me she had one at her house that we could have.  She also warned me it was ugly.  Ugly? Fine!  I can do ugly, as long as it is temporary and can be used!...

Then this showed up at my house.  I about had a heart attack when it came in the door.  No one told me it was water damaged, scratched, painful to look at and belonged on the side of the road waiting for the garbage truck to haul it away.  Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh.  But... ugh.

After a few deep breaths, and a mild panic attack, I figured I could at least give it a face lift.  I see people using Modge Podge on the worst furniture in the world on Pinterest all the time!... I could totally do that (I hoped).  

For this project I used:

One large jar of Modge Podge

Two yards of cotton fabric

Three cans of spray paint

Razor blade

Sandpaper

2" drawer handles

and of course... a dresser

This project took me an ENTIRE dedicated weekend.  Phew!

I had two big jars of Modge Podge my grandmother gave me forever ago (I only used one big one), fabric is always in my fabric stash, sandpaper I nicked from my husband and paint I picked up for less than $15 at my local home improvement store.  I had extra handles from my kitchen makeover when I got new cabinets.

Well, first I got my husband to help haul this bad boy into the garage.  The worst part of the dresser was the water damage.  It worried me most because the entire dresser wasn't made of solid wood, it was mainly just the frame.  The top, sides, and most of the drawers were made of MDF.  Ever see MDF soak up water?  It swells, and doesn't go back down, leaving you with a giant lump.  I'd never tried to sand MDF before, and Googling how to fix MDF water damage left me with no hope... I just went for it.  And it actually worked! I was pretty pleased with the results.  I sanded down all the lumps, bumps and scratches the best I could.

After everything was as even as I could make it, it was time to put the fabric on the drawers.  Now, listen to my tale of woe!   I highly recommend painting the entire dresser before you Modge Podge the fabric on.  It looks a LOT nicer.  I, however did not know this, until I put the fabric on over areas where I painted, which of course was after I had finished the drawers.  I'll fix it later, after the twin's birthday party when I have less to do.  But it works for now.

I used a sponge brush to put the Modge Podge on the drawers, then layed the fabric down, smoothed it with my hands and then slathered more Modge Podge onto the top of the fabric.  The fabric hung over the edges of the drawers by about 1-2" on each side.  Oh, and I didn't use fabric Modge Podge, either... just high gloss!  I gave it about four hours to dry thoroughly.

Once it's entirely dry, you can use a very sharp xacto knife to trim down the fabric.  It will be stiff, and cut very easily without fraying.  I cut down all of the fabric on the drawers, and I also cut small slits over the holes where the hardware had to go for the drawer handles so the screws could go through.  

Even after all the extra fabric was cut, I still was worried about the kids being able to peel it off.  So, I did one final layer of Modge Podge around the edges I had just cut to ensure it would stick.  Then, I got to wait around some more for this layer to dry.  There was a lot of waiting around...

Then I added the hardware!  I would have preferred more vintage-looking hardware, but beggars can't be choosers and this was still a vast improvement over the 1980's mismatched junk that was there before.

I wanted to preserve the carvings on the top two drawers, and didn't want to Modge Podge fabric over it.  It gave the dresser some much-needed character, and I thought it also added a little bit of a feminine touch which was good for the twin's room.  I used Rust-Oleum's Painter's Touch 2X spray paint in gloss candy pink  to give the drawers a couple of coats of paint.  The MDF simply absorbed the paint... but I felt it gave it a vintage look and ran with it.  

If you notice on the upper drawers, someone had poorly filled in the original handle holes with wood putty.  Even after sanding and painting, the holes still were an eyesore.  So I decided to Modge Podge into the squares where the original handles were to cover it, and it worked out pretty nicely!

For the body of the dresser, I had to use three thin coats of spray paint.  That didn't include the back of the dresser, which I largely ignored because I knew it would always be against a wall.  The top of the dresser had such bad water damage that was impossible to perfect (and I had learned that the exposed MDF would simply suck up the paint instead of letting the paint cover it), that I decided to Modge Podge the top of the dresser with fabric as well.  After hours of layering paint, layering Modge Podge and fabric, and using a new blade on my xacto for a sharp precise cut on the fabric... voila!  The body was also done.  

A vast improvement, if I do say so myself!  It is vintage shabby chic!  The only issues I've had with the dresser so far is that my youngest girl is a daredevil with a death wish and likes to climb on it, then jump off.  (I think we have solved that with moving her bed farther away from the dresser to discourage climbing from one furniture piece to another).   The dresser is now fully functional, much more sturdy than anything we had before, and I can stand to look at it!  I've had no issues with fraying fabric or chipping paint, and I'm extremely pleased with the results.

I'll have to find some other things to re-do...

Peep Bunny Plush

I always love to add a little handmade to holidays, and with Easter coming up I decided to make the kids some plush Peep rabbits!  This was really simple, and literally took me about half an hour to cut and sew together.  Plus, this is completely safe for very young babies, as there is no small parts, buttons or zippers.  This would be so cute for a first Easter gift!

Download the Peep Bunny pattern here!

For this plush you will need:

1/4 yard fabric for bunny body 

Black felt for bunny eyes and nose

Black thread & needle for hand sewing

Fluff

Scissors

Peep Bunny pattern (download above!)

I decided to use a nice pink flannel I found on clearance over a year ago from my fabric stash.  I'm such a procraftstinator.  I was going to make some plushes for the kids out of this fabric for Christmas two years ago, and never got around to it.  On the bright side, it's being put to use for and Easter plush now!

The list of things you will need says 1/4 yard of fabric (that is how much was in my cut piece), when in reality you will probably use only about half of this.  However, if you go much thinner than 1/4 yard, you won't get the whole bunny on the fabric. 

Any who, this pattern is pretty awesome if you are just learning how to sew.  It has a few tight corners, but it's good practice and there are literally only six pattern pieces (including the eyes and nose!).  I used my sewing machine on this plush, but it is entirely do-able by hand and probably won't drive you nuts in the process!

As always, you begin with cutting out your pattern pieces.  The body and rectangle will be from your body material, of course (so for me, the pink flannel) and the nose and eyes will be from your black felt.  You an see in the pictures that there is NOT seam allowance in this pattern, you must add it.  Just trace the bunny pattern piece on the fabric and trim about 1/4 inch around it.  You will be doing your sewing on the traced lines.

Now it's time to sew on the eyes and nose!  I just used black thread to go with the black eyes and nose, just so it wouldn't be so noticeable.  I wanted my bunnies to look as close to the Peep bunny as possible.  I used a simple running stitch around the eye.  A blanket stitch could also be super cute!

Here he is with his face sewn on!  If you need help with getting the placement just right, you can always poke holes in the pattern piece where the nose and eyes, then place the pattern over you fabric and make tiny marks through the holes of the pattern onto your fabric for guides.  You can also see where I made a mistake in the picture above... his face should be sewn on to the side without the tracing!  But that's okay, pretty easily fixed with some slow and careful sewing (which is no problem with my new amazing machine... oh I love that machine). 

You'll want to begin sewing the rectangle onto the body at the bottom of the plush.  This way, the seam will be at the bottom, and who looks there?  Leave about 1/4-1/2" tip of the rectangle unsewn, that way you will have some fabric to close the bunny up.  You'll get it in a second....  Just sew the rectangle of fabric around the bunny body using a 1/4" seam until you are all the way around and to where you started.  It should look like this!

You can see here where I left some fabric from the rectangle where I began sewing on to my bunny body  for this very reason.  Take the two ends of your rectangle, and sew them together.  Then trim the rectangle down to a 1/4" seam where you sewed the two ends together.  Then the hardest part is over with!

Then you get to repeat sewing the bunny body onto the rectangle with the other side.  Be sure that the traced lines are on the outside!  Use them as a guide. On this side, you will want to leave a gap in the seam so you can flip and stuff your bunny.  Once has both sides sewn together, flip him inside out! He should look like the bunny below!

Then stuff your new bunny friend!  I like my plushes stuffed a bit firmly, so mine took a good three handfuls.  I used my hemostats to help get the fluffings up in his ears. Then simply sew him shut with a slip stitch, and you have your own bunny Peep friend!

Here he is with his little look-alike pals.  Isn't he freaking cute?  I'd love to see your bunnies, if you do them!  Pretty soon I'm going to try my hand at reviving furniture... oh, dear :)  Stay tuned, guys!

Painted Door Label Tutorial

My husband and I purchased our first home at the end of 2012, and while it was really exciting, we could only afford a 80's fixer-upper on our budget.  But it didn't matter!  Its ours, and I love it.  Slowly but surely, we have been gutting the entire house and upgrading it, which in itself has taught me so much that I never ever thought I'd need to know (how to install a wood laminate floor, or scrape up  two layers of linoleum, anyone?).  I've been living in a state of semi-construction for over a year now, but I've gotten used to seeing doorways with no frames and a lack of baseboard in our bedroom.  Here's some before and after pictures of our kitchen and dining room!  Everything (except the countertops) we did ourselves!

The kids are finally getting to the age where I can do small projects during the day, and they sure sleep hard enough at night where I can make all kinds of noise building things without them waking.  My husband removed the hall bath last week before we had our new one installed without a single kid waking to his clanging.  

With the girl's birthday party coming up, and company coming over, I want to get a big jump on our progress.  So, I figured it was about time to finish painting our doors.  I finished up all the bedrooms and the guest bath, then came to this guy.

That's our laundry room door before!  

I gave him his gray paint, and it was a vast improvement, but I still felt like I needed something else on this door to make a little bit of a statement.  Our laundry room is right off the kitchen, so guests can see the door when they visit.  And while I didn't want anything too eye catching, it still needed a bit of shabby chic.  So I decided to stencil "Laundry" on the door!  I used my Silhouette Portrait to make the stencil.  

I chose my font, enlarged it to the correct size I wanted, and then used the eraser to make sure any inner circles that would have otherwise been cut out would still be connected onto the background.  This way, I'd have a good stencil, instead of free handing it.  If you want to free hand it, more power to you!  You can also purchase stencils online or at hobby stores.

The cut settings are pretty important for a good stencil.  You'll want to make the speed low as possible if it is an intricate design, and usually I select double cut as well.  However, this was a brand new blade and I knew it wouldn't need it, so I opted out this time.

After cutting with my Silhouette, I took out the inner letters and voila!  Stencil!

I enlisted the help of my husband for this project.  He helped me make sure the stencil was centered and straight as I taped it onto the door (with painters tape so I didn't ruin the new paint job!).  After this, it's pretty simple.  I chose to use acrylic paint for the letters.  It's a pretty easy cleanup, and if I messed up it would be easy enough to scrub it off and paint over the area again.  

I put on one coat of acrylic and then removed the stencil.  I was going for the outline of the letters more than neatness.  White on a dark gray door definitely takes more than one coat of paint.  After removing the stencil I was left with this!:

You can see where the letters still have missing portions where I had to erase in my Silhouette program to keep the inner circles of the letters.  Easy enough to fix by free handing a teeny bit.  And after another coat (or two) of paint, and filling in those gaps, I was done!

I'm really happy with the end result!  I don't think I'll doing this to any other door, because who really needs every door to their house labeled?  However, it's the little cute charms in a house that make it your own, don't you think!

Next post I will be putting up a new free plush pattern, so stay tuned!