From Trash to Treasure

So I saved this post a while back on Pinterest, knowing I would get to it eventually.  I have had an empty wipes container sitting in my craft room for a couple months with the intentions of doing this project.  Now that the aftermath of unpacking some scrapbooking stuff that I took on vacation and my craft room being rearranged 2 weeks ago to make way for our new water heater are both over, I decided to finally give it a go!  The tutorial on the blog that I linked above uses fabric and fabric Mod Podge to cover the container, but I used scrapbook paper and regular matte Mod Podge.  I used a large container, and it measured almost 14 inches around.  This was a slight challenge, because typical scrapbook paper is 12x12.  I just used a strip of coordinating solid paper to cover the gap and then embellished with some flowers and buttons.

Here is what I did:

• peeled the label off the container so it wouldn't show through or be lumpy
• trimmed 12x12 floral paper (from DCWV stack...not sure which one) to 7" x 12"
• applied a coat of Mod Podge to the container and then to the back of the paper, stuck it on
• did the same with the small strip of green paper (approximately 1.5" x 7")
• applied coat of Mod Podge over top of all the paper
• Added flowers and buttons using glue dots once Mod Podge dried

Actually, I ended up removing the BIG orange flower that I put on the top of the lid after I took the pictures...  The more I looked at it, the more it screamed "too much!"  Jason agreed that it had to go!  I took our bag of bags, and got to work rolling them to store in the container.

We went from this bulky "patient belongings" bag that sticks out and makes it hard to get through the landing at the top of the basement stairs...

 To this, super cute and compact wipes container turned bag dispenser...

Bag dispenser (picture it minus the big orange thing on top)

Lots of bags, rolled up and ready to go

Check out the original blog post (linked at the top of this post) for instructions on how to roll up your bags so that they dispense easily.  Since this was large container, I was able to fit a lot more bags than the original tutorial mentions.  I didn't count how many bags I got in there...I just kept flattening, folding, and rolling until the roll was as big I could fit in the container.

Mother's Day 2012

Quick and simple post tonight...baby is up and crying for me...

I saw this saying on Pinterest, and I knew I had to make it for my mother-in-law, because when the family gets together at the in-law's place, the best part is watching all the kids play together and run around their house.

I painted the 8x10 canvas with a light green...I wanted more of a sage, and this turned out more minty than I had intended...  I cut all the letters and shapes with the Cricut - Don Juan for "grammie's house" and Zooballoo for the rest of the quote.  I think the shapes were from Gypsy Wanderings, but don't quote me on that...

Next on my Mother's Day agenda...the cards.  It was the day before, and I was still stumped and could not think of a cute card design.  As I was posting pictures of the wedding gifts for my cousin, I was inspired by the "recipe for love" poem that I included on her gift.  I decided on a recipe card design and included a recipe for mom. 

 

 I designed the inner part of the card like a recipe card that slides into the outer portion.  All of the cuts from the Cricut were done using the From My Kitchen cartridge, except "Mom" which was from Don Juan.  The stickers were from a Jolee's Boutique pack.

The recipe reads:

Ingredients:

1 cup of intuition

2 ears for listening

A pinch of advice

2 loving arms

3 heaps of support

1 heart with unlimited love

Preparation:

Mix thoroughly with liberal hugs and kisses

They broke the mold when they made you, Mom!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Wedding Gifts

My cousin Kati and her fiance (now husband!!!) Ulysses got married on Saturday, May 19.  I was disappointed that we couldn't be there, but I had my gifts ready to go early so that I could send them with my parents, who visited Pittsburgh at the beginning of May.  I wanted to make them a family wall canvas like I have made for other people, but I also wanted to get some stuff that they wanted from their registry.  I have seen people do towel and utensil arrangements almost like diaper cakes and took my inspiration from that.  The arrangement that I ended up doing is more of a bouquet, since an entire "cake" out of towels and utensils would likely cost me a small fortune!  Sorry guys, I love you, but a small fortune I do not have.  So, without further ado, here is the utensil bouquet and their family name canvas:

The utensil "bouquet" consisted of two spoons and a spatula, wrapped in two kitchen towels, all of which was from their registry.  I tied a set of nesting heart cookie cutters from Wilton (not on their registry, but I wanted something cute to go with the love theme and color scheme) around the utensils, and around the outside of the towels I tied a "Recipe For Love" poem that I found online.  I did feel weird taking the packaging off of the cooking utensils and cookie cutters, but it was the only way to display it like this.

The family name canvas was inspired by their wedding invitations.  The yellow and white floral paper in the background of this canvas was the outside of their invitation, and as soon as I received it in the mail, I put it aside in a safe place (ahem, where small hands wouldn't crumple it!), knowing I wanted to incorporate it into a crafty gift of some sort.  I like that the use of the invitation card stock in this project makes it more personalized than any of the other canvases I have done in the past.  To make this I painted the 8"x10" canvas with dark gray craft paint, used Mod Podge to adhere the card stock from their invitation, then adhered the letters the same way, and finished with a final coat or two of Mod Podge.  The letters are all cut with the Cricut.  Their name and the year were cut with the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, and "family" was cut using the Opposites attract cartridge.  In hindsight, I think this would have looked better with "family" in the darker gray, because it is hard to see, but then again, their name is the important part of this project.  In person, "family" is slightly more visible than this picture shows.  In any case, I hope they find a special place in their home to put this and that they remember their special day when they see their invitation paper!

Teacher Valentines

I have been buying and hoarding collecting these cute little tin mailboxes from Target's $1 section for the past few years. Ever since Robyn aka My Pink Stamper posted a tutorial to alter the mailboxes, I have been meaning to make something with them. Finally, this year I crafted with them (and I still have at least 5 more in the craft room...shhh, no one tell my husband...then again, they are only $1, after all!)

I decided to go with a teacher theme instead of Valentine's Day, so that the teachers could use them throughout the year. I cut the 12x12 paper (from a DCWV stack) into strips that were just shy of 4" wide, wrapped them around to mark where the mailbox flag would be, punched a hole for the flag (and cut a small slit from the edge of the paper to the hole...see Robyn's video tutorial for better directions/a visual), wrapped the paper around again, using my ATG gun to adhere the edges on the bottom of the mailbox. I did use some scotch glue to make sure the small edges around the hole for the flag were stuck down well. The first time I tried this, I put ATG adhesive on the whole strip of paper (instead of just a on each end...it ended up crooked and when I tried to pull it off it ripped. So, don't make the same mistake as I did in that department!

The apple on the door of the mailbox is cut from Plantin Schoolbook cartridge - I cut a red and a green at 3" real dial size. Then I cut the stem off the red one and glue them together so the green stem would show behind the red apple. The teachers' names were printed from Microsoft Word, and I cut and glued them on after they were printed.



Inside each mailbox, I placed their valentine's day treats - gummi bears with a cute saying stapled to the top. Hopefully, the teachers will find something to use the mailboxes for during the year.

Nathan's Super Valentines

Are you getting tired of me saying Pinterest yet?!?! Oh, and if you are sitting there wondering "what is Pinterest?" leave my blog now and head over there...NOW! (not that I think more than 5 people have ever read this, but whatevs)

Anyway, back to the craft at hand... I found two different tutorials on Pinterest for super hero Valentines. I took ideas from this one and this one, mixed 'em up, changed, tweaked, created, etc. and ended up with the end product.







I used the template from the Zakka Life tutorial to cut out the capes from cardstock that I had. I probably could have used my Cricut to cut out a cape, but I opted to just trace and cut. I had initially intended to use the printables from Little Bit Funky's blog, but then my plan changed. I only wanted to use Superman...and I didn't want to print all the super heroes out just to get the Superman logos. So, I searched for Superman logo online instead. I took the idea for the circles with the saying on them, but I made my own in Word and used my Creative Memories circle cutting set to cut them out.

I have NO idea how long these took to make, because I made them in several sittings, all the while being interrupted by someone or something...usually Aaron trying to steal all my crafty gadgets and supplies...off to go see if my circle cutting template is still in his play mailbox...

A Very Crafty Mommy vs. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I still can't believe that my littlest man turned one! We celebrated his birthday on Saturday, January 28 (his actual birthday was Monday the 31st). After scouring the internet (including Pinterest, of course) for ideas for 1st birthday parties, knowing that I wanted something simple due to my chronic lack of time, I found lots of cute ideas for The Very Hungry Caterpillar. With two difficult and stressful attempts at cakes for Nathan's first and second birthdays under my belt, I knew I wanted to do cupcakes this time. I also had plans for a banner and a balloon caterpillar (we didn't get pictures of this, sadly), but I did have to nix some ideas that I found and cut corners on the things I did. I will spare the details, but we were very busy the few days leading up to the party. I was lucky that the cupcakes got iced, the fruits and veggies got chopped (thanks to my mom and sister for their help!), and we were hanging the banners (pictured below) as the first guests were walking in...phew!

The banner caterpillars were supposed to have feet, and I even had the cute little feet cut and ready to go... but we just ran out of time to attach them. By the end of all of it, I decided it wasn't THAT important. Also, the cute caterpillar made of out balloons that was taped up on the curtain rod did not get a face...and, as I said, was never photographed. Thanks again to my sister for helping blow up the balloons.

The one thing that we didn't have to cut corners on or omit was the cupcakes. I mixed two different shades of green and piped it on using my icing gun. The feet were made out of pretzel sticks (thanks Mom), the eyes are M&Ms (thanks Jason for picking those up last minute), and the nose and antennae are various sprinkles we had on hand. I made 2 cake mixes: 1 1/2 were used to make 36 cupcakes and the other 1/2 was used to make a 9" round cake, which I carved into a leaf for Aaron's smash cake. As you can see from the picture above, he enjoyed his cake.


So, even though we were busy and exhausted and our little house was bursting at the seams, everyone had a great time. It was great to be surrounded by loving friends and family for a wonderful celebration for Aaron. Thanks to all who helped, came to celebrate, and brought or sent gifts, cards, etc.

Color your own card

So this is another idea I found on Pinterest that I put my own twist on. This is a birthday card for my niece who turned 3 in December. The card is made from kraft paper with light turquoise mat. I stamped the flowers image on white cardstock and matted on pink. I don't remember precise sizes, but I made sure that I had enough room at the bottom for 3 crayons. I punched two small holes in the center of where the crayons would go using my Crop-a-dile, then threaded thin ribbon through, arranged the crayons and tied them on.



The inside also has a stamped image for her to color in:

This was an quick and easy project that didn't require any fancy embellishments, products, etc. The only thing I had to put some extra time into was stopping on the way to her party to pick up a new box of crayons. We didn't have any that were new in colors that worked for the card, and I thought it would be pretty tacky to give her a card with partially used crayons tied onto the front, haha. I plan on doing this type of card again for other kids...quick and easy for me to do and a fun card for the kiddos...win, win!