DIY Banner!

I know I have done a tutorial on how to make your own banner before on here. This time I used a different method.

Materials:

• 1 white curtain (or light colored or see through-ish fabric)
• 1 container of black acrylic craft paint (or whatever color you want)
• 1 small brush
• pen
• printer
• Microsoft Publisher (or something that allows you to print large letters and make a poster)
• printed out design (poster)
• iron
• cardboard the size of poster (I used two foam boards from the dollar store)
• tape
• paper cutter or scissors

Directions:

• Decide on the font and size of your words and print them out as a large poster (whatever size you are wanting)
• Cut the papers so that there is no gap between the pages (so it looks like a poster when put together with no seems)
• tape them together to make your poster

• now tape the poster to the cardboard 
• now lay down your curtain over your cardboard and letters where you want them to be 
• iron the area you are going to use
• now you are ready to trace the letters with your pen! go slow and steady!
• done tracing? good, now you are ready to bust out the paint!
• I outlined my whole design first and then went back once it was dry and filled it in. 
• and bam just let it dry over  night....or use a blow drier if you are impatient like me and there you have it a custom banner!!

I have 3 indoor cats...they tried to help A LOT. I would suggest to do this project in a separate room from small children or pets. They might try to help out during the paining part and get paint all over your project ;)

Kid's Activity Flash Cards

I have been thinking of things to do for my classes that can engage my kids to exercise and still have fun. So I went to the dollar store and bought a package of blank name strips. I cut them in half and punch a hole near the edge and put them on a binder ring. I wrote things like skip, waddle, twirl, etc. You can write different things like chores or game ideas. It would be great for when the kids say they're bored!

 

 

Kid's Activity Wheel

 

I was looking through Pinterest and saw this pin to make a P.E. activity wheel.

 

 

So I set out to make my own for my classes.

 

I went to my local dollar store and I found a game spinning wheel in the teacher craft section.

 

Luckily I already had a foam poster board I got at the dollar store a while back and some fun scrapbook paper stashed in my craft room.  

 

 

I cut out a square out of the foam board and using Mod Podge I glued some scrapbook paper onto it. I then cut out the circle out of the spinning wheel and traced it on the foam board and cut it out.

 

Now I measured my circle and using Publisher I made a circle and using clip art I added some stretches. Although you can add whatever you'd like, you can use it for chores, homeschooling, etc.

 

Now that you printed out your circle. Glue it onto your cardboard circle and cut out the small hole in the center.

 

Take apart the spinner and using hot glue, glue down the base of the spinner onto the square base.

 

 

This way if I ever want to change out the circle for other activities I can simply take it apart.

 

And that's it now you have an activities wheel!

 

 

 

 

 

Wire Wrapped Cabinet Pull

I am slowly remodeling the studio bathroom, on a budget of course. And the cabinet handle that was there was pretty ugly. Pained several times and the paint was chipping. So I set out to find the perfect cabinet pull that was fun and colorful. Being my picky self I couldn't settle on one that I liked both in looks and price so instead of going out and buying one I decided to make the existing one pretty. Now I could of easily just spray painted it and bam it would have been done in under 2 minutes. But I wanted something unique so I set out to wire wrap the handle in some pretty green beads! It was incredibly easy! I first sanded down the handle (more like my husband did it for me) and then I started wrapping! I thought it would go with the purple bathroom. Not to mention this project cost me nothing since I already had all the materials on hand. (the color is "grape juice" by Valspar)

New Year's Resolutions!!

It's time you guys! It's time to start thinking and writing down what your goals are for 2013!! I made this little guy so that I could have a cute piece a paper to write down my goals for the new year. So don't be afraid, print it out and get started on your goals!

(to print just simply click on the picture!)

Christmas Cards 2012!!

Manly-ish Birthday Card!

It has been a long time since I've created a birthday card, or any type of greeting card for that matter. So in honor of my husbands' uncle I have crawled out of my artistic rut and made a manly-ish birthday card!

The inside reads "it's ok to light the candles on your birthday cake now; I've alerted the fire department."

Hope he enjoys it!

DIY Team Banner!

Last week I ran into a issue....either buy a banner or make one. Why? My dance team was going to be in our local Veteran's Day Parade, and I wanted something to show who we are. So of course I chose to make one! It was incredibly simple to do, and I was able to do it for $4.99!

Materials:

• about a 1.5 yards of fabric (I used a black black-out curtain I found at Goodwill for $4.99!)
• about a 1 yard or less (depends of how big/small you want your letters to be) of coordinating fabric for the letters
• scissors/exacto knife
• fabric glue
• pencil
• yard stick/ruler
• Microsoft Word (or any program that will allow you to print large letters)
• long PVC pipe or wooden dowel (to hang the banner from)

Directions:

• decide on your font and font size of  your letters and then print them out
• on the base fabric for your banner sew a 3-5 inch pocket (this will be the top. Where your rod where your banner will hang from will go)

 

• Now take the letters you have printed out and lay them on your base fabric and see if you like how it looks and if the letters fit!

• Then trace the letters onto the fabric you want to use for the letters.

 

• Now after you have traced all of your letters onto your fabric, using your scissors or an exacto knife cut them out

 

• Now that you have all your letters cut out...

 

• and lay them onto your base fabric and position them how you want, you can use a yard stick or ruler in order to keep the letters from getting un-even and glue in place using fabric glue or whatever kind of glue you want to use to adhere the letters onto the fabric.

 

• After the glue has completely dried you are ready to use your banner!

 

 

 

Day of the Dead Altar

So this year I decided to try to create more cultural involvement in our school/club by doing a Dia de los Muertos altar at the high school to share the meaning of this tradition. And let me say that it was a ton of fun helping the students create their first Dia de los Muertos altar. To read about the meaning of this holiday go to this post I wrote last week.

Sugar Skulls & Day of The Dead!



 

So What is the "Day of the Dead? Well the Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday that is celebrated all throughout Mexico and around the world. In Brazil it's called "Dia de Finados", in Spain there are festivals and parades, and at the end of the day, people gather at cemetaries and pray for their dead loved ones. There are different forms of this holiday and they are all celbrated throughout Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe, and also in the Native American cultures. This holiday focuses on the gathering of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members that have passed away.
In most regions of Mexico it is celebrated November 1st &2nd. With the first day being called the day of the innocents in honor of the children and infants. The second day honors all the adults. During this time people go to cemeteries to be with the souls of the departed and build private altars containing the favorite foods, beverages, and things that ment a lot to the departed. The intent is to encourage visits by the souls, so the souls will hear the prayers of the living. These celebrations can be humorous as people remember all the funny and good times they had with their loved ones.
Mow isn't this a BILLION times different than our holliday here in the United States??!! Halloween is kinda ment to be creepy and scary (don't get me wrong I love creepy and scary), but it's kind of nice to see what other cultures' version of "Halloween"is.
A common symbol of this holiday is the skull, usually made of sugar. Ssugar skulls are inscribed with the name of the loved one on the forehead.
Now, I didn't have a sugar skull mold, or patience to make one out of sugar. So what did I do? I went to Dollar Tree and bought one of their skulls! I then painted it ivory and then painted it with bright colors! So go out there and make your own "sugar skull" this Halloween!

How to Make Antlers!



So I have been looking at how to make me some nice deer antlers for a while, and honestly I couldn't find a single post anywhere on a SIMPLE & EASY way to make some antlers that didn't involve
 a) branches b) clay c) real antlers d) paper mache e) require me to go out and buy materials
I know cheap and laziness isn't a good combo, but as they say "necessity is the mother of all invention" and combined with my cheapness and laziness I came up with a super simple & easy way to make some antlers. Now you may be wondering "why?". No it's not for Halloween, although I am tempted to wear them for Halloween. But they are a prop for one of the dances the folkloric dance team is working on. I had seen the real prop that is supposed to go with this dance but they wanted $450!! Um....how about no. So for now (until I become a billionaire) this will be perfect! And plus did I mention my version was FREE! So without anymore babbling here is how I made them.

Materials:

• aluminum foil
• painters tap/scotch tape/any paint able tape
• wire (not too thin but not too thick either, I got mine at my local hardware store and it was the only size they had and it worked great)
• wire cutters
• needle nosed pliers
• leather like fabric/ or any fabric you would like cut into about half inch strips
• paint & paint brush & paper plate for your paint
• metal headband
• hot glue gun & hot glue

How To:

• First map out what you want your antlers to look like and about how big you want them.
• Then, with your aluminum foil roll it length wise and start making the shapes. I did each point separate and then just hot glued them together where I wanted them
• Once all the pieces are hot glued together where you want them it should look like this...

 

• After you have your antlers how you like them it is time to start taping! so get your tape out and make sure that every inch of your antlers are taped. (you can see I had tried to wrap one of the antlers in contact paper.....it didn't turn out so well, I had to take it off and wrap it with tape instead)

• Once you are done taping them they should look like this!  

• Now comes the paint! so start painting your antlers the way you want them.

•  It took about 2 coats of the light ivory paint for it to cover all traces of the blue tape. Then I added browns and darker ivories to them.

 

• Now set your antlers to the side and wait for them to completely dry.
• After they are completely dry take about a 12 inch length of your wire (sorry I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the steps) and push it through the bottom of your antler so you have an even amount of wire on both sides of the antler.
• Now place the antler with the wire sticking through it on top of your metal headband (positioning isn't crucial when it comes to whether to move it left or right, because you will still be able to slide it to the sides while it's on the headband for now)
• Now wrap the wire that is sticking out of the antler around the headband until it is totally secure and the antler doesn't flop forward or backward. (I had to play with wrapping and unwrapping it until I liked the rigidity of the antler)
• Once you are done wrapping the wire around the antler and the headband start on the second antler.
• Now that you have both of your antlers wire wrapped to the headband slide the antlers around on the headband until you like their position.
• Now take your strips of fabric and start wrapping it around the headband making sure you hot glue as you go and to cover as much of the wire at the antlers as possible.
• Once you are finished wrapping the headband in fabric you can leave it like that and you are finished!

OR If you want to be able to tie it around your head

•  just cut your fabric to your desired length (I had cut my strips super long, eh about a yard, because I needed them to be super secure on the dancer's head) and hot glue the strips onto the ends of the headband and voila! You now have an awesome antler headpiece that cost you next to nothing! (it was totally free for me to make this, I already had everything I needed on hand!)

 

 

 

Aquamarine...

I LOVE aquamarine, it's so pretty, it reminds me of the ocean. So when I went to the Rockhounds Pow Wow last week I decided to buy a piece of aquamarine. And with that little piece I thought it would be perfect on a ring. I LOVE it. I almost, almost want to keep it for myself...maybe.

Stone Pendant

Yup, you guessed it, this is one of those pretty stones I bought last week!

Lace on your Head??

I've had this short peice of really pretty lace, and just hadn't thought of what to do with it. Until I decided, "hey, I wonder if I could make a crown out of this?" So I put it on my head and low and behold I thought it looked pretty good. So I made it into a tiara and added rhinestones and glass beads to it!

Just a Seashell

I have been super excited of all the wonderful rocks that i've bought the other day at the Rockhound's Pow Wow and so i've been busy at work trying to invision the identities of these beauties. So far here is one of the shells that i've wire wrapped :)

Purple Wire Wrapped Stone Pendant

Lately I've been playing around with wire wrapping stones. And I've got to say I love doing it!

Sneak Peak



Wire Wrapped Crystal

This was my first time wire wrapping anything that didn't have a pre-drilled hole in it!! I love it!! I did this for a friend of mine and this beauty is destined to be a pendant on a necklace!!