This post brought to you by Walmart. All opinions are 100% mine. I've had tangrams on the brain lately. Remember those? I came across these amazing images made with basic shape stamps, and it reminded me of playing around with tangram puzzles back in Elementary School days. I thought it would be fun to make a set for my son, but wasn't sure what to make them out of. Then I thought of using Duck Tape® because it is durable and comes in so many fun colors. I already had some bright yellow at home, but when you are out doing your back to school shopping, you can buy Duck Tape at Walmart in tons of colors and patterns. My son has had a great time playing with his tangram set so far, and I like that it is challenging him and getting his math brain working. Here's how I made my Continue Reading
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How to Dry Emboss without an Embossing Machine
I am in the midst of preparations for my little girl's upcoming birthday celebration. We are going for a fancy tea party theme, and I am having a good time planning it all out. In my fantasy world, I would have beautiful letterpress invitations, but in real life, they are just a bit out of my budget. So, I came up with the idea of doing some embossing for a similar kind of look that would be inexpensive and easy to do myself. I browsed the aisles of my local craft store looking for embossing options, but there weren't really that many. The store pretty much only had embossing folders to use with the Cuttlebug embossing machine, which was also a little out of my budget. The folders themselves weren't too expensive, so I started wondering if I could use one of the folders without actually Continue Reading
Five Sources for Discovering Unique, Affordable Art
I am all about the DIY art, folks. ALL about it. (Check out some of my DIY art projects below if you don't believe me.) BUT - I also think it is nice to own beautiful, interesting pieces of art created by others. My budget is limited, but I have found that if you know where to look, you can discover amazingly talented artists who offer original pieces and limited prints of their work for truly affordable prices. If you are interested in finding unique, affordable art, here are some techniques and sources to check out. 1. The Jealous Curator This is definitely my favorite way to discover artwork and artists. Many of you are probably familiar with the Jealous Curator and her amazing site. The Jealous Curator is a site dedicated to sharing beautiful and interesting art. Continue Reading
Men’s Shirt to Button Back Top
Guys. I sewed something. To wear. For ME to wear. This is kind of a break through. And then the even crazier part is that I took pictures of me wearing it and then put them here for you to see. I mean. That is just nuts. Have I mentioned that I just had a baby? True story. In fact, we should probably talk about that because that's really the whole reason I made this shirt in the first place. Having a baby is wonderful. Truly. I love my little boy so, so much. But the belly. It could go. Unfortunately, it's going to take a while to shrink down my mummy tummy, and in the meantime, I still have to go out in public occasionally and wear real clothes. And, folks, I am so over the maternity stuff. So, there I am looking at all the clothes in my closet that don't fit me with no Continue Reading
Soft Almond Sugar Cookies
One thing I really enjoy doing with my kids is baking. They love it. They learn some useful skills. We all get a yummy treat. Win, win, win. I am always looking for recipes that have good jobs for little hands. I had pinned these soft almond sugar cookies a while ago, and thought they would be a good project for me and the kiddos to tackle. These sugar cookies are rolled in raw sugar before baking, which is the perfect job for little helpers. You can get the recipe at Confections from the Cody Kitchen. I had to make a few changes to the recipe to work with what I had on hand. I used all butter (instead of butter and shortening) and replaced the cake flour with all-purpose flour. My cookies didn't end up as quite as thick and fluffy as the originals. That could have been because of Continue Reading
A Girly Painted Onesie
Lately, it's unusual for me to go a whole month without going to a baby shower. I went to a shower for a baby girl a couple nights together and decided to whip up a girly version of the painted patterned onesies I made the other day. (You can find a simple tutorial here) Here she is! What do you all think? I'm having a lot of fun with this technique. Now I've got to whip up some big kid versions for my older two. Linking up at some of my favorite parties. Continue Reading
Easier Than Applique Painted Patterned Onesies
Recently, I was getting a gift ready for a baby shower and I had a white onesie that I wanted to applique a bow tie onto. But I didn't have any wonder under and I have had trouble doing applique on knits without wonder under. And then I thought, "Well, I have freezer paper." The thing that is so fun about applique is the patterned fabrics you can use, right? Well, why not create a pattern with paint? This might not be groundbreaking stuff, but it was a total Aha! moment for me. I think it creates a cool effect, and it was definitely easier for me than the applique route. Plus I can create any pattern I want regardless of what options I have in my fabric stash. Here's how we do it: Start off by finding some images you like and print them off. You can print directly onto freezer paper, Continue Reading
Staining and Updating Bathroom Cabinets
This was actually one of the first projects we finished in our bathroom renovation. In fact, we did this before I was really back into a blogging state of mind, so I don't have tons of in-progress photos, but I think it's still worth sharing if just for the transformation. This was a project where I really had to convince my husband to give it a go. He often likes to complain to our friends that I want to paint or stain every piece of wood in our house. That is not entirely true. I just kind of hate the honey-colored wood tone of all the built-in cabinets in our home. Here's a crappy MLS before shot of the bathroom, but you get the idea. Boring, builder-grade cabinets. Our bathroom was sad, and those cabinets were just bringing the whole place down. But I knew that with a little Continue Reading