Kids' Canvas Name Art

This is a fun art project that your child gets to help make! My son and I made this last Fall but I'm just now getting around to sharing it.

My son always wants to paint while I'm painting and I thought this would be a cute sign for him to make for his bedroom.

Step 1:

Paint canvas a solid color. This is the color your child's name will be. It also helps in case he/she doesn't get the canvas completely covered with paint and so white won't show through.

Step 2:

After the paint has dried, spell your child's name out in removable stickers.

You can use:

A. Painters tape (good if your child's name is short and doesn't have many curvy letters) or

B. Large letter stickers or

C. Cut out adhesive vinyl letters from a Cricut or other cutting system. (This is what I did.)

Step 3: Let your child go wild painting on the canvas--assuring that the letters get covered really well.

Step 4: Let it dry, then peel the letter stickers off to reveal your child's name!

I used a staple gun to attach a ribbon to the back of the canvas...

Then I attached 2 removable Command hooks to his bedroom door and hooked the painting on.

Here are my kids' bedroom doors! I made the ribbon wreath for my daughter's door and I have since added a large painted wooden letter in the center. I love having their names/initials on their bedroom doors!

If you'd like to see another kids canvas art idea, check out our Annual Handprint Art. 

Easy DIY Felt Owls

I made these 2 owls as a decoration for my daughter's first birthday party. (The next few posts will all be about things I made for her party, so stay tuned!) They're super easy to make...

Supplies:
2 Styrofoam balls (I made 1 big & 1 little)
Sheets of felt--in however many colors you want for the feathers
Large googly eyes
Hot glue
Scissors

I started by cutting out a feather shape & then used it as a template for all the other feathers. You can trace them onto the felt before you cut, if you wish. I just cut several of each color until I felt it was about enough. (Sorry, I didn't count them.)


I cut out 2 slightly larger pieces to be the wings. I used a patterned felt so they would stand out a little more. I also cut one end straight, not pointed.

Then, I cut out the weird shape to go around the eyes (the chocolate brown pieces in the pics below) and then some circles for the googly eyes to be glued onto.

Finally, I folded one of the "feathers" in half to be the beak.


I started gluing the "feathers" from top to bottom on the ball, alternating colors.


Large owl


Small owl


Then I glued on the wings, eye pieces, googly eyes and beaks...



Tah-da! 2 little felt owls, just sitting around enjoying the party. These would be super cute in Fall colors, sitting around pumpkins & such!

Sand Art

This Summer, my son turned 5 and we threw him a Scooby Doo birthday party. It was the first party in which he invited some friends from preschool, so in addition to a game, I wanted to have an activity/craft for the kids to do and be able to take it home. I thought that making sand art would be both fun and fit the bright colored 70's theme of the party. It was a hit!


I set up the table in the backyard (didn't want sand in my house!), covered it with a plastic tablecloth and set up all the supplies. The kids did the rest!



The dog bone sign was for Scooby Doo~it looks kinda of out of place in these pictures without seeing the rest of the party LOL!

I made up an example sand art and had it on the table. I just put all the containers in a bowl in the middle so the kids could pick which shape they wanted.




Supplies Needed:

Colored Sand (I got 7 different colors)
Small funnels (1 for each child)
plastic (or glass) containers with lids (1-2 for each child)
spoons (to scoop sand into funnel)

All of the sand art supplies (sand, funnels, & plastic containers) are found together on a craft aisle at Hobby Lobby)

DIY Balloon Wreath

I've seen many versions of this type of wreath lately and since my son's birthday was last month, I decided I needed to make one before his party! I plan to use it for all of our family birthdays. I can change out the "M" if I want, although our last name also starts with "M", so it will work either way.

There are many tutorials out there, but here's my (fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants) version:



Supplies:
Straw wreath (or foam)
Floral pins (I bought the 1 lb. bag & will be using them for the rest of my life!)
Balloons (I bought 2 bags of 72 each & used about 3/4 of them)
Ribbon (wider makes it easier)
Fuzzy pipe cleaners (Optional)
Large painted wooden letter (Optional)



I used the straw wreath I bought at a thrift store a while back for 30 cents! I wish it was actually a little larger in size, but hey...you can't really argue with 30 cents. I left the plastic wrap on the straw to keep it contained.

Here's where I went wrong. Instead of first wrapping the entire wreath with ribbon, I started by pinning on balloons. See, I thought I was going to put balloons around the entire wreath, thus not needing any ribbon. Well, once I started out I decided that it would look better with about 3/4 of the wreath covered with balloons. So I wrapped the ribbon on the remaining part of the wreath & tried to cover the ends with balloons.




Carrying on...I thought it looked kind of plain, so I wrapped some colorful pipe cleaners around a pen to make them spirals, grouped them & glued them on. I then painted the whimsical wooden "M". I painted the edges yellow to try to make the letter stand out better. (Still wish it stood out more.) Then I tried hot gluing the letter to the balloons. Note to self: (and to you): Hot glue does not stick to balloons. At least it didn't for me. I tried another type of glue with no luck. I finally tied the letter on with a piece of red pipe cleaner. At least this way it's removable & I can use other letters or numbers if I want. So that ended up working out.




Here's how it turned out:

Thrift Store Cross Redo

I had been on the lookout for a cross for my guest bathroom to complete a grouping of three on a small wall. You might remember when I made the Crown Plate for this wall. I decided I wanted three of my favorite things there: A Fleur de Lis, a Crown, and a Cross. I bought this metal cross for $1 about a month ago at a thrift store. I knew I could alter it into something I'd like for that space.

BEFORE (front):

BEFORE (back):
I removed the hanger on the top, the metal jump rings on the bottom (that obviously used to dangle something) and the heart from the front of the cross. I just flipped it over to use the back. The blue matches my bathroom really well (unlike in this picture) and I liked the chippy/distressed edges, so no need to paint it!

I did, however use a fleur de lis stamp & randomly stamped chocolate brown scrolly swirls of paint on top of the blue paint.
It still looked plain to me, and a little unfinished, so I decided to trace the scrolls with some copper colored glitter paint. (I love me some glitter!)

I then dug around to find another embellishment & remembered that I had an old crystal off a chandelier. I took it apart & dangled the two smaller glass "crystals" from the bottom holes & (after painting a big blob of the glitter paint in the center to show through) I glued the largest glass "crystal" to the center of the cross. I glued a hanger onto the back & hung it up in the arrangement...
Here she is! A little classy & a little artsy-fartsy. I think I'll keep her!

Rockets & Clothespins (2 quick projects)

Just wanted to share 2 quick projects with you...

My 5 year old and I made these 4th of July rockets a few days before the holiday. I'd seen many other blog posts about them & thought it'd be a good project for us. I won't go into a tutorial but there are many out there floating around the blogosphere if you search. Basic supplies are cardboard toilet paper tubes, scrapbook paper, ribbon & adhesive. I was pleased with how well my son did on these & found it hard to tell which ones were his & which ones were mine! (Can you tell?)

I never ended up getting them hung with clear fishing line, but they sure will look cute for next year! ;)




I use clothespins to clip & organize paperwork, etc. so while watching tv one night, I broke out the glitter pens & went to town glitterizing some for myself...

...and for my Mom. I think they look better in person. I heart glitter!

More Thrifty Finds!

Over the last 3 weeks, I've made 3 trips to 2 different local thrift stores. I'll admit that I simply cannot stop buying cute clothes for my baby girl! She outgrows them so fast that she is usually in constant need of new outfits anyway. I try to find clothes for my son, but it's a lot harder to find quality used boys clothes (especially in his size) for some reason.

Here are the clothes I found: (each was $3 or less)

I also found a floral bucket ($1.50) & a tissue box cover ($1~will post the redo of this soon)



I was amazed to find these Southern Living at Home decor items!

The tray & the King Street Trio glass vase set were each $5. (My mom bought those from me)

The small Rosedale planter with the 4 Jamestown votive holders was just $1. (I used to be a consultant!)
A pair of shorts, brand new flip-flops & a few children's books for my son ($5 total)...

A glass cutting board that matches my kitchen ($1) and 2 frames ($2 for both)A straw wreath & 3 zippers for craft projects (total 40 cents!)
This concludes the tour of great thrift store bargains! (Until next time!)

Crown Plate

Several months ago, we changed our front guest bathroom from pale green with a palm tree theme (yuk--So sick of that!) to a soft blue with chocolate brown. We still haven't gotten any chocolate brown towels, but we will get there! (we had a baby 7 months ago, I might add) There was also a little wall that had nothing on it that was bothering me, but I couldn't figure out what to hang there.

I finally decided upon 3 of my favorite things: A fleur de lis, a crown, and a cross. I already had the fleur de lis--it had been begging for a home for some time. I am still shopping around for the perfect cross, but in the meantime, I made this little crown plate.

I bought this 6" diameter plate at Hobby Lobby for $3. I had all the rest of the supplies on hand: patterned scrapbook paper, vinyl, Cricut die cut machine, paint, mod podge, & ribbon.



I chose a piece of scrapbook paper & cut out a circle the size of the inner plate. I then made small 1/2" cuts all around the circle so it would lie flat inside the circle & hug the round edge without puckering.


I looked everywhere for my brown Tim Holtz distressing ink, but ended up having to use acrylic paint to add a distressed border around the edge of the paper. It turned out just fine.


I then cut a crown out of vinyl with my Cricut. If you don't have a die cut machine, you could always cut out an image off the computer or use one at your local scrapbook store.
I stuck the vinyl crown to the paper, then mod podged the paper to the plate.
I threaded ribbon through the holes and ended up with a bow at the top.
Here is the little crown plate hanging in its new home! The cross will go to the lower right when I find it. (lighting is making the wall color look weird in this pic)

Here's another view of the bathroom (dying for chocolate brown towels!)
The supplies cost me around $5 total for this project.

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