Construction Room Makeover for Landon

Since baby Michels #2 is due in a few months, we decided it was time to start thinking about upgrading Landon to a big boy room so we can move the crib and matching furniture into the baby room.  While Christmas shopping, we stumbled across a Circo Build It construction themed bed-in-a-bag on clearance for $15, and since Landon is really into heavy machinery -- dump trucks, excavators, and bull dozers especially -- we thought this would be the perfect set for his new big boy room.

So we said good-bye to his train themed toddler room, disassembled the crib, picked out paints, and went to work on creating a construction themed room fit for a big boy.

Before:

To make this room extra kid-friendly, we opted for bright bold colors.  We picked "Emergency Zone" orange for an accent wall and painted the other walls "Yucatan" blue.  Both colors are Behr Ultra paint from Home Depot.  Landon even pitched in and did a little painting himself.

After:

Here is what the finished product looked like.

Landon was very excited for his big boy bed, except it made him look so small in the big full size bed.

We still have a little work to do before the project is complete.  The rest of the furniture doesn't arrive until next week.  And adding decorations to the wall will provide plenty of crafting opportunities over the next couple of months.  So be sure to check back over the next few months and see the continued progress on the construction zone room.

A special thanks goes out to my dad for helping me paint, and my mom for occupying Landon and keeping Landon out of our hair while we painted.

Jingle All The Way Shadow Box

Here is a really easy hand made Christmas present that takes only a few minutes to put together and can easily done for under $10 -- a jingle bells shadow box.

Here are the supplies I used:

• 5" x 7" shadow box -- I bought these at Michaels on sale for $4.99.  If they are not on sale, you can always use the 40% off coupon.
• 1 package of jingle bells.  I got mine for under $2 at Joanne's.
• Vinyl stickers that say "Jingle All the Way"
• Scrapbook paper or wrapping paper for the background in the shadow box
• Ribbon for the outside of the shadow box.

On the shadow boxes that I made for last year's teacher gifts, I just used fancy scrapbook lettering to spell out the words "Jingle all the way", but for this year's teacher gifts I decided to be a little more creative and used my Cricut cutter, so I played around in the Cricut Craft Room design software to see what I could come up with.  Here's the cartridges that I used:

• Cutting Up cartirdge for the words "jingle" and "way".
• Plantin School book cartridge for the words "all the"
• Christmas Joy cartridge for the bell
• Christmas Cheer cartridge for the bow.  

Here's a peak at what I came up with in Cricut Craft Room.  If you would like to download the actual Cricut Craft Room file, click here.  

And here is one of the shadow boxes that I made last year using scrapbook stickers for the letters and a little bigger sized jingle bells.  I definitely liked the smaller, shiner jingle bells better from the picture above.

Mini Muffin Pan Advent Calendar

Here's an easy advent calendar that I made at a work shop with my Stampin' Up consultant back in Peoria.  It started with an mini muffin pan, which has 24 slots.  Then we used a scalloped punches and two circle punches to make the numbers 1 through 24.

All the paper I used here was from Stampin' Up, but you could also find printables online to get the numbers.  We added magnets to the back of the scalloped circles so they would stick to cookie pan.

Now each day Landon gets a little candy surprise behind each number!

Paint-Your-Own-Pottery Christmas Tray

Today I am sharing with you my favorite paint-your-own-pottery project that I have ever done.  I got this idea from my friend Thuong.  We made this at Fired Up, a paint-your-own-pottery studio back in Peoria, Illinois.

We used the Speaking of Winter cricut cartridge to make stencils spelling out my last name (Michels).  Notice how this cartride uses traditional winter themes such as snowmen, mittens, and scarves to form the lettering.

This project was really a labor of love.  Each color required at least 3 coats of paint, but the yellow and white paint required 5 coats of paint to make sure the colors underneath did not show through.  I think I spent over 30 hours on this project, but it was worth it in the end.

And if you've never seen the Speaking of Fall Cricut cartridge, here are the shapes that it comes with.  It's really a neat cartridge.

Well that is all for today.  I hope you are enjoying the holiday season.  Until next time, have a Sew Scrappy Day.

Easy But Elegant Glass Bulb Ornaments Made with Cricut

Here are some easy and inexpensive home made Christmas ornaments made using glass bulbs, ribbon/cording, and vinyl stickers.   These make great tags on the outside of Christmas presents or great gifts when packaged in sets.  I even made a bunch for teacher gifts.

I bought the glass bulbs from Hobby Lobby on sale for under $5 for a 6 pack.  I bought the vinyl on line and cut it with my Cricut using the Stone Script cartridge for the lettering and Joys of the Season for the snowflake.  If you don't have a Cricut you could easily do this with scrapbook stickers too.

For my family, I used white vinyl with blue bulbs.  I thought the silver cording added an elegant touch.

I made some red bulbs with gold stickers and cording for my parents labeles "Gramma" and "Grampa" but I didn't get a good picture.

Here's part of the set I made for my brother and sister-in-law.  For them I used red vinyl and red ribbon on white bulbs.  These were my favorites.

And here is something I tried using clear bulbs that I filled with metal beads.

I hope you enjoyed today's posts, and until next time have a Sew Scrappy Day!

Stamped & Sewn Christmas Cards - Mittens, Stocking, and Hat

Need some inspiration for your holiday cards?  Well here is one of my favorite Christmas cards designs from a few years back.

I used the Stitch a Card stamps from Art Impressions.  The stamps include the outline of the object plus the stitching pattern, so piercing the holes and adding the floss is easy.  After I stamped the images, I cut the images out, pierced the stitching holes, and added the stitching using embroidery floss.  I stamped white snowflakes onto blue paper to give a nice contrasting background.

For the mittens, I added a white ribbon to connect the pair.

I embellished the hat with white ribbon and blue beads.

For the stocking, I used metallic floss to add extra pizazz to the holly leaves, and used a red button for the holly.

Be sure to keep checking back for more holiday projects.  I'll be posting more Christmas card ideas, decorations, ornament projects over the next several weeks.  

Baby Food Jar Christmas Trees

It's finally Christmas season -- my favorite time of year for crafting.  For weeks I've anxiously been anticipating getting through Thanksgiving so I can get my Christmas tree up and my decorations out!  So to start out my month of holiday crafting, here is one of my favorite home made Christmas decorations -- a frosted Christmas tree made out of baby food jars.

I remember having a one of these that my aunt Kim made for my mom, and it would sit on our mantel every Christmas.  So when Landon started eating baby food, I saved all his jars so I could make one of these frosted trees.

This was a really easy project.  I thoroughly cleaned all the jars, including the label and glue on the outside of the jars.  Then I used hot glue to permanently adhere the jars together.  Once the glue dried, I sprayed the jars with a frosted glass finish.  Next, I wrapped a sparkly red ribbon around the outside and secured it with hot glue.  And finally, I added the string of Christmas lights, making sure each jar had a couple of bulbs. 

The baby food jar trees fit in perfectly with the decorations I keep above the kitchen cupboards.

Well I need to get back to getting more decorations up and more Christmas craft projects completed.  Be sure to keep checking back.  I will be posting lots of holiday craft projects between now and Christmas.  So until next time, have a Sew Scrappy Day!

The Cutest Little Pirate

Landon's favorite show lately is Jake and the Neverland Pirates -- so we decided a pirate costume would be a great Halloween costume for him (or so we thought anyway).  So I went to Joann Fabrics, Hancock Fabrics, and Hobby Lobby to buy a pattern (Simplicity 2561) and fabric and got to work making the fabric.

For all the time I spent running to three stores just to get the necessary fabric and then making the costume, Landon was not very appreciative.  In fact, he wanted nothing to do with the costume.  I had to bribe him with a tootsie roll sucker just to get a couple of pictures.

For a brief moment we almost were able to get a smile out of him.

But by the second house he stripped off his jacket.

And by the third house he ditched his hat.

But at least he kept his pants on for most of the night, and we were able to snap a few cute pictures.  On  a positive note, he thoroughly enjoyed trick or treating and especially loved riding in his wagon while his Nonny pulled him.

Maybe next year he'll be more in the Halloween costume spirit.

Chipboard BOO in time for Halloween

Happy halloween fellow crafters!  I've been a little busy the last few weeks with my in-laws visiting, painting the house, putting on a Halloween Party for the mom's group, and trying to get Landon's Halloween costume finished.  But I was able to get one quick project done last night just in time for Halloween.

All the supplies came from Hobby Lobby and were on sale for 50% off, so the the entire sign was under $5.  I started with chip board letters and Halloween themed scrapbook paper.  I traced the letters onto the scrapbook paper and cut the letters out.  (I actually trimmed the letters out slightly smaller then what I traced to allow the black border to show through)  Next I painted the chipboard letters black and painted the edge of the paper letters.   Then I adhered the paper to the chipboard letters using mod podge.  And that's all it took!

And with that I better get going -- my door bell is ringing with more trick-or-treaters.  Enjoy the rest of your Halloween, and check back tomorrow to see pictures of the cutest little Pirate I've ever seen :)

Halloween Tile

At the start of fall I just love unpacking the decorations and getting excited about previous year's craft projects.

Here is one of my favorite Halloween projects I made a few year's back.  It was really simple and inexpensive.  I started with a 14 " x 14" ceramic tile that only costs $0.99.   Next I used yellow and orange spray paint to the tile.  And lastly I applied a black ceramic sticker.  I got this vinyl sticker from Upper Case Living.  Not counting dry time for the paint, this entire project took about 10 minutes.

I hope you enjoyed today's project!  See you next time!

Simple Halloween Scrapbook Layout - Landon's First Halloween

As we get closer to trick-or-treating I have been reminiscing about Landon's first Halloween.  He was so little and and didn't quite get the concept of Halloween, but he loved the pumpkins and he loved the giant chunk of cheese that went with the mouse costume I made for him.  The mouse costume was my first sewing project and was full of frustrations, seam ripping, and re-sewing -- which makes me appreciate the completed costume all the more.   And Landon won 2nd place at the Germantown Hills costume contest :)

The letters were made using the Cuttin Up Cricut cartridge.  All the patterned paper is from the All Seasons paper pad from The Paper Studio.   And the 3-D pumpkin stickers are something I found in the seasonal section at Hobby Lobby.

Here's some close ups of the cutest little mouse ever:

That's all for now folks.  I've got more great fall and Halloween projects coming up, so keep checking back.  Until then, have a Sew Scrappy Day!

Sew Scrappy Day -- Ravamped

I spent the afternoon working on refurbishing my blog. Gone is the original standard boring template, and in its place is a style that more fits my crafting personality.

I searched google for free blog backgrounds and headers, and I stumbled My Style Backgrounds.  It's a great blog with lots of unique, pre-made headers and backgrounds.  In addition to hundreds of very stylish, and best of all FREE backgrounds and headers, the blog includes instructions for applying the backgrounds and headers to blogger.   And if you want to pay a little bit of money, they will even make you a custom header and background.  I opted for the free version.

 I choose Butterfly Kisses because it fit my scrapbooking style. Using Photo Shop I inserted Sew Scrappy Day into the white space on the generic header.

I still have some tweaking and additions to make, but I am pleased with this rendition for now.

A Baseball Blanket for My Nephew

My brother and his wife are expecting, and the baby is due to arrive any day now.  When I was at the fabric store a few months ago I came across some vintage style baseball fabric that would be perfect for a blanket for my soon to be nephew, since they are doing a sports themed nursery.  

I wanted to have a variety of textures for the little baby to enjoy, so I added some cream and red waffle fabric.  And to make the blanket extra cozy for a baby I added a plush border and backing.  And here is what it looked like when I was done:

It fits in perfect with their sports themed bedroom. 

And now I am just patiently awaiting the arrival of my first little nephew.

A Fall Platter At the Bisque Bistro

Now that the weather has cooled down (a say that lightly because 60 degree hardly constituted fall back home) I have really gotten excited for fall.  I've slowly been getting the fall decorations out and have several fall craft projects in process.

One of my favorite activities that I always do at the start of fall is head down to a paint-your-own pottery place.  It's a tradition that started with my girls back in Peoria.  I was so ecstatic when last month's mommy's mixer for the Kinder Moms was a Bisque Bistro.

This was one of my more simple projects, and I finished it in only 4 1/2 hours.   I used my computer to print out the word "fall" in a large font and then carbon copy paper to transfer it onto the platter.

Well I better get going so I can work on my current fall project - a pirate Halloween costume for Little Landon.  Look for the blog post in the next couple of days.  And until next time, have a Sew Scrappy Day!

From Cookie Sheet to ABC & 123 Magnet Board

A while back I bought Landon a set of magnetic letters.  At our old house our dishwasher was magnetic, so he had a place to use them.  But in our new house, everything is stainless steel, and although it looks really nice, it is not magnetic.  But thanks to Pinterest, I got the idea to make a magnetic board from a cookie sheet.  And here is my version:

I started with a magnetic cookie sheet. This is very important, otherwise you have to use magnetic spray paint, which I haven't had much luck with.  I actually took the magnetic letters to the store with me to make sure they would stick.

The first thing I did was punch 4 holes along the top and inserted eyelets using my Big Bite hole punch and eyelet setter.  Then I applied a coat of spray paint primer followed by 2 coats of the navy blue spray paint.

Next, I added the ribbon for hanging and decorated it with the vinyl stickers.  I used my Cricut and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge to cut the "A B C" and "1 2 3".

I haven't figured out where I am going to hang this, so far now Landon just gets to play with it on the floor, but he is enjoying it so far!

Thanks for reading my blog!  And until next time, have a Sew Scrappy Day!

"Create a Critter" Play Time Layout

Today's project is a scrapbook layout I made for Landon's excersauser days.  I used my Cricut to make both the text and the animals  -- the "Create a Critter" and "Tear Drop" font cartridges.  All the paper came from Scrapadoodle, my favorite store back in Peoria.

Landon's excersaucer was zoo themed, and he just loved playing with the zebra, monkey, lions, and giraffes.  I sure miss those days when he would spend endless hours just sitting and discovering the toys on his excersaucer! And boy was it easier back then when he couldn't run all over the place....

Well that is all for today folks!

A Seat and a Table in the Forbidden Room

Landon has pretty much been forbidden from entering my craft room since the moment he began to crawl.  His little mischievous hands are just to quick at getting into my stamps, paper, scissors, inks, markers, thread.... And now that he is napping less and less, I'm not finding time to get into my craft room.  But after reading about how my friend Kristy, over at the The No-No Room, has a little desk in her craft room for her toddler, I thought I might as well give this a try.

Landon has really been into coloring, painting, and stickers lately, so why not make him a little craft space of his own.  That way I get time to do my crafting, and Landon and I still get to spend quality time together.

So with that, we headed out to Walmart to get Landon his very own craft table.  And since we happened to stumble across a great back to school sale, we stocked up on all the things a little toddler could need for his craft space -- crayons, washable markers, water paints, notebooks, cars themed pencils, erasers, a pencil box, construction paper, and a pencil sharpener.  Landon was like a little kid in a candy store and everytime we passed another customer in the store Landon would point to his supplies and say "Look at this!  These are for me!"  (I hope he keeps this excitement up when its time to actually go school supply shopping.)

The shopping trip was so exhilarating for Landon that he fell asleep on his way home.  So while he napped, I put the "some assembly required" table and bench set together and situated it right next to my craft desk.  And then I filled his desk with all his school supplies (and stashed the duplicates and messy stuff for a later date).

So immediately after waking up, Landon asked right away where his "colors" where, so I brought him into the craft room and he immediately sat down at his craft table and spent 3 hours coloring, drawing, and scribbling.  He was enjoying it so much that he wanted to Skype Gramma & Grampa just to show them his craft table.

So far this table has been a good investment and it looks like Landon and I are going to get to do a lot of really fun crafting together in the future.  I still need to personalize his space a little -- make him a pencil holder, put up a bulletin board for his art work, and maybe even make a magnetic board so he can practice with his letters.

Thanks Kristy for the idea!  Here's a few more pictures of Landon enjoying his new craft table.  And until next time, have a Sew Scrappy Day!

Look Who Turned 2 -- Landon's Mickey Mouse Birthday Party

I haven't had much time for crafting lately since I'm in the middle of a major painting project (pictures to come later) so I decided to share the Mickey Mouse themed birthday party that I put on for Landon back in February.

At the time of the party, Landon's favorite TV show was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, (actually that was pretty much the only thing Landon would watch) and since there were endless craft possibilities, I decided Mickey Mouse would be the theme -- and I challenged myself to do it without buying Mickey Mouse party supplies.  I spent a lot of time on Pinterest and google searches getting ideas, and even more time with my Cricut, to put on this party -- but I really just had a ball putting the party together.  Here is what I ended up coming up with:

Invitations:  I made the invitations using the Disney Mickey & Friends and the Disney Mickey Font Cricut cartridges and printed out out the inside of the card on my computer.

Front of invitation

Inside of invitation

The Cake:  I had just gotten my Cricut Cake and was so excited to use it.  I used cookie cutters ofr the stars and Mickey heads, the cricut to cut out the words.  This was my first time using fondant,  but I was happy with my first attempt.  Erica (my sister-in-law) was a very dedicated assistant for this project.  I think our hands were stained blue for weeks from the food coloring used to die the fondant :)   One tip I learned for next time -- freezing the cakes before adding the frosting helps keep the edges more square instead of rounded mounds like this ended up.

Happy Birthday Banner:  Again, I used the cricut to make the Happy Birthday banner.  I used a 12"x24" cutting mat for the Pluto and Mickey characters.  I also had the other disney characters scattered about the area.

Party Drinks:  I wanted to make festive, cheap, and spill proof glasses for the kids to drink from.  I came across the idea in a craft magazine to decorate mason jars.  So I pulled out my left over jam jars, poked a hole in the lid, and added some Mickey themed paper.  To make sure the kids wouldn't get mixed up, I wrote there names in white marker on a Mickey cut outs, and then added some fun plastic straws.  To finish it off I painted a wooden tray that some of Landon's toys came in, and then slapped a "Clarabell Cow's Moo Milk" label on the tray.  These went over real well with all the kids.  

Party Shirt:  I saw all these cute shirts on Etsy shops and Pinterest that were just basic white T-Shirts with a Mickey head appliquéd on.  I've never done this before, but I decided to give it a try and went easier then I thought it would.   And as a bonus -- Landon was super excited to get dressed the morning of his party.  He just couldn't wait to wear his Mickey shirt.   The shirt got dirty pretty fast, but I guess getting dirty is just party of a 2 year old.

Goodie Bags & Mickey Head Decoration:  I saw several versions of tissue paper Mickey heads on Pinterest, and thought this would make a great decoration for the goodie bag table. I started with 1 large styrofoam ball and 2 smaller balls, then used wire to attach tissue paper flowers, and attached a wooden dowel for the stem.  For the base I lined a 1 quart mason jar with red tissue paper and then filled with marbles to keep the wooden dowel in place.  I added 2 white buttons to the jar to simulate the red iconic shorts that Mickey always wears.

For the party favor bags, I purchase som red bags from Hobby Lobby and then added Mickey Mouse cut outs with each child's name.  Inside I had Mickey stickers, a hand made Mickey necklace, Oreo Mickey pops, and hand made baby food jar snow globe.  (I really wish I would have remembered to take pictures of the snow globes because they really turned out cool)

Mickey Orea Pops:  For a festive extra treat, I made these Orio Pops using regular Oreos, mini Oreos, melted chocolate, and a sucker stick, I made this Mickey Mouse Oreo Pops.

Mickey Mouse Food Table:  To keep with the Mickey theme, I used gave all the food Mickey Mouse names.  The menu included Mouseker jello, Mickey Mouse-mellow fruit salad, Goofy's gold fish, Pluto's pretzels, Minnie's mushroms, Daisy's delicious dip, Donald's chips & salsa, Pete's potato salad, Oh Toodle's Oreo pops, Clarabelle Cows moo-milk, Hot-Dog-Hot-Dog-Hot-Diggity-Dogs (a.k.a. pigs in a blanket), and Chip & Dale's Veggie Tray.

And a Few Random Pics From the Party:

We got a quick family shot before the party began.

Landon tried feeding his Jello to Mickey

Enjoying his chocolate milk from his special glass. 

We almost lost the cake before the party started :(

The nice blanket Gramma made with a kit from Hobby Lobby.

Opening presents!

Well I hoped you enjoyed our Mickey Mouse themed birthday party!  Thats all for now, and until next time have a Sew Scrappy Day!