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!