Grandparent's Day Gift Idea

Grandparent's Day is coming up on September 7th and in case you didn't know/weren't prepared/have no clue what to do, I'm here to help!

This project started in June before Father's Day. I wanted to find something meaningful and special that my husband could hang on the wall in his "man cave". And by man cave I mean a sliver of the basement where he keeps some items that mean something to him. The rest of the space if filled with toys for the boys, but he does have a small area to himself. So, I looked around on Pinterest and found this.

I sat down with my four year old and asked him the questions.  I printed the "form" out and hand wrote the answers.  One day my son will write his own responses, but until he learns how to write a little bit smaller I'll happily write whatever he tells me.  I grabbed a cute, manly frame from Target (because where else) and wrapped it up. I think my husband really liked it and it has some funny but true things on it.  A true keepsake.

Here's our finished product:

So, since both of my parents had birthdays this summer and my dad would also be celebrating Father's Day (he's a simple guy so we usually double up his Father's Day and birthday gifts) I figured this would be a good gift for them as well.  The only problem is that my parents go by GG and Poppy.  There are NO printables on Pinterest or with Poppy or GG in the title.  Who knew?

So I made our own.  If you know a Poppy or GG, feel free to use these.  I would just love for you to pin the image or comment below letting me know you used it and loved it.  As I said, these would be great for any occasion, but that Grandparent's Day is sneaking up on us and I'm sure this is the perfect way to show them how loved they are.

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I've got the whole world...

...on my wall!

Back story:  I had a great idea for a birthday present for my husband three years ago.  Yes, you read that right.  Three years.  I wanted to mount a large world map on the wall and mark each place he has been (either during his time in the Navy or during work).  So, I headed to a local store that sells teaching supplies called The Learning Shop and picked up world map and a map of the US.  They were about $10 each.  And then I...did nothing!  See, I had this grand idea to make the maps looks old.  I looked up every possible way to do this and it just didn't seem like I would be able to.  I either had to put them in the oven, which wouldn't work because my maps were BIG.  My oven was not.  Or I had to use stain, which meant outside and it was either too cold out when I remembered to do it or I was pregnant and didn't want to ask Michael to make his own gift.  So, after three years I found new maps at Costco, $10 for a set of two, larger, laminated maps.  This seemed like the better option for me.  They would hold up longer because they were laminated and they were bigger, so they would take up the large wall space we had available.  I skipped the idea of making them look old.

Fast forward six months, because I am forgetful like to mull things over, and here we are!  Guess who helped with his own birthday present?  What took me so long this time?  Well, I couldn't figure out an inexpensive way to actually hang the maps.  Here were my dilemmas  this time. A: I didn't want the pins to go into the wall in case we actually move someday and are left with approximately 10 millions holes in the wall to cover.  and 2: I wanted to be able to keep the map and pins (hopefully) in tact if we did in fact move one day!

So, I sent in a question to a site called Craftaholics Anonymous and the readers responded with some great ideas.  The one I went with was to buy foam board from the hardware store, adhere the map to that and then attach the foam board to the wall.  Here's how it went down (or up):

 I gathered our supplies: the map, the foam board, spray adhesive, double sided 

tape, a knife (not pictured) and Velcro (not pictured)

We put the double sided tape on all of the edges of the map and strips down the center

We rolled the map up so the tape was on the outside

We sprayed some of the adhesive spray onto the foam board (about 6 inches at a time) and 

then unrolled the map 

While we were unrolling it, we slid yard stick (also not pictured) along the front of the map to make sure the map was smooth and flat and we pulled the backside of the tape off as well

Here it is attached to the foam

Then my husband used a knife to cut the excess foam board off

Then we added Velcro to the back in multiple places and...

Put it on the wall! 

Here's the world map.  We followed the same exact process and it worked so well for us! 

(Don't mind the missing trim, this is our basement and it's still in the final steps of being completed)

Now, who wants to guess how long it will take me to add all the pins to the places we have been?  Yes, now we will have pins where Michael has been and where we have been as a family.  I'm lucky he isn't a picky husband who doesn't mind helping with or sharing his birthday present!

Did you find this post helpful?  Pin this image to Pinterest!

Cost breakdown: 

Map: $5 (each)

Foam Board: $10 (I needed one for each map since mine were so large, but with smaller maps you could use one piece of foam for two maps)

Tape: already had

Velcro: already had

Adhesive Spray: already had

Yard Stick: already had

Knife: already had

So, I spent $15 per map, $30 for both.  If you didn't have most of these items on had, I'm guessing you would spend maybe $40-$50 on both maps?  

Organizing: Craft Paper

For as long as I can remember people have told me I am good at organizing.  It's something I love to do and in another life, I would be a Professional Organizer.  I would love to go into peoples homes and help them organize their pantries, craft supplies, office areas, closets, cars, etc.  I would not be opposed to going to office buildings and organizing file rooms, desks, and supply closets.  Not only would I not be opposed to it, I would love it!  Maybe even so much that I would do it for F-R-E-E.

image found here

I really think that having everything in it's place makes life so easy.  Yes, it takes time to find a place, decide what to put there, pick a container (if needed) and put the items in their spots.  But once you have that area figured out and in an order that makes sense for you and your needs, it's done.  From then on you don't have to do anything other than remember to put things back in their place.  Sometimes you may not put an item back immediately after you use it, but you will eventually and you will know where it goes.

For my first "installment" of my "organizing series" I am showing all of you how I organize my craft papers.  I have a six drawer system which my mom got me a few years ago for Christmas.  Side note: Remember how I said people have told me I'm good at organizing?  Some of those people also know how much I like to do it and they know the way to my heart...buy me organizing supplies and I'll love you forever!!  The drawer unit I have it just like this one.  I'm pretty sure my mom got mine from Hobby Lobby and it has held up great, so I highly recommend it.

First I separated all of my craft papers into piles to decide how I needed to organize them.  I tried to keep the number of piles to five so I would have one extra drawer for supplies (mainly the wheels for the unit since I didn't intend to use them).  

Next I pulled out this great label maker.  It's the Brother P-touch Home & Hobby Label Machine.  I created labels for each of the drawers.  If you are interested these are the categories I came up with for my storage drawers: Travel, Holidays, Seasons, Dogs, Family, Friends, Patterned Paper, and Plain Card stock.  Some drawers have more than one category in them, either because they go together or because I only had a few of one type of paper and plenty of room in the drawer for multiple categories.  The drawers are clear so it's easy to tell what I am running low on.  Also, these drawers pull all the way out so when I'm working on a project, I can pull one drawer out completely and bring it to my desk to look at all the paper at once that I may need for that particular project.

Then I labeled the drawers and filled them up with all of my paper.  (I just noticed I forgot an "e" and it has since been fixed, can you spot it?  One million bonus points to you if you can!)  Another great feature of this storage unit is that it fits 12x12 paper.  If you do any kind of crafts, you know this is great.  I mix 8.5x11 with the 12x12, so this eliminates having two separate storage units.  

Storage Unit, I hope you're ready for your close up!! 

What have you organized lately?  I know getting organized is a popular New Year Resolution, so I'm sure there is some organizing going on out there! Spill all the details below in the comments! 

Making "all things girly" for my FAVORITE Bean!!

My favorite little niece, Ella, or as we like to call her, Ella Bean (read why here) had her Very 1st Birthday on February 10th.  We celebrated with a Princess themed party at her house and let me tell you...Pink was definitely the name of the game!  She is a girl all the way...no doubt about it, that Bean is her mother's daughter and her Auntie's niece!  The party was on February 12th and I have been waiting (im)patiently to post about these adorable headbands and flowers I made her.  Along with her very own bow holder, which I got the idea from my friend April over at her blog.  April is REALLY talented, very creative, and one of the nicest people I know!  She is amazing with a sewing machine and comes up with great ideas for tons of different types of projects.  Check out her blog if you haven't already..you'll be hooked.  She has been very busy with her two children, so not many posts lately, but from what I understand she's going to be back in the blog world soon, starting a new blog with a friend.

Enjoy all the deets about these projects, feel free to copy exactly 

and make your own or tweak it the way you would like, but either way share with me if you wouldn't mind, if you end up making any of the projects!

Project #1: removable daisy flowers for a stretchy headband

I bought this bouquet of flowers, it happened to have pink, yellow, and red!  SCORE!!  And it was half off...I believe I paid $5.99 for the bunch...that's a lot of flowers for the little princess

I decided to make a pink and yellow flower, so I disassembled the two flowers and tossed the front piece and back piece in the trash..no need to keep the ugly parts

I then alternated the pink and yellow flower "petals" using hot glue in between each layer

This is what it looked like at that point

Since it needed some bling for the bean and a more finished look for my taste, I decided to add a little jewel in the center

Then you need to take an alligator clip (these can be found by the beads at Hobby Lobby) and cover it in ribbon.  Covering the clip give the flower something to adhere to.  You simply take some thin ribbon (which I had on hand) run a line of hot glue down the middle, lay the clip on it and ta-da!

As you can see here, the ribbon covers just a portion of the clip on the other side, just to give it a finished look.  (Yes, this is a different flower.  I made her a red one too, since Valentine's Day was coming up...I thought for sure she'd have something to match it in her wardrobe!)

And she did!  See??  That's right, pink is not the only color this girl can pull off.

She's pretty cute, huh?  Yeah, we know!

*Notice the stretchy headband?  If you are not able to make them (which I'm not because I have yet to figure out how to crochet...even with an instruction book) you can purchase them near the headband/flower/bling department at Hobby Lobby.  They actually have the flowers all made, but they cost about $4 a piece, instead of making them yourself, for much less and for more satisfaction.

Project #2: making a flower embellishment for a headband (not removable)

First, cut two of these shapes out of felt, I guess you can call them leaf shapes?  Mine were about 5 inches long, 3 inches wide at the widest point

  

Then take 2 of these types of flowers, sorry, don't know what kind they are, so I can't tell you!

(This is a great tutorial, huh?)

Then, much like the last project, take the petal layers apart and discard the back piece.

Separate into small, medium, and large piles.

Next, you just fold the layers in half and start hot gluing them down.  I started with the smallest layers and used 2 of them, then moved to the medium size layers and used 4 or 5 of them, and finally did 2 large in the middle of the felt shape.  Once you glue the large pieces down, you go back to the medium and then the small again.  For the final petal layer, you fold a small size in half, then half again and glue that down on the point.  (Sorry I don't have a picture of this, but it's pretty easy.)

Once my last layer was glued on, I added another bit of "bling" to the piece.  Again, no picture, but it was just placed over the spot where you could see the hot glue spot on the last layer.

Finally, you "sandwich" (that's a technical term) the headband between the two pieces of felt and glue them together, with a lot of glue.  And you are done!

Here's the birthday girl showing off her headband:)  No, she wasn't playing on her new toys all day (notice she's now in her PJ's) she did take a break to nap, eat, and have her diaper changed...do you think she's going to be a race car driver when she grows up?  Or maybe she'll love to ride on the lawnmower just as much as her daddy!!

Project #3: the bow holder (thanks again to April for posting about her bow holder and giving me this idea!)

Start with an oval shape piece of wood from Hobby Lobby (or whatever shape you love)

Paint it whichever color you prefer...I picked yellow, pink, and white for my theme

Add some fun polka dots using a circular shaped sponge:)

Paint your curly q letters the color of your choice (I chose pink and these are also from Hobby Lobby)

Adhere the letter to the oval base using wood glue or super glue

Add a "handle" at the top for hanging on a wall

I found this ribbon at Michael's...on sale and used my 40% off coupon!

After I added the handle, my husband thought it was missing something near the top so he came up with the idea to put her name at the top using some chipboard letters I had in my scrapbooking supplies:) 

Very creative is he! 

Add a few strips of ribbon to the back of the oval (or other shape) near the bottom

Add some bling to the bottom of the ribbon...to weigh them down a bit and to please my bling-lovin'-self:)

And there you have it...clip the flowers on and you are all ready to wrap this baby and give it to your very own deserving princess!!

A Different Kind of Post

As I mentioned, or maybe I didn't,or maybe I did and you didn't read it, I want to start blogging about more interesting topics:)

Not that my son, my dogs, and my husband aren't entertaining enough...I just feel like I want to write about more.  Sure, I love to write about said son, dogs, and hubby, but they really only give me so much to work with and I'd like to appeal to more readers.  So, here goes nothing!

I saw a project similar to the one I'm about to show you here.  It's a blog I follow and I love reading about what Sarah has come up with for ideas around the house.

So, I got the letters, paint, brushes, mod podge, scrapbook paper, and ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

(No, I didn't have any craft brushes, paint, or mod podge at home.  I'm just starting to be crafty, so I need to build up my supply drawer!)  This was actually the very first time I used Mod Podge and I really liked how it worked!  I'll be sure to use it again on something, sometime, somewhere:)

So here is the super easy, project...trust me, it IS really easy, my sister (who doesn't craft much at all did it, so I know you can too...sorry Sis!!)

Step 1: paint the sides and edges of the letters and hearts

Step 2: Let the paint dry completely..not hard to do, it dries fast

Step 3: Pick out the style of paper you would like and put it in the order you want it to be on the letters and hearts (one heart goes in the front of the word "love" and one at the end) 

Step 4: (no picture) trace the letters onto the paper and cut them out

Step 5: Using Mod Podge as a base, apply the paper to the letters

Here's a picture of my new best friend :)  Why I didn't find him sooner, we will never know.

I call the MP a him since he's so strong, he can hold so many things together for me:)

Step 6: Put "him" over the letters and hearts a few times to coat very well and give it a nice glossy finish.  I think I did three coats total and I like the finish.  Just cover until your hearts content.

Step 7: Glue the letters together using hot glue, and then embellish...I just added a simple little bow with my Valentine ribbon, you can do as little or as much as you'd like!

Cost for this project:

Letters: $.99 a piece (4 total)

Hearts: $.50 a piece (2 total)

Paper: $.29 a piece (3 total)

More paper: $.59 a piece (3 total)

Ribbon: $.50 (it was half off for the holiday)

Paint: $.67

Brushes: $.99

Mod Podge: $4.47

__________________________________

Grand total: $14.23

However, I will be using the Mod Podge, Paint, and Brushes again, so if I would have had them or if I don't "count" them for this project...I would have only spent $8.10!!!  So, let's just say I spent $8.10 on these great Love Letters:)

Thanks again Sarah over at Scissors and a Whisk for the great idea!

I wanted to post this even though it's after Valentine's Day because I'm thinking I might make them for more holidays...USA for 4th of July, TREATS for Halloween, THANKS for Thanksgiving, SANTA for Christmas.  The possibilites are endless.