Getting Organized – Final Steps in Kids Room Part 1

May 4, 2012

Today was a fantastic day! After a long stretch of work and a million other little things to do, I finally got a day to catch up. It was so great to get the garden weeded, house cleaned, sew, shelves and curtains hung, and finally get my youngest son’s baseball bulletin board done.

Now this baseball bulletin board has been a thorn in my side for the last few weeks. I knew what I wanted but could never get the product I desired. First, I bought too thin of a cork board. Next, I tried many different materials for the stitching and hated every one of them. Finally, after many failures (trust me…it was ugly), I had a bulletin board I was proud of.

Baseball Bulletin Board

Supplies:

• Thick cork board with cardboard backing (size will vary depending upon the size of your project)
• White spray paint/acrylic paint
• Black or Red Sharpie marker – regular tip
• Measuring tape
• Box Cutter or Jigsaw
• Command damage-free hanging strips (I used the 12lb ones)

Directions:

1. First, you need to determine how large you want your bulletin board to be. I knew a size I desired, but couldn’t find a way to make a perfect circle on the board. Finally, I used the round tire cover out of my husband’s car. I place it on the FRONT side of the cork board and traced around the circle.

2. Next, you will need to cut out your board. I attempted to use an angled box cutter (which was working just fine, thank you), but my husband came in and whisked my cork board away. 10 minutes later, my husband returned with a beautifully round bulletin board he had cut out using a jigsaw. NOTE: Make sure you cut with the right side up. If you cut from the back, you cork will chip and look choppy in the front. Also, DO NOT throw away your scraps. You will need these pieces later.

3. Wipe down you cork board with a damp cloth. Paint the cork board front and sides with either spray paint or acrylic paint. It will take about 2 coats to gets good coverage. Make sure you let the coats dry in between.

I used spray paint which gives a more weathered/aged look to the “ball”. Use acrylic paint for more even coverage.

4. Next, you will need to take your measuring tape and measure around your bulletin board to get the circumference. My board measured 65 inches. Now, for the fun part…math. You need to take your board circumference and divide it by 4 (I got 16.25in). Measure around your board, marking your quarter measurements on the back of your board. Next, take your ¼ measurement and divide it by 2 (16.25/2=8.13 which I rounded to 8.10 inch). Mark this measurement between your ¼ measurements making a total of 8 marks on the back of your board. See below diagram.

The back of my board. See all my crazy math, markings and trials before I did anything permanent damage to the front

5. Place the right side of your board on the ground, with one of your tally marks at the top (as shown above). On the sided of your bulletin board, mark the 1/8 marks (indicated by the red marks above) with your sharpie. Next, take you discarded scraps and used the curved cut out to draw a curved line from the top red mark to the bottom red mark. Repeat with the other side.

Drawing the curve from the scraps

6. Draw your stitches on the curved line. From the top, I drew 1 ½ inch lines every 1 inch down each curved line. I drew mine straight across, following the curve, but if you look at a baseball, the stitching actually angles slightly. This is totally a personal preference, so whichever you choose.

Almost done. Don’t you love the weathered look from the spray paint!

7. Finally, apply your hanging strips as directed on the package and your done!

This looks so good above his desk and goes great with his sports themed room. He came home today and immediately started hanging his “important” papers from it. Perfect solution for my little sports writer.

Finished product!

I hope you enjoy making this Baseball Bulletin board for your little sports fan!

Birthday Party Success and Cupcake Decorating!

Feb 9, 2012

After all of my fears that I wrote about last week, I’d say the birthday party was a success!  Davis and his friends had such a good time!

My biggest concern was what do we do for 1 and 1/2 hours.  Well, the kids solved that one for us!  I didn’t realize that Davis’ toys are all new toys to the other kids.  They came right in and dove into the toy box.  I soon realized that while the kids were playing and the parents talking, 45 minutes had already gone by.   I brought out the homemade playdough for the kids to play with and they each got their own color!  They loved having different colors from each other and playing with the different kitchen tools such as spatulas, spoons and brushes.  We then cleaned them up and served cupcakes!  I made my own multi-colored frosting with help from Chica and Jo.  It was super easy to do and it was a huge success!

What you need:

Cake Frosting/Icing (I used whipped)

Icing Bag (Use a plastic baggie in a pinch)

Star-shaped Icing Tip

Paste Food Coloring or Gel Food Coloring (Liquid will not work)

Large Drinking Glass

Small Paint Brush

How to:

1. Prep your disposable bag by attaching the tip and coupler.  Place in the glass and fold the top over the glass.

2. Use a paint brush to place the paste in wide vertical lines.  Use as many colors as you would like, you can also repeat colors.

3. Fill the bag by scooping the icing into the bag.  Squeeze the bag into an empty bowl until you start to see the colors.

4. Squeeze the icing in design that you would like!

Here is my version of this simple cupcake decorating idea!

When I do this again I will place the food coloring closer together so that the color is more prominent but I loved my results!  Enjoy and have fun decorating.

What to do with that Blank Wall in your Child’s Bedroom or Playroom

Jan 25, 2012

As I’ve mentioned before, we recently moved my son to his “big boy” room.  We tried to do this with as little fuss and chaos as possible, but I also wanted to make him a cute room that he would enjoy. As soon as we found out we were pregnant again, I knew that we would need to move Davis to a bigger bed so the crib would be ready for the next little one.  I scoured the internet looking for children’s bedding, but hit a huge snag. The bed we have moved Davis into is a queen bed.  Do you know how difficult it is to find toddler/children’s bedding for a queen size bed?  Well, it’s not easy at all.  You’re lucky to find a full/queen set appropriate for a toddler, and then you can never find really, really cute matching sheets (because children only sleep in full, twin or toddler beds…right?).

Davis’s bed will serve as an extra guest bed when we have visitors and, for this reason, I want bedding that’s little boy appropriate without being loud and obnoxious. I also wanted to do this as cheaply as possible and for once my procrastination and unwavering ability to never complete a project on time paid off. I found a really cute set at Target (hello 5% discount with your Target Card)!  So, I picked it up at the store and since it was on sale (10%…SCORE!), I also picked up matching wall decals and other items such as lettering and chalkboard decals.  Next came the important paint color and seeing as I’m a paint chemist, this was quite a daunting task.  After a couple of weeks, I finally settled on a main wall color along with an accent wall color. It then took me another couple of weeks to muster up enough energy (hello, first trimester!) and get the room painted.  Around this time, I was once again perusing through Target and stopped by the bedding department to see if they had anything else that matched what I had already purchased.  Much to my surprise, the bedding and all of the accessories I purchased a month before were now on clearance for over 50% off!!  See I told you, my procrastination and indecisiveness finally paid off.  So, I rushed home, returned what I had bought and repurchased everything (plus a lamp!) and paid half of what I had originally!  DOUBLE SCORE!

Davis has been in his new room for about 3 months now and he loves it.  He talks about the cars and trucks on his walls/bedding all the time!  The only issue in his room was this huge blank wall.  It was the longest, bluest, uninterrupted space in his room and it left me baffled.  Also, I kept having a situation with art projects piling up around my house.  Davis goes to an amazing daycare center and he comes home almost every day with some sort of drawing or other work of art.  I have grand ideas of taking pictures of his art and making books with Shutterfly, but honestly most of his art work resembles big blobs.  Don’t get me wrong, they are glorious and pretty much rival Picasso’s’ work, they just don’t photograph well. So, I came up with a solution to both of my problems – a Masterpiece Display!

Supplies Needed:

1:   I started by purchasing a simple picture hanging kit at Target.  It was ~$1.50.  Make sure it includes picture hanging wire and eye hooks.  If you want to go for a softer look, you can also use yarn or twine. I chose the wire to maintain the industrial look of the cars and trucks theme.

2:   I also purchased clothespins in two sizes from Hobby Lobby (they are in the craft wood section).

3:   I had already purchased some water-based acrylic paint from hobby lobby to paint some wood shelves for his room so I used that paint to dye the clothespins.

What to do: 

1: I mixed the paint with some water (make enough to completely cover the pins) in a kitchen bowl.  I allowed these to soak for about 8 hours but you can soak them for longer or add more paint to your mixture if you want a stronger color on your clothespins.  I then placed the pins on cooling rack to completely dry (overnight).

2:  I hung the picture wire using the screw eye hooks, about 12 inches from the ceiling and 1.5 feet from the end of the wall on both sides.  A laser level came in very handy when trying to do this.

3:  Then, I hung the wire between the two hooks rather tightly (it will bow when you add pictures to it).

4:  I also decided to us leftover lettering from my earlier bedding purchase to create a cute header.  I chose “My Creations” but other ideas are: “Works of Art”, “Masterpieces”, “Look What I Did” or something similar.

5:  Finally, I picked my favorite art pieces and hung them up, securing them with the dyed clothespins.

Voila!  No more empty wall and a creative, inexpensive way to display my little Picasso’s artwork! Try this in your little artist’s room. They will beam with pride as they show off their works of art!