paint

I blogged about Knock Off Wood back in March (read the post here,) a really wonderfully empowering make-it-yourself site where Ana White creates building plans with supply lists for furniture inspired by retailers like Pottery Barn for your home and yard. Yes, even YOU can build a Farmhouse Bed, Apothecary Cabinet , a changing table, or even the very bed my son sleeps in every night, a fort bed…although his really is from IKEA.

The first thing I made inspired by Ana’s site was the clip art rails, a really easy project that you can do in a couple of hours, and get your child in on the action. My version of the rail was a bit simpler than hers, mostly because I’m just lazy.

Materials needed:

Inexpensive pine craft boards, 1.25” by 4”, from any home improvement store
Clothes pins, about 8 per board
Hot glue gun
Paint for the boards and clothespins

First things first, paint the boards with at least 2 coats of paint and let dry.

My little artist

I set up a painting station for Nate with a couple of dozen clips and several washable paint colors, and let him paint the whole clip instead of taking them apart. You know I’m all about easy and fun haphazard art! I let them dry over night, then took my favorite ones and evenly spaced 8 of them along each board and glued them down on each board with the hot glue, alternating the clip’s directions.

Finished and hung

Aaron screwed the two rails onto the wall in Nate’s room one afternoon while he and I were out, and put up a bunch of Nate’s artwork from school and friends. Nate walked in the room and just LOVED it! I love how even the way we display his artwork is touched by his sweet hands.

Pretty blue, painted by my sugar pie

I’m telling you guys, this is so easy…go out to the store this weekend to get the supplies and by Sunday you’ll have a great way to display your little Picasso’s works of art not only in their rooms, but in the hallway or dining room of your home. It makes kids so proud to see their handiwork displayed with love by you!

From Tator Tots and Jello, here’s a compilation of 20 different, inspiring and beautiful headboards…some that can come together in just a weekend. I especially love this one from Design*Sponge. I am all about turquoise right now! I wonder if there is a tutorial on how to make that fabulous wreath above the bed? LOVE IT!

Nate’s first day of Pre-K was just wonderful, and he is no doubt enjoying the second day as we speak. I only teared up for about 5 seconds before we told him goodbye…I was talking so much that I didn’t have time to cry! We love his teacher Mrs. Brown, and we can’t wait to see what the year has in store for him. Here’s his picture from yesterday morning, all ready to go:

My sugar pie, all grown up.

And of course, I had a ball making his lunch….I’ll post it all on Monday for my Bento Monday series! He actually ate the majority of it, which was very surprising. I wasn’t sure he’d have enough time to eat/talk. He is my child, you know…we can talk all day long! But Ms. Ashley, the student intern from UALR who will be in his class this year, told me that he was asking for lunch at 10:00 yesterday, so he must have been hungry!

Last Friday I showed you guys the Zuckertute I made for his first day of school and gave you easy steps on how to make one. We let him open the Wednesday night, and let’s just say he loved it!

Happy, happy, happy!

When as old you are, look at cool you will not.

All the captain's spoils

Zuckertute head!

It was such fun! Keep a Zuckertute in mind for your child’s first day of school, or for any other very special occasion.

Now your marching orders for the weekend….something new to eat, and a craft for you and the kids.

Mmmmm...breakfast!

From one of my fave food blogs, Framed, here’s something new to add to your weekend breakfast repertoire….Bacon and Egg Muffins! Delish! Click on the photo for the yummy instructions.

Wearable artsy goodness

And from another fav, Filth Wizardry, here’s an artsy craft for the painter child in the family. She made this skirt from 2 flour sack dishtowels from the Dollar Tree, using Sharpie markers and watered down acrylic paint. For those of you who don’t have an immediate need for a skirt, sew 3 sides of the towels together, stuff and handstich the top closed to make a pillow! Click on the photo for the tutorial.

That’s it guys! I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

As you can tell, I like to celebrate the big, and small, things in life. My son’s last day at his daycare, his beloved home away from home is today. We made cupcakes together Thursday night for his going away party, and he painted pictures for his teacher and I helped him write his friend’s names on cards to go along with their presents: books about starting a new school.

My sister in-law, Franziska, a German gal, has introduced me to another way to celebrate that transition to “big kid” school: the Schultute, or Zuckertute as she grew up calling them. Translated, it means “sugar bag”; a bag full of goodies given to children on their first day of  entering school, generally in the first grade.

It’s not all about the treat bag, it’s a whole day full of family and neighbor celebrations and fun. The older kids at school put on a play, the family goes to school together for the day. But the Zuckertute is the most fun part of the day for most kids! You can read some articles here and here about Zuckertuten, but I thought I’d show you a couple of them.

Mein Noah!

Here is my wonderful nephew Noah, in front of his new school, showing off the sweet Zuckertute that Giga (Franziska’snick name) put together for him from a kit she got in Germany. It’s huge and so fun…and since I don’t have a handy-dandy kit from Germany, I set out to make my own for Nate’s first day of Pre-K!

The blank canvas

I started out with a black piece of posterboard, and the biggest stamps I ha: the pirates! Argh!

Jolly Roger

Using a foam brush and some craft paint, I painted the stamps and proceeded to stamp the posterboard with all three stamps, different colors for each.

Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate zuckertute for me!

Gold paint for the treasure chest, matey.

Rolled up like a deuce, captain

After letting it dry overnight, I rolled the posterboard into a cone shape and secured the edges with lots and lots of glue dots.

Argh, a black hole!

Then I taped the inside with packing tape, along the seams, for extra security.

Preparing for surgery

I laid the cone on the bed, seam side up, and squished it a bit, and started cutting off the top, to make it even.

Oops

My first cut was a bit slanted….

Round one

…but after a few trims…

Round two

…and more eyeballing…

Yes!

We achieved an even, perfect (almost) top.

Tissue topper

I took three pieces of coordinating tissue paper and taped them together just at the bottom.

Stuffed

I stuffed the taped bottom parts of the tissue paper into the top of the cone and secured the paper to the cone with packing tape. I also stuffed a piece of red tissue paper into the bottom since the bottom of the cone was a bit larger than intended.

All secure

Me pirate booty

Here’s the hodge podge of goodies for the zuckertute: a sweet Yoda shirt, bath color tablets, Hot Wheels….like he needs more…tic tacs, Super Why stickers, and a R2D2 and C3PO pencil case with pencils and a sharpener.

Stuffed

Yoda on top to surprise my pirate!

Finishing touches

I grabbed five coordinating ribbons to use to tie off the Zuckertute.

All ready for me matey!

We will have to wait a week before giving this to Nate, and I just might find more goodies to stuff inside or decorations to further adorn the Zuckertute, but I just LOVE how it turned out! I’ll be sure to let you all know what he thinks when he sees it.

I am really digging wreaths at the moment, and I always dig anything that Alisa Burke comes up with. She posted a tutorial for this leafy wreath that you could hang on your door any season, but you could make it specifically for spring with pastel colored leaves or fall with oranges, reds and browns.

She used a product called sticky back canvas from the Claudine Hellmuth Studio line available at Michaels to create the leaves for the wreath. I’ve never used it before and it sounds awesome, but you could do the same with a heavier cotton fabric and craft paints.

If you like the leaf stamps Alisa used here, you can also purchase them from her Etsy store, very reasonably priced I might add!

I admire Alisa Burke for many reasons, and when I need some inspiration on creating artful items from everyday stuff I’ll crash her blog. Here, she’s taken my favorite item, TP rolls, and turned them into napkin rings, jazzed up with some paint and fabric flowers. Check out her tutorial for the how-to.

Here’s another outdoor craft for your kids as we begin the long days of summer…aluminium foil toadstools! Share with them the folklore of a fairy ring and then go to Filth Wizardry for the step by step instructions on how your kids can make their own lawn fairy rings with these hand painted foil toadstools. Maybe you will have some fairies come out to play!

I’ve just spent the better part of an hour going through post after post on this lovely little blog called Filth Wizardry. In a word, stupendously-mind-blowing. I love that her girls want to become inventors, and that they get really messy on a daily basis. One of the jems I saw was about chalk painting. Click here to see what she’s talking about. And be sure to check out the bonus idea at the end of the post….super easy sand box!

Photo from one of Donna's workshops to be taught at Scrapbook Corner

If I could  ask God for a favor, just a small request….I would ask for one-tenth of the talent, imagination, motivation, skill and/or life force of Donna Downey.

Never heard of her? If you are not a scrapbook maven or rafter, I’m not surprised. But if you scrap or craft, no doubt you’ve seen her column in Simply Scrapbooks, been uber-inspired by her blog, or sat in awe while looking through her galleries and shops on website.

Donna is the type of scrapper/crafter I yearn to be: a true mixed media artist, manipulating paper, paint, ink and photos into albums, 3-D art and whatever else pops into that wonderful head of hers. I know I’m talented on some levels, but this lady takes the cake.

Well, anyway, the reason why I’m telling you this is because DONNA IS GOING TO BE IN LITTLE ROCK!!!!! Ahhhhh!!!!

She will be at Scrapbook Corner April 30-May 1 to teach four different workshops. You can see workshop descriptions and photos on their blog. Deadline to sign up for the classes is April 15. I hope to see some of you there!

My Pollock-in-training's handiwork

I don’t know about you, but I get REALLY excited about my kiddo’s artwork. I study the washable-paint swirls, looking for the makings of an artsistic genius lurking in those messy masterpieces.

I hate to part with anything he’s colored/painted/drawn, so when the pile was so high that the husband began to drop hints like, “Is that really necessary?” I had to come up with a new idea.

He does the majority of his painting on an art easel with a roll of paper, so most of his art ends up measuring 18  by 20 inches. That is just enough paper to wrap a box!

So I took all of his loose artwork and rolled them together, and put them with my rolls of wrapping paper. When I use one for a gift, I try to center the top of the box on a colorful part of the paper for maximum impact. I don’t add any ribbons or bows, and either write the child’s name on the box or attach a gift tag.

I love this idea threefold: it goes along with my 3 R’s obsession, it showcases my budding Signac at work, and allows me to continue to hoard. What more could I want?