PLAY Wall Art.

This simple reminder and good use of scrapbook paper hangs on the wall in my home. I bought sixteen wooden squares from Joann's ( I had to special order).  I bought some yummy scrapbook paper with lots of different textures and some wooden letters to spell one of my favorite words... 

P L A Y. Then I grabbed some left over fabric and embellishments from around the house and went to work.

1. Paint the sides of all squares. Make sure and paint the face of four of the squares that will hold the wooden letters on the rest, it doesn't matter. I chose ivory paint.

2. Paint the wooden letters to the desired color. I chose black.

3. Cut the paper/fabric to size for the face of the squares. I used both fabric and paper on mine.

4. Use Modge Podge to adhere papers, fabrics, and letters onto the squares.

5. Use any flowers, charms, ribbons, stickers, to accessorize... should you desire! 

This quote to live by 

"Never underestimate the power of acting young silly and crazy"

was a sticker mounted on light green solid scrapbook paper and mounted again on my original polka dot paper

The blue paper had a cool little BE YOURSELF design already in the design so I just cut it to make sure I had that part showing and then added three self adhesive silver embellishments

Make sure you paint all the sides of the squares! As clearly, thanks to this pic above, I missed a bit on the toile square. OOPS! I have to go back and do that one...

I used command strips to hang these up.

(YES, they really DO work!)

I want to make more! Imagine the possibilities!

I'VE MOVED! COME FIND ME AT MY NEW HOME...

I am linking up with

 

Christmas ABC's Album.

You may remember my post awhile back about my sweet little friend Lillian. I wanted to share with you a great gift idea that can be changed up to fit any theme. I did a Christmas ABC's album to give to Lillian's family. I don't have pictures of the completed product, but here is what I did.

A picture of Lillian with a Christmas object for every letter of the alphabet was the goal. It took a couple photo sessions to accomplish, but we did it. Here are some of my favorite shots.

A is for ANGEL

D is for Darling Santa Hat

E is for Egg Nog

M is for Mary

P is for Please No More Pictures

and S is for Star

I chose to print all the pictures in black and white matte finish.  I purchased some coordinating lilac, aqua, and silver papers and letter punch outs. I kept the decor VERY simple in the 8x8 album to keep darling Lillian as the focus of each page. 

A wonderful keepsake for her family to treasure.

AND I couldn't stand that I didn't have one to keep, so I inserted all the pictures into an iphoto book and printed one for myself!

This could be changed to Valentine ABC's, birthday ABC's or anything your mind can imagine!

Have fun!

Emma's ABC Treasure Box.

Seriously, don't you just love Home Goods? It all started with this box. $5.99 and I was hooked. 

I took a bunch of old scrapbook letter stickers and put one capital letter of each letter of the alphabet on white cardstock, cut them up, and put them in the box.

I then took one small, household, non-perishable object to correspond with each letter and put them in the box. Here is a sample. 

(Continue scrolling down for a complete item list below.)

pictured are leaf, butterfly, fish, alligator, circle, tape, hat, yarn, q tip, napkin, 

and 4 of the letters R, X, P, and H

Everything can tuck neatly inside

And best of all, it looks adorable on any shelf!

Lots of games can be played with this. Match the object to the letter. I can ask Emma to  pull out the first letter of cat, car, and can....etc. There are lots of options. A variety of ways to learn our letters and sounds, seems to work the best.

ITEMS FOR EACH LETTER 

A lligator

B utterfly

C ircle

D oll

E gg

F ish

G rass

H at

I ce

J ar

K ey

L eaf

M irror

N apkin

O ctopus

P encil

Q tip

R ose

S traw

T ape

U nicorn

V alentine

W isemen

X ray

Y arn

Z ipper

I am linking up:

A Place To Hang.

I had some scrap wood left over from the scrabble magnet board project that you can check here. I have fond that I need somewhere to keep out all of the charts, maps, and displays that is big with the A Beka curriculum. We need to be able to get to them quickly and often.

I put these two extra pieces of wood up on the wall and hot glued some of those metal clippy~esque things on to them. You know the ones. I put two on each board. I didn't even have to saw them down. I love it when things that happen. So I didn't spend an additional dime...and here's what I have....

Scrabble Magnet Board.

A cute alternative to the typical classroom magnet board. I saw the scrabble letter idea here and was able to incorporate it with the board that I already had done on my wall. Since I have ditched the generic plastic magnet letters, my older two kids (and sometimes me) play with the board too. Since there are points on each letter, you can create some pretty fun games.

Supplies needed are:

To make the board:

The board was made by nailing metal sheeting (an 18x24 piece that was purchased at Home Depot) to the wall. I bought pieces of wood (that Home Depot cut down to size) and used black stain to finish them off. The wood was nailed over the edges of the metal

To make the letters

:

Magnet tape (sticky one one side, magnetic on the other). I used 1 roll that costs 1.50 at Home Depot.

Wood Scrabble pieces. Target has a kit to make a card in the Valentines section. It was 9.99 as opposed to the 19.99 version in the game aisle. They both had 100 pieces.

Cut the magnet tape into little pieces.

Adhere to the back of each letter.

Get help! My 5 year old was a brilliant little helper.

Place on board and have fun!

Octopus Night.

We ate octopus dogs on an ocean of mac and cheese under some fancy blue streamers. After dinner, we spent a long time creating a family of octopus-es out of rice, odds and ends, and some mittens from the Dollar Tree. Emma and Shawn worked together. Meet our Octopi friends....there are earrings involved! Fantastically Fun craft idea from Family Fun Magazine.

Ornaments.

I found a similar idea online recently...and then made it with what I had left over from other projects.

I bought 12 of these cute little glass bottles for .99 cents a piece at Joanns.

I then cut scraps of scrapbook paper and used beads, trim, wire, and hot glue to make 12 ornaments for our tree! Each one is different.

It entertained me for a couple hours....

12 ornaments for $12.00 involving leopard and crystals... fun afternoon in my book.

My desk.

I think I have mentioned I am an Ikea fan. I have had this shelf for about three years. Last year, they came out with the desk attachment. It all rocks. The amount of things this mother of all organizational systems holds is astounding. It's the little things in life, I tell ya.

All of my craft supplies, scrapbooking supplies, photos, etc., along with all of the kids school curriculum, class store materials etc... are all tucked away in organizational bliss.

I highly recommend!