Pinkalicious and Tutus..

Being a mom of a 4 year old BOY, I am probably one of the last ones you would think of to have a post called "Pinkalicious and Tutus". Well thanks to Brayden's lil girlfriend Katey's birthday party I was able to have a few "first" this last weekend. This was the first time in my whole life that all the items in my shopping basket were PINK.

Sunday was Katey's birthday party and since I never get to buy "girlie" things, I kind of got excited about putting together her present. I first decided on getting her the BEST girly book EVER! (According to all the girls in my class, over the last few years.)

If you have a girl, it is definitely A MUST HAVE along with PURPILIOUS and the newest edition to the series, GOLDILICIOUS. The basic plot is the lil girl LOVES cupcakes and wants to eat the pink cupcakes that her and her mom made. Well, 1 cupcake wasn't enough for her...she wanted more, more, and MORE. Of course, her mom would only let her eat 1, but Pinkalicious was so persistant she insisted on getting another cupcake. I'm sure you can forsee how the story goes...she turns PINK from eating so many cupcakes. Brayden loves the story too and his favorite part is the "twist" at the end. If you want to pick up your own copy of Pinkalicious, check it out at this link...it could make a really GREAT Christmas present.

As you can see from the cover, PINKALICIOUS dresses as a pink fairy. My mind instantly thought of making Katey a PINK tutu so she could look just like Pinkalicious. So, this last weekend I made my very first TUTU! I was originally inspired by my friend Julia's "how to" post on tutus. It ended up being super easy and fun to make. All you need is elastic, tulle (I used one spool that I already had and 2 yds from the fabric dept). I also bought a spool of coordinating ribbon to add an extra embellishment. Then the first thing you need to do is sew your elastic together (thankfully my mom was in town to do this for me). Then you will want to cut your strips of tulle to the desired length (make sure it is long enough to fold over). Finally you will tie it in knots over the elastic...it's that easy. :)
Here was my final tutu: I did 3 dark pink (from my spool, 6 inch wide), 3 lighter pink (cut into 3 inch wide strips)..then 1 shorter yellow strip for an extra accent (I already had this one at home.)

I tried to get Brayden to "try it on" for me so I could see how it would look. Well he was not thrilled with that idea AT ALL because "tutus are for girls not boys". This was the closest I could get to have him as my model:

For the rest of her present I did a tiara, wand, fairy wings,PINK cupcake mix and PINK icing...so now she can be just like Pinkalicious.

Wrapping a tutu wasn't the easiest thing so I opted for a white trashbag. Here was her gift all wrapped up:

He had a SUPER FUN time at the birthday party. It was a bounce party, pizza/cupcakes, and some arcade time. Here are a few pics of the fun:





Also, I just wanted to pass along this amazing deal...Amazon has my FAVORITE family magazine, Disney Family Fun (1-year) for only $4.95!! That's a 1 year subscription right now for only $4.95 until Nov 30th. I get a lot of fun ideas like this one from it. Just go to this link to order your 1 year subscription or gift it to a friend. :) Just so you know, the price looks like it is $9.95, but when you go to the checkout there is an automatic $5 off, to get it at the low price of $4.95.

Monthly Mod Podge Mania

Since I went a lil Mod Podge crazy on revamping items for my classroom I thought I would post a few of the items I created for Xazmin's monthly Mod Podge Mania. You'll have to go check her blog out, she posted a great tutorial on a really cute and easy to make Halloween decoration.

For my projects:
School Inspirational Signs:
These were signs that I purchased from Hobby Lobby's clearance section for under $2. They were actually part of the gardening items so they originally said "I love Gardening" (or something along those lines). I purchased them not knowing at the time what I would actually do with them but figured I would eventually think of something. =) For this sign, I used some leftover zebra fabric that I had as the background. This was the first time I used fabric and I LOVED it...it was extremely easy to use. I used my regular Mod Podge Gloss although I do know they make one especially for fabric. I printed an inspirational message on a laser printer and then used leftover scrapbook paper for a border and the crown.


For this sign it was basically the same process but I used all paper instead of a little bit of material (unfortunately I ran out of the zebra material).


A few other very SIMPLE projects:
File Folers:
Before:

After:

I just used some wrapping paper that I purchased from Hobby Lobby. I LOVE their wrapping paper because it is heavy duty and it has the cutting lines on it. I found it a little easier to make a pattern first with the wrapping paper and then I saved it and reused it each time so I wasn't having to remeasure each time. After coating each file folder a couple of times with Mod Podge I sprayed it with Clear Acrylic spraypaint.

The black/white polk a dot file folder was used with scrapbook paper.

For that project, the scrapbook paper was a little easier to manage because of the stiffness compared to the wrapping paper. Unfortunatley it was going to be a little more expensive for me because the scrapbook paper wasn't half off the week I was wanting to recover 8 file folers...each one needs 2 (12x12) pieces of paper. Plus Hobby Lobby was completely out of the black/white polk a dot along with zebra so I was going to have to go with other background colors with polk a dots and I wasn't for sure if that would be too much.

Reading Wand Container:

I found this container in our "take what you want" section in the school workroom. It is an old coffee container that had Sharpie marker written all over it. I just used some leftover polk-a-dot fabric and covered up the center section. I think it it looks super cute and just adds one more lil touch of the polk-a-dots to go along with the rest of the decor in my classroom.

A Few of my Classroom Creations

Well tomorrow is the big day for me to go back to school and sadly the end of our summer break. Fortunately/Unfortunately, I have a week of meetings to help us transition getting back into the swing of a schedule. Many of you already know there is a TON of preparation in getting a classroom ready for the new school year. After reading a lot of cute blogs it sort of got some of my creative juices flowing to enhance my classroom. So the last several weeks of my summer break I have been working on different craft projects for my classroom (or "crap" projects as Brayden innocently and mistakingly calls them). He is so funny, I told him to watch out because he was about to sit on one of my "craft" projects as he started to sit on the couch. Next thing I know, he decides to get up and walk into the kitchen, but slips on another craft project I had on the floor. (We had a lot going on.) His response was, "Mommy! Your crap project almost made me fall!" Of course, originally I thought it was hilarious and what a typical boy response, but then I realized I better quickly teach him the emphasis of the letter t at the end of craft before he embarrasses me out in public. =)


Here are a few of the things I've been working on:


Just to clarify the caption of the photo, when it says "ugly magazine holder" I meant that it used to be ugly, now I think it's pretty cute. =)

Also, my hoops that I showed you on a previous post.

* Most of these projects were made from paper mache products that I found at Hobby Lobby when they were 1/2 off along with some scrapbook paper and lots of mod podge.

I'm not quite done with everything I want to do yet, but hopefully by Friday I will. =) I am so THANKFUL for my wonderful mom coming to visit us the last several days and help me get prepared both at school and home. (I also want to give a BIG thanks to my dad for taking Brayden back to their house Friday night so my mom and I could have the whole day to ourselves to work without sweet lil interuptions. THANKS Dad!) My mom made me some super cute curtains and table skirt that I'll post later when my classroom is completly finished. She offered her advice/opinion (even though sometimes it differed from my own ideas), it was great to be able to bounce ideas back and forth. Thanks to all of her great help, I am hoping this year will be the first year that I won't be spending every single night this week up there until midnight. THANKS Mom!!

Friday Framing

Last summer, I enhanced a few of my pictures of Brayden by making my own mats using scrapbook paper and wrapping paper. Although I really liked the setup and the colors at the time, over a year the lime green and zebra print just kind of wore on me. I was ready for a lil more of a "sophisticated" look rather than the "fun look". I purchased some cheap scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby in a couple of coordinating prints and solid red. I made my new mats and had my display just the way I liked it, until I came across a super cute idea from Ashlee at Pretty Partridge (such a cute website!). She made a really cute frame weaving the scrapbook paper and adding ric- rack around the photo. I LOVED both of these ideas! In fact, so much so I had to go ahead and add some ric-rack to one of the frames I just finished to complete the look. It worked out perfectly because this was the one frame that didn't have just a touch of red, which was really bothering me. I think it was the perfect extra enhancement that it needed. Here is the BEFORE: and then the AFTER:Here is a CLOSE UP:I just used hot glue to attach the ric-rack. VERY simple and all for a project total of under $8, including the frame!
Here is the "full display":


On my agenda (hopefully before I go back to school) is this:
I am wanting to add a photo collage up my staircaise, but just don't quite know where/how to begin. I have been collecting various cheap frames over the last few months, but just haven't gotten the nerve to start yet. (I'm definitely open for suggestions/opinions on this one.) One thing is for sure, I do know that at least one of the frames will definitely have a mat that is made out of weaved scrapbook paper. =)

Easy to Make Hoop Bulletin Board

I found a really cute project idea over on Sweet Jessie that she called "Put a Cork in it". I thought it was just too cute not to try, since I already had most of the supplies at my house. The only thing I had to get were the embroidery hoops at Hobby Lobby (Wal-Mart doesn't sell them anymore) and material.

Supplies:

*Cork board (I already had cork squares from a previous project that I no longer use.

*Paint and sponge brush

* material of your choice (I used small hoops so I only needed 7/8 yd.)

* Scissors and glue gun


1. Separate your hoops. Then I painted the larger hoop to match the style I was looking for, instead of having the wood look.

2. While the paint is drying, cut the cork to fit the "inside" embroidery hoop.

3. Cut your material in a circle, larger than your hoop. You'll need to tuck it behind the larger hoop.

4. Then place your larger hoop on top and tighten it.

5. Turn it over to the back and tuck the material down using hot glue to secure. I used hot glue because I knew I would not want to interchange my fabric, if you would like to interchange fabric you could always choose to staple instead.

6. That's it! Your all finished....total project time about 10 minutes including paint and drying time.


I did this project to take to school to display pictures of Brayden behind my desk. I had some cheap little quote books that I had picked up at Wal-Mart one time on clearance. I matted them on some paper and added them also.

(I still plan on adding a couple more pictures, but I need to wait until I get a few printed from this summer.)

Close up:

Total Project Cost: less than $5 for hoops and material