Tag: craft

craft, Domesticity, stay-at-home-mom

Bulletin Board Update

crazyblessedlife

Ok, so… a while back I posted on my Facebook that I wanted to use some old bulletin boards from college days and update them to be used as art display boards for during preschool year for my girls.  Well I got some great feedback and was all set to do something awesome with them when I went to Target a few weeks ago and saw these:

On CLEARANCE!  For 2.49!  Ok, I didn’t want to spend anything on this project but I bought 2 for 5 dollars.  They were much more suited to my end goal of changing out art every week.  So every little paper they brought home was proudly displayed but for a limited time (a week) then retired to the school year box.  I’m really an anti-clutter girl and at the end of the year I plan on letting them choose their absolute favorites and keeping only those.  These boards have a big magnetic/dry erase side that I could just put up some art with magnets. Then on the cork side there are big rubber bands so no sharp push pins needed(one of my concerns with a 3 and 4 year old) and the papers just slide under the rubber band and stay in place!  Ok, and I loved the green color since the girl’s room is done in green, pink and white. 

So once I got my cheap finds home I decided to personalize them with their initials in a girly wooden cutout from hobby lobby (99 cents each, plus 40% off coupons made them 59 cents each).  I painted the initials pink and used a white paint pen to put polka dots on them.  I hot glued the initials in the lower right corner of the boards.

I also wanted to make magnets to match, so I got 8 clothespins and painted them with the same pink and then dotted them with the white paint pen also. 

Next I found some plain magnets from a past project.

I painted them pink also because the show under the clothespins.

Then I hot glued them to the clothespins and each girl’s board got four of these each. 

I hung them in the hallway right outside their room so they can see their work displayed every day!  My girls loved it and I like how it turned out also.  My total cost was less than 7 dollars. 

Now, I am redoing the other old boards for my craft room 🙂  I’ll post on those when they are done! 

Happy crafting!

Johanna 🙂

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Domesticity, Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Decor Kissing ball craft

crazyblessedlife

This is a tutorial of sorts on a kissing ball I’ve made to increase my Valentine’s Day decor which will be brought out soon!

I’m excited to share this because I’ve really enjoyed making it and was inspired by other crafty bloggers who have made similar kissing balls or wreaths made of crepe paper roses. This is a fairly inexpensive craft. All you need is crepe paper (I got 2 rolls for a dollar at the dollar tree), hot glue gun, glue sticks, a styrofoam ball (I’m guessing this is the most expensive part, but I had some left over from a craft a few years ago that I bought with a coupon at hobby lobby), and a ribbon.

To make the crepe paper roses I first ripped a piece of crepe paper of about 18-24 inches long.

 

Then I crumpled the piece and then straightened it back out and begin rolling on one end.

 

After about 4 or 5 turns I began twisting it around the top of the rose looser than I started just like a real rose.

 

The key is to loosely twist and turn the crepe paper around the top then hot glue a tiny dot to the end of the crepe paper to attach it and make sure it does not unravel on you.

 

I made a bunch, then cut the “stem” short on each for easier gluing to styrofoam ball.

 

It really helped me to set the stryofoam ball on a roll of masking tape to keep it still while I glued the roses on. Before I started gluing roses on I attached a ribbon with hot glue as a hanger but this is optional if you want to just set it on a mantel or in a decorative bowl. The hanging kissing ball is traditional like mistletoe and when you and your sweetie walk under it you kiss 🙂
To attach the roses just put a small dot of hot glue where you want to attach it and gently push the rose on and hold for a minute. Put the roses fairly close together so you cannot see the styrofoam ball. Its pretty simple and fun. I got pretty carried away just watching tv and making roses so I’m working on a wreath now of white, pink and red ones! I hope you enjoy, any questions I’d be glad to try and answer. Happy crafting!