Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Tutorial: Framed dry erase board

1.Get an old frame from a thrift store. Just choose a size you like.
2. Take out the glass and picture and backing. Clean everything really well.
 3. While you could easily spray paint the frame any color you choose, we painted because we had the paint we wanted to use. Craft paint dries really fast. Because the frame was a dark green we first painted the frame a pale pink as a primer. Then we painted over that two coats of a darker pink.
Just paint your frame until you are happy with the way it looks, then let it dry completely.

 My daughter did almost everything on this project in an afternoon. Super easy, super fast project.
 4. Choose a fabric that you like, that matches your frame. Cut it the same size as the glass. We ironed ours so that no wrinkles would show.
5. Replace the glass in the frame, then the fabric and put it all back together. Use dry erase markers on the glass.

New custom-made dry erase board: $3

Monday, March 5, 2012

How to: Make Accordian Fan Decor

 I was in charge of decorating for a church Valentine's Day Party. I LOVE how these pinwheels (I don't even know what they are called? Fans?) turned out.
The two biggest (middle pink, and far right red) were made out of wrapping paper (15 inches wide) I am not sure how many feet were on the roll. We just kept accordian folding until the roll was finished.
All the others were made from poster board. The ones with stripes and polka dots were painted. I only had red and white poster board and just went from there. The biggest ones made from poster board are 3 half sections of poster board.
As far as a tutorial, here would be the steps.
1. Get two regular posterboards (it comes in extra thick, also. Don't get that.)
2. Cut them both lengthwise in half. You will use 3 of the halves.
3. Accordian fold all three sections the same width. I used a ruler and scored the posterboard with a bone folder. I just used the width of the ruler so each of the folds would be equadistant from each other.
4. I stapled the sections together, fanning them out to make the circular shape. I am sure you could try glue, or tape. I didn't think the staples were obvious.
5. To stabalize the fan to make it easier to hang I hot glued a paper plate (with the rim cut off) to the back.
6. Also to stabalize, but also to make it cute, I cut out scrapbook paper circles for the front centers and added a heart on top.
7. I ran into some problems trying to hang them, but then came up with this solution that worked great. I twisted a pipecleaner with the ends together but the middle open so it looked like the eye of a needle (wouldn't a picture be helpful?) and the glued the twisted part on the back onto the paper plate so it only needed one push pin on which to hang.
Vwala!

Purple zip pouch

 I have made a gazillion of these pouches. Since I am currently obsessed with purple, I decided I needed a purple for myself.
I also put a fun floral print inside. I didn't mean for it to look Hawaiian, but everytime I opened it when I was in Hawaii it felt right.