Framed Flower Art

If you are my sister or my mom, you are not allowed to read this post until after Tuesday.  Super secret birthday projects are contained here.  Step away from your computer.

My niece's first birthday is this coming Tuesday and I wanted to make something for her.  I saw the cutest framed collage of paper butterflies on Meet The Dubiens here several months ago and thought it would be cute to try someday.  It is now someday.  I don't have a butterfly punch, but I do have a flower punch that I used to make a mobile for the same niece for Christmas.

Jill at Meet The Dubiens made hers by leaving the glass out of the frame, but I wanted mine to be enclosed for the sake of dust and sticky kid fingers.  So I headed out to Joann Fabric's to hunt down a shadow box frame.  When I was there, I also decided to look for an adhesive that would raise the flowers off the background a bit.  I found both.

The cost to make it was $14.88.  I used store coupons, so the frame was $12.49 and the adhesive foam squares were $2.39.  I used paper and the punch I already had.

The hardest part of this project was deciding what paper to use.  I went back and forth between pinks and primary colors.  I had done the mobile in primaries, so I decided to go with that again. 

Here's the goods:

The glass of wine is not mandatory for the project, but it does help.

I started by punching a bunch of flowers out using the paper I decided on.  Once they were punched, I folded the petals up a bit.

I chose a piece of plain white paper for the background because I thought it would make the flowers stand out the best.  I put that down on the table with the frame insert around it and placed the paper flowers on it to get the spacing I wanted. 

Once I had everything the way I liked it, I put the sticky squares on the backs of the flowers and stuck them on to the paper background.  I did the four corners first and worked my way in.  I probably should have measured and marked precisely where each one should go, but I'm lazy impatient, so I just eyeballed it.

Once I had all the flowers on, I reassembled the frame and hung it on the wall so I could stand back and make sure everything was even.  I did end up making some adjustments, but all in all, the whole thing only took about 30 minutes.

Although I found it nearly impossible to get a good picture of it, it was especially hard to get a good picture of it hanging on the wall with the glare of the glass.  So here's the finished product standing up around the house:

And outside:

I'm linking up to Nifty Thrifty Sunday over at Nifty Thrifty Things and Feature Friday over at Spunky Junky.

Kool-Aid Eggs

We got our eggs dyed yesterday.  I came across the idea for using Kool-Aid here.  And yes, I totally ripped off her idea.  It's genius.  And cheap.  The packets were .10 cents each, so I bought 12 of them, thinking I could mix some to get custom colors.  Don't bother.  Let me save you some time and about .70 cents.  Don't buy grape.  It does NOT make a purple egg.  Do not attempt to mix Cherry and Blue Raspberry.  It does not create purple.  Buy these flavors:  Blue Raspberry for blue, Cherry or Strawberry for red, Black Cherry for dark red, Orange for orange,  Lemon-Lime for green.  Those colors turned out really pretty.  The rest were either too light or too brown.  All the flavors I mixed together also turned a reddish-brownish color.  Put one Kool-Aid packet  in a bowl with 2/3 cup of water.  You don't need vinegar with this.  The packet has all the citric acid you'd ever need.  And the bonus....it smells really good! 

Here's the goods:

Stool #4

Finished another one.  It left the house today.  While I was taking pictures of it, The Kid asked if it was because I was never going to see it again.  Awwww. 

If you're confused by the whole stool reference, you can read the story behind them here.  You can also see two more here and here.

My friend's son is having an auction at his preschool and she asked if I would donate one.   This is the one that got donated.  Hopefully it will bring in a few dollars for the school.



Here it is:

 

The Girl's Room

Note:  Because this blog did not exist when we built the bookshelf, there are no progress pictures.  I took some measurements in case anyone is wanting to build one.  
Here are the details:  The overall measurements are 37 1/2" x 37 1/2".  The sides are 1x8's cut with a jigsaw.  The top, bottom, and shelves are 1x6's.  The top piece has a piece of 1/2" decorative trim around it.  The dowels are 1/2" and the back is a sheet of beadboard.  If anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to shoot me an email - I'm happy to answer them.  - Mindy


Well, I reached my goal of finishing up in The Girl's room this weekend.  As I had mentioned here, I was working on getting some of the stuff off of the dresser, moving things on the walls - since I had moved her bed, and thinning things out a bit.  I accomplished two of those things.  Instead of thinning, the things I did just made room for more stuff.  Go figure.

The newest addition to the wall came from our new neighbors.  They just moved in and replaced all their original wood windows.  Last week, I walked cookies over to introduce myself and ended up the proud new owner of six of them.  The dear sweet Dad made three trips to carry them home.  Five of them are leaning up against the fence outside, awaiting their purpose.  One of them is happy in its new home.

After sanding it down a bit, we attached a piece of wood to the bottom to make a sill.  I put two screws on the back and wrapped wire around them to make loops for hanging it.  Once it was hung on the wall, it was on to the curtain.  Hmmmm, I don't have a curtain rod.....so I walked out to the disaster that is our garage and stared at the work bench.  There has to be something I can rig up.  This is what I came back in the house with:

A piece of copper pipe, a pipe cutter, two random hook things and a bag of copper tube straps.

I held up one of the random hooks against the window and put the pipe in it.  It just stuck out too far away from the window, so I ended up using the straps.  They're really thin, so it's easy to make them bend the way you want them to.  I attached them like this:

I put one screw on the top of the window and one on the front.  That way I could get the rod to sit as high up as I wanted it.

I did that on each side and slid the pipe in:

Yeah I know, it's not straight.  This is its second purpose in life - it was bent into a curved shape when I pulled it from the garage.

Here it is sitting in the bracket.

Now it's time for a curtain.  For some reason, I've never gotten rid of any curtain I've ever owned in my life.  Oh wait, this EXACT reason is why.  I dug through my stash and came across one that I had bought a zillion years ago and never used.  But where's the other one?  I dug through every place I could possibly think of and never found its mate.  Enter scissors.  I cut that bad boy in half.  Voila - two curtains.  I hung it on the rod and marked where I needed to cut the bottom off, 'cause it was about 4 inches too long.  Enter scissors again.  Voila - custom made curtains.  Then I cut two strips out of the bottom remnant and used  them as tiebacks.


Here it is:

Oh, and what is that the window is hanging over, you ask?  That is The Girl's fancy kitchen.  We made it for her third birthday.  I got the plans here.

The knobs above the oven door are more insulators.  I bought them at a garage sale several years ago, not knowing what in the world I was going to do with them.  I used them on this oven and I used them on the hallway coat tree.  Now I wish I had bought all of them. 

So that's one of the projects.  The other one was putting shelves over the two closet doors.  Pretty easy.  The four shelf brackets were about $1.15 each and the boards were something we already had in the garage.  All I needed to do was paint everything.

Here they are:

Another thing in the room that we built is the bookshelf.  I wanted to get one for my nephew a couple years ago and found exactly what I was looking for at Pottery Barn.  Um, waaaaaay out of the budget.  So I ripped the picture out of the magazine and told The Dad he needed to build it.  He did and we gave it as a Christmas present.  A year later, I decided The Girl needed one too.  So she got one for Christmas. 

Here it is:

Who needs store-bought, right?!

Her iron bed we found at a garage sale for $50.  I made the duvet cover (which is still empty) for it and the curtains.  I bought the fabric for both before I was even married.  It was one of those, it's too cute to pass up and I'm sure I'll use it someday, purchases.  The blanket at the foot of the bed is the one I made for the crib when I was pregnant with The Kid.  The bench under the window we also made.  I had one that my grandparents made me when I was little and it now lives in The Kid's room.  The nightstand was a Ross find about two years ago.  It was all bunged up, so I think I paid $35.  The white metal cabinet hanging on the wall to the left of the kitchen was here when I moved in.  The dresser we bought at a junk store when I was pregnant with The Kid for $60.  I sanded it down and painted it.  Which it needs again.  The doll bed to the right of the dresser came from our neighbor, who sadly passed away last year.  Her dad had made it for her when she was a little girl.  We also have a doll rocking chair that matches it from her.  The table on the right side of the bed is a plant stand that I got on super clearance at Joann's.  I know I didn't pay more than $15 for it. (And if you look close, you can see that it even has birds on it!!!)   I put a granite tile on the top that I got for free as a sample years ago.  The pictures on the walls are a mish mash of junk store finds, things my mom has painted, hand-me-downs from when I was little and gifts.  The chandelier was in my sister's house when she bought it.  It was one of those gross aged brass things.  When she was tearing it out, I asked if I could have it.  Enter spray paint and Dollar Store pink shades. 

And now that you've had the run down, here's the rest of the room:

Oh, and by the way, any time you see a butterfly hung on the wall (not suspended from the ceiling) it's covering up a nail hole. 

And here is Bean Baby and Pooh.  The Mom's childhood companions.  Where I went, they went. 

Hanging directly to the left of them, is a framed poem that my dad wrote.  If you get out your reading glassses, you'll be able to see it well enough to read it.  Or, you can click on it and open it up in a new window.

That's it folks.  The Girl's room tour.  It's jam packed, but every little thing in there has a story or meaning behind it.  So instead of complaining, I've resolved to feel grateful to be blessed with all that "stuff".