Collage Prints out of Kids' Artwork

Twinboy and Twingirl came home at the end of the school year with all their artwork. Adorable? Yes. But also huge and unwieldy. They each brought home over a dozen pieces that were at least 14 by 14. We don't exactly have a lot of bare wallspace, and even the fridge couldn't handle more than two of those pieces at a time. I tried to roll them up and put them in a tube, but they were too bulky even for that. How was I going to save their beautiful work?

They sat in one of those huge plastic tubs for a few weeks until I came up with this idea.

First, I decided that from here on out I was going to take a digital image of each piece of art as it came home, and create a special folder for each kid on my computer where I would store the photos. I found something we had made out of posterboard, flipped it over to the empty side, and put it on the floor. Then I had the kids lay out each piece one at a time against the white background while I stood above, snapping away.

But I wanted to do more than just keep the photos on my computer. So I decided to make and print a collage that I could hang in the kids' playroom.

I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 to make my collage. If you have this, you can follow this process:

1. Click on "Create" on the right hand side, then click "photo collage." I chose the 12 x 12 size so I could enlarge it and still be able to have a somewhat standard size for printing.
2, The basic template gives you eight photos. I wanted nine, but I quickly figured out that the preset photo slots included a white border, while ones you added manually did not. To keep everything the same, I wound up deleting all the preset slots (hover the cursor on top of the photo slot and his the DELETE button).
3. I import my photos by clicking "File" and then "Open." Then I navigated to the photo I wanted and clicked it. The photos I importedshowed up in the project bin at the bottom of the screen.
4. Once my photos were in the project bin, I clicked back on the empty background so it appeared on the main screen. Then I simply "dragged and dropped" my photos onto the background. One caveat: the photos drop in at full size, so I needed to shrink them to the approximate size I wanted using the little boxes on the corners. Once a photo was at the right size, I clicked on the green check box to save it.

5. Once I had all nine photos on the background, I spend some time rearranging, resizing, bringing forward, bringing backward, and tilting the photos until they were organized the way I wanted them. Then I saved it as a JPEG file.

I wanted this puppy blown up to 24 x 24 (in retrospect, I wish I had gone a little bigger) and I found PrintKeg, an online print shop that was the least expensive option I found that would print such an unusual size. It said "poster prints," and I was a little afraid I would get a super thin papery print, but it was not that at all.  It was regular, thick photo paper.

Meanwhile, I got two pieces of 24 x 24 inch plywood, a quarter inch thick. I could have used poster board, but I couldn't easily find the size I needed. I got the plywood from D & D plywood online but you can also get plywood at places like Home Depot.

The poster prints came in a tube, so I had to flatten them out somewhat before adhering them to the wood. I unrolled them and put them good side to good side, then placed the boards and some heavy books on top for a day or two.

Meanwhile, I sanded the edges of the plywood and then painted the edges with green poster paint.

When I was ready to attach the prints to the boards, I used binder clips to place the prints in the exact place I wanted them. They were slightly bigger than the plywood. I used eight clips - one in each corner and one on the middle of each side.

Once the print was positioned where I wanted it, I removed the three clips along the left side and pulled the print to I held it out of the way with one hand while I used the other hand to apply an even layer of Mod Podge to the exposed wood with a foam brush. Once the Mod Podge was applied, I started at the center of the print and slowly smoothed the print down against the board. I moved my hand up and down to push out any air bubbles, and smoothed the print down from the center to the left side. Then I put the clips back on the left side and repeated the process on the right side.

I tried to smooth out any air bubbles I could, then I put the clips back on to hold everything in place, and let the Mod Podge dry for about a half an hour.

Once the Mod Podge was dry, I flipped the board over on a cutting mat and used a rotary cutter to cut the two edges where the print was slightly bigger than the board.

Then I applied a layer of Mod Podge to the top of the print.  I made sure to keep my brush strokes going in only one direction (up and down OR left to right).

I put about three coats of Mod Podge on top in all. I also made sure to coat the sides. I alternated brush strokes for each coat to give it a canvas-type look. I made sure to let each coat dry completely in between.

I used velco picture hangers to attach the boards to the wall in the kids' playroom when I was done.

Easy, Cheap, Sparkly Cake Stand!

I've always wanted a cute cake stand, but they are SO EXPENSIVE and not generally as cute as I would like. So I decided to make one!

This is what I used:

Glass taper candle holder from the dollar store
Cute melamine plate - on clearance for a dollar at CVS
Multipurpose adhesive
Nail polish

This is so incredibly easy it's a wonder I didn't think of it sooner.

First, I cleaned the plate and the candle holder in warm soapy water. I used a sanding block to roughen up the top edge of the candle holder a bit.
I flipped over the plate and locate the center. I was lucky - there was an imprint right in the center of the plate.
I ran a bead of adhesive around the top edge of the candle holder. I let mine sit a few minutes, according to the adhesive directions.
Then I flipped the candle holder upside down and centered it on the back of the plate. I put a little pressure on it for a minute, then let it dry according to the adhesive directions.

Meanwhile, I got out my nail polish. I chose two blue shades I had used for another craft project that, let's face it, I was unlikely to use on my nails. I had gotten them at Walgreen's on clearance for $2 each. One was a dark pearly blue, the other a lighter blue glitter. And a clearcoat.

Once the glue dried. I applied my first coat of the pearly blue. I painted in section to get the most even coverage. Since the color is somewhat opaque, it didn't really cover completely with the first coat.
For some reason the nail polish seemed to dry much more quickly on the candle holder than it usually does on my nails. I was able to put on three coats in about a half an hour.

I then added two coats of the glitter polish. It looked great without, but I wanted some extra sparkle. Then two coats of clear. I then let the whole thing dry overnight. Now the nail polish is hard as a rock.
It turned out awesome. I think I'll probably make a couple more for different seasons. I'm thinking maybe a glittery brown for fall and a glittery cranberry for winter. I just have to find some cute plates!

I definitely plan to handwash this.

Look how sparkly!

Fabric Headband Holder

I've recently posted blogs on how to make French Memo Boards and Hanging Jewelry Boards, both of which I made with leftover fabric from twingirl's bed quilt. Another thing in her room that we have trouble corraling is headbands. She has a ton of them, and we usually store them in a basket. But that's starting to overflow, and the end result is that we can rarely find the color she needs on the rare days when she actually wants to wear a headband.

For this project you will need:

Piece of fabric approx. 20 x 16 inches
Freestanding vertical paper towel holders (you can find these at the dollar store).
Standard size roll of paper towels
Glue gun
Iron

Press your fabric. Wrong side up, fold up a piece of the shorter end about an inch and press so you have a nice straight edge.
Starting from the other side, run a strip of glue along wrong side odge of fabric, along the shorter end, about a half inch in from the edge.
Place the paper towel roll evenly along this strip of glue; press and hold for one minute.

Now start rolling the paper towels down towards the other end of the fabric. Place another strip of glue on the other end, and keep rolling until the fabric is wrapped all the way around the roll.  Press paper towels down against glue for one minute.
Let glue dry for about ten minutes.

Place some glue on the edges of the fabric that are not sticking out from either end of the roll of paper towels and then tuck these edges into the hole of the paper towel roll. Press the fabric against the roll so the glue makes contact, and hold in place for about one minute.
Once this glue has dried, place roll onto paper towel holder.

See? Super easy!

Hanging Jewelry Board

After my success making my own french memo boards, I decided to use a similar technique to make a board for Cavegirl to hang her necklaces, bracelets, and hair elastics on. She has a decent amount, but she rarely wears any of  them. My theory is that it's because she can never FIND them. A pretty, convenient display would not only get more bling into the rotation, but would, perhaps, keep me from finding her jewelry in odd places (all over the floor, under her bed, in her clothes hamper, etc.)

For this project:

12 x 6 inch plywood (I used 1/2 inch thick)
Scrap fabric that is about 15 x 8
Picture hanger
Small hooks (I used white cup hooks I found on ebay)
Piece of paper or cardboard cut to the size of your board.
Heavy duty stapler
Awl (or another pointy object capable of pushing a similar sized hole into a piece of fabric)
Duct or masking tape

I had several misfires on this project so I am not going to tell you how I would do it, but how I would do it if I did it again.

Put your paper or cardboard over the board and line it up with the edges.  Tape in place. You are making a template of where the holes are going to be so you can find them again later once the fabric is on. Drill your holes through the template and into the board. Use a bit as close in size to the screw portion of your hooks as possible. I chose to put two holes across the top and two across the bottom, staggered. (see photo at the bottom of post). You can also put them coming out from the bottom, if you wish. I might add those on later.

Remove your template and attach your fabric. Unlike the french memo boards, I don't recommend using batting. It will make putting the hooks in difficult. Use the wrapping strategy discussed here to wrap the fabric around your board and staple it in place.

Put your template back on top of your board, line it up, and tape in place. Use the awl to poke a hole through the template, fabric, and into the pre-drilled hole in your plywood. It only has to be big enough to insert the screw part of your hook. Be careful not to tear the fabric more than just making a small hole. Do this for each hole.

Attach your picture hanger to the back.

Screw in your hooks. If they seem a little loose, you can use a tiny bit of glue to hold them in place. Try to avoid glue if you can, because you run the risk of getting it on your fabric.

Hang on your wall, fill it with bling, and admire!

French Memo Boards

Cavegirl loves hanging photos and cards in her room. She has a little memo board that we got at Five Below, but it's stuffed. I had some fabric left over from when I made her quilt, so I thought, why not make our own?

Here's what you will need:

12 x 12 piece of plywood. You can go bigger, certainly, but we had two specific spaces on the wall that we wanted to fill, and two of these worked perfectly. We used plywood that was about 1/2 inch thick.

• Fabric remnants. Should be at least four inches longer and wider than your boards. So for us, 16 x 16
• Quilt batting, if desired. We wanted a puffier, softer look. 16 x 16, same as the fabric.
• Ribbon in coordinating colors. We got the cheap stuff at AC Moore.
• Upholstery tacks. We used white
• Heavy duty stapler
• Hammer
• Cloth or rag
• Picture hangers

Sand the edges of your plywood and iron your fabric. Place your fabric good side down on your work surface, then line up the batting right on top.

Place the plywood in the middle. Now you are going to wrap the fabric round the board. Start at the bottom. Wrap the excess fabric and batting around the plywood and staple in place at either end and in the middle. Do the same with the top, being sure to pull the fabric and batting snug.

I have found that the easiest way to do the sides is to fold the corners in and then pull the triangle you have up and staple that - kind of like you are wrapping a present. The problem is, there will be a lot of bulk in the corners. I wound up cutting away some of that so it wouldn't be as bulky.

Here's what you will have when you are finished.

Cut two pieces of ribbon the length of your diagonal plus about three inches. Staple these in place. These have to be tight, too, or the cards and photos will slip right out. Put your staple on the back as close to the corner as possible to keep the ribbon from slipping off the corner.
You will need to hammer the upholstery tack in. Make sure to cover the tack with a cloth or rag so you don't scrape off the finish with the hammer.
Attach picture hangers on back. I like the sawtooth kind.

Ta - da!

Now certainly you can make these different shapes and sizes. Just be sure to use an upholstery tack any place where two pieces of ribbon intersect.

Homemade Grungy Timer Tealights

I love grungy candles.
But even moreso, I love flameless candles.  My love began when my kids were little: Cave toddlers and open flames are not a good mix. The more I got to know flameless candles, the more I liked them. No mess, no melty wax goo, no soot marks on my wall, no panicking about whether the candles were all blown out or not.
When a friend turned me onto flameless candles with TIMERS, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Going around and turning on a dozen or so candles every day was only slightly less annoying than lighting a dozen candles every day.
The problem for me was, that there really weren't a ton of options available with the flameless timers. I found some pillar that I liked, and managed to find some grungy candlestick type ones that I put in my windows. But search as I might, I couldn't find any grungy-esque tealights with times.  Grungy tealights, no timer. Timer tealights, no grunge. But no combination of the three.


So I decided to make some!
You can buy white timer tealights lots of places - craft stores, online, etc. I bought about four 4 packs of these.

 

You will also need:

 

• Mod Podge
• Ground Coffee (for texture)
• Instant Coffee (for color)
• Plastic container with lid
• Disposable spoon
• Small flat painbrush - bristles should be about 1/2 inch wide
• Water
• Wax paper

 

I don't have any pics of the process because I did these awhile ago. But it will be fine.

 

Pour some Mod Podge into your plastic container. Add a little instant coffee and stir. This will dissolve completely and will give you mixture it's color. Keep adding until it gets to the color you like.
Then add your regular coffee. This won't dissolve as easily and will give you the little bumps and granules that will add texture. Add as much as you like.  Stir stir stir.
Cover your work are with wax paper. These suckers are going to be sticky.
When painting your tealights, hold them by the flame part and paint the top first. Don't worry if you get a little on the flame part - it's not supposed to look perfect. Then paint the sides. It will go on thick, don't worry. If it seems TOO thick add a LITTLE water. But you don't want it too think. Somewhere between paint and glue is a good consistency. Also, don't panic if it doesn't seem to cover much with the first coat. This is plastic, after all. It's a multiple coat project.
Once all of your tealights have their first coat, leave them on the wax paper to dry COMPLETELY. Drying completely between coats is an important step. Otherwise, you will end up with a mushy mess. If you press in with your finger and you feel movement or leave a fingerprint, they are not dry.
The first coat will probably take about 6 hours to dry. Subsequent coats, even more, like overnight.
Keep adding coats until you have achieved the coverage you want.
Add batteries, turn on all the timers at once, scatter throughout your home, and enjoy!

Put the lid on your container, and save this gooey goodness for another project!

How to Apply Wall Vinyl

I saw this awhile ago while fooling around on the Internet, and thought it would look great in my home. It kind of summed up how I feel about life in my family. My mom got it for me for Christmas, but it's been sitting in the mailing tube for six months waiting for me to get brave enough to try to put it up.  Well, I finally got brave.

I've never put up wall vinyl before, so I was a little bit intimidated. What if it was crooked? What if it didn't stick? What if half of it stuck and half of it peeled off? The truth is, applying wall vinyl is not hard at all, though it can be a little bit of a pain.  The directions that come with it are pretty basic, so here it what I learned along the way that, added to the directions that arrive with your purchase, you can use to streamline the process.

First, I took down the picture collages that were on the wall (truly, who really has just an empty wall waiting to put something up, unless you just moved in? There's always something to remove.) I spackled and sanded the holes, then dug the wall paint and a roller out of the basement and did sort of a once-over on the whole area. I didn't tape or edge the ceilings or anything - just wanted to start with a clean surface. I let that dry for a couple of days.

My wall vinyl came in five pieces. My first step was to use painter's tape to tape everthing up there exactly as I wanted it.  I had to move things around a few times, but I finally got them centered horizontally and a little higher than centered vertically. I kept measuring and moving until I got it right.


Then I retaped. I knew I wanted to start applying from the bottom (I was unsure enough about this project, let alone doing the first application on top of a chair) so I started from the TOP. Each piece of the decal is held in place by one vertical strip of painter's tape. The one I'm currently working on also has a piece keeping each end flat against the wall.

Does it look straight? Measure, measure, measure!

OK, listen close. Remove the piece of tape on the right side. You'll notice that the vinyl letters are sandwiched between two sheets of plastic or whatever.  You are going to start at one of the right hand corners and gently and slowly PEEL the BACK sheet (closest to the wall) away from the letters and front sheet. Whatever you do, make sure the vertical piece of tape stays put. That is what is holding your decal in the perfect place. Keep peeling until you get close to the tape.



Yes, I know it looks crooked. You try peeling with one hand and photographing with the other!

Then get a pair of scissors, and use your RIGHT hand to cut away as much of the peeled-away paper as you can, and drop it to the ground. Lose the scissors (it helps to have a chair or something nearby that you can drop them on),


Cut as close to the tape as you can.

Right now you are holding the decal with your left hand. Switch to your right hand, and then, again, slowly and gently, starting at the tape and working towards the right, smooth the decal down with your hand. Now, the decal is being held to the wall by the letters on the right half of the decal. Remove the rest of the tape, peel off the rest of the backing sheet, and smooth down the other side of the decal, again working from the center out.

Do not whip out your credit card or start peeling the front sheet off just yet. Be patient. Why? Because you are going to need to tape the next piece down, and if you take off the paper, you will be taping over your decal. Not a good idea. Just leave the paper on until all of the decals are in place.

Move up to the next decal. Make sure it centers properly over the one you just applied. Keep in mind that the PAPER might not be cut straight, so you are making sure that the DECALS line up, not the PAPERS. Repeat the peel, cut, remove tape, smooth, peel, cut, smooth.  Each time you move to another decal, make sure it lines up with the decals that are already in place. Don't worry about whether they are centered on the wall or not: if the first one was in place, and you align all remaining ones with the first, they will be. And if the first one wasn't, it's too late to fret now.  Just keep on keeping on.


Almost done this part!

One all of the decals are adhered to the wall, get out that credit card. USe the edge to burnish the decal onto the wall. Don't be too hardcore with the rubbing, just go back and forth over each word a few times with moderate pressure. You can do all the pieces at once or one at a time - it doesn't really matter. I did them one at a time.

After burnishing all the words on the strip, start at one of the bottom corners and gently and slowly peel up diagonally.  It's not uncommon for the letters to stick a little to the top sheet. You might have to press it back down and burnish some more. Or if the letter comes partially off, you can use the credit card to hold the edge down while you gently pull back the paper. Be sure to check the inside of circular letters, such as D's and O's. A couple of times I had to pick out a piece of vinyl that was stuck inside. Make sure you do this when the vinyl is still on the sheet.  It will be WAY harder to get it off the wall without messing up the letter.

Take your time, and be careful. This isn't hard, but you can't rush through or not pay attention, or you might wind up with a mess. When you are done, it will look like this:


OK, THIS photo is crooked.

And your floor will likely look like this:

So then I put my photo collages back up on either side, and I was PSYCHED about how everything turned out.