iLoveToCreate: Repurposed Fabric Covered Bulletin Board

Poor Claire, my youngest daughter, has had bare walls for quite some time.  It's not for lack of thought or intention, it is just that I kind of have a phobia when it comes to decorating.  I want to LOVE what I put on my walls... for goodness sake, I will have to look at it EVERYDAY!  It has always seemed like a lot of pressure.  Pretty much the only reason things get put on walls around here is if John harps on me enough to get it ready, then he will hang it.

As was the case with this easy project! 

We like to call this our $1 Bulletin Board.  We spent a wopping $1 on the frame and had everything else on hand.  It was a great way to repurpose an old cork bulletin board as well. 

Supplies: 

• Frame - Ours was found at ReStore (it has a chip in the back was a gaudy gold color, so John painted it black...you can't even see the chip when it is on the wall!)
• Corkboard - We had an old board that was actually in our yard sale pile... John cut out the middle section to a size that would fit inside the frame with a utility knife
• Fabric - enough to cover the board with a few inches extra on all sides
• Stapler - Regular old office one, the staples in a staple gun would have gone through the cork
• Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Spray
• Hanging hooks, grabbers, fastening clips, or whatever you like to use to hang the final product (find at any hardware store)

• Decide on your frame size and cut corkboard to fit inside the frame
• Measure enough fabric to cover the corkboard, plus a few inches on each side.  Iron the fabric and place it wrong side up on your work surface

• Go outside and spray the good side of the corkboard with Aleene's Tacky Spray
• Quickly place the sticky side of the corkboard onto the wrong side up fabric
• Start on one side pulling the fabric taught and stapling it down on the back of the coarkboard, work your way around until it is all stapled
• **I also flipped the corkboard over and  placed a large, flat tray or book on the right side to make sure the fabric sticks to the cork, I left this for about 30 minutes to dry

• Place covered corkboard into frame, we made sure ours stayed tight with fastening clips
• Add picture hanging hardware and hang on the wall... (John did this part)

...and the final product!  Almost too pretty to add her treasured photos and memories :-)

Rearranged China Cabinet | Home Decor Project

When we were in the process of buying our house, this china cabinet was one of the selling points to me.  It was a built-in piece of furniture and was a convenient storage spot.  Score!

Not so much.

Fast forward six years and I was completely lost when it came to the decor of the china cabinet.  Every time I passed it, I wanted to throw out its contents and start again.  It had become a catch-all for items I didn't want to get broken... not the beautiful display I had once envisioned. 

See... such a hodge podge!

So, one day a few weeks ago I enlisted the help of a friend (Thanks Brooke!) and we got to work.  We used only items I had on hand and rearranged everything in a more cohesive way. 

This is basically a post to (a) thank my sweet friend for her help and (b) remember the way we displayed everything in case I need to use or clean the contents. :-)



iLoveToCreate: Reverse-Stencilled & Spray-Painted Shirt

This is a great, fairly easy way to uniquely personalize a shirt!  My friend Brooke, co-owner of the fabulous Uptown Kids sale (a twice yearly consignment event held here in Fresno), came up with this idea and I have to say it seems to have worked out well!

First she decided that she wanted to rock a fun and unique shirt with her business initials... UPTK.

Supplies:

Tank top style shirt (or anything you would like personalized)

Cardboard shirt form-Tulip has one called a Fashion Form

Tulip brand fabric spray paint (your could use several colors if that suits your fancy)

Vinyl - cut using the Silhouette machine

• Choose a font and size that will work well for the letters of your shirt, then cut out your vinyl using your Slihouette, Cricut, or trace and cut with scissors.

• Peel letters out of vinyl and place on your shirt

• Cover your work area and spray fabric paint liberally around the stuck-on letters and around shirt until you have the desired effect

• Peel off vinyl lettering and enjoy your creation!

Thoughts:

• Wouldn't this be a great craft for a kids party or camp? 
• I thought the spray paint gave the shirt a cool effect and you could have a variety of outcomes depending on the amount of spray you want to use.
• The vinyl worked really well and provided nice crisp lines... no bleeding paint!!
• Add some spray glitter for a little more pizzaz!

**Thanks for sharing your idea Brooke!  I'm sure you will enjoy wearing it at this fall's consignment sale!!**



I went to post something...

... and I ended up changing the whole layout and design of the blog.  Man, I am so easily sidetracked!!

It was driving me NUTS that my margins weren't allowing the extra large sized photos here on blogger.  So, after a few hours of tinkering I am happy with the new margins, the ability to now show extra large horizantal photos, a more simple and clean white background, and a fresh new header. 

(This counts as being crafty, right?)

I also added a whole section of the ten most recently updated iLoveToCreate blogger blogs over there on the right side ---->
I am thinking of adding another section of crafty inspiration blogs, but that list could get REALLY long... if you have a crafty blog that you would like me to include, send me a message or email. 

And now, I will try to get back to my regularly scheduled post :-)

Fishy Themed Party: Part Three, Fishy Bar

The pièce de résistance and really the whole reason I was excited to do this party stemmed from the 'Fishy Bar' idea. 

Have you gone into any grocery store lately and seen the number of varieties of Pepperidge Farm Fish crackers?  It is really pretty crazy.  So, my idea was to have every single kind of fish crackers in the form of a bar and let each party-goer take home a sort of 'trail mix' of different fish crackers. 

To take the idea even further, I wanted to give each of the types of fish crackers a cute and 'fishy' name to go along with the theme of the party.  

For example: Rainbow Colored Fish became 'Rainbow Trout' and the 'Baby' variety of fish crackers became 'Guppies' :-) 

I even found this Fish shaped snack container and had John drill a hole through it.  I then stuck a dowel through the hole so I could use it as part of the display.

If I can find my list, I will come back and add the entire list of fish names I gave to the crackers.  I used twelve(!) varieties of the crackers and there were still more I could have chosen from. 

Fishy Themed Party: Part Two, Food

All of the food for the party had an orange, blue, or fish theme to it!  It was fun trying to think of things to have that fit into the parameters.

Drinks were orange and blue Gatoraide and Juicy Juice (we did have water too) 

The Menu:

• Pinwheel Sandwiches - called "Sushi Sandwiches"
• Turkey and cheese sandwiches cut into the shape of a fish with a cookie cutter (not pictured)
• Chinese Chicken Salad - Oranges added
• Orange-you-glad it's fruit salad (peaches, oranges, cantalope, mango + blueberries)
• Orange and Blue Jell-o cups
• Various Orange and Blue candies
• Cheese it's (obviously orange)
• Cheetos (again obviously orange) - not pictured
• Blueberry yogurt-covered pretzles- not pictured 

Out of sheer luck and good timing, we were given this sno-cone machine to use at the party as well... even though all the syrups weren't blue and orange it was a great, unique addition to the party!  Thanks friend that lent it to us ;-)

And finally, my favorite orange and blue addition to both the menu and the decor... cupcakes! 

These were Funfetti cupcakes with homemade marshmallow frosting dyed blue.  The toppers were made using a cutout from my silhouette machine.

I thought they came out super cute!