I posted these and the general how-to on Facebook, but I know that a lot of you don’t Facebook and you can’t pin stuff from there, so I’m posting it here as well.

You’ll need:

Painter’s tape
Craft Knife
Primer
Glitter Blast
Glitter Blast Clear Sealer
Glasses

Now, I wouldn’t recommend doing this to a pair of $250 glasses or whatever, but we get most of Macy’s glasses from Zenni Optical (seriously…11 pairs in assorted colors for less than ONE pair of boring brown at the eye doctor) and I would DEFINITELY recommend doing it to an inexpensive pair from there.

Tape off the lenses with painters tape.  Get a really good tight seal and trim the edges carefully with the craft knife.  Do the inside and the outside.

The trick with all of this is to go slowly and allow plenty of drying time.

Give the glasses a coat of primer.  I tried one pair (dollar store reading glasses to make sure my technique was good) without and the glitter didn’t stick as well.

After the primer, coat with Glitter Blast.

After that has dried, coat with the Glitter Blast Clear Sealer.

Carefully peel off the tape…like I used a pin to pry up a tiny corner so I wouldn’t scratch the lenses.

And you’re done!

Now, I don’t know how these are going to “wear”, because that hasn’t happened yet.  I’ll update if something goes horribly wrong, I swear!

Like, (proud mom brag alert) she’s taking 8th grade honors math next year and skipping the whole 7th grade math scene completely.

And, last Thursday, she participated in the Math Olympics.

The plan was for her to wear a dorky math related t-shirt.  So, after much Google-ing and debate (“5 out of 4 people don’t understand fractions”, “No, I will not do your math”, etc.), we made one with my Silhouette CAMEO™ and a heat transfer starter kit.

If you haven’t tried the heat transfer yet, you really should…you’ll be hooked.  The hilarious t-shirt possibilities alone make it worth your while.  (Remember when I made myself one that said “WORST MOM EVER”?  He he he.)

What did we decide on?

The font I used is Arial.  The font size is different on each line.

To save you some work, I’ve uploaded it for you here.  Don’t forget to reverse the image before cutting it out of heat transfer!

When it came right down to it, she wussed out

and wore something completely normal instead.

I said the OUTFIT was completely normal.  She, obviously, is not (takes after her mother). 

In case you forgot, I’m giving away a CAMEO and a heat transfer starter kit.  Go here to enter.

If you’re not feeling like a winner, you can pick up a Silhouette CAMEO™ PLUS a heat transfer starter kit for $269.99 through April 10th.  Go here to add the bundle to your cart and use code “CRAP” to take advantage of the savings.  Already have a Silhouette?  Pick up the heat transfer starter kit for $24.99 or take 40% off of all other heat transfer material.  Use code “CRAP” for that as well!

I was recently given the opportunity to participate in the Scribble Shop Challenge.  What exactly IS the Scribble Shop Challenge?  Well, Scribble Shop sent a box of random supplies to a bunch of crafters and asked us to use as many of them as possible to make something (hopefully) fabulous.

I opened my box and found the following:

Metallic Stamp Pad
Dress It Up Embellishments
Mod Podge
Stencil
Raffia
Glass Gems
Motivational Quotes
Popsicle Sticks
Colored Pencils

I have to admit…I WAS STUMPED.  Not an ounce of fabric or ribbon or ric rac in my box.  No paint, either.  I was gonna have to think way beyond my comfort zone.  So, one afternoon, I turned the kids loose with the popsicle sticks and the colored pencils.  I told them to go nuts.

They used the stencil and the ink pad on a couple and I cut the rub ons up into funny phrases and put them on a few as well.  (You know I couldn’t get all serious! )  I also decided to try one with scrapbook paper.

One they were done, I put a couple of coats of Mod Podge on them to make sure that the ink/pencil/whatever wouldn’t get on the book pages.

Then, I hot glued the gems and embellishments on top of some and drilled holes in a few others and tied them with raffia.  If you want to drill a hole in a popsicle stick, don’t push…just let the drill do the work.  Pushing leads to this:

So, I think I used everything, right?

I love crafts that involve the kids and I think these popsicle stick bookmarks would be perfect to give a teacher or a grandparent.

If you’d like to check out some of the other Scribble Shop Challenge projects, you can take a look at the challenge Pinterest board here.

And, just because they’re so darn nice, Scribble Shop is offering each and every one of you 15% off your entire Scribble Shop order using code CRPIVMD between now and April 30th!

You all can follow Scribble Shop at the following:

Scribble Blog:  http://www.scribbleblog.com/
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/ScribbleShop
Twitter:  http://twitter.com/scribbletown
Google+:  https://plus.google.com/105280145209704798197

Find my post disclosure here.

Click on the image below to access the printable:

Click on the image below to access the printable:

Click on the image below to access the printable:

Click on the image below to access the printable:

Click on the image below to access the printable:

We’ve had some great shelving in there since we finished our basement 5 or 6 years ago…

Super old crappy picture alert:

but the fabric bins were just not working out for us.  I had little kids when I bought them, and only one boy old enough to play with toys.  Since that time I’ve discovered something:  Those cloth bins do not hold up to little boys…at least not mine.  We had an incident with scissors where some of the handles were snipped  Several others were missing bottoms.  Pretty much all of them were bent in weird places.  And, there was no way to label them.

So, here’s my industrial boy friendly organization solution:

PAINT BUCKETS!

I found these buckets at Lowe’s in the paint department.  They’re $6.57 each, so not a whole lot more expensive than the cloth bins.  They fit perfectly in my shelving (Pottery Barn Kids) and would also fit in ClosetMaid or IKEA stuff as well…anything where the holes are 12” X 12” or larger.

I also wanted my buckets labeled, and I wanted them labeled in a way that could be changed, because in a year or two we’ll be out of the Little People phase and have 5 buckets of Legos.  I thought about vinyl, but I wanted it to be easier to change than that.  My solution?

Chalkboard paint.

I traced an oval onto some contact paper and then cut it out, leaving the edges in tact.

Here’s my oval template, but really…it’s just an oval.  Find something and trace it.

I applied the contact paper to the buckets as a stencil.  It’s a little bit tricky because of the slope of the bucket, but go slowly and make sure to seal the edges tightly.

DO NOT SKIP THIS NEXT STEP:

Prime the bucket with primer for metal.  If you don’t, the paint will peel right off.

Apply 2 or 3 thin coats of chalkboard paint.  I like to alternate between vertical and horizontal coats to minimize brush lines.

Carefully remove your stencil and then label your buckets as desired.

Easy and customizable!

Random questions I always get asked when I post pictures of my playroom:

What color is your paint?

It’s called Apple 2 and I got it at Lowe’s.  It’s pretty much my favorite light green ever.  I used Apple 1 in another room in the house, even.

Are those rain gutters?

Yes. Yes they are.  I put them up in 2006 when we finished the basement and they’ve held up beautifully.  I saw the idea originally in Family Fun (see here).  They’re a great way to have the books visible and accessible to my kids and they made great use of an awkward spot behind the door.

And now for the good stuff:

LOWE’S IS GIVING ONE LUCKY CRAP I’VE MADE READER A $100 GIFT CARD!

To enter:

Leave a comment ON THIS POST (on the blog, not on Facebook or in response to your email subscription) saying which room in your home needs some Lowe’s organization help.

Optional bonus entry:

Like Lowe’s Creative Ideas on Facebook.  Leave a separate comment saying you did.

Giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and over only and closes Friday, January 27th at noon MST.  Winner will be chosen at random using a WordPress Plugin (And The Winner Is…) and notified by email.  Winner has 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen…I need the winner’s info before the end of the month!

And while you’re waiting to see if you won, head on over for your FREE Subscription to Lowe’s Creative Ideas Magazine:

Disclosure:  Lowe’s provided me with a gift card to organize my playroom.  The paint and rain gutter projects happened many, many years before I started working with them…I’m a Lowe’s fan from way back.

Keller came home and announced that the biography he’d selected was for Steve Nash.  Um, OK?  The next sentence was “So you can just buy me a jersey or something…”  Sorry, no.  I love you but this is a book report.  I’m not spending that kind of $$$ for a book report costume.  I knew I had to get creative.

Supplies:

2 cheap-o t-shirts.  Mine came from Michael’s and were 2 for $5.  One was an adult size small and the other was an adult size XL.

Avery Personal Creations InkJet Iron-On Dark T-Shirt Transfers, White, Five Sheets per Pack (03279)
(I used 2 sheets out of the 5 sheet pack.)

You’re going to make the shorts from the XL shirt.  Fold it in half and use the existing hem to save yourself some time.  I traced a pair of Keller’s shorts and then just cut a little bigger for seam allowances.  (Who am I kidding?  This is a costume that will be worn for under 2 hours.  I didn’t trace.  I just cut.)

Be sure to include an extra 2” or so at the top for the waistband casing.  Sew the inner seams on each leg and then sew the crotch seam.  Make the waistband casing, insert some elastic and you’re done.  Seriously…5 minutes.

For the “jersey”, I cut both sleeves off the size small shirt about where the (really wobbly) yellow line is in the picture below.

I pressed them under along the seam and stitched them in place so they wouldn’t flip back out. You could hem the t-shirt at this point if you want, but I just made my kid tuck it in (back to that whole “wearing it for less than 2 hours” thing).

For the Suns logo, I used the print and cut feature in my Silhouette Studio software.  You can ABSOLUTELY do it without, you’d just cut out the shape with scissors.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  My Silhouette has made me lazy. 

Here’s a brief how to if you have a Silhouette and want to do it that way:

Find an image of your team’s logo.  Open it in Silhouette Studio.  Display your registration marks now so you don’t get all the way done and discover you made it like a millimeter too big.  Trust.  Once you’ve done that, you’re going to want to use the TRACE function (red arrow) and then select an area to be traced (green arrow).

Adjust your trace settings (bottom right hand side rectangle) until you get a good outline and then select the “TRACE OUTER EDGE” option (yellow arrow).

I’ve moved the logo out of the way so you can see what you just did a little more clearly.  You can leave it put if your eyes are better than mine.

That line will cut precisely along the edge of the logo.  I wanted a little white border, since my shirt was dark, so I used the “OFFSET” function.  It’s under the “OBJECT” menu in the upper left hand corner.  You can then change the thickness of the white border (blue arrow).

I still have the logo out of the way for the sake of tutorial clarity, but you’ll want to leave it put in real life.  The last step is to change the inner most line so that your Silhouette will not cut it.  You use the “CUT STYLE” menu (orange arrow) for this.

Change the inner line to “no cut” and leave the outer line as “cut”.  Here’s what your finished design will look like before you print it from Silhouette Studio.

Print it on the Avery transfer paper and then put it on a mat and run it through your Silhouette.  I used the medium cardstock settings.  Apply it to your shirt following the package directions.

Put your name and number on the back, if you want.

Not bad for around $8, right?

My kids just finished up their first year on a traditional school schedule.  We’d been on year round before that, which means summer break = 3 weeks.  This is our first real live 3 month long summer.  I’m loving it, but there are days when “I’M BORED!” comes out of people’s mouths.  So, I wanted to come up with a project we could work on together.  We came up with this silhouette canvas.

Supplies:
Canvas
Old magazines & scissors
Mod Podge
Acrylic craft paint
Stain (optional)
Sandpaper

First, you’re going to let your kids go nuts cutting up magazine pages.

(The kid on the table in pajamas in the middle of the day in the background is totally optional.)

We tried to pick pages with a lot of color (as opposed to black and white text), but that was really the only direction I gave them.

Once you have a whole bunch of cut up magazines, you’ll want to Mod Podge them to a canvas.  There’s also no rhyme or reason to this, just make sure you cover the entire canvas.

No need to have a panic attack that everything’s not smooth…some lumpy/puckered/not perfect parts are encouraged!

Once it’s good and dry, trace your silhouette with a pencil on the canvas.

I went with this bird on a branch design from the Silhouette library.  I think a big initial or monogram would look fabulous as well.  Or how about a chevron pattern on the whole thing?  (That was for you, Jen )

Once you’ve traced, you’ll want to fill in the rest of the canvas with craft paint.  There are no pictures of this step because my daughter/back up photographer and I were both doing the painting.

YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY STOP NOW.  I like this look and I probably would have stopped now if our silhouette had been something more graphic.

I decided to take some sandpaper to the painted area so that some of our magazines would peek through.

Again, YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY STOP NOW!  There’s really no wrong way to do this…just go with what you like!

I applied some stain next.

I put it on streaky and wiped some off.

YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY STOP NOW.

I, however, did not.  I watered down a few more shades of acrylic paint and did some more streaking (not that kind…what kind of blogger do you think I am?) and a little splattering.

YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY STOP NOW…because I totally did.

“Um, can’t you just wear something green from your closet?”

“No. I need you to make me one like for Valentine’s Day…with leaves on it.”

And since I’m a sucker…

I think I’m single handedly keeping the Tulip Soft Fabric Paint division in business.

Don’t even get me started on the part where I had to go to 2 stores this morning to find corned beef since it’s suddenly everyone’s favorite meal of the whole year.

Cub Scouts.

By the time all 3 boys are done? Many, many, many years of Cub Scouts.

Tonight’s our pack’s (is that what they call it?) Blue & Gold Banquet. My assignment is cupcakes, so I made blue and gold ones. Well…turquoise and yellow. Close enough?

I used the instructions for Colorburst Cupcakes over on Our Best Bites.

Yum?

You know the cheap “fabric” bins you can get to fit square bookshelves? Like these?

Image from ClosetMaid

You have some, right? Us too. We have a bunch in the playroom and some in kid closets and I think there are even a few in my sewing room.

They’re practical and they’re cheap. They’re also a *little* bit boring. And, my kids never remember what goes back in which bin. I bet your kids are smarter than mine though, right?

I saw this post over on Crafterhours yesterday and I felt my wheels turning! Keller’s new Utah Jazz inspired room doesn’t have a dresser…we’re using lockers instead. And in those lockers? “Fabric” bins.

I used some downloads from the Silhouette store for my clothing shapes…except for the underpants. I drew those on my own using the Silhouette Studio software.

I cut the shapes out of freezer paper and then stenciled using Tulip Soft Fabric Paint in Metallic Platinum. Check out my freezer paper primer for the basics on freezer paper stenciling.

Things you should do differently to stencil on this type of bins:
You’ll need to crank the heat on your iron way down to a wool setting at the very highest. I’d probably start even lower and then bump the temperature up a bit if the paper isn’t sticking. You’ll also want to place a press cloth or a scrap piece of fabric over the paper and the bin before ironing.

February Silhouette Promotion:

Valid February 23rd-28th

Silhouette SD
1 roll black premium vinyl
1 roll frosted vinyl
1 roll transfer paper
Home Décor CD

all for $225

Use code “CRAP” to take advantage of the deal.

Already have a machine?

Take 25% of Silhouette’s new Premium Vinyl using the same code (“CRAP”, in case you forgot. )

We had impetigo.

And puking.

Fun, right?

I took an insanely awesome photography class from the amazing Emilie of Photo by Emilie. We got to practice on real people. Scary!

More on that later.

I also hit up a fun little consignment store called Abode. More on that later, too.

We made some Valentine boxes. Keller went the safe route with this bucket he decorated with stickers.

(His shirt is some heat transfer and a robot design from Silhouette.)

Macy went the insane route with this little beauty:

And then she started puking, so *I* got to take it to school and present it to her teacher this morning.

My 2 big kids made these sucker moustache Valentines from Family Fun.

Campbell decorated his box at school, but he NEEDED a shirt. So, we busted out the freezer paper and the Silhouette and some of my new favorite product, Tulip Soft Fabric Paint.

Got any big plans? I mean, bigger than taking care of sick kids and doing laundry…

And what a year it’s been.

This is the year we learned about SPD.

This is the year we learned about Asperger’s.

This is the year you told us you could ride a bike without training wheels

(and you were RIGHT).

This is the year you took swimming lessons and faced your fear of water head on.

This is the year you scored your first goal.

This is also the year you tricked your mother into buying you an Ed Hardy shirt.

You take the good with the bad, right?

Happy birthday, Campbell.

SUPPLIES:

TOAD-ally awesome printable, available here. (I ordered prints from my local warehouse club for 13 cents each.) You can personalize your own kid’s name at the bottom in Picnik (free) using Cheri’s fabulous tutorial. The font is “You Are Loved” and the color is FF71A3. Or, you could have your kid sign them.

Toy frogs. I found mine at Zurcher’s. They were $2.49 for 12.

And adhesive of some sort. I used the 3D Zots because the little froggy hands were not flat and they mushed into the dots well.

Put a glue dot on each frog hand (I keep wanting to call them paws) and then stick them in place.

Result? A boy friendly Valentine for about 35 cents!

My sweet, sweet Keller turns 8 today. I dare you to not like him.

It’s impossible.

(His first Halloween. What kind of mother makes their 9 month old wear something like that???)

He oozes happy. And kindness.

I want to be more like him.

Except for the part where he sets his alarm early so he can watch the highlights of last night’s Jazz game before school. And the part where he wears 2 hoodies instead of a coat.

Happy birthday, little buddy!

We’re trying to potty train Bennett.

You’d think by the 4th kid (one of which has Asperger’s) this would be old hat.

You’d be wrong.

Last week, this was my Facebook status:

“I think Bennett’s going to be 10 before he decides to use the toilet.”

Emily, my CWTS partner, posted:

“Quinn too.”

And then I replied:

“Did Quinn rip off the pair of Thomas underpants you put on him and then hide them under the bed when you weren’t looking so you couldn’t possibly make him put them back on?”

I left off the part where he yelled “YOU’LL NEVER FIND THEM NOW!”, a la Swiper on Dora.

So, I made him a little something.

(I used my Silhouette to cut the heat transfer material. The font is Blazed. The shirt is from Target. I seam rippered the pocket off.)

Now, before you start sending me mean emails about my kids needing therapy on account of me being their mother, let me just point out that I made myself a little something, too.

(Again, used my Silhouette to cut the heat transfer material. The font is Joint. Yes, there does appear to be an illegal substance font theme going on here.)

I think we’re even.

Ours was fabulous. Everyone got something they loved:

(Yes, he asked for one.)

It’s really too bad I didn’t get a pic of BC opening his Xbox Kinect. He was SURE he wasn’t getting one, on account of my undying hatred for video games and a credit card disaster earlier in the week. (Dear Chase, I still hate you.) He might have had the most surprised face of the day.

And one person was not too thrilled about what this gift implies:

Mom got a new camera lens. People got sick of that real quick, too.

(But look at my fancy bokeh!)

I’ll be back tomorrow with a year end wrap up. Hope you’re continuing to enjoy your holidays!

In the mean time, Dee Dee did a little one question interview with me. Go see my scintillating answer to “What do you want to accomplish in 2011?”