Craft room Storage Crates

I have a cute white desk in my craft room that I purchased on Target.com a few years ago. I love the style and simplicity of it, but the desk has open shelves on it. The open shelves are very deep and I have never been able to find the right size of baskets to fit the shelves. So, considering the fact that I love to cut wood, I decided I was going to make my own wooden crates... that way I could make them to perfectly fit under my desk.

And they fit perfectly.... it's almost scary. I only made three and now looking at the pictures, I'm wondering if I should make one more. I have my Cricut mats and paper trimmers on the top shelf and they kind of hang out so they wouldn't fit in a crate. I guess I could find somewhere else to store them so that I could have a perfectly even desk storage.
I had so much fun building them. I love it when I get to use tools and saws without my hubby's help... it's even better that he's willing to clean up my sawdust mess:)
My ultimate goal is to get this craft room organized enough that I can take pictures of the whole room and post them for you... one step at a time.... Here's a preview of one wall.

Tooth Monster

We have our first loose tooth at our house:) This is so exciting for us. But being the crafty mom that I am, I had to find something for my little boy to put his tooth in for the tooth fairy. So, we went blog searching to see what we could find. My favorite tutorial was on mmmcrafts. Totally cute, but super girly. So, I used the idea and the pattern... but then I saw this idea on instructables.com and my little boy loved it.

I wanted him to help. So, I cut out the white fabric. Then I handed him my stash of felt and told him to cut out his eyes and teeth and anything else that he wanted. I then sewed the felt onto the tooth for him. I wanted to have the tooth go into the opening of the mouth like on the tutorial, but the mouth was too low on the tooth and it just wasn't going to work. So, my husband suggested making a pocket for the back of the pillow!
So, now we are patiently waiting for this tooth to fall out:) By the way, what's the going rate for a tooth from the tooth fairy these days? -Anisa

Happy Birthday to me!

I am soooo excited for the Get Down with Scrapbooking Crop this weekend because Cami bought me Maya Mists for my birthday!!! I have been wanting some Maya Mists for awhile. Maggie Holmes is one of my favorite scrapbookers and my old neighbor. I love her stuff and lately she has been using the mists a lot. So, I was super excited when Cami gave them to me for my birthday!!!

Here are a few layouts that I have done with the mists. I have plans for a lot more!!! And I get to scrapbook for two days!!!

From Drab to Fab!

So, my son tipped himself over on one of our bar stools and broke it. As you can see, I have decided that it isn't worth buying brand new furniture just to have one of my rough and tumble boys break it. So, I have decided that refinishing is for me. And my husband LOVES it when I spray paint in the garage:)

So, here is what I did. I took these adorable barstools that I purchased from our local thrift store. I took the cushion off the top. I lightly sanded the wood. I used spray paint primer to prime the wood. Then I spray painted them a fun color of green. Then I removed... or rather had my husband remove the old fabric from the cushion. I bought some cheap plain white fabric to cover the cushion and used my staple gun to attach it to the cushion. I screwed the cushion back onto the chair. Super easy!!
But, wait, it's not covered with cheap white fabric! It's covered with this adorable fabric from Hobby Lobby (which right now if my all time favorite fabric). Well, that's because I have 3 boys. And I knew that fabric would get dirty. so, I made the cover removable so that I could wash it!!! What I did was I sewed elastic around the end so that I could easily remove it. (seriously, I had started a tutorial for you, but then I forgot to keep taking pictures.... sorry.)

I've already had to wash them and I'm super glad I made the covers removable. I'm going to make a cover for a bench by our dining table and I've got to figure out how to incorporate more of this fabric into my kitchen.

-Anisa

Tip Top Cake Shoppe

If you live in the Salt Lake Valley, I have a great recommendation for a Cake Decorator. Her name is Jacinda and her company is Tip Top Cake Shoppe. She is the Wilton Cake Instructor at Hobby Lobby and she is full of creativity! I personally have taken her classes and she is a great teacher. However, I have discovered that cake decorating is not for me! For one thing, you have to get it all done at once... it can't sit on my desk for weeks like many of my unfinished craft projects. For another reason, I am all about distressing... a distressed cake looks like a kid decorated it. And after you are done, people eat your craft:)

So, my little boy wanted a Bakugan birthday cake. And he wanted this specific Bakugan.

She turned this toy, into this cake!
Look at all the details... it looks exactly like the toy.
And it tasted great too!

So, check her out at www.tiptopcakeshoppe.com.

She does birthday cakes, cupcake birthday parties, wedding cakes, you name it!!!

-Anisa

Kid Gifts

Continuing with our theme of Countdown with Crafts, I thought I'd let you know of a great sale at Michael's craft store this week. 1/2 of the front page of their ad was great gifts for kids. My kids love craft kits so I plan on heading over there this week to get them something for their stocking. They also have kids stocking stuffers for $1 and up.

I wanted to show you what I did as a gift for my kids that was super easy and super cheap. I bought these adorable striped hats for my kids at the $1 store... Dollar Tree. I then raided my stash of many felt colors and cut out stars for my sons and their friends....

... and flowers with layered circles in the middle for our little friends that are girls.
I used the Sizzix to cut my felt shapes, but you could easily hand cut them with a pattern as well. They girls hat also has a layer of mesh. They are held together with the button in the middle that is sewn on. I used a dab of fabric glue to secure the ends of the flower and stars to the hat. My boys love them and they fight over who gets the blue one... I made them in several colors!

My new obsession!

I don't exactly remember what inspired me to make these... maybe it was that I love patterned paper so much that I want to frame it! Maybe it's that I love owls and this cute owl frame on the Storybook Cartridge for the Cricut. But, one day I came up with this cute frame for my craft room. I put vinyl on the glass and patterned paper inside the frame... I love it!!!

Then I went Black Friday shopping and the Cricut cartridges were on sale at Robert's crafts 4/$100. There were two that I really wanted, but if I was going to get such a good deal, I might as well buy 4. So, I went searching trying to find something I liked and I happened up the "A Child's Year" cartridge and fell in love. It is just full of silhouettes of kids and I love silhouettes. So, I went crazy! I made this frame for my son's teacher as a Christmas gift.
I'm participating in another craft boutique tomorrow (or today) and so I thought I'd make a bunch of fun random frames... just because I love them!

If they don't sell, some of these may be up in my Etsy shop soon!!! And I have plans to decorate my kids' playroom with a bunch of these.... stay tuned!!!

-Anisa