Crafts

Rosie the Riveter Costume

28 · Oct 1, 2015 · 6 Comments

+ This Rosie the Riveter Costume Post brought to you my Michaels Craft Stores +

You guys, I’m so excited… Halloween is right around the corner!!

I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. I’m not a fan of the macabre scene, full of blood and gore, but I do love all of the fun creative ways to dress-up for the holiday. I love coming up with fun ideas for costumes with the family. I like to keep things simple, I don’t want to spend a ton of time or money on costumes for sure.

This months Michaels Maker’s Challenge was to create a simple DIY Halloween Costume.

My daughter and I thought it would be fun to put together a quick costume with the iconic Rosie the Riveter as our muse. I have always LOVED this graphic.

Rosie the Riveter Costume Materials

Here’s what you will need to make this simple costume.

Elmer’s foam core board
Red and white polka dot fabric – available in store at Michaels, not online
Blue vinyl
1 1/2 inch navy ribbon
Utility knife
Silhouette CAMEO – Not a deal breaker, but nice.
Blue button down shirt

Instructions

This is one of those costumes that really takes minutes if you have a Silhouette cutting machine. If not, NO WORRIES. It will take a little bit longer but you can still do it. With the silhouette all you need is to download this file that I created, and you can cut the image out of vinyl for your poster.

The poster board is 20×30 and this will fit perfect to the top of the board.

You will need to weed your vinyl, than place some transfer tape on top of it. I used the transfer tape to hinge the top of the vinyl transfer to the top of the board. Then I pulled the backing off the vinyl and with the hinge, laid the vinyl down right in the perfect spot.

Now, hindsight being 20/20… I would have either laid down some white vinyl or spray painted the top of the board white first. That would make the letters white, but I’m not too worried about that.

Next, I used a utility knife to cut some slits into the board right where I wanted to place the ribbon to create a kind of backpack effect. That way she could wear the board on her back with ease. I used navy ribbon so that it would blend in with the shirt and just tied it in cute bows on the back of the board.

It works perfect! Now all you have to do it tie-up your hair with the red & white polka dot fabric and you’re all set!!

It’s SUPER simple and so fun! What are your Halloween costume plans? Need some fun ideas? The rest of the 49 other Michaels Makers have been hard at work creating some fun ideas for you. You can check them out here!

An InLinkz Link-up

Disclaimer // I am a member of the Michaels Makers Crew and received store credit in order to create my project.

Halloween Tree Decorating

5 · Sep 25, 2015 · Leave a Comment

I’ve tried something new this year for Halloween… Have you ever decorated a Halloween tree before?

I know the trend is picking-up steam and people are doing all kinds of cool things for Halloween. I’ve teamed up with a handful of talented bloggers for a fun Halloween tree blog hop and GIVEAWAY! You need to run over and check-out Jennifer Perkins, Cathie Filian, Tried & True, My Paper Crane! Their trees are also so fun!! Hang tight and I’ll have the giveaway info at the bottom of the post.

I had a ball decorating this beautiful white tree from Treetopia with black, white & gold glam for Halloween. I LOVE how it looks with my Jack O’ Lope display that I created a few weeks ago… The tree adds a beautiful new element to the room that I just adore!

I’ve alway been in love with black & white decor when it comes to decorating for Halloween and knew that I wanted to carry that through with this tree. I found some fun large & small pumpkins at Target that were perfect. I was planning on painting my own, but these were already so cute I caved and bought them instead.

I added some beautiful fox masks from JoAnn that I fell in love with.

I also added more of my favorite black & white dice that I made a few weeks back and some apothecary jars from Target. I was looking for some kind of black filler to add some dimension to the tree and couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something that looked kind of like feathers mixed with spooky foliage. Weird, I know. I looked all over the place for the right look. I finally found a wreath in the Halloween section at Target and it was perfect. I deconstructed the wreath and used it as my tree filler. LOVE IT!

I also absolutely love my white tree from Treetopia, it looks perfect up against my black chalkboard wall for Halloween. It’s the Whisper White Cashmere Tree and it is fabulous. I’ve wanted a white tree for awhile now and I’m just so darn picky I couldn’t find one that I liked. They always looked so cheap. This one is nice and full and looks beautiful. I was so impressed with how easy the tree was to set-up. It has an extra long cord with and on/off foot peddle for ease of use. It also has a plug at the top of the tree to plug-in a tree topper if you have one of that sort, BRILLIANT!

The folks at Treetopia are giving away some fun trees for Halloween, Head over to their Facebook page for all the details!

Details // This post was sponsored by Treetopia however, I had a ball decorating this tree and wouldn’t have shared with you if I didn’t truly love the product!

Kitchen Marquee Sign with Heidi Swapp

0 · Jul 31, 2015 · 3 Comments

+ Kitchen Marquee Sign post brought to you by Michaels Craft Stores +

I am obsessed with marquee signs… I truly am.

It started with this post back in July of 2013, my Designer Marquee Letters.

Back in the day when marquee letters were rather elusive. Your options were to either pay a fortune for the real deal, or find a way to DIY a set of your own. I went the DIY route which was great, the sign still lives in my kitchen and I love it, however… it was a tad challenging, still expensive and quite frankly it still looked a little wonkey with all kinds of wiring to contend with.

The day that Heidi Swapp released her Marquee Love, was a DREAM! Seriously, I’m not sure if I’ve ever been that excited about a product release in a long time. It’s BRILLIANT! Truly, I’m always kind of excited to see what Heidi has up her sleeve. She is taking the crafting world by storm these days with not only her Marquee Letters but her Minc Foil Applicator is GENIUS as well. One of my favorite crafting tools right now!

Heidi is one of those individuals who is amazingly innovative but someone who is truly genuine. She’s everyone’s cheerleader. We have connected a bit over social media and had a chance to chat at SNAP this last year. She is one lady who I truly admire and look up to. She’s brilliant and a go getter. She’s one of those ladies who dreams up a crazy idea like the Minc and just MAKES IT HAPPEN! I love that!

I had a ball this week creating with my favorite Heidi Swapp Marquee Love letters to celebrate Michaels Big Brand Sale Starting Sunday, August 2nd.

Kitchen Marquee Sign

I decided to take Heidi Swapp’s Marquee Love letters to the next level and add them to a wood sign, rather than just having them sit on a shelf. I have fallen in love with all kinds of fun typography signs for the kitchen floating around like this one from Gina of Shabby Creek Cottage

BUT… I thought, how fun would it be to have a marquee element to it. Why not do a sign saying, “Kitchen is Now OPEN” with the OPEN in marquee letters showing that when the sign is alight, the kitchen is open, when it’s off, the kitchen is CLOSED. Fun, right! Here’s how to make it…

Materials Needed

24×24 plywood board
4 – 25 inch 1 1/2 x 1/2 inch boards for the frame
Heidi Swapp Marquee Love letters O,P,E,N
Krylon Chalk Board Spray Paint
White Chalk Paint – I used BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder
Silhouette or Cricut cutting machine OR Stencil Letters
Vinyl
Scrap paper
painters tape
Hot glue
Brad nails
Glue dots

Directions

Gather your materials and prepare them to paint. I decided to use Krylon Black Chalkboard Paint because I love the deep black and the matte finish.

First, I spray painted my letters and the frame for the sign.

Then I used BB Frösch Chalk Paint to white wash the sign base. I chose that technique rather than just straight paint because I still wanted to see the wood grain.

To white wash your board, all you need to do is use watered-down chalk paint and then lightly wipe-off the paint to reveal the grain of the wood. This is a great way to add a little color, keep the wood look and it also dries really quick!

Next, I cut my vinyl with my Silhouette CAMEO using the Bebas font. Love that font!

I laid down my vinyl and then taped the rest of the board with painters tape and some scrap paper to mask the rest of the board while I spray painted the letters.

Once the paint was dry, I placed my marquee letters and drilled holes to feed the lights through. Now, keep in mind, you need to think through the pavement of the holes and how you are going to arrange the lights in the letters. You want the battery packs sitting on the bottom frame of the sign and you need to place the drilled holes accordingly.

Then, I assembled my marquee letters and hot glued them to the board.

Next, I hot glued the frame to the sign base and then secured it with some brad nails.

On the back of the board, I used a few glue dots to secure the battery packs for the letters to the back of the board.

And that was it… your Kitchen Marquee Sign is finished!

The cool thing it looks great with the lights ON or OFF!

I found the cutest sign on The Diary of Dave’s Wife not to long ago…

Of course had to make one of my own, I thought it look great placed right under my Kitchen is Now Open sign…

How fun is that! I used some 3M Command Picture Hanging Strips that are velcro so I can easily interchange my breakfast, lunch & dinner signs for fun! LOVE IT!!

Don’t forget this next week is the perfect time to stock-up on all your favorite brands at Michaels Big Brand Sale!!

Disclaimer // This post is sponsored by Michaels Craft Stores. I am Michaels Maker this year and will be posting all kinds of goodies from Michaels Craft Stores. I do receive free product to create with.

Free Printable Yard Yahtzee Score Card

136 · Jul 30, 2015 · 8 Comments

Looking for a Yard Yahtzee score sheet? I got you covered. Scroll down to get the printable version of you can download the image of the Yahtzee scorecard to use it on your phone.

I’m over at Skip to my Lou today sharing a fun Yard Yahtzee game with DIY Large Dice… They’re super fun!! You can go there to learn how to make everything yourself. If you’re here though, you may already have your own version of Yard Yahtzee dice.

Over at Skip to my Lou, you can learn how to make these stylish dice that are great for playing with OR fun for home decor as well! Run over and learn how to make them.

Once you’re finished with your dice, you’ll need a Yahtzee score card to use for all your summer fun… No worries, I’ve created a free printable just for you!

If you’re not familiar with Yahtzee or just haven’t played for a while, here’s a link to the rules.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PRINTABLE YAHTZEE SCORE CARD

All you need to do is print up a few of these score cards and you’re in business. If you have access to a laminator, you can laminate them and use dry erase markers and you don’t have to waste paper each time you play Yahtzee! This is what I always do with my Yardzee score sheets.

Yard Yahtzee is simple… You play just as you would with small dice, you just do it with large dice now. Each person has 6 dice and they take turns rolling their dice and keeping score to see who wins. SUPER FUN!!!