My Family Peg People

Are you a goodwill shopper?  I am very occasionally and more than not I return out of the store empty handed.

Well, I was looking for something very specific (for the second time) one Saturday and let my eight year old play in the toy section.

When I came over to retrieve him, my heart stopped (probably) as I saw this Gorgeous Castle from Melissa and Doug.  I flipped it over to see a $15 price tag and snatched it up as quick as a lick!  Not only was it the castle, but it included furniture pieces. I was thrilled!

Now, mind you it was dirty and dusty to pieces.  But nothing a little elbow grease couldn't solve.

As I came home beaming to my husband about my new purchase I quickly added, "You wouldn't mind if I spray painted the whole thing white and repainted it all....right?"

He somehow convinced him that this would not be the best use of my time and that it was cute enough, as is.  

So we settled on the idea of me just painting some peg people.  That seemed to make everyone happy.  (And as I was finishing painting the peg people during nap time an hour before she was to open the present, believe me I was happy with this decision.)

So, as you know I've made peg people before.  I casually asked my daughter which kind of dolls would be funner for a castle, for example-- Kings and Queens, or like Princesses, or like dolls of the family?

She let me know dolls of the family would be quite fun.

Thus:

So, I painted our cute family.  And as I've explained to the family a few times, it's everyone's likeness, meaning, no, those aren't actual outfits we own.

The three kid peg people came from JoAnns.  

The two adults and the baby peg people came from Michaels.

These little people and castle really lend themselves to some really fun playing.

This has been such a great toy that has been played with almost every day, even the boys really like playing with it.

Who wouldn't want to play with a little peg version of yourself?

Mod Podge Photo Transfer Canvas + free printable

A couple of weeks ago I received a sweet, new product from Mod Podge.  I was so excited to try out their new Mod Podge Photo Transfer medium.

This is a really awesome way to transfer any image from computer paper on to any hard surface or fabric.  If you need an image transferred permanently, this is the way to go!

I decided I wanted to make something to go in my girls' room.  As you know I'm working on the room to add girly, pink elements for my daughters. As I was contemplating what design to add to my canvas I thought of making a print that said, "I am a child of God"-- but then I thought about it more and thought about the fact that I'm making this for my daughters and I thought of the theme, "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father who loves us and we love him."  I thought that would be more appropriate and dear for my sweet girls.

Excitedly I made this print, which you can print for yourself HERE. 

Because this medium does the exact reverse of your image I uploaded it into PicMonkey and flipped my image.

Here's how to make your own Mod Podge Photo Transfer Canvas.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

1. Print out of your image on plain computer paper from an Inkjet printer (Remember if your image has words to reverse the image.)

2. Mod Podge Photo Transfer Medium

3. Canvas 

4. Ribbon

STEP ONE:  Gather your materials.

 STEP TWO: Cut out your image to be the exact size of your canvas.

STEP THREE: Cover your entire image with the Photo Transfer Mod Podge.

STEP FOUR: Make sure the entire image is covered about 1/16" thick.  

It needs to be so thick, that you can't see your image.

STEP FIVE: Place the image on top of your canvas.  Smooth it down with your fingers.

STEP SIX: Leave it alone to dry for 24 hours.  Do not touch it.

STEP SEVEN: After 24 hours, it's time to reveal your image.  Take a washcloth or sponge and wet the top of the canvas.  Wipe away the paper and reveal your image underneath.  

Your photo has been transferred.

All done!  Everything's been transferred.  So fun and so easy.

I really loved how it turned out....but I felt like it needed a little more Omph.

So I grabbed some more mod podge (this time the regular gloss kind) and some matching ribbon.

 My last step was to mod podge a ribbon around the edges + front and mod podge everything together to seal it all up.

Now I'm really all done.  Love it!

Looks so lovely in my girls' room.

For More Inspiration on Plaid Products + Mod Podge please visit:

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Visit Paint Me Plaid

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This post was written as part of a campaign with The Blueprint Social. All opinions are my own.

Painting Christmas Ornaments

We continue a really neat tradition that my husband's family had growing up. Each year the children are given one special ornament that represents something new/fun/memorable from that year.

It really is a fun tradition.

But did I mention it's challenging, too?

There are easy years to find ornaments for: "learned to walk", "started school", "Baby's 1st Christmas"...etc.

But sometimes it can get a little tricky.

Last year we took a slight detour from the usual-- super significant ornaments and decided to let the kids pick out their own $1 ornaments from JoAnns that they could paint.

But sticking with tradition I rationalized it by explaining to my husband that they learned to develop their art talents this past year.

The kids, of course needed no convincing.  Any opportunity to paint is very grand indeed.

Here's our results.

But because I wanted these to be special ornaments that we would hang on the tree year after year I did supervise them a bit.

I explained to them the importance of making them look nice by not adding too many colors.  I told them to start with a plan first, and then paint.  They both did a fantastic job. My husband said his gift was letting me paint his.  I also painted the 1 year old's.

The last thing I did once everything was dried was to outline everything in Sharpie, that really made their art pop-- oh and of course I had to seal 'em up with some Mod Podge. 

Homemade Gifts: Magnetic Nativity Scene

Today's activity is this super cute & simple...

 

About three weeks ago I came across this adorable free printable Nativity via Design Dazzle.

As soon as I saw it I knew it would be really easy and fun to make for/with the kids.

Monday night we had Family Home Evening, which included a lesson on the birth of our Savior, followed by the activity of making this cute nativity.

I headed out to the Dollar Store earlier that day to buy my $1 magnetic cookie sheet-- but when I saw this cute round pizza sheet my plans all changed and I came home with the round one, instead.

Once home I printed out the two free papers on my own photo paper.  Since my board was now round I decided to do the Nativity Scene a little different and cut out the stable and stars.

Then I mod podged them down-- once that was dry I mod podged all over the whole sheet, so everything would stay put.

Next I cut all the cute people/animals out.

Once that was done I placed each person on the backside of magnet sheets.

I already had these on hand, so that was convenient.

For a little extra protection I then covered each piece with shipping tape, and carefully cut them out.

I wanted them to be sturdy and kid-proof.

Shipping tape is my quick answer to lamination. 

That was it!

Seriously a really awesome nativity that cost $1.  The kids love it.

How to make your own Pantry Play Food

This past week we celebrated my sweet girl's birthday.  As the time approached closer I had lots of thoughts about what I wanted to make her and what gifts we wanted to give this sweet thing for her birthday.

As I was brainstorming I knew mostly I wanted to get her play kitchen in order.  We were given these darling Pottery Barn play kitchen sets almost a year before she was even born.  All this time they've been hiding in storage, waiting for her to get old enough to play with them.  As her birthday approached we knew it was time to bust these out and fill them with fun things.

We ended up purchasing pots and pans and play food from Melissa & Doug, but I wanted to make a few more things for her pantry.

So I give you:

MATERIALS:

1. 4 foot wood cut into 6 equal pieces.  (I used a solid piece of aspen cut 8" x 4")

2. Paint

3. Mod Podge

4. Clear Spray Paint.

STEP ONE: Cut your wood.

For this project I first started at Hobby Lobby, then JoAnns looking for nice finished wood that I could paint.  I came home from both stores empty-handed.  Then I thought, "hmm, perhaps I better just get my own wood and sand it."  This thought process brought me to Menards (think Home Depot) where I bought a solid 4' block of Aspen wood.  Then I brought it around to the guys out back and asked them to cut it for me every 8 inches.  They obliged. 

STEP TWO: Sand the ends of the wood, thoroughly. 

I bought this nifty sand sponge.  I thought it worked pretty well, but by the end it was all used up.

  

STEP THREE: Draw out your designs.

Of course you can do whatever you want for your pantry items.  I wanted to do fun foods that my kids like.

STEP FOUR: Paint all sides of the wood, except the front (where the design will be).

STEP FIVE: Draw your design on the dried painted wood with a pencil.

STEP SIX: Paint your design.

STEP SEVEN: Once dry, outline everything with an extra fine-tip permanent marker.

  

STEP EIGHT: Once you've painted and outlined each block, cover with one coat of Mod Podge.

I have a little trouble with my mod podge projects because I purchased the gloss kind (not matte) and it makes all my projects want to stick to each other.  So once I was all done, and everything was dried I figured I'd better cover it with some clear spray paint.

STEP NINE: Spray each block with clear spray paint, let dry. 

All done!

I love the bright colors.

Everything looks so great in the Kitchen together.

The kids at play.

Stay Tuned Thursday where I'll be sharing how I made the apron she's wearing.