Monday, November 10, 2014

Lego / Train Table

So this year my son has been really into three things, Play Doh, Lego's, and trains (and now Shopkins, but that is going to be a whole other bag of cats, and another post). We pretty much had it planned that Christmas was going to center around those three things.

This year I finally got my permanent residence status, which meant I could now travel! Yipee!! I finally was able to visit my family back in Canada without fear of not being allowed back into the US. We got to have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with my family, we have Thanksgiving in October. While talking to my Aunt, she told me about a table my father had made for my cousin when he had been into Thomas the train. It was a table that was meant to roll under his bed when he wasn't using it. Well since we are in such a limited space for strictly our things this got my brain a turning on how I could a) make one for my son and b) how could I make it without the wealth of tools my dad had at his disposal (can we say table saw anyone! oh how I miss those machines).

Lucky for me my dad sent me home with a bunch of tool that I had been missing and I also had three days in the car to think and plan in my head.

I ended up getting a board from Lowes that was the exact size I wanted (but most stores will cut the board down for you if you need them too).  I knew I would need to do edging so when he is playing with trains and cars they won't roll off the table (avoiding frustrations are key in our house at the moment). But I also wanted to add something else to this table idea ... Lego capabilities. Yes I know he could have just used the Lego's on the table and that would have been fine, but my husband is ... a bit of a Lego snob so I wanted to give them a good foundation for playing. So that brought me to the idea of adding a Lego lid.

Lego / Train Table

So here are the materials I used (going to try really hard to remember everything)

1 board for the "table"
2 pieces of edging (or if your like me and get ticked off and try to do the cutting alone, 4 pieces, I swear I ended up having to re-cut them all ... anger and saws = not good)
1 pegboard sheet (have them cut it at the store to the size of your table board
1 tube of Liquid Nail (I love this stuff!) & a caulking gun if you get the big one like we did
4 wheels (make sure to measure what you want it to fit under (wheels + boards))
2 packs of screws to attach the wheels (if the wheels don't come with them)
1 roll of cork
Paint (I used two shades of green, blue, brown, black, white, and made grey)
Lego base plates
1 pack of Velcro (I used the stick down kind.
Paint brushes
Some type of sealer
Sandpaper
Drill
Screwdriver
Pencil
Scissors
X-Acto knife
Yard stick or ruler
Miter saw & box
Painters tape
Hot glue gun + sticks
and ... the kitchen sink! Wow, I didn't realize I had used so much ...

Anyways, here is, please excuse the reflection on the table, we are trying out new light bulbs and dang, those things are BRIGHT!




So that is the finished product. But this time I actually remembered to take pictures as I went, yay me!

Step One:

After buying my table, I decided which side was the prettiest, meaning the one side that didn't have the huge hole from a knot in it. I roughly drew out the simple image I wanted to have on it. I knew I needed to keep it a certain way for my sons sensibilities, too much would overwhelm him. But you could definitely go as fancy pants on this as you wanted. I just knew I needed to make it so the "road" stayed on the board and that the "parking spaces" will actually fit his cars.


Next I started painting it, I made sure I did the lighter colors first (I was very lucky the wood was great and the paint I chose covered in one coat with a few little touch ups (and those were because I painted it during nap time so I had no light to tell me I hadn't done a good job covering a section)). So I did the water, so I could use the grass to sharpen the waters edge, then I mixed my gray and used it to make the pavement and sharpen the edges of the grass. Then the boat, dock, sign, lines, trees and words.



Step 2:

The frame! I decided on a very simple frame, and after talking about it my husband and I decided not to paint it, we both like the natural look.
So what you need to do, is cut the frame pieces. I found after screwing four pieces up (which I didn't know I had until the next day when I went to put it together for the first time) that if you cut ONE piece and temporarily tape it down in its spot and then cut the joining edge it makes it sooooo much easier to get it right the first time. After cutting that piece, tape it down and continue all the way around the board. YAY! finally, lucky for me the edging pieces had been on sale for more than 50% off, and I'm already looking at the messed up pieces for a future project. * I also numbered each piece and side of the table, just as a safety in case I had to take the pieces all off at once. *

This is where I used the Liquid Nails, I used it to make my bathroom mirror and found it worked really well so decided to give it another try.

  

I found that it worked best if I ran the bead of Liquid Nail more on the side that would be against the side of the table than on the top it. This way less of it oozed back out onto the top. Figured this out about two pieces into the four ... at least I learned something as I went. Each time I would get a piece beaded I would gently put it back on the table, making sure to rock it back and forth so if glue was going to come out it would come out at the bottom. Once I was happy with its placement I would tape it in place. I tried to have several pieces of tape ready so this whole process would be fast. Thankfully I had my wonderful husband helping me!


Notice my little piece of scrap? That thing was a lifesaver, it worked perfectly for scrapping off any oozing glue, so try to keep a piece + some paper towel for wiping it off after each scrap.



Step 3:

The Lego top. This was the easiest part of all, just not the cheapest. Turns out those base plates be expensive. Make sure you price check. Amazon I found was the cheapest, but Toys R Us will match any price on there as long as it says ships and sold from Amazon.com. So I got the $24.99 each base plates for $14.99. My mistake ... I miscalculated how many I was going to need, so I have two pieces left over (but I'm going to make a mini Lego only version of this for under the sofa downstairs).

I used peg board for the base of this part because it is a heck of a lot lighter than the other options!

This table took, four. Two full and two that I cut. I just used my husbands work knife and a yard stick to brace the edge of the knife against. Just use a decent amount of pressure as you are cutting (and be very careful not to cut yourself) and you should be able to bend it and it should pop apart.


See, when I cut the length side pieces, I took the "scrapes and turned them to make the end pieces.
Just make sure you line up the dots at the seems very well. The next picture is just showing that they all fit, not glued down yet.

  

I used Liquid Nail (LN from now on) again to glue this down. I first tried to just put the LN on the board and put the plates on top ... that caused it to ooze up between the cracks. And it is a great big pain in the butt to get that stuff off from those dots. So I switched to putting it on the back of the base plates and then after I had them pushed down well I would GENTLY pull up any edges that weren't down well and carefully add some more. I left this (and the edging on the table) dry for two days. When I went back if any pieces were still a bit loose I just gently lifted and added some more.

Step 4:

Wheelies!!! Lets get one thing straight right away. Wheels are beeping expensive! Good thing this kid is so dang cute.


Like my pink screwdriver? Hehe, I even have a pink tape measure, both from my parents when I first moved down here and dang they are still awesome.


The wheels were very easy to put on. Just mark your holes first. Pre-drill your holes, I used my mother-in-laws push drill. Than work the screws in, but try to get all four screws in before you tighten them all just in case the screws have a mind of their own.

Step 5:

I decided to put cork board under the Lego top because I didn't want him to be pushing on the center and have it bowing, even just a little because if you are building a city of world domination ... never mind he would so build a playboy bunny house, the big flirt, you don't want it pop off because the ground wasn't steady.

I cut the cork board to fit INSIDE the frame. Be careful when working with the cork board, it breaks easily. I just used my old crafting scissors to cut it after roughly scoring where it "should" be cut.



Next I used a hot glue gun to glue it down ... according to the packaging you are suppose to use "appropriate adhesive" ... yeah I didn't have any of those things, so I made what I had work, and it did! Just a bead all the way around and I just made sure to do the bead in small sections so I got a good adhesion.

Step 6:

Velcro, that awesomely magical stuff, that makes anything possible! I cut each side to the size of the space available on the Lego lid corners, and placed the matching one on the frame of the table.







And that's it! Not exactly a simple project but I love the way it turned out!!! And I know my son is going to love it and have a blast with it. Please excuse if there are any spelling mistakes. I have a husband and son who are anxiously awaiting the use of the precious box that allows youtube videos to magically appear.

Well I hope this inspires someone! Despite some of my issues making it, it was fun to make.

Oh and I also wrote a little note on the bottom of the table for my son, and dated it. So maybe one day he will look back at it and see how much hard work and love we put into things for him.

Cheers!


Sunday, October 26, 2014

Where We Met Silhouette Picture

I found picture of a project I did last year as a present for my husband. Since we first got together I have made a point to make at least one of his presents myself every year. This one now hangs in our bedroom.

Last year one of them was a silhouette of the place we met. Don't recongize the place? Don't feel bad, lol, we met in an on line video game, World of Warcraft. It was so romantic, I was a healer and my group was looking for a tank, we found him, and the rest is history.

Materials Needed:

Picture frame (I scaled mine for a 8x10) $11.99 at Hobby Lobby, then 40% off!
Scrap booking paper, mine took three sheets/colors (I chose thick sparkly sheets, sparkle = good)
X-acto Knife (needs to be very sharp)
Something to cut on, I used my fabric cutting board
Tape
Scissors for trimming
Ruler for measuring and making sure you get straight lines
The image of where you met (might want to have a couple identical copies, that's the one thing I wish I had done, I ended up having to be very careful and tape it back up before I went on to the next part).



This was the finished product. See, three colors.

This is the image I worked off of. This was the instance in the game that were met in. 8 years ago, lol and we still play that game till this day.


I cut the frame of the image, man, castle and the front tree out of black. The furthest trees and moon out of light purple, and used a dark purple sheet as the background, and that one didn't need to be cut at all.

All I did was lay the image on top of the piece I was cutting and tape it in a few spots around to the back of the image so the two were stuck together but I could still move the image as I was working. This took a lot of hunching over nose to image to complete.

So just pick which layers you want which colors and slowly and CAREFULLY (those knives be sharp) cut out the image. As long as your knife is sharp and you are willing to put the time into it you can do as detailed of an outline as you want. I did find it took some hit and miss testing to find the exact right pressure needed to cut through the thick (and yes very sparkly scrap booking paper I had chosen). And be prepared for sore finger tips and indents that might last a few hours.

Once you are done, just stack the image and put it into your frame. Easy right!

One thing I did do afterwards was write a little note to my husband and glued it on the back of the frame, it's never a bad thing to put it into words how much you love and appreciate the people in your life!

Over all the project cost less than $10.00 but the look on my husbands face when he opened this present was priceless. Something that comes from the heart is always best.



Toddler Advent Calendar

Ok, so this isn't exactly a Christmas present but it's still part of my Christmas craft preparation.

My son goes through phases of what he likes to watch on t.v. I'm very much a person that can't sit in silence, I like having background noise going while we are playing or doing projects. And since he gets to pick what we watch I become very familiar with certain shows / movies.

Well for about a month straight we were watching A Very Monkey Christmas (Curious George). This led to two things being decided. One, we are going to pick out a real tree this year, because that's what George and the man in the yellow hat did. And two, he needed a countdown chart, because George got one. Last year we bought our son his own smaller tree to put his little ornaments on (he left the big one alone because he had his own, yay for last minute 'pick this up on your way home'). So I figured, hey we should get him an advent calendar with ornaments so he cause decorate his tree! It can't be that hard ...

Well I did my normal research on Amazon and the like. Decided I didn't like the look, functionality or price of any of the ones on there. Plus I knew it had to be 3 year old proof. Then I turned to Pinterest and started doing research there.

After some thinking and planning and multiple "inspiration" pins, I came up with this.


Little man checking out the finished backdrop.

And here are the ornaments I made.



I tried to choose things that he likes, as well as one to represent Mommy and one for Daddy. Plus one thing I decided to do was only make 24 and buy the last one. That cost more then the whole project! The reasoning for that ... we are a family addicted to Christmas ornaments ... there I admit it. My thought process is, once he is on his own *sob* (kids grow up too fast) he will have a nice collection already started. So he will get a new one every year. Just like I pick out ... 'one' every year for myself and my husband gets one also. This year is a Curious George one.

So left to right and down there's: red mitt, snow man, Christmas tree, blue snowflake, gingerbread house, monkey (for my little monkey), blue present, snow globe, reindeer, Totoro (From my neighbor Totoro), penguin, Christmas light, Santa's boot, Owl (for me), heart, star, acorn (to go with Totoro), Santa hat, cat, candy cane, bird, turtle (for Daddy), Mickey, guitar. And the bought one.

I pretty much just had to buy:

Felt sheets (I would recommend looking before buying. Hobby Lobby was 4 for $1.00 and Joann's ended up being about 3 for $1.00)
One bag of batting
Enough felt for doing the back drop, pockets and numbers.
Sequins (I found one multi-colored baggie was more than enough)
Clear beads for anchoring the sequins on for the detailing
Cross stitching / embroidery thread, you could use regular thread I assume but I liked the actual sewn look I got using two strands of the embroidery thread.
Craft glue that will adhere to felt
Ribbon or twine for hanging the ornaments.
Marker for doing rough outlines before cutting out your shapes
And any little decorations you want for jazzing up the backdrop
A dowel to hang it up
Oh and duh, scissors!

And most importantly, patience. This took me about two weeks of naps to get of the ornaments done and two days to get the back drop done. I cut out all of the numbers and letters, you can buy pre-cut ones but I wanted to do as much as possible myself.

Most things I already had, what I didn't I used coupons for.

Most ornaments where just two identical shapes cut out, one side got sequins (to reflect the Christmas tree lights!). Sewn 3/4 of the way around, filled a little bit with batting and then sewn up with the hanger sticking out ... and yes some of my ornaments will be hanging a bit sideways because I would get distracted talking to my husband and forget to put the hanger where I had planned for it to be.

Sorry for the lack of detailed pictures. I hadn't thought of posting this until I saw the reaction it got from the whole family.

Thanks for dropping by!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Wall Hanging Earring Holder

I started this blog / craft site a few months ago, and don'tcha know that's the exact moment that life got REALLY hectic. I've tried to take pictures of all of my gift projects as I have gone so I can post them when I finally get a chance.
Anyone with children can understand this. Children take a lot of time. As they should. It is our job as parents to spend that time with them and on them. But *little happy dance* the master is asleep ... for now ... LOL. Yes, in this house we know who rules the roost.

One of the first projects I worked on back in March / April for Christmas was a gift for my mother-in-law. She is an awesome lady that I am very lucky to have in my life. And as with everyone else that I can consider "my people" (you know the ones that you are most protective / attached to? I love everyone in my family but my main focus is on my household family, and my parents back in Canada.) I listen closely when they mention wants and needs and store it away in my over crowded brain to pull out another day.

One thing that my mother-in-law has been in need of for while (she started really complaining about her need for something right after Christmas last year! If she had started two weeks earlier I may not have had a chance to do this project.) was some way to store her earrings, the dangily ones.

Well like the good little amazon shopper I am I went on a search. I tried every way I could like of to word the search, moved on to the expensive stores and google and I couldn't find something that I thought she would love. Well one of my other little addictions is Pinterest. After snooping for awhile I took a few different ideas I had found, combined them in my head, and headed to the craft store.

Please excuse the quality of the pictures. I was using my old phones camera.

Wall Hanging Earring Holder



Materials I used: Everything was from Hobby Lobby and I used 40% off coupons, and had my husband go though and pay for another part of it using his own coupon. Coupons = awesomesauce.

Cross stitching hoop (just a plain wooden one)
Lace (I got enough cut so that I would have some left over for another project.)
A hair clip with a purple flower on it (back with the ribbons in the fabric section)
Paint (I splurged and got some fancy dancy Martha Stewart metallic purple paint for this)
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Scissors

I choose to paint my frame unlike some samples I saw because I wanted something that looked pulled together and also to cover any imperfections on the cross stitching hoop.

Step One: Paint the hoop while it is apart so you can get some paint in the crack where the two pieces come together so you don't have wood showing through.

Step Two: Lay the outer half of the hoop down on a surface that is clean and won't have anything that will snag the lace.

Step Three: Lay the lace on top of the frame with the pattern how you want it. (I wanted the roses to look like they were going up.

Step Four: Place the inner hoop inside the outer hoop and tighten slightly. As you are tightening, gently pull the lace back toward you so it pulls taunt on the front of the frame. But be careful not to pull too hard, you don't want to rip it. Once you are happy with the tightness of the lace tighten the frame the rest of the way. Cut away the excess lace.

Step Five: (Optional) I decided to run a bit of hot glue all around the back of the frame where the lace was showing to A) secure the lace so it would snag and it would stay in place and B) so when the frame is on the wall the wood wouldn't be rubbing on the paint of the wall). Careful this part can get pretty hot, I burnt my fingers multiple times ... but that could be because I wanted my hot glue beading to be more flat and I messed with it.

Step Six: Place bow, flower, whatever decoration you liked on the front of the frame where the tightening screw is (That tightening screw is what you are going to use to hang it on the wall on a nail!) and hot glue that flower to the FRAME, not the screw.

And viola! All done. Really simple and I think she will love it. Choose colors that she would love and a style that will match her perfectly.

Here are a couple of pictures that I took, not much, this was before I realized I should take pictures of each step.



Saturday, May 24, 2014

Greetings! I don't know if anything will ever come out of creating this but I wanted to try to track what I make this year and what not. So here's how my "Operation thoughtful giving" came about ...

I'm a geek, I fully admit it. Aside from Doctor Who and other geekiness that I love, my husband and I love Harry Potter. Every few months we do a Harry Potter marathon over a week. And EVERY SINGLE DANG time we watch the first one (where Dudley is getting his presents) I turn to my husband and tell him that I don't want our son to end up like that.
Of course it seems each Christmas / birthday we end up with an insane amount of presents.

This was the Christmas before last, and not showing the stockings! Now I admit we live in an extended family household. At the time this was taken it was my husband, son and I with both of his parents and his great grandmother. So it's expected that there will be quite a bit. But it still shocked the heck out of me.
This year we (meaning me) tried really hard to reign in on the presents. I even tried for the third year in a row to enforce the "one handmade gift" from everyone rule, yeah that worked out real well. But once again it was an insane amount.
I love my family dearly and know we are all very blessed but dangit, I'm tired of it being about presents.
Now this whole blog is about presents but this year I'm going for, if not 100% at least 90%, homemade Christmas. I started back in April, it is now the end of May and I have almost all of my Mother-in-laws presents finished. And a few started for my husband and son. I know I am going to end up buying things for my son, but I'm striving for a small amount and things that go with the stuff I have made (like the Lego tray I made last week).
So this year if we have a huge amount once again like the Christmas of 2012 I hope I will have worked my butt off enough that it will be stuff I made with love, care, patience, and thinking. Instead of randomly pulling out the credit cards. And anyone who has crafted knows, just cause you made it doesn't necessarily make it any cheaper (unless you love your coupons and wait for sales *drool* coupons).
So what does this long ramble mean ...
I WILL NOT RAISE A DUDLEY!