PVC Sunburst Mirror {Tutorial}

I have to admit it...this project was completely created by my Handy Hubby! I showed him my original inspiration back in April, and it only took four months to finally cross it off of our neverending to-do list!

He started by cutting two 8-foot lengths of PVC pipe into 1" thick slices. You could probably do this by hand with PVC snippers or a hand saw, but since we wanted the edges to be as smooth as possible he used his chop saw (which also ensured that the pieces were an even thickness). Trust me when I say that you're going to want to do this part outside...it looked like a gigantic pile of static-charged snow outside of our garage when he was finished! The pipe and saw also get hot during the process, so you'll need to take several short breaks to let the equipment cool off.

Now for the fun part - arranging and choosing your layout! This is the part that made our project take way longer than necessary. Like months longer. We are the most indecisive people ever, remember? Apparently we're awesome at making projects take weeks longer than necessary!

We must have gone through about a dozen different layouts before I finally said, "Glue the thing together already! Just do what the inspiration looked like!" Only it wasn't that simple, because our mirror was much larger than the inspiration, and we wanted our finished piece to be large enough to make a statement over our mantle. So, I threw my hands up and turned the project completely over to my husband, and this is what he came up with! It may look a little skewed because I was trying to take photos of it without the ceiling fan or HVAC registers showing up in the reflection, but it's perfectly laid out in real life.

He glued all of the pieces together with PVC glue (he also created a hidden inner ring to give more support to the mirror), and I gave the entire piece a couple of light coats of white spray paint to even it out and cover the text and markings on the pipe. To finish it off he used Amazing Goop adhesive to attach a 12" beveled mirror that we picked up at the craft store.

I {LOVE} it! Our finished piece is about 30" wide, and it was super easy to create. Seriously, you could get this done start-to-finish in about a day...as long as you don't have a problem making up your mind! There really are SO many different layout and color options that make this such a fun and customizable piece of artwork!

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Welcome Vistaprint!

Hope y'all had a fantastic weekend! I just dropped my oldest son off at his first day of kindergarten (he did great!) and dropped my middle son off at preschool (he really didn't want to go back without his big brother!), so now it's time to address my HUGE backlog of blogging business while I have a few rare minutes of quiet time. I have so many fun ideas that I can't wait to share with you all!

First, I'd like to wish a big welcome to our newest sponsor, Vistaprint! If you've ever ordered business cards before then you're probably already familiar with Vistaprint. They have a gigantic selction of designs and frequently offer specials and deals (including free business cards!). Right now Vistaprint is running a special for $1.99 photo mugs, which sounds like a holiday-gift-in-the-making to me! Go check it out!

Secondly, as you can clearly see, I've finally decided to open the blog to sponsors! If you're interested in sponsoring Mom's Crafty Space, please send me an email at momscraftyspace@yahoo.com for rates and information. Sponsors will have the option of sidebar buttons or sponsoring individual posts, so drop me a note! :)

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{Print Candee} Forest Friends Candle Covers

Check out my Autumn forest inspired mantle decor over at Print Candee today!

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Quickie: T-Shirt Refashion

How do you turn a $2 craft store t-shirt into your little one's most prized possession? Just grab some of Daddy's old shirts and a pair of scissors and you're halfway there!

We cut the graphics panels out of some of Handy Hubby's old beat-up work shirts, pinned them in place on the boys' shirts and ran a quick zig-zag stitch around the edges. Easy peasy!

Showing off his new missing tooth - that's FOUR now!

The boys {LOVE} their new shirts - the little guy refused to take his off and wore it for nearly two days straight until I had to wrestle it off of him to get him in the bathtub! I love that we repurposed some of the torn shirts that were headed for the trash bin, and I even made a little something for myself with the remaining scraps of the shirts (headbands that I hope to post soon!).

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Melted Crayon Art {Tutorial}

Sawyer and I have been seeing a ton of cool melted crayon art on Pinterest lately, and we knew that we were going to have to try to recreate it ourselves. With crayons costing around 20 cents a box at the back-to-school sales, now is the perfect time to make some new creative artwork!

We found an old canvas in the art closet and hot glued on our crayons down in rainbow order. Sawyer originally wanted to use only blues, green and yellow, but finally decided on the entire rainbow since we were going to be hanging it up against his teal bedroom wall (and like most of the Pinterest inspirations). We used a 12"x18" canvas and two 24-count boxes of crayons (with one extra green and yellow thrown in from our old crayons to fill the gaps).

Hand your blowdryer to your helper and let them have fun melting the crayons. You need to keep the air blowing straight directly on to the crayons or pointing downward - any sideways shift of the hot air will cause the wax to splatter sideways halfway across the canvas instead of dripping straight down. We used the hottest setting, and it still took awhile to get the dripping process started. You can also melt your crayons quickly with a heat gun, but since heat guns can get upwards of 1200 degrees you probably don't want to hand that over to your five-year-old ;)

We chose to let our drips cool a little bit and to work in layers to build up some texture.

After about 3 different layers of melted crayon.

Sawyer called it good at this point, telling me that we couldn't do any more because "it's just perfect right now!"

The texture is super cool!

Go choose a spot to hang up your gorgeous (and totally quick and easy to create!) materpiece!

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Tile Photo Coaster Tutorial

These adorable personalized photo tile coasters take only minutes to make and the customization options are truly endless! 



I know one lucky great-grandma who is going to love seeing all these smiling little faces along with her morning coffee!  I chose to use black and white photos just because I wanted them to have a bit more contrast with the gorgeous Violet Garden patterned papers, but color photos would look nice as well.

Along with the Violet Garden Paper Pack, I used Print Candee's Assorted Labels (as frames) to create a 4.25” layout in Photoshop where I also layered in the children’s’ photos. Print your designs on to cardstock, cut and trim to fit your tiles. I used the most basic plain white tile that I could find at my local big box hardware store, and it was actually 4.25” though it was labeled as 4” tile.

Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to your tile and glue down your designs, being careful to smooth out any air bubbles. Allow to dry for at least 30 minutes and then top with 3 additional coats of Mod Podge (again allowing at least 30 minutes of drying time between coats). Finish up with a coat or two of acrylic spray sealer, and glue a thin layer of cork or felt to the back of each tile to protect your table surfaces.


Now go run out to the hardware store for some $.16 tiles, choose your favorite  papers and clip art, and start checking names off of your holiday gift list!

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Cowboy Puzzle Blocks

My youngest son’s 1^st birthday is coming up in a few weeks, and I’ve been busy creating all kinds of fabulous party decorations using Print Candee’s Little Cowboy line of clip art and papers. I started out with the intent of making just one quick batch of cupcake toppers, but before I knew it I had made a full series of party decorations – banners, garland, table signs, centerpiece decor and more! The graphics were simply too adorable not to include more of them in our celebration!

While I was in the midst of my new Little Cowboy obsession, I decided to take my crafting one step further into something that could be used well after his birthday party is over. All three of my boys love building things, so making them a set of puzzle blocks was kind of a no-brainer for me. It was so easy, and the results are fantastic – my boys can’t seem to put them down, and I love that it challenges their minds as well as their stacking skills!

  

To begin I used graphic design software (Photoshop) to create a file that combined both the background paper and the clip art in one layer which allowed my designs to be printed on one sheet of cardstock. If you don’t have access to design software you can just as easily print the background paper and the clip art on separate sheets and combine them in a later step. No worries!

I used background papers from the Little Cowboy Paper Pack and the Spring Visions Paper Pack. The adorable cowboy clip art was from the Little Cowboy set as well as the Red and Blue Little Cowboy set.

I had four 2″ square wooden blocks, so I needed to create six 4″ squares to cover all six sides of the blocks (adding just a fraction of an inch of extra background paper for a bit of working room). Once you have all of your 4″ squares printed, cut them out from the larger sheet of paper, and then cut each square into four equal 2″x2″ pieces.

Brush a light coat of Mod Podge on to the top of your block (alternately you can put the Mod Podge on the back of the paper, but I found that I had better control of the placement when I put the Mod Podge directly on to the block), and firmly place your paper puzzle piece on top. Be sure you smooth out any air bubbles!

Continue until you have adhered all four pieces and allow them to dry for about 30 minutes. If you had to print your clip art and background paper separately wait until the first layer is completely dry before you Mod Podge the next clip art layer.

Once the paper is dry, trim away any excess with a sharp craft knife.

 Easy peasy and cute to boot! Now finish up your other five sides and pass them off to eager little hands!

 

I also highly recommend sealing these blocks with a top coat of Mod Podge or varnish to increase their longevity. These promise to bring lots of fun for a very long time!

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Chevron Canvas & Printable {Tutorial}

A couple of weeks ago one of my Bloggy BFF's, Mel @ The Crafty Scientist, posted a super cute {free} printable. She put hers inside of a frame that she painted with a yellow and white chevron pattern, and I absolutely loved it so much that I decided to recreate it...on a slightly larger scale ;)

(P.S. Like our new wall color? This wall is the darker accent wall to make the fireplace and crown moulding really POP!)

I had an 18"x24" canvas that my boys had painted a few summers ago, long neglected and sitting around in my closet waiting to be repurposed (trust me, it was not one of their finer pieces of work lol), and I figured it would be perfect for recreating Mel's look.

The first thing I did was give it a coat of primer to cover the old artwork, and then I painted the base a soft white. There are some great chevron pattern templates available here, but since I'm a perfectionist and uber picky I took the time to layout my design in Adobe Illustrator first because I wanted to know exactly what size to make my chevrons so that it would fill my canvas perfectly. Once I had my canvas designed, I printed out a section to serve as a template and used the template as a guide to tape off my pattern. 

See, a perfect fit!

Paint your accent color (mine was yellow too, naturally, since it's my favorite color!) and after letting the paint set for a few minutes (but before it's completely dry), peel off the tape. You might need to touch up the edges a bit, but the painters tape is pretty good about making straight lines.

I printed the quote, inked the edges a bit to make them stand out, and then Mod Podged it on to the canvas. Then this project got incredibly difficult for me...because I'm sooooo indecisive! I played around with a zillion different combinations of fabric, ribbon, paper and ric rac to make the banner. I started with fabric because I wanted it to have a 3-D aspect to it, but in the end I just didn't love any of the fabric combos, and I was afraid I'd end up with dozens of  tiny triangles from every single fabric I own. So I walked away for a few days and decided to try again with scrapbook paper in a more specific Summery/sherbert color palette.

With lots of opinions and input from the hubby, we finally decided on the colors and patterns. He liked the idea of using five flags instead of four so that we could add an extra color, but in the end I wish we had only used four since they're a bit too elongated for my liking. Oh well! I guess that when you stare at something for too long and have too many options you're probably never going to be completely satisfied with the end result! I Mod Podged the papers on, and then gave the entire canvas a coat of glossy Mod Podge to seal it. A piece of ric rac trim hot glued to the canvas completes the banner.

It's hard to see, but the paper flags and the quote both have some iridescent glitter and rhinestone bling to give it some sparkle! Now we just need to finish painting our living room so that it can get hung up in it's proper place (all that stuff on the mantle is just stuff I threw up there to keep away from little hands lol). Thanks so much for the creative inspiration Mel! ♥

If you don't want to spend a lot of time planning out, taping off and painting your canvas by hand, you can use your favorite design program and digital scrapbook papers to quickly create this layout and have it printed on canvas at Online Poster Printing. They offer great quality and affordable canvas prints that are sure to brighten up your home decor - go check them out!

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Craft Fail: Rainbow Popsicles

Source: ohdeedoh

Yum! Don't those look pretty? I've been seeing all sorts of fun popsicle recipes and ideas on Pinterest, so I decided to try to make some rainbow popsicles for the boys.

What's wrong with this picture?  

Don't those crooked sticks look awesome?!? I started freezing my red, orange and yellow layers, and got all the way to green before I realized my error. With these popsicle molds there's no way to add additional liquid once you put the stick in (not to mention the fact that the stick was so long that it should have gone in around the orange layer)! So I scrambled around looking for regular popsicle sticks , but all we had left were the colored kind that bleeds and stains your hands. Eeeek! Oh well! I added the green layer, tossed in the crooked sticks, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Of course, the kids liked them anyway - they are still popsicles after all! But they weren't nearly as pretty or rainbow-tastic as the original inspiration. Apparently I need to revisit this idea after I pick up some regular popsicle sticks and Dixie cups ;)

Stunning work! LOL!

This is what I really need:

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