Advent Calendar

I love the commercialized idea of Advent calendars.  Gifts every day of December?  Yes, please!  I love shopping (such a girl) and I love picking out the perfect present for someone.  Even if all 25 presents are for Mr. F and he totally isn't going to get it. Most of them are books and fun craft activities.  I did sneak in a few days worth of candy too.  Mom and Dad need a little Advent love too right? I saw this adorable Calendar at Garnet Hill. Love that store.

Unfortunately, for many reasons, I'm not rich.  So I decided to make my own!  I was able to pick the colors, size, and presents (did I mention presents?!?) to put in them.  While these probably aren't quite as cute as the original Garnet Hill ones, they aren't too bad.

1. I picked out the felt and waited in line for 45 minutes while an extremely friendly (or not) old lady cut material as slowly as humanly possible.

2. I drew a few different stockings.  I wanted to have 5 of each stocking but after 4 stockings I realized there are only so many ways I can draw a sock. I did a little tracing and cut out 25 stockings.

3. The next step took a while.  At least two movies worth. I cut out a ton of tiny little details to attach to each stocking.  

4. I had no idea felt glue existed but it does and it saved A LOT of time. Instead of hand stitching 500 tiny details I glued them!  And it was only about one Friends rerun worth of work :) 

5. I did some actual sewing now.  I sewed the front and the back of the stocking together.  Tough work. 

6. Then I glued on tabs and sewed them to burlap ribbon.  Yeah, that stuff is pretty great too. 

I had some placement problems.  I had a little problem looking beyond all the cool presents I could put in these stockings if they were just a little bit bigger than the Garnet Hill Calendar and well...it's really long. With a little finagling I think I worked it out.  I can't wait to teach Mr. F how to rip open presents each morning and then how to share his presents with Mommy :)  

Huge Family Photo

 Let me start off by complaining.  This project is not as easy as Infarrantly Creative makes it look.  They said this project was going to cost $20 and was "super easy." Ha!  It was neither.
I did start off the way they told me to.  I drove 30 miles to Staples (note...every other office supply store does this too! Don't drive 30 miles, go to Office Max) to get an engineered print.  This was pretty cool.  I expected the picture to be pixelated but it wasn't.  It was stunningly huge though.  I ordered the 24x36 print for $4.99. Fat rolls zoomed in?  Of course, why not?
Then at a particularly enjoyable trip to Home Depot I bought a 4 ft x 4 ft piece of plywood.  It cost $18. Yes, I'm already over the promised $20 and I haven't even begun to mess up.  Next, they said to find a frame I liked and to project the shape and trace it.  Apparently, you need a classroom grade projector to actually be able to make this work.  When our projector fell short it gave me some cool advice on how to make my own.  I made my own following their instructions and again, failure.  After two hours of trying to make this work I (and my mother-in-law...aka partner in all things crafty) decided to draw our frame.  As you can see it took us 4 tries to get this right too.  Another hour in and we had it!  Thankfully, my father-in-law owns all things tool related and he cut and sanded the frame.  He made this look easy and it took him about 20 minutes. For me this would have been a total disaster and I would have ended up at Home Depot at least two more times.

I drove home with my new frame stabbing me in the side because I picked a rainy day to do this project across town.  Miraculously, I made it home without being impaled and decided for a fresh start. I painted the frame with some left over paint and was ready to easily apply the picture and be done.  Again, Ha! The paint went on easily and I got over confident.  First, this part is my fault, I used Mod Podge (what the hell is that stuff?  As far as I can tell, really expensive Elmer's Glue) to apply the picture to the frame.  Mistake. The picture immediately bubbled up.  I threw the paintbrush. The next day I went to Office Max and asked for an engineered print.  Yes, they can do them!  BUT, if you are going there be prepared for incompetent print services employees.  I had to tell the nice (or not) girl behind the counter how to print.  Seriously?  Isn't that her job?  Anyway, saved time and money.

This time I used spray adhesive.  Yes, much better except the husband decided it was going to dry clear so he sprayed it all over the board.  Doesn't dry clear.  He convinces me that it's savable we just need to use the Mod Podge and paint over the whole picture like the instructions explain.  Again, failure.  Mod Podge makes the paper bubble up immediately!  I still haven't figured out how or why people use that stuff.  I may have thrown the paint brush again.  Then I repainted the frame.

Third time. 

This time the husband went to Office Max and the same lovely employee tells him they can only print in color.  Apparently, they own the only printer in the world that doesn't print black and white!  So he finds another wonderful employee to help him.  Again, explaining exactly how to print something.  Third time was a charm.  Well a slightly imperfect charm but a charm none the less.We sprayed the back of the picture and used spray fixative for the top instead of Mod Podge.  The paper still bubbled but you have to be really close to see it.  We put the frame very high up. 

I'm pleased with the outcome but leery of "super easy" projects found on Pinterest. 

Water Painting

It was a beautiful day today so we took advantage and sat in the car most of the day.  I finished his birthday invitation last night and had them printed and addressed today.  With any luck, they'll actually go in the mail tomorrow.  Unfortunately, the printed did not do the job I was hoping for.  I need to find a new printer. Any ideas?
We did finally make it outside and did some water painting...kind of.  Mr. F wanted to drink the "paint" so it wasn't as educational as I had hoped but I think he had fun :) Plus I think we came away with only 7 mosquito bites!

Painted Rug

This is one of those Pinterest projects that may or may not be worth the money saved.
Let me state the obvious, painting chevrons is a meticulous pain in the ass.
A friend of mine asked me to help her make a painted rug.  Seriously, whose idea was it to purposefully put paint on a rug? Anyway, I did a little research and decided to try my own first.  Pretty much everything I read raved about how it doesn't really feel like paint. Wrong. Maybe I need to wash mine first but it definitely feels and looks like paint.  However, if you still want a painted rug these are the steps I took...

I started with this awesomely cheap rug from Ikea, aka DIY Headquarters.  It already had a chevron pattern sewn in so that literally cut the work in half. If you have a blank rug making chevrons goes from being a pain in the ass to masochism.

Luckily, my head didn't explode during this tape job. The husband lovingly played with Mr. F while I had choice words with my tape.  Now for the first layer of paint.  I'm starting to add some red into my otherwise grey existence and this if officially my first "piece."

I will say that for the first time ever my tape job worked!

Instead of taping...again! I just pulled the tape off and free handed the grey paint.  It took longer but I really think my mental health was preserved. 

Any finally....

 What do you think?