ABC Animal Alphabet Room Border + 2 Giveaway Winners!

About 6 or 7 years ago I made a really fun ABC animal alphabet room border for my son's room that I wanted to share with you!

I also have two random winners for the Wonderful brand prize pack and the $25 Target gift card!  Winners are announced at the bottom of the post- thanks to everyone who entered and followed!  I seriously wish I could give everyone a prize.

Also, be sure to enter the $200 Home Depot gift card giveway that is going on right now!  You can enter at the bottom of the post... now onto my project!

I was teaching elementary school when I made these, and I wanted the room to have an animal/ABC learning theme to it, so I thought up these animal cards to place along the top of the wall in the room, right up to the ceiling.

Here's a closer look at each of the alphabet cards that I made... 

I thought I'd share with you how I made my border in case you would like to make one too!

Supplies:

• 26  8 1/2 x 11" pieces of white, cream, and/or beige card stock (one for each letter)
• Die cuts of each letter of the alphabet
• Card stock in various colors (for the animals)
• Black Sharpie
• Scissors
• Thin wood molding strips

Directions:

1.  Glue one die cut letter to each piece of card stock, making sure to glue in the same spot of the paper for consistency.

2.  Choose which animal you would like to go with each letter of the alphabet, and then got to googling!  I googled different pictures of each animal, and then used those pictures as a guide to draw each animal free hand with a pencil onto pieces of colored card stock.  I tried to use colored card stock for each piece of the animal.  Cut out an glue down with a glue stick each animal part.  If you need to add more details, you can use a black Sharpie to add them in.  I tried to use minimal marker.

3.  Laminate each card to make them stronger and more durable.  Hang up strips of molding along the wall where the wall meets the ceiling.  Measure, then hang a second row of molding along the bottom of the card stock, so that each piece of card stock will fit just inside the two pieces of molding.  The molding is all I used to hold up the ABC animal cards, and they've held up for years!

I love that every day before nap time and every night before bed I get to hold my sweet little boy while he points to the animals on his wall and tells me their names and the sounds that they make, just like his older brother did when he was little.

I love that my kids love their animals on the wall.

And I love the fact that I took the time to create a little something that can help them learn their animal sounds, then animal names, and then eventually each of the letters and the sounds that they make. 

Can you tell I'm a former elementary school teacher? ;)

Hope you enjoyed this little peek into my boys' room!  For another peek, you can check out their organized closet redo that we completed a few weeks ago.

Here's a tutorial for some adorable and easy framed art that I made for the room as well!

Maybe you have too much of your kids' art, and aren't sure what to do with it all and how to store it? ;) Here's my easy system to keep your kids' art and school papers organized.  It has seriously changed my life!

Be sure to enter to win a $200 Home Depot Gift Card that myself and 8 other bloggers are giving away courtesy of Coupons.com!  Enter below...

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And here are the WINNERS of the two recent giveaways.......

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Congratulations winners!  Both winners have been contacted and will receive their prize soon!

xo, Laura

Fourth of July Decoration + Free America Printable

I recently fell head over heels in love with this cute little masking sticker set over at Whole Port (a craft supplies website).  As I was looking at all of the different colors and patterns, the red and white striped tape and the navy blue with white polka dot tape jumped out at me, as they reminded me of the American flag.  It was at that moment that this easy Fourth of July project was born :)

Part sticker and part print, this American flag decoration was so quick and easy and painless, and takes very minimal supplies.  Oh, and I included a free printable for you as well, so it will be super speed quick for you to duplicate!  It's sized to fit onto an 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper, so you could put it in an 8 x 10" frame, or even a 5 x 7" frame.

Supplies:

• Masking sticker set (or red and blue washi tape)
• Scissors
• Free printable "Happy Birthday America"
• Sheet of white card stock (to print on)

1.  Print free printable onto a sheet of white card stock.

2.  The cool thing about the masking stickers set is that they come already in strips, so thinner, some wider, and even a few circles.  Peel off a thin strip of the red with white stripes sticker.  Place just above the words "Happy Birthday America," nice and centered and straight.  Repeat with another thin strip of the red and white tape, leaving a small gap in between each piece of tape.

3.  Peel off a thick blue strip, and cut to desired length to mimic the blue section of the American flag with the white stars.  Align the blue tape with the left side of the red stripes, and stick it down.  Cut one of the thicker red and white pieces of tape in half horizontally, and measure how long they need to be to  be even with the other red stripes.  Cut and stick.

Voila.  Almost instant Fourth of July decor!  Now stick in an 8x10" frame and you're done. Told you it was easy!

And can we pause for a second and look at that amazing bicentennial Mason jar?  It's kind of hard to see, but it says 1776 up at the top, then has the liberty bell, and then 1976 at the bottom.  When my parents moved a few years ago they asked if I wanted it. YES!  I am a bicentennial baby (don't do the math), so this mason jar is pretty cool.  

For another fun 4th of July decoration, be sure to check out my DIY American Flag Garland made out of burlap and spray paint.

Enjoy!

xo, Laura

If you liked this idea, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Instagram.

Disclosure: I was given craft supplies in exchange for writing about them.  As always, all opinions are 100% mine.

Easy Framed Art for Kids' Room

A few years ago I bought some cute frames with mats from Pottery Barn Kids, but needed something to hang in them before putting them up on the wall in the boys' room.  So I pulled out my trusty scrapbook paper, got to work, and came up with these...

I made them before I started this blog, so I thought I'd share the easy directions with you! While a fish or whale might not fit with the theme or style of your kids' room, you can easily make any design, animal, and patterns that you like!

Step 1: Decide what you would like the main focus of the art to be.  Base this on the theme, style, and colors of the room.  For a girly pink room, maybe a pair of ballerina slippers would look good.  For a space themed room, maybe the the planets would be best.  

Step 2:  Once you have chosen what you want your artwork to be, then you need to choose some patterned (or solid) paper to use for the design.  I chose to use all patterned paper in my artwork.  Make sure the colors you choose work with the colors already in the room.  Gather any accents that you might like to use as well.  

In the fish picture above, I added some cute little fish buttons that I had in my scrapbook stash, and some clear little round shapes that I thought would make the perfect bubbles. 

In the whale picture, I used some little turquoise drops (also from my scrapbook stash), which added some dimension and more color to the picture, and also tied it in with the fish picture.

Step 3:  Draw or trace the shape that you want to use onto your patterned or solid paper.  I drew my own shapes (the fish and the whale).  If you're not comfortable with your drawing skills, you could always google the design you're looking for, and then scale it to the size you need, and print, trace, and cut.  Or if you own a die cut machine with a design you like, this would be even faster!  You can also die cut or trace and cut out words or letters.  You could even use scrapbook letter stickers from Michaels or Joanns, too!  I rubbed chalk ink around the edges of my pieces of paper, just to make them stand out a little bit more.

Step 4:  Glue the design onto your background paper, and then add glue down any accents that you would like to use as well.  Frame, hang, and admire!

Pretty easy, right?  The pictures I made were totally customized to fit in the boys' room that already had ABC cards that I made and had hanging throughout the room in a continuous line just under the ceiling.  These pictures reinforced the ABC and the animal theme, and added a little more color to the room.

See how easy it is to make customized art for a room?  Have you ever created something unique for a room in your house?  I'd love to hear about it!

xo, Laura

If you liked this idea, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Instagram.

Linking Up Here: Sugar Bee Crafts, Lolly Jane, A to Zebra Celebrations, 36th Avenue, Lil Luna, Ginger Snap Crafts, Someday Crafts, Snap!, Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths, Whipperberry, Tidy Mom, Thirty Handmade Days, See Vanessa Craft

How To Organize Your Childrens' Art and Schoolwork

As the end of the school year approaches, moms everywhere are bracing themselves for the mountains of art, school papers, and awards that their children will inevitably bring home.  Neat and organized spaces become home to cluttered piles of papers that represent a year's worth of work to your children that they are not willing to part with.

Sound familiar?  I truly used to dread all of the papers that came home at the end of the year.  It was bittersweet, because I love looking through my kids' schoolwork and art, and yet I can't stand clutter and piles.  What's a mom to do?

I came up with an easy way of storing and organizing my kids art and schoolwork that is fast, fun to look through, and easy to keep up with and store.

It's very similar to the method that I use to organize my ripped out magazine pages.  It's very straightforward and simple, and yet has made such a difference in keeping my kids' papers and artwork at bay!

Supplies:

• Binder
• Tabbed Sheet Protectors
• Regular Sheet Protectors
• Magazine holder, storage box, or another holder to store artwork

Step 1- Collect & Store

First, you need a place to hold and store the papers.  These papers might include artwork, school papers, awards, invitations, letters, ribbons, doodles, letters, etc.- anything that is important to you and your child will be stored here temporarily.

Here are a few examples of some things that I have kept over the years...

Self portraits made by my kiddos...

Cute little doodles...

A letter to Santa that my daughter wrote when she was starting to not believe...

Special awards that my kids have received...

Some of my daughter's first faces that she drew when she was three- the bottom right one is Charlie from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."  Love.  See how I fit four small pictures onto one page?

Favorite pieces of art...

Memorabilia.  Embossed metallic handprints that I created for my kids in 2007...

 

Diary Entries for important events, like the birth of our son...

To temporarily collect and store the art, I use metal magazine holders, and I have one labeled for each of my children, and one for my husband and I.  As my children bring home work, we decide together if it's something that we should keep or throw away.  We keep their best work, special awards, my homemade birthday party invitations, letters to Santa and the Easter Bunny (make copies so they're not suspicious), special cards or letters, etc.

Again, anything that is your child's best work or is meaningful to them and/or you.  It's also nice to just keep a sample here and there of their work to see the progress they make throughout the year.

As the art and memorabilia come in throughout the year, be sure to date them (if there is no date on it already).  I like to write the date and how old my child is, usually on the back of the paper so it's not taking away from the art or work.

Step 2- Label & Organize

Label your tabbed sheet protectors.  I labeled mine like this for each child:

• Birth-Preschool (or EAK or Kindergarten)
• Preschool (or EAK)
• Kindergarten
• 1st Grade
• 2nd Grade
• 3rd Grade
• 4th Grade
• 5th Grade

Etc... My oldest is in 5th grade, so that's as far as my binder goes ;)

I used Avery Protect 'n Tab Tabbed Sheet Protectors to label each of the different sections. These tabbed sheet protectors are perfect because the tabs stick out past the other sheet protectors so that you can still see them when your binder is put together.  I bought mine on Amazon, after searching high and low for something like them at all my nearby office supply stores.

These Avery labels are printable, but I just used my trusty label maker to make small labels that I stuck onto each tab- they fit perfectly!

I also used some Avery Martha Stewart sheet protectors I bought at Staples that have pockets that hold 4 photos.  Although I keep separate scrapbooks, I like to add the 4 photos behind each divider, so we can remember what each child looked like when they made their art.

Step 3- Add the Art & Papers

Place the artwork, school papers, awards, etc. into sheet protectors.  This is a great time to edit the work that has been sitting in the magazine holder.  Since you can't keep everything, decide if it really is worth keeping, and then either toss it or proceed.  I typically fit one page into each side of the sheet protector, but if there is a stapled booklet that I want to keep, I'll just stick the whole thing inside.

Sometimes a favorite piece of artwork may be too big to fit into a sheet protector, like my son's Cat in the Hat picture.  In that case, I will trim it down to fit, or I will cut it in half, and place one half on one side of the binder, and the other half right next to it, so you can still see the whole picture.  

I like to keep special little notes and doodles that my kids write and draw, so when they are smaller, I just use an archival glue stick to adhere them to a piece of archival card stock.  That way I can save on space and fit a few different things onto one page.

Keep up with it and enjoy it!  

Once the binder is initially created, it is really easy (and neat) to keep up! Just slide the work right into the binder as it comes home, and you're good to go!  My kids LOVE to look through their binders and reminisce about their art and work.  It's a great way to point out to your kids how much they have grown and progressed.

I love this method because it is so easy to keep up and keeps all of the papers nice and neat and organized chronologically.  And I love that I can still keep much of my kids' and my favorite work of theirs without feeling guilty because there are no messy piles!

So what do you think?  Do you struggle with what/how much of your kids' work to keep, or how to keep it organized?  Will you be giving this method a try?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

And do you love to keep ideas, recipes, or inspiration pages that you rip out of a magazine?  Check out how I keep my magazine pages nice and neat and organized.

I hope this helps you to get and stay organized!  It sure has helped me :)

If you liked this project, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Instagram.

xo, Laura

Linking Up Here: Lolly Jane, Sugar Bee Crafts, Craft-O-Maniac, I Heart Naptime, Skip to My Lou, Craft-O-Maniac, A to Zebra Celebrations, Lil Luna, Ginger Snap Crafts, Someday Crafts, Snap Creativity

Art Birthday Party

One of my favorite parties I have put together was this art party I threw for my daughter's birthday.  I wanted to share a few of the details with you, since I created this party before I had my blog!

One of my favorite elements of this art birthday party is the happy birthday melted crayon art sign I made as a backdrop for the food table!  I love how it is so bright and colorful, and messy and artsy at the same time!

All I did to make this sign was to line up a bunch of crayons along the top of a piece of foam board, hot glue them along the top in rainbow order, and then use my blow drier and embossing heat gun to melt the wax down the sign.  Once it all was dry, I just added some American Crafts Thickers (letter stickers that can be found at Michaels, Joanns, and any scrapbook store) to make the words.

Love the way my sign looks behind all of the colorful rainbow treats on the food table!

Another favorite detail of this party was the cake that I made...

I wanted it to be bright and colorful, so my brilliant husband cake up with the idea of flicking melted Wilton chocolate melts in just about every color all over the cake!  Can you say Jackon Pollock?!

I love the artsy, colorful look it gave to the cake.  Smart man, wish I had thought of it!  I did think a lot about the inside of the cake though...

It's a rainbow!  I made 6 individual round cakes, colored each one with a different food color (I used the gel food color since the colors are brighter), and put frosting in between each layer and on the outside of the cake.  

I love the result!  I did something similar when I made these individual rainbow cakes inside of baby food jars.  The cake ended up being HUGE because of all the different layers- the bigger the better, right!

Now onto the food...

Fruit rainbow kabobs

Colorful Jello Orange Slices

Rainbow Slush

 Rice Krispie Paintbrushes, dipped in fresh turquoise paint (okay, chocolate!)

I hope you enjoyed seeing a few of the details of my daughter's art party!  For the activities I had a few different stations where the girls each made a different art of craft at each booth.  Everyone had a great time, and the party was a huge success!  

If you have any questions or want to know more details, feel free to leave a comment!

You might also like some of my other party posts, such as this Very Hungry Caterpillar baby shower, 

my daughter's zebra print and pink Minnie Mouse party, 

how to make your own adorable DIY serving dishes, 

and this easy DIY cake pop and sucker stand. 

Enjoy!

xo, Laura

If you liked this project, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Instagram.

Linking Up Here:  Tidy Mom, Tatertots & Jello