Chalkboard Hand Sanitizer Containers

This idea came to me shortly after posting that I didn't have any ideas for Teacher Apreciation Day. It is sort of a combination between the hand sanitizer I posted about yesterday and my chalkboard soap dispenser I made last year. Honestly, the chalkboard sticker that I used combined with the water that gets splashed all over my bathroom and it wasn't long before my cute little soap dispenser was looking pretty sad. But there is no water involved in Hand Sanitizer and I did not use the chalkboard wallpaper so I am expecting these to hold up well!

Step 1: Empty hand sanitizer container, no need to rinse or anything since hand sanitizer will be going back in.

Step 2. Scrub off the label

Step 3. Spray paint with chalkboard paint, before I did this I was bummed that I only had green chalkboard paint and not black but I am sooooo thrilled with how they turned out! I painted these with about 4 coats letting dry for 20 minutes in between.

Step 4: Let dry for 24 hours (ok, so I let them dry for about 4 hours)

Step 5: Prime with chalk by rubbing it all over the container, then erase

Step 6: Write your message, tie a piece of chalk around the top, attach a tag that say "Hand Sanitizer" and you my friend are done!

(Message on the back)

                         (I espcecially loved this one that had square sides that I could write on)



Simple, Easy May Day Baskets!

These little baskets can be used for many many things! I am using them as May Day baskets for my sons teachers, Sunday School teachers and nursery attendants. I need 8 all together and so far have 4 made.

What you need -

1 square sheet of paper, I used a 12x12 piece of cardstock but a 9x9 square piece would work as well.
Paper squares 1/2" smaller than the squares on your paper, mine were 3.5"
Brads
Glue stick

Score and fold your paper into 9 squares, this is easier if you have a paper cutter that has a scoring blade but totally possible if you do it by hand. The lines show you where the paper is folded.

Cut (see the picture, the squiggly lines are where you cut)

Fold each section so that your paper bends nice

Decorate the outside squares, I just used decorative paper but you could get as fancy as you want

Bring up the sides (once again, see photo)

Using a hole punch or a sharp pair of scissors punch a hole through the three squares where they intersect. (I used my crop-a-dile but on the first basket I just used scissors to poke the hole through)

Poke a brad through the three layers plus one side of the handle.

Repeat on the other side.

Line basket with tissue paper, insert a pony pack of flowers and you have a darling May Day basket!

Happy May Day my friends!

TCT #2- Pipecleaner Butterflies (2 kits up for grabs)

First of all let me say that I would love to show some adorable pictures of my sweet little boy making these butterflies with me. However, that would require my little boy being sweet yesterday during Mommy and Me time and yeah he had other plans. Moving forward.......

My little mister loves to string pony beads on pipe cleaners, so I thought of this little butterfly to make something pretty and spring like out of the activity. Where it all fell apart for me is when I asked him to count out ten beads and THEN string them on the pipecleaner.

Step #1:  Fold your yellow pipecleaner in half, about an inch down start twisting the doubled up pipecleaner, curl the straight ends around a pencil. This is the antennas and body.

Step #2: Have your kids string some pony beads onto a pipecleaner.

Step #3: Wrap one end of the pipecleaner around the top of the body, shape like a butterfly wing and wrap the other end around the lower end. Repeat with the other wing.

You can attach magnets or wire or simply fly them around the room.

***If you would like your child to receive some fun mail, leave me a comment saying how many kids or grandkids you have. I will send out a kit with the supplies and some fun stickers to the first two comments! I realize that this is not a large giveaway and that you probably all have pipe cleaners and pony beads :) but all kids love to get mail.***

Gentle Reminders.....For the Bathroom!

Have I mentioned that I am Mom to three boys? They are 17, 8, and 18 months. Their bathroom is a busy place. I am constantly reminding them to wash their hands and then reminding them to go do it again using soap! I thought maybe a little visual reminder in the bathroom could cut down on my nagging a little. Thus the soap disperser chalkboard was born! I had a hard time wanting to cut up one of these vinyl chalkboards from the dollar store (after all I only had 2!) and while I was debating I flipped it over and WOW couldn't believe my eyes, there was one on the back too! So really I had 4! Hooray! Making them were so simple, I took the label off of my soap dispenser, probably bought at the dollar store, and laid it on my chalkboard vinyl. Then I peeled it off cut my vinyl out and placed it where the label used to be. I did this for the front and back.

Using chalk I wrote some little reminders for the little (and big) ones to read!

On a side note, the chalk does get wet and wiped off in the bathroom, if you want your notes permanent, you would want to write on them and seal them with a couple of coats of sealer before you place them, I however love that I can change them up whenever I want!

My Sweeter than Chocolate Bunny!

While thrifting a few days back I found this very ordinary looking glass bunny for 99cents. I am a little low on Easter decorations so I put him in my cart. After a little paint I think he turned out pretty cute!

I spray painted him Espresso, applied a Crackle Medium and some white paint. So quick and so easy. A couple of points if you have not worked with a Crackle Medium before. You can use spray paint for the base but not for the overcoat. So I was fine in using brown spray paint underneath but it wouldn't have worked if I used white spray paint after the Crackle Medium. Another thing, sometimes people tend to rush the top step (just to see if the stuff works) well don't! It says to let dry so let it dry! And don't overbrush it, just brush your topcoat on and leave it alone. I have learned this the hard way! I let it set about 45 minutes with good results.

The whitish paint I used was Light Ivory by Americana, I use it all the time and buy tons of it. It is so close to white but it's not! LOVE IT!

I am still having a hard time believing it is spring even though the weather here is exceptionally gorgeous! Oh and here is the bunny before his transformation.

A little shamrock love!

Ok, I told myself I wouldn't post any St. Patty's Day Ideas until my Valentines Day Roses had wilted. But honestly I just can't wait. To me, every holiday is worth celebrating in style, after all, if I have an excuse to eat treats, decorate and spoil my kids a little why not take it. Ok I really do all that every day but if it is a holiday at least I have a reason! So here is my first St. Patty's offering -

This really is a EASY project, if you have some of these -

leftover hearts from V-Day, please tell me I am not the only one who didn't get all their projects done!

and one of these -

a dollar store frame, or a frame you just about threw away because you broke the glass.

And some of this............

I didn't have any black spraypaint so I had to use craft paint on the frame, sad right?

and I painted my hearts green, with a darker green shading around the outside

I ended up distressing the frame, it was red painted wood originally, I painted it black, and then sanded it in spots, and then I swiped some green paint on in spots with a wet paper towel. I love how this turned out, I love it so much I might sleep with it under my pillow tonight! LOL! It looks like something my Irish ancestors had!

I also added some ruffled up fabric to the top and bottom of the frame backing, and used matching fabric to hang the frame on, I just hotglued it on the back. Then I glued a painted wooden circle to the middle of my Shamrock to hide where the corners didn't come together perfectly.  I still thought it needed a little something more so I added some "stitching" around the edges with a black pen.

And a little something more, some black pen "veins" in the Shamrock leaves.

What do you do for St. Patricks Day? I make green pancakes and green milk  for the kids at breakfast, hide golden coins, and the leprechaun usually leaves them a little something if their rooms are clean. Ya know just one more "magic person" to motivate those kids to clean their rooms.

Cute and Cheap Valentines Project!

Gah! I am soooo in love with this project. When I purchased the little hearts I had what I was going to do with them in mind but it turned out so much CUTER than I ever imagined! It is so stinkin' adorable. I asked hubby what he thought and he said "You made that, nah, it looks professional" Not too sure if I should be proud or upset with his lack of confidence. Hahaha. This project was also CHEAP. I used two packs of these hearts that I bought at JoAnn's in their $1 section. They originally look like the message hearts but I don't really like those or like pastels in my house so I did something different.

What you need for this project:

Wooden Hearts
Skewers or Pieces of Thin Dowel
Block of Wood (I used a spare chunk of 2x4) mine is 5" long
Paint (Red, Black and White is what I used)
Spray Adhesive
Glitter
Sharpie Marker
Drill and A Glue Gun

First I painted the hearts, for my project, I used 7 hearts, 3 red, 3 white and 2 black.  Between each coat I outlined the words that were pre-printed on my hearts. If your hearts don't have words just freehand sweet little sayings. I also painted my skewers and my block of wood black.

I sprayed each heart with spray adhesive and then sprinkled them with silver glitter. A couple of tips, I use the back of a magazine underneath my glitter projects. It is the perfect weight to pick up curl the edges and dump the excess glitter back in the container. I also use a sticky lint remover whenever I am using glitter. I buy them at the $ store and they work great for quick pickups.

On the hearts that have sayings I used an old paintbrush to carefully remove most of the glitter on the inside of the heart. Just leaving a border of glitter around the edges.

Now for the fun part. I love using power tools! Using a drill bit that is just a little bit bigger than your skewer or dowel drill holes in your block of wood. On second thought you really should drill the holes before you paint the block of wood. I used a marker to mark where I wanted my holes to be, keeping in mind that I wanted my hearts to have a staggered appearance. (sorry for the crappy photo but you get the idea)

Once your holes are drilled you can start arranging your skewers/dowels making them different lengths. Hotglue your skewers to the back of your dowels, and put just a dab of hotglue on the end of the skewer before sticking them into your drilled holes. Ta-Da! This project cost me $2.00 and was really easy to do. Fun too!