Monday, September 17, 2012

Make It Monday: Paper Bag Puppet Puppy


One for the kids! A classic paper bag puppet. At Sophie's request this one's a pink puppy named Sophie of course.

What you'll need:

Paper bag
Construction paper
Pencil
Scissors
Glue stick

Directions:

Step 1. Using construction paper, draw and cut out ears, eyes, a nose, tongue, belly and tail.




Step 2. Position and glue your cut outs onto the flap side of the paper bag. You're done! It's that simple. 





Put on a show.







Happy Monday!




Monday, September 10, 2012

Make It Monday: Bamboo Frame Jewellery Display





Keeping in line with my recent organized life theme, here's a project I put together to display and organize my jewellery collection, in hopes that it will allow me to easily jazz up my work outfits when my office time increases in the fall.

I was inspired to create this display after seeing a few photos of large picture frames used in a similar fashion. I wasn't able to scrounge up a large, empty picture frame so I opted to create my own using dollar store bamboo.

What you'll need:

4 pieces of bamboo - 40" in length
Hand saw
Sandpaper
Spray paint
Hemp
Hot glue
Picture tacks
Hammer
Wall mount hooks


Directions:

Step 1. Measure and mark two of the pieces of bamboo at 15". Cut with a handsaw and sand until smooth. Spray paint in a colour of your choice. You will end up with two 15", two 25" and two 40" pieces of bamboo.



Step 2. Align one 40" length of bamboo at a 90 degree angle over top of one 25" length of bamboo, overlap as a cross 2" past the intersection. Knot a string of hemp, approximately 3 arm lengths long, around the bamboo and create a crisscross wrap. Finish with a knot, secure with hot glue, and trim the excess hemp.



Step 3. Repeat step 2 until you have a rectangular frame with two 40" lengths of bamboo on top of two 25" lengths of bamboo.

Step 4. With the frame laying flat, position one 15" length of bamboo at a 90 degree angle on top of one long side of the frame, 3.5" above the corner intersection. Once again with a 2" overlap. Cross wrap, as before, with 3 arm lengths of hemp.


Step 5. Repeat step 4 using the remaining 15" length of bamboo. Position it at the opposite corner of the first 15" length of bamboo as shown in the above picture. 

Step 6. Turn the frame over so the back is facing you. Hammer picture tacks below each of the two short bamboo posts, this will prevent them from sliding downward. Reinforce the two short bamboo posts with a loop a of hemp tied around the outside end of the short post and the frame, see image below. This will give the post the necessary sturdiness to hold heavy bracelets.



Step 8. Mark the height that you want your jewellery hanging at. I tied one directly below the top of the frame for earrings and two others midway down to hang necklaces. Tie a piece of hemp from one side of the bamboo frame to the other as tight as possible at your desired height and tack in place from behind to avoid the string from sliding downward once your jewellery is hanging.

Step 7. Measure and mount two hooks on your wall to hold the frame. Hang and populate with jewellery and photos.



Happy Monday!

Monday, September 03, 2012

Make It Monday: Erasable Meal Planner






Now that I'm back to work part time, with full time employment just around the corner, my focus of late has been on organizing and simplifying to avoid the inevitable chaos. Don't be surprised if my next few projects have an organization focus.

For the last couple of weeks I've been getting into the habit of meal planning as opposed to just pulling something together when I have a few minutes to spare in my day. So, to help simplify and of course beautify  to make it a little fun, I decided to create an erasable meal planner.

What you'll need:

8 x 10 picture frame with glass or plexi-glass
What's for dinner?  - free printable template
Dry erase marker
Picture hook or nail

Directions:

Step 1. Print the What's for dinner? template, trim the excess white space to fit the 8 x 10 frame, and slide it in.



Step 2. Hang.

Step 3. Write directly on the glass and erase clean at the beginning of each week.

Easy peasy.

Happy Monday!