Original Works of Art by My Little Artists

I decided to frame an original work of art by each of my little artists.  My plan is to change the displayed artwork periodically, as they bring home several new pieces each week.  However, since their pieces vary in size it would be hard to use a traditional frame with a matte.  So I opted for a floating frame which eliminated the need for one.

I decided that just framing the artwork wasn't the best way to display it.  Instead I trimmed around the artwork to make it pop in the frame.  I was hesitant to trim my kids artwork as it seemed wrong to modify it in any way.  But I quickly got over it once I saw how nice the artwork looked with the excess blank canvas removed.

So here it is...

Raymond's Artwork

Raymond's artwork is actually 3 pieces formed into a collage.  The two leaves were one piece of art, and the shapes are from 2 other pieces of art.

Ryan's Artwork

Ryan's artwork was actually much larger than would fit into the frame.  I cut out the main section of the artwork and framed just that instead.

The artwork looks great in their room and the boys were so proud to see their work on display.  Here are some pictures of their room.

One other thing I want to include a picture of is a shadowbox I hung which includes the birth announcements for Raymond and Ryan plus their footprints.  I scanned in their footprints from the hospital and printed it to scale with a coordinating border around it.  I covered the back of the shadowbox with a white-on-white striped wrapping paper to coordinate with the stripe themed room.

Ahoy There Matey!

Lately it seems that every kids TV show has an episode or two or twenty about PIRATES! So it came as no surprise to me that Raymond (4 years old) wanted to be a pirate for Halloween this year. And of course Ryan (2 years old) decided he wanted to be a pirate too.

I had already decided I wouldn't be making costumes this year since I would be 7 1/2 months pregnant with twins at Halloween with little time and even less energy. So I scoured the internet for pirate costumes. Unfortunately, what I found was a little too flimsy for the cost...especially given that it is usually quite cool at Halloween and a flimsy outfit almost always gets covered up by a jacket. So...I decided to make their costumes.

These were the easiest, no sew costumes ever. But my kids loved them! Here's what I needed for each child:

- Sweatshirt (two sizes too big)
- Sweatpants
- Long sleeved white shirt
- Sash
- Rain boots
- Pirate accessories (such as a bandana, eye patch, sword, etc.)

I had white shirts, rain boots, and bandanas in my house. I bought the sweatshirts and sweatpants at Walmart for $3 each. I bought the sashes and a pack of eye patches on Amazon.com for $5 and $4 respectively. Then it was time for the "alterations."

My mom was visiting at the time, so the two of us knocked this out together in no time. She cut the sleeves and neck out of each sweatshirt creating a vest to wear over the white shirts. I cut the bottoms of the sweatpants at mid calf with jagged edges. Then I cut each sweatshirt straight up the middle. Voila! We were done.

Here's a picture of my little pirates getting ready for our neighborhood Halloween Gathering.

I'm a Good Mom

You will have days when others make you feel like a bad mom. Look at the happy, smiling, laughing faces of your children and rest assured that you are not.

Yes, it's been a bad week!

Dreft Powder - A Great Stain Remover

My mother discovered something wonderful. Powdered Dreft is an amazing stain remover. I'm not kidding...the stuff is incredible. Raymond is in preschool and constantly comes home with his shirt covered in paint (and yes, they do wear smocks). Well one day Raymond came home with green paint all over his (fortunately?) all white t-shirt. I hand washed the shirt in regular detergent (we use ALL Free & Clear), then soaked it overnight in a very strong bleach and water mixture. I rinsed the shirt, but could tell before I rinsed it that the stains had only faded slightly. So after rinsing I spot bleached the stains and rinsed again. The stains faded a bit more, but not much. I continued spot bleaching and rinsing the stains four more times before deciding that the stains were there to stay. I accepted that the shirt was ruined, and was glad it was just a plain white t-shirt...after all, what could be easier to replace.

A few days later Raymond came home with the same green paint all over his mostly-but-not-all white shirt. "Great...another ruined shirt," I thought! This time I tried something my mom had done when we were visiting NY. I rinsed the stain in hot water with a pinch of hand soap just to get out whatever part of the stain was not set in already. Then I laid the wet shirt out on the counter and heavily sprinkled Dreft powder onto each of the stains. I then drizzled a pinch of water over the Dreft powder to turn it into a paste, and let the shirt sit overnight. In the morning I rinsed the shirt in the washing machine and found, to my surprise, the stains were completely gone!!!

Since this revelation, I've used Dreft on many stains and it has completely removed all but one. The one stain it didn't completely remove was a blood stain that sat in a white shirt overnight before I remembered it. The stain was so faded I really don't think I would have noticed it if I didn't remember exactly where it was.

So there you have it. Dreft powder is a great stain remover. I'm sure there are other incredible stain removers out there, but I like that this one is made for babies clothing.

Thomas and Toby Were a Hit

This will be a quick post since I am watching the Steelers-Saints game with my sweetie on his birthday. Yesterday, Raymond and Ryan wore their Thomas and Toby costumes for the first time. We attended our neighborhood Halloween Party which was fabulous. Both costumes were a hit and Raymond won Best Costume and a $15 Target Gift Card.

Tonight we went Trick-or-Treating. We received many compliments on the kids' costumes. At some point Raymond decided he wanted to be Toby, so the kids switched costumes. Since Ryan was being pulled in a big wagon, we took Thomas' wheels and straps off and set Thomas over him inside the wagon. He loved it!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!

All Aboard!

Every train needs a conductor. So to go along with their Thomas and Toby costumes, I made my kids conductor hats. It's a template I created that I can print out on the computer with any colors, text, or pictures they want. Then I just cut the hats along the outer lines, fold, and attach a string (or Christmas ribbon which happens to be the only "string" I have left in the house). These conductor hats are unbelievably simple, but my kids love them almost as much as their train costumes!!!

Thomas Has a Friend: Toby the Tram

My 1-year old, Ryan, is also into trains. He's a more destructive child though, and seems to enjoy making them crash into each other more than anything else. Nevertheless, after I began making Raymond's Thomas costume, I decided that I needed to make Ryan an equally cool train costume.

Now, lets keep in mind, Ryan just turned 1 in late-August. There's no way he could walk around wearing a box like Raymond. So I really had to get my creative juices flowing. I decided that I would fit a box over one of Ryan's walkers, decorate it like Toby (because he's fairly simple and should be easy to make), and let Ryan push Toby around.

And that's exactly what I did. To be completely honest, there's not really much to tell. I had a moving box that was just barely big enough to fit over our small walker. The box was 16" L x 12 1/2" W x 12 1/2" H. I cut a hole in the box for the handle to fit through and cut the back flap on the box so that it would not hit Ryan's feet while he walked. Then I covered the whole box with, you guessed it, paper tape.

Since Toby is brown, I didn't bother painting the box this time. I drew the lines on Toby's four sides with a black Sharpie. Like Thomas, the designs on Toby's sides were made with construction paper. I designed almost all of Toby's components on my computer and printed them onto the right color paper. I bought a styrofoam rectangle and cut it to a square. I then downloaded a head-on picture of Toby from the Thomas & Friends website, resized it to match my square, then printed out his face. Finally, I wrapped the styrofoam square with this print out just like you'd wrap a Christmas present.

Just like Thomas, I used red construction paper for trim along the bottom of Toby, and created bumpers in the front and back out of cardboard circles spray painted black. Toby's top is simply a light gray piece of construction paper. The whole box was set over Ryan's walker, and that was that. Toby was done!!!

*** Updated SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2012 at 11:08 PM ***

Below are the templates I created when making Toby.

1. 2.

3.

4. 5. 6.

7.

*** Print on white paper unless otherwise stated. ***

1. Face
2. Light
3. Cowcatcher
4. Windows and Doors (print on brown paper)
5. Rails
6. Center Bar (print on brown paper)
7. Side Flap

Please note that the template for the windows/doors wraps around the edge of the box. If I'm not mistaken you'll print 2, flip the image and print the other 2. It's been a while, so I'm not 100% sure. I hope it'll be easy to figure out by comparing the pictures of the final product to the templates.

By the way, I do not seem to have a template for Toby's "7." I must not have saved that file.

Enjoy!

*** Updated SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2012 at 7:55 AM ***

After sleeping on it, I realized that I would have created Toby's "7" in Microsoft Word as WordArt. When you create WordArt you can choose a border thickness and color, and a fill color. The border is red and very thick, and the fill is yellow. Let me know if you have any questions about this.