I came across this fab post from Cakies about a month ago and just knew we had to make this for little H for his upcoming 1 year birthday party! I passed on the link to my hubby (who would be taking care of any woodworking/drilling/nailing that had to happen) and he quickly agreed we needed this in our home post-haste. So this past Sunday Dom headed with Hayden in the stroller to Home Depot (a mere 3 miles from our house) to procure the wood while I headed to IKEA for the fabric (I don’t ever need an excuse to go to IKEA!). I’ll skip past the boring pics of us trying to drill wood in our apartment (mostly because I forgot to take any) and get right to the awesome result pics:
We were so thrilled with the outcome that we set it out immediately to try it out. Dom and I took turns hiding out in it while we watched episodes of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and ate Pocky. I wonder who is going to get the most use out of this thing…
Check out my Pinterest board of tents for more ideas!
[prw username="ambersiscoe" boardname="tents" maxfeeds="10" divname="myList" printtext="0" target="newwindow" useenclosures="yes" thumbwidth="130" thumbheight="130" showfollow="medium"]
For Day 6 I have been saving a bunch of glass bottles to “inner paint”. Again, this is a ridiculously easy project to complete and fast to boot. My fav little bottle was one I picked up yesterday at Caffe ROM downtown. It’s called Sanbitter and it tastes horrible. I loved the bottle though, so it was worth the $2.50 price tag.
|
The fact that the word “bitter” is in the name should have tipped me off… |
 |
 |
Pre-paint |
Paint-filled |
 |
 |
Bitter bottle |
Collection! |
My only suggestion for this project is to fill your bottles with a little more paint than necessary. I did a test bottle this past weekend (I know, I’m a cheater!) and noticed the next day that once the paint starts to dry and shrink some cracking can occur. I simple spun my bottle around and “re-painted” the inside. Do this several times a day after each coat has dried and you will have awesome results!
One of the things I have been excited to try out for a while is the whole “PAINT IT WHITE!!!” craze. Basically this boils down to: find some crazy sculpture/knick-knack/trash item and, wait for it… PAINT IT WHITE! Now, here in
Chicago it’s illegal to sell spray paint. So I picked some up while I was downstate visiting family. I purchased 3 high-gloss colors – red, yellow and white. You could also use matte if that’s the look you are going for.
The tutorial I followed (here) suggests collecting items of similar style/interest and painting them all white to create a collection. I hit the Salvation Army this past weekend and could only find ONE item I wanted to paint. I did however find this gem, which was a little too frightening and bordering on crazy cat lady for my tastes:
So I settled on this playful, innocent little guy:
Cute right? I mean, how harmless can this little fellow be?? Well behold SATAN RACCOON!
Hello! Sorry I didn’t post day 2 yesterday. I was so busy preparing for my friend Lori’s craft-a-thon that night that I had no time! So here are days 2 and 3 for you!
Day 2 – Pencil Roll
For day 2 I did a pencil roll as a Christmas gift. My sewing skills lie somewhere between non-existent and beginner, so while it’s not perfect I am happy with the way it turned out!
 |
 |
Pinned Up |
Sewn
(note my amazing skillz) |
 |
 |
Pencils inserted
(don’t worry, I am buying new ones when I gift it!) |
Detail of pencils |
While the tutorial claimed this project took only 10 minutes it, of course, took me 5 times that!
Day 3 – Tee Shirt Scarf
Now this really is a fun and easy project!! My friend Lori hosted a “Pop Up Craft Party” and invited everyone over to make scarves (and drink wine!). You really can do this project in 10 minutes, and I love the outcome of what using different patterned shirts can do for your scarf.
 |
 |
 |
Lori explains to us that this is a “serve yourself” wine party. We had no problem with that. |
Heather chops it up with some mad scissor skills. |
We dubbed Heather’s scarf the “New Year’s Eve Scarf” – notice the bling! |
 |
 |
 |
My yellow scarf and snazzed up University of Illinois Tee |
Lori shows off her
modeling talent! |
The ladies and their final products! |
|
 |
|
|
It was a good evening… |
|
There are several tutorials out there for tee shirt scarves, but here is the one I followed (video included!).
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s craft – “Paint it White!”