DIY Dry Erase Boards

This morning I shared five ideas for DIY Dry Erase Boards on Great Day St. Louis in order to inspire the audience's inner creative juices to get organized and have fun with their kids.

If you would like to check out the video (all my other segments can be viewed by clicking on the links in the left sidebar), be my guest...



The DIY Dry Erase Board craze began with a menu board that I made from a spare shadow box in May in order to inspire me to plan my weekly meals more regularly.  You can view the how-to post here.

My other DIY Dry Erase Board ideas are...

A Chore Chart

A Fun Face Frame

 Re-usable Learning Activities such as...

 If you have some unused frames around the house, get your creative juices flowing and make a few fun activities for your kids and an organization tool for yourself! 

Sharing with...

Penny Pinching Party at The Thrifty Home

Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts 

Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple 

Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge 

Weekend Wrap Party at Tatertots and Jelly

Activities/Favors for Kiddo Parties on Great Day St. Louis

This morning I will be back on Great Day St. Louis (and if you are visiting from Great Day, "Welcome!") to showcase a variety of fun and thrifty favors/activities for kiddo parties including recycled broken crayons and party pinwheels.  If you've got a kiddo or are planning a party for one, check out these simple, thrifty and cute ideas at 10am CST on KMOV Channel 4 or online.

If you would like the printables for the color-me fans from this morning's show, read on after the jump.

party pinwheels

What's a party without some pinwheels?  

Pinwheels make a great party decor, favors, and fun.  These DIY pinwheels can be made ahead of time or after your party goers decorate them with a little flair.  

We are planning the big #2 party for our kiddo and part of the party fun will be making these pinwheels.  First, the kiddos in attendance will decorate their paper with fun bug-themed stickers and their new chunky crayons; then, the adults will assemble each one using a 3/8" dowel, a tack, a glass bead, a hammer and a dab of gorilla glue.  Simple and fun.  

any questions?

A few pointers:

1.  You've got to work with it a little after assemble to get it to spin fast.  A little tug here, a little tug there.

2. It may spin faster if you use a hole punch instead of poking the holes with the tack.  

3. Supervise the kiddos while they use these, the chance of the tack coming out is possible.  Although, with the use of gorilla glue, it lessons the chance of it coming loose with "normal" use. 

These pinwheels have endless versatility.  How cute would they be on pretty double-sided printed paper?  Or, with painted or ribbon-wrapped dowels? Or with fun stamps all over?  The options are endless. 

If you like this idea, I will be sharing in on Monday morning, July 12 on Great Day St. Louis.  In addition to these pinwheels, I will also be sharing how to use broken crayons as a party favor, mess-free finger painting, DIY fans, and pocket coloring books.  Tune in Monday at 10am for the fun!

Parties I'm Linking to Today:

Get Your Craft On at Life as Lori

Strut Your Stuff Thursday at Somewhat Simple 

Crazy Domestic at All Things Domestic

recycled broken crayons

 

Beautiful color.

I love this idea. 

Place broken crayons in a mini-muffin tin.  A fun-shaped muffin tin/mold would be great to use as well, think hearts, flowers, etc.  Put muffin tin in preheated 300 degree oven.  Watch closely until crayons are melted into a nice, hot wax.  Remove muffin tin from oven. Cool.  Flip over and pop out these chunky new crayons. 

This is a great idea for recycling your kiddo's old, broken crayons.  You can also buy a $1 box of crayons and make fun color-themed kiddo party favors or to accompany a gift.  Plus, these large, chunky crayons are great for small hands. 

These are for my kiddo's upcoming 2nd birthday party favor boxes.  

On Monday July 12th, I will share recycled crayons along with four other simply DIY kiddo party favors and activities (including...mess-free finger painting, paper fans, pinwheels, and pocket coloring books) on Great Day St. Louis.  For my other appearances on Great Day, check out the left sidebar.

Parties I'm Linking To Today: 

Whatever goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts
Penny Pinching Party at the Thrifty Home
Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple
Crazy Domestic at All Things Domestic

a wedding rehearsal

a rehearsal dinner invitation...

a bouquet from a pile of ribbon...

and a trail run...

my little brother got married this weekend; these are just a few things i wanted to share from the rehearsal. i will have more to share from the wedding day soon.

Recycled T-Shirt Yarn Tutorial (Step-by-Step version)

 Hello.  Earlier this week I shared this post with you from my Great Day St. Louis appearance on making t-shirt yarn.  Just in case it's not clear from the video and/or you don't feel like watching it, I'm posting a step-by-step here so you can get started cutting up all your old t-shirts.  

Step 1: Find an old t-shirt and cut off the bottom hem.  

Step 2.  Cut the bottom panel of the t-shirt off at the arm-pit.  You can use scissors or a rotary cutter.  I prefer a rotary cutter as I'm completely disabled when it comes to using scissors well.

Step 3: Fold the panel in half leaving a 1' space wear the top meets the bottom half.  

Step 4: Cut the panel into strips.  Cut through the top half completely, but DO NOT cut through the bottom half.  Leave the 1' space UNCUT.

Step 5: This is the tricky part in which you will make diagonal cuts along the uncut space. Open up your panel.  Place it on a surface such as your arm, chair base, small table.  Cut diagonally across each strip.  The first strip will look a little strange, but when you're finished you will simply make one diagonal cut in order to separate the two rings and create one continuous strip.  Don't worry you will not see these diagonal cuts at all in the finished product.

Step 6: Turn the strip into rolled yarn simply by pulling on each piece of the strip.  Basically, put a piece of your long strip in each hand and pull.  Do this across the entire strip and you will turn this...

into this in a matter of seconds.

 Finished ball of wonderful t-shirt yarn...

If you want to see some of the necklaces that I make with this yarn, you can watch this video or click on t-shirt necklace tutorial in right sidebar.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and have a wonderful weekend!

I'm linking to Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge.

Placemat Pillows

If you are looking for a quick and easy update to your pillow decor, look no further than the placemat section of your local Target, Pier 1, or Home Goods. 

Find a double-layer placement, pick up some poly-fil from your local sewing/craft store, go home and make some pillows.  

I've seen numerous bloggers share this simple, creative idea; so, I had to try it myself.  Find this idea here, here and here. Go ahead, try it.

Here are my recent additions to my pillow addiction via Target's placemat aisle. 

 (in the basement with other pillows I've made from remnants)

(in the living room and entryway)

Making these pillows only requires a seam ripper, needle, thread, stuffing, and placemat.  Simply rip open a small section of seam, stuff with poly-fil (be sure to push into the corners), and stitch the seam closed using a color-matched thread.  This idea is even for the NON-SEWERS because the stitches are barely seen.