Krista, Author at While He Was Napping

September 19, 2011 by Krista

Fall Colors Printables

Little Monkey has recently taken a great big liking to… BUTTONS! He’s at the point that I don’t have to say “Not in your mouth!” every 3 seconds. But, it’s still a ‘watch-him-close’ activity. The other day, we were making shapes with all the buttons and then an idea hit! Now, I don’t have enough buttons to send you all am original piece, but these would still be cute printed and framed as part of your Fall decor.

Click the images to download watermark-free copies.

Or grab your button stash and make your own button art!

Krista

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September 19, 2011 by Krista

My Memories Winner

It’s time to announce the winner of the My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software. Drum roll, please…. And the winner is:

Congratulations! I’ve sent you an email with more information. Thanks to everyone who entered.

You can still get a great deal on this very cool software. To get 10 off the software, as well as $10 to the MyMemories.com store simply use the code STMMMS52335 at checkout. Copy and paste the code into the “Coupon/Promo Code” box on the “My Cart” screen. This code never expires. It is good for $10 off the My Memories Suite v2 (the current version of the software) and your software will come with a $10 coupon code to use in the My Memories store.

September 18, 2011 by Krista

Pottery Barn Inspired Transportation Art

A few months ago, I saw these on the Pottery Barn Kids site:

Source

I was instantly in love. I’ve been wanting to do Little Monkey’s room in primary colors with cars, trucks, trains, planes, and all things that go. But I about fell out of my chair when I saw the price tag on these puppies! $69 a piece! That is not a price I can handle. That’s over $200! For three little (well, not so little) wall hangings. So, what’s a budget-strapped momma to do? Make her own, of course. It’s taken me a while to get on the ball with this project, but they are finally done and I’m smitten with the results. And even more with the less than $10 price tag. Take that, Pottery Barn. That’s a 95% savings. I’m one happy momma. They aren’t perfect, but I think it lends a hand to the “playful child” that Little Monkey is and his room should be an expression of that. (Or so I’ll tell myself…)

Wanna make your own awesome set? Here’s the How:

Oh, and I apologize for the lack of process photos. I swear I took them, but I can’t find them ANYWHERE. This mommy/pregnancy-brain is killing me. I’ll keep looking for the photos, but it’s fairly easy to figure out. Sorry again!

1) Supplies:

– Stretched canvases (one for each mode of transportation you’d like to do).

– Fabric (I used about a quarter each of five different fat quarters. But, if you have fabric scraps, they’d be perfect).

– Modge Podge

– Black acrylic paint

– Permanent marker

2) First, I made my own stretched canvases using this method I showed you. I made mine 5×7”.

3) Then I cut some printer paper down to 5×7” so I would have an idea of how the shapes would compare to the canvas size. I then drew, free-hand, the train, the helicopter and the boat onto printer paper. I had a bit of trouble getting a car shape I liked, so I found a fun car clip art on the internet and printed it off. I just used the outline, so it doesn’t have to be perfect. Then I cut those out and pinned the templates to my fat quarters.

4) Cut out the shapes by following your templates. Lay the shapes out on your stretched canvases so you know where you want to put them.

5) Use a foam sponge brush to apply a thin layer of Modge Podge to the back of your fabric shapes. Position them on the canvases and press all the bubbles out.

6) I used my Cricut to cut a letter stencil of “t”, “h”, “c” and “b”. I cut them from cardstock and used that to stencil on the letters. (Hint: Use some spray adhesive to get the cardstock to stick so your paint doesn’t seep under the stencil.) Let the paint dry well.

7) Use your permanent marker to write the name of each mode of transportation on the canvas. Hang and admire your amazing (and super frugal) very own transportation knock off.

Swoooon! I love it.

P.S. There’s a poll on the sidebar that I’d love for you to participate in… What kind of stuff would you like to see here in the feature? Go vote!

Krista

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September 16, 2011 by Krista

Weekend Wander #47

Welcome to another party! Last week totally rocked my socks, how about yours?! There were some really cool projects posted. And I even got to share some of them on Facebook this week. Woo-Hoo! Well, let’s do a couple features real quick and then we’ll get to the good stuff from this week!

Mint Brownie Ice Cream Pie, anyone? Doesn’t that just make your tummy grumble? I sure would love some of this. Hop over to This Mom’s Happy Life and get the easy recipe.

Check out this cute sweater up-cycle. Over at Tales of a Trophy Wife, you’ll get some great inspiration and how-to on updating some of the ‘oldies’ at the back of your closet.

I’m sure we all have the supplies for this project on hand and there are a ton of uses for it! What a great way to re-use some of that trash. Life in the Motherhood will show you how.

Thanks ladies, and thanks to everyone who shared their projects. There were some other good ones shared on Facebook, so check those out if you missed them.

Also, I’m over at Henry Happened today, sharing tips on how to make your eyes POP! So, head over and check that out. After you link up, of course. =) Stephanie has some really awesome stuff you’ll love, I promise. So, go and spend some time and let her know I sent ya!

And let’s PARTY! You know what to do. No commercial sites please and keep it family friendly. GO!

September 14, 2011 by Krista

Bath Tub Crayons… or Colored Soap

I found some bath tub crayons for Little Monkey a few months ago and he loved them. The downside… they didn’t last long, cost me $5 and they stained the tub a bit. Great, right?! Well, I decided to try making my own this time around. I did a little research and found a bajillion different recipes, so I kind just decided to wing it. All the recipes called for soap flakes, water, and coloring. I took those and concocted a little recipe.

Here’s the How:

1) Supplies: Soap flakes, hot water and soap coloring. Cookie cutter shapes are optional, although definitely make it easier. My Mr Right travels a lot for work and we have a lovely stash of hotel soap. You know, the complimentary little bars in the bathroom (so, not very big). I used three La Quinta bars (they didn’t have weights on them or anything), grated them with a fine grater, which yielded about a cup of grated soap flakes. I used food coloring for my dye. It works fine for soap since you wash it off fairly quickly. We haven’t had any problems with the crayon part of it either as it too comes off fairly soon after it’s applied. We have a little splasher…

This is only about a 1/4 cup, but that’s how fine your soap flakes should be. Like dishwashing powder.

2) Mix approximately a 1:1 ratio of soap flakes and water. I used about 1/4 cup to fill my cookie cutter shapes. Mix soap flakes and water well and add coloring to your liking. It should not be runny, more like the consistency of a thick conditioner and it’ll look like colored shaving cream. Little Monkey helped stir the soap and water. He was in heaven.Soap flakes, water and blue food coloring. Mix well. Too much water? Add more soap.

3) Use a spoon and spoon the mixture into the cookie cutter shapes on a plate. Let them sit for a few minutes (like long enough to go rinse the excess soap out of the dish.
Pull the cookie cutter off the soap. Let the shapes dry. It took ours about 5 days to really dry all out, they were ‘usable’ by the next morning, just a bit soft. They probably would have broken up in the tub quite a bit, so I let them dry longer.
*I set mine out in the sun one day and the sun color bleached them. So, keep that in mind. My Mr Right suggested baking them in the oven for a little while. I did not try this. If you do, watch them super close. I don’t know what kind of reaction you might encounter or if it would dry the color out or not.*

The crayons didn’t turn out quite like I’d hoped; but, the shapes are kinda cool and Little Monkey likes to play with them in the tub, which makes getting him all washed up a little easier when he does it all himself. Now, splish, splash, go have some fun in the bath!

Krista

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