Party Table Cover Flower Pouf

Phew!  Been a busy few weeks with moving my oldest baby out of his dorm, preparing for Prom for my baby girl and helping out with After Prom (sure not use to being out until 5am), then field trips, track and field day, and school picnic for my lil' man.  It's been crazy.

Well, now I'm preparing to host an ice cream party for my lil' man's kindergarten class as an end of the year party.  I've been running around getting bowls, buckets, candies, and making some decoration.  We don't have a big budget so I'm trying to use my creativity by making a flower decoration using party table covers.

Normally, tissue is what is used for these flower poufs but I decided to use plastic party table covers so that the teacher can use it again next year.  She can flatten it and next year just pouf it back up.  If it gets wet, just let it dry.  No problem.  Here's how I did it....

You'll need a plastic tablecloth, scissors, & string.

Cut the sides open so that you have individual sheets of the tablecover.

Fold over and cut it in half.

Start fan folding the tablecover.

Tie off in the middle.

Here it is tied off and fan folded.

Begin to pull apart each plastic piece.  Twist and turn any way you want.

Here is one half of the pouf separated.

And here it is all poufed out and ready to hand or taped to a wall or table.

I am making a few more in the colors of the ice cream party theme.  I will post pictures up after our party so you all can see my plastic poufs and our ice cream party decoration.

Until then...

Peechee

Portal's Companion Cube using Case-ons

During a craft show, I met a talented man who created some plastic pieces that you attach to CD cases to make ... well whatever you can come up with.  You could make a vase, a small storage box, a shelf, an art display. Pretty much whatever you can think of. This is what I came up with ... a companion cube from Portal the game.

I printed the cube picture, added them into the CD, then attached the clips and tah-dah!  A Portal Companion Cube.

So, these special clips are called Case-ons and the creator describes them as legos for your CD cases. Here's a picture of the clips...

So far, it only comes in the colors shown.  However, the creator gave me a tip that I could take colored markers and color the white ones so it could match whatever I wanted it to.

Here's a few other pictures of what has been created using case-ons...

So cute ... personalized the cd's with pictures.

 Want to give these clips a try?  Visit Case-Ons to place an order and to see all the wonderful things you can do with them.  If anything, it's a nice way to display your music CD's. Let's not forget ... it's recycling too.

Peechee

Free e-book on t-shirt recycling

Here's a link to a free e-book called 9 Ways To Transform Your Old T-Shirts by AllFreeSewing.  Nice ideas and heck ... it's free.

Enjoy!

Peechee

Duct Tape Hairbow - say no to heat!

I love, love duct tape.  I think I must have every color and style.  Problem is I just kept buying them but not really making anything from them.  Found some time and create these hairbows ...

I think they turned out so stinkin' cute.  Enough so that I tried selling them at a flea market that I attended today.  I sold a handful and got lost of compliments.  However, I did discover something about duct tape ... they don't mix with heat too well.  For a short time, my bows were sitting under the sun and they started to peel apart (check out the yellow arrows) ...

So for future reference for duct tape creators out there (in case you didn't know), keep them away from the heat.  I was able to stick them back together easily once I removed them from the sun and they stayed together once cooled.

Planning on making a few more things with the duct tapes, so stay tuned.

Peechee

Soda Bottle Garden Art

I did an Earth Day activity with my lil' man's class using, what else, what would be trash items and this is what the kids created...

 Aren't they beautiful?  Here were our tools...

First I asked the children to paint a green stem.  As you saw, some stems were really large and others really long.  But that's ok because it is all about the process not the product.  So yeah ... after painting the stem, I showed them how they could dip the bottom part of the soda bottle into the paint and stamp it on top of their stems.  I offered different bottles for different flower looks.  I also showed them how you can flip the soda bottle over and dip the top of the bottle to make the inner circle part of the flower when stamped.  They did some with the cap on for a filled-in circle and some with the cap off for a hollow circle stamp.  For the leaves, I cut up a paper towel tube and flattened it a little, had the kids dip one end and ta-dah... leaves! The kids loved doing this project and they did turn out great.  It's Recycle Art!

Milk Jug Butterfly suncatchers

We go through a lot of milk in our house since there are so many of us and my recycling bin quickly gets filled up with milk jugs.  For a while I have been wanting to recycle these jugs into something else.  I have a few ideas but started with these butterflies.

First I cut apart the milk jug with regular kitchen scissors.  It cuts so easily.  I kept the flatter parts of the jug.  Then I made a template of a butterfly and cut out the shape on the milk jug.  From there, lil' man and I made our own designs and colored them in using sharpie colored markers. Once done, we punched a hole at the top of the butterflies so we can hang them in the window as our suncatchers.

Here they are hanging in the window.  Not the best picture since it is cloudy out and you see my neighbors siding and power lines.

Anyhoo ... I think they look awesome!  BUT be careful handling the butterflies because the colors easily scratch off.  I'm wondering if spraying them with a clear coat would help ... or sanding the surface down first.  Hmmmm... time for some experiments.

Peechee