Shrinky Dinks!

I found some Shrinky Dink plastic the other day when I was cleaning out my craft room, so I let the kids play with it. They had SO much fun tracing pictures from their books and coloring them. When they first watched them in the oven it was like watching a magic show - they were really impressed at how fast they shrunk and how it they retained all the color and detail.

Did you know you can make your own shrink plastic and recycle at the same time? If you get plastic containers (like from a salad bar or take-out restaurant), check the bottom. It must be number 6 plastic and it will have this symbol on the bottom: . But, you can use it the same way - cut it out, draw on it with permanent markers (or rough it up with sand paper first to use colored pencils on it) and bake it at 300 degrees for about 3 minutes. Fun, huh?

Wall Art from Designer Paper

When I saw this designer paper I just knew I was going to make these for Chloe's room. It's called "Hoot Hoot" and it has the most darling little owls in it. I just painted the 6x6 canvases green, cut out the paper, and used Modge Podge to glue them down and coat them. I started with the 3, but I think I'll probably add 6 more to have a big square on her wall. She loves them, and I really like how they came out.

Thrift Store Table Face Lift

My kids have been begging for a Lego table, but those bad boys are expensive! So, I was looking through our local thrift store and I found a great table (that I didn't take "before" pictures of because I'm a dork and I always forget to). It was ugly, dirty, dark brown, with plastic casters. But, it had a raised edge on the top and a great slanted shelf on the bottom I figured could be used to hold the Lego bins.

I spray painted it white (with several coats), used craft paint for the top, glued the plates down with Gorilla Glue, and voilla! (Plates found on ebay for $12 for all of them, free shipping.)

Their bins fit perfectly beneath and now the kids can build to their hearts' content. :)

All About Chloe

Chloe had to do a big "All About Me" poster for school this week. (Yes, they assigned it on Monday and it is due on Friday - I don't know if I'm ready for 2nd grade!!) I let her pick out the pictures herself and she cut most of them out and used a ton of stuff from my craft room to design her masterpiece. :) If you have school aged kids, every time Hobby Lobby has their stickers on sale for 50% off, buy some! Chloe goes through a ton of them every year. I think she did a great job.