DIY Wall Art

Looking for inexpensive ways to spruce up your bare walls?  I love this wall art Rose created using scrapbook paper! 

Thanks, Moneysavingmom!

DIY Little Girl Room Decorations

It's AMAZING what you can do with ribbon, canvas, paint and buttons!

Over the past few years, here's a look at what we've created in Britain's room.

DIY Baby Picture canvas - Super simple unconventional "picture frame" for your child's baby picture.  I used ribbon gross grain ribbon for the borders, a scrapbook sticker for decoration, a baby picture of Britain, paint and gross grain ribbon to hang the picture.  I also dipped a small magnet in paint to make the polka dots. 

DIY British flag canvas decor - Chris made this beautiful British flag painting for Britain when she was only a year old.  Easy to do with a pencil (for drawing the lines on first) and paint.

DIY Butterfly button canvas decor - My amazing sister had this idea.  She bought the canvas and buttons and made this cute butterfly canvas with Britain's help.  They loved doing the project together and it turned out so well.

DIY Wooden Hair bow holder - Walmart, Michael's and most craft stores sell large wooden letters.  I painted the letter and hot glued a piece of wide gross grain ribbon to the back of the letter so it would hang down about 6-8 inches.  Simple way to keep hair bows in one spot!

DIY Curtain ribbon tie backs - Super easy curtain tie backs made using wide gross grain ribbon and hot glue gun.

DIY Painted Pottery Cross - A good friend made this beautiful cross at Third Coast Pottery before Britain was born.  We have it hanging over her bedroom door.

Gift idea: Cute Chalkboard Plate

I saw this CUTE gift idea here (instructions included) a few months ago and finally decided to make a few!  These are easy, inexpensive gifts to make!

You'll need:
Plate ($1.99 at Target)
Easel ($1 at Dollar Tree)
Chalkboard spray paint ($6.99 at Jo-Ann-I had a 40% off coupon so it was $4.19)
Blue painters tape

We gave them to the kid's teachers as end of the year gifts.  I found the decorative round magnets (below) at Michael's for $1 each and glued them on the bottom of the plate to give it some color.  Then, I wrapped up 3-4 pieces of chalk in pretty flowered ribbon and included them in the gift bags along with the chalkboard plate and easel.  

Cute Binder Clip Craft Idea

I caught a few minutes of a craft show on HGTV or one of those channels the other day and they were making CUTE picture holders out of medium sized binder clips.  This afternoon I was digging through some of our craft supplies and found a clip so I decided to try this idea.  It literally took me less than two minutes to glue scrapbook paper and a sweet little flower on the clip and VOILA!  Here's another idea on sale at Etsy.  These would make cute teacher gifts!

Fun Fruit & Veggie Motivator for Kids

This is a GREAT craft to do with your child(ren). It's always a challenge in our house to get the kids to eat more fruits and veggies. So, Britain and I got out some old magazines and started clipping pictures of fruits & veggies. We made a pouch out of cardstock, glued the picture cut-outs onto smaller pieces of cardstock and glued popsicle sticks on the backs. I made a deal with them. The goal is to eat at least 4 fruits & veggies per day. When they reach 50 (I'm keeping track), we'll do a fun family outing together to celebrate. I'm thinking Monkey's Treehouse, JumpZone, the Zoo, etc.

It's really been a great motivator! The challenging part for me is to stay on top of it! It really helps to have a visual reminder in the kitchen that we can all see. I love challenging them to try new fruits/veggies they haven't had before. The staple fruits and veggies we keep on hand at our house are: bananas, grapes, apples, baby carrots and strawberries.

You'll need:
Popsicle sticks
Glue (Elmer's works fine)
Cardstock
Markers
Magazine cut-outs of fruits and veggies
Ribbon

How do you motivate your child(ren) to eat or try new fruits and veggies?