Reupholstered Chairs

We were recently given a table and chairs set for our dining room.  It's a really nice set, but very well worn and doesn't match my style so I am attempting to alter it to match our home better.  I found some really pretty fabric at a garage sale and made my first attempt to reupholster a chair!  I was worried I wouldn't be able to do this, but it's actually super easy!!  

  Most seats are attached to the chair by a screw on each corner.  Remove those screws.  The first step is to cut your fabric with about an 1" to 1/2" overhang around the seat of the chair.  Make sure to iron out any wrinkles in the fabric.  

Using a staple gun, staple one edge of the fabric to the back.  Staple about every inch to two inches apart.  

Then pull and staple one of the corners next to the stapled side in either a triangle pattern or by folding on top of the other side you have already stapled down.  

Staple the second edge, keeping the front free of wrinkles and continue steps until you come back around, pulling and keeping fabric tight.  

Reattach screws and you're done!

Mom's Group Card Project

For a mom's group craft project, I decided to make a couple of fairly easy cards so the moms can either use them or package them together as a gift.  

I got the sketch ideas from a blogger who makes clean and simple cards (but also super cute)!  

I cut all of the pieces for about 20 cards of each type.  I then put the little pieces to each card in sandwich bags and put all the rest of the pieces in a large freezer sized bag so it's all organized and ready to distribute.

I love how simple these cards were to make, but they are really cute too.

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles Birthday Party

For my son, Elijah's, first birthday party, we had a planes, trains and automobiles theme.  The invitation looked like a ticket and all of the info like ticket number was the birthday boy's birth date.  The row, section, and seat number was "CHUG" "CHOO" "CHOO".  Then I made paper airplanes and tucked the blue ticket into the yellow paper airplanes.  Yellow and blue were the colors.

Some decorating things I did were: hanging paper airplanes from lights with a little patch of fiberfill clouds at the top, a black paper construction road with toy cars, homemade signs of planes trains and autos, signs around the house that look like real street signs, I collected toys that the kids already had that had a transportation theme and decorated tables with those, I put candy rocks in some truck beds, some runts in a farmer tractor, some milk duds in a dump truck, at the present drop of there was a sign that said "Cargo", at the goodie bags table there was a sign that said "Baggage Claim", a train that the kids could ride on, we had a sign that looked like a Driver's License where the kids could stick their head through and get their picture taken which I then had printed and mailed with the thank you cards which were a really cute picture of Elijah in a conductor's outfit.

For games we had an airplane throwing contest.  Prizes went to kids who had longest throw, shortest throw, throw closest to a particular target, ...  I was also going to play a game of musical chairs, but make it be musical bus and make the chairs look like a school bus and play "Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round..."  but it was too busy to play that game.  We also did a train pinata.  

In the goodie bags I had pull back cars, rubber duckies that were driving a car, a train or flying a plane, an airplane, a RXR package of roll up gum, coloring pages with a transportation theme,

See the cake I made here.

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles Cake

Here is my finished Planes, Trains and Automobiles cake!  

I did a "road" out of crushed Oreo cookies for the automobiles, a little cone and racing flag on the road, and there was candy that looked like rocks (from the candy store) in the center of the road circle, holding the candle up. 

I added a train track made out of black licorice for the train to ride on, along with a "R X R" sign.  

For the airplane I pinned him in with some toothpicks and covered those up with cotton candy that looked like clouds.  

The frosting underneath it all was very sweet and sugary, not your typical butter cream frosting.  I am still looking for the perfect birthday cake frosting, but this would be really good for a fancy occasion--like a wedding cake.  It also comes out extremely white (although I dyed it green to look like grass).  Click here for the recipe.  I also have some more pictures of my fondant images here and the recipe for the marshmallow fondant (what the images are made from) here.

White Wedding Cake Frosting

Ingredients

• 2 cups shortening
• 8 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons clear imitation vanilla extract
• 6 fluid ounces heavy cream

Directions

1. Cream shortening until fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar and continue creaming until well blended.
2. Add salt, vanilla, and whipping cream blend on low speed until moistened. Add additional whipping cream if necessary (up to 2 ounces). Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles Fondant Images

For my son's (Elijah) first birthday party I am doing a Planes, Trains and Automobiles theme.  To get a head start on some of the things we'll have at the party, I pre-made the fondant images that will go on top of the cake. Here's a few pictures of the main parts (I'll show you the completed cake after the party)...

Everything is completely edible.  Click here for the recipe I used.  I also put on the back of the train a big 'E' for his name, '01' on the race car for his new age, and 829 on the plane for his birthday to make it all more focused on him.  

Christmas Layout

Here's my first Christmas layout for my boy's "First Year" Scrapbook. I was so excited to keep it holiday themed, but also added some fun in there since it is a kid scrapbook.  

The titles:

The journaling: (woo hoo I took the time to actually do it on the computer!)

Some details:

The pictures:

I did a couple of opening photo books to add more pictures to my page....I mean...who doesn't take a million pictures at Christmas?!  I am planning on doing a tutorial on this one soon so stay tuned:

This next flip book is a fold out, and is awesome for timelines--here we are making Christmas cookies and you see the cookies unfold as you unfold the pages!  So fun!  Check out my tutorial here.

So that's picking out a tree and our traditions we do at Christmas....now just Christmas day to do!!

Veggie Tales Birthday Party

For my son's 2nd Birthday Party we did a Veggie Tales theme.  Our invitation read: "Peas come and lettuce celebrate Nehemiah's 2nd Birthday. Turnip Time: ..."  There were red, green, and yellow balloons, tablecloths, and serving wear (which I put into a foil lined garden pot).  I also bought a bunch of vegetables, glued googly eyes onto them, and made them a centerpiece on the tables.  One table was lined with Veggie Tales gift bags I got from from www.bigidea.com.  I also found some little veggie pots that I put candy worms into them (are you getting the veggie/garden theme?).  We were at a park so the kids played in the sand and I brought a baby pool that we filled with water and a bunch of ducks and had a sign that said "King George's Duck Pond 'I love my ducks'" from King George and the Rubber Ducky Veggie Tales movie.  For food we had Veggie Fries with dip, carrots, ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins), chips and tomato salsa, a chicken salad, a little Bob and Larry plate (baby tomatoes and cucumbers), deviled eggs with a piece of celery on top, and quesadillas made with tomato and spinach tortillas that come in red and green colors.  

For dessert I made a Bob and Larry!  Bob is a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting dyed red.  His nose is a red skittle (S down), his stem is three mini green m&ms (m's down), his mouth is a dab of a black tubed decorators frosting, and his eyes are a dab of white frosting with two more black spots from the decorators frosting tube.  Larry is a Twinkie with the same cream cheese frosting dyed green, his nose is a green skittle (S down), and his eyes and mouth were made the same way as Bob.  We had one green and one red candle.

For games I made a large Bob and a bunch of red noses from construction paper/poster board.  We played "pin the nose on Bob" by putting a piece of tape on the back of the noses, spinning around the kids (blindfolded if older), and stuck the nose where you thought it should go.  After they stuck it on, I wrote their name on the nose so we could keep track of whose nose was whose.  I also made a "Giant Pickle" from Dave and the Giant Pickle Veggie Tales movie.  I copied his image from Google images, put it into a word document and then printed him onto two sheets of green paper and a sheet of white and purple paper.  I trimmed him out and glued the colored parts onto the green.  We pinned him to a tree and told the story of David and Goliath from the Bible and then threw red and green water balloons at him until he was "defeated" and fell off the pins holding him to the tree!!  Our last game was a potato race where the kids grabbed a potato (the ones from the table decorations that I had glued eyes onto) and kicked or pushed it across the finish line.  The kids loved that one!  Lastly I had all the kids gather in front of a giant Bob and Larry that I had made with a piece of red construction paper, two green and some white and black.  (It was really easy to make if you have a picture.)  They all sat on the ground and I took a photo of them, had it developed, and used the back of the picture to write a thank you note for coming and for any gifts.  

I made the goodie bag inserts to cut out some costs.  A Veggie Tales Door Hanger.  A Veggie Tales Coloring Book that said each kid's name at the top "Joel's Coloring Book" and "From Nehemiah's 2nd Birthday: July 22, 2010" at the bottom.  A Veggie Tales bookmark that says "God made you special."  I also put in a small pot, some soil, and some lettuce seeds (cucumbers weren't in season or I would have done that).  I folded the seed into a piece of paper and wrote "Grow your own lettuce" which was cheaper than buying a lot of packages.  I recommend folding the seeds up in the paper and taping it shut.  Then I threw a couple of pieces of candy in there.  So fun!!  I also made a document outlining some ideas for the party so that I didn't forget anything and could keep organized.