What's up, Chuck?

Hi everyone!

How was your weekend?  Ours started out fun and ended a bit stressful.  Friday night a friend kindly volunteered to watch Chuck, so hubby and I went on a real date.  (Thanks Melissa!)  On Saturday we had fun with some friends at an Easter egg hunt in Hoboken.  (See photos below.)  Then, on Sunday I got stressed out by a guest post that I'm writing for another blog.  (I'll share more details about that later this week.)  I was really struggling because none of my craft ideas were working out.  Thankfully hubby helped me to keep my cool and everything ended up working out in the end... phew.

Here are some photos from the Easter egg hunt.

Thanks Olena for taking this photo!

More than 2,000 people attended the event.  Can you spot us in the crowd?

After this photo was taken, Chuck tried to hop in the pool with the ducks.

I love boy bonding time

Forget the Easter eggs, bring on the hay!

Counting our loot

Everybody left tired and happy....

    

Hubby makes a rollie pollie chair

A few days ago I shared that hubby and I engaged in some friendly competition.  Both of us wanted to make kid friendly furniture for Chuck.  I came up with the idea to make a chair out of pvc pipes.  Hubby followed these directions and took another route.  He made a rollie pollie chair

This chair may look like a beanbag chair, but it's not.  It's filled with stuffing instead of beads.  (Basically, it's one huuuuuuge pillow.)

 <<UPDATE!  4/8/13-  We un-stuffed the rollie pollie chair and exchanged the stuffing for a laaarge  bag of Styrofoam beans from Walmart.  We noticed that Chuck was kind of just bouncing off the chair whenever he tried to sit on it.  Now he sinks in nicely and it's way more comfy.>>

So who wins?  Well... while Chuck easily sits in my chair,  he'll outgrow it in a year or two.  Hubby's rollie pollie is too big for Chuck to use right now, but he'll grow into it some day.  (I'm getting it ready  for him by napping on it now.  Zzzz...)

So I guess this round of friendly furniture competition ends with a draw.  Admittedly both chairs have their drawbacks, but I'm proud of what we accomplished.

Have a great weekend!

Make a Cardboard Bunny Tissue Box Holder

With Easter just around the corner, bunnies, chicks, and carrots seem to be  popping up everywhere.  Since I had some practice crapting a whale tissue box holder, I thought I'd try making a bunny tissue holder for Easter.

Meet Pinky.  

This little rabbit is my newest cardboard animal creation.  

She's super girly and cute.

And bonus- her tail provides comforting tissues when you sneeze.

Chuck can't resist pulling on her tail...

Want to crapt your own?  Read on!

Materials:
- cardboard (not bent, in good condition)
- pencil
- exacto knife
- self healing cutting mat
- scissors
- packing tape
- ruler
- paint
- paint brushes
- Sharpie markers
- Mod Podge

Directions:
Step 1:  Measure and cut out your pieces from cardboard.  (See pdf below) You'll need:
a.  1 long rectangular piece (15 3/4 inches x 5 1/2 inches)
     - folded lengthwise every 5 1/4 inches
     - with two tiny, thin rectangular holes cut out from middle section (for ears)
     - with two rectangles cut out from each side (for feet)

b.  2 identical ear pieces (about 4 1/2 inches tall)
     - bent 1/2 inch from bottom
     - two tabs cut at bottom (tape tabs down to attach ears)

c.  1 bottom piece (5 1/4 inch x 5 1/2 inch)
     - sides will probably be trimmed down and corners rounded when you assemble pieces

d.  1 front and 1 back piece (5 1/4 inch x 5 1/4 inch)
     - rectangle cut out from bottom of both pieces (for feet)
     - circle (approx 1 1/2 inch in diameter) cut out from back piece (for tissue tail)

Bunny Tissue Holder Measurements

Step 2:  Bend the long piece into three equal 5 1/4 inch parts.  (I found that it helped if I first scored the cardboard with my ruler or scissors).

Step 3:  Carefully tape front piece in front of your bent piece  (It was easier to maneuver smaller pieces of packing tape.  Try your hardest to make sure that the tape sits right against the cardboard.)

Step 4:  Attach bottom piece with tape.  Before taping, make sure that your tissue box fits into your construction.  You may need to trim the edges of the bottom piece and round off some corners to make sure that it fits.  (Honestly, I wish I trimmed a bit more off my bottom piece.  It's still slightly too wide and it pushed the sides out in a funny way.  So, I ended up taping them down from the outside... which ruined the effect a bit... )

Step 5:   Place your tissue box into the cardboard container.  Then, attach the back piece with packing tape.  (First I taped the top of the back piece to the bent long piece.  This created a nice hinge effect and the back piece could open and close.  I could have left it like that, but with Chuck on the loose it was safer if I taped the feet portions together too.)

Step 5:  Paint your piece.  (Honestly, I liked the au natural look.  But, pink just felt more spring-y, so I went with it.) To protect the tissue tail, push a plastic bag into your hole.  Pull it out when you're done.  Don't forget to use Mod Podge to protect your paint job.

And there you have it- some bunny to hand you tissues when you need them.  (Har, har, har.... )

Make a toddler chair out of pvc pipe

For the last month we've removed our sofa's cushions on a daily basis.  Chuck likes sitting on the sofa and watching tv, but it was too tough for him to climb up with the cushions in place.

We didn't mind him sitting that way, but we figured we should get him some kid-sized furniture.  And then a DIY light bulb went off in our heads.

Why buy him furniture when we could make our own?

Hubby and I had two different furniture concepts, so we ended up with two solutions.  Since hubby's project is 90% completed, I'll post up his solution later.  Here's how I chose tackle the problem:  a toddler-sized chair made out of PVC pipes and fabric.

Front

Side

Back

Cute, right?  I love it.  But honestly, I can't take much credit for its creation.  All I did was follow Que Linda's super clear directions and assemble the pieces.  Our uncle cut the pipes (thanks Tito Ric!) and hubby sewed the fabric (thanks hubby!). So they're really today's star crafters.

As you can tell, Chuck loves his new seat.  He's certainly one happy customer.

Make shrinky dink charms (out of number 6 plastic)

Can you believe that these charms were once take out sushi lids?

Well, it's true.  I've been saving number 6 plastic containers for awhile because I wanted to make shrinky dinks.  (Number 6 plastic is usually found in takeout containers.  You know it's number 6 because it has a "6" printed in it.)  This past weekend I finally had enough plastic lids, so I took the crapty plunge.

Want to try this crapt out too?  If so, read on:

But first, a cautionary note:
Most craft bloggers seem to say that it's ok to melt this plastic in the oven.  However, there are a few who worry about toxic fumes being released.  I went with the majority's opinion and tried out the  craft.  I just wanted to put that out there....

Materials:
- Number 6 plastic
- Permanent markers
- Scissors
- Hole puncher
- Aluminum foil
- Baking sheet
- Jump ring (and jewlery pliers to apply jump ring)
- Optional:  Mod Podge or clear nail polish (see step 7)

Directions:
Step 1:  Wash and dry your number 6 plastic containers.  Make sure to get rid of any sticky sticker residue.

Step 2:  Draw your design.  (I found some pendants from online stores that I liked and I doodled those images on paper first.  Then, I placed my piece of plastic over the doodles and traced and colored them.  All my original images were about 2 inches long.)

Step 4:  Cut out your images.

Step 5:  Hole punch your images.

Step 6:  Place your charms on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil.  Bake them at 350 degrees for about 3 minutes.  (Each charm will initially bend and curl.  But then they will flatten out and stop shrinking. If a piece isn't fully flattened when you pull it out of the oven, you can always quickly push it flat yourself.)

Step 7:  Let your charms cool.  Then, add a jump ring to each one.

Another word of caution:  You have to handle the charms with care because the ink can rub off.  I tried protecting my work with Mod Podge, but got mixed results.  Some charms seemed alright, but the color rubbed off of others.  I also tried sealing some charms with clear nail polish.  But, I noticed that the nail polish smeared some of my images and not others.  So.... I'm not really sure how to seal them so that the images last.... Hrmm.... let me know if you figure anything out...

Happy crapty shrinky dinking!  Let me know if you try this out!