Ashley - Minnie Mouse Party Part. 1

Hi everyone :)
     The other day while I was in line at the disney store getting Melody her free set of mouse ears I was standing in line next to a woman who was a party planner. We were making small talk and I was talking about how I wanted to get started on making decorations for Melody's party but my husband thought it was a little too early to start since her birthday is in the beginning of September. But she said no, that she starts that early it helps her get everything she wants for her kids parties made. So I spoke to hubby and since she said that and since I started this blog with my sister, I got the green light to start! And I knew exactly where to start, I saw these little garlands hanging in windows and I wanted to make them but I wanted to put a Minnie Mouse spin on them ( oh yes Minnie Mouse again ). Here is what I came up with and here is how I did it.

This is what your going to need:

Scrapbook paper

String ( I had some thinner yarn that I had got for free and that's what I use )

Mickey Mouse hole punch

Glue stick

For tools you'll need scissors, a tape measurer (if you don't know the size of  your windows), and I hung my strands on a shower rod that I had I just hung it in the window and tied them to that.

You're going to need some patience on this first step because you're going to be punching Minnie heads for a little bit lol, especially if you're doing this for more then one window.

Remember any heads you don't use for the window treatments you can use them as confetti :) After all of that you will need to go and measure your window so you know how long you will need to make each strand and how many strands you would like to make. Now grab your scissors and string and get to measuring and cutting.

And now for the last but most tedious step in my opinion. Take your glue stick, your mouse heads, and your pre cut pieces of string and start gluing the mouse heads together with the string glued in the middle of all of them. And you're finished!

You can also make a cute valance like I did with the fabric that I cut for my table runner (you will see it in the minnie mouse party part 2 post ) and dress it up even more and since I used a tension rod for a shower to tie my minnie mouse heads to, it will hide the tension rod! And there you have it!This adorable decor is ready for the party! Have fun!!!

Alisha - Quilt Block update

Hi, this is Alisha. Ashley and I have such an love for crafting that this should be a fun adventure. You can expect to see a lot of posts about quilting, my true love and likely gardening, cake making/decorating, crochet, jewelry making and hair bow making. Since this is my first post I figured I'd get my feet wet by posting some of the quilt blocks I've done this week for various virtual quilting bees hosted on flickr.


This block is for Krista of the Modern Blocks Bee - she sent us the solid black and turquoise fabrics and let us chose our block preference from the book 99 Modern Quilt Blocks (if you don't have this book you should get it!). This is block is best friends and I chose it because the finished quilt is for Krista's friend.

I was able to make a second block with the fabric Krista sent but I threw in a few of my own fabrics as well. This one is Binary and I think it turned out pretty cool.

Dorrie from the To Bee Orange and Aqua group sent out a lovely palette of orange, aqua and gray for her Roman Stripe blocks. I was able to make 2 (I would have loved to do more but I was out of the larger gray triangles). She made a great tutorial for foundation piecing the blocks which can be found here:

Finally I wanted to post a quick update on the progress of my rainbow hexie quilt. This is 254 1" hexies (meaning each side measures 1"). I've been in numerous charm square swaps (and even in a few as we speak) so I anticipate having a huge assortment of fabrics to use. I'm totally excited about how this will turn out. Do you think I should keep the rows straight as seen in the picture or should I turn it on the diagonal? I'm not set on the color graduation either, any suggestions?

If you're interested in following me on flickr you can find me here: Alisha's flickr photostream

Ashley - Minnie Mouse Easter Eggs

Hi,
     It's Ashley again! As you know I am on a Minnie mouse kick with my easter thee this year for my little princess :) So I decided to try out some Minnie mouse easter eggs and they turned out pretty darn well as you can tell.

And the best part is they are super easy to make! SO let's get started, here is what you will need:

White acrylic paint ( I free handed these but if you want it easy and cleaner I would suggest picking up those notebook paper hole reinforcers )

Black spray paint

Buttons

AND Pink eggs

For tools you will need tweezers, glue gun, and a paint brush.

First you start by hot gluing the the buttons to the taller half of each easter egg like so.

The tweezers come into play now, all those little glue strings that you accidently might have left behind you now pick them off. After all those are picked off it's time to go spray paint. When you spray paint these since they are so light they are likely to move on you if you just let the paint rip lol so take it slow and be light on the paint and they shouldn't shift too much on you. While those are drying come back inside and start on the polka dots on the other halves. Like I said if you want nice clean polka dots I suggest you pick up some of those notebook paper hole reinforcers and stick those on there and then paint your dots. Wait until it dries before peeling them off though or you might mess up your handy work. AND THAT'S IT!

Once they are dry they are ready to be filled and hidden for your little princess! Enjoy :)

Ashley - Minnie Mouse Easter Basket :)

It's Ashley again!

     So I have been wanting to make this easter special for my little girl since she is a little bigger and is starting to have certain like and dislikes. She will be 19 months on Easter and she is IN LOVE with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and the little Minnie's Bowtique shorts and so that was my inspiration. I am going to go full out Minnie Mouse! And this is the basket I made after I had made that decision.

Now I can't take all the credit for this one, I got the inspiration from this really cute tutu easter basket tutorial that I found on pinterest so here is where I found it.

http://linsey-organizedchaos.blogspot.com/2011/04/diy-easter-basket-extreme-cuteness.html 

Here she will take you through step by step on how to achieve the amazing cuteness :) This is just my spin on the idea so I thought I would share. Enjoy!

Ashley - Sunburst Mirror

Hi there,
    I am Ashley and this is my first blog ever so please be gentle, I'm going to try to be as thorough as possible so this turns out the best for you. I made this beautiful custom sunburst mirror to help liven up a very bland living room.

It took me a few trips to every craft store in the area and wandering the aisles to formulate a plan on how I was going to undertake this project and this is how I did it. First this is what you're going to need:

A clock face (try to find one without the routered edges)

12 1/4" dowels

1 large mirror

3 packages of small mirror pieces

spray paint of your choice

and wall hanging hardware

For tools you will need something to cut the dowels (if you didn't buy the pre cut stuff), glue gun, hammer, ruler, a drill, and a pen.

Let's get going. First things first you need to cut yoru dowels. I wanted different lengths so I bought the 36" long dowel pieces and then cut them into 10", 12", 14" and 18" pieces. I ended up using 24 dowel pieces. After I was done with that started laying out how I wanted things to be.

This is what I came up with.

Next you will grab your clock face, ruler, and pen and divide the clockface into the same number of sections as you have dowels because you will be drilling holes into the side of the clock face to put your dowels into. 24 sections was a little tricky to figure out but with a little help from my hubby and some patience we got it figured out :)

Now drill a hole every spot there is a line. After you get done with that go ahead and put your hanging hardware on the back. Be aware of the holes so it will hang correctly for you.

Don't mind the paint I was playing with my color choice. Ok now get your dowels out and start gluing and them into their holes.

After all the dowels are glued in it's time to go spray paint, what I did was I did my first coat and I did a cherry red and then took my glitter cherry red paint and put it on top to add a little something.

After it's dry I brought it in and took my little mirror pieces out next to each dowel and started again with the glue gun.

And there you have it! You now have a sunburst mirror to hang up and look beautiful for you!