DIY Garden Mushrooms

Cora loves to look at the fairy garden display at Michaels and a couple little mushroom ornaments caught my eye. The ones in the store were a little pricey for me and not quite what I was looking for, but I thought mushroom garden ornaments would make a perfect DIY. We've also been spotting mushrooms popping up all over our yard and we love checking them out.

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SUPPLIES:
+ Sculpey (I love buying this in larger quantities for our crafting projects)
+ Cookie sheet and oven
+ Craft paint and paint brushes

1 Start by making your own little clay mushrooms. We started by making a ball and squishing it out into the top part of the mushrooms. Next, we mushed a little cylinder in there any smoothed out the sides. I liked to add little lines to the bottom of mine. This is the stage that you need to make sure they stand up on their own. 

2 Bake. Follow the instructions for this. It usually says about 15 minutes depending on thickness. These took about 30 minutes to bake and another 30ish to cool

3 Once the mushrooms are cooled... Paint with craft paint. I liked painting the stem and underside first, letting it dry, then painting the top. The top is obviously the most fun part to paint, so we liked to leave them for the end.

4 Optional: If you're going to put these outside, I would recommend some kind of clear coat to protect the paint from the elements.

In hindsight, I wish I had put a little hole for a stake in the stem. These would stand up so much better if they were inserted into the dirt using a small stake. This should be added during step 1 if you're interested in experimenting with that.

Check out some of my other kid-friendly Sculpey clay tutorials like our DIY Valentines Heart and the Santa Handprint Ornament. They make excellent grandparent gifts and kids love DIYing them.

DIY Painted Backpack

Cora goes back to school this week and I wanted to kick off the week sharing this easy and inexpensive school-related DIY. Two years ago, we painted Cora's lunchbox, so we thought we'd give her backpack a little makeover before she starts Kindergarten. This only takes about 30 minutes and she'll be reminded of the fun we had when she sees her backpack every day.

1 - Tape off the edges, zipper, piping, and any details that you want to keep.

2 - Pick a limited color palette that will not turn muddy (we usually like to stay in the cool colors). We use inexpensive acrylic paints found at any craft store.

3 - Go to town with the paint! My goal is usually to make sure everything is covered with paint while Cora focuses on adding her touch to a couple of areas. Try to keep the layers of paint thin, so it doesn't get crackly over time.

4 - Take off the tape and let dry. We usually have leftover paint for projects like this, so Cora will paint on some scrap papers or add a little bit to some extra canvases if she still feels like painting. 

5 - (Optional) add some finishing touches with paint pen. I showed Cora a couple design ideas and she picked what she liked.  

DIY Pumpkin Patch

This tutorial is so easy and barely even needs a step-by-step, but I wanted to share a couple of tips I've discovered along the way. This post contains affiliate links which cost you nothing, but I earn a small commission from purchases through them.  Thank you for your support of my little blog!

Two years ago, I made this cardboard pumpkin patch for a Trunk Or Treat event at Cora's school. It was so easy to make and I loved the impact that it made. I was blessed with an abundance of cardboard boxes through work and was able to make these from start to finish in an hour with a little help from Ben.

This year, I dreamed of making a wood version of this for our front garden. I knew it would be a little more labor intensive than the throwaway cardboard ones, but I loved that we'd be able to use them for years to come. I'm more into the autumn decorations than the Halloween-themed decorations, so this is perfect.

SUPPLIES:

+ Plywood (I used OSB for mine because it's what I had on hand, but I would recommend plywood)

+ Craft paint (I'm not really brand loyal with this. I usually pick up whatever is cheapest at Michaels)

+ Foam brushes
+ Clear coat (I used this, but this spray paint is also a great option I use for other projects)
+ Sand paper
+ Jigsaw (I have this one and I love it so far)
+ Drill and screws

1 .  Draw a rough outline of pumpkins and use jigsaw to cut them out. Sidenote: I just got my jigsaw and loved ThriftDiving's tutorial on how to use it. 

2 .  Sand edges

3 . Paint. I like to squirt a couple different colors and lots of orange straight on the pumpkin. The different colors give it a little dimension without spending a bunch of time on it. I used orange and white for the cardboard ones and orange, dark red, and light pink for the wooden ones. I think it would also look good with a little yellow or even brown. You can paint the stem brown or leave it brown of the wood/carboard/whatever you're making the pumpkins out of.

4 .  Paint black around the edges black and draw in lines.

5 .  Add a stake using screws.  I ripped some salvaged pallets into skinnier pieces to create a small stake, but any skinny piece of wood should work. I attach them about halfway up the pumpkin. One screw in the middle and one near the bottom.

6 .  Clear coat.

7 .  Display!

This weekend I'm planning on clearing out our front garden and setting all of the pumpkins up for the rest of the month.  Where would you put your own little pumpkin patch?

DIY Painted Lunchbox

It's that time of year! Back to school craziness is starting and I wanted to share a quick DIY that we did last year that I never shared. Cora already had this lunchbox from the previous year, but we wanted to bring a little personality to it.  

SUPPLIES 

+ Lunchbox

+ Paint & paintbrush

+ Tape

+ Paint pen

1 Tape off piping, velcro, and zippers.

2 Let your child go wild with the paints (keep the color palette limited so it doesn't get 'muddy'

3 (Optional) Use paint pen to draw a little pattern over top

The paint has held up over a year full of lunches and  I love getting to see Cora's projects on a daily basis.

DIY Upholstered Headboard and Slipcover

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This project intimidated me a little bit because of the size of the headboard and the cost of the materials, but it ended up being a lot less daunting when I actually was in the midst of this DIY. I was pleasantly surprised at how much easier upholstering my own headboard was than I thought it would be.  This took me probably 3-5 hours to make a queen and two twin sized headboards while watching two kids and taking lunch and water breaks.

SUPPLIES

+ Staple gun and staples (I have a cheap one like this, but my hand was killing my by the end of the project)

+ Plywood

+ Egg carton foam

+ Batting

+ Fabric (I used April Rhodes Indigo Window Crystal for the queen and Two Daughters floral for the twins)

+ French cleat 

1. Cut the plywood to size.  I taped off the headboard size on the bedroom wall to make sure it was the size I wanted. I measured the taped off area and got it cut at the store. The queen is about 5'x3'. I used some of the extra pieces of that plywood for the twin headboards.

2. Lay out the egg carton on the board (I did most of my work with the board leaning on a chair and moving it around so I could go back and forth between the front and the back)

3. Lay out the batting over top of the egg carton.  I added a couple of extra layers of batting around the edge so it was a little more padded.  On the twin beds I was able to wrap the egg carton around it and that would be my preference on my next piece.

4. Staple a couple of times on each side to make sure it's secure and then staple every inch or so all the way around to make sure it's really taught and secure.

5. Lay the fabric down on the ground and put the headboard on top.  Staple a couple of pieces on each side and check the front to make sure it's wrinkle free before going back around and stapling ever half inch or more.

If you chose your final fabric to use on the last step, then you're all ready to hang.  I like to make life a little complicated sometimes, so I wanted to make a slipcover for this.  I have messy kids and we sometimes like to have dinner and movies in bed.  I knew that making a slipcover would make my life easier in the long run.  I originally was thinking of doing something that was kind of like a fitted sheet, but finally came up with this little idea.

6. Put fabric wrong side out on the headboard and pin at the corners and mark where you're going to sew.

7. Sew the corner.  I have no official training and not exactly sure how other people would do this.  I just folded and sewed in a straight line. It looks great so winging it is okay.

8. Sew the velcro strips in various spots around the bottom three sides of the fabric. On the queen, I put a velcro in the middle section, but it isn't really necessary.

9. Attach the remaining velcro strips to the plywood and voila, you're finished with the slip cover.

10. Fold the bottom corners and safety pin it together (this will allow you to take it off easily)

11. Hang using french cleat.