DIY

Pom Pom Chandelier

I have finally finished my pom-pom chandelier! I was inspired to make this when researching about traditional Polish chandeliers called Pujaki. Peasants used to make these during the winter months in preparation for their biggest holiday…Christmas! Although traditionally made from paper and straw, mine is made from pom-poms because I obsessively make them day and night.

If you are interested in seeing how this chandelier was made, please click over to Small for Big for the full blog post + more photos (one very cool one in particular).

Happy Monday!

6 May 2013By: Barbara Rucci Category: Crafts, Create, Decorate, DIY, Featured Tags: chandelier, pom-poms, Pujaki

Perler Bead Brooch // Mother’s Day

There is nothing fancy or original about these brooches, but they are just so darn happy (and simple)! We give these to grandparents, babysitters and aunts quite a bit. If you have kids ages five and up and you haven’t invested in some perler beads yet, then today would be a good day to start. They can spend hours with these little beads. It is a fantastic project for small motor skills, and for recognizing and creating patterns (I love when art meets math).

Supplies needed:

Perler beads

Parchment paper

Iron

Pin backs

Glue gun

Directions are included, but it’s very simple: Arrange the beads on the pegboard, cover with parchment, iron for a few seconds, let cool, add pin. Voilà!

My kids are really into the glow-in-the-dark beads these days. They really do glow! These beads have helped us through many a rainy/snowy/lazy summer day. I hope your kids will enjoy them as much as mine!

30 Apr 2013By: Barbara Rucci Category: Crafts, Create, DIY, Easy, Featured, Teen Craft Tags: broach, Mother's Day, perler beads

T-Shirt Bunting

With three growing kids, we collect a lot of t-shirts. Some of them end up in quilts, others I give to Good Will. I save many, though, because they are un-hand-me-downable. T-shirts from school walk-athons, soccer teams, variety shows…the ones that no one else would wear. The ones I use for projects!

Here’s what you need to make this bunting:

T-shirts {cut into 4 x 5 1/2″ pieces}

Twill tape in two colors {4 yard pieces}

Rotary cutter + board {or good fabric scissors}

Pins

Sewing Machine

For this bunting, I wanted a Spring color theme. I chose blues and light grays. I cut out about 50 pieces, but only ended up using 21. I laid them out on the table and arranged them in a random order. Then I carefully pinned each piece between the two different colored twill tapes. Using a wide zig-zag stitch, I ran the bunting through the sewing machine. Voila! I would say this project was very easy. You need the right supplies (a rotary cutter really helps, and also a sewing machine), but it is not difficult at all.

I love the end result. It is playful and colorful and I bet you will see it in future photos…lurking in the background. Start saving those t-shirts!

24 Apr 2013By: Barbara Rucci Category: Crafts, Create, Decorate, DIY, Featured, My Home, Recycled Tags: bunting, t-shirt bunting, t-shirts

Circle Paintings + Floating Frame

Today is a very exciting day for me! I am contributing to one of my favorite blogs, Small for Big. Mari calls her blog “A design blog without a snooty attitude” which is not only true, but also one of the reasons why I love it so much. Small for Big has a very playful attitude with just the right mix of design, DIY and shopping.

Mari was so nice to indulge me and let me post about a fun little art lesson for the kids: Circle Paintings! But before you click over to her blog to see how we made these beautiful paintings, I first wanted to show you how I framed one of them. I have always been intrigued by floating frames. Recently, I found this photo on Pinterest which set my wheels in motion. With just a few supplies, and literally a few minutes, this cool + simple frame was made.

Here’s what you will need: Frame (bigger than your art by about 1 inch on each side), wire (22 gauge or thinner), wire cutters or scissors, eye screws (12mm), mini clothespins.

(I picked up everything from my local hardware store and Jerry’s Artorama.)

Step 1: Take the glass and backing out of the frame. Turn it over to expose the back and lay it flat on the table. Center the painting inside the frame, eyeballing it (or you could use a ruler if you don’t trust your eyes). Draw a pencil mark 1cm below the top of the painting and 1cm above the bottom of the painting, (you want the wire to be just below the top and just above the bottom of the painting).

Step 2: Screw in the screws to the side of the frame (the thickest part of the wood). Just push them and turn and they will start to screw into the wood and become secure.

Step 3: Cut your wire about 2″ longer than the finished length. Thread the ends through the eye screws then twist it around and point the ends back towards the inside of the frame (so it doesn’t poke out the front where you could see it).

Voilà…you are done! I painted my clothespins, but you can leave them plain or buy them colored. Now it is time to read about how we made these beautiful circle paintings on Small for Big. And if you’re the following type, become a fan of Mari’s on Facebook or follow her on Pinterest (she has the BEST Pinterest boards, I swear) or Twitter. Her Instagrams are always so fun, too.

Happy Monday!! xo

22 Apr 2013By: Barbara Rucci Category: Create, Decorate, DIY, Easy, Featured Tags: circle paintings, clothespins, floating frame, frames, framing, painting, watercolor

Monster Patches

One of the very first things I pinned on Pinterest when I joined was this image of a monster patch. It’s from a Dutch blog, and I thought (and still think) that it was brilliant! I wish I had thought of that. Marieke inspired me to finally, once and for all, start mending those jeans. For tweens, patches are not cool at all. Luckily, my girls gave me the thumbs up on these.

Marieke’s tutorial is in Dutch, but her pictures are pretty good at showing you the steps. Just trim the hole so that there are no frayed edges. Next, cut a colored piece of fabric twice as big as the hole. I used some old t-shirts thinking that the stretchiness would work well on the knees. Then I cut out teeth from white felt. The trickiest part was getting my hand inside those skinny little jeggings. After pinning the fabric to the jeans (and stabbing myself, like, 100 times), I used some embroidery floss and a large needle to hand sew around the mouth. I went around twice for stability. Lastly, I made two little eyes. I definitely like Marieke’s eyes better, but I ran out of patience. And also, I was bleeding from all of my puncture wounds.

Sometimes, it feels good to just get something done. Cross it off the list. Thank you for the inspiration, Marieke!

17 Apr 2013By: Barbara Rucci Category: Create, DIY, Featured, Recycled Tags: knee patches, monster patches, patches

Simple Signs // Make

My family and friends have seen me make these signs for years. They are my last-minute, in-a-pinch, go-to idea when I need something colorful + sincere – but fast! I would say it takes about 30-45 minutes to make these from start to finish, which is pretty good. Usually my family is waiting in the car while I’m finishing up, but that’s alright. It’s not officially a family outing until kids are screaming and husband is honking anyway!

Here’s what you need:

Large paper (14 x 17)

Colored paper

Pencil + scissors + tape

Hole punch (1/16″)

Twine or Ribbon

To make the sign, fold the colored paper in thirds. The folds will guide you as to the size of the letters. Draw your letters free-hand with a pencil and then cut them out. Cut out any embellishments, like the hearts. Or you can just leave the sign plain + simple. Use rolled tape to adhere. I have tried white school glue, but it dries all buckled. And rubber cement takes too long. I find that rolled tape is just the fastest. Punch holes, tape on embellishments, weave in the twine, and you’re done!

This sign was made for my dear cousin who had an impromptu joint baby/wedding shower. Long story short, she found the man of her dreams a bit later in life and they didn’t want to waste any time!

You can make these signs for birthdays, baby showers, welcome homes….just about anything. I’m already planning my next one which will go on my front lawn and say something like, “Scoop your poop”. I’ll let you know how that goes.

4 Apr 2013By: Barbara Rucci Category: Crafts, Create, Decorate, DIY, Easy, Featured Tags: banner, hand-letters, sign, simple sign

Silk Dyed Eggs

I saw these on someone’s blog recently, or maybe it was Pinterest? The internet is a fascinating place but it sometimes turns my mind into a warped speed slide show. (Hence my one word resolution which is staring me in the face right now.) Ok, so this idea has been around for a while but is a new discovery for me. I bought a kit on Etsy which arrived just in time for the weekend. I made these with my daughter and it was equal parts frustrating and amazing! Here are some tips if you want to make these yourself.

Silk Tie Eggs // Art Bar

First of all, I forgot to read the directions and I hard boiled all my eggs. With this method, you actually have to use raw eggs because you hard boil after they are wrapped. Duh! (for me, not you – because you’re smarter). Secondly, the scraps from Etsy were just a teensy bit too small. We had trouble wrapping them around the eggs. We ended up doing each egg as a team. One person would hold the scraps in place while the other wrapped with the white scrap. It then took two people to twist tie. In the future, I think I will just go to the thrift shop and get some old ties to cut up myself so that I can use bigger scraps. Oh, and one more thing…the tie scraps looked sort of dark and dull to me. But afterwards, they transfer onto the egg much lighter and they really do look so beautiful! We used both white and brown eggs.

Silk Tie Eggs // Art Bar

I really love these eggs. The best part was that I didn’t have to take out any dyes! No dyed hands, no mess to clean up for a change. Give it a try!

{Ages 8 and up with a parent just because of frustration factor.}

25 Mar 2013By: Barbara Rucci Category: Crafts, Create, DIY, Featured, Products, Recycled, Science Tags: Easter eggs, eggs, silk tie dye

Travel Art Bag

We’re back from our February vacation! It was beautiful in the Dominican Republic and we feel so fortunate that we were invited to share a very memorable family vacation with grandparents. Despite several trips to the infirmary for various problems (which I will not elaborate on because I am pretending none of that happened), we were able to relax, read, eat, play and best of all…create some pretty art! I threw together this little travel bag for the trip and it was perfect. I’ll include sources, but you can really just grab anything that you have on hand (or make a run to CVS) and even just put it in a ziplock! My goal was to get the kids to draw and paint from the beautiful nature that surrounded us. (I will share their art later this week.)

Here’s what I put in our travel art bag:

watercolors // colored pencils // washi tape // 1 pencil, 1 eraser, 1 sharpener, 1 sharpie // sketchbook // brushes // tempera paints // merimekko tote

I hope you had a nice little break as well (or will have one soon!). Don’t forget to pack a few art supplies when you travel!

{Travel tip: Remember, when traveling to a foreign country with small kids, curtail the habit of picking off of your kids’ plates or having your kids share any food. Also, don’t share utensils or have the whole family drink from the same water bottle at the airport. And wash hands frequently! Sickness could be spreading and you won’t even know it until it’s too late. And that’s all I have to say about that.}

27 Feb 2013By: Barbara Rucci Category: Crafts, Create, DIY, Easy, Explore, Featured, For Moms, Travel Tags: art bag, art supplies, travel, travel art bag

Homemade Playdough // Glitter Recipe

If you have never made homemade playdough, I hope this post compels you do it already. It’s really easy and cool to make. (By cool I mean sciency and awesome). The kids loooooooove making it, but the true bonus is that it lasts forever and ever! (By forever I mean in playdough-time, which is about 6 months). We used food coloring but you could also experiment with natural dyes.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/4 cup salt

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 cup water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

dye & glitter

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients in a big-ish bowl (big is good because then little people can stir without losing too much). Add the water, oil, food coloring and glitter. We used about 2 tablespoons silver glitter. When fully mixed (it’s ok if there are still a few lumps), pour into a non-stick pan over medium heat. Cook and stir for about 3 minutes, or until the mixture draws away from the pan. Cool until you are able to handle it. Knead until smooth and place in an airtight container (we use zip locks).

{Note: Although homemade, this playdough is not edible because it’s too salty.}

We’ve collected many tools over the years for playing with our playdough. On this day, we used a roller, spatula, potato masher, and an old set of heart cookie cutters.

Playdough never gets boring because it’s so tactile. Even my 13-year old will knead and roll and cut. And there is something about homemade playdough that is softer and even more satisfying to squeeze!

Make some today before Nemo hits (for all of you New Englanders), and stay safe!!

{Here is a video that shows you how it’s made. They used essential oils which is also a great idea…rose scented play dough!}