DIY Pez Children's Decor/Idea

This is so easy, I am almost ashamed to post a "DIY" about it.

My nephew's birthday party is coming up and he has a Super Hero theme.  I was in the Dollar Store (obviously one of my favorite stores) and I saw these super hero PEZ dispensers.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them at first but I felt a craft urge tingle at the back of my spine and I bought one of each of the ones they had available. 

When I got home, I looked around and found some wood plaques (which would work and those are available at any craft store or Wal-Mart), but I decided to go with canvas.  You can find canvases at any Wal-mart in the craft section or any craft specialty store.  The one I used here was an 8x10 and I purchased it for about $3.

What you will need:
--PEZ (any amount size or style you wish)
--Something to mount your PEZ on (canvas, wood plaque, or even a frame would look really nice)
--Hot Glue Gun
--Acrylic Paint (not necessary if you use a frame)
--Foam Letters (optional)


STEP ONE:
Paint your the area that you wish to mount your PEZ dispensers on the color of your choice.  I bought a big bag of foam letters (approximately 330 pieces) for about $2.50 from Michael's Craft Store.  It lasts forever and it is a good investment if you are wanting to do a lot of crafts in the future.  The problem is that they are in a variety of colors and I wanted them to all be the same.  So I painted them!  This will take several coats but acrylic paint dries fast. 

STEP TWO:
Once your paint has dried place your PEZ dispensers on the area which you are wanting to place them to measure where you would like to put any extra details.  I added comic book style speech bubbles so I could put the names of the Super Heroes in. 

I removed the PEZ dispensers so I could finish painting the speech bubbles with ease.  Because I was using a lighter color on top of a darker on, I had to use several coats.

After the speech bubbles dried, I used some small rubber stamps that I had bought on clearance at Wal-mart to put the Super Hero's in the speech bubbles.  Stamps are not a requirement.  A sharpie would work just as well.  I used a sharpie to trace the bubbles.  If you mess up, you can always re-paint but be warned it may take several more coats to cover up the black.  Be patient!

I originally painted my letters yellow, but decided I wanted a more "newsprint" look to it.  This is the beauty of acrylic paint.  You can change your mind as often as you want!

STEP THREE:

Hot glue your PEZ dispensers and letters in place.

DONE!

DIY Decorative Soap Balls/Hearts

I DREAM about the bathrooms I see in home decor magazines or pinterest. As I've said before, nothing is so bad that a glass of wine and a bubble bath can't cure. I think most women feel the same. Behind the doors of the bathroom is a mother's haven of solitude. Believe it or not this is something I had to teach my husband after our son was born. Because I was breastfeeding I was getting ZERO sleep and my son was attached to me all day every day as well. I would never trade it for anything in the world, but by the time my husband came home... bubbles and solitude beckoned me like you wouldn't believe. Just as I would sink in to my neck, my sweet husband would come in (while holding our son) and sit down next to me in the tub. I would ask him what he wanted and he would say "Nothing, we just miss Mommy". Now how could I complain about that? So I didn't..at first. LOL. But eventually an understanding had to be made and it has stayed that way ever since!

So when I getting soaps/bubble baths/ANYTHING bath related is an absolute treat for me. That's what I love about these DIY Decorative Soaps. I can use them to not only decorate my home, but as an easy cost effective gift to give for Mother's Day, Birthdays, Baby Showers, Bridal Showers, or Valentine's Day. I plan on making the heart shapes in a variety of candy heart colors and giving them to my nieces Leah and Sage (both 6 years old) for a Valentine's Day gift. I will be making my own soap soon and I have a special candy hearts scent I will use.  That, along with my own sugar scrubs, bath salts, laundry detergent, Do-It-Yourself Fe-breeze...anything that smells good :) You do not need to make your own soaps to make your own decorative designs.

All you need is:

--Your favorite brand of soap (some are already colored so keep that in mind when purchasing)

--Cheese grater (I bought one from the dollar store to specifically for this project but you don't have to) 

--Food coloring (store brands are fine)

--Two bowls

--Water

STEP ONE:

Grate your soap into the first bowl.  The large sized grate is fine.  I have found you can make three medium sized balls from one bar of Lever 2000. I did this one bar at a time but you can do it any way you want.

STEP TWO:

In the second bowl, combine 1/2 Tbsp of water with about 4 Tbsp of grated soap.  This doesn't have to be exact. Mix the soap and water together with your hand to make sure the water covers as much of the soap as possible.  Let it sit for a minute.  To save time, (after knowing how many I could make with one bar) I just mixed a full bar (12 Tbsp of soap) with the 1 1/2 Tbsp of water it required and let it sit together before separating it to make the balls. 

This is the part where you add the food coloring if you are wanting a different color than the soap that you bought.  You will need no more than three drops per bar of soap.  I would add the coloring to the water before you mix it with the grated soap.  My bathroom is green, so the color of the original soap was fine for me.  If you are giving a gift, I think having a least two colors adds a nice contrast.

STEP THREE:

Grab a section of soap and squeeze it together REALLY tight to help make it look smoother when you are done.  Use your hands to shape the soap into balls (much like you would do with playdough). They might look frothy at first (because of the mixture of soap and water).  Let it dry and then take the balls in your hand and reshape them again.  In the picture above the front ones were reshaped after they dried and the back ones were before I reshaped them again.  You might like the texture.  It's totally up to you.

At this point, you are done!!

You can put these in a basket, or bowl to use for display (again I think two colors would contrast better for design purposes).

I go to Ross or Marshall's and look in their glassware section.  You can usually find REALLY beautiful glass pieces to put your soap/bathroom pieces (like Q-tips or cotton balls) in for really cheap.  The cut/crystal pieces can really add an expensive look to your decor or jazz up your gift and I usually don't spend more than $3-$5 a piece.

If you want to go a step further.....

I bought this ice cube tray at my local Dollar General for $1.  Its silicone and flexible (which is important) and I know they have different shapes available for new seasons. 

STEP FOUR: 

Take the already dried soap balls and squeeze off enough to fill the heart

Press it in tightly and make the exposed part as flat as you can (clean off any excess).

Because the trays are flexible, all the pressing and compacting will mis-shape the form a bit like the picture above.  Just use your hands to reshape it back to a heart shape.  It's really easy and the re-shaping helps loosen the heart for removal. 

THAT'S IT!!

The more hearts you make, the better you get at shaping them.  These are perfect for that Valentine's Day gift idea I told you about.  Use different colors to create that candy-heart look and even set it out in your own house to celebrate that special day of love!

I think I can ... I think I can!

Hi!  I know you can read a little bit about who I am in the "About Me" section, but for my first official post I wanted to get a little more in depth.  I am a 28 year old Mommy of an amazing little boy who will turn three in March.  I grew up in a small town, and until I became a mommy I worked full time since I was 17.  I stopped working a week before my son was delivered (prematurely).  After he spent 13 days in the NICU, my husband and I decided I would become a stay at home mommy. 

I did go back to work for a short time after my son turned one.  Being a working mommy is HARD.  You miss out on so many things to provide for your family, and you most definitely are not "off duty" when the work day ends!  But being a stay at home mommy isn't a cake walk either.  If has just as many long hours, and you don't get a paycheck :(  Neither way is better than the other. I am a firm believer that there is no "right" way of doing things.  You just have to do what feels right for you! 

I am now a stay at home Mommy and I am venturing into the world of starting my own business!  I craft and create.  That is just a fancy way of saying I make things :-P  I started out by painting my son's room on a small budget shortly after he was born.  Changing over into a one person income AND having a new baby wasn't an easy transition.  To top it off, a month before our son was born we moved into an old family farmhouse that needed a LOT of renovations.  And that costs....money.  The one thing we were short on.  We had to do a LOT of bargain shopping and hard work to get to where we are now.  The hardest thing was being a new Mommy an wanting that picture perfect nursery and not being able to afford it.  So I strapped on my big girl pants....watched a LOT of youtube videos and read tons of tutorials online and got to work!  This is what I came up with--

Fan Blades Before

My son's ceiling before with the painted fan blades up

Closer look at the fan blades

Ceiling painted

You can see the paneling before it was painted at the top, this is the accent tree I created using leaf vines.

We needed to install new carpet so I had all of my son's stuff in his crib

The valences and brorder put up

You can see the old carpet here and the accents I painted under his window

My son's name is painted on canvas

Blinds installed and crib set up

After we transformed it into a toddler bed

Tree with some extra "touches"

My son's dresser

Giraffe from the border I used to draw his height chart

Height Chart

After that, some of my friends asked me to help paint  their children's rooms and make art for them.  These wonderful friends trusted me (someone who NEVER had an art lesson in her LIFE) to paint their entire nursery.  Now THAT'S a good friend lol.  But I think it turned out nice :)  --

My best friend told me I needed to open an Etsy store to see if I could open my own business.  So I started painting.  I wanted to give up SO many times.  Being brand new at this...I didn't know where to begin!  I showcased the art I made for her an my son, and within a few weeks I was selling!  I got lucky and had a $200 order almost instantly.  Not every sale is like that.  It's not a "get rich quick" business.  It's something I do because I LOVE it.  I do it because I love the idea of my son going to school and saying "My Mommy's an artist".  LOL

But crafting isn't just about a business.  It helps you make your home into something that is uniquely yours.  It helps you be able to create things for the people you love and it is TRULY something that is created from the heart.  AND it helps you pocket book too when it comes to the money you'd normally spend on decorating and gifts and such. 

Let's face it, money does make the world go round, but there is a LOT you can do to stretch your budget.  Not just with couponing (although I do believe in coupons!).  I make a budget and I use spreadsheets that don't take any time to create to help me stick with my budget.  I buy designer brands for everyone in my family and I am not talking from reassignment shops (although I go there too!).  But I buy everything for "Walmart" prices.  You just have to take the time to do it!

Time...yeah...time is the only thing there will NEVER be enough of.  But if you schedule your time wisely, you can make the most of it.  I don;t believe in spending hours on end grocery shopping or cleaning your house.  But I am going to be COMPLETELY honest and say that I HAVE done it.  Especially the cleaning part.  I have/can/will probably continue to clean my house for hours.  I'm a mom, remember? 

Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same things OVER and OVER again expecting things to change.  Then I guess that means all of us mothers are COMPLETELY insane.  But in all truth, I think we all already know that lol.  But we can control our insanity by having a routine.  Routines help us take control of our lives, our kids, and our husband's hungry bellies.  I have a cleaning routine that helps satisfy my inner OCD but minimizes the time I spend cleaning.  I'll post more abut that later.

I don't have everything figured out.  Far from it...every day is a new learning experience...a new lesson.  But I give you FULL permission to learn from my mistakes life lessons.  I'm hoping I can help someone ANYONE out there in some small way.  But no matter WHAT...always remember....nothing is so bad that it can't be cured with a glass of wine and a bubble bath ;-P