Distance Mugs Tutorial

Distance Mugs

T U T O R I A L

In Just 3 Easy Steps

SUPPLIES:

2 Solid-Colored, Smooth Mugs ($1.00 at Dollar Tree Store)

Sharpies - 2 to 3 Colors

Internet & a Printer

An Oven

TOTAL COST: Under $10.00

*********************************************************************************

TURN THESE:

IN TO THESE:

*********************************************************************************

Step 1: Go online, to Google Images. Find a photo of the state (Or countries) that you're wanting to incorporate. For this set, I made Charlotte  North Carolina and Embu, Kenya. 

Print out the states. They should be no larger than 3" wide x 2" tall. If they're more of a square shape, I suggest making them 3"x3".

Cut out the shapes to create little stencils. 

Tape the stencils to the mugs. Trace with pens.

HINT*** If you mess up or just want to start over, the permanent marker will come off easily with baby wipes -OR- Finger Nail Polish Remover and a q-tip!

Step 2: Add a little heart (or star) where your city of choice is! Then, make little ------- lines to show the journey from one place to the other! 

Step 3: Bake your mugs at 350* for EXACTLY 30 minutes. 

Allow to completely cool off before you touch them. :)  

B O N U S:

Here's a Care Instructions download! Simply print it out and cut in to 2"x3" cards. Include a card with each mug you make!

Old Drawer - Turned - Peg Doll House

and

Easy-Peezy Peg Dolls

THIS ENTIRE PROJECT COSTS AROUND $20.00

{ F I N I S H E D  P R O J E C T }

SUPPLIES YOU'LL NEED:

old drawer/wooden box

fabric/paper remnants

peg dolls -OR- wooden pieces as I used (seen below)

(I got my Peg Doll supplies at JoAnn. You can try Hobby Lobby or Michael's as well)

paints/brushes

Mod Podge

Any dollhouse furniture/accessories you choose to use

Supplies below are if you couldn't find already-made Peg Dolls and are going to be creating your own.. 

Wooden Balls (with at least one hole) for head

Wooden Spindle (with hole) for body

Wooden Dowel (the thickness of the holes in the above pieces)

Hot Glue Gun

E6000

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Prime your wooden Peg Dolls or Peg Doll pieces. Allow to dry while you do the next steps.

Get your old drawer ready. Mine needed a good cleaning, some stickers peeled off, and I also had my husband add a couple shelves to create "rooms" in the house, although I added these after a few more steps. Adding shelves was a little over my head, but Hubs said it wasn't difficult. And, it's up to you how you choose or IF you choose to add shelves to separate different doll rooms!

Add some color to your drawer... er... I mean... HOUSE!

I used fabric remnants and simply Mod Podge'd them to the drawer. 

You could use fabric or paint or not add anything at all.

             

After allowing the fabric/ModPodge to dry completely, have your husband (hehe) use his nail gun to affix the shelves!  Now it's time to start on those sweet little Peg Dolls!

NOTE: If you bought already-made Peg Dolls, you can skip this step. I could not find them already-made, so I made my own out of wooden balls and spindles. This is how I made mine...

I used E6000 and dowels. I broke the dowels in to 1" pieces. Added a generous amount of E6000 to the dowel and stuck it in the hole of the ball/head piece. Then added MORE E6000 to the other end of the dowel, and stuck it in the hole of the dowel. Like this...

Once I had all my little Peg Bodies put together, I realized that my 3 year old niece (who I'm making this project for) could very easily poke or cut her finger on the dowel INSIDE the doll's body. 

SO, I decided to fill the body (only partially) with hot glue, making sure the dowel was completely drowned in it. ***Forgot to take a picture. Use your imagination. :) 

Now, your little dolls should look like this...

Now, it's time to bring some life in to your PegDolls!

So, this part is really a free-for-all. I chose to paint each doll a different color with different colored features since my over-all theme is 
"Red and Yellow Black and White, They Are Precious in His Sight".  

I used acrylic paint and Sharpie Paint Pens (because I had them on-hand). 

Paint away!

Once I painted all of my dolls, I added little embellishments that I already had in my craft supply closet. One doll got a ribbon scarf, another got a simple button on her shirt, the old lady got a pearl bun on top of her head, another got a large button-beret. 

(L and A are for my niece and nephew, Lincoln and Avila.) 

Now that all my dolls have their own little personalities, it's time to add some character to their home!

I spent the over an hour playing with this dollhouse. It was SO much fun! I added a little picture frame with my niece's picture for a touch of "home sweet home",  

a little faux window-with-a-view (painted a small piece of cardboard with a picture of mountains and a tire swing. Hot glued it to the drawer/house wall.) and added some little curtains (which I didn't sew... I just used hot glue to mend the edges and hot glued it on a decorative straw "curtain rod"). 

I also made a little banner using fabric remnants and a piece of gift-wrap twine I had. 
I'm a sucker for banners 

Added little buttons all over the place (just cause they're cute) and...... 

DONE!!!!!

Have fun creating your own!!!

Easy Character Shirt

T U T O R I A L

(excuse the "just got out of the pool" hair and "it's 110* outside" Koolaid mustache!)

SUPPLIES YOU'LL NEED:

SOLID T-SHIRT

($3-5 at Target/Walmart)

1 pack of fabric paint pens 

(use your Michael's Coupon!)

8.5"x11" Transparency Film/paper 

(yes. You can still get transparency paper. Office Max. $.10 per sheet) 

Any coin

Piece of cardboard or newspaper

(I'll explain later)

SOooo... now you're ready to make a shirt. You've gathered all the supplies above, they're all sitting there on your counter... staring at you... telling you that you'll totally fail at this project because you're not creative... well... neeeener neeeener. You're going to kick this projects BUTT!

Ready? Okay! (why did I just say that in my elementary school cheerleading voice!?)

Step 1:

Make sure your shirt is pretty wrinkle-free. Place cardboard or full newspaper inside shirt. This will stop any paint from bleeding from the front of the shirt to the back.

Step 2:

Go to Google Images and find your child's favorite character. You'll want to search for a coloring page of that character. For example, search Google Images for "Sophia the First coloring page". Pick one that doesn't matter if it get's "mirror-imaged". (So, no text, etc.)

*Exception: If you know how to horizontally flip an image, this won't be an issue and you can choose an image with text, etc.

Open this coloring page. Print it on to your transparency. Must NOT use a laser printer. Needs to be an "ink" printer.

NOTE: There needs to be like NO time passing between the image coming out of your printer and step #3. The longer you wait to do step #3, the more the ink will dry to the transparency. 

Step 3:

Take transparency and carefully place it on the front of the shirt, ink side down. Hold it in place, being very careful not to  move it around, as it will be a huge, smeared mess!

Rubbing the image on the shirt with a coin works the best.

Step 4:

Once you feel your image has been completely rubbed on to the shirt, remove the transparency sheet.

You'll notice that the image is very light, but it's visible. (darkness may vary from printer to printer)

This is the step that I like to do by myself, without the kids' help.

Take the black paint pen (or even a black Sharpie) and go over the image. You can do this. It's tracing. Chill out.

Step 5:

Once the black outlines have completely dried (like, completely)... it's time to cover the kitchen with plastic and hand the kids a paint pen! Voila! Just set your shirt somewhere to dry once they're done coloring it!