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How to Make Easy Fabric Covered Letters for Your Nursery

May 15, 2014 By Jillian Warner

I’m showing you how to make your own easy fabric covered wall letters which are perfect kids decor.  Thanks to Aden + Anais for partnering with me on this post.

A while back I mentioned that I was having a little love affair with some of the prints from Aden + Anais.  I still am.  In fact, I think it’s become a big love affair.  But I’m not huge on nurseries with a strict theme. Which is why making some DIY fabric nursery letters using their subtle yet adorable prints seemed like a no brainer.  Want to know how to make your own easy DIY fabric letters?  I’ll show you how!

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I started with some high quality kraft letters.  I have on a rare occasion seen the odd letter hanging out in the dollar section at Target, but good luck trying to spell anything using what’s available.  So I used the smaller sized kraft letters from Land Of Nod, which go for about $4 a piece.   They have holes in the back for hanging and basically, they’re worth the bargain price considering where they came from.  Now excuse me while I ogle this bedding for Kayla.

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I picked up some batting to make the letters fluffy and plush and then found myself having a Sophie’s Choice moment trying to decide which of the super cute Up, Up & Away swaddles from Aden + Anais to cut up.  Call me a wimp because I could not bring myself to use the one below with elephants and star balloons as it had been my original nursery inspiration and I just love it.

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I cut pieces of the batting, being sure to leave plenty of excess around the letters.  Remember this – if you’re working with letters that have cutouts or empty centers make sure you pull the batting through those crevices or holes a bit before cutting around the edges.  Ultimately, you’ll want to glue the batting around the letters so it covers the entire front surface and the sides of the letter, leaving only the back exposed.

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Once you’ve cut the batting to size, you’ll want to hot glue it on to the kraft letter.  In order to do this without burning your little fingers off, trust me when I say that you need to make sure you have something to press the batting against the freshly applied glue with.  I simply used the handle of my scissors to do this.  If you want something very disposable you can use takeout chopsticks, a plastic spoon, whatever you’ve got.  At this point you’re halfway done with your DIY fabric covered letters!

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Next you’ll cut your swaddle blanket (insert tears here) similar to how you did the batting.  To spell out the word “snooze” which is precisely what I want this baby to do.  I only used one Aden + Anais swaddle blanket for my DIY fabric wall letters.  They are generously sized so it’s nice that you can get so many letters out of a single blanket.

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I hot glued the fabric over the batting and pulled it to make it fairly tight.  Then I trimmed most of the excess fabric that remained.  If the edges look ragged like mine do, don’t worry.  Flip the letter over and see how it looks.  If you don’t have frayed ends popping out, then you’re good to go.  Nobody is going to see this except the wall.  Pinky swear.

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Once I was done I hung my DIY fabric letters over the crib.  Since they are kraft letters and therefore very lightweight compared to wood or metal, they seem over the crib appropriate in Southern California where apparently earthquakes do happen.  Plus with the batting and blanket covering they are downright padded and smushy versus other decor so they pass my paranoid mommy test.  Which is difficult.

And now I have some super cute custom fabric covered letters for this baby’s nursery that echo the bedding I chose and look cute without breaking the bank.  Think you might want to make your own?  Pin the image below and you’ll know how to make easy DIY fabric covered letters when you’re ready!  Until then, check out the full lineup of Aden + Anais prints.

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LEGOS In A Jar Party Favor – LEGO Birthday Party Favor

May 1, 2014 By Jillian Warner

If you’re planning a LEGO birthday party, then I’ve got the perfect LEGO party favor for you.  This DIY LEGOS In A Jar party favor is easy to make, relatively inexpensive and will last much longer than a LEGO shaped crayon!

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Mother’s Day Gift In A Jar

April 29, 2014 By Jillian Warner

Mother’s Day is coming!  This will be the first year that I will have both my mother and my mother in law around for Mother’s Day.  Sadly, I will be at 30,000 ft coming back from a conference for the first half of the day.  Which is why this year I decided not to procrastinate and to think of some fun gifts that  didn’t require me to meet shipping cutoff dates.  Say hello to Mother’s Day In A Jar.  AKA lots of random awesomeness.

DOING THIS! Mother's Day In A Jar - such an easy way to customize a gift for mom with all the things she loves. Gifts In A Jar from Hello Splendid

[Read more…]

Disney FROZEN Popcorn, Parenting and Big Sisterhood

March 21, 2014 By Jillian Warner

If you love Disney FROZEN then make this FROZEN Ice Princess Popcorn which I made as part of a sponsored post for #collectivebias and their advertiser #FROZENFun 

So I’m not going to act like you live under a rock and have no idea that this week FROZEN was released on DVD.  Cue the flocks of little girls dressed in blue tulle flooding the aisles of big box stores and singing Let It Go at the top of their lungs.  Okay, maybe that was just my kid. On the toilet.  While clutching the DVD case and refusing to…let it go…for even a second.  Sorry, I had to.

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DIY Disney Frozen Ice Palace Fort

March 4, 2014 By Jillian Warner

I created my DIY Disney Frozen Ice Palace Fort using Crazy Forts.  This is such a fun DIY castle to make if your child loves the movie FROZEN.

Are you excited about the release of Disney FROZEN on Bluray and DVD?  Yeah, so were we.  So with rainy forecast a DIY Disney Frozen Ice Palace Fort was the perfect indoor activity to keep my FROZEN fanatic super happy.  Also, did you know you can totally download and watch the movie early? Yep, we did that and it made my little Elsa wanna-be the happiest little girl on the planet.  Anyway, if you want to make your own DIY Frozen ice palace, castle, fort…whatever you want to call it, then here’s how we did ours.

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First, we started with a Crazy Forts set.  Maybe you’ve seen them, maybe you haven’t.  I had run past one quickly while shuttling Kayla around town on some errands, but hadn’t stopped to see what they were all about.  Which is why I was very grateful when my friend Rachel Florio-Urso told me about them and how she loves them.  They remind me a bit of a building toy my sisters and I had as kids and I love that they can be built into basically whatever you want. Kayla quickly got to work helping me.

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What I like about Crazy Forts is that the pieces are pretty straight forward.  There are just sticks of the same length and balls to connect them, so it’s unlikely that your child will come up with a design that is all wonky and lopsided.  The balls are covered in holes to allow for a bunch of different angles on their creations.

If you’re low on imagination, then they have a little booklet with design ideas to get you going.  For our Disney Frozen Ice Palace, Kayla and I used the Crazy Forts castle design, which was very easy to follow.

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Now here is where the magic happens.  I somehow found myself in the holiday section of Walmart while picking up some craft supplies a few months back and saw this ice blue fabric with silver glitter snowflakes and on a whim bought it because it reminded me of Elsa’s dress.  Kayla’s eye’s lit up when she saw it and asked me to make her a dress out of it.  That probably won’t happen, but I might attempt an extra layer to add to her current Elsa dress.

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Adding the fabric to the Crazy Forts frame was crazy easy.  I just cut pieces that seemed long enough to drape over the sides and then used Kayla’s little hair elastics.  Again, the nice part here is that if you have kids around Kayla’s age they can be active participants in all of this since it’s very easy to assemble.

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For a finishing touch we used some glittery snowflake ornaments.  Truth be told, this was a box of 10 ornaments that was $3.  Would I put them on my tree?  No way!  Do they look really freaking cute on a fort?  Yep.

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We just used some glue dots to attach them on top of the fabric covered balls and that was it.  Hello Disney Frozen Ice Palace fort.

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Unless of course you decide to be EXTRA fancy.  An hour later I realized I had also bought a couple of these big frozen-looking snowflakes in my “I’ll come up with something someday stash” and they made the perfect icy chandelier to go in Kayla…I mean Elsa’s ice palace.

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Want to make your own DIY Disney Frozen Ice Palace?  Pin the image below and you’ll have it saved when you’re ready!  And if you want to snap up your own Crazy Forts set, you might be glad you did the next time it pours outside on a weekend.

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DIY Crayon & Sidewalk Chalk Flower Pots for Kids

March 3, 2014 By Jillian Warner

I created my DIY art inspiring flower pots – an easy kids craft as part of a sponsored post for #CollectiveBias and their client.

Okay, so who here is totally ready for spring?  If you’re like me then all things green, sunny and flowery are currently swirling around in your brain.  However, for many of my friends it seems that more snow, ice and yuck are on their way.  So I made these cute DIY crayon & sidewalk chalk flower pots for kids.  You can break out the fun and colorful feeling of spring when it’s still snowing outside. I’ll show you how!

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I started with some basic inexpensive 6″ flower pots from Walmart.  While I was there I also picked up crayons, sidewalk chalk, washable paint (since any paint that goes near a child should be washable!) and those cute plush flowers which were in the Easter section for less than a dollar!  Yeah, I was feeling all super savvy shopper-ish.  

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Then at home I realized that genius girl forgot to buy paint brushes.  Oh.  BUT I quickly came up with a convenient and clever (if you ask me) solution to this.  After all, I had a giant box of crayons and the ends of those crayons are perfect little circles – which make perfect little dots when you use them as stamps.  

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This is a super easy solution for kids who want their creation to turn out looking great, but don’t have the fine motor skills to paint dots easily.  Also, I just might be one of those “kids” so yay for forced creative solution finding.

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Obviously, you don’t need to paint the pots, but once you are done with that, it’s time to stuff them with art supplies.  I chose sidewalk chalk and crayons since they both have great indoor uses with minimal mess.  I know what you’re thinking – sidewalk chalk is for…the sidewalk…the driveway…the great outdoors.  Sure it is, but it’s also WAY better for small hands that don’t understand gentle pressure.  If you’ve ever given a young child regular chalk, then you KNOW just how quickly those pieces go snap.

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Here is where sidewalk chalk saves the day.  We use it on our chalkboard and we also have a kids table that I decided to use some really good chalkboard paint on last year.  It’s the perfect substitute sidewalk for inclement weather or before school fun.

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I found a huge box in Walmart for under $5.  Which means that when you calculate the cost on this project, you could totally make these as party favors or less than the typical bag-o-junk party favors cost.  Just sayin’.

I also used a sheet of green tissue paper in the flower pot to keep the layers separate and create a cute grassy feeling.  It’s amazing what a little colored paper will do to up the colorful, fun factor.  Next I bent the stem on the plush flower a bit so it fit nicely in the pot without being too tall and I had a seriously cute looking flower pot.

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If you want to get extra fancy you can add a neat chalkboard label to the pot.  I did simple because I thought it would be fun to put Kayla’s name on it and have it waiting for her when she came home from a “very yucky extra rainy day” at school.  Desired squeeeeee effect accomplished!

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Making my #colorfulcreations flower pot was super easy and it helped that I could grab everything I needed at Walmart in one quick shopping trip since they have a garden center too.  Do you have anything fun up your sleeve for almost-spring crafting?

Walmart Crayola display

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Hi I'm Jillian! A self confessed DIY lover, Mom Guilt Survivor and Cool Stuff Finder living with my favorite people in San Diego.
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