what?!

i decided to make her one. now, i should say that in the process of purchasing materials to make this project i did find a very simple (ugly) version of that lapdesk for about $6. But I wanted a pretty one and I don’t think i even spent $6 making this. this would be a great kids gift for Christmas and on the cheap too! so i thought i’d share.

GUESS WHAT: In the process of writing this post half of my photos got damaged. I cannot recover them and it is now late at night and the lapdesk is already at my parents (little missy will be staying with them and i figured they could haul it up to the hospital easier than us) so, there are some really pretty during and after shots of the lapdesk that this post will now be lacking. LAME.

Materials needed:

-Gessoed Artist Panel (12″x16″) there are several things you could use in place of this and you could probably for a better price go to home depot and by a piece of this kind of board. however, this is already painted white on one side, i used my 40% coupon on it making it $2.60 AND it was the perfect size so….the end.

-Fabric

-Glue Gun

-Pilow Stuffing

-fold over elastic (optional) purchased here.

-cardboard

*I didn’t end up using the trim

1. cut the piece of cardboard down to the desired size you want the “pillow” to be. I left about a 3/4 inch pillow-less board all the way around.

2. spread glue all over one side of the card board and stick pillow stuffing to it (below)

3. cut your fabric to be about 4 inches larger than your artist board, all the way around. (this is a very generous measurement.)

4. fold fabric down on to the cardboard (on the opposite side of the pillow stuffing) on the long ends only and glue. flip it over and it should now look like this.

5. stuff a little more stuffing in. YOU CAN EASILY OVERSTUFF! don’t go crazy.

6. sort of like present wrapping, wrap the remaining sides on to the cardboard and glue down.

7. next i made a handle. i can’t give you instructions for this, because i just figured it out as i went along. but if you know how to sew this kind of thing, this is where you would glue that on. i also suppose you could just use a piece of ribbon.

8. this is the step that i would totally skip if i were you, because really at this point, you’re pretty much done. however, i wanted to give it a finished look on the edges and sew a little seam all the way around. consequently, i broke an entire package of sewing machine needles in the process! but it did make it look nicer.

9. (my photos for this step are in a deep dark computer abyss) fold 3 1/2 inch pieces of elastic across the front of the panel and glue both sides to the bottom side of the artist panel. you can sort of see what i mean by looking below.

This is why I definitely suggest the 12″x16″ panel, perfect size for an opened coloring book!!

LAST STEP: GLUE LIKE CRAZY! I just used my hot glue gun to adhere the cardboard side of my little pillow to the brown/under side of the artist panel. I believe it will stay put. I could probably have stood to use something really strong and toxic, but I just went with the ol’ trusty glue gun. have you ever read the warnings on those strong epoxy glues? ay ay ayyyy.

And now she’s ready for a hospital waiting room!

and these are now the only (poorly focused, bad lighting, not-so-good) photos i have of the finished project.

have fun creating!

-beth marie

-beth marie

happy birthday sweet girl!

-beth marie

a)all of these photos were taken at about 8pm. with no flash on or off camera. getting creative just can’t always happen for me when there is beautiful natural light around.

b)this is a very simple project that may not suit your fancy, but it was exactly what i was wanting and even better my two year “made it all by herselfs” as she proudly proclaims when she sees it hanging in their shared bedroom.

on to the project:

i wanted to create artwork for the shared bedroom that was both somewhat attractive as well as made by my two year old for her and little brother’s room. this is what i came up with.

YOU NEED: a canvas, an iron, freezer paper, craft paint and a paint brush, a two year old(optional)

FIRST: I printed off every letter of the alphabet on to freezer paper (printed on the non-waxy side). I obviously had to cut the freezer paper down to an 8.5×11 sheet since you buy it by the roll. Then cut out each letter. This would be really easy if you had a cricut or silhouette. at the time i did not, so time consumingly hand cutting each letter is what i did.

NEXT: i arranged the letters and then ironed each letter on to the canvas. it took some patience and a ruler to make straight lines as well.

NEXT: enter two year old, strip two year old down to diaper then hand over the paint and paint brush. this is the hardest step for a control freak mama who wants a nice painting. so i let her practice on plain paper first, since i was pretty much going for a “messy/accidental” look this little practice was good enough for me.

i helped her make long straight lines over each letter. once the freezer paper got wet it almost immediately started rolling up. you can sort of see what i mean by looking at the “b” above through the blur. so you only get one or if you are lucky two shots to get a letter painted before moving on to the next.

LAST: i let it dry, took off all the spare pieces of paper that didn’t roll right off as i painted and then painted in with white paint the areas where the paint bled really bad. you’re going to get a distressed look regardless with this technique but there were a few letters that were so distressed not really legible.

then i painted in red the letters of each of their initials. the blue shows through the red a little. I could have kept going over and over it, but i was kind of happy with the way it looked so i left it.

that’s it. simple, messy, two-year-old-created artwork.

-beth marie

it was an honor to get to take his senior photos. and also it made me feel pretty old.

charlie fights in cage fighting matches. and i from what i understand he’s pretty good at it too! so of course, we took a few “fighting gear” shots. they are some of my favorites, you can tell this is more his element than just sitting and smiling when i asked him to.

thanks for letting us talk you into more than just a few photos in one outfit charlie! i hope you love them.

-beth marie

-beth marie

-beth marie

i’ve got 3 sessions left to edit so i’m going to give a little peek at each one until they are all wrapped up!

- beth marie

i was thrown the MOST ADORABLE shower (which i will hopefully share with you soon) over the weekend. One of the activites was for everyone to guess what they thought the baby’s name would be. I really enjoyed seeing everyone’s guesses, but sorry charlie, no one got it! But— If you are looking for a “b” name, here are some good and some not so good names to ponder!

As for the name: We will find out in 3 weeks!

-beth marie