Flowers to FIERCE

Last month Lucy had the honor of being a flower girl to her Uncle Dan and Aunt Meredith.

Her dress was gorgeous, but where was she going to wear it again before she outgrew it?

She also shredded the hem that night from all the dancing, so it really wasn't in good shape.

For months Lucy has said she wanted to be a dinosaur for Halloween, but I was determined to repurpose this dress. Lucy's suggestion was a dinosaur princess. I one-upped her and suggested QUEEN OF THE DINOSAURS. She agreed.

I first attempted to dye the dress green, but it turned baby blue. Instead I got some fabric spray and it was genius! I even used some orange to accent the bottom. It was very easy to use and true to color.

I sewed a cape with a hood--an amazing feat considering I don't sew--thanks to some YouTube videos. I tried using a pattern, but ended up winging it when the hood came out too small.

I originally was going to reuse the purple ribbon as well, but was shocked to find only ONE dinosaur fabric at the store, which changed our color to orange. What are kids into these days that there could be so few dino-choices available?

We are accessorizing the look with a dino-staff, made from a broken broom, ribbon, glitter and $1.99 pack of finger puppets from Diddams.

Add to that a desire for world domination.

And a fierce roar!!!!!!!!!!

Bow to your queen, minion dinosaurs.

We hope you all have a happy Halloween!

xo Becky

Painted Stones

A couple of months ago my Mom found an old book from when I was a kid called The Bear's Bazaar: A Story and Craft Book, by Michelle Cartlidge. It's about a family of bears who make a bunch of crafts to sell at school. I immediately remembered the detailed illustrations and all the craft ideas. I Googled it and I'm guessing my edition may be worth a pretty penny as I couldn't find one like mine! But I'll save it for Lucy to pass along :) A few weeks ago I saw a picture on my Instagram feed of some painted stones. One of the crafts in the book that I wanted to do first was to do this. And then I started thinking how very British this all seems...

Let me back up, for those who don't know, I'm actually British and moved to the US when I was five. This book from my childhood was written by a British author and the photo I had seen that further inspired my was by Xanthe Berkeley--a British photographer. Also saying "stone" instead of "rock" is pretty British, righty ho?

Here's the illustration from the book of the bears painting their stones:

And one I still have from my childhood:

So the craft itself is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Clean the stones:

Paint the stones:

Embellish the stones:

This was a really fun and easy project and it was really nice to share an experience with Lucy that I associate with my own childhood.

xo Becky

P.S. Please click on over to read about a really important fundraiser for kids taking place this September. Be brave!

A Quick Upcycle Project

I was looking at Pinterest for ideas for a project for Lucy to make using some wrapping paper tubes that were lying around and taking up space. Instead I came across variations on this project, so it became MY art project! I'm not big into "trash into treasure" types of crafting, but I had all these materials on-hand and the project was super easy. The worst that could happen is I throw it in the recycle bin at the end of the day, so why not?

The materials I used:

• 2 wrapping paper tubes

• hot glue gun

• spray paint

First I pressed the tubes flat and cut them into varying sizes between 2 and 3 inches. Pressing them flat made cutting them easier and also formed them into these ellipse-shaped pieces.

I sorted them all out and arranged them by size to get an idea for how many I had in each variation.

I didn't premeditate a design, I just started with a symmetrical middle and built it out from there. I used a hot glue gun to attach each piece and secure all the touching edges. The paper tube was thick enough that I didn't burn my fingers and it as way more quick than using liquid glue.

After I had them all glued together I trimmed away any curly bits of paper and glue gun spider webs. Then I took it outside for a quick spray with silver paint.

In my head before I started making this I thought it was going to turn out HUGE. I should have saved up like 10 wrapping paper rolls for that. Good news is it was so light I could hang it up with a single thumbtack. I could also VERY easily keep making it bigger and bigger over time.

I put it in our bedroom between two large framed pieces of poster-sized paper to make up for the small scale.

Not bad for a brown paper roll!

xo Becky

P.S. This is my 100th post. Thanks to everyone who reads, comments and shares. This has been really great space for me to share creatively and connect with other people, so THANK YOU!!!

1, 2, THREE!!

Lucy turned three this past weekend and we had a super fun party for her. She told me she wanted a "strawberry party," so this is what we did...

Lucy made strawberry decorations...

We also made easy treat bags together...

We got cute Mara-mi table accessories from Target...

Set up a "tattoo booth" with Tattly tattoos...

I made an indestructible piñata that Dave had to finally smash open...

We set up a painting wall...

The kids ate grilled cheese...

And played in the water...

I made these random cheese people...

And a strawberry cake...

An awesome party for my awesome (not so) little girl, Lulu!

xo

Becky

DIY Sprinkle Shoes

Are you aware we are in the midst of a major shoe trend? Fancy tips!

Here's my twist for little girls, sprinkle-tipped shoes.

• I started with cheap white canvas shoes. If this project turned out to be a disaster I didn't want it to be on a $50 pair of Converse (which I plan to do in pink soon!).
• I covered all the parts of the shoe I didn't want to decorate with painter's tape and protected the rest with sandwich bags (since I plan on using spray sealer later I don't want any of the shoe to be exposed).

• Next I mixed up several colors of Martha Stewart's micro-beads until they looked like cupcake sprinkles.
• I covered the exposed part of the shoes with Martha Stewart's glitter glue (meh, it's pretty much identical to Elmer's Glue, but I did appreciate the applicator brush).
• Then sprinkled the beads all over... and waited 30 minutes.
• Next I sprayed tacky spray to get all the nooks and crannies and to get one last final layer of beads.
• I sprinkled beads all over again and waited an hour.
• Once everything seemed dry, I sprayed it one last time with a Mod Podge sealer.
• I waited another hour, removed the tape and...

Pretty dang cute if I do say so myself! I think I might just have to do this to a pair of flats for your truly...

xo Becky

craft boutique!

I've been invited to participate in my first ever craft boutique, sponsored by Leslie of Artsy Fartsy Baby! I'm hard at work and can't wait to show you what I'm making.

Come join us on Saturday, November 17th at 17 Chester Circle, Los Altos.

xo Becky

paper mache

Are you listening to the Joy the Baker Podcast yet? Get on it!

One of my favorite things about the show is the camaraderie that has formed between so many of the listeners. A few months back two such listeners, Kelsey and Molly reached out to the Homefries community for title suggestions for a cooking blog share. Thus, Double Batch was born.

This gave me the idea to see if anyone might want to team up for some crafting posts. To my delight, Helen from About Abode responded and we started  sharing ideas. Not only does she love many of the same things as me - she has a 2 year old daughter named Lucy (just like me!) and is from the UK (where I was born!). A small world filled with like-minded craft lovers...

So here's the results of our Homefries inspired fun times...

Paper mache!

You all know it and it sounds so easy-peasy. When Helen suggested it I quickly jumped onto Pinterest and got all kinds of crazy ideas. Luckily she talked me down from my ambitious idea to create a taxidermy unicorn to a simple bowl. GOOD CALL.

What I used...

• Newspaper
• Flour
• Water
• Mod Podge
• Frying pan
• Plastic wrap
• Spray oil
• "Decorative" paper

What I did...

1. Tore strips of newspaper into 1 x 12 pieces
2. Mixed 1 part flour with warm water until it was a soupy glue
3. Covered the bottom part of a pan with plastic wrap and sprayed lightly with oil
4. Dipped each piece of paper into the glue, ran between my fingers to release excess moisture and applied to my mold

I applied four layers in all, letting them dry in between for about an hour.

Note, I live in California and it was 90 degrees, so my drying time was pretty quick.

After everything was dry and sturdy, I trimmed the rough edges down with some scissors. I decided I wanted to decorate my bowl with more text rich paper. I cut 2 x 2 inch squares out of an Alice in Wonderland book and applied them with Mod Podge.

The end result was cute and simple. I filled it with photos to display by the entrance of our apartment.

Ta da!

Who wants to share a craft next???

xo Becky

DIY felt hair clips

Thank you Sarah for coming up with the idea for me to make hair accessories!

Here's a few inspired creations - easy, medium and hard.

1. Cut out a simple oblong shape and a smaller rectangular piece of felt.

2. Pinch the bow together and secure in the center with hot glue.

3. Wrap the rectangular piece around the center and secure with hot glue.

4. Glue the finished bow onto a hair clip.

Easy peasy!

1. Cut long 1 inch strips of felt.

2. Tie a knot at the end.

3. Start wrapping the felt around the knot, occasionally twisting the fabric and securing with hot glue.

4. Tuck under the end and hide with glue.

5. Cut out some felt leaves. Make them big enough to use as a base to glue all your rosettes.

6. I decided to jazz up my leaves with a little thread.

7. Glue it all to a large clip or headband.

Booya!

1. Cut small squares - mine were 1 inch and 1/2 inch squares.

2. Cut each square into a wide, flat bottomed petal.

3. Pinch the petals and secure with hot glue.

4. Glue the larger petals around the edge of a 2 1/2 inch circle of felt.

5. Repeat by filling in the gaps between those petals with the smaller ones.

6. Make little snips all the way round a 1 inch circle of felt. Fill the center of the flower with a bit of hot glue. Place it on top of the center of the flower.

7. Use a pencil or chopstick to push the center of the circle down into the flower.

8. Secure your hair clip with hot glue. I also stitched mine on since I was using a small clip.

Voila!

Not bad. I only burned myself once with the hot glue gun.

Thank you to the following for your inspiration:

Ruffles and Stuff

Emily Sparks

It's the Little Things

xo Becky

a party for a 2-year old

I LOVE planning parties! Setting the scene in my apartment for an event is like a magical adventure for me where I imagine all sorts of fantastical things. Sometimes it's not always possible to pull off the picture in my head, but I'm always happy when bits and pieces of it come together. I started early in the year gathering ideas. Pinterest is a dream for this, just click, save, come back a few months later and think, "oh, yeah - THAT!"

I'm not all that into theme-ey things, although sometimes (like my Oscar parties, hello?) they can be cool. I wanted the theme to just be LUCY. If I had to draw a picture of what I think "Lucy" means, it would be an explosion of happy colors - yellow like daffodils, pink like cotton candy  and blue like the sky on a perfect day. There would be pretty things galore - flowers, balloons and music in the air.

This is a snippet of this year's inspiration board:

1. I loved the art idea that I saw on jandjhome. The party that her sister put together was super cute! The boxes she lined up like easels looked amazing. Lucy loves art and I knew painting would be a huge hit amongst the kids and fun for the adults to watch.
2. Bunting cakes! I pinned one of these randomly like 4 months ago and now I'm seeing them everywhere. A few of my favorites are on Design Sponge, Bump Smitten and Joy the Baker. I fell in love with bunting the moment I laid eyes on my crafty sister's nursery. Can you believe she sewed that all herself!? Fracking cool.
3. I loved this party spread on Sweet Designs. So summery and pretty. Perfect for a little girl's birthday party!

And so here was what I was able to pull off from the picture in my head:

1. Rather than find canvases or boxes that I thought might be really expensive, I just got a roll of paper from the teacher supply store. It was super cheap and easy to put up as well as clean up.
2. Cake! It came out really cute and I splurged by buying the cake and then decorated it myself.
3. The table also looked good. The party was scattered with mason jars filled with goodies inside as well as outside where I mixed tempera paint with water for the painting wall.

I thought the party was awesome (despite being 95 DEGREES that day). Here are my takeaway tips:

• Buy the cake: I know I tend to over-plan, so I made some shortcuts that cost me a little bit more money-wise, but saved me a great deal of mental sanity. If you're good at baking - go for it, but I had to have some "real talk" with myself. Buying the cake was totally worth it. It tasted and looked amazing and I didn't stress myself out the night before the party worrying over a possibly burnt, ghetto-looking cake.
• Take the weather into account: I knew it was going to be hot so I thought about ways to make things slightly more comfortable. There was a wading pool for the kids which was easy. We also borrowed extra patio umbrellas, didn't serve any heated food and had a fully stocked drinking station:

• Don't BBQ: This sounds crazy as I type it because I LOVE barbecued food, but this only applies in this very specific situation... On super hot days - when you would rather not have smoke enveloping your yard - coming from a hot grill with small children running around - when you're hosting a bunch of people - and would rather have your husband co-host than stand over a grill thinking about sausage. Otherwise barbecuing is 100% a must in my book because it's yummaroo.
• Serve easy food: In addition to splurging on the cake, and because of the no-go BBQ, we got finger sandwiches from a bakery. All the other food was either open and serve, brought by guests or prepared in advance; like fruit salad, crackers and cheese, cookies, cucumber salad and chips and dip - not to mention all the little treats in the mason jars like strawberry Pocky, lemon pirouettes and vanilla filled wafers.
• Combine store-bought and handmade decorations: I started buying bunting garlands at Target several months ago when they popped up in the store. Almost every time I went (which is like twice a week, ha!) I would buy another until I had about 10 to line our long fence on both sides as well as hang inside. The rest of the decor was all me - just simple ribbons and raffia tied onto things and then the cake embellishments:

Lucy had a super fun time. The day ended with her covered in melted chocolate, stripped down to her pull-ups.

It was a great day.

xo Becky

and the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who commented this week to try to win the snuggly burpie and car seat blanket set from Artsy Fartsy Baby!

You all had so many great ideas, but Sae's comment got me right away:

Ok, first of all, this is the third mention in a few weeks that someone has made to me about blogging about hair accessories, so Sae might be psychic. Second, I got so excited when I read this comment that I went pin-happy over on Pinterest searching for inspiration. Third, Sae, I clicked over to your blog and your Etsy shop is kind of like totally AWESOME. So I guess we are both winners.

In the next few weeks I'll put together a hair band extravaganza post, chock-full of crafty ways to adorn you or your child's hair.

Congrats again to Sae and thank you to Leslie for providing such fabulous prizes!

xo Becky

DIY instagram coasters

This weekend a project struck me like a lightning bolt and I dashed off to the hardware store. After staring down at our broken coasters I had a mission:

Decoupage coasters! So easy...

Materials used:

• Ceramic tiles (only 16 cents each, oh my!)
• Printer paper
• White glue
• Acrylic sealer
• Cork shelf paper

Tools used:

• Paper cutter
• Printer
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Glue gun
• Sponge brush

I printed my photos straight onto printer paper, thinking it would react and bond more easily than glossy photo paper. I then trimmed the images with my paper-cutter and prepared my decoupage glue. You can buy pre-made mixtures, like Modge Podge, but I used what I had on-hand and simply mixed warm water with white glue at a 1:3 ratio.

Next I used a sponge brush to lightly mount, then coat each image onto the tile. I did 2 coats total. This is what they looked like while they were drying:

After the glue dried I sealed and glossed them up with a water-based polycrylic. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I used printer paper or the wrong kind of sealer (future experiments with materials will tell), but the images started to crackle. The good thing is that I actually liked the end product:

After everything was nice and dry, I sliced and diced some cork shelving paper and glued it to the bottom of each tile. I didn't even know that cork board shelving paper existed until I approached the craftiest looking employee in Home Depot and she showed me just the thing I needed. I'm sensing this epiphany will lead to many more projects.

I L.O.V.E. this project and can't wait to make more. I'm crazy about the personal touch that has been added to my coffee table and I think future sets will make amazing gifts.

xo Becky

UPDATE: Since writing this post I've made many more sets of coasters. I've had the best results using Mod Podge decoupage glue, followed by a final gloss seal. All the photos I've used have been on printer paper, but I'd love to hear your results from using photo prints!

label love

I first met a label maker when I worked at a preschool. We casually made eye contact, but we both knew that something life changing was about to happen. As I reached over to touch those rubber buttons and heard the sound as the laminated tape was expelled, complete with crisp black lettering and sticky backing, oooohhh.

One of the most exciting days of my life was when the school's Director asked me to help organize the front office. I went LABEL CRAZY. To my heart's content almost 8 years later those labels and Ikea boxes are still in place. As perfect and label-ey as the day I lovingly applied them.

In an attempt to (somewhat) keep order in my apartment despite an overflow of toys, it was time to get my label on.

I found these paper tags at Staples, made by Martha, of course. If you find them tempting, you may not want to go check out the rest of her line of products as it left a wee bit of a dent in my wallet.

I had these tags up for a few weeks and posted a picture on Instagram. A friend commented that her son would rip them off in about 2 seconds. Although Lucy has been extremely respectful, I decided to put my handy dandy laminator to use and reinforce the labels.

And here's what it looked like...

I wish the pictures were a little snazzier, but my DSLR was on the fritz, so I used my phone. C'est la vie, this blog is a work in progress like so many parts of my life.

What do you like to slap labels on?  Show me your pictures on Instagram, Flickr, Facebook or Twitter! (I'm beckycat1 everywhere - yeah, I'm #1).

xo Becky

i heart words!

I love words, letters, fonts, typography, lists, pens, paper... LOVE it! If you do too, you have to play with Wordle. This word cloud application lets you play with fonts, apply custom colors and play with a huge array of layouts. I really had way, WAY too much fun with this. Simply cut and paste any text - then play! I pasted in the URL of Clean White Paper and here are the results:

I'm not sure why "one" comes up so often. Apparently I say "cute" a lot too!

• You could use this as a writing tool to see what words you over-use
• Run your blog URL to see where your writing focus lies
• Get out of a writing rut by mixing it up
• Make a personalized card for someone by typing in words about them
• Create an inspiration board

I also used it to create a custom poster for Lucy where I wrote about her favorite things, some of her first words and other things I love about her:

Seriously, endless possibilities. Prepare to get sucked in...

xo Becky

happy valentine's day

xo becky

princess for a day

Not so long ago I wasn't Becky. For over ten years I was Miss Becky. Working with kids, teaching and playing and crafting, oh my! And what was Miss Becky most famous for? Her crowns.

So what a happy day it is that my friends' kids are finally old enough for me to adorn with glitter!!

As soon as I heard the party theme was "rocker girl," I was all over it. I hit up the craft store and this was my loot:

1. Black & silver star patterned scrap booking paper
2. Zots: The perfect don't-have-time-to-wait-for-glue-to-dry solution
3. Goop glue: This one was so-so. I'm still searching for the perfect glue...
4. Glitter glue pens: This is the kind I wish I had!
5. Foam mounting tape (for crown sizing - I usually use this or velcro)
6. Stud trim (how freaking cute is that?)
7. Glitter ricrac
8. Scissors: I didn't actually buy these that day, I've had them for years and just wanted to say how rad they are

...all atop a piece of purple poster board.

I actually bought more stuff than I needed because I decided to go with a pretty simple design.

I was SO excited to start cutting out letters (it's my all time favorite crafty thing to do)...

And then use the mounting tape to secure it on sight when you see the birthday princess.

Voilà!

The party was super fun. Complete with tattoos, guitars, saxophones and microphones for the kids to rock out on.

And of course Lucy rocked it out hardcore. That's my girl.

slap some paper on it

My very wise husband once suggested to his mom that she buy me "elegant paper" for my birthday. A funny choice of words, and yet so perfect.

I love paper. Especially the fancy kind. If I could have a shopping spree anywhere Paper Source would definitely be on my top 10 list.

Finding time for crafting is hard once you have a baby, but something as simple as slapping some scraps of pretty paper on something quickly elevates it to something beautiful to have lying around your home.

Point in case, the crayon collection:

How easy is that?

Slapping Some Paper on Something: Level 2

Decoupage! Again super easy and only takes a few minutes more of preparation.

I wanted to cover up my baby wipe holder. Even the decorative ones in the store still seemed like an eyesore to me and the ones I could find online were a bit much - covered in tassels and other bejewelments.

I cut up a large piece of patterned paper. Make sure you use a paper that is thin and easy to saturate with the decoupage glue. I got my glue from the fabric store but you can also make it by mixing equal parts of white school glue with water. Simply apply the dampened paper - not too much at first so you can still make adjustments, then satuate and mold all the paper to your surface. I ended up having to do three layers in total so the labels on the wipe container were no longer visible.

Tada!

halloween!

I love Halloween. I love the candy, the decorations and all the dressing up. What's even more fun than that? Dressing up an adorable baby.

Last year Lucy was a cozy lion. This year we went to fairy land.

This was the original loot gathered to make Lucy's fairy costume (all purchased at Target for under $20) - all inspired by these adorable wings purchased at the Renaissance Fair (for a price that I wish was closer to $20). The dye is from the fabric store.

You'll see in a moment that I pull a switcheroo. The tights pictured above did not work out at all. I bought clothes I thought would be comfortable and then dye them to match the wings. I got it stuck in my head that I wanted to do striped tights. My first attempt didn't work. Then, "take two" with some white leggings:

Success! And pretty cute, huh?

Finally, a fairy princess.

Today is still just the 30th, so there is still more fun to come. I just couldn't wait to share a sneak peek.