PVC + 5 Gallon Buckets = Great Toy Storage!

Here's a quick and easy PVC solution and a fun way to store toys or anything else...

Vivian LOVES putting things away these days...I can only hope that habit will last!  So I thought of making a small (but expandable) "storage shelf" that she can reach and where she can put balls and various other toys.  This project took less than an hour.

Materials needed:

• 1" schedule 40 PVC pipe.  They sell this in 10' increments which is just about exactly what you need for this project.
• 4 x 1" PVC slip tees
• 6 x 1" PVC slip elbows
• 1 x 1" PVC 4-way cross connector
• 2 x 1" PVC end caps
• PVC Pipe cutter (I use a table/chop saw because I cut a LOT of PVC)
• 3 x 5 gallon buckets (can get at hardware or superstore in paint section)

When I have just a few cuts to make in a 1" or smaller pipe, I will use a pipe cutter.  These range from VERY affordable to my favorite thing...the chopsaw...

 

1. Cut 10 pieces measuring 10  inches
2. Cut 2 pieces measuring 4 inches
3. Cut 3 pieces measuring 2 inches
4. Assemble as shown

 When adding the buckets, put the buckets face-down and bang the pvc onto them for a snug fit.

You could also paint the whole project now that there is awesome spray paint that bonds to plastic!

MacGyver Gift Idea Today, Magnetic Chalk Board Cookie Tray!

Beyond Viv's new obsession with chalk (just hoping she figures out how to enunciate the "H" sound soon!), she LOVES magnets.  One day she just plopped down in front of the fridge and started arranging the magnets...taking them off and on again and putting them all into a bucket.  I then started gluing random things to magnets so I would have even more of them!

 So a little while ago I made a chalkboard with a nice wooden frame and a "windowbox" that holds chalk (and whatever else Viv wants to put in there).  It's not too lightweight or portable so I thought I'd make the "travel" version.  I'm pretty pleased with the finished product.

This one was really simple and easy.  I bought a tray at Family Dollar (but I recommend getting one even cheaper because the non-stick coating won't be as nice).  I sanded it and primed it (priming is a MUST, but don't use oil-based primer such as Kilz...I had a can of that handy so tried that first and it wasn't EVER going to dry on my tray).

I then painted it with chalkboard paint on one side, and a bright, colorful paint on the other side.

I also painted an Altoid tin to match and glued magnets to the bottom of it and a ribbon to the top.

Then I slapped some more random items onto magnets, put some chalk into the Altoids tin (which is now a removable "caddy" to put stuff in)....and Voila!  How simple is that??

Definitely a Big hit!

Holiday Idea of the Day – DIY Snow Globes

Snow Globes are a fantastic gift…when I was a child, my very first "collection" was of snow globes. In recent days, I have seen DIY snow globes at the drug store where you can insert your own pictures and, of course, I thought…there has to be a better way! So after much experimenting and adjustment, here is the finished product:

 
Materials List:

• Glass jar (baby food jars are GREAT). My community has a recycle center and I find a variety of glass jars there.
  
• Distilled Water
  
• Glycerin (you can find this at your local drug store in a very random spot, usually on the bottom shelf near the lotion)
  
• Spray Paint
  
• Sandpaper
  
• PVC pipe (optional)
  
• Glitter
  
• Clear shipping tape
  
• Laminating supplies (optional, if you don't have this see above item)
  
• Epoxy glue
  

 
You can go a couple of different directions with this project…a fun variation is to use photos. This is where laminating supplies come in. I happen to have a laminator but not everyone does. I bought mine years ago and I must say, I'm amazed at how often it comes in handy. These days you can purchase one for as little as $30 and let me say, I highly recommend having one!

 
For this project I used a combination of snow and glitter. To make snow, I used PVC shavings. I happen to make a lot of things out of PVC so this was not hard for me to obtain. I have seen where people have used a cheese grater to make PVC snow…I tried this (with a cheap grater from Dollar General or somewhere similar) and didn't have much luck. If you have a piece of PVC pipe and a saw, I would use the saw and, believe me, you'll get shavings from just cutting it. My porch used to look like a snow globe until I figured out how to replace a missing "shaver catcher" on my chop saw.

So here goes:

1. Gather your supplies together.
   
2. Clean your jars and remove any glue/labels. Best way to accomplish this is by soaking them. I tried spraying them with one of those goo remover sprays and soaking worked better.
   
3. Paint your lids with whatever color you want.
   
4. If you are putting items in your snow globe and don't want them to be floating around…sand the inside of your lid until it is rough and textured.
   
5. If you are using photos in your snow globe, measure the height and diameter of your jar and make a collage or use a single photo that will fit. On the photos, I recommend making a circle out of them (like a toilet paper roll). Laminate your photo by either using a laminator or shipping tape. Make sure you get a tight seal. I laminated my collage and immediately rolled it into a toilet paper roll to make sure it didn't get too stiff and I would be able to maintain the shape of it. I used shipping tape to seal the ends together after the round shape was formed.
   
6. Using an epoxy/waterproof glue, glue any items you are going to put into the globe onto your sanded lid.
   
7. Fill your jar almost all the way with distilled water.
   
8. Add glitter and/or snow.
   
9. Add a few drops of glycerin.
   
10. Screw the lid on tightly…however, give it a trial run first to figure out if you need to add more snow, glitter or glycerin. The glycerin is what makes everything drift around rather than floating to the top. Do this FIRST and then screw the lid on really tight.
    
11. Enjoy!

Got Tutu's? Another PVC solution!

So there are lots of "Tu"-torials online about making no-sew tutu's (pardon the pun, I couldn't resist)...and, aside from a few that tell you to loop the elastic around your leg...very little about easier ways to work with your tutu in progress AND store your tutu's without worrying with pesky skirt hangers...that's most likely because they haven't found ME yet!

Unlike some of my other projects with PVC, this one is so simple that ANYONE could do it. 

Supplies needed:

• 1 piece (or shorter if you can get it) of 3/4 inch PVC.  (PVC comes in 10 foot lengths.  This makes it sometimes awkward to fit into a car or SUV; however, the 3/4 inch is more flexible so that tends to be less of a problem).  Cost?  About $2.
• A PVC cutter (in general, I use a chop saw because I am obsessed...but for the 3/4 inch, it's a cinch to cut by hand)  Home Depot sells an easy ratcheting PVC cutter by Brasscraft for about $14.  You can also use a hacksaw but that's kind of a pain.
• 4 - 3/4 inch slip tees
• 2 - 3/4 inch slip elbows

;Other than that, you shouldn't need too much instruction if you ever played with tinker toys...but if you do, let me know!

One tip, if you are making or displaying/storing tutus that are "toddler" size OR using hairbands then your cross pieces should be approximately 8 inches.  In general, take the normal width of your tutu waistband and subtract 2 inches for your cross pieces.

Homemade Crayons, Recycle and Re-use!

When Vivian Grace was going through her "everything goes in the mouth" phase, I got pretty frustrated with the constant attempted ingestion of crayons.  The options in the store were limited and I figured (as I usually do) that there had to be a better way!  Guess what?  There was!

There are many different "formulas" for what I call, "Toddler Crayons".  There are small ones, big ones, multi-colored ones and single colored ones.  You can add glitter, you can add branding, and you can play around with lots of different ways.  Here are the basics:

Supplies needed:

• Crayons.  NOT the washable kind.  If you have other children, chances are that you have a bucket of old crayons lying around...if you are in your first go around on the kiddie wagon, I suggest buying crayons whenever you find them cheap or on sale.  Again, may I stress, don't use washable crayons when doing this.
• Muffin pans - For my examples, I used small muffin pans, regular muffin pans, mini-loaf pans and doughnut pans.
• An oven
• An exacto knife
• A good movie or distraction while peeling crayons

First...peel the crayons.  If your child is older, this is a good activity for them to help with; however, if they are young or impatient I would pop in a good movie and take care of this with sharp objects.  I have found that, in general, crayons are a pain to peel.  I tried soaking them, etc. and it basically comes down to sharp things.  I will also speak from experience when I say BE CAREFUL!  If you have limited experience with exacto knives, go with something else!

I have found that, in order to keep from going over my work more than once, the deeper the better as far as slicing into the crayons.

Once your crayons are peeled, go ahead and preheat your oven to 275 (on most digital ovens you actually have to arrow down to get to that).



Here's the rub...how long you keep your crayon creations in the oven depends on the size of your vessel.  If you are using mini muffin pan (my preferred method), it's approximately 10 minutes.  Remember, there are lots of variables in ovens, a safe bet is to just set your timer to check on them every 5 minutes.

Your crayon creations are done when the tins are "chunk free".  Also, at least on my old beast of an oven, I have found that the outer tins melt quicker, so I tend to put more volume in them.

Once you remove the pan from the oven, let it cool completely and then I recommend throwing the whole pan into the freezer for about 5 minutes.  Once they are cool, they will pop out like magic.

Some variations:

• since the cooking temp is pretty low, you can safely put a string into the wax once it has started to melt.
• I thought the round ones would be really cute as wreaths for ornaments that can be used as crayons...and they really are, but they also break easier than the solid ones so you can either melt two of them together or just be somewhat careful.  Vivian doesn't really care if they are broken, even when they are broken in half, they still make great crayons.

Easy Chalkboard for Kids!

Materials Needed:

• plywood, pressboard or other flat smooth wood
• square wood to make frame
• chalkboard paint
• paint for frame
• wood glue
• wood screws
• circular saw/table saw/jigsaw (any or all)
• drill
• astroturf (only for my "special" version)
• hot glue gun

Total cost - on mine, less than $10.  In general, under $20

A few weeks ago I was at Tuesday Morning and I really thought I scored big when I found a little chalkboard/easel for $19.  Well, it's a great little find; however, as I tend to do, I thought I could make one that was bigger and better!

Turns out I was right...in my usual dig through the culled wood at Home Depot (if you don't know about this, you gotta check it out!) I found some tempered hardboard that had been torn/ripped.  Lucky me, it was FREE!  Now you can also buy it for a mere $14 at Home Depot...but it was nice to find it for free...

Here's the "unblemished" version available at Home Depot

Now the torn one I lucked out finding (since you have to cut it anyway, it didn't matter that it was damaged)

 

Now I am lucky enough to have friends with good tools, so I had someone cut it down to a square.  You can use a circular saw, table saw, jigsaw...or if you're really scrambling, a hand saw to cut it to whatever size you want.

 

After your board is cut, it's time for the paint.  You can buy a can of chalkboard paint for under $5 at your local hardware store.  Make sure that you apply several coats and that it dries well.

Also, the fine print on the can reminds you to "prime" the finished paint by covering it with chalk (rubbing with the side) and then erasing it.  I'm guessing that this prevents any of the first marks ending up being permanent (kind of like a screen saver for your chalkboard).

I also found (for 25 cents each) some square 1x1's in the culled lumber section which I used to make the frame.  I measured (and didn't do that great of a job this time) and then cut at 45 degree angles to make the frame.  For my next one, I will make the frame the same size as the board (maybe a little bigger) so that I can make this project simpler.  In my case, I made my frame fit around the board.  I have a chop saw (which makes my life wonderful), but you can use whatever you've got to make these angles.

Measured to make "frame" fit around the board...again, would do it differently next one.

Chop saw at 45 degree angle

Next, I used Elmer's wood glue to glue the edges together, I usually use screws but thought I would try something different this time.  I glued the edges and clamped them overnight.  Then it was time to paint.

After allowing the paint to dry, I put the pieces together.  As I stated earlier, I was a bit dismayed to find that making the frame to fit AROUND the board may have been a mistake, but I made it work out in the end.  Also, one of my 1x1's was a little skewed which left a gap anyway.

Now, if I had planned out my project/cutting differently I would be all done, using finishing nails to attach the board to the frame; however, I had to go a different route (which worked out just fine in the end but added a lot more time).  I decided to make kind of a "window box" for my chalkboard.  I first attached some braces to hold the bottom edges of the board (made with scrap wood and a miter saw/box)

Then I attached a 1x4 to the back side of the frame.  I made sure that the board actually was just a little bit wider than the frame.  Then I cut out two sides to my "window box" and another 1x4 that was the same size as the one on the back.  I grabbed some silver spray paint from the paint box and painted up the pieces.  I cut the sides at a 15 degree angle.

After this, I used a drill and wood screws to build the "window box".  Instead of adding a bottom, I thought I would give it a creative flair and line the box with astro turf (also something I happened to have lying around...lol)

To add the astroturf I just used a hot glue gun.

I then made an eraser out of little carpet sample squares and a ribbon loop.

Finished eraser, not too bad!

So my finished product ended up looking like this:

I've actually decided that I really like the "window" box on it...it is a good place to keep chalk (and anything else my toddler feels needs to go in there...)

And so ends the first version of make a chalkboard!

No Sew Fleece Hat with Golfballs!

I will be posting detailed instructions for this project as soon as I extract them from my head, in the meantime enjoy the cuteness!