Superhero Mask-erade

When my (about to be 5) niece mentioned that she wanted "boy stuff" for her birthday this year, I jumped with both feet into a project for her.  While I take issue with her assertion that superheros and comic book stuff is "boy stuff", I relished this little project  because it was just so much fun.  Also - - because I have loved superhero stuff since I was a kid too.

Sidebar:  Did anyone else watch Superman so many times growing up that they know what this line is referring to?:

I like pink very much, Lois.

Anyway, so boy stuff.  Superhero stuff.  What have you.  I had been sitting on this pin for a little while because I was planning on making these for my own kids (which . . . once they test-drove these for me after I finished them, I'm pretty sure it is mandatory that I do now).  They are so so so very easy and fun to make (which, if you don't have lots of time - hello, you me with the 3 kids who sometimes feel like there are 15 of them).

The payoff when the kids get their hands on them is the best too.  :)

I didn't have any flesh-y colored felt on hand, so I left off Thor.  Little did I know that Thor is her *favorite* and she is planning on being him for Halloween.  :P

I tossed in a giant superhero sticker book for good measure . . . because what kid doesn't love stickers?

The masks went over much better than the Wookie Bunny.  Thank goodness.  I still feel bad for that poor thing.



**If you missed the Superman reference above, he's talking about underwear.  Lois's pink underwear.  Which he can see through her dress.  Aye chee mama.

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Wall Flowers - Accordian Style

Other than the flower canopy and some little butterflies on the wall over her bed, Little Miss has very little decor in her room.  Everything is pretty utilitarian: a bed, a bookshelf, some toy storage, a table and chairs.  I've been wanting to help her perk up the space a bit for quite some time, but as most of us that suffer from Pinterest overload, it's been hard to settle on a direction.  This week I decided to comb through my pins and hone in on an aspect that I could tackle to get the ball rolling.

It became clear pretty quickly that I *really* was digging a certain idea floating around the interwebs:

Source: createdblissfully.blogspot.com via Skooks' Playground on Pinterest

Source: nanacompany.typepad.com via Skooks' Playground on Pinterest

Source: somewheresplendid.com via Skooks' Playground on Pinterest

Source: 6thstreetdesignschool.blogspot.com via Skooks' Playground on Pinterest

Source: rufflesandstuff.com via Skooks' Playground on Pinterest

Source: savedbylovecreations.com via Skooks' Playground on Pinterest

Anyone else noticing a theme?

I'm not a paper crafter so my supplies on hand were limited.  I ended up finding a color palette of papers at Target that struck my fancy and got to work on some wall flowers the other day.

It's fall in Michigan and the natural lighting is not overflowing.  These flowers are not made of solid colors as it might seem, but with a variety of tone on tone patterned scrapbook papers.

I'm not going to post a tutorial of what I did here . . . several of the links I posted above will direct you on how to do this yourself.  I mostly just experimented until I landed on the sizes and look that I was going for.  The basic gist: fold paper like you're making a fan and then stick several of your fans together in a circle.  (The small flowers are 2 pieces of paper and the large one is 8 pieces.)

I tried tacking these guys to the wall with poster putty, but I must not have used enough because several of them leapt off the wall after a few days.  Since I was out of putty and didn't feel like going out with 3 kids to get more, I settled on what we had on hand: Packing Tape.  :)

Works for me!

Here's a shot from the side so you can see a bit more of the dimension of the leaves.  There were no tutorials for that specific element, so I just monkeyed around with shapes until I came up with something I liked:

There is so much I'd like to change about her room (paint her bed, paint her walls, get a fun rug for the floor, make some new curtains and bedding, hang some artwork, the list goes on . . .), but for now this is a step in the right direction at least.  She was so happy to get something special on her walls.

So was I!  This kind of stuff just makes me happy.  :)

Linking up to the YHL/Bower Power Pinterest Challenge today:

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You Missed It the First Time . . . Now You Can Enter Again!

Hey all - - I promise I have been working on something (not quite ready to reveal it yet though) in my absence.

In the meantime . . .

Christina, who won the Charming Travelers Giveaway, has just posted the latest iteration of the giveaway on her blog. Here's your chance if you didn't win the giveaway over here. She's got a fairly small following (but a cute little blog - this is actually her 500th post!), so you might be able to swoop in and win it.

May the odds be ever in your favor.  ;)

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