Tic Tac Toe from Rescued Treasures

I just finished a tin of curiously strong mints. (You know, Altoids.) If I can't throw away a cardboard oatmeal container, you know I am not throwing away a metal tin.  I decided to see what I could make using only things I had at home.

I used some reclaimed magnet sheets*, some fun foam and cardstock, paint and paint markers.

*Check here to see how much  I love them!

I got the big pot of paint on sale at Michaels for about a dollar and the markers (terra cotta) came from a Michaels grabbag.

We gave the top and bottom of the tin a coat of white paint. When it was thoroughly dry, I decorated it.

The game pieces were from the foam and cardstock, cut after being glued to magnet sheets.

Voila!

Reduce, Recycle Reuse those free magnets!

It's almost here! This weekend , we'll be hosting our own Wayward Weekend Link Party! Be sure to come ready to share your favorite crafts and comment on others'!

Do you have a plethora of those free magnets that businesses give out? I do! They are great to use in crafting because they come in so many different sizes, they stick well, and most of all, they are free!

This Christmas, Jordan gave us all stickers from a favorite beach. I can never make up my mind where to put a sticker, so I decided to make it a magnet instead. That way I can change my mind every day. I just went to my craft closet and took out my collection of free magnets and found one that would fit. I stuck it on and cut it out carefully. Voila! An OIB magnet.

I was concerned the printing would should through the white background, but it didn't.
You could use these magnets to create magnetic pictures, or letters for children to play with on the fridge or even the paper dolls seen in this post.

Back to School: DIY Command Center (for under $50!) & Organization

A couple Saturdays ago, I came across an awesome DIY command center on the wall beside a refrigerator on Landee See, Landee Do (pinned here). That wall was just dead space in my house--but by the next Wednesday I'd converted it into an awesome command center!

Following Landee's advice, I contacted local heating & A/C companies for estimates. I went with the company that quoted me $20 for a 2'x8' sheet of steel.

I asked the Original Wayward (aka DAD) for some tips on how to drill holes in the sheet metal. He said:

• You can use a regular drill bit as long as the hole is fairly small (I did 1/4") and the metal is not too heavyweight
• Make sure the metal is secure!
• Lubricate with some light oil 
• Back up the metal with a piece of scrap wood backstop
• Use a punch before drilling to keep the bit from wandering
• Wear eye and ear protection
• Remember the bit and the metal will be hot
• The burr (edge of the metal) will be sharp. You may want to deburr (file the edge with a metal file).

Drilling holes with a scrap wood backstop

The only problem I came across was when the drill bit sometimes got stuck on a lip of metal. I used my punch (which happened to be a circular nail punch) and poked it through the whole, bending down the lip. Then I moved the center of the drill bit over a little to finish the hole.

I brought the metal inside and held it against the wall to mark where the holes would be. I might recommend doing the top holes first and hanging the metal before doing the other holes--the bottom holes ended up not lining up at all (no big deal; I just didn't screw them in).

I'd also recommend using more than four holes in each side--that only left two screws in the middle to secure it, and the sheet metal has sagged in a few places. (Double sided foam tape is a big help though!)

I used regular 1/4" screws, washers and nuts.

The magnetic organization is probably my favorite part:

At the top, I have magnetic clips for the kids' artwork from school and church (and a family photo). Below that is a couple inches for me to write out the menu plans for the week--never again does my husband have to ask "What's for dinner?"

I have a magnetic, dry erase metal wall file (held up by 8 neodymium magnets) for incoming mail. On the front I've listed important phone numbers. Some locker organizers hold pens and dry erase markers, as well as Post-it notes, Sharpies, and stamps. I already had a magnetic note holder (gift) and magnetic calendar (free in the mail).

The rest of the area is for school papers/to dos/action items, held by photo clips of each of us, and the kids' chore charts. If I can find somewhere else to put my garbage, I'll leave the bottom few feet for the kids to play with magnets (they love it!).

Costs:

• sheet metal (from local heating & A/C company): $20
• magnetic & dry erase mail holder (Target, clearance): $6.38
• magnets (Walmart): $6
• hardware (Walmart): $2
• dry erase markers & magnetic eraser (Target): $7.50
• pencil cup/organizer (Target): $2
• basket for markers (Target): $2
• magnetic clips (Dollar Tree): $1
• magnetic photo holder clips (Dollar Tree; two sets of two): $2
• magnetic picture frame (Dollar Tree): $1

Total cost: $49.88

I also organized a few other areas for back to school. Tired of searching for shoes all the time (and not being able to find a single pair of Rebecca's shoes for over a month), I instituted something my mom has used forever: a shoe shelf.

I got a $14 stackable shoe shelf at Target and decorated it with a silver Sharpie. The kids love it! And more importantly--they use it!

I also typed up before and after school routines, chore lists, and before bed/in the morning routines. I illustrated them and laminated them, then hung them up. The chore lists are on the command center (awaiting only some smiley face magnets to check off the completed chores) and the routines hang on Command hooks in the kids' room and in the front closet (along with hooks for backpacks).

What do you think? How did you organize for back to school this year?

Magnetic Paper Dolls

While I was in Rexburg, Idaho recently, I visited a store I am sure all paper crafters would love called Artco. They had tons of paper, cards, guest books, matchbooks, and other items for sale at a very low cost. I bought 8  12" x 17" sheets of thin magnet paper for a project for church. (Only $.50 each.) But alas! we decided to go in another direction so I was left with lots of magnet sheets. I decided to make some personalized paper dolls for the grandchildren who will be here in a few short days. In the past, I used photographs and my Xyron 900 machine and the laminate/magnet roll to create refridgerator magnets of mom, dad, both grandparents, some aunts, and the children themselves. (They lost the magnet with my photo! How could that be?) This time, I wanted to have lots of costumes for the children to use with their dolls so I decided photographs wouldn't do.

I found a great website called Making Friends with lots of multi-cultural paper dolls with many costumes. Then I found some good shots of the grandchildren's faces. I selected the paper doll page I wanted to use, then right clicked on it and selected COPY. I opened a NEW file in Photoshop (you could use any digital photography program), then pasted the page of dolls. I also opened the photograph of my grandson with Photoshop. Using the lasso tool, I selected just his face. I copied this on the clipboard and then pasted it on the face of the paper doll. I rotated it just a bit to make it fit the angle of the head of the paper doll.



I have started to fill in the edges using the clone tool in this shot.

 Of course they were not the same size, so I used the clone tool to fill in the shape of the head with his skintone. (The paper dolls are a little fat-headed!) I used the blur tool to blend in any lines. This took me a long time to get it how I wanted it, but now I think I could do it pretty quickly. I painted the ears to match the face skin, but I didn't change the body color. (Laziness.) Sometimes I had to redraw the outlines with the pencil tool.



I used the blur tool to soften the lines that the clone tool left.



Once I had my paper dolls personalized, I went back to the website and found the clothes that I wanted. I pasted many of them into my Paint program and then selected only the specific items I planned to use. (I was trying to squish them together to save paper.) Then I printed them with my Inkjet printer on the magnetic sheets. I was concerned that they might smear, but it worked great.

One thing I encountered after I had printed out everything was that the magnets weren't very strong. Only two layers will stick together at a time. Next time I would test things out first before I printed everything.

If you can't make it to Artco, you can buy magnet sheets at craft or office supply stores. You could also printed the dolls on cardstock and glue them to those thin magnets you get as free advertisements or you could use a Xyron machine to laminate and apply a magnet.

Note: If you decide to change the size of any dolls or clothes, make sure you change all of the images by the same percentage so the clothes will fit.