Giveaway.... The Pleated Poppy!!

I was so excited when today's giveaway sponsor contacted me! I've been a fan of her blog and her shop for a while now!

Lindsey Cheney runs an aweosme shop called..

The Pleated Poppy

Just check out some of this awesome eye candy!!!

I asked Lindsey to tell our readers a little soemthing about her, here's what she wrote:

"I'm lindsey cheney. i am married to an incredibly supportive husband and am mom to 3 littles, 7 and under. my days are full of sewing, home schooling, crafting, snuggling, avoiding the laundry, sneaking bites of chocolate, and wondering "is it naptime yet?".

Along with her store, Lindsey has a super cute blog "the Pleated Poppy".. She posts cute ideas, tutorials and my favorite feature "what I wore Wednesday" where she shows you what she wore that week.. kinda fun little look into someone's life.

Lindsey has graciously offered to give away to one of our readers today a $25 gift certificate to her shop!!

What would you pick???

this?

or this??

or maybe this???

Okay to enter this one's easy!! Do one or all of these three things!

1- Visit Lindsey's shop, the Pleated Poppy and tell me what your favorite item is!

2- Subscribe to or follow Lindsey's blog.

3- Mention this giveaway somewhere in cyberspace, via face book, twitter, blog etc..

leave a separate comment for each item you do.

Giveaway open until 12 midnight eastern time Sunday May 30th!!

Lindsey is also offering all Polkadot Chair Readers a 15% off discount to her store.. just enter the code:  POLKADOTCHAIR!!

Enter and enjoy a fantastic Holiday weekend with your favorite people!! We will be doing yard work and working on our newest backyard "creative" project.. I'll have to share it with you soon!

Pretty Cool.....

Crafty Girls Workshop is now carrying a kit to make my Patchwork Skirt!!! I was so excited when I saw it! It uses this years MoMo fabric (which is uber cute)...

Tuesday Tutorial: Sweet Birdie's Bow Holder

For this week's Tuesday Tutorial I thought I'd share a quick and easy idea for a bow holder for a little girl. My daughter is 9 and it seems like we can NEVER find bows for her hair. I try to make ones to match the dresses I make for her then they always get lost in the "under the sink" dungeon.
I had these boards left over from another project so I thought I'd paint one and attach some ribbon to make a bow holder for her bathroom.

They are really easy and economical too!!

You need:
1 1"x8" pine board
ribbon
spade bit for your drill
staple gun
paints or scrapbook paper

Cut your 1x8 board down to 10" long. (if you don't want to cut the board you can get them to cut it for you at the hardware store.)
Drill 2 holes in the top 2 corners with the spade bit for your drill.

Sand your board.
I decided to paint mine.  Don't be afraid of paint!! I didn't think I could paint until my husband talked me into taking a oil painting class in college. If you don't want to paint it, then paint the edges and cover it with some scrapbook paper, fabric or wallpaper.

I found a picture online that I liked and just sketched it. A little tip, when I paint I like to start with a coat of acrylic paint as an underpainting. You will cover it up but it will show through a bit giving your painting some more depth. Paint the sides this same color. In this case I used turquoise paint. I painted it in with oils because that is what I had, but you can use acrylics. Another tip:  Use a sharpie marker to do your outlines. It's easier than trying to control a paint brush.

Cut 3 pieces of ribbon 20" long and staple to the back bottom of your board.

Loop some ribbon through your holes and tie at the ends to secure.

Hang it up and load it up with bows!

You can also use this same technique to make chalkboards, just paint the whole thing with chalkboard paint (an idea I got from Traci).

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It's the most wonderful time of the year!!

Hey!
Sorry it's been a bit quiet here for a few days! I've been a bit under the weather but am healing up quickly!
Since school gets out soon for many of us, (and let me tell you I am READY!! I LOVE summer!! I don't mind the kids being home and a few months without a crazy schedule is so wonderful!) I thought I'd share a few teacher gift ideas.

This is a gift basket I put together for my kids teachers last year. (Sorry for the terrible photos, I'm always working on things waaay after dark!!).

I got a bucket tote and filled it with a beach towel, some sunscreen, lots of good snacks and some lemonade! I think this would also be great with a bottle of "Simply Lemonade" but it needed to stay cold and I wasn't sure how long it would sit out.
A few other ideas I've posted in the past:

Nice notebooks, pens, post it's and a gift card tied up with cellophane and a ribbon.

"We Love" teacher pennant.

Circle clipboard covered with scrapbook paper with a Movie Gift card attached.

World's Greatest Teacher Magnet board & Magnets

Popcorn bucket filled with candy, popcorn, popcorn seasoning. You could add a Movie Gift card or I have heard you can now buy Redbox Gift certificates!!

Just  a few ideas. I'll post what I'm making for this year when I get it all finished! (hopefully during the daylight hours so I have a better photo!!)

 

Repost: Guest Spot, Little Girls Dress up area

Just posting my guesting "gig" from Somewhat Simple here....

Here goes:

I'm very excited to be sharing an decorating idea with you today!!

My daughter, like a lot of little girls loves to play dress up. We have quite a collection of them now. I thought it would be fun to have a corner of her room to hang up her favorite dress up.

To make it I used some cabinet hardware that I picked up a year ago & had some vinyl letters cut to dress it up a bit!

To begin:

You will need:

-cabinet pulls

-drywall anchors

Drill a little pilot hole, then screw the drywall anchor into the wall. (make sure there is not a stud in the wall, trust me I found out the hard way!)

Now just screw your cabinet pull into the hole in the center of the drywall anchor.

Peel off your vinyl lettering and apply to the wall.

You're done!!

I love using fun cabinet hardware that I find for hooks around my house. I have some super cool antique ones in my kitchen to hold all of my aprons!!

Now just to find a cool mirror to hang above the dress ups!!

Tuesday Tutorial: Party Favors

Just a quick tutorial for this week.

I thought I'd share a how I made some of the party favors from the Alice in Wonderland Party.

First the cupcake pics:

These were done in Adobe Illustrator... basically I measured my scallop punch (2 1/8") then made a series of squares & circles to form the border & added text. I was going to do an Illustartor tutorial for this (still might later) then I decided it would just be easier to make my cupcake file a PDF for y'all! That way you can just download and print them at home.

Cupcake Picks

Just print out the sheet and center the image under your scallop circle punch.  Then just glue to a toothpick or a party pick (it's like a plastic toothpick) to the back.

The cupcake & gift images I used on my cupcake picks were from House of 3 and copyrighted so I had to remove them, but I added a couple more with words for you.

The second thing I wanted to share was how we made these Alice necklaces.

You need:

1"circle punch

1.5" square of pattern paper (I used the jewelry kit from House of 3)

Liquid Glass (from Close to my Heart, you could also use Glossy Accents)

Clipart (I got mine from polyvore.com)

Flat Jewelry Hook

Tim Holtz Fragments

they come in a variety pack of sizes, we had a small group so I was able to get all the ones I needed from one package, if you are having a larger party you will need more than one package, or to make your clipart different sizes.

They are sooooo easy to make. I let the girls pick out a square of pattern paper & a clipart image. I printed the clip art out then punched them out with my 1" circle punch.  They all chose Alice but I also had the White Rabbit & the Cheshire Cat.

I then glued the circle clip art image to the 1.5" square. I then covered the paper with liquid glass and smooshed the fragment piece on top. You want enough liquid glass to cover the image evenly but not too much, it will spread when you smoosh it... if you have extra just wipe it off with a towel.

It was set aside to dry, then while the girls were eating I used my exacto knife to cut the paper close to the fragment piece & hot glue the flat jewelry hook to the back. (it dried for about 20 minutes)

Janet Hopkins has an excellent tutorial on her blog here, it's where I got the idea.

Also alot of you asked where I got the paper globes hanging from the ceiling, they are from Oriental Trading Company. The crazy hats are from there too.

Let me know if you have any questions about this or the party! We had a great time planning it!

An evening in Wonderland

This weekend we all took a little trip to Wonderland in honor of my daughters 9th Birthday...

Come take a peek at our Alice in Wonderland Tea Party.

There was food...

A fancy party table..

well, not tea, but Sprite & Root Beer

A little bit o' sport...

Decorations...

Some craftiness...

crazy hats..

 of course, a Cake..

and last but not least, a beautiful Birthday Girl

more info tomorrow in the Tuesday Tutorial.


Click HERE for part2 of this party


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