Miss K turns 8!

Miss K turned 8 on Saturday. I have an EIGHT year old daughter. Once again we hosted a Birthday Party on a Budget. Total spent on party- $55!

I made the invitation in PicMonkey. Had them printed at Wal-Mart as 4x6 prints and invited 9 friends.

I picked up canvases and acrylic paints from Michaels and ordered paint trays, brushes and aprons from Amazon. I then used masking tape and taped off each girl's first letter of their name. Letters like "R" and "S" are hard y'all!

The girls painted over their taped off initial. They painted their way. Girls are creative that way.

The birthday girl hard at work. 

The final masterpieces! So adorable!

For the "birthday cake", I made cake balls. 81 cake balls to be exacts. Only 79 ended up getting decorated, and 45 ended up on the cake plates for the girls to eat. I served Miss K's favorite Cherry Limeade in Mason jars and Cheddar Cheese Bugles.

Each guest got their picture taken with the birthday girl. I really should have thought and had a better background other than the garage door. I will print these pictures out and send as the thank you card. 

 My sweet little sassy, artsy dancer is EIGHT YEARS OLD! Yes, we butt heads- like mad, but each day it is like looking into a mirror of myself at that age. I often wonder aloud about where she gets her independence, about where she gets her energy, her constant need to be doing something. I find more often than not that her need to do something involves creativity, either through a craft or through dance. I mean really, what 8 year old asks for duct tape and rubber bands for her birthday? She truly is my mini-me. She reciprocates everything I do, yet still embraces her own individuality. She is growing into a beautiful young lady, and I thank God each day that He chose me to be her mother.



P.S. Do you see the chalkboard easel in the first picture? My friend Glenna gave it to us. A huge shout of thank you goes out to her for that party decoration and toy. Also, what I didn't mention in the post was my trip to urgent care the morning of Miss K's party. My boy took over the heavy lifting and clean up of this party. I could never have pulled it off without him. My kids are AWESOME!

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Love Canvas

During Christmas vacation we had a case of boredom. Imagine that. Miss K and I have a secret board on Pinterest titled 8th Birthday. We decided back in the summer that she needed to have a painting party. A what? Seriously? In January? In mine or her Grandma's house? Yep. We are. So, we have a few ideas brewing, still not completely decided on, but the supplies are bought and the invitations are ready to go out on Monday.

Once again. Birthday Party on a Budget. Party post coming soon.

So since boredom set in and I still had a few canvases left over from my A Very Pinteresting Christmas Party 2014, I sat her down and let her paint. This painting is inspired by this pin. And I apologize ahead of time. You can click on it, but it's one of those pins that is not pinned correctly and doesn't take you directly to the DIY post. People. Pin the post, not the blog.

Here is what we used:

Canvas
Painters Tape (warning be sure your painters tape has not been left outside by your children. It might not stick well)
Acrylic Paint- we used Silver, Pink, Purple, Christmas Red, and White to touch up the letters where the paint bled under the painters tape.
A Paper Plate to put the paint on
Paint Brushes

Miss K painted the entire canvas- even over the painters tape to achieve the background color she wanted, then in strokes she went over in individual colors. Like I said the paint did bleed a bit, but white paint fixed it up with no problem. 

Isn't it just perfect for Valentine's Day? 

Cozy Wall Art: Canvas Art Project & Review

It has been a crazy, busy summer. But, I don't think any of you need me to tell you that. Cozy Wall Art contacted me before school was out in May to review their wall art. I picked two wall decals one for my son's room and a Ballet Shoes Wall Decal for my daughter's. They did a special cut for me for my son's- he had to have a basketball, their Teen and Tween Wall Decals are amazing. Cozy Wall Art is a Texas based company, they were awesome to work with and offer FREE shipping on all orders.

My intentions were to change their beds around this summer. It is time to move B to Miss K's full size bed. He is over six foot tall now. With that move comes paint and major re dos right? Well, then in June we called in a realtor. Needless to say we still haven't put the house on the market and no beds have been moved around. Since my walls are already a neutral color we know better than to paint them, and if we do move within the next year, I don't want to lose these awesome wall displays. So I went to Pinterest and began looking at ways to save the vinyl. I ran across a few pins on putting vinyl on canvas. Seemed easy enough. I even contacted a friend who paints for a living, she says she does this all the time and said she would do it for me. I was up for the challenge.

The canvas sizes I needed were $29.99. I needed two. I lost my primary income when school let out. Time to save and use those 40% off coupons at Hobby Lobby. Thankfully I already had my daughters background paint on hand- a quart of SEXY PINK from Glidden that I had received free from a promotion. Then my son decided on a background of BOO SKY which is a Disney color by Glidden.

Our project finally began this week. The kids painted their canvases using a foam roller brush. Two coats and we let them dry over night. They had a lot of fun. Believe me its a great bonding experience to give your children a paint brush and challenge them to not make a mess on your uncovered kitchen table.

The next day, Miss K and I set out to transfer the decals. This took a measuring tape, some masking tape, the card that Cozy Art sent, my Sam's Card (because two cards are better than one), mod podge, and then I had to run to Dollar General to get some spray adhesive for Braden's. His needed help sticking. I can't answer the why on that one. Maybe because it was such a huge graphic, it also seemed to have a different backing on it than Miss K's. Her's was blue.

 

To apply, we just measured and centered, we used the halve method to pull the backing paper/transfer method off. They were huge transfers, and we didn't want them to slip. Then we used the cards to rub on the decals. With the canvas there isn't a hard surface under it, so I used a stack of copy paper. Worked perfectly. After application I went over with a coat of mod podge to seal.

On B's, in order to get the transfer paper off, I had to lightly spray the canvas with the spray adhesive. His does have a few bubbles in it, where I messed it up before getting the adhesive- could kick myself. He loves it though.

 So, what do you think? I want to try some wall quotes on canvas next. Can't wait.

Special thanks to CozyWallArt.com  for providing the products free of charge for my honest review in this post. I was not compensated monetarily for this post.