Evolution of a Dresser Top

Dresser tops around our home are ever changing.  So many possibilities and so much fun.

 

1.) You saw my girl's room in this post and it showed the dresser topped like this...

2.) This is what happened to the dresser when baby girl was a few weeks old...

3.) And just yesterday, I changed the dresser to look like this...

I just had to use some scrabble tiles.  I am sure the word will be changed frequently but for now "sisters" seemed perfect.  I could change it weekly with the current sight word my daughter is learning at school.  Hmmm...just thinking out loud.

I used a couple of the little birdies from one of my very first Lemon Tree projects you saw here.

My sister gave me this cool mirrored tray awhile back.  I finally got around to painting it white and it now holds my five-year-old's favorite pieces of jewelry and a fresh flower in a tiny vase.

I love it.  But I gotta be honest, my favorite was #2 (the one with the changing pad) because that represents a baby and I love me some babies.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Tuesday!

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My Memories Giveaway

We have a great giveaway for you today!  

Are any of you scrapbookers???  Well, I was back in the day when I only had one child.  When I had my second, time and energy went out the window so I stopped.  I do the occassional mini album but there isn't much time for anything else.

We were contacted by My Memories to review their software and host a giveway.  I got the opportunity to try out the software and it is a super fun and easy way to get those scrapbooking pages done digitally. 

I completed this simple page of my daughter's first day of school...  

If you want to hear more about the software and have a chance to win, please click HERE.  

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Silhouette Project - Ballerina Shirt

My daughter had a plain white shirt that was older and mainly used to wear under sweaters so I thought it would be fun to spruce it up.  

I started playing around in the Silhouette Studio and found a ballerina silhouette image that I loved.  I had pink heat transfer from Silhouette in the closet waiting to be used for something.

The image came out perfectly even with those little dainty ballerina hands.  I peeled away the extra pink leaving only my image and then ironed it in place on the white shirt.

Next I cut out a rough shape of the skirt from cardstock to use as a pattern.

I used the pattern to cut out several layers of pink tulle that I had in my scrap basket.

I cut a piece of pink ribbon just the size to fit the top of the tulle layers.  I put craft glue on the ribbon and placed my tulle pieces on one by one.

After I layered the tulle pieces, I folded the ribbon over and held it down for a minute.  Now I had a little tutu for the ballerina.  I trimmed up the sides and roughly scalloped the edges of the tutu to give it more life and make it fit better.

To attach the tutu on the shirt, I used three small buttons and pink thread.

Now the ballerina has a "real" tutu.

I wanted the tutu silhouette to still show on the sides a little.  I was so excited about the results!

A plain white tee transformed into a fun pink ballerina shirt...

Can't wait to surprise my daughter with her new ballerina shirt when she gets home from school.  I just know she will love it!  

I'll be partying at these blogs this week.  Won't you join me?

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Fabric Memory Game

It all started with this photo from Pinterest.  It was love at first sight.  Are you kidding me?  Fabric Memory.  Why didn't I think of that?  A game for kids that involves beautiful fabric?  That is right up my alley.  I couldn't stop thinking about it.  Seriously.  I have issues.

photo from the Purl Bee via pinterest 

But, come on, look at the fabric they used.  Gorgeous.  Heavenly.  I couldn't get my hands on fabric that beautiful.  However, I did use up some pretty scraps so that is a good thing, right?

When we were invited to a two year old birthday party, I knew it was time.  Time to make the Fabric Memory Game I had been dreaming of.

I followed the tutorial found here.  It was a perfect tutorial.  Beautiful photos and so easy to understand.  

This was a time consuming project for me but totally worth every minute.  

Mine are not nearly as perfect as the ones you will see in the tutorial.  Yikes.  I dream of being that good one day.

I wrote my crooked stitching and lopsided squares off as "adding character".  Works for me.

I just stared at them for a long time.  Almost didn't give them away.  It was that kind of present, you know the kind.

I didn't want to just throw the game in a plastic baggie.  That is no fun.  So next in order was a felt holder for the game.  

I used the same color felt as the Memory squares.  I began with two pieces of felt approximately 9" x 11".  

I found some scrap ribbon for the button loop closure and to finish off the top of the bag.  I looped the smaller ribbon and then pinned a wider ribbon the length of the bag top.

I pinned a ribbon on the other side too.

Then I hit the sewing machine to straight stitch that ribbon to the top of the bag and I also stitched the two pieces of felt together to form the holder.

I folded over the top to make a pencil mark where the button should go.  I sewed the button in place.

Now I had a fabric bag to hold my Fabric Memory Game.  Woohoo!

And the button closure worked like a charm and looked cute too!

I tucked the game squares neatly in the bag.  I am pretty sure I had a huge smile on my face the whole time.  These things really do make me giddy.

Seriously though, how cute does that look when you peek into the bag?

I added a tag to the front hanging from the button so the momma of the birthday girl would know what the gift was.

You want to make one now, don't you???  

I even had a preschool teacher that was also a guest at the party come up to me afterwards and ask if I could make her one for her classroom.  Pretty cool.  Although, I had just finished them up and so the idea of starting a whole new set made me want to take a nap.  : )

Thanks for visiting Lemon Tree today!  I will be partying at these fabulous blogs this week!  

Happy Tuesday!

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Fun & Simple Photo Card

I love how inspiration is at our fingertips constantly and left for us to interpret however we please.  It is an amazing thing how one idea can take off in twenty different directions.  Love it.  

I have a friend named Jody.  She blogs at Clean and Simple.  She is awesome.  She recently threw a party for her oldest daughter who turned 18.  The party was held outdoors and on their garage door she created a huge # 18 formed by 100 black & white photos of her daughter.  Genius, right?    

She shared the original photo that inspired this special feature at her daughter's party.  It came from Martha Stewart.  

I fell in love.  My niece was also turning 18 and I thought this idea could be used on a much smaller scale to create a birthday card for her.

I found a photo of her as a baby and a current photo.  I copied and pasted the photos into a word document on my computer, shrunk the pics to tiny, and printed off several rows of both pics.

I then cut out each tiny pic and glued them onto a folded piece of cardstock in my niece's favorite color in the shape of #18.

Super fun, simple, and completely personalized for the birthday girl!

Thanks, Jody { & Martha} for inspiring me! 

Check out these blog parties for a crazy amount of inspiration!

Happy Tuesday!

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Shabby Apple Dress Review

When I found out Shabby Apple wanted one of us LTC girls to review a dress, I was so excited!  I have had my eye on their dresses for awhile now.  It is no secret that their dresses are beautiful and I couldn't wait to get my hands on one.

Here is the one I chose after much deliberation...

Wonder what I thought of the dress?  Click here to find out.

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My First Roadside Find

We were driving down the road a few weekends ago when my  husband said to me, "That looked like a cool desk" and then continued to drive down the road.  My response was something like, "what???  If it is a cool desk, then you better turn around!"  He did and thank goodness for mini vans because we manuevered a few things and had ourselves a new to us but old beauty of a desk.  

This is what it looked like at first.  I am a lover of old things and typically prefer to keep them "as is".  However, we were just not sure what kind of paint was on top of this desk and it was a MESS so we decided to strip and paint.  

It was going to be a computer desk for our loft area.  We had been wanting a desk exactly like this to open up the space.  I was beside myself with excitement because we had never been so lucky to find treasures on the side of the road before.

My husband was just as excited and got to work right away.  Here are most of the supplies he used on this re-do...

It was beautiful with the paint off and would have been great left just like that.  However, we were also looking to lighten and brighten up the space so we decided to paint it white.

We tried to spend as little money as possible on this re-do so we used the only white paint we had around.  It was simply plain white paint straight from a shelf that had been used on woodwork around our home.

I love the way it turned out.  My husband ended up doing all of the dirty work.  The drawer is my favorite part.  It is a very deep drawer so it can fit a ton of stuff and the handle is just perfect.

There is metal around the bottom of the legs that we left as is.  Love the look against the white and it gives the desk some character.

It is deeper than we probably would have liked but when you get something for free, you just can't complain.

It has some fun holes that give it character too.  My husband used the palm sander off and on along the edges to distress it a bit.

And here she is all prettied up in her new home.  It is amazing what it did for the area.  It feels bigger and brighter.  LOVE it.

Here's to hoping this is the first of many roadside treasures...

Happy Tuesday!

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