Cartwheels In My Mind

Her Room. Part Two.

Welcome back everyone.

I hope you enjoyed the images from the first half of my daughter's bedroom.  I'm so thankful that I took pictures before I let her "live" in it!  ;)

The other half of the room used to have a closet in the corner, built into the room.  But it was so old and poorly built that we decided to utilize wardrobes and dressers instead.  Plus for us to build a closet would have taken up so much of that 9x10 floor space.  And that we just couldn't spare.

In the corner I hung Ikea paper lanterns and some other paper lanterns I made from scrapbooking paper.  There's also a print from etsy (you can find it here).  I think that was one of my first etsy purchases!

The cabinet used to be my granny's.  I remember she used to have a cake in there with a flower on top and a wine glass turned over on that!  She used it for display.  I painted the cabinet white and made a "curtain" to hang behind the glass.  We use it for a dresser.

On either side of the cabinet we have two large baskets for toys.  An reproduction jewelery box sits on top.

I embrace the idea of little storage because I think that it makes us really think about what we want to keep and what we want to buy.  Kinda keeps the "stuff" in check!

So, there you have it.  Our self-professed tomboy's room put together on a limited budget!

 

Her Room. Part One.

Welcome back to Cartwheels y'all.  Nothing like a little break to get you motivated and inspired. 

Today I'd like to share my daughter's room with you.  Granted, if you'd stop by today it'd look NOTHING like this!  The inhabitant is an eleven year old girl after all.  Right now there's a million earrings, books and ponytail holders covering the floor.  We gave her the smallest room in the house for a reason!

So, back in fall we redid her room.  And not "redid" like bought furniture and accessories... but "shopped in our home" and repurposed pieces to make a non-girly retreat.

Welcome.

On one side of the room we have her bed and a little bedside table.  The bedside table was in our house when we moved it (yes, we moved our house... three miles over onto our farmyard). A quick coat of white paint and that little bedside table fit right in.  Her bed we found in the summer kitchen on our property.  That got some powder-coating and it was good to go.  The hardest part about her bed was finding a mattress that fit. 

Underneath her bed are drawers from an old dresser.  Another coat of white paint, some handles, and they're the perfect place for her to store out of season clothes and books.  The problem with old houses is that there are no closets (our house is 120 years old).  So storage like this is a neccessity.

 

The light fixture was a cast off from my aunt.  Some more paint and it's a perfect fit. 

Above her bed is a collage of art.  An old window frame backed with wire from our dog kennel makes the perfect "bulletin board".  Right now it's littered with Selena Gomez and Harry Potter.  :(  Sigh.   

Other framed art was made from some simple scrapbooking supplies and some overlays from vol. 25.  Love that Martha Stewart butterfly punch.  I just punched out some butterflies from dictionary paper and glued them down.  Voila.  And I love that the colors of the vol. 25 overlays can be altered to fit any decor.  I printed this one in a turquoise.

So, that's this side of the room.  Well, at 9x10 it's not much of a side... but still!  I'll be back on Wednesday with the other half!

25 Days Of Christmas...A Cindy Ruigrok Mini :: Harry Potter Edition.

I'll admit it that this mini book sat on my table for a while.  I don't often use a black and white color scheme so I wanted to make sure that I thought it out and did the mini book from Cindy Ruijgrok justice.  Add to it that I don't do mini books that often and you can see why I wanted to sit on it a while (so to speak).  And then a couple of days later it dawned on me!  The red, black and white color scheme would be perfect for documenting my daughter's Harry Potter obsession...and just in time for Christmas!

Once the topic was decided the rest of the album came together marvelously!

I love that all the mixed sizes of pages let all kinds of upcoming goodies peek through.

The envelope is perfect for keeping movie tickets and other memorabilia in.

The great thing is that there's still a lot of extra pages that I haven't even used yet.  I'm anticipating some Harry Potter stuff coming her way for Christmas and a trip to Universal to see "Harry Potter World" in Spring... so I'm going to need the extras!

P.S. Don't forget that the give-away for one of these mini-albums is still open here. This is your last chance at winning since we want to make sure you the winner receives it in time for Christmas so be sure to leave a message on Cindy's give-away post today! 

25 Days of Christmas :: Altered Candles.

I blinked and Christmas is almost here.  I'm not sure how it happened, but it really snuck up on me this year!

I don't want to be caught off-guard with gift giving this year, so I decided that making some small gifts to stockpile wouldn't be the worst idea in the world.

I've had these candles forever.  Really.

At this point though the tape at the bottom is coming off and leaving marks on the paper.  Plus they're just not my style anymore.

The little metal tops had me at "hello" though so I decided to alter them and give them some new life.

And this what I ended up with...

Candle 1:  I took a scrap of ledger patterned paper and wrapped it around the candle.  I added a paper doily and tied that on with a piece of turquoise ribbon. 

Candle 2:  I trimmed and added a piece of a Hambly transparency.  I secured it at the end with glue dots, but those are coming undone, so I'll have to either try the hot glue gun or tie a ribbon around this one as well.

Candle 3:  I kept this one simple and a little more fall themed.  I started my tucking the twine under the metal cap and wrapping it around.  Once I got to the bottom I just pinned it in the back.

Candle 4:  This one is wrapped in patterned paper again, but this time it's flocked Christmas paper.  This one is decidedly more Christmas themed than the others.  Once that was done I punched out a snowflake from ledger and added "fa la la" and little gems.

 

Other ideas I had for these:

- Make them all identical and package them together

- Make one for each season and rotate them throughout the year

- Alter them with wallet sized photos

- Add names and use as place settings

 

So, don't discount repurposing and altering "old" decor items this holiday.  It doesn't hurt to have a little stash of spare gifts during the holidays.

 

 

 

A Glimpse in Her Room: Paper Lanterns.

I have a confession.

I cannot make a tissue paper pompom.  No matter how many sheets of tissue paper I use, no matter how sharply I make the creases or how gently I separate the layers they just don't come out right.  They're not the round fluffy pompoms that I see online that mamas have effortlessly made.

Nope.

But I have visions of a light, airy and girly corner in my daughter's room and the pompoms would have been perfect.  Alas, it was not to be, so I came up with the next best thing.  Paper lanterns.

I'm actually really pleased with how well they go with the paper fixtures from Ikea and my paper accordian lanterns from the dollar store.

So, yes.  Apparently I can't make pompoms. 

But I can rock the paper.

Creativity Springboards

Sometimes you don't have to go far to get inspired.

Sometimes it's right in front of you.

Often I feel like I do the same thing over and over again.  But, then again, my motto is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

I little while ago we shared some cards we made to welcome the new arrival of Katie's little boy.  This was mine.

This last weekend I started to make a layout and realized that it was starting to look familiar.  I remembered this card and then continued on with my layout with the card in mind.

It turned out to be similar and different all at the same time.

So, don't forget to look at yourself for inspiration when you're making a layout!  You might just surprise yourself.