Alternatives to Special Occasion Glass Ornaments

Okay, I know people really like glass ornaments to commemorate special events. My mom was able to keep my Baby's First Christmas Ornament until a couple of years ago when it was dropped (by my sister no less) and shattered into a million little unrecognizable pieces). I was a little sad, but my mom was really sad. I have friends who have bought glass ornaments for their kids birthdays or for their first Christmas as a couple only to have them break at some point.

Please to alleviate this pain, go for an unbreakable ornament. Sure I ordered an "Our First Christmas" ornament with our names and wedding date engraved on it. We had only been married for a couple of months so we were still newlyweds. I went the pewter route. It's nice and heavy. It's nice to know it will always stay in one piece because I know it won't shatter. Next year for my daughter's first Christmas I may go the pewter route again.

Or we can try these:

• A small ornament made out of felt with embroidery or applique
• A wallet sized frame (yes they make those) or even a little wooden decorative piece you can buy from a craft store. Paint it and put a picture in it. 
• For a Baby's First Christmas ornament, you can take a Lovey and applique or stencil a Christmas tree on it

Can you think of ways to make special ornaments out of unbreakable objects? 

A Dresser for Baby

Well I'll be 32 weeks pregnant this week, and I am happy to say the nursery is well on it's way. I still have a lot to do like make a mobile for starters (but shhh we'll keep that to ourselves). This room is full of things from our wonderful family. The dresser for example is from my husband's grandpa.

This dresser needed a little work because the sides were bowed (which you can still see if you look at the space between the sides of the outside drawers and the frame). So we sanded it down, and I decided to paint it. I didn't mean for it to be a John Deere green (which my in-laws quickly pointed out. You have to understand they like pretty anything except for John Deere).

There was some funky, brass type drawer pulls in a ring style. I could see our little girl grabbing them and banging them against the drawer, so we decided to replace them with these simple pulls from Menards. Plus they were 70 cents a piece!

So, we sanded the outside frame so it would be flush with the top of the dresser, and I sanded between the drawers because they were sticking. I then used two coats of primer and four coats of the green paint. I wanted a really deep color with this green so I went with the four coats. That may sound like a lot, but I was actually able to use just the 'sample' size from Sherwin Williams for about $5. Yup, a free dresser, a can of primer I already had, and a $5 container from Sherwin Williams. They're samples by the way are pretty big. They're much bigger than the ones you get from Lowes or Home Depot. Plus they're in a plastic container with a handle and twist lid. So if you're kind of a lazy painter/crafter like I am, you don't need one of those prying can lids things or a hammer to close it. Hooray!

This dresser is also doubling as my changing table, and I think I'm going to build some little window box like shelves to go above it for cloth diaper storage. Yup, cloth diapers, but that's a whole other post.

Picture frame turned message board

So, I made this a while back and couldn't figure out why I haven't posted it. I picked this out at work (don't worry they were giving them away). It's actually a mugshot of a prisoner from Leavenworth Penitentiary. I was going to hang it above our guest bed, but my husband's sense of humor can be pretty different from mine.

So, since we have a baby on the way, and I didn't want to just hang a tacky calendar there I decided to turn this into a ribbon message board/chalkboard. It was a pretty cheap metal frame (also not square) so I didn't feel like I was ruining any piece of great artwork.

There was already a nail there (from the aforementioned tacky calendar) so I hung the picture vertically to see if it would fit. Who knew it was exactly the size I pictured in my head. So, I clapped my hands, did my happy dance and then proceeded to take the frame apart.

I didn't have any cork board at the time (and when I have a project in mind, I want to start right now and finish it in the next half hour). First I measured and divided the frame in half so I would have to even pieces of board. So, the backing of the frame was actually foam board, so I cut a piece of thin cotton batting and then a plain piece of white fabric to fit the top half of the board and then taped them to the back using painters tape.

I had this big ol' chalkboard I had spray painted a long time ago. It was just the backing to a big poster frame I used for another project. So, I had my husband cut a piece to fit the bottom half of the foam board on his table saw. This is thin material, and I'm sure you could use a hand saw or a jigsaw if you had it. I didn't glue down the chalkboard, I just kind of set it there.

The ribbon is just black quilt binding. I know this thing looks kind of boring, but I knew I would have different shapes and colors of notes and messages on there. Plus I just didn't want it to stand out. I just laid the binding over the top half of the board from corner to corner and left about a half an inch extra on each side then cut. I did the same for the opposite corners to make an 'X.' I did the same with the other pieces (to make a diamond through the X). You can do any shape with the ribbon.

You can also use push pins or buttons and cover them with fabric or paint them to put where your ribbon pieces cross. I didn't bother (not until my daughter is old enough to start wanting to play with it and then maybe I'll have to make it more secure).

I reassembled the frame and had to use a bench scraper to tuck the ribbon pieces tightly into the frame. That was it. Oh, and I decided to put the chalk board on the bottom half of the frame because when you go to write or erase the chalkboard the messy stuff won't fall onto your ribbon board. See I actually put some thought into this!

Make one and send pictures! I found a large ribbon board and my parents house I'm going to recover and hang in my daughter's room. So, more pictures to come!