tolen family fun

vinyl and spray paint and clearance, OH MY!

4tsmom — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:15:48 +0000

This past weekend it was over 50 degrees. Now to most people that just means and unseasonably warm January day, but for me in means SPRAY PAINT! I have had a few projects that needed some attention and I was able to get them done. My a to z bookends didn’t show up against the dark wood bookshelf. Green paint to the rescue.

And since it’s such an awesome color of green, I decided to paint a small table that color too.

I also painted a old brass floor lamp a rubbed bronze. Hopefully I can show you that soon; it needs a new shade!!!

I ordered some vinyl form Expressions Vinyl, my favorite vinyl place. They ship SUPER fast and are very reasonable. I needed some green and gold to embellish some travel mugs for my sister and her husband. They got these mugs on clearance after Christmas. Stainless steel (inside and out) with a leather like removable cup holder. She sent them home with me so I could put their favorite teams on them. The rounded sides are tough to put vinyl on but they turned out pretty good. It is permanent vinyl that is hand washable. Since the sale was so irresistible (ridiculously cheap!) my brother-in-law got me a few (quite a few) more mugs thinking I could dress them up and put them in my shop. I played around and made one for myself, replacing the leather like holder with a quilted one. Obviously I will have to use non-licensed ideas for the ones I sell, but for personal use, I love mine. Dr. Seuss rocks!

Speaking of clearance, I scored a king sized quilt at Target for $24. T2 needed heavy curtains to block the cold in her room and she really liked the orange in the quilt. We also found some tie back bars on, you guessed it- clearance, at Lowe’s that we still need to mount, to hold the heavy fabric back.

One last picture – our dog Latte, who insisted upon having her picture taken while I was taking pictures of the table. She’s something.

Silhouette Fun

4tsmom — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:31:49 +0000

I love my Silhouette. No it’s not the Cameo but it still does what I want it to do. Here are a few projects I’ve done recently with my favorite little machine.
We’ve only lived in our house a year and a half. It’s about time I got some house numbers on the place!

This is a glass etching order we filled recently.

And my favorite project, a picture inspired by my amazing pastor. This past Sunday he preached about anxiety and worry, something I struggle with. This was a favorite quote of his so I made him a picture. I am also making one for my wall as a constant reminder.

Working on a window frame project… can’t wait to share it.

Last group of Christmas Presents

4tsmom — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:57:35 +0000

We had our last Christmas gathering yesterday and I can finally post the rest of my pictures. I have included a few orders that I have filled too. I’m getting ready to work on some SNOW projects, just being hopeful !

This first project came from Dog Under My Desk and I added personalization to the back. Thanks for such a great tutorial (although I wasn’t near my printer so I didn’t use her pattern, but I would have been easier if I had!) T2s friends loved them at their gift exchange on New Years Eve.

We also put vinyl on A LOT OF STUFF. The monkey nightlight is for my nephew to match his monkey themed room I made the goodies for. The others are gifts and orders we (my friend Steph has been helping tons!) have filled.

created by Jen during Crafts & Spirits night

nightlight for T3 & 4s bathroom

gift for my grammy

order

Zach's nightlight

I made a marker roll & marsupial for my nieces as well as these dry erase frames for their rooms.

And last but not least, how about some Angry Birds with blocks. T3 & 4 used the little Angry Birds that T4 got in his stocking and filmed (no I didn’t include the MANY videos they made) each episode of the Angry Birds game. They worked on this for hours. I love how creative they are!

I go back to school tomorrow but I am trying to adopt a new attitude toward all the changes coming down the pipe in education.

Source: Uploaded by user via Mandi on Pinterest

Sharing at :: Sew Can Do :: Skip to my Lou :: Sumo’s Sweet Stuff :: Craft-0-Maniac :: Boogie Board Cottage :: Singing Three Little Birds :: Embellishing Life :: The Girl Creative ::

Happy New Year

4tsmom — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 06:13:22 +0000

Wishing you the best 2012! Happy New Year!!!

December at a glance

4tsmom — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:10:18 +0000

I haven’t posted any crafty stuff for A LONG TIME. So here is some of what I have been doing. We’ll call it December at a glance. I apparently didn’t take pictures of everything I’ve done, but here’s some of it. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is ready to ring in the new year.

I’m opening a tab on my blog called color me m boutique where I can take custom orders for the items listed. Check it out and pass it on.

Pin from your iPhone

4tsmom — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:40:45 +0000

Seems like I’m always going, hence the reason I haven’t posted much. I do like to check blogs while sitting at (fill in the blank with games, choir concerts, band concerts, meetings…) and wanted to pin from my phone. Could it be done? I have the pinterest app but couldn’t see a way to pin. I googled it and found my answer at simply the nest

The pinterest app has the same instructions if you click on account and then bookmarklet.

I used it and it’s awesome. Check out my pinterest for the latest goodies I’ve found. Happy pinning!

color me m

4tsmom — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:01:35 +0000

My Etsy store is finally open! As of today I have 3 items listed but more are on the way. Please visit my store, tell your friends about my store and make suggestions of things you would like to see in the store. I have the three items listed below as well as the link to color me m.

Listed today:

Come visit me at etsy, you can even buy something if you want.

little green monsters in my head

4tsmom — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:41:33 +0000

So the Mr. Tolen pointed out that I had multiple errors in my post yesterday. Apparently you shouldn’t blog when you have the green mucinex monsters floating in your head. I will fix those typos soon

Mandi

Orphan Gifts and Thankfulness

4tsmom — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:07:03 +0000

Our church has an orphanage in Guatemala and our Sunday School class has adopted the orphans for Christmas. We got a precious little boy named Gabriel who is 6 years old and likes legos and small toy animals. We got him an outfit, some new socks, and some legos and then I made him a marker roll and a little notebook with his name/initial on it them. We are also going to use my Silhouette machine to put their names on all of the backpacks like we did Gabriel’s. I think they will like the personalized gifts. My family will also be putting personal notes to Gabriel even though he speaks Spanish and we don’t. T4 was super excited when I told him we were adopting Gabriel for Christmas. He wanted to know if Gabriel would be here by Christmas. He was a little bummed when he found out that we didn’t actually get to make him part of our family. He told me he would keep praying until we could really adopt Gabriel. Here is part of what we are sending, the marker roll and little notebook. I also have the backpack with Gabriel’s name on it. We will be adding names to the rest of the bags next week and sending our gifts with the mission trip in December.

His favorite colors are green and yellow.

I got the flocked iron on material from Silhouette and the white iron on material came from my favorite Expressions Vinyl.

I also used my Silhouette machine to make an addition to my mantle for Thanksgiving. I have, as always, every intention to sand the edges and glaze a little but it simply hasn’t happened and Christmas goes up next week. It has served its purpose as reminder to give thanks to God for everything!I will sign off by wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving (because the likelihood of another post by then is slim). See you on the flip side.

Halloween….check!

4tsmom — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:59:46 +0000

This past week was crazy: student teacher conferences, a good friends beautiful wedding (pics to come) and Halloween… not to mention that I slightly lost my mind and created a ridiculous costume for my son (but super awesome!) I plan to take down the decorations this evening and get some fall leaves and Thanksgiving going.

Lego man was made out of cardboard and duct tape. I made the body out of felt and super stiffy. My math students were “happy” to hear about how I used proportions to scale from the small lego man to T4 size. Lego man was a hit at school and trick-or-treating. He got more candy than others at some of the houses because they liked his costume. We did have to take the head off from house to house because little kids would turn to stare and fall down.

T3 decided to be an artist so I cut her mustache and beard out with my silhouette machine. She painted the shirt and put the paint dots on her palette. T1′s costume – WalMart special, and T2 – no costume (sad) but she hung out at her friends house on the busiest street in the city and handed out candy.

I also made some popcorn covers, using my Frank E. pattern posted earlier. I enlarged the features to fit the popcorn cover. I love how it turned out.

Now I’m going to sit back and wait for the first snow of the season to fall (scheduled for tomorrow evening).