"Love You" door

Recently I signed up to take a scrapbook class from Stacy Julian, called 20 in 20. It started in January but she offered a discount to join in July and all the proceeds were donated to charities for Black Lives Matter. One of the first optional projects she gave us was to create something using photos and a "new medium". So something other than paper products.

Here is my "new medium" project for July. I used wood, paint and magnets. I was inspired by Stacy's own garage door. While she decorated the door inside the garage I did something a little different. My "love you" is on the inside of the garage door.  

Whenever we leave the house I like to make sure that we tell those staying home that we love them and give kisses (just in case, you never know).  

Sometimes though we may not be around to say it or give kisses so I put this on the door as we leave the house. I used pictures of the three of us, our dog and grandparents. I also included some fun quotes as well.  

We have very subtly decorated our living room with an "UP" theme (a Paradise Falls jar on a shelf, a small painting of the house and the falls and other things) so the magnets I made were Ellie's bottle cap badges.

I love it so much!!!

Daisy Journey: Between Earth and Sky

The second journey was a road trip that takes us through some of the world's greatest landscapes.  It is designed to develop a lasting love and respect for the natural world.  We started by making a big luggage tag to keep track of the different languages we learn to say "Have a good trip" in.  We also got a blue bucket for collecting good ways to talk about and express our feelings.  it also held any little drawings and notes she had about the Journey.

Again, I basically followed the Adult Leadership Guide in order to help Bug-A-Boo complete this Journey.

For her Great Clover Project, Bug-A-Boo planned and helped us to plant our very own vegetable garden in our backyard.

Harry Potter bedroom ideas

Bug-A-Boo's Harry Potter love has extended to decorating her room.  She wants a full on Harry Potter room but I'm just not willing to fully commit to it yet.  Instead I came up with some ways (thanks to Pinterest) to add Harry Potter touches that are easy to take away when or if she outgrows it.

The first thing is the door into her room.  She wanted it to look like the grand portrait hall at Hogwarts.

The centerpiece of the door is the portrait of the Fat Lady that is in front of Gryffindor Tower.  I printed out the picture and created a frame using gold paper.  I placed it in the 12 x 12 display frame on her door.

I found the speech bubbles at Michaels.  They are wooden speech and thought bubbles.  I used chalkboard paint so that we could write messages on them like the pictures are talking.

I also found these decorative wooden frames at Michaels that I spray painted gold.  I printed out pictures of Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin from the ride at Universal Studios Orlando.

I also found pictures of Dumbledore, McGonagall, Harry, Ron and Hermione.

We also included a picture of Hagrid and Snape as well as photos of Dumbledore's Army and The Order of the Phoenix.

For the doorknob I found a wooden door hanger and in Photoshop I created the artwork.  Colloportus is a locking spell and Alohamora is the unlocking spell.

Using some stickers that I had I decorated her light switch plate with the spells for turning on lights and turning them off.

The next idea I found on Pinterest.  I got a wooden plaque and painted it black.  I cut out letters in gold paper and used Modge Podge to adhere them to the wood.  I then used some eye hooks and string to make the hanging line.  I had some small black clothes pins and I attached some of Bug-A-Boo's Little Miss Match socks to the line using the clothes pins.

Another idea from Pinterest is this bulletin board.  I found the artwork at different websites and printed everything out at home.  I bought a cork bulletin board and decorated it with the artwork.

I bought a little wooden shelf and painted it black so she would have a place to not only hang and display her various medals but also display some Harry Potter memorabilia like her Golden Snitch, her wand, a chocolate frog box and her house cup.

In front of her window I  made the flying keys from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  I found the keys at Michaels.  I cut out wings using vellum and my Cricut and then I used clear thread and little eye hooks to hang them from the ceiling.

The final bit (and one of the most fun for me) was the Harry Potter paper dolls.  I made her a set of all of the dolls I had created for my Etsy.com shop years ago and I framed them and they are now hanging in her room.

Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Rubeus Hagrid, Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore and Voldemort.

Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, Sybill Trelawney, Minerva McGonagall, Alastair Moody, Bellatrix LeStrange and Dolores Umbridge.

The newest set included Seamus Finnegan, Fred and George Weasley, Oliver Wood, Gilderoy Lockhart and Moaning Myrtle.

I printed the Marauders Map onto some parchment like yardstick and framed the paper dolls.

There is a lot more that she wants to do to get her Harry Potter bedroom but for now this will have to do.

UP, up and away!

Prince Charming and I have a dream to one day retire and spend it traveling the world.  We have decided that when the time comes we will most likely sell our home in Ohio and buy a condo in Orlando, FL and use it as our home base.

Why Orlando, you ask?  Well, we love Orlando mostly because we love Disney World.  We are Disney Vacation Club members and we visit at least once a year.  Bug-a-Boo also loves it there and we hope that by the time we retire she will be in college and then if we are lucky she will one day have a family of her own and what better place to be for our future grandchildren than Disney World.

Every once in a while Prince Charming and I will check out the real estate websites to see what types of properties are out there and to get an idea of areas, etc. that we may enjoy.  While searching one day I saw several properties that people rent out while they are out of town.  Some of these properties are heavily decorated in a Disney theme and marketed towards families looking to rent a place for their Disney Vacation.  I thought this was a great idea and started dreaming about a magically, tastefully, Disney decorated home in our retirement.

As the days went by I couldn't stop thinking about bringing the magic of Disney into our home and started wondering why I couldn't do it now.  If I was going to do this now though it had to fit with what we already had and it needed to be tastefully and subtle.  Unfortunately, all I kept finding online was extremely bold Mickey Mouse type stuff.  Then one day while on Facebook I saw this post from Disney Pixar (which I am a fan of):

It's not the adventure that matters as much as who you spend it with.

I immediately sent it to Prince Charming.  We love the movie UP because of the wonderful love story between Carl and Ellie Frederickson (we purchased Grape Soda pins the last time we were at Disney World and we wear them on our coats) and because of their love for adventure and travel.  Carl and Ellie are very reminiscent of Prince Charming and me.

This was the inspiration I needed.  Our Family Room is decorated in a travel theme already, so I thought what more perfect movie to use as inspiration than Disney-Pixar's UP!

I started a mad search online for ideas on how to incorporate elements of the film into our decor.  I started with artwork.  In the film, Ellie paints a mural of Paradise Falls above the fireplace.

We have a large map framed above our fireplace with pins in it marking the places we've been so instead I printed out a 4 x 6 photo of Ellie's mural and it sits on our mantel.  We didn't have binoculars but we did have a very old telescope that belong to my grandfather during the war and I found a decorative camera that also fits with the vintage travel theme.  In addition, I found an artist on Etsy.com that makes fantastic replicas of Ellie's Grape Soda badge.  I have that along with Russell's Wilderness Explorer Assisting the Elderly Badge and I plan to frame them in a small shadow box frame.

Our mantle

Ellie's mural

Ellie's Grape Soda Badge and Russell's Assisting the Elderly Badge

The other artwork I found were in the style of vintage travel posters.  There were several out there but I made sure that the four I chose had an element of the movie in it, primarily Carl's house being floated by balloons.  I printed them out 5x7 and bought frames at Michael's and hung them up among our personal travel photos.

you can see silhouettes of Carl, Russell and Kevin in this print.

The final two prints I found fit the theme perfectly.  Charles Muntz was Carl and Ellie's hero and the reason they wanted to travel to Paradise Falls.  Even though he turned out to be the villian in the story I felt like he needed to be represented.

Charles Muntz concept art

This 5x7 print sits on top of a chest that sits on a ledge.  I also found a concept print of Ellie that I just loved.  I am a lot like Ellie, even have the red hair, so I really liked this print.

made by Rogie

Carl and Ellie are always saving their pennies in order to one day go to Paradise Falls.

In order to make a Paradise Falls jug I needed the jug.  I looked at about 5 different stores and had no luck.  Finally, I knew I would have to break down and go to the grocery store.  I bought a 1 gallon jug of Carlo Rossi wine.  We now have our own Paradise Falls jug.

Another important element of the film is Ellie's Adventure Book.  Being a scrapbooker and a traveler I knew that we needed to have a replica of the book that we could fill ourselves.  I found an amazing artist at Etsy.com who makes them.

Along with the Adventure Book I also purchased The Art of Up by Tim Hauser and the Wilderness Explorers' Guide by Ellie O'Ryan to use as "coffee table books".

Another simple thing I did was to take some photo coasters that we already had and I printed out stills from the movie.

My final project for the family room involved Russell's Wilderness Explorer Badges.  In the movie, Russell has one more badge to earn in order to become a Senior Wilderness Explorer, the Assisting the Elderly badge.  It is what brings him to Carl and a huge part of the story.

I knew that I wanted to do some how incorporate the badges into the room but I just couldn't figure out how.  I knew how I was going to make them so that they looked real (thanks to Chariots of Ire blog).  I purchased 8-1/2"x11" transparent sticker paper by Avery and 1-1/2" felt pads (used on furniture).  I printed out the badges, cut them and stuck them to the felt pads.  Since the stickers were transparent you are able to see the texture of the felt through them and they really look authentic.

Now I just had to figure out how to display all 47 of them.  I was stumped and then one night as I was drifting off to sleep it hit me.  We have a storage ottoman in our family room that serves as both a place for Bug-A-Boo's toys and a coffee table.  In order to actually use it as a table I had to purchase trays that could sit on top of it.  I could line the bottom of the tray with the badges and have a piece of plexiglass cut to set on top.  It came out awesome!  (You may notice this empty space, that's for my Assisting the Elderly badge)  I love it!

I absolutely love the little additions to our family room to bring the love, adventure and magic of UP into our home.

The best part is that nothing is obtrusive.  Everything is very subtle and most people probably won't even notice.

Next up...Ratatouille kitchen!