Pallet Rock Climbing Wall

We just recently purchased a new home and the backyard ended up having a dreadful slope. Although it was frustrating at first, there are actually a lot of cool things you can do with slopes. One idea I had was to create a rock climbing wall for my kids using recycled pallets. This project took one weekend. Check out our building process below.

I first prepared each pallet so that they weren't so rough as kids would be touching/walking on them. I sanded each board on the front side using my electric sander. After I sanded them, I painted on a coat of clear gloss polyurethane to help protect the wood from the elements. (I didn't get a picture of this step :-( Whoops).

Then we laid the rocks in a random pattern to figure out where we wanted each one to go. Then my husband drilled them all in with the included hardware. These were the rocks I purchased from Amazon.

We laid playground mulch on the slope to go under our pallets. Then we created a frame of sort to attach the pallets to. We used treated lumber since this will be outside. The ledges on the top and bottom have "legs" essentially that we buried into the ground for stability. Then we attached the long 16' boards to each ledge. Then we screwed each pallet to the long boards.

And here is the finished wall. What do you think?

Kid approved. :-)

Felt Christmas Trees

I love these felt Christmas trees! They are great for kids to play with this time of the year; especially for those little fingers that like to touch the real tree. These were pretty simple to create once I had the 

design down. I did have to make several different trips to the craft store as it was hard to make a list for every little item that I needed up front, but hopefully you can avoid that part!

I first freehanded the tree on a piece of poster board. You can make yours as round or as pointy as you'd like. You only have to draw 1/2 a tree as you will fold the felt in half; this way each side will be symmetrical. I made green and white trees, so whichever color you think would look better in your house. I also found it to be cheaper if you buy the felt by the yard instead of the 3'x3' pre-cut square they sell in the felt aisle.

Next I found clipart ornaments online that I liked and printed them out on cardstock. After cutting out my cardstock templates, I traced them on various colored felt sheets with a Sharpie. You can make them as colorful as you would like or stick with just a couple different colors. I added extra details to a few of the ornaments as you can see below. The zig-zag ribbon and tiny pom-pom balls were inexpensive, but made such a difference! On the large present I glued ribbon around the top and curled it with scissors. 

Once your ornaments are all done, find a great spot to hang your tree. I used poster tape to hang it, but you could use tacks or nails or whatever else you have lying around the house. Here is the finished look. My kids love playing with it and I hope yours do too!

Carnival Party

For my daughter's 6th birthday we had a backyard Carnival Party! This was such a fun theme!! I had been wanting to do a carnival party for some time, but wanted her to be old enough to really play the games. This summer just worked out perfectly to finally do it. It was extremely hot that day, which was a little tiring on the guests, but overall a very successful party!! Check out the photos from the party!

 This is the invitation that I designed on my Mac. I just love the ticket idea! I sell the PDF download if you were interested in having an invite like this for your own carnival party.

We set up this cute banner over the grill for our "concession stand".  ;-) 

What carnival wouldn't be complete without carnival food?! My awesome hubby was the chef for the day. We had funnel cakes, corndogs, fresh-cut fries, and gooey caramel corn. Yum!

Mickey Mouse 1st Birthday Party

For my son's 1st birthday we had a Mickey party. It was such a fun and easy theme as there is tons of Mickey ideas out there! Here are some pics from his party, complete with DIY!

I made these invitations with my mom who graciously helped me cut one afternoon. Honestly, a Circuit machine would be best for this sort of project, but I don't have one yet. There was a lot of cutting involved here! The red piece on front makes a pocket that the invitation sits in. I had some old buttons lying around that I glued onto Mickey's shirt. I downloaded the Waltograph font from DaFont for the text on the invites. Downloading the font and uploading it into Pages on my Mac was the best because I used that font for many other things for this party. I love these invitations!

This welcome sign was pretty easy to make. I just hand-drew the three parts on construction paper, cut them out, then glued them to a ribbon, spaced apart like shown below. I also used the Waltograph font for this sign.

Hopscotch Paver Path

We have a ton of rocks in our backyard which makes it hard to walk in certain parts barefoot. We were wanting to create a path connecting our patio to the grass area. I decided how cute would it be to make the path a hopscotch path? This project was fairly simple and only took a couple hours. 

We first shoveled the rocks to either side to create our space. We then laid tarp along the path. I am a firm believer that you can never have too much tarp! ;-) Then we laid a thin layer of sandbox sand on top of the tarp and raked it evenly.

Next I spaced the pavers in the path, just eyeballing them to align them evenly, but you could get out a tape measurer if you wanted to be more exact. I bought the 12"x12" pavers from Lowe's for $1.78/ea. They have other color options, but I thought red would add a pop of color out back. 

Teacher Gifts

It's custom to give your children's teacher a gift at the end of the school year. I wanted to find unique gifts that would be different from all the others. Teachers can only have so many chocolates and candles and lotions, right? Here are some of the things I've made for my children's teachers. 

I just love this cute plant! School gets out in the spring time basically and having a fresh plant is always so welcoming. I bought the plant from Lowe's. They have such a huge selection this time of the year. I found this cute sign online and printed it out on cardstock so it would be sturdy. You could also design your own. Then I glued the sign to a popsicle stick and there you go! So easy!

Everyone knows an apple is a common gift for teachers, right? Well I took it a step further and made homemade caramel dipping sauce to go with the apple! I found cute mason jar containers from the dollar store to put the caramel in (it's hard to see in the picture). Then I added stuffing and bagged them up with a sweet tag. They loved their gifts!

Another gift we have done before is bake pumpkin bread or banana bread, whatever you prefer, and make these cute apple labels. My daughter helped me cut out the apples and helped me glue on the leaves. They turned out super cute!

Jewelry Holders

Here are two simple projects you could whip up real easily to display your earrings and necklaces.

Earring Holder:

I bought this frame from Walmart for around $5. It's an 11"x14" frame, but you could get whatever size you want. I bought the lace ribbon from Hobby Lobby. I measured the lace across the frame and then cut 6 even strands. I hot glued them to the back of the frame. I spaced out the ribbons unevenly to allow space for smaller earrings (studs) and larger, dangly ones. Then add your earrings and there you go!

Necklace Holder:

I picked this branch right from my front yard. I have 4 huge trees that drop branches weekly (which I use often for many projects). I bought screw hooks from Home Depot for only a few dollars and then twisted them into the branch by hand. This took a little bit of time and my fingers were a little sore, but not a biggie. It was done in no time! I have this hanging in my bathroom. What do you think??