Camp Z! Play Tent

Big sister was at Girl Scout day camp this past week, so the boy and I have been able to spend some quality time.  One of our highlights was him getting to play Wii for over an hour without anyone (namely big sister) telling him it was her turn or informing him that that was not how you do it.  He was in heaven. 

While he was playing, I was cruising the blog scene and came across a fabulous idea from Cakies on Grosgrain for an amazing A-Frame Tent!  After checking the wood supply in the garage, I loaded up the kid and headed out to Home Depot for some wood and JoAnns for some fabric.

Rubyellen from Cakies offers an amazing tutorial in her guest post as part of the Free Pattern Month at Grosgrain. I will touch on the basics.

NEED:
4 - 48" 1x2 finish boards (not too rough)
1 - 48" 3/4 dowel
1 - 3/4" paddle bit for your electric drill
Measuring tape
pencil or marker
Roughly 2.5 yard fabric - finished piece is 44"x85"

I had Home Depot cut my boards to size for me.  At home, I measured down 5" (she suggests 6") because my piece of fabric was slightly larger than needed.  Due to the width of my fabric, I have a 7" folded hem.  I actually like the deeper hem since my fabric is a printed upholstry fabric that is rather plain on the interior.

The fabric cover is roughtly 44" x 85".  Once you have hemmed each side, simply attach a 5" piece of elastic that has been folded in half to each corner.  This elastic is what hold the tent to the wood structure.

I love that the whole thing can be pulled apart and stored away as needed.  But for tonight, Z has invited Big Sis to sleep in the tent in his room.

Linked up to...

Ask Anna Weekend Warriors

I ♥ Naptime

Under the Table and Dreaming

Skip to my Lou Made by You Monday

The Tattered Tag

Keeping it Simple Motivate Me Monday

Polly Want A Crafter

Frugal Girls Chic And Crafty

Ordinary Days

today's Creative blog Get Your Craft On

Sugar Bee Crafts Take-A-Look Tuesday

Now I Know My ABCs...

I am absolutely giddy about sharing this project as I have wanted to do this ever since I saw the alphabet wall posts here, here and here.  So the end of January and early February, I began collecting my letters.  My goal was to complete this project while my Mom was visiting but of course I decided to broke my wrist instead.  Last week, while waiting for customers to come to our yard sale, I began decorating some of my letters. A few of the letters still need to be embellished but I just had to share because I absolutely love it!

I absolutely love the kids playroom.  The upstairs at our house is essentially four bedrooms and a bathroom.  My concern when we were painting up there is that it would look like a rainbow with different colors in every room - and by colors I mean bright colors.  Our daughter's room is bright pink and green while our son's  room is denim blue and brick red.  We decided to use the green from S's room and the blue from Z's room to paint the playroom.  In the kids rooms we have accent walls but we decided to try a stripe in the play room and it turned out awesome.  There is a 2' stripe of green at the top and bottom with 4' stripe through the middle.

This project was so much fun and I wish I could do it again as I have so many ideas for items to use in lieu of letters like O, T, U, C, Q and others.  But alas, the project is done and it turned out awesome.  The entire project was under $40 as many of the letters were $1 or less and the embellishing of them was craft paint and scrapbook paper that I already had on hand.

A few of my favorite's were...

In honor of our hometown team - University of Arizona - Go Cats.

I made this one by finding an A on-line, blowing it up, printing it out, tracing it on red, white & blue felt, cutting them out and gluing them together.  I used the stiff felt for the blue so that the letter had some rigidity.

Man on the Moon Letter C!

The letter C was a really ugly moon decoration I found at The Dollar Tree.  I simply painted it yellow to give it a "cheese" look.  I like that you can tell that it is a moon but can also see that it is a C.

Crayola Crayon E

The playroom is definitely home to the crayon crowd at our house - although, crayons, markers and the like are not allowed upstairs unless an adult is present hee hee!