You Can't Ride in My Little Red Wagon

I know in your head now you're singing the rest of that line...Well, once again, I'm sorry for being such a slacker...I really did mean to be more regular with posting, as I still intend to do, I think I just have a lot that I'm working on that were on-going projects, so nothing was getting done. Hopefully now I can really get on the ball and get some stuff posted.

One of the things I have been working on was this shower for my friend, Paige, and her upcoming baby boy.

The theme was "Little Red Wagon", and it was lots of fun (not to mention cheap!) to plan, and I got to plan it with my good friend Alyssa (alyssabittybowtique.blogspot.com)! We stuck to the color scheme of the wagon (red, white, black), adding in natural effects such as burlap, twine, and tin cans.We wanted to feel really little boyish, reminiscent of a little boy playing outside all day.

The food was centered around little boys too, we had apples with dip, PB&J squares, a veggi platter, and themed cake. We also had some food for our own tastes as well, including the famous shower "cucumber bread" and cinnamon bears!

For the activity, instead of games, we had everyone decorate a page for an alphabet book for Paige's little boy. It was fun, and it's a cute extra little gift for Paige!

For the decorations, I'll just post the pictures and explain:

The tablescape

Side View...by the way...those are root beers, I thought it would be cute to have old soda bottles, but it kind of ended up looking like we were having a keg in the pictures. 

Tin cans hanging with daisies

Some of the table

The cake...a joint effort :)

Beautiful Paige...also, there are some pictures I took of Breck's red wagon for decor...cheap and easy, and it totally added to the themed decor!

The Alphabet book table area. Alyssa and I thought this would have looked cuter with some pom poms hanging above it, but wouldn't you know it, all the red tissue paper in Moscow was sold out...unless you want to pay 7 dollars for a small pack at Michaels. 

close up

The favor table

The favors: little red wagons with dirt mounds in them!

Wall Art for Sienna's Room

First off, let me just say, I really love photos printed onto a canvas. Really. I knew I wanted a set of them in Sienna's room, but as most of you know, we are still students so our decorating budget didn't exactly cover printing four 8"x10" photos onto a canvas. It's pretty darn expensive for just one let alone FOUR!!! I had seen a few ideas online about getting pictures printed out, then just mod-podging the picture onto the canvas, and sanding the sides a bit, which I liked, but I still really wanted that "printed on canvas" texture on the picture itself. Then, while looking around online one day, I found out that you can actually print from your computer onto tissue paper! *Brilliant!*

Thus, my idea was born. I would print out four pictures onto tissue paper, then mod-podge it onto the canvases! The tissue is thin enough to where the texture of the canvas comes through, and I was very satisfied with the end results! Are you curious now? You want to try it? Well here's what you do:

What you need:

Canvas (however many you are using, I used 8x10's)

White tissue paper (I only needed one regular sized sheet for four pictures)

Printer *with ink* :)

Regular printer paper

Scissors

Tape

Mod-Podge

Brush

Step1:

Take a piece of printer paper. Place it on a corner of the tissue paper, and cut out around it. It doesn't have to be perfect, but will need to be trimmed up later. Cut the length one inch longer than the length of the printer paper.

Step 2:

Trim up the side of the tissue paper so it's the same width as the width of the printer paper.

Step 3:

Put printer paper in the middle of the tissue paper so there is one half inch overflow on each side. Fold each end over, and tape. I used double sided tape underneath, but regular tape on the edges will work fine too.

Step 4:

Perform a test on your paper in your printer, if you don't know what side it prints on. I drew a star on the side that I was going to put in face-up. I printed out the word "test" to see what side it printed on. It printed on the opposite side of the star, so I knew when I fed the special paper through, I would need to make sure the tissue side was down. If you already know how your printer feeds, ignore everything I just said.

Step 5:

Print off your picture to however big your canvas is, stand there while it prints to make sure it feeds through right.

Step 6:

Separate tissue from printer paper, once ink is completely dry. I just cut along the fold where I folded the tissue paper over.

Step 7:

Mod-podge a layer onto the canvas.

Step 8:

Very carefully, lower the picture onto the canvas, making sure the sides all match up. Then starting with the middle, gently rub the tissue down in a circular motion with your fingers to get it to adhere to the canvas better. Start in the middle and move your way out until the whole picture is glued.

Step 9:

Cut the excess edges as close to the canvas as the scissors will allow you. mod-podge just under then, and gently with your fingers once again, rub the edges down onto the mod-podge. You won't be able to see a definite line (except for where the picture ends and the white begins, but that's normal for the regular photo canvases too).

After that, you are pretty much done, unless you want to embellish them. I put a couple of ribbon embellishments on mine!

*And it totally has the canvas texture on front!*

Here's how I displayed 'em.