Superhero Peg People

I made some superhero peg people for my son's birthday and also a set for one of his friends.

Spiderman, Green Lantern, Captain America, Robin, Batman, Superman

Here's a shot of how I painted the back/capes if anyone wants to try and make them too.

 And since Batman's head can't have the pointy ears, I just painted an upside down V so it would sorta look like the pointy ears.

St. Patrick's Mantle Projects

When I dug out my St. Patrick's Day box of decorations, I realized it was quite empty.  I didn't have much.  But thanks to pinterest and my to-do-list, I found a couple quick items to make to fill up the mantle.

Garland - i found this on pinterest, but i never found instructions or a template - just the couple of photos to go on, so I made a couple different sizes to see how they would turn out until I found the size I wanted.  Also, Jo-Ann's selection of green felt stinks.  They don't have a good lime green that's not neon.  So I splurged a little and got a nice green wool felt even though it wasn't the color I was hoping for (only got about 6 inches and still have 1/2 of it left, so you don't need a lot at all).  Then I just strung them on embroidery floss to hang them up.
 

Leprechaun hat - this was on my to-do-list from last year.  But I made it a bit different.  I didn't want it as thick as the 4x4 would make it, so I cut the brim from a 2x2 and the top from a 2x4.  Also, I added the ribbon/buckle to the top of the hat instead of the brim.

I just have a couple standard candles and change out the ribbons for the different holidays - that way I don't need a bunch of candles - just 3 or 4 to change out colors with.

Birthday Calendar

I saw this idea for birthday calendars on Eighteen25.  I thought it was cute and small, so it didn't take up a lot of room.  I'll just have to find someone to write in the names on the lines for me since I don't have cute handwriting :)

You can hang it on the wall, lean it against a wall, or hang it up since the clip has a handy hold to hang it with already.

What I did different:
*I didn't trim the calendars on the bottoms along the line you are suposed to cut - just trimmed the top and sides.  That way the calendar went closer to the bottom of the clipboard - more centered and didn't leave a big gap like in the example (just an OCD of mine).  I just used the strip of paper to cover the line that still showed.
*Since I left my calendars a little longer, I ended up cutting my strips of patterened paper to 1.25" tall instead of the 1" in the example.

First problem I ran into...I couldn't find these 6"x9" clipboards at Michael's anymore. I went to 2 different Michael's stores before an employee told me he thought they were just a seasonal item (why would clipboards be seasonal?) So I tried Jo-Anns - no clipboards...Wal-Mart - only plastic, neon mini clipboards. So, I went to Office Depot as my last resort. I figured they would be there, but probably expensive, so I was avoiding them. I was right - $2.50 for the clipboard compared to the .99 cent one in the example. Oh well.

Second problem...these clipboards didn't have screws attaching the clip to the board. They were riveted on and not removable. So if I want to paint the board, I'll have to tape it off and paint it really careful. So for now, it's not painted. But I'm having a hard time thinking of a color besides white, that would match all the different papers I glued to the calendar pages.