Speedy: The Rollerskating Turtle

I always wanted a turtle for a pet.

My parents didn't think it was a good idea.

We had cats instead. 

Not that I don't like cats. It's just that turtles don't shed, or scratch, or meow at your door in the middle of the night.


 Now I have a turtle and his name is Speedy.
 He may not be real, but he eats a lot less than my dog.

And my dog would probably eat a real turtle.


This is Speedy:  The Rollerskating Turtle

My little monsters love him too.

 

My 4 year old son called him the "funniest turtle I have ever seen!"

Now you can get a Speedy Turtle for your kids too. He's in our shop! 
He would love a good home with toddlers who can race as fast as he can.

{ stick-on whiteboard } updated w/ tutorial.

While walking though the office supply store yesterday I found something I couldn't live without. But I couldn't bring myself to part with a $10 bill just to have it on my studio wall.

It was a stick-on white board!

Yep, just a big ol' green circle. But I loved it so much!

I'm one of those, don't-buy-it-if-you-can-make-it type girls, so I looked it over and went home empty handed.

This morning I put my vinyl cutter to work and made this:

One more step on my road to orginization. YAY!


How to make your own stick-on whiteboard:

1. Cut out your coupon for Joann's or Hobby Lobby.

2. Track down some vinyl. You can usually find "Cri-cut" brand vinyl at the craft stores I listed above, or your local craft store.  (You might even try glossy Con-tact paper, but I haven't tried it yet,so please test it before you hang it.)

3. Cut it in any shape you want using scissors, an x-acto knife, or if you happen to have a vinyl cutter (or if you have a friend with one) you can use that too!
(My whiteboard is about 17 inches long and 12 inches wide.)

4. Peel-and-Stick!

5. Use your dry erase markers on your new white board!

It's so easy!

Fabric Covered Shelf Tutorial

My new studio is still a work-in-progress. I have more projects to work on before it will officially be done.

This is my favorite project so far! I wanted new wall shelves to hold all of my junk.
You know, to organize.
Whatever that means.

I found these shelves and some brackets at Lowe's on clearance for dirt cheap. They were perfect! Except. . . . . they were completely the wrong color.

(This technique will also work great for floating wall shelves)

I thought about spray painting them white, but painting over laminate has never worked out well for me.
Besides, something more fun, fresh, and colorful was in order.

But, I did spray paint the brackets white:

I decided to use up some of my favorite Amy Butler fabric to cover the shelves.
Green and white, cuz it looks awesome with my new orange walls!

Here's what you will need for this project:

Shelf

Brackets and screws (if needed)

Fabric

Spray Adhesive

Scissors

Hot Glue Gun

Any extra stuff to attach the shelves to the wall: screws, drywall anchors, drill, etc.

 

1. Measure and cut your fabric rectangle. Make sure it will cover the width of your shelf plus about 2 or 2.5 inches extra on each side. The length should be able to cover the entire top, front, and bottom, add about an inch to each side of the length.

2. Spray the top of the shelf with adhesive and lay it down onto the fabric. Stretch out any wrinkles if needed.

3. Spray the front with adhesive and pull the fabric over the front of the shelf.

 4. Spray the bottom of the shelf and stretch the fabric over, stretching out any wrinkles. I didn't use much on the sides since we will still be working with them.

5. Lightly spray the sides and front corner with adhesive. (my shelf is sitting upside down in the picture ) Pull up the bottom fabric and fold the top fabric over. It's kind of like gift wrapping your shelf.

 6. Use your glue gun to glue down the side. Make it look pretty as a package.

 7. Trim the back edge if needed. I don't like to measure so I trim as I go.  You don't want a lot of bulk on the back side because you want it to sit flush against the wall.

 7. Spray the back with a small amount of adhesive, fold one edge down.

 8. Hot glue the final edge.

See! So cute already.  And it's not even on the wall yet!

9. Mark your brackets. Use a pencil to mark exactly where they are going to go. I recommend making a small hole in the fabric where the screws go so your drill doesn't snag your beautiful work.

10. Attach your brackets. I drilled out the holes first before attaching the brackets with screws.

11. Hang! Find a buddy to help you with this part. Use your drywall anchors or attach to your wall studs. I used 50 lb. capacity drywall anchors on one side and I secured the other side to a stud.

P.S. It also helps to have a stud holding up the shelf  while you attach it to the wall. Like maybe, your husband?

Now stand back and marvel at your beautiful and unique fabric shelf!

GO YOU!

Whippy Cake Giveaway!

You wanna hear a secret??


Ok, it's not a secret. But it is as exciting as a secret.


Whippy Cake is doing 7 days of giveaway and guess who is up first?? Cantaloupe Corner!! YESS!
(And you know how much I LOVE Whippy Cake!)

We are giving away custom made "Whippy Cake" logo shirts in the cutest blush pink color. It makes me want a strawberry cupcake. yum!

This yummy tee could be yours! Drop by Whippy Cake's blog to enter. And keep checking back for more giveaway goodness!

Love,
Me

I'm with the Band!

So much new stuff around here!

I have a new boy tee design! Woo Hoo!
I learned a new technique and I couldn't wait to try it out. The new design uses half-tones that make it look like the image is fading away. It worked out perfectly! I'm so EXCITED about this shirt!!

I'm with the BAND toddler boy shirt

Thank heavens for rain clouds! Here in AZ it is hotter than heck and taking modeled pictures outside means sweat drenched faces and lots of water breaks. But today we had cloud cover, (which makes for better pictures anyways), and it dropped the temp way down below normal!

 

So the kids got a play day at the park and I got some new photos! Win, win.

 

I just posted this design in our Cantaloupe Corner Etsy shop. I hope you love it as much as I do!

Girls, girls, girls!

I'm excited to announce the arrival of our new Rockin' GIRLY TEES!

We have a plethera of designs available to print on our new quality tees. These cute tees fit just like a girly t-shirt should! And the easy-to-wash, fun-to-wear shirts will outlast what your little princess can put them through.

We know how important it is to have clothes that can withstand dirty sandboxes, blueberry pancake stains, watermelon drizzles, Kool-Aid "oopsies", and after bed time pillow fights. These durable tees can take it, and they stay so soft!

Some of these cute tees will be randomly selected in our daily Back-to-School Sale, or maybe we should call it the "Back-to- Pre-School" sale. The sale changes just about every day. So keep checking back to see if your favorite tee is on sale.

P.S.

I have decided to cancel the Twirl Headband Giveaway for now. Once I get my Blogger account working the way it should I will put the giveaway up again. Thank you for being such awesome readers! I really want to give some stuff out to all of you that support me and Cantaloupe Corner!

Bridal Shower Ideas!!

Here it is! Proof that I wasn't just sitting around eating bon-bons while my shop was closed.

Not that you thought I was. . .
 It's just nice to finally be able to show off some of our hard work from the last few weeks.

These adorable girls are my sisters! And. . . they had their weddings in the same month! And only 4 days apart!!! That's what I said! "Whoa!"

I had the privelidge of helping put together their double bridal shower. My other sister (yes, there are a lot of us) planned the whole thing and I helped her throw it all together.

Some of my favorite things from the shower included the blinged out "Bride" tank tops and their wedding-white ribbon headbands.

We created the coolest budget-friendly decore around!

These are what I like to call Tissue Paper "Poofs". We made them in all sizes to hang around the room and over the serving tables. They were so easy to make and they were a huge hit at the party.  Learn how to make these tissue paper decorations here.

My sister Melesa is an amazing party planner! I loved all of her ideas! She put together the food which featured a secret recipe Artichoke Dip and a beautiful Candy Buffet. It was perfect, down to the last purple M&M.

I contributed the pretty pastel-colored chocolate-dipped pretzels.

And check this out! A cupcake bouquet!!! To die for!

And for party favors: handmade Cantaloupe Corner fabric flower hair clips and headbands!

And here's me with my new short hair. We just played a game where we drew the brides' dream house on a paper plate, on top of our head.   :)

I wish you could see what an amazing artist I am. ha ha! 

I did draw a dog in the yard. What? You can't see it?  

Revamped Bulletin Board (So Easy!)

Here is a quick, easy, 15 minute project that looks like a million bucks!

What do you need?

framed corkboard/bulletin board ( I picked mine up at the Thrift Store for $2)

Spray Paint (if desired)

Cute Fabric

Scissors

Spray Adhesive

Butter knife



My bulletin board came pre-framed, it was dark brown so I taped it off and spray painted it white.



1. Cut a piece of fabric that is about 1 inch longer and wider than the area of the corkboard that is showing.

2. Spray lightly with spray adhesive, avoiding the frame.

3. Press fabric down onto bulletin board.

3. Push remaining fabric under the frame using butter knife or other flat object.

(If there isn't enough room between the frame and the corkboard, you can fold the fabric under to create a finished edge and secure it with hot glue or fabric glue.)

Hang your new wall art!

{ Marshmallow Fondant Recipe }

Do you love the smooth look of fondant frosting?
I like to think of it as edible "play-dough" because it so versatile and FUN!

But, it's not cheap and it usually doesn't taste that great either :(
I always shyed away from this wedding cake staple until one day I got this recipe for Marshmallow Fondant.

This recipe tastes great and you can make it yourself for cheap!

Here's the train birthday cake I made for my son's b-day! (Sadly, I ran out of mini oreos for the last car's wheels.)

The train peices were made by wrapping swiss rolls and nutty bars with fondant frosting.



MARSHMALLOW FONDANT:

Ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) package miniature marshmallows
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon butter flavored extract
2 pounds confectioners' sugar, divided
1/4 cup butter (room temperature)



1.Double-Boiler method: Melt Marshmallows and water in double boiler until all lumps are gone.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Slowly beat in confectioners' sugar until you have a sticky dough. Reserve one cup of the sugar for kneading.  The dough will be stiff.

  Microwave Method: Place the marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on High for 30 seconds to 1 minute to start melting the marshmallows. Carefully stir the water and vanilla extract into the hot marshmallows, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Slowly beat in the confectioners' sugar, a cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of powdered sugar for kneading. The dough will be very stiff.

2.Rub your hands thoroughly with butter, and begin kneading the sticky dough. As you knead, the dough will become workable and pliable. Turn the dough out onto a working surface dusted with confectioners' sugar and continue kneading until the fondant is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.

3.Form the fondant into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. To use, allow the fondant to come to room temperature, and roll it out onto a flat surface dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Leftover fondant can be stored in the refrigerator tightly wrapped in plastic for up to 2 weeks.

***I love this stuff!! It's a blast to play with and the possibilities are endless!***

ENJOY!