How I Roll

Last week I took my boys on a flight to Kansas City. I've actually flown alone (no other adults) with my kids several times in the past few years and I've got the procedure down pretty well, I think. When I saw a post on myautismteam.com asking about taking a 3 year old on a plane trip (and whether or not it's worth it to bring a car seat along), I found myself composing quite a lengthy response. Once I hit the 5th paragraph, I decided it might be more efficient to turn that comment into a blog post and just link to it on myaustimteam. So here it is!

I would absolutely recommend bringing a car seat for your 3 year old on a plane. For one thing, the familiarity and a feeling of security help a lot (this is especially true for children with Autism). And, at least for my son, who is very small for his age, the lap-only belt on the plane seat wouldn't do a ding dang thing to hold him in place, whether the cause of sudden movement was hyperactivity or turbulence.

First thing to do if you're going to bring her car seat is find the notice on the car seat that says it's certified for use in motor vehicles and aircraft. Make a mental note where that sticker is located because there is a chance you will encounter a snotty flight attendant who will try to tell you that you can't use a car seat on an airplane. Then you can politely tell her that yes, yes, you can, because there is a law saying qualified car seats must be allowed and here's the sticker saying this particular seat qualifies.

Since I occasionally (more often than not) travel alone with my kids it would be physically impossible for me to carry a car seat in addition to holding onto my two boys AND carry-on bags. So, I bring a regular stroller with me and I use the toddler car seat's "latch" straps to hang it off the back of the stroller. This is not for a child to ride in, it is just to carry the car seat through the airport. Most airlines allow you to check a stroller at the gate at no additional cost and you'll get it back as soon as you get off the plane. You will have to unlatch the car seat at security and put it and the stroller on the belt for the x-ray scanner with everything else. (Side tip: The weight of the car seat *will* tip the stroller over if the stroller is empty, so unlatch the car seat before trying to take your child out if you want to avoid embarrassment and frustration.) 

I also accept help whenever I can get it. If someone notices that I'm struggling at the bottom of the gangway, juggling two small kids (one who doesn't want to get out of the stroller and one squirming to get down off my hip), a car seat, a back pack and a huge diaper bag, and offers to carry something on board the plane, I let them. If no one offers, I ask a flight attendant. It sounds like you'll have adult help already and I would advise you to depend on them. 

Whether I bring a car seat or not, if I'm traveling with kids, I bring the standard boredom busters and snacks. (Playing movies on our iPad allows me freedom our fore-mothers couldn't even dream of.) Of course, I give myself extra time to get through security and I don't even attempt to be the first person off the plane. If I'm not in a rush I'm almost guaranteed to work more efficiently and therefore, in the end, more quickly. It also helps my kids' tantrums not to escalate as quickly if I make a conscious choice to be calm and nonchalant. This last trip I was literally the last person off because I waited patiently for everyone else to make room for the flight attendants to get to me and carry the things I didn't have hands for. 

I may be the nightmare of the business man who is used to booking it through security (Hi, Dad! ☺) but this is what works best for me and my boys. If I'm holding you up, Mr. Late For His Flight, offer to fold my stroller for me and be grateful that Alexander is the one having the meltdown because MY meltdowns aren't as sweet.

FlyBaby

Lately I've been working on refocusing my energies on my family and our house. I still need to be able to take time and recharge my own batteries and cultivate some "non-essential" talents. But I'm trying to go about daily life more on purpose than I used to. Basically I was miserable for about two months after we got Alexander's diagnosis. Then I realized that a lot of my old habits just aren't sustainable amidst these new challenges (ex. sitting on facebook for extended periods of time does not give me a boost of energy or help me feel motivated to "get back to the day." It sucks me in and I'm lucky if I resurface before the boys have added 25 more things to my cleaning list.) I simply have to grow or I'm going to be crushed by the onslaught of "stuff I have to do" and suffocated by my own feelings and reactions. This does not mean that all of the sudden, two weeks ago, I became a perfect, glorified being. Everybody else, even Kevin, may not have noticed that big a difference in me from February to March. But I've noticed a difference. I'm not "happier than I've ever been" but I'm definitely happier than I was a month ago.

I signed up at FlyLady.net and diligently implemented the first two baby steps (Shine Your Sink and Dress to Shoes). Since then I haven't even visited the site again but I also haven't needed to. I have NOT kept my sink shiny-clean the way she says to but I have embraced the Getting Dressed to Shoes concept. It really is just like she says, I think twice before laying down for a snooze on the couch if I have my lace up shoes on. And I don't have any excuse for not going outside to play with the kids, or running to the store, or walking the trash can to the curb. Once again, people may not notice a difference when they come to my house in the level of its cleanliness, but I feel like there's a difference. I've gotten several Spring Cleaning/Organization projects done and I really feel like I owe it to my shoes. The dishes and laundry still pile up a bit but I feel slightly more empowered to handle it. And let me just tell you, spiders don't give me quite the same panic attack when I'm wearing my sneaks.

There's also a different mindset that comes with getting fully dressed as if I was really going to work (teeth brushed, makeup and deodorant on, the whole nine yards). I get in a groove, I put on my Hilary Weeks or Josh Groban Pandora station. I'm better at plowing through the chores and minutia and just getting it over with instead of letting it take up the whole day. This obviously leaves more time for other more pleasant endeavors. I've played outside with my kids more in the past couple of weeks than I ever have before. The early arrival of Spring, I'm sure, has also contributed to this development, but I'm just more motivated in myself than I've been in a while.

I guess you could say I look at all of this as evolution. My to-do lists have changed, my goals have changed, even my prayers have changed. They kind of just had to. And I'm grateful for the grace I know I've been given. I couldn't have gotten even to this point on my own.

"I ain't as good as I'm gonna get, but I'm better than I used to be."

Homemade Peppermint Brown Sugar Scrub

Here we have another great Pinterest find:

Tip Junkie Compiled - 14 Easy Homemade Sugar Scrub Recipes

I pinned that honey of a link all the way back in October when I first started getting ready for Christmas. I knew it would make a great "neighbor gift." We recently picked up about six or seven #10 (60 oz) cans of brown sugar from my husband's parents when they were cleaning out their old food storage. The sugar is 'expired' and quite possibly not as good for eating anymore but when I found these recipes I knew they'd be perfect for a scrub. I ended up making sugar scrubs for Alexander's teachers (teacher, parapro, and speech therapist) and for all the ladies at church that I visit-teach (and one or two that I don't). 

All the recipes are essentially the same (sugar, oil, some kind of extract for scent) so I knew I could get away with tweaking and making my own. Corrie's Brown Sugar Body Scrub from Paula Deen's website seemed the nicest, I thought, and I even already had a bottle of Vitamin E to use. My first batch was actually for a bridal shower gift for our brand new sister-in-law and my ever-self-sacrificing hubby braved Hobby Lobby on his way home from work to pick up lavender and peppermint extracts so I could indulge in my homemade gifting plans.

Indulgence for the bride

As you can see, I did one lavender and one vanilla scrub for my bridal shower gift. Then for the rest (I wanted to go more Christmas-y) I went with peppermint. Since I was making so many, I played around with doubling, tripling and quadrupling the recipe and made a few batches over several days. Here's the general gist of my final "mass production" recipe.

4 cups brown sugar

2 cups olive oil

1 tablespoon vitamin E oil (I used Spring Valley Vitamin E Skin Oil from Walmart) 

15-30 drops essential oil (I used Crafty Bubbles Peppermint Essential Oil from Hobby Lobby)

2 tablespoons honey

Combine wet ingredients first (I kept forgetting to do that, but with a little extra mixing they turned out fine). Then add brown sugar and mix well. (When I encountered stubborn lumps of sugar, I just reached in which my hands and smushed 'em good.) Portion into containers and seal tops on tightly. Tie on tags with cutesy ribbon and distribute. :-) 

I used 16oz (2 cups) containers and this recipe only filled two of them. 2 cups is pretty big though so you could definitely go down to 8 oz (1 cup) containers and have a great little gift.

I don't seem to have any pictures of the final Peppermint Scrub product but here are some free printables of the tags I tied on them. 

Click. Save. Print.

Click. Save. Print.

I got the tag itself from the Holiday Recipe Collection over at Shabby Princess. The little blue section is where I put the "To-From" info. I printed the tags on cardstock and then flipped the page over and printed the instructions on the back before I cut them out. That way you've got a nice two-sided tag with everything you need. 


These scrubs would be great gifts any time of year. We've got Valentines day coming up, then Easter, Mother's day, and then it's practically Christmas again right? Just change out the peppermint oil for your recipient's favorite scent and you're golden. :-)

To be continued...soonish...

This is where I've been hanging out lately.

So if you'd like to see what's in my head anytime between now and the end of summer when I hope to get back on the blogging ball for real... check it out.

Lost Child ID Tags

On our California vacation we visited 3 different theme parks in one week. Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and Legoland. I had our whole itinerary planned weeks before our trip and let me tell you, I did puh-lenty of research!

During said research I came across the Legoland affiliated "Model Mom Mary" blog and this article: Five Safety Measures for Visiting a Theme Park.

Model Mom Mary describes a personal experience we all fear. She is obviously a regular at Legoland, but her 2-year-old daughter still managed to disappear for a brief time while they were there recently. This prompted her to write the article and share the following 5 Safety Measures

1) Have a photo of the child from that day so you can show people who are helping you look what the child looks like that day. This one is easy nowadays with the prevalence of smart phones.
2) Pin a piece of paper on the inside of your child’s clothes or write with sharpie on their stomach their name and all of your contact information.
3) Set an easily accessible meeting spot first thing upon entering the Park.
4) Introduce your kids to an employee upon entering the Park so that they can identify a safe person to approach for help if they are lost.
5) Wear bright colors. No need to bring back the 80’s with matching day-glo tees but bright, primary colors are much easier to spot in a crowd.

She also points out that the best thing you can do is tell a park employee. Of course it's good because they can help you look but they can also radio to all other employees and have the front gate locked if need be.

Those exact same 5 tips can be found on multiple websites geared toward child safety and I think they're great for use with children who are able to effectively communicate with grownups and remember things like phone numbers or where we decided to meet. Knowing, however, that my toddler does not yet fall into that category of children, I was instead inspired to use the knowledge I have of my child to come up with my own ideas and plan for keeping him safe.

I really liked the part about putting our contact info on his person somewhere. For some reason I wasn't loving the idea of writing on Alexander in permanent marker (maybe it's just the OCD in me thinking it wouldn't look nice, what can I say?) It also occurred to me that pinning a piece of paper inside his clothes could turn into an immediate fail the second he started playing in any water (which is his favorite thing to do). So I took the basic concept and left off the specifics and decided instead to make little fabric tags to sew into the clothes he would be wearing at the parks.

Originally I was planning on sewing the tags on the inside of his collar where the sizing tag usually would be. Then I decided that if he wanders away and is actually noticed by a helpful adult, I wanted them to be able to find my cell phone number without having to look for it. One, they might not think to look for it at all; Two, if my son is missing from me, the 15+ seconds it would take a thoughtful person to look for some sort of ID, is 15+ more seconds that my phone is not ringing to tell me he is safe. Outside of right sleeve it is!

Slight side bar: I have read that putting a child's name too large, say on the back of their shirt (jersey style) isn't a good idea because then a "non-helpful" person could possibly use the information to act familiar with the child and lead them away with out them protesting. Alexander doesn't come when people call his name anyway so I wasn't overly worried about that but it was still a consideration. I wasn't planning on making huge tags but the thought did influence me to go even smaller.

There are lots of products out there that can serve this purpose if your child gets lost but I made these out of what I had at home. I typed up Alexander's name and both my husband's and my cell phone numbers in Corel in 10pt Arial font (nothing fancy, easy to read). I made it so 10 tags would print on one sheet so I'd have extras and printed them out on HP Iron-on Transfer Paper. I cut them out and ironed them onto some plain white fabric. One more round of cutting, then I sewed them on the sleeves quick quick like a bunny with my sewing machine.

To finish I'll share what happened while we were in Legoland. While Kevin sat with the baby at some tables nearby, I took Alexander to play in Hideaways (a huge jungle gym type play area). Alexander thought it was one of the best things ever and I was having a good time, too, watching him and climbing and sliding after him. Well, there was a climbing section that I was too big to follow him into and he got to it and started going down before I could stop him. I whirled around and shot down the nearest slide, hoping to meet him at the bottom. Well the slide came out on a different level than the rope course so I had to run up the regular stairs trying to find him. He wasn't there. The park had employees stationed on all the levels so I turned around and told the nearest one that I couldn't find my son. She asked me what he was wearing and I told her it was a yellow shirt with black stripes with his name on a tag on the sleeve. Hair color? Blond! I got his shorts color wrong (I said green instead of blue) but that employee found him (happily playing and completely unaware that his mommy was lost; he certainly wasn't lost, he knew right where he was - on the slide, silly mommy) in 10 seconds flat.

I didn't know where he was for a total of about 1 minute but let me tell you, knowing he had one of these tags on his shirt kept me from going from zero to hysterical in those same 60 seconds. Mind you, the tag didn't actually help the girl find him but it kept me sane enough to ask for help in the first place. Definitely worth the 30 minutes spent making them before we left.

Repeated, simplified, four (maybe five) step process:
1 - Create in word processor or graphics program
2 - Print on Iron-on Transfer Paper (follow package instructions)
3 - Iron onto plain white broadcloth or other fabric of choice (also following Iron-on package instructions)
4 - Cut out individual labels and sew into clothing (precise location is up to you)

Father's Day Ties

I wanted to share this post from my family updates blog. For Christmas I made Kevin's dad and my dad ties with their grandkids hand prints ironed on them. I used this pattern from Purl Bee and followed the instructions for making a wider tie. I actually added more than the 3/8 inch that they said, but I'm not even sure of the exact measurements because I basically just guessed.

This is what the front of my dad's tie looked like.
*Edit* - Before I just had the digital file I printed on the transfer paper but I called my sister and had her take a picture of the actual tie so I could swap it out - TaDa!

I got my kids' hand prints (a two person job for the 5 month old, mind you) using Crayola Washable Kids Paint. I let the paint dry and then I scanned them into the computer. I had my sister do the same with her son and then email me the file. Then I threw them all on a page in Photoshop and changed them to black and white and upped the contrast a little. (You could make the hands any color you want but as you can see the fabric I had was bright blue and black was the only thing that looked right with it.)  I measured the tie and worked up the layout I wanted. I rotated the whole image diagonally so it could fit on one sheet of transfer paper. In the end though, I didn't like the way the extra iron-on material looked around the hand prints so I cut them apart and trimmed each one separately as close as I could, so setting up the layout for the printing part didn't really matter. Kevin's dad's tie had 6 hand prints on it so I sized the hands down just a smidge to get them to actually fit on the tie. I did them all proportionally, though, so they still looked right lined up together.

For the Iron-On part I used HP Iron-On Transfers and just followed the package instructions. I used Transfers for "light fabrics" for all the black and white stuff, the only thing I used Transfers for "dark fabrics" for was the flower on Bill's tie (check my original post to see what I'm talking about.)

The ties weren't hard to make, even with all my do-overs. So check out my post and Purl Bee's pattern and whip one up for an awesome Fathers' Day gift.

Leave me a comment if you have any questions!

I baked again...

I made these cupcakes again yesterday to take to my in-laws mothers' day dinner. I ran out of time so I ended up bringing the icing bowl with me and frosted them there. In all the rush I also forgot to grab the filling out of the fridge. So they were fillingless and without cookies on top (my son finished the mini cookies off days ago) but the point of this post is they were still a hit. Kevin even said he liked them better the second time around. I'm feeling better and better about my baking skills as I practice on this recipe. Probably doesn't hurt that I get to eat the icing as I go. That is some good icing, let me tell ya. You should make some, you know you want to...

I baked today...

My facebook feed "fed" me this utterly drool worthy recipe from TidyMom yesterday morning. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes! 

I never randomly choose to bake (it's got to be Kevin's birthday or something) but I knew I had to taste these cupcakes. Which means I would have to make them. I later realized that one of my visiting teach-ees DOES have a birthday today. Yay for random inclinations that leave me with awesome things to share. 

(Happy Birthday J! These are coming your way!)

The recipe calls for 6 and half sticks of butter and has a filling that includes sweetened condensed milk. Rich rich rich. So I went ahead and halfed the recipe for the cupcakes themselves, that way I'd end up with just 12 instead of 24. Since I didn't half the filling and icing recipes, I have leftovers of those but I can keep them in the fridge or freezer and use them with fresh cupcakes another day. Other than that I followed the directions exactly. Just pop on over to TidyMom for the must have recipe (and maybe tell her I sent you.)

My first attempts at icing. I tried to get fancy. (Fail.)

 Still not professional grade but better yeah?

Kevin came home and liked but didn't completely love his cupcake. We have somewhat different tastes in food (and various other things in life). You'll definitely need a glass of milk close at hand to combat that richness we were talking about. Yummy yummy yum yum! I'm so glad I decided to bake today!

Alternate Software

One of my readers asked if the DIY tissue paper photo canvas could be done with different software than the ones I listed.

Absolutely it can!

One example of a good (free) downloadable software is GIMP. That's actually what the original tutorial author used, I just like what I already have. I've never used GIMP myself but I've heard good reviews about it and I figure you can't beat free.

I'd love to see the canvases you all are doing! Please leave me a link if you do a blog post about it and I'll be sure to check it out!

Printable Foldable Mothers' Day Cards

I wanted these cards to be quick and easy to make for any forgetful child (of any age) or husband who happens to hop online at the last minute looking for something to give the mama. So I've included the full page sheets formatted to be printed on 8.5x11 printer paper and folded in the quarter fold card style.

Quarter fold instructions 

Not overly elegant but it will give you something to sign your name to in about 60 seconds flat. It's the thought that counts, even if that thought is in the wee hours of Mother's Day morning.

Of course if you've found this post ahead of time and want to get down and dirty with some cutesy, scrapbook-esque card making, by all means reformat my little project anyway you see fit.

Generic Mothers' Day Card

Full 8.5x11 foldable sheet

From Husband to Wife on Mothers' Day

Full 8.5x11 foldable sheet

Mildly Humorous Mothers' Day Card

Full 8.5x11 foldable sheet

Digi-Scrapbooking elements used are from:
-Winkart Graphics and Kiss This Designs. Found in Rakscraps Nov 2010 Megakit
-Shabby Princess Designs Festival Collection

Put your photos on Canvas

There are a bunch of great online stores out there that will make your photos into books, print them on canvas and give you about 500 other fancy and fabulous options to display your favorite pictures. I've seen the occasional promo for getting one of these free (+ $6.95ish shipping). In reality that's probably a great deal but I'm one of those people who can't bear to pay shipping for anything (I call it the Amazon Super Saver complex). Add to that my major case of OCD indecision (should I use this picture or this picture or this picture?) Even if I could move fast enough, I wouldn't want just one canvas, I would want several and I'd end up spending more money than if I had never seen the promo deal in the first place.

Enter my sister, author of Fostered Attentions.

Becca found this ingenious tutorial on how to put any picture on canvas using your inkjet printer and tissue paper!

Now, between the original tutorial and my sister's blog entry you can definitely figure out how to do this yourself. I just developed some instructions of my own to add some extra advice based on my past 3 days of experience. I'm going to list the exact supplies I used so I can be extra specific with the shortcuts I share. We got everything that I didn't already have at home at Hobby Lobby. They had canvases 30% off and we brought two 40% off coupons and got a pretty good deal over all. I'll give you the complete price per finished canvas at the end of the post.

My Tip-Covered Tutorial

Supplies:
Mounted Artist Canvas (18x18)
Tissue paper (20inx20in sheets)
Regular printer paper
Krylon Workable Fixatif
Elmer's Multipurpose Spray Adhesive
Roll/large sheet of brown butcher/kraft paper
Scissors
A glue stick
An ink jet printer
CorelDraw graphic software

Note: Any graphic software will work, I just like Corel best. Use what you know. I was originally going to include all the details of how I worked in Corel for this project but I've decided I'm going to do a separate tutorial for that in a day or two for anyone who's interested.

Steps:

Choose a photo.

This step probably took me twice as long as all the other steps combined. Told you I'm indecisive.

If you haven't already edited for red eye and anything else you really want fixed, go ahead and do that now. It's never a bad idea to go ahead and save a copy of your picture before you start any editing. That way you can crop and segment and resize and generally experiment to your heart's content without worrying about destroying that precious original. I decided I wanted to put a stone wall from a different photo in to cover the trash cans for my canvas piece. I used Photoshop for this part. I rotated and cropped it just a little to get the wall to look right and then saved it as a new jpeg before I moved on to the next step.

Open a new blank document in CorelDraw and import your selected picture.

If you're not sure how to do these next few steps, I'm going to be including it all in the CorelDraw/General Graphic Software instructions but I'm only going to post that tutorial if people leave comments to let me know they want it.

Resize and Crop picture to 18.5x18.5 square.

Create a grid pattern and break your picture into pieces.
Since we're using a regular size printer for this, we need to make more manageable sized pieces for the printer to print. My printer will go all the way to the edge of an 8.5x11 but to be safe I wanted to leave a margin. So I made sure none of the sections were larger than 8x10.

Now it's time for a definite experience tip. For your grid layout: Make sure you do a regular grid pattern where the corners all meet at corners. Like this:

Do not, whatever you do, try to get creative and reinvent the wheel/grid and do something like this:

For some strange reason I thought my way would be better and I did my first canvas' printing like that. And getting the pieces to line up properly when I didn't have a single corner to work from was not fun. I made other mistakes on that one too and if you look at the end result (it's the black and white wedding shot), you can see lines where I had no choice but to overlap my pieces. I'm going to have to get an Xacto knife and do some tweaking when I get a chance. So there you go, random tip number one.

Assemble your tissue paper/printer paper combos for printing
In order to get your printer to print on the tissue paper, the tissue needs a backing to carry it through the machine. So that's what the printer paper and glue stick are for. You want to put glue just around the outer edge of the printer paper and then smooth on the tissue paper. This is another reason for leaving a margin around your pieces for printing. You don't need very much glue at all but you want to be able to peel up the tissue paper afterwards without worrying about tearing the part with the picture.

Random tip number two: Since you're going to need 6 separate sheets for your 6 separate sections, I wanted to share the bulk assembly system my sister had going. Instead of cutting the tissue paper out and then sticking it to the printer paper and then trimming around the edges, we spread our 20in square tissue paper sheet out on the table and did four at a time.
Like this:

Just lay out the tissue and then stick the printer papers (with their nice glue borders) in the absolute corners. This will mean you only have to cut out two sides for each paper. I also don't know how helpful it actually was but we folded part of the tissue over one short side of the paper and glued it down so it would have a better grip at the top (the end we were feeding into the printer first). It just gave it like a 1/4 in lip. Like I said, I don't think you really need to do that but it made us feel better. Plus our bulk system left the perfect little amount of tissue paper to fold over.

Print.
You'll want to change your print quality setting to High. I left my media type setting on Plain Paper, and it worked just great.

Print each newly segmented piece of your picture on a separate sheet of tissue/paper combo. Make sure you have it printing on the tissue paper side and not the regular paper backing.

And now random tip number three:
This is my brand and model of printer.

(Stay with me on this.)

See how it has a rear feed paper tray in addition to the bulk paper tray underneath?

We tried three different times to get the tissue paper sheets to feed through the rear tray. It did not work. It demolished the tissue paper, tearing it from the regular paper backing. You may be smart enough to have already figured out the reason but I can be kind of slow on the uptake at times. This step was actually why we originally thought of folding one of the edges over to give the tissue a better chance of hanging on. Well, I finally realized that the rollers for the rear feed tray are top rollers and they were pulling on the tissue without touching the regular paper at all. Now, I'm very fond of my rear feed tray. It makes me feel all professional when I'm printing photos on photo paper. However, the moral of the story we have before us is: Use the regular underneath bulk paper feed tray! Just open it up and leave whatever paper you already have in there and then lay your tissue/paper combo tissue-side down on top. The awesomely fabulous bulk paper tray rollers will now pull on the paper instead of just the tissue and zip your project right through the machine. Yeehaw!

Spray newly printed sheet with ink fixative.

As soon as a page is finished printing, pull it off the printer immediately and lay it printed tissue side up on a flat surface covered with butcher paper (newspaper or any other covering you don't care about will work as well). Shake your Krylon Workable Fixatif really well and spray a very light, even layer over the printed tissue. This will lock the ink in place so it doesn't run together or smudge badly. Let the Fixatif dry (the instructions on the can say let dry for an hour before handling). You can get all your pieces printed and sprayed while you're waiting for your first one to dry and then you can move on to...

Trim the printed images.
Once your pages are dry you need to very carefully trim away all the white (non-image) tissue paper from around the picture sections. You're not going to want any overlap or gaps between the tissue on your canvas so cutting exactly on the edge of your image is important so things will line up perfectly. At first I removed the tissue from the paper before trimming but after a couple fairly botched attempts at cutting a straight line, I discovered that leaving the paper backing in place (and holding it there once you've trimmed the glued edges off) makes for much less paper wiggling and made it easier for me to cut straight. (Random tip number four.)

Apply tissue to canvas.

If you haven't already been using a table as your "flat surface covered in butcher paper", you'll definitely want to be working at a (perhaps newly cleared off) kitchen table at this point. I did all the work for my first canvas on the floor of our computer room (so it can be done) but you'll be able to work more effectively at a table. Lay your canvas on the butcher paper and set your tissue pieces somewhere to the side but close at hand so you can work quickly. Break out your Elmer's Multipurpose Spray Adhesive. Shake well and spray an even, but not too heavy layer over your canvas. Start with a corner piece and remember we printed a 18.5in square picture so there will be a quarter inch to wrap around the edge of the canvas on all sides. Lay the tissue down, lined up how you want it. Gently smooth and pat the tissue to get rid of creases and bubbles. The Elmer's allows for repositioning so you can take a little time and try to get it just right. Just be gentle when you try to peel the tissue paper up if you want to move it. Tissue paper is pretty good about hanging on even to minimal tackiness but don't take too much time or you might have to start over and respray.

After all the pieces are stuck to the face of your canvas, take your glue stick and add glue to the sides of the canvas. Wrap your extra quarter inch border of tissue around the edge of the canvas and stick it down well to that glue.

Random tip number five:
I definitely agree with the original tutorial that having someone (like your awesome previously-an-architect-major-so-she-knows-her-way-around-a-straight-edge sister) to help you work and eyeball the straightness of your layout is a good idea.

Display your new artwork!

Project cost:
Money spent on stuff I didn't already have:
18x18 Canvas - $5.75 ($17.25 for 3)
11 oz can Krylon Workable Fixatiff - $7.59
11 oz can Elmer's Multipurpose Spray Adhesive - $6.99

Then we'll throw in a couple bucks to cover the ink and tissue paper and glue we used from our stash at home. I did three canvases so...$2.50 sound good?

So, since the Fixatif and Spray Adhesive still have a lot left in them and can be used for future projects, I think we can comfortably say that the cost for this project was a little less than $10 a pop. You could even go cheaper and easier by doing a smaller size canvas like Becca did. 18x18 is pretty big. I just needed a serious punch for where I'm planning to display these (more details to come on that later).

I hope you love your new display pieces! Now when people come over you can either: smile and just quietly let them think you're wealthy and can afford expensive mounted canvas artwork, or you can explain and wow them all with your savvy money-saving crafting prowess. Either way, people are bound to be impressed.

P.S. Can you say Mother's Day gift?

P.P.S. I'm linking up: