Quick Toy Bin Facelift

I have a niche in my living room where we store some of the boys' toys. I LOVE the shelving that I found at Walmart. I was shocked to find them there and they are actually made of real wood and look great. They look very similar to ones at Pottery Barn Kids but for a fraction of the cost. I also got fabric bins for some of the cubbies to store the hundreds of small toys we have. (Do they just multiply at night?! I swear I didn't buy all of these!). After seeing bins in catalogs such as Restoration Hardware that sport numbers and seeing lots of inspiration in the crafty blog world, I gave the bins a quick facelift.

Here is the before: (with a bit of a mess!)



and here is the after:



I used the Sure Cuts Alot and my Cricut to cut out the numbers onto freezer paper. Then I ironed the freezer paper to the fronts of the bins as best as I could. The fabric on the bins wasn't flat so I couldn't get a really good seal.



Then I painted with white paint. (Truth be told, I ran out of white fabric paint so one of the numbers is painted with...ACRYLIC!!! shhhhhhhh).



Once I removed the freezer paper, I was done!



The paint bled a little in a couple spot since I could get the freezer paper to iron very well to the bins, but if you are using regular fabric you shouldn't have the bleeding. And unless you are examining these bins up close, you can't tell they aren't perfect. And if you are the type of person to examin toy bins, you probably aren't my friend and won't be at my house anyways. Sooooo...no issues there!



The next time John saw these, he immediately said 'Hey! You put numbers on these!'. So, they definitely make an impact on the area...at least to a 2 year old.

Please be a fan of lil Mop Top on facebook!! I link up to these parties!

Upgraded {NO SEW} Library Tote!

I have had 'library tote' on my To Do list FOREVER!! I finally got around to it last week. John John was at Nana's and Matty B was asleep for his morning nap so I figured I might as well be productive. Sure, I could have cleaned the house for those precious 30 minutes, but that is SO BORING! Plus my mom had just bought me (and my sisters) a cricut at a garage sale so I really wanted to put it to good use. I bought Sure Cuts A Lot and I am so glad I did! It made this project SUPER easy!

So, let's get to it! I took this ugly bag I got when I was preggo with John (baby AND a free bag?!? AWESOME!).



And I transformed it to this.



(and in real life, the straps coordinate much better with the applique. I promise!)

Here is how I did it just a couple easy steps; no sewing involved!
1. Cut rectangular piece of background material. (I cut two pieces because I put the monogram on both sides of the bag since the cord bank logo was on both sides.) Add fusing to back and then iron onto bag. I used Heat N Bond. (follow directions on package for fusing!)





2. Cut a rectangle of the monogram material and iron fusing material to back. Use your fabulous new cricut and SCAL to cut out the letters of the monogram.





3. Iron the letters onto your bag.




4. Use bag in public proudly instead of keeping it hidden in your stroller storage basket at all times.



See, wasn't that easy? I hardly ever do projects for myself so I am extremely excited to have my own little personalized bag!

...and big thanks to my mom for buying us this cricut! Isn't she the sweetest???



I link up to these parties!