Disney Eyes T-shirts on Redbubble

Did you know that August is National Eye Exam Month? Well to celebrate that we are showcasing all our designs with Disney Eyes from my Redbubble shop! I still think Wall-E is my favorite!

Don't forget that you can find all these fun designs on bags, journals, tech cases and more! Head on over there and take a gander.

Don't forget to get your regular eye exam and until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Back To School | Unique Disney Notebooks/Journals

I have to admit I am a sucker for school supplies. I love to restock my own studio with new school supplies  when we go shopping for the kids. (And that time is now, here in the midwest. Our first day of school for the district is July 30th. I know some of you on the east coast just finished school and can't imagine going back now!)Oh how I wish I could have had access to THESE notebooks for school when I was a kid! Classes would have been even better.

Now that RedBubble is selling notebooks, all these designs (and more!) are available for you back to school shopping! And you don't even have to leave your house to do it!

You can find my RedBubble profile here, with all my designs. Simply click on the design you like and scroll down the page to find the product you are looking for! And don't forget there are tote bags and drawstring bags and studio pouched too! Enjoy your back to school shopping; until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Monsters Inc. Code 2319 Play Tent

On a rainy day this summer, the littles and I needed a new project. We were all feeling a little stir-crazy! So off to the Dollar Store we went for some supplies. Among (many) other things, we picked up a couple of hula hoops. I had in mind a special play tent for them.

I could not be happier with the result! This is perhaps one of the easiest, fastest and cheapest projects on the blog! It's not often they all come together in one! I scoured Pinterest for ideas on how to make a hula hoop tent and loads of tutorials popped up. But really, all you need is an old sheet (I used a flat twin here), a hula hoop, and some string or bungee cords to hang it. Simple.

I used my sewing machine and without even pinning (reckless!) I sewed the long side of the sheet over the hula hoop. I overlapped the ends about three inches, which allows it to be completely closed. If that's not important to you, simply don't overlap the edges. My kids love "surprising" one another and jumping out of it screaming "I've got a 2319!" We are Disney Geeks to the core!

To hang it, I strung a clothesline of sorts in the house, between two decorative pillars and then attached the bungee cords to that. It seemed a better plan than the hook in the ceiling I had originally planned. Our kids play with reckless abandon. We are not the people who can have nice things! This seemed like a less destructive way to hang it up, incase they decided to pull on it (which they immediately did!). And this way I think we can use it outside over a tree limb. But we have yet to try that.

The whole project from sewing to hanging took less than 30 minutes. It was ready for them as soon as nap time was over! And they love it. Until next time, dear readers, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Code 2319! DIY Monsters Inc. George Sanderson Hat

I love Pixar. No one tells a story the way Pixar does. And the running gag in Monsters Inc. when George Sanderson is constantly getting detoxed (at the panicked cry of his partner no less!) cracks us up every time. We are constantly hopeful that one day we will be in a Walt Disney World Resort room 2319. I'll keep you posted.

And the fact that my dad and granddad both worked in environments where radiation was a real risk means we've heard stories from them about the detox process. Seems to me that Pixar got it right. If you haven't seen the movie, here's a clip of the first time George is the subject of a 2319:




Poor George. In his honor, and to celebrate National Crochet Month, I whipped up this Code 2319 hat using a free pattern for a Unicorn Hat from Cre8tion Crochet. I followed the directions for the beanie using this Yarn Bee yarn I purchased ages ago from Hobby Lobby. I lost the label (I'm sure the littles had a hand in that!) so I can't tell you the exact name. But any faux fur would do the trick!

I think I've mentioned this before, but when using faux fur to crochet, I like to hold a sock yarn along with it so I can see the stitches more clearly. For this, I used some yellow scrap I had left over from making those Tangled Socks. It practically disappears as long as you use a color similar to what's in your faux fur.

I also modified the horn pattern to make it a little thicker that the unicorn one in the pattern. I simply repeated the increase row each time until it was long enough, and followed the directions for attaching to horn to the hat. If I were a runner, I would consider this for a RunDisney event costume!

Googly Bear Design Now On RedBubble!

I was inspired to create this design when my littles started calling one another Googly Bear. It was so cute and I immediately knew I needed to design something for my RedBubble store!

I love the simplicity of this one. It's just so much fun! And RedBubble just keeps adding more and more wonderful products to display our designs. While I am still partial to the t-shirts and baby clothes, check out these great products:

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

DIY Disney 12 Days of Christmas Ornaments | Sequined Monsters Inc. Pomanders

These pomander ornaments are reminiscent of the ornaments my grandma would make with beads, sequins and straight pins. Her's were much more elaborate than mine and I've always admired them. They were the inspiration to create these Mike and Sully themed ornaments. I am so happy with their sparkly nature! And while these ornaments were easy enough to make, they were very time consuming. I needing a place to make a good mess and leave it out for a while. But with that, they were fun to put together!

What you will need:
2  3" styrofoam balls
a package of mixed sequins
1 googly eye
3 packages of straight pins with pearl heads
thread for hanging

I was surprised at how many pins this project took! I needed 1 1/2 packages for each pomander. And because I layered the sequins on each pin 2 or 3 at a time, these are fairly heavy ornaments.

For the Mike Wazowski ball, I started with the googly eye. I then started layering sequins on straight pins and pushing them directly into the ball. One thing I love about this project is that it requires no glue! I had fun layering these sequins this way and that, all around the ball. I did the same thing for the Sully themed ornament without using the googly eye. I decided to make the sequins tighter around the Sully ornament, as the white from the styrofoam was more obvious with the darker colors. I didn't mind the gaps between the sequins as much on the Mike Wazowski ball.

To hang, I made a loop of thread, tied it around one of the pins (and under a sequin or two) and pushed it in. That's it. They've been hanging for a week now with no evidence that it will pull the pin out, despite the weight of the ornaments.

And that's it! Shiny happy Christmas ornaments reminding you that laughter is the best medicine, what could be better? Until next time, may all your holidays be filled with fairy dust!

Disney Fan Art T-shirts Now Available on Redbubble

It was bound to happen; I love to design T-shirts for the kids. I love to have family T-shirts while we are in Disney. And I've had a few (or more!) requests for them. We'll now you too can enjoy the T-shirts, and hoodies, and onesies designed by Merryweather's Cottage! I have these three designs currently in the Redbubble Shop and I certainly plan to add more. Note, these design can be printed on the front or the back of all these shirts. This is simply the way I see them in my mind's eye.

The top design is my Space Mountain silhouette. I adore this shirt and we wear ours all the time at the cottage. All shirts come in a variety of colors and fits, so if you like it with a navy (or green, or pink, or yellow...) background, go for it. I even have them available for the littlest tykes! Onesies and toddler shirts, short and long sleeve styles are all ready for your little Disney addict. I think we will be getting some hoodies soon, too.

The second design is a little more obscure, but if you grew up with Disney the way I did, I'll bet it rings a bell! (That's a little Pete's Dragon humor for you.) In Pete's Dragon, Lampy, the lighthouse keeper likes to frequent the Passamaquoddy Tavern. In fact, he does a whole song and dance rountine in there with Norah, his daughter. If you haven't seen the movie in a while I strongly recommend it. It's a Brazzle-Dazzle kind of film! And so is this fun T-shirt representing the local place. Can you tell we are a beer-drinking (and brewing!) family? Mr. Photos From The Parks will be adding this to his brewing attire.

And finally, we have the Roz T-shirt. I can't help it; I love Roz. I am certain I am channeling her some days with my kiddos! And her relationship with Mike Wazowski is priceless! Just a reminder that his design can be printed on a number of background colors, so if you're not in love with the yellow, change it up!

If there is something you've seen here that you'd like to see offered on Redbubble, speak up in the comments section below! I can't promise I'll have them immediately available, but if I can, I certainly will. And until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

Tinkerbell Treasure Hunt

For those of you who enjoy finding little goodies to keep your kids occupied during your Disney travels (or to bring a little extra magic to your vacation days), JoAnn's currently has a large selection of Monsters, Inc./University goodies in the $1.00 bins. I was able to find all of these items yesterday at our local store.

1. Fat quarter with Elephants (Animal Kingdom or Dumbo)

2. Monsters Inc. activity book

3. Bruce (from Finding Nemo) snack bin

4. Monsters Inc. puffy stickers

5. Monsters Inc. 3-D drawing pad

6. Small bow & arrow punch (Brave)

7. Monsters Inc. coloring roll & crayons

8. Monsters Inc. double pointed crayons

9. Monsters Inc. pack of 400 stickers

Some of these things will have to be made into other things, or used to create other Disney themed goodies, but all of the Monsters Inc. items can be given as is. GREAT for a long road trip or a daily gift while at the resorts! 

I hope you enjoy your own Tinkerbell Treasure hunts! Let us know if you find any steals in your neck of the woods. And until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Disney Laugh Floor Props

This is a fun little project that you can accomplish during your little one's nap time. (Around this cottage, we appreciate what little time we have!) We usually travel with a large group of people to the parks. This makes for a lot of fun when you wind up on the Laugh Floor in Tomorrowland. Our people are camera junkies, so naturally they all want to end up with their jokes being told and their mugs on the screen. The "monsters" who operate the Laugh Floor are looking for anything just a bit unusual - or easy to make fun of. We tend to cater to that esthetic.

If your crew wants to get noticed on the Laugh Floor, try making these adorable Monster Mouths. And if you happen to need a Monsters Inc. font, check out Font Meme. You can type in your text and save it as a png. Love it!

I used my Silhouette SD for this project, and design id #29673 (4 Monster Mouths). One thing I love about the Silhouette is that each image is only $0.99. And bonus: this image id actually includes 4 images for the same price. It's SO much more affordable than other systems that require you to buy a package of images even when you are only interested in one or two. 

Tutorial

You will need:

white card stock

Silhouette design #29673

Popsicle sticks

Double-sided tape

Silhouette SD (or Cameo)

1. Download your image; it should already be sized appropriately. Ungroup the image and layer all the pieces so you have them assembled as in the download image.

2. Fill in the colors you want your mouths to be by selecting the paint bucket tool. I used the same color scheme that was used in the image, but have fun with it. Maybe your crew is more Sully than Mike.

3. Use the group tool to group each mouth once you have the colors the way you want them. 

4. Select the scissor tool at the top of the page and select cut edge. This will ensure that you're cutting around the mouth instead of cutting out all the pieces of the mouth.

5. You are ready to print and cut! I always like to use the registration marks, because I know my machine with cut it exactly the way I want it to.

6. Once your mouths are cut out, use a little bit of double-sided tape on the back to hold the popsicle stick in place. I would actually recommend leaving one side of the tape covered and assembling these the morning you are going to the parks. Not only will it be fun for the kiddos, but you'll have some fun photo ops on the way there and back.

We hope you enjoy these funny little faces, and thanks to Doc for humoring me with these photos. As always, may your days be filled with fairy dust!

DIY Monsters Inc. Roz T-shirt

I'm a big fan of Monsters, Inc. The graphic design for the credits sends me over the moon! Every. Time. When I saw these eyeglasses (design id #7231) in the clearance shapes in the Silhouette shop a few weeks ago, they immediately reminded me of Roz. And I was struck with this t-shirt idea.

As I've mentioned before, I like to reference Disney without actually saying Disney. I suppose it's the Disney geek in me. This was the perfect way for me to do just that. I think if I were to do it again, I might try and add a chain to the glasses to give the illusion they are actually hanging around the neck. And of course, I made sure to wear it on a day we were in the Magic Kingdom, so it could be seen on the Laugh Floor.

This was my first attempt using the Silhouette stencil vinyl and fabric paint. I was VERY pleased with how this turned out. It looks and feels very much like silk-screening, especially after its first wash. And speaking of the wash, this shirt has survived many washings (and dryer-runs) with minimal cracking, and absolutely no peeling. Fabric paint is my new best friend.

A few tips on how to make this yourself: When burnishing the stencil onto the shirt, you have to work at it to get all the little pieces to adhere; keep at it, it's worth it. When applying paint to the a's and o's it's important to dab, not brush, and go slowly. You don't want to dislodge those inside circles. You may want to try on your shirt before you apply the stencil so you get the design in the right place. Use a safety pin to mark where you want the design to start. I was glad I did this, as the design was originally too low for my taste. And that's it! Follow the directions for the fabric paint and you are golden (or puce, as Roz might say). Until next time, may all your days be filled with fairy dust!