School Bus Mailbox Cover

After the stomach bug from Hades and daily thunderstorms that have prevented good photos or internet at times I finally have another project for you.  School starts back here in 10 short days!  This summer has flown by and I am sad to see it go.  I hate to see the kids go back.  No matter how much kicking and screaming and resisting the end of the summer, though, it is still going to come, so I decided that I would add a little back to school jazz to my house.  There really is nothing else coming up until Halloween, and this cute little school bus idea just came to mind.  It is a super easy project that really requires little to no sewing.  So without further ado, I present the school bus mailbox cover.  :)

Measure your mailbox to get the right amount of fabric of course.

Materials:

•  Yellow and black fabric (I used cheap broad cloth), and scraps of red and white.
•  Heat n Bond iron-on vinyl
•  Regular fabric Heat n Bond or Wonder Under.
•  sticky back Velcro

I did not take pictures of all the steps because it is really so simple.  You just need to have the measurements of your mailbox at hand.  Make a template for the square windows, stop sign, and for the round circles that will be your wheels.  Using a template will insure they are all equal size. 

You are going to start by cutting from the yellow fabric a piece that is long enough and wide enough to cover your mailbox.  Then you will just cut out all the pieces and using the regular Heat n Bond iron them onto your yellow fabric.  Remember you want to make the bus show up on both sides of the mailbox so you will have to add the cut outs to both ends of your fabric.  I did not sew the pieces down because it will be sandwiched between vinyl and not washed so unraveling should not be a big problem.  Save the wheels for later.

Then you will take the vinyl and following the directions on the package you will apply it to the front and back side of your fabric.  Then you will cut out two strips that will serve as your straps to Velcro the cover onto your mailbox.  I used the yellow fabric for this.  Then I laminated it with the vinyl as well.  I sewed one end of each of the straps onto one side of the cover (right side to right side).  Then I sewed on the wheels on that side.  Only sew the top part of the tire down, because you do not want it to wrap underneath the mailbox with your strap.  You will then sew the other tires to the other end of your strap.  Then you will put it on your mailbox and apply your sticky back Velcro.  NOTE:  You will need to at some point cut out a place for the flag on your mailbox.  I did this after everything was applied. 

This is where my Velcro straps attached.

I love how from a distance it just looks like a bus cut out, and you can't even tell there is black fabric there.  Best of all you can just wipe the surface clean, too.

Linked up over at the CSI Project for their Back-to-School Project Contest

Kid Art T-Shirts

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!  We took the kids to see Brave and had dinner with some family, but otherwise the day was pretty calm and out of the ordinary which was much needed around here.  This morning the kids got out their art supplies and decided to draw, so we decided to make t-shirts to show off their happy work. 

Little sister cannot be left out as you can tell.

All you will need for this project is

• Art supplies (paper, pencils, markers, paint, crayons, etc.) as you desire
• T-shirts
• Iron on heat transfer paper

A note on heat transfer paper - It can be purchased in regular or for dark colors.  We used the one for dark colors because our shirts were blue.  If you have a white shirt you can get the regular and it is usually a little cheaper.  It just depends on what you want.

To begin with you need a great piece of your kid's art work.  You will just have to scan into your computer or copy the art work on your printer depending on the options your printer gives you.  Read the instructions on the heat transfer paper to make sure you face it properly for printing, and print the art work onto that transfer paper.  Then you will just have to peel off the backing and iron it onto your child's shirt.  Super easy and very rewarding for your kiddos.  Mine love seeing their art work displayed, and my oldest is a planner.  He already has in mind something to design for the back of his shirt.