Lap Desk Fun

So obviously I am failing a tiny bit at the whole blog thing. I am trying to blog at lease once a week so I guess I need a blog starting redo. So here goes. ;)

While doing a little pre-school clothes shopping-shopping, me and my girls saw some really cute lap desks in Barnes and Noble. Some had painted wood tops and some plastic. The cheapest one was $20, and being a mom on a budget there is no way I am spending $40+ on lap desks (not cheap just not a necessity). We take a little look at how the boards are assembled and I decide that it looks like something we could throw together. So we stopped shopping and headed to the store to get supplies.

Our Supply List :)
A sturdy top for your lap desk (we purchased 8x12 plastic cutting boards for $8)
A small pillow or fabric & batting to make your own pillow (we used a pillow we had and made one)
Permanent markers to decorate your board
Glue (we tried a new quick drying all purpose glue that works with all materials)

To start the ball rolling I had the girls work on decorating their boards......

While they worked on their boards I prepped the pillows. Now we used an old sm. pillow we had at home for Aspyn's. For Tearony's I took a cover off a pillow we had, took out 1/3 of the batting to make it the size we needed, then used 2 pieces of scrap fabric I had in my closet to make a sm. pillow case to but over the pillow form. You could use loose batting, rice, or anything that would form comfortably to your lap. Do whatever works for you, there are no rules in last minute make up your own craft projects.

 Here is the pillow I made...a couple side stitches, one on the bottom, turned it inside out, stuck the recycled pillow form inside the fabric case....

then rolled the open end in, and pinned it so I could machine sew it. The correct seamstress thing to do would have been to hand stitch it....but I am all about fake it till ya make it. Machine sewn it is. :)

The girls worked on their custom board designs while I played with the sewing machine. Aspyn is super artsy and knew what she wanted and where (the only thing I helped her with was a pencil outline of a pair of nerd glasses that she HAD to fix a bit because it wasn't even). Tearony on the other hand is 8 and she wanted help with the art. I am kinda artistic....so I like to pull inspiration from whatever I can think of. I really wanted Tearony's board to have a doodled note book kind of feel. And I thought of a perfect thing to get ideas from.....

yep...a pair of panties.

So Tearony and I just started drawing all kids of little doodles on the board, and I did a rough plaid background for all the doodle fun. Once we got everything drawn on that we wanted, we glued the pillow to the board. Nothing fancy here folks....put the glue where you want the pillow to sit and put the pillow onto the gluey spot.

This is the glue we used. We found it in the craft department.

Then the girls sat on it to make sure it stayed (once we were all done we stacked the boards on top of each other and put a heavy pot to weight it down to ensure the bond).

Then WhaLa...two lap desks for under the price it would have cost us for one. Plus ours are way cuter then the plain ones in the store, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon, and as you see I even took pics so I could blog. YAY!! Here are the finished boards.

 Tearony's Board....she does good in school but swears she doesn't like it. So we put a school stinks cause school rocks just doesn't fit her. Notice the B+...her sister was doing an A+ and she wanted a B.

 We picked the zebra and pink polka dots because her room is pink, white, and black, gaudy but fun.

 Aspyn's Board.....she is a smarty pants who likes books and nerds, she is so cute. If you look close the N of her nerds is a nerd. I will have to say cutest nerd glasses ever.

When we had cleaned up I realized that I haven't had a day where I could just decide to stop and do a random craft project in forever. And for anyone who hasn't tried it, you are missing out. It was rewarding and therapeutic in a get some artistic energy out....I know..I know...doodles aren't really art....but they are to us. :)