Move over Partridge Family! We are nurturing some serious musical talent over at our house these days. Ah-huh because this lady made a portable stage that transforms the living room (or any room) into a performance space.
It was just about the simplest thing ever. In fact, except for one trip buy two tension rods, I made the stage in 20 minutes while sick with the stomach flu. That’s how easy it was to make.
And, we are having so much fun with this thing! Both boys are busting out the instruments and making up songs. The singing is long & the tunes are totally aimless. The kind of songs that mark childhood. The kind of songs that don’t make much sense and sort of just trail off only to gain a second wind as soon as you start clapping because you think the song is over. That kind of song. It’s awesome and providing for many wide grins on the grown-ups faces.
Look at that lovely face so intent on his guitar picking! The cuteness just kills me. I love it. Our guys can be pretty shy about performing in front of others. At home they want to dance and sing and play instruments but at school…no way. So, it has been extra sweet to create a little place they can do all of those things to their heart’s content.
This guy has started writing out his songs and practicing them. This song was about Ireland and all the things you see in Ireland like rocks and cows (!). It was basically the best song ever.
I made this instant, portable stage out of a product called Smart-Fab. The company got in touch and offered to send me a sample.
Smart-fab is basically the ‘fabric’ that they make reusable grocery bags out of. You know it kind of feels soft but also like it might be made of plastic? Anyway, you can glue onto it, sew it, staple it and it is malleable and pretty durable. It doesn’t fray so it’s great for something quick and easy.
After I measured our archway and purchased two tension rods long enough to fit the whole distance, I simply cut up the Smart-Fab to the appropriate size & folded over the top just enough that the rod could fit through. That was it. Done! Oh, and I did cut out some stars for the decorative portion at the top. I did a terrible job cutting stars. It’s kind of hard to cut stars without drawing them ahead of time. I was sick, remember? I wasn’t really into perfect little stars. You could do a better job with the stars.
Anyway, hang that puppy up and we are ready to perform. Since the stage uses tension rods, we can move it anywhere we want. The living room, a bedroom, anywhere we need a stage. It would obviously be very easy to make this same thing with plain old fabric but I do like the vibrant colors.
They also make for a nice background to pictures, don’t you think?
I might use the remaining sample of smart-fab to make a photo-booth kind of thing next. Or, I was actually thinking it would be great as a kind of muslin fabric for difficult patterns because I could sew it and fit it on me so quickly and easily. We’ll see.
P.S. Smart-fab has a pretty great Pinterest page and Facebook page that does lots of giveaway. From what I can tell, a lot of teachers are finding it useful & teachers need free supplies so watch those giveaways!! Smart-fab sent me their product for free with no additional compensation and asked me to write about it. My opinion about it is honest and wholly my own.
P.P.S. Can you tell I took these pictures on two different days before and after the boys got haircuts? Ha!
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