Crafty Shirts

A couple weeks ago my cousins were up visiting. I was able to go over and spend some fun time with them. Before they left, I wanted to make them something, so sat down and made these shirt one morning. They are very simple, but oh so fun!

 I got the shirt actually at the dollar store. Then, pulled out my scribble paints, paper, and paintbrush. I drew some stencils on paper, cut them out and laid them on the shirts. This sword idea I looked up online.

 Then I blopped some paint on a plate, daubed my brush in, and daubed it on the shirt.

Each shirt was unique and fit the kid's personality well I thought. Thankfully, the shirts fit too! :)

After painting, I set them in front of a fan for a "quick dry." All we had to do was iron them once dry to set the paint.

A Project

Because I have 3 nieces...

Because I like playing with Marazuka dolls...

Because I found some clearance deals at Target...

And just because I'm a little weird...
I did a fun little project:

Yes, I understand White is not the best color for little kids....but I think it looked nice;)

 I started off with this one. A little Scribble paint and fabric Rose (thanks to Mom)

 And the same for this one...

And finished with this one!
Ta-Da!



A Mousy Project

Keeping things simple this year, I was able to make these fun little mice for a nursing home. I haven't done this project in years!

It was fun, and I finished feeling quite accomplished :) Just some felt scraps, a glue gun, some googly-eyes, candy canes, and papers.
It started off with one for the mailman, then adding a couple with my neighbor girl, and then done 26 later! ha

Now, to just get them delivered on time!

Crafty Kitchen for pennies

I decided that for neighborhood kids and neices, a play kitchen would be fun. I also decided that I couldn't/wouldn't just go buy one or the lumber for one. Someday, I'd like to make a simple one out of wood, but for my purposes, cardboard worked fine!

I started off with some recycled cardboard boxes. Two to be exact.

I used my hot-glue gun to attach all the pieces together.

I then used some leftover sticky contact paper to cover the top half of the kitchen.

I used my recylcing bin for creating the "stove"

For the bottom half, I had run out of contact paper, so I hot-glued some extra fabric all around the base. (The blue checked stuff)

I cut and hemmed a "curtain" for the front, and attached it also with hot-glue, though it would've been nice to be on a string or rod to move a little better.

On both sides, I inserted those little brass hooks, to hang stuff on...like a potholder and dish towel.

Under neath, I filled the "fridge" with an empty juice bottle, half an egg carton with plastic eggs, and a couple dishes, and some coloring books. :)

There are some adjustments I should've made, like turnable knobs, and a little bit shorter for the littlest kids, but, for pennies, and as an "experiment" to see if the kids even liked playing with it, it was worth it for me!

Head on over to Life as a Mom for more money-saving ideas today :)

Vintage Prints

Well, I'm not really into vintage all that much. But the weekend after tax season, I had a chance to stay home and start sorting through some stuff in closets.

One of the things I enjoyed, was looking through a bunch of old Etude magazines. The oldest was way back from 1908!

Then, I did probably the unthinkable (for someone wanting to save old things in perfect condition). I ripped out pages.

Yup. I did.

It was such a big stack of magazines, and I really liked only some of the articles, pictures, and music in them, I decided to keep what I found useful, and get rid of the rest.

It was a nice feeling to get rid of the huge stack.

I kept this one advertisment for Cream of Wheat.

Mathew looked at me funny when I hung it up in the kitchen. But, I like it for some reason, and I guess I can always change it later :)

The other picture I kept was this old cartoon for on top our piano.

I actually pasted it to an old green cardboard, and glued a black ribbon around it for a frame.

I'll have to let you know about the great articles I kept (about "How to be Charming") in a later post :)

Toy Making....Toy Making

So, you should check out Jackie's blog Blessings Overflowing... because there are all sorts of cool toys to make (I'm always impressed with 3D toys anyways)

These are ones I think would be fun to try...

Felt mailbox

Some armor for my Dress up Box

An I SPY QUILT!!!!

Uh, and yes, I know these are not toys....but it's a reminder to me that I need to fix my rice bag we have (has a hole in it now), and I keep forgetting. Maybe this weekend....

And this reminds me I have 3 patterns at home for "other" toys to make

1. Noah's Ark animal set (flat stuffed animals, small, for quiet time play)
2. Sheet House (make a fabric "cube" with windows and door to hang over a cardbaord table for an indoor playhouse)
3. A car play mat (like my brother had a long time ago)

New Ideas

I've been reading this nice book from Abbi "Creative Families," which has all sort of creative teaching and play ideas in it.

It was one of those "aha" moments when I read the paragraph (well, there's more than a paragraph, but that's all I read honestly) about a "Dress Up Box."

image from Happiness Unlimited

I loved dress up as a kid....tea parties....adventures with my siblings.....plays.....so I'm not sure why I never thought of starting my own here at home. Maybe it was because I always thought of the big dress up box at my Mom's....and it never crossed my mind that visiting kid's might like one here too!

Either way, I'm starting one now. Quite exciting really.

I found a nice fuzzy red hat and a couple ties at the vintage store. And a pair of gloves and suit coat at another second hand shop.

Oh yes, but I forgot....the whole reason I started this post was to write about the fun patterns I found at the vintage shop!

To make a long story (not so) short, while I was looking for dress up hats, I found 4 fun patterns for 1) shirt 2) pants 3) jumper 4)dress pattern. All of which I thought looked simple to make, and nice to wear. We'll see if I get around to them anytime soon! :)

This is a picture of a dress I'd like to make sometime....and the hopes that one of my patterns will be close to it....

Winter Decorating

I tried it!

The other day I posted about some neat centerpiece and arrangement ideas. I was hoping to try at least some of them, and I have! (One.... so far....) Here is my first project:

I do really like how it turned out. I was actually NOT going to do Christmas colors, but with what I had to work with , that worked best. :)

Mom had given me a bunch of pine cones (some of which were spray painted gold) and ribbon. I hot glued five ribbons to the bottom of five pine cones. Then I simple gathered them up at the top and tied a ribbon around it to hold it together. On the back, I glued a wire loop, so that it can hang on a nail etc. And then to finish, I wrote WELCOME with my caligraphy pen on some cream paper and backed it with dark green cardstock, and then glued that on the front.

I like it alot, and I have plans to try a different bunch with smaller pine cones and cream ribbon. We'll see...

Oh dear.

Oh dear.

I just can't seem to help myself. I already have phone books bulging and things peeking out of stacked papers and piles.

But every time I walk, I see another beautiful one. Pink. Yellow. Burgendy. Brown. And I just can't help but lean down and scoop it up. Already this week I've had two passerby's stop, watch, and then smile as they see me walking home with twigs and pokes and color sticking everywhere out of my frozen fingers. My prizes. My joy. I beam as I walk home.

But now what to do with them?! I have to find some fall projects to use these with! I found a couple neat pictures of leafy wreaths, and some framed verse art, and some garlands.

But guess what is happening right now?

Yup. Snow.

All of a sudden, I'm ready to cut out snowflakes and sit down with hot chocolate and sewing projects! ha ha

Oh dear.

Fall Project #2

Here is another project that needed to be done.....making cards! But, because of the fall weather, these turned out very seasonal too! (I was just in that color mood)

I have more that I should do, but right now I have a pile of other things begging for attention. (Including a pile of soon-to-be-over-ripe apples!)

Fall Project #1

Here is a fall project I recently completed:

I had a great time going for a fall walk on my lunch break a couple weeks ago, and picking up pretty leaves. I pressed them in a phone book, and also soaked some in glycerin water to preserve them better.

I had this old picture frame, and some leftover scrapbook paper to work with, and I really liked this verse. So, voilia! A seasonal picture for my piano top.

Towel Fun

Check out this link for how to make a bath towel into an ELEPHANT!

Wouldn't that be a fun thing to make for your guests? :) I think so.

New Apron

A couple week's ago I finally got around to sewing an apron that I've been wanting to do! I believe I like it....and now I have the bug to sew some more! I searched online for some pictures of aprons, and found quite a few I like. Now, to just find the time....

I like these...

Don't these look fun?! Check out FunkyLunch.com to see more pictures. :)

All about Kangaroos

I can't believe HOW MUCH FUN it's been studying for our Wednesday night kid's class!!! I recently told you about the book I read about Oceans, and I have another stack at home of fascinating books!

This week we were supposed to teach about Kangaroos, so I got to do the research....and here are some irresistable facts about Kangaroos:

• There are 45 species of kangaroos, varying in size from 12 inches to 6 feet tall
• They can travel up to 70mph
• They cannot move backwards
• They cannot move their hind legs independently (walking motion) except when swimming
• Some species live in trees
• Males are called bucks, females, does, and babies, joeys
• Kangaroos are herbivores
• Most are nocturnal
• Some species take up to 9 months to leave the mother’s pouch

This website was great.And we made tie dye bandanas from Kool-Aid!

I've been able to upload our black and white lesson plans to the church website now, if you'd like to take a look and/or use them.

Card Making for Kids

I spent some time recently trying out these fun cards for kids!
I think they were a success.....and they were fun to mail out too!