Nap Time Crafts

Box of Princesses

2012-01-30T17:23:00.000-08:00

I have loved painting peg people - here were some previous ones I did for my son. But when I saw this idea by Lil Blue Boo, I decided to do another round of peg people. I ended up making 3 sets...that's 24 dolls to paint. It took about 2 weeks of nap times to do this - but it was fun.

**Just an apology about my photos for a while. Our house got broken into last week and one of the things they stole was our way awesome camera - a Nikon D80 :( so my pictures for the forseeable future will be from my phone - which isn't anywhere near as good quality as my camera was. Luckily, I had emptied the memory stick a couple days before we were robbed (all except for the photos of these peg dolls - so I had to get my friend to send me pics of the finished set with the lunch box since I had already given it away.)

My 6 year old niece was the initial recipient of these, and then I decided that I wanted to make a set for my 2 year old and a friend's 2 year old as well. But the 2" dolls are a bit of a choking hazard to that age. So I saw the set from Homemade by Jill and she found some 3.5" dolls online. Both the 2 year olds love Tinkerbell, so I added her in - even though she's not technically a "princess." I'm so grumpy about my stolen pictures. My phone pics don't do these justice - Snow White turned out awesome, and I painted Rapunzel's hair with a metallic gold/yellow since her hair glows when she sings :)

Here you can see the back of the dolls - to get the hair details I did. No one posted how they did the hair in the back, so it took a while to figure out how to get some of them to look just right.

Also, here's a pic of one of each size in my hand so you can see the size difference.

**I found the lunch box at Jo-Anns and just added the white and yellow vinyl to the front. I also lined the inside with felt so that the dolls didn't get as bumped around and so that it's a bit quieter

Lacing Cards

2012-01-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

I've wanted to make some sort of lacing cards for a couple years now, either out of wood or laminated shapes. I finally opted for the laminated style. I designed number cards and printed them on 4x6 photo paper, then laminated them.

I didn't have a hole punch to reach all the way in around the numbers, so I used the old school "eyelet setter" (the 4mm size). It wasn't as fast or clean as a hole punch would have been, but it got the desired effect. The shoe laces I got are too long, but they work. I keep these in my church bag to help keep the kids calm on Sundays.

Sewing with Oliver + S

2012-01-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple more things I made from this book by Oliver + S. You can buy it, but I checked it out from the library.

Doll/Teddy Bear Carrier - My daughter has recently taken an interest in swaddling her baby dolls and carrying them around and pretending like they are sleeping, so I thought this was a good fit for her.

Red Riding Hood Cape - An addition to build my daughter's dress up outfits. It's a little big on her for now, but it should fit her in a year or so. This turned out cute, but it was a lot of work since it's fully lined.

Dress Up Rack

2011-12-30T20:46:00.000-08:00

I found this idea a year and a half ago and fell in love with it immediately. My husband built it for us in June, and it's been sitting in my room waiting until the beginning of this month so we could give it to my daughter for her birthday. It's great to have it out where she can use it, and even better to have it out of my room and get some space back.

I made her some dress-up outfits for Christmas, so it's not as bare and sad looking as in this photo.

And as you can see, she loves to stand in the box to hang the clothes up.

Felt Fun

2011-12-20T14:22:00.000-08:00

Here are a few things I've made with felt for the Christmas decorations or presents

Holly Garland - I just drew my own holly leaf onto freezer paper and traced a quarter for the red berries. Then I sewed it in a chain. I love the simple, but classic touch it adds to the mirror in the entry way.

Felt fish and fishing pole - pattern and tutorial here. I made a pole for each of my kids, but I'm not sure how long they will last until they start hitting eachother with them. So this may be a supervised toy.

Animal masks - I saw this idea and this idea and decided to make my own. The ones on etsy are adorable, but there was no way I was going to pay over $50 for a few masks I could make out of supplies I already have at home. These are for my son (except for the pink owl - that's for my daughter). I thought the owls looked fancier with the embroidering - which took a loooooong time. I'm not going to post the patterns I made or a tutorial since I this is a knock-off from someone who is selling them.

Craft Day

2011-12-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

When I was younger, my mom would get together with her mom and sisters and have a craft day in December that lasted ALL DAY. Once I was in college, they decided to let their daughters join in. So it's been a few years now and our group is growing - my grandma, aunts, mom, sister, and girl cousins and the girls that are married/dating my brothers and boy cousins.

We get to have fun crafts and eat yummy snacks/goodies all day. Here are a couple of the crafts that we did - different people in the group teach us how to make a craft, or a food or one year my aunt taught us how to make balloon animals. It's so much fun to get together and to see how everyone's craft can turn out so differently from eachother.

Winter soap - this was the project I brought for everyone to make - a different version of the Halloween Soap.

2x2 Simple Nativity - my mom taught this one to the group - I'm not sure where she found the idea, but she saw it online and found all the pieces at different stores and put together her own kits for us to make at our craft day. Everyone painted their different colors or didn't paint them at all and left them natural. It was fun to see the different styles everyone made out of the same kit.

some recent sewing projects

2011-12-15T12:44:00.000-08:00

I've been busy sewing things for my kiddos for Christmas, so here are some of them...

toddler backpack - pattern and tutorial in this book (I just checked it out at the library since I didn't want to spend so much on the book that I would only need for a couple projects) We are decorating my son's room in a Nautical theme, and this is some outdoor canvas fabric from JoAnns that I have left over. This backpack was so fun to see come to shape - I enjoyed making it!

car roll ups - made a couple for some of my nephew's birthdays that just came up (tutorial here) my son has used his every sunday during church for the past 3 years and it is one of the best things I've found that keep him quiet during sacrament.

toddler girl apron - made a pattern up myself and got quite frustrated by it, so i don't think anyone would want my pattern with all the headaches - plus I threw it away since I was mad at it.

baby doll diapers - I made a couple different sizes for by daughter's different sized dolls - just used the basic shape and instructions in this tutorial, but had to make my own sizes.

Reindeer Board

2011-12-15T12:21:00.000-08:00

I found an idea online here, and altered it a bit. I wanted to use vinly for a clean, crisp look. And I added some phrases to the board so Rudolph stood out a bit more. **I know I spelled Donner wrong - typo - and I've fixed it but didn't feel like taking another picture**

I kinda lost the mood for blogging for a while and not sure if I'm gonna keep up with this blog much longer, but for now...my mom said she likes seeing the things I've made, so I'll probably just post pictures and links to where I found the tutorials if there were any.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-07T13:52:00.000-08:00

My internet is really slow, so I haven't had the patience to post for a while. But here is a pic of my kid's halloween costumes.

It was a joint effort - my mom and I made different parts of each costume - Luckily, she made the tricky parts of the costumes (Minnie's dress and Batman's head piece - which she had to make 2 of since my children have HUGE heads and we had to go up two sizes to make the head piece fit right.) Thanks Mom! They turned out awesome, as always!

Minnie's dress has boning in the bottom to give it that hoop skirt look. And I didn't think I would find yellow shoes anywhere for her, but then I realized I could buy black ones at goodwill and then spray paint them yellow. Worked awesome. But I wouldn't do this for anything other than a costume. It isn't holding up well - it cracks and scrapes off easier than I hoped. But it was great for a Halloween costume and looked awesome.

Here's Emeree with our newest family addition - Adam (wearing the lion costume my Mom made 11 years ago and has made it through all 6 grandkids so far)

And just love this shot of my husband and Emeree at the pumpkin patch- such a sweet shot. But the rest of the pics of her on his shoulders were of her pulling on his hair. Glad I got the one cute shot.

Thanksgiving and Halloween Bunting

2011-11-01T15:33:00.000-07:00

I found this idea for a Halloween bunting, and they mentioned using the other side for Thanksgiving. Wonderful idea.

Except I forgot how much I HATE working with burlap. It's messy when cutting, it's itchy and just aggrivates my exczema and makes me feel like I'm wearing an itchy burlap blanket. Anyway, I love how it turned out. I put a maple leaf on the last spot since "thankful" didn't fill up the whole line.

Even though Halloween is past, you can still make this in time for Thanksgiving and then make the Halloween side to be ready for next year. I didn't have mini black ric rac, but I did have thin sparkly ribbon!

I couldn't find the same font she used, so I found a similar one on dafont.com - called IFC Rail Road

Custom Halloween Soap

2011-10-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

I got together with a few friends, and we had a craft hour. We made these soap bottles for Halloween.

We found the idea here, using the printout from Eighteen25. But I cut them out of vinyl instead of printing on a transparency. Instead of gluing the spider to the outside, we ended up putting them inside the bottle so they kinda floated - giving that extra 3D creepiness.

Mayflower place setting - or toy boat

2011-10-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

I saw this idea last year, and it's been patiently waiting on my to do list for a while. It's a cute idea to fill up with candy and use as a place setting for the kids. I did it a little different. though.

I wanted something else to make the sail "pop" and thought I remembered a red insignia on the pilgrims' boats. But when I looked up pics of the Mayflower, the sails were plain white. Then I looked up The Nina, The Pinta, and The Santa Maria, and found what I was looking for. So I guess my boat isn't a "Mayflower" technically, but my son loves it.

I just want to try and figure out a way to make the mast stay up without candy in it as a place setting so that he can use it as a toy.

Autumn blocks

2011-10-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

I made a "summer" version last year like this and decided to try an "autumn" one. Me and a friend had a craft/play date (hi Megan!!) where we crafted and the kids played. We only got the blocks painted and paper cut out before we had to stop for nap times, so we both finished them up at home. Here are mine:

I cut the wood blocks to random sizes (the tallest is 5.25") and the whole thing ends up being about 22" long. And then I just sized the letters in Sure Cuts-A-Lot to fit the blocks.

Font used: Pharmacy (found on dafont.com)

Bat Swarm

2011-10-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

The bats swarmed my living room again.

What I love about this decoration is that my 3 year old makes it a priority to show the bats to EVERYONE who comes over to our house. I put them up while he was taking a nap, and he woke up and found them and was SOOOO excited.

Last year we didn't have the giant clock on the wall, so the look is a little different.

**I traced an image of a bat I found online and cut them out with my cricut - really easy to make. And just stick up with some painter's tape and you're all done!

Halloween Pillow Cover

2011-10-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

My new holiday obsessions seem to be wreaths and pillow covers.

Here's my pillow cover for Halloween.

I love, love, love this fabric. I was in Portland this week visiting my sis-in-law (hi, Kari!!) and we went to Fabric Depot - being there is like a sewer"s version of a kid in a candy store. I think it said it's 1.5 acres of fabric...or something like that. Anyway, we were on our way out the door, and I spotted this fabric and HAD to turn around and go back to get some. The selvege says it's called "ghastly forest" by Alexander Henry (I think - the words got cut off where my yardage ended)

I like having pillow covers for different holidays. They fold down so small and are easier to store than separate pillows for each holiday - just make the envelope closure so it's removable.

Tulle Wreath

2011-10-12T16:08:00.000-07:00

There are tulle wreaths out all over blogland, and they are all a bit different - from where they position the knot (on the edge, or in the front), to what the wreath is out of (wire or styrofoam) and how long they cut the strips of tulle.

I liked a couple different looks, but none explained what they did. So I decided to just go for it. My wreath is a styrofoam wreath form, and I cut my tulle to 16"x4" strips, folded them in half and pulled the loose ends around the wreath and through the loop in the folded end of the tulle. I centered my knots near the front edge. I can't remember how many yards of tulle I bought, but I think it was either 3 or 4, and I used all of it - no waste!

I'm still trying to decide if I want to add a pop of color (possibly orange) to it, but I just love the houndstooth ribbon. I'll probably leave it alone this year and then try a pop of color next year.

**the little spider taped to the door is a glitter spider from Michaels in case anyone wanted to know. They look awesome taped up to the wall or fireplace pillars.

Autumn or Thanksgiving Stacker

2011-10-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

I made another stacker. This time, it is an autumn/Thanksgiving themed one. I love how it turned out.

I cut the blocks at 4", 5.5", and 7"

Fonts:
Harvest: Impact (can't remember where I found it)
Falling Leaves: Waterfalls
Pumpkin Pie: Smiley Monster

2x4 Candy Corn

2011-10-06T18:30:00.000-07:00

I saw something like this last year, but I couldn't remember where. Then I saw this post at Someday Crafts for 2x4 candy corn and it was definitely something I wanted to make right away. Problem was, I'm still a bit scared to use the miter saw since I almost snapped off my finger earlier this year, so I had to wait until my husband got home to cut them out.

I ended up making a bunch - some for the ladies I visit teach, my mom, sister, and mother-in-law. And I had a craft/play date with a friend where we made some projects while the kids played. I also ended up keeping a couple for myself.

It was easy to paint several during the kiddos nap times as well. I always think it looks weird to put yellow on the bottom for candy corn- it seems like it should be orange, but I looked up pics of the candy online to double check. But I think they look cute either way.

Halloween Stacker

2011-09-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

I've always liked the stackers tied with ribbon, but I never made one before. Here's my first attempt at one - and just in time for Halloween

I cut 2x2's into 4", 5", and 6" lengths, painted them and mod podged paper down.

I always like it when people list the fonts they used so I can try and recreate things... so here they are:

Spiders - FrankenDork
Candy Corn - Mail Ray Stuff
Pumpkins - Harrington

My favorite free font site is http://www.dafont.com/. I like that you can type what your sample text into the text field so that as your searching for fonts, it will display your words in the selected text as they would look on your project.

Head on over to this Shabby Apple Giveaway!

2011-09-22T07:50:00.000-07:00

My wonderful Sister-in-law, Kari, is hosting a Shabby Apple Giveaway on her blog! If you haven't checked out her blog before, head on over. She has a writing style that keeps you entertained and will tie you up in reading back posts. And her list of 100 things she wants to do before she turns 100 in the sidebar is fun to read too.

Anyway, she's hosting a giveaway where you could win this green dress from Shabby Apple.

Giveaway closes Wednesday, Sept. 28th - so hurry up and enter!

Pumpkin and Ghost bottles

2011-09-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

I found this on Pinterest . . . but one problem - I don't drink wine. So I called around and found some people I know that do or have neighbors that do and they saved me some for this project.

I had to use baby oil to get all the labels off (since I don't have Goo Gone - I know, who doesn't have goo gone?) And then I spray painted the green bottle orange (after taping off the top for the stem). And I didn't want a clear ghost, so I used Rustoleum's Frosted Glass spray to foggy it up a bit.

I cut the faces out of vinyl. Still not sure if I am liking the ghost faces, but it's tricky to get a ghost face to not just look like 3 circles/ovals. I wanted a smaller ghost, so I cleaned out our soy sauce for that one. But the neck of the bottle isn't as pretty as the wine bottle was.

Peg People

2011-08-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

I won a giveaway on Simple Simon & Co. a few months ago where I got 3 peg princesses...My daughter loves to carry them around, but I hadn't seen the wood pieces around anywhere so they didn't make my to-do-list. Then, I stumbled upon this post with Star Wars and Harry Potter peg people and was determined to find them to make some of my own.

JoAnns has the girl shaped peg people that have a dress shaped body, but Michael's had the boy shaped ones that are straight from the neck down.

Here are mine:

They took 3 days of naps to paint . . . and I found them quite addicting. The pirate seems out of place since the rest are "characters." I think my favorite is Robin. You can't tell from the picture, but the back and sides are yellow for his cape. I started with Harry since I was copying the image from the post above, but then I ventured out and made some of my own.

Toddler Apron and Chef Hat

2011-08-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

My daughter is getting a bunch of dress up stuff for Christmas, so I got an early start on some since I'll be making them and don't want to keep it all till the night before and drive myself crazy.

I was looking for a cute apron pattern (but not girly since my son would be using it too) that would work on a toddler. But I mostly found child ones that seemed sized for a 10 year old or older. So I just made my own sizing, but used this tutorial. (The tutorial is a PDF, so you have to scroll down the right side and find the button for "classic apron" tutorial since I can't link directly to it) I picked this one cause it had "D rings" on the neck strap, and I liked the polished look it gave. And I absolutely love this fabric - I found it at JoAnns.

Anyway, I had to shrink the pieces to work on an 18 month old but still last for a few years. The length I used was 19" from top to bottom and 17" wide at the bottom. The top was 7.5 inches wide with a length of 13" from the armpit down. I did make the straps 20" long instead of 22" as well. As you can see, it's a little big on my daughter, but it fits wonderfully on my 3 year old son. So we should get plenty of years of wearing time out of it.

The chef's hat was tricky to make since I didn't want to put bias tape around the edge. I just doubled the height of the band and folded it in half to get the clean edge to it. Other than that, I followed the tutorial on that one pretty close.

Vinyl Embellished Toddler Rocking Chairs

2011-07-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

My parents get each grandkid a toddler rocking chair around their 1st - 2nd birthday timeframes. They paint them all cute too! With my son's, I added vinyl to it before I ever got a cricut... I cut it out with an exacto knife! Took forever!

But with my daughter's and my nephew's (who are only about a week apart) I cut it out with the Cricut - way easier.

Here's my daughter's chair - front and back... I used the butterfly trail dots to go down the railing.

Here's my nephew's chair - front and back...

And here's both my kids in their rocking chairs. They don't usually last very long out in the living room. The chairs are in "toy time-out" a lot - hidden in my room since Emeree likes to stand on it to rock back and forth. So hopefully soon she will be safer with it and they can be out more often. Cause they sure do look cute in those chairs!

Pillow Bed (Double sided)

2011-07-29T14:44:00.000-07:00

Once I saw the pillow mattress on Ucreate, I wanted one right away...don't really have the need for it yet, but it was so cute.

Super easy - just 4 pillows stuffed into 4 compartments in a long piece of fabric. Easy to make, take apart, and wash!

I didn't want to make multiple ones, so I used a cute, girly print for one side and solid gray for the other side - more boy-ish. Perfect for laying down to read or watch a little Dora and Diego!

The tutorial said she found pillows at IKEA for 99 cents, so I made a trip the next day. They were $1.29 at my store, but that was still an awesome deal. And I didn't want to buy an expensive duvet cover, so I used some flat sheets that I had laying around. No one really uses flat sheets, so they are always in awesome shape if you find them in your linen closet or even at thrift stores.

Since I was making it out of fabric insead of an already-made duvet cover, it took a lot longer, but it was fun to make. I did get confused in one point of the tutorial about making the pocket flap for the pillow. I made one but it doesn't work at all. So I will need to add 1 or 2 snaps to each opening to keep it cute and closed. But I gave the snap kit back to my mom, so I'll need to borrow it again.

And since my kids are still so small, I can fold the top pillow section over to make a double pillow for their little heads. But they both woke up from nap and instantly plopped down on it. I love when they like things that I made for them.

Mermaid Doll

2011-07-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

My daughter is starting to carry around dolls while she's roaming the house, so I thought it might be fun to try making a doll for her. Then I saw this mermaid doll pattern/tutorial and knew it would be the one to try. I grew up in the hype of "The Little Mermaid" in the '90's so I have a soft spot for mermaids.

And I liked that this one had a removable tail so she could just be a doll as well. Here's the one I made.

I would suggest something if you are going to make this doll/mermaid...I used knit fabric for her body (the polka dot print) but that was a bad choice. It stretched and was hard to get the bottom where her legs are to look good. Also, it's color is too close to her body color, so it blends in. I was originally going to use a magenta glitter satin, but thought the tail might not stay up on a slippery fabric - but now I wish I had just gone with my first plan. I do wish it was easier to find better colors in felt. They don't really make a strawberry blonde felt; I wanted to match my daughter's hair. So I went with the brown; it's cute, but I wish there was a better color for a blonde doll.

The pattern printed out huge for me, so I just shrunk all the pieces in photoshop before starting since I didn't want a life sized doll. I don't know if my printer settings were off or what, but keep in mind you can always shrink or expand patterns like this.

The tail was made out of scraps of fabric that my mom used to make my niece's mermaid halloween costume...a teal satin and a sheer, shimmery teal fabric to put over it for the shiny effect. It was soooooo difficult to sew with. I don't know how my mom stayed sane making a costume out of it.

I also used a scrap of shirred fabric left over from making a toddler dress a couple years ago to make the doll a dress as well - variety for changing outfits. I didn't have any stuffing, so don't tell anyone, but I just used a seam ripper and pulled some out of a couch pillow :) So this doll was made with scraps and borrowed stuffing - didn't cost anything to make her!! I love free projects!

My daughter carried it around with her most of the evening last night. It even went for rides on the truck with her. Not the best picture of her though...she looks kinda disheveled. Her hair won't grow on the sides, but she has a mop of curls on the top and in the back. So kindof a mohawk and a mullet combination. I can usually distract from that with a headband and hair clip when we leave the house.

Wreath made from . . . Spoons!

2011-07-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

My mom goes blog hopping just like me, and she happened to find an awesome project that I hadn't seen. It's a wreath made out of plastic spoons - she found it at Nesting Place. Here's mine!

I grabbed a couple boxes of spoons on my trip to the grocery store the next day and made this during nap time. The only problem was that my front door is white, so the white spoons just blended in with the door.

I went to party city to look at some cool colored spoons, but they were quite expensive compared to the 99 cents I spent at Safeway. Then I got another idea...spray paint. They make special spray paint meant for plastic, but the colors are boring - so I went with normal spray paint and just hoped it would adhere to the plastic okay. It's going to stay stationary on my door, so hopefully the paint will last. I painted it yellow so that I could have a fun, summer wreath. It reminds me of either sun or wheat... but I like it. It was super easy to put together, and I used all 48 spoons that came in the boxes, so $2 for a wreath isn't bad.

Fort Kit

2011-07-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

I saw this idea on MADE during "Celebrate the Boy" back in February. I fell in love instantly and was just waiting for the perfect recipient to make this for. Make sure you scroll down on the "MADE" link to see the kits she sells - that's where I saw it first. The other link is her tutorial.

My niece, Lorelai, is turning 7 this month and she loves to make forts. So I thought a cool kit just for her (plus a bag to keep it all in) would be perfect.

I was having a hard time finding sheets that were "cute" but not expensive, so I went with solid gray ones and appliqued an "L" on the front corner of them to personalize it a bit. I sewed ties on the corners and along the long sides like she did in her tutorial. I did try thrift stores to look for flat sheets, but they were just as expensive as buying new ones - and they didn't match each other. ($5 for a flat sheet at Wal-Mart)

Pinecone Wreath

2011-07-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to make a pinecone wreath for a couple years, but don't have any trees dropping pinecones near my house that I knew of. But back in February, we went for a walk along the waterfront and spotted a ton of pinecones on the ground.

This wreath was intended for my mom for her birthday, but she was with me when I found the pinecones, so I had to fess up with my project since she would wonder why I was picking up a ton of pinecones. But, she probably wouldn't have been that confused. After all, I am her daughter, and she used to pick them up at random rest stops and parks when I was younger...something we always teased her about.

Anyway, I finally got around to making the wreath, and guess what! She had totally forgotten about it, so it was still a surprise for her birthday!

Here's the back...

I was going to use a styrofoam wreath, but I would have had to paint it brown and then wait for it to dry - unless I didn't care about seeing white spots between the pinecones. And I don't have much patience when I want to start a project. So, I dug through my craft stash and found this old brown branch wreath - perfect match to the pinecone color. And ironically enough, it was one that my mom had given to me when she was cleaning out her craft stash before she moved.

Citrus Banner/Garland

2011-07-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

I never know whether to call these a garland or a banner... oh well. Anyway, I found these awesome citrus coasters made out of felt and decided that I wanted to adapt the idea into a garland. I wanted a garland for the summer time, and this is perfect.

I love how it turned out. Beware, this project takes a long time. From cutting to sewing, these took several hours. I only timed the hand stitching - each one took 30 minutes just for me to stitch! But that's okay, my husband was working till 10pm last night, so I had plenty of quiet time once the kids went to bed and it gave me something to distract me from not liking that i was home alone at night.

The garland is heavy and wouldn't stay up on the mantle like the rest of mine do - hanging from the corners. I had to attach it flat to the front so it wouldn't flip over and hand awkwardly. I can't justify buying the gorgeous wool felt that comes in such wonderful colors, so I used what I can get from JoAnns. And let me tell you, I'm very disappointed in their color selection. The green and orange are very NEON - blah, and they don't have yellow :( The pinks they had were great though. So my colors aren't as scrumptious as the ones at the Purl Bee, but if you didn't have them to compare mine to, mine look great!

And, this was CHEAP - if you didn't already have the felt on hand, it's probably just over a dollar to get one sheet of each color (unless you buy it by the yard).

"Wedding" spin on the Mustache Mug

2011-07-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

My cousin got married over the weekend, and I gave them these mugs.

When I made the Mustache Mugs for Father's Day, I made these mustache and lip ones too. But I added the "Mr." and "Mrs." to make it a little more cute-sy. You can click on the link to the Father's Day ones above, but I used vinyl cut out on the Cricut as the stencil and painted in the design with porcelain paint and baked it in the oven.

"land that I love" frame

2011-07-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

Another awesome idea from Eighteen25. . . but I don't have a silhouette to easily get the country image from :(

I love my Cricut, but I wish they were as tech savy as silhouette. . . with an image library instead of expensive cartridges. Luckily, I have figured out how to import images that I drew into Sure Cuts A Lot and cut it on my Cricut . . . it took me about an hour to trace and draw this image from a map. And since I'm sooooo nice, anyone who has a cricut (AND the SCAL software) just has to download this SVG file and then import it.

Click here to download - usa.svg

And here's a screen shot of how to upload the file. Just open your SCAL software and . . .

Aside from drawing the image and waiting for the painted frame to dry, this project took maybe 2 minutes to assemble. Awesome!

Shabby Apple Summer Sale - 20 percent off!!

2011-07-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

What a great time of year to have a huge sale! Shabby Apple dresses are wonderful and a lot of them just scream "SUMMER" to me!

Use this code - SUMMER20 - to get 20% off anything SITE WIDE!!
**the only exclusion is Amalfi Coast Swim Wear**

And get this - the sale lasts for the entire month of July!!

Patriotic Plaque

2011-07-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

I saw this idea yesterday at Eighteen25 and loved it instantly! I liked that it was numbers - most of my decor is shapes or words.

But, I decided to "use what you have and make it work"...so I used a scrap piece of wood instead of a canvas since I have plenty of wood piled up in the garage and my husband thinks I'm crazy for saving everything that's left over from his building projects - he thinks I'll never go through it all - I'll show him. Starting with this project!

I love me some wood number/letters, but I don't love the prices - the small numbers are about $2 each...so $8 if I bought all 4...and I don't have them on hand. But I do have glitter and craft foam. So I cut numbers out of craft foam and applied glitter and glue!

Another Patriotic Wreath

2011-06-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

I know I already have an awesome 4th of July wreath, but when I saw this one, I wanted to make another one. I can't decide if I like her buttons better than my stars, so I may end up switching them out for buttons later. I don't have many indoor decorations for this holiday, so one of the wreaths will go inside and hang from the inside of the patio door in the living room.

The perfectionist/OCD part of me was annoyed the whole time at making this. I wanted each wrapping of yarn to line up next to the previous one, but that wasn't going to happen since it's a circle and the inside is smaller than the outside. So the rows on the inside had to overlap - I don't know why, but that bugged the crap out of me. And it took about 2 hours of nap time to wrap. I used one of the straw wreaths since they are a bit thicker compared to the styrofoam ones. Also, with a trusty coupon from JoAnns, it was only $1.79 - cheaper than the foam ones for some reason. I left the plastic wrapping on since it would help keep it less bumpy - not sure if you usually take it off or not...

I cut the stars out of craft foam, but they looked too bright since I didn't use white yarn, I used a cream colored yarn. So I took out the brown ink pad and distressed the stars a bit so they would look a bit darker/worn. I like it a lot better!

Subtle Patriotic Pillows

2011-06-27T17:05:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make pillow covers that were fitting for the 4th of July holiday coming up, but I wasn't like most of the patriotic fabric I saw at the store - I was hoping for stars but didn't like the cartoon-ish ones I saw, so I wandered over to the home decor fabric and found a navy blue print. And then I decided I was going to go for a subtle patriotic flare for the couch.

I used red satin for the band and bow, but I would suggest using something not so slippery - I'm adjusting the bows and fixing the way it's laying about every hour from kiddos (or my husband) playing or sitting on the couch. I ended up making 2 of these pillows. I have a red couch, so they look pretty on it - adding to the holiday decor.

The pillow covers are the removable type with the envelope back so that I can change them back to my every day pillow cover when the holiday is over. For the bows, I just sewed a band to fit around the pillow, added a big rectangle for the body of the bow and then wrapped the bow center around the bow rectangle and the band.

Shabby Apple Dress Review & 10% off code

2011-06-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

It's time for more about Shabby Apple - they sell women's and little girl's dresses at www.shabbyapple.com. If you haven't heard of them, be sure to check them out. They also sell accessories, but they have some of the most gorgeous dresses out there. When I was contacted about doing a review, I was a bit nervous - I've wanted to own a Shabby Apple dress, but wasn't sure it would look good on me. I'm still carrying some left over pregnancy weight and don't have the long, lean legs and slender figure that the models do. I'm 4'11" and that tends to make dresses meant for women heights fit me weird. So no matter what, I was certain that the dress wouldn't look any where near as good on me as the model in the picture. But I decided to give it a try and picked one!

I chose the Lighthouse dress from the Set Sail! line ... by far, my favorite line of dresses at the moment. This dress is a butter yellow color. It's hard to tell in the pics online. It looks more ivory online, but once I received it in the mail, it definitely has more of a butter yellow color. I also like the Overboard dress as well. I love the pop of red on the dress.

Besides the fact that I didn't match any of the sizes on the sizing chart, I just picked the size that seemed to meet most of my measurements and crossed my fingers. And guess what!! It zips up just fine! I was so happy it fit. And it hits me a little below the knees since I'm shorter than your average female. But I think it looks cute on and will look even better if I stick to my new exercise regimen. I'm so excited to wear this dress this summer. Now if I could just grow long, lean and tan legs :)

So if you've been hesitant to get a dress from Shabby Apple because you don't have the same body type as the models, don't worry. I gave it a shot and it worked out just fine. So head on over and browse through their gorgeous inventory of dresses - Shabby Apple has vintage inspired dress in several different categories, and you can't help but love their collection names: South Pacific, Up and Away, Carousel, The Berkshires (which has my favorite dress - the Cider Dress), and Oh La La, and many more.

And to help you with your shopping, Shabby Apple has offered Nap Time Craft readers a 10% off code for your shopping pleasure: naptimecrafts10off - this coupon code expires July 7th. So hurry up and get a new dress for the summer!

Be sure to "like" Shabby Apple on Facebook - click here! You'll receive special promotions and keep up to date on their latest styles.

4th of July Wreath - Re-post

2011-06-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

Since 4th of July is coming up, I thought I would re-post my wreath from last year...

I have had a couple questions about this wreath posted in comments or emailed to me, so in case you were wondering as well...
- how many stars did I cut? At least a couple hundred. I didn't keep count and kept cutting more as I ran out. It will depend on how close you attach them.
- how big were the stars? About 2.5 inches across.

2x2 Wood Firecrackers

2011-06-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

I found these while blog hopping and went to my wood stash and immediately marked them to cut...my husband is my designated wood cutter nowadays since I almost cut my finger off making wood clovers in March. So I had to wait till he got home from work to finish these.

I cut my 2x2's at 4.5", 6", and 7.5" for those who want dimensions.

I used a mixture of vinyl and painting to get the details. I used the outside of the vinly for the USA letters as a stencil and painted in the letters with blue paint on the cream firecracker since the vinyl wouldn't show up on that light of paint.

I attached my rope differently since I didn't want the tail exposed at the top, and I wanted it to stick straight up. So....I hammered a thin nail through the top of each block and pulled the nail out. Then I found a long pin and threaded it through the rope piece and stuck it in the hole. So the pin holds it upright and no exposed tail.

I made 2 sets - one for the mantle and one for the shelf by the entryway.

Father's Day Idea - Mustache Mug

2011-05-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

I've seen a couple blogs out there that did something like this, but they just free handed the design. I don't have that much faith in my drawing skills . . . plus, I wanted both sides of the mustache to be the same - like mirror images and I knew I would mess it up if I just painted on the mug without a stencil of sorts.

These are for my Dad and my Father-in-law...they will be loaded up with some goodies by gift-giving time. And I'm pretty sure they don't check my blogs, so revealing it early shouldn't spoil anything.

I used porcelain paint that I found at Michael's and a non-foam paint brush. The rest is pretty self explanatory.

I drew a mustache and imported it into Sure-Cuts-A-Lot and the cut it out with my Cricut.

The only issue with using vinyl is that when you peel off the vinyl when the paint is dry, it tends to peel off the paint as well. So I had to do it slowly and use my fingernail to hold down the design at the edge when pulling at the vinyl...definately a headache step, but you could avoid that if you just free handed the design. Once it's baked in the oven, the paint hardens and won't peel off anymore.

Newborn Hat

2011-05-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a baby knit hat I made for my nephew on the way - he was due last week and still hasn't decided to arrive yet :). It was really easy and fast to make - tutorial here.

I did an applique star on the front to give it more umph - and then did some "x" stitches on the sides to keep the brim folded up.

A Baby Apron - the bapron!

2011-05-19T08:00:00.001-07:00

If you follow Craftiness is Not Optional, then you've seen her "bapron" tutorial. I knew I wanted to make one for my sis-in-law who's due date was last week and is ready for that boy to arrive!

It's a bib, but it's sort of an apron at the same time. It covers more of their body/clothes from spills and ... my favorite part is that it ties in the back. My daughter pulls off her velcro ones mid-meal every day, so this would be a nice feature.

Make sure to check out the link to the tutorial so you have an idea of what it looks like on . . . it didn't really fit my 18 month old when I tried it on her, so make sure to check out the pics in the tutorial.

Here's mine...

Pinwheel Hair Clips -- great for summer!

2011-05-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

When I saw this idea on The Mother Huddle, it was one of those "gotta make it now" projects. But of course, I had to put my own twist on it.

My daughter is hard on hair clips - rips them out all the time, so just using heat n bond like the example, I knew she would destroy it. Plus, I don't have heat n bond - just iron on interfacing (which is only fusible on one side). So I had to stitch them together, but I actually like the look better - it's a bit more polished/finished.

Here's the close up of stitching it before I cut the slits in the corners. I did 2" squares - perfect size for a small toddler with not much hair :)

...and disregard her messy hair - she went to bed with wet hair and my husband thought it would be funny to give her a faux hawk and let it dry that way over night. I had a heck of a time getting it to even lay this flat...and the headband is the only thing keeping that front from spiking straight up.

Owl Stuffie

2011-04-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make an owl stuffie for my sis-in-law's baby shower. But I looked all over blog land and couldn't find an owl pattern that I liked. So I decided...why not draw up my own pattern? And I love how it turned out.

It has a long strip of fabric between the front and back so that it has dimension . . . you can kinda see that in the pic below. I hadn't hand sewn the opening closed yet, but you get the idea. I love all the different textures of fabric that I found in my stash - suede, corduroy, fuzzy, and felt.

Baby Shower - Cat in the Hat Style!

2011-04-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

My mom and I threw my sis-in-law a Cat in the Hat baby shower over the weekend. (she has an awesome blog by the way, so make sure to check it out) It was so much fun to prepare for, but I'm so glad it's done - itsn't it always that way when you're the host? Anyway, here are some pics from the day.

Isn't my fireplace awesome!!!! My husband finished it last week. It used to be ugly painted brick with smoke damage from the previous owners. So we slapped up some charcoal tile and he made the pillars and box seat and mantle to finish it off!

I found the idea for "wishes for baby" online. So we clipped the cards to the ribbon on the mantle for everyone to fill out.

Kojo Designs was my inspiration for picking this theme for the baby shower. They gave the awesome idea to cut up pages of the book and make them into a pennant banner.

We had red, teal, and white candy in glass dishes and Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes.

I saw these cupcakes on several different blogs, but only one gave the crucial tip that the cotton candy melts really fast - like in 30 minutes or so, so dont' put that on till the last minute when guests are about to arrive. I had a hard time finding plain red cupcake liners - I found a primary colors pack but would have had to buy multiple packs to get the red. So I made cupcake wrappers out of red cardstock - and then I taped the "thing 1" or "thing 2" label to the front.

Here's our preggo guest of honor - isn't she adorable! My mom found this frame at a thrift store and painted it teal. We had all the guests pose with the frame and the Cat's Hat (that I made a while back here) if they wanted to. Here's a couple more guests...

And my mother-in-law makes awesome diaper cakes - I told her the theme ahead of time and she was able to make the design work around that.

And of course, we had to get the proud Daddy-to-be with a shot in the frame and hat.

Yarn Carrot

2011-04-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

I saw these yarn carrots the other day while blog hopping . . .

Make a cone out of paper and tape it closed - then wrap yarn around it - SIMPLE!

Paint Chip Egg Garland

2011-04-06T16:30:00.000-07:00

I saw this idea from Modern Parents Messy Kids on One Pretty Thing the other day...and knew I had to go digging for my paint chips. I love how it turned out! Depending on the ages of your kids, they could help with this. Mine are too young for scissors, but my son lined up the eggs after I cut them and had fun helping me. You could even do this with scrapbook paper instead if you don't have paint chips handy.

I ended up with enough eggs to make two of them. A long one for the mantle, and a short one for the mirror in the entry way.

As I've been trying to decorate for Spring/Easter, my children quickly remind me what I can and can't put out at their level.

Grrrrrrr - sometimes I hate Blogger

2011-04-06T08:47:00.000-07:00

Is anyone else having the image upload error caused by Google Cloud Picker? It won't let me upload any images and says there was an error.

I have a couple Easter/Spring posts to do but cant!

"Hoppy Spring" blocks

2011-03-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some blocks I made (with the help of my husband - I snapped my fingernail back when I was cutting the shamrocks when one of the blocks flipped up...so now I'm a bit hesitant to use the miter saw again. I can still feel the nail bending backwards when I think about using the saw)...some day I'll use it again on my own!

Anyway, the blocks are cut to 2.25" wide and all different heights with "pharmacy" font sized to fit the block.

Another Crocheted Earwarmer

2011-03-29T17:30:00.000-07:00

Here's another crocheted ear warmer I made for my mother-in-law's birthday.

Tutorial for earwarmer
Tutorial for flower

Baby Shower gifts

2011-03-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

I already posted the self-binding receiving blanket I made for my sister-in-law. Here are a couple other things I made her as well:

Tie Onesie - There are 2 patterns I like here and here. . . one is smaller and works better on infant onesies and the other is a bit bigger and works best on 12month + sizes in my experience. I don't remember which one I used this time since I just have the patterns cut out and use them over and over.

Denim Baby Book - more info here. I love the piping added around the edges - it gives it a softer look. And Kari had given me some of my brother's old shirts to re-purpose, so I used them in the applique shapes of the book. How fun is that - the baby will have a book made from his dad's old clothes!

Spring Flower Garland

2011-03-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make a flower garland like I did with my valentine's hearts...but I didn't feel in the mood to cut out lots of felt flowers. So I used my Cricut and cut out some flowers out of cardstock.

Then I sewed them in a line with my sewing machine.

I made this while my kids were sleeping, and when my 3 year old got up from his nap, he saw them and said "wow! good job, Mom" and went off to play with his toys. At least someone notices the things I make without me pointing them out...like I have to with my husband. :)

Army Bunker Tent

2011-03-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

This Army Bunker Tent came out awesome, but I had it in the works for almost a year...I just couldn't ever get excited about working on it since I knew it would be an intense project. I saw the idea on Obsessively Stitching last year and knew it would be something I wanted to make for my son.

It's made out of a twin sheet set from Wal-Mart (I don't know if they still carry the same one anymore...I bought mine a year ago when this tutorial came out - just in case they stopped carrying it by the time I got around to making it.) The frame is out of PVC pipes - and my table scratches really easy, so I cut up a scrap of fleece and used that as a "table cloth" under the pipes. And the best part...the fabric and pipes all fit into the pillowcase when you take it down.

Since everyone's table is different, the tutorial doesn't give dimensions, so that's what took me a year to get in the mood to make it. I had to measure and fit it to my table, and I had a hard time with that, but now I'm happily done!

I basically copied everything Care did when she made this...the freezer paper stenciling on the pocket of the pillowcase and mini drawstring bag to keep the army men

...and the freezer paper stencil t-shirt.

It was a bit tricky to make, but well worth it - my kids love playing in it.

Marshmallow Peep Bunny Stuffies

2011-03-21T11:59:00.000-07:00

I do a lot of blog hopping and a lot of adding to my "to-do" list. But every once in a while, I find a project that I want to do right then and there ... because I already have everything to make it with and because it's adorable.

Well, these stuffed bunnies were one of those "got to make it now" projects. Make sure you check out her link - her pictures are way cuter! I don't have grass or a cute basket to pose them in.

I really wished I had some pink fleece, cause the pink one in the tutorial was my favorite, but I only had yellow and a couple shades of blue. The fun part was that my kids could help stuff them and they both had fun helping me.

And here's my little helper trying to eat them.

Self-binding receiving blanket

2011-03-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

I had the idea in my head to make a blanket like this when my son was born ... but he just turned 3, so obviously, I never got it figured out. I wanted the back to wrap around the front to give the binded edge look on the front, but I couldn't figure out how to make the corners mitered and pretty...so I gave up.

...but, I found a tutorial for a self-binding blanket that a friend had used for her daughter's blanket.

It was a bit tricky to work with since I decided to use a flannel backed satin for the back and binding. It was slippery and gave me all sorts of problems. But I think if you used 2 pieces of flannel, it would work out fine.

I made this one for my sister-in-law's baby shower last weekend. I knew my mom was making a lot of receiving blankets for her, so I wanted to try a non-traditional baby blanket. I like how it turned out, but the standard receiving blankets are a lot less work in my opinion. :)

Crocheted Shamrock Hair Clip

2011-03-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

I saw a tutorial for a crocheted shamrock garland and thought I could alter the idea and turn it into a single shamrock for a hair clip. I made 3 of them using different hook sizes and they ended up being about 1.25 - 1.75 inches across. My favorite was with the "G" hook. It looked cute in my daughter's hair (actually in her headband since she has a lack of hair at the moment). The other 2 went to my nieces. My flash wasn't cooperating, but this yarn was an apple green color, not as neon as the pic looks.

I'm quite new to the crochet world, but this shamrock was easy to make. I've tried the flowers and hearts that are out there in blog land, and this was by far the easiest I've come across yet. I still can't get my hearts to look like hearts. :)

Shabby Apple Dress Winner

2011-03-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

The winner of this fantastic dress from Shabby Apple is . . .

... lucky number 88!

And that entry belongs to Julie N. who said...

Congratulations, Julie, I've sent you an email to get your information. If I don't hear from you in 48 hours, I will pick another winner.

Giveaway ends tonight!!

2011-03-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

Don't forget... the Shabby Apple Dress giveaway ends tonight at 11:59pm (pacific time)

...I was going to insert an image of the dress up for grabs, but blogger's image browse isn't working again (just the annoying cloud picker glitch). So go to the original post to see the dress - it's awesomely orange!

Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway--NOW CLOSED

2011-03-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

So I'm assuming that most, if not all of my readers have at least heard of Shabby Apple even if they don't own anything from ther yet...

If not, here is your introduction to Shabby Apple!!

You can find some of the most gorgeous, vintage inspired women's dresses at http://www.shabbyapple.com/ that I've seen...and they are all modest. I am short (4'11" to be exact) and have a hard time with low necklines, but I don't see that problem with any of their dresses I've seen.

I had a hard time picking my favorites to use in this post. And what's great is that they even sell maternity dresses (called Mama Apple) and children's dresses (called Shabby Baby - isn't that cute). Head on over to http://www.shabbyapple.com/ NOW to check out even more dresses.

Here are some of my favorite dresses...

And today, Shabby Apple is giving away the Cider dress to one of my lucky readers!

I love orange, and the neckline is so cute!

Giveaway rules!
**Must have a US shipping address
**Giveaway closes on Monday night (March 14th at 11:59pm)
**winner will be chosen by random.org on Tuesday, March 15th

Shabby Apple is being even MORE generous and offering an exclusive discount to our readers:
naptimecrafts10off Use this to score 10% off your order!

Mandatory entry -
* Must be a follower of my blog (http://www.naptimecrafting.blogspot.com/) - and leave a comment letting me know (with your email address if it's not linked in your profile)

Additional entries
* 1 entry - "Like" Shabby Apple on Facebook - and leave a comment telling me you did! - you'll get in on special promotions and exclusive deals if you do!
* 5 entries - Purchase anything on Shabby Apple and let me know you did! (in 5 separate comments) You can use this awesome code for a 10% discount on your purchase -- naptimecrafts10off

That's it! 7 chances to enter to win this gorgeous dress from Shappy Apple!

Yarn Words

2011-02-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

After making my words of love, I wanted to make one for St. Patrick's Day. I really wish I had spelled "lucky" but it wouldn't have laid flat on the mantle with a "y". Also, I just couldn't get a good cursive "k" to shape. But you get the idea...so try your hand at it and let me know if you get a good "k". I'm probably going to add a "y" to the end soon, it's bugging me that it doesn't say "lucky"

Crochet: earwarmer and a hat!!!

2011-02-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

I learned how to single crochet last year when we were making squares for quilts for the women's shelter at church. But I haven't done anything since...until this past weekend. For my first project, I made an earwarmer (it needs a flower or something, but I'm still working on that). I used a smaller hook, so I only did 85 chains instead of the 91 in the pattern, and I didn't do as many rows of the decorative holes in the middle. The nice thing about the holes is I can clip on a hair clip of my daughter's if I want an embelishment.

Then i tried my hand at making a hat. I used this pattern, but I was making the 6-12 month size and somehow it ended up fitting my head instead. I'm not sure what happened, but I counted my stitches the entire time and used the recommended hook size. Maybe my gauge is off, but that seems like a huge difference... oh well, I love the little button flap on the side!

2x4 and 1x4 Shamrocks

2011-02-24T10:15:00.000-08:00

Under My Umbrella came up with another amazing 2x4 project. Shamrocks!!

I decided to paint mine cream and mod podge scrapbook paper on the front instead of painting them green (I didn't have a good green on hand). I also cut them in half (depth wise) so that they aren't so thick...and that means I got 2 out of what would have only been one.

She provides the dimensions for the large shamrock on her blog, but I also had some 1x4's on hand, so I made a smaller one. If you want to make a smaller one too, here are the dimensions I came up with:

Box Zipper Pouch

2011-02-18T14:44:00.000-08:00

I made 2 zipper pouches for family members at Christmas. There are tons of tutorials out in blogland on these. But the one I found was from here - I liked the finished dimensions.

The tutorial gets a little tricky to follow, but just go for it and be prepared to use a seam ripper a few times until you get the process down.

It was fun to make, but I think I would much rather make a zipper clutch like I did here

The CAT's Hat (for a toddler head)

2011-02-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make this hat for my son - so I browsed online and couldn't find a tutorial that wasn't out of paper or that looked nice. So from me to you...

Materials needed:
Red Felt
- 3 red strips each measuring 3"x22"
- 1 red circle 6.75" in diameter
White Felt
- 2 white strips each measuring 3"x22"
- 2 white circles each 13" in diameter (with a 6.75" circle cut out of the center)

The easiest way I found to get the opening centered was to fold the red and white circles into quarters and line up the corner and trace the red circle's outer line onto the white and then cut.

After you have your 2 white circles, sew around the outside rim, flip right side out and baste (use a longer, gathering stitch) both layers around the inner circle.

Sit the brim aside and then sew the red and white strips together, alternating colors (red, white, red, white, red). Then I topstitched along the edge of each color (for 3 reasons . . . it give the hat more stability to stand up and hold its form, it looks more professional, and it keeps the seams on the inside laying nice and flat) But topstitching is totally optional.

Then you'll want to baste along the edge of the red strips on the ends.

Next, fold the stripes in half, matching up the colors and sew along the edge, making a tube.

Now to add the top to the hat tube. Pin the red circle to the right side of the opening in the hat tube and sew. I poked myself several dozen times in this step trying to sew, but since it's a circle, you should pin it a lot to keep the curve going nicely. (this is why we basted the red stripe, so you can pull the gathering string to adjust the edges to match up - you may need to baste around the red circle's edge as well - but I didn't need to. After sewing, turn right side out. See how nice that looks!

Now, we just need to sew the brim to the hat tube...using the same manner as the top, pin the brim to the hat tube at the bottom (right sides together) and then sew. This is why we basted the red stripe and the inside of the white brim - in case one piece is larger than the other, you can pull the gathering stitches to make them match up while pinning.

After the hat was all together, I also top stitched around the bottom red stripe and the white brim where the hat tube meets the brim. I haven't top stitched around the outside of the brim yet...still deciding if I want a stiffer brim or a floppier one.

This is a little big on my 2 1/2 year old, and it's too small for my head, but it sits on his head just fine

It's only a problem when he pulls it down over his head and then freaks out cause he can't get it back up. If that's a worry for you, just make the circle you cut out of the center of the white brim smaller than 6.75"

Burp Cloths

2011-02-11T08:02:00.000-08:00

I wanted to try making these burp cloths when my daughter was born, but now she's not "burp cloth" age, so I made these for a friend. I took some "pre-fold" cloth diapers and sewed a strip of flannel to the front to make it cuter.

I just measured the size for the strip of fabric and added a little for folding the edge under, like so...

Then sew into place. I opted for a decorative stitch that looked just like baseball stitching. If you are using dark thread, it will show on the back, so make sure your stitch looks nice from the back too. Some look messy on the back side, so I would suggest to test it on a scrap of fabric first.

I didn't get a picture, but I made a receiving blanket out of the same fabric as well - with rounded corners and the same decorative stitch around the edges. The blanket was made the same as this one...

Baseball Banner

2011-02-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

I made this banner for a friend's baby shower. She's decorating his room in sports theme, so I thought it would be a great decoration for the baby shower and his room. I decided to make it out of fabric instead of paper so that it would have a longer life.

Here's what I did:

The white fabric was canvas and the blue was a soft type of denim - I wanted it to have some stability and I wouldn't have gotten that with standard cotton
I traced a bowl to get the circle shape, and then slid the bowl to each side to trace the line where I wanted the red stitches to go
I used embroidery floss to hand stitch the baseball lines
I used wonder under to applique the letters and stars and top stitched around the edge of the letters
Each baseball and pennant has a back side that I top stitched to the front to hide the stitching on the back of it
Before I sewed the backs to the fronts, I pinned the twine in place and then sewed through it when I stitched the backs and fronts together.

It was fun to make this, I may end up making another one to match my son's room. I love how it turned out.

Heart Garland and Pillow Wrap

2011-02-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

I decided I wanted a heart garland a couple weeks ago, so I dug through my felt stash and cut out a ton of little hearts. I'm sure I cut out more than I used but my kids kept running away with them as I cut them, so I'm still finding more scattered around the house as the days go by.

After making the subway art pillow, I felt I needed something else on my other pillows.

I also made a wrap for my couch pillow. My couch pillows are black, so I figured it was a good background to go with a wrap of hearts. I will probably unstitch them and sew them onto a ribbon for next year though. Right now, they are just tied together with the ends of the thread but it won't stay tight, so I'll probably sew them to a ribbon to be able to keep it tied on. But I just did a fun decorative stitch as I fed the hearts through the sewing machine - which will make it trickier to pick out later :)

Scarves

2011-01-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

I made 5 scarves for family members this past Christmas. Oddly, all the tutorials came from one person...Susan at Living with Punks. I made 2 of the Mama Ruffle Scarves, one for my mom and one for my mother-in-law. She also provieds a template for the Chrysi pin flower (I made mine about half the size though). I also made one of these and attached it to a hair clip so I can wear it in my hair or on a headband.

I haven't really worked with knit fabric much, so this was kinda fun to try it out on these scarves. They are really easy to make, but for some reason they took me a loooooong time. I think I'm too picky with trying to get the ruffles evenly spaced and perfectly lined up along the edge of the scarf.

I also made 3 of the Lil' Dude Scarves. 2 for my nieces (I didn't take a picture of the fully finished scarves for some reason), and one for my father-in-law. I opted not to add the pocket on the inside - just for sanity sake since I was making 3 and only had one nap time to do it in. I also sewed my giant button hole/zig-zag stitch BEFORE I cut the opening. I've tried the way in the tutorial where you cut the slit first and do a tight zig-zag stitch around the edge, but I could never get it to look clean and pretty. So I sewed the lines first and then clipped between them.

Since the tutorial and dimensions were meant for kids, I had to get longer fabric and add an extra strip to the bottom for my father-in-law's scarf (finished, it was about 60" long instead of the 45" for the children's one). My husband modeled it for me since I had to test the length on him to make sure it looked okay on an adult.

I think I've made him watch one too many seasons of "America's Next Top Model" since he was trying to "smize"...smile with your eyes. Sorry Honey, I don't think Tyra would call that a smize :)

Words of Love

2011-01-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

I knew this was going on my to do list when I saw it. It's kindof addicting to make these. I had some standard red yarn and some fuzzy pink yarn on hand, so I decided to make 2 of them. I can't decide which one I like better. Last night, I liked the red one best, but this morning while I was taking pictures of them, the pink switched to my favorite.

I don't really like them next to eachother - I think that's why I don't like the red as much today...it's overshadowed by the pink one, so I will definately put them in separate rooms/areas so I can enjoy both instead of comparing them.

She had some wire from a hardware store, but I used floral wire.

Valentine's Pillow

2011-01-26T07:00:00.001-08:00

I was on One Pretty Thing last week, browsing through the Valentine's Roundup posts and came across this idea at Dittle Dattle. I pretty much stopped what I was doing and made it right then and there. And the awesome thing is she made the design into an SVG file (here) that you can import into your Cricut if you have the SCAL software. I don't know if you can use it other ways, but this worked for me and I was so happy that I didn't have to try and replicate it - all the hard work is done!!

I didn't have silver fabric paint, so I used black - and I like how it turned out. I'm not a fan of the bow, but it looked like it was missing something if I just did a band of the ribbon. I may have to coax my mom to use her machine and embroider "love" on a ribbon for me like the example did. But until then, I just keep fixing the bow since my husband thinks a pretty pillow is one to lean on - silly man. Pretty pillows aren't for touching. I thought my kids would be the ones destroying the bow, but I was wrong.

I didn't want to have to store a whole pillow in my valentine's box for the rest of the year, so I just made a removable pillow cover for one of my everyday couch pillows. That way, I only have to store the cover - much easier! I have always referred to this tutorial when making a removable pillow cover. They are super simple to make, but it helped getting dimensions from someone.

Valentine's Wreath

2011-01-25T09:04:00.000-08:00

These type of wreaths are everywhere in blogland. I initially saw it last year in January/February, but I can't remember where I saw it. Now they are all over the place... I wanted to make this heart one last year, but for some reason, I didn't. So I made it this year. It's made out of felt circles and then folded into quarters and pinned to the foam wreath form.

I made a pink circle wreath in the same manner last year for spring time...

And then I made one out of felt stars for 4th of July last year (definately my favorite so far)...

Valentine's Blocks

2011-01-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

I knew I was going to make these the second I saw them. Pretty much anything from Brown Paper Packages makes it to my "to-do-list"

I had left over 4x4 posts from the Seasonal Word Blocks, and didn't know what I was going to do with them...

I LOVE them!!!

Another plastic bag holder

2011-01-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

I finally made something for myself!!

I made another bag holder. After sewing the strips together, I felt like it needed something...so I topstitched along the edge of each strip. I love how it turned out.

Little flower hair clips

2011-01-19T11:26:00.000-08:00

I'm not a huge fan of the gigantic flower on my baby's head. So I like when I find a tutorial or idea for a smaller flower or bow that I can make for a hair clip for her little head. Right now, she doesn't have hair, so I just clip them onto a headband.

And, she's taking her morning nap now, so she can't model them.

I found the pattern here; it's suggested as a shoe clip, but I made mine into hair clips. I glued those mini snappy clips to the back - perfect size so it doesn't show behind the leaf.

Curtains

2011-01-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

I think I've said I'll never make curtains again...

But I guess I lied. We finished painting the last room in the house (we've only lived in the house for a year . . . so that's not slow at all, right?). And after the walls and window sill were painted, The old blinds looked beat up and ugly. So I ripped them out (actually my husband did) and used the last of my JoAnns gift card from Christmas on some fabric and the curtain rod. The fabric was 30% off and the rod was already 60% off, but I came armed with a 20% off entire purchase (including sale items) from Michael's that they honored. So I was sad to use up of my gift card, but I'm loving my curtains. Actually, I have $1.47 left, so maybe I can buy a button or a candy bar :)

This window is right next to the front door, so we needed something pretty. This said it was "silk" but I think I remember seeing 100% polyester on the label, so I think it's impostor silk - oh well, I love it. It's a charcoal gray so that looks nice next to the black computer desk.

It's tricky to iron and sew sheer fabric to silky fabric - it will not stay put. I guess it would if I pinned it, but I'm lazy and like to get frustrated, I guess. ( I used sheer on the back side to add a little more bulk and keep out a little more light.)

Winter Snowflake Lamp

2011-01-17T16:27:00.000-08:00

I love when I find a project that I can make right then and there. I found this idea on Crap I've Made and realized I had the exact same lamp sitting in the garage. I bought it a few years ago at Ikea but never really liked it - it just seemed too plain.

So this was a great project to spruce it up. And if I ever change my mind and want it plain again, I can just peel off the vinyl.

Keep CLAM and Carry On canvas

2011-01-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

I did a new spin off of the ever so popular "keep calm and carry on" poster. My dad lives at the ocean and goes Clam digging often, so this was a fun gift to give him. I wanted to just do a clam sillhouette, but you couldn't tell what it was without the lines drawn on the clam shell. So that part I printed off and then cut out.

Cookie Package

2011-01-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

My dad LOVES butterscotch cookies, so I made some for him for Christmas. But I wanted a neat way to package them and then ran across this idea at Creative Itch. I didn't have any of the clear plastic to use as the window, but I have tons of vellum . . . use what you have, right?

I did make a test box first using the dimensions in the tutorial, but my cookies weren't as tall and there was a lot of empty space. So I cropped the dimensions so it wasn't as big around and so it would fit my cookies better. Then I cut out the oval and word "cookies" on the cricut and glued it to the box and added ribbon.

Burlap Stars

2011-01-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

I saw this idea on Someday Crafts several months ago and knew it was perfect for my mom for a Christmas present.

I mod podged the burlap onto some metal star shapes and used about 50+ clothespins to keep the burplap in place around the edges while it dried. I wish I had been able to find different sized stars so there was one big and one little, but I think they still look great.

I hope she re-ties the bows cause I'm horrible at them and she is a bow-pro!

Project Fail...don't spray paint styrofoam

2011-01-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make a wreath for Christmas and spent a long time getting it ready . . . then I ruined it. I spent forever gluing the styrofoam balls to a wreath form. I wanted red, but only had yellow on hand, so I went at it thinking I would spray paint it red - awesome idea right? Nope - here's what it looked like yellow . . . (just image that as red and hanging with a pretty ribbon and some felt/fabric flower embelishments.)

And here's what happend when I spray painted it. . .

Spray paint melts styrofoam!!! It didn't melt the wreath form, but it was a different kind of styrofoam. Next time, I'll spray paint the wreath form red, and then use red styrofoam balls.

Some Winter Decorating

2011-01-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to decorate for Valentine's Day, but I decided to do a little Winter for a couple weeks. I realized that my table needed nice, pretty placemats. I only have yellow and red that aren't holiday ones. So neither of those colors worked for Winter. I decided that since I have a black table, white placemats would look crisp and go with the rest of the decor for winter. And luckily, my mom had thrifted some of her fabric stash to me and one of those was white canvas. I'll probably regret having white placemats, but hey, I can bleach them and if they get stained, I didn't lose any money since it was free fabric.

I used 2 pieces of 19"x13" (finished size was 18"x12" since my seam allowance was 1/4 inch). Then turned them right side out and ironed them. And I topstitched 3 rows around the outside edge. I love how they turned out. The are kindof plain, but I may try to embelish them later.

I also had this hurricane vase on the table for Christmas with green, red, white, and silver little ornaments and bells. So I took out the red and green and that left me with a wintry mix.

My mom also gave me a couple packages of these giant foam snowflakes (I've seen similar ones if not these same ones at the dollar store if anyone wanted to know where to find them). So I took a needle and thread and stitched them to the edge of the curtain. I have 5 hanging in the window in the dining room. No matter how many times of day or how many angles I used, I couldn't get a great shot of them. They look way cooler in person. I also hung some from the corners of mirrors and the mantle.

And lastly, I dug through my plate stash and found a powder blue one that was perfect for winter. I cut out the words and snowflakes on my cricut and adhered the vinyl to the plate.

freezer paper stenciling

2011-01-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

It's always hard to think of something to do that's crafty for a guy. . . but I was able to come up with a couple freezer paper stencil ideas for my father-in-law and my brother-in-law.

This one was for my father-in-law's 60th birthday . . . I drew an abacus and cut it with my cricut on freezer paper. The orange paint looks quite neon in the picture but I promise it wasn't that bright.

This one I made for my brother-in-law for Christmas. It was tricky to draw a cassette tape and then try and make it not flat and boring. I'm impatient, so instead of waiting for the paint to dry so I could do the next color, I used my blow dryer to speed up the dry time (worked great!!)

Add a word to the list!!

2011-01-04T16:32:00.000-08:00

So, remember the seasonal word blocks that I made back in September . . . the 7 block set that spelt out 16 different sayings to use throughout the year? Well, make that 17 now!

I found out they also spell "Be Mine" for Valentine's Day - thanks Courtney!! The previous list didn't have a word for that time of the year.

Here's the new list:

Welcome
Friends
Easter
Dream
Harvest
Faith
Mother
Monster
Spooky
Family
Freedom
Winter
Hope
Home
Snow
Blessed
Be Mine

Name Bean Bags

2011-01-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

My daughter and 2 of my nephews were all born within about a 3 week time period of eachother, so that means 3 birthday presents to figure out all at the same time. I made these for my son a while back, and thought it would be fun for the 1 year olds.

With my son's, I had upper case on one side and lower case on the other, but since I was doing 18 bean bags at once, I opted for just one side with a letter on it. (Didn't want to get burnt out since the birthdays are only a few weeks before Christmas time as well).

And a fun part was that my 2 year old son was able to help fill them up with the beans. He love that part!

They are about a 5 inches square, and I used my cricut to cut the letters out on freezer paper to be able to paint them on. The hardest part for me was picking out the order for the fabric to go in. And as you can see, 4 of the 6 letters in my daughters name are "E," so I guess it didn't really matter what order I tried to put the colors in since they will get mixed up anyway.

This is a great way to use up fabric scraps - and all the beans in your pantry!

Plastic Bag Holder

2011-01-03T11:09:00.000-08:00

One of the homemade Christmas presents I made for family was a plastic bag holder for my mother-in-law. The paisley fabric just screamed her name - and I knew she needed one of these.

The tutorial I used was from Make it and Love it. It was really easy to make and turned out perfect!

Angry Birds Part 2 and 3

2010-12-17T16:06:00.000-08:00

Obsessively Stitching posted the tutorial and patterns for the green pig and the blue bird. Here's my blue bird. . .

I didn't have any green fleece, so I opted to make my own pattern/design for the black bomb bird. I think he turned out good. Though I may end up moving the black dot in the middle of his eyes, he looks more surprised than angry. The black bird is bigger than the red one in the game, so hopefully I made him bigger. (The red one is wrapped up for Christmas already so I can't compare it.)

Here's the red one I made a while back.

2x4 Snowman

2010-12-17T11:33:00.000-08:00

My new favorite blog is Under My Umbrella. My "to-do" craft list pretty much doubled. :)

Once I saw this 2x4 snowman, I knew it was destined to make it to the top of my list. I don't have MDF for the hats like she used in the tutorial, but I have an awesome friend from church who gave me their leftover scrap wood. So I was able to make the hats out of 2x2's and other scrap pieces. I had the same polka dot paper she used for the hat, so that was cool.

I had enough 2x4's to make 2 of them, but then I realized I could cut them in half (so they weren't as deep) and end up with 4. Now the tough part is deciding which one I want to keep and who to give the other 3 to.

But 4 sets of snowmen means lots of blocks to sand and paint. And when you have a 2 year-old, they aren't snowmen . . . they're blocks for a wall or tower to build and destroy.

Knee High Socks turned Arm Warmers

2010-12-13T08:15:00.000-08:00

My hands are always cold, and these have been great while driving or just wearing around the house. I've seen this idea floating around for the last couple years, but I did it a little different than I've seen them so far. It's hard to take a picture of your own arm :)

I took an old pair of knee high socks that I've had for about 12-13 years - they got too tight after highschool/college but I couldn't part with them. And I made this pair right before Halloween, so the colors went great for my wardrobe choice. I cut off the foot part like so . . .

Most examples I've seen have the finished stretchy top of the sock as the part by your elbow, but I made that the part on my hand and used the unfinished edge as the upper arm side - much more forgiving of non-skinny arms :)

I also made a "button hole" of sorts as the thumb hole - this was tricky, and I swore I'd never do it again, but I just made 3 more sets today :). I did two lines of tight zigzag stitches where I wanted the thumb and then a wider stitch to keep the ends together. It's tricky sewing in a small sock opening. (you could try an actual button hole on a scrap, but my machine wouldn't make it big enough and the sock kept stretching and it didn't work that way for me.

The ones I made today had a little something extra on them. I had plain knee high socks and felt they needed a bit more to them, so I cut up the foot part (cut off the heel and the toe pieces) and sewed them to the alternating sock (grey went to black and black went to grey) as a cuff. Here is a picture of how I cut them.

To get the rolled edge look, stretch the edge of the sock like my little helper is and then roll it down a little.

Here they are with the new cuff (that went by the elbow.)

Different way to display the Seasonal Blocks

2010-12-10T15:07:00.000-08:00

Back in September, I made a set of the Seasonal Word Blocks. There are 16 different words to spell with the 7 block set, and the Christmas ones are "snow" or "winter." But I went to someone's house who had them stacked vertically to spell "snow," and it looked adorable.

But her's were different colors of letters and paint, and mine didn't look so festive like her's did. So I added ribbon (which also helped cover up the side letters). I think mine would look more Christmas-y if the letters where white, oh well.

Turning ONE (with cupcake template download)

2010-12-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

My daughter turned ONE last week. And on the day of her party, I woke up at 3:30 in the morning with the realization that I hadn't made her a special birthday shirt to wear at her party!!!!! Any prepared crafty momma would have already done this - but I guess I like to wait till the last minute. So here's what I came up with in the wee hours of the morning.

I used wonder under to adhere the appliques to the shirt and added a pink button as the "cherry" on the cupcake. Doesn't she look adorable? I also had previously made the korker bow and headband - which matched perfectly!

My birthday wish for her was some hair - I wonder what she wished for?

I drew the cupcake myself, so if anyone wants the template, download it here! I used the same template as I did for her denim picture book . . .

Angry Birds Plush

2010-12-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

My husband LOVES Angry Birds (played on his phone)...and to be honest, I love it too. I'm almost as far as him in the levels. And this game is one of my 2 year old's favorite ones to play when I need to keep him quiet - like in the doctor office yesterday. Basically, you slingshot the birds to destroy structures and the pigs (who stole the bird's eggs - that's why they're angry).

After seeing this idea on Obsessively Stitching a few days ago, I knew I needed to make one for my husband for Christmas. She's working on patterns for the other variations of birds and pigs as well, so I'm looking forward to those!

It was really easy to make. My only struggle was sewing on the beak - I had a hard time getting the needle in and out. If I make more, I might try sewing on the beak before stuffing the ball part - but then it might get distorted if I do it that way, but it's worth a try since I just couldn't get it to work good. I love how it turned out though.

Super Hero Cape

2010-12-08T10:35:00.000-08:00

My son doesn't check my blog - so it's safe to post his Christmas presents on here. But I'm getting antsy for Christmas to be over so that I can show you all what I've been making. Everyone else checks my blog, so it's not safe till Christmas is over.

I started this cape about 9-10 months ago (made the pattern and cut out the fabric). And then I finally got around to sewing it in the last month or so. I just wasn't excited to sew on the plasticy pleather fabric. I tinkered with different designs - starting out with a bunch of papers taped together to get the length and width and then made about a dozen different designs for the neck/closure section before I got something I liked and that fit him good. It has a velcro closure at the neck and the length just brushes the ground - I figured it was a good length to start with so that it would grow with him and last longer.

Then I found a mask template online- and knew that needed to be an addition to the outfit. I can't remember where I found the template, but I just google'd "superhero mask pattern" and looked through the options till I found one I liked. This was my second attempt. The first one was a horrible mess - I don't have a teflon foot for my machine and the stitching was horrible and the fabric stuck to the foot and wouldn't move. Then I remembered reading a blog that suggested using baby powder on vinyl to help the sewing process. I figured if it works on vinyl, it should work on this. And it DID! It's just really messy and I had to wait till the kiddos were asleep to do this.

I backed the mask in black felt since that gave it more stability - but after my first horrible mask, I realized it was better not to cut out the black felt in the mask shape before sewing it. The red pleather stretched and it was better to cut after it was top stitched.

Christmas Soap Dispenser

2010-12-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

Once I saw this idea on Brown Paper Packages a while back, I knew it was going on my ever growing "to-do list"

Christmas Hair Clips

2010-12-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

I made a few Christmas hair clips a few weeks back . . .

Korker Bow - a great tutorial found on Pink Tea

Candy Cane - I drew and cut out a candy cane from red felt and then used embroidery floss to add the white stripes. Then I used red thread to stitch a 2nd red felt candy cane around the edges to the back to give some stability. And then I glued it to an alligator clip I had covered in ribbon.

Toddler Friendly Christmas Advent

2010-11-30T10:20:00.000-08:00

I'm nervous to let my 2 year old have access to the advent calendar I made him last year - since it's not indestructible. So, I went searching for an advent that he could participate in. And I found this one. It's the paper chain idea - but out of fabric/velcro so that you can reuse it from year to year.

I had a hard time finding Christmas fabrics that had small enough print and matched eachother (but I did buy them in September to make as a possible Super Saturday project - so there was less of a selection then). Surprisingly, I don't have pinking shears, so I had to borrow my Grandma's. This was an easy craft to make, but very time consuming - measuring, cutting, ironing the pieces together . . .but the worst was sewing all the velcro on. 24 strips of fabric means 2 pieces of velcro per strip = 48 little squares to sew on.

But my son loves it. He un-velcros them and then connects them as a long string instead of loops.

A Late Turkey

2010-11-29T09:07:00.000-08:00

. . . but I DID have him made in time for Thanksgiving - just not posted on the blog.

I've seen this idea from Craft Goodies posted on tons of blogs, but in case you missed it, you can find the tutorial here. I didn't notice until I was writing this post that the example has the turkey feathers a lot shorter - thus avoiding the large spacing between the feathers - So I think if I made this again, I would shorten the sticks so that they wouldn't show a large gap next time.

I don't know about anyone else, but sometimes I find great crafts for a holiday after the holiday is past. So I don't forget about it, I make it and put it straight into the box. It makes the holiday next year fun to pull out new decorations I didn't use last year and had forgotten I made.

The fun part was that I already had everything - a scrap piece of 2x4, a paint stick, and the giant popsicle sticks (if you buy the Provo Craft vinyl for your Cricut, it comes with a stick to rub the vinyl on - just save those and you'll have a ton of sticks to use on projects!)

Mirror Coat Hook

2010-11-17T10:17:00.000-08:00

I've wanted one of these for a while, but they were always so expensive. And then I realized I can make it! I didn't have to spend the huge money when I already had the supplies. I made this about 4 months ago but forgot I hadn't posted it yet.

It was hard to get a picture of the shelf, but there is a shelf between the mirror and the board with the hooks.

I had a nice hanging mirror that went over a door, but i didn't need it anymore since my closet doors are mirrors. And we had scrap wood from working on remodeling the house to use as the shelf and hook board.

The only thing I had to buy was coat hooks. But those are expensive at Lowes or Home Depot. So I looked around for a while and found them at WalMart.

We painted and screwed the 2 boards together, then added the coat hooks. The shelf/hook boards are actually not connected to the mirror. We didn't want so much weight on the mirror when the coats are hung up . . . just in case it pulled it down and broke the mirror. So they are attached to the wall seperately to make them a bit more stable.

But that made it tricky to try and hide the screws on the hook board. So my husband came up with the idea of screwing it to the wall first, then adding the coat hooks - and have the hooks cover the screws. It worked great!

Turkey Placemat

2010-11-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

I've been on a felt kick lately. . . hair clips galore, turkeys, and some more I don't remember right now. When I saw this idea last week on Punkin Patterns, I knew it would be my next project (even though I have at least a dozen projects I'm already in the middle of. But what crafter isn't in the middle of several projects at the same time?

Anyway, I made this for my son since he's enjoying turkey's lately. My hope is to make at least one more for my daughter, but I would love to have 3 so that the kids can use them at Thanksgiving this year. I just need to dig through my felt drawer to find more brown felt.

Thankful Jar - Thanksgiving Countdown

2010-11-15T08:46:00.000-08:00

I saw this idea last year on Somewhat Simple. And we made these at this year's Super Saturday (a craft day at chuch).

I altered the word strips a bit for my family. Some wouldn't work due to my children's age, and then I also added some more - but the link above has the original word strips so you don't have to think of 28 or so on your own. My kids are still too young for this, but I'm hoping next year might be easier to get them to understand a little about giving thanks.

The letters on the jar were cut on my Cricut, and I used the "pharmacy" font.

We found these jars at the dollar store, but there are twist lid jars at Walmart that would look good for this too. Once all the white strips of paper were in there, it seemed a bit bland, so I cut up some different shades of brown cardstock and folded them up to add a little color (and fill some space).

Turkey Hair Clip

2010-11-12T12:09:00.000-08:00

I found this idea on Nancy's Couture - featured on several different blogs already. So chances are, you've already seen this project.

I was making mine for an infant, so I wanted it smaller. I cut my ribbons shorter to 2" and still ended up cutting more off when I got them positioned on the turkey body. My turkey body measured 1.25" instead of the 2" in the tutorial. Plus, I wanted it to not overwhelm her head - especially since she has no hair to add cuteness to. So the clip would be the only focus on her bald little head.

And changing the headband changes the look altogether. I think I like the yellow or brown headband the best. The white just makes it seem a bit plain and boring. But the ruffle or lace gives it a girly touch.

Since my turkey is smaller, I didn't have small enough googly eyes to use . . . so I had to paint the eyes on.