Thanksgiving and Halloween Bunting

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

Mayflower place setting - or toy boat

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 or Thanksgiving Stacker

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

A Late Turkey

. . . 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!)

Turkey Placemat

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

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

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. 

Felt Turkey for Toddlers ...w/ template

In an effort to get my 2 year old to understand different holidays, I figured I would try and introduce the Turkey in a fun way for him.

I cut out turkey pieces in felt - with the idea that he can move the feathers around.  We remodeled our bathroom earlier this year, but I kept the old drawer fronts with a the hopes of using it in a future craft.  So I glued white flannel to the drawer front and lined the edges with ribbon.  I would have used white felt, but my board was too wide for the felt piece (9.5"x11").  I also glued down the body, feet, head and face pieces. (you need a felt or flannel background for the feathers to be able to stick to - unless you want to use velcro).

At first, I kept the feathers plain, but they seemed too plain after looking at it for a couple hours, so I took embroidery floss and hand stitched some feather lines.  I love the way it turned out - though the feathers don't stick as well to the flannel with the stitching now, but they still hold okay.

And here's my son playing with it when he woke up from his nap (evident by his bed head).  And I quickly learned that I was going to need 2 turkeys.  My 11 month old wanted to join in, and my son wasn't having any of that.  So even though she probably won't really use it till next year, I made one for my daughter too.  But to keep the feathers separate and avoid future fights, I made pink and purple feathers for hers.  And luckily, I had two of the same drawer fronts to use.

It took me a while to get the proportions right for the head and feet, so if you want to make one but don't want to draw the pieces yourself . . . DOWNLOAD the template I made HERE!

The fun part is I didn't spend a thing on this project.  I recycled the drawer fronts, and used felt/ribbon scraps I already had.  I LOVE free projects - though my husband likes to point out, it technically isn't free since we bought the items at some point.  But if I already had it in my craft stash, I count that as free!