Crafty Ornament Exchange

Another year, another ornament exchange on my craft message board.  I couldn't decide what to make (too many choices thanks to Pinterest), so I fell back on an old favorite.  I love the way they turned out.

I even loved the gift tag I made using card stock and my Sizzix embosser.

Crafty Christmas Ornament Exchange

I was excited to be a part of my Craft message board's ornament exchange again this year.  Using the leftover felt and instructions from the wool candle mat that I made, I was able to whip up these cute snowmen ornaments.  I love, love, love the way they turned out!

Storytelling Dice

I've seen many versions of storytelling games online. We even have a few storytelling card games of our own. Still, I couldn't resist making these dice for the kids.

The wooden blocks (they are 3/4 inch squares) came in a 6 pack at Micheals. I'm not certain on the exact price, but I do know the were under $2. Using a black Sharpie, I drew characters on one die, setting on another, and objects on the third.

I'm not an artist, so I tried to keep the pictures simple. I knew my kids would enjoy these, but I was surprised by how long it held their attention.

Super fun, easy, quick and inexpensive - everything I love in a project!

Linking up to some of these great parties!

Decorate Your Own Superhero Cape Tutorial

For Chaos's 4th birthday, instead of a big party, we invited his two closest friends over for a "Superhero Playdate." One of the activities I had planned was to decorate their own superhero capes. These were super easy and inexpensive to make and the boys (and my girls too!) loved them. I thought I would share how I made them.


The first thing I needed was felt. I found that the felt by the yard at both Joanns and Hobby Lobby were too expensive for what I had in mind. As luck would have it, I stumbled upon these prepackaged felt yards at Michaels.

The brand is Creatology and each package contains one 36in x 36in square of felt. They had about a half dozen color options at my local store. The regular price was $3.99, but I went back with my 40% coupon several times during the week to get them for less. I was able to make 2 capes from each package.

The first thing I did was fold the felt in half, then in half again. By doing this, I was able to cut out both capes at once.

I drew a basic half-cape shape freehand. My cape is roughly 32 inches long which was a good size for both the 4 year olds at the playdate and Pinky (who is the tallest of the bunch at 49 inches).

Once you cut out and unfold your capes you will be left with this:


I needed a way to keep the capes attached and really didn't want to sew on velcro. I had some sticky back velcro dots and thought I would give them a try.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that they worked! I gave them a few tugs to make sure they wouldn't fall off, and while I don't expect them to last forever, they were perfect for the playdate. If you plan to use the cape for awhile I would definitely suggest adding a few stitches to secure your velcro.


To decorate the capes I cut out shapes from various colors of felt. I loved the adhesive backed felt, but could not find it in all the colors I wanted so I had to use regular felt as well. The craft felt was less expensive at 20 cents a sheet compared to 99 cents for the adhesive backed. However the adhesive felt was easier for the kids to use (we used tacky glue for the shapes cut from regular craft felt).

My superhero shapes were pretty random - various sizes of circles, stars, lightning bolts, flames and a crown.


On the day of the party I set out the capes, decorations and some tacky glue. The boys had a great time creating their own superhero identities.

While the glue and adhesive felt worked fine for the playdate (and are still holding up almost 2 weeks later) you will definitely want to either sew these on or use an iron on adhesive if you want the cape to last longer.


Once their capes were done these superheroes were ready to save the world!

Be sure to check back next week when I share more details from our Superhero Playdate!

Linking up to some of these great parties!

Homemade Journals

Recently we took the whole family to Disney World (seriously SO much fun!!). Before we left I put together a few things for the kids to enjoy on the drive to Florida. I decided to put my favorite Christmas gift, a Bind-It-Allto use for the first time to make some Disney(ish) themed journals for the three oldest kids.

The covers are made with chipboard and the inside is 50 blank white pages (except Wild One's which mixed in some colored cardstock and sticker pages).

The first journal I made was for Wild One - just a trial run of using my Bind it All for the first time. I made it using some really old Disney themed paper and stickers that I bought on my honeymoon!

Pinky is currently obsessed with Star Wars and really wanted me to use the paper she had found at our local scrapbook store (she loves to shop there with me).

This is the front cover.


The paper had a shine to it that doesn't show up well in pictures.


Pinky loved that Yoda was inside the book. Many, many, many drawings of Star Wars characters were drawn in this book during our trip.

Chaos is in love with Cars so I knew I had to buy this paper when I found it. It made such a cute cover for his journal though it was tricky to get it lined up *just* right so the cars he loved the most were showing.


My favorite part is the back inside cover "1st to the finish!"


With the leftover cover paper I made some homemade stickers using my Xyron sticker machine.


After I the fun I had making these for my kids, I made a couple for some friends. They planned to use them as their autograph books at Disney World. Here are some pictures:

A classic Mickey themed book:

I printed the banner using a free Walt Disney World font (the mouse ears are an included character).


I loved that the inside was autographs from the classic characters - perfect for an autograph book!


And the back cover. Mickey looks so happy, which is exactly how I felt at Disney.

An autograph book for a princess loving little girl:

The awesome glitter castle came from All About Glitter on etsy. Great service and really cute die cuts!


The inside paper is embossed with flowers.


And Pascal playing hide and seek on the back cover.

I also made a few mini versions of these journals (these measure 6x6 and the minis were 4x4) and packaged them with stickers and crayons as a gift, but I forgot to snap a picture before I sent them.

I had so much fun making these and can't wait to make some more! Off to find more things to bind!

Linking up to some of these great parties!

Happy New Year!

As I sat here tonight, it occurred to me that this is the first time in 4 years that I haven't posted my "Year of Crafting" list on New Years Day. It's partly because my life since Sprout was born has been so darn busy and partly because I feel like Pinterest has taken away my need to make long lists! I much prefer the visual element anyway.

However, I do need to update my sidebar with the last of my completed craft projects for 2011. I'll admit, I didn't accomplish anywhere near what I set out to do. I did try some new things though and hope that the coming year will bring me more time to craft and more time to post about the fun stuff my kids and I have been up to.

Enough rambling though. Here is my final finished project for 2011 - a wool penny rug that I gave to my mom as a Christmas gift.



I bought the kit (pattern and wool felt) from One of the Flock on etsy. Can I rave about her customer service for a minute? I totally messed up right off the bat - totally my fault for trying to take a short cut - and ruined the white felt. I contacted her about buying a replacement and she told me not to worry about it. She had a replacement piece in the mail the next day, free of charge. How cool is that?



The pattern was easy to follow and I have to say that it came together much faster than I expected. I worked on it in short bursts and was finished in about 3 or 4 days. With dedicated time you could easily finish this in one day.



What surprised me the most is how much I really enjoyed the embroidery work. I had never tied a french knot before or really used any stitch other than a blanket stitch. I had fun learning some new stitches and hope to do some more embroidery work this coming year.

I want to wish all of you a wonderful, blessed New Year. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for taking the time to stop by my blog. I look forward to another fun year!

Crafty Christmas Ornament Exchange

For the second year in a row I participated in a crafty ornament exchange on a message board that I frequent.

Here's the adorable ornament that I received. His body is made of a light bulb!


This is the ornament that I sent to my secret draw:

It's a felt ornament that I embroidered and jeweled. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Next time I'll add colored crystals though instead of clear. I think that would make it pop a bit more. The tutorial is from here at BHG.

Christmas Canvases

As part of our month long celebration, I've created a list of fun things to do each day during the month of December (the full list will be at the end of this post). Today's activity was to create some Christmas decor for the house.



I've been stalking cute Christmas pictures on Pinterest for awhile. I decided to try three different pictures - thumbprint Christmas lights, handprint Christmas tree, and footprint reindeer. We used washable paint (for my sanity) on canvas panels.


This one is my favorite I think. I love the bright colors of the lights.


Pinky insisted she did not want to have a red nose (the original picture had all of the reindeer with red noses) because Rudolph was a boy. We settled on Chaos having a red nose with all the girls sporting black noses and a bow in their antlers like Clarice.


I almost couldn't convince Wild One to let me paint her hand (hers is the lone handprint at the top of the tree), but once she tried it she wanted to paint her whole body! I still want to add a star at the top of the tree, but I love it even without it.



These turned out SO much cuter than I had expected. My original idea was to display them for awhile and then toss them, but now I'm thinking of framing them instead. I think these would make great gifts for Grandparents or, scaled down, cute ornaments too (I've seen a version of the reindeer made from thumbprints floating around Pinterest).

And as promised, here's our full list of December fun activities. I tried to keep things simple with lots of crafts and ornament making because that's what the kids enjoy most!

1. Watch a Christmas movie
2. Make Christmas decor for the house
3. Put up the Christmas tree
4. Make a Christmas craft
5. Make snowflakes
6. Make Christmas cards
7. Make and ornament for the kids' trees
8. Drink hot cocoa
9. Play with snow playdough
10. Make an ornament for the kids' trees
11. Bake cookies
12. Make an ornament for the family tree
13. Do a Christmas craft
14. Make an ornament for the kids' trees
15. Play a Christmas game
16. Winter sensory bin
17. Make salt dough ornaments
18. Make an (edible) Christmas craft
19. Do a Christmas craft
20. Make a snowman
21. Make an ornament for the kids' trees
22. Do a Christmas craft
23. Go sledding (hopefully there will be snow!)
24. Drive around and look at lights (this is a tradition we do every year after church)

Linking up to some of these great parties

A Blanket for Rapunzel

Rapunzel being Pinky's American Girl doll, not an actual Rapunzel doll.

Now that we have that cleared up, I thought I'd share the first of what I hope will be a series of crafts for Pinky's American Girl doll. Since being gifted an AG doll earlier this year (by none other than Grandma!), Pinky has loved finding accessories for her. I don't know if you've ever shopped for AG clothes and accessories, but they are pricey. After spending a little (okay a lot) of time on Pinterest searching for DIY crafts, I decided to put together some handmade clothes and furniture as a Christmas gift for Pinky. This blanket is the first project.

It started with some leftover owl fleece (and the idea of building this bed from Ana White). I cut the fleece into 2 roughly 22 inch squares and cut a 3 inch square from each corner. If you need more detailed instructions for making tie fleece blankets, this link does a good job of describing it.

Normally when I make these blankets I use two different types of fleece. Since I was working with scraps (what I hope to do with all the projects in order to make them low cost) I didn't have that option. Still I really like the way it turned out.

Rapunzel seems to like it too, don't you think?



Linking up to some of these great parties

A Birthday Gift for Dad

The kids made a really sweet, simple homemade gift for Daddy this year (the idea for this craft came from this post on I Heart Crafty Things).  I started by having each of them fingerpaint 4 popsicle sticks.  Wild One had a blast with this (once we convinced her that the sticks were not a utensil for eating the paint).  When they were dry, we glued them together to form a square.  Next I cut a piece of watercolor paper to fit the opening (I love the sturdiness of the watercolor paper - you could use any type of paper that you have on hand).  The kids each drew a picture and we glued it inside the frame.  We added a little twine so that these could be hung in his office. 

Our mini-masterpieces:

Pinky drew her and her Daddy outside, Chaos drew a fence with birds on it, and Wild One just had fun scribbling.