Getting Control of the Stuffed Animals

My kids love stuffed animals, plus they're fairly cheap at thrift stores and yard sales. The downside is that a love of stuffed animals x 4 kids = one mom driven crazy. There were stuffed animals everywhere, we tried different things to gain control of them, even making them give up several, but little by little more animals entered into the home. A friend recently blogged about her daughter's b-day present, they had made her a cage for all her stuffed animals. I found several ideas on Pinterest, this tutorial was very similar to the one my friend made. I've been trying to use things I already have, so we were going to use wood we already had on hand, but I didn't have bungee cords. We decided to stop into the thrift store first on our way to town for the bungee cords. I found this tri-fold chalk board for $4. With a few modifications this could easily become the cage.  

We cut four pieces of wood, one to brace the back and 3 for the front of the cage. We were trying to figure out the best way to attach the bungee cords when I saw this post where Ana used elastic instead of bungee cords. I have plenty of elastic since I buy it at thrift stores. We cut 4 even pieces of elastic and secured them with big thumb tacks, something I had on hand from another project.

Then we filled the cage with stuffed animals. I'm amazed that my children didn't point out that there's plenty of room to add more animals.

The cost of the entire project was $5 because the wood was free from my Gpa.

Valentines

 I'm not a store bought Valentines kind of girl, nothing wrong with them, but since the kids and I are crafty it makes perfect sense to have homemade Valentines. Sometimes I come up with the idea and other times I lean on the internet for inspiration. 

Last year we made homemade chocolates. I had several chocolate molds that my 10 year wanted to use to make crayons. I knew once they were used for crayons they couldn't be used for edible things again so I figured I better use the molds for chocolate first. I had a ton of chocolate, plastic bags and labels. We made Lego men for the boys and Hearts for the girls.

 This year I wanted to go a non-candy route and use items I already had. I couldn't convince them completely so we went with one non-candy item, these hair clips for the girls in the classes. I had several patterned duct tapes and after making a couple different ones I wasn't loving the heart shape. I decided to make stars instead, which I liked the best on the rainbow duct tape. Since I knew we were going to be making a lot of them I did long strips of the duct tape probably 2ft long. I chose to paint the flat part of the bobby pin, since that's how I insert them into my girls' hair.

 

 We made the cards using blank business cards that I had on hand. Not sure why the one in the pic ended up printing farther down on the card than the other one, but all the rest turned out fine. You can make the font in any color or size or style. We had each child write the girls' names from their class on the blue line.

 

___________________

You’re a Star!!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

From:

We first thought about making super hero capes to go with suckers for the boys in the class, but once we started the project my printer was low on ink. We looked at different options and found this tutorial. We loved the tags, but the boys weren't fans of the mustache so we searched google images for one they liked the best and scaled it down to the size we wanted.

 Happy Valentines Day!!

Cub Scout Neckerchief Slides

If you're a parent of a cub scout you know how many times your scout has misplaced his neckerchief slide. I've been entertaining the idea of having my scouts make a couple of different slides to have on hand and because a scout is thrifty I wanted to use supplies I already had, which I have to admit is a lot. Our Blue & Gold banquet theme is Angry Birds. I came up with the idea of having the whole pack make slides for the upcoming night. I made these three slides as examples for the boys. 

 

There are two main foam layers, the front and the back. There are two holes punched out the back piece for the scouts to put a pipe cleaner through. Once the scouts had their faces made out of different color foam, googly eyes, yarn, and felt, leaders hot glued the back piece to the front. 

To help speed the process along I made a stencil for each character out of old yogurt lids, making it easier for the boys to trace onto foam sheets.

For Valentine's Day I wanted to make my Webelos a fun slide. Lego men doesn't scream Valentine's day, but I know all my scouts love Lego. 

I recalled seeing a pin on Pinterest which led me to this pic below. 

 

 Seemed pretty straight forward, I already owned a Lego men mold, lots of hot glue gun glue and paint. Seemed like a thrifty craft for me to do. The pic didn't show how she attached the Lego man so it could become a slide, but I decided that the pipe cleaner could work for these too. I put the hot glue into the mold and once it was filled I inserted half of a pipe cleaner into each man.

 

I wanted to have fun with the faces so I made a different one for each boy. The scarves are made out of felt that I drew on with markers and then glued to the men.

 

Be mindful that these are pretty time consuming since they require many layers of paints, but they're worth it. I know my scouts are going to love their present.  

Move over Paper Dolls, Hello Cloth Dolls!!

Pinterest will never let me down when I'm ready to do a new project. The kids are back in school and I'm a little bored during the day. I have thought about doing paper dolls in the past, but I know my youngest and she's a Captain Destructo and the dolls and clothing wouldn't last long. I came across this Cloth "Paper Doll" Tutorial. I decided to shrink the templates down by 25%. The finished dolls ended up 7.5" tall. I also did away with their thumbs, since the dolls are smaller I figured it would be easier to sew around a flat hand. I started out with two dolls for my daughters but because they were so easy I made some for my young nieces. 

My girls and I have made 8 dolls so far. After completing this first batch, there are a few things I would change. Next time I'll use a darker felt on the darker dolls along with black Velcro instead of white to hide the stitching. Since I reduced the template size I was able to find 2" Velcro at a local craft store that fit perfectly. The Velcro came on a spool and I was able to get what length I needed and only had to purchase the plastic side instead of both sides.

 Each niece will receive a doll that looks like them, plus two pajamas, two skirts, two pants, two dresses, three tops, and one leotard. Because my nieces are all under four years old I decided not to make shoes, I know their mothers will thank me.

This is a great project, especially if you have a tote full of scraps like I do.

Lego Organization

We were struggling with the overflow of Legos, the constant battle of the Lego brick left on the floor that naturally a shoeless foot would always find. I decided during Christmas break my boys and I would tackle this problem. Before their Lego bricks were held in a 41Qt clear tote.

 

In the Christmas aisle we found these AWESOME ornament totes. They work perfectly for separating Legos. Of course it took many hours over two days to get it completed, but it has been well worth it. My boys are able to find parts for a particular creation a lot easier. The downside, we still have the forgotten Lego brick on the floor. 

Sleeping Bags for American Girl Dolls

I'm trying to build up my girls' accessories for their dolls. Yesterday we made two sleeping bags following this tutorial. I had seen several sleeping bags and pillows, but I really like the all in one combo of this pattern. I won't have to worry about them losing their doll's pillow. We used fleece and flannel. My girls wanted to use the flannel as the outer shell and no appliques. 

Fine by me, less work. hehe.

Halloween Costumes

Last year was epic when it came to Halloween Costumes. This year I didn't go all out because my kids found costumes at the thrift store that they liked. The only costume I needed to make was for my oldest, he wanted to be a medieval Spear man. I found an old curtain that I used for his tunic. The chain mail armor I crocheted with gray yarn. There was no pattern to follow but I did see this pic which gave me inspiration. My hubby made the spear out of an old broom handle, cardboard, and black duct tape. He received many compliments as he tricked or treated.

 Now, my husband's costume was EPIC! 
It scared so many people and its all because of this awesome 39 lb pumpkin. 

This is how it looked at the Trunk or Treat. He had false legs and when people reached into the bowl he'd grabbed their hands.

 

I made the ghosts out of Geo mesh.

Crochet Dresses for American Girl Dolls

I have a TON of yarn, totes filled to the brim! hehe The totes need to be used up. Most of the yarn isn't the fancy kind, just plain Red Heart yarn, but it works perfectly for doll clothes because it holds up well and washes easily. I found this adorable dress pattern for American Girl dolls. My girls wanted a regular dress so I extended the length of the skirt. 

Filet Crochet Name Doily

I wanted to do something special for a family member and I had seen filet crochet name doilies in the past and had thought they were really cool. For some reason I always thought there was no way I can do that, it looks so difficult. Guess what....THEY'RE NOT!!! I found these great instructions and because I'm a visual person I also watched a few videos on YouTube to make sure I understood the instructions. This video was a nice and easy one, though be mindful she uses European terms. I chose this alphabet, but omitted the little dots on the sides of the letters. There are SOOOOO many different alphabets to choose from. I did transfer my letters to graph paper so it would be easier visually to make sure I kept on track.

 I used a #4/2.0MM hook and size 10 crochet thread in white. My one suggestion would be... be mindful of your tension. Because it was the first time I had done filet crocheting I was crocheting rather loosely in the beginning but as I got going I noticed I was tighter in my stitches. For those like me who have the critical eye to their own homemade work I noticed the difference in height of my doily from the beginning compared to the middle and end. Friends said they couldn't tell. 

 

 There are a lot of great edges that can be done too, but I decided to leave this one simple to make sure the letters really pop. After I was done I lightly starched and ironed it. 

Wizard Wands

When you have four kiddos you need crafts that can encourage their imaginary play. My kids love to pretend and my eldest has read all the Harry Potter books. The younger kiddos have watched the first two movies, but are a bit too young for the rest. Of course they all caught the wizard's bug. We came across this great pin. We had all the supplies except for chopsticks. We found at a the local craft store dowels that we're the perfect size and then we shaved  one end to a point with a pencil sharpener. Here's the end results.

The kids still talk about making more, they had a blast making and painting them.

I've been crafting...just not posting. Oops!

There are so many crafts that the kids and I have done over the past three months but I became a complete slacker when it came to posting on here. I'm going to try this week to play catch up to a certain degree and let ya see what we've been busy doing.

An American Girl Fixer-upper

My daughters have discovered American Girl dolls, I was a little taken back with the price. I kept watching Craigslist and Ebay hoping that I might get one for a good buy. To my joy on a local sale site I purchased a Kaya doll and horse for $50. It was in great condition, but my youngest daughter wanted a doll too. By chance I found this gem for $2 at a local thrift store. 

 

Though she looked like she was in rough shape her limbs weren't loose and her body was clean. She did however have bright orange marker marks on her chin, cheek and arm. Her hair was also badly cut, beyond repair. I contacted American Girl and it would have cost me $40 for a new head. I debated, but thought I'd go Googling and see if I could find other options. Two sites came to my rescue. I love this video about getting permanent marker off the doll. 

 

It worked, I probably should do it one more time since the spot on her chin is still faintly there.

The next thing I looked for was wig ideas, I came across this tutorial, how to re-wig a doll. I ordered a wig on Ebay for $12.99. Here's the finished doll.

Cleaning House!

So we recently moved and of course the nice thing about moving is you de-junk more than you would normally. I decided since I've been so busy lately that I needed to de-junk my Pinterest boards, keep what I really would like to do. Pinterest has been acting a little wacky for me lately, my numbers are not adding up for me. But I still hope to be able to have a least half of the pins done by my blog's one year anniversary in September.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

I never know what to give my kiddo's teachers at the end of the school year. I know they get a lot of little items they may not use or plants and they may not have green thumbs. Last year I saw on Pinterest small S'more packs, which I thought were cute, but I decided to make larger versions of them for each teacher. 

 This year I wanted something the kids could help me make and weren't time consuming since the last couple of weeks of school are crazy enough. I know my kiddo's teachers like to read, so I searched online and Pinterest for a couple of book mark ideas. I came across this tutorial. 

I ended up making 18 of them.

All of them reversible.

Because I was making so many I made my life a little easier and cut the material and then put them on interfacing sheets and ironed them on. 

The teachers and staff all enjoyed them. I hope to make some more for myself and kiddos.

Baby Sweaters

 I wrote last month about a blessing dress I made. This is the little sweater to go with it. They wanted a long sleeve one since its still cool in Washington. 

  

Without knowing how big the baby will be for the blessing I made the sleeves long, figure they could roll them up like this if they were too long.

This isn't the first time I've made this sweater, I used this pattern three times. I like it so much because you can make it look completely different with a few tweaks. 

I forgot to take a picture of the one I made my niece, so my sister in law took one for me.

 Here's another little sweater I like both with and without sleeves.

A Blessing Dress

I haven't accomplished much on my pin list and this is partially why...25+ hours of crocheting. 

Its for a friend's grand baby. This is it with a slip underneath it.

It has a matching bonnet to go with it.

The total set, minus the little sweater I'm going to make for it since I didn't like the one I finished.

I really enjoy crocheting christening/blessing dresses. This is the first time I've used this pattern that I found in this booklet. Like always I tend to change up the dress a little bit...to personalize it, I shortened the sleeves and put the bow of the ribbon in the back.

Hair-dos

 Here's the latest attempts at cool hair styles. For Valentines day we did a double heart, but I forgot to take a picture. My daughter liked it so much she requested a heart with a fishbone braid.

 

 Upon seeing her sister's hair my youngest requested a "lil go fish braid"

For St. Patty's day we found this triple braid. It was super easy and I'll probably do it again.

Just for the fun of it we tried this braid in a braid, its very similar to things I've done on my own in the past, but I liked her suggestion of pulling the sides out.

 For Easter I wanted something special. I looked for ideas and thought an upside down french braid with a bun looked nice. I didn't follow a tutorial since I learned to french braid a few months ago. After doing it I wish I had watched a tutorial because mine doesn't look as pretty as the ones I saw when I googled images.

Yummy Recipes

Winter tends to be when I try out a ton of new recipes. Here are a few I've tried lately. 

 Crockpot Ham & Potato Soup*

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls 

Grilled Salmon I

 Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Dairy and Egg Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have two kiddos with food allergies so its nice to be able to find recipes where I'm not having to make a lot of substitutions, but I still omit things from time to time. The Spinach Lasagna Rolls call for an egg but I left it out and it was still very tasty. 

Memory Boxes

Everything in my house has its place, however it doesn't always get put back in a timely manner. I have keepsake totes for my kids, but they're in our crawl space so I don't get to them often. I end up with piles of kid artwork and school work in my bedroom. A friend suggested this pin to me. I knew it was exactly what I was looking for!! Since I don't share my kiddo's names online I can't show you theirs, but here's mine. 

 

I bought the file boxes from Office Depot when they were having a great deal...50% off. I don't own any of those fancy cutting machines, instead I found a font I liked and had the kids choose their scrap book paper and then printed their name backwards on the wrong side of the paper. I cut their names out and then Mod Podged them on the inside of the tote. 

Each of the family members have files that relate to their needs. Here's an example of my son's.

 

Of course this is before I started to file away his paperwork...it doesn't look as organized with all the different size papers peeking out of the folders, but its functional and better than what I had before. The nice thing about these totes is I can store them in my closet and have easy access to them, so ideally no more piles of paperwork on my window seat.