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Gingerbread Men

Posted by christy in Christmas | Food | For Kids | Holidays | Projects - (0 Comments)

A brand new Trader Joe’s opened up in my town and I’ve been there more than my fair share. When I saw these giant gingerbread men kits, I thought my kids would really get a kick out of them. I was right!

The kit comes with everything to make a suitable gingerbread man but you could certainly add your own candies and sprinkles to make it a little more special. My kids were perfectly happy with what came in the box so I didn’t even bother bringing out more candy!

I’ve been having a lot of fun so far this Christmas. The kids are 7 and 5 and are really getting into the holiday. I hope they’ve been good this year so Santa will make a visit to our house!

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Felt Handwarmers

Posted by christy in Christmas | Craft | Holidays | Needlework | Projects | Sewing - (1 Comments)

Today I have a quick and simple craft that makes a great stocking-stuffer or gift for a teacher or bus driver.  I’m going to package these up with some treats and hot chocolate for all of the para-educators, bus drivers, and teachers that work with my children.

Supplies:

Felt

Pinking Shears

Thread

Rice

Lavender (optional)

Cut 2 pieces of felt into 2 1/2″ X 3 1/2″ rectangles. I used embossed felt from Eco-Fi.  I mixed two different shades of brown but you can really use any mix of colors or type of felt.

With right sides out, sew around three sides. Place a few spoonfuls of uncooked rice inside. If you have any lavender or potpourri lying around, you can add a bit of that as well.

Sew up the open side. Trim thread. These are also small enough that they can be sewn completely by hand. Maybe add an initial or decorative stitch before seaming it up.

Finish it off by cutting around each edge with pinking shears.

There you have it! What are you making for the teachers this year?

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Card Making Social

Posted by christy in Christmas | Holidays | Paper | Projects - (2 Comments)

I love Twitter. What does that have to do with card making? Everything. This little card making activity came to be because of a few tweets with some Twitter friends. Kashoan and Kelli came over last Friday to work on some Christmas cards with me at my house.

I wanted to make some simple cards with some glitter. Here is what I came up with:

The image stamp is from Schlosser Designs’ Out of the Box set. I stamped it using a versamark ink pad (watermark) and then poured on a bit of heat n’ stick powder.  I used my heat gun to heat it up and then sprinkled on some turquoise glitter. I stamped the word “Sparkle” (from Stampin’ Up’s Warm Words set) and that was it.

This card was made the exact same way using the same stamp sets. I just used green ink and glitter.

I’m thinking that I want to go with a super simple and clean design for my holiday cards this year.

Are you still sending holiday cards? Do you include pictures? Letters? Nothing?

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Beginner Friendly Crochet Cap

Posted by christy in Christmas | Craft | Holidays | Knitting/Crochet | Projects - (2 Comments)

I am so in love with this little crocheted cap. The pattern is free and can be found at the Coats and Clark website.

I used Lily Sugar n’ Cream cotton yarn that I had in my stash.  The cap and the flower each used about 1/2 of a ball. I bought that yarn for around $1 each.

The cap took me about 1 hour to crochet. The flower also took about that same amount of time. Not bad for two hours of work and $1 worth of yarn!

I attached the flower with an alligator clip so if I ever decide to make more flowers in different colors, I can switch them out. I also didn’t felt the flower. Because I used cotton yarn, that just wasn’t possible. It made the flower bigger, but I like it like that! If you wanted a smaller flower without felting, just leave off the last layer of petals.

Wouldn’t these make the greatest gifts for the young girls on your list?

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Stuff I Like: Halloween Edition

Posted by christy in Halloween | Holidays | Stuff I Like - (0 Comments)

image via Crafterella on Etsy

Confession time. I don’t like Halloween. It’s my least favorite holiday. I don’t like the dressing up, scary stuff, and loads of crappy candy. I do know that tons of crafters can’t get enough of Halloween. It is kind of a crafter’s holiday. There are a lot of great things to make–costumes, decorations, and decor. Even though I don’t do a lot any Halloween decorating, I appreciate the work of others. Here you’ll see some of my Etsy faves, Halloween edition.

This mini has been replaced with a screenshot.

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Embroidered Coffee Cup Sleeve Tutorial

Posted by christy in Holidays | Mother's Day | Needlework | Projects | Sewing/Fabric | Tutorials - (5 Comments)

This project is a true collaboration with my daughter. Today is her last day of preschool and we are going to miss her teacher, dearly.  Her teacher loves coffee so we thought a coffee cup sleeve would be a good idea.  I was just going to make a generic one with some cute fabric and then I had a grand idea!  I had my daughter draw on some felt and then I embroidered her drawing.  Genius, right?

great teacher gift embroidered coffee sleeve

Supplies:

Felt

Embroidery floss

Needle

Elastic hairband

Button

Washable marker

1.  Cut two pieces of felt into the shape of a cardboard coffee sleeve.  You can go and get your own coffee sleeve next time you’re at the gas station or coffee shop and trace that (allowing 1/2″ seam allowance on all sides).  I also found a few templates online.

2.  On one piece of felt, draw your design using washable markers.  Eva wrote her name and added a flower, heart, and a butterfly.

3. Begin stitching your design using the embroidery floss and a needle.  I use a combination of stitches to add some variety to the design.  It will really depend on what you have drawn out on the felt.  Eva picked out every single color on this particular project.  I think she did a great job!

4. Sew a button off to the side.  Eva chose this button as well.  I attached it using embroidery floss and I tacked it down pretty securely.

5.  Get your second piece of felt and place them right sides together.  On the opposite edge from where you placed the button, place your elastic hairband in between the two pieces of felt.  Pin it in place so about 1/2″ of it is sticking out.  The picture below shows what it will look like after it has been sewn.

6.  Time to sew!  With your sewing machine, stitch around all four sides of the coffee sleeve leaving a 2″-3″ gap so you can turn it right side out.

7.  Once it is turned right side out, use a needle and thread to stitch the opening closed.

Eva wants to be an artist when she grows up.  I think she’s well on her way!

Embroidery Class Mother’s Day Project

Posted by christy in For Kids | Mother's Day | Needlework | Projects - (2 Comments)

I’m teaching a class at a local elementary school for a few weeks.  It is part of their after school enrichment program and my class this time is embroidery.  We have a great time and the girls are so fun and are picking up the concepts rather quickly.

We’re working on a Mother’s Day project now.  The girls traced their hands on a piece of felt and we are backstitching around the outline.  If we have time this week, I’ll teach them french knots but I think most of the time will be spent finishing up these projects.

We’re going to cut out the handprint with pinking shears and stitch it to another piece of felt.  I think I might go and pick up some lavender or something to put inside and have it be a little sachet.

I’m making one for my mom.  Don’t  you think she’ll be super excited to get a hand embroidered handprint sachet from her middle-aged daughter?  I thought so, too.

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May Day Craft Ideas

Posted by christy in Holidays | May Day | Paper | Projects | Stamping and Paper Crafts | Tutorials - (2 Comments)

Do you live in a place that celebrates May Day?  In our neck of the woods, we make May baskets.  They are small and usually filled with flowers or treats and left at someone’s doorstep. The kids love ringing the doorbell and running away.  Here are some of the projects we’ve made in the past few years.

This was one of my favorite May Day projects.  We made a cone out of scrapbook paper and filled it with pixie sticks.  We made the pixie sticks look like flowers by adding some punched scallops and circles.  I also used some fun stamps to embellish the flowers.  I punched a hole in the back of the cone and added an eyelet to thread the ribbon through.  Super easy to make!

We made these little matchbook favor boxes last year for May Day.  Here is the tutorial on how to make those.

This year I haven’t decided on what we’re going to make for our baskets.  I have a feeling fabric and felt will be be involved.  I’ll be sure to post the finished results.

Speaking of finished results…want to know the winner of the April Craft Challenge?

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Eggshell Mosaics…Not.

Posted by christy in Easter | Holidays | Projects - (2 Comments)

I’ve been planning this project for a year. No lie. It’s been on my Google Calendar since April 2009. Eggshell Mosaics. I’ve been wanting to make one forever and have been saving the idea and the post for this Easter. It seems that these past couple of weeks have been disastrous for my crafting. Does this ever happen to any of you? It’s like everything I’ve been touching lately just turns out hideously. I didn’t even bother taking pictures of this project. But, I want to tell you how to make them so you all can put me to shame with your fabulosity.

Did this picture of pretty bowls distract you from the fact I have no pictures of this project?  I took it on my NYC trip at a store in the Flatiron district called Fishs Eddy.  That store was AWESOME.  Okay, back to the project.

1. Dye your eggs.

2.  Crack them and save the shells.  You want to clean them off and pick off any of that egg membrane that might be hanging on there.

3.  Draw an outline of your image on whatever you want to cover.

4. Begin to fill in the outline with your colored eggshells.  Just about any glue will do.  I use Tacky Glue.

5. Finish your design.

6.  Let dry.

7. Apply a thin layer of spray sealant (clear) or mod podge.

8. Admire your lovely work.

Applesauce Bunnies

Posted by christy in Easter | For Kids | Holidays | Projects | Recipes - (0 Comments)

I was sent a little gift from the people at Musselmans.  You know, the applesauce.  Most of the pitches I receive from PR companies don’t quite apply to this here craft blog.  But this one did!  Bonus: my kids love applesauce!  So, here you go…a post about crafting with applesauce.

The box was packed so nicely!  I received two jars of applesauce, one jar of cinnamon, a bunny cookie cutter, a couple of recipes and instructions.*  We decided to make the bunny place holder.  You know those ornaments you make at Christmas using applesauce and cinnamon?  These are one and the same.

You mix 1/2 cup of applesauce with one jar of cinnamon.  This was the beginning of the end for my bunnies.  I put a little too much applesauce in the bowl and never quite recovered from that.  I thought I could make up the difference with flour…which you can, for small amounts.  Let’s just say, you should measure.

The instructions say to mix it up with your hands.  Enter: kids.  My son tried it.  It was really mushy.  *remember to measure*  He didn’t last very long.  But, he did hang around with me and told me I was doing a good job.  I love that kid.

Next you’ll want to roll it out on wax paper.  I took this picture before I added more flour.  It was still too wet.

Cut out your bunnies.  This cookie cutter is really cute.  You can make them any shape you want.  I had some dough leftover and made an egg.  Okay, it looked more like an oval and less like an egg.  I tried.

The instructions clearly say to mix in all the flour so no white is visible.  The instructions mock me as I don’t heed them.  I did follow the instructions and put some cinnamon on the wax paper.

Bake them at 200 degrees for 2 hours.

Once they are cool you can decorate them with glitter, ribbons, etc… and make them super cute.  They are meant to be place card holders but mine are destined for the blog and the blog alone.  They do smell really great.  Maybe I’ll wrap them up like a sachet and put them in my underwear drawer.  Or not.

I hope you all enjoyed this craft adventure.  I’m sure you can learn from my mistakes and put me to shame on this project.  The kids like them and had fun.  But, they like the applesauce even more.  Yum.

We’re going to dye Easter eggs this afternoon.  I hope I can end my string of horrible Easter craft luck.

*I received this product for free from Musselman’s. All content provided in this post is my own opinion.

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