Easy egg garland for Easter }{ crafting with kids

 Ah, March. You're such a lovely month with so much to celebrate. There's Easter Sunday this year on March 31st, and the Vernal Equinox (the first day of Spring) on March 20th. And if those two weren't enough, you're national craft month.

With so much going on during March, how could I choose just one theme for the month? Impossible. So, we're doing them all. Since this is my crafting blog, national craft month is celebrated every month around here. Then there's Easter and Spring. I'll be alternating crafts related to both this month.

The first tutorial I want to share is for a very easy and fun craft to do with the kids. These are rough guidelines and you can do so much with it - change the materials, the presentation, the educational content. Start with this blueprint and let your imagination run wild. 

Materials:

1. felt (cut up in egg shapes)
2. glue
3. tapestry needle and twine or string
4. buttons, ribbons, glitter, or anything you want to use to decorate

Steps:

1. If you haven't yet, cut up the felt in the shape of eggs. Place all the decorations and the stack of egg shapes on a tray for the little ones to have easy access.

note: if you want to add some fun education activities here, cut up the decorations in different geometric shapes and ask the kiddos to identify them as they decorate for example. Or have them count the eggs, or sort them by color. The possibilities are endless.

2. Give them the glue and let them go wild. Always remember that with kids it's the process, not the product that matters most. Having said that, you'll be surprised at how cute these turn out even with a 4 year old.

3. Once the eggs are dry, thread the needle with the string or twine and connect all the eggs into a garland.

note: you don't have to make a garland with these eggs. You can keep them as an activity to do over and over, just don't use glue. Or make a big collage on poster board with all the eggs and display that on the wall. Again, the possibilities are endless.

4. Display the garland somewhere everyone can see. In our new apartment, it was over the fireplace.

What are your plans for March?

Valentine's wreath }{ tutorial

My daughter's favorite color is pink. No surprise then that she goes crazy around Valentine's day, specially if we happen to stop by Joann. And we did.

She begged me to buy half of the seasonal decor on display at the store, but instead I promised her we'd do our own. Lucky for me, she loves to do craft projects. Thus, today's post was born.

As I mentioned in the last post, this month's themes are organizing and re-purposing. After unpacking quite a few boxes we're surrounded by empty boxes, so I decided to use some cardboard for the project as a way to recycle it and save some money as well.

Materials

• cardboard (or whatever you have that's easy to cut but still sturdy)
• scissors
• gesso/paint (optional)
• paint brushes (optional)
• glue
• tissue paper (or other decorations like pom poms or buttons)
• ribbon

Steps:

1) Draw the heart shape on the cardboard. It doesn't have to be neat since it will get covered up.

2) Cut out the shape. If you'd like a wreath like backing, cut out the middle as well. We ended up using both parts.

3) Paint the backing with gesso/paint. We did this in case some showed through the tissue paper. It turns out you need a couple of coats and my little one was not that patient, so some of her heart has the box' original paint showing through. It didn't matter to her (reminder: crafting with kids is all about the process, not the product).

4) Dry it with a blow dryer (much quicker, helps the wee ones stay with the project)

5) Spread some glue on a medium sized area (~4 inches), rip tissue paper a little at a time, scrunch it up and attach it to the backing. This will go a little faster if you use larger pieces of paper, and if you don't put them super close together. I did (so it took much longer), but the little miss did not. She also decided to cover her middle with the tissue paper.

6) Repeat step 5 until the whole wreath is covered up. This is where you can let your creativity run wild. Use buttons, combinations of colors, glitter, pom poms, whatever. See what you come up with.

7) Cut a piece or ribbon and glue each end to one bump on the back of the heart (to hang it up). Done! After it's dry just go hang it up. The little miss' went outside for everyone to see, but I took a picture of both so you can see them.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Do you make projects inspired by what you see at the store? I'd love to hear examples.

Halloween Lunch Bags }{ Tutorial

With the 31st of October just around the corner, I feel like everything is excuse to do some cute Halloween-y craft. This one is easy, perfect for the little ones in your life, and made with simple materials you can find in almost everyone's home.

So let's get crafting.

What you need:

• paper lunch bags
• construction paper in white and black for the mummy (and for the vampire as well)
• glue
• scissors
• crayons and markers for adding details (optional)

What you do (for the mummy, the easiest one):

1. fold the open end of the lunch bag down about 1/4 of the full length (see picture)
2. fold the bottom so that both sides are going down (see pictures)
3. cut out shapes from the constructions paper: white and black circles for the eyes, a crooked mouth, some longer strips of white construction paper.
4. Glue the strips of white paper all over the bag with the top folded down; lastly add the eyes and mouth. 
5. For other characters like the vampire or the owl, this is where you'd add some extra details with crayons or markers (e.g. blood on the fangs).

The steps are the same no matter what character you make, but the shapes you cut out and the construction paper colors are different obviously. I can also imagine how easy it would be to do a Frankenstein one, or a skull. What Halloween monster/character would you make?

Upcycled Lamp ~ girly style }{ Tutorial

Don't you love a good thrifty find?

N.'s room had a tall lamp that didn't really match her girly taste and didn't seem to fit the rest of the room. But I wasn't really looking to buy something new. It needed to be customized.

Then, just the other day I was looking through a garage sale and found a lamp with a nice long, white base with a broken shade. I got it for less than $3... Then I headed to the thrift store and found a  nice shade that fit it. The color didn't matter at all, since I planned on covering it up.

At home, I got a scrap of fabric that was long enough to cover the shade and went to work.

Materials:

lamp shade and base
enough fabric to cover the shade
ruffles (or ribbon)
spray adhesive
fabric glue
craft paint (optional)

Steps:

1. First you need to make a template for the shade to cut use for cutting the fabric. I used directions from this video on how to make the template from the shade itself, and marked it right on the fabric.

2. Then you can cut the fabric a little above the lines from the template (I like to give myself a bit of wiggle room).




























3. Next, use spray adhesive to cover both the lamp shade and the wrong side of the fabric. Make sure you cover the surface you're working on... It gets sticky all over with the spray!

4. Then it's time to place the fabric over the shade. This is a bit trickier than you'd think, and don't get frustrated if you have to peel it off and start over. The good thing about spray adhesive is that you can easily that. I started by matching the seam on the original shade with the edge of the fabric, then slowly stretching it around the shade. I started the whole thing 3 times before I got it right.

5. Measure and cut something for the bottom edge of the shade- I used ruffles, but ribbon would have been cute too.

6. Then, using fabric glue, slowly adhere the ruffles to the bottom edge of the shade. Let it sit for a while to dry.

7. Paint small designs on the base using craft paint. (optional)

8. Place the finished shade on the lamp, place it in the room of your choice, and plug it in. You're done!

What's your latest favorite project?

This tutorial has been linked to Skip to my Lou's Made by You Mondays and Sew Can Do's Craftastic Monday

Little ghost garland }{ tutorial

Do you know one reason (among many) I love Fall? There are so many excuses for crafting and inspiration kisses your face as soon as you walk outside. I'm glad my husband isn't a jealous guy.

With a little one in my house, Halloween is one of these excuses to go crazy creating stuff, costumes, decorations, what have you. We can always use a new item to put up for the season, right? And we do end having so much fun doing it together as a family.

This project I'm sharing is a quick and easy one that we did last weekend - a garland of little ghosts that you can hang anywhere.  N. had a great time with this one. The ghost faces were easy enough that she could do some of them on her own, and she loved the results. She actually kept a few of the ghosts to play with.

What you need:

• scraps of muslin
• styrofoam balls
• string
• brushes and paint

Steps:

1. Fold the scrap in half (or a piece of rectangular muslin you cut), then paint the face near the fold.
2. Place a styrofoam ball under the top, behind the face you painted. Tie the fabric tightly just under the ball with the string.
3. Repeat with as many little ghosts as you want. 
4. Once you have your ghosts, place a long string through the knots under their heads and voila. Now all you need is to hang it up anywhere you want.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Scraftzophrenic

Lately I've fallen in love with paper. Yes, I know I already have my strong and lasting relationships with the needle arts, my blossoming flirt with drawing and painting, and several recurring one-night stands with random crafts.

I guess I'm just not a loyal, one-craft woman.... Good things crafts are pretty forgiving.

Back to paper. My mom's birthday card, made with love by the super team of me and the little one.

(The picture doesn't do it justice this time. It looked much cuter in person.) 

Is anyone else out there "scraftzophrenic?" What are your lasting love affairs with creative activities and have you had "others" on the side? (feel free to ignore this very personal crafting question)

More projects finished

I finally finished the scarf and hat I wanted to send to my niece. I kept getting involved in a thousand other things, but I finally got to it. My daughter's little buddy is modeling the two pieces.

(yep, picture is blown)

I also decided to make a little gift bag to send the hat and scarf in. It took me all of one hour! I love these quick projects. All I did was sew the bag and the lining with scraps of fabric I have around. Here are some rough general (and maybe confusing?) directions:

1. Cut four rectangular or square pieces of two fabrics (2 x 2). The lining pieces should be about one inch shorter then the outside.
2. Line the matching pieces (RS) and pin. Sew leaving a little opening on one side. Repeat with the other two pieces (lining) but leave a 10 cm opening on the back seam.
3. Put the outer bag (RS out) completely inside the lining (WS out), line the top edges and seams, pin the tops and sew them together (I used a zigzag stitch on the machine).
4. Push the bag through the gap in the back seam of the lining, pull it out, turning the lining RS out at the same time.
5. Using a ladder stitch, close the gap, leaving just a small opening to pull the ribbon/cord through. 
6. Take a ribbon and push/pull through the gap between the lining and outer bag.
7. I left the edges of this section raw, but you can certainly finish it for a more professional look.

I hope my little niece likes it! I love making stuff for the little ones in our family.

Oh yeah!

Stay tuned for a home decor/cooking related giveaway later this week

Card-making, merry-making

I couldn't resist. I was inspired by Scarlett at Blue, Purple, and Scarlett and her beautiful cards and just had to go try some of my own. Ok, ok, I know I'm not anywhere near as good as she is, I mean wow! But I wanted some card-making fun anyway.

So, here's what I did:

First I found some colors and patterns that I liked.

I measured everything to scale and to make sure it was centered.

Then I cut up the papers and pasted them together.

Added some embellishments

Until I thought it would do.

Hope you're all having a wonderful day!

The 5-minute mama crafter

N. watched Frosty the Snowman for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Oh boy. She hasn't stopped talking about snowmen, Frosty, Santa Claus, "Karen," and Christmas in general. It doesn't help that every house in town has put their lights and decorations up (including us).

So yesterday we were killing time and playing before our bedtime routine, and she kept asking me for Frosty. So I decided to make her one with scrap materials we had around. It took us all of 5 minutes too! My favorite kind of baby craft.

Materials:
2 styrofoam balls (one small, one medium; or one medium, one large)
some red felt for the scarf
some black felt for the hat (which quickly got destroyed and thrown away by miss N.)
1 Toothpick
Chenille piper cleaners
Black and orange paper
Glue

How we did it:

I broke the toothpick into a smaller piece, so that I could stick each end of a different styrofoam ball. Then I cut the eyes and mouth out of black paper and glued it on the smaller ball (the face). Cute the red felt into a scarf and glued it where the two balls were connecting. I cut small pieces of the pipe cleaner and stuck them on the sides of the bigger ball for his arms. Then I took another piece of the toothpick and stuck it at the very corner of the mouth (for Frosty's pipe). I tried to imitate Frosty's button nose with black paper, but didn't like the results, so I decided to use a carrot nose (N. didn't notice). I cut a long and narrow piece of orange paper and rolled into a "nose" like you see above, took another piece of the toothpick and glued it to the inside of the orange nose and stuck it in the face (poor Frosty was stabbed a few times during this process...). Then I did something similar to the pipe (cut orange paper, glue the end of the pipe toothpick to the inside).

The hat... It took me the longest, cutting out round pieces of felt for the bottom and top of the hat, then a long one for the wrap around. It looked like a top hat... I glued it to Frosty's head but miss N. wouldn't wait until it dried (I should have used a hot glue gun, maybe?) and the thing got destroyed very, very quickly.

But I really like how it came out anyway, and so after she played with him he proudly went into our balustrade's pine needles among the lights and other things.