Theme Days

End of the year means theme days for the ABC countdown.

Here's what we've thrown together:
B = Book Character Day
KL went back and forth between Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter and Rarity from MLP (she's an interesting mix, and I love it).
She settled on Rarity, which it great because I only had to make a skirt and a hair clip.
Here's the crafting:

We paired it with a white shirt and leggings, along with tall purple socks to try and imitate for tall purple boots. Then we used a little eye shadow to make the cutie mark on here cheek. She also kept her hair in a bun after washing it the night before so that her would be wavy.

Here's the comparison photo (apologies for the early morning quick shot before heading out the door poor lighting):

E = Eagle Day (AKA Spirit Day)
I love my little KL who is just a little extra. Along with wearing her school shirt, she also asked me to make her an eagle costume. (She probably comes by it naturally because I didn't even think twice about making it for her.) I followed the same pattern that I did for the parrot earlier this school year for jungle day.

 Here she is showing off her wing span <3.
And she smiled the whole time she wore it (at least that I saw), she spent the whole morning showing it off.


Edit to add a little cuteness, KO wanted to be Rarity too:

That's all for now,
Jo!

My Little Pony Soft Book

Here is the soft book that I made for my niece.
She's into My Little Pony right now so that was the theme I went with. Each page represents a different pony character and I put that character in the corner (using Shrinky Dinks). My girls love MLP (as if the hair bows I've shown didn't give it away) so this one was pretty simple.

Here goes:

 Again I labeled with the first initial, it was easy, especially since they didn't get sent out until after Christmas (*Cough*NewYears*Cough*) anyway.

 Princess Cadence - A simple mix and match page to build the Crystal Palace, similar to Cinderella's castle.

 Princess Celestia and Princess Luna - This is a spinner that changes from day to night (I just used a cardboard disk with a brad)
Princess Twilight Sparkle (And Spike) - Mixing potions with another abacus page (I seriously love the educational possibilities of the abacus)

 Apple Jack - Picking apples -- (This is the reason I bought the Cam snaps) Everything is attached because we know a 4 year old will not manage to not loose these little apples, even if the basket is made to hold them.
Rainbow Dash - This was the hardest one for me, so I went with just rainbow colored layers. The red is actually glued to the book but the others are free to twist around the brad in the corner and fold back over.

 Pinkie Pie - Color Matching - each balloon has a matching colored snap (the purple snap is more lilac, but I didn't have the snaps yet when I cut the felt)
Rarity - Dress-Up, because that's how Rarity is, all about fashion

And finally an ISpy page for Fluttershy. Since Fluttershy is all about animals, I made animals the object to search. (That's the butterfly on the left side of the panel.)

I got a message from my Sister-in-law containing images of them both playing with them and huge smiles on their faces. That's why I do these kind of things. I know some people say it's the cheaper route (PS- not always) to make a gift instead of buying, but I love putting thought and love into what the individual wants, and customizing it as needed. I usually try to buy something to throw in there too, so they don't think I'm doing it to be cheap- not sure if that's how it comes off but whatever.
I love it, and if it makes them happy, I am over the moon happy for them.
Sorry to end on a mini-rant, but it's how I'm feeling right now, and I said from the beginning this is more like an online journal than a blog, I'm not trying to push it on anyone, just keeping the memories together.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Batman Soft Book

Here is the soft book that I made for my nephew's Christmas gift:

 My nephew's name begins with the letter B (although, this works for Batman also).
Also, this picture shows that I used black and yellow Cam snaps for the closure. I bought the Cam snaps for this project (well, technically his sister's, but close enough) and now I'm in love and so is KL (she put snaps on her socks so they stay matched in the wash this weekend).

 The first page was just a simple puzzle page.
With this book, it was kind of fun to put it into "story mode"- I used the "directions" to lead it.

 Next, was a "paper doll" page. It wasn't finished when I took the picture apparently, but they were in dress suits and need to change into their super suits.
Then was readying the utility belt. There was a different tool in each pocket (anchored so they weren't lost, or thrown at his little sister) - there was a Batarang, a rope, and a key. I took to Google and found many lists of tools from Batman's belt, most are sprays or too big to fit in a soft book page, so I took what I could and made it work.

Bat Mobile - The wheels button on and off, simple fine motor practice.
Grappling Hook - This page slides the same was as Ariel in the princess page, I took the advantage of the side angle to add a satin cape, because why not?!?!

 Next we're tackling the villains, Penguin is an abacus page of weapons (batarang, "POW", throwing stars, and bat bombs). Joker is just a simple lift the flap, under the flap is the traditional comic book "BOOM". I tried to keep it simple and not to violent appearing.

And finally another ISpy page, looking for the villains. (Harley Quinn is showing.)

I found the cute, more kid-(and felt cut out)friendly character style by searching through Pinterest. The simpler animation was a God send for this project.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Soft Books Christmas Gift

This year we had my niece's name for Christmas, who is very similar to my girls and myself; she's crafty and loves to learn. So along with a few crafty and educational gifts (dry erase to be done multiple times, of course), I put together a Princess inspired soft book. So here goes.

I forgot to get a photo of the cover, but it was a simple crown, nothing too fancy.

First we have Snow White. She and the Seven Dwarfs are done in Shrinky Dinks and stitched on.
I love an abacus page because it's so educational. You can practice counting and addition, and it's just fun to push them side to side. So we've got the gems from the Dwarfs' mine.

 Next, we get to build Cinderella's castle. I used a sandcastle template, but cut it out of the proper colors. It's all velcro, so it can be mixed and matched.

Then Aurora (I looked up the years the movies came out and put them in that order, but I'm sure that the 6 year old I gave it to won't notice). Pink dress, blue dress - a simple dress up page, following the Disney version. I reinforced the dresses to make sure they wouldn't tear after several uses.

 Beauty and the Beast - The magical rose, the petals can be removed and put back, another simple Velcro page.
Ariel - She's on a looped ribbon so she can swim back and forth. There's also a couple lift the flaps (that I also, apparently, forgot to photograph) that expose Sebastian and Flounder.

 Mulan- this one was a little tricky, I had a hard time thinking of what to do. So I Shrinky Dink'd (sure, that's a word) a few characters and hid them in a pocket with some colored rice for an ISpy page. I was pretty fun to play with though.

Tiana - The frog's tongue is looped to "catch" the button flies.

 Rapunzel - Braid the hair- this is just sewing floss to be played with as her hair.

Elsa, well Olaf really - This page is 2-for-1, Olaf can be taken apart and rebuilt and the snowflakes on the white felt each match a snowflake drawn on the blue background.

That's all for this one, but there are 2 more that I'll post after they make it to their future homes. I finished them on the first day of the girls' winter break and it got super cold so I didn't want to take everyone out and then it snowed, so I REALLY didn't want to take everyone out. So they finally got out this week after the girls went back, and should be there early next week.


That's all for now,
Jo!

Parrot Costume

It's Homecoming week, which means theme days!
This year they're pretty easy, pull from closet or drawer most days. There was tie dye, twin day (where you plan ahead to match someone else), PJ, and school colors day. But, right in the middle of the week, there is jungle safari; JUNGLE SAFARI!?!?! What? Who's prepared for a safari on an any-given-day basis?

When it comes to a jungle I think parrot, when I asked the kids they came up with the hat/vest combo you oft see on safari but we weren't sure if hats were okay. So we decided parrot it was. We have a stuffed parrot and KK decided that was her outfit- we quickly added an elastic band to it so she wouldn't have to hold it all day and she was done.

As for KL, she wanted to *BE* a parrot... ok. I did a quick Google search for inspiration and found this tutorial from Make It-Love It, for a parrot Halloween costume. I really just took a quick glance at it and then did my own thing, but it gave me a good general idea of what I was doing. I opted to hot glue everything so that I didn't have to pull out my sewing machine.

A few hours later (most spent cutting out almost 200 feathers), here's what I had:

It's all felt, I used a grosgrain ribbon so she could tie it around her waist. This was taking before she was home, so after I got her home from school, we measured around her wrists, around her shoulders, and across her back, and then I added elastic straps, and a felt connector between the two wings (as done in the tutorial).

Here it is on:

She was so excited! (Which makes it all worth it.) Before school even started she got a few compliments, which made it even better. She's beyond happy with how it turned out!

That's all for now,
Jo!

Bows, Again

Here are the last of the bows that I made to sell.

After making Guy Shiny, the girls wanted Poppy, so for ourselves I made this one:

That's all for now,
Jo!

Lonely Glove Monster

I was strolling through Pinterest a few months ago- or more, it was long enough ago that we hadn't put up the winter gloves yet- and I saw these cute little guys.

They're adorable right?
And they seemed pretty simple too. However, I don't really need anymore stuffed animals around my house because daddy has a slight addiction to grocery store crane games and it's because he's pretty good at them. I'm pretty sure that every time I clean out the toy room I end up with at least a half of a garbage bag full of stuffed animals that are ignored now and being re-homed, along with a few that end up tossed due to wear and tear.
So I decided that since it would be pretty small it would make a great toy for the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child. It was the prefect excuse to give it a try.
Unfortunately when we finally made it through the gloves I only had one mismatch, which seemed really odd with how often I was told that there were no gloves to be found throughout winter, but what do I know.

Anyway, there's the back story- here's the result:

I took some left over floss from an old cross stitch kit (because my crafty nature refuses to let me throw away any) and used it for the hair. I think I had 3 strands and cut them into eighths, for 24 strands knotted around the seam into 48 strands of hair. That's really the biggest change I made. I did choose to and stitch everything, mostly because my pregnant belly didn't want to get up off the couch to use the sewing machine.
My KL loves it and is very upset that she does't get to keep it. I'm hoping to make a few more stuffed animals in the next couple days but we'll have to wait and see where my motivation takes me, as well as whether or not we end up with KO in that time period too.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Update

Here's the progress on my color themed quiet book:
These are the patchwork pages, including side by side pages stitched together:

 After I took this I realized I forgot my rainbow page, which will be attached to the brown page.
I haven't decided whether to do it diagonal or straight line but I have decided to do it rag style to add a little more texture to the page. I will only use the rainbow colors though, none of the extras.

After the individual color pages are just a few activity pages.
The first is a two page colored crayon sorting set:

For some reason, only 1 photo would load.... :/
Any way, the other looks just like this except it's mirrored (and the other colors) so I can put a "crayon box" to hold them in the middle. I plan on hand stitching the color names on the gray patches on the crayons to match against hand stitched labels on the background. I plan on attaching the crayons to ribbon so they can't be lost.

The final page is an artist's paint pallet. I plan on putting a paintbrush with it, if I can find one that fits the 6x6 page, if not I may make a felt one.

On this page the pieces are all stationary, so I used Heat n' Bond to attach the pallet to the background and to attach the odd shapes to the pallet (this was a great way to use up small scraps of felt).
If I can find a short enough paint brush, I'll attach a tiny pocket to hold it.

I didn't use any templates for these pages, but the ideas came from several different places online. I've seen several different versions of both these ideas. There are a TON of ideas out there, and once you start getting the general idea, if you're like me, you will realize you can adapt them to whatever your children are into or learning. I really am having a blast and have come up with more ideas than I could ever possibly accomplish making.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Felt Trees

I'm sure you've seen the "toddler proof" felt trees circling social media- well I decided to take one on.

Here's how it turned out:

This was the final (for my house, I had enough felt that I actually made another for family friends with 5 little girls).

I cut my tree our of the green, and then I sewed the trunk to it, several times to make sure it was secured.

(The trunk was a felt sheet- the ones that come 8.5x11- cut in half.)

Then I googled a few ideas for ornaments. I found a site that had several templates, but I can't find it now- sorry :( I also used a set of Christmas cookie cutters I own as a template.

(These are the first initials of the little girls in our friends' family.)

 I sewed, some hand, some machine, to secure the decorations. I contemplated leaving some changeable, but then thought that they would end up pretty quickly in my twin Ks' mouths so secured would be best. What I did leave changeable was the ribbons for the presents (which I don't have a close up of- other than this one that I added a bow and used a silver Sharpie for definition).

What I had the most trouble with... trying to figure out how to mount it to the wall. :/
I settled on sewing velcro to the tips of the tree branches, and then attaching the other side of the velcro to the wall with mounting tack. Although my twins found the velcro and had fun removing it from the wall, and then found the tack, which they tried to eat. So it wasn't completely toddler proof, and I had to move it to the hall, where they have some time with it, but not unlimited access to it. And I think next time we may use Command Strips instead of mounting tack. But overall not too bad.

Here's a shot of the little ones playing with it to end the post:

That's all for now,
Jo!

My Summer Projects

You saw everything me and the K girls did together over the summer, here's a quick catch up of what I did on my own this summer.

While the girls were sewing their felt birds, I was working with felt myself making this cute little coffee cozy courtesy of Disney's Spoonful.

I also finished a few cross-stitch purchased kits.

(I love this one I think it's absolutely beautiful. And I got it 75% off when I purchased it.)

And, finally, I bought a pack of Bucilla "wood stitchers" that I bought on sale at Hobby Lobby after Christmas and I stitched those up in about 36 hours and finished them off with some Mod Podge to secure the thread to the back of the wood and then glued some card stock paper over the back (because of course I have Christmas themed card stock paper). 

That's all for now, 

Jo! 

Bird Week, Day 5

Today the Big Ks got an intro to sewing skills while we made felt birds.

It was pretty simple. I cut the pieces out of felt, they attached the small body piece to the larger and then attached the other pieces (in no particular order, it really was chosen by where they started/ended attaching the first two pieces together).

Here's the action pics:

That's all for now,
Jo!