February's Crafts

Sorry I've been quiet, since the New Year we've been pretty busy.
The sickness kicked in (I had thought we were going to get lucky because we hadn't had anything in the month of December). The sport kicked in, so there was just less time to craft and even less to post.

In the month of February, there was obviously Valentine's Day. Here is the one craft we did:

This was originally a Disney's Family Fun Magazine craft, but I we'd done it before and I used a few short cuts that really left me with just using their idea more than anything else. I cheated (saving myself hours of cutting) by using heart shaped stickers for the ears. I also thought it would be cute to add a small one for a nose which wasn't part of the original idea. I skipped out on the feet, also to save me from hours of cutting and just glued it straight to the cheese. These went with one of the twins.

KL looked through a magazine for ideas and decided on Valentine's themed whistles for her class.

The other twin brought these I had bought a pack of 30 (or so) twistable Crayola crayons on sale a while ago and they've just been sitting unopened because school provides an ample amount of already opened packages of crayons. So I figured that was a good way to get them used.

After Valentine's Day, we had a wax museum for the school, and KK was required to participate.
So she chose Cleopatra for her famous person, and I said sure, not thinking about the fact that I was going to have to make/buy a costume for her. But I think we pulled it off (especially since I didn't even buy the fabric until a week and a half before and took a break to print/make/supervise 4 year old signatures on Valentine's).
Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the full costume. I took a video of her speech from the night, but there's a few too many identifying markers so I'm a little uncomfortable posting it. So here's the pictures that I do have:

This was her necklace. This is a recent photo and it's been played with, so it's missing a few gems.
This was craft foam, spray painted gold, and then adorned with sticker gems, beaded strands, and metallic Sharpie in a few spots. Then we just hot glued a ribbon to each side to tie it on her neck.
(Kudos to the Orca for helping with the picture.)

The event is a fund raiser for her class so she needed a "bank" to collect the money paid to hear her speech. So we paper mached a pyramid and then we painted it gold.
And then there's her crown, we used craft foam and an embossing tool to press the snake shape, along with a few small red jewels for the eyes, and a few extra jewel stickers for the added riches emphasis.

Her outfit was a black dress (she liked the black costume ideas better than white- we look into buying a costume, but they looked cheap but cost a fortune). I actually made her dress (very simply)- I bought 8 feet of fabric, folded it in half long-wise and then width-wise, and then cut out the neck hole and the width needed for her body. Sewed the seams for the sides and so the extra fabric on the arms just draped, since most costumes come with a ribbon that almost looks like a train but attaches to the hands. I don't even know what it's called, but I think we made it work, it still made it look flowy and regal.
On top of that we spray painted a belt gold, so she could cinch the waist and break up the black and allowed it the extra to fall down.
And finished it off with a pair of sandals that laced up the leg (that I found on sale for $10).

We accessorized with a wrapping paper tube and card stock paper cut to the shape of an ankh, also spray painted gold. Tada, instant staff.

I think the cheapest costume I found (which didn't include as much as I had here) cost $40, and we ended up spending a total of $35.

We also made a paper mache snake because she needed a "prop". I used spray paint to make it green, she designed and painted it's markings. Then we added a quick felt tongue.

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!

Shape Soft Book

My kids didn't let me sleep and I was super frustrated so I needed a little craft break this weekend.
I didn't really have the energy (or patience) to stand at the sewing machine and work on the Mario quilt and I was looking to try out my new hot glue gun anyway (nothing fancy, just not the old one).
So I settled on a quick and easy, no sew soft book about shapes.

I had a plan drawn out a while ago (when I first got into the idea of soft books) and so the first step was already done. As for the rest, I pulled out my felt, ribbons, and stickers and just kind of threw it all together as I went.

Here's the pictures:
(My plan was to be quick, so I didn't spend a whole lot of time on the cover, I contemplated using more stickers, or hot gluing ribbon or twine on to make the cover, but settled on just writing it.. because quick and easy, and the twins were waking up as I was working on the cover.)

 (The little circle on the triangle is a candy corn sticker.)

Quick run-down:
*I planned on the diamond being last, but I wasn't thinking and since it was blank on back I made it the first so the blank side could be the cover page.
*I finished it off with a simple tie binding, since there weren't a lot of pages (and again, trying for quick craft therapy).
*I spent a total of maybe 3 hours over the course of 2 days on this. (Seriously, just nap time plus a little finish up/clean up past nap time).
*I thought about having rectangle too, but the examples are really similar to square, so I went with just square.
*I got KK involved by making her look through the stickers to see if she could find anything to fit the shapes. I saw it as taking advantage of her, but she had fun getting to help out.
*Looking at these picture reminded me that I was going to use the star sticker (the silver to the left) as a shooting star and will add silver streaks with a Sharpie after I finish typing this up.


That's all for now,
Jo!