Fall Fairy Houses

My sister and I cut foam pumpkins (from Michael's) to make Fall Fairy Houses for our girls.  I think my sister and I were more excited about these houses than the girls were. 

The girls and I put our fairy houses in our rice pit this afternoon.  I had lots of fun playing with them.  E joined me, but O was too busy working on her own project (and wanted some "alone time").








I cut the doors, windows, and top of the pumpkin using an x-acto knife. It cut easily and the cut is smooth. My sister used a pumpkin decorating knife and the cut was much more rough and more difficult to cut.

(The idea for using foam pumpkins to make fairy houses came from Pink and Green Mama). 

Knitted Kitten Hat Review

This is the first of several product reviews that I have scheduled in the next few weeks.  I hope you enjoy them!  I try to choose good quality, reasonably priced items to review.  Many (but not all) of the reviews are from Etsy shops.  I love to buy from Etsy to support the makers of handmade gifts.  If you've never shopped at Etsy, take a minute and browse.  You won't regret it! 

I LOVE cute hats for kids, so I was excited to find handmade knitted kitten hats at Sweaternana.  I was thrilled when Diane from Sweaternana agreed to send us a hat to review.  I requested a gray hat since our cat is gray, and she made it and sent it to us immediately. 

Not only are the hats well-made and adorable, they are also very durable!







Although, I originally planned for this hat to be for E, I decided that the girls can share it.  O fell in love with it as soon as she saw it.  She was especially excited about the braids "because they're just like Mary and Laura (Ingalls)." 












I chose Sweaternana as a shop I would like to review because her hats are very affordable...only 15 dollars for a beautiful, handmade hat!  Many of the hats that I looked at on Etsy were close to 30 dollars, so this seems like a steal!





These hats are made with 100% acrylic, Lion Brand Yarn.  They are machine washable and dryable.  Our hat is very soft, and I know the girls are going to wear it often this winter and for years to come!

Here are few more cute hats from Sweaternana... a bee, a bear, a snowman, and a panda bear.  I would love to be able to make hats like this for my girls one day, but for now I'm happy to shop at Etsy! (and maybe one day I'll learn how to knit with needles instead of just on a loom!)

E's Rolling Elephant

I made a rolling elephant for one of E's handmade Christmas presents.  She LOVES animals, so I hope she loves it. 


The elephant was unfinished (it came from Michael's, but I don't think they sell them anymore).  I primed it with white paint and then painted it blue.  I glued the scrapbook paper to the elephant using Mod Podge, and then coated it with another layer of Mod Podge to protect it and give it a finished look.


I'm very happy with how this gift turned out and with how easy it was to do.  I'm doing a lot of Mod Podge and scrapbook paper gifts this year. 

I've just finished one of my most favorite handmade gifts EVER, and I'll be posting about it soon, so stay tuned...

E's Birthday Tablecloth

Here's an idea that I've wanted to share for a while.  My mom and I made white tablecloths for each of my girls for their first birthday parties.  Everyone at their parties signs, writes messages, and draws pictures on the tablecloths using fabric markers.  I trace around their hands each year and write their names and the year on the palms of their traced hands.   O's tablecloth has enough room for one more year of signatures and messages, and E's is just getting started.  This is a fun keepsake for the girls that I hope they will treasure for years to come.

Halloween "I Spy" Bottle

I'm very slowly starting to read blogs again after an almost 6 months hiatus, and I was excited to see this idea for a Halloween "I Spy" bottle on Pink and Green Mama.  What a fun idea...and SO easy to implement! 

I gathered a bunch of small Halloween themed items from around our house.



I drew black eyes onto white beans to make them look like ghosts.



I combined all of the items with black beans and black eyed peas in a plastic bottle.  I had O in mind when I was making the Halloween I Spy bottle, but E turned out to love it much more than O.  I am not exaggerating when I say that we shook the bottle and found the cat at least 15 times in the first 20 minutes after I made the bottle.  She kept saying "cat!" over and over and over again.  This afternoon she saw the bottle and started yelling "cat! cat!"  So we found the cat many more times.  What fun for my cat obsessed baby!



I love the idea of holiday themed "I Spy" bottles, and I'm wondering why I never thought of this!  I'm looking forward to making Christmas and Valentine's Day bottles!

E's Birthday Crown

I'm very happy with E's birthday crown and thought I'd share it here :)

I (with my mom's help...she did the top stitching) made E's birthday crown using wool blend felt (from Prairie Point Junction). I used the pattern and directions from The Creative Family to make the crown. To make the cake and candle, I drew the pattern on a piece of paper and cut it out. I traced around the pattern with disappearing ink onto the wool blend felt, and cut out the cake, icing, and candle. I attached them to the crown using fabric glue. This crown was surprisingly easy and fun to make!

Prize Necklaces

O, my mom, and I made prize necklaces for the children who attended O's 4th birthday party in July.

To make prize necklaces, you need ribbons, cellophane, and small treats. I cut strips of cellophane that were about 7 inches wide. I put a pack of cookies in the center and rolled it and tied it at each end. We then put 2 prizes on each side of the cookies to make a total of 5 prizes in each necklace. Each prize is separated from the next by ribbons tied around the cellophane.

The other prizes included mini bubbles, mini playdough, bouncy balls, silly bandz, glitter glue, smarties, mini boxes of raisins, punch balloons, etc. We had fun making the prize necklaces, and they were a hit with O's friends!

Handprint Lilies Shadowbox

I made shadowboxes with flowers made from the girls' handprints along with a picture of them for their grandmothers for Mother's Day.
I followed the directions from Family Fun to make the Easter Lilies, and the shadow boxes came from IKEA. I'm really loving preserving special keepsakes along with photos in shadowboxes lately. I just wish I had a space to hang them :)

Handpainted Bracelet

O recently painted a wooden bracelet for my mom for her birthday. She was so proud and enjoyed this activity very much. When she gave the bracelet to my mom, she explained that it had 3 layers of paint and one layer of glitter. She was very deliberate in choosing her colors and thought each step of the process through thoroughly :) She has really enjoyed painting handmade gifts over the past few months...she's painted 2 birdhouses, this bracelet, a fish, a snake, and a picture frame!

Magnetic Necklaces

Magnetti necklaces are all the rage around here, and when I saw them I said "I can make that!" (and was appalled by how much they cost!) It took me a while to gather the appropriate materials and find the time to make them, but it was very easy to do. O wants a "collection" of magnettis, so I know what her handmade Christmas gift is going to be!

The necklace is a silky cord with a magnetic bail attached. I ordered bails from Amazon, but they were not magnetic. My mom finally found magnetic bails and the silky cords at Hobby Lobby...I REALLY wish that we lived closer to a Hobby Lobby...I haven't been there since before Christmas!

Anyway, to make the pendant, I used round, wooden discs (from Michael's). I painted the discs white and cut a circle from scrapbook paper to fit the discs. I decopaged the scrapbook paper circle to the discs and then covered the front and sides of the discs with a protective layer of decopauge. I then glued a VERY strong magnet to the back of the finished disc using E600 glue. (These magnets actually make me a little nervous since we have a baby who puts everything in her mouth...I only worked on this after she was asleep because I was afraid I'd drop one without realizing it, and she'd eat it before I could stop her).

I let the glue dry for a couple of days before trying out the magnetic disc on the bail. It worked perfectly, and I hope the recipient of this necklace loves it as much as O does!

4 Years Old!

O is 4 years old!!! I can't believe my baby girl is 4 yeas old! She told me tonight "I want to be 4 twenty times." When I asked her what she meant, she said "I like being a child..." I love her so much!

From Art to a Softie

I found this post saved in draft from months and months ago. I can't believe I haven't posted this already...

A few months ago O drew this portrait of her baby sister. I loved it so much that I wanted to do something to preserve it (she drew it on lined notebook paper). After thinking about it for a few days, I realized it would make the perfect softie!

I traced around O's drawing with an iron-on transfer pencil (I have no idea where to find these pencils. I have looked and looked, and the only one I could find was in my mom's old sewing stuff, so it is probably 30 years old). I ironed the drawing onto a piece of cotton fabric. Then I embroidered along the lines using the backstitch. This was simple and fast to do, and O was VERY proud.



After I finished the embroidery, I cut out the fabric along with a same sized piece for the back of the softie. I pinned them right side to right side, sewed them, and left a small opening for turning. After I turned the softie right side out, I stuffed it, and my mom sewed the small opening closed. Done!

O stared it for a while and wondered why she didn't give baby sister a nose or a neck :) I'm looking forward to making more softies from the girls' drawings. I'd also love to make pillows using their drawings (which would make a great gift for grandparents).

Edit to add: I photocopied O's drawing 1st...I didn't ruin it by tracing over it with the iron-on pencil. The actual drawing is framed downstairs in the kids' art area and is hung low on the wall at their eye level.