Felt Taco Earbud Holder

We recently sent my brother a Mexican themed care package because he was hungry for Mexican food. Of course, as soon as we assembled a package he went all healthy on us and probably won't eat any of it. Just so you know, it took 5 lbs of animal crackers to be able to make a small dish of chocolate-covered-burros!

Anyway, at the last minute, I threw in something non-edible and just plain fun. it is a felt taco earbud holder. I found a you-tube video with directions HERE. I sewed on velcro instead of snaps, used hot glue instead of liquid glue, and punched holes of fun foam instead of plastic to make the eyes.

I don't expect him to actually use this, but it was a fun gag gift. That little taco face makes me smile anyway. :)

Sneak Peek of Doll Dresses and Some Valentine Stuff

I have been doing a lot of craft projects for the kids/with the kids lately on these cold, snowy days. I made a few new things for their dolls a few weeks ago and ended up designing some new patterns. This one is a reversible doll dress.

It was surprisingly easy and I hope to release a pattern to go with it soon. It only requires two fat quarters of fabric and some bias tape.

I just haven't found two coordinating fat quarters that I really like to make another one and take pictures. Doll clothes are a little trickier because you can't use large prints.

We have had oodles of delays and an early dismissal this week. Yesterday I decided to bribe the girls to clean up with the promise of a craft project. I bought a heart paper punch when I couldn't take it anymore and ran away to the craft store one day this week. We raided my scrapbook cardstock and they got to punch hearts out. Then, I took the pile and ran them through the sewing machine to make a garland.

I just made a longer stitch and was sure to tie the ends together when I was done. These are fun and didn't take too much effort. That is my kind of project when there is a school delay.

There are some other things that aren't finished or are top secret, but I can show you this one, last Valentine project...

It is my daughter's Valentine box and it is made from an old Cheerios box and some brown packaging paper. I think he turned out pretty cute!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Scrapbook Paper Collage Canvas Art ~ Zebra & Elephant

My daughter and I made more collage canvas art pieces featuring jungle animals. (You can see the hippo and tiger that we made before HERE.)

First, we did a purple elephant on an aqua background.

Then, she changed her mind and did a zebra on a pink background. The ribbon on the edges has polka dots.

One thing we learned is that using larger pieces for the background reduces the bubbles. 

All it takes is a canvas, some mod podge, bits of scrapbook paper, ribbon, and a little paint for the details. These are pretty easy to make and it is definitely a project worth trying with the kids! 

 Link Parties where I sometimes hang out...

Sew Can Do, Monday Funday, Motivate Me Monday, Inspiration Monday, Take a Look Tuesday, Naptime Creations, The Gathering Spot, Carolyn's Homework, The Winthrop Chronicles, Handmade Tuesdays,Your Whims Wednesday,  Weekly Homemaking Party,Create It Thursday, Treasure Hunt Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things, Wildly Original, Thriving on Thursday, Grace at Home, The 36th Party, Freedom Fridays, Feathered Nest Friday, Simple and Sweet Fridays, Craft Frenzy Friday, Think Pink Sunday, and Threading Your Way

Scrapbook Paper Collage Canvas Art ~ Hippo and Tiger

The next Christmas gifts were these canvas art pieces my daughter and I made together for her to give to her friends. Since this is her thing, I am going to let her tell you about them while I go make breakfast...

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Hello! I'm Halley, and as my mom said above I will be telling you all about these "Art Pieces".

First of all, I want you to know these were easy to make, and are worth any trouble you go through to make them. We started off by finding an adorable template for the animal on Pinterest. We traced the pieces that we needed onto paper and cut them out. Of course we didn't want an all-white hippo or tiger, so we picked a patterned  piece of paper for both the body and body pieces. (We used scrapbook paper, but you can use anything.) 

We did a collage for the background to make the animals really pop! I suppose it would work with a single piece of paper, but it definitely would not be as cute.We picked 3 pieces of scrapbook paper that  I think complement each other very nicely. We ripped them up into random shapes and used Modge Podge to make them stick to the canvas. We used the matte Mod Podge halfway through the hippo canvas then then decided that  the glossy would just give it "that look".

We again used Mod Podge to attach the actual hippo. Black buttons were hot glued on for eyes and nostrils. (It was very hard to let go of the hippo canvas, by the way!)  We just did all of these steps again for the tiger. The face and stripes were painted on with black paint. We thought we were done, but then we realized there were staples on the side. That was an easy fix- we just hot glued coordinating grosgrain ribbon onto the sides for a clever and cute way to hide the staples.  

Now, I know I'm not very good with instructions but I hope you can translate them and get results as good as ours, and possibly better! Overall this is pretty easy, and guaranteed to make the person who receives it VERY happy! 

Now, back to my oh-so-crafty mom!

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Thank you, Halley! I think these turned out really cute! One of her friends LOVES hippos and the other is soon getting her own jungle themed bathroom. These would be really cute for a nursery, but they are also a good kids craft, too. Besides scrapbook paper, you can use tissue paper or fabric. A friend of mine made me one of these and she used rubber stamps to add more dimension and pattern to the background. There really are a lot of possibilities. I was just glad that this was something she could make for her friends.

Link Parties where I sometimes hang out...

Sew Can Do, Monday Funday, Motivate Me Monday, Inspiration Monday, Take a Look Tuesday, Naptime Creations, The Gathering Spot, Carolyn's Homework, The Winthrop Chronicles, Handmade Tuesdays,Your Whims Wednesday,  Weekly Homemaking Party,Create It Thursday, Treasure Hunt Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things, Wildly Original, Thriving on Thursday, Grace at Home, The 36th Party, Freedom Fridays, Feathered Nest Friday, Simple and Sweet Fridays, Craft Frenzy Friday, and Think Pink Sunday.

Doll Diapers and Dresses

Today I have a very special guest post. This summer the girls and I have been doing a lot of craft projects. I am trying to keep them busy so that they don't find their own ways to entertain themselves. As I mentioned before, one of my tactics for making my daughters dread Joann's Fabric Store less is to allow them to choose a fat quarter when they are on sale. My daughter, Halley, and I used some of them to make doll diapers and dresses. I let her use my camera to photograph them and now she is going to tell you a little more about them while I bake cupcakes with her sister and make lunch...

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Hi, I'm Halley! My mom and I made dresses and diapers for my Baby Alive doll, Mandy Grace. The outside of the diapers are made out of fat quarters from Joann's Fabric Store. The inside is made of flannel scraps.We used velcro to attach the flaps to the front of the diaper, and a little strip of elastic in the back so they don't fall off of the doll. 

Here are all of the diapers we made.

Here is the  reversible dress, along with the matching diaper we made out the leftover fabric. We used a tiny bit of other fabric to cut out a little heart and sew on. We also used a little bias tape leftover from my Sunrise Dress.

Here  is the other side of the reversible dress  made out of the same fabric as the heart on the other side of this dress.

We also made a Reversible criss-cross dress that matches two of the diapers we made. The pattern was no longer available. They did have picture of the pattern, though! Unfortunately it was taken at a weird angle. So my mom drew a picture of the pattern. It worked, but unfortunately it was a little too big for Mandy.

Here is the other side. We didn't use velcro, instead we used snaps. Let's just say my mom isn't too experienced with snaps. She had to rip them out a couple of times.

Well, that about sums it up.Thanks for stopping by and checking out my first ever post!

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Thank you, Halley! Yes, she is brutally honest. ;) I did make some adjustments to my pattern and I have it all worked out now, so I will probably make more of the criss-cross dresses.