Paper Egg Craft

We made a last minute craft and I got to thinking about all you bloggers with many age groups at home. While simple, this might be a good time occupier for a whole family to get in on. Panda loves to rip paper, so all week I have had him ripping paper. Sometimes I sit with him to help rip the paper into smaller pieces. 

Then today with the help of some older children (and someone still young at heart.. grin), we glued them to paper eggs. I may break out the glitter, but aren't they lovely? Panda helped glue the one that is completely covered. He thought it was the best game ever. I plan to hide them all over the house in unexpected places for fun. Start an assembly line, get everyone involved, decorate, keep occupied, and have fun!

Wet Felting With Cookie-Cutters

 Hello everyone. Bear is watching Panda so I can sneak in a little blogging. Here is the next video in my felting series. This is a fun project for ages 3 - 100. Grab some loved ones, wool roving, soapy water and let the fun begin!

I forgot to mention that it's probably best not to touch the felt while it is drying. You can get more advanced with your felting techniques with screens and the like, but this is just a simple project. 

When I was done with all of the hearts (and they were dry). I used a yarn needle and yarn to sew them all together to make a simple garland for Valentine's Day. 

 And here it is on my mantel! It's so simple and so pretty. I love how our mantelscape turned out this year.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Thank you, have fun, and be well. 

Autumn Leaf Crown

 A boy and his mother were out enjoying a crisp Autumn day. They had been talking about seasons and enjoying the beautiful colors of Autumn. "Prince Autumn is coming", mother said, "We should leave him a crown".

 Mother sent boy to go collect several bright Autumn leaves that had fallen to the ground. He had fun exploring and looking for leaves. He chose several brightly colored leaves with edges that had not started to curl. 

 When he brought them to his mother she made a beautiful crown by weaving the stems through the leaves.

"Do you think Prince Autumn will like his new crown?" the boy asked. "I'm sure he will." His mother replied with a smile. 

The two left the crown waiting on a rock for Prince Autumn to find, and then went home.

The End.

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Would you like to make your own crown? Below is a video tutorial. I loved to make these when I was a little girl. Panda and I had so much fun that I think making a crown for Prince Autumn to ring in the Fall might become a new family tradition. Have fun and be well.

Mother's Day Craft

 Hello, this is a simple craft you can do to make beautiful cards. You will need paper, a rainbow ink pad (any color works, but rainbow gives a little extra special touch) and the feet of a very sleepy baby (you could also use a stamp or the side of your hand).

 Press the foot of the very sleepy baby into the stamp pad...

 and onto a piece of folded paper.

 Use a crayon to add details, make sure to wash baby's feet off before the ink dries... And there you have it! A beautiful card just in time for Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day from my family to yours. Make it a beautiful day and Have fun!

Nursery Mobile.

 Hello. We have been so busy getting every last minute detail in order for baby that there has not been much time for me to finish this one item. A few weeks ago I posted about my baby shower and am back to show what I did with the pieces of my decorated chandelier afterwards.

 

 I really wanted to make a mobile to match the nursery's decor; so I saved all the pieces off the chandelier after the shower, added a grapevine wreath and some pretty scrap ribbon. 

 Here are what the animals look like close up. They are made with shrinky dink plastic. Originally I was going to do the entire mobile out of shrinky dink.... Then I thought that perhaps breathing in melting plastic might not be so good for myself or the baby (face palm); I switched to card stock to make the leaves for the rest of the mobile and tied them in groups of 3 and 4 using embroidery floss to make a leaf chain. Hmm, the pictures might illustrate that better than my description. 

 Next I tied them all to the wreath keeping in mind how I wanted them to look when I hung up the finished project.

And The pretty ribbon worked lovely to hang the finished mobile to the ceiling. And at long last it is done! Not much longer and we will be welcoming our son into this world. I am so excited to meet my little Red Panda. Take care!

Holiday Poppers/Crackers

 These poppers do not pop, but they are pretty and oh so much fun! We will be using them to reveal our baby's gender this Christmas for visiting family. Some of the charms inside are not pictured to keep the secret for now, but some good holiday ideas would be jingle bells, candy, tiny ornaments and/or charms.

You will need:

Tissue paper
Wrapping paper

tape

Ribbon

Cardboard tubes

Fun things to stuff inside

We used the cardboard from label makers but toilet paper tubes would also work. For stuffing we used silver bells with gender appropriate ribbons tied to them, charms that say "It's a ___!", tiny safety pins that are the appropriate color, and candy.

 First, stuff the cardboard tube with goodies and then roll the cardboard tube in tissue paper. Leave an inch and a half to two inches of extra tissue paper on each side. Give the extra tissue paper a little twist on each side to keep the goodies inside while you tie the ends off.

 Next use some ribbon to tie the ends.

 Wrap some wrapping paper around the cardboard tube and tape in place, curl the ends of the ribbon, and trim off the access tissue paper.

 

And there you have it. Another fun and easy craft for the holidays. Place them in a pretty bowl for your guests this Christmas and New Years and Have fun!

Easy Ornaments

 Just a quick post today. These ornaments belong to my sister. They are super easy and catch the light beautifully.

To make them you will need silk covered Styrofoam balls, sequins, beads, and pins...

 Sometimes some pretty trim is nice to.

Just use the pins to attach the beads and sequins. It's that easy and the end result is oh so pretty. Take care and have fun!

Quick No Sew Ornament

 

 In the past I've made similar ornaments by sewing little pillows. This is a quick and easy alternative. You will need a metal juice lid or a circle of cardboard, felt, ribbon, fabric paint or what ever you choose to embellish your ornament with, and hot glue.

First cut two circles that are slightly larger than your juice lid, Then glue the ribbon in a loop for hanging. Next sandwich the juice lid with hot glue between the two circles of felt. Finish embellishing the ornament with buttons, felt stickers, ribbon, fabric paint , or what ever your heart desires. For this one I used a felt snowflake sticker and white fabric paint.

Let it dry and it is ready to hang on the tree. Have fun!

Clothespin Reindeer Tutorial

 

 When we were little we received tiny reindeer ornaments made from clothespins. I don't remember where they came from but I always thought they were adorable. This is my sister's reindeer from way back then.

This is the remake that I will be using for this tutorial. I used miniature clothespins from the craft store so I had to use seed beads for the eyes, noes, and holly berries. If you use regular clothespins you can use googly eyes and pom poms instead. You will also need three clothespins, glue, some green felt, a tiny bit of white felt, and some embroidery floss for hanging your finished reindeer.

 First, cut out two holly leaf shapes from the green felt and glue to a clothespin as pictured. This will be the head of your reindeer.

 Next, glue on the beads or pom poms and googly eyes. Allow to dry before moving on to the next step.

 Once the face has dried glue the three clothespins together as pictured. For fun add a tiny teardrop of white felt to the back to make a tail.

The End!

I will be posting several ornament ideas and tutorials throughout the holiday season. Keep in touch and 

Have fun!

Recycled Crayons

Yesterday with the help of three fabulous helpers, we made recycled crayons. Fun new shapes can be easy on little hands and less fragile. I used flexible silicon ice cube trays to make the long crayons, and chocolate molds to make the zoo animal faces pictured.

First sort your colors out, like colors with like colors.

Next peel off all of the paper and chop them up using a knife. My helpers also smashed them in a plastic bag with a hammer. That worked very well. The smaller the pieces the faster the crayons will melt.

There are many ways to melt crayons. I use the double boiler method because the crayons are less likely to burn or ignite. Crayons melt between 128-147 degrees Fahrenheit. Set the chopped/smashed color crayon pieces in a soup can and put it on the stove (I put it on high) in a pan of water.

Stir the pieces as they melt (I used old chopsticks). You can see some bumps in the yellow where the crayons are not completely melted yet. We poured the yellow crayons this way. There were bumps in the finished crayons, but I kind of like them that way. The other colors we waited till the wax was smooth like milk before pouring into the molds.

Next pour your wax into the molds. Careful, it is very hot. The crayons will harden quickly so you have to work a little fast.

Beautiful colors Thank you helpers, this was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy your new crayons.
Have fun!