heart face hair clip valentines

For Valentine's Day this year I decided to give the girls a gift handmade with love. I found these felt heart shapes that we used a few years back for a Valentine's tic tac toe game and thought they could use a little more personality, so I embroidered some cute quirky faces on them and turned them into hair clips. They loved them! I had so much fun making them a little token of love l that I think a small handmade Valentine gift tradition has been started.

I am thinking about making a little different version of these for the shop, so you might see these and other quirky heart-faced characters again sometime soon. They were just too much fun, I am not done with them yet! :)

You're Sweet, Valentine! Free Printable

If you are like me and tend to wait until the last minute to put together Valentine's this free bag topper printable may help! 

I found these darling Japanese ice cream puzzle erasers at my local party store (you can find them online too) and knew it would be the perfect way to give LM's Kindergarten class a fun 'treat' without being a treat at all! Since they pull apart and put back together like puzzles my girls have been playing with them almost non-stop, so I think they will be a hit with the younger age group. 

I like to give candy-free Valentine's, but with this printable you can fill the bag up with any little 'sweet' thing you can think of so it's totally versatile. It is the perfect size for 3"x4" treat bags which are big enough to hold 1-3 little treats. Just print the toppers on cardstock or other heavy paper, cut them out, have your little one fill up the bags and write their name after the xoxo, then help them staple on the bag toppers. Super easy!

You can download/print the bag toppers 9 to a page here. For personal use only, please.

Have a sweet Valentine's Day!

wearable art

One of the gifts the Little Miss received at her birthday party was some kid's craft clay. She has wanted to work with it for awhile and we finally had a chance to pull it out this week during nap time. There are certain projects I only allow her to do when Lark is asleep and this clay fell into that category for me - it is just too hard and messy to start a project meant for older kids with an almost 18 month-old wanting to join in the fun. And, let's be honest, try to eat it.

LM decided that she wanted to make colorful beads with the clay after seeing a bracelet on the packaging. She made all of the balls, with a little help from me to shape them into spheres, and then we poked them with a needle to make a hole before they were baked. Once the beads were done we simply threaded them onto elastic thread and just like that she had some wearable art!

She loves her colorful necklace and has worn it out and about with a big smile on her face. I was a little worried it would be too heavy, but she tells me it's fine. I love letting her be creative and then seeing her so proud of what she can make with her two little hands.

art birthday party

For the Little Miss' fourth birthday we had an art party at our favorite park. It was her first friend party and she was so excited. I was a little worried it would be too hot, but we had the kids drink plenty of water and in the end I am glad I chose to have the party outside. It was so much less stressful for me since I didn't have to clean my house or worry about having enough room for a bunch of energetic kids. They also had tons of fun playing together and using their imaginations - more fun than with any games I could have come up with for them to play. The bonus was us moms had lots of time to chat since the kids were so content playing!

I kept the decor and food really simple to cut back on cost, and also used the leftover cups, straws, and  napkins from Lark's party. Now this is where you are going to have to humor me, but the cupcakes are supposed to be like artist's palettes. I carried over the blue/green ombre theme from the invitations with the M&M 'paint' and then made 'paintbrushes' out of pretzels dipped in melted white chocolate with a little bit of blue food coloring (not mixed all the way in so as to look more painterly). The chocolate chip represents the thumb hole - but you could totally tell that, right? ;)

They tasted good. Just ask Lark...

Instead of a traditional hanging birthday banner LM helped me make a birthday table runner. It also doubled as an example of the art project we were going to do. Each child was given a piece of watercolor paper, and using painters tape we helped them tape their first initial (or let them go wild and tape whatever their little heart desired). They painted all around the tape with watercolors, and then we sent them off to the playground while the paint dried. Once it was dry we carefully pulled the tape off to reveal their works of art! 

As a thank you for coming, I gave each family a print from Bear Cave Studios (a local art studio that teaches classes for kids) with a quote by Picasso saying, "All Children are Artists" - because they really, truly are and I think they should know it.  

LM was spoiled with lots of gifts, mostly art themed, which have kept her busy in the happiest way. Thank you so much to our generous friends and family!

starting an art journal

  

Yesterday we started a new on-going kid's project - making an art journal! The plan is to spend some time on Sunday afternoons documenting something we did the week before with collages and words using anything we can find laying around the house. I want to foster a desire in LM to record the big or little moments of her life and hopefully help her on her way to be an avid journal writer - something that has been important to me in my life and I think will be a healthy habit for her to form. The bonus is she can explore and discover how she can express herself through art, and it is fun!

I already think that next time I will have her use a blank journal/sketch book so I won't have to keep track of her pages and figure out a way to make them into a book later - we'll see how it evolves, but this worked for now. She decided to make her page about the water slides we went to on Saturday. I helped her decide on a concept for the art since this was her first time doing any sort of collage. She drew everything and I helped her cut it out. Then I wrote down what she told me about the day,

"I love daddy to come with me on the water slides. I love mommy and daddy and Lark to come on the water slides with me. They were FUN!"

My favorite part was the little drawing of her going down the slide...

I didn't get any real life pictures of her going down the slides since I was holding Lark in the pool, but she was really brave and went down them several times even though she was a little scared of the noise and the splash at the end.

I did snap this picture of her though... and yes, she is bringing back the sunglasses holder trend ;)

heart knot friendship bracelet valentines

I was feeling very uninspired this year when it came to making any Valentine's. I knew LM really wanted something to give to her cousins and a few friends, so I was just going to have her pick out some Valentine's at the store (which seriously would have been just fine). But, as I was falling asleep late last night all of these individual thoughts that were floating around in my head suddenly collided and I knew what I wanted to do - heart knot bracelets!

So if you need a very extremely last minute Valentine idea, here you go...

I had a bunch of soft suede leather lace I didn't end up using on a project (that I'll share later this week), so I originally thought that I could make adjustable friendship bracelets - you know, like those awesome neon ones we proudly wore back in the day? Then, Melissa fortuitously posted how to tie adjustable knots, and that combined with a picture of a heart knot I remembered seeing on Jen's Pinterest brought this idea all together. And, really, that's all it is - tying knots.

A how-to video for the heart knot can be found here. I had to watch it at least a few times to get the hang of it, but once it clicked the rest went pretty fast. I will say that I think the dark blue heart knot looks the best because it was a little thicker than the other colors so keep that in mind. Also, make sure you give yourself plenty of extra lace on each side for the adjustable knots.

Once you are done you can slide the bracelets over this little printable card I made, and simply pull the adjustable knots tight. Right click on the picture to save and print it (saying inspired by these two friendship bracelet Valentine's). Or you can make your own with Husband's rejected (albeit funny) idea - 'I don't like you. KNOT! Be Mine.' ;)

Happy Valentine's Day friends!!!

doll suitcase: tutorial

I created this fun doll suitcase for my oldest daughter and we love playing with it together. It has three interchangeable rooms, a secret clothes storage space under the floor, and it's portable! Would you like to make your own? I'll show you how!

You will need all of the supplies listed above, as well as the notably missing iron, thread, scissors, and sewing machine. The 'wallpaper' fabric, or base fabric, for the rooms needs to be at least a whole fat quarter (depending on the size of your suitcase), but the remaining fabric can be scraps - it's a great way to use up some of your stash.

I made three interchangeable rooms for mine, so I used three pieces of poster board. You may also need a piece of poster board for the 'floor' backing. The foam board just needs to be a big as your suitcase. Speaking of the suitcase, I found this vintage green beauty at the thrift store for $3. The key to this project is the ruffle edging along the inside of the top lid - that ruffle is what will hold your interchangeable rooms in place.

First, measure the inside of the lid and cut out the poster board(s) so it fits snugly behind the ruffle, but you can still pull it out.

Next, take a large piece of freezer paper and trace the outline of the poster board so you know exactly how much space you have to fill. Draw a pattern of your room - know the more detailed it is, the more work it will be! I didn't end up putting all of these little details in my kitchen, but the main components are important at this point.

Cut out all of the main components of your drawing to create freezer paper pattern pieces.

I'll show you the next several steps using my fridge pattern piece, but you will want to do this for all of your pieces.

Now you can decide what color felt or fabric print you want to use for each piece. Iron the freezer paper pattern onto your choice of material, I chose to make my fridge out of blue felt.

This will make it easy to cut out the shape, then simply peel the freezer paper off (you can use the same freezer paper pattern several times if needed - I kept all of mine just in case I want to make another doll suitcase someday for my other daughter, although maybe I would want to make it look different!).

Next take the double stick fusible and place your cut out pattern piece onto it. I don't worry about covering every square inch, that way I can use up scrap pieces of fusible if needed.

Cut out the fusible into your shape and peel off the backing.

Once you have all of your main pieces cut out with the fusible, place them onto a piece of fabric that will act as the 'wallpaper'. A fat quarter was the perfect size for my suitcase, just make sure your piece is big enough to cover the poster board piece you cut out in the first step with a few inches around to spare. Iron all of the main pieces in place, the fusible will adhere them to the fabric.

Add the rest of the details in your room in the same manner and iron them in place. Then sew around everything to secure it and add other details, for example, I sewed the sink outline onto the counter.

Fun details include pictures cut out from printed fabrics. I also used pops of gold and silver fabric for added shine and texture.

Embroider any small details as needed. I used embroidery on my sewing machine in the bedroom, for the cord on my light and the word on the fridge in the kitchen, and for the clock face in the front room.

Once your room is all sewed up and you are satisfied, it's time to glue! Take the poster board you originally cut out and wrap your room tightly around it. Using a hot glue gun, glue it securely in place all the way around. Add a small ribbon pull tab to one corner.

This tab will allow you to easily pull the rooms out of the suitcase lid to change them up. I also ended up adding a ribbon pull tab to the floor which is the next step.

   
For the floor, measure around the lip of the bottom portion of your suitcase and cut out the foam board to fit. Wrap fabric around the foam board and hot glue in place, add a ribbon pull tab (not pictured), and then back it with a piece of poster board. You may be able to use a leftover piece of poster board if you cut using space carefully at the start.

The bottom of the suitcase serves as storage for my daughter's doll and all of her clothes, so the floor will hide this space during playtime.

Pop your room(s) and floor into place and you're done! All three of my rooms fit behind the ruffle at once, so that is how I store them. Just pull the ribbon tabs to get them out and switch them up (tip: in retrospect I should have used a different color ribbon for each room so I would know which tab to pull accordingly).

Here are my finished rooms - the front room, the bedroom, and the kitchen:

For my doll, I used the Black Apple pattern and I had a lot of fun designing an entire wardrobe for her. The sky is the limit with this project, I hope you try it out!

Also, a big thank you to Prudent Baby for sharing this tutorial on their site as well.