She sews! - Easy kid's sewing project

Last week I was working on a blanket for my niece for her birthday.  As usual I was running a little behind on time.  Ella was watching and trying to help me here and there.  Usually I encourage her to help but with my time constraint, I let her know that I needed to do most of the work.   She was a little disappointed, until she decided to make her own blanket.  I know she knows how to use the machine properly, but she had never made anything completely on her own.  She collected my scraps and she told me she was going to make a little blanket for her puppy.  I told her I didn't have time to help her, but if she wanted to do it all on her own she could go right ahead.  

Guess what?  She did!!

I had to at least stop and take a picture of her at the machine because it just makes me so excited to see that she has an interest in sewing.  Sigh!

She did ask me what step to do next as she was making it and she followed directions perfectly.  

It was a simple blanket, but she did it all on her own!!

This is how she made it, if you want a simple starter project for kids...or yourself.  It's never too late to learn something new.

1.  Cut two pieces of fabric to the same size.  (Ella just used my leftover piece so it ended up being a long rectangle.  You can cut to any shape. ) 

2.  Pin fabric together with right sides facing each other.

3.  Sew with a 5/8 inch seam allowance almost all the way around leaving a 3 inch opening.

4.  Turn blanket right side out.  Ella had a little bit of a hard time turning it but managed.

5.  Sew opening shut as close to edge as possible with a topstitch.

6.  Topstitch all the way around blanket about 1/2 inch from the edge just to make it a little cleaner and so it will stay a little nicer.

Cardboard Village - Cereal box houses

 So this is a little project that we did a while back over Christmas break.  

We made our own little winter village.  

This was a great afternoon project for the kids.  It does take a little time and for the most part I did most of the assembling of the houses and the kids painted and decorated them. 

This is how we made them.  

(I didn't take any picture while we made them but it's pretty easy to figure out by looking at the finished houses.) 

Supplies needed:

cardboard - cereal boxes, any small cardboard box

scissors

tape

and any supplies to decorate

paint, markers, patterned paper, fabric, washi tape...

 We pretty much made all of our houses out of cut up cereal boxes, except for one house which we made out of a powered sugar box.
1. I cut long strips and folded it into a square or rectangular box. I made the inside of the cereal box the outside of the houses so that it was a little more of a clean slate to work with, but any way works. It will open on top and bottom.
2. Tape it on the inside.  I knew we weren't keeping them too long so I didn't get too crazy with the tape.  The kids were helping at this point with the taping.  They LOVE tape.
3. Now cut the roof line.  Two ends should have the peak of the roof and two sides should be cut down for the sides of the house.
4. Tape from the inside.
5. We also added little chimney.  Again make a square and tape.  Cut to fit roof line.
6. Tape.  Done!

You can make them different shapes and sizes.  I was going to add little shutters for the windows and cut open the doors, but the kids wanted to jump into the painting.

Oh and I can't forget Ella's idea about putting a cotton ball in the chimney for smoke.  

I want to do this again and decorate my own.  

mini teepees

We were going to make a pilgrim and indian village but once we made the little mini teepees the kids wanted to set up the village and forgot all about the pilgrims.  

The teepees were really quick and easy to make.

This is how we made ours:

1. Cut a  9" X 11" piece of brown construction paper in half width wise.
    (You could make bigger teepees without cutting it in half)

2. Put a little bit of glue with a glue stick along one edge and corner.  If you roll the piece of paper into    a cone you can see where to place the glue.

3. Roll the piece of paper into a cone and leave a small opening on the top to glue some twigs into.  Press along edge and corner where the glue is.

4. Trim the two corners that are pointing down so that the teepee can sit flat on the ground.

5. Decorate with markers.

6. Break a twig into 5 or 6 small 2 inch pieces.  Hot glue pieces in place.

Have fun creating a little village!

jasmine crown

 a while back i had told ella we would make her a flower crown after she saw a picture of one i posted a while back.  we bought the supplies but we still have not got around to making it.

last weekend andy was moving one of our vines and a piece of the jasmine vine broke off.

this little miss decided she would make her own flower crown...

i love what she did with it!!

DIY: SILLY PUTTY

when i first saw this to make your own silly putty, i couldn't wait to run out and grab some glue and liquid starch.  

how fun, right?

it's super simple and both of the kids loved making it.

what kid doesn't like to squish their hands around in glue?

that simple.

here is how we made it.

we emptied the 7.5 oz bottle of glue into a bowl.

added a squirt of paint and mixed it.

then i just kept pouring small amounts of the liquid starch in.

you can see it immediately start to adhere to itself.

julian stirred it with a spatula for about 5 seconds and then dove in with his hands.

you kind of have to knead the putty once it forms and keep mixing the starch into it until you get it to a point where it isn't sticky any more.

we have made two more batches since this one.  

ella made some silver putty and today julian made some black putty.

the one julian made today feels the most like silly putty.

i added a little more starch and it is a little stiffer.

 after all that fun you need a little refreshment...

 i have bought and drank so many of these lately. 

these thai coconuts are so creamy and sweet.

YUM!!!

have you tried them?

the kiddos aren't huge fans, but i could probably have one a day.

happy thursday!!

easter egg fun

 we did a little egg dying and we accidentally ended up with these beautifully speckled eggs.

we used food coloring and my pink food coloring which has been around for probably a little too long,  did not want to dissolve in my water vinegar mix.

i used 1 cup of warm water mixed with 2 Tbsp vinegar

so this is what we got!

the kids had fun watching the big pink spots appear on the eggs.

this made me want to experiment with dying fabric a little more. i have done it a couple of times but i haven't tried anything too interesting.  

i think i overcrowded my big pot both times and ended up with really uneven dying on clothes that i actually wanted dyed evenly.

hmmm...i do have quite a few fabric dyes waiting to be used...

Painted Branches

 I saw these painted pieces of wood and I loved them.

I knew they would be the perfect little project to do with the kiddos.

I didn't have any driftwood but I did have a bunch of twigs I had been saving for just this type of project.

I'm not sure what we are going to do with them but for now they are hanging out in a glass jar and adding a little splash of color.