100 Felt Hearts

I had to get someone early from school today because she wasn't feeling well. She seems fine to me now.

In an effort to avoid public TV for a bit, we spent a couple of hours cutting out 100 felt hearts for the 100th day of school.

After cutting them out, we sewed them all together to create a garland. This will serve two purposes, 100 items for the 100th day of school and decor for the Valentine's Day party!

Here is another version of a heart garland at Made By Rae.

Jennifer Hoech

Letter Boxing

If you haven't letter boxed, go do it now.

It's a bit like geocoaching but more fun for little kids. Basically, you print out clues that lead you to a hidden box. Each box has a journal and a stamp. You also carry a stamp and journal. You stamp the box's journal with your stamp and stamp your journal with the box's stamp. It's interesting to read the box's journal to see how many other people have found the box before you.

Eventually your journal becomes full with unique stamps as most are hand carved.


Some of the clues will take you on a bit of a hike. It also introduces you to new places around town that you many not otherwise visit.





Atlas Quest is a nice website because you can easily track the boxes you have found. There are many great features on the website that make it easy to find boxes.

There is also Letterboxing North America that is an ok site. It's just hard to keep track of what you've completed.

These boxes are all over the place which makes it easy to find one on just about every outing.

We're planning on planting our own box this summer. The kids are looking forward to writing the clues and carving their own stamp!

Embroidery

The girls each did a little embroidery project over the summer.

I really wasn't sure if the little one would be able to do the stitching but she loved it. She would just sit there and work on it for the longest time.

These are their own drawings that I transfered onto the fabric. I got the idea from Skip to My Lou.

The big girl even sewed her pillow together.

Felt Easter Eggs

I had so much fun making these felt hearts for Valentines, I thought I would make some eggs for Easter.
















The hearts stayed up way too long because I loved to look at them.

This is an easy and fast craft.

Cut out your egg shape from two pieces of felt. If you would like ric-rac or ribbon as the stripes, glue down first, making sure they area bit longer than the egg for ease of sewing. Cut an extra length of ribbon for the hanger. Once the ribbon has tried, sew around your egg (sandwich the hanger of ribbon between the two pieces of felt and sew in while sewing around edges). Leave about an inch open to stuff with filling. You can cut off the extra ribbon at this time.

Have your child lightly stuff with filling. You can call this fine motor skill work or sweat shop labor. Whatever the PC term is at the moment. While your child is stuffing, work on sewing your next egg.











Once they are all filled, finish sewing the opening closed.




You can finish embellishing with hot glue and any little items you wish. I chose some fun roses, sequins and bows.

Hang on door knobs, pictures or anywhere you need a little holiday spirit!



I can see making these for many different holidays, shamrocks, ornaments, pumpkins etc.

Mermaid Islands

I read about this great Mermaid Island made of play dough.


It looked like such a great idea after about four batches of play dough were made, the girls had a blast.

They decided to make their own Islands instead of one huge one. Such fun!

Haunted House. Boo!

Freya wanted to make a haunted house. So I got some ideas from this website on how to construct ghosts and pumpkins from egg cartons and we ran with it.

We started by cutting holes for windows and a door.
Then we painted the boxes black and made them look spooky by doing a little dry brush with white.


Cut paper to fit the inside, put a few pieces on the inside of the windows and doors then decorate with your egg carton creations.

The girls made witches and pasted them to the outside of the houses. There are lots of ghosts hangin' around inside and out. And if you look into a window, you may see some eyes staring back at you or maybe the Great Pumpkin.

There is even a tombstone made from tin foil.

Jonah got into it and turned some bottle caps into pumpkins and mummies. Very clever.

Hedgehogs, Pumpkins and Turkeys, Oh My!

We finished the salt dough creations last night.

The turkeys look a bit white because they aren't completely dry in the pic but you get the idea.

I think they turned out rather well considering it was a spur-of-the-moment craft.

Jonah made this super cute hedgehog.

He is saving his money (well not really as there is always a book he HAS to have and thankfully can't seem to save the $150) for a hedgehog. He has hedgehog on the brain.

For the pumpkins, we used glitter Mod Podge. While I like the look of it, it is expensive and would have been just as easy to add glitter to regular Mod Podge. If you notice, Freya's are green. She really wanted to mix the colors and couldn't stop painting when they were orange.



I recommend just covering the counter with butcher paper or newspaper. Put the paint on the paper and use that as your pallet. This makes for an easy clean-up and lets them easily mix colors as needed.

Into the oven you go

The middle child is sick but feeling up to crafting after her drug cocktail.

So we're making salt dough crafts. The dough is very easy to make and you probably have everything you need on hand!

This recipe will make lots of little crafts and have enough for play-dough play after.

Salt Dough Recipe
(That Artist Woman)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water

Mix ingredients in bowl until combined.


Turn out on floured surface and kneed until dough consistency. I have read that you may need to add more flour but didn't need to.



Make your shapes, bake on a cookie sheet at 250 for 2.5 to 3 hours. Cool over night then paint! Mod podge for a shiny finish.


My eyes have been opened up to the many possibilities. I am thinking that ghosts with pumpkin lanterns will be the next craft.


We made these pumpkins and these turkeys. It will be a long wait until they are cooked and cooled but once they are, we will paint and I'll post those pics then

Shaving Cream Fun

If you're looking for a cheap good time, go buy a can of shaving cream.

We made some fun marbled paper today:


We also made fun puffy moons a while back, that was fun. Just shaving cream, white glue, a little paint and you have puffy paint.



It's also fun to just rub your hands in and get messy. Some people do this in the tub for good reason.

Organized Craft

My friend Geni came over one day and put together an IKEA shelf for me. I could have done it but hey she offered, she says she LIKES to put IKEA crapola together. I had tons of organizing to do so I called her on it. She came over and put the darn thing together and even screwed it into the closet wall for me. I seriously owe her a few drinks or 10.

Anyway, that gave me tons of time to organize the many craft items that the kids and I have.

And now when they want to do fun things like these cool Count Down sticks to keep track of how many days until Grandpa Steve gets here, it isn't a problem.





Everything is labeled so they can't tell me it isn't to be found. And it is super easy to figure out where it belongs. Pom-poms are here, glue is here, glitter is there, coloring books are here. Little by little, this will be every closet in my house. That is if Geni is still available.

Freya had a fun day at preschool. Everyone dressed in PJs and got to make lots of fun holiday items. Here she is putting some kind of marshmallow on an ice cream cone to in the end make a decorated tree. So cute.

Sewing for gifts.

It seemed like a good idea. I have a few things done but my list hasn't gotten smaller as I finish because I keep adding things to it!

I am making lots of these cute little things. I just really wish my embroidery were better.





This lunch bag was just finished. I really like how it turned out.







I also made a few other things like the grocery bag. I love this pattern, I highly recommend it, it is brilliant. Patterned after those plastic bags you get groceries in now.














A sassy apron, a zippered pouch, some crayon rolls (these just about killed my patience) and more to come.

Next I am going to start the Altoids tin survival kit for Jonah. Gonna get crafty with the outside and decoupage something cool on it.

After that, I'll be making a cool Nancy Drew detective kit (don't get me started as to why I can't just buy one at the frickin' store when they have EVERY other crappy character out there.) I am thinking of making a bag that folds open with lots of little pockets and such for all the notebooks, fingerprint kits, magnifying glass etc that a good detective needs.

And these super cute cupcakes area must. Geeze how many days are left before X-mas?

That crayon roll is really short a crayon. Oops.

Grave Rubbings.

We went and visited the Round Rock cemetery today. It is famous in Round Rock because Sam Bass and A.W. Grimes are buried there.

The kids seemed to like making the rubbings almost as much as the moms did. It was a very nice setting as there wasn't too much other commotion going on. I guess it is a cemetery after all.


Jonah studied the history or Round Rock last year and learned all about the Round Rock shoot out.

Poor Grimes was a Texas Ranger doing his job, got shot by Bass and his widow was only given $200 and one of Bass' horses. Well for a husband that may be a good deal....