Ribbon and felt pocket bracelets

We celebrated my daughter's birthday yesterday with two of her friends and a trip to the Exploritorium. After playing, snacking, and opening gifts, I gave each of the girls one of these little pocket bracelets I had made just before walking out the door. (Why plan ahead and ruin my reputation?) I had filled them with M&Ms so they would have a little surprise upon opening them.
These were really quite easy to make and I figured the girls would enjoy having a tiny pocket filled with secret treasures on their wrists. My mistake was not making the flap of the envelope/pocket longer with the button hole a little lower, allowing the pocket to expand a bit more when filled. It still works nicely for very small treasures such as 5 M&Ms, tiny notes, spare change, small jewelry items, etc. Just a thought, in case you end up making some.
These would make sweet little Easter gifts, too.
If I get around to making a more masculine version for my son, I'll post that, as well.

Domino necklace

We attended a birthday party over the weekend, which, for me, meant some last-minute crafting. This time I put together a domino necklace for our 5-year old friend Danielle.
I had been meaning to experiment with old game pieces as necklaces after seeing Scrabble tile pendants (links at bottom), but hadn't gotten around to it. Nothing like a deadline to get me going.
For this necklace, I glued an old lettered game piece (specifically chosen for the birthday girl) to the top half of a domino, leaving exposed the number 5. I coated the letter with Mod Podge and the number with Diamond Glaze. I super glued a jewelry bail with jump ring to the top and slid a little leathery rope necklace through. Pretty simple.
I was pleased, and am excited about experimenting further. I'll be sure to post when I get around to making something new.

For Scrabble tile pendant tutorials, see here:
Annie Howes
Home Studio at Make and Takes
Squidoo

For pendant-like magnets, see:
Angry Chicken

Oh yeah, I made the box, too, using this tutorial:
Origami gift box at U-handbag

Pillowcase dress and bias tape

I finally got around to making a pillowcase dress for my daughter. End of summer, but she requested it especially long and I made the armholes deeper than planned, so she should actually be able to wear this every summer for most of her life.
I will direct you to a popular tutorial that I plan to use next time I make one of these, but, really, there are so many tutorials online for these dresses-some with ribbon casing at the top like this one, some with it through the arms, some with elastic, some from non-pillowcase fabric, etc.-that it would be worth it for you to look around and find the one that you like best. I looked at several and then, when it came down to it, followed none of them exactly. Probably why my armholes ended up so large.
I did make my own bias tape for the arms. I've done this before, but this was the first time to use my Clover Bias Tape Maker. Much less tedious this way. The package comes with instructions, but like everything else, online tutorials are abundant. To start with, here's one for making the tape and one for sewing it to your garment.
If any of you purchased floral sheet sets in the late 70s or 80s, or slept on your parents', you may recognize this pillowcase. This was the last in our household that hadn't been recycled into rags or dropcloth. I added the ribbon trim around the bottom to match the ribbon at the neck.
This is a simple sewing project, but if you're like me, problems seem inevitable until you've worked through it several times. I expect it will be faster and easier next time.

3 Easy Projects

First of all, here is a simple craft foam project.
Instructions: Cut out shapes. Put shapes in bathtub. Play!
When wet, the foam sticks to the tub walls and other pieces of foam (like the faceless guy with removable clothes up there). Sets of these are sold commercially, but many of the pieces are thick foam which won't stick in the curved part of a bathtub. The thin craft foam will stick on the curve.


Second project. Necklaces.
Instructions: Punch holes in your leftover bits of craft foam (all the funny shapes left behind after cutting your bath toys). Cut some curvy shapes out of empty cereal boxes and punch holes in the center. Cut used (washed) drinking straws into short segments. Assemble these ingredients plus some cheerios and tubular pasta in bowls or a muffin tin. Cut a length of string that will be long enough to pull over your child's head when knotted. Slip on a button and knot the string behind it (to keep the other items from slipping off the end of the necklace.) Wrap a short piece of tape around the opposite end of string to make it easier for slipping through holes and to keep it from unraveling. String items on, knot necklace, trim ends, and wear!

You could use these items for a collage, as well. (Bonus 4th project idea.)

Third project. Travel necklace.
Instructions:
Cut a length of string as before.
Prep ends as before (button on one end, tape on the other.)
Drop in a ziploc bag along with a bunch of cheerios.
Pull out on the plane and your child has an edible activity!

(This project is included in The Preschooler's Busy Book.)
You could always throw in some of those other necklace-making ingredients, as well, but we're taking the easy route when we fly home on Friday.

Shirt shorts

So I did squeeze in a little craft time last night.
I'm excited about making the kids some clothes for summer and got a head start last night with these shirt-shorts. That's a shirt I got in high school (the old baggy boy's shirt days) and I cut it into a pair of shorts for my son. I think they turned out pretty well considering the number of mistakes I make when working on a new project.
I found tutorials for this at Sew, Mama, Sew! and in Amanda Soule's book The Creative Family.

P.S. If you notice my son's shirt, you'll see my daughter's face drawing that we iron-transferred onto t-shirts for Christmas. This picture below makes the shorts look a bit scrunchy in the crotch for some reason and there's a sticker behind him that looks like it's stuck on him, but you may be able to see the face a little better.

P.P.S. Cassi has featured our play-doh cookies on The Crafty Crow today (previous features here and here) so I've gone back and updated my old post with a few tips and photos.

Shrinky Dinks

One of my daughter's friends gave her a shrinky dink set for her birthday. We opened it this morning and made bracelets. These are suggested for children over age 7, but with close parental supervision, it worked well. Of course, now the hard job is keeping them away from the baby, but that's a constant challenge when you have two older kids.
My daughter and son both made one bracelet for themselves and one to give away (most likely as a birthday gift to the girls who gave them the shrinky dinks...is that lame?) The set also comes with accessories to create hair clips, cell phone charms, magnets, and necklaces. It's nice to pull a ready-to-go project out of a box once in a while instead of creating, gathering/preparing the supplies myself.
I think it would be fun to create their own shrinky dinks, too, with blank shrinky sheets. Sometime.

It's sew time for spring!

I've been thinking about sewing kids' clothes. I've never done it before, but figure it's practical, the fabric is fun and it's time to try something new! Here is a tiny selection of fabric that caught my eye from PurlSoho. There are some great online fabric shops, but beware-once you start looking at fabric, it's sooo hard to stop.

Here are a few tutorials for little girls' clothes that I'm excited about:
Wrap dress from Tiny Happy
Ruffled skirt from Grand Revival Design
Pillowcase dress, Smocket, and more in the Girls' Clothes Tutorial Round-up at Sew, Mama, Sew!
Sleeveless top and ruffled pants from JCaroline Creative

And here are a few online fabric shops:
eQuilter
Sew, Mama, Sew!
Purl Soho
JCaroline Creative
LadyButton
Flapper Girl
Repro Depot
Cia's Palette
Hancock's of Paducah

Valentine Wristlets

Bracelets for Valentine's Day! The daisy bracelet is more springish, but I couldn't resist trying a flower. I think I would like to make more for spring, they're so comfortable and happy. And they can be made from scraps! These would be great as a gift for a little girl or even for your grown-up girlfriends, as an activity with your children or with your friends. If you'd like to make some, here are some basic instructions:

Materials: cutting mat, rotary cutter, ruler, scissors, measuring tape, paper patterns (optional), sewing machine (optional), fabric glue, velcro (sticky or sew-on), needle, thread, felt scraps, buttons/trims, Fray-Check


1. Measure your wrist (or your child's wrist). My wrist is 6".
2. Cut a strip of felt about an inch and a quarter longer than your wrist measurement, 3/4" wide. I cut mine 7" and some 7 1/2" long. I used my cutting mat and rotary cutter.
3. I attached a sticky velcro spot to one end, flipped the strip over (important!) and attached the opposite velcro piece to the other end. (These are fine for bracelets that won't be roughly handled, but for a child's bracelet, I would switch to sew-on velcro. Cut it into a small square or round and just stitch it to the felt.) I then used my scissors to round the end of the felt strip.
4. Choose a design for the center. Sometimes I cut shapes freehand, sometimes I make little paper patterns. Hearts are sweet for Valentine's Day. Cut your shapes and choose any add-ons like buttons and ribbon.
5. Attach your bracelet centerpiece to the strip of felt. I used my sewing machine and stitched a couple hearts down the center. Others, I glued with Fabri-Tac. They all have a button helping to secure them. I used coordinating thread or embroidery floss for the buttons.
6. Touch the ends of your ribbon with Fray-Check so it doesn't unravel on you.

That's it, I think!

(Update: I thought it would be worth mentioning, as several people have suggested to me, that these would work well as napkin rings, too!)

I Know it's January

But I have a couple Christmas projects I'd still like to post. These are a few of the very simple holiday aprons (mentioned previously) we made. My daughter chose dishtowels (Target) for each recipient and I trimmed the corners and sewed on the bias tape. I embellished a couple by adding coordinating grosgrain ribbon, but the rest had some sort of character sewn on already and didn't really need any extra.
My daughter chose a towel for me (in addition to herself, her brother, and some extended family), so I dutifully sewed it, wrapped it up and acted surprised when I opened it on Christmas day. I've made my own birthday cake before, but this was the first time making my own Christmas gift. It was more fun for us all to open them and tie them on together.

Homemade Gifts For Kids

Some gifts to make for kids:

Felt hand puppets. I found the pattern for this monster in this book (from our library) and then began creating my own patterns. Chicken, cow.... It's really quite simple and very inexpensive, but could be time-consuming depending on how many pieces you put on each puppet. Monster, for example, time-consuming. The cow and chicken were not so bad. (I'd be glad to make and sell some puppets or share a pattern and instructions-if I could figure out how to do so!)
Aprons and cookbook. I will be making some of these dish towel aprons (little sewing required) for our kids and cousins. For our cousins, we're going to include a small collection of kid-friendly recipes we like. If you want to buy a cookbook to accompany the aprons, check out Kitchen For Kids or any other book specifically designed for little chefs.
Custom t-shirts. We bought a couple wee t-shirts and some iron-on transfer paper and will be creating custom shirts with our daughter's face drawing. Take a simple drawing of your child's and surprise them by making it wearable (in the way you want your children to wear their art)!
Custom totebags. Another simple dish towel project here at I Have to Say.... What a great way to make the most of your time and money and end up with a nice gift! Make a tote bag for your child or buy one and customize it with the iron-on transfer.
Edibles. Make these cute lollipop cookies (with the sticks) and package them in clear cellophane bags (try Michael's or any craft store that carries baking supplies) tied off with colorful ribbon for your playgroup friends.
Pillowcases. My kids have been asking for Sesame Street pillows, for some reason, and eventually I'll get around to it. For kids who already have their own normal-sized pillow, here are some tutorials, along with additional ideas for customizing, for pillowcases.
One, Two, Three.
Biographies. Make a book about your child to give your child. Kids love to see pictures and hear stories about themselves. Blurb.com offers a free downloadable program that you can use to create your own book and have published for as little as $12.95 (that's the 7"x7" softcover with 20-40 pages). It's too late this year, but I was thinking a good idea for our daughter would be a little book with 3 short stories in it:
1) Brynnen-pics and thoughts on her life from birth to now.
2) My best friend Kellan-pics and thoughts on her relationship with her brother-how they play and work together, take care of, love and help each other, etc.
3) Mommy and Daddy-pics and info about us from kid-dom to now.

Stay tuned for Homemade Gifts By Kids.