Bean Bag Toss Board

We made this last year, but for some reason, I didn't get around to painting it until a couple weeks ago.  I found this tutorial for making the board - with fold in legs so that it stores nice and compact in the garage.  Technically, all I did was find the tutorial and paint it.  My husband did all the cutting, sanding and assembling; but that's not important :)

With the nice weather we've been having, we just keep this on the back patio and the kids are having a great time playing with this.

One thing different we did - I felt like the board was too big for just one hole, so we cut 3 different sized holes.  And then I painted it blue with orange stripes for some fun detail.

Felt dolls

I found this link on pinterest a couple weeks ago and knew it would be my next attempt at finding something to keep my 2 year old daughter quiet and calm during church.  But sadly, there were no patterns or a tutorial :(  But that didn't stop me.  I sat down and drew a similar shape of the doll and dress on my own referencing the pictures. 

I did do a couple things different.  I couldn't figure out how she did the eyes, so I just painted them on with fabric paint.  And I didn't do the cheeks.  Also, I made a swimsuit on the doll instead of underwear since my daughter is excited about swimming lately. 

I do wish that felt came in some better colors.  There isn't a good "blonde" or "strawberry blonde" in the cheap felt, so I let my daughter choose the color of hair for the dolls.  She chose bright pink and brown.  I was a little worried about the pink, but that one is my favorite now.  I won't be trying to make a "ball gown" again - it was hard to try and gather and hem the small piece of satin.

There are still a few more dresses I want to make, but my next step is to try and figure out how she did the house.  I may just try to cover a binder in fabric/felt and use that to carry them in.

Superhero Peg People

I made some superhero peg people for my son's birthday and also a set for one of his friends.

Spiderman, Green Lantern, Captain America, Robin, Batman, Superman

Here's a shot of how I painted the back/capes if anyone wants to try and make them too.

 And since Batman's head can't have the pointy ears, I just painted an upside down V so it would sorta look like the pointy ears.

Box of Princesses

I have loved painting peg people - here were some previous ones I did for my son.  But when I saw this idea by Lil Blue Boo, I decided to do another round of peg people.  I ended up making 3 sets...that's 24 dolls to paint.  It took about 2 weeks of nap times to do this - but it was fun. 

**Just an apology about my photos for a while.  Our house got broken into last week and one of the things they stole was our way awesome camera - a Nikon D80 :(  so my pictures for the forseeable future will be from my phone - which isn't anywhere near as good quality as my camera was.  Luckily, I had emptied the memory stick a couple days before we were robbed (all except for the photos of these peg dolls - so I had to get my friend to send me pics of the finished set with the lunch box since I had already given it away.)

My 6 year old niece was the initial recipient of these, and then I decided that I wanted to make a set for my 2 year old and a friend's 2 year old as well.  But the 2" dolls are a bit of a choking hazard to that age.  So I saw the set from Homemade by Jill and she found some 3.5" dolls online.  Both the 2 year olds love Tinkerbell, so I added her in - even though she's not technically a "princess."  I'm so grumpy about my stolen pictures.  My phone pics don't do these justice - Snow White turned out awesome, and I painted Rapunzel's hair with a metallic gold/yellow since her hair glows when she sings :)

Here you can see the back of the dolls - to get the hair details I did.  No one posted how they did the hair in the back, so it took a while to figure out how to get some of them to look just right.

Also, here's a pic of one of each size in my hand so you can see the size difference.

**I found the lunch box at Jo-Anns and just added the white and yellow vinyl to the front.  I also lined the inside with felt so that the dolls didn't get as bumped around and so that it's a bit quieter

Lacing Cards

I've wanted to make some sort of lacing cards for a couple years now, either out of wood or laminated shapes.  I finally opted for the laminated style.  I designed number cards and printed them on 4x6 photo paper, then laminated them.

I didn't have a hole punch to reach all the way in around the numbers, so I used the old school "eyelet setter" (the 4mm size).  It wasn't as fast or clean as a hole punch would have been, but it got the desired effect.  The shoe laces I got are too long, but they work.  I keep these in my church bag to help keep the kids calm on Sundays.

Sewing with Oliver + S

Here are a couple more things I made from this book by Oliver + S.  You can buy it, but I checked it out from the library.

Doll/Teddy Bear Carrier - My daughter has recently taken an interest in swaddling her baby dolls and carrying them around and pretending like they are sleeping, so I thought this was a good fit for her.

Red Riding Hood Cape - An addition to build my daughter's dress up outfits.  It's a little big on her for now, but it should fit her in a year or so.  This turned out cute, but it was a lot of work since it's fully lined.

Felt Fun

Here are a few things I've made with felt for the Christmas decorations or presents

Holly Garland - I just drew my own holly leaf onto freezer paper and traced a quarter for the red berries.  Then I sewed it in a chain.  I love the simple, but classic touch it adds to the mirror in the entry way.

Felt fish and fishing pole - pattern and tutorial here.  I made a pole for each of my kids, but I'm not sure how long they will last until they start hitting eachother with them.  So this may be a supervised toy.

Animal masks - I saw this idea and this idea and decided to make my own.  The ones on etsy are adorable, but there was no way I was going to pay over $50 for a few masks I could make out of supplies I already have at home.  These are for my son (except for the pink owl - that's for my daughter).  I thought the owls looked fancier with the embroidering - which took a loooooong time.  I'm not going to post the patterns I made or a tutorial since I this is a knock-off from someone who is selling them. 

some recent sewing projects

I've been busy sewing things for my kiddos for Christmas, so here are some of them...

toddler backpack - pattern and tutorial in this book (I just checked it out at the library since I didn't want to spend so much on the book that I would only need for a couple projects)  We are decorating my son's room in a Nautical theme, and this is some outdoor canvas fabric from JoAnns that I have left over.  This backpack was so fun to see come to shape - I enjoyed making it!

car roll ups - made a couple for some of my nephew's birthdays that just came up (tutorial here) my son has used his every sunday during church for the past 3 years and it is one of the best things I've found that keep him quiet during sacrament.

toddler girl apron - made a pattern up myself and got quite frustrated by it, so i don't think anyone would want my pattern with all the headaches - plus I threw it away since I was mad at it.

baby doll diapers - I made a couple different sizes for by daughter's different sized dolls - just used the basic shape and instructions in this tutorial, but had to make my own sizes.

Mayflower place setting - or toy boat

I saw this idea last year, and it's been patiently waiting on my to do list for a while.  It's a cute idea to fill up with candy and use as a place setting for the kids.  I did it a little different. though.

I wanted something else to make the sail "pop" and thought I remembered a red insignia on the pilgrims' boats.  But when I looked up pics of the Mayflower, the sails were plain white.  Then I looked up The Nina, The Pinta, and The Santa Maria, and found what I was looking for.  So I guess my boat isn't a "Mayflower" technically, but my son loves it.

I just want to try and figure out a way to make the mast stay up without candy in it as a place setting so that he can use it as a toy.

Peg People

I won a giveaway on Simple Simon & Co. a few months ago where I got 3 peg princesses...My daughter loves to carry them around, but I hadn't seen the wood pieces around anywhere so they didn't make my to-do-list.  Then, I stumbled upon this post with Star Wars and Harry Potter peg people and was determined to find them to make some of my own. 

JoAnns has the girl shaped peg people that have a dress shaped body, but Michael's had the boy shaped ones that are straight from the neck down.

Here are mine:

They took 3 days of naps to paint . . . and I found them quite addicting.  The pirate seems out of place since the rest are "characters."  I think my favorite is Robin.  You can't tell from the picture, but the back and sides are yellow for his cape.   I started with Harry since I was copying the image from the post above, but then I ventured out and made some of my own.

Mermaid Doll

My daughter is starting to carry around dolls while she's roaming the house, so I thought it might be fun to try making a doll for her.  Then I saw this mermaid doll pattern/tutorial and knew it would be the one to try.  I grew up in the hype of "The Little Mermaid"  in the '90's so I have a soft spot for mermaids.

And I liked that this one had a removable tail so she could just be a doll as well.  Here's the one I made.

I would suggest something if you are going to make this doll/mermaid...I used knit fabric for her body (the polka dot print) but that was a bad choice.  It stretched and was hard to get the bottom where her legs are to look good.  Also, it's color is too close to her body color, so it blends in.  I was originally going to use a magenta glitter satin, but thought the tail might not stay up on a slippery fabric - but now I wish I had just gone with my first plan.  I do wish it was easier to find better colors in felt.  They don't really make a strawberry blonde felt; I wanted to match my daughter's hair.  So I went with the brown; it's cute, but I wish there was a better color for a blonde doll.

The pattern printed out huge for me, so I just shrunk all the pieces in photoshop before starting since I didn't want a life sized doll.  I don't know if my printer settings were off or what, but keep in mind you can always shrink or expand patterns like this.

The tail was made out of scraps of fabric that my mom used to make my niece's mermaid halloween costume...a teal satin and a sheer, shimmery teal fabric to put over it for the shiny effect.  It was soooooo difficult to sew with.  I don't know how my mom stayed sane making a costume out of it.

I also used a scrap of shirred fabric left over from making a toddler dress a couple years ago to make the doll a dress as well - variety for changing outfits.  I didn't have any stuffing, so don't tell anyone, but I just used a seam ripper and pulled some out of a couch pillow :)  So this doll was made with scraps and borrowed stuffing - didn't cost anything to make her!!  I love free projects!

My daughter carried it around with her most of the evening last night.  It even went for rides on the truck with her.  Not the best picture of her though...she looks kinda disheveled.  Her hair won't grow on the sides, but she has a mop of curls on the top and in the back.  So kindof a mohawk and a mullet combination.  I can usually distract from that with a headband and hair clip when we leave the house. 

Owl Stuffie

I wanted to make an owl stuffie for my sis-in-law's baby shower.  But I looked all over blog land and couldn't find an owl pattern that I liked.  So I decided...why not draw up my own pattern?  And I love how it turned out.

 It has a long strip of fabric between the front and back so that it has dimension . . . you can kinda see that in the pic below.  I hadn't hand sewn the opening closed yet, but you get the idea.  I love all the different textures of fabric that I found in my stash - suede, corduroy, fuzzy, and felt.

Army Bunker Tent

This Army Bunker Tent came out awesome, but I had it in the works for almost a year...I just couldn't ever get excited about working on it since I knew it would be an intense project.  I saw the idea on Obsessively Stitching last year and knew it would be something I wanted to make for my son. 

It's made out of a twin sheet set from Wal-Mart (I don't know if they still carry the same one anymore...I bought mine a year ago when this tutorial came out - just in case they stopped carrying it by the time I got around to making it.)  The frame is out of PVC pipes - and my table scratches really easy, so I cut up a scrap of fleece and used that as a "table cloth" under the pipes.  And the best part...the fabric and pipes all fit into the pillowcase when you take it down.

Since everyone's table is different, the tutorial doesn't give dimensions, so that's what took me a year to get in the mood to make it.  I had to measure and fit it to my table, and I had a hard time with that, but now I'm happily done!

I basically copied everything Care did when she made this...the freezer paper stenciling on the pocket of the pillowcase and mini drawstring bag to keep the army men

...and the freezer paper stencil t-shirt. 

It was a bit tricky to make, but well worth it - my kids love playing in it.