I Spy Bag: A Treasure Hunt {Tutorial}

One of Sutton's most favorite things in the world right now are I Spy books, so I knew this I Spy treasure hunt bag would be right up his alley. I got the idea years ago from Babycenter on a discussion thread about frugal homemade holiday gifts. I had originally intended to make them for my triplet niece and nephews, but somehow the supplies got shuffled to the back of the craft closet, and I didn't see them again until recently!


For this project you'll need a pencil pouch with a large clear window (I got mine at Walmart for $.97), 20-25 small flat-ish objects, poly-fil micro beads, some strong glue and a ribbon or something to seal off the zipper area of the pencil pouch.

The directions couldn't be any easier...fill your bag with the objects and the micro beads, seal the zipper shut with strong glue (I also removed the pull-tab from the zipper first to keep it flat), and cover the zipper opening with a ribbon. I used a hefty dose of Fabri-Tac glue to seal my pouch and attach the ribbon in one step.


Get spying!

I also chose to make a laminated tag to show Sutton exactly what's inside the bag, but it's just as fun to explore the bag without a key chart. To make my chart I arranged all of the objects on a white sheet of paper and took a quick photo before stuffing them into the bag. I used PhotoShop to add the text, and I also typed out a list of the objects without photos on the back side to make it more challenging when they get older. The tag is simply attached to the pencil pouch using a binder ring.

There has definitely been a lot of spying and treasure hunting going on around here now!

We'll definitely be taking our I Spy bag with us on our next road trip!

Read More

Felted Wool Balls {Tutorial}

I did this craft by myself one late night last week, but it can easily be done with the kiddos as well. I'll be saving these balls (and making a bunch more - warning, it's addictive!) for one of the boys' Hanukkah gifts, so that's the only reason I chose not to include them in this one :)


All you'll need for this project is some wool roving (scraps of 100% wool yarn will work as well) and an old pair of pantyhose. I'm using the wool roving that I dyed a few weeks ago as well as a couple of store bought skeins that I've had on-hand for awhile.


The core of your ball can be made from just about any round object, including the roving itself. Many people like to roll up a core of solid undyed wool, but since this one is going to be for the new baby, I chose a baseball-sized cat toy with a jingle bell hidden in the center (picked up in a 2-pack from the dollar store).

Start by winding your roving around the core. It's nice to use the undyed wool here because it's going to be hidden underneath layers of the colored wool.

Layer by layer continue to wind the wool around the ball

Be sure to note that the finished felted ball will be smaller than what it looks like now, so plan accordingly! Depending on what you've used for your core, the finished ball will be around 1/2 - 2/3 the size that it is at this stage.

Stuff your ball into the toe of a pair of old nylon pantyhose, and tie it tightly. I chose the "lazy way" of felting in which I had my washing machine and dryer do all of the felting work for me, but alternatively you can felt the ball by hand (the kids would probably LOVE to do this!) - there's some basic directions for wet hand felting HERE.

I stuffed four balls into my stocking before tossing it into the washing machine. Be sure that you set your machine to a low water setting, add an ample amount of soap (soap is essential to the felting process), and use the hottest water setting available. After they've taken a spin through the washing machine, toss them into the dryer, again using the hottest setting available.

This is what it will look like when they come out. Note that there is a good deal of pilling on the outside of the stocking, and it's very likely that the stocking will be stuck tightly to the balls. Cut your ribbons/rubber bands/etc and carefully peel the balls away from the pantyhose. I had a very few loose fibers that were easily smoothed by getting them just a little bit wet again.

Beautiful! For the older boys I used a tennis ball for the core because I wanted the balls to be super bouncy after they were felted. I wasn't sure that they were still going to bounce since I added so much wool to the outside, but they work great! I think the boys are going to love them, and I can't wait to make some more!

Read More

Apologies

I know, I know, it's been an entire week without a new craft post! I have a few posts in the works, but it's been a rough week, and most of my projects are sitting here only partially finished. I've been feeling nauseous again and completely exhausted (even more so than my usual third trimester energy drain), and a visit to the OB today to discuss my latest round of bloodwork shed some light on the situation.

I failed my 1-hour glucose tolerance test, and judging by how impressively badly I failed the test, she said that she'd be incredibly surprised if I pass the 3-hour test that I'm taking next Monday. So, it looks like gestational diabetes may be the cause of my queasy stomach lately. Along with that great news, she also told me that I am still severely anemic despite the fact that I've been taking iron supplements for several months now. She upped my iron dosage (which ought to feel wonderful on my unsettled stomach), so hopefully once I get that into my system it will help erradicate some of this extra fatigue I've been fighting.

So, that said, I've been laying a little low this week and probably will continue to do so for a bit longer...apologies if posts are fewer and further between for just a little while! :)

Read More

Dodecahedron Star Lantern

DODECAHEDRON STAR LANTERN TUTORIAL NOW AVAILABLE HERE!

Remember how I said we'd be making some fun stuff from all of our crayon paintings? Well, here's the first one! This dodecahedron star lantern is absolutely stunning, but I can't take any credit for this idea - it came from Childhood Magic where Ariella has posted a very detailed tutorial on how you can make your own - go check it out!

While we were making our crayon paintings, I had Sutton "paint" four pages of a pentagon template that I made up in Adobe Illustrator and printed on to cardstock (if you'd like, you can download my pattern HERE)...technically you only need 10 or 11 pentagons (four template pages gives you 12), but it was nice to be able to pick and choose which ones looked best together.





...while I do think it looks pretty neat with the lights on, the true magic happens with a candle and a darkened room...

Brilliant! I wish my camera could actually capture how cool this looks in person!

I actually put this together late last night while the boys were sleeping, so I can't wait for them to see it tonight...now I just need to spend the day tearing the house apart to find the battery-operated tea lights since I definitely won't be giving them a lit candle and a paper lantern to play with!

Read More

Painting With Crayons {Tutorial}

The boys' school had this art project set up as one of their "jobs" a few weeks ago, and now whenever I whip out my electric griddle to make grilled cheese or pancakes, Sawyer asks me if we're going to do "crayon painting." Yesterday, I finally decided that it was, indeed, a perfect day for crayon painting.


First we started by peeling the paper off of a bunch of old crayons. I chose to use our cheapo Dollar Tree crayons, because they are extra waxy and don't really color very cleanly or smoothly under ordinary conditions...plus, the paper peels off way easier than it does on the Crayola crayons ;)
(p.s. don't even ask why Sutton is wearing a beanie in 100+ degre heat)


All peeled and ready to be melted!

I covered the griddle in several layers of foil and turned it on to the "warm" setting. I was still worried about my little guys burning their hands because the warm setting is still pretty hot, so I had them pull out a pair of their knit gloves for protection (hence the beanie coming out of the winter closet too). I figured the gloves would be easy enough that they could still manipulate the crayons without any difficulty, but would provide a teeny bit of protection from the radiated heat - they worked like a charm!

The heat from the griddle melts the crayons instantly, and they slide around effortlessly like brightly colored wax paint. I ended up having to grab a potholder of my own to hold down the paper and keep it in place while the boys were drawing. Sutton was fascinated with the entire process, and he made about a half dozen drawings before he lost interest.

For all of his begging and pleading to paint with crayons, Sawyer wasn't all that interested in this activity yesterday. He was more concerned that he might burn his hands on the griddle, yet he refused to wear the gloves, so he ended up giving up after just a few minutes. Oh well...next time!

I love the way these came out! You can really see where the crayon was held in one spot and allowed to melt and where it was quickly moved around (which looks rather oil pastel-ish). We discovered that this activity worked best when the heat was turned up to 250 degrees, enabling the crayon to melt quickly and turn to "paint" no matter how fast you moved it around the paper, but at that point it was really too hot for the boys to handle safely.

Stay tuned for some fun ideas about things you can make with your new abundance of crayon paintings!

Read More

Teddy Bear Batman Disguise

We took the boys to Build-a-Bear on Saturday, so naturally Sawyer spent most of Sunday morning begging me to create "something cool" for his new bear to wear (since this frugal Mommy was too cheap to pay an extra $12 for every outfit in the store that he had to have!). I quickly rounded up some black and yellow fabric from my stash, some Heat-n-Bond, a bit of black ribbon, two little pieces of velcro, a computer printout of the Batman logo, and an old bib to trace for my cape pattern...an hour later (which could have been about 20 minutes later if I didn't have two eager boys trying to help ♥) and we had this "super cool" Batman cape and mask that matches the one that Sawyer has for himself. Yippee!

I used the Heat-n-Bond to build the Batman applique and attach it to the cape, and I used it to fuse two pieces of the black fabric together so that I could cut out the mask without worrying about it fraying. The only sewing I did on the mask was to attach the ribbon ties to it. I wish I had taken more step-by-step pictures, but my helpers were already jumping around too close to the hot iron for me to distract myself with the camera :)


He love, love, loves his new bear and his new Batman outfit! Easy peasy :)

Read More

Collage Birdhouses {Tutorial}

I know that almost everyone has made a milk carton birdhouse at one time or another, but have you ever made one that was this bright and cheerful!?!

We started with empty milk and juice cartons, and I gave them a quick light coat of white spray paint just so that the lettering wouldn't bleed through later.

We gathered our supplies: glue, lots and lots of colored tissue paper squares and the freshly painted cartons. We were going to use the glue pictured here, but then I realized that it had a fine tip (I thought it was the dauber-type tip), so we switched to watered down white glue and sponge brushes.

Coat the sides of the carton with the glue mixture and let the kids start to apply the tissue paper however they'd like. The boys got a huge kick of out of overlapping colors to see what new color it would create (fun and educational...awesome!). After awhile you might want to quickly intervene and gently use the sponge brush to make sure that all the edges are glued down and secure.

While the boys were collaging the cartons, I covered a piece of tag board for us to cut up and use as the roofs. Set the pieces aside and let them dry for awhile.

With a utility or Xacto knife, carefully remove the plastic pouring spout and remove some of the excess cardboard from the top of the carton.

Cut an opening for the door - we've had problems in the past with small circular openings being too small for the huge birds that frequent our backyard, so we went ahead and made extra large doorways this time. About an inch below the door, cut an X shape with two small slits, and insert a wooden spoon for your perch. You can obviously use anything you'd like, but we happened to have two too-small-to-use-for-anything-else wooden spoons laying around. Before you push it all the way to the back of the carton, add a generous gob of hot glue to securely attach the end of the spoon/perch to the interior back of the carton.

On your roof piece, cut two more small slits about 2" apart, and thread through the ends of your string (whatever you'll be using to use to hang your birdhouse) and tie a knot securely on the underneath side so it won't show. Using more hot glue, attach the roof to your carton. Make sure you go back and fill in all the gaps you possibly can with even more hot glue since this is what is going to keep your birdhouse from falling off the tree when a bird decides to make it his home!


Hang the houses outside and give them a couple of coats of spray varnish. Alternately, you could use Mod Podge and cover the whole thing, but spray varnish is quicker, and we're impatient :)


Fill the bottom up with bird seed, hang from a tree and wait for your feathered friends to find their new home!

Read More

Dying Wool Roving {Tutorial}

One of the homemade holiday projects I'm going to make for the boys this year is felt play balls - the older boys' will be wrapped around a rubber core, so hopefully they will still be bouncy like a tennis ball, and the baby's ball will have a jingle bell core. Since pre-dyed wool roving costs around $3 at the craft store (for a 0.7 oz bag, so around $4 an ounce), and I'm trying to craft on a tighter buget this year, I decided to see if I could dye my own roving for much cheaper.



First, I found an Ebay seller who sold me an entire POUND of natural wool roving for $18 including shipping (woohoo, that's only $1.12 an ounce, shipped!). Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to have any current listings or I would have added a link...just look around Ebay because there are lots of sellers!



I tried two different dye methods: food coloring and Kool Aid. For both, you'll need boiling hot water (cooled just enough that it's no longer actively boiling...you don't want any motion to start the felting process), vinegar and your choice of dye medium. You can use any bowl/pan/tray you have, because the food dyes are non-toxic, and it shouldn't permanently stain your cookware. I chose to use my larger Pyrex bowls and a few disposable roasting pans that I had left over from one of the boys' marble painting projects.

I started with grape Kool Aid, because I had read a lot about the process, and it seemed easy peasy. I added two packets of Kool Aid to about 6 cups of hot water. Since it was recommended that you add 1/4 cup of white vinegar to the food coloring dye, I added it to the Kool Aid dye as well...and that was the end of my desire to use Kool Aid anymore. It probably wouldn't bother a normal person, but my pregnant sense of hyper-smell was completely revolted by the scent combo of grape and vinegar. ICK!



For the food coloring I used green and blue Wilton gel coloring, and mixed it with the water and vinegar until completely dissolved before adding the roving. For the pink, I attempted a tie-dye gradiant look, so I dissolved purple food coloring completely, added my roving, and then very, very gently swirled a few drops of red food coloring into the water. The Kool Aid dye naturally took on a mottled gradiant look of its own, varying in shades from pink to dark purple to light blue.

After about an hour in the dye mixture, you're ready to take the roving out and rinse it gently under cool water. You'll know when the Kool Aid dye is done because the roving will absorb ALL of the color, and you'll be left with a lump of colored roving sitting in clear water (as shown in the purple bowl above). Again, be extremely careful not to agitate the roving too much and start the felting process! After rinsing I hung mine outside in the 103 degree heat to dry, and it still took about a day and a half before it was completely dry!


My makeshift clothesline sure is coming in handy lately!

All dyed and ready to be turned into holiday gifts! I'm really happy with how it turned it! It was incredibly easy, and I love that I had complete control over the colors and whether or not I wanted them to be solid or gradiants. This batch of dyed roving represents only about 1/6 of the amount that I purchased, so I'm pretty much set for any and every felting project I could ever imagine...for WAY less than the store bought wool costs!

Read More

Everlasting Sandcastles {Tutorial}

When I got this month's issue of Family Fun Magazine, one of the summer activities was a RECIPE for air-hardening Sand Clay, I knew right away that the boys would love it, especially just coming off of our beach vacation!



They got to work right away mixing up the ingredients: sand, cornstarch and water (we didn't use alum as called for in the original recipe because we didn't have any on hand). We also added some gold glitter to our mix to give it a little extra sparkle. NOTE: Be sure to use an old pot to mix up your clay, as the sand will scratch the heck out of one of your nice pans!


Cook it over the stove for a few minutes until it reaches a Play-Doh-like consistency.



Now play, shape, squeeze and mold to your heart's content!



We let our clay air dry, so it took about three days for it to completely harden up, inside and out. If you want to speed up the process, you can also bake it in a 225 degree oven for a few hours.

I especially like Sawyer's "Word World" fish :)

Read More