Sep 29 2009
Posted by Elizabeth as Adventures in Parenting, Crafting with Kids, Curled Up with a Good Book
This morning I was feeling a little sorry for myself and in a bit of a 39-weeks-pregnant-messy-house-fighting-a-cold funk. Â After my daughter went down for her nap, my four-year-old and I pulled out some books to read, together. Â One of his choices was this:
We’ve read it a number of times and had seen that there were instructions, in the back, on how to make your own pig! Â H is in a stage where he wants to “make” everything that he sees, and “build” all kinds of diggers after reading our digger books from the library and so this fit perfectly. Â I thought I’d break out of my feeling-sorry-for-myself funk by trying a little crafting with him.Here are the instructions to make your own pig (or whatever it ends up being).1) Cut a 25 cm length of stocking, or a sleeve from an old knit sweater.. whatever you have lying around.
2) Sew one end off with loosely stitched embroidery thread so that it can be pulled tightly and knotted.
3) Turn it inside out and stuff it with fiberfill.
4) Sew a button onto the knotted end.**My instructional pictures from here on out didn’t really work… all I got is my son – oops. Â So, you’ll see the parts I’m describing but only in the finished product.**5) Â Again with embroidery thread, sew a mouth, then eyes.
6) Put a small ball of fiberfill into the body of the pig and knot some thread around it to form a foot. Â Repeat four times (unless you wanted a different number of legs, go ahead).
7) Cut out two triangles to be the ears and sew them on.8) Twist off the open end into a tail, or tightly tie thread around the opening to close it off. Â We decided to make the tail into little strips so that it was kinda fuzzy.
Voila!!Cool, eh? Â Our creation is definitely not very pig-like, but my son doesn’t care.His name is Alex. Â Alex, meet the world. Â World, meet Alex.
I recently learned how to make my own bow out of whatever paper I’d like, and I thought that would be a cool thing to share with you. Â It’s a fun craft for kids to make and, though requiring supervision, is a pretty fulfilling project!Here’s the finished product:
You can see that I have used one-sided scrapbooking designer paper. Â This project is waaaayyy more attractive when you have two-sided paper, or it would also be cool with newspaper or other fun paper with something on both sides.Step 1: Â Get your piece of paper, measuring 12inches by 6inches. Â (12 by 12 scrapbooking paper, cut in half is easiest)Step 2: Turn your paper sideways and cut 8 strips that are 1inch wide (by 6inches long)
Step 3: Turn your paper 90 degrees to the side (you should have a piece that is 6inches wide by 4inches tall) and cut one piece that is 1inch wide by 4 inches long
Step 4: Â Turn your paper 90 degrees to the side again (now, you should have a piece that is 5inches tall by 4inches wide) and cut the remaining paper into 4, 1inch strips that are each 5inches long. (The picture below shows the one piece that is 4inches long beside the paper now turned to be cut at 5inches long.)
Step 5: Take the smallest paper (1inch by 4inches) and form a barrel, gluing it shut.
Step 6: Form each of the strips into the bow edges by bringing the ends together until the fold forms a point. Â Glue the ends together. Â Yes, I know. Â I will never be a hand-model.
Step 7: Once they are dried, glue each point-length into pairs, that kind of look like a boat. Â 6inch strips together, 5inch strips together. Â Glue the ends together.
Step 8: Punch a hole through the very centre of each boat and through the bottom of the centre roll, as well.
Step 9: Using a brad, start with the roll and push the brad through the hole. Â Then, going from smallest boat to largest boat, arrange the boats into a bow shape (turning them a little bit to fill the bow space).
Step 10: Seal your brad, at the back.
Et voila!
It looks great with double-sided paper, eh?!
Sep 13 2009
Posted by Elizabeth as Adventures in Parenting, Crafting with Kids
It was Thursday. Â The day of my daughter’s second birthday. Â I have no money to spend on a lavish birthday girl and a daughter who doesn’t really “need” anything, but likes a lot of things. Â I had a party to prepare for and a nap to take and a bunch of other things on my plate. Â I had an idea of what I wanted to get for her, and was planning to make it, but ran out of time (another little tutorial coming, perhaps?). Â My daughter loves dress-up. Â I mean, LOVES dress-up. Â Also, she likes to dance and be girly, so, I went to my scrap fabric cupboard and found some things that would work to make a quick tu-tu.
The ingredients:
1)about 1.5m of tulle (I just happened to have two colours)
2)enough elastic to fit around her waist (about 30cm)
3) scissors
4) my sewing machine (but you could totally sew the elastic by hand)
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS
1) I sewed the elastic into a circle.

 2) I cut the tulle into strips that were about 10cm wide and the length of the whole fabic (so about 1m).
3) I folded the strips (see above) in half and pulled the fold over the elastic.

4) Pull the strips through the loop on the top.

5) Pull tight.

6) Continue with all the strips, all the way around, until you’re done. Â Spread them out to fill the space.

Enjoy!!!
