fta: Sew simple dress...your kiddo can do this

This is a very simple project that the kiddos enjoyed helping. If you are a beginner seamstrist, this is the project for you. 1. Using an existing dress that fits the child well, mark the top of the shoulders and the bottom of the hem. Add about four to five inches to the top of shoulder, this will be the top of the tie. Add two inches to the bottom of the dress, this will be where you cut. 2. Using the dress as a guide, add an inch on either side and cut the shape above. 3. Using a contrasting fabric cut two shapes to match the top of the dress stopping four inches below the armpit. 4. Hem the contrasting fabric. 5. Sewing good sides together sew one side of the dress to the contrasting fabric and repeat for the other side. 6. Turn the dress right side out, including the ties. 7. Sew the good sides of the dress together starting at the armpit and stopping at the bottom of each side. Note: do not sew the ties together. 8. Hem dress to desired length. Enjoy!

getting a reaction...

Add a dish (or clay), vinegar, baking soda and kiddos and what you get is a lot of fun.

This one requires adult supervision, but after watching the kiddos' faces light up with each "eruption"you won't want to be anywhere else.

We enjoyed this activity outside, but with the right large piece of tupperware you can enjoy it inside too.
May all your reactions be happy!

Homemade Valentines t-shirts for kiddos by kiddos

Let me first admit, these shirts are two stolen ideas put together. The first is from my extremely creative sister who made adorable name shirts with bias tape for the youngest twins first birthday. I just love the originality! The second is the painted doily idea from Ashley Ann Photography blog. I made a tote bag from her tutorial that has quickly become my favorite from her instructions. Thanks Paige and Ashley Anne!

With that said, I feel ready to start with some Valentine's Day shirts:

1. Apply a little spray adhesive to the back of the doily and stick it to the shirt. Let the kiddos sponge on the paint. No matter how many time I let them know the center didn't have to be covered, they insisted in painting the whole thing. :) My kiddos used a sponge brush, but any type of brush would do the job.  Put a little cardboard in the shirt to ensure the paint stays only on the front side.

Since boy's don't do doilys we modified the project for the only male of our trio. Using construction paper we cut out hearts and applied spray glue to the bottom side and set him loose.

2. Peel the doily off (the shirt looked like this). As you can tell there are a few imperfections around the edge, but I think it just adds to the childish charm.

Below was my first attempt at he Paige bias tape letters. This time the mistake didn't add so much charm. :) Turns out I should have gotten a tutorial from the creator before I tried to copy. :) Try number two was much better, but still look forward to having Paige show me a few tricks I think she has up her sleeve :)

1. Using tailor's chalk draw the letter or name you plan to add.
2. Fold bias tape in half (or purchase thin bias tape) and slowly stitch the tape over the chalk using a straight stitch.

The boy's shirt is read to wear after painting. If you want to stick with paint only for the girl's shirts, use the construction paper method to add a heart in the middle of the doily once it is dry.

I can't wait to see all the variations you come up with. Please leave me a comment with a link to any new creations your family enjoyed making. :) Happy stenciling, sewing, and Valentine's Day.

homemade thank you gifts under $5...transfer candles

These little transfer candles are so easy to make, but make a huge statement of gratitude when paired with a thank you note.

The materials you will need are as follows:

tissue paper (color to match candle)

permeant marker

candle

wax paper

hair dryer.

Step 1: draw with permeant marker on tissue paper (ensure drawing the size your desire on the candle)

Step 2: Cut closely around the edge of the design

Step 3: layer design and wax paper over candle (candle, design, waxy side of paper, paper side)

Step 4: heat with hair dryer until wax becomes slightly soft

Step 5: remove wax paper, without burning yourself rub over the design to ensure wax has covered the design (tissue paper will seem to disappear)

The size of the candle doesn't matter, but the smoother the better. You can also use this technique with stamps or  handprints. There is something irresistibly adorable about little handprints to me. :) Especially when they are on my candle instead of my windows. hehehe :)

homemade thank you gift for under $10

We were given a very special gift a few months ago, time alone! My sister, brother-in-law, and parents all joined forces to keep our kids while we went away for the weekend. Well for those of you who know us well will remember, that weekend away is why we have our youngest twins. :)

Since gratitude is one of my favorite emotions to express, I savor working on little thank you gifts. This one was for my sister. It's just a simple bag from your local craft store, a little love, inspiration, needle and thread.

After I delivered the bag, my sister added a big button to keep the front closed, which made it even cuter. The inspiration came from this book:

It is a fun, easy read that will have you looking for places to stitch. :) Enjoy!

Easy sewing for little ones: Chef Hats

Chef hats seem to make every kiddo kitchen creation a culinary masterpiece. :) My trio had outgrown their old hats and I was so excited to make them new ones. They took about an hour each. Very easy, very fun sewing! Not a great project for kiddos to sew because of the gathering, but a fun one to surprise them with. :)

Amongst all the Christmas gifts, I was thankful that these homemade creations were a favorite.

The tutorial at Skip to my Lou is so great that I am not going to try to recreate the wheel. I did mine a little differently, but I love her easy to follow directions. I hope you enjoy!

Since the aprons weren't quite finished, I am aiming to have them as a Valentine's Day gift. :)

Toothfairy pillow: how to make your own - the boy version

Four months of waiting, and he lost a tooth. Having to watch his two sisters (that are five as well) grow richer with each tooth loss was hard, but finally the need for Jo Jo to have a tooth pillow has come. 

The easy to follow directions are only a click away.

Happy sewing!

A homemade picture book for baby...

I can't wait to surprise my dear friend with this little book. I grabbed all the pictures off her blog so it should be a complete surprise.

The last page reminds little Ryan that we made it just for him. :)

Oh, my youngest boys have a birthday soon. I can't wait to get started on their book! I am already thinking about the pictures that I want to include. :)

a health halloween snack....

I just love these little cheese fingers. The nails are made with bits of red bell pepper. The teeth are made with the little bits of cheese from the fingers and apples. So healthy they are scary!

Seasons bag: easy fall craft for elementary school kiddos

Today was the day! After three long weeks of waiting the five year olds got to bring a craft AND CANDY for the class to enjoy. The teachers gave me the priveledge of coming up with a "fall" craft. So today, each kiddo got to make a "seasons" bag. Here is the fun that went into the bags.

At home, my seven year old stamped the word seasons on an old scrap.

He used a small paint brush, a 2/$1.00 bottle of brown paint, and foam stamps. This could have easily been done in the classroom, but I hoped the teacher would let us craft again so I kept the paint at home. :)

While it was drying we cut rectangles of burlap and stitched up the sides to make bags. I love the look of the raveling top. Using a straight stitch we sewed the words to the front of each bag. I added little grommets so that the kiddos could choose their ribbon at school, but a simple piece of tape on the ribbon would work just as well.

The kit for each kiddo included a bag, leaves that I punched (with hole puncher), leaves that came with wire stems, and yarn with the ends taped (to allow for easy sewing). There were three ribbon choices for the straps. Just look at what those kiddos created!

treats... easy favors for school age kids

treats for our friends...

An inexpensive plastic bad coupled with a white sheet of paper. Add a glue stick to adhere you label and staples to seal of your treats. The only thing easier is eating the sweets inside.

The adorable labels are from two straight lines.

working as a team...

Within the four walls of each house lay a distinct set of values. The view from 10,000 feet may look similar (God, family, then others) but what does the day to day look like? My biggest daily value struggle is check marks vs. the children because I am a check mark lover. But today in response to a question from a fellow home school mom lets talk about sibling love/relationship vs. discipline.

Many think this odd, but we allow our children to share their consequences. Thankfully we have a Savior in Jesus that paid the ultimate price to share our consequences. Using that as a model, if someone has their cookie taken away, often their siblings share and they eat cookie. If you are Becca (our youngest) you often end up with more than you would have had if you didn't lose your cookie. We have seen great benefits to this policy. The kids have a comfort knowing that even when they have messed up someone is willing to show kindness. Even a consequence issued with a calm tongue can feel unkind (if they liked it, it wouldn't be much of a consequence). It is not uncommon to see all five sitting in "time-up" when one was required to be there. It isn't that the consequence has gone away (the cookie is still gone, you are still in time-out) but the full intended extent may not be felt. A concern may be that an arrogance may develop of "oh well, my brother will give me his cookie anyway". We have not seen this, but we have seen a genuine gratitude develop and servants heart's grow. We have seen them bloom into compassionate and loving children when a sibling is in trouble. I remember being so excited when my sister was in trouble(I know, I am a terrible person). We don't see that in our home. Our mercy policy may or may not have any effect on that behavior, but it has worked well for our family. We believe it is one of the reasons our children get along so well and enjoy each other so much.

Homemade for baby...

It's almost like having your whole house filled with that just bathed baby smell. When I start stitching baby gifts, I just can't help but smile. These little bibs have been a favorite of mine as of late. So useful, so easy, so cute, so much fun to sew. :)

Wall Art for a kiddos room: DIY style

An exact-o knife, glue stick, paper, recycled frames, and an extra piece of glass cut to fit each frame is all you need for this little project. So simple!

1. Using the exact-o cut out a simple shape and glue it to a background piece.

2. Sandwich the art between two pieces of glass.

3. Hang art & let the kiddos enjoy.

a chore for you and you and you...

The dread hasn't set in yet, as for now the kiddos are enjoying their assigned chores. Charts work well at our house. My kiddos (that do chores) range from 5 years old to 8 years old. I partner the kids together on some tasks so they learn to work together and a task with a partner is way more fun. This chart is divided up into 6 days. Mommy and Daddy handle the kitchen on Sunday. Each of the kiddos has only one task for that day of the week. Two kiddos have "washing the dishes" so that a five year old always has a bigger kiddo to help. The other task include spraying the counter (the favorite!), sweeping (the least favorite), and clearing the dishes. As with a lot of other things at our home, the kids are allowed to work as a team. So when one person is having an off day and refuses to perform their chore another sibling may (and often does) step in and complete the task. So as long at the task is complete there are no consequences even if one person did not work. They seem to find comfort in knowing their siblings will step in for them, and enjoy helping each other.

As you can see things don't always go as I planned. :) Sometimes there is a mess made, but soggy rug or not, the seeds of responsibility are worth sowing.

Chalkboard coat hooks: how to make a kid friendly coat rack

I love displaying my kiddo's masterpieces, but I am not fond of my entire house looking like an overgrown overcrowded fridge. :) This chalkboard coat rack is a perfect mix of masterpiece and functionality. The kiddos loved making it, and can't wait to color on it again. It took about an hour of mama time (plus dry time) and 20 minutes of mama/kiddo time.

1. Gather the wood you would like to use for for the coat rack. I used an old piece of 1X6 that we had out in the garage. Cut the wood to the desired size. If you aren't a fan of power-tools, the local big box hardware store will often cut wood to length.

2. Paint the wood with chalkboard paint and let it dry, you may need two coats.

3. Allow the kiddos to create a chalk masterpiece. I used painter's tape on the bottom 2.5 inches because I did not want them to draw in that area. If you want to keep the masterpiece the same you can paint it with polyurethane or allow the kiddos to create with paint-markers.

4. Remove the blue tape (if you used it) and place hooks (purchased at a hardware store) on the bottom of the wood. As you are measuring for hook placement ensure that you will be screwing into your studs, not just sheetrock. I used one of the screws that came with the hook and substituted the other screw for a long one that attaches it to the wall.

5. Enjoy your kiddo's art each time you hang you hat. :)

As always, if you have a question...don't hesitate to ask.

waiving the (not so) white flag.....

"Mommy, can I have that long piece of wood that we never use and really don't need?"

"Sure."

"Mommy, where is the shovel?"

"In the green house, why do you ask?"

"I was just checking"

You gotta love sending the kiddos out play and watching a mini "united nations flag line" beening constructed in the yard. Complete with working pulley system to raise and lower the flag I may add. :) Oh, those mini engineers.

Thanks for the question: How to applique

Too many Kids in he Bathtub said...

How are you doing those appliques???

Great question! Oh, I just love questions. (insert giddy giggle here) Keep 'em coming!

Let's look at a few applique projects so we know what we are talking about, then we will get to the easy 1-2-3 instructions. As you can tell, I enjoy appliques. :)

My favorite little puppy dog - onsie and burpcloth

A little bird - skirt and bag

Bow tie shirt - 5th picture in the post

Little Pumpkin bibs

Monster backpack - the face is appliqued

Tooth fairy pillow

Create/Inspire bags - the words are kinda appliqued but I left off the stitching part of step #3 (see below)

To applique:

1) Choose a fabric, iron on" wonderunder" on the wrong side of the fabric. Ask for it at the fabric store if you haven't used it before. Trace your design (backwards) on the paperbacking and cut out your design. For a world of great ideas try etsy.

Note: If you are using felt, it doesn't matter what side you iron the "wonderunder" to.

2.) Add any hand stitching detailing. I didn't hand stitch on the guitar, but if I had this would have been the time to do it. :)

3.) Remove the paperbacking and iron it to your shirt. Stitch around the design, you can use a zig zag like I did for this one or a straight stitch like I did on the tie shirt.

Oh, I possibilities are endless when you applique!

Happy Stitching!

Noodle in a bottle: the repost

This is a re-post of a quiet activity that was intended to be for the little ones, but everyone had a blast. I was inspired by the loves school blog and we added our own twist.

The little ones each got pan to catch the broken noodles with their goal being not to break any noodles. My youngest son is in need of gentleness training. The boy is a bull in a china shop. LOL Then they each got noodles and a water bottle. To add a challenge we added tape to the top of the bottle. Very simple, very fun! The big boys decided it was a building project and took it in a direction that I could not have planned.

This activity passed the easy set up, long playtime, and quick clean-up test. When I am looking for/evaluating a kiddo activity I look for a quick & easy set up, a long playtime, and quick & easy clean-up. If the activity takes too long to set up, my kiddos have lost interested or gotten into mischief before we start. If the clean-up is too intensive it gets left out until the kiddos go to bed...not good! :) So if your time to set up + your time to clean up is less than half the playtime the activity makes the cut at my house.

Noodle in a bottle: still going strong

We all need those little "standby" actives. You know the ones for those times. Those times when we count the seconds until daddy come home, those times when everyone is ready to go but we still have an hour to kill, those times when I have just one more thing to do but the kids don't have anything ;) to do. Well, this is one of our standby.

It's very simple...Noodles!

Yup, just noodles. Each time they get 'em out a new activity is created because the kiddo's imagination dictate the fun. On the bottle shelf of our pantry (just above the recycle/inspiration bin) sits a few plastic containers labeled "Kids Only"! One of them is filled with pasta of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Under the microwave is the "Kids Only" drawer filled with all kinds of kitchenlike treasures. The kids mix and match from the Kids Only containers, recycle/inspiration bins and Kids Only drawer.

No planning, easy clean-up, fine motor stills, imagination, entertained kiddos...works for me.