Posts Tagged ‘crafts’

I really can’t believe I’m a mom of 4 kiddos. When I see all of them together I’m a little in awe at the crowd. It really feels like Eli was born yesterday AND that all 4 have been in my life forever.

Does than make sense?

Not really.

Even though it was almost 2 months ago, I have to share our trip home from the hospital, AND how to make custom big brother/sister tees for your kiddos.

Hot Hubby brought the kiddos to the hospital to bring Tess home. The big kiddos were instantly smitten…

Cyrus was… well…

On the way home we stopped off at Souplantation.

People thought we were crazy.

But it was dinnertime and we had to eat. If we had ordered take out or had one one our lovely friends bring us something there would still be some prep and clean up. At Souplantation I just sat there, ate and left.

It makes for a good story too!

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Now about those cute custom tees they are wearing. The boy’s tees are durable heat pressed vinyl. I’m thinking of opening a custom shop.

Thoughts??

To make the ‘big sis’ tee you’ll need: a tee, fabric for the letters (a fat quarter or 1/4 yard of fabric will be plenty!), iron, and fusible webbing (I used Steam-A-Seam).

1. Pick font for your phrase of choice. The font should be simple with thick lines.

2. Print out your letters in the size you want them to be on the tee.

3. You will trace and cut the letters on to the fusible webbing. I recommend following the directions on the package slowly and step-by-step. It’s one of those things that seems super simple then you realize all your letters are backwards! (Ahem)

4. Ironing secures the phrase to the tee. If you want the edges to be super clean, you may want to top stitch around the outer rim of each letter. I didn’t. The Steam-A-Seam sticks very well and is washer/dryer safe. It won’t fray. And it saves an hour of work!

It’s so fun to be creative with the fusible webbing! Think personal Christmas gifts!!! What will you try??

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Oh and it didn’t take long for Cy to fall in love with Tess. In fact he loves her just a bit too much. Lots of hard hugs and slobber kisses. Eeeek!!

I discovered Dragonfly Shops and Gardens after buying a book called Fun and Educational Places to go With Kids and Adults in Southern California. The book is $25.50 (including shipping and tax!), if you get it from the site or retails for $24.95 at book stores. You can get it at Dragonfly Shops and Gardens too! The book is like 3 inches thick and worth EVERY penny! Trust me!

In the book I stumbled across a Fairy Garden Making class.

Ummm, yes please!!

But don’t think that a fairy garden is just for lil’ girls!

See how Eli boy-ified his Fairy Garden…

First you paint the flower pot and make mini birdhouses…

All throughout the class you sprinkle fairy dust into the garden.

And yep, it’s the real deal!! (wink)

Dirt is fun for boys.

Included in the price of the class ($20) is the whole garden (pot, 2 mini plants, arbor, birdhouse, arbor, mini butterfly, frog AND ladybug) and you can buy lil’ extras from the shop if you like. (But I’m sure they can add up so if you take your kiddo you might want to set a limit ahead of time!)

Eli brought superheros and pirates to add to his garden.

The Fairy Garden has officially been Boy-ified!!!

If you head into Dragonfly Shops and Gardens, mention Eli’s Lids and get 20% off.

More on the shop this week!!!

Kids Fairy garden Class details

Held the 1st Saturday of every month

9am

$20 per child (They do Birthday parties too!)

Dragonfly Shops and Gardens

260 North Glassell Street
Orange, CA 92866
Telephone: 714-289-4689

~Shop Hours~
Mon-Sat 10:00–5:00
Sun 11:00–3:00

Dragonfly on Facebook here

The fairy garden class, Dragonfly Hollow on Facebook here

Dragonfly Gardens on Twitter here.

Some other posts from my friend bloggers who came to the class…

Kyla from Funky Polkadot Giraffe

Beckey from Hippo Brigade

Roxanne from On the Rox

Michelle from Life with Dylan

Lindsey from The Modchik Check out this awesome giveaway Dragonfly is offering on Lindsey’s site. I entered!!

Eli told me he wanted to paint with veggies…

“You know mom, you can cut them up and use them as stamps or just use the outside as a paintbrush.”

My initial thought was, did he just call me “mom,” I’m still your mommy, don’t ever grow up! Bwahahahaha…

But I said, “Sounds fun, how did you get that idea?”

“Sesame Street”

So there you have it.

If you didn’t know already Sesame Street is super educational.

We didn’t have much in our cabinets but I don’t think the kiddos cared. We were painting with veggies for goodness sake!

We stamped with the cut base of celery, apples (halved & quartered), gummy bears, cucumbers. And rolled with peppermints and cheerios. Eventually we just used hands and fingers!

I only put out paint in red, blue and yellow so we could experiment with mixing colors to make new colors.

We also grabbed the markers and made picture with the stamped shapes (pirate ship and face below).

Fun and easy for an afternoon in!

I asked my friends for fun 4th of July crafts and my friend Monica shared this sweet canvas she made with her daughter last year.

Adorable!!!

It’s perfectly imperfect, don’t you think??

(both pix above from Monica)

Earlier that week I had been in Joanns and picked up one of those super tiny canvases (I think it’s 3.5” x 2.5”) just because it was cute.

Total impulse purchase… but it was only $1.99 so I don’t feel bad.

Then fate brought me Monica’s canvas… or that’s what I’d like to think!!

I modified Monica’s larger canvas and used Cy’s finger prints to make a lil’ flag. I had intended to use his whole finger to make the stripes but uncurling 1-year-old’s finger, even with the help of Hot Hubby, was impossible!

The flag is little and so darn sweet looking. I can’t wait to pull it out every 4th of July and remember how tiny Cy’s little fingers were.

I saw this craft in Family Fun magazine, fell in love and made it (with some modifications). I think it would be perfect for the front door, sliding glass door or where ever!

You’ll need:

7/8-inch wide grosgrain ribbon in red, white, and blue

12-inch-long strip of wood (I used a paint stirrer)

1/8 yard of white fabric OR lace OR silver pom-poms

13 pennies OR 13 buttons

Hot glue gun (or tacky glue)

Lighter

Scissors

 Instructions (copied word for word from the Family Fun site with my additions in bold and underlined)

1. Cut four red and three white 14-inch-long strips, and three red and three white 24-inch-long strips.

2. Cut seven blue 10-1/2-inch-long strips.

3. Run lighter lightly across one end of the the blue ribbon to keep from fraying.

4. Use tacky glue or hot glue to adhere the blue ribbons to the shorter red and white lengths, overlapping the ends a half inch with the burned blue end on the top.

5. Glue all 13 ribbons to a 12-inch-long strip of wood, such as a ruler or paint stirrer, then cover the wood with blue ribbon. Be sure to match up the overlapping blue line so it runs straight across.

Tip: I found the a 12 inch piece of wood was just a bit too short even as I overlapped the 13 ribbons. I used a 5 gallon paint stirrer. It’s thicker and leaves about 6” on either side of the width of the flag. I might cut it down eventually but the extra weight and length makes secure mounting!

6. Trim the bottom ribbon ends evenly and run the lighter across to keep from fraying.

7. For the circle of stars, glue 13 silver pom-poms to the field of blue. Nothing against pom-poms but I was looking for less of a kiddo decoration. I happened to have exactly 13 little white flowers left over from my 4th of July wreath making. (Was that God ordained or what??) Again here is the tutorial I used for the twisted flowers. I also think squares (or a wad) of vintage lace would be really cute! Very Betsy Ross-ish, right?

8. Glue a button to the back of each end for weight. I thought pennies were a lil’ more appropriate for this craft. (And cheaper!!!) Don’t you agree?

One more VERY EASY craft coming tomorrow. It’s cute and little and drool-worthy!

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Cy update:

The nurse called today about the test results. She said levels of certain things were a little high or a little low but not to worry over the weekend. I’m super happy about that! Prayer works!!

But I also think, REALLY??? So we were stuck in the hospital for 3 days for nothing?? Doctors appointment on Wednesday should tell more.