Folded Fabric Ornaments!

Wow! It's been a year and a half since I lasted posted! Hard to believe! But, life takes over and well, priorities change! I am so impressed with how many of you continue to find my older posts useful. I created this blog to share our projects and it's so fun to see how others are still enjoying our creations!

In the last year, my girls and I have ventured into fabric and sewing! They are now 10 and 12 years old! And so self-sufficient! They search for projects on Pinterest and watch tutorials on You Tube. It's been truly amazing to see what they come up with and create.

Last year, I taught myself to quilt and made each of the girls a new quilt for their bed (I'll try to post about those before another year and a half goes by). I'm in the middle of one for my son that I hope to finish yet this winter.

More than a year ago, I came across a super fun blog called The Ornament Girl and loved her creations. With my newfound interest in quilting, I revisited her site last month to take another look at her ornaments. On a whim, I bought her December Ornament kit. With my purchase, I received an e-book tutorial for how to make the ornaments and I immediately went to work before I ever even received Staci Ann's kit in the mail!

Here is my first ornament attempt!

I just used scraps of fabric I had from quilted hot pads I made last Christmas. I couldn't stop there so I made two more. Here's all three of my first creations:

Then, my 12 year old wanted to learn to make them. So we dug out her jelly roll of fabric she received last year. Soooo easy! It was already cut into strips so we only had to cut it into rectangles to use.

Here is her first attempt!

And then my 10 year old got in on it and here is her first ornament (front and back):

When my kit arrived from The Ornament Girl, I created this in no time at all!

You can see all of our folded fabric ornaments in this facebook photo album....click here!

To learn how you can make these beautiful (and actually, super easy) ornaments, check out the Ornament Girl shop! Don't forget to click on "About" and learn how Staci Ann started her business. I love that I can help support her and her family.

 

 

DIY Craft Project: Yes! You CAN make your own Valentines!

Okay, I get it. There are some people in the world who just aren't crafty (or THINK they aren't crafty). So they go to the store and buy character Valentines and send them to school with their kids. No problem! Not everyone has extra time to spend traipsing around buying craft supplies for Valentines. Some people would rather pull their hair out than supervise their children making handmade Valentines. I don't blame you sometimes! BUT. I am here to tell you, you really CAN make handmade Valentines! With minimal supplies too! And minimal cost! And if you have grade school age children, minimal help! Now, how does that sound?? Are you sold yet? Well, let me know show you what we did this year for our Valentines!

First of all, Pinterest is your friend! You can find a million EASY Valentines on Pinterest and most of them are just free printables, add the "treasure" (either candy or a pencil or whatever) and you're done! But I have crafty kids who wanted to take matters into their own hands! So off they went to search on the iPad.

My 10 year old Minion-obsessed fourth grader found these!

Source

Isn't that cute! But, of course, she didn't want to just print these out. She wanted to draw it herself! So she drew her picture, we shrunk them down and printed four to a page. You can do this with ANY DRAWING! Even a toddler/preschooler can make a Valentine picture and you can turn it into a Valentine, just like that!

 Here's how she finished them:

All you need is your small printed drawings, some paper cut slightly bigger than the drawings (we used scrapbook paper, but you can use construction paper or anything really!), glue dots (or a glue stick, school glue, etc), and a paper cutter or scissors.

My daughter just put a glue dot in each corner of the drawing page.

She taped a pencil to the back (bought at the dollar area at Target for 50 or 75% off in the off season--8 pencils in a pack) and wrote her greeting.

Done and Done. Now, that was wasn't too hard, was it?? ;-) I hear all the time from people when they see some of our projects that they just aren't crafty and could never do what we do. Honestly, sometimes it's not difficult at all to do something handmade! And it always has such a great WOW factor when you give someone something you made yourself, versus something store-bought.

Okay, this next project maybe is for the bit more advanced crafter. But I have to brag. Ella made this ALL BY HERSELF! It's her valentine box to house her valentines at school. She saw something like it on Pinterest and created her own version. Isn't this the most adorable thing ever!!

I love all the details she put into it! The buttons glued on. The teeth taped in the mouth. The pipe cleaner hair. The three-dimensional quality of this is AMAZING! The only thing she had help with was cutting out the mouth because we had to use an Exacto knife.

Now, onto my 8 year old! She also created her own Valentines this year. She came up with this all on her own! I think she was inspired by this pin:

Source

But really her end product was all her own!

She used Fabri-tac to glue two foam hearts together (you can get these at Michael's or Target). Then she stuck the Smarties on with glue-dots.

Finished it off by making little heads out of puff balls, googly eyes, and pipe cleaners. She attached the puff ball to the tip of the Smarties with Fabri-tac--trying not to get the glue near the candy. ;-)

She wrote her greeting on the back. Pretty awesome that she did this without any supervision at all!

And finally, my son's preschool class is exchanging Valentines. I wanted to do something I could make quickly without a lot of effort. He isn't into crafting (yet) so I made these on my own. But you certainly could have your kids help you! I did find this on Pinterest here.

 All you need is some paper, bouncy balls, and favor bags.

 Cut out a heart shape, write, "You're out of this world" on it. I wrote my son's name on the back.

Because the bouncy balls are rubber, it is kind of difficult to actually attach them to the paper. So I put them in favor bags and it worked great. So easy! This took me maybe 30-45 minutes total to do.

Making your own Valentines definitely doesn't have to difficult! You just have to find an idea and run with it. Many of them aren't even time-consuming! Give it a try!

Craft Project: DIY "Faux" Stained Glass Frames

Anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time knows we LOVE sun catchers or anything pretty and sparkly in a window. :-) A year and a half ago, we worked on a faux stained glass project with black glue and permanent markers. The girls' projects have been hanging in my kitchen window over the sink ever since. I decided it was time for something new to look at. :-) We had a teacher workshop (no school) day at the end of February, and inspired by this post at Play at Home Mom, I thought this would be the perfect project for the girls.

What you'll need for this project:
--pictures frames (any size)--I got ours at Dollar Tree, we used 8 x 10
--clear glue
--Glass mosaic tiles or gems--We used the glass tiles and gems shown below from Michael's at $2.99 a bag. I think we used 4-5 bags total with some of certain colors leftover). You can also buy glass gems at Dollar Tree. At our Dollar Tree, the colors are limited to blue and green and maybe clear. I wanted a greater variety in color for the girls so I shelled out for the Michael's brand. ;-)
--Gorilla Glue
--suction cups (also found at the dollar store)
--sorting dish (optional)--you can even have the children sort the tiles/gems by color as an added educational activity. I found my tray at the dollar store as well.

This project is GREAT for all levels as you can do as much or as little to help the kids with it. Since my girls are 9 and 7, I let them do most of it. If you are adapting it for smaller children you can just let them put the gems wherever, and either add the glue yourself or let them do it. I have somewhat perfectionist little artists, so I had them plan ahead.

Step 1) This is actually for the parent. I used gorilla glue to go around where the frame and the glass would meet to create a seal. This way, when the clear glue is applied, it will not leak. I didn't take a photo of this step before we were finished. You can see it below in the photo that shows the finished underside with the suction cups. I did this step the day before I wanted the girls to do the project so the glue would have time to cure.

Step 2)--for older (or more particular) children--I had the girls plan out their design on a piece of white paper.

Step 3) Spread a good amount of clear glue on the TOP of the glass in the frame. So the frame creates an edge for the glue. We put enough to cover the glass and then some. After squirting from the bottle, the girls used a foam brush to spread it around.

Step 4) Add your tiles/gems to the glue on TOP of the glass in the frame.

Step 5) We added a bit more glue over the top and between the tiles. Just to make sure everything was sealed for sure.

This step might have been overkill, but I plan to have these hanging in my window for at least a year. I don't want any of the tiles to start to fall out. My window does get some sun, though it is not direct light for the entire day, just in the morning hours. I'm hoping it holds with all the UV exposure.

Step 6) Let dry for several days. This step actually didn't take quite as long as I anticipated. After dealing with the cookie cutter suncatchers, I think these dried even faster than those. Two days maybe. Though I left them on the art room table in the sun so that may have sped up the drying process a bit.

Step 7) I used gorilla glue to secure suction cups to the back. I used larger ones at the top and smaller on the bottom. These 8 x 10 stained glass frames are pretty heavy so I wanted to make sure they would stay in the window.

I included a couple extra photos so you can see the seal I created under the glass and along the frame edge as well. It's not pretty on the underside. Remember gorilla glue will expand when it dries.

And here are the finished frames in my window! I LOVE these! They are so bright and fun. Just makes me happy to look up and see them in the window.

 My nine year old created the one below. In her words, "just a design":

And this is my 7 year old's. She called hers "Garden". You can make out flowers with a green leaf by each one. And there's a dragonfly in the lower left on the side. And a butterfly on the right side above the red flower.

This project is perfect for any child who likes a tactile experience. Also, it's a good sensory experience with putting the tiles in the clear glue. I tried to take a couple photos to show the depth of the tiles in the frames and the tactile nature.

Now, if you are worried about the weight of these in your window. Or you might like a less "messy" version. OR you are short on time for a gift idea, I have a SHORT-CUT to this project. This came about just this afternoon when my daughter had a friend over and they were looking for a project to do in the art room.

I quickly pulled out some 5 x 7 Dollar Store frames. Cut contact paper (you can get this at the Dollar Store too!) to fit the glass in the frame. Taped the contact paper down with the sticky side up. They cut out tissue paper however they wanted, in the shapes they wanted, and placed the pieces on the contact paper.

 My daughter used scrapbook punches to cut out these circles in the tissue paper:

Because both my daughter and her friend left "holes" where the contact paper showed through, when I turned it over it stuck to the glass. This was a nice way for it to be secured in place while I put it in the frame. I also trimmed any excess tissue paper that hung over the edge of the frame glass.

This can be adapted for different ages. If you have smaller children, you can cut the tissue paper yourself and just have them put the pieces on the contact paper. You can have them rip the tissue paper into small pieces first for a more organic feel to the work. They can practice using the scissors by cutting the tissue paper themselves.

Once the contact paper is covered with tissue paper, you can turn it over and put it on the BACK of the glass going into the frame. Then put the prongs down to hold it all in place. The contact paper stayed in place with the frame prongs. You could use tape to secure the contact paper more. I probably will glue it just to really secure everything. You can secure it however you like, depending on how much time you have. These would make fun gifts for Mother's Day or an end-of-the-year gift for teachers.

I think these turned out great! And are super fun in the window with the light shining through. The cool thing about these too, they look pretty neat in the window even when it's dark out. Sorry I don't have a photo of this. But the tissue paper appears opaque and you can still see the design when it is dark outside.