Hand Print Ballerina Tutus

This year for Razy's birthday we had a ballerina party.  We wanted to make it special and send each of the invited ballerinas home with a party favor.  What better than their very own tutu and a handprint tutu.  Want to make your own? Your in luck, they are super easy.

Supplies:

Stretched Canvas (or even paper)

Pink Card stock (or any color you would like

Two colors of pink (or any color you choose)

Ribbon

Hot glue

mod podge

lighter to burn ribbon edges

Lets Get Crafting:

1. Take your card stock and fold it in half to cut out n symmetrical leotard.  I actually found that doing this on a piece of paper and then tracing it onto the card stock was easier and you didn't get a line down your card stock. 

2. Mod podge one side of the card stock and lay it onto your canvas (or paper).

3. Using the light colored paint, paint your child's hands and have them press four times (twice for each hand) onto the canvas under the leotard for your tutu. 

4. After washing your child's hand, paint it in the darker color and place one print of each hand to make the tutu look fuller and have a little depth.  Let dry.

5.  Cut a piece of ribbon to fit across the bodice, above the tutu prints.  I like to burn the edges to keep from fraying to to make it look cleaner.  Hot glue the ribbon down.

5. Tie a bow, burn the tails and hot glue it onto the ribbon you already glued down. 

6.  Hot glue ribbon to the back of your canvas so you are able to hang it.

7.  Sit back and smile at how cute your project turned out.  Don't forget to write the date on the back so you remember how old your little one was when they made this cute project.

Day 3- Project Pinterest

Today's project made us all a little loopy.  You will see why once I tell you what we did.  The kids had alot of fun with this one and the nice thing about it was they were able to do a little on it and then take a break and come back to it. 

Today's Project Pinterest

Tie Dye with Sharpies

You will need:

Sharpies:  We omitted all the black, brown, and grey ones

Plastic Cup

Rubberband

Dropper (an old medicine dropper)

Rubbing Alcohol (90% or higher)

A prewashed light colored t shirt

  

Place your cup under your shirt and secure it with a rubberband.

Begin coloring on the shirt with your permanent marker.

The kids had fun drawing pictures. 

It really doesn't matter what they draw because the colors will all bleed together.

Using your eye dropper, fill it with rubbing alcohol and begin dropping drops onto the marker to begin the bleeding process. Allow it to sit and dry before moving onto the next drawing.  You can speed up the process by blowing on it or setting it outside to dry. 

We stopped to take a break and let all our circles dry. 

Once you are done you will want to put them in the dryer for 15 minutes to set the marker.  Do not put them in the dryer until they are COMPLETELY dry.  The alcohol is extremely flammable. Once you set the color you can wash them just like your other clothing.

And here are their masterpieces.

Can you say "CHEESE"?

Of course they have to ask me which on is my favorite.  And I was told I can not say them all.  I had to ignore that question becuase I knew it would start a fight.

We even had to make one for our new baby sister who will be arriving at the end of May!

Let me know if you make these and how they turn out.  I would love to see them.

Day 2- Project Pinterest

I was starting to think I made a mistake that we cancelled our "Stay"cation Destination after yesterday's weather.  However, this morning we were greeted with the pitter patter of rain drops on the roof.  The rain drops kept coming and coming.  After a trip to the store for the rest of our supplies for the week, we were ready to start our project.  Well I was.  The kids on the other hand had to re-earn the right to do their craft.  Luckily they did and we were ready for business.

Today's Project Pinterest

Homemade Bouncy Balls

You will need:

Borax (found in laundry section)

warm water

corn starch

glue (clear glue makes a see transparent ball and white glue makes an opaque ball)

2 plastic mixing cups

a stirring stick (plastic spoon)

food coloring (optional)

1. Label your two cups.  One with Borax and the other with Ball.

2. In your borax cup, add 2 TB warm water and 1/2 tsp of borax and dissolve.  Add food coloring.

3. In your Ball cup, add 1 TB glue.

4.  To your ball cup add 1 TB cornstarch and 1/2 tsp of borax mixture.  DO NOT STIR.

  Let it react for 10-15 seconds.

5.  Stir with your spoon.  When it becomes impossible to stir, take out and mold it in your hand.  It will be sticky at first, but as you knead it it will solidify.

6.  Keep rolling it in your hand until you have a sphere. 

7.  When you are done playing with them, store them in a plastic baggie.  They will only keep for a day or two before drying out. 

8.  Make sure you clean and wipe your work area thouroghly and have the kids wash their hands after making their balls. 

These are not like your typical bouncy balls.  They actually will bounce better on the carpet.  The kids had fun making them and playing with them eventhough they didn't get super high.  For a rainy day activity it was a success!



Day 1- Project Pinterest 2012

As promised I am posting all the fun things we are doing for Spring Break.  This year instead of doing our annual "Stay"cation Destination, we are doing "Project Pinterest".  Every day this week the kids are choosing one of my pins from pinterest to complete.  This can be anything from a recipe, a craft, a game, etc.  They had lots of things to choose from, but I think that they are excited with what they choose. 

Today's Project

Marble Race Tracks

This was a very simple craft to pull together.

You will need:

1 foam pool noodle

exacto knife

tooth picks

paper

glue dots

marbles

To Make:

1.  Cut your pool noodle in half length wise.

2.  Using toothpicks, glue dots, and paper, create your start and finish lines

3.  Race your marbles.

The kids had a lot of fun with these.  They got creative and connected the two tracks to make a longer one and raced about 15 marbles down it at once. 

We also pulled out the marble tube tracks.  Of course they asked me to help build it.  Man are these things tricky.  After I got the whole thing set up, I went to the kitchen to clean it.  When I came back they had taken alot of it apart and had constructed there own. 

The weather was actually really nice today.  This was completely unexpected.  Spring Break is usually really rainy and it was even forcasted as such for this week.  However, today the sun was shining and it was 61 degrees..."Hot weather" according to Lil' E.  We took a break and loaded into the car for a trip to the local creamery.  I needed to go there to get some cheese salt for a project we are doing later in the week and the kids wanted to see the baby cows.  They had alot of fun and didn't want to leave.

Meet Abigail.  She loved the kids.  She had fun sniffing them and licking Lil' E.  He thought he was the bravest because he let her do so. 

Doble enjoyed her too.  I was certain he wouldn't get as close as he did, but just like his big brother he wanted to pet the baby cows and get really close to them. 

Lil' E spotted this cutie.  His cute little heart on the top of his head was awesome.  I can't remember what his name was. 

Of course Razy kept her distance.  She thought the cows were cute, but she didn't want them near her.  Towards the end of the visit she got close enough to pet them as long as they kept their heads down. 

Abigail and Lil' E again.  He left with a slobbery shirt. 

In the big barn were some of the bigger cows. 

The baby cows were so curious.  There was one that was really interested in Lil' E's shoes.  I kept telling him that it wanted to untie his shoe.  Sure enough it pulled on his shoe and untied it. He thought it was quite silly. 

The Maternity Wing was full of the mama cows.   

Razy getting braver. 

These twins were funny.  The one kept sucking on his siblings ear. 

I would say that our first day of Spring Break was a success.  The weather cooperated.  The kids didn't ask to watch a bunch of tv.  In fact they only watched on episode while I was looking forward to their marble tube track.  We got to visit the creamery, which was an unexpected pleasure.  The day isn't over and they are still enjoying the weather.  It is 6:23pm and they are still playing hard outside on their playset.  Days like today actually make me look forward to summer.  Happy Spring everyone!

Project Pinterest and Easter Week

Sadly this year we aren't going to be doing our annual "Stay"cation Destination.  With gas prices being so high, 30 weeks pregnant, preparing for easter, and once again rain on the forcast, the cons outweighed the pros this year.  I still wanted to do something fun with the kids.  We decided that "Project Pinterest" was the answer. 



I have pinned over a thousands pins in the last year.  Somethings will just sit there for years and probably never get done.  However, I have also done quite a few things.  I have a couple of boards that I have pinned that would be fun for the kids.  So each day of spring break they get to choose a project they would like to do.  It can be a craft, a game, a learning thing, a recipe, etc.  After we complete each of our projects we will post them on here for you to see and try for yourself if you would like.


On top of "Project Pinterest", we are celebrating our week long Easter.  We did this last year and it went so well.  We focused on what Easter really means, instead of focusing on the Easter Bunny.  We still did Easter Eggs, and enjoyed candy, but the kids really learned alot and they have been talking about it again this year.  We all are really looking forward to Friday when we will be having our "Last Supper".  This was one of our favorite ways to celebrate Easter last year.   

So stay tuned for some fun, inside, ideas to try during spring break or any time.  And celebrate along with us in our week long Easter celebration. 

Sweet Butterfly Baby Mobile

I have been seeing some cute baby mobiles on pinterest lately and decided it was time to make one for the girls's room.  We chose to go with a butterfly mobile to match the colors and theme already in their bedroom.

Materials

Butterfly punch, die-cut or die-cut machine (I used the my Cricut to cut out a 2 inch butterfly from the Home Decor Cartridge)

Paper in desired colors- you will need enough paper to cut 72 images (I used colored 2 sided scrapbook cardstock and clear vellum for my butterflies)

A ring. You can use a metal wreath base or even a large embroidery hoop.  I actually used a broken kids basketball door hoop.

Color coordinating ribbon for tying around base

Fishing Line

Sturdy wire for cross hairs of chandelier

Glue Dots

Scissors

Tulle for hanging the chandelier from ceiling

Here is my make shift loop.  I couldn't find an embroidery hoop.  This was perfect and cost me $0.

I just wrapped it in ribbon to hide the bright orange.

Instructions

1. Take two pieces of wire and cross them in the center of your hoop. Wrap ends of wire around circle where they come in contact. This will create a cross in the hoop that will give you more area to hang butterflies from.

2. Tie ribbons in knots around your base hoop. You could also paint it if you are using an embroidery hoop. If using ribbon use as little or as much as you would like.  I didn't go very full and you can see the underlying ribbon underneath.

3. Begin cutting or punching butterflies from paper. You will need a total of 36 completed butterflies for your chandelier if you hang as many as I did. I put a colored cardstock and a clear vellum piece together for each butterfly, so I cut 36 of each.

4. Cut 13 pieces of fishing line to about 20”-24". Each piece of fishing line will have 3 or 4 butterflies attached to it.

5. You can begin attaching butterflies to fishing line with glue dots. Place glue dots in the center (body) of each butterfly. Run the fishing line up the body and then attach the front piece of the butterfly over the top. This will create a sandwich for the fishing line. Place butterflies about 3-4 inches apart on the line. Leave plenty of extra line at the top of the butterflies so that you will be able to tie it on to the ring at the right height.  However, I put my fishing line on first and then sandwhiched the butterflies onto the line. It helped me see the colors as I went. 

6. When you have attached all of your butterflies to the line, begin tying them on to your base. I placed 2 longer strings on opposing cross lines of the wire in the middle of the loop.  Then middle lengthed fishing line at each of the four cross points on the hoop itself.  Last I put 4 shorter pieces of fishing line in between each of the four points of the loop.  The center 2 lines had 4 butterflies as did the four cross points on the loop.  The shorter 4 pieces had 3 butterflies.  You can play around with what looks good on yours.  If you are using a larger loop you will want more lines of butterflies.  You could put as many as 17 lines.  12 on outer loop, 4 on the center cross wires, and 1 in the middle.

7. Use tulle tied to each cross point to hang the chandelier from the ceiling or other area. You could also use ribbon.

Play around with different shapes.  Animals, flowers, dots, ect would also be really cute. 

 

And here is the final product above the crib. 

I got the original idea from:

Heartland Paper

She gives a little different instructions as hers was slightly larger and had more butterflies.

New Crib and Crib Skirt

About a week ago we got a new crib.  I was so excited for it, because the crib was causing me much anxiety during this pregnancy. Anyway I decided that I didn't want to use a bumper pad.  I've just done reading on them and decided that they really are not needed and I wanted to take all precautions with our last little one. I still wanted the crib to look cute and I didn't want to spend a whole bunch of money on a crib set that I would just be throwing the bumper pad out.  So I decided on making my own crib skirt.  I found the cutest purple polka dot fabric that matches Razy's bed spread perfectly. 

Materials:

Enough fabric to go along 3 sides of you crib.  The back side isn't seen so I wanted to save myself money

Thread

Sticky back velcro

For my crib I need 52 inches along the front and I added 2 inches for hemming and 29 plus 2 inches fabric for each side.  Make sure you measure your crib sides to get the measurement you will need.

I don't have a picture of the very first step, but fold the edge of your fabric over 1 inch and iron.  Then fold it in half again so the edge meets your iron mark. Iron this edge as well.

Take pins and pin your folds.  You really don't have to do this step, but for those of you that find it easier to sew with needles go ahead and do it.  I did it just to show you what it would look like.

Sew your hem.

Do the same thing along every edge of your skirt. 

Place the teeth side of your velcro and place it on your mattress frame and the soft side on your fabric so they match up.

I learned the hard way that sewing sticky velcro on my fabric caused my needle to gum up. I had to hand sew the velcro onto the fabric by hand. 

The front side of the bed worked perfectly using this method.  However the sides had the hardware get in the way so I had to put the velcro on the hardware.  It looked fine once it was the mattress was on there.

Here is the final crib.

 

For a no sew tutorial try

Young House Love