toddler apron

Another toddler apron, perfect for those little helping hands.  I love the bright colours of this particular apron. 

fairy princess wand

My daughter is in love with pink and purple, fairies and princesses. So, for her birthday we are planning to have a pink lemonade fairy princess party. I thought it would be fun to make some little wands for the kids to take home as their party favour.  Her is a sneak peak of what I've been working on. I think I may add a flower or two with the star, I always think of beautiful flowers when I think of fairies. We will see what the finished wand will look like. I will post photos after the party.

Here is what the wand handle looks like, complete with a few Swarovski crystals.

Here is how I made the wands:

• cut 5/16" dowel (this was the smallest I could find that was strong at the same time) to 12" lengths.  I purchased my dowels at the hardware store.
• add a handle (optional).  I got these from my father, he was planning to get rid of them.
• painted dowel and handle with craft acrylic paint.
• decorated handle with white paint.
• added a finish coat of mod podge matte.
• cut 2 ribbons 24" +/- long, folded it in half and used a hand stapler to attach to top of wand.
• sewed together 2 stairs leaving an opening at the bottom of the star where the dowel would go.
• stuffed the star slightly then put onto the wand and use a staple to secure in place. 
• decorate the stars to your liking...make sure you cover up the staple (I have yet to do this part)

baby powder and sand

I read on a blog in a few places that you could use baby powder to get the sand off of little hands and feet.  I really wasn't sure about it but thought I would give it a try. And it does work really well. My only comment would be don't use a large bottle of baby powder as I did because I managed to get too much everywhere.

painting on canvas

The weather here has been really great which was perfect for painting outside. We bought 11" x 14" canvases and just used inexpensive acrylic paints. I watered down the paints so that they would run and also to be a bit transparent, since toddlers love to paint the same spot over and over. We let each colour dry and then painted the next colour.  The paintings turned out great and the girls had lots of fun painting them. What a great activity.

a crown for a princess

We recently celebrated my niece's third birthday.  For her birthday I had made her a crown and it turned out so adorable.  The back has a tie so you are able to get a perfect fit for any age...even adults. The decorating ideas for the crown are endless which makes it so much fun. 

canvas painting

There was a garage sale down the street from us yesterday and we had to see what deals we could find.  I found a canvas wrapped picture of a tiger for $0.50 (can't buy a new one for that price) but I bought it for the canvas. We painted the picture with some gesso, it did not cover as well as I had hoped but by the time we are going to be done with things I'm sure that it won't matter.

We will hang this 'masterpiece' on one of our walls with 3M picture hanging strips. Have you ever used these? These are amazing, we just love them. I plan to paint over this masterpiece some time down the road and with these strips it makes it so easy to remove the canvas from the wall and put it up again.

toddler apron

What can be more fun than to have your toddler help you in the kitchen? When my daughter was quite small she loved to help me bake. I tried to find an apron for her but did not have much luck, so I created my own that would fit her...it was perfect for her little body.

I love to use 3 different fabrics. One for the main body, one for the top accent piece and ruffle and then a different fabric for the straps.

Here is a close up detail of the ruffle.  I bought a ruffle foot for my sewing machine, it makes gathering so easy. It's worth the investment if you do a lot of gathering.

ikea duvet cover recreated

I love Ikea but when I was looking for my kids bedding there was nothing I really liked or that would go with their rooms. It was either not in the toddler bed size or the colours weren't quite right. So, to solve my problem, I bought a twin duvet bedding set and recreated it to make 2 toddler bed duvet covers with 2 pillowcases. Now I have exactly what I wanted to go with their rooms.

I recently was given this heart shape duvet cover from Ikea to sew into 2 toddler bed duvet covers. 

Please note that the direction of the pattern will change from horizontal to vertical which may not be what you are wanting.  There was a big heart in the centre of the pillowcase and I tried to save as much of it as I could when making the new pillowcase.  I did have to use some of the duvet cover to extend the length of the pillowcase, which I think makes it even cuter.  

I had fabric leftover so I decided to make a toss cushion with it, just the right size for the toddler bed.