clothes pin fairy

It was my daughter's birthday party recently and we made a simple craft with the girls, a fairy.

Here is a list of the supplies I used:

• clothes pin
• double sided tape (to glue everything - almost)
• felt (wings)
• markers, fine tip (black and red)
• paint  (body)
• pipe cleaner (arms)
• ribbon (belt)
• tissue paper (skirt)
• wool (for hair)

Here is how I made them:

1. Paint clothes pin just below the pin or head, this will be the top of the fairy. I also painted the bottom tips of the clothes pin for shoes but you can't see that in the photo.
2. Cut a piece of tissue paper approximately 10" x 4", fold in half to create a long strip. Scrunch/gather. Glue/tape around waist of fairy.
3. Cut a piece of decorative ribbon slightly longer than what will fit around the fairy's waist, you want it to overlap slightly. Glue/tape into place.
4. Use a pipe cleaner approximately 6" in length, fold ends of pipe cleaner to create the hands.  Fold in half and glue/tape to the back of the fairy with the arms coming forward.
5. Cut some wings out of felt, I just folded a piece in half to cut both sides at the same time and guessed on how it should be. Glue to back of fairy, covering the arms and back of the belt.
6. Cut some pieces of wool approximately 10" long, tie into a knot in the middle. Glue/tape on top of head. You may need to give your fairy a hair cut but that is completely up to you.
7. Draw the eyes and lips and now you are done.

You could always add a decorative ribbon to the back so that you can hang the fairy up, we just did not get to doing that this time around....maybe next time.

look who's two

This is the t-shirt my daughter wore for her 2nd birthday. Here is how I created the t-shirt (I know there are simpler ways of doing this but I was working with what I had on hand):

• Find a font you like and print out the number you need (you may need to print a few sizes to see which will look best).
• Put printed number inside t-shirt and position it where you like.  This may not work if your t-shirt happens to be a darker colour but you could use a transfer paper instead.
• Use hot fix Swarvoski crystals (mine are 20SS and a few 16SS). I buy my crystals here.
• Iron onto t-shirt.

dressing it up for Easter

I know it's a bit early for Easter but thought I would try to get a bit ahead since time just seems to fly by. I recently purchased an inexpensive easter basket and thought it needed a little something, so I decided to add a flower to dress it up. I used felt and two different types of ribbon. 

 

Here is how I created it.

Make a simple flower template in 2 different sizes.  It does not matter that if the flower template is not perfect.  No really, it does not matter. Have a look at mine, it's not perfect.

Cut 5 large flowers of one colour and 3 small flowers in an other coordinating colour (or the same colour as the larger flower).

Scrunch the ends of the flower and hand sew the end so that it stays put.  Do this to all 8 pieces.

Stitch the 5 larger flowers together.  I used a scrap piece of felt to stitch the flower end to and made a bit of a circle.  Once I was happy with it I made sure it was all secure and did not have too much space between each flower.

Stitch the 3 smaller flowers together. Make sure it's secure.  Have a look at the right side of the flower and see if you are happy with how the petals are sitting.  If not, make small stitched to help the petals stay where you want them to.  I would recommend using a matching thread in this case so that you don't see your stitches.

Cut 2 pieces of ribbon approximately 16" each in length. Stitch the ribbon together and then to the back side of the flower as pictured below. This ribbon will not be used to tied it to the basket, it's purely decorative.

Cut another 2 pieces of ribbon approximately 16" in length.  This ribbon will be used to tie the flower to the basket so if your handle is thicker than what mine was, you may need to make the ribbon longer.  Or if you want more ribbon hanging down, then cut more ribbon. Stitch to the back side of the flower like show above.

Tie flower to the handle of your basket.  I made my bow quite small as the ribbon I used was quite floppy if it was too large but you can make the bow as large or small as you desire.  Once the flower has been secured to the basket, trim the ribbons (if needed) to the desired length.  Mine had a couple ribbons that were a bit long. And there you have it, a cute flower to dress up a simple basket. Won't that child look adorable holding this basket as they look for their Easter eggs?

magnets made with brads

My Mom works at a place where she gets a locker to store her things for the day.  She wanted to hang a few photos of her grandkids insider her locker but is not allowed to put up anything permanent up so the perfect solution would be to use magnets.  I don't know about you but I have way too many brads and I thought they would make a great magnet.  Here is how I did it.

First, cut the prongs on the back of the brad off.  I used some heavy duty toe nail clippers (I only use them in my craft room) but you could use anything that will cut through metal.

Next I made sure that the back surface was completely flat, otherwise the magnet won't go on straight.

Glue on the magnet and there you have it. I used Ranger Glossy Accents for the adhesive and Rare-Earth magnets.

bean bags or should I say rice bags?

I've seen a few blogs and websites with bean bags lately, so I thought it would be fun to make them myself.  I initially wanted to do an alphabet letter on each bag and may still do that some day but for now I just made the plain.

Here is how I created the bags:

• Cut squares measuring 5 1/4" x 10 1/2" of various cotton fabrics.  
• Fold in half with right sides together and stitch together.  Be sure to leave an opening to add the filing.
• Turn right side out and press.
• Top stitch (I did it 1/8" from the edge) leaving an opening again for the filling.  Make sure the openings are in the same place.
• Fill your bag with rice.  I had tried yellow peas but they were too hard and I found that rice was much softer when the bag was tossed.  (You could also use it as a small heat bag when needed on those cold winter days if you uses rice)
• Top stitch the opening shut and you are now done.