Autumn Pumpkin Crafts & More -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Can you believe August is almost over and schools are starting up? Where did the summer go? To kick into the fall season, we are sharing some pumpkin themed crafts and products. And just in case you want to really skip ahead be sure to check out our Christmas card post yesterday! I know crafters will understand the need to start those crafts early!! We decided to focus our posts around pumpkins since they work for fall as well as Halloween and Thanksgiving. We have had a lot of fun with pumpkin crafts and with pumpkins. Last year I shared a tutorial to make a fabric pumpkin. I used this pumpkin in several of my pictures. We will start with our DIY Door Pumpkin. 

Twists, Braids & Ponytails -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Quarto Knows sent me this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I will admit this is not a total craft this week, but it does have some creativity and with the week I have had, this is the best I  could do. Hazel loves having her dolls hair look nice. However she has not really mastered braids or doing hair yet. I got her (and me) this book to get some ideas and learn new tricks to do. It is Twists, Braids, & Ponytails by Joel Benjamin. 

Vacation Week Crafts - a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me copies of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

This past week was Hazel's spring break. We have had quite the week and a half. The last week of school included Hazel's class's Easter play and my parents came to see her and celebrate Easter with us early. Then my sister came to go to the Museum of Fine Arts on Saturday with us. Then we celebrated with my mother-in-law on Easter Sunday. On Monday we headed to the American Girl Doll Store Boston (which is not in Boston). Hazel had saved almost enough to buy herself a doll. We loaned her the last $30 since we were going. My plan had been to take her so she could really decide which doll she wanted. Seeing the dolls in person helped her really decide which were her top picks. Some that had been top picks fell off the list in person. After a bit of thought she decided on Kit Kitteredge. She LOVES the books about Kit, so I thought this was a wonderful choice.

Spring and Easter Crafts, Ideas & More with Products from Oriental Trading -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Can you believe Easter is only two weeks away? I love spring and Easter and love making various crafts for this time of year. I also am always looking for some non-candy ideas for the Easter eggs and basket. I turned to my friends at Oriental Trading for some of all of these. I cannot wait to share with you what we have been making and what surprises Hazel will have on Easter morning. We will start with ideas for the Easter eggs and basket and our new Easter flag.

Spring Cards with Origami -- Crafty Weekends Tutorial and Link Party

I have had an itch to do something creative on my own. Then I fell in love with a sample card at work which featured an origami dress made with a mint green flowered wrapping paper. I bought a sheet and got the instructions for the dress. I also have been wanting to make a bunny card with Easter approaching. Let's start with the origami dress. After finding a few tutorials because I found one step of the instructions confusing, I decided I liked this one the best. It made the confusing v-neckline the easiest.

Heritage Doll Clothes -- Making 1930s Doll Clothes -- Crafty Weekends Link Party

Hazel has discovered the American Girl books. She is loving the mysteries for older children. She also has fallen in love with Kit Kittredge. She really wants to get an American Girl doll. She has begun saving her own money for one. She is struggling deciding between getting Kit, Samantha or Rebecca. She really LOVES the Kit stories but likes the looks of the other two more. She has begun reading the other stories and is really just enjoying them all. Since it will take her awhile to save enough money to buy an American Girl doll I thought I would make some clothes from the various eras for the dolls she has. Since Kit is her current favorite I thought I would start with something from the 1930s. I pulled out Heritage Doll Clothes by Joan Hinds. I bought it awhile ago to get the pattern for a prairie dress and bonnet when Hazel was really into Little House on the Prairie. I still need to make it for her doll and the matching one for her.

Doll Food Finds

Disclosure: Some of the links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!
 
I haven't shared with you any of cheap doll finds lately and have had a few of these sitting there waiting to be shared so here they are. Now the first finds I found around the start of the school year. I think they were either at Target or Michael's but am not sure. The first is a burger pencil sharpener and french fries eraser set. They are on one of Hazel's dishes for her dolls to show you the size.

1880 Mary and Laura Doll Dress -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Hazel and I discovered the Little House on the Prairie re-runs on Hallmark Channel awhile back (and unfortunately they are not on anymore). She fell in love. We also started reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. She loves them!! She also wants a dress and bonnet like Laura's for herself and her dolls. Well in August Pixie Faire's Friday Freebie happened to be Thimbles and Acorns 1880 Mary and Laura 16" and 18" Doll Clothes pattern. Since September is National Sewing Month I figured it was time to do some sewing and decided to make this dress. I found some green fabric with a small print on it that would work in my collection. Hazel is determined that Laura always wears green though I keep pointing out that she isn't wearing green on the show.

Our Latest Doll Finds

Disclosure: Some links (Gymboree) are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage if you purchase from them. Thank you for your support! All links are provided for your ease to see what we found.

It has been awhile since I shared some of our doll finds and our dolls' adventures. Hazel received many fun gifts for Christmas and her birthday to use with her dolls including a car and a camper. She is loving them!! Today I am going to share a few other things. First some fun and inexpensive finds!! Let's start with some Gymboree hair clips. We found these fun Snowflake Clips 2-Pack in the clearance bin for $1.99 for two clips (a white and a pink one). Mimi is modeling the pink one, though I need to get her hairbrush out again.

Adorable Felted Animals -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

One of my favorite crafts from our couple of years at a Waldorf school is needle felting. It was for the holiday fair that I first learned to needle felt. It is an easy craft to learn and has so many options!! I knew I had to check out Adorable Felted Animals from the editors of the Gakken Publishing Company. Just look at the realistic animals on the cover of the book!!

Outgrown Favorite Sweater Dress to Doll Dress -- Crafty Weekends Link Party

* Disclosure: The links in this post are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.

We had another busy week and weekend!! I mean between Steve's birthday and Valentine's Day the weekend should be one big party, but we had some cleaning and getting ready for our guest. My 13-year-old nephew is arriving tonight (after several delays) for a week long vacation!! Hazel is so excited!! It was hard to calm her down today. After I write this post, I am off to the airport to pick him up. I hope he took all the adults seriously when we told him he had to wear warm clothes to come here this year. Boston is experiencing the coldest day in almost 60 years and I can feel the cold even with the heat on in our house. Anyway, one of our chores this weekend was going through Hazel's clothes and pulling the ones she has outgrown. We had a few piles: pass down to friend, donate to Salvation Army, keep as memories and make crafts or doll clothes. Some of her favorite clothes she does not want to part with and so I make some into doll clothes for her 18-inch dolls. She had this fun sweater dress from Gymboree last year. 

Crafty Weekends: Half Yard Christmas Review & Craft Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Search Press. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

For this weekend's Crafty Weekend we are sharing the start of our Christmas crafts. Today I am sharing ones I made with instructions and patterns from Half Yard Christmas by Debbie Shore. We started sharing our Christmas posts this week so you will have time to get and enjoy some of the great finds we have made this year. 

Cheap Doll Finds

This has been a tough week in our house. The other day at a play date Hazel dropped her favorite 18-inch doll on the floor head first. And a tragedy happened. The rod holding the head on to the doll broke and the doll was decapitated. I looked at her and realized she was not easily fixable. Hazel was a mess and of course this had to happen right as we were about to sing Happy Birthday to her friend. Steve is going to try to glue the head back on, but it will not be able to move anymore.

Our Recent Doll Finds

I have not shared our doll finds lately and we have quite a few. We will start with our newest doll. Hazel really wanted to spend her Easter money on this doll at Target last week. She was on sale for $19.99 so I let her. Meet Ginger...

Cheap Doll Finds

It has been almost a month since I shared our cheap doll finds with you. I thought I would share some more with you today. Today's came from The Dollar Tree, Staples and Michaels.

Awhile ago I shared the soccer ball (along with #1 fingers for the cheerers) I found for Hazel's dolls. Now I found the right sized baseball for her dolls. Now they just need a bat and mitts. I found these sports bounce balls in the party favor section at Micahels.

Sharing Saturday 15-11

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! Once again I am amazed to see such creative ideas. If you have not had a chance to check them out, you definitely need to. They are so inspiring!! The features are just a small sampling of what there is. This week's features are Party Foods, Kites and Easter, Raising Girls, Art, Lessons and Crafts.

Simple Patchwork Gifts Book Review

Disclosure: Search Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Did you know that March is National Craft Month? Well, in honor of National Craft Month I am going to review some fun craft books. Today's is Simple Patchwork Gifts by Christa Rolf. Now one of the the first things I love about this book is the fun and simple projects in it. I decided to try a couple projects as handwork. They were easy to adapt as either hand or machine sewing. Since I sewed by hand, Hazel wanted to try as well. The first project I made was the Phone Charm or what we are calling bird ornament.

Easter Baskets for American Girl Dolls

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

We have been getting ready for Easter with Hazel's dolls. We had a lot of fun filling baskets for them. Most of the supplies including the baskets came from Oriental Trading. We found a few other items elsewhere. Hazel kept making baskets while I took some pictures. She really was enjoying making them. 

Cheap Doll Finds

I found some fun doll things at some of the discount stores this week. I thought I would share them here. Let's start with our game.

Playing Grace Thomas Doll Bakery

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

At the beginning of the year, American Girl Doll Stores introduced this year's doll of the year, Grace Thomas. Now Grace had an adventure in Paris that changes her life and she is a baker/business owner. When they introduced their new doll they gave souvenirs to people who came to see her at the store. Well, Doll Diaries had a souvenir set for a giveaway in January and I won it. Hazel was so excited!! We finally got it this weekend. Hazel immediately wanted to go through everything. She was not sure what the recipe box, recipe cards and dividers are for, but we decided she could use the box as a table for now. She put the Grace apron on her Hazel doll and created her own bakery. She used straws and cupcake liners for supplies since she was too lazy to get out her baking supplies. I however got out the baking accessories for her and set up the bakery.