Getting ready for the Holiday Fair

Today I thank God for the beautiful leaves, plants, trees, flowers, animals, etc.!

This week has gotten away from me. Between meetings at church, starting my new temporary part-time job at church, and getting ready for the Holiday Fair at Hazel's school plus a few doctor's appointments and feeling a bit sick I feel like I haven't had much time for Crafty Moms Share. Today I share a few more of the felt crafts I made for the Wee Folk Shoppe at the Holiday Fair.

I shrunk the pattern from Betz White and filled with dry peas and lavender

Idea came from We Bloom Here

Patterns came from Wee Folk Art

Then Hazel and I made these for the Pocket Lady at the Holiday Fair.

Sharing Saturday will be up at its regular time tonight, however the features will be limited since I have not had a chance to visit them and will not have time today. (Today I will be taking a friend in for surgery and helping set up the Wee Folk Shoppe room and then going to the preview sale for adults of all the crafts.)

More Holiday Fair Crafts

Today I thank God for my faith because I know with it all things are possible!

So there have been several emails about the shortage of things for the Holiday Fair at Hazel's school. Even though I have done more than what was asked of me for donations, I figured I would keep working until the fair next week. I made a felt bird similar to the one I made last year with the pattern from Living Crafts Magazine. I didn't take a picture of it. Sorry! I'll have to find the one I made last year for Hazel and get a picture at some point.

Then I made a felt duck. I used the free pattern Lucky Ducky from Nosey Nest Pattern Shop. Hazel of course loves this duck and wants it. I promised her I would make her one after the fair.

Next I made for the Pocket Lady a small felt bunny. This was so easy and quick. I will probably make some more of these and maybe put some on barrettes for the Wee Folk Shoppe. I got the idea from Artemis Moon. I just drew a quick pattern for myself.

Then I made a baby penguin with the tutorial on Holloughby. I printed the picture of the shapes pinned on the felt full size and used that as my pattern. I sewed everywhere and did not use glue.

I have a feeling I will be making another one of these as well after the fair. Anyway, I chose to do some hand sewing since I can do it in front of the television without disturbing Steve as well as while Hazel plays. I figure I will keep making things until the 17th. If I do one or two a day, at least it will get them closer to their goals.

Happy Halloween!

Source

Just thought I would share some pictures of Hazel in her costume. I made it from Simplicity pattern 2065. She will also wear the dress for her princess themed birthday party this year!

Needless to say, she loves it!

We also went to a small Halloween party at church the other day and she decorated some pumpkins with stickers.

For breakfast this morning we had pumpkin pancakes. We made them yesterday, but had plenty left over, so I arranged them on Hazel's plate and she recognized it right away as a jack 'o lantern.

Then she wanted to get started with her pumpkins. We had two relatively small ones to paint and a medium one to carve. I let her start painting while I finished up doing somethings around the house.

 For some reason I did not take pictures of the finished pumpkins. She also added stickers to them. Then we started carving the medium pumpkin. She helped scoop out all the gook. Then I found a Snow White pattern that I saved a few years ago from Disney Family and carved it. I have to admit this is the best carving job I have ever done. She loved it and that is all that mattered.

Then we had a quick lunch and got her costume on. We had a few errands to run and three of them were places where we know people so she wanted to show off her costume.

My mother-in-law bought her the ballerina basket that came with the pink crown. Then after our errands we did some trick-or-treating and friends houses that were too far to walk. Then we went to a few neighbors houses. We always go very early. The last two years Steve has been working crazy hours due to storms, so we have to get home to hand out the candy. Hazel loves handing out the candy. She was so over excited today. And for some reason this year we had probably a quarter of what we usually get. I guess it is because I went with cheap candy so less kids were out or perhaps it was because of the storm though last year we had an ice storm right before Halloween and the numbers were still high.

One small craft for you that I started in the dark the other night. I got the pattern for this felt bat from Super-Cute Felt by Laura Howard. I still have a bit of sewing to do on it, but it is almost done.

Before Hazel (and Steve) went to bed, Hazel sorted through her candy to leave some for the Pumpkin Fairy. This year the Pumpkin Fairy is bringing her a Rapunzel Barbie doll--not Waldorf, but she will love it and I bought it on clearance since I haven't had time to make much for her. 

What are you doing to celebrate Halloween?

Mushroom Fairy & Mushrooms

After having quite a bit of rain lately, we have been noticing lots of mushrooms popping up all over the place. And we have been noticing the different sizes, colors, shapes of them all.

We look at every mushroom and think about what fairy will live there. So when we saw bunches of them we called them villages. We had quite a bit of fun finding them.

The past couple of days we have had gorgeous afternoons, so Hazel and I went on a nature walk and/or a nature bike ride. Today she rode her bike around the short loop, but of course there were several times where Mommy was walking the bike. She also had to get down and count the yellow mushrooms to see how many fairies could live there.

Our mushroom fairy story is simple. When it rains the mushroom fairies get to work growing their mushrooms so all the fairies have places to live and animals have things to eat. After several days of rain then a day of sun and then more rain, our neighborhood is loaded with mushrooms so we have been having fun looking at them and thinking about the fairies that might live there.

I made the little mushroom fairy peg doll the other day for Hazel. I used a paint marker for the face and hair and felt for the clothes and hat. I did my best at French knots for the dots on the mushroom, but I still have not completely mastered them. Then I took a piece of tulle for the wings and tied it in the center and sewed it on to the felt. 

Have the mushroom fairies been to your neighborhood lately?

Teddy Bear Picnic Activities

Yesterday I shared our food preparation for our Teddy Bear Picnic. Today I'm going to share some of our activities. 

As the children arrived we gave them a teddy bear frame to color. I found this great picture at Twisty Noodle. I resized it and put two on a page and then added Teddy Bear Picnic 2012 onto it. I Mod Podged it to cardboard and cut them out and cut out a circle for the face so we can add the kids' pictures. My plan was to Mod Podge over their coloring, but none of them really finished them. Then I planned to add a magnet to the back.

We also had music playing. I burned a CD with any song I could find that mentioned teddy bear or just bear. Most of them came from Teddy Bear Tunes by Georgiana Stewart, and then we used some from The Wiggles (Let's Wiggle, Racing to the Rainbow, Pop Go The Wiggles, Go Bananas! and Hot Potatoes: The Best Of The Wiggles albums),The Countdown Kids; 150 Fun Songs For Kids (Disc 3), David Polansky's Animal Alphabet Songs, and VeggieTales' 25 Favorite Toddler Songs! We had these songs playing but we also used them for some games.

Another activity was to decorate teddy bear sugar cookies. The kids had a great time with this. I shared this yesterday as well. The decorated cookies above are Hazel's. We also dropped those capsules that melt into sponge animals into cups of hot water. Each one was a different teddy bear sponge. Each child got to do four.

Then the kids sat in a circle (a few of us moms also did since we only had three kids) and we played Teddy Bear to the Wonder Ball game. (If you do not know the Wonder Ball Game you can check it out here.) We changed a few words and used a slightly different wording of it to be:

Teddy Bear (to Wonder Ball pass teddy bear around circle)

The teddy bear, goes round and round
To pass it quickly, you are bound
If you’re the one, to hold it last
The game for you has surely past, and you are out
O-U-T spells OUT!

And we passed a teddy bear around. The person who won the game got to keep the teddy bear. I had bought it at Ocean State Job Lot for $3 or $4.

Next we played Pin the Tail on the Teddy. I hand drew a teddy bear in a sideways position and penciled in his tail. We blindfolded the kids or had them close their eyes (the younger ones did not like being blindfolded) and spun them around and had them tape tails onto the poster. I had written their names on a tail. Hazel won this one! She already got her prize which was this purple teddy sippy cup.

Then we played a game of Musical Teddy Bears. Everyone brought a teddy bear to the circle and placed them in the middle and then we removed one. I played music and had the kids walk around the blanket. When the music stopped they had to grab a bear (it did not have to be their own). If they did not get a bear, they were out. The person who won this one got the same sippy cup Hazel did. I found them at CVS Pharmacy.

It worked out that each child won one game. I love when it works out that way. Then we gave each child felt pieces to put together a two-dimensional teddy. They each got two colors of bows and could make boy or girl teddy bears. Each child also got two teddy clips.

The kids of course also played tag and on the swings. They had a great time! 

We had a few more activities to do, but didn't get to them. One is the Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around Dance. There are several different versions on-line. A couple can be found at Can Teach with some other teddy bear songs/poems. Songs for Teaching has Jack Hartmann's version. I also had a couple of books including Michael Hague's Illustrated The Teddy Bear Picnic by Jimmy Kennedy. There are so many great teddy bear books out there that there a lot from which to choose.

So now I need to start planning our butterfly party. Stay tuned for what we do at that.

Virtual Book Club for Kids--Don and Audrey Wood Week 2

Looking for Multicultural Monday? Sorry, after a long night of taking a good friend to the Emergency Room, I decided to take a week off and do a bit easier of a post that I was trying to figure out when to write it this week anyway. Multicultural Monday will return next week though!! (Oh, and the good news is that my friend is home and all right. She did not need the surgery we thought she might need!!)

The July Author for the Virtual Book Club for Kids is Don and Audrey Wood. Last week the link party started and I shared our activities for The Dragon and The Princess. If you missed it, please go see it. I included activities for different age children including one on gender identity to open discussions about how we have preconceived ideas of what gender will do certain jobs or have certain behaviors.

Some Felt and Felting Projects

Happy Mother's Day!! 

 

I found this wool felt bowl on clearance at Michaels awhile ago. I actually bought two--one brown and one blue. I thought the brown one would make a neat bird's nest. I finally got around to making Hazel some birds for it. I needle felted her a light blue one following the directions in Beginner's Guide to Needle Felting by Susanna Wallis. I haven't added the legs yet which they used metal and I wasn't sure I wanted to. Then I tried to copy one with wings out. He has a white stomach, but I didn't get good pictures of it. This bowl is one I picked up the other day and am thinking I will make some more birds and give it as a gift to Hazel's teacher for the end of the year.

I'm not sure why we were using plastic balls in there, but I figured they made good eggs until I get something to be the eggs.

We also found these wool felt purses and wool felt flowers on clearance. I sewed the flowers onto the purses. Hazel wants the blue one, but I figured the purple can be for a friend when we get invited somewhere and need a small gift.

Then you may remember a couple of weeks ago I featured a Felt Rainbow Sorting Game from One Perfect Day at Sharing Saturday. Well I cut one out for Hazel. I used the Eco felt since I didn't have all the colors in the wool felt.

I wish I had more time to make all the wonderful ideas I see at Sharing Saturday and on Pineterest and everywhere. Don't you?

This is where I link up...

Felt Wreaths for Spring

So on Friday, I had a regular doctor's appointment. I had mentioned it to my mother-in-law in passing and she jumped at the chance to have Hazel over. I thought it was just for the appointment and that day she let me know she wanted Hazel for the day. So much for my plans for the day. It caused a bit of friction, but our relationship is rocky to begin with so I didn't want to make it worse. I decided I should do something for myself instead of just doing one of the many chores on my to do list. The night before I had seen a great project on Pinterest. I traced back the original to Loopy Loop Creations (not sure how I missed the original post). Here is what I made.

Hazel loves pinwheels so I thought this would be perfect for our front door. I followed the tutorial on Loopy Loop Creations for the first one, but I got to thinking since I was pinning the pinwheels on why not make a red, white, and blue one for the summer holidays and also made one for our friends who had their daughter Memorial Day weekend and her first birthday party is red, white and blue themed this memorial day. For these I decided to sew the pinwheels instead of hot gluing. It took a little longer, but I like them better. Using the hot glue you could easily do these out of paper and onto a paper plate ring.

To sew the pinwheels start in the same way with a 4 inch square with slits on the diagonals.

With a needle and thread stick it through the middle of the square and fold one corner onto the needle.

Then fold the next corner onto the needle.

Repeat with the other two corners and take a small stitch.

Then sew a button onto the middle of your pinwheel. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)

Now you pin them onto a stryafoam wreath in whatever order you want. I found that I used 18 pinwheels on the 9 inch wreaths. Then you can change it to whatever colors fit the season.

I had some extra felt pinwheels so I pinned one onto an unsharpened pencil for Hazel to have one. It doesn't twist real easily, but she likes it.

This is where I link up...

Snow and Nursery Rhymes

We finally got some snow, but Hazel and I are stuck inside with colds. So much for her building a snowman. However, last night I cut her out some felt so she could "build" and dress her own snowman. She was having fun with it this morning.

We were checking out all the clothes and accessories I cut out--vest, skirt, boots, bow tie, etc. Then she decided the boots needed their own eyes and noses.

The other craft we did involved using some of the Tagxedo prints I made and using the nursery rhyme party hats we made, but didn't use at Hazel's party. I unstuck them and mod podged them onto unfinished frames I bought at Michaels for $1.

The glue isn't completely dry yet, so I will have to do some touch-ups after it is, but that is what we have been up to.





In case you are interested here are the Tagxedo prints I did.

I cropped this one since it was an ice skate and not a shoe

I added Word Art in Word for the handle

I didn't do this one yet, Mary Had a Little Lamb

Hey Diddle, Diddle version I didn't use

I have my cropped and edited pictures in a Word document here. They are sized to fit a 4 x 6 frame.

Enjoy!!