Teddy Bear Ears (Teddy Bear Picnic Preparation)

We had a wonderful family day today. I will share the details for Happy Family Times. As a result we have not done too many crafts, but we are preparing for Hazel's teddy bear picnic that we are hosting next week. So here is a simple craft I have been doing at night. I have been hand sewing them, though the machine would probably be faster, but I've been doing them in front of the television and like the quiet of hand sewing. We are making a pair for each person coming to the picnic. 

Materials:

4 felt/fabric ear shapes (I used a furry felt, but any fabric would work)

1 headband

thread

needle

pins and scissors

Take two of your fabric ears and put right sides together and pin to hold in place. Then stitch around the side (I did about 1/2 inch seam). 

Then clip the curves. (This means make small cuts up to the stitches where the object is curved. This will help it lay correctly when you turn it the right way. Be careful not to cut the stitches!) Note: I did not cut the thread until the end and just kept using it.

Turn the ear right side out.

Baste stitch the bottom shut. (Basting are long stitches that are used for gathering.)

Pull on your thread and gather the bottom of the ear. I actually put a few stitches in the bottom to keep it folded in half there.

Then decide on where the ear will be placed on the headband and stitch it securely on the band. I used fabric covered headbands so this was easy. If I hadn't bought fabric covered, I would have covered the head bands with brown ribbon or fabric.

Make another ear for the other side and sew it on! Now give to your teddy bear and get bear hugs!

Daddy was resting after our long day out while I finished up another one.  Then I got my teddy bear hugs from her!

Post Card Swap Map

So remember a few weeks ago, I mentioned we are participating in the USA Post Card Swap that Beth at Living Life Intentionally is running. I showed you the post card we picked and a map of the USA and promised a project to tie it all together. Well today is the day. Since Hazel is not quite ready to really get all she can from these great post cards I want to make them usable for when she is older. Well I took our map (I got it at AAA for free as a member) and Mod Podged it onto two pieces of poster board (I think I would use cardboard or foam board next time). I also put a layer of Mod Podge over the map to seal it. I bought a package of very small Velcro dots that had 56 of them. I started putting one side around the map and the other part of the Velcro on the post cards so we could see all the post cards around the map and then take them off to read all the wonderful things people wrote about their states.

Once we have all fifty post cards we will hang this up in our craft room. When Hazel is a bit older we can use it to learn about where the states are and a little bit about each one. I have to say I love this post card swap idea!! I may have to try something like this. Would you be interested?

Butterflies Part 3

Special Note: My dear husband is off this week, so if I miss a day it is because I'm enjoying some quality time with my family!!

Sharing Saturday is open until Wednesday at midnight EDT! Please stop by to share your child-oriented ideas or to be inspired by the amazing ones already shared!

Happy Family Times is still open as well. Please come share what you have done with your family this week!

Now onto our butterfly post. If you missed the first two, please stop by and check them out. Butterfly crafts and books is the first one and Origami Butterflies is the second one.

Today I am going to share a butterfly craft I thought of on my own--or at least I don't remember seeing it anywhere, but I'm sure it has been done. We made some toilet paper roll butterflies. We covered the toilet paper rolls in black construction paper, but they could be painted as well.

Then I folded some construction paper in half and cut out the wings. We glued this to the black toilet paper rolls after Hazel colored on them.

Then we added antennae. We cut a pipe cleaner in half. And used one half for each butterfly.

Next we folded the half pipe cleaner in half and curled the ends. 

Then we glued (and taped) the antennae on to the butterfly. We taped since we got sick of waiting for the glue to dry while holding them. 

Hazel could not wait to play with them. Last night we read Fancy Nancy Bonjour, Butterfly by Jane O'Connor, and she loved it. She started making a story about the butterfly and the blue one is named Fancy!

The next four are ones that have been shared at various Sharing Saturdays or Happy Family Times. I have tried two of them. One is from The Mini Mes and Me: Dolly Peg Butterflies. (Sorry, I can't provide a picture, but check them out. They are so cute. We ran out of time to do this one today, but may try it soon!)

The next three are from Wesens-Art. The large one is her Swinging Butterfly. Then there is one of her Quilled Butterflies. And finally her Gift Boxes which include a butterfly. I attempted the gift boxes and the swinging butterfly. 

Although I would make the pattern bigger next time, I liked these. My swinging butterfly, however needs some work. I rushed to finish it and haven't gone back over it yet. I think I may have miss threaded something.

So that is the end of our butterfly crafts for now. We have plans for a few dragonfly crafts, but we need to start working on our teddy bear ones since our teddy bear picnic is next week!

Happy Family Times #20-- Birthday Celebration

Have you done something fun with your family this week? Help us inspire others by sharing here! Kelly over at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting everyone's family times so we can all be inspired to have more family time! Please join us below!

This past week I celebrated my birthday. Hazel was so excited and wanted to have a party. So we made decorations. Well actually Hazel made most of them with some help from one of her babysitters. I helped hang them and provided supplies for them. The morning of my birthday Hazel had a dentist appointment and swimming lessons. Now she is a bit afraid of the dentist and usually cries whenever we go. I told her if she was a big girl and didn't cry and did what they asked I would get her a balloon for the party. She behaved and for the first time did not shed one tear and even sat in the dentist chair without me. So I went to the Dollar Tree and bought her two princess balloons and a a balloon holder. Now the trick is making sure they are somewhere the cats cannot get their ribbons.

I also picked up some "Happy Birthday" streamers and some horns and birthday hats.

My birthday cake is the only one I do not bake, so Hazel and I went to the local bakery/caterers and ordered it the previous week. We put it under Steve's name so he could pick it up. He also picked up some dinner while there (Chicken Parmigiana).

Hazel was so excited to give me my surprises which they had wrapped. She picked each one out herself. Steve warned me that they may not be what I wanted but they truly came from her. He helped her wrap them.

I opened them while dinner was in the oven heating up. Hazel could not wait for the party to start.

Even Ducky wore a party hat.

We had a nice dinner and then we had the birthday cake. Spinelli's always makes a delicious cake!

They even sang "Happy Birthday" or I should say we sang since Steve is not much of a singer and Hazel needs help. Then I made my wish and Hazel and I blew out the candles. How does your family celebrate birthdays?

Don't forget to go read what Kelly and her family have been up to this week!

Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.

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More Butterflies--Origami

Sharing Saturday is still open!! Please stop by to share your child-oriented crafts and activities or to be inspired by the amazing ideas already shared!

Since my post for Friday was on butterflies I thought I would show you some more butterflies I have made (and have given to Hazel to decorate though she seems to just like to play with them).  (The post on Friday included some children's books about butterflies.)

These are all made with a technique called origami. I love origami. I used it as a math teacher to teach different skills and have just always thought the Japanese art of paper folding was really neat. Some is easier than others and I will get into this more later. I am going to start by giving you a bit of the history of paper and origami. My sources for this history will be two books: The Simple Art of Japanese Papercrafts by Mari Ono and Origami Flowers by Soonboke Smith.

Asian and Polynesian peoples are known to have created ceremonial and utilitarian handicrafts by folding and wearing ti leaves, palm fronds, and pounded mulberry bark long before paper was ever invented. This was the origins of origami. The word origami is the Japanese word for paper folding. (Source: Origami Flowers)

Papermaking was invented in China at the beginning of the second century and was brought to Japan in the sixth century CE. The original paper brought to Japan was weak and the people demanded better paper. The Japanese discovered that a plant indigenous to Japan, gampi, was an ideal raw material for paper and they used a new method to produce it. This created washi paper. In the eighth century a new method was developed using hemp and kozo. This method is called the nagashizuki method. It allowed for unusally thin, strong, resistant paper to be made. With these developments the use of paper became more than just for official documents and transcription of religious texts because paper was more available.

Source

The origin of origami is not completely known. Parts of it began to appear in different areas of Japan. When paper became more available, it became common for people to make cranes and boats and use them as decorations. The first origami book, The Secret of One Thousand Origami Cranes by Hiden Senbazuru Orikata was published in 1797.

In 1873 at the Vienna World Exposition the world was amazed to see all the things made out of paper by the Japanese. Until 1853 Japan was very isolated from the world. (Source: The Simple Art of Japanese Crafts)

I have to admit my nephew loves origami. While I was at the Cape last time he was visiting and we did quite a bit of origami together. I left my book there so he and my mother could continue to make some. I meant to take some pictures of the things we made, but alas I did not and left them there.

Some of my sources for my butterflies!

Now onto our butterflies. While at the Mass Audubon Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary Gift Shop, I found an origami butterfly kit (see picture on top of collage above). This was the start of my idea. I had several butterfly crafts to try and thought it would be neat to do some out of origami as well. Unfortunately I had some difficulties with the instructions. After several tries, I decided to practice with printer paper so I would not keep wasting my good origami paper (and the paper in the kit was double-sided to make more colorful butterflies).

After figuring this one out with the printer paper, I have not gone back and tried it with the origami paper. However, I loved the idea of being able to do make some with Hazel's drawings and paintings. This has not happened yet, but it will.

This purple butterfly was made from the instructions in the book, Making Origami Animals by Michael G. LaFosse (bottom left in collage above).

This pink butterfly includes a pipecleaner body and antennae. It was made using the instructions in the Holiday Origami book by Jill Smolinski (bottom right in collage above). It had the butterflies as an introduction to spring.

This dual color butterfly was among the easiest I made. The instructions came from Hansbirkeland.

The cabbage butterfly was among the next easiest for instructions found on line. These instructions came from the Origami Club.

The instructions for this beautiful butterfly are also on-line at Fabric Origami.

Although this one looks simple, it has more steps than most of the ones I made. With fifteen steps, it is definitely not simple. I found this one at Origami-fun.

My final butterfly had twenty-one steps! It is a butterfly by Akira Yoshizawa. There are several videos on-line for the Yoshizawa butterfly. I found the instructions at this blog.

If you would like even more of a challenge than twenty-one steps, you can check out these books. They had 50-100 steps for the butterflies, but they were complete with their six legs and all. I did not adventure that much to try them. Sorry!

I would also like to share with you this wonderful book, Butterflies for Kiri by Cathryn Falwell. It is a wonderful story of how a girl who loves to draw and paint receives a gift of an origami kit on which her aunt had made an origami butterfly in the wrapping. Kiri tries to make the butterfly and has difficulty, but with practice eventually is able to make it. It has instructions to make an origami butterfly in it. I know I followed them, but am not sure which one it is anymore. I may have misrepresented one of the ones above (if I did I'm guessing the purple one) and its instructions came from here.

This is where I share...