Splat Mat

I have always been a fan of the splat mats they sell at the Land of Nod. I love oilcloth and they have the cutest retro floral prints. I recently found the same oilcloth prints at my local fabric store (Pacific Fabrics & Crafts) and decided to make my own splat mats to use under the children's chairs in our dining room. I chose two coordinating fabrics and used a little of each to bind them (similar to binding a quilt). It was a little tricky working with a big piece of oilcloth and a finicky sewing machine but I am really happy with the result. I think my dining room carpet will be happy too :) Now I am thinking of making another mat to put under the kids play table upstairs in their kitchen area to add some cuteness factor and keep the carpet safe from play dough and painting projects.

Featured Blog: Colorfool

Colorfool is my latest favorite when it comes to blogs. I get the sense that I would love her home. The wall colors are so pretty and everything is neat and organized. And let me say, I found some projects on her site that I am mad about. First of all, I have seen many variations when it comes to the ever popular clothespin/peg people that many moms have been painting. But the Colorfool people, painted in the likeness of their family are so cute. The felt food she made her daughter is adorable as well (this is one of my other homemade toy favorites) and I really like her playhouse tent. And if your little girls love dolls (whose don't?) then you can use her template and follow her directions for sewing cloth doll diapers

Meet Alice

We call her Alice. But her full name is Alice Cinderella Warren. I finally finished her a few nights ago. She was a lot harder than I expected her to be. I am still a novice at sewing so it wasn't simple sewing her together. I made an adjustment to the arms and legs because they were skinnier than I wanted when following the original template. So I enlarged them a bit more and was happier with the proportions. However, sandwiching the pieces together and stitching around them was tricky enough and it probably didn't help that her arms and legs were bigger than normal. I also realized that her face was painted crooked. So there are a million imperfections to nit-pick. My sister-in-law, Katy, finished her doll right after the party and it turned out adorable. Oh well, Jane seems to like Alice; she has been giving her shoulder rides and feeding her lollipops.

Handmade Gifts

I just wanted to feature some of the beautiful handmade items the kids received for their birthday. I absolutely loved the princess gift wrap Jane's cousin Aubrey colored and used to wrap her princess book. And the cowboy and cowgirl cards that Mikaela drew for Jane and Clark were so fun. Jackson, Louisa and Joshua gave the kids personalized coloring books full of fun coloring and cut and paste activities. And best of all, Jane's aunt Katy sewed a beautiful little purse for Jane to carry around complete with ribbon handles and a fabric flower embellishment. This thoughtful gift was by far my personal favorite. She even filled the purse with little hair clips and hairbands purchased from Etsy seller, Glamorous Girl Accessories. Just beautiful.

Bunting How-To

I thought I would give a little how-to on how I made the bunting for the kids birthday party. I followed the basic outline found in The Creative Family. I decided to use four different fabrics (you only need maybe 1/8 yard each). I cut each piece of fabric into 4 or 5 rectangles that measured 9 x 4 1/2 inches. I measured and made a pencil line to mark the center of the short side of each rectangle. Then using a quilting ruler as a guide for the straight edge, I cut from the bottom center to the top left corner and from the bottom center to the top right corner with a rotary cutter and mat. Voila! You have triangles. Next, I used one package of extra wide double sided bias tape and layed it out along the ground. I placed my triangles along the bias tape in the pattern I wanted. You can space them out or place them close together; whatever you prefer. Make sure to leave a few inches or more of bias tape on both sides so that you have room to tie or hang the bunting. Next I placed each fabric triangle in the crease of the bias tape so it covered both the front and back and pinned each triangle into place. Then I sewed along the bias tape using matching thread. That's it. The process is really simple and fast. And I love the result. I want to make these for every party and holiday.

Wild West

I made it back to town last week but I have been so busy getting everything ready for the kids birthday party I haven't taken a moment to blog. Did I mention that I ordered the Dolce Mia Horsey Girl party invitations? We decided to throw a big cowboy and cowgirl themed party. A perfect fit for a combined boy and girl party. I used the cowgirl image from the invitations to make cupcake toppers to fit the theme. Along with cupcakes, I filled a candy jar with licorice labeled as "Red Rope" and a jar with carmel candy "Cowtails". We barbequed hot dogs and corn on the cobb and munched on trail mix of course. To create the atmosphere of the wild west we picked up some bales of straw from a local farm supply store and draped them with checked tablecloths for outside seating. Then I made my own bunting using a bit of leftover cowboy and Indian fabric from a friend and some of my own blue and red fabric scraps. We set up our plastic pool in the shade, filled it with beach toys and let the little kids keep cool at "The Old Waterin' Hole". The one years olds especially loved getting all wet. The older kids decorated grocery bag cowboy vests to wear and sprayed each other with squirt guns to cool off. We topped things off with a special appearance by "Black Bart", our fictitious outlaw who was wanted for robbery. Chad made an awesome WANTED poster complete with Black Bart's photo. The kids were then awarded gold coins as their reward for capturing the bandit and they received sheriff badges for their good work. I am so happy with the way everything turned out.

Off We Go!

I am headed off to the Happiest Place on Earth. Check back next week!

Dolls in Progress

On Saturday I held my second Craftpad party. We got a good start on our Black Apple dolls but no one left the party with a completed project. Cutting out the pattern and the fabric pieces was more time consuming than I'd anticipated. A lot of time was also spent planning and accessorizing the dolls. I decided to add a collar with Heat 'n Bond, add rick-rack trim to her dress, sew button barrettes in her hair, and paint her face before sewing her together and filling her with stuffing. I was really nervous about painting her face, but I followed advice from Goody Gumdrop and practiced on paper first. It wasn't that difficult and I'm pretty happy with the results. I did manage to smudge a tiny bit of paint on her face and I'm not sure what to do about getting it out. So I'm a little worried about that. Overall, I think she is going to turn out cute. I really hope Jane likes her. I have to say the other dolls are going to be adorable. Everyone used really pretty fabric and I especially loved Diana's combination of blue and orange. I can't wait to see them all complete.

CraftPad Party Reminder

Our Black Apple doll making party is tomorrow, Saturday, at 10:00am at my home. If you have any questions about what to bring, etc. just let me know I'll get you squared away. If you are missing any supplies, we should have enough extra fabric, fill, felt, etc. amongst us to cover everyone. If you have extra fabric, or sewing scissors, bring them along. Also, does anyone have acrylic paint already? And small brushes? I am wondering if I need to pick some up at the craft store. I am leaning toward painting my doll's face rather than embroidering but I am feeling a bit nervous about how it will turn out. I am anxious to get started. Here are a few more doll photos recently added to Flickr to give you some inspiration. I especially love the facial expressions on the trio of dolls made by Jessica of Goody Gumdrop.


1. Goody Gumdrop
2. pippaalice
3. Colleen Burer
4. Pigeon Pair
5. One Shabby Chick
6. MTElizabeth

Melting Crayons

I finally got around to taking our broken crayon bits and melting them into crayon rounds using our muffin pan.  I saw this done recently by Hop Skip Jump. To melt the crayons, we removed the paper, broke them up and baked them in a muffin pan at 250 degrees for about ten minutes. Once the crayons were totally melty, I put them in the freezer to harden.  Luckily the crayons came right out of the muffin pan and the remaining residue rinsed right off my only muffin pan.