Use up your scraps of fabrics that you’ve collected from other projects-make a blanket! I feel like I have spent a lot recently on craft supplies and fabric so I want to challenge myself to make things out of the scraps I have laying around from old projects.
I found a cheap fleece blanket in the laundry room which inspired me to jazz it up a bit. After trying to add some trim to it I decided I didn’t have the patience for that but I liked my idea of using up scraps for a blanket….so I found a few yards of fabric in a cotton that looked like blue denim. Nice!
My blanket is 45 inches (115 cms) wide which is the standard fabric width. You could aim for pieces of fabric 2 yards long (72 inches or 183 cms long) but this is a project for using up what you have so make it whatever size you fancy.
I thought I could arrange the trim and extra pieces of fabric as trim on the bottom of the short ends. I laid it out to get an idea of what it might look like.
Then I ironed any unfinished hems of the fabrics so it would look like a wide trim. After I arranged it how I like it and I pin everything in place.
After sewing each trim in place I went in search of a backing for this blanket to add weight and cover up the back. I found some blue jersey (t-shirt fabric) that was almost the right size of the blanket. I trimmed off any excess fabric from the jersey to be the right size and pinned it to the project with right sides together. Sewing all the way around leaving a gap big enough to fit my hand into. Reach in and pull the fabric right side out.
Just a few steps left now…I need to hand sew the gap that was left. Then sew it all the way around again so that the edge stayed flat.
I think this would make a great road trip blanket…or picnic blanket but since its January and we are up to our hips in snow…we’ll use it for now as a snuggle up on the couch blanket.
The final size of the blanket was 45 inches wide (115 cms) and 63 inches long (160 cms). If it was 2 full yards it would be 72 inches long so this was leftover.
Marshmallow Snowman Edible Winter Craft Project
What a fun winter project to do with the kids! Snowmen made out of marshmallows!
What a fun winter project to do with the kids! Snowmen made out of marshmallows!
This post should probably be divided into 2 sections. The tidy marshmallow family made with toothpicks and icing gel. Or part 2 the crazy looking marshmallow family that was tipping over because of all the candy stuck to them. Much like a making a gingerbread house the second family though a bit ugly was very fun and creative to make….and nibble on.
Marshmallow Snowman Part 1
For this you just need marshmallows, toothpicks and Wilton’s decorating Gel in black and orange.
This is so easy! Just use toothpicks to connect the marshmallows. Draw on dots for the eyes, mouth and buttons, draw on stick arms (optional) and use the orange for the carrot nose.
It takes a few hours for the gel to set so try not to move them right away.
Marshmallow Snowman – Part 2
This time it was much more of an adventure – trying different things to see what would work.
I happen to have 3 sizes of marshmallows in the house-which never normally happen since I only buy one bag of them once a year at camping time for roasting on the campfire and s’mores. But we just made 2 batches of rice crispy squares for a class goodbye party for my daughter’s teacher.
So gather up the supplies, marshmallows, skittles, pretzel arms, gold coins/pepperment patties etc. for hat, toothpicks to hold the body together, licorice and chocolate chips. I walked through the local bulk supply store and looked for things you would use for gingerbread house-like their icing for gluing buttons on.
The chocolate hat made this guy very top heavy. For the gal on the left I ate a chocolate cup and turned the foil into her hat. Eating the snacks along the way is a bit of a problem when you only bought a few of this and a few of that. Tee hee….
Other snowy projects to try….
Clothes Pin Snowman – Make Easy Kids Craft
It’s the adorable pompom nose that really got me wanting to make this quick and easy children’s craft. Paint a clothes pin white and start building a snowman.
Gather up your usual basket of crafts. You’ll need pipe cleaners or a bit of yarn for the scarves. Clothes pegs, paint brushes, white paint, a black sharpie and little scraps of black paper or felt for the hat.
Paint your clothes pegs white and wait at least an hour for drying time.
Cut off a bit of yarn or half of a pipe cleaner and tie your snowmen a cozy scarf. Take your black marker and make his coal eyes , mouth and buttons.
Take your black marker and make his coal eyes , mouth and buttons. One of my snow men felt he wanted to dress it up a bit and put on some small rhinestones. Glue on the pompom noses. I thought originally that they should be orange noses for a carrot but my craft kit only had one orange one left.
Finally I put on some little hats to finish off the outfit. Super cute kiddie craft!
Make a Felt Pizza Toy in minutes – No sew
How to make an easy, no-sew felt pizza! It’s super easy and fun to make with very little skill needed. Since kids are always trying to imitate parents in the kitchen this will be a hit!
You will need felt in the following colours:
- 1 tan/light brown for the crust
- 1 red for pizza sauce
- 1 white/cream for mozzarella cheese
- dark red for pepperoni
- green for peppers
- grey for mushrooms
- pink for ham
- black for olives
- yellow for pineapple
- orange for extra cheese
- PLUS – bowls and plates to trace for big circles
- marker
Cream Felt-Pizza Crust: Trace a large bowl or plate for your crust.
Bright Red Felt-Pizza Sauce: Using a plate or bowl slightly smaller than the last one, cut a slightly smaller circle.
White Felt-Mozzerella Cheese: Cut the cheese…tee hee…out of a piece of white felt. Trace a slightly smaller plate or bowl than the piece of pizza sauce red felt.
Dark Red Felt-Pepperoni: Cut 6 circles tracing something small like a vitamin bottle.
Grey/Beige Felt-Mushrooms: Draw a mushroom shape and cut it out. Cut 5 mushrooms.
Green Felt-Peppers – It looks like a wiggly square, then outline it again and cut it out. Cut 4 peppers.
The rest of the toppings are up to you….
Black Felt-Olives: Cut a small circle and trace it a second time. Cut 8 olives.
Orange and White Felt-Grated Cheese: Cut long rectangles for some shredded cheese on top. Cut 6 of each.
Pink Felt Squares-Ham: Cut into squares-6 pink ham squares will be enough.
Orange/Yellow-Pineapple: This begins a great debate about whether you should have pineapple on a pizza. I’m for it! Hawaiian Pizza is my favorite. If you feel the same cut 6 pineapple pieces.
Store your pizza pieces in a large ziplock bag.
Wooden Window Shelf-Easy Diy Plant Display
Looking for a place to put some potted plants in the one window with all the sun. This super easy DIY- Do it yourself project for a shelf that goes over the sink.
Tidy Sink…But so Boring….
I’m writing this post about a year after I built this and I still love it. Especially in the winter when its the only sign of plant life. I usually put herbs in this window and then in the spring put them on the deck.
All you need is a board of wood and some brackets to attach them and a wood stain.
I cut my board to the size of my window but I could have cut it to the size of my sink instead if I wanted to have less shelf and more counter top. Its important that you figure out what height you need for your sink faucet to function normally.
You’ll need a 1×6 pine board – I cut my pieces 2 at 10 1/2 inches long and 1 at 45 1/2 inches long but you will need to measure your own window and sink widths and height of faucet and make some choices for your own on this.
I have wanted to use a green stain on bigger projects but chickened out so I happy to try it on this project and love the results. I used Behr Premium Semi Transparent Wood Stain in the color Forest. http://www.behr.com/consumer_ca/products/wood-stains-finishes-cleaners-and-strippers/behr-deckplus-semi-transparent-waterproofing-wood-stain
The stain instructions say to do 2 thin coats and you can do the second coat within 1 to 2 hours of the first one.
Once the boards were dry I used 4″ L” shaped brackets to hold them in place. You could also predrill and use wood screws if you prefer.
When its all done its just time to decide if you want a collection of herbs in terracotta pots or clear glass bottles or pretty white nic nacs or all of the above.
Clothes Peg Caterpiller Easy Craft for Kids!
This caterpillar is such an easy project with just a clothes pin googly eyes, white glue or hot glue gun (for heavens sake choose the hot glue-for everyone’s sanity) and pom poms.
This clothes peg caterpillar craft is such a cute little project. It reminds me of a set of little pom-pom fridge magnets my grand parents had on their fridge. Their names were Henry and Henrietta. They were just as simple, pom poms and googly eyes and a fridge magnet glued on to the back.
You will need small pom poms and a big one for his head. Five or so small pom poms for his body and nose, googly eyes and glue.
It turns out that gluing pom poms takes a lot of glue and they are still not on tight. Its a frustrating project. So if you are working on this with a toddler when they have lost interest move it aside and at nap time hot glue the pieces on firmly. If you glued magnets to the clothes pin you’d have a cute fridge magnet.
I think he looks very smart! He’s a clothes pin so he could be holding up artwork that is trying from a clothes line.
He kind of reminds me of the very hungry caterpillar book.
Snowman Craft – Use a sock and rice! Super Fun Craft!
Looking for a sweet and easy craft project? This sock snowman is adorable and so easy for any crafting skill level. Grab your crafting kit and the lost sock basket on the dryer and we are ready to make this snowman project!
You will need: a white sock, a colored sock for the hat, 1 hat pom pom and 2 orange pom poms, a few buttons, 4 cups of rice (more if you want a big one or less if you want is smaller), elastics or yarn to tie off the rice, glue gun, black permanent marker, pink marker or highlighter.
I made a funnel using a piece of cardstock and placed it inside the white sock. When you have it to the size you like tie it off with an elastic. Pour more rice into the sock to make the head for the snow-lady.
Draw dots for eyes and mouth with the black permanent marker. Glue buttons down her front. Tie a ribbon for her scarf-I used a scrap of bias tape from my sewing basket. Now you’ll need to make a carrot shaped nose. I glued 2 orange pom-poms together with a dab of hot glue and then trimmed it into the shape of the carrot. I thought it turned out pretty well. The hat is made out of the other colored sock. Just trim off a few inches from the toe area and roll it up once or twice. Hot glue a pom pom on the top.
And that is how you do it! Pretty easy project the kids will enjoy making and a good gift for Grandma’s kitchen window.
I wonder if you could put him in the freezer and use him as a cold compress for the kids boo boos…..just a thought.
Decorating wooden memory or jewellry boxes. Easy Craft!
Pick up some plain wood boxes from the craft store or dollar store and paint gives it a make over! Jewelry box or memory box whatever you want to use it for!
You will need:
- A wooden box
- Craft Paint
- Paint Brushes
- Stick on Gems
- Clear Coat Polyurethane Spray or in a Paint Tin (Optional)
Start by peeling off all the price tags and labels. Choose the theme of your box. I love the cool whites but today we were feeling jazzy! My girls and I decided on bright colors…… pink, red, purple, navy blue and turquoise.
My box had a window to see the treasures inside so I painted the interior of the box also.
Protect your table because this can get messy!
This box got stripes on the top and color blocking for the bottom turquoise and the lid rim got a splash of red paint. Literally…LOL.
It looks a mess in the photo above but check out a sneak peak of her final results!
My 8 year old artist decorated this one. Using the gorgeous gem stickers (from the Dollarstore) distracts the eye from areas she colored outside the lines. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s get back to decorating it!
It’s completely up to you if you would like to pain the inside or not.
My favorite technique for adding dots is to dip the tip of the handle into the white paint and dot it on the box. Clusters of dots and curves of white dots.
After this dried I put a clear coat of polyurethane on the boxes just to make it a bit shiny and smoother for me to wipe and dust. You can skip this step if you don’t have it or put it on later. You can get it in a spray paint or a short tin of paint. If you decide to put on the clear coat it wont take much varnish or time since this project is small. You could do the inside of the box too while your at it.
After the memory box is dry, we got out the sequins! These came as stickers with glue on the back. This is such a great cheat compared to gluing each one on.
I was really pleased with how it turned out.
What a great time we 3 had decorating these!
Candy Box
My Miss M. plans to hide candy in her box. She is often given a treat by friends and not allowed to have it right away. Now she can put it in her box.
Treasure Box
Miss B. plans to keep special mementos in her box. She has photos and tickets and trinkets she wants to keep for happy memories.
Love Letter Box
I told them I planned to put love letters in mine and Miss B said “Mom no one writes letters anymore!” Shocking! Well fortunately my daughters do still write me love letters and their daddy does every now and again too.
Thanks for reading this! Leave a comment or pin this to pinterest.
Tea Cup Pin Cushion – DIY Easy Peasy!
Use an old tea cup-even a broken one, or like mine one that is missing a saucer to make a pin cushion. Its a super fast craft for any skill level.
You just need: scrap of fabric, shirt, pillow case, napkin…some sort of cloth….you only need about 8 inches square piece of fabric for most cups. Also grab your measuring tape, stuffing, hot glue gun, a needle and thread.
I chose not to glue mine into the tea cup with hot glue simply because my mom might flip out if she ever read this. She has two Royal Albert teapots that are absolute beautiful that leak tea on the table due to a tiny crack. I would love to make a craft out of that….I’m thinking a dainty ivy cascading out of it. Or drilling holes in it to put silver spoons dangling from below as a wind chime…. But she might faint if I asked for it. They cost a pretty penny back in the day and she has loved using them for her guests.
I have seen some tea cup pin cushions that were really glamorous. They glued the cup to the saucer and put laces and trims all around the base. The pin cushion also had a few decorative hat pins and some sort of tassel hanging from the handle. What a gift that would be for someone who still appreciates the dainty things in life. Have fun with this!
Sew a fleece snood-neck warmer in just minutes!
DIY Sew a Fleece Neck Warmer (Scarf Alternative) Snood
At the school my kids go to they prefer the children do not wear scarves for safety reasons…preventing a playful accidental strangling sounds like a good idea. In my part of Canada (eh!) we need our necks covered when its bitterly cold. So this neck warmer is a create idea for everyone in the family. Its ideal for toddlers though and their skill level and patience with getting on their winter gear.
This link will bring you to my instructions for the hat in this photo-it has a hole in the end so your pony tail can enjoy the outing too… http://mybrightideasblog.com/make-fleece-hat-wear-pony-tail/
So lets make us some Neck Warmers!
You will need:
- 2 pieces of fleece
- sewing machine
- pins
- scissors
Adult 25 inches x 9 inches
Toddler ages 1-3 years old 21 x7 inches
Child 4-9 years old 23 x 8 inches
10 years old to Adult 25 x 9 inches
Cut 2 pieces of fleece to size. It can be all one color of fleece or 2 colors that compliment each other. We used the pattern fabric to match her hat and purple fleece for the inside.
Make sure the stretchy-est direction is going lengthwise.
Sew a straight seam on both of the long sides of the fabric.
Place the right sides together and stitch down the long sides of the fleece.
Reach in and grab the end and pull it halfway through the tube. You are pulling one end into the other so its now half the length.
Match up the end seems and pin. Then pin all the way around the opening.
Sew these ends leaving an opening of 2 or 3 inches so you can turn it right side out by pulling everything through the hole.
Once you have it right side out…sew the opening closed with a bit of hand stitching.
Voila! Anyone can make a neck warmer in an easy 10 minute project. This is an easy project to have your children do with you.
Also if you don’t live in the bitter north and want a scarf but not so warm make it out of a t-shirt fabric. Better yet make it out of an old t-shirt. Use up your scraps of fabric. I love this sort of thing for camping in September when its pretty chilly at night.
