Featured Craft

Get Creative with The Lorax: The Truffula Tree-Shirt!

February 10, 2012 | Also posted in Topic: craft, featured, inspirations, Tutorials/Tips

I’ve always adored The Lorax, it was probably my favorite Dr. Suess book when I was little. And what really captured my imagination as a kid were those fabulous Truffula Trees, looking like cotton candy on a stick! So when I was invited to participate in the blog tour in promotion of the new movie coming out (in theaters March 2nd. Visit the official site for the movie preview, pictures, downloads and more!) I couldn’t resist doing a project featuring those wonderful trees. The Truffula Tree-Shirt! This is a simple “Freezer Paper Stencil” project. Just print out the stencil I’m… Read on...

How to: B&W wood photo ornaments and keepsake gift tags!

December 13, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: craft, featured, Seasonal/Holiday, Tutorials/Tips

I recently did a guest post on the FedEx Out of Office blog, with a tutorial on making personalized wooden ornaments and gift tags from photocopies of your photos and drawings. It’s pretty cool, go check it out: Personalized Black & White Wood Ornaments for all the step by steps. It’s a really neat technique that just uses acrylic gel medium from the art store– no toxic chemicals or anything like that. The toner from the photocopy remains on the wood, so the white areas of your photo become wood colored,… Read on...

BRAAAAINS! Conehead Zombie… PvZ costume

October 24, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: craft, featured, Halloween, Seasonal/Holiday, Tutorials/Tips

kids conehead zombie costume from plants vs zombies

The Cutest Little Conehead Zombie: I promised you guys a second costume for The Boy’s halloween (you’ll remember he’s also doing Draco Malfoy, Death Eater), and here it is! He’s a big fan of the Plants Vs. Zombies video game, and insisted on being a Conehead Zombie. We also considered buckethead, but we had the cone, so that sealed the deal. This is easy to put together, and tons of fun. I think this would be a great group costume idea – everyone picking different zombies to play… Read on...

Make a Hogwarts scarf out of old sweatshirts (Harry Potter, Halloween)

October 20, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: crafttop, Halloween, inspirations, Seasonal/Holiday, Tutorials/Tips

This is part 3, we’ve already covered how to make a death eater mask, and how to make a hogwarts robe out of a t-shirt! For the boy’s Death Eater costume, he really didn’t want any Slytherin gear, as he said (and rightly) that Draco Malfoy skulking around as a Death Eater would not be wearing his Slytherin scarf. But since a death… Read on...

How to Make a kids Harry Potter robe out of Tshirts

October 20, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: craft, Halloween, party, Seasonal/Holiday, Tutorials/Tips

For The Boy’s Draco Malfoy costume, I had a brainstorm one night when he was using a XL men’s tshirt as a sleep shirt. It was the perfect size for a wizard robe for a 6 year old. This version is meant to be a Death Eater robe (I took the liberty of having it double as Draco’s school robe as well). This could of course work for a wide variety of hooded robes, including Jedi robes! So I grabbed it, and a couple more old t-shirts and with… Read on...

Halloween Costume: Draco Malfoy, The Littlest Death Eater!

October 17, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: craft, featured, Halloween, Seasonal/Holiday

So, The Boy is somehow getting 2 halloween costumes this year. He’s a big Harry Potter fan, so his first costume is Draco Malfoy, Death Eater. He’s only on book 6, but he has some Legos that have Draco Malfoy in Death Eater garb, so he’s latched on to this idea. So, for his totally homemade/upcycled costume, we have:

A robe, made from several old t-shirts.
A Slytherin scarf, made from old sweatshirts.
A death eater mask, made from a dollar store skeleton mask.
A broomstick, made by Dad from an old broom with a custom handle

… Read on...

How to make a fun kids graduation hat

May 25, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: craft, featured

Here’s a quick and easy mortar board for those early graduations, like kindergarten and so forth… where they really want to be like the big kids! Hopefully this isn’t too late, I meant to repost this early but you parents know how the end of the school year goes… These mortar board caps are made from poster board and foam core… easy and fun to celebrate a graduation milestone. I reverse engineered this from the Boy’s last year Kindergarten grad hat. Get all the instructions here: How to make a kid’s mortar board/graduation cap

Little Game Box for your Easter Basket

April 19, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: craft, featured, Seasonal/Holiday, Tutorials/Tips

The Little Game box downloadable/printable was such a hit at Christmas for stocking stuffers, I did a new cover for Easter! All the cards and instructions can be downloaded here.., then just print this for a new cover for an Easter/Spring look -Easter Cover PDF. This is a great little NON CANDY treat for the Easter basket, and it is great for taking with you on dinners out when you need kid amusement. I’ve included (almost) everything you need to make one for yourself as free downloads! Just grab the file, print, and add your… Read on...

Octopus Baby Shower Cookies

February 2, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: Featured Recipes, food, my food, party, recent, Tutorials/Tips

For a friend’s baby shower, we did an octopus theme (the mom was having twins, so the theme was “she’s going to need 8 arms!” These cookies match the invitation. Here are the cookies I made as shower favors. They weren’t overly difficult, but a tad time consuming. I’ll post the recipe in a later post if anyone is interested, but basically it’s a non-leavened sugar cookie, covered with royal icing. With small skewers for sticks, inserted before the cookie is baked. The octopus is drawn on freehand, and it doesn’t take artistic talent… Everyone is cute, unique,… Read on...

Valentine Ideas for little girls

January 28, 2011 | Also posted in Topic: craft, Seasonal/Holiday, Tutorials/Tips

Here is a fun little idea I came up with last year, a cute valentines (or anytime) gift for a little girl. A stacked felt heart or flower pin. This was inspired by the fact that kids grow out of clothes so fast, and while I was going to make a shirt or dress with a heart applique, instead I decided to make this pin (and a few others) so they could be used for a longer time. This looks adorable pinned on a dress or jacket, and would even work pinned to a hair elastic for a… Read on...