Crafting With My Kiddles

I have a confession:  For as much as I love sewing and crafting FOR my kids, I don't enjoy sewing or crafting WITH them very much.  That might sound horrible to some moms that come up with all this great stuff to do WITH their kids, but I am not one of those.  I craft for therapy, and crafting with kids is not therapeutic at all.  I don't know if anybody else has noticed this, but when you do a craft WITH your kid, if they're under 7-8, you do most of the craft yourself.  And what is the point of that?  What kid, once they've become bored with watching you do a craft for them, sits around to watch while you're finishing it?

Fuzzy is getting fun to craft with because you give him the idea and he goes for it.  Fluffy 1 is such a perfectionist that she gets all frustrated and gives up if her project doesn't look as good as she thinks it should.  Fluffy 2 runs ahead impatiently without any real understanding of what I'm trying to show her, so she does something completely different.  (Yes, this is great and creative of her in some ways, but frustrating in others because she doesn't follow instructions because she's too busy thinking outside the box... this translates into school, too.  OY!).  And Little Stinky is four, so his crafting is just plain limited.

My kids are all pretty creative/crafty/artistic all by themselves, so I could actually be over-thinking this.  But for me, it really comes down to trying to spend time together, and I think crafting is a good bonding experience.  So I've really been making an effort to make special time on the weekends to do crafts WITH my kids.

We've been attending all of the Lowe's and Home Depot kid activities.  Those are GREAT because the craft mess is someplace besides my kitchen table and I don't have to set it up or clean it up.  We show up, the Hombre helps and I help, everyone gets their craft done and has fun, and we go home!

 

 

Our Home Depot has been a really big hit this summer because of the inflatables!

 

 

Bonus for WATER SLIDES!

At home we mostly do painting, whether we have a little wooden craft to paint or just paper.

 

I chopped up and sanded some 2x4 scraps at the Hombre's shop for the kids to paint.  These are what inspired the more grown-up versions in my last post!

But I'm trying to break it up a bit. 

Here are some wooden clothespin mermaids the girls and I made. 

They were fun.  I had to cut the tails and do the hair... and draw the eyes.  But the girls LOVED this!  (I felt like an over-worked stylist, but it wasn't about me.  The mermaids were far more patient than their creators.  Ha!)


The older three sewed some tiny flannel pillows.

Fluffy 2 stayed home with me for an afternoon and wanted to try out sewing with my machine, so we did a little quilt together.  I did the cutting and pinning, of course, but only helped her guide it through the machine while she operated the pedal. 

So she did a lot of it and was very pleased with her quilt.

We've also tried shoebox houses.  Those are still in progress, and I admit that I'm the one who hasn't suggested finishing them.  They need curtains and I'm still trying to figure out a way for the kids to do that independently.  But the girls, at least, are playing with theirs with Strawberry Shortcake and their dollhouse people.

Occasionally I let the kids pick out some little dollar crafts at Michael's.  Those always go over well.

 

Little Stinky got some kind of wooden, bendy snake to paint this time.

 

 

Fluffy 1 got some little plaster horses.

 

 

Fluffy 2 got a little wooden pony to color.

 

 

(Fuzzy was at the shop with Daddy playing in a giant puddle.  :) )  I was sewing close enough to indulge every "Look, Mommy!" with a "That looks wonderful, Darling!" and assist when necessary.  And everybody was happy!  Go me! 

Besides Sewing...

I have been crafting and loving my paint lately.  The quicker the project the better!  But I haven't used my paint much in recent years, so it's been exciting to play with it for my own projects, instead of just kids' crafts.  I'm already dreaming about wall art projects that I'm hope to create in the future!

It started with this...

 

 

I saw something similar on Pinterest and totally fell in love with it.  After fantasizing about it for several weeks, I broke down and bought an 8x10' from Lowe's, chopped it in three pieces, beat the edges with a hammer and went to town.  I love it, but I'm still waiting to hang it on the wall.

 

That same day I was trying to give the kids something to do while we were at the shop, and since I had all my acrylics there, I chopped up some scrap 2x4's to make little houses they could paint.  They were so cute that I made my bestie some for her birthday...

 

 

 

And I had to make some for me to go with my painting...

 

 

 

I also painted a desk that the painting and the little houses are sitting on.

 

 

Sadly, I had no idea that latex paint does not respond well to distressing, so I went through and waxed all the edges prior to putting the green paint on it.  It's gorgeous!  Seriously.  I cannot get a picture that does the color justice.  But the latex peels off the edges like... well, like latex paint.  With all the paint we deal with between crafting and the Hombre's playhouses, that's really the best description I've got.  It should rub nicely away, which chalk paint does.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize I could make my own (because real chalk paint is really expensive!) until after I'd done this.  Anyway, it's still very pretty.  The color is Sea Glass.

 

Then the beach stuff got a little out of hand and I painted these bottles because I saw a tutorial on a blog that has a whole lot of pretty things.

 

 

The blog is sandandsisal.com.  It's full of a whole bunch of tutorials to make gorgeous stuff!

 

And THESE were a melding of several Pins into one awesome project!

 

 

I never throw away glass anymore.  I've seriously become a jar hoarder, but jars + Mod Podge = MAGIC!  It's amazing all the stuff I've been able to use them for.  Those are Martinelli's bottles, tinted with Mod Podge (they took FOREVER to dry, but it was worth it, I think!), then netted with cheap twine (here's a tutorial for that).  I think they're fun!

 

Here are some glitter jars I made with Mod Podge for our school room.  They're so colorful and fun!  And with all the color, it's almost like painting, so I get a kick out of it!

 

 

 

I did take a stab at finding another creative outlet this year and taught myself crochet.  I've tried to learn it before, even asked my mom to teach me, but I wasn't wrapping my head around it, so I was happy to have finally got the hang of it.  I'm not an expert at it yet, by a long shot!  But it's kind of fun.  It just doesn't fill the same void that sewing or painting does, so I only pick it up here and there. 

 

 

I found all of these patterns on Pinterest, of course.  I'd like to get to the point where I can crochet lacy scarves, wraps and tunics, but that will be later on!  Maybe I'll make a blanket to match all my painted beach stuff up there!  LOL

 

 

 



More Doggie Stuff

I was going to write a tutorial for the cute, comfy bed I made for Abby's crate, but it ended up being more complicated than I thought it would be.  So let it suffice to say that I made a cute, comfy bed for Abby's crate! 

(She seems to like it, though in this picture she couldn't figure out why I was putting her in her crate in the middle of the afternoon.)

It was totally free because I had all the supplies I needed on hand, which was awesome!  I am totally wanting to paint the outside of her crate to match it now, even if it never goes anywhere outside our bedroom!

I also made her a toy out of scrap duck canvas I had laying around!

And tried out a dog biscuit recipe I found on Pinterest! 

 

She liked them, and I didn't feel too bad if the kids decided to try them.  They didn't like them, and I figured that was a great experience in eating pet food for them, so they won't need to do it again!

Abby does like her little bed still.

Sadly, we have to keep her tethered there when we're not interacting with her directly due to some unresolved house-training issues, and her odd urge to take a chomp out of random stuff like FURNITURE when she's loose.  But we're working on that!

A Home-Sewn No-Thumb-Sucking Glove

The No-Thumb-Sucking Glove!

 

 

Fluffy 1 has been a thumb sucker from the time she was a baby.  We tried to stop it by stuffing Nukkies in her mouth every time we saw her doing it, but she wasn't interested in Nukkies and promptly spit them out.  Her sister was the same way about the Nukkies, and sucked her two middle fingers.  Fortunately, she quit that before she turned two.

 

 

Fast forward six years, and in that time we've tried EVERYTHING.  Fluffy 1 is an EXTREME thumb sucker.  She had two adorable little bunny teeth and a huge callous on her thumb to show for it.  But now we're down to one tooth...

 

 

(Oh yes, my sweet little waif!  Haha!)

 

And it's a much bigger priority to get her to stop sucking that little thumb now that her big teeth are on the way in.  I went searching online yet again.  I remember once seeing a plastic device that prevented thumb sucking.  It cost almost $100, but given the cost of orthodontics, I'm sure it's worth the price.  It was a lucky search, though, because I saw an interesting little glove developed by another parent to help their kids conquer thumb sucking.  They were selling it for a very reasonable price, and I was seconds from pulling out the credit card myself.  Then I stopped and really looked at that glove.  And I had a "well DUH!!!" moment!  I could MAKE one pretty much like it.  And I did while my kids ate lunch.

 

 

 

I referred to the picture for the general shape, but I started by tracing my Little Fluffy's thumb on a piece of paper.

 

 

 

I smoothed out the tracing, added tabs off the wrist for a closure, and added about 1/4" seam allowance around all but the knuckle side of the thumb.  Then I folded the paper in half and cut out the pattern.

 

This awesome material is some scrap that my mom gave me from one of the bathing suits she made me when I wasn't much older than my Fluffies!  Still nice and stretchy all these years later!

 

 

I pinned it out and cut two.

 

 

 

I pinned them wrong sides together and sewed the edges using a zigzag stitch, leaving a 3/4" opening for turning.

 

(Yes, you probably COULD do this on a serger with the wrong sides together and completely skip turning your glove while still achieving a nice edge.  I'm still not fantastic at serging curves on my machine, though, so I went this route.)

 

I then turned the glove right side out and held it on Little Fluffy's hand to see where the thumb curve should end. 

 

 

I put a pin there, just until I had it lined up under my needle, then sewed it with a straight stitch toward the end of the thumb.  I used a zipper foot to keep the stitching as close to the edges as possible.  With the thickness of the two seams and four layers, I did have to wrangle it a little bit to keep it straight and the two edges lined up. 

 

 

 

 

I tried it on Little Fluffy once more to make sure the thumb wasn't too long or two short (which it wasn't, but it's good to check these things!), then carefully topstitched with a zigzag around the rest of the glove, starting at the base of the thumb on one side and finishing at the base of the thumb on the other side. 

 

 

Then I added Velcro. 

 

 

And TAH-DAH!!!

 

I've made two so far (this tutorial is the second time around!), though I would definitely recommend more.  With the bathing suit material it's a good idea to hand wash them and let them air dry, and that takes a little time.

 

I can't honestly say, yet, how well this will work.  The reviews on the website I saw were really good and parents with kids who used theirs reported success, so I'm confident in this working!  But I'll update whenever it does.  Certainly worth a shot, am I right, fellow parents of thumb suckers?

 

***UPDATE***

 

It worked!!!  My little Fluff has been a non-thumb sucker for a good month and a half now!  She quit wearing the gloves over a month ago, and we still can't believe that she's actually STOPPED sucking her thumb!  I am so happy for her and for the fact that this little experiment was successful... and cheap!

A Home-Sewn $3 Dog Bed!

The CHEAP, DIY Dog Bed!

Yep, that's right!  THREE DOLLARS!  We're doing this dog ownership thing on a budget, so keeping it cheap is a priority.  While making a cushion is kind of a no-brainer, I did check Pinterest prior to getting started, and I guarantee this is WAY easier than anything you'll see featured there!

I used two old pillows and a $3 thrifted flat sheet. 

So this is what I did:

I hand sewed the two pillows together like this.  No fancy or pretty stitching because nobody is EVER going to see it.

Abby would NOT get off.  I figured that was a good sign that it was suitable!

Here's my double pillow dog cushion.

But it needed a cover that can be removed and washed, right?  To make the cover I simply plopped the pillows in the very center of the BACK SIDE of that sheet, folded up the ends, and pinned one side.

 

 

I then marked one side where the pillows ended on the unpinned side.  There is a lot of excess there.  Then I removed the pillows and sewed the pinned side together.

I laid the one side sewn sheet back on the floor and smoothed it all out, then measured the length from the seam to the mark on the one corner and marked it on the other side and drew a line across.

 

I went ahead and pinned all the layers together on that line,

 

 

then ran it through the sewing machine.  I cut off the excess, turned it right-side out, and that was it!

It also turns into a nifty little dog sofa under the green desk to conserve space!

So this is officially the thriftiest DIY upcycle project I've ever done.  It took less than an hour from start to finish, and Abby actually sleeps on it.  Not that I can get a picture of her sleeping on it.  You know what they say about letting sleeping dogs lie?  Well, that's especially true of this hyper dog who comes rocketing off it if you get anywhere near while she's napping.

 

Oh, and I made a matching poo-bag holder to hang on the door with her leash. 

Of course I still forget the poo bags when I take her out and have to take an extra up n' down on the stairs to retrieve one, but at least they're handy when I need one, right?