Little Elephants: Kids Crafts and Fun Activities

Tomas' birthday hat

Lookee what I did! Today is Tomas' birthday. I tried to put together a little party but he went and got sick on us (again!). Good thing I had this little number ready to help keep his aching noggin warm. Probably not the flat-panel TV he was dreaming of, but it was in my budget and helped me feel better about flunking my pledge to buy/make handmade over the holidays

It took me two evenings to make using circular knitting needles. I didn't use a pattern, and just winged it by measuring my own head and calculating how many stitches I would need (80 in this case). After the green rows I dropped one stitch every eight, knit a whole row, then dropped a stitch every seven, then knit a row ... I kept this pattern up until I hit five & the wool was stretched out so tight I couldn't possibly continue. I haven't chrocheted since I was around Maggie's age (she's 9) so I did a test run off the hat to figure it out. Once I had the hang of it, I crocheted the hat off the knitting needles and worked my way in spirals until it was closed up tight.

I was inordinatly pleased with myself. I even forced the kids to come try it on and admire my work.

In the end this was an easy and crazy-satisfying project. I hope the kids weren't lying when they said they liked it, 'cause I'm planning to make more for the whole family so we can all be matchy-matchy :-)

Mamie's new blanket

A couple days ago I started to knit a scarf for Tomas. Maggie had other plans for it as soon as she saw it start to emerge from my knitting needles. Her treasured Mamie now has a new blanket. Tomas will have to wait a bit for his scarf ... not too long, though, because I really enjoyed the quiet time I had whipping this one up. Nothing beats a simple craft for catching up with your daydreams :-)

Knitting spool maniac(s)

A couple years ago I bought both kids knitting spools because I thought they were cute and I had happy memories of the monotonous craft. I hauled them out last week when the kids were feeling better and Tomas was definitely not feeling better. This silly craft provided many minutes of quiet time for this Momma to tend to the mundane tasks of dishes, laundry, and vacuuming that were in dire need of doing once I was better. The only part I haven't quite figured out is a clean cast off, but no one's complained this far.

Now I'll need to do a bit of thinking to figure out what to do with these long tubes of yarn! Hats? Coasters? Trivets?

Finger puppet fun

All this felt sure has gone a long way these past few days, and there's still a bunch left over for more crafty goodness. Not bad for under $5!

On Saturday morning Maggie asked if she could make finger puppets. This was so easy, I couldn't say no (and I do say no pretty often, I have to if I want to keep my sanity, or have a few minutes of nothingness).

We measured her index finger and I cut out a whole-lotta felt squares to be folded in half and sewn along the top and length -- leaving the bottom open. Once stitched we turned the puppets inside out so to hide the seams.

Next up, I dumped a pile of fabric scraps and random adornments including googly eyes, feathers, yarn and pretty flowers. I then handed her the fabric glue and let her have at it. It was a glorious mess and a wonderful (quiet) frenzy of creative activity that lasted at least an hour.

Bjorn watched from the sidelines for a while and finally stepped in to make his own. When he got bored (tired?) of sewing his bodies, I took over so he could get to the fun part -- decorating!

On Sunday they literally spent hours making up stories and creating their cardboard stage and sets. And in the afternoon we had  family theater time to view their 1/2 planned, 1/2 improv productions. Lets just say they both had a lot of blood and gore (I might have to have a talk with them about that!).

Bjørn's new pillow

While Maggie was busy at work on her mouse, Bjørn came up to me to ask if he could make something as well. Like I would say no?!

He very carefully chose his colored felt (black and teal) and embroidery thread (red), and just before starting to sew, he asked if he could also decorate his pillow. Of course! So I handed him the fabric markers.

When he was all done he gave me this huge smile and announced that sewing was a lot easier now that he was older. He remembered struggling over a sewing project in school when he was a kinder, and was very relieved that it wasn't as difficult as back then. I have to say, I'm quite impressed with how even his stitching is!

Meet Francis

Maggie decided that she wanted to institute Project Days this summer. Her idea was to have specified days completely devoted to crafting. I don't think it's possible for me to convey with any accuracy just how nervous this made me -- one or two crafts I can handle. An entire day of back-to-back forced creativity overwhelms me. So, I handed her a pile of craft and sewing books and told her to make a list of the sorts of things she'd like to try out. Nothing like postponing a craft-athon to ease one into it.

She quickly thumbed through my books and claimed that she'd read 'em all and knew exactly what she wanted to do. She then sketched the pattern above to show me how she wanted to make a mouse.

After my morning coffee we all packed into the car and headed for the craft store to get felt and stuffing. The minute she got in the door she set to work and barely had need of any help from me.

This is Francis:

Francis now has a brightly decorated tail, a mousy home complete with confetti bedding, and a lovely pair of earrings.

This is Mamie

Mamie has been my girl's favorite doll from the moment she came into our house. She is a Corolle doll -- a very special gift from my mom when Miss M was just a wee one herself. Mamie is also a very fashion-conscious doll, and has the most amazing wardrobe. A cousin of mine in France sews and knits incredible outfits for this young lady. Every time my mom comes to visit, she brings a few more outfits.

How lucky are we?

Click here to see more of Mamie's rad outfits :-)

Embroidered gifts

Last week Miss M decided that she wanted to give embroidered pillows to her teachers (she has two). She had a very specific idea in mind -- if you've been reading this blog for any amount of time you'll know that this is always the way it is with my girl -- my job, as always, is to facilitate.

She picked out her coordinating fabrics and threads, and wrote her teachers' names in her very best cursive using a fabric pencil. After all the kids were off to bed, I labored over the embroidery for the first pillow. It was extremely stressful as I hadn't embroidered a thing since I was my girl's age. It didn't help that I was completely winging it.

The glorious smile she beamed on me the next morning thoroughly made up for all my cursing and stressing the night before.

The second was done much more peacefully the next night :-)

A birthday gift

Miss M was so pleased with the snugglies I'd made for her and her brother that she asked if it would be ok for her to make one for her teacher's daughter who is celebrating her first birthday today.

Of course!

On Wednesday after school we went on a mission to the fabric store. All the way there, we discussed her plans. They were quite elaborate. When we arrived, she headed straight to where we usually look, where you can get pre-cut pieces, and have fun with color and pattern for not a lot of money ('cause Mama's cheap like that). I cut her off & introduced her to the bolts of fabric that were there to explore  -- you'd have through I was the most amazing Mom at the look on her face.

She chose the brightest pink fleece, and a soft cotton in the brightest blue and fuschia.  Her smile was enough to quell my worries that this might be a bit, um... bright for a one-year-old.

Next up, we strolled past the ribbons, and buttons until she saw what she had to have for her blanket. A super soft teddy bear applique -- a must have.

My girl also wanted to applique the baby's name, but I was a bit worried that that would over-complicate what I'd hoped would be a simple project, so I steered her (yet again) to the iron-on letters. Yay me. She was pleased with this solution.

The actual sewing was easy peasy. Deciding where the appliques would go required Dad's diplomatic intervention. Yay Dad.

Now I will learn to sew!

Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing: Patterns and How-To for 24 Fresh and Easy Projects

Ages ago I pre-ordered Simple Sewing by multi-talented blogger Lotta Jansdotter. Today it came in the mail and I am positively drooling over every page.

She presents simple yet beautiful projects in such a readable way that I am convinced that this time I will actually make something lovely. She even goes so far as to include several patterns in a convenient envelope. The only thing I'm not crazy about is the binding. It's spiral bound & I have a personal hatred for spiral bound books -- I'm always worried that I'll tear the pages, and these pages are much too pretty to tear so I'll have to be extra careful.

I'm almost afraid to show the book to Miss M this evening because I know she's going to want to get cracking on a project Right Away! Even though I'm a little scared to dive in, I can't wait to see what we make :-)