How-To: "So Lucky" to have little hands in our home :)

Here's a fun St. Patty's day decoration to make with your kids! If your kids are old enough, they can even assemble them on their own. :)

Start with these supplies:

• Scissors
• green paper
• glue & glitter, glitter glue, or paint
• ribbon
• scrap piece of thin wood or dense cardboard (Optional - not in the picture below)
• tape (not in the picture below)
• marker (not in the picture below)
• metal brad
• and WIPES!! haha.. unless your kids are old enough to control their little sticky hands ;)

Start by cutting out 4 hearts big enough for your child's hand (or foot for really small babies) to fit on. Use the glue to make a handprint on each heart.

Then, sprinkle with glitter and let them dry.

Once they're dry, use a brad to connect them all at the points, and fan them out to make a shamrock.

Tape ribbon streamers to the back to make the stem, and tape a loop to the back on the top to hang it from.

You could always leave it at that, but since I have 2 little ones, I decided to make a sign the hang them both from. Using your scrap wood or cardboard and a marker, write something on the sign - mine said "So Lucky".

Then, tape the shamrock hanger to the back of the sign. *Why tape? This allows you to easily remove it and put it in a baby book or some other special place - I love little handprints. :)* Add a ribbon to hang the sign by, and you're done!

How-To: Custom Happy Birthday Sign

After scouring the internet for months searching for birthday party inspiration, I stumbled upon some really sweet birthday signs. Feeling ambitious (and too cheap to pay for one - lol), I decided to make it myself. Turns out, a custom-made party sign is surprisingly easy to make and inexpensive! I used my Cricut cutter, but if you don't have one, there are definitely other options - try stencils, stickers, stamps, alphabet rub-ons, or die cuts. :)

Here are the things I used:

• Cricut
• Cricut Doodletype font cartridge
• Spray glue
• white & multicolored cardstock
• curling ribbon

I started out by cutting the pieces. the Doodletype cartridge has this really fun-to-use button:

It's the circle button.. meaning it cuts out a circle, then cuts the letter out of the middle. Cut all of your letters out using the circle button on white cardstock. Then cut out a foundation (whatever background shape you want) for each letter on colored cardstock. *Make sure your letter fits on the first foundation cut before you cut them all!* Then lay out all of your pieces.

Use spray glue on the back of the letters, and press them onto your foundations. Easy enough. :) Then punch two holes in the top of each piece. Thread the ribbon through the holes. You can put a piece of tape on the back to keep the letter from sliding on the ribbon, or you can use a small sticker on the front (I used candy and ice cream stickers).

And, voila!! Done. It's an easy and super inexpensive way to make something special for your party. :)

Handprint Pillows :)

I was looking for a fun way to keep Sadie's handprints on display at the house. :) This is what I came up with!

Cost: $10-15
Time: less than an hour
*Iron and Sewing Machine Required

You'll need:

• 2 different fabrics (one for the body of the pillow, one for the handprints)
• Heat 'n Bond (large roll - not the tape)
• scissors
• thread
• polyfil or batting

Start by tracing your little one's hands. Cut out their handprints and set them aside. Cut 2 pieces of fabric the same size to be the body of your pillow. The size of your pillow will depend on the size of your child's hands. Iron a piece of Heat 'n Bond to your handprint fabric - the piece should be just large enough to fit both handprints on. While the paper backing is still on, turn the handprint cutouts upside down and trace them onto the Heat 'n Bond paper backing. Cut them out. Remove the paper backing and iron them onto the pillow body fabric. Lay the pillow fabric pieces directly on top of one another, with the handprinted layer on top face down. Sew 3 sides to form a pillowcase. Flip the pillowcase rightside out, and stuff will polyfil or batting. Fold the egdes of the open end inward and sew across the edge. :) Ta-da!

Little Fishy Towel

As a baby shower gift, someone from my church made Sadie an adorable hooded towel with mouse ears on it. Being made from a full sized bath towel, it has proven to be far more useful than the usual super-thin baby towels you can buy in stores. This project is a slightly different take on the same general idea. :)

Cost: less than $15
Time: about an hour
*Requires a sewing machine

You'll need:

• 1 full sized bath towel
• 1 matching hand towel
• matching thread
• cotton fabric - any color or pattern to go with the towels
• 2 googly eyes
• washable fabric glue

Start this project by making the fins and tail. Print the templates that are at the end of this post (sorry- there is nothing fancy about them, lol), and cut them out of your fabric. To print them, click the picture, then in that window select File, Print Preview, select Portrait and make sure the scale is set to 150% before printing. :) You'll need 1 tail, 1 dorsal fin, and 2 fins. Using your machine's largest stitch, sew along one edge and cut your thread, leaving yourself a few inches of tail. Repeat along the other edge. Pull the thread to gather fabric on each edge, tying a knot when the fabric is gathered to the appropriate size (fins and tail should be gathered as tightly as possible; dorsal fin only needs slightly gathered). When all edges are gathered, stitch the piece closed along the gathers. Trim off excess.





Next, make the hood. To do this, fold the hand towel in half, and cut out the hood shape (should look something like a J) leaving the towel's finished edge uncut to be the edge around the face. Place the dorsal fin between the layers, stitched side even with the edge of the towel, and stitch along the curved cut, then flip outside right to see the outside of the hood.  The dorsal fin should stand up at the top/back of hood. To attach the hood to the towel, fold the towel in half to find the middle. Line the middle of the hood up with the middle of the towel's edge, and use a zig-zag stitch to sew it together.

To sew the fins and tail on, start by figuring out the placement (for fins to be on the sides of a wrapped up baby, they will be just about even with the outside edges of the hood, about 3" down from the towel's edge; the tail will be in the middle of the towel about 3" below the fins). Holding the towel flat in one hand, place the stitched edge of the fin or tail perpendicular to the towel and pinch the towel to hold it in place. Flip your hand over so that the towel folds over the fin, and sew along the length of the fin. This will allow it to stand out without raw edges showing. Now all that's left are those googly eyes on top of the hood! Glue them on and let them dry according to the directions on your glue. :)






Fin Templates :)

Homespun Rag Wreath

 I decided that it was time to swap out my bright spring and summer wreath with one made to welcome fall. :) This rag wreath is perfect for the small space between your front door and the screen or storm door - it's less than 2 inches thick and still adorable. And best of all, it's super inexpensive and easy to make!

Cost: less than $10
Time: 1 - 1 1/2 hours

You'll need:

• sturdy cardboard
• marker
• 2 large lids or other round items to use as templates
• box cutter
• scissors
• homespun fabric (use scraps if you've got them, or buy about 1/3 yard each of 5 or 6 patterns)

How to make it:

Use your lids and marker to trace the inner and outer edges of your wreath form onto the cardboard. You'll want the difference to be at least 1.5" all the way around. Then use the box cutter to cut out the small circle first, then the big circle.

Using a scrap of ribbon, yarn, or a tape measure, tie a loose square knot around the wreath. This is to measure about how long you'll need each strip of fabric. The tails on your knot should each be 3-4 inches long. (The total length of my ribbon was about 13".) Untie the ribbon and use it to measure off the length for all of your fabrics. Make a snip with your scissors, then rip the fabric the rest of the way - homespun will rip straight. Ripping homespun fabric is what gives it the worn out rag look. (All of your fabric pieces won't be the same size all the way around, but they should be the same size in length - for instance, mine were all 13" in one direction, but much longer and did not line up in the other direction.)









On the long side of your fabric, make snips with your scissors about 2" apart - this doesn't have to be perfect, just guess at it. Then at every snip, rip up the whole length of the fabric. You'll end up with piles of rags that are all the same length and roughly the same width.












Quality check... haha :)







Now just start tying the rag strips in knots all the way around the wreath! Keep the knots close together. When you've made it all the way around the wreath, flip the wreath upside down and thread a long strip of fabric under several rags and tie the ends in a knot to make a hanger. Fluff the rags up a little and that's it!