Gingercake

Heart Monster Craft

Everytime I go in for a class party, I am so grateful and amazed at the job that elementary school teachers accomplish everyday.  When you do the craft at these parties, you wonder how these women and men get anything done!  The kids are fun and awesome but the range in their ability to listen and understand is pretty broad- even on a super simple craft like the one I am about to share with you.  Teachers, I salute you yet again!

I like this because you can share it with kids who are a little older ( 7 & 8 year olds) but with help, little ones can do it too.  It is also great for boys and girls alike.  And I like that the materials are super simple and all found at my local dollar store.  Cool.  Also, your kids can spend some time playing with them after school while you chill and have a glass of wine after dealing with making crafts with 20 kids all amped up on valentine sugar.  Very Cool.

This is pretty simple so I am just going to give you an easy photo tutorial.

First, the materials~

To make this with just a few kids, they can cut out the heart, glue the googly eyes on, etc.  To make this with 20 kids in a short amount of time (like 7 very hurried minutes of a 20 minute class party), I prepped  quite a bit before I went in.  

I cut out all the hearts (in a variety of colors so they could choose), I glued the googly eyes to the styrofoam balls so they wouldn't have to wait for glue to dry, and I prepared all the TP rolls by cutting them in half and cutting out the finger circles.

The kids chose their pipe cleaner (and cut it in half) chose their googly eyes, chose their hearts, and drew the mouth and stuck on the teeth. And, of course, they assembled the monsters themselves!

I love the rainbow of teeth on this one...

Many of them decided to use the 2nd half of the pipe cleaner to make arms.  Very cute!  

The only thing about this craft with a class party is that you have to have 20+ TP rolls!  I was collecting them since I knew I wanted to do some kind of craft with them.  To reach 20, I had to cut paper towels rolls down to size and they were not as nice to use as the actual Toilet Paper rolls.  The kids did not notice at all though!

Hopefully you may find some use of this tutorial for doing some easy crafting with your kids!  

Preschool Valentine Craft

Here is the craft I am doing with Cal's preschool tomorrow morning.  I admit I was a bit of a grumpy baby coming up with this.  First, I waited until this morning to make my plan.  Second, I kept waffling about my plan.  Third, I had to haul Cal and the baby all the way to Micheals!  But now I am happy and think the kids will like making these boquets for their moms.  What do you think?  Are the craft mom for your kid's party?

It is just cupcake liners (3 per flower), pipe cleaners, shredded paper to hold them in, and take out containers (3 for $1!).  Pretty cute and I think the 4 year olds can handle it!

Sewing with my (Lefty) Daughter

A week or so before school started I asked on the Gingercake Facebook page about ideas for sewing with my 8 year old.  Thank you so much for the good advice!  She decided on making a tote bag together with a pocket on the front to hold some STUFF.

Sewing with my lefty daughter was a bit more of a challenge than I thought.  She had a lot of trouble with my sewing scissors (in fact could barely cut with them at all!) and when she used the rotary cutter, she had to turn it in all sorts of funny angles and then still couldn't get a good cut very easily.  She loved slecting fabric though and using the machine was fun with me helping to guide.  The bag took about 3 hours to make over 2 days.  I tried hard not to rush her although I did feel like the whole project took a lot longer than I planned for a simple first adventure into real mother/ daughter sewing.

This past Saturday we made this cute water bottle cooler (with insulbrite batting!) together before her soccer game.  She wanted it to match her uniform and we had fun searching for just the right colors.  She did most of the sewing and then we put the snaps on together.  This time I did all the cutting since she got all grumpy when I brought out the cutters.  "Do I HAVE to use those again??!!"  Hmm.  Cutting is a really big part of sewing I thought.

So now I see that I can purchase lefty scissors and even a lefty rotary cutter online!  What do you think lefty sewers?  Does she just need to get used to living in a righty world or will the purchase of lefty accessories make sewing that much more fun and accessible for her?    I couldn't find a good child lefty set so it looks like I would have to buy the real (and pretty expensive!) thing for her.  This would certainly be worth it if it meant the difference between having this hobby to share together and her giving up since using my tools is too hard!

 

How Googly Eyes Make Everything Awesome

My oldest daughter has basketball early on saturday mornings and I used this time alone with Anne (it is hard to separate those 2) to make some valentines that I saw on Pinterest.  For awhile the kids were into building card houses and that gave us a stack of mixed up playing cards with out anyof them being complete sets.  I read that the founder of pinterest hopes that it using his site will help people to spend more time doing and less time on the internet.  I am trying to harness that hope and do some projects since i spend A LOT of time on pinterest lately!

Anne cut the red pipe cleaners in half.  I cut out the hearts.  Anne drew faces on the hearts.  I punched the holes in the cards.  Anne poked the pipe cleaners throught the holes.  I put the glue on the cards.  Anne put the hearts on the glue.  I put the glue on the eye spots.  Anne glued the googly eyes.  We chit chatted the whole time and it was really fun.

The project recommends small googly eyes but we used big ones.  They make them even cuter!

Is it just me or do these make you feel happy too?  Anne wants them to be holding lollipops so I will have to get those before her party on friday.  Not sure why schools don't do these parties on the actual holiday but that is a whole other discussion!

I am thinking googly eyes make EVERYTHING awesome.

 

Hooped Valentines

Whenever I see embroidery hoops at the thrift store, i gather them up in my basket.  They are addictive!  I have too many now and it is time to start using them up.  I thought Valentine's day would be the perfect time to get started!

These are on our stocking nails which I thought was the perfect place.  The idea began as just hearts with fun fabrics and I could practice my embroidery stitches.  I then changed them into including envelopes to encourage valentine notes (more about this later).

I made Cal's first.  I also tried chain stitch for the first time.  Remember when I made the quilt I said I was trying to flex my crafty muscles?  Well this is about doing that again.  The stitching is a little messy and the fabric choices are a little more country than I usually like.  I was going for boyish though so this is what I got...

Not bad.  He likes it- especially the truck.

Next came Elsie's valentine hoop.  She is 7 and loving purple, pink & girlyness in general (You would never know she loves getting dirty in the garden and pushing kids over on the soccer field).

Again, I wanted to practice some new things here so I used Jessica's felt flower tutorial (fun and EASY) and worked again on the chain stitch.  It turned out nicer this time!  Loving the chain stitch.  I also told Amy recently that I didn't know how to use trim so I stuck some trim ribbon in the corner.  Hmmm?  Not sure about that choice but I DID use some trim!

Finally came Anne's which is my favorite.  She wanted (after my suggestion!) a rainbow theme.  I tried all sorts of different ways to get the look I wanted and then remembered this technique that I saw on pinterest.  It worked great and I loved the final look.

The rainbow and thrifted crochet doily took up the entire hoop so I added this simple duck cloth envelope to the bottom.  The heart is made from wool felt and then I used my embroidery threads to do a simple stitch to mimic the rainbow colors.  Whole lotta cuteness.  

And one more shot of the rainbow.  Wouldn't this make the sweetest baby quilt on a biger scale?  

The kids are really excited about these.  Valentine making and giving has been at an all time high.

Aren't they cute?  You would never know with all this love going around that I had a crazy meltdown last night after I had to clean up yet another HUGE valentine making mess.  This time included glitter EVERYWHERE.  I yelled at them that I was going to throw it all away and that I was done with all of this!  They looked at me with shocked little faces and then we (aka Me) decided to create some valentine making boundaries- no more paint or glitter and only small pieces of paper.  Of course Anne's painted and glittered one up there is so beautiful that we all know I am going to crack and open it all up again.  YACK! 

What do you think?  I liked the idea of having the valentine giving be constant the next couple of weeks.  Compliments and lovey notes are pretty fabulous really- especially in the dead of winter when we are all cooped up in the house together.  The kids are asking where my hoop and their dad's hoop is.  Hopefully I'll get around to that!  

Here are some details- I used 10" hoops.  I used the full embroidery thread-all 6 strands.  On Cal's and Elsie's I made the top with cotton fabrics and wool felt pieces.  I did not use interfacing on the envelopes although with Elsie's fabric envelope it would have been better if I had since it is a little thin.  I backed Elsie and Cal's tops with 100% cotton fusible interfacing to firm them up.  Anne's blue "sky" fabric was lightweight and when I used the interfacing it puckered around the name embroidery, so I just backed it with an extra layer of white cotton fabric and it worked fine too.  For the back of the hoops, I ironed the fabric back and then glued it down.  Easy peasy!  If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me and I will try to answer!  

What do you have cooking for V day?  Are you trying some new techiques to flex your crafty muscles?  Let me know about it so I can keep up my work out!

Boy Time

True to my plan from last week, I did a little more crafting with Cal today.  I have discovered that boy crafting is much less complicated than girl crafting- at least in my house!  Cal wants to keep it simple and I am liking that.  A LOT.

We decided to do more with his popsicle sticks.  Anne was using this book last night so it was out on the table.  I bought is awhile back on a whim since I always loved these types of books as a kid.  Remember them?  They give you step by step instructions to make all these funny faces.

As an adult I look at this book and see the genius of Ed Emberley.  It is awesome.  

Cal chose his favorite faces and I drew them (it was so fun!) and he cut them out and glued them to popsicle sticks.  Then we made a theater out of a box (the box is about 12" x 18") and made curtains in fabric that he chose- "BOY fabric only mommy."  I used a long knitting needle as my curtain rod.

No decorating the theater with glitter, no elaborate dresses to go with the faces, and no complicated story lines for the performance.  This is boy crafting at it's best, friends.   Here is his play...

   

Fox, crocodile and robber are the bad guys.  Foorball man, band leader, cowboy, alien and policeman are the good guys.  At the beginning, Cal is saying "Hey!  We're gonna rob a bank!"  Then "Not so fast little robbers!"  Nice bed head on my boy, huh?  

I liked hearing your craft ideas last week!  Working my way toward something valentine :)  What's your favorite valentine project?

Snowflakes today

Today we have real snowflakes outside.  Not the fun kind you can play in though- the kind that whip around and burn your face.  Not enough to sled, but still covering the ground and making our house feel cozy.  One of the things I want to do this year is create more with my kids.  Cal in particular since he is my last one home- but the girls too at least once a week after school.  

Nothing huge or complicated.  Nothing junky and trashy.  Pinterest is helping me a lot here!  It's a challenge for me to find kid projects that are worth the mess.  Here is the one Cal and I did today to honor the snow that has finally come!  I saw the project here.  It's on my For the Kids Pinterest board.

 We only had this bronze glitter but I like it.  What about you?  Are planning to create more with your kids?  I admit that I feel nervous since many projects have ended in frustration.  Working with one is much easier!  Do you have some suggestions for me?  

Six Today

Today my Anne turned 6.  

I am so happy for her.  She had a great day.  Most of it spent away from Mommy at school.  I am keeping my chin up about this whole growing older thing.  I still have plenty of time, right??  I can't think about it too much.  I have to keep telling my self "the present is my present."

She still likes my birthday shirts!  That's good.  She is the best- bright and fun and caring.  We had a penguin party and lots more pictures to come but here is a sneak peek...

Here is one more when I asked her to pose before the party began.  She is saying "MOM!  enough of the pictures!  When are my cousins coming!  I am SIX!"  

My SIL Jenny was there with her awesome camera and great talent so I know I will be sharing more of this day soon.  There were penguins games and a penguin cake. All was happy for the middle child.  Basking in all her penguin glory.  Happy Birthday Anne!  

Cottage attacked by spiders!!!

My mom and dad came to visit a couple weeks ago.  Mom always brings gifts!  One ofthem was this new product called the Candy Cottage.  It's pretty durn awesome.  The cottage is made of hard plastic and you just apply the store bought icing and go to town.  They have all sorts of themes to guide you.  Mom, the kids and I worked on this for about an hour.  So fun and sturdy!  After halloween I am just going to wash it off and then in December do a Christmas one!  

It's so tacky that I LOVE it!  This morning some other creatures noticed the spooky candy cottage...

oh no!  here they come!

Yikes!

Happy Halloween!  

Class parties and costumes are done!  Now we just have to carve pumpkins(husband does this and then makes super salty and greasy toasted pumpkin seeds) and go trick or treating.  

Pumpkin Princess

Making Halloween costumes is a bit of a struggle for me.  On one hand, it's a hassle when you have lots of other things to make.  But, the cheap looks of the store bought costumes that are in my price range are terrible!  This year, my oldest wanted to be a Pumpkin princes.  Princess, you say?  In orange?  That I can actaully get a little interested in making!

I began with a knit orange top (thrift store) and some pretty orange shiny fabric.  The serger rocks for costume making!

After we accessorized the pretty pleating got hidden but the end result is really pretty and she is happy.

We did a little staged spider scare.  We made these spider crafts the other day using the idea from V & Co.  Very fun and fast craft with kids and then they play with the spiders for a couple minutes at least!

and then she and the spider make peace...

I am pretty happy with this costume.  She feels pretty and excited.  It wasn't too time consuming (the leaf neck ring and the head band were from dress up and the green tulle was a recent party favor!), and she will be plenty warm since it's already freezing up here!