Archive for the ‘
Must Read ’ Category
Tuesday, February 5th, 2013
Last February, I posted this Sew-A-Heart project on my blog and it was a big hit! My children loved making this sweet and simple project for their friends. It is easily modifiable for children of different ages: parents and teachers can punch the holes for little ones, so they can simply stitch, and older children can punch their own creative designs.
The best part? You can transform stuff that you already have in your house (cereal boxes and random bits of yarn) into cheerful messages of love.
xo emily
Categories: Crafts, Everyday Fun, Fun, Group Activities, Holiday, Must Read | Tags: craft, creative, design, heart, kids, project, sew, simple, stitch, sweet, valentine's day, yarn
Monday, January 28th, 2013
Make simple, cheery rings and things for Valentine’s Day! Children can help turn wooden and felt hearts into rings, hair ties, and bracelets.
Begin with a pile of felt hearts and freshly painted wooden hearts. (You can find wooden hearts at your local craft store.) Children can help paint, cut, and organize the piles of hearts.
How to:
Materials: paint, wooden hearts (wood section in your local craft store), black 1/4″ flat elastic, scissors, thread, wool felt, elastic hair ties, and a drill.
After painting the wooden hearts, drill holes in them to make them into heart shaped buttons. The size of the holes depends on what you wish to do with them. Tiny holes are perfect for sewing them onto a black elastic ring, and larger holes are better for threading with hair tie elastics.
Trace hearts onto felt and cut them out.
Make the elastic rings. Measure little fingers and snip off a piece of flat elastic. While sewing the elastic into a ring, use a slightly larger piece with some overlap, and then snip off any part that hangs over.
Once you have a bunch of black elastic rings, sew wooden hearts, felt hearts, or whatever you want onto the rings.
**Children will need adult help and supervision with drilling and sewing.
Have fun!
xo emily
Categories: Crafts, Everyday Fun, Fun, Group Activities, Holiday, Must Read | Tags: bracelets, bright, cheer, cheery, cute, felt, festive, fun, heart, hearts, little, paint, pink, red, rings, sew, sewing, shape, soft, sort, valentine's day, wood
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013
I had my two children in mind when I designed this little fabric heart necklace for Valentine’s Day, but after I threw one around my neck, I was kind of feeling the vibe. They make perfect lovey gifts for sharing with friends, don’t you think? Plus, it is a fantastic way to use up those beautiful bits of leftover fabric.
Materials:
fabric
cereal box panels
sewing machine OR embroidery needle and floss
scissors
hole punch
pen
yarn
How To:
1. Ask a child to draw a heart shape on the back of some favorite fabric. Cut out the shape, and place it right side up onto a piece of cereal box panel. I didn’t affix the fabric to the panel with anything, but you could use a dab of a glue stick to keep it in place.
2. Put a denim needle in your sewing machine and sew around the heart. You could also use a big embroidery needle and floss. Once the sewing is completed, trim away the excess cereal box panel.
3. Use the hole punch to make holes in the two tips of the heart. The punch will go through the fabric and cardboard, but you’ll probably need to trim a bit of the fabric out of the hole to clean it up.
4. There are two different ways to string the yarn (both techniques shown below). You can simply thread it through the back and then use a bit of glue to affix the yarn to the back of the heart (so it doesn’t show when you turn it over). Or, you can thread the ends of a piece of yarn through the holes and then tie big, big, big knots so they don’t slip off.
Happy heart making!
xo emily
Categories: Crafts, Everyday Fun, Fun, Group Activities, Holiday, Must Read, Seasonal | Tags: children, cut, cute, fabric, gift, heart, love, necklace, pink, red, sew, sweet, valentine's
Monday, January 14th, 2013
As January progresses and our outside world becomes a icy, crystallized, study in white, I love to begin thinking about the season of bright, cheery colors. Valentine’s Day is a month away, which means that it might be time to begin to consider how you and your children will send hearts into the world.
In honor of one of my favorite holidays, I’ll post four more Valentine’s Day projects in the coming weeks. Be sure to stop by and check them out!
Heart Magnets
Materials
wooden circles 1″ or 1 1/2″ wide
heart stamp (carving block and carving tool if you plan to carve it yourself)
acrylic paint
magnets
hot glue gun
How To:
1. Find a nice heart stamp*.
2.Coat the heart stamp with a thin layer of acrylic paint and stamp the wooden circles.
3. Once the circles are fully dry, glue the magnets on the back with the hot glue gun.
4. Be sure to quickly wash the acrylic paint off the stamp, so it can be used again and again.
* If you’ve never carved stamps before, and feel inspired to try, this would be a great first carving project. You’ll need a linoleum cutter and some sort of carving block material. My goodness, the heart shape is so simple and small, you could even use some sort of rubber eraser that is laying around the house. Using a pencil, ask child to draw the heart shape on a piece of paper. When she is happy with her shape, turn it face down onto the carving material and scrape/rub it with your fingernail. This will transfer the image onto the carving material. Use your linoleum cutter to carve away the negative space, and the wee heart will be complete.
Happy heart making!
xo emily
Categories: Crafts, Everyday Fun, Fun, Holiday, Must Read, Seasonal | Tags: carve, craft, cute, friends, fun, heart, hearts, love, magnets, make, print, shape, stamping, stamps, valentine's
Wednesday, January 9th, 2013
At our house, playtime with clay typically amounts to tiny pinch pots, pretend food, and, occasionally, pretend eggs. The other day, we added flexible clay molds to the mix, and we couldn’t stop making all sorts of cute little critters and shapes. My favorite is the fern, my eight-year-old daughter’s favorite is the butterfly, and my five-year-old opted for the pinch pot standby.
We used white air dry clay and a plastic sculpting tool for cleaning up the designs. There is something so nice about crisp, white clay! Our creations have been brightening the center of our table since we made them, and we all agree that they are charming. You can give them as little love gifts, display them in a dish, or paint them on a rainy day.
These are the molds that we experimented with, but there are plenty of fun sets floating around the internet. Perhaps, snowflakes will be next on our list?
xo emily
Categories: Crafts, Everyday Fun, Fun, Group Activities, Must Read | Tags: butterfly, children, clay, craft, crafting, fern, fun, leaves, molds, shapes, stars
