Wrist Wallets

Before heading off to the Magical Kingdom at Thanksgiving last year, I decided I wanted to make something for my boys for the trip that would serve a dual purpose.  I wanted something they could put their little treasures or money in, where they would be secure, and I also wanted to give them emergency information in the case that they become separated from us at the parks. 

I found this tutorial at A Lemon Squeezy Home and knew that my boys would love them.  I let them pick out the inner fabric and their zipper color and chose the navy chevrons for the exposed side.  Then, I added a muslin label inside, where I wrote their names and our cell phone numbers with a Sharpie.  That way, they could contact us quickly in an emergency, but it was hidden from anyone else's view.  The boys loved them and happily wore them into the park.

 Of course, Mr. Three quickly tired of something on his wrist and kept pulling it off.  Mr. Three was the one we were most concerned about, only being 2 at the time and prone to clamming up around strangers.  Enter the light blue sharpie that my sister in law was smart in bringing in her bag.  Solution?  Just write his name and our cell number on his upper arm, under his shirt sleeve.  The light blue was easier to wash off at the end of the day. 

So, lots of work, or little work at all, I had my kiddos covered.  Thankfully, they all stayed together, so they didn't need those handy numbers after all.:)  Now they have a fun little cuff to wear and stow their treasures any time.  They will come in handy on future trips, I'm sure.

Star Wars Crafting

My boys love Star Wars, this is common knowledge.  I realized that I hadn't posted some of the fun things Mike and I have created for our Star Wars loving boys, so I'm documenting them now.

I had pinned these Star Wars peg dolls a long time ago, and decided they would make a great Christmas present for our Mr.'s.  I can't take any credit for how amazing they turned out, since all I did was buy the supplies and show Mike the pin.  He painted them all.  Didn't they turn out awesome?  I love all the details.  I found the metal lunch boxes at Old Navy and knew that they would make the perfect home for these tiny characters.

When I saw this Star Wars print at JoAnns, I knew I needed to make something for my boys, but couldn't decide what.  Then I remembered this tutorial for pillowcases, found a great geometric print that coordinated with the Star Wars print, and made pillowcases for the boys.  They were so excited about them.

Using this font as a template, I also embroidered their names on the sides, "Star Wars-style" with a deep red embroidery floss.  I love the way they turned out.

Here's a close-up of the lettering.

A few weeks ago, my brother Seth gave the boys this Star Wars cookie cutter set.  The boys were so very excited to make Death Star and X-Wing cookies.  In fact, the morning after they opened them, I am pretty sure the first words out of Mr. Three's mouth were, "I'm dressed!  Can we make Star Wars cookies now?"

 

We used this recipe to make the cookies and left them unfrosted.  They were delicious.  The boys liked eating them as much as playing with them.

Want more?  Here's my Star Wars Crafting pin board for inspiration.  May the Force be with you... 

Halloween Odds and Ends

Between the costume sewing, baking, helping with my sister's wedding, and general busyness of life, I have not posted much since, well, since Mr. Four was born.  I have tried to do some fun Halloween and fall activities with my little Mr.'s, and I've even managed to sneak in a few crafts of my own.  Here's a brief rundown of some of them.

I love the way my yarn wreath turned out.  I wasn't sure if it would end up a success or a huge craft fail, but I love the colors and the clean look of it.  Now I want to do more for other seasons.

My boys had a great time making these spiders.  They are just the right touch of bright and mildly creepy for our decor.

We made candy corn sugar cookies.  Mr. One and his friend cut the triangles, and sprinkled the cookies.  It was a fun treat to do together.  The tutorial is from Our Best Bites, using their sugar cookie dough with almond extract.  They were very yummy!

I made up this simple sensory tub activity for the boys, found here.  They had lots of fun searching for the ghosts and shouting, "Boo!  I found you!"

I can't wait for tomorrow's fun and trick or treating!  Luckily the force was with me in making our family's costumes this year (wink).  Pictures here in a few days. 

Lots of Love

I've been busy crafting and cooking in the kitchen, getting ready for Valentines day.  Here's some snippets of our Heart Day plans.

A few decorating projects are finished.  I made some heart garlands inspired by ideas from the web,

one simple

and one a little more complicated.  I had a few more decorating projects that didn't get completed.  Maybe for next year...

I've been in the kitchen baking sugar cookies.  Normally, I use my favorite sour cream sugar cookie recipe, but I wanted to try something new.  Paradise Bakery sugar cookies sounded like just the thing, so I tried them out. 

They are yummy, but I would definitely use a different frosting.  It was a little weak to me.  I prefer cream cheese frosting myself.

We also had our favorite Cody pancakes for breakfast (pink of course for Valentine's Day). 

Don't you love Mr. Three's hair?

I found these Valentine web games for the boys to play while I cooked dinner.

On the menu:

Fettuccine Alfredo (with some red food coloring)
roasted asparagus (which the boys will probably not touch, but we'll give it a try)
bread sticks
raspberry jello
sugar cookies
hot chocolate

We set the table and lit candles to have a fancy dinner together.  We emphasized using extra fancy manners as well.  (One can only hope...)  They seemed to really like that, although we still had whining about eating asparagus and at least one child eating with their hands instead of the forks and spoons...

Excerpt from the table (can you relate?):

Mom:  "You can use your spoon to eat your jello."
Mr. Two:  "Oh, that would be good!" (Grabs the jello with his hands and plops it onto the spoon.)
Mom: (to Dad, under breath) "I give up."
Mr. Three:  (pats jello with hand and pokes it with fingers)

Ah, memories!

Here are the little gifts that I (and Mike) have been working on to give the little Mr.'s.

For Mr. One and Mr. Two

Boyville peg dolls (we had to add Batman to the mix).  My handsome husband did all the detail work.  He is a creative wonder!  It was a really fun project to work on together.

For Mr. Three

This basic apron (I added a pocket because every boy needs a pocket) for my newest little kitchen helper.

The Valentines here and here for all three, because they are super kids.

I also had so much fun thinking up little love notes and hiding them for my husband to find these past 14 days.  I think he enjoyed finding and reading them, too.

We had a day full of love and hope all of you did as well!  Happy Heart Day!

Five Little Monkeys

When I saw this post on Homemade by Jill, (thanks Jill!) I knew I wanted to make a set of monkey/crocodile puppets.  My boys have always loved this little fingerplay.  The only thing I wanted to change was the crocodile.  It would be so much more fun to actually have one with a mouth that could really snap those monkeys.  Here's what I did.

I followed the pattern for the monkeys.  So cute!

For the crocodile, I took the template she provided for the monkey bodies and put them end to end to make an elongated oval (are you with me?).  I traced another monkey body with the tail piece, widening the tail to create one long piece.  I also cut one monkey body out of green felt and then used the top of the original alligator piece to cut two seperate eye pieces.  I cut two ovals out of white felt, layered it inside of the mouth pieces and cut out triangles to make the teeth and cut a long red tongue out of red felt.

I stitched eyes onto the front eye piece, then sewed the eye pieces together.  I pinned the eyes onto the top of the alligator body and sewed the bottom edge to the body so the eyes would stand up. 

I pinned one set of teeth between the top body piece with the tail and half of the elongated oval and stitched around the curve. 

I sewed the tongue into the middle of the elongated oval. 

I sandwiched the second set of teeth between the elongated oval and the small body piece and stitched around the outside edge.  There you have a snapping alligator!

My boys have had lots of fun playing with this little set.  Hopefully they won't be too rough on them, so that they will last for a few more years to come...

Go on and make your own set for your little monkeys!

Color Sorting Mat

When I saw this mat on Frugal Family Fun Blog, I knew I wanted to make something similar.

Here's what I came up with:

Fold-up Color Sorting Mat with Pocket

I found fat quarters in the basic colors and cut 6" squares of each of the 10 colors.  I sandwiched in a layer of felt between the muslin backing to give it a little more structure, and added a simple side pocket and ribbon closure.

It folds and ties for easy storing and carrying.

I love the pocket at the end to store sorting treasures.  I think when I make another, I'll opt for a full zipper instead of velcro.  If I post a full tutorial, I'll be changing that.

Mr. One had a good time sorting beads on our new mat.

My boys had fun sorting our tub of frogs and turtles using the mat as well.

Have fun sorting!

Little Mister Bowties

My brother was married in March.  All of the nephews and my brother wore bow ties for the wedding.  They looked adorable.  Since then, my boys only want to wear bow ties to church.  For Easter, I wanted to make them coordinating ties in spring colors.

I found this great tutorial on Delia Creates.  I followed her directions, except for one major step.  I didn't measure their necks with their collared shirt on, instead I just estimated.  This resulted in much too small bow ties.  As in, this wouldn't even fit Mr. Three's baby neck, too small.

This ended up being a good mistake because I had to modify the pattern to make them fit and I think it actually made them better.  Instead of attaching the swimsuit hook to the ends of the fabric, I added approximately 3 inches of elastic to one end of the tie.  I sandwiched the elastic between the layers of fabric and zig zag stitched it several times to secure the elastic and minimize fabric fraying.  I folded the exposed end of the elastic into a loop and zig zag stitched it in place.  I attached the swimsuit hook to the other end of the bowtie fabric and zig zag stitched it in place.  This made the tie easily removable (without having to re-tie the bow each time), and gave it the extra length and stretch to fit all three of my boys' necks.

 

I love these dapper boys!

 

Check in later in the week (hopefully) for a quick tutorial for turning the tie scraps into a cute flower pin for the girls (or in my case, for me, since I don't have any daughters :)).

Piano Bag

Mr. Three is taking piano lessons from my mom this year.  I have been wanting to applique his piano bag for some time now.  During naptime this week, I finally got it finished.  I followed the same procedure as our library tote.  Now he can go to lessons in style.  Here it is:

I love a simple project.

*Um, while Mr. Three is a talented baby in his own right, it is actually Mr. One who is taking piano lessons!  My bad. *

Easy Peasy Tote Bag

The Primary theme in our church this year is "I Know the Scriptures are True" and each of the children received a paperback copy of The Book of Mormon.  My boys were so thrilled to have their own scriptures and I realized that I needed to come up with something quick and simple for them to keep them in.  Then I remembered this project that some of my cousins shared at a family reunion a few years back:  Making a simple tote bag out of a fabric place mat.

Simple Tote Bag

 

You will need:

one fabric placemat
sturdy grosgrain ribbon
felt (optional)
fusible interfacing (optional)
letter template (optional)

I started out by printing an outline of the letter I wanted to applique on each bag.  You could use a stencil or even free hand this. 

 

Make sure that if you have an asymmetrical letter (like B) that you flip your letter before you trace it onto you interfacing.  Most printing programs have this feature, but if you don't have it (or if you are like me and can't find it...) just print your letter(s) use a black marker to trace the backside of the paper. 

Now trace your letter onto your interfacing then iron on to your felt and cut it out.

If you want to save yourself a lot of hassle, iron on your letter to your placemat before you sew your sides to make the bag.  Just make sure to fold your mat in half to see the front side and position your letter at least an inch and a half from the side and bottom.  Optional step:  Sew around your letter with a straight stitch onto the placemat after ironing in place.

Now, you can sew the sides of your bag.  Fold the placemat in half, with the right sides together, and sew up both sides with a straight stitch.  I went in about an inch on each sides to avoid sewing through the extra layers of the placemat near the edge.

Now, with your bag still inside out, pinch the bottom corners of the bag and pin them.  This will make a triangle.  You are going to sew across the corners of the triangle you just made about one inch from the corner to make the bottom of your bag.  I try and line up the fold of the bag bottom with the straight seam that I created to keep this corner stitch straight.  Turn your bag right sides out.  Almost done.

Now grab your ribbon and cut two equal lenghts to make your bag handles.  Heat seal your ribbon ends with a lighter or match (this will keep your ribbon from fraying), or use some fray check on the ends.  Find the middle of your bag and pin your ribbon equal distances from the middle to the top of your bag.  I pinned my ribbon ends just under two inches from the middle on each side and about one inch down.  Then, sew the ribbon ends onto the outside of your bag, making a square and then an "x" in the middle to secure them.  Repeat process for the back of the bag.

And that's it!  You have a cute little tote for your tot to carry a Bible and/or a Book of Mormon to church, for books in the car, or just to put treasures in.  Easy Peasy!