how to: surprise ball

As I mentioned in my last post, the highlight of Otis’s party for me was playing the game Pass The Parcel. My original idea was to make individual surprise balls as party favors for the kids — I KNOW!! But it sounded like a great idea when it came to me in the middle of the night! Happily, this solution was much more fun for everyone.

Here’s how I made my surprise ball.

I went to the store and purchased a variety of small prizes. I bought a couple of bulky prizes which I wrapped up in the center, but otherwise, I tried to find flat and flexible prizes.  I also bought two different colors of crepe paper rolls.

Start wrapping! Wrap firmly, in all directions, and make sure the prize is completely covered. Glue or tape the end in place before you start wrapping the next prize. Here’s a helpful hint – do NOT buy a prize that wants to talk and coo and scurry away when you keep accidentally pushing one of its many start buttons or you will spend quite a bit of time looking for the OFF button and cursing.

For the other layers, find a good spot to place your next prize, with the goal of making the finished Parcel as ball-like as possible. It’s a good idea to fill those nooks and crannies.

Finished! It looked more like a Surprise Pumpkin than a Surprise Ball, but nobody seemed to mind – it was a huge hit.

block printed fabric

I recently decided that Otis and I needed some alone time together. It felt like we were fighting a lot and one morning, I woke up with a surprising sense of clarity and knew that rather than spending less time together, we needed more time together. Maybe it’s sort of like immersion therapy where if you’re afraid of snakes, you get thrown into a snake pit? Hmmm, which one of us is the snake? Well, now Tuesday afternoons are our “special time” and this past week, we printed fabric.

It all started with this video. It’s beautiful, and we both really enjoyed watching it over and over. (via Wren Handmade)

 

This got us thinking, and we decided we also wanted to print fabric. Since we still have Valentine’s Day Fever, we decided on hearts. I cut out two hearts out of the rubber stamping blocks (like this one), and we used fabric paint on unbleached muslin, which we taped to the table to keep from slipping. I let Otis decide how he wanted to set the pattern, and we started working.

We took turns inking and printing, and the piece of muslin that we used, which was a little less than 2/3 of a yard, was just about the right amount of fabric for his attention span. Having two stamps to use at the same time really helped move things along.  Here’s a piece of our finished fabric:

You can really see the texture from the paint being rolled on with a brayer because the fabric paint was runnier than traditional block printing ink. I found it frustrating, but Otis didn’t seem to mind.

We decided to cut the fabric in half and use them as furoshiki, to wrap up some cookies that Bee and I made. We added food coloring gel at the very end of mixing to get a splotchy, “hand-dyed” look. Otis will take these to school for the kindergarten teachers, and he’s so proud of the work he did.

We also printed a few single hearts on some extra muslin, and I sewed them into little pouches so that Bee could also bring some to pre-school for her teachers.

I had a really great time doing this project with Otis, and I already have an idea brewing for next week. And maybe it’s my imagination, but it feels like Otis and I have been getting along better already.

how to: adjustable kids’ apron

Friends, just a little while ago, I wrote a tutorial for my friend’s blog, Stumbles and Stitches. It’s full of great craft projects, and you’ll be sure to find a project that you’ll want to put on your To Do list. My contribution was a tutorial on making an adjustable kids’ apron. I’ve been making them as presents for Otis’s school mates, and it’s a fast, easy project, and easily adapted for an adult. You can see it here.

Let me know if you make one!

how to: tooth bag for the tooth fairy

Well, it’s happened. Just in time for Halloween, he’s become a little jack-o-lantern. In some ways, he doesn’t even look like himself anymore. And he definitely sounds different as he’s adopted a little lisp, although curiously, “MAMA!” still sounds the same. My family is as traumatized as if he had woken up with a bad moustache and his voice an octave lower.

He wiggled his tooth daily and did disgusting tricks for ever, but unfortunately, it still did not spur me to take videos of his antics or to buy any of the cool tooth fairy paraphenalia that I found, such as this adorable pillow or this tooth fairy kit. The day after his tooth fell out, Otis wrote this letter to the Tooth Fairy:

He imagines that the Tooth Fairy is a girl, with black, black hair so that if you accidentally see her at night coming for your tooth, you might mistake her for being bald. Oh, and she takes your tooth, grinds it, makes copies of the pieces in gold, and reconstructs your tooth like a puzzle. Nice trick, huh? Anyways, with no more time to procrastinate, this Tooth Fairy got to work making a bag to hold Otis’s little tooth, and I wanted to share this easy project with you.

Materials:
ultrasuede or felt (I used a 2 1/2″x 4 1/2″scrap to make a 2 1/2″x 1 5/8″bag, but you can choose whatever size you like)
screw post button stud (like this one sold here, though many fabric stores will sell them with other belt and purse making hardware)
water soluble marking pen or chalk

Fold your fabric so that it is roughly in thirds, but making your flap a little smaller. Mark on the sides where your flap will start, and the center top.

Draw a curve for your flap. You can eye it, or use a curve ruler like I did.

Cut all around with pinking shears, holding the front and back together while you cut so that the zigzags match up. If you prefer straight edges, just use regular scissors instead.

Sew the sides together and use a small hole punch to punch a hole near the center top of the flap for the buttonhole. My hole punch makes a 1/8″ hole.

If your button stud doesn’t fit, then cut small slits in the hole to make for a snug fit.

Mark where your button stud will go by folding down your flap and marking where the hole is.

Punch another hole where you marked with your pen, insert your button stud and you’re finished! We used this for Otis’s tooth, but I can imagine making lots of bags like this for jewelry or other small presents.

The bag I made for Otis has a little tooth appliqued on it, and I think embroidery would also look great. Or it can be left as is for a simple look. Here’s his bag, along with his letter from the Tooth Fairy. Like how I tried to disguise my handwriting?  He was pretty excited the next morning when he found the letter, which was a relief since he woke up after F snuck into his room to do the exchange.

present idea: fabric scrap necklace

Over the weekend, I made the kids fabric scrap necklaces. You can see Bee wearing hers in her Fashion Show Sunday picture. We made hers together, and then I did the project again with Otis and his friend. It’s a super-easy project that only takes about 5 minutes, plus your kids can help you too!

I let the kids choose their own fabrics from my scrap bag. I had no idea a 2-year old could voice such strong opinions about fabric scraps, but I guess you learn something every day.

Fold the fabrics together so that the right sides are facing out.

Zigzag (or whichever stitch you prefer) the pieces together. Otis chose yellow thread, his friend chose red.

Right before you sew the last two pieces together to close the necklace, string some beads onto the fabrics. We used pony beads, since they were the only beads we had with holes large enough for the fabric to fit through. We rolled the ends of the fabric very tight and the kids strung their own beads. I think putting a piece of tape on the ends would’ve helped. Feel free to skip this if you don’t have any beads sitting around the house.

We used one bead to cover each seam where the fabrics meet.

Voila! Fun, easy, colorful and cheap. Let me know if you try it!