Swimsuits, take II

On a recent post, there were a few comments regarding the swim suit I sewed for Miriam, so I wanted to elaborate a bit more on it.

Big Little Felt Universe

Last week, a reader directed me to a felt-food giveaway. I could not believe the absolutely fabulous felt sets in the book they were giving away, "Big Little Felt Universe". The post also linked to one of the patterns that was available for free online - an ice-cream sundae.

I printed the free pattern (enlarged to about 200% from the PDF), and enjoyed making it so much that I went ahead and ordered the book. Yes, it was a really difficult decision to make, which I spent much time agonizing over... :)

Here is my finished product: 

My favorite part of all is the cherry!

There are a total of 12 felt sets in this book. They are:

• cake
• camping 
• sundae
• plants
• holidays
• veggies
• doctor 
• grill
• purse
• fruits
• tools

You can see images of all these sets over at Prudent Baby. 

What I really love about this book is that there are so many projects with "boy appeal". The step-by-step instructions are very easy to follow, and there is a photo to go with each step to make it even easier. 

This has been a fun little hobby to work on while sitting and nursing the baby for hours each day. For the seriously crafty among my readers, please know that the author also sells some other pdf patterns through her Etsy shop. One of these days, when the kids stop sweet-talking me into giving them every creative thing I ever make, I might actually have time to put some of my creations on Etsy as well.

Great book. I highly recommend it. 

Felt foods, and a GIVEAWAY

Making play foods from felt is seriously addictive. The more I look for tutorials online, the more I find. Too bad my family still needs to eat real food, too, because I could easily devote all my time to cooking up the fake stuff.

These are some of the links to felt food tutorials I have found online:

Breakfast

-         bacon

-         sausages

-         eggs: sunny side up, scrambled, whole eggs and carton

-         pancakes

-         syrup

-         butter pat

-         orange slice

Sandwich kit

Fruits

-         banana: out of peel, sliced)

-         orange

-         apple

-         orange/lemon slice

-         strawberry

-         kiwi
 -         watermelon
-    cherries

Veggies

-         carrots

-         squash

-         egg plant

-         potato

-         corn on the cob

-     beets

-     lettuce

-         green beans

Dinners

-         pizza and toppings

-         ravioli/farfalle w/sauce and meatballs

-         turkey dinner

-         burger and fries

-         steak

-         taco

-         fajita

-         pot stickers

-         lasagna

Sweets/snacks

-         lollipop

-         ice cream

-         cake

-         donut

-         pumpkin pie

-         cinnamon roll

-         cupcake

-         cookies (heart-shaped, chocolate-chip, M&Ms)

-         chocolate bar

-         popcorn  in bag

-         tortilla chips

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now for the giveaway:

Please enter to win a felt food play set of your choice. You can choose between getting a 

breakfast set (3 pancakes, syrup, butter, and 2 each of bacon, sausages, sunny-side up eggs, and orange slices),

(2 sausages not pictured in this set, but will be included)

or a 

sweet foods set (2 each of cinnamon rolls, donuts, large and small heart-shaped cookies, and chocolate chip and M&M cookies)

or a

sandwich kit (2 slices of bread, 2 peanut butter and one jelly topping, 1 each of Swiss cheese and bologna, and 2 each of tomato slices and lettuce).

These are the same type of sets I made for Isaac, Miriam, and Becky's birthdays, but obviously you would get a new, never-played-with-before, set. To make shipping easier, I will not be able to include the clear plastic boxes that we store these foods in at home, but you can get your own from a deli or bakery.

To enter the giveaway, do one, some, or all of the following:

- Leave a comment below (no anonymous comments - Google ID or other required)

- Leave another comment with a link to your favorite felt food(s).

- Become a follower of this blog, and leave a comment letting me know that you did so.

- Post about this giveaway on your blog, and leave a comment letting me know that you did so.

- Share this post on facebook, and leave me a comment letting me know that you did so.

That means you could get as many as FIVE entries, BUT you MUST leave a separate comment for each entry. 

Deadline to enter is Sunday, March 13th, 2011.

Open to all readers. Restrictions apply for some countries.

I will give away one set per every 40 entries, so if there are a lot, your chances will still be pretty decent that you may get one. Please allow about one week after the giveaway is over for your set to ship, as I will not start making them until I know how many I need to make, and of which kind.

Have fun!

A fun fall craft

The November issue of Family Fun magazine featured instructions for a really cute horn of plenty, complete with felt fruits and vegetables. 

This project is very easy, especially because Family Fun provides the pattern free online. Most kids who have any basic skills with handsewing would probably only need help with cutting the felt out, and stuffing the fruits and veggies with fiberfill before sewing them up completely. The stitch used is a simple running stitch.

I decided to make this project by myself, though, so as to have a surprise to pull out on Thanksgiving to give to the kids that will keep them occupied for some time while I spend the morning preparing the big dinner. It took me the last two nights to complete two sets (one to keep, one to give away), so it's not a very time-consuming craft - but it definitely took me longer than the 1-2 hours that the magazine suggests it will take. It was fun and relaxing, and I can't wait to give it to the kids. 

 

The fruits and veggies are: pumpkin, potato, apple, onion, green bean, carrot, turnip, tomato, pear, butternut squash, acorn squash, corn on the cob, eggplant, and garlic.

One huge benefit was that this craft cost me nothing. I already had a big basket of felt in my sewing room, almost all of which I have been given for free through freecycle over the years. But even if you have no felt at all, sheets of it sell for $0.20 at most craft stores, and one sheet in every color used will easily make several sets (or leave you with lots of leftovers for another project). The only exception to this is the light tan for the cornucopia itself, which uses two sheets of light tan.

 

By the way, there is almost never a scrap of felt too small to be worth saving. I keep mine in a gallon size Ziploc bag, and most of the pieces for this project were made from those scraps.

If you already have embroidery floss, thread, or anything of the sort in the house (as I did), you will likewise not need to spend any money on that part. If you decide to buy floss, one skein costs about $0.30, and you could even use just one or two colors in that case. 

Knowing our kids, they will spend hours playing with this, and I imagine so would most children. There is something special about playing with felt toys - they just feel so nice. Which makes this craft a great return for a few bucks, or a nice gift for a child with a fall birthday. I highly recommend it!

An inexpensive Christmas gift idea

If you have lots of little kids in the house, especially boys, you may like this gift idea. It is a book. A book on how to build practically anything from cardboard boxes:

Don't let the title deceive you, there is much more than castles and cars in this book. I can't even begin to list all the fun projects that it covers, but you can look inside of it on Amazon and check out the contents page. Some stuff is easy enough for a 2-year old to make, and some projects require the help of an older sibling or parent. Our boys have LOVED having this book from the library, and yes, they are getting a copy of it for Christmas.

In addition to buying the book for $11.07, there are a few other things that are handy to have on hand as your children will want to start making something from it immediately:

- cardboard boxes in all sizes - appliance stores usually give these out for free, but call around and ask, because not all do. We keep an assortment of sizes in stock year-round.

- box cutter - about $2 at the hardware store. Definitely for use BY ADULTS ONLY!!!

- big bottles of tempera paint - teaching stores usually carry these for $2/bottle. Tempera paint washes out of most fabrics, and it can be diluted with water if you are painting a large project and want to "stretch" your paint.

- mailing tape - the paper type used to seal packages is best, but the plastic will work, too, it's just a little harder to paint.

- cardboard tubes, milk jugs, pie tins, extra pieces of PVC pipe, blankets, and anything else that can be turned into something new.

For a total cost of less than $30, you can give a gift that will bring hours upon hours of constructive, cooperative fun. Sure, I could buy a video game for my son to play by himself and rot his brain, but why would I when instead he could be playing outside with his siblings and building something tangible. The real sacrifice with this gift is not that I throw down a bunch of money that my husband worked long and hard to earn, but that I will have to dedicate some of my time to help them build whatever it is they pick, rather than keeping up with the never-ending housework or taking a break.

I already shared a picture of the castle I built with the kids a few weeks ago, which they are still playing in (even though it's in a state of disrepair by now). Today, we made a behemoth of a "fireplace" out of three medium-sized appliance boxes. This project was not in the book, but I thought it was fitting anyway because it was just like all the stuff in there.


We have since added yellow and red tissue paper "flames", and I am thinking about a way to make them "light up". We also need to hang stockings this year, which is why the kids wanted a fireplace to begin with.

Enjoy your child(ren) today, they grow up too fast!