Woodland Baby Mobile- Sassy Sanctuary

Hello everyone! Krystal from Sassy Sanctuary here today to share my take on this month's "crafting with/for kids" theme. With a baby on the way I had use this as an excuse to cross off another thing from my nursery to-do list. So I went more with the crafting "for" kids route. Also, I have to confess that while there is a wood element, this is not an entirely wood project. Hope no one minds!

Anyway, if you go on Etsy and search "woodland mobile" you will find a bunch of adorable mobiles with little felt animals.  It took one look and I knew I had to have one for my woodland nursery, but since most range upwards of $70, I also knew I would have to DIY it.

So I went and gathered some felt and embroidery floss, found my favorite little animals from Etsy to shamelessly copy, and set to work.  Here is how it turned out.

I am so happy with it!  I really wish everyone could come over and see it in person since it was really hard to photograph and the pictures just don't do it justice.  But hopefully you get the idea!

We have an "elf house" (which I copied off the fabric I'm using in there)

An Owl...

 A Bear...

A Fox...

A Hedgehog...

And my favorite, the Raccoon.

And now where the wood comes in.  All these little guys needed a place to hang so I made a simple wooden mobile frame.

All you do is take a wooden block, drill holes in the four sides and insert dowels (add some glue to the holes).  I then capped the dowels with dowel caps.  All the supplies were found at Micheal's.  Then just stain or paint however you please.  There are also eye-hooks on the top and bottom of the block to hang from.

So that's it.  My DIY woodland baby mobile.

And just so you don't feel too bad for my kids, let me show you what my 6 year old son did while I sewed.

I cut him squares of felt, armed him with a needle and some thread, showed him how to do a simple whip stitch, and let him go to town.  He spent hours making this little "blanket" and is so proud of it.  And I love how entertained it kept him!  So yeah, no matter what you are crafting on, give your kids some of your scrap supplies and see what they can do.  Their creativity might amaze you!

Thanks for reading!

Crafting With Kids Crafty Sisters Style

Hello from Crafty Sisters!

We are always excited for an excuse to do crafts for our kids and with them!

Here's an idea I've wanted to do for a while now!

We thought it would be fun to take one of our favorite shapes and turn it into a 

fun chalkboard and jewelry holder, which was perfect for my daughter!

First we found a fun shape we used from a favorite old poster.

This was perfect since it looks just like our favorite kitty Morris~

My daughter has been begging for a kitty shape for a long time now

and I've been wanting to figure out a cute way for her to store all her own necklaces

so they aren't tangled up in my jewelry box....

so this was our perfect fit!

First I made up my pattern and traced it onto 3/4" MDF.

I cut it out with my jigsaw and scroll saw for the finer details.

I then painted it 3 coats worth of chalkboard paint.  

                                                      

I sanded in between coats lightly with a sanding sponge for a smoother finish.

I added 10 tiny hooks that I had spray painted black by pre-drilling holes first along the tail.

The tail was the perfect place for these hooks!

Then finished it off with a hook on the back for easy hanging.

Now I have the perfect place for reminder notes and a perfect place for her own necklaces!

Thanks for the great inspiration as always!

Checkerboard from Under My Umbrella

Hey all :)  It's Melinda from over at Under My Umbrella.  I love crafting with my kids and am thrilled to show you the project we worked on but first a short story.  It seems my crafting experience always come with a story or two.  When Wendy (from Craft Goodies)  moved she left a bunch of large wooden circles outside her house (We are neighbors).  Well...my husband couldn't just let it sit there.  He brought it home to me and said he was sure I could do something with it.  I did have the best intentions but never did anything with them.  They sat in my garage taking up space for a year or two. Wendy ended up moving back down the street.  That was my motivation to do something with them.  I told her I needed to used them and came up a family checkerboard.  My kids love it and were begging to play with it right away.

I simply painted the circular board cream.  Taped off the checkboard and painted the squares red.  Last, I added some vinyl for decoration.  I need to go grab a lazy susan so that baby can spin. 

Now for the parts where my kids come in!  The wanted to make the checker pieces so I pulled out a bunch of materials for them to choose from.  Buttons are the winner!  The funny thing is once one kid decided to use buttons the rest of them had to also.

I love how amazing kids are at crafting when you just leave them alone and let them do their thing.

 

Anyone up for a game of checkers?   They are all taking turns playing right now with the neighbor kids.  It seems everyone is very protective of the ones they made.

 

 

This was a fun craft for everyone and will  provide some family fun also.  I think I'm going to flip it and make something fun on the other side so it can be displayed both ways.  Yay!  Thanks Wendy for the great ideas.   As usual...I can't wait to see the creative stuff you all do with your kids.



September Crafts with Kids!!!

Hello everyone!

It's Wendy from Craft Goodies with you today to kick start out WYLTC? week.

I'm super excited for this month's theme, one because I got to choose it and two, because it was a ton of fun.

Our theme his month is Crafts with{or for} the Kids.

This is my last week with my girls home before we head back to school so it was a lot of fun to sit down and spend sometime with them doing something we all enjoy.

I've been working on putting a playroom together for my girls and figured as it's for them what better place to let them help. Here's what we did:

 

 

My girls, for the most part, are all big readers so I wanted to give them a place to hang out and read.

They helped me to paint the tree trunk, I added the flowers and then bult the loft using 2 bookcases as supports. And then they added their own little touch... 

 

They each painted their own little owl to place in the tree.

 They were cut from 1/2 inch MDF and are about 10 inches tall. {At this point I was a little worried, letting go and giving them creative freedom is really hard for me!}

 

Here's a few of them after details were added. We used paper, mod podge and ink.

 

 

If you were here last month you might notice they match the little guy in my GROW letters:

 

WHOOO loves it? ME! And my girls.

I don't craft with my kiddos enough. It was really great to stop and just be with them. We made a mess but made a great memory that we can relive everytime we look at the wall.

 

 

So go on, grab your kiddos and make a memory too. Join us for a week of crafty goodness as we take time to focus on our special little ones.

Melinda, Candace, Nicole, and Krystal will be here over the next few days to share more great ideas and projects with you, I personally can't wait to see what the've done!

 

Have a great rest of your day and seriously, go enjoy your muchkins!

Happy crafting. 



Under My Umbrella: Jute Growth Chart

Hey all!  It's Melinda from over at Under My Umbrella.  I'm excited for this month's theme of growth charts because it's been on my "to do" list for way too long.  My mother-in-law has this fantastic wall in her house where not only has she charted the growth of her kids but also all the grand kids.  She has told everyone when she moves she is taking that part of the wall with her.  I wanted my growth chart to have the possibility of not only personalizing it but to be able to move it and not have to take off half the wall :)  I love the ruler look of all the growth charts out there and started to do that when I realized I needed to change it up a bit (as I'm typing this I just heard a bang and then a little yell "I'm cleaning it up").  This is what I came up with...

There are a few things I would change up about this project if I did it again such as my board would be longer and a different type of wood but overall I like it!  Here are the how to's:  I painted my board an off white color.  After it dried I sanded the surface and edges.  When I started this project I was going to use vinyl for the side measurements and decided against it but it came in handy as a paper ruler.  I grabbed a roll of Jute and a glue gun and got to work.

I put a dab of glue on both edges of the board and wrapped the jute around the board using my paper ruler as a guide.  When I came to the 12 inch mark I wrapped it around 5x (keep using the hot glue so the jute stays in place).  Slide the paper ruler up as you work.   I cut out some numbers using 1/4 MDF.  I used the font PHARMACY.

I hot glued my numbers on and added my personalized tags.  You're done!  I think I could put this anywhere in my house and it would fit in.  It's also a fun conversation piece.

Thanks ladies for letting me craft along with you!  It's always fun to see the creative take each person puts on a project.   Make it a great day!!!

Picture Frame Growth Chart- by Sassy Sanctuary

Hey everyone!  Krystal from Sassy Sanctuary here today.  I'm so excited about this months theme!  With a  new baby on the way a growth chart was the perfect way to get started on my nursery design.  The babies room is in the very preliminary stages... I have to move my older son out first, which means we have to finish a room downstairs.  So yeah, VERY preliminary stage!

I know I am doing a woodland theme in there and I'm keeping the current wall color.  The only thing I have bought for the room is this adorable owl clock.

Isn't he cute!?  I have also order a sample of this cute fabric to use somewhere in the bedding...

I love it and can't wait to see it in person!  It's called "Wonderland in Blue" from the Fox Hollow line by Monaluna.  The whole line is adorable!

Anyway... you can kinda see where I'm going in there and my idea for his growth chart was something rustic that could also display pictures.  Here is what I came up with.

Obviously it will hang on the wall and the white squares will be filled with pictures.  I'm thinking I will start out by filling it with baby pictures and then updating them as he grows so that eventually the pictures will show the progression of his growth.  Fun!

The markings for the ruler on the side are done in vinyl and the big numbers are actually house numbers from Lowes.

The picture frames I got unfinished from Micheals.  It would have been pretty easy to make my own but I really wanted glass so it was just more convenient to buy.

The process was pretty simple.

I started out with a 6ft long board.  I measured up 6" and that is where I put my 1 foot mark.  (So I will hang it 6" off the ground once I know where it is going) and figured out the spacing of my frames.  It worked well to make a paper template.  Then I used a jig saw to cut out holes for the frames.  You just want the holes big enough that you can get to the backs of the frames, but that the cuts are covered by the frames.  I used wood glue and nails to tack the frames down.  And then finish however you want!  I painted my frames and stained the body.


Anyway.... that's it!  I may have to repaint the blue frames a little lighter blue once I get the fabric in there but I'm excited to see how it looks in the actual space once its done.

And I'm super excited to fill those frames with cute little baby faces!

Thanks for reading!

GROWING...with Craft Goodies

Happy Tuesday everybody! Hope it's off to a great start.

It's Wendy here today to share my version of this month's fun with you.

I loved this theme as soon as Candace and Nicole shared it with us. I'm in the middle of finishing up my girl's playroom (we just moved) and thought a growth chart would be a fun touch . Then reality hit me, and I knew that I wouldn't use it properly--I am that mom that started baby #1 scrapbook, got through the first 9 months and then just started putting all the pictures into a Rubbermaid to "get to later". Well, baby #1 is now 13 and has 4 more sisters and "later" is still a long way away!

Terrible I know, but it's who I am.

I still wanted something big and fun, and it does have the potential to actually function as a proper growth chart (if I remember to do it!)...

I am totally into typography these days so opted to cut the word "GROW" from 1/2 inch particle board. I found the font I wanted online, printed it out, and then used an overhead projector to get the size I wanted. Traced, cut, sanded, and painted and then nailed them to the wall!

The parenthesis (or big mustache--ask my 6 yr old) is 1 inch pine and will serve as my marking board, maybe.

 I played around with adding numbers, but just didn't like it.

It did get one little extra though...

Make my heart melt! I LOVE this little guy!

He is a combo of 1/2 inch and1/4 inch MDF and has made his home in the bottom of the "O".

I plan on adding a strip of measuring tape to his beak but haven't made it to the store yet.

But, marked or not I am thrilled with how this came out and the pop of color it adds to the room!

Thanks ladies for yet another great theme, my home is a bit homier because of it.

Can't wait to see what Melinda and Krystal share, have a great week!

Happy crafting.