Felt Paper Dolls

I have been updating my blog and am excited about some of the changes. The most obvious are the tabs at the top of my blog. They are under construction, but look out. I am most excited about linking up all the tutorials to a picture in one place AND my upcoming series on "Pin~busting". More to come on that tease.

Family Crafts via About.Com has wonderful free templates for Printable Paper Dolls as developed by Sherri Osborne. My kiddos and I begin our craft session printing out outfits/bodies and coloring them.

When the paper clothing did not stay on the paper doll as well as my daughter wanted, I turned to my multi-colored felt pack. I take the paper cut out templates she makes & colors, pin them to felt and use my fabric only scissors to cut out the images the best I can.

I cut out the bodies the same way and use permanent marker to draw faces. The one thing I do a bit differently when cutting the bodies is to double the felt, pin through both and cut out two bodies at once.

Here are a variety of images we start with during the end of today's (extra long) craft session. A Susanna mentions using weather indicators for kids to use, as well. I do want to find an extra large piece of felt to make bigger scenes. The kids start to draw pictures on paper, cut them out and then have me cut them out. That part is fun. They added grass, a tree and round apples for the tree.

When done creating, I simply grab a gallon sized reclosable bag to store our completed felt pieces and another for our paper templates.

This is going to be a great project to add pieces: pets, umbrella, food, etc. Any more ideas?

How I Organize my Weeds...

 {Here's to you, Uncle John. Thank you for all your support.  :-) }
Anyone that knows me will attest to the fact that I am pretty Type A and organized. I realize how bad it must seem when people see my back yard.
You see that "tree line" where the weeds line up? Well, that is me trying to control them a bit.

Here is a closer shot to show the height on some of them, but to also show (& rejoice) that I only have a small patch left to attack.

Here is the rest of my backyard. It has been a lot of work, but it has been a slow process. I typically pull weeds when I am already outside: playing with my dog Rosy, waiting for her to do her business, playing with the kiddos and sometimes as a stress reliever (strange, huh?).

If I am going to pull more than 5, but don't want to be out for 20 minutes, I take our back patio trash can and set it near the current tree/weed line. All I do is pull weeds around the trash can. Notice the before and after. Not a huge task, but definitely one I can do in a short time, and the results pay off when these small sessions add up.

I like when the ground is moist/wet, so the root comes up more easily. You HAVE to grab the weed from the lowest point possible. If you pull and see roots....woo hoo!

Do NOT stress if you do not get the root. Will it grow back? Most likely. Will it be as intensive as a yard full of weeds? No. Will it grow back tomorrow? No. Will you get another chance? Heck yeah!  Before I mow the part of the yard that has been worked on, I look for stragglers. I would rather try to pull it again than to keep mowing it and ignoring it. Have I ignored some particularly frustrating ones sometimes? Yep!! So, I pull some stragglers and then mow.

Granted it does make my yard look a little silly, but I would rather have a good chance at pulling the weeds without using weed killer. Because I move a lot with my AF hubby, I do this at the start of moving in to each house. Here is my cut lawn.

Here is the more defined area that i have left to pull. Not too bad.

How do you tackle your weeds? Mow over them? Use a weed killer? Put a picket fence around them and call it a garden?

~hurley

Party Ideas: Homemade Bean Bags & Games

Here is another craft I used for the birthday party. I like to make easy things for parties..okay, easy things for anything. I am not Martha Stewart, but my kiddos love me anyway. Since my daughter's birthday theme is PINK, I need ideas that can use that color easily..... pink homemade bean bags.
The Bean Bags:
1. I cut 5 inch pink squares from old fabric & sheets.
2. I sew them back to back leaving a 1.5-ish inch opening to turn later.
3. I turn them right side out and insert beans with a paper funnel. [due to running out of time, I enlist two moms to help AT the start of the party...Can you believe that? How awful of me, but SUPER, AWESOME of the 2 moms. Thanks Michelle and Kelly!!]

 

4. I sew up the holes.

5. and tah-dah.. homemade bean bags.

The game:
Stand on the grass and try to toss your very own bean bag into the pink bucket. Stand politely in line to get a turn. They got MANY tries. :-)
The birthday girl goes first with such concentration.

How about overhand?

How about underhand?

How about overhand?

SUCCESS!

There are so many varieties of bean bag games out there. This is a simple, fun one. Any other simple bean bag game ideas?
The girls put their own bean bags into their thank you buckets and take them home after the party.
~hurley

Ruffled Ribbon American Tee

I saw this simple tee from a blog I love: Brown Paper Packages. I have to craft-lift it for the 4th. Because I have a ruffler foot and LOVE it, I choose to go that route instead of folding by hand.

Materials I use are a simple tee shirt from my daughter's closet, a ruffler foot, and left over ribbon.

My first attempt at copying her ribbon tee was this one. Not so pretty. Hubby says, "Can you add another red/white row?"

 Up close you can see that there are two seam lines on the ribbons. I personally like to ruffle the ribbons first, so I have a more accurate idea of the length of the ribbons.

 After the ribbons are ruffled using the ruffler foot, I change out my feet and sew a straight stitch onto the shirt.

 As you can tell, I did not pin my ribbons, so they are not really straight. I kind of like the "not perfect" look, but if you do, pin away.

 Then my hubby says,"Can you straighten the end of row #2 a little?" In comes my favorite tool: the seam ripper. Because my ribbons are ruffled beforehand, relocating them is not so much of a big deal.

 Tah-dah! My final product. Of course my little girl wears this over the 4th of July holiday and gets syrup on it. Vinegar, here I come.

If you can get past the need for perfection, you can get a lot more done. Also, kids are pretty forgiving.

Here is another simple project doing the same thing, but with her initial.

What do you do with your ruffler foot?
~hurley

PS: Uncle John, I just photographed my backyard....I will post soon. :-)

Fabric Marble Maze

I'm baaaack! I just got back from a fab trip to Tennessee to visit family. Even better, I got to fly home without the hubs and the kiddos. :-) I am attending a Delta Zeta National Convention Dinner tonite,  and my wonderful husband supported me by helping me get home for it. 4th of July was GREAT...even without any planned fireworks. Lots of family fun. (Uncle John, I will post yard work soon.)

Last month, one of my favorite blogs "A Girl and a Glue Gun," posted a fun marble maze. While in TN, I got to work craft-lifting it. I am adding a few more details that I find might be helpful.
Step 1: I use a rotary cutter and a self-healing mat to cut two 12 1/2" fabric squares. It can also be helpful to chalk a 1/4" line along the outside to save space for the seam.

Step 2: I use a chalk marker instead of "erasable" marker because when I make a mistake (gasp...yep), I can just use a tiny dab of water to get rid of it. I mark an X for the beginning of the maze.

Step 3: The ideal width of the maze paths is at least 1 1/4". Fortunately, I find the perfect small ruler that is that exact width. LIFE.SAVER... I start with a straight path. Make a turn anytime you want.

 Here is an example of how to make a corner. I did erase chalk mainly on the corners.

Step 4: I know on the agaagg site, many commenters asked for a maze template, but I found that if you find the correctly sized ruler, it really is not that hard to engineer your own maze. My main piece of advice is to NOT worry about the "extra, blank" space around your "successful path."

Step 5: Anytime I find extra space, I turn it into a visual maze of extra paths. Here is a rectangle of open space.

Step 6: Voila! Split the space with a seam, and you have  more visual path lines. You can even erase some chalk to make the path usable as a dead end. (I should have done that...shucks.)

Step 7: After the successful maze path is done, mark the other end with an X. This ends up giving the maze two starts & ends on each side of the completed maze. I pick a spot along a straight path to mark where the seam should be left open for turning it out & inserting the marble. I fold the fabric up and mark the back, as well.

 When the fabric is turned and is now good side to good side, you can still see where the turn out "pocket" is.

Step 8: I pin the four corners because I am not a perfectionist. Feel free to pin away. You do want to ensure that the fabrics line up, so the outside seams can be sewn at the 1/4" suggestion.

Step 9: Just like a simple pillow, I sew around the square stopping before I close up the turn around pocket. I like it 2-3 inches, so it is easier to pull the inside out. When it is pulled inside out, your chalk marks should still be there.

Step 10: I find my pocket and place a pin, so to be careful when I start to trace the maze with my sewing machine.

Step 11: Now trace away with your sewing machine. Yes, there will be quite a bit of start and stopping when tracing, and don't forget to clip all the threads when you are done. I use a light tan color thread  that made one side of the maze easy and the other more difficult. I also use permanent marker to mark the start and stop points with a heart instead of an X.

Step 12: Insert marble into pocket, and sew it up.

Step 13: My daughter had a tough time at the start, so I "showed" her the maze by having her trace the path with her finger first. When the "aha" light bulb went off, she was pushing that marble around. Another good thing about this project is that my husband can use it on the plane ride home. Yes, I made a blue one for my son.

A few more ideas for this marble maze:

1. Time how long it takes to complete the maze

2. Do the maze with your eyes closed

3. Start with the marble in the middle and pick a particular X/heart to go to

Any other thoughts?
Happy Belated 4th of July!
~hurley