Matchy Matchy

I just love when things are matchy matchy.  I used to go to church with a mom who had two girls, and they all had dresses made with the same fabric.  I thought it was so cute.  And I absolutely adore the idea of a girl matching her dolly. 

I got some hand-me-down fabric from my grandma years ago that is so cute, and I finally used it a couple of months ago on a simple A-line skirt for my little girl.  Then I found a pattern for a doll dress that was perfect.  Since I used a pattern, I figured there was no need for a pictorial.  That's what the pattern is for, right?  But I did want to share a picture of it because it turned out so cute, and of course Audrey loves it so much.  I had planned on giving it to her as a Christmas present, but I was so excited, I couldn't wait.

And yes, that is a Cabbage Patch Doll from the 90's.  I'm a little nostalgic, and I kept a lot of my old things for my kids.  Want to see my old Ninja Turtles too?

Glitter Shoes

Update: Ok , so she's used them for a little while now, and the glitter is starting to come off where the shoe bends naturally.  :(  I wonder if there is a better glue to use for this kind of project.  It sort of cracked and fell of.  It's not really noticeable yet, but she will only be able to wear them a couple more times.

Have you ever bought some of those glitter shoes for your little girl, and a week later half of the glitter has come off??  They are super cute, but some of them are made a little better than others.  We got some silver ones from The Children's Place, and boy were they cheap (poorly made, not inexpensive)!  Here is my little girl's shoe all ready to go in the trash:

I figured, I'm ready to throw these away anyway, I might as well try to save them first.  So, I busted out the glitter and the glue.

First I sanded the shoes a little, to get any of the loose glitter off.  Then I just took some tacky craft glue and spread it all over the shoe.

Then I put glitter all over the shoe.  I couldn't decide what color to use, so there is some pink, blue and green in there.  Shake off the excess glitter, then  let it dry for a few hours.

Next, I used modge podge and covered the glitter completely.  I also cut some fabric to cover the inside of the shoe because these actually have had a lot of use.  I let it dry over night and then covered it in modge podge again.  Then I put on an extra layer over the toes and other places where there was a lot of wear.

And here they are!  Fabulous, right??  I will have to let her wear them for a couple of weeks and update to let you know how well they hold up.  At least she will get a little more use out of them.  This will probably work on any canvas shoe too, if you want to glam up a tennis shoe or something.  In fact, I might just try that too!



My son is singing in a "Barnyard Moosical" for school on Monday, and has been asked to dress like a cow.  Now, I'm not about to go spend money on a cow costume that he's going to wear once, so I went to look in my craft closet to see what I had.  I found this shirt that James stained last year and isn't really wearable.  Luckily, I could never bring myself to throw it away.  I thought for sure I could think of a way to use it for something, and I was right!  Yay me!  So, I grabbed the shirt, a sharpie, some cardboard, tole paint, and a paint brush.

I stuck the cardboard inside the shirt, and drew some spots with my sharpie.

Then I filled in the spots with the black paint.  Yes, I know that's not the purpose of this paint, but it's what I had on hand, and it works!

I let it dry a few hours, then flipped it over and spotted the back.

Throw in a pair of black gloves for the hooves, and there you have it: A free cow costume that was really easy to make! 

Disclaimer:  The paint is really stiff, and it will be uncomfortable, so he will have to wear an undershirt with it.  If you are going to plan on doing this a fabric paint would probably be a lot better.

Update:  Here is a picture at the performance.  I didn't sit close enough to get a good picture during the singing, but this is him in his classroom.  What a cutie!

 

Mini Pumpkin Soaps

 This week I joined a group called MOPS, and we did a fun quick craft making balls of soap.  I thought it would be something my kids would really like doing, so I tweaked it a little to make it more interesting. Since we are having company for thanksgiving this year, I decided we would make some cute fall-themed soaps to display in the bathroom.

 Supplies:  Ivory soap, food coloring. cheese grater, sandwich bags, water, and waxed paper.

Grate the ivory soap using the really fine side.  We tried it with the larger size, and it was harder to mix the color in to. (There's a picture of that attempt later).

 Put a small amount into one of the sandwich bags to color green for the stems, then divide the rest into three separate sandwich bags.  Add a drop of food coloring and just enough water to moisten the soap.  Close the bag really well!

Mix the soap, water and food coloring until it is all incorporated.

Turn the orange soap out on to waxed paper and roll into a pumpkin shape.  This part is going to be really messy!!!

Shape the green soap into stems, vines, and leaves if you want, and add them to the pumpkins.

The kids had so much fun doing this!  We will definitely be doing it again.  Here's a picture of our first attempt.  We used the larger side of the grater, and you can see that the color didn't go all the way through the soap.  We had some cookie cutters, so we rolled the soap out and cut out some cute shapes.  This was a blast too!

No Sew Fleece Scarf

I've got some really cute fleece left over from other projects, and I thought they would make some good scarves.  These are so easy to make.  No sewing needed!  This one is a present from the kids to their Aunt Theresa for Christmas.

To start, you need some fleece, scissors, rotary cutter and mat, and a ruler:

And, if available, some really cool kids to help out:

Now that you have your supplies, cut 8 inches accross the width of your fabric with the rotary cutter.

Take some scissors, and cut several times about a third of an inch wide and 2 inches long to make fringe along the ends.  I put my ruler two inches up on the fabric as a guide so the kids would know where to stop.

Tip:  If you are a serious seamstress, you will have a pair of sewing scissors that never touch anything but fabric.  Do not cut fleece with these scissors because it will dull them really fast.  I learned this when I cut fabric at JoAnn.

If you really do have your kids cut it, it will look something like this:

Now, take the strands, pull firmly, and let them snap back.  This will curl the fringe.

The kids had fun with this part, even though it doesn't really look like it in this picture.

The fringe will look something like this:

And the final product!  Told you it was easy!