Thoughts of Creativity Bubbling Over

Oh my goodness have I found TONS of cool stuff to share with you guys!!! I am so excited about all these awesome gift ideas, projects, traditions, and just all around neatness!! (Can you tell I am jazzed up?!)

Ok, I know I love my cats, but I think that making them this awesome Kitty Bed would be the ULTIMATE sign of love! (@ Junk Camp)

Since I have been doing so many craft shows I have a new appreciation for half aprons! Here is a cute tutorial using a pillow case! (@ Lipstick and Laundry)

It seems my feet are always cold, even though I am NEVER barefoot (especially in a house with wood floors!) So this DIY Rice Bag Foot Warmer is perfect for me to put some spare fabric to use! (@ V and Co.)

I have an aversion to anything to "babyish" especially cutesy foofoo growth charts. But this heirloom growth chart would be something I would definitely buy for the girls to keep. Love it! (@ Miss Natalie)

My girls get really excited when we are counting down for something and I know that they would love a way to count down to their birthdays. This pretty set of birthday countdown pockets would be a neat tradition to start! (@ One Happy Mama)

Somedays I wish that I had a huge tree in my backyard or that our backyard was bigger than a postage stamp... this Treepee is one reason why I want a new yard to play in... I mean, for the kids to play in! Lol! (@ The Treepee Company)

Lucky for me Gabby is still too little to start losing her baby teeth, but I am already thinking ahead and love this pretty Tooth Fairy Kit. (@ Fawn and Forest)

Forts in general are cool, but this awesome Super Sized Princess Playhouse would be a huge hit in this house- especially with the fairy tale going on! (@ Miss Pretty Pretty)

See?! Didn't I tell you that I was busy looking high and low all over the web for total cuteness?! So what project are you going to work on first? I think that foot warmer is at the top of my list!

Living here in Cleveland you have to learn to either love being outside in all kinds of weather or get really creative with keeping the kids inside. Although Fall and Winter are my favorite seasons, for me I really enjoy being cozy inside while the snow swirls and falls outside of my window. Therefore, I am already thinking about things to keep the little ones entertained while we are inside.

Having such little ones around means that my choices are a little more limited as they are not ready yet for complex crafting. For them playing dress up, playing with cars, and reading are really what they love to do. So over winter break I am planning on making them this wonderful DIY: Pup Tent from Casa Sugar!!

Here are the directions and materials needed: (I can't wait to get started!)

What You'll Need

• Three yards of cotton fabric (upholstery weight is best)
• 20 half-inch finishing screws
• Power drill
• Four two- to three-inch wood screws
• Four six-feet-long boards, anywhere between four and six inches wide
• One one-inch square, five-foot-long board
• A friend who can hold the structure as you're building it

To find out how to do it, read more.

1. Measure your fabric. If you get three yards of fabric, each wall of your tent should be 54 inches long. Most fabric is around 56 inches wide as well.
2. Mark your one-inch-square board so it has some overlap on each end with enough room in between for the width of your fabric. If your board is five feet long, that means you will have about two inches on either end for the board.
3. Next, measure each of your six-foot-long boards and mark them at the length of half of the length of your fabric (if you get four yards of fabric, you should mark boards at 52 inches).
4. Now, with your long screws, screw two boards so they form an X. (See photo.) Repeat on other two long boards. This will be the top of your structure.
5. Now, have your friend hold one end of the two boards, while you hold the other. Place the one-inch-square board between the X in your boards.
6. Move the one-inch-square board so the marks you made overlap the X. Now, screw this board into the notch of the X with the last two long screws. Your tent now has the basic structure finished. You can set it on the floor and it will stand up by itself.

7. With your friend's help, drape the fabric over the pup tent structure. Make sure that it is even on each side Have your friend hold the fabric very taut. Then, with your short finishing screws and power drill, drill five screws, from top to bottom, into each edge of the fabric along the sides of the boards.
8. You're done! Enjoy your pup tent!
9. Note: You can increase or decrease the measurements of the tent to suit your needs.

Here are some other teepee and tent links that may get those winter camping ideas swirling!!
DIY Teepee
Princess Pavilion Tent
No Sew Teepee
Felt Playhouse
Or you can just order one already made from Etsy! (They are really pretty too!)

How is everyone's Christmas and holiday shopping coming? I am pretty done thanks to keeping ourselves in check with the overspending, although I do feel the need to find a way to hang our Christmas lights outside.... (Our usual method isn't going to work since the lightbulb outlet is a lot smaller than the standard size.
Here are some things that have caught my eye... you will notice that I am loving felt projects a lot lately along with anything to do with peg and clothespin dolls!

I love making toys for the kids and think that I may get a pattern or two from this lovely Etsy shop to make some felt toys!! (@ Gulf Coast Cottage)

My girls have a combined total of well over 100 cars but I never let them leave the house since they get lost so easily. This adorable car cozy tutorial would be a great thing to make so they can take their favorites with them on trips! (@ Homemade by Jill)

I like to give little present toppers on special gifts and think that this cute felt posy pin would be perfect on a few this year! (@ Checkout Girl)

My girls are a little young yet for the magic of The Nutcracker, but I can always try to bring the ballet to them with their own play theatre!! (@ Angry Chicken)

Nothing is sweeter than handmade dolls, I would love to have one of these Big Sister dolls made for AJ!! (@ Lil' Sprinkles)

That is all for now, back to making Spoolie dolls for my Etsy store!!

So I decided that instead of doing a traditional advent calendar I was going to combine two things that I love- fortune cookies and winter activities!! I took some felt and fun Christmasy fabric and made some adorable felt fortune cookies that each contain a fun thing to do from making white popcorn to making catnip toys to donate. They were super duper easy and I think I may even make some more to hang on the Christmas tree!

• Large whole walnuts in the shell
• Green felt
• 4 inches thin gold cord or ribbon
• Paintbrushes
• Red and black acrylic paint
• Glue gun
• Scissors
• Magnet (optional) 

Directions

1. Have your child paint a walnut red.
2. When the paint is dry, use a very fine brush to paint tiny black dots all over the walnut.
3. Cut a 1 1/2-inch square of green felt.
4. Then cut a 4-pointed star from the felt. Poke a small hole in the center of the star. Glue the ends of the cord or ribbon onto one end of the walnut shell to make a hanging loop.
5. Slip the felt star over the loop and glue it onto the walnut. Voila - a strawberry! 
6. Or you can omit the cord or ribbon and glue a small magnet onto one side of the walnut.

Find easy peasy directions here!

How is it that I have gone so long without making a List? There are so many things that I find everyday here on the web and with Christmas speedily approaching, the list is a bit lengthy this time...lol! Let me know what you guys out there in blog-land think!

I think that instead of buying AJ an expensive doll from Pottery Barn I will make her a cute Black Apple Doll instead! (@ Martha Stewart)

I have a thing for Kokeshi dolls and so does Gabby now. I am loving these adorable friendship dolls and you can even stick a sweet love note in there for that special girl! (@ Garnet Hill)

I have made legwarmers in the past for my girls using this tutorial, but never did I think about using thigh high socks to make arm warmers for myself! Genius! (@ Little Birdie Secrets)

Parents are always looking for cute holiday crafts for their kids that can actually be taken out and displayed every year. This easy peasy hand stuffed turkey is on my list for crafts this week! (@ Tangled and True)

Sometimes it is hard to find a cute way to package all those little gifts that you want to give, this innovative use for a regular can into a gift can is simply crafty! (@ The Idea Room)

These apple cranberry pocket pies are making my mouth water..... yummo! (@ Birthday Girl)

Finally! A clock that both teaches the kids about telling time and lets them know when it is ok to get out of bed and pounce on sleeping Mommy and Daddy! (@ Amazon)

And last but not least, a beautiful and easy wreath suitable for any home that is bookish and stylish! (@ Living With Lindsey)

Hope you like these... a little something from me to you!!
download the full PDF here!

This video is a perfect example of why we don't have TV in our house as all... and definitely opened my eyes to all the other ways markets try to get to our kids! (thanks Prasti for the link!)

One of my favorite Usborne books is 365 Things to Make and Do. It takes cute crafts from all of our other Make and Do books and created a huge list of crafts to keep little ones busy and creative. There are crafts for princesses, monster lovers, little travelers, and gift givers. I love that no craft takes lots of supplies, usually some tape or glue, crayons, paper, and scissors are as complicated as it gets.

I wanted to do a craft with my little ones about Thanksgiving and decided to do a Thanksgiving Thankful Turkey.  Here is what is will look like when done and there is a lot of room for variations. You can use felt for the body, add some real feathers, etc. The point though is to get the kids thinking about what they are thankful for and let them put that reminder on their doors so they see them when they wake up and when they go to sleep.
Here are the templates I created:

If you want you can also use foam door hangers or whatever, I like to keep these projects open to imagination!

Here is the Door Hanger Template
Here is the Turkey Template
(each makes 2 completed projects!!)

One of my good friends showed me the other day a lovely colonial rag doll that her daughter had from a festival. I loved the simplicity of it, the lack of sewing needed to make it, and the fact that little ones could even make their own with a whole bunch of them really easily. Here is how I made one for AJ:


1. Decide how big you want your doll to be from head to bottom of the skirt. Double that length and add a little bit extra. Cut 20-30 strips about an inch or so wide.  Use pinking shears if you don't want the fabric to fray. Also decide how long you want the arms from tip to tip (arm/body/arm) and cut 15 strips also about an inch wide.

2. You can use a small ball to help shape the head or just leave it a little flatter, but just fold the strips of cloth in half (front to back) making sure that the strips are angled various ways at the bottom to form a skirt. When two long strips are left take one and fold it in half left to right to give more shape and then use the very last long one front to back which will make the face.

3. Use a thin piece of fabric or some yarn to tie off around the neck to form the head.

4. For your arms, lay all your strips on top of each other and tuck the pack under the topmost skirt strip right under where you tied the head off.

5. Use a piece of scrap fabric for the apron, I used a piece big enough to cover the body and form a longer apron. Lay it on top and tie a piece of yarn or thin scrap around to form a waist. This will also trap the arms in between the neck and waist. I tucked the top part of the fabric under the neck tie to hold it up.

6. Lastly take another piece of scrap and tie it around the head. You can tie it like a gypsy or a colonial woman. (AJ liked the gypsy head cover!!) I also took a bit of thread and tied the ends of the arms to make hands which is totally optional.

Voila!!! Instant doll for your little one! Super easy and there is room for sewing on button eyes,  making yarn hair, etc.

So here is what has happened in the last 3 days... we have a custom computer nicknamed Natasha. (Klint spends so much time on it that I needed a name for the other lady in his life!) Natasha is an awesome computer with top of the line software, spyware, hardware.  Klint checked his email on Natasha, went to sleep, nothing unusual. I came home a few hours later, shook the mouse to do some design work.... nothing. Black screen, wouldn't reboot or POST. Nada.

Thought that it was the power source since Natasha is on 24/7, but even when we installed a new one it was the same deal.... Natasha in a coma. So we decided to drop her off at a computer place in town and hook up Grandpa Hewitt, our old computer. Now mind you all of our important things, our music, my Photoshop files etc are on an external hard drive, so no biggie... right?

Fast forward to last night when Klint decided to play Warcraft... Grandpa Heweitt decided to self reboot... weird... 15 minutes later did it again... 5 minutes, again.... and then.... POOF! Grandpa Hewitt black screened and was in a coma, just like Natasha. $*&#^()(*&^^*@@^&#^$&!!!!!!!!!

So there goes our ability to put new music on the iPod, for me to design, basically a good portion of our life... gone. Again, F@&K!!! And that dear readers is why I have been MIA. While I do have a netbook to work on, it is slow and is a b*tch to type on.

We are thinking that it was a power surge (or two) that took out our computers  so we have some heavy cash shedding to do to get them back in working order since they are going to require a new motherboard and such. Sigh...

Meanwhile, I will try to get some more posts up about the projects I am working on, just don't look for any new graphic designs... tear.... light a candle to the tech gods in my name and pray that we can fix this problem!!! (I miss my photoshop!!!!)

For Christmas Gabby requested a checkers board for us to play and I couldn't resist a DIY Pirates vs. Ninjas Checker Set.  I saw this on Etsy a while ago and lucky for me I live near a craft store (Pat Catans) that has all the supplies I need so I don't have to have them shipped here and waste precious painting time.

I toyed with a couple of themes, Pink Ninjas vs. Black Ninjas, Batman vs. Spiderman, Monkeys vs. Bears... but I know my girl and pirates are totally her thing!!

I will post pics once I get the varnish on some of the little ninjas I started with! If you don't live near a store that stocks these cute little wooden peg dolls, I totally reccomend this great Etsy store!  Here is a link to some other neat ideas for the peg dolls... what do you think? Is this something your kids would dig?