Whip Up Wednesday: Purfect Purse

Have you noticed all of the cute animal faces showing up on children's shoes and clothing? I must admit, I'm completely smitten with it. I thought I would try my hand at making a little money purse for my oldest daughter and I love how this little guy turned out!

This project can easily be completed in less than two hours and doesn't require a lot of special skills or equipment. Once you get the hang of it, think of all the adorable animals you could make into purses! This same template could easily translate into a fox or short-eared dog....

To make your own purse, you'll need to grab:

-1/4 of a yard (or less) each of linen and cotton
-Purfect Purse Pattern (click to download)
-Embroidery needle + thread of contrasting color
-1-2' of ribbon in coordinating color
-Sewing machine + supplies

Download the full instructions here! Have you made anything fun for your kids lately?

Little Swoon: Beaded Snowflake Ornament

Happy Friday! I'm over at Hello, Wonderful today sharing about the simple ornaments we made at Ellie's birthday party. Click here to find out how to make your own!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Ellie's 6th Birthday Craft Party Reveal

Things have been pretty quiet around here, which usually means there is a lot going on behind the scenes. This last week I was busy planning a little shindig for this craft-loving six year old. December birthdays can be tricky, can't they? It seems that every other year we end up with a Christmasy theme and color scheme, mostly due to my own laziness, but this year she made it very clear that she wanted a different kind of party.

We decided on a craft party and I set to work trying to find the right crafts for a group of 10+ little people! I got lost in Pinterest-land and considered so many different angles (it was a bit stressful, really), but in the end I chose two very simple crafts and paired it with a few games. Naturally, yarn was at the centerpiece of the decor, which was so fun and easy to pull off.

Instead of party hats, we decided that these plain bear masks from Michael's were begging to be spruced up and worn. I added yarn pom poms to the ears of each mask and a small black pom pom for the nose.

For the craft time, we made sparkly snowflake ornaments (tutorial coming!) and pom pom picture frames. We put together a cute little craft kit for each child, wrapped it up, and put it in a berry basket, which also served as a favor bag at the end of the party. The craft time went more smoothly than I imagined and I'm so glad we decided to keep it simple!

Four layer, double chocolate cake topped off the day perfectly. I mean, did your Dad ever make you a cake like that? My girls are lucky to have him! We also served Parmesan popcorn, fruit in sugar cones, and berry cream cheese finger sandwiches. Little hands snatched it up before I could snap a picture, which is a good sign, I think.

The sparkler cake topper was definitely a hit! So, maybe it scared a few of them a bit (see above), but I think it was a happy, giddy kind of scared :)

Happy Birthday sweet Ellie!

Little Swoon: Shape Maker Book

Hey, hey! I'm over at Playful Learning today talking about this new book I made for my kids inspired by Miller Goodman. It would make the perfect handmade gift or surprise for your next road trip!

Download the complete instructions here.

Thankful Mr. Turkey (a printable for kids).

I love this time of year! Things are starting to twinkle, children are dressed as adorable pilgrims, and everyone is bringing out the good food and china (yum!). Candy canes and mistletoe are just around the corner....

My girls celebrated Thanksgiving last week at school. I made a simple craft for my daughter's Kindergarten class and I thought I would share it with you. In case you need one more thing to keep them busy at turkey time...

You will need to gather:

Turkey/feather printable
Scissors
Construction Paper in various colors
A large brad
Crayons or markers

Cut the feathers out from the template and set aside. Cut a feather shape in varying sizes out of construction paper (we cut five different ones). Layer the feathers on top of one another and poke the brad through near the bottom middle. Attach feathers to turkey by sticking it through near the middle of the turkey's body.

Fan the feathers out and write or draw what you're thankful for on each one!

Our Gratitude Tree

I'm sharing a new tradition over at Playful Learning today! Do you have any special traditions that are centered around Thanksgiving? Last year we made this garland one afternoon. It was fun to focus on what we are thankful for, rather than what we want for a while. I liked the idea so much that we decided to make a month long list of gratitude in the form of a gratitude tree. You can read more about it here.

Make it: Hanging Doll Bassinet

If you have little girls, you know how easily they become absorbed in the magical world of play. I wasn't much of a doll girl growing up, but my girls certainly are. Their animal "stuffie" collection is seriously out of control! I've had this idea of making a hanging cradle for the playroom in the back of my head for quite some time, so when JoAnn Fabric contacted me about partnering with them on a sewing project, I immediately thought of it.

The month of September is National Sewing Month (who knew?) and also happens to be the 90th anniversary of Waverly fabrics. In honor of both events, Joann's is hosting a little contest. All you have to do is make something original using Waverly fabrics, take a photo, and submit it! The winner is seriously going to clean up-you have a chance to win $1000 in Waverly fabrics and a $250 gift card to Jo-Ann stores. Head over to Jo-Ann's Facebook page to enter (deadline is September 22nd, 2013)!

Jo-Ann sent over two yards of Waverly fabric in a surprise pattern/color to use for this project. Since I consider myself a sewing novice, I enlisted my fabulous quilt-making MIL to help me make my design come to life (thank you!). The fabric was really nice and I love how this turned out!

Complete instructions for the bed can be found after the jump!

Geometric Party Reveal

So, my baby turned one. And it's hitting me hard this time around. While I'm happy to be done with the stress, late nights and never ending feeding that comes with a newborn, watching this boy grow up has been so bittersweet. I'm not sure what it is, but I've been squeezing him extra tight this week (and I'm not sure he appreciates that much).

Maybe it was this sad little feeling that led me to literally spoil the poor boy by buying him more gifts than normal. I've been collecting little things here and there for some time now. I picked up an elephant toy last minute and loved it so much that it became a little bit of a theme.

The star of the party decor was definitely washi masking tape. I used it to make a geometric shape on our chalkboard. I also decorated plain muslin bags with a few different designs. Every pint-sized guest got a party blower, an elephant, and a huge super-bounce ball.

For cupcake toppers, I pushed a small wooden dowel through some faceted wooden beads that had been painted. In addition to cupcakes, we also served ice cream in these adorable geometric bowls from Target ($0.50 each-score!).

We covered the table with butcher paper and laid out some jewel shaped crayons so tiny guests could color. I made some simple triangle bunting out of construction paper and tied a few huge balloons to the birthday boy's seat. I also filled the floor with a ton of non-floating balloons because Jack goes crazy over them! Even though we were tripping over them and listening to them pop all night, they were a huge hit with the kiddos.

I'm falling more and more in love with simple party themes these days and I'm happy about how Jack's party turned out-it felt just right. Happy Birthday sweet boy-you are so very loved!

Resources:

36" Balloons
Blue ice cream spoons
Faceted Beads
Geometric bowls and crayons
Striped paper table runner
Elephant Figurines
Super Bounce Balls/Party Blowers
Muslin Bags
Washi Tape
Jack's geometric printed onesie

Playtime Fun: Chalkboard Shadowboxes

Hello again, how are you? To say we've been busy around here would be an understatment. I hope summer has been as good to you as it has been to us...

I wanted to share a little project we did around here last week. I found these unfinished wood boxes in the dollar section at Target a few months ago and quickly snatched up as many as I could find! We've been using them to hold our growing animal figurine collection, but now a few of them have been repurposed.

I had all sorts of  ideas for these when I was taking pictures, but Ellie jumped right in and did her thing. I love how she styled them, don't you?

Hop over to my post at Playful Learning to see the rest! Have you done any fun projects lately?

10 Activites for Bored Children

I wrote a post for Playful Learning last week that I wanted to share with you. Like us, I'm guessing you may have arrived at the familiar mid-summer slump. My kids do great most of the time, but a few days a week they seem unsure about what to actually do with all of this wonderful free-time called summer.

I compiled a list of ten fun and easy things you can do with your kids (or they can do by themselves-yay!) using mostly things you have around the house. Find the list here.

I started trying the things on the list today myself. Mondays are always hard, aren't they? So far they have been doing the first activity on the list for over an hour by themselves-so I'm calling it a win!

Do you have any other ideas to add to the list?