Personalized Paper Doll Quiet Books

I was going through old posts on my family blog today and discovered this fun project I did for Maggie a few years ago.  It's a personalized paper doll quiet book.  This book was very easy to make and could be used not only for entertainment but would be a great way to help with speech therapy, or even learning how to match and dress oneself.

How I made my book:

1.  I used my Cricut cartridge, Paper Doll Dress Up to create all of the images, however you could always just cut out pieces by hand if you do not have a Cricut.

2.  I created the main doll by cutting out a doll and trying to make it look as much like Mags as possible, long brown hair, blue eyes etc.  I also used different outfits on the cartridge to make an undershirt and underpants.  {The fewer naked dolls we have around here the better.  Why are there always so many naked Barbies at my house??}  I also decorated the background page by cutting out grass and flowers.

3.  I then used patterned paper and cut out a few dresses.  You could also cut out shoes, socks, pants, shirts, hats, headbands, wands etc.  This cartridge basically has everything.

4.  I then used my personal laminator to laminate all the pieces.  I laminated the entire page of the main doll and each dress individually.

5.  Glued the main page into a cheapy file folder.

6.  On the back of each of the dresses is a piece of sticky tack.  This allows for the pieces to be placed on the doll and stay in place.


Super simple little book that can provide lots of entertainment for your little one!

If you're looking for more ideas for paper dolls be sure to check out my tutorial for

Actual Size Paper Dolls

 

Or check out all of my other Quiet Books

 

 

DIY Play Parachute

It's another week of voting over at So You Think You're Crafty.  The theme this week is Summer Bounty.  Feel free to head on over and vote for your favorite!

In the mean time - here's my project from last week.

A  PARACHUTE!!!!!

Do you remember how awesome these things are?



It's pretty common knowledge that the two best days in Elementary School were:

1.  Pizza Friday's.

2.  When the teacher pulled out the parachute.

So let's time warp back to the good ol' days with a little basic math...

That's right... 1+1= 1 super fun new 7 foot wide parachute to play with anytime we want!  No more waiting for Presidential Physical Fitness Day to parachute to our hearts content!

The kids think it's mom's best repurposed project ever. 

And THAT is how fun is born.

Car Play Mat & Storage Bag

I said I needed to show you more boy stuff so here's a fun one!

I wanted to show you something that had it all - Sewing, scraps, BOYS {and Girls!}, play, Imagination, DETAILS,  repurposed, STORAGE, cute fabric, Bright Colors... you get the point.  I hope I didn't disappoint!

Introducing.... The Car Play Mat & Storage Bag!

Each piece was drawn and cut by hand and appliqued onto the mat.  With a park, zoo, speedway, beach, neighborhood and church there is a whole town full of imaginative adventure waiting to happen.  Each piece of fabric was chosen to look authentic, waves for the ocean, brick for the zoo wall, florals for the bushes and trees, cobblestones and sand, even the stained glass windows on the church, etc.  Let's just say, I have a lot of random scraps around the house!

The kids love to play with the mat but the fact that the mat is easily cinched into a bag to store all those little cars is what gets momma REALLY excited!  We can easily carry the bag with us to appointments and activities to keep us entertained during those long waits.  And when we are done, one tug of the cord and "bloop!" all cleaned up.

I think everyone needs a Car Play Mat & Storage Bag.  I hope you agree!

Harry Potter Doll

I have lots and lots of projects and tutorials to show you but life got a little crazy (but fun) around here. So in the meantime how about I show you one of my favorite projects about one of my favorite things??

Harry Potter!!

Now as I explain the rest it's important for you to hum the theme song in your mind. You know, for effect. (dum duh da dum da dah dum...)

For Christmas I designed this doll for my niece Macy. Her mommy is a super fan of Potter. I slacked for 6 months on sending it so little Macy came to Alabama all the way from Canada to claim it this weekend. (Okay so it wasn't the only reason, but it was a bonus) Macy loved it but I think her mommy loved it a little more. :)

How I Did It:

I hand drew the pieces. Besides the glasses and the hair it's basically a bunch of rectangles pieced together. All parts of the doll are made with fabric and pieces were appliquéd together and machine stitched for security. For his scar I used a red permanent marker. I stuffed the whole thing with fluff and whip stitched his side together.

Try it out! It's a fun little doll to make. Plus, everyone needs a little more Potter in their lives right!?!

Play Spools

We had a great Christmas.  I hope you did too.  So many highlights and so much fun.  The kids were really into it this year {last year I had to bribe Mags with candy just to open presents}.  And my husband treated me like a princess, just like he always does.  You know how on Modern Family Claire is a horrible gift giver to her husband and he's the best ever?  Yeah, that's us.  I think I made up for it this year though with electronics and sports gear.

I made several gifts for the kids and I'll gradually get to posting what I've made.  Today I'll show you the simplest gift I made.

Play Spools

Maggie is obsessed with my craft supplies.  My craft room is a disaster because really what 3 year old can resist bin after bin filled with ribbon and jars of buttons just waiting to be tossed in the rain to rain down on their head?  One of her favorites is to take my spools of thread, hold onto the string and drag the spools around the house.  It makes me nuts.  She needs some craft supplies of her own.

I like to reuse everything so I've been saving empty spools of thread.  I hot glued different kinds of yarn around each one and left about a foot of yard free at the end that way she can wrap it herself or pretend to sew.  It just took a few minutes to make each spool.

When she opened it she shouted "YES!" then promptly ran upstairs to place the spools onto my sewing machine and pretend to sew.  We eventually had to bring her back down so the family could finish opening presents!  I think it was a hit.

Take a look around the craft bins and see if there is some re-purposing you can do too!

Felt Board: Under The Sea

Friday morning Maggie and I were looking for something to do.  Baby had just laid down to take a nap so I decided it was time to work on a fun project together.  We made a felt board!  It was so simple and 100% free since I had all of the felt scraps on hand.  Maggie has been playing with it non-stop since.

I took the side off of a huge diaper box and covered it with a sheet of white felt.  I cut the felt to be slightly larger than the cardboard, wrapped it around each side and secured it with a thin strip of hot glue. 

I used white so I could make lots of felt scenes in the future but today was all about the ocean so I cut out a large piece of blue felt for my ocean waves.

I sat with my pile of felt scraps and Maggie dictated to me what she wanted.  Nemo Daddy, Nemo, Dori, Shark, Ariel, and eyes she was very concerned that I was going to forget their eyes.  I even cut out some generic fish and let her color them.  I pieced them together using hot glue.

Each piece was cut by hand without a pattern and in a hurry so some pieces look a little funky.  A 3 year old waits for no one.  But you know what?  It doesn't have to be perfect. 

Do you like my hand-less Ariel ghost?  Haha.

She enjoys it and we spent some quality time together making it. 

That's the only part that needs to be perfect.

When I asked her what her favorite piece was do you know what she told me?

"Ariel!" 

Yes.  Ariel, the hand-less ghost was the catch of the day.

You can imagine my surprise when I saw this later in the evening -

"Maggie!!  What in the world happened to Ariel?!  She's decapitated!"

To which she grabbed the shark and said, "Num, num, num, num (think Jaws theme music) chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp!"

Well, at least she's got imagination.

Actual size paper dolls

Trying to teach your child clothing words? 

Do they need to learn how to dress themselves?  How to match? 

Just looking for something fun to do?

Well, then here's an activity for you!

 Step 1:  Trace your child's body onto paper.  I used the back of some Christmas wrapping paper.  Make sure you tape the paper to the floor so it doesn't roll.

Step 2:  Let your child draw a face onto their body.  (Mine wasn't interested so we skipped this step)

Step 3:  Gather a variety of clothes from their wardrobe and let them dress themselves.  You can work on speech, matching, dressing for the seasons, or just have fun pretending. 


We have done this to help with Maggie's speech.  I'll say "get the hat" she'll find the hat and then I have her repeat, "hat".  We then say things like, "hat on head".  Keeping it simple.  It really has helped her learn all the names of her body parts and clothes and she now likes to pick out her outfits.  The other day she dressed herself and her brother in coordinating outfits, yellow long sleeve shirts and jeans.  Not bad for a three year old!

 (don't forget the hair bows too!)

Try this with your kids today.  It's a lot of fun!

_______________________________

Bag of Blocks

I finally cleaned my living room.  We picked up every toy and even vacuumed under the couch.  I discovered blocks.  Lot's of them.  Living under the couch.  Homeless.

I had seen The Bag Of Blocks Tutorial from Sewing In No Man's Land and decided that we needed our own Bag of Blocks.  A new craft project excuse?  Yes please.  I felt like I was was being rewarded for all my hard efforts in cleaning the front room so well.

I used the Heat and Bond like she had in the tutorial.  I usually reinforce my appliques by sewing around each of them but this time I didn't.  I regret it because one of the letters is starting to peel off but I'll wait until It comes off completely before I sew all the letters.  It's just not worth the extra time.  It's a bag for blocks.  Not a quilt for the Queen.

I used my Cricut to cut out the letters and hand drew and cut the trees.  I always like to use the fabric I have on hand so this is made entirely out of scraps and cost me nothing to make.

I didn't have enough of the cream fabric so I added stripes to the back to give it more width.  I used French seams to finish it but if I had a serger that would have done the job too.

For the drawstring, I used a cord that I had cut from my Venetian blinds when I first put them up.  The cord was too long for the window so I trimmed it and saved the excess.  Glad I did.  I came in very handy.  I also used scrapbook eyelets for the holes.

Love the bag, but the best part is kiddo loves it too.  She insists that her blocks need to go in there and the living room is staying block free!