Crocheting - Lion Hat with Button Eyes

I made a second lion crochet style hat.  The first hat I had made was toddler size which was too small (as tested on my son) for my friend's son. This time I used the child size pattern and made the face exactly like the Tiger pattern from the Repeat Crafter Me blogger.  I made the mane using the Unicorn pattern from the same site for the technique and used images of other lion hats I Googled for inspiration on the look of the mane.  Overall I think it was easier using buttons for the eyes and the face itself looks more expressive.  The size should be better too (as tested on my daughter). I look forward to hearing what the recipient thinks of the hat!

Creatology Build-A-Snowman Foam Stickers: Classmate Holiday Cards

My daughter had already made quite a few ornaments this holiday season for her teachers and family members, so when it came to coming up with an idea for her classmates I found this tub of build-a-snowman foam stickers I purchased awhile ago.  It turned out to be a easy, fairly fast craft for us to do together and I came up with a way to deliver them to her friends without getting them sticky.  First we organized all the pieces into piles.  Then I put the snowman bases together for my daughter to save some time (we decided to do this the night before the last day of school before the holiday break)! The face circle on top of a larger circle on top of an even larger sticker.  Then I gave them to my daughter to decorate.  She had a ton of fun picking out which hats, scarves, mittens, arms and buttons to place on each snowman.  She even came up with the clever idea to color mittens with white crayon to make it look like there was snow on the mittens.  While she decorated each snowman, I decided to place each snowman on a piece of black construction paper.  The nice thing about this foam sticker set is no glue required.  Each piece is a sticker thus the back of the snowman was sticky and placing each one on paper gave them a nice background without sticking to anything else.  I wrote "Merry Christmas" at the top of the black construction paper using a white crayon, wrote "From:" underneath then had my daughter take a break from decorating the snowmen to write her name on each strip of black paper.  I didn't have her class list so instead of writing their names, we figured getting a unique snowman would be nice for everything and they would at least know who made them.  Overall we made about 18 of them and they were a hit at school.  Here is a sampling below:

 Full view

 Closer view

 The snowman with snow on his mittens

Foam sticker kit

Crocheting - Lion Hat

I made my second crocheted hat by request, a lion.  My friend's son lost his lion hat and she asked if I could make him one.  I did but it turns out I made it too small.  I followed the toddler pattern, tried in on my son and it was too small, so I will regift it to a friend who just had a baby boy and whom I was planning on making a fat for anyway.  I'll use the child size pattern and make a new lion hat for my other friend.  I used the Tiger pattern from the Repeat Crafter Me site combined with her Unicorn pattern to learn how to make a mane.  The face I made myself stitching the eyes and the nose/mouth like I do on my bear loveys to save some time.  I may use large buttons for eyes in the future instead.  Maybe for the next lion.  Overall I think it looks cute!

Crocheting - Fox Amigurumi

At Barnes & Noble on Black Friday, I found a cute crochet set for half off. The kit includes a book filled with 12 patterns, yarn for two specific projects (fox and fawn), crochet hook, stuffing, tapestry needle, safety eyes and black embroidery floss. My daughter wanted me to make her the fox first. These little guys are not for crocheting beginners (which I still consider myself to be) but I made it through.  I made each body part (having to start over a few times).  The black yarn is hard to work with because it is harder to see each stitch.  The white isn't easy either for the same reason.  Then I had to sew all the parts together (my least favorite part).  Using a tapestry/yarn needle makes it a lot easier than just using the crochet hook (which I have done in the past). Overall I am happy with how the fox turned out especially for my first try.  I think I will go back to making hats for awhile because I tackle my next woodland creature!

Crocheting - Christmas Ornament: Star/Flower

I decided to crochet an ornament for my in-laws for Christmas. I found a Crochet Star Ornament Pattern to try. Needless to say my star turned into a flower!  I started off okay but during the second round I made a mistake.  In the third round I made another mistake but I figured out how to make it look like a flower instead by completing the main step in the third round a couple of extra times.  Not bad for my first try.  Next time I will try to actually make a star!

Creatology Holiday Traditional Christmas House Kit and Candy Shop Kit

We have been working on various ornament kits for fun Christmas craft projects, but I decided to try out a couple 3-D kits I've seen on display.  I chose the Traditional Christmas House and the Candy Shop.  My 2 1/2 year old son "helped" with the house and my 4 year old daughter helped with the candy shop.  They are a little hard to put together.  My daughter wanted to take it apart and remake the candy shop a couple of times but each time it was harder to put together. Not every piece is a sticker, some pieces need to be glued on the structure.  Also there are a lot of pieces and we misplaced a few.  We decorated in our own way when there were missing pieces or when there was a part that kept falling off.  Overall they came out very cute and we'll keep them displayed for the holiday season.  They would not last until next year, so we'll just make a couple new ones next year.

Christmas Photo Card Background - Wrapping Paper and Crafts

I didn't feel like getting professional pictures taken for our Christmas cards this year and I've already posted our best photos on Facebook.  I came up the idea of using wrapping paper as a background and taking our own picture of the kids in front of it.  I looked on Pinterest and saw a few people had the same idea and it looked like the pictures came out well.  I let the kiddies pick out which wrapping paper of our stock they wanted to use.  I had just enough of the penguin paper but used red paper at the bottom which did show up a little.  My daughter had decorated little wood Christmas trees the day before and my husband taped them up at the top to add a personal touch to the pictures.  I dressed up the kids in their Christmas outfits.  My daughter's favorite stuffed animal "Piggy" ended up in the picture as well but I didn't mind.  It was super cute.  Having two toddlers take a good posed picture is not easy but having them involved in the planning helped. Here are a few of the best shots.  The close-up shot was cropped from a larger picture and used for the photo card I ordered through Picaboo with a Groupon.  I definitely recommend this super easy way to have a cute background for your pictures!!

Crocheting - Polar Bear Hat

Since I learned to crochet earlier this year, I have made bear loveys and a few coasters.  I just made my first hat today.  I found a free Polar Bear Pattern through Pinterest.  The pattern was very easy to follow and the stitches were easy.  I made in a few hours.  I changed the snout part because I didn't want the snout sticking out and I molded the nose part on my bear loveys.  I'm very happy with the finished project and I look forward to making more hats!

Make It Christmas - Foam Ornament Kit

We were working on making Thanksgiving cards when my daughter noticed I had Christmas foam activity kits as well waiting in the wings. I told her she could choose one.  She picked an ornament kit and in what seemed like no time, she had finished the whole kit!  She didn't use every single piece and some ornaments are "minimalist" but they're cute and later she wrote each family member/friend's name on the back which is great practice for letter writing at school.  She can use another kit to make enough ornaments for all the children in her preschool class next month.

A sampling

My daughter made this one for herself.  It's my favorite of her ornaments.

Toddler-Made Thanksgiving Cards - Handprint Painted Turkeys, Makers and Foam Stickers

We are back to making crafts after a little hiatus.  With the holiday season upon us, both my four year old daughter and my two year old son worked on a Thanksgiving cards to send to family members.  My son made brown handprints with both hands on one side of the construction paper and my daughter made one purple handprint on the other.  We let them dry overnight.  The next day I modeled how to draw a black dot for an eye and a red gizzard for each handprint turkey.  Then I let them decorate their side of the paper with foam stickers from a Creatology canister filled with leaves, turkeys and pumpkins.  Cute and easy especially when we need to make more than one.  

 Three samples of the cards

Two year old handprint turkeys

Four year old handprint turkey 

Example - Cute toddler work

Crochet Bear Lovey - Yellow Blanket

I recently completed work on my 6th crochet bear lovey.  I created this one for a friend who recently had her third baby.  It's because of her that I became a crocheter.  We each used a Groupon to attend a crochet or knitting class together.  I'm excited to give her a product of my new skill.  I should have placed the ears more on the side of the head (otherwise it looks more like a mouse than a bear) but it's still cute!