Crochet Bear Lovey

Crochet Bear Lovey

I decided to learn a new skill this year.  Being at the age where friends are always having babies, I wanted to learn how to make a baby gift. A good friend of mine is an awesome crocheter, and I was inspired by the fabulous hats she makes.  (Check out her stuff online - Classy Crochet).  I saw a Groupon for a beginner crocheting class that a friend of mine was also signing up for only to learn how to knit instead of crochet.  I bought my hook (5.5mm) and yarn, took two classes, watched how-to's on You Tube, bought a pattern online of a project I wanted to make and voila!  Crochet bear lovey!  I started crocheting back in February and I have made five bears in my spare time.  One each for my children, one for my niece and one for a family friend who just had a baby.  The first one I made I am keeping for myself.  It looks more like a koala than a teddy bear, but that's fine!  Since I hand make them all just using my hook and yarn, each one will be unique.  I like being able to use any color for the blanket and I use either beige or brown yarn for the bear body.  I bought the pattern from the One & Two Company online for $3.99.  Teddy Bear Security Blanket Crochet Pattern It's rated as easy, and once you get going with crocheting, it is easy, it just takes time to do.  Probably the hardest part is attaching all the parts together!  For my next project, I think I'll choose something with less parts to connect.

Bear #5. My most recent bear.  Made for the new baby boy of a friend.

The various views of the bear.

                            
Crochet bear #4 for my niece.

Crochet bear #3 for my son.

Crochet bear #2 for my daughter.

My first crochet bear!  You can see how much I have improved!

Paper, Crayons and Stickers

Paper, Crayons and Stickers

My daughter has switched from wanting to just scribble on paper to drawing actual pictures, seemingly overnight.  Giving my daughter paper and crayons is a classic craft of course.  She free draws most of the time.  Sometimes we work on drawing something specific like happy faces.  She loves to add stickers to her drawings as well.  A good use of mixed media!

Mosaics by Numbers - Princesses

More Mosaics by Numbers!

Princess pictures #2 and #3!

Silly Winks Foam Kits

Silly Winks Foam Kits

My daughter and I are big fans of foam projects.  Last year she made picture frame Christmas ornaments for our family and for Valentine's Day, made enough Valentines for her entire class with each child's name spelled out in foam letters.  We recently worked on these foam flowers together.  Some of the parts were stickers, others just foam pieces you had to use glue on for them to stick. I would have preferred all foam stickers however, she did the majority of each flower herself, especially once I showed her how to use the glue for the pieces that needed it.  She gave a completed flower to each of her new teachers, adorable!

Mosaics by Numbers - Princesses

Mosaics by Numbers

Yesterday my daughter and I started working on our first Mosaics by Numbers craft made by The Orb Factory.  It's something we haven't done before and I just happened to find the activity on sale.  It's like paint by numbers only using stickers.  My daughter got really into the Disney princesses over the summer (it's enviable for girls at some point I think), so I chose the Sparkling Princess designs.  She also loves pink and sparkling things, so again, a perfect choice.  She did half of it yesterday and finished it today.  The square stickers were easy enough for her to stick onto the corresponding numbers by herself most of the time.  Sometimes they would stick together and I would pull them apart for her.  The circle stickers are smaller and don't always stick as well, so I helped her with the majority of those.  She chose the princess and horse design to complete first and it came out great!  She asked where I got this craft and she is looking forward to working on the other designs sometime. The craft is for ages 4 and up and I think that is accurate.  Definitely a fun, easy to clean up craft!

Welcome!

Welcome to Crafts of the Phoenix!

My name is Jennifer and I am currently a stay-at-home mom to two toddlers.  I was a Global History and Geography teacher before making the switch.  I am creating this blog as a way to keep track of the various hobbies I have continued or started since becoming a stay-at-home mom.  My daughter has recently given up her afternoon nap, so while my son naps we have been doing at least one craft together every day and I would like to use this blog to also keep track of the activities we complete together.  If anyone is inspired by anything on this blog, that would be great too.  Thanks for checking out Crafts of the Phoenix!