Tag: craft mom

3 Ways to Recycle an Old Shirt into No Sew Headbands

by kaella, posted in Uncategorized

25 Poppasome Tokens of Appreciation (1)

If you have read some of my other Teach Me Tuesday posts, then you will know that I LOVE to upcycle other things into a new thing… especially clothing! Clothes can be given new life as something else if you put a little creativity into it.

Today, I am showing you how to take one shirt that is stretchy like a t-shirt or something similar and make it into 3 headbands. You don’t need to sew or glue anything just tie some knots and you are good to go. This is also a great way for a child who is learning how to tie knots to practice and make their own headbands for the summer.

Headband #1: The Turban Style Headband

Headband #2: The Tie a Bow Headband

Headband #3: The Double Braid Headband

Happy Crafting!

Lucky Penny Picture Frame With Free Father’s Day and Graduation Printable

by kaella, posted in DIY

Lucky Penny DIY Frame

Now that Mother’s Day is over, our next concentration is Father’s Day and Graduation. This frame really can work for a holiday like Father’s Day or celebrations like Graduation or Birthdays. This DIY project is super easy and an affordable gift for a loved one.

The frame is from the dollar store and the pennies are from my wallet and savings jar. The only other thing I needed was a hot glue gun. You can use one of the printables below or have your kids make a special poster for the frame.

For the penny frame, I used a hot glue gun to glue the initial row of pennies then staggered the top row to give it a unique look. You can replace the pennies with nuts and bolts, golf tees or something else related to Dad’s hobbies.

For the Dad Printable: Father’s Day Lucky Dad Printable

Let ourchildren play

For the Graduation Printable: Happy Graduation Printable

Happy Graduation

DIY Ribbon Bookmark plus May Writing Prompt Calendar

by kaella, posted in Uncategorized

DIY Ribbon Bookmark Tutorial

Hooray its May! After a cold, snowy Winter and wet, rainy April…. we have sunshine on the first day of May! Add to that the fact that its Teach Me Tuesday and you have a near perfect day!

This week’s Teach Me Tuesday is for our readers and writers, young and old with a DIY tutorial to make ribbon bookmarks plus a writing prompt for the month of May. If you know someone (including yourself) that loses bookmarks every time they read then this is the perfect bookmark to make!

The bookmark is very cute and customizable with the type of ribbon and buttons you want to use. You can use recycled ribbon from gift boxes or other places you find ribbon. If you are like me, you find buttons everywhere but don’t know where they came from so you can use those buttons for this project. The great thing about these bookmarks is that they created so they do not slip out the books and get lost. For the May Writing Prompt, keep scrolling past the bookmark tutorial!

Supplies:

Ribbon

Buttons

Hair Tie (preferably new but you can recycle your unused ones too)

Hot Glue Gun and glue stick

Directions

  1. Cut ribbon to 12″ long or as long you want/need
  2. Place hair tie over one side of the ribbon, fold the ribbon over the tie and glue down
  3. Glue the button on the other side of the ribbon
  4. Allow the glue to dry
  5. Read and bookmark your place!

May Writing Prompt:

As a homeschooling mom, I love having Danyella write something everyday. The writing prompts are a great way to get the creative juices flowing and sometimes make her think outside of the box. In the past, we have used prompts that I have found on Pinterest. While we loved them, there was something usually missing from them. Danyella prefers to have the prompts in a calendar form which has been a great way to teach her about calendars and planning.

This May writing prompt is formatted for 2018 but can be used at any point, in any year. I hope you enjoy getting your child’s creative juices flowing and encouraging them to use their words to write something beautiful everyday of May!

Here is the PDF to print off: May Writing Prompt and the JPG:

May Writing Prompt

If you like this prompt please share the picture below to Pinterest or your favorite social media!May Writing Prompt (1)

 

DIY Dollar Store Advent Calendar

by kaella, posted in Uncategorized

see & explore

I grew up enjoying the chocolate filled advent calendars which my kids and have adopted the advent calendar tradition. These advent calendars are hot commodities in my area and sell out very quickly so we have learned to be on the hunt for them. Last week, Danyella and I went into Hobby Lobby and found the calendars…

They wanted $8 for an advent calendar that was smaller than the ones we have bought in the past. No way was I going to pay $8 for cheap chocolate in a cardboard box! That is just absurd inflation when I could make a better one for the same price or cheaper.

So, I headed to my favorite place for cheap crafts…. The Dollar Store! I purchased snowflake printed zip bags, small bags of Danyella’s favorite candies, a pair of socks (she loves penguins), lipsmackers, holiday bracelets and holiday erasers. Plus I had some holiday kisses to use as well. All of these would be fun treats for her to open once a day and better than the overpriced advent calendar. I already had leftover wrapping paper, tape and a cardboard box to cut up and I printed the numbers through my Google Docs account. So I spent a total of $7 plus tax for our DIY advent calendar!

Materials:

wrapping paper

cardboard box (cut into the size/shape you desire)

tape (I preferred double-sided but you can use regular clear tape)

printed numbers 1-24

fun goodies for 24 days

zip lock baggies

Directions:

  1. Create 1-24 and cut each number out than tape them to the bags
  2. Fill the bags with your goodies
  3. Wrap the piece of cardboard with the wrapping paper
  4. Create row with the tape to stick the bags (I created 3 rows starting with 24 at the top and ending with 1)
  5. Press the baggies onto the tape for the kids to peel off each day
  6. Place your advent calendar on display and start on December 1st

Recycled DIY Ghost Windsock

by kaella, posted in Uncategorized

DIY Gifts forDad for Any Occasion

This Teach Me Tuesday is so easy and cute and best of all…. kid friendly! This cute ghost windsock is created from an old plastic container, paint, string, tape and toilet paper! I used a leftover chinese container from our take-out last week. I love to keep these containers for all kinds of diy projects and what a better way to use one but to have it be the center of this project!

My original idea was to poke a hole through the top of the container to string the string but the plastic is not flexible enough and cracked the top so my suggestion is to just use tape. Plus using tape makes this 100% kid friendly! So get an old container, paint, toilet paper, string and tape to make your own Ghost Windsock!

Danyella had alot of fun making her ghost though the wind kicked up when she was drying it outside which ended up with grass and smudge-marks on it. I told her that it just gave her ghost some character. Here is Danyella’s Finished Ghost:

 

Baby Evelynne’s Rainbow Dragonfly Blanket

by kaella, posted in Uncategorized

Since Evelynne is our Rainbow Baby (if you don’t know what a Rainbow Baby is I will explain below), I knew that her color theme would be Rainbow for her first blanket but it was finding a pattern and yarn that were going to be the hard part. When it came to patterns, I didn’t want the “new” chevron fade blanket because it didn’t impress that much (currently singing Shania Twain in my head now) or a Granny Square because it just was to old fashioned. As far as yarn, I was assuming that I would buy the different skeins of colors I wanted to use…. until the Lion Brand Mandala yarn came onto the market! (This is going to be a whole lot of gushing about this yarn but it not paid or sponsored or anything like that just my opinion and love of this yarn BUT if you do click my link to purchase the yarn, I could be compensated for your purchase)
Back in the Spring, the Mandala yarn came on to the market in select Walmart stores (none were even a driving distance of me) and the ones online sold within minutes. Yarn lovers were in their glory over this yarn.

Now, Caron had similar yarn called Caron Cakes then Hobby Libby’s brand started making their own cakes but both were a 4 thickness compared to Mandala’s light and airy 3 thickness. I do have a bunch of cakes and have created vests and clothing from both brands but the moment I saw the Mandala yarn at my Walmart (I had given up on waiting), touched its soft, soothing texture and found Gnome (rainbow colored) I knew I found my yarn for Evelynne’s blanket. Now for a pattern….

Lion Brand Yarn 525-209 Mandala Yarn, Gnome

 Click the image or text to find the Lion Brand Mandala Yarn in Gnome

I joined a Mandala Lover’s Facebook group and as I browsing the amazing creations people made with this yarn I found it… I found the pattern! This dragonfly baby blanket was exactly what I wanted to make with my amazing new yarn. A dragonfly represents change in most cultures which having Baby Evelynne is a major change for our family in the happiest of ways.

I will admit I did change the pattern a little bit to fit the flow of my hands a little more. This is a super easy pattern that beginners can pick up easily. You can find the pattern at Charmed By Ewe 

So what is a Rainbow Baby? A rainbow baby is a baby born after a miscarriage (or multiple miscarriages), stillbirth or infancy death. It basically means that this baby is the hope and light after a storm. Anyone that has dealt with the loss of a baby that they were never able to meet or only held for a short time deals with a storm of emotions and floods of tears. This is the parents “pot of gold” at the end of the rainbow because we get to hold and love our “Rainbow Baby”.

Overall, I love this pattern and yarn and the final product! It only took 1 1/2 cakes (that is the name for this type of yarn compared to skein) which means I have some of this yarn to create something else for Baby Evelynne which means I am on the hunt for a new pattern! Anyone have a suggestion or idea for a small baby item I can crochet or knit?

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