make // hexagon and pentagon fabric trays

When I saw people making little square fabric trays on Instagram, I wanted to make one. (I've been wanting to try something like this since my friend Susi made one a while ago!) Then when I saw the hexagon version, I KNEW that I HAD to make one. So I did.



The original tutorial from A Spoonful of Sugar has the shape topstitched on the sewing machine, but I thought it might work out to do it by hand. I love stitching things like this by hand! And I really like how it came out with the perle cotton.

But before I made the official hexagon tray, I made a couple that are more in keeping with May's shape theme...



Pentagons!

For these I followed the tutorial (except for the shape) and top stitched on the machine. I'm not sure if I ironed them differently or if I'm better at machine sewing (unlikely!), but they came out smoother. Not so bunchy in the center. Truthfully, I like all of them no matter how they came out.

And I'm very excited about the little tag with the Wild Olive face. Stitching on this twill tape wasn't ideal, but I'm going to work on it some more and perfect it because I need to add little face tags to everything now.




I made two trays and in different sizes, mainly because I couldn't decide which fabric I wanted to use. And because they are so very cute. And because I realized that they would look really adorable nested!



I hope you give these a try. For the instructions, head over to A Spoonful of Sugar. (Be sure to check out all of their wonderfulness while you're there!). And if you want to make a pentagon tray, I've set up the templates I used in the two sizes. Have fun!

Pentagon Tray Templates

making soap paint

Recently I mixed up some soap paint to use at church with my kindergarten class...it was a hit! And after I brought the leftovers home, and my sister played with it, I thought it might be worth sharing here too.

Soap paint isn't really like other paint. It's fairly thick, and I'm pretty sure that it's most often used in the bathtub. But we used it for finger painting onto cardboard boxes from the recycling bin. I made a big batch, but here's the half "recipe."




SOAP PAINT

1 bar of Ivory brand soap
1/2 cup liquid laundry starch
1/2 cup water
Food coloring

1. Grate the soap on a regular grater. You want it to come out like fine grated cheese. My 7-year-old sister did most of the grating, and she loved helping!

2. Mix the remaining ingredients into the soap. We used an egg beater, and just kept mixing until it was smooth.

3. Add more water until you reach the consistency that you want. We added water, mixed and played, then added more, and so on.




When we mixed it at church, we didn't use any food coloring, but painted on colored paper. The kids used a combination of brushes and fingers, and we kept it fairly controlled (of course, it was just soap...so no worries about clothes and carpet!)

At home, we took it outside and let it get a bit messier. My sister played with it for hours! She kept coming back to it and mixing it again, and painting more layers onto the cardboard. The best part is, it smells so clean!



These are the kind of "messes" that I don't mind. I love seeing kids playing, creating, and experiencing things like this. Just don't put me in the kitchen trying to cook or bake with little ones...It's one of the few things that really stress me out!

make: handprint easter lily brooch

When you were a kid, did you ever make an Easter Lily by tracing your hand and rolling it up and adding a pipe cleaner? If you're a mom, has you child ever made one for you? I was thinking about this classic project, and thought it might be fun to make a wearable, and longer-lasting version of it.

To make a Handprint Easter Lily Brooch, you will need:

White, yellow and green felt
Pinback or safety pin
Green embroidery floss

Here's what you do:

Trace your child's hand. Or you could trace your own hand. Now, you're going to need to reduce it some. The goal is to have two hand templates, one slightly larger than the other.

I traced my six-year-old sister's hand, and it was about 6 inches tall. On the scanner, I made one copy that was 60%, and one that was 50%. Overall, the final height of the larger one is about 3 1/2 inches tall, which is a nice size for this.

Use the template you've made to cut out the two hand sizes from white felt. From yellow felt, cut a thin fringe piece, like in the photo, that is about 1 1/2 inches tall. From green felt, cut a thin leaf piece, and a strip that is 1/2 inch wide by about 5 inches long. (My strip was only 4 inches, and more length would have helped.)

Wrap the smaller hand around the yellow fringe.

Wrap the larger hand around the smaller hand, keeping it a tight roll.


Add the leaf to the side, and begin wrapping the green strip around the base. Overlap it a big with each time around. This is a good time to add your pin, or you can sew it on afterward.

Carefully add a few stitches to hold everything together. Try to hide them in the overlaps of felt, and be sure to get all the way through the center so that the yellow fringe/stamen is held in too. Alternately, you could use a bit of hot glue to secure everything as you go.

Spread the petals of the handprint lily and pin on to wear with pride on Sunday!

family week: make a family tree

Families come together in many ways. My brothers and sisters and I are all adopted (a fantastic way for a family to grow!), and we have a dear friend who is as much a part of our family as any uncles are. I love the idea of family trees, but with all of the lines and linking and branches, I get a little overwhelmed. Not to mention, a traditional family tree doesn't make room for our friend.

So I made something a little less formal. Well, actually, I haven't finished it yet. There are still some little details that I'll be adding to mine, so you don't get to see the final product. (But it's Family Week, so I couldn't wait on posting this...you understand, right?)

Here's what you'll need:
Family Tree templates PDF
Paper-backed fusible web (like Wonder Under, about 1/4 yard)
Green plain or patterned fabric (about 8.5x11 inches)
Brown plain or patterned fabric (about 8x8 inches)
Canvas (cut to 14x18 inches)
Green felt (scraps for leaves)
Embroidery floss
Fabric glue (optional)
3/8 inch dowel rod

Here's what you do:
Iron the fusible web onto the back of the green and brown fabrics. Follow the instructions for your fusible web. (It's easy!)

Using the templates, cut out the tree top and trunk from the fabrics. Lay them on the canvas to find the right placement. There should be a few inches of blank space at the top. Peel the paper from the fusible web, then iron the pieces down onto the canvas.

The fusible web is all you need to hold the fabric pieces down, but you might want to add some decorative stitches around the tree, or on the tree trunk...just for fun.

Cut out as many leaves as you will need from the green felt. Embroider a name on each leaf. If you have a large family and will need extra room for more leaves, you might want to stitch couples names onto a single leaf.

For mine, I just roughly stitched the names, without a pattern, using a back stitch. There is nothing about this tree that is fancy, but it will be hanging in our family room, and it works!

Lay out the leaves, then attach them. You can hand sew them on, or use fabric glue. Some of the leaves can overlap the sides a bit. It gives you more room, plus it makes it less constrained. Don't forget to leave room for your family to grow!

Cut the dowel rod to be a little wider than your canvas. Fold the top down and sew a little casing for the dowel rod to slide through. A running stitch will hold it nicely.

Slide the dowel through and attach a ribbon at each end to hang your family tree.

This is where my photos stop as I continue to embellish our family's wall hanging. When it gets all fancy and is actually in place, I'll try and get a photo to add. Despite my lack of a finished photo, I hope this shows how simple it can be to display your family's names in your home!

family week: make a family crest

One of the first things to get me started on the idea of Family Week was a family crest. I love this idea, almost as much as I love naming a house. It's so old-fashioned and lovely. But why should you even consider an idea that few people ever used, let alone nowadays?

A family crest tells what your family is known for.

I want to have a crest that serves as a reminder of what is important to our family, and what we want to be known for. It isn't for others to see, although it can be. I want something that says to this house, "This is who we are and what we do."

Last year, Heather Carson created a wonderful series called The Family Franchise, and I highly recommend it when thinking about what your family is all about. For me, I looked at what was most important to our family. It came down to faith and togetherness, and so I got to work.

This process will look a little different for everyone, but you can do this! I'll talk you through my process, but consider it a starting point for your own family. First, I sketched a crest design:

If you do this, don't feel like it has to be complicated. I wanted it to be simple so that I could use it for lots of things. The final design looks a bit like a lower case "t", but it is a cross and a numeral "8" for the eight people in our family. A heart is part of the eight. There are a lot of simple symbols that you could use to represent the things that your family values the most and wants to be known for.

I have plans for using this crest in many ways, but I started out by stitching it. Imagine that! This is where simplicity comes in handy.

I had this project in mind when starting this, so when stitching the border of the crest, I attached the embroidery to a piece of felt. It is trimmed fairly close to the stitches.

All that is left is to attach it to a picture frame, which is waiting to be filled with a family photo!

Now, here are some other ideas that I have in mind for this crest:

• Paper piece it and frame it.
• Fill it in, print it out, laminate cards for in wallets.
• Applique felt pins or patches.

How might you incorporate a family crest into your family?

the story of: making princess puppets

Three months into this year of puppets, and I'm already wondering if I was crazy to start this. Making a puppet (or a few) each month takes more time than I realized it would, but I think I still like it, so I press on!

Needless to say, making 12 Dancing Princess puppets to go along with this month's story would have been a bit much. Plus, how would one person handle controlling all of those lovely ladies? I'll tell you. You put all 12 of them on one puppet. This is actually a legitimate puppet technique.

I tried very hard to find some good images of the type of puppet that this month's project is based on, but failed. The best I came up with was a diagram showing how to make a rod puppet that controls three characters at once (It's a PDF) and a video from Voyage of the Little Mermaid (at around 2:23 you'll see a bunch of fish making their way across the stage). Basically, you have a series of puppets that are all in one. They work well for crowd scenes, without requiring a lot of puppeteers.

So, while technically this month's PDF puppet workshop will have you making 12 dancing princesses, they are easy and come together to make one puppet. One person can now have 12 princesses dancing in a line. (You're on your own to make some princes for them to dance with!)

Download the 12 Dancing Princesses PDF workshop.

Oh, and if you aren't up for puppets, are just looking for some princess decor, or you need a good way to store your puppet, you can hang these dancing dolls on your wall like this!

still in a necklace-making mood

A few years ago I took a class from Elsie, and one of the projects was making felt charms. That may have been what planted the idea for the "how" in my head, but the "why" for this particular moment of crafting came from spring. I realized that yesterday was the first day of spring and that I needed to make something for this most-welcomed occasion.

Bright green leaves came to mind, and so I thought that some felt leaves as a necklace would be a fun thing to make a wear. I added them to a ball chain necklace, because I do love them for their versatility.

But why stop there? How about a felt tassel that I could exchange for the leaves on the same chain? (I saw this tutorial for a leather one, but felt is more my style! I stitched instead of gluing...)

That's not all though! I also sketched up a few more ideas for other things that I could hang on this same chain, and I'll be making them along the way. It's fast becoming an entire necklace system!

make: bunny keyper

In the book Zakka Sewing, there is a super cute viking key cover made from leather. I mean, this thing is adorable. But it's not the kind of quick project that I like to actually do. Sewing leather is not my thing! Then, the other day, I saw some quilted matroyshka key covers (do you think I could find them again for a link? nope...they seem to have disappeared on me), and got to thinking about what kind of design I might be able to make.

Spring and Easter are not too far off, so a bunny seemed perfect! I referred to this project as a key keeper, but my dad thought that a "key-per" was more appropriate!

Here's what you'll need:
pattern pdf
wool felt (a blend is okay, but acrylic felt won't hold up very well)
embroidery floss
rope trim
key ring


Cut out the pattern pieces from felt. A dark color is probably a good choice, so that your bunny doesn't look too dirty.

Embroider eyes and applique a felt nose onto one bunny body piece. Sew the inner ear pieces onto the outer ear pieces.

With a running stitch, sew up one side. Sandwich the first ear between the two layers and sew it in place with this seam. Stop when you reach the top edge.

Repeat this with the other side. You should have a large opening at the bottom, and a small opening at the top.

Tie a loop of rope trim onto the key ring. Make sure the knot is tight!

Slip the loop up inside the bunny and out through the top opening. Add a stitch between the two pieces of rope trim so that it can still slide, but so that the loop can't fall out.

Now your keys are ready to be held by this sweet bunny! My sister says I should name him Frank. I like it! (What is it with my family naming things?)

If you carry a lot of keys, this may not be the project for you. You could try enlarging the pattern, but it won't have quite the same effect.

I've been thinking that there could be some cute variations on this too. I can picture a monkey keyper, or a lamb! Don't you just need a little animal hugging your keys?

the story of: the bremen town musicians puppets

When I shared the story of the Bremen Town Musicians the other day, I included some pictures I took of the characters in shadow puppets. They are really easy to make, and I've got some templates and simple instructions so that you can make them too!

Download the PDF to make your own shadow puppets!

Oh, and I wanted to add that making simple, non-moving shadow puppets of any kind is as easy as this: Find a photo with a strong shape or silhouette. Trace around it, and cut from black paper. Now you can make do a puppet show of just about anything!

For a lovely look at more complex shadow puppets, specifically those for use in film, be sure to check out Annekata's recent post. So charming!