Puppets for a puppet show.

So, my father in law is AMAZING and he made this puppet theater about 12-13 yrs ago.  Randomly, I had started doing puppet show wednedays with my daughter a few months ago.  If you want to know more about what I am doing in our preschool homeschooling, you can check out my new blog learningplaydatewithmom.blogspot.com  I am pretty excited about our Museum Friday coming up this week.  However, that is off the topic here.  When my husbands grandpa offered us the puppet theater, I was stoked.  Serioulsy.  I didn't even know it existed.  I feel like my Father-in-law has presented me with the most amazing Christmas gift for years to come.  Each week Madalynn makes puppets from pages she has colored.  She cuts out images, tapes on a popsicle stick and the show goes on.

Madalynn with our finished heap of puppets.
Hers are the chickens on popsicle sticks.
Mine are the felt animal puppets.  

Picture of the puppet theater.  Description below.  

Two years ago I bought some puppet kits from Hobby Lobby to make Madalynn some puppets for Christmas.  I got the pieces glued on before I realized that I should have sewed the felt first.  I couldn't use my machine without gumming it up.  I got super frustrated and threw them to the bottom of a pile.  When I cleaned out our storage room a few weeks ago, I found them and put them in a bag.  We had the puppet theater by then and I knew that I needed to get them out and finish them.  Well, I pulled them out tonight and it became a family affair.  I tried unsucessfully to sew them with my machine again.  Russ got out the needle and thread and tried to sew them too.  Eventually we decided to just hot glue them.  They were super cheap and I don't care if the kids destroy them.  I just don't want to loose small pieces around the house.  We will see what happens.  I let Remington watch me while I was using the hot glue gun.  I let Madalynn hold the heat gun to help me glue.  Crafting projects are so fun when they become a family affair.

Madalynn wanted to do a puppet show when we got home today.  Oh, how I love our theater.  The turrets have two windwos to puppet through.  There are six backgrounds currently.  However I have some fabric I am planning on using to make a few new ones.  They are hung pull curtain rods.  The theater is massive and made of steel.  It take the space of our old bookshelves and computer desk.  There is plenty of room for a few adults to sit behind.  Every kids that has come over in the past 6 weeks since we got it has loved it.

I remembered that I wanted to look up some tutorials about how to make a stuff animal into a puppet.  We have like 50 stuffed animals that the kids never touch.  Well I found this tutorial and it is on the list of things to do this next week.  Madalynn sat in my lap and watched the youtube videos I found.  I can't wait to do some the week of Thanksgiving when I am off work.

My daughter loves creating things.   When I asked her what new puppets she wanted to make today, we end up googling chickens and she picked out a bunch of pictures to use.  She wanted to show the life of a chicken from egg, birth, to adult.  I love her concentration face.

We did do a puppet show before bed tonight.  Russ was doing dishes while listening so we didn't get any pictures, but it was fun.

Hope you enjoyed.

Dolls Clothes Extravaganza

So it has been months, but that is also the way this blog works. I blog during the summer and during my Christmas break and work seriously hard at 3 jobs the rest of the year. I still sew and craft, but I don't take the time to post my work. I only get to work on sewing stuff after I finish house chores, which means it is usually 10pm before I get started and I need to be to bed by 11pm.

So, todays post is pretty much in request from several family members who would like to see what I have been working on. ya, I wasn't very smart and lost a few sets of clothes that I had made this month, but here is most of my work. For my husbands niece this Christmas I decided to make her doll some clothes. However, her doll is a 21" doll which means that I have to make all patterns bigger. I practiced on Madalynn's doll first, gave a few outfits away and came up with the beginning of a great journey.

Ok, so Maya had a coat like this last Christmas and I have been wanting to make a doll coat like hers all year. So here it is. I made it from a light canvas fabric that holds form really well and it fits all of Madalynn's dolls. I actually made three of these coats. One was large enough it fit my best friends daughter. It was really fun.
I wanted to make one outfit for Christmas where Maya could wear the same outfit as her doll. So I bought some fun pre-made knit fabric that only requires sewing a gather seam, sewing on the elastic and a seam down the side. A skirt like this takes max 15 mins. I end up making a matching one for Madalynn and her doll too. I love the waist band fabric and it was so cheap too. I couldn't believe it.Here is the outfit all together with a white shirt I made as a generic shirt to go with all outfits.
This outfit was made from old used levi's on the pants and scraps around the house. I love how it turned out.
This was also made from old used levi's on the pants and scraps from one of Madalynn's infant blankets. I still love that fabric and wish that I had bought more to make Madalynn a top as well or a skirt.
Flair jeans!!! Seriously I think that they are so cute. I love the waist band even though it was really hard to sew on. Actual levi is so thick! It was a great use of some old jeans.
While I was on a jean kick I made the following skirt.
I also made several other pairs of jeans but I can't find them now. I guess I will post those later.

So, I guess her doll needed some skinny pants. Seriously, they were not supposed to be this form fitting. My sewing machine finally went to the repair shop last week. It had finally hit its last days. So I borrowed my sister-in-laws amazing sewing machine, however, it took me an entire outfit to figure out the settings and needle positions and didn't want to unpick the seams that were too tight. Laziness I know, so where I started sewing seams, I just stuck with it. I think that they turned out super cute besides that fact and I am going to have to look for more stripe fabric.
The white shirt was made from old large scraps from quilts I have made. I love finding uses for scraps. I hord them like nothing else and am really happy I did..most of the time.I have made several peasant tops like this one from all my old knit tee shirts that I simply can't fit in anymore, however I don't know where I put them the week before I left on vacation for Thanksgiving they all disappeared. However, I am going to make several more this week so I will have to post those soon.
Well, that concludes the show and tell for today. I have an extra special dress that I am making right now for the doll, but I can't post it until after Christmas because I am hoping to make one for Maya as well and I don't want her mom too see (sorry Tiff if you read this. I just thought there should be one surprise for both of you in her Christmas present.) Maybe this week I will find the pictures of the doll shoes I made last Christmas. They were super awesome. Ok enough for now I am off to bed. Maybe I will get to posting all my projects I have been working on for the past four months. It has been a great four months.

Thanks for reading.

Homemade do it yourself bow maker

After doing some research a while ago on the internet and watching all sorts of bow making ideas with forks, bowdabra's and such, I saw an idea that made me excited. It seemed that people had done all sorts of things to get the width that they needed for a bow. I had my husband use his tools, some scraps from house projects and this is what he made. I love it! The only difference i would make is that we did it really fast late one night and the holes are not exactly straight up and down. As you will see that doesn't matter, but it would be nice.

Supplies needed:
Some kind of board I used a 2 by 4
Two dowels
Drill

Draw a straight line down the middle of the board. Measure two dots 2 inches away from each other. Then depending on how many bow sizes you would like to make you draw dots 1/2 in away from the original dots. These will make 2in, 2 1/2in, 3in bows etc. I have made holes for up to a 4in bow. Choose a drill bit the size of your dowel width and drill in the holes. This is what my board looks like

To make the bow you need the following supplies:
Ribbon for the bow (see the bottom of the post for lengths needed for each size bow)
Small 1/8in wide ribbon to tie
4 1/2 inches 3/8in grosgrain ribbon
Scissors
Lighter
Glue gun
Hair clip- alligator clip, or barrette

Here is a video demonstration making a 2 inch bow:

This is a video of me attaching a bow to the alligator clip. I unfortunately called my glue gun a heat gun during the video. Sorry, but know that I am using a glue gun.

Lengths of ribbon needed for each size bow:
2" bow: 11 1/2" ribbon
2 1/2" bow: 16 1/2" ribbon
3 " bow: 21 1/2" ribbon
3 1/2" bow: 26 1/2" ribbon
4" bow: 31 1/2" ribbon
just add five inches to each length for 1/2" size of bow.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Drawstring Bags

So, Friday night I was at dinner with my brother and sister-in-law. She is in charge of a girls camp for the young women in her ward (church group). They had ordered some mesh bags for mess kits. However, the lady that ordered them didn't measure the kits that they had bought and the mesh bags were way too small. My sister-in-law was worried about getting new ones since yesterday was all taken up with my grandma's funeral. (yes, I have not been sewing much for over a week since my grandma started getting really bad a week and a half ago and then passed away from her cancer. It has been a very emotional week.)

So I suggested she come over and look at my canvas fabrics and I could whip some up in a few hours...which I did. 16 later here they are:

I know that they were not very perfect and they had lots of mistakes, but they will work. Since they needed to be done when they leave at 6:30 tomorrow morning they didn't need to be really extra perfect. I think that the fabric is really cute and will be really fun so their camp week.
Hope that you enjoyed.

Hairbows

So I have never been a person that really likes to take the time to do my hair. Anyone that knows me can tell you that I mostly wear my hair up in a pony tail. Well, I bought a few hair bows for my daughter when she was really little and decided that I would make some after she could put them in her hair and I saw what I really liked in her hair. Well, to start this post, I thought that I would show everyone a few pictures of her first hair-do day. It was really fun. (Even though she would not smile for any of the pictures). I am sad that she destroyed one of these flowers. They were foam flowers and soooooo cute.
Since then I have learned that two tiny pigtail are the easiest to put in her hair. So, I bought a package of hair clips at Sally's a year ago and in an attempt to make Madalynn some hair bows, I realized that most of my flowers were too large. I end of making myself tons of bows instead. Then I took an old picture from and put batting and come off-white corduroy that I had in a box and some pretty calm generic colored ribbon and made myself a memory board for my bathroom. I actually wear things in my hair a little more often now because it is all right there in plain sight when I am getting ready in the morning.

Last week, I got to the point where I was tired of not having any white, red or black bows to put in my daughters hair. So I went to Hobby Lobby here in American Fork and bought a ton of hair clips..soooo many that it hopefully will take a while to use them all. I spent a night cooking my ribbon into corker ribbon and getting ready to make her some new bows. (You just wind ribbon on a poll and make sure it stays tight, cook at 275 degrees for 25 minutes and you have cooked ribbon :) Ya, I made so many the next day that i had to take off the ribbons I previously had on her bow hanger and add two more. I am happy that I finally bought some black and white flowers that I can use to make some plain hair accessories for her. I can't wait to get out my stuff again next week and get working on some more. I am impressed that she has only destroyed a few hair bows pulling on them. I just have to be consistent at doing her hair and she will get used to it.The orange corker bows you see were my first attempt at that type of ribbon and I love how it turned out.
Well, hope that you have enjoyed. Making things for my daughter is certainly one of my favorite things to do.

Madalynn's room completely finished

So remember the pictures that I posted a while ago of Madalynn's room, well all the unfinished parts are finished, new projects added and while she is in her third bedroom in her 12 1/2 months of life, she has always adjusted well to our moves.

When Russ first put the shelf up he told me that part of the back had torn out and that one of the screws was not in a stud in the wall. He told me that I should not put any weight on it besides what I was planning on decorating with. Well, unfortunately when I was adding the large butterflies one night I put my hand on the shelf, in a moment of complete forgetfulness. The shelf fell of the wall. The hanging letters all fell to one side putting the weight off balanced. I managed to catch the left picture between my arm and the shelf, the glass flower vase between my head and my shoulder and all the rest in my left hand. I yelled so loud for Russ to come help me, that Madalynn who had walked in just then started screaming. Russ thought that she had been hurt and was checking her as I am telling him to grab the picture that is falling and I can't hold anymore. If it had fallen it would have fallen on the edge of her bed and probably broken all over. It was really funny. So, here it is..all finished!!! If you want a closer look just click on the picture.

I finished the letters and hung them up on the shelf Russ made for her. I painted them pink and then used embossing powder, acrylic stamps, a heat gun and brown chalk to decorate them. I first chalked around the edges. Then I added all of the white and brown patterns. I then took the same stamp and turned it around and around and added clear embossing to the rest. I really like how it looks like the wood had its own printed design all over. I love the feel of the design popping out. You can't see it really well in the picures, sorry.
When I had Madalynn, my brother and sister-in-law brought flowers to the hospital. They were in that vase. I have kept the vase in the hope I would find some use for it and sure enough, I thought it would look great with some flowers I found in my craft box. It was really fun to put together.
One night when I came home from work, Russ had been to the craft store without me and bought the pink azalea flowers. I quickly added them to the shelf and I was super thrilled.
I have always loved butterflies and for some reason this is the year of butterflies. Every store has butterfly decorations, butterfly baby clothes.... Well, I decided to add them to the shelf. I think the reason that I like butterflies so much is that they are such magical creatures. They are a part of nature but they flit in and out and they are just so beautiful with their varying varieties. It is kind of like rainbows. They are so beautiful and very rare. So, without doing any princess themes or stuff like that, I found a theme to add that is easy and fun to change around. I found a bright orange paper that I was going to use to decorate the front of her doll cabinet and I decided that I would take some of Russ' scrap wood and make a peg hanger with it. We have been so blessed with Madalynn to have all sorts of people give us clothes for her. She has an abundance of jackets and sweaters and they don't fit well in her drawer so i thought it would be nice to hang them up.I also bought a fun butterfly hanger at Rod Works to add to the theme of the room.
Last but not least, I added one more pillow to her rocking chair. I bought this pillow at a yard sale last summer. It used to see a brown swede. I learned how to make my own cording and I sewed it into the pillow. The fabric is the same as the lamp shade and the toy box cushion to tie that fabric into the room. I love how it turned out.
Well, hope that you enjoyed the progress. I am excited that it is finished.

Crafting with my cricut and my heat gun

So I really love to sew but I do do a lot of crafts that don't involve my sewing machine. I really do love my cricut machine and Russ is so wonderful and let me buy a gypsy last spring and I have been doing all sorts of projects with it. My favorite part of my gypsy is that I can not take and make my own words by combining all the letters together in the designing program.

My most recent gypsy project was putting some vinyl lettering on a bunch of pictures around the house. In Madalynn's bedroom I have several different pictures and I wanted them to say why I put them up in her room. This picture is of a blooming Azalea. I thought that New Life would be appropriate. I really wanted three pictures on the shelf, one blooming, one in full bloom and one picture of a beautiful bush, but Russ told me two was sufficient. I thought that each would be a representation of the growth of a child from birth to maturity to her influence in the world and beauty that she can create.This picture had a different caption but Russ asked me to take it off and simply put Azalea. I do like it, it just wasn't exactly what I was thinking.
I put up a picture of Christ holding a child and pointing at a butterfly. The title of the picture is "Precious in His Sight." As she grows I want her to know that she is always precious and so i put the lettering on the frame. I also put up two pictures of Azalea's. That is her middle name, so it was very appropriate. You can't see the lettering too well, but I think that the shelf turned out great and I finally got this wall hanging put up. I am still working on this wall hanging. I am looking for some cute off-white buttons to sew onto the middle of each square.
I have had the following picture frame since the first month we were married almost 4 years ago. Yes...it took this long to put the picture in the frame and get it finished, but I am glad that I did. I want lots of pictures up in our house of all stages of our lives and i think that collage pictures really help me do that.
Here is the frame of Madalynn's early pictures. It really is time to get the one done of her 6 month and year old pictures.
Russ has a bunch of scrap wood out on our back patio. I have always wanted a few of those vinyl saying up in my house. I found the following saying on a tile at some Boutique that I went to and knew that I wanted this saying put up with my wedding pictures. So, I designed the saying on my gyspy and had Russ cut the board. The whole time I was not sure what color I wanted to paint it and what color I wanted the vinyl letters. All my wedding picture frames are a red color with a little black antiquing on the edges of the rope design. I wanted the saying to kind of pop out and so I thought that a white lettering would really stand out. The only problem I had was that a black background would look great but be really dull. So, I got out some of my acrylic stamps to work with on this project. I decided to use some clear embossing powder to stamp an image onto the black background that would enhance the background but not take away from the saying. I love how it turned out. I hope that you can see the glossy image on the background in the picture.
After I had finished the saying, I looked at the following picture frame. We got this picture from someone for our wedding. So I took a stamp and turned it around and around creating variations on the image and poured on the embossing powder, used my heat gun to create the image, and yay!! I love how it turned out and adds just enough to the picture frame to make it not quite so plain but not too decorative.
Well, I hope that you enjoyed. It is really nice to feel like I have finished projects and have moved onto other things to make my home feel more homey.

My sisters new purse

So, I saw the pattern for this purse in the Connecting Threads catalog near the end of last year. I loved it!!! However, I just didn't want to pay the shipping and handling (I know cheap, but still). I was at Gracie Lou's in Salem Utah checking out their store one day and they had this purse on display. In a quilting store this usually means that they have the pattern. I was so excited. I had looked everywhere and had not found this pattern. I picked it up and decided that I would make a couple for Christmas. Well....I did make one for Christmas. My husbands sister-in-law got my first purse ever. I would have posted pictures then, however, I forgot to take pictures. It to foooooorever. I mean the number of parts to cut out, with the pattern, three different fabrics and the interfacing. when you are trying to watch your 6 month-old and just do that it took hours. Then after the first page of instructions they stopped using the letter of the pattern parts. I made soooo many mistakes the first time. I thought I was done when I realized that I had sewn the handles inside and across instead of one handle each side. It was insane. So, after that I put the fabric I had picked out to make more purses in the very very bottom of my to-do box. So, I was super happy when I pulled out the fabric and the pattern from my box yesterday to make the purse for Jessica's birthday party today that it took at least half the time as the first one (maybe even less!!!) I re-worked the instructions and wrote in instructions that make sense to me so I don't have to question what to do next time. It still took 1 1/2hrs of uninterrupted time to iron, cut and iron again. The pre-sewing time is intense but totally worth it. I love it!!! and i hope that she does too :)

The pattern is called The Knotted Bag by craftapple. Just click on it to view it on their site. They have some great pictures of some options for the purse. It makes two sizes. I made the smaller of the two sizes.

Here are two different pictures. The inside has a large pocket with a couple sides that are the same fabric as the bow.Hope that you enjoyed. More to come this week. I have been taking pictures of all my projects during the last year and realizing that I have really finished quite a bit of the projects that I have started. It is nice.

First batch of cards

So, here are few of my creations. Some aren't that great and some I really like. This first one is one of my favorite ones. Not a great picture of this one, but I do like the colors.
This is my second favorite.
This is my husbands favorite because he likes the colors the best.
I like the colors on this one.
This one is just plain and fun. Not a great picture. I don't do well with pictures esp. with my camera.
Different, but cool.
I love the colors on this one, esp. the flowers.
This next one is not quite finished. I think that I want to put a tag through the eyelet on the top left that attaches to a tag that says either thank you or something.
I had to make something bright colored.