Doll Drinks

Getting ready for Christmas means making doll food. I learned that the scale for America Girl dolls is 1:3.

I found some really cute small, red party cups. They are about that scale, but look too big for the dolls. While searching online, I learned about communion cups. They are the perfect size for doll drinks. After another search, I found an online Christian store that has the best price. (I will add the link here.)

Now I have a ton...like 1,000... cups to play with. I grabbed some puffy fabric paint and started to play. I also have used my diamond glaze to fill drinks.

I am still learning a few tricks to making my drinks look good, but so far I am loving it.

Let me know if you would like my tips.

3rd Dino Party Done!

The dino party is done and it was a success.

The decorating consisted of leaves, vines and even some flowers. I hand cut most and then used my Cricut for others. The store bought decorations that I used where picked up on clearance at Target. I love to score decorations for a dollar or less.

On Pintrest I noticed all the dino eggs and could not resist making them. I am so glad my sister came to help me make the goody bag...dino eggs. Here is a little something I learned: flour paper mache takes a long time to dry. I only had a few days to make the eggs so we used Modge Podge. While this may be an expensive avenue, the drying time between coats is 20 minutes. We could not have made 20 if we where waiting hours for things to dry. We used brown and tan tissue paper as the final layer to give them a uniform finish.

Amazon was my dino headquarters. I found dino masks, bubbles, stamps, temporary tattoos, small figures and piñata. I also ordered a silicone dinosaur mold. I was really worried that the mold would not arrive in time. The mold came all the way from China. I used our favorite brand of dipping chocolate and made some candies we all loved.

Here are some pictures of the party.

The goodie bag EGGS. They where a huge hit.

Paper towel roll tree. Made two of these.

Cricut cut dinos for the cake.

Palm trees.

Looking at the room.

Christmas gifts

I am working on a couple of items for my daughter's Christmas. I have painted the "fridge" for my daughter's doll. My next step is to make food to fill it. I found a really good site with food printables. Paper Minis has pritables for doll house size and 18" doll size. The scale for AG dolls is 1:3.  

I have a Muffy pie cabinet I found at goodwill which will make a good pantry. 

I am trying to be as frugal as I can and looking everywhere for ideas. So, look what I found today at Tom Thumb:

 I found the same brand of appetizer forks alone. I had them in my cart and then I came across the whole set. I recently purchased square plates for our household. I just LOVE these little ones. I can't wait to give these to my daughter for her dolls. Oh, and it was about $5.00 so my wallet is happy too.

I have been so busy, but I do have more I want to share. The dino party was a huge sucess, keep an eye out for that update.

Thanks for coming by.

Yadi

3rd Birthday Party Time

I have stated before how much I love birthday parties. Well, in a couple of weeks my little guy turns 3. I went back and forth between a Mickey party or a dinosaur party. I asked him again last week and he said dinosaur. So the theme is set!! (Yes, I did have to send out invites on short notice. His birthday snuck up on me.)

Of course my first stop is ALWAYS Pintrest. I loved the parties where they used their plants from all over the house to decorate one room. Too bad for me I have a black thumb. Plants just DIE around me. What this leaves me with is making my own plants.

I picked up packaging paper at the dollar store and made vines to hang. (You just scrunch and twist.) Thanks for my stash of scrapbook paper, I have leaves. I used a Cricut to cut some of the leaves and then just free handed others. I made large leaves and small leaves. I also made flowers. If you google prehistoric flowers, there are some really pretty ones.

I have made a couple of trees for the table. My local dollar tree had some 2 oz Mod Podge. I picked up a couple. This allows me to do small projects without having to open my big 16 oz bottle.

Inspiration hit this morning and I made the door decoration. I also sketched a dino on a poster board. I will paint it later or maybe tomorrow when all the kids are in school.

I can't wait to finish up the decorations. I just have to wait out Halloween. 

Here are some pictures of my progress. Keep an eye out for an update on the party.

 

 Thanks for stopping by! 

Hand Made Christmas

I have never been very confident in my ability to do anything well enough to have a hand made Christmas. I am a beginner at sewing, amateur jewelry maker and amateur crafter.

Since my daughter is American Girl obsessed, as I have said in previous posts, I am going to make some of her gifts. I found a little cabinet at goodwill which I think will make a perfect little fridge. I will be crafting items to go inside of it. I am also thinking of adding images to the insides of the doors that reflect the inside of a fridge. I am not sure where I will find the images, but I will have to look around.

I also found a little pantry at goodwill; it already contained two pies. I am going to paint this as well since I think it would look weird to leave it white when I am painting the little "fridge" black.

My local Tuesday Morning happened to have some 18 inch dolls. They also had a cute table and chairs set for $20. I was so excited. I know she is going to love these. I am making some little seat cushions and a table cloth.

My 8 year old son is into video games and I really can't think of ANYTHING to get him or make him. I really limit how much he can play video games during the week.


I guess I will be looking around on Pintrest for any ideas for my boys. If you see anything...let me know!!

The "fridge" I found. Needs some paint.

Needs some paint on the inside too and maybe some "fridge" images.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Since I have a couple of face painting jobs coming up I have been practicing as much as possible.

I am so lucky to have such great kids. They sit really still for me and are very patient.

Of course, the easiest place to practice is the inside of my left arm. I practice not just to get faster at my images but to also learn the paint consistency.

Butterfly Hole Punch Has Broken

I have loved my butterfly hole punch. I have a box full of beautiful butterflies I have punched from magazines. Now that I won't be using my hole punch again, I guess it's time to do something with all my butterflies.

I was at a thrift store last week and found a couple of cooling racks. I am going to make some butterfly mobiles. These have always been my plans for the butterflies, but I always put other projects first.
In honor of my broken hole punch, I am going to make one.

I didn't realize how much loosing my hole punch would bum me out. I receive various magazines and I always automatically look at the color combinations I could use my butterfly punch on. Now I flip through my magazines and think "what if."

So if you have an extra butterfly hole punch...or if it is sitting in a drawer somewhere gathering dust...I would LOVE to have it.

Face Painting Supplies

I am not a professional face painter. I have been painting on my children for a while now and even paint on other people's children periodically. I have an upcoming birthday party I am "working." I am really looking forward to this job.

I did a post in the past about just jumping in and painting you children's faces without any fear. In that post, I talked about the paints I picked up at WalMart that got me started. I have moved on a little more into the world of face painting but still do not consider myself a professional. I did want to share with you some of the things I have learned about face paints so that those of you who are on their journeys like myself can share in what I have learned.

The cheap kits sold at Halloween are fun because, if you get them on clearance, they are very inexpensive. I do not like the grease paints. They are sticky, get soft the longer you hold them and are a real pain to get off. Use a little cold cream to help remove the color stain. Halloween kits can also come with the dry paint that requires a little water to activate. Water based colors go on easy. These cheap paints can also stain some: cold cream.

As I have progressed to painting more faces and wanting to do more styles, I found myself expanding my paint supplies. The next face paint brand I purchased was Snazaroo. Snazaroo paints are easy to work with, they come off with a baby wipe and the color pallet was nice. The kit I purchased really let me try out the paints without committing to large quantities.When I received my kit in the mail, one of the colors was broken. Then while putting it away and taking it out, another color popped out of it's place and eventually broke was well.

I began to research buying professional paints. Boy, is that overwhelming. Because I had a prime membership, I stayed with Amazon to buy my paints. I picked up a Fazmataz rainbow split-cake similar to this. (Primary colors not neon.) I found that the color was not very bold on this brand. I used this at the field day for my son and found the colors faded bad. I now use this as my background to some designs.

I read that many professionals use Wolfe brand paints so I purchased a large (45g) orange, brown and red. I LOVE them. Wolfe is bright, easy to paint with and requires only a little to get good coverage. I bought Tag in black and white because they where a little less expensive. Tag is great as well. I know that eventually I will purchase all my primary colors as well as pink and purple in Wolfe or Diamond FX (which gets great reviews), but this will require a major investment.

I hope I didn't babble to much. This post has not been sponsored by any brand or is this post anybody's opinion except my own.

I would love to hear what your favorite paints are or maybe what your favorite split-cake is. I am still learning. I will be the first to always say I am not a professional, but always a student.

I used my rainbow split-cake and my new Wolfe orange.

 

The split-cake makes a quick background.

Go Fish...Mommy The Toy Doctor

My kids love fishing poles. We have never been fishing, but they love to just cast their poles in the backyard.

I had my little guy (2 1/2 years old) with me at Tuesday Morning a couple weeks ago and we came across a fishing pole just for him. The pole came with these disks that have a screw on the top edge. The end of the fishing pole has a magnet on it that is not very strong. Why they don't test these toys before they put them for on the store shelves, I have no idea!

Of course as soon as we get home and the package is ripped off we find that the toy does not work. The magnet does not pick up the disk because it is to weak to lift a big disk with a tiny screw as the metal contact point.

Mommy to the rescue. I took out my glue gun and raided the tool box. I found some small washers I could glue on the disks (fish). I then glued a strong magnet to the pole's "hook" end. Wouldn't you know it, the whole thing worked. I then cut out some fish out of foam I got at the dollar store. I glued a little washer on the back of these as well.

I love being able to take something that we would just throw away and making it work.

Thanks for stopping by,

Birthday Parties and Pintrest

I love birthday parties. I am the kind of person who will stay up all night to decorate. I start planning the birthday theme months in advance so I can keep an eye out for things to pick up when they are on sale. I make as much of the decorations as I can. For the goodie bags, I try to include as much as I can but spend as little as possible.

I have friends who do not like parties as much as me.  Being the great friend I am, I have told them "look on Pintrest." Yeah, that's not really helpful when you are not a crafty person and don't like parties.

Here are some simple things that you can do to make your party great, without having to be crafty.

1. Use streamers. Streamers are inexpensive and make for a quick party place dress up. If you don't want to hang streamers from the ceiling, just drape them on the wall, or put them up the wall.

I like to bring the streamers down the wall a little.

I removed a picture to cover the wall in streamers.

Streamer flowers

2. Make a birthday sign. You do not have to buy the "Happy Birthday" sign in the store. Use colored paper or book pages to make a unique sign.

The name banner is pages from a winnie the pooh book.

I took pages from a winnie the pooh book that had pictures on them and made a banner for the food table.

3. Cover the tables and surfaces with table clothes. Use solid colors, use the ones from the dollar store, use them on lots of surfaces. If you buy one from the store that has characters, use it on the table that will be the center of attention. Use accent colors for the area where the presents will go or if you have a table on the side with the goody bags. If your character table cloth is not big enough for the table you have, place solid color ones under it and then use it in the center of the table. Don't be afraid to layer them.

The table cloth made this table with the goody bags a part of the decor.

4. Balloons. Balloons. Balloons. We all know that nothing says party like balloons. I use them on the mailbox by the curb to make the party guest feel festive as soon as they pull up. The balloons don't have to be helium filled. I like to blow them up and tape them to the walls. (See picture above.)

5. Have fun. If you do nothing more than the above, the party will look great. The most important thing is that you set the tone for the kids. If the kids think you are unhappy with the party, they will be as well. Remember parties are a celebration. Don't stress if everything is not perfect or PINTREST worthy.

Which brings me back to Pintrest. I think as moms we tend to compare ourselves to other moms. We look at what they do and feel like we are inadequate. Don't fall into that trap. Use Pintrest to gather ideas not to get down on yourself. Use Pintrest as a tool to help you, not as a tool to make you spend more money.

I hope I have helped a little to make that next party less stressful.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bows From Tights

I spent the morning going through my daughter's closet and her dresser. We tried on all the shorts, skirts and jeans she had. Then we went through her shirts, dresses, sweaters and jackets.

I do not really need to go school clothes shopping this year. She has received some new shirts over the summer and had some new ones in her closet. She also had some shorts that I picked up on sale a while back.

While going through everything, I came across some tights that no longer fit. While I could just as easily put them in the donation pile, they looked fit to be made bows!
These bows can easily be made without sewing, but I like the added strength that sewing adds to the bows. (I have been knows to make bows right before school. In those cases I have used a small elastic to gather the ribbon and then just hot glue.)

Here is how it went:

The tights I found.

I love the color of the spots.

Cut off the top of the tights.

Cut the side seam of the "panty" part.

Cut along the waistband and the center seam.

Overlap the toe of the leg with the cut end.

Pinch and stitch.

Take the part cut from the panty and fold it over itself.

Use the panty to cover the center of the bow.

Now, I just hot glued the hair clip onto the bow at this point. I didn't get a picture of this yet, but promise to update it.

Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by.

Yadi

First Face painting Job

I have my first face painting job lined up in October.

Last night I layed in bed with my mind going round and round on what I would offer, what designs would be fast, which ones would the kids want...that kind of thing. I find it very hard to go to sleep when my mind is still going full blast.

I woke up this morning and decided to practice a few designs.

My 6 year old loves Frozen. I have a feeling she is not alone. I decided to try my hand at Olaf. I need to buy some brown paint for his arms, but I think the one I did came out cute.

 

The line-up will be : Olaf, Hello Kitty, a pumpkin, a bat, a dragon and some hearts. I am super excited.  

I will have to add pictures as I practice the designs I am going to do!

Thanks for stopping by!

Yadi

Ribbon Stash...new challenge

I think that it is very typical for a woman to think about having a little girl and all the cute things that come along with that. We picture cute bows and lots of pink with frills. There are some women who are lucky enough to have a little girl who loves the frills then there are the little girls that don't.
My daughter HATED anything in her hair. She would pull out any bow I put in. Now that she is 6, she will wear bows for specific situations (think picture day) but they come home in her backpack.
When I found out our second child was going to be a girl, I went out and began to buy ribbon. I started learning how to make bows and even made my fair share of them. Now I have a ribbon stash.
As I keep working towards a compressed craft stash, I decided it was time to work on the ribbon stash as well. I am going to make as many bows as I can and then maybe see about selling them. Depending on how many I can get made, I may just go to a local craft sale to sell them instead of listing them on Etsy.
I find making bows really soothing. I can do it while watching TV. (There are very few shows that I can say I actually "watch." Most shows I just listen too.)


Anyone else have a ribbon stash?

Doll Carrier

I found a canvas laundry bag on sale at Walmart the other day. The bag is 22 inches by 60 inches (or something close).

While I have no need for a laundry bag, I did think it would be perfect as a base for a doll carrier. My daughter loves her new Liberty Girl (American Girl knock off) and likes to take her places. I try to limit this since I could see her leaving the doll somewhere and then it getting lost.

I have seen a few doll carriers, all priced more than I would like to spend. Since the laundry bag was less than $5.00, well, I see it being converted into a carrier.

Now here is my dilemma:
Do I make the carrier a simple one to just carry the doll?
Do I make the carrier as a bag with the doll that hangs on the side?

Not sure what I mean... Here are some examples of bags/doll kind:
http://www.dolly-outfitters.com/doll-carriers/backpack-doll-carrier/
http://nonni-and-b.blogspot.com/2011/01/draw-string-backpack-with-attached.html
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002N80S7C/?tag=meissa-20
OR just for the doll:
http://nestfullofeggs.blogspot.com/2014/03/doll-carrier.html
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006J64SCU/?colid=3M22L0BDX5Y91&_encoding=UTF8&coliid=I1P55OQY65PV4Y&ref=gl_it_dp_o_S_ttl

I may have to sit my daughter down and go through the different choices to see what she would be excited about. She has 3 dolls so I think I need to take that into consideration too.
Maybe she would want something like this which allows her to carry two:
http://store.americangirl.com/agshop/html/item/id/226408/ctc/XSCOORD

Decisions, decisions.

Fabric stash

Oh my. Recently I have begun to sew for my daughter's 18 inch doll. In doing so I have realized I have a large stash of fabric. 

When did this happen?

I have cotton fabric, heavy fabric, flannel, tulle...

I think when my daughter was born I got the idea that I would make clothes for her. Yeah, didn't happen. Now she is 6 and I find myself sewing for her dolls.

Our home now has 3 18 inch dolls. We have a Journey Girl (birthday gift), a Be My Girl (picked up at Tuesday Morning for $7), and an Our Generation (picked up at thrift store for under $4). 

Pintrest has given me many free patterns to try and I have made a few skirts, but need to work on my shirt skills. Let me just say that 1/4 inch seam allowances are really a challenge for me.

Simple skirt with trim as detail.

Reversible skirt, side 1.

Reversible skirt, side 2.

Pillowcase dress.

Two dresses from an old toddler dress.

Tutu with lots of layers.

One skirt from a jean leg, another from a toddler skirt.

If you find a cute, easy pattern let me know.

Making a doll area wall or floor

I have been spending quality time with Pintrest looking at American Girl crafts. I noticed that it is common to make an American Doll play area since a doll house needed for 18" dolls is huge.

On a trip to our local Dollar Tree I noticed they had some decal back splash which would make a great floor.

With a dollar store foam core and a decal back splash I made a floor/ wall for my daughter.

I lined up the decal on one corner of the board. I attached this corner and slowly pulled away the decal back. I had to apply a little tension to prevent bubbles.

Here is the package

I pulled the backing off slowly to prevent bubbles.

Finished!

In all the project took a few minutes and my daughter loves it! I picked up some wood grain contact paper for $2.00 at Big Lots. Just need another foam board and I have another floor/wall...think 70s wood paneling.  

Here is the finished foam board in action!! Bet I could l make it too sided as well. Enjoy :)

Here it is as a wall.

Here it is as a floor.