5 Days of Crafting: Day #5 - Matroyshka Tooth Fairy Pillow

I realized as I was going through my blog that I never did post my Day #5 craft from back when My Marine was gone.

When Nani had her first loose tooth, I wanted to make her a tooth fairy pillow.  Her tooth came out before I had a chance to make it.  I figured I'd still make one anyway -- she has plenty of other teeth to come out, right?

While browsing other crafty blogs late one night, I came across this blog and this pattern.  While it was almost exactly what I had in mind, I decided to make my own pattern - just to make it a little bigger, and use more primary colors.

I hot glued the face, pocket and flowers, but ended up hand-stitching the entire pillow and stuffed it with just a little poly-fil to give it a little bulk.

I have to say, that I'm really proud of this particular project!  So much so that I'm going to make one for Nudgie and my niece.  I'm even thinking about just making more so the girls can play with them!

What do you think?

Read more...

5 Days of Crafting: Day #4 - Reading Chart and Journal

As you know, I am a HUGE reader.  I will read anything I can get my hands on.  My Marine - yeah....he's a reader too but he's more into the sports and war books - which is ok because at least our daughters still see him reading.  (Although he does have a bad habit of flipping through the book and reading random chapters.  Drives me up a freakin' wall!!)

I like to think I'm raising readers.  Nani is already reading at a first grade level and Nudgie can frequently be seen buried by surrounded by books in our little reading corner.

So, for spring, I decided to make a reading chart for the girls.  We did one last summer, so I just recycled the poster board and used the back.  I had some bulletin board edging leftover from another project and just reused that.  I also had some blank flowers that we'll be using to write down the names of the books that we read.

In addition to the reading chart, I created a little reading journal for Nani.  I found something very similar here, but in order to download it, you had to subscribe to their website and I just didn't want to pay $23.00 for a subscription.  So I made my own.  The reading journal has places for her to write the the name of the book, the author and illustrator, some words from the book, her favorite part and a section for her to draw a picture from the book.  Almost like a mini book report!  (I did it in Word on legal sized paper and printed it on both sides.)

My plan is to have her pick one book a week that she'll write about.  My hope is that it will help improve her vocabulary, writing skills, and comprehension.

If you like the idea and would like to use it, feel free to download page 1 here and page 2 here!  I won't charge a subscription fee....but I do ask that you please just link back to my post!

I plan on starting tomorrow since Nani's on Spring Break this week.  Stay tuned for our first week of reading!

Read more...

5 Days of Crafting: Day #3 - Rainbow Rice

I'm a little behind with posting our 5 Days of Crafting.  My mom is coming to visit on Wednesday so I've been frantically cleaning so that I'll pass the white glove test -- which I won't -- so why bother, right?  Because it's my mom and within 5 minutes of being in the door she'll start in on me about why is the laundry not folded.

But anyway......

I'm taking a few minutes away from folding laundry to share our Day #3 craft - rainbow rice.

I've been wanting to do this for awhile, but I finally got my act together and spent a couple hours after the kids were in bed coloring rice.



Big bag of rice.  About 1 cup of rice in a glass bowl



Add a few drops of food coloring and about a tablespoon of vinegar



Spread on wax paper on a baking sheet

Put in oven at around 250 for about 20 minutes.  Just to let it dry and let the color seep in.

I'd been saving the shaker spice bottles and had just enough for the rainbow colors.
The extra rice, I put into Tupperware for easy storage and refilling

Friday, after school, I printed out some pictures for the girls to decorate with the rice.  They were actually quiet for about an hour and -- wait for it -- didn't fight!

They had a pretty good time and my vacuum got a good workout sucking up the extra rice!

To see our Day #1 craft, click here.  To see my Day #2 craft, click here.

Read more...

5 Days of Crafting - Day #2

So, last night, while watching Army Wives, I decided to work on some picture frames that I've had in my craft stash for about a month now - one for Nani and one for Nudgie.  (Oh yeah, and to see what I did for Day #1, click here)

I found the frames on sale at Michael's.  What I like about these frames is that they have the actual "leg" on the back of the frame and not that little peg of wood that always seems to pop out.  (I really dislike those frames!)

I painted one purple (for Nani) and one yellow (for Nudgie).  I learned that I should have done a base coat of white on the yellow frame first - and then painted it yellow.  It never quite turned into the yellow that I wanted, and you could see the wood slightly seeping through.  (And that was after three coats!)

I found the letter stickers in the dollar bins at Michael's and already had the felt for the fabric rosettes (my latest crafting obsession!)

I'm really happy with the finished project!  And now I have to find the perfect pictures to put in them!!

(Disclaimer:  None of these craft supplies were purchased during my Lenten fast of craft stores!)

Read more...

Spring Flower Crafts

My Marine left yesterday for a 5-day mission and will be back sometime on Monday.  So while he's gone, I need to keep myself and the girls occupied which isn't too much of a problem.  But I decided to do a "5 Crafts in 5 Days" challenge with Nani.  While Daddy's gone, we're going to make a craft every day!

Yesterday we did a spring flower craft.

I gave Nani some scrapbook paper, glue and buttons and asked her to make some flowers.  I wanted to see what she could come up with on her own.  And she did a great job!  I was too busy watching her work that I didn't get any picture of her in "action".  But here's a picture of the completed project.

After Nani was in bed, I added some wire "stems" to her flowers and put them in a glass that I found at Goodwill for .49.  I added some blue decorative stones and a pink bow.

After I did that, mommy got to work on her craft!

I found this frame at Goodwill too.  Obviously, the fish motiff really didn't go well with anything in our home (thank God!) so I decided to recycle it.

I repainted the frame a Caribbean blue, popped the glass out, and covered the mat with yellow felt.  Then I made 4 felt rosette flowers.  I thought they looked a little plain as is, so I cut out some circles from some other fabric scraps I had laying around.  Add some buttons, ribbon, and felt leaves -- and viola - a perfect flower garden!  I also had some butterfly buttons that I found buried in the bottom of my button box, so I added those too.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!  Now I just have to find somewhere to put it!

Read more...