Sandpaper shirts

 I love crafts that result in something the  kids can actually use and this is one of them. It's a great indoor or outdoor project that you can make as involved as you want and adapt for different ages- do more or less for them.

I saw the technique on Pinterest. There is a good tutorial on the Fairly Fabulous blog and if you search Pinterest for "sandpaper shirts" you will get many more ideas on ways to use this method. I like how someone used it on onesies for a babyshower gift!

I adapted the method slightly so my kids (4 and 2 at the time) would be coloring shapes instead of free hand drawing.






The technique works best I think when there is a large block of color/s instead of lines. You can either cut the shapes for them or have them cut their own using cookie cutter as templates for example.

If you're doing letters remember to cut them backwards so they are facing the right way on the t-shirt. 

My kids loved making these and how they turned out. Would also make great gifts!

Black and White Platter Set

I wanted to make something personalized as a wedding gift for a close friend and thought of a hand-painted platter set with her new last name's initial. Of all our wedding gifts, along with our dinning room table, platters are definitely among the ones we use the most on a regular basis.
I can't take any credit for this, I got the idea, templates and tutorial on how to paint them from the article "Painted Botanical Mugs" by Grace Bonney and Kate Pruitt. I used a Pebeo Porcelaine 150 marker and carbon paper (like the one used to transfer patterns onto fabric) to transfer the design onto the plates.
The set consisted of two flat square platters, one deep square bowl, two smaller square bowls and two trivets. I put them all in a basket and also included six black placemats and napkins to go with the set.

The finished set... Perfect for some hors d'ouvres!

 

I then  put them in a nice black wicker basket with some matching black placemats and napkins to complete the gift. 

 

Deck Party Couscous Salad

This is a quick, cheap and fresh salad to whip up in the last minute before a cookout or to bring for a picnic. It is the perfect side dish to go with grilled meat, fish or other barbeque items, and very colorful too.

Ingredients:

• Pint of cherry or grape tomatoes,
• 1 cup of raisins,
• 2 cups of couscous,
• 1 cup of carrots
• 1/2 cup of sliced almonds
• 2 TBS of chopped fresh parsley
• 1 cup of diced apple
• Olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper

Other ingredients you could add/ substitute into if you don't have the ones above handy:
Chickpeas, pine nuts or walnuts (instead of almonds), pear (instead of apple), onion, cramberries
(instead of raisins), black olives, basil (instead of parsley), peas, corn.

The amounts are completely eye-balled, you can add more or less of each of the above. This is the type of recipe you really can't screw up, so play it by ear and experiment as you go along to get a nice mixture of colors, tastes and textures.

1. Dice the carrots into small pieces and boil them until they are a bit soft but not so much that they fall apart.
2. While the carrots are cooking, make the couscous. This usually only takes five minutes.
3. Add some oil to a pan and toast the sliced almonds slightly with a bit of salt.
4. Make a dressing with the olive oil, vinegar, salt and parsley to taste.
5. Once the couscous and the carrots have cooled, toss all the ingredients together, mix them around and drizzle the dressing in. 
6. Taste, and add some more salt if needed.
7. Ideally, chill in the refrigerator for an hour or so, but if you're in a rush, it's perfectly delicious at room temperature.
8. This dish will keep nicely for a few days, so double or triple the batch.

Leo's Pirate Pants

Leo was feeling a bit left out after all the doll-clothes-making that was going on last weekend, so I decided to make him a pair of pirate pants from some basic cotton fabric I had in my stash. I made the waistband and pant cuffs from a turtleneck I shrank. They are a bit thin for the winter, they would have probably been better lined with fleece, but they'll be great for playing around in spring.

They were easy and fast, a 2-hour project. I pretty much winged them because I have no patience for following instructions, but here are the best tutorials I've found for making pants, fully illustrated with awesome pictures.

Prudent Baby
http://prudentbaby.com/2010/06/baby-kid/how-to-sew-pants-2/
Made
http://www.danamadeit.com/2008/07/tutorial-and-pattern-kid-pants-the-basic-pants.html
Make it and Love it
http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2009/08/repurposing-boys-lounge-pants.html

Doll Fashions

Sofia has two dolls she loves: Mika and Marta (my namesake). While she isn't really into dressing them up yet, I am, so any chance I get I "convince" her they should have new clothes. Here are their latest fashions.

Mika (blue bow) is wearing a summery outfit, perfect for a stroll on the boardwalk. I made the pants from an old long-sleeve onesie and used a piece of a footed PJ for the pants' waitsband (the pants were serious low-riders when I first cut them and if you've ever seen a CBK's butt crack, you know how indecent it is...) and the tank top. The pants have an elastic and the tank top some velcro in the back.

Marta is more girlie, so I made her a simple pillowcase dress using an old shirt I had and made her another pair of pants like Mika's using the sleeves from a tee shirt Sofia (I cut these "higher" than the other ones so they didn't need an added waistband).

I also made them some diapers from left over flannel because they aren't potty trained yet.

If you need instructions on how to make any of the above, let me know by commenting below, but here are some links to Handmade Doll Clothes tutorials:
http://kinderpendent.blogspot.com/2011/04/handmade-doll-clothes-roundup.html
Kat L. Has a great "All Dolled Up" board on Pinterest http://pinterest.com/galwaygal/all-dolled-up/
Dollar Doll Clothes from Underwear- http://olddaysoldways.blogspot.com/2009/10/dollar-doll-clothes-from-underwear...
Also, if you just search for "doll clothes" on Pinterest, you'l see a tone of awesome tutotials for doll fashions... http://pinterest.com/search/?q=doll+clothes

Valentines Day 2012- Debriefed

"Pretzel Buttons" for the Teachers

This delicious idea for a Valentines treat came from Pinterest, it's from a great blog called G*Rated which includes the instructions on how to make them and very nice pictures, check it out!

I am no baker, I rarely stray from the box, so I liked the simplicity of this idea, but also the fact that it was a perfect activity for the kids. They had to line up all the pretzel squares on the oven tray, unwrap each Hershey kiss and place one on top of each pretzel (as you can see from the pictures, some did not make it...). I did the M n M part myself, didn't trust them with that... We then put a handful of the Valentines treats in celophane bags for each of their teachers and adorned them a bit. 

 

"Heart Surprise" Valentines Cards

The concept behind these cards might have been a little over the head of the 4 and 2 year olds receiving them, but they were definitely fun to make (for me). Don't know why I had this idea in my head of making something with those paper spring things we used to make when we were young, but this is what came out of it...The kids helped me stick the Valetines monster greeting on the cards and stamp the envelopes.

 

Classmates Goody-bags

This is the first year my kids are in preschool, so I didn't know about classmate goody bags until they came back with a bunch of little bags with treats on Halloween and then again at Christmas. In the spirit of keeping up with the rest of the Martha Stewarts in the class, I made sure to send them with something for their classmates on Valentines Day. I figured they would get a lot of chocolate, candy hearts and pencils, so we made glitter playdough in pink and purple and also put in some bubbles that I had found at Michaels. If you've never made playdough before, the texture is great and it keeps forever. It is much cheaper than the one you buy and you can customize it with scents and colors. The recipe I used can be found below these pictures.

DYI Playdough Recipe:

• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 2 TBS cream of tartar
• 1 TBS oil
• 4 cups water

Mix the flour, salt and cream of tartar in a deep pan. Add the water and the oil, along with any food coloring and scent. Mix.

Cook over medium heat, stirring until the mixture starts to pull away from the pan and forms a ball. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Glitter, more food coloring, etc can be added at this stage too. Knead till its soft and store in an airtight container or ziplock bag.

 

It was a fun day at school, everyone was happy with their "stash"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alphabet Train & "I Spy" Bottles

ALPHABET TRAIN

This was Day 2 of being stuck at home this weekend because of the bitter cold outside. I can't take credit for this activity, it was all my husband, but I thought it was such a good idea that I figured I'd share :) It's based on Blue's Clues "Alphabet Train" and it's really simple. Write one letter of the alphabet on each piece of paper and stick them in order on the floor with some tape making a "train" around the house. Then have the kids find one object in the house that starts with that letter and place it on top of the appropriate piece of paper.

Our kids (4 and 2) got a bit tired because they had to keep singing the alphabet song to figure out which letter came first. So we split the activity into morning and afternoon, it ended up being a fun whole day event. For older kids, you could time how long it takes them to gather/ place all the objects and see if they can improve their own record (finding completely new objects the second time around).

 

"I SPY" BOTTLES

These are based on the popular "Find It Games" tubes. I got the idea from the Toys in The Dryer blog, follow the link for the tutorial. Since my kids can't read yet, we took a picture of all the objects before putting them in and used that as the "find it card". One mistake I made is not putting more rice in, the objects were pretty easy to find. I think next time I might also try using food coloring on the rice (maybe several colors) to make the bottle more colorful and the game more challenging. Check out the photos for some ideas on things to put in.