Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Order up!

One of Pickles' favorite thing about Thanksgiving is Christmas. Yep, Christmas. Every year at Thanksgiving we give the kids a Christmas list handout. It's a fun little worksheet that the kids fill out instead of just making a list. They can have questions, fill-in-the-blanks, silly trivia and more. The kids really have fun with them. Try handing these out for a little change of pace. Feel free to print and use these!



 


 


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Monday, October 28, 2013

Pretty Pins - Girl Scout gifts

Something all Girl Scouts celebrate is the birthday of Juliette Gordon-Low, founder of the Girl Socuts. It falls on October 31 and is usually celebrated with a birthday party, ice cream social or a fun event of some sort.

Our troop celebrated the day before at our troop meeting. I wanted to make a special little gift for the girls and looking at painting of J-Low, realized it would make a pretty piece of jewelry.


So I looked through the craft stash and took out some goodies:
Bottle caps
beads & small sequins
white tulle
felt
safety pins
Juliette Gordon-Low

First things first, rub the back of the bottle caps with some sandpaper to scuff it up. Trust me on this, it's help with gluing later! So, I printed the pic above, sizing it to fit inside the bottle caps and glued them in with some glitter glue and let it dry.
 
 
 
Because we're talking about little girls (and one pre-teen) here, I knew that "sparkle" would have to be a part of this gift. Yes, shiny is best isn't it? So I  filled the cap with some glitter, iridescent sequins and a shiny bead or two.
 
I put some glitter glue around the edge of the bottle cap and laid a square of tulle on top of it (just trimmed it when the glue was dry). You can also use glitter nail polish, it's shiny, it dries quickly and hardens when it does.
 
Finally, I made circles from the felt, cutting slits so that the clasp and the spring were exposed and the staff was glued behind the felt, against the back of the bottle cap (which you pre-scraped to help the glue adhere).


 
 
Each girl got a fun, sparkly pin featuring Juliette! My advice, use the larger, choppy glitter so it doesn't fall out through the tulle!
 
 
 
 
 


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Friday, February 8, 2013

A Place for Pickles

A while ago...a long while ago, I salvaged a cute and fab vanity chair from the roadside. It was a mid-century treat to find it and I took it home to love.I sat at my vanity for a while, but after Pickles' vanity make-over I decided she should have it. Sometimes I really hate making permanent changes to vintage finds. I love the old look of them so I try to find ways of updating without altering.

In this case, it wa as simple as sewing up some quick covers. Naturally I wanted it to coordinate with her room and that was easy because I used the bedskirt for her bed!

 
 
For the back of the seat, I simply cut a a rectangle and sewed up the top and the side leaving the
 bottom (already hemmed, thanks to the manufacturer!) open to slip over the back.
 
In my fabric stash I found a great piece of purple stretch velvetine. I folded that in half, just like the bedskirt material and sewed up two sides again, making a sleeve to slip over the seat.
 
 
Finally, for the skirt....literally, I made an elastice waistband skirt. I cut more of the bed skirt fabric and folded the top over to make a "waistband" for the elastic. I ran elastic through it and sewed the two ends together. There's a great tutorial here at DanaMadeIt.


 
 
It was an easy project that was quick to make. I dare venture to say, you could get the same results with iron-on fusable tape instead of sewing. It turned a chair into a little throne!
 


 
 
 


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Thursday, January 3, 2013

A Tail of Christmas

Animal lovers know that our furry friends are part of the fun at family get-togethers. They hang out, they photobomb, they beg for scraps. They can even get in on the gift giving. Now that Christmas is over, I can tell you that Mother Darling got a special present from her "granddogs".

The pooches decided that Mother Darling should have a sweet trinket to keep them near to her. A photo bracelet is just what Santa ordered! Pepper and the gang asked for my help due to the fact that well, they don't have thumbs. The materials included:
 
Photo charm bracelet (on clearance at the craft store)
Clear bubble stickers
Small printed pic of the granddogs
 
First thing was to cut the pics to fit inside the bubble stickers. The easier thing to do though, was to just place the stickers on the pictures. Then I just cut them both out!
 
 
Once all the pics are cut, I just glue them into the bracelet. Easy peasy, right?
 
Now Mother Darling has something fab from her favorite paw pals!
 


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