DIY Kid's Felt Board

I really like this project because it's one of those awesome projects that can be as simple or as elaborate you you have skill/time/desire.  You can add and make more pieces or you can stick to the basics.  And the truth is the little is going to love it either way.

Here's what you will need:

1) An art canvas or board (I used two 14x11 canvases)

2) two paint stir sticks (if you are making a larger board using canvases

3) Felt--you will need one large piece at least 27"x19", a second smaller piece about 14x22" for the back and then a few smaller pieces in varying colors

4) fabric scraps in various prints--I used a mix of some vintage and new scraps from my stash

5) scissors 

6) staple gun

7) fabric glue (I recommend Beacons Fabritac)

I chose to use two art canvases for two simple reasons.  First I already owned them so I didn't have to spend any money. Second, the two together made the perfect size to rest on the floor in front of little bit and give her plenty of room to work her creative magic.  But mostly it's because it's what I had to work with--if you have a board left over from a project that would work great too!

I measured and cut the felt for the front of the board first. Then I turned the canvases over and using my paint stir sticks as a brace stapled them to the back of the frames.  You can see below it creates a nice, stable connection for the two canvases.

Next I wrapped the felt around the front of the board and securing it to the back with the staple gun.  After that I took a second piece of felt and glued it over the back to conceal the the staples and keep it safe for little baby hands.  

Here's a shot of the back of the felt board. after I covered it.  

And here is the front.  I added hand embroidered felt grass to the bottom to add some detail and charm.  I also wanted to make a few felt animals for the board so thought the grass would make it more fun to play pretend.  

To make the alphabet I cut out each of the letters in fabric and then in felt and glued the fabric to the felt. I had originally planned to sew them together, but When I tried one, it some of flattened and made them weird.  Plus it would have been a VERY tedious process.  So instead, glue :)

I also created a set of primary colored shapes, a few animals and a few hand sewn flowers to make it fun.  Maybe I will add of few other things as she grows--as set of numbers maybe and a few more animals.  

I am so excited for little miss to start playing and learning and enjoying this new little project.  And the best part is I can move it from room to room so we can take the entertainment with us around the house!  

Valentines Baby Headband Tutorial

Happy Monday!  Hope you had a great weekend.  Do you ever sit down to write on Mondays and honestly can't remember a thing about your weekend?  That was me this morning.  We had a good weekend--grabbed dinner with friends, rented a movie or two to get caught up for awards season.  

Last week I shared little miss's Valentines inspired heart headband and today I wanted to share a little tutorial so you can make one of your own!

To make your own headband you will need: 

Red and white ribbon.  I got this spool as a gift from my aunt (does she know the way to my heart or what?) 

Measuring tape

White elastic (the softer the better--this is for those soft baby heads!)

Two 4" by 4" pieces of felt one in red and the other white

White embroidery thread

Fabric glue (not pictured)

Small binder clips, chip clips or clothes pins (not shown)

A scrap of graph paper and a pencil (optional)

First you will need to know what size baby head you are working with.  You can do this either by measuring (which can be tricky--they are very wiggly subjects) or what I prefer to do is use the head measurement from our last doctors's visit and add an eight or a quarter inch to that measurement for each month past the visit.

Now, measure and cut a 4 inch piece of elastic.

After you have done that, subtract 3.5 inches from your measurement.  That is the length you need to cut two equal in length pieces of ribbon.

Now, this is the trickiest part (and it not that tricky!)...lay one strip of ribbon face or polka dot side down.  Run a moderate strip of glue down the entire length of the ribbon adding extra glue on the last quarter of a inch at each end.

Next take the other piece of ribbon you cut and lay it face down putting glue only on the last quarter inch of each end.

Now take the elastic and lay the last quarter inch of the elastic on the last quarter inch of the first ribbon.  then fold the second ribbon over on the elastic and first ribbon, pressing along the way and removing any excess glue with your finger.

When you get to the last quarter inch of ribbon bring the other end of the elastic around and place it between the two ribbons and press firmly.

Now take your binder clips or clothes pins and clamp them where the ribbon and elastic meet.  Set aside to dry.

While the headband is drying cut a heart shape out of your read felt.  I free handed mine but if you aren't great at free handing use a piece of graphing paper to sketch out a pattern.

Using the red heart as a guide, cut two hearts out of the white felt that are an eight of an inch larger all the way around.

Using the embroidery thread and a straight stitch stitch your read heart however you would like.

Take the read heart and glue it onto one of the white hearts.  After the headband is finished drying take the two white hearts and place glue on them and press them around the ribbon just off center.  Wait to dry and then try it on your little model!

I would love to see how yours turned out!  

Planter Make Overs

As I mentioned a week or so ago, during morning nap time I have been dashing out to the backyard to tidy things up and work on a few projects.  One of the projects I have been working on is figuring out about the planter situation for our patio.  

Our patio pots look like hell.  There is no way around it.  They are faded and sad looking and to add insult to patio injury we were gifted some second hand planters from the previous owners as well that were equally sad and faded.  Since like most folks we live on a budget round here, new pots and planters just aren't in the budget this year, we have other things higher up on that house to-do list.  But I love planting and gardening and growing things too much.  I also like things to look neat and tidy and not, well, like hell.

So I decided to do a quick makeover of our existing planters until next summer (when it will actually be in the budget).  My idea was to gather up all the different style and colored planters both ours and gifted and spray them all a single color to tie them together and cover the fade and ugly and age. 

Here is a "sort of before" picture.  Why sort of?  Well I got so excited about this project I didn't take a proper "before" picture of the whole ugly collection.  When I realized this I snapped a quick pic of the bases I hadn't sprayed yet so you could see the fade, but this is most definitely not the worst of it!

Although the many color to choose from in the spray paint isle were tempting I decided to go with a white semi-gloss to keep things neat and simple.  My goal was to spray them all nice and evenly with a plastic primer and then the white, do the best I could with my two cans of spray and then hope the plants grew over any imperfections.  Quick, cheap and hopefully a little less ugly.  

Here they are after I sprayed them but before I planted.  To be honest at this point in the project I sort of thought they looks not as bad but close.  Well, maybe that's an overstatement but I was still skeptical of my own project.  

Then I filled each of them with sun friendly plants, following the rule of tall growing, mid-growth or mounding and vines.  

I think the purple and yellow sweet potato vines will hide any imperfection and I already think its a nice improvement.  And for the cost of two cans of spray paint ($3.95 each), I think its not too bad!

What projects are you hoping to tackle on the cheap this summer?  

DIY Nursery Mobile How-To

For this week's Tuesday Crafties I shared the mobile I made for the little miss's room.  Now I thought I would share how I made it so you could make your own!

To make your own you'll need:

the inside hoop of a needle point hoop

half a skien of yarn

various colors of felt 

embroidery thread 

craft glue (I like FabriTac)

a sharp pair of scissors 

and stuffing (not pictured)

To start I took the hoop and placed a thin dot of glue on the inside lip to tack my yarn down.  Then I wrapped the entire hoop in the purple yarn I had chosen.  When you have made it all the way around, secure the finishing end with another dot of glue and let dry.  To keep from holding the loose end down while it dries I used a small plastic clothes pin to hold it securely until it was done. 

Next, while the glue is drying cut your mobile shapes out of the colored felt.  I chose birds and free handed the first one and then used it as the template for the rest.  You could easily do circles or flowers or another kind of animal for yours.  Cut out two identical shapes for each color. 

Here are my bird bodies and wings above.  After you cut out your shapes, choose your thread.  At first I thought about doing contrasting colors for the stitching but then decided to go tone on tone. I also chose dark brown and dark blue thread to do the eyes.  First I used a double French knot stitch to make the eyes on each body.  Next I glued the beak on to the inside sides of one of the bodies.  Then I stitched up the body, making sure that I stuffed the stuffing in before finally closing it up.  After that I put a little stitch around the wings and glued them on as well.  This step takes the longest because of the all the hand stitching, even though I consider myself pretty quick.  To save time you could sew them on a machine, I just like the folksy sort of look of the hand stitching and thought it contributed to the overall look I was trying to accomplish.  

I tried to do them in as many colors and I could and to try to balance light and dark, bright and muted colors.  I think they turned out so cute!

I set the cute birds aside and returned to my yarn hoop to create the hanging apparatus.  To make the hanging part I took the same yarn I used to wrap the hoop and measured out nine pieces of yarn roughly five yards long each.  (I chose a really long length because we have high ceilings and I wanted a little extra to drape when I hung it)  I divided the yarn into groups of three, and folded them in half, so I had six strings.  I then tied them to the hoop 1/3 of the way around.

With each set of six strings I divided them into threes and braided the yarn about 12 inches.  I did this for each set. I used a chip clip to hold the braid and keep it from unraveling while I braided the next. When I had them all braided, I gathered them together and held the whole thing up so I could make sure the hoop was level.  Once I had it level I tied all the yarn into one big knot.  

Then I took the large group of yarn and redivided it into thirds and braided the rest of the two and a half yards or so.  When I only had about 9 inches of yarn left I tied the whole thing off and trimmed the yarn evenly to create a tassel at the end.  

To affix the birds to the mobile frame I first strategized to stagger the birds so that they would alternate light and dark, bright and muted and not place two that were similar in color too close to each other.  I also sewed together ten birds so i decided to hang two sets of three and two sets of two to create a staggered look as well.  I then took a quilting needle (read needle with an eye large enough to get yarn through) and used it to thread the yarn through the center of the birds.  I tied the yarn off under the last bird and then tied the top of the strand of birds to the hoop.  

Ta-da! Here is the final project.  

Pretty cute huh?  I thought about adding a few strands of tinier birds through out but for now this is perfect!  And the nice thing about it is it's soft so in the night if bump my head on it it doesn't hurt and it also doesn't set off a bunch of noise and lights like some mobiles! 

If you try this project I would love to see how you adapt it and make it your own!  If you don't want to give it a try but want one, shoot me a message and I can make you one.