Kid's Fun Wednesday - Balloon Animals

My husband got into making balloon animals recently. He said it is almost therapeutic. Our little one likes the squeaking sound. And our toddler likes to play with them.  

Here are a few cute ones he made.

Parrot

Elephant

Dog

Kitten

Flower

Weekend DIY - penguin pillow

I found this cutest penguin pillow on Youtube Ann Lee's channel. She's also got a cute owl pillow in that Youtube video. Go check it out and see which one you prefer.

I just sketched the pattern. I folded the paper in half, only drew the right side and cut.

In the original video, Ann used fleece which makes the pillow super soft and cozy. I didn't wanna run out to Joann in this cold night. So I just used the black and white felt fabric I already have at home.

Got the penguin outline done.

Fill in eyes and nose.

Sew it along on the wrong side.

I did leave a small hole so I could stuff the penguin.

More 3D looking now because of the stuffing.

Dress up the penguin the way you want. A pink bow?

Or a Christmas hat!

Wouldn't this make a great home decor piece for Christmas??!!

Kid's Fun Wednesday - DIY simple play mat tee shirt

My husband is out of town for a couple of days. I made this really simple play mat using his old (semi-old) white tee shirt to surprise him. 

I have all of materials I need to do this project. 

White tee shirt

Fabric pens. I got mine from Jo-ann a long time ago. I believe you can now find fabric pens from Dollar Tree. How awesome!

Pencil.

Outline the road first using the black fabric pen. Please ignore the unfinished pool.

Then add the details.

What are the places my daughter likes in town?

Playground, pool, Mcdonald's.

Daycare. We like La petite Academy.

We just recently bought her a bicycle. So I added a bicycle in front of  the house.

She just learnt the shape octagon and I've been pointing stop signs to her. 

Since we live in Arizona where there are a lot of saguaras, I added two saguaras.

And her toy cars (from Target dollar spot), toy motorcycle.

Before my husband got home, my daughter is having fun playing with it on the area rug.

Let me share with you these awesome posts that inspired me.

I got the idea of making the play mat out of my husband's tshirt from the blue basket.

Picture from http://thebluebasket.blogspot.com/2011/09/tutorial-car-shirt.html#more

The playground from how does she's road rug is really simple and cute.

Picture from http://www.howdoesshe.com/made-with-love-road-rug/

Cookcleancraft pretty much has everything you need to build your own town.

Picture from http://cookcleancraft.com/2011/02/felt-car-play-mat-house/

I had the road on my play mat zig-zaged just like this from agirlandagluegun's car mat.

Picture from http://www.agirlandagluegun.com/2010/05/car-mat.html

Organization Monday - DIY hair clip organizer/display

Gather an old photo frame (not shown in the picture below) and some ribbons to start this project.

 For the clips, leave the ribbons slightly loose. My frame is actually pretty beaten up looking, so I used two coats of white acrylic paint to cover it up.

 For hair bands, these loops created using just dabs of hot glue work pretty well.

Happy Halloween! Easy spiderweb cupcake

If you need some last minute Halloween treats for you kids. Go head and make this easy spiderweb cupcakes. No baking experience needed.

I found the receipe here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mjvjHsC2cA

Happy Halloween.

Weekend DIY - Little Doctor costume from adult's shirts

You just need one white shirt and one or two blue shirts (depending on the size) to make this little doctor outfit.

Resize the body part and the sleeves based on my daughter's 2T long sleeve tee.

To give it more lab coat/white coat feeling, add pockets, and iron the collar.

Now the scrub top. I happen to have one old blue blouse at hand.

This is pretty straightforward. Use a top as pattern, cut it.

And sew.

The toy stethoscope is a must to complete the outfit. You can basically find it everywhere from Walmart, Target, Walgreens, to online stores like eBay and Amazon.

And a little doctor in the doctor's office.

Weekend DIY - Big Paper Bunting Photo Backdrop

I got this beautiful Chinese traditional dress from eBay earlier this year for my daughter for Chinese New Year. At that time, she was a little bit too short for the dress. Now it fits her perfectly.

This morning, I just got this idea of taking some good photos of her wearing this dress. So I searched ideas of DIY photo backdrop.  What I'm looking for is something really easy and quick (less than 10 minutes). This is what I came up with, big paper buntings in a white background.

All you need is some spare scrapbook paper you already have at home, a pair of scissors, a pencil, a ruler and twine.

After the photo shooting "session", I used the bunting as the decor for the kid's room. 

On the right corner, there is a DIY hair clip organizer/display I made. Go ahead and click this link to check it out. http://cis4crafting.blogspot.com/2015/11/organization-monday-diy-hair-clip.html

Hair Clip of the Month - Felt Strawberry Hair Clip 9/9/2015

After making this felt strawberry yesterday, I realized I should have made an apple since September is the back to school month. Oh well, being a mother of two kids, I admit I don't think things straight anymore.

I totally go this cute felt strawberry design from the website "madeit". This is the first time I ran into this website. It looks like another version of Etsy. Check out the link below.

Pictue from  http://www.madeit.com.au/Main/Item?itemId=937497

Again, since I did not come up with the design and someone is actually selling these hair clips online, I don't feel comfortable making a tutorial. I think once you see the clip and have some spare felt fabric around it is pretty easy to make.

Next month, the hair clip theme should be Halloween related. I'm collecting ideas right now. Let me know if you have any cool Halloween hair clip ideas.

Hair Clip of the Month - Loopy Puff Ribbon Hair Bow 8/9/2015

I used the tutorial on YOUTUBE to make the hair bows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ7pVCMvmEM

What I did was I gathered ribbons from white, baby pink to hot pink around the house and cut them into small strips (~3 inch long).

Then I stacked the folded ribbon strips into the white thread using a needle.

After all of the strips got into the thread, I tied a really tight knot.

The ribbons need to be adjusted a little bit into this puffy shape. Last step was to attach the alligator clip to the puffy bow using hot glue.

I made two of these Loopy Puff Ribbon Hair Bows, the hair clip for my elder daughter and the headband for my little one who was born in August. I was hoping that I could take a picture of my two princesses together with the matching hair bows. In my imagination, it would be so cute.

However, the toddler considers this hair bow a toy rather than a hair accessory and the headband is way too big for the baby. My bad. I probably have to wait a few more months before getting the photo I want.

I will be posting the hair clip I made for the month of September tomorrow. Stay tuned.