CoopCrafts

If you anticipate having a bored child at some point this winter, it’s a good idea to have a stash of knit gloves, Velcro dots and practice golf balls hidden away.  I took these along when visiting with my tiny nieces and nephew at the holidays, and they helped me with these pictures.

First you want to stick the scratchy Velcro dots to the practice golf balls.  (Don’t stick the scratchy dots on the gloves or the gloves will stick to themselves and you’ll end up with a frustrated child.  Not what we’re going for here!)

Crafting lets you sneak in all kinds of other learning.  If you want the kids to work on their counting skills, give instructions like, “Let’s put five dots on this ball.”

You don’t really need the softer Velcro dots on the gloves, but the kids will probably like sticking them on.

My little niece really enjoyed this part.  She put her hands in the gloves to see how far up she needed to put the dots, and then imagined herself much bigger and put the dots way above her fingertips.  The gloves themselves will work as the soft Velcro to catch the balls, so no correction was needed.  Let them imagine big grown up hands, it’s all good.

When it’s time to play, it’s better to just use one glove to catch and keep one hand glove-free to pull off the ball and throw back.  Tell them it’s like baseball, you just wear one.

Suddenly they’re WAY better at playing catch than they’ve ever been before!  All you need to do is toss the ball to their hands and it will stick.

Catch played this way helps younger kids and older kids to play together with much less “can’t catch” drama.  My sports minded brother in law noticed that gloves made it easier to catch the “right” way, either over or underhanded, and thought it would help in their sports development.  I just liked having quiet craft time with a group of small kids of different ages, and they ended up with self-made toys they could keep.  This craft was a winner all the way around!

I purchased this little unfinished wooden family from Goose Grease Undone as a Christmas gift for my brother and sister in law’s family.  They’re home schooling, and I thought this would make a creative art project and keepsake to let each of the kids paint their own self portrait.  It will be interesting to see the details the different aged kids see in themselves, and even a messy, multicolored little one would be absolutely adorable.

The kit comes in a wooden box that makes gift giving easy – I added a ribbon and a tag and it was ready to go!

Who knows, maybe one of them will see themselves as a ninja.

(This one is from MooShooPork.  My kids asked for “tiny ninjas” for Christmas.)

Thanks to working (and playing) online, I have friends spread across the country.  I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to meet many of them, and we often start the day together with a little virtual coffee.  (It looks like this: [___]D.  I use the big mugs.)  When I decided to send a little Christmas greeting to some of these friends, coffee was the first thing that came to mind.

I found a pattern for felt coffee at Umecraft’s Etsy shop and managed to make about ten in the time I had left between finishing other Christmas gifts and my own shipping deadline.  I wish I could have made so many more!

They look simple (and really, they are) but each cup of felt coffee is made up of 14 pieces, plus stuffing.

I love how you can flip over the coffee to have cream or not.

One friend prefers Dr. Pepper to coffee, that’s hers in the background.

I shipped them each with a little calendar from Alidesign.

Here’s to another great year together!

I took this picture of my “niece” Dallas as her Daddy was frying up some bacon for his house guests.  It was hard enough on poor Dallas when she was tossed outside, but then when those fabulous bacon smells began drifting through the open window … well, that was nearly too much for her!

I loved the expression on her face and decided to try making a redwork Dallas as a gift for her parents.  I went with the quickest “lightbox” I had, my computer, held up a white piece of cotton fabric, then traced the parts of the photo I wanted to use with a fabric pen.  (I probably shouldn’t recommend that, but it worked for me.)  When completed and added to the frame I painted just for this project, it looked like this:

I should try this with my own pets next.

If you want a quick, easy way to add a festive holiday scent to your home without using artificial (chemical) air fresheners, plug ins or candles, try making up your own simmering potpourri of spices and fresh fruit.  You’ll just need a small saucepan or a mini-crock pot, water and a few of the following:

• An orange
• A lemon
• Fresh cranberries
• Cinnamon sticks
• Whole cloves
• Nutmeg
• Bay leaves
• Star anise

Or any kind of fruit or spices you like – the combination of scents is completely up to you.  Just toss in your ingredients, add water and simmer over low heat.  (Keep an eye on it and add more water as needed.)  We’re using oranges, cinnamon sticks and whole cloves and it smells Mmmmmm!

Tell Me a Story blocks are just simple wooden cubes painted with pictures on the sides.  Young children can roll them like dice and tell you a story using the random pictures that end up on top.  Older children can write out their stories for practice with handwriting, sentence structure, paragraph building, story construction (with a clear beginning, middle and conclusion) and so much more!  With the older kids, you get a nice bonus — a story for you to keep.

To make your own set of blocks, you’ll need some plain wooden blocks (available at most craft stores), some fine sandpaper, varnish and paint or paint pens.  First, lightly sand the blocks to remove any rough spots, then sand down the corners a little more if these will be used by young children.  Wipe the blocks down well to remove the sawdust, then apply a coat of varnish to seal the blocks and help keep the paint from bleeding.  Then paint simple pictures on each side of the cubes and cover with a few more coats of varnish.

Try to let the kids decide for themselves what each picture shows.  For instance, I see a red mitten where someone else might see an oven mitt, a boxing glove or even a rooster’s comb.

Tell Me a Story blocks are a great way to encourage creative writing and story telling.  Maybe when your child outgrows the picture blocks you could make a new, larger set with vocabulary words.

Happy crafting!

My little sister in law loves to entertain.  I love my little sister in law so I embroidered fun food quotes on a set of eight cloth napkins for her.  Here are a few more of them:

If you’d like to try your hand at these, just use a fabric marker that’s water or air soluble to write or trace your quotes on purchased fabric napkins, then stitch along the lines.  I got my food quotes from QuoteGarden.com. (I LOVE Quote Garden and use them for my CoopPics blog, too.)

That Earl Hickey is a genius!

OK, these may not look “sweet”, but trust me — they are.  These pillowcases were made for my little sister in law and her husband.  She’s from North Carolina, he’s from Michigan.  For their engagement photos and Save the Date cards, they each wore their “home team” jerseys, she in her Panthers, he in his Lions.  (They’re a fun couple, aren’t they?) I hope the pillowcases will remind them that they started off in different places, but those pillows belong beside each other.

If you want to make pillowcases like this, buy high count percale pillowcases and launder them.  Then either draw or trace your design with a fabric marking pen that’s air or water soluble and stitch along your lines with two strands of embroidery floss to complete the pictures.

See how easy it is?

When I tried to think what would give my in laws sweet dreams, one word came to mind — camping!  They can use their camper pillowcases at home to dream sweet on-the-road dreams or use them along with the camper dish towel as camper linens.

My husband’s brother and his wife got doves.  If you put the pillows the “wrong” way, with openings in the middle of the bed, they’ll be lovebirds and fly together for a smooch.

But  after I stitched them I realized that put the other way, they’ll fly away from each other.

Who knew pillowcases could be such a metaphor for marriage?   Make sure to keep flying together!

These pillowcases should get softer and softer with each washing, so I hope they bring many years of sweet dreams to their new owners.

We’re getting ready to hit the road to visit with my husband’s family for Christmas, so I thought I’d just share a few Santa-ish items I’ve made.  Look at the sassy tattoo on that reindeer!

Here’s a little flower pot Santa candy dish.  I made these in multiples and gave them away as gifts, so glad I kept one!

Starting Monday I’ll be able to post what I’ve been working on as Christmas gifts this year.  Stay tuned and have a great weekend!

My eleven year old daughter recently told me that when she was younger, she thought the Salvation Army was an actual branch of the United States military.  She thought our country was so kind to have an army who’s purpose was just to make sure that people in need had a nice Christmas.  She wanted to grow up and be one of their soldiers.

Isn’t it amazing how children see the world?  It warmed my heart – that kid is so sweet -  and kind of made me sad that it doesn’t quite work her way.  (There have been many times I wished the world worked the way she’s imagined it.)

She’s made me more aware though.  We have a couple Mason jars on the kitchen counter to catch our spare change.  Most of the time, we’re just adding to it, not taking away.  But this month the jars have less coins all the time.  If I need to go to the grocery store, I grab my purse, list and keys, then remember that there will be a bell ringer out front and fill my pocket with change.  The kids have gotten into the spirit and will remind me to grab some change if I forget, then fill their pockets, too.

Our extra coins may not make much of a difference in the world, but it can’t hurt.  The important part here is that each time we leave the house, we pause for a moment to think if we’ll have an opportunity to help others while we’re out.  And then we do something about it.

I hope this is a habit we’ll keep after the holidays are over.