CoopCrafts

I have an ear infection that feels like it isn’t going away any time soon, regardless of the antibiotics, and I am too full of self pity to craft.

Well, almost too full of self pity to craft.  Instead of working on what I should have been doing (finishing a crocheted black and white baby blanket) I let myself work on something a little more entertaining – a scottie dog in a felt zebra print.

Isn’t she cute?

(Please pardon the cluttered craft area.)  Someday I’ll finish the blanket, and the blanket and zebra dog will go live with sweet little Ava.  Someday.

But for now I’ll go, before I whine any more.  You go make stuff.  :)

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!

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 young nephew is growing up with four sisters.  When I put together some dress up tutus for his sisters, I wanted him to have some more “manly” costume choices.  I made him the beard (shown here) and also this super hero cape.

If you want to make a cape, you’ll need a pillowcase, some felt and ribbon.  I based the K cape on Superman’s “S” logo, but you could just as easily use another super hero or even make up one of your own.  Sketch or trace your design on paper, then cut out the different elements to form a pattern.  Since I only planned to use this pattern once, I cut out the whole design in red first, then cut the slightly smaller pattern pieces for the black felt, cut out that color felt and then cut out the yellow pattern pieces to trace on my felt.  If I were making multiples, I’d have made three copies of my original pattern and cut out one color from each one so that I’d be able to use each templates over and over.

Attach your felt pieces to your laundered pillowcase cape.  You can use a fabric glue, Stitch Witchery or sew it on.  Then fold over a little of your pillowcase top and stitch ribbon into the fold to tie the cape on to your little super hero.  My husband wasn’t in the mood to model for me (mid-video game is not a good time to ask, apparently) so I just draped it on him and took pictures anyway.

I’m guessing Super K Man will have more fun with it anyway.

The finger puppet Advent calendar is DONE and ready to go off to its new home!  While completing this project, I discovered that spray painting is a skill that takes a little practice.  (Sorry Joyce, your spool rack was my first ever attempt, and it shows.)

I purchased the blank tags, then used stamps to add the numbers to count down the days until Christmas.  The tags looked pretty bland, so I grabbed a fine tip Sharpie and traced a little red border along the edges, then tied on a short piece of red and white twine to loop over the little spool posts.

They look so excited at the thought of their new home, don’t they?  (And I really should rig up a light box, see my dining room intruding in the top of the picture?  Sorry about that.)

My next challenge – finding a box for this and getting to the post office before it closes.  Wish me luck!

This little finger puppet was a surprise gift for a five year old friend of mine.  It was a “just because” present made from leftover scraps of felt, and even with the postage it was a nearly-free gift.  Hearing she had mail was a thrill, then to see her new little toy — that would have been enough of a treat!  But her favorite part was when her Mom read to her that the little dog had asked to go live with a Princess.  Realizing I meant her made her absolutely glow.  The real gift here was the unexpected compliment. Who doesn’t love those?

I made a similar gift for my friend Hal Lublin after he told me he’d been to Muppeteering school.  I was thrilled and told him, “You are SO getting finger puppets, Mister!” I don’t think he even remembered that, but the next time we met I had his little dog, pig and bat finger puppets tucked in my purse.  I kind of laughed when I showed him that if you layer the pig and the bat, you get “Dracu-pig.”

A tiny felt legend was born.

(And yes, I did happen to have my camera in my hand to capture this momentous occasion.)  Now as Hal travels around the country on business, DracuPig tags along and meets some of the most interesting people in social media and beyond.  The magic is all Hal, but the finger puppets are a nice foot in the door.  Go ahead and Google DracuPig.  He’s kind of a big deal.  For a finger puppet.

The lesson I’m trying to pass along here?  Don’t talk yourself out of giving a gift because it’s just a small thing and you think it won’t be worthy.  Even the very smallest kindness can go a long, long way.

P.S.  And in a perfect demonstration of how great a small kindness can make you feel, I *did* Google DracuPig and I found that while I might be writing about him now, Hal had already written about me.  :)

I’m not a girly-girl, in fact I’ve always considered myself a tomboy.  But there’s just something about floofy tutus that gets me.

I made four tutus for my littlest nieces.  They’re simple and inexpensive to create, but do take a good chunk of time.  (Well, four of them sure did!)  But look how pretty they are just sitting around your house.

Or even on your head.

It’s just too difficult to have a tutu in the house and not slap it on your head and play bride.  Don’t even try it.

And they have got to be about the easiest gift of all to give – just toss them in a basket and they’re a riot of tulle and ribbons!  Perfect just as they are, no need for the slightest embellishment.

If you’d like to try making tutus, you just need to cut and stitch together a piece of elastic to fit your little ballerina’s waist, then loop lengths of tulle and ribbon all around.  A woodland fairy likes an unkempt, random look, while a classical ballerina will want hers more precisely groomed.   If you’d like step by step instructions with photos, CutOutAndKeep.net has a nice Tutu Tutorial.

I hope your little ballerina/fairy/ladybug appreciates it!

This is a project I started months and months ago, wandered away from and now have to kick my own butt to get myself going on it again.  Eventually, this will be a set of 24 or 25 finger puppets, numbered somehow and displayed as an Advent calendar.  A coworker/friend of mine loved the idea, so these little guys will be off to live at her house. (They’re very excited about that!)

I purchased a spool rack to use as a stand for the finger puppets, and I have a vague idea of numbered tags since an Advent calendar really comes down to the counting.  Mostly I’m making this up as I go along, and I’d appreciate any ideas as far as animals that might like to join the herd.

If you want to try making an Advent calendar of your own, you might consider joining Craft Apple’s challenge for encouragement and accountability – or just to nab some great ideas.  :)

I’ll post more pictures as this project moves along!

Snowball soap is a quick easy craft to do for or with children.  (I’ve also given snowball soaps to adult friends who seemed to like it.)  Start with bars of soap, one bar for each snowball you’d like to make.

Use a cheese grater to shred the bars.  I like Ivory because it’s less dense than most soaps and grates so easily.  (This part should be done by an adult or a careful older child.)  Looks like cheese, doesn’t it?

Add water, a little at a time, and stir it around with your hands until your soap foams a little and is easy to form into balls.  You can make plain snowball soap if you like, but if you want to add a little extra fun (or encourage the kids to wash their hands more often), you may want to add a little prize.  Little balls work well, of course, but I like to hide little toy animals or dinosaurs inside.  I found these at Tractor Supply.  They were a little more expensive than what I might have found elsewhere, but the models were so well made I couldn’t resist.

Form the shape of a ball with your sudsy, shredded soap, starting with your little prize if you want to add one.  Then set them out on a rack to dry, which may take a day or so.

If giving them as a gift, once they’re dry you can wrap them in plastic wrap and tie them with a pretty ribbon.  This is an easy, inexpensive gift for kids to make for friends, classmates and relatives – and since it’s soap it’s a really easy craft to clean up after.

My friend Jay Thompson is growing a moustache to raise funds to help fight men’s cancer.  As a fan of Jay’s (and of men in general – and let’s be honest here, of men’s facial hair), I wanted to chime in and help promote what he’s doing.  And since this is a crafty blog, if I’m going to talk about something, I need to also help you make it.

This beard was made with a free pattern provided by Erin Dollar of I Made You a Beard.  I crafted it for my little nephew who is growing up with four sisters.  I figured they probably play a decent amount of dress up and he might appreciate a couple manly dress up accessories.  And in case you haven’t tried to find boy themed dress up items, it hasn’t been my easiest crafting challenge.

Please follow the link to Erin’s beard pattern if you’d like to make one yourself, and please consider joining Jay’s crew of scruffy men this November if you can.  It’s not quite the same, but –

I’m with you in spirit, Jay!