Tag Archives: toddler

Felt ornaments

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I made some felt ornaments a few weeks ago and never posted much (if anything) about them.  They are a bit puffy with some fiberfill but not too much, just enough to give them some dimension.

First up is the tree:

Trees

They look a bit blue but are really two shades of green, some coordinating floss and a few buttons.

Second, holly leaves and berries:

Holly

Same two colors of green, coordinating floss and some red pom poms.  I decided to machine stitch the lighter green instead of stem stitch as my stem stitch isn’t very good.  The pom poms were glued on.  You can see the glue but it did dry clear.  I’m thinking I should have secured them with a few stitches.  Time will tell if I need to do that.

Last are my favorite little birds:

birds

I used to paint wooden ones and sell them though they had a bit more detail.  If I still have some left, I can show you my inspiration for the felt version.

The tree is the largest at about 4-5 inches tall.  The best thing is that they are unbreakable.  Perfect for curious little hands.

group-2013

 

God Bless America

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Tank top part 2

On Saturday morning the twins and I decorated another tank top.  With America’s birthday just around the corner I thought we would do a patriotic themed tank top.

Materials we used:

Tank tops, cardboard, painters tape, textile medium, acrylic paint, Stained by Sharpie markers, old toothbrushes, tongue depressor (not shown), alphabet stamps and star stamps.

I inserted the large piece of cardboard inside the tank top so the ink/paint would not bleed through to the back.  Using the Stained Sharpie marker as the ink, I stamped God Bless America near the front neckline of the tank top.

I taped the edges and made stripes using the painter’s tape to keep the white parts white.  I also taped off the area for the stars.

We tried to splatter the paint on the tank tops but the technique just wasn’t fast enough for 3-year olds.  So they took matters into their own hands and “painted” with the tooth brushes.

When they were finished we stamped the stars using the Stained Sharpie as the ink.  And added some detail to the back.

It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind but I just had to go with the flow and make changes as we went.

You still have time to make something for just as fabulous for your July 4th celebrations!

In a jam

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Free time has been practically non-existent this week with the twins at our house.  I took a personal day from work yesterday so we went on the Great Strawberry Hunt to get strawberries for jam.

Our Spring came early this year as did the flowers and early summer fruits like strawberries.  It took some time to find fresh local berries but we were finally successful.

We used the recipe from the Sure-Jell box for freezer jam.  First the quart of berries were cleaned.  Then the twins used potato mashers to “kill” the berries and sample them as well.  They took turns adding the four cups of sugar and stirring it in.  I “cooked” the Sure-Jell (pectin) with 3/4 cup of water on the stove.  I poured the hot solution over the sugary berries and they stirred it.  And stirred it.  And stirred it.

Here’s the only photo from the Jam Session with them stirring everything together:

They really like licking the spoons and bowl when we were finished.  In fact they wanted to drink the jam.  Don’t worry Mom, they didn’t.

This recipe was just the right amount to do with children.  We made 5 1/2 jars of freezer jam.  I have enough berries to make another batch.  Maybe tonight.  Or not.

Traveling

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I forgot what it was like traveling with small children.  We went to a wedding in Pittsburgh this weekend for Mr. Aitch’s niece.  It’s about a three-hour drive.  Our five-year-old grandson is a talker.

I thought I could knit in the car or at least during the rehearsal (our grandson was the ring bearer) but that didn’t happen.

I have a few…and I mean a FEW…pictures of the twins in their sweaters as well as my one-year-old granddaughter in the sweaters I recently knit.  It’s really hard to photograph a moving object!  I hope to get those off the camera this evening and if they are semi clear, I’ll post some.