The Ballerina Bag

 Spring is officially here at our house and yesterday felt like summer. We were outside all day soaking it up.  The kids managed to bake cookies,  sell all of them on the side of the rode along with bottled water, jump on trampoline with sprinkler underneath, go on a bike ride, play baseball, catch bugs and butterflies...I love summer! 

Oh...so the ballerina bag, yeah it's a bag with chubby baby ballerinas all over it and it looks like a sparkly tutu..no big deal. 

 My mother in law was downsizing her fabric stash and gave me a bunch of adorable prints like this one. Since it was a ballerina bag I thought one layer of ruffle would be easy and would look like a ballerina tutu.

 Aren't they precious? You can't tell in the picture but their little tutus are sparkly too.

 We are currently using the ballerina bag for piano books but it works great for church, dance or whatever suits your fancy.

I am in the process of making a farming quiet book for my boys..I started before we moved and am now just getting back to it but it is turning out sooo cute. More pics coming soon!

If you're interested in making a ballerina bag for yourself  (once again) I used Ashley's tutorial for her ruffled tote here.

Old Fashioned Rag Dolls

 These old fashioned rag dolls have been on my to do list for quite some time.  I decided they would make the perfect homemade Christmas gift for my girls so I got to work sewing while they were in school and hiding them before they got home (rather tricky).

  I hand embroidered their little faces on, and was quite pleased with the result..I don't have much experience with embroidering.

 They each ended up a little different which is kinda fun.

 The little details were my favorite part...you gotta love these sweet little mary janes on their feet.

 I thought a Peter Pan collar would be fun for one of them.

  My girls knew I was making the dolls they just didn't get to see them until Christmas morning so they gave me some input during the process...like I want mine to have long hair and a purple dress.

They have absolutely loved these little dollies and it makes my heart melt...in the end all the time and effort was definitely worth it.  

Like I mentioned before my camera was lost for quite some during the move so no tutorial for this one but Ashley over at www.makeit-loveit.com has an excellent one with printable pattern pieces.  I just made a few adjustments to personalize them. (I made their bodies slightly bigger and their legs a little bit shorter)

Quiet Book

 This is a blast from the past quiet book I made for my oldest about seven years ago and we have loved it! They are quite time consuming but definitely worth the effort.

 Braiding the lion's tail page

 Gathering sheep, I found this sweet coloring page in our church's library and traced it, the sheep snap on and off.

 Moses in the bull rushes

 Of course I had to make the baby removable, my kid's love this page.

 Jonah and the whale

 Don't forget to say your prayers, this is another coloring page from our library.

 

Paying tithing page.

 Noah's ark

 I found these animals at a little shop on my way home...it must have been meant to be cause the little town I found these in consists of a gas station, fabric store and salon and that's about it...they just happened to have these in the salon...weird huh?

  This page was fashioned after a quiet book I played with growing up.

Same with this page...I can remember poking my little fingers in to make a beak.

 Moroni and the Gold Plates

Button flowers on me and see how pretty it will be.

I used a medium weight pelon for my quiet book pages and a heavier weight for the cover, you can find pelon at most fabric stores.  I traced my pages with a sharpie and used acryllic paint mixed with fabric medium to color them.  For the pages I sewed around three edges leaving the bottom open and trimmed with pinking shears.

I am planning on making a new farming quiet book for my boys, so I will make a more thorough tutorial with that one when I get it finished.

Linking up with www.craftyconfessions.com

DIY Chalk Board

It's Back-to-School time...I absolutely love this time of year!  Even when I was in school it was fun, mostly because I love buying school supplies.  Anyway..I thought it would be fun to post this chalk board we made a while back.  My kids have absolutely loved this thing for playing school, my oldest pretends to be the teacher and my two younger kids have learned a lot from her.  I use it when we do preschool with my three and five year old, it makes it fun and a little bit more official.

 I found this cute little bucket in Target's dollar bins...when I saw it I knew it had to be mine but I didn't know why.  It works perfectly for keeping the chalk and eraser...see I really did need it ;)

I think the teacher has been having trouble with a certain boy in her class...he tends to be very wiggly and likes to bring food to class..like that huge bag of chips he's holding.

It ties in nicely with our Airplane Hanger we made last year for hanging artwork on.

These little airplanes go with the airplane hanger I just mentioned, they are a great project for preschoolers.  You can find the tutorial here.

Written Tutorial

Sorry if you are a visual learner but I didn't take any pictures while we were making this, but it is quite simple.

We used an old piece of scrap bead board that was about the right size (1/4" MDF board).  Paint it with chalkboard spray paint, I got mine at home depot. We also had some scrap trim leftover from another project and cut our pieces with straight cuts. Sand any rough edges then glue down to your chalkboard piece with construction adhesive.

Secure with staples from the back (make sure they are short enough to not go through to other side).

I painted my trim pieces afterwards but you could easily do it before, whatever works for you.  I used an acrylic craft paint and did a couple of coats.

Super cheap and easy...or free if you hoard scrap wood like we do!

DIY Strider Bike

 

Last summer some friends of ours had us over and their little boy who was just barely two at the time was zoomin around on a little bike without pedals...I was curious.  They told us all about the strider bike..it helps kids develop balance rather than relying on training wheels and then hopefully they can go right to a pedal bike.  I was skeptical and definitely not willing to fork over the cash for one..then the thought came to me why couldn't I just take the pedals off a regular little bike?  This is where You Tube comes in...

 How To Video

I did mine all by myself fairly quickly and easily..am  I proud of this? umm YES!

  My husband cut off the bolts that stuck out either side of the back tire and sanded them down... little bare legs and bolts are a bad idea.

 He loves his new "bite" (bike) and feels so proud that he can go on the gravel as fast as his big sisters.

  It did take him a little while to get used to the idea but after about a week he is lovin it and has left his little tricycle in the dust...kinda sad for Mom :(

Check out this little guy!

Diy American Girl Doll Dress

With four little kids at home the majority of projects on my list are for them and I don't mind, it just doesn't give my little blog much variety.   This is what we made yesterday...my girl's have been wanting to get matching clothes for them and their doll's.  They see all the fancy outfits in the American Girl Magazine and they are a little out of our price range so we came up with this.

We made this red gingham dress a couple years ago for my little girl after she had been watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and loved the dress Milly wore at the Barn Raising...you know! Oh you don't, well it's only the best show ever and my very favorite growing up.

This was my favorite part!

So now she and her doll can dress up like Milly and go on all kinds of adventures together.

 

We added a little bow just to give it a little extra somethin, somethin!

It went together fairly quickly considering it was the first doll dress I have ever sewn.

If you are interested in making one for yourself click on Read More for the Tutorial.

Bubble Gum Chore Chart

 I have another chore chart today my ice cream chore chart was for my little girl. My three year old was feeling a little left out so we whipped one out for him.  I'll be honest he likes playing with it but actually doing the chores... not so much.

Every gumball has a chore on the back, I drew pictures for my non readers.

When they get the chore done into the gumball machine they go.

There is plenty of room for storage at the bottom when the chores aren't done.

I used a printable gumball machine coloring page, copied and pasted it into Word and printed it off on some scrapbook paper, you can also add any lettering you would like.

The gumballs are card stock and scrapbook paper circles that I laminated at our local library for cheap, I have an obsession with laminated things!  I used Velcro dots cut in half to attach my gumballs.

Go ahead and make some chore charts and put those little rascals to work for you...it makes cleaning so fun they won't even know they're working.

 Linking up here