Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

In celebrating the birthday of Dr. Seuss, I did a few fun things with the kiddos today.  My son requested a Dr. Seuss lunch, so I packed him green eggs (hard boiled eggs) and ham (actually turkey, because we were out of ham) and a special cat hat made with m&ms.

And I whipped up these cute Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts for the kids to wear to school.  There was fighting over who would be number 1 and who would be number 2, so we opted to make them Thing 4 and Thing 7 to show their ages. 

I made the circle with felt, cut the letters and numbers out of felt and hot glued them on.  I handstitched them onto their shirts, so when Dr. Seuss day is over, we can just remove the circles from the shirts.

 

Looking for more fun Dr. Seuss ideas to celebrate today?

Check out the fun games and activities at these sites:

PBS

Seussville

Scholastic

And what better day than today to join Scholastic for their Global Literacy Campaign -

Ready Every Day. Lead a Better Life.

Visit their site to view the Reading Bill of Rights and

sign the pledge to read to or with your child everyday!

Disney World!

We are getting ready to head to Disney World!

Craftiness will resume when we return...

Simple Teacher Gift

We made this simple teacher gift last year for Valentine's Day.  We traced my daughter's hands on some cardstock and cut them out.  Then, we attached them to a small tube of hand lotion.  Before attaching them, we wrote "Ms. Mollie, you deserve a hand!" on the front and "Love" on the back.

 

Sweet and Salty Treat

This is a really simple and tasty treat you can make in a matter of minutes.  It's the perfect quick treat for teachers, a class party, or yourself!

For this tasty treat you will need pretzels (I found these waffle shaped one work really well), Hershey Kisses and M&Ms.  Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.  Spread the pretzels onto a cookie sheet.

 

Unwrap and place one Hershey Kiss onto each pretzel, then put the cookie sheet into the oven for about 3 minutes.

 

Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and immediately press one M&M onto each softened Hershey Kiss, then place in the refrigerator to cool and set, preferably over night.

 

These are a really tasty treat - like chocolate covered pretzels without all the work of dipping.  You could easily adapt this treat to other holidays by using different colored M&Ms.  Enjoy!



Valentine Wreath

I wanted to make a new Valentine's Day wreath and started with this wire form.

I used some leftover red garland from Christmas and wrapped it around the wire form.

 

Next, I cut some heart shapes out of cardboard (I just used old cereal boxes), and some strips of fabric about 1 inch wide.

I used hot glue to keep the fabric in place as I started, and wrapped the fabric strip around the heart, using hot glue again to secure the end piece.

I did pink, white and red hearts.  This is a close up of one of the larger red hearts.

I used some of the same fabric to tie the hearts to the wreath (the tie is in the back) and used another fabric strip to hang the larger heart in the center of the wreath.  I added a piece of heart ribbon for hanging.

I'm really happy with how it turned out - it makes me smile!

Sweet Bracelet

I made THIS cute candy bracelet at Halloween time using candy pumpkins and it was a big hit!  Not only was it cute, but tasty too!  So I set off this year to find the right kind of candy to make another one for Valentine's Day.

I found these gummy hearts by Sweetarts and they worked out really well!

I started by stringing the gummy hearts onto a piece of thread.  Be patient - these gummy hearts are pretty sticky and your needle will get kind of gunked up.  Just keep a wet paper towel on hand to wipe down your needle if it gets too hard to string them.

When I thought we were at the right size, I tied off the thread and tied white curling ribbon between each heart and curled it.  Cute to wear and even more fun to eat!

 

New Skirt

I purchased this red sundress from a clearance sale at a local consignment shop.  I really didn't like the style of the dress, but I knew I could do something with the skirted part.  When I was clearing out my daughter's clothing I came across this pair of denim shorts that were too short (but still fit in the waist), and I came up with the idea to put the two together to create a cute little skirt.

 

I started by cutting the skirted part from the dress, leaving about 3 inches at the top for stitching to the shorts.  I don't have a picture to show, but I also removed the threading from the inseam of the shorts so they were completely open. 

Next, I folded the top part of the skirt over twice to create a neat hem and pinned it to the underside of the shorts.  I folded over the bottom of the shorts to create another clean line, and only had to cut a bit of the inseam to create a straight line.  I also restitched the inseam by the front zipper just to keep the fabric together.

Lastly, I  ran a straight stitch all the way around the pinned area.  I added a ribbon belt and a ruffled flower to this new skirt.  I think it turned out really cute and will be a great new addition to my daughter's spring wardrobe. 

Sharing this craft at the following blogs:

Today's Creative Blog

Creative Itch

All Thingz Related

Best Part of Believe
Sugar Bee Craft Edition
The Gypsy's Corner
New Nostalgia
I'm Topsy Turvy
Bella Before and After
These Creative Juices
Embellishing Life     Little Eme
My Craftie Life     Tip Junkie
Funky Polkadot Giraffe     This & That
Not Just a Housewife     Ladybug Blessings

Valentines for Kids, Part 1

Valentine's Day is so much fun!  This is a great time to let your kids get creative.  With some basic craft supplies, your kids can make some colorful and loving Valentines of their own.  Some supplies we like to use are:

• construction paper or cardstock
• glitter glue
• stickers
• markers/crayons/colored pencils/oil pastels
• doilies
• craft scissors (with fancy cutting edges)
• yarn/embroidery thread/ribbon/curling ribbon
• pony beads and buttons

Since my kids have started school, we try to get crafty with our Valentines, instead of buying the prepackaged Valentines at the store.

Last year in kindergarten, we made these Valentines for my son's class.  We cut out hearts from red construction paper, punched two holes, and slipped a glow stick through.  We added the little message, "Friend, you make my heart glow!"  We saw this idea in Family Fun magazine.

When my daughter was in preschool last year, we made up these goodie bags as Valentines.  Inside the bag we put Teddy Graham crackers and gummi bears.  We tied off the bag with pretty curling ribbon and added a note saying, "Bear Hugs from _____!"  Another idea from Family Fun.

Be on the lookout for more kid valentines ideas coming your way!

Kerchief Headband

We are dreaming of Spring over here at The Muddy Princess, so I thought I would share this really cute kerchief headband I made for my daughter.

There wasn't much sewing involved in the making of this headband, because this craft started with a doggy kerchief!  Yes, you heard me, a doggy kerchief!  I found a few of these on clearance a while ago at Target for less than $1 and knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.

 

I started by using my seam ripper to remove the threading from the end pieces where the velcro is.  Turns out, this was one long strip inside the casing.  I decided to keep that long piece and maybe make a simple headband out of that as well.

 

Next, I just slipped a plain plastic headband through the casing of the kerchief and added a dab of hot glue on each end to keep it in place.  Ta Da - instant kerchief headband!

 

I was able to make two of these, but as you can see, my headband model wasn't in the mood for trying on one new headband, let alone two.  But, I think it turned out really cute and was SO easy to make!  Be sure to check every clearance endcap at Target - you never know what you might find!

 

Sock Cupcake

While surfing around in bloggy land, I came across THIS cute idea for Valentine's Day.  I decided I had to give this a try for my son's teacher.  I bought a pair of fuzzy socks from Target.  Starting at the top, I rolled the socks all the way to the toe and secured them with a rubberband.

Next, I traced and cut out a cupcake liner template.  You can find free templates online.

 

I placed the rolled socks inside the liner, pulling and fluffing as needed to have the socks fill the liner, and tucked a red pom pom into one of the top layers like a cherry.

Last, I placed the sock cupcake inside a treat bag and added a gift tag saying, "This cupcake treat is not to eat, but "baked" with love to warm your feet!"  We are also including a real baked treat along with our sock cupcake.