Visiting Teaching Gifts

I saw this cute idea on How Does She? and thought it would be perfect for the girls that we Visit Teach each month!

The font on the tag is Santa's Sleigh from dafont.com

Monogrammed Hand Sanitizer

Christmas Gifts for Hannah's Teacher

Infarrantly Creative has a great tutorial for Hand Sanitizer or Liquid Soap gifts. Your Homebased Mom also has a cute "hands" idea, but there is no downloadable version. I bought the Target brand of hand sanitizer and Office Depot let me buy just a few sheets of transparencies from their copy center at .40 each. I'm sure Hannah's teachers will love their personalized gifts.

I might need to make myself a monogrammed hand soap!

"Lil Blue Boo" UNLV Dress

From this....

to this!!

Hannah has been wanting to watch a "real" basketball game with her daddy for a long time! Jeff bought season tickets for the UNLV games, and today was Hannah's first chance to go with him. I thought it this inaugural event deserved a special "One-of-a-Kind" UNLV dress. I bought the Recycled T-Shirt Sienna Dress pattern from Lil Blue Boo, and found 2 UNLV shirts at the Thrift Store. The Red one had holes in the front right where the Rebels logo is, however I still wanted to use it for the ruffle and sleeves.

Grey Shirt - $4.99

Red Shirt - .99

Pink Shirt - .99

Total - $6.97

A great price for a One-of-a-Kind dress!

Closeup of the neckline.... I'm sure some of these stitches popped when I put the dress over her head. The neck was a tad small for her!

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!

At the game - She looks GREAT!!

And, I still have enough red for another set of sleeves and a neckline. I also have the long sleeve from the gray shirt with Rebels printed on it. I'm planning on using this as a ruffle on the next one :)

Button Magnets (blogged by Hannah)

This picture is the creator and it is Hannah Casey

We saw this at Quiltique, and we made our own. This is how we made it. We got buttons and then we got the sizes together and then we glued them with a hot glue gun. And then we glued it on the magnet.

This is the side view, which for you to see the magnet part

It holds up pictures too.

*blogged and worded by Hannah (age 5) and typed by Mama

Tie Rattle Snakes

Hannah and Max with their new "friends"

I don't like snakes, but these guys are cute. We followed the tutorial from Skip to My Lou to make these fun snakes. The kids didn't want fat tails, so we didn't stuff the ends of the snakes. I would have loved to make the rattle part for the tail, but we didn't have any tiny containers to fit in the tails... maybe I'll look for some cheap ties at Goodwill, and make some more when I can get a little container. Max's snake was decorated from a previous project, so it's covered with fun stuff. They also went a little crazy for the stick on eyes. Max's snake even has an eye on it's belly!

We have a couple of Alien Snakes!

I think it's safe to say they love their snakes!

Red Letter Words Knockoff

Games People Play by Red Letter Words

I have had "Games People Play" on my wish list for over a year now. I adore games, love playing them and have an entire closet full of them! I thought this sign would be perfect, but I haven't bought it because I just don't want to pay $55.00 for it. This week at DecorChick, they are having a giveaway for... Red Letter Words! I was so excited and entered as many ways possible.

Hannah saw what I was doing and I showed her which sign I wanted. So she got busy and made me this!

It's perfect!

Halloween Costume

Cute fabrics from Etsy

In the beginning of October, Hannah and I went to Joanns to look at costume patterns. We looked at princesses, fairies, and all other girly costumes. Hannah decided she wanted the princess costume....

and since the patterns were only .99 each, I decided I would also buy the fairy costume.

We came home and Hannah saw this pattern.

So that what I made for her! We are not sure *exactly* what she is, but we've narrowed it down to Court Jester/Joker/Harlequin

I don't think it really matters, since she loves it! Happy Halloween!

p.s. I also made the mask, but it doesn't work too well with glasses.

The First 5 Year Old Sewer

LaLa

During the summer I taught sewing to 3 girls. Hannah saw how much fun we were having and decided that she would like to sew as well. In September, she sewed a few things all by herself, such as a little 4 patch "blanket" and a beef jerky holder for her brothers. While she was sewing she asked me "Am I the first 5 year old sewer?" Of course I said yes, because I don't know of any other 5 years olds who can sew.

She decided she wanted to do more, and seriously, I was thrilled! We went to the fabric store and she picked out a few patterns that were "easy" level. Then she saw this simplicity pattern that I had made a few animals from. She decided that she wanted to make the giraffe.

She picked out some scrap fabric that I had, and she ended up with LaLa (that's her giraffe's name). I cut LaLa out of the fabric, but Hannah did all the machine sewing with lots some guiding of her fingers by me. Hannah and I both stuffed LaLa, and I hand stitched her up.

I think LaLa turned out SUPER cute!

Skirt with a Border Print

Tillbrook Fabric by Alexander Henry

With the Girly Skirt by Pink Fig, I used this fabric by Alexander Henry to make a border print skirt. I couldn't resist these flower fairies! So cute!

I did not use the bottom border piece from the Girly Skirt pattern, instead I just used the middle skirt piece and lengthened it.

Here's the waistband piece. I love the mushrooms!

Hannah loves her skirt! The best part was how fast it came together!

p.s. I used the leftover fabric (the flowered lines in top photo) to make a dress for "Little Dresses for Africa"

Framed Disneyland Collectible Pins

A Set of Three

On our recent trip to Disneyland we "Pin Traded". I bought a lot of miscellaneous trading pins on eBay for about .50 a pin, which is a great price! Then at Disneyland we traded with cast members to get the sets we wanted. My son wanted the Puffles, I wanted Disney Pirates and Hannah just traded. The Princess set above we bought at Disneyland. It's nearly impossible to find the glitter princesses to trade for!

Pirate Mickey!

I am not a fan of lanyards, so I decided to frame our pins. I bought an 8x8 shadowbox at Wal-Mart and some black velveteen at Joanns. Then I wrapped a piece of cardboard with the velveteen and popped the pins onto the fabric. The hardest part was keeping the lint off of the velveteen! I'm glad that we can look at our collection all year round and not just on our yearly Disney trips!

Bandanna Checkers

I saw this flyer at my local Jo-Ann store and knew we would have to make it. Here are the instructions from the website, and in PDF format.

CHECKERBOARD

1. Lay a plain print bandanna on a flat surface over a piece of paper. Fabric markers could bleed through.
2. Measure and use pencil to mark a checkerboard grid with 8 rows of 8 squares each.
   
   
3. Outline grid with black fabric marker pen. (We used Crayola)
   
   
4. Alternate coloring squares so no square touches another of the same color. Squares do not have to be solid colors. Square can be designed with hearts, seashells, circles, any other icon as long as matching designs are not are side by side horizontally or vertically. (The kids got tired of color after 1 row, so I ended up finishing the rest. They were more excited about making the checkers)

CHECKERS

1. Roll 1 color combination of Model Magic into 12 balls. Press down to make disc-shaped checkers.
2. Roll a different color combination of Model Magic into 12 balls. Press down to make disc-shaped checkers.
3. Allow checkers to dry for 24 hours.

(We made most of our checkers differently. We rolled out the Model Magic and used cookie cutters and Play-doh cutters to make our checkers. Hannah chose Stars and Hearts. Max chose Stars and the suggested method above.)

I love how it can be wrapped up for easy storing!

More Homemade Cards

Set of 3

I made these cards for my mom and each one has a special meaning. This first one is a doll pattern that I picked out as a little girl, with my mom's promise of making me a cute little doll. One that looked just like me with brown hair and blue eyes. Years later, it's still not made, but I do have the pattern to make for my little girl. And yes... it's not made for my daughter either. I didn't cut the original pattern to make the card, I just scaned it into my computer and printed out a copy. I suppose someday I'll make this pattern...

This card reminds me of my childhood days. We had a *super* spirograph and loved making spirally pictures on any kind of paper we could find.

This last card is my favorite!! It's LOL for "Laugh out Loud". Recently in a conversation with my mom I learned that she thought LOL meant "Lots of Love".

So I printed this on the inside of the card. I love her interpretation of LOL much better!

P.S. LOL Mom!

Glitter Shoes!!! (...failed)

Beautiful (but unwearable) glitter shoes

I was so excited to find a cute tutorial for Extreme Glitter Shoes on Lil Blue Boo. I searched forever for a pair of cheap canvas sneakers with velcro tabs. I finally found a pair on clearance at Payless.

Score!!

I bought the Extreme Glitter and got to work. Hannah even helped. It was very, very easy to do and they turned out so cute!

Hannah wore them on the 1st day of school, however this morning on the 2nd day of school, we couldn't get the velcro straps detached from the tongue of the shoe! They are now permanently fused together. And it's not because they didn't dry long enough. They have been ready for 2 weeks, just waiting for the first day of school. Hannah can't even slip her foot into the shoe. We were very sad, but at least we get to go shoe shopping now!