Category: Craftiness

General craft ideas, including sewing projects, kid-friendly ideas and VBS inspiration.

Thanks a Latte Kind of Day

Posted on September 17, 2015September 19, 2015 by Mama

I recently wanted to say a word of thanks to some ladies with whom I volunteer because they helped see me through a rather rough couple of months. Without their support, I might have just thrown in the towel and walked away from an awesome organization. So as a small token, I bought each of them a coffee gift certificate (just can’t go wrong with that one — if they don’t like coffee, they can order tea or just eat a muffin already). These just happened to be from Caribou Coffee, my favorite around these parts, and luckily they came with super cute kraft colored gift holders.

I simply jazzed up the holders with belly bands around the middle and cute little “Thanks a Latte” medallions. To create the medallions, I used a 3″ scalloped circle punch and a 2.5″ round punch. I created the graphic on my computer, printed and punched. So super easy, but if you like what you see here, you can download the graphic and print it for your own use. I inked all my edges before assembling, added foam tape to the circles for dimension, and that was all it took.

I think the ladies loved them, and sometimes the smallest gestures really do mean a lot.

DIY These Super Cute Over-sized Cattails

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Mama

If you saw a few of my photos from VBS this year, I just know you must be asking yourself, “How do I make those adorable over-sized cattails she’s got going on there?” Well, I’m so glad you asked, because the idea just came to me one day during float decorating and it actually turned out super cute. I think it’s so cool when you look at something, like a pile of ugly brown flannel, and an awesome idea just springs into your head. Something about necessity and the mother of invention, I guess. Anyway, these cattails are super easy and cheap to make, and here’s how to pull it all together.

Materials:

pool noodle (standard size, not the jumbo)
quilt batting
brown flannel
bamboo tomato stake
box knife
scissors
rubber band
string

Directions:

First, use the box knife (with caution) to cut a piece of pool noodle anywhere from 10-12 inches long.
Next cut a piece of quilt batting large enough to wrap around the noodle and just a tad longer.
Cut a piece of flannel material that will wrap around the noodle plus a few inches and is approximately six inches longer than the noodle.
Wrap the batting around the noodle.
Wrap the flannel around the batting and noodle.
Slide the tomato stake through the hole in the noodle, and use a rubber band to tightly adhere the flannel material to the stake, leaving an inch or two of the stake showing out the top.
Smooth any wrinkles out of the flannel and adhere the bottom using a piece of string, tying it tightly around the flannel and stake.
Trim any excess material and batting.

And that’s all there is to this easy cattail project. I created three individual cattails and placed them behind some painted cardboard grass, but you can use them however you choose. By the way, our Dollar Tree stores carries pool noodles every summer, which makes this a very affordable project.

From T-Shirt to Self-Tying Paint Smock 2.0

Posted on June 19, 2015June 19, 2015 by Mama

paintsmock Since we are in the throes of Vacation Bible School prep, I decided to pull out one of my favorite VBS posts from my first days of blogging and repost it here today. I think it’s just awfully clever (yes, I say so myself) and has proven very useful. This post was first published on August 6, 2013.

Okay, so it’s not often that I have a completely original idea, so here’s one for the books. . . or the blog, or however the saying must go in today’s electronic age. It’s not like it’s an earth shattering discovery or anything, but it sure did make last week’s VBS painting projects much less messy.

I picked up several extra large t-shirts from my Mom’s church for a buck each and planned to use them as paint smocks, but I didn’t think the children would appreciate us pulling them on and off their heads each day so I started thinking about an easy way to make them into backwards vests that somehow stayed on their little bodies. I wanted them to have ties in the back, but I just didn’t have the time or gumption to do a sewing project involving that many shirts.

Suddenly the thought occurred to me that perhaps there was a way to cut the shirts themselves so that they would be equipped with built-in ties, and that’s when this idea was born (now if I’m the last VBS craft girl on the planet to ever think of this, please tell me now so that I’ll stop being so darn pleased with myself).

Materials:

good pair of scissors (I keep a couple of pair just for material)
t-shirt

Directions:

Lay the t-shit flat on a hard surface with the back facing up.
Cut straight up the entire back of the shirt from hem to neckband.
Flop the shirt over to the front and cut a slit just through the center of the neckband.
Then cut around the neck band toward the back of the shirt on both sides, stopping about an inch and a half from cutting off the entire neck band on each side.
These little flapping pieces of neckband will now be your ties.

Just have your child(ren) put on the shirt with the open slit at the back and use your two pieces of neckband to tie a loose knot at the top. That’s just how easy it is to make a mess-saving painting smock.

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