Rainbow Loom Bracelets

Have you seen kids out in town or at school with bracelets like this?  Most likely they are into the newest craze that is becoming popular over here....Rainbow Looms.  Normally I don't buy into the new latest and greatest thing or fads but little miss had her own money and since it was a crafting project that could keep her busy on the hot summer days I said okay.  She has been having a blast the past week making tons of bracelets for herself, her friends, and family. It was a great purchase that I am sure she will get a lot of joy out of learning all the different ways to make bracelets and making up her own versions. :)

You can visit the Rainbow Loom website here if you want to learn more about it.  Amazon sells the kits as does Learning Express....I have found that they are half the price at Learning Express so before you buy them off of Amazon check your local stores to see if  they carry them. 

{ Rainbow Loom is not paying me anything for this post ....I am merely sharing a great crafting tool that my daughter and her friends have all fallen in love with. } 

You use these small rubber bands, a hook, and a loom to create your awesome accessories. 

Beating the heat this weekend with bracelet making at the kitchen table.  Instead of running all of our inside lights we will put a bright lamp on the table for crafting to keep the heat of the house down as well as the energy bill low when its 110 degrees outside and the ac is running like crazy. 

The booklet that comes with the kit teaches you how to make single ones first. 

We have quite a few of those around the house right now....at least 15 or so at my last count lol 

When you get the hang of how to work the loom and the hook you can move onto more advanced patterns. 

Triple Single Pattern Pictured Above 

Video for the Triple Single Pattern here. 

Love the texture in this one! 

This is the Liberty Twist Pattern, video tutorial can be found here. 

This pattern is the Single Rhombus and can be found here.

Now that my daughter has gotten the hang of this and understands how the patterns work she has begun to try and make her own designs. :) 

These bracelets are great for summer, colorful and fun and can get wet with no problem :) 

If you have kids who love to make handmade gifts for friends and family these are perfect because they are something they can do on their own from start to finish and can show their creativity in each piece. 

Tons of video tutorials for the loom and mini loom found here. 

Tissue Paper Glass Jar Luminaries

Crafts that allow us to reuse items that would otherwise be recycled or thrown away are a win win in our house.  I like to save glass jars from everyday things we might buy, condiments, sauces, pickles, ect.....you never know when they might come in handy for a craft project on a really hot { or rainy or cold } day.

Tissue Paper Luminaries 

What you will need:

clean and empty glass jars { no labels }

tissue paper { the thin solid color ones work best but they are delicate to work with }

scissors 

mod podge 

containers for tracing if you want to have certain shapes cut out 

Paint brushes { to apply the mod podge }

small candles or tea lights 

lighter { to light your candles }

Step 1:

Pick out your colors and figure out what design you want to have on your jar. 

Cut out the pieces you will need. 

Step 2:

Spread a little bit of mod podge on the jar at a time and place your tissue paper onto it patting it down.  Try not to rub the tissue paper down because this can cause it to tear.  Also, you don't need a ton of mod podge to get the tissue paper to stick down, too much and the tissue paper can tear, wrinkle, or become a squished mess because it will get over saturated. 

Finish applying all of your tissue paper to your jar. 

Step 3:

Allow your jar to dry for about 10 mins or so and then apply mod podge over all of the tissue paper to seal it down.  You want to wait to do this because if the tissue paper gets too saturated with mod podge it can cause it to tear or crinkle on the jar. 

Allow your jars to dry all of the way before handling and placing a tea light into the jar. 

Bonus points to the people who can tell me what character the middle jar is made to look like. ;) 

My daughter loves having her jar in her room at night all aglow.  Like me, she is a lover of candles and candle light. :)

Have left over jars in your home? You can turn them into fun luminaries for every day display or you can make seasonal ones like we did a few Halloweens back: 

Doll Pin Ballerina Tutorial

Now that summer is in full swing Little Miss and I can fully get our craft on most days and I love it.  Its so fun watching her work and you can almost see the wheels in her head spinning and the creative juices flowing as things come to life.  Usually I start a project with her and then end up sitting back and watching her taking lots of photos because its just so darn cute to watch. :)

This week we used some doll pins and things we hand on hand in the house and created some doll pin ballerinas. 

This was the only photo I snapped with my cannon...I wanted to be really present when we were working on these...chatting and having a good time so I just used my camera on my phone so that the photos were quick and easy.  I tend to want to fiddle with my settings all the time on my cannon which is great for getting nice shots but it takes time and effort.  With the camera on my phone you just shoot and save, which is perfect when you want to get back to crafting asap. :)

What you need for this little project:

Paint, doll pins, paint brushes, pencil for drawing out your designs, embellishments. 

Paint on your doll's leo.  Drawing it out first is a huge help for getting the curved lines just right. 

Add some hair. 

I actually wanted to keep the two I painted like this...I prefer more simple stuff. I was going to paint on their little tutu skirts but Little Miss wanted to go all out with these and I am glad I went with her idea because they came out really cute. 

Our dolls we painted before they got their finishing touches. 

Love how they turned out!  She even made a little tiara for one of her dolls.  :)  

To make the tutus we used petals from fake flowers layered on and glued down with hot glue and cut up crocheted doilies.  

Little Miss used a gift box for the stage that these ballerinas would give their grand performances on. 

I love how fun and easy this project was and how she used her creativity to make her little ballerinas come to life.  

The older she gets I know she will grow out of this playing pretend stage but I am hoping she keeps her creativity and imagination forever.  The fact that she is still into doing things like this and using her imagination makes me smile and hopeful that she will always keep those childlike qualities. :) 

I am linking up today to The Magic Onions Friday Nature Table, head on over there to check out more awesome projects! 

Kid Made Project/Tutorial: Headbands for you and your AG Doll

I love how every night I am working on some kind of craft project.....and my daughter is sitting there right next to me working on a craft as well. The older she gets the more creative she becomes and it brings such a huge smile to my face. :)

I thought it would be fun to post one of her latest projects and then let her write the tutorial for it all by herself too. Take it away Victoria!

Today we are making matching headbands for you and your doll!!

Here is what you need:

Your doll, fabric, thick yarn, and scissors.

Take the yarn and measure the yarn around your doll's head.  Cut the yarn leaving long tails on both sides so you can tie it in a bow when putting it on your doll. 

Put your yarn aside. 

Cut out three strips all the same size out of the fabric you like best. 

Find the middle of the yarn piece that you measured around your doll's head.

About two inches from the middle is where you want to tie your first tie.  It does not matter which way you go when moving two inches from the middle. 

Tie your other two ties right next to your first one. 

Tie your yarn on top of your ties to help keep them in place so that they don't move around. 

Kit in her new headband, she looks super cute!!!!!

Make another one for you following the same steps and now you can match with your favorite doll! :)

I love how cute my daughter's project and tutorial came out! It went along great with an assignment in her writing book about making a project and giving instructions on how to complete it. I am going to print out the photos and have her mount them on construction paper, writing the instructions for each on on the back. I think she will probably go into more detail on those instructions since it will be written and not typed.  She is not too keen on typing. ;)

I am still working away on many birthday presents for my little one...thankfully her birthday is at the end of the month.....that gives me time to get most of the stuff done. {fingers crossed!!}

Today I am linking up to Frontier Dreams Keep Calm Craft On 

Hand Print Mother's Day Dish

I saw a post weeks back where a women had used a crochet doily and imprinted it in clay and made it into a bowl.  I loved the idea and wanted to try it myself.  After making one and not being fully happy with it I changed the idea to make it into something more personal for me.

I made a small dish out of clay with my daughter's hand print in the middle and a special message that she picked out for me imprinted along the edge.  I made the bowl knowing it would be perfect for the snipped off ends from when I am crocheting and weaving in the ends.

These would make awesome Mother's Day gifts {hint hint dads! ;) } or even grandma gifts if you gift to grandmas on Mother's Day too. You could even gift something like this for other holidays like Christmas, birthdays, or any other special occasion. Handmade personal gifts rock! :)

For this project you will need:

Not pictured: 

E-ACTO Knife 

Bowl for resting your clay on and cutting around.  Pick a bowl that's lip is the size circle you want for your finished piece. 

Acrylic paint

Mod Podge to seal your finished dish.

Soft sandpaper block.

The clay I used was an air drying clay that you can pick up at your local craft store. 

The doily is optional, I took this photo when I made my first attempt at the doily imprinted one. 

Roll your clay out on your plastic mat or any other surface that you prefer.   We found that it didn't stick as bad on the plastic. You can roll it to your preference for thickness, we did it on the thin side {about 1/8 inch} so it would dry faster and not be weighted down when we draped it over a bowl.  

After you roll out your clay, you will place your bowl down onto your clay softly....DON'T PUSH IT DOWN.  You are just using it for a template.  Take your E-ACTO knife and run it along the bowl, cutting your circle shape into your clay as you go. 

Lift up bowl and pull off your left over clay. 

 Your edges will be rough, that's okay.  Once its dry you will use a soft sandpaper block on the edges to smooth it out. 

Have your little one press their hand into the clay, not too hard but enough to get an imprint.  You can do a quick check by peaking under one of their fingers. :)  Use the ABC stamps to imprint your special message. 

Rest your clay over your bowl, hand print side down.  You will want to let it dry for a few days.  After an initial overnight drying I turned it right side up in the morning so the hand print side could fully dry.  Then I let it sit and dry for another two days to make sure it was fully dry. 

Rub the edges with a soft sandpaper block to smooth them out.  We did this outside so that clay dust didn't get every where.  You can wear a face mask if you want to be 100% that you don't breathe any of the dust in. 

Once dry, have your child paint it in a color of their choosing.  

Let the paint dry for a few hours. 

Paint on a layer of Mod Podge for a sealer coat. 

Admire your fabulous and unique dish that will forever keep a memory of your little one's hand. 

 I tagged the photo with the wrong name using my etsy store handle, still 100% me :)

If I do something like this again, which I probably will for another hand print keepsake,  I would press her hand down a little harder to get a more defined imprint.  

Its a easy, unique, one of a kind gift that will be treasured for many years to come. 

Every time I use this dish it makes me smile. <3

Crochet Pattern: American Girl Tiara

Earlier this week I did a post on tiaras for a little girl, pattern and photos can be found here.

My daughter loved how the kid size tiaras came out and wanted her doll Kit to have a matching one for her big day next month.  I love that she still likes to do the matching thing with her dolls and comes up with her own ideas and projects for things.  Its so neat to watch their creative minds at work. :)

For the back I took two long pieces of ribbon and then on each side I put it through the gap right next to either the ch 2 or the double crochet {depending on the side} and then pulled it through about two inches or so. Then I folded it over and hot glued the 2 inch folded onto the the long piece of ribbon.  This way it wrapped around either the ch 2 or the dc to keep it secure to the tiara. 

American Girl Crochet Tiara Pattern

US Crochet Terms

What you need:

5.50 hook 

Worsted yarn {I like a soft but not too soft yarn}

Yarn needle for weaving ends

Beads or other embellishments 

Needle and thread for sewing on beads and embellishments. 

Ch 23

Row 1

sc in the second chain from the hook and sc across till the end

Row 2

Turn

ch 2

skip 2 stitches

work 1 dc in the next, cross in front of the dc you just made and work a dc in the 2nd skipped stitch of this row

* skip 1, work 1 dc in the next, cross over that dc and make a dc in the skipped stitch *

Repeat that pattern until you have 2 stitches left. 

skip 1 and then dc in the last 

Row 3

Turn

ch 1

1 sc in the 1st space created from the previous row's crossed dc stitches {this will be in between your last dc of the row and the last crossed dc pair of the row

work 1 dc, 4 tr, 1 dc in the next space

* work 1 sc in the next space & 1 dc, 4 tr, 1 dc in the next space *

Repeat this pattern across ending with a your 1 dc, 4 tr, 1 dc cluster in the last space and then a sc in the top of the ch 2 from the previous round.

Finishing

Secure your yarn, weave in your ends and embellish to your hearts content! 

My daughter loved the one that I did and she sewed the beads on so much that she wanted to give it a try as well.  The cross double crochets were a little hard for her at first but she mastered it so quickly and was able to finish it off easy peasy. 

I love how adorable hers came out! 

Today I am linking up to The Magic Onions Friday Nature Table