Kids Arts and Crafts Archives

Spring Fancy Strands|Door or Window Craft Decor|Giveaway (Closed)

April 11, 2011 By Laura 11 Comments

I find spring-time to be such a craft-inspiring season. Although winter & spring has been taking turns around here in the past few weeks, I still like to think of it as just spring, as it should be. Time for garden planning, enjoying the new warmer, sunnier days, and looking for those very exciting signs of spring. They are popping up all around us, despite the occasional surprise snowfall! With spring comes all kinds of cheery colors and symbols always associated with this season of new life. It just makes me feel like crafting!

This is a craft you can do with ANY kind of doors or windows in your house!

The French doors between our sun room, which is always bursting with sunshine or a soft natural light, and our living room, has been the focus of my craft quite a few times! All of the rectangular panes of glass strike me as mini picture frames, calling for some little artwork. This past Winter, I made beautiful sparkly snowflakes on blue ribbon, which is a craft I am saving to share later this year. There was a functional twist of an idea I used with them, and I think some of you will rather enjoy using the idea for yourselves next year, when I’ll have the opportunity to share it with you in time to use the idea.

My craft idea for Spring is very similar, although strictly and adorably decorative, using very simple Spring shapes, ribbon and colorful card stock.

I designed a small collection of Spring Shapes in Photoshop, to use as stencils again and again. I will share these with you by the end of this post. But here is a peek at what I came up with.

The supplies needed were few and simple:

Spring Shapes, printed on card-stock to cut out
6 full rolls of thin ribbon
Card-stock in cheery bright Spring colors
Scissors
Hot Glue Gun
*Any little embellishments you like.

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I found this block-pad of linen card-stock in beautiful colors, at the craft store. I knew it would be perfect, to use for my Spring shapes, that I wanted all relatively the same size. It was a pleasant surprise to realize they were sticker paper too! That was going to work out nicely, for adding the centers on flowers, etc. And if there was no need for sticky paper, I just left the backside on.But you can use any colored card-stock, that comes in sheets, as well.

Alright, so I didn’t take photos of every step. That’s needless really. But the simple directions are, that I cut my Spring Shapes out of the white card-stock I printed them on, and used them as stencils on the little square card-stock pieces. There was a whole lot of tracing stencils, and cutting out, going on. Then it was sticking or gluing pieces together, to make little happy die-cuts of art.

I have to tell you, as crafty as I am, I HATE CUTTING STUFF OUT!! With scissors. Thankfully, my kids love it! It’s great practice for scissors-skills for them. I did do a lot of the cutting for this project, but they enjoyed helping when ever and wherever they could. I was thankful for every bit.

window-door-craft-decor-5 Using almost an entire roll of ribbon for each row of windows top to bottom, attach one end on top of the door, and center of the row. Run it all the way down, to attach to the bottom of the door, again keeping it center. Cut off any excess before attaching. We use a tack at the top, and glue on the bottom.

Then just dab a little hot glue onto the center of each die-cut one at a time, and apply it to the ribbon in the center of each window.

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Here are my doors, all done!! CUTE, or WHAT??

Such a simple project, but just a lot of cutting. This was a craft for the kids and I to do together, from the get-go, so I knew which part I’d be letting them do some of! Hopefully you have a few of those happy-cutters, too.

You know, you don’t have to have French doors, to do this project!! You can do the same thing, in grid picture windows, or make horizontal strands as a Spring-themed decorative garland!

window-door-craft-decor-7 I can tell you, by the time we had made 24 die-cut pieces, trying to make them each a little different, we got to the last 6 and wondered if the doors would look cute enough still, with nothing across the bottom row of window panes. And then I had the quick and easy idea, to wrap up this craft, in 6 simple letters:

S P R I N G

Seeing my Spring-ish doors makes me smile anyway. But what really warms my heart, is the words spoken by my little boy the other day: “Mama, every time I see my butterflies that I made, that you put up on the door, I get a really happy feeling inside.”

Dang if that doesn’t make me really happy inside, too. I love doing projects with my kids. It’s so rewarding, for all of us, in so many ways.

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Just so you know….our French doors are rarely closed like that. Our 4 season sunroom, is open to the rest of the house most all of the time. It’s surely a cheery passage-way now.

window-door-craft-decor-9 When spring turns to summer, I’ll be taking these strands down, but keeping them to use again next year, just as I did the winter ones! They are easily re-usable, for at least a few years if not more, if they are stored nicely.

window-door-craft-decor-10 On a side note….I do struggle with displaying fake flowers in my house. I prefer fresh of course. But it’s just not budget smart, year round. Unless I can cut fresh flowers from outdoors now and then, and I do when I can. But in between….fake it is. I just like to have some especially, in my old milk jug.

So just for fun, I decided to design a little collage, to show you some of the pieces a little closer up. Naturally, when posting photos on a blog, some detail is lost. But it’s still a closer look.

And then I thought the collage came out so cute, that maybe it would be a fun idea, to have a Give-Away! It will printed as a 12 x 12 photo (such as it is), and mounted on a sturdy backing. It will be sprayed with a protective coating, so it can be popped right into a 12×12 glassless frame. (I never use glass in my frames. No need when they are mounted and sprayed, and they look so much nicer without the glare.)

The collage of these mini-photos, is of course, of little paper art. But how cute would it look on display, near your Easter tree, in your kitchen, or in a little girl’s room! It would look cute anywhere!

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If you’d like to try and win this Give-Away, all you need to do is the following:

1.) Follow our blog, via Subscribing or our Facebook Page, in the sidebar. (If you are not already.)

2.) Leave a comment below, saying anything you wish, or letting us know you are now following our blog!

3.) Link up a crafty idea of your own, right now, if you can!! (Not required, but we hope you share something if yours if you’ve gotten creative, and blogged it, lately!)

I’ll do a drawing from the comments by the close of the week!

Want to do this craft yourself? Here are the pdf links to my Spring Shape Sheets:

Spring Shape Page 1

Spring Shape Page 2

I hope those links work for you anyway If not just email me, and I will send them to you. I did free-hand draw a few on my own, that are not on the sheets, but most are here. You can add idea of your own too. Just keep the shapes simple.

ENJOY!

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Bottle Cap Art, with a Special Guest Crafter!

February 28, 2011 By Laura 9 Comments

It’s a new first, here at House Of Joyful Noise!
(And just so you know, this post contains an affiliate link.)

This is one of those opportunities, that I just could not pass up!! It’s not every day that we have someone come through our place, who knows her craft-stuff like this one! So without further ado…..

We’d like you to meet our first ever (and very special) Guest Crafter!

This is *{Ju}. She is my God-Daughter, and daughter of my cousin. I’m just seeing, in this photo here, that I think she was still a tad sleepy on this morning. Oops!! I was excited to get to our crafting! She is so sweet looking, sleepy.

*In Photography & Lettering, you can see the ‘Urban to Beach Photo Shoot’ I did with {Ju} and her brother, this past summer. She was such a doll, with her usual great big smile, and her brother has a great smile too! I can’t wait to show you their shots. I see now how much she has grown, since the summer!

But back to this craft post. We have had a visit planned with her for awhile, for her to come stay with us over her February school vacation, which just passed. She is a true little artist in the making, and spends lots of time crafting. So I had this exciting idea, to let her teach us a new craft, while she was here with us for a visit!

If you’ve been reading along here at HOJN for awhile, you may have read where {Ju} sold LOTS of ‘Capsters’ that she made with her friend, at a Harvest Fair in her own town. She definitely has the makings of a successful entrepreneur.

‘Capsters’ is the trademarked name to the Klutz company (who we will talk about in a moment), but are basically a ‘bottle cap art’ kit. Creating bottle cap art, is the craft {Ju} is going to teach us how to make, in this post.

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bottle-cap-art-18 While the ones we made here today, are geared in design towards kids, I have lots of ideas to share towards the end of this post, as to how this can be a great grown-up craft too!
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A couple of supplies you will definitely need, are clean bottle caps, and a crystal clear lacquer.

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The rest of what you use to make your bottle cap art, is up to you!! It’s all about what you want to put inside your bottle caps. That may include some background papers (more on that in a moment), gems, googly eyes, or anything else creative that you can come up with, that fits.

Little stickers, are another idea.

bottle-cap-art-19 This 3D Crystal Lacquer is a necessary and amazing little product. You will see how it holds the contents of the caps in place, and dries like a crystal clear glass.

We’ll discuss the supplies, and where you can get them, also towards the end of this post.

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My oldest daughter got this simple and fun little ‘Capsters’ kit from Klutz’ (affiliate link) many years ago, and it is the same one {Ju} got too, when her mother told me she was making bottle cap art, and I suggested this kit to her. The book that comes with the kit, has pages and pages, of all kinds of other ideas, that they can do with the ‘Capsters’ they make, like jewelry, key chains, belts and notebook art, just to name a few. (I bet you could think of some of your own!)

It’s a great kit, for kids to start making bottle cap art with, for another reason…..

There are several pages, of perforated circle background art, that the kids can just pop out of the book, and pop into their cap. They make adorable caps alone! But {Ju} loves to embellish hers, with different colored gems, googly eyes, or other charms, too.

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More pages of ideas, in the kit book.

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{Ju}, along with my daughter {O}, made several bottle caps, and she is going to show you the steps to this easy craft, right now.

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1) Start by squeezing some 3D Lacquer, into the center of the bottle cap. You want to squeeze it in almost drop-by-drop, almost filling the inner circle of the cap. 2) Add your background and any other contents, pressing it down all over. 3) Drop-by-drop again, squeezing it in very closely to the surface, covering the surface, and filling the cap about 1/3 to half, and being sure it is all covered evenly.

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{Ju} actually added a little gem to this one, before adding the surface lacquer.

So to review again….

1) Add lacquer to the center of the cap,… 2)….spreading it out a little. 3) Place your background circle or other contents in,…4)… pressing it down well so that it will stick to the lacquer beneath it.

{Ju} added googly eyes to the king, because she is silly like that. 5) (not numbered) Then, she covered the surface well, with the lacquer.

You will notice, that the lacquer is cloudy when dispensing. On the left, is the bare background, and on the right, is the background covered with googly eyes, and the lacquer. But have no fear!! This lacquer dries crystal clear, and glossy, just like glass. Love it!

Here are a few more, that were just finished, and need time to dry.
* Allow to dry for 24 hours!! *
If you touch it before then, because it looks dry, you may leave a fingerprint before it’s truly a hard glassy surface.

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{Ju} letting {O} give it a try. She was a great teacher!

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bottle-cap-art-18 Here is all of the caps the next day.

Bottle cap art is a really fun collectible!! You can also glue a magnet onto the back of the caps, and use them on your refrigerator, or office boards.

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bottle-cap-art-19 This particular brand of crystal clear lacquer is Sakura, and can be found here. This is {Ju}’s big refill bottle. I believe Mod Podge’s Dimensional Magic, is the same type of product, but I have only been able to find it in a 2 oz. bottle, which wouldn’t last very long, if you are making lots of caps.

O.K., so here are some links to where you can get these supplies again – but feel free to do an internet search, or check your local crafts stores for other brands or better prices too.

Silver Bottle Caps – a bag of 144

3D Crystal Clear Lacquer

* Klutz Bottle Cap Art Kit
(aff. link)

* This kit comes with everything kids need to get started. But be aware, that the bottle caps are white on the outside, and are marked with the Klutz logo.

Now, how about some ideas for Bottle Cap Art, for adults?

~ All kinds of beautiful bottle cap backgrounds, can be made with a simple 1″ circle punch, and scrap scrapbooking paper, stationary, greeting cards, the pages of a book……the ideas are limitless.

~ Any gems or charms can be used as well. Dimensional pieces do not need to be completely beneath the surface of the lacquer. It’s fine to put a coat of the lacquer over the piece, but letting the piece protrude from the surface of the lacquer makes the caps very 3D artsy.

~ Cutters, such as Cricut and Silhouette, are very popular with crafters now. They can be used to cut out any customized letters or designs, to fit in your caps. Consider putting a letter in each, on a pretty background, and then gluing/lacquering the caps together, to spell a meaningful word.

~ Perhaps some of your child’s simple artwork, or a photo of someone you love, can be shrunk down to put in a cap.

~ Dried flowers and leaves, would make a beautiful set! Dare I say, you could also preserve pretty small bugs, this way? : D

~Glitter is another element you could use, and there are also colored lacquers.

*Remember, your custom designed bottle caps can be used as art in many ways, and as many gift ideas as well.

The creative possibilities here, are endless.

Do you have any ideas of your own, that you can share with us in the comments? We’d love to hear more.

(This cap is not yet lacquered.)

{Ju} — Thank you so much, for teaching us all this craft, and being our first Guest Crafter! You did so great, and I’m so happy you love being creative, as much as I do! XOXOXO to you!!

* * * * * *

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Heart Strings / A Valentine’s Craft

January 17, 2011 By Laura 49 Comments

If brilliant colors make you happy, and you love fun projects, then this Valentine’s craft is just for you! We’re showing you just how to do it, step by step today!

While my home is not completely decorated for the upcoming ‘month of love’ just yet, I knew it was time to get to some Valentine crafting! I happened to see this craft from Martha Stewart Living, and was inspired to try it ourselves, with a spin or 2 of our own on it. By melting crayons in between wax paper, and cutting out hearts, some very cute Valentine’s decor can be made! That Martha is a clever one, huh? ( Or, her creative team – whatever. lol.) You can make this craft as quick and simply. or as involved, as you choose, and I am going to tell you the ways how.

Supplies needed:

Crayons, with paper removed (This craft is a great way to use up those old broken crayon pieces!)
A sharpener with a fat hole.
*Wax paper
Clothing iron
Brown craft paper, or brown paper bags (Just a protection layer for ironing.)
Hearts stencils or cookie cutters (2-3 sizes is nice.)
Pen or pencil
Scissors
Scotch-like tape

* DO NOT substitute parchment paper for the wax paper. It is not the same thing, as parchment paper has teflon in it.

Other optional supplies, depending on what you want to do with your crafts decoration:

White cotton twine and food coloring. (Simplified option: thin ribbon in white or any Valentine color.)
A clothing hanger, or a long tree branch

I intended to hang our hearts once they were done. So instead of using some satin ribbon (which is simple and faster, if you want to go that route), I had this vision of hanging our hearts on dyed string, that varied in color. So, with a roll of white cotton twine, and some food coloring, this is how I did it:

heart-strings-valentines-craft-1 In a plastic container, I added some red food coloring to some water, deep enough to soak the roll on it’s side to the cardboard roll core. I just let it sit for awhile, while I did other things, until I thought it soaked through all of the layers of twine. Then, I made orange and yellow soaks as well, letting a different side of the roll sit in each.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-2 I loved the results! How pretty is that?

I knew as the twine was pulled off the roll, the layers would get lighter, but that too would only help the variations in the string colors. Now, all of this string is not going to dry on the roll all the way through, any time this year, but that’s o.k. You’ll be able to use the string damp just fine, and it’ll dry hanging.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-4 But while the string roll was soaking in various colors, the kids and I got to making our hearts.

Pull off a piece or 2 of wax paper, fold in half to make a good crease, and then open back up. . . .

heart-strings-valentines-craft-5 What size piece you use depends on how many hearts you’ll want to make. Remember, you’ll only be able to get hearts out of one half, as it will be ironed together soon, with crayon shavings in between.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-7 Grab your old peeled crayons, and start choosing some great colors for Valentine hearts. No need to stay with strictly traditional colors, such as red and pink. Try some purples, raspberries, and even oranges and yellows!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-8 Now, if your old crayons have been kicking around together for some time, as ours have, they are going to have yuckity-doo-dahs all over them. Even as a kid, with me and my sibling’s bottomless bucket of crayons, I hated this.

So because I have had particular issues, long before I was a blogger, I have had a trick for this crayon problem. And since you came to this blogger with issues blog, I’m going to share it with you. : )

heart-strings-valentines-craft-9 Just lay the crayons down, one by one, on some scrap paper, and rub the yuckity-doo-dahs away! I found this is also a good way to test what the color really looks like!! Some crayons when used, do not look anything like the shade of the actual crayon! So deceiving.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-10 Old crayons, like new: Yuckity-doo-dah free!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-11 To make crayon shavings, you need a sharpener of some kind. Our little hand pencil sharpener did not have a hole big enough for a crayon, so we used my make-up one! Thanks Lancome!

Now….you’ll need to iron on your table or other flat surface, so I highly recommend putting down some crafts paper to protect your surface, from both melting crayon, and the heat from the iron.

On top of the protected surface, lay your open wax paper pieces.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-12 Over only one side of your wax paper piece, sharpen your crayons and let the shavings fall onto the paper. Each of my our kids did their own, and had their own unique colors combinations, which was going to make for a nice variety of colored hearts.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-13 Some of our crayons were metallic ones!! So that was adding a whole new element of pretty!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-14 Make sure you cover the whole side with shavings pretty well. Brush any pieces in from the very edge though.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-15 Fold over the empty side of wax paper, onto the side with the shavings.

Now, Martha’s directions say to fold up each open side some, to keep the melting crayon in. But, I didn’t want to waste any space, as we wanted to make lots of hearts, and some on the bigger side too. So….I just made sure I was working on my brown paper bag. (We also had other craft paper taped to cover our surface under that.)

heart-strings-valentines-craft-16 Now, after putting brown paper on top of your waxed paper and shavings, you can start ironing. What setting? Good question!! See, Martha said on a ‘medium setting’. But guess what? Our iron doesn’t have a medium setting! So I set it between silk and wool, ; ) …. and adjusted the heat up or down from there.

As you can see, some oils from the crayons may seep through the wax paper and the brown paper. It doesn’t cause any problems. Just make sure you clean the surface of your iron off when you are done with this craft, so it doesn’t transfer to your clothes! What a hot mess that would be! (Note to self: Clean surface of iron from crayon craft!!) (By the time I decide to iron an article of clothing, I’ll have forgotten I ever did this craft with it.)

As you iron, you’ll want to keep peeking, to see if there are more shavings that still need melting in areas.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-17 Heavy in crayon wax…..but nice!!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-18 The next kiddo went with a lighter layer of shavings, for a new effect. Or, his hands just got tired from sharpening the crayons.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-17 They were looking good!! Just holding each of them up to the light, I could tell this was going to look super cool when we were done.

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I couldn’t wait to see what this one was going to look like, all melted.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-21 LOVE!!!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-22 Now, you may notice some bubbling or wrinkling in areas. I’m not sure why this happened sometimes. I was guessing maybe it was too much heat at times. But since this was a fun crafts class, and not our Science class, we weren’t going to waste time running tests, to figure it out. We decided it was a cool effect, and embraced it.

Next, came tracing hearts onto our waxed pieces, and cutting them out with scissors.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-19 We used simple heart shaped cookie cutters that we had, in 3 different sizes. Just trace them using a pen or pencil, and then cut out on the heart shaped line. I used a pen, and because I was using it on wax paper, it wouldn’t really write, which I preferred anyway. I was able to see the tracing indention well enough to cut, just by tracing it a couple of times. * I did not take photos of tracing and cutting. I have faith you get the picture.

Nor did I take photos of exactly how we did the rest of our crafts. BUT……Once your hearts are all cut out, there several things you can do with them:

1) The easiest thing you can do, is just put them on your windows much like window clings, using a little transparent tape! The hearts have a stained-glass look, and they would be beautiful with the light coming through, and the colors so radiant.

2) Another option, is using pieces of thin cut ribbon, tape one end to the back of each heart, and tie them to a clothing hanger at different lengths. Instant Valentine’s themed mobile!!

3) You can take it to the extreme, like we did…..

heart-strings-valentines-craft-23
Michael went out and found us a really long and fairly straight tree branch, that would meet the length of our sliding glass doors. Then, to work in a comfortable manner tying our hearts on it, we set 2 chairs very far apart, and rested each end of the stick on the top back of each chair. Using long pieces of our dyed string, we wound one end around the stick a few times, and taped the dangling end to the back of each heart, at different lengths.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-24 Yes, you could just tie it on quickly, but I knew I would love the look of our pretty, hand-dyed string, wound around this rustic tree branch. And I was right.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-25 It was worth ll of my efforts. It may not be worth it to you. Also….my girls helped with this some.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-26 If you’re wondering how we hung this long tree branch adorned with colorful Valentine hearts up high and across our slider glass doors, I’ll tell you: Michael screwed a long screw into the backside of the stick on each end. Then we simply used those little tight-clamp thingies, and clamped them to the curtain rod bracket. See? No permanent damage anywhere.

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They colors really look beautiful, hanging there, even as I look past them, through our window into the snowy scene behind them. There are often squirrels out there frolicking in the snow (o.k. …finding the fallen bird seed), and birds at the feeders, eating.

We think the critters rather appreciate our Valentine decorations on display.

I love coming in our front door, and seeing them swaying in the breeze across the room in front of us. I can feel the love in the air. It makes us smile.

The colors of love are a beautiful thing.

Let them shine, shine, shine.

(Love this craft idea? Share the link on your Facebook! Your mom-friends will love it too! Or….*pin it* to one of your boards! ; )

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No-Sew, Double-Sided Fleece Blanket | Tutorial

November 6, 2010 By Laura 4 Comments

The kids and I were recently brainstorming for ideas, to put together a very special package for a certain little boy. It was very special circumstances, that called us to put something together very special, just for him. I wanted to share with you all this idea our oldest, {A}, came up with: Making a no-sew, double-sided fleece blanket for him.

It was the perfect idea for this little boy.

The kids had received fleece blankets like this before, as gifts, and as single layer blankets. But I wanted to see if we could make a double-sided blanket, so that it would have a different pattern on each side. How FUN, right? And it would be double warm and cozy!

It’s really quite easy, and well worth the effort! Maybe this is a home-made gift idea you can use sometime, for Christmas gifts, or birthdays.

They are great for anyone, at any age. From babies to grandparents, and anyone in between. Just change up the patterns to be more suitable for the recipient, and it’s perfect. Who doesn’t use blankets? It can be a single layer too, and would take even less time. It just wouldn’t have a different pattern on the reverse side. They are great as throws for beds, getting all wrapped up and cozy to watch a movie, as a lap blanket while you read, or even traveling in the car. Just choose the appropriate patterns, and a suitable size for whom ever it is for.

Here’s How Easy it is to Make a No-Sew, Double-Sided Fleece Blanket

no-sew-double-sided-fleece-blanket-tutorial We found this set of 2 different patterns, at Joann Fabrics! I didn’t know there was such thing, and had planned on having to choose 2 patterns separately, and have them cut off the roll to size. So we were pleased to find these available! (I also unexpectedly got it at half price!!) There are a few sizes available in sets. This one was 48″ x 60″. Perfect width and height for a little boy. But you can buy any patterns you want off the rolls, and just cut them to matching size.

I was tickled with this 2-in-1 fleece fabrics of chocolate brown with colored polka dots, and bugs!

Again, perfect for a little boy.

The first thing we did was lay it out on a clean table, layering the 2 pieces, one on top of the other, as perfectly lined up as possible.

Then we chose a side to start on, and laid a heavy board several inches away from, but along that edge, to keep the fabric from moving too much.

We were prepping to cut fringes through both layers. So using a snapline chalk, we measured up 5 inches from the edge, and snapped a chalk line across from one end to the other, to indicate where to stop cutting, so the fringes would all be the same length. This would create 5 inch long fringes, minus what is taken up when we knot them. Then we measured in from each corner 4 inches, and cut 1 inch wide fringes, all the way across in between. In other words, we stopped cutting fringes 4 inches from each end. This would leave you a squarish block piece on all of the corners, for now. We’ll get to why we did that, in a bit.

Now, if you don’t have a chalk-line to mark things off, you can use a ruler and chalk per usual. But this was faster.

no-sew-double-sided-fleece-blanket-tutorial-5 Then, we just started tying each top layer of fringe piece, to the bottom layer fringe piece.

no-sew-double-sided-fleece-blanket-tutorial-6 Now because this blanket is 2 layers, the fringe pieces need to be double tied. Or else it would just un-tie.

But if it was a one-layer blanket, you would just knot the one piece of fringe, and once, would do.

You get me? ; )

This is how it starts looking.
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There can be a cool little technique here, where the print of the same side can show most. or the other side. While tying it (like the beginnings of shoe tying), I found whichever side you stuffed through the whole, is the side that ended up on top. I wanted the opposite side showing, so I made sure to stuff that piece and pull it through to on top.

Now you even get that, or you don’t. Either way will not ruin your blanket. This project is virtually fail-proof!

no-sew-double-sided-fleece-blanket-tutorial-4
This is done all the way down, to your 4 inch corner piece.

The same process is done on every side of the blanket. Again, stopping 4 inches for each corner.

Now what to do with the 4 inch corners: We just cut 1 inch fringes, on angles, to go around the corner. I think it was 3 cuts, creating 3 more fringes. Just make then 1″ -ish wide, like the others. This was to create a rounded corner blanket. It IS an option, to just make fringe cuts one inch apart, all the way to the end, on 2 ends, to make the whole blanket more rectangular. If you do it that way, I would do one whole side first, and then the opposite side, so they are the same. Then work on the other 2 sides.

Cutting 2 layers of fleece at once was a little hard for the kiddos, but they were very helpful for tying! They took a lot of care with their work.

Look how cute! I just loved the colors. And the bugs. And the polka dots!

We were really happy with how it came out.

The kids were really excited to send it out to our special gift, to this special little boy, along with some other gifts. It was a big package.

We hope our home made blanket warms his heart, as much as it warms him, head-to-toe.

It was certainly made with love!

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Summer Fan Pull (and Some Special Gifts) | Crafts

July 29, 2010 By Laura 6 Comments

Call me way late to the party, but I ‘just’ got around to making my summer fan pull. I’ve kept this one up, which I made for spring, all of this time.

But I’ve got 2 things to say about that: 1) I’m not really late TO the party. I think more, I’ve been too busy being AT a party, to find time for such things, as getting crafty. 2) The spring fan pull did not look all that out of place, so it didn’t bug me too much. I mean, it’s not like it was snowflakes or anything.

Thus, I’m giving myself a break. Just in case no one else does.

I did a have a plan in my head for a long time though! I knew I wanted to make it beachey-themed. Seashells, beach colors like warm tans and sea blues.

What I didn’t know, was that I would have splendid company, while I crafted my summer fan pull. My brother and his family were down, and my nephew and niece decided to make a fan pulls of their own, with me! So I enjoyed some nice chit-chat with them, while we crafted. I found it all rather enjoyable, and I think they did too!

So here’s my summer fan pull. Quite summery I think. Do you like?? I had planned to take photos of my nephew and niece’s fancy fan-pulls as well, but they had put them away, and then we forgot! Darn-it-all. But they did a nice job!

Moving on.

My God Daughter, and her mom (my cousin) and brother (and her brother’s friend) were down recently as well, for the kid’s photo shoot. And my God-Daughter brought me this……

….a hand painted cupcake wine glass, by Delish. Because she knows I love everything about cupcakes.

I really do. I love this glass. I love her.

It’s not the first time she has been so thoughtful. (Nor is is it the 2nd. Or the 22nd.). Last time she was down, she brought me this cupcake plate set and sugar bowl! Because she knows I love everything about cupcakes.

I really do. I love this set. I love her.

But wait…there’s more….

…..She made me, all by herself, this wine cork pull.

I think it’s beautiful. It has HER all over it. Sprinkled with love, for me.

I really love it. And her.

I know….it does kind of seem like she gets the impression I drink a lot of wine, huh?

LOL. But no….I don’t think so. Just look how full that bottle of wine IS!! I’ve had it for weeks! My dad brought it for me, when he came down several weeks ago. He knows I love wine, on occasion.

I really do. I love him.

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You know, you don’t have to have French doors, to do this project!! You can do the same thing, in grid picture windows, or make horizontal strands as a Spring-themed decorative garland!

It’s really quite easy, and well worth the effort! Maybe this is a home-made gift idea you can use sometime, for Christmas gifts, or birthdays.

Here’s How Easy it is to Make a No-Sew, Double-Sided Fleece Blanket

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