Playfood Pizza Supreme

For my son's birthday last summer, I made felt pizza (at his request). First I made a paper pattern for the pizza, cheese and sauce. The crust was two wedges of tan felt for each piece; the cheese was a single wedge. For the sauce I opted for arcs instead of continuing it under the whole piece of cheese. I cut out my pieces and my pepperoni, mushrooms, olives and green peppers. This is more vegetables then my children would truly eat on a pizza, but plain cheese would have just looked boring.

The first thing I sewed was the toppings onto the cheese (zig-zag or straight stitch, whichever is easier for each piece). Then I sewed the arc of sauce onto the cheese; then the whole thing went on a piece of crust. I sewed a second piece of crust on the two straight sides with the wrong sides together.

I turned it right side out, then sewed a line about 3/4 inch away from the curved edge, right next to the sauce. This is the inside seam of the crust, which is the only portion of the pizza that is stuffed. I zig-zagged over the curved edge, but left about an inch at the end. I stuffed the crust through this hole, using a pencil, then went back and finished zig-zagging the last inch.

Repeat 3 more times. All done!

Birthday Crowns

Last year, in an attempt to add something to the dress up box that was more for a boy, I made my son a birthday crown. I used red felt doubled up, decorated it with colorful jewels, and put velcro at the back to make it adjustable. It turned out great. My son loved wearing it for his special day, and uses it to be a king, prince, superhero or a pirate now.

Not only did my son like it, my daughter...the owner of plenty of non-homemade princess paraphernalia... liked it, too. And...she insisted on having a birthday crown of her own for her special day. I took my original idea and turned it more into a princess crown, while still using the same idea of two layers of felt with a jeweled layer on top.

I'm proud to say that my little princess sometimes grabs her pink felt crown instead of her shiny plastic one. Sometimes...every rare once in a while. I will say though, that with how kids "take care" of many of their toys, the felt one will probably far outlast the flimsy plastic one. The plastic one will probably have to disappear in the middle of the night after failed attempts to glue it back together; it will join the former plastic wand, the other 2 plastic crowns and one horribly bent pair of fairy wings in plastic princess heaven. The felt ones will remain firmly grounded in the dress up box.

Buddies for Baby

Around our house, we have lots of "buddies". Buddies are stuffed animals that are treated like children (carried in a sling, fed, get the occasional time out, etc.), used as fun projectiles, and have to be in the appropriate bed at bedtime (although, my kids have started a buddy exchange program at bedtime with one or two of their precious chosen). Buddies are very important since my daughter has never liked dolls....I have no idea why she doesn't like dolls; at one point in her babyhood she was even afraid of them. Buddies take on all roles that dollies would normally take in a little girl's life.

When our son was born almost 3 years ago, my then 2-year-old daughter and I picked out a special new buddy for him. She brought it to the hospital when she came to meet her new baby brother. Though he now has a collection of about 5 special buddies, Mr. Lion is still one of the favorites.

We are now expecting a little girl in September, and the buddy-tradition will continue. This time, I am making buddies. My children and I spend a while going through the patterns on the Lion Brand Free Crochet Patterns website, and chose 2 new buddies for their baby sister (actually, we had to wait a few weeks to find out if it was a boy or girl to see what color yarn to use).

Here is Buddy #1, a gift from my son to his new baby sister (though he would rather play with it himself right now):


Her name is YaYa...which is short for "YaYa Elmo Song" (for some reason when my son sings the Elmo song, it's "ya, ya, ya, ya...Elmo's Song/World" instead of "la, la"). Sammy named her by himself after I had suggested some other possible names. I love the YaYa name though, she's specially named by my baby's big brother.

YaYa is from the Lion Brand Georgina the Giraffe Pattern....clearly I went my own direction with the colors...I love BlaBla animal colors and went more that way.

Buddy #2 is from my almost 5-year-old daughter:


She is from the Lion Brand Pocket Kitten Pattern, though I made some tiny pattern changes as I went along on this one. Actually...quite a few changes, again more like the BlaBla animals...but thanks, Lion Brand for the idea.

She is named Zoey, which is what my daughter wants to name the baby...we're going another direction for the baby, so I suggested that the kitty might appreciate the name.


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Katherine (Kate) Grace, born September 27th, with her buddies! I think she likes them :-)

Crochet Easter Eggs

Happy Easter!!

A couple of days ago, as I searched for Easter basket fillings...I realized that Costa Rica doesn't really do Easter baskets. So...I wanted to make something special to add to the non-Easter candy. I found patterns for some cute Amigurumi Egg Cozies on the Lion Brand free patttern index. I wasn't wild about using them as egg cozies, though, so I adapted the pattern to make actual eggs, changed the original a bit and then added some of my own special touches for my children who have very specific favorite colors. Here is what I came up with. (Pattern for printing )


The little lambs are a direct borrow from the Lion Brand pattern. Aren't they cute?

The strawberry was my idea for my daughter who loves pink and green.


The striped egg was my idea for my 2 year old son who loves red because Elmo is red. So this egg is the color of Elmo and Elmo's nose. (It's only 9 am on Easter morning here...and this one has already been used to bonk his sister in the face...oh well)

Here is my addapted version of the patern, again.

By the way...I'm very proud of myself right now because this is the first pattern I have used and the first pattern that I have written down. It's amazing, using a pattern IS much easier than just crocheting free-hand :-)

Happy Easter! Christ has risen indeed!

Crochet Finger Puppets and Hand Puppets

About the time I last posted on this site (I know...I know...it was a long time ago), I decided to see what crocheting was all about. So, I looked up some video instructions on YouTube and gave it a try. Here are some of my first attempts....

Lion, ducky and monkey are not from a pattern. In fact, up until recently, I never used a pattern for crocheting...I just couldn't find exactly what I wanted to make. I think, out of this bunch, monkey turned out the best. Lion is definitely lacking.

Next I tried to make a hand puppet with a opening mouth (cookie monster). He turned out pretty well, the only downside is that only a child can operate his mouth as I made him a little small. While I was practicing different stitches and trying to figure out what stitch was used on a bag that my mother-in-law had purchased for my daughter, I made something that my son determined was Larry the cucumber from VeggieTales. I recently (finally) added Larry's face, so that now, he really looks like Larry. Larry is a little big for a finger puppet, though, my kids can fit at least 3 fingers in.

After I was done with my "practicing" I decided to tackle some Christmas and birthday presents...


These three were for my nephew for his birthday. If any of you are familiar with Sandra Boynton...these are from her story "Pajamas" in the book Snoozers. I was pretty happy with how they turned out.


Elmo and the princess were stocking suffers for my two children. I always meant to add arms and a collar to the princess...but as of yet, she still doesn't have them.

The only other thing I wanted to post here was the Bert and Ernie finger puppets and the full sized Cookie Monster that I gave to another nephew at Christmas...but I'm still trying to figure out who's camera I used to take pictures of them :-) I'm finishing up a full sized Oscar puppet to add to this set, too...so I will post that when it's done (It was almost finished, but the mouth wasn't quite right...so I'm taking it apart and fixing it...this is the downside of not working off of patterns, I end up pulling out and redoing stuff a lot. I think I redid Ernie's head about 5 times...I'm getting better, though.).

Over all...I've had lots of fun with the new crochet thing. I already have a short list of things I want to make for the baby that I am expecting.

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Oscar!!!

Homemade Hairbows

I made my daughter (and a couple of her friends) a collection of hairbows when she was 16 months old. We still use a lot of the same bows today, although some of them desperately need to be thrown out, they've been worn so much. My mom brought my ribbon box down to Costa Rica when she visited us recently, so now I can finally replace some of them and make some new ones.

Recently, I made 2 sets to go with my daughter's new preschool uniform (yes, here in Costa Rica, even the preschoolers are required, by law, to wear uniforms). I took pictures as I made them...

Supplies:

• 1/2 inch ribbon (I like using grosgrain ribbon…Michael’s has a great selection…see my notes at the end about choosing ribbon)
• alligator clips (I used to be able to get these at the craft store, but they stopped carrying them. My mother-in-law bought me a big box, though, at a beauty supply store)
• glue gun, fray-stop (fabric liquid-for the end of the ribbons), thread and needle

There are three types of bows that I have made: 3-loop bows, simple bows (see any of the 2-tone bows in the first picture), and straight clips.

Step 1: cut ribbons to length and seal ends of ribbon with fray-check

• straight clips: a 5 inch piece OR cover the whole clip
  
• simple bows: a 5 inch piece, a 1.5 inch piece, and a 7 inch piece (with angled edges)
  
• 3-loop bows: a 5 inch piece, a 1.5 inch piece, and a 17 inch piece (with angled edges)

Step 2: use the glue gun to glue the medium piece on the alligator clip. If you are doing a straight clip, you’re done.

Step 3: fold your ribbon and sew it to keep it in place (the sewing was an important discovery for me…it doesn’t need to be extremely strong, just enough to keep it from slipping)

• simple bow: form a traditional bow and sew in the center with a needle and thread to hold in place; go to step 4

• 3-loop bow: fold bow into 5 even folds; sew up through the center (only once) and let your needle and thread hang while you arrange your bow. (This step changes a little if you want the same side of the ribbon facing up because you are using a ribbon with a pattern only on one side. Instead of being able to just fold it over, you will need to turn it when you are folding it. See the light green, dark blue, and red w/orange dot examples in the collage above. )

Spread out the 3 loops on each side, place the top and bottom layers of the ribbon (the cut edges) out to different sides so that the bow will be reversible. Then sew back through the layers of ribbon to hold them in place. Pinch the layers so that the outside ribbons will curve under the bow; finishing sewing to secure and tie off your thread.

Step 4: glue your bow onto the center of the clip (if you have made a simple bow, pay attention to the direction…when the bow is used, you will want the cut edges pointing down. What side will your girl wear the bow on? If you are making a set of two…make sure that each faces a different direction so that one can be worn on either side of the head)

Step 5: place a dot of glue on the top center of your bow. Press the center of the remaining piece of ribbon on top. Open the alligator clip, and put a dot of glue on the underside of the bow. Fold one edge of the center ribbon around and under. Put another dot of glue in the same place, and secure the other end of the ribbon.

Other ideas:

• For really thin hair, glue a tiny piece of hook Velcro on the top part of the inside
• For a bigger bow, cut your main piece longer and fold it back and forth more times. Or add a second color of ribbon (same width or thinner).
• Glue the bows on a ponytail holder or a headband
• Take a stretchy cloth headband. Sew both ends of a 1-inch piece of matching ribbon to the center. This gives you a place to clip on any of the bows you’ve made …changing the headband to match your outfit.

Cleaning and repairing: I’ve had to hand wash a couple of my bows (back in the avocado in the hair stage of eating) and they have turned out ok. A few have even survived the washing machine when they accidentally get tossed in the laundry. The most common repair that I have had to make is re-gluing the piece of ribbon that is covering the clip itself. One option would be to make it longer and have it wrap all the way to the inside of the clip…the downside of this is that it makes it harder to slip into your child’s hair…which is why I just choose to fix them instead of preventing this most of the time.

Ribbon choices: The colors you choose really depend on the wardrobe of your girl or whomever you are making bows for. The most frequently used bows in our house are the pink ones. Others have been made to match specific dress outfits and are now rarely used. My favorite bows are the brown bow with the pink center (simple bow) and the red bow with the white stitching (which we have lost…and I ran out of this ribbon…how sad). How can you pay for all those different spools of ribbon...a couple of ideas: use coupons and sales, share ribbons (and cost) with a few friends, or offer to make sets for a few friends - at $1 per bow, they are still getting a much better deal than they can get in a store (this last option is what I ended up doing and paid for all my materials), use them as gifts.

Homemade Crayon Muffins

This is a craft that makes a great homemade gift for kids. It reuses broken crayon bits and makes them usable again. I’ve also collected crayola crayons that restaurants give away to the kids…that’s why most of the crayon muffins I’ve made are only red/yellow/green/blue combinations. If you had a preschool or church nursery with a boatload of broken crayons to get rid of, it would be a dream come true. Or…if you just want to get extra life out of a bunch of crayon bits, you could make single-color crayon muffins.

Here is my source for this one…

http://tentenspot.blogspot.com/2006/07/crayon-cookies.html

Basic instructions:

Remove all paper from crayons (I once read that it helps to soak them in water…but that didn’t work at all for me; it made it even harder. My suggestion is to use a knife to score a single line down the length of the crayon; then hand them over to your toddler to peel. J Mine spent an hour quietly at the table peeling crayons one time.)

(2) Preheat the oven to 300 degrees

(3) Break the crayons into little bits if they aren’t already

(4) Place them in a mini-muffin tin; fill the cups, but don’t overfill them. (I’ve tried 2-4 colors per cup and they’ve turned out nicely)

(5) Place them inside the oven and TURN THE OVEN OFF!

(6) Wait for them to melt.

(7) Remove them from the oven and let them cool for a while on the counter.

(8) After the tops have solidified, stick the whole pan in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. This will complete the solidification and make it so they just lift right out of the muffin tin without sticking.

Hand them to the kids to use or wrap them in cellophane to use as gifts, party favors, or anything else. I’ve given sets of them along with drawing paper as gifts. They tend to break in half after some use, but that actually makes them a little easier to use.

Homemade Playdough

I was given this recipe for homemade playdough from my daughter's preschool teacher. It is so easy and the feeling of warm playdough, fresh off the stove, is almost as good as squishing your toes in the mud was when you were a kid.

the Playdough receipe is as follows:

Mix

2 cups flour

1/2 cup salt

2 tbsp. cream of tarter (or alum)

Add to dry ingredients:

2 cups water

2 tsp. food coloring

2 TBSP oil

Stir all together in pan

Heat on stove to when the dough starts to look firm. Stir frequently.

Remove from the pan on to the counter top and knead with your hands before playing with it.


***UPDATE***

When I've made playdough, I've thought about 2 senses...sight (fun bright colors) and touch (how soft the playdough recipe is). Thanks to my fellow moms at Mothering by Grace, I've been educated about the smell of playdough. Here are a couple of ideas for adding wonderful scent to your playdough:

• add a bit of vanilla or almond extract (or any extract) to the playdough with the wet ingredients
  
• add pepermint extract (pair with green or red food coloring, put in a baggie with a red/green ribbon, tie on a small Christmas cookie cutter and hand out as a little Christmas gift)
• Or...if you want fruity smells...add a packet of unsweetened Kool-aid mix at the beginning (with the dry ingredients). This takes care of both the smell and the color (no need to add in the food coloring) The blue playdough above was made with a pack of Berry-Burst Kool-aid.

Other fun add-ins:

• glitter (I mentioned this one to my daughter; she really wants to try it)
  
• ???? (Let me know, I can't think of anything else...my brain is full of Spanish reflexive verbs for my test on Monday.)