Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Mini Wallet

What does one gift a one year old who is baby number three and can find a seemingly never ending supply of new things in the toy closet?

That was the question. After some consideration the answer seemed simple. What is her favorite thing to do? Why take all the cards out of mommy's wallet, of course.

I sought the aid of my trusty pal, Google and found a great little tutorial for a mini wallet.

The pattern seemed slightly intimidating with all the little folds, but it got easier as it started to resemble the finished product.

I printed pictures of her siblings and herself and had them laminated into little cards.

The gift went over well, but I have to say that mommy's wallet is still a favorite.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Pillow Case Project for ConKerr Cancer

It was time to plan the next Girl Scout Daisy meeting. I enjoy sewing and was looking for a simple project for the girls. After looking around for a while, I wasn't finding much geared for six year olds. Finally I thought about a simple pillowcase, that is pretty easy. You just need to know how to sew in a straight line.

That is when I discovered ConKerr Cancer. This charity provides nice directions for sewing pillowcases, collects donated pillowcases and then distributes them to children who are being hospitalized. The children are able to choose a pillowcase and then it is theirs to keep. The website encourages sewers to use bright, fun fabrics and even coordinate different fabrics for the main part of the pillowcase and the border.

I also learned a neat trick for sewing the border to the main part. It feels like you are doing magic. It is dubbed the hotdog method.

I still wasn't sure the girls could make the pillowcases start to finish in an hour. Prepping the pillowcases seemed to make the most sense. I cut the parts out and even attached the borders. Now all the girls would need to do would be to sew one long side and one short side. I was able to have three sewing machines available and four adults to help.

For the girls who weren't sewing, I wanted to make sure they had activities to keep them busy. I made some signs and had a few different stations. One station was for card making. The girls could make a simple get well card or I hope you like the pillowcase card. The other stations were hula hooping, practicing some "Minute to Win it" games, and a bean bag toss.

While all the preparations were a bit time consuming, I just felt this was a great project and I wanted to make it happen.

The girls loved sewing. It was very exciting for them. They also seemed to understand what the project was all about. I felt really pleased with the whole thing.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Unicycle T-Shirt

Having two unicyclists in the house, it seems like unicycling is very mainstream, but then I do a search for unicycle gifts and turn up not so much.

During one of my nap time searches I found a unicycle rubber stamp. I wondered what I could do with that. Then I remembered that there are stamp pads that are permanent, even designed for fabric. Finding them however proved to be difficult. But ordering was not too hard.

I bought a white t-shirt, made a heart template out of cereal box cardboard, and started stamping.

A great way for my daughter to show her love of unicycling.