Kids Craft: How to Make a Quick Doll Closet

This Christmas, Lulu's Grandma bought her an American Girl Doll.  Needless to say, she has been obsessed with her doll Kanani. Just when life couldn't get any better for this 6 year old her Auntie in Hawaii sends her a "real Hawaiian" outfit. Those are her words. The icing on the cake...the outfit came with a doll hanger. This prompted the question, "Where am I going to hang her new dress?!" Followed by, "I need an American Girl Doll Closet."

After I finished laughing in my head knowing there was no chance we would be buying a $$ AGD closet. I told her we could make one. So...I had to think quick. This is what I came up with on the fly. I used an old box but am thinking that we would eventually upgrade to a nice new white box and a dowel.

I used the inside heavy craft paper found at the end of some wrapping paper rolls. Trim the paper roll. Make sure the rod is longer than the width of the box. Wind the paper roll tightly to make it smaller in diameter and stronger.Tape in place (use packing tape) to make sure it doesn't unroll.

Next measure and cut openings on the sides of your box for the rod. I just made an * (like an X shape but with a few more cuts) with a kitchen knife and bent the tabs in. Thread your rod through the openings. Use rubber bands on either side to secure into place.  Lu likes to use these side bits to hang her doll's beach bag and bathing suit from.

Here is the outfit that started the whole thing. Adorable! By the way, Lu is a stickler for rules and once she found out that Friday is Aloha Friday in Hawaii...well, Kuhnani is dressed every Friday in her Aloha wear.

The top is the hanger that came with the dress. Below is one that I fashioned from a metal hanger. You just need a heavy duty set of pliers and a metal snipper thing (can you tell I know my way around a tool box!)

My American Girl loves her new closet and even spent a good part of an afternoon decorating it with stickers and gluing pictures of animals and flowers on the outside.

Of course you can decoupage or paint your box. So many possibilities!

All and all, another crafting emergency averted! Have fun crafting with your kids, Mama King

Girl Scouts: Daisy Flower Garden

For Lulu's Girl Scout Daisy Investiture Ceremony I made a flower box with the GS Promise on the side. Each girl decorated a craft foam flower to "plant" in our troop garden. They "planted" the flower before they recieved their vests.

The stems were made from a bamboo skewer wrapped with green pipe cleaners. I added a foam leafe by unching the leaf onto the skewer then wrapping securely in place with the pipe cleaner.

The flowers were precut flower shapes bought from Michael's. I sandwiched the two together on the end of the skewer using hot glue to secure them in place. 

We took photos of the girls with their vests on. I will add their pictures to the other side of the flowers using my circle punch.

This would be a fun activity for a classroom garden theme as well.

Fancy Valentine Pencils

It is so easy to add a little ooh la la to a holiday pencil! All you need is a pack of holiday pencils, a feather boa* from the craft or party store, a glue gun and some craft gems (optional.)

*Make sure you use the fuzzier boa style not the long feather kind.

Wrap the boa around your pencil 2x loosely - cut. This will be your measurement. Before you cut the whole boa up glue down using hot glue to see if you like the look. Adjust the measurement to your liking.  I placed glue just under the metal eraser collar then took one end of the boa and held it down until secure.  Next wrap the rest of the boa bit around 2x loosely - glue end in place.

I made 14 pencils with one boa.

Optional: glue a gem on eraser. My daughter felt this made it extra fancy!

Perfect for any holiday, birthday party favor, Fancy Nancy themed party...

XOXO Mama King

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Doing Art Together: Family Hand Portrait

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This was a homework assignment for Lu. She had to count everyone in the families hands then trace their fingers on a page and number them.  I thought it would be fun to take it a step further.  I had Lu use watercolor paper. She traced every ones hands, overlapping each hand as she went along. I traced them with a Sharpie and Lu numbered them. Then I gave her some watercolors and let her paint them any way she wanted. I think it came out beautiful! What a great family "portrait." I am definitely framing this one!

This would make a great gift for a Mom, Dad or Grandparent!

Tip: I highly recommend you use water color paper. Water color paper won't buckle as much and will hold up better. Also outlining the hands using a permanent marker will make sure the hands don't get lost under all the paint.  You don't need to have your little one number each finger unless you want to reinforce counting.

Dairy Free Spritz

As many of you know, my eldest daughter, Lu, is allergic to milk and tree nuts. I have never attempted baking Spritz Cookies until this Christmas. I was so pleased the Fleischman's Unsalted Margarine worked as an excellent substitute for butter. I was worried it would either jam up the spritz gun and/or taste odd. Luckily they came out beautifully! Chilling the dough a bit helped.  I used the America's Test Kitchen Recipe substituting 1 tbs. Soy Creamer for Cream and 2 sticks Fleischman's Unsalted Margarine for butter. I did one batch using vanilla extract and one with orange extract. The adults preferred the orange extract batch and the kids preferred the vanilla.

Homemade Ornaments with Shrinky Dinks

Dear Santa, I want 2 JB (Justin Bieber) Cards, More Squinkee(s) (and) slippers (heart) Lulu

Dear Santa, 51 Stuf(fed) Animal Dogs (heart) Emme

Capture your kids top 3 wish list gifts on a Shrinky Dink blank page. I cut an 8x10 blank Shrinky Dink page in half to make 2 ornaments. Have the kids write their must haves from their Santa list on the page, decorate, punch holes and bake. We used sparkly pipe cleaners to create the hanger.  It will be fun to look back on these ornaments years from now.  We may do this every year!

Thanks to my friend MB for the idea and the Shrinky Dink Blank Sheets! I couldn't find any at my Michael's Store.

Girls Scout Pledge Coloring Page

I just signed on as Co-leader of Lu's new Daisy Troop.  I am fortunate to have a Co-leader who is super organized and detail oriented. That leaves all the fun and craft planning to me! Our first meeting is this week. To reinforce learning the Girl Scout Pledge I created a coloring sheet for the girls.  It is a great activity for the girls who finish the main activity quickly and for the girls who don't get to it can take it home to color. I know my blogging buddy Katie from Katie's Nesting Spot will appreciate this since she just signed on as a Co-leader for her daughter's Daisy Troop. So here you go all you Daisy Leaders out there! Enjoy :-) Girl Scout Pledge Coloring Page

Homemade Holidays: Ornament Crazy!

I have been a bit obsessed with needle felting these last few weeks. I have been making 100% wool ornaments by repeatedly sticking a special needle into the wool.  I begin by making the ball then I freehand the design onto the ball. There is something so relaxing and creative about the process. I am just a beginner so I would recommend checking out the web for instructions.

I love the scarf!

I still need to add the olive branch.

My girls really like this one.

I added beads to this one. My friends daughter taught me how to do it!

This last ornament is a project I am going to do with my Daisy Troop.  I just became a co-leader. The girls are earning their center patch. The ornament represents the patch and learning their pledge.

Stale Bagel Bird Feeder

After the Thanksgiving festivities we ended up with a few rock hard bagels. The girls and I turned them into bird feeders. Cut bagel in half. Tie a string onto the bagel. 

We spread Crisco on them but you could use peanut butter.

Then sprinkled them with bird seed.

A great treat for your neighborhood birds...and squirrels! If you don't have a stale bagel you can use a pine cone. You can also have kids string O cereal onto a pipe cleaner, twist to close and then hang on a branch.

Here are some other bird feeder ideas:

http://4crazykings.blogspot.com/2009/02/tennis-ball-canister-bird-feeder.html

http://4crazykings.blogspot.com/2009/01/for-birds.html

Homemade Holiday Gift: Felted Soap

With some assistance my 4 year old and 6 year old were able to make their own wet felted soap.

My 4 year old really loved getting sudsy! My 6 year old did not. If you have a kid that loves rolling up their sleeves and getting dirty (in this case, clean!) this is a great activity.

The wool roving for wet felting is available on line.  The roving comes in an array of colors.  You only need an ounce each of  3 or 4 colors to cover several bars. I just ordered some Ecosoft Roving from Weir Crafts for $2.25 an ounce. There are many other options available on line.

Setup: Cover your table with a towel. Have some extra hand towels nearby.

Old panty hose or knee high, bar of soap, roving, and container of  very warm water

Check out YouTube to get started. I haven't found one that uses my particular method. See the tips I have below.

Tips:

• When making felted soap with kids I suggest dipping the soap in the very warm water first. Then wrap the wool roving around the soap. This helps the roving stick better.
• Wrap in several layers of the roving until you cant see any soap peeking through.
• I like to have the roving ready to go in small "sheets" so I can lay them out for my kids. They lay the wet soap on top of one "sheet" then wrap around the sides of the soap. Then we carefully pick up the soap and flip it over so the top of the soap is now face down on the next sheet. Continue until completely covered.
• Next, hold open a nylon stocking very wide and have your child carefully place inside. You can tie off the stocking or just wrap it around.
• Have your child dip the soap in very warm water.
• Begin rubbing very gently at first. You want to create a lather. As the soap starts to felt they can get more aggressive with the rubbing. 

Good luck! It is a great handmade gift. When the soap is used up you are left with a wool pouch. I have heard it makes a nice pot scrubber.

Have fun crafting with your kids this Holiday!