Something for the Birds

Spring is around the corner and what better way to welcome it than by making something for the birds!  I saw this idea on Juniper Moon Farm and thought it was a fantastic, easy project.  The original idea uses a metal suet feeder, which you can purchase at a home improvement store.  I, always looking to save money, had some strawberry baskets and figured that they would work just as well.

Basically, this is a little basket of yarn scraps that you can hang outside in your garden.  Little birds in the neighborhood will (in theory), come by and take the yarn scraps to help build their nests.  It's very simple and I'm pretty sure you can figure out how to do it by just looking at the picture, but then you'd miss my wonderful pictures! :)

Materials you need:
2 clean strawberry/berry baskets
yarn
scissors

I got this HUGE (you really can't see the whole thing) bag of yarn at an estate sale a few months ago for $15!  The previous owner had passed away and the bag came with a few half-done crotchet projects with the needles still attached, which was slightly creepy....But once I got over the creepiness factor, I reveled in my awesome deal!

What to do:

1) Cut a bunch of yarn into 1"-2" pieces.  Cut enough to fill up both baskets.

I started cutting the pieces by pulling out a strand of yarn and making one cut at a time.  After about 5 minutes I realized, duh, I could be doing this faster.  I blame my "duh" moment on mommy brain.  It does exist!  You probably already thought about this, but I'll share it anyway.  

Wrap the yarn around your hand a bunch of times.

Cut the bundle into pieces.

See?  Faster!  You're welcome.

2)  Fill the baskets up with the yarn pieces.  Attach the baskets with, yes, you guessed it, some yarn.

3)  Attach a long piece of yarn to the top and find a tree to hang it from.  And that's it!

I'm pretty sure when I hung this up that all the birds in the neighborhood yelled, "Woo hoo!  Yarn!".  I think I heard it, although it sounded a lot like their normal sounds...

I gave Olive some safety scissors (they only cut paper) to "help" me while I cut the yarn.  If your child is old enough and you feel comfortable letting them use scissors, this is a really easy project they can help you with.  When I give Olive the scissors she says, "Seesos! Appa!  Toes!"  (Scissors! Open! Close!).  She still can't actually get how to use them, but she definitely thought she was helping me!

DIY Magnets

I have a metal dry erase/magnetic board (leftover from my previous life as a teacher) that I have for Olive to play with.  However, she's never really played with it because I haven't been able to find any magnets that I'm comfortable with her using.  She still (at 20 months) puts everything in her mouth and I'm paranoid that she'll end up swallowing a small magnet.  So I came up with a solution - make my own choking-hazard-free magnets!

What you need:
- Mod Podge
- Clear Acrylic Spray Sealant
- Magnetic Photo Paper (I got mine at Amazon) - this magnet paper is made to go through your printer, too - cool, huh?
- Already read magazines

How to:
1) Go through your magazines and cut out pictures you think might be of interest to your little one.  If you're like me and don't get a lot of magazine subscriptions, ask around.  Family members, coworkers, and friends will probably be willing to give you their magazines when they're done.  I got my pictures from Parenting, Westways (AAA), Country, Cooking Light, US Weekly, etc.
2) Using the Mod Podge, glue the pictures onto the magnetic paper and then paint over with another layer of Mod Podge.  Let dry overnight.
3) Spray with clear acrylic sealant and let dry overnight.

4) Cut out your pictures and you're ready to go!

If it's easier for you, you can skip the Mod Podge and acrylic sealant and just cover the pictures with clear contact paper.  My daughter's a "picker" and would have picked the contact paper off in minutes, so that's why I went the route I did.

Here she is sticking the magnets on.  I really like the magnet paper because it is lightweight and easy to get on and off the board for her (unlike some heavy duty magnets that start to stick when you're still inches from the board!).

 I think she likes it!

As I gather more magazines, I'll continue to make her new magnets little by little.   I'm also planning on taking pictures of our family members and turning them into magnets, which I know she'll love.   I really like this because they are personal, unique, and don't have any small magnets that she could swallow or choke on.  Yes, she could still rip one apart and eat it if she really tried to, but it would take her a while and I am always near her when she's playing with them as I am with any other toy that could be a potential choking hazard.

Have fun creating your own unique magnets!

Salt Dough Handprint Ornaments

Christmas at our house is in full swing!  And by full swing, I mean I still have half my presents to complete (I'm making most of them) and all the presents to wrap.  Nevertheless, I can cross one thing off my list of things to do: Making salt dough ornaments!  I've seen a lot of different recipes and ideas for salt dough ornaments floating around the boards on Pinterest lately and after researching a number of them, I decided on a recipe that I really like.

Salt Dough Ornaments:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
3/4 cup warm water

Mix everything in a bowl.  Knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes.  Yes, 10 minutes.  You need to do this because it helps the dough to become smooth and pliable.  While you're kneading, if the dough seems too sticky add a little flour as you go.  Roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut out as desired.  For the handprint ornaments, we pushed my daughter's hand into the rolled out dough and then used a bowl to cut a circle around it.  I used a straw to poke a hole for the ribbon and then used a toothpick to prick small holes for ventilation.  Place ornaments on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and cook at 200F for 4 hours.

After they were cool, I painted them with acrylic paint.  After the paint had dried, I sprayed them with clear sealant, which gave them a nice shiny look.

For something extra, I took a picture of Olive, cut it into a circle and attached it with Mod Podge to the back of each ornament.  After it was dry, I sprayed it with the clear sealant.

Stick a ribbon on it, and you have a personal, homemade gift for a friend or family member.  The ones I made are all for family members as a little something extra in addition to their main gift.  I really like the way they turned out.  Next year, of course, Olive will help with the painting and that's when they'll start looking really homemade!

Animal Diorama

I found these cute little plastic animals at The Dollar Store recently.  I've been wanting to get Olive some play animals like this and at $1 a piece, these sturdy, realistic animals were just the ticket!

Aren't they cute?  You may find the giraffe familiar - it was same one I used for the animal bookends I made in my last post.  I bought two of them.

The only problem is that they looked a little lonely.  I thought that they could use a habitat to live in, but being short on funds I needed to make one using things around the house.  Here's what I came up with:

I used a diaper box and cut off the top and one of the sides.  You can't see it, but I covered the outside with construction paper.  This isn't necessary, but Olive is obsessed with pointing at the baby pictures on the box and I didn't want that to overtake this activity.  For the floor, I used a piece of green felt and made little hills by stuffing some batting underneath.  The sky and clouds are painted with tempera paint.  I made 2 moveable trees out of toilet paper rolls and felt pieces.  I also made a little cave/hollowed out log out of 2 toilet paper rolls cut and glued together.  The whole thing took about 20 minutes to make and I had everything already on hand.

Yes, I know that it looks like a 4th grader made it for a school project, but my daughter loves it.  If she were older, I may have spent more time on it and made it "better looking".  Or maybe not, I don't know.  All I know is that it engages my daughter and it was $6 (the cost of the animals) well spent.  I have plans to make other habitats for the animals using more diaper boxes.  I'm hoping that we won't have too many diaper boxes before too long because we're trying to potty train my daughter.  So I better start holding on to them!

Animal Bookends

I found this idea over at Mad in Crafts while searching for cheap and easy crafts.  And boy, oh, boy, was it ever - cheap AND easy!  My husband and I worked together to make these two last night for our niece and nephew.  We're planning on getting them some books for Christmas and packing these cute bookends in with them.  I had everything on hand except for the animals and frames, so each bookend set ended up costing me a total of just $3!  Pretty cool, huh?

What you need:
- 1 plastic animal or car ($1 at The Dollar Store)
- 2 acrylic frames 5"x7" ($1 at The Dollar Store)
- hacksaw
- hot glue gun, super glue, or some other kind of sturdy glue

Optional:
- Scrapbook paper
- puffy paint

How to make:
1) Cut the toy animal or car in half with the hacksaw.
2) Glue each side of the animal to a frame.
3) Done!

You could stop there or take it a few steps further, like we did.

1) The frames lean inward at a slight angle.  To help them behave more like bookends, we slowly and CAREFULLY held them over the stove flame until the plastic became warm and slightly pliable.  Then, we worked the bottom little by little until the frame sat more straight up, closer to a 90 degree angle.  Obviously, this is optional, but it helps the books to stand up a little better.
2) Insert a piece of scrapbook paper into the frame for a cute background.  Plus, the paper kind of helps to camouflage any messy gluing.
3) Add embellishments - I had some cute letter stickers and used them to spell the kids' names.
4) Add a few drops of puffy paint on the bottom of the frame, the side that it sits on, and let it dry.  We found that the frames are pretty light and adding the puffy paint helps to create a little bit of friction and keeps them from sliding.

I think these turned out so cute.  I plan on making some for Olives room.  Now, if only I can find a plastic cat...

Mobile Craft Cart

My family is currently living with my mom and stepdad in their house for financial reasons.  That means that there are 4 adults, 1 toddler, 4 cats, and 1 dog in a 3 bedroom (plus office) home.  Needless to say, space is limited.   My dream is to have a room of my own wear I can craft in and do art activities with my daughter.  Since that's not possible right now, I'm finding ways to improvise.  Since I've become a stay-at-home-mom, my craft/art supplies have been growing with no space to put them!  I have two plastic 3-drawer thingies, but that's just not enough.  So...

My husband came home with this the other day from work.

It was $23 on clearance down from $125.  It was a deal he couldn't pass up (this is not the first "deal" he's come home with!).  He said, "I thought you could use it for your crafting."  I love him, and I loved that idea, but this cart, which looks like it was meant to be a janitorial cart, needed some sprucing up.  Here's what I did with a $5 roll of contact paper from Target.

Better, right?  I like it.  I makes me happy to look at!  I love how you can take a simple product like contact paper and really transform something.

Here's my cart loaded up:

The bottom has a mix of my stuff (sewing, spray paint, current crafts) and some of Olive's things.

The top is all Olive: fine motor skills activities in the tub, chalk, crayons, paper, etc.

I got this roll of paper at Ikea awhile back for super cheap.  I decided to use some yarn to attach it to the handle of the cart.  Now I can easily rip off a piece when Olive wants to color!

I love my new cart!  It works perfect for me.  No, it's not a plush craft/art room with bright windows and big table in the middle and shelving all along the walls.  But it will be one day!  For now, I'm going to push my cart into the living room and do some coloring with my daughter!