Sock Monkey!

I got it in my head last Christmas that Charlie needed a sock monkey. Not just any sock monkey but a PINK one. It's not perfect but it's cute (and a little scary) anyway.

Basic instructions

The socks to make the monkeys can be pricey but you CAN do this with regular old socks! It won't look like an "official" sock monkey, but your kid will probably like it better with personal flair.

Any old sock monkey

It looks like it takes a long time to do but it came together surprisingly fast.

Felt food, post 3

Felt food posts 1 and 2.

For mashed potatoes and gravy, cut 2 oval shapes from beige felt and machine stitch completely around the perimeter. Then cut a small slit in one side, turn the potatoes right side out, stuff with filling, and hand-stitch the hole closed, much like you do with the pizza from post 2. Then free-hand some gravy from light brown felt and hand-stitch it to the potatoes, covering the closed hole.

For strawberries, I used a tutorial like this one. The only difference is, I used a half circle, rather than one that extends a bit. It was easier to trace a large circle, then cut it out and cut it in half. I used french knots for the seeds.

I can't seem to find the tutorial I used for the popsicle, but it's pretty easy. You make two popsicle shapes, machine stitch all around, all but the straight edge at the bottom. Turn right side out, then stitch across bottom with the stick in place (stitch right through the stick!). You can turn the edges in for a cleaner look. The tutorial I used had a "creamsicle" made with orange felt and little white peeking through at the bottom. It was too cute!

Eggs are crazy easy. Just draw your egg shape and a small circle for the yolk. Cut them out onto white and yellow felt (cut 2 white pieces). Stitch the yolk to one white piece and stuff a tiny bit of filling in right before you finish so it puffs up a bit. Then stitch the white pieces together, stuffing with filling right before you finish stitching.

For "California mix" veggies, make a small clover-shaped pattern for the broccoli and cauliflower and cut 6 pieces each from green and white, then cut 6 small circles for the carrots. Stitch 2 pieces together for each carrot. When you do the broccoli and cauliflower stitch two pieces together, then stuff them just a tiny bit before finishing.

I Spy bag

I've made one of these for Adrian, but the picture is really crappy, so I'll spare you. Rest assured though, that this is tried and true...kids love them!

You can use poly fill beads, or anything like rice or small beans. Any type of dry food will get icky and swell if it gets wet though, so if you can, spring for the beads for durability.

A link

Another link

And another link

Yet another one

Sensory box

You don't have to be crafty to make this! You just need a box with a tight-fitting lid, some dry food, and some cups, spoons, shovels, ect. I went through my cupboards one day and realized I had a lot of old food, plus some regular pasta I didn't know what to do with (I was switching over to whole wheat pasta), so I dumped it into a box and let Adrian play with it. Eventually I gave him "utensils" to dig with. He was a happy little guy! Then I realized this is a "real" thing and even has a name....a sensory box! They use them at the daycare where I work, mostly just with dried pasta though (I used beans, barley, split peas, ect as well). It's good, messy fun so you may want to put down a table cloth, or be prepared to sweep afterward.

Tangrams

Tangrams are fun for everyone, not just kids. You can get a basic pattern here. Then you can look for printable puzzles online, or you can check out a tangram book from the library. For younger kids, giving them the "answer" sheet to begin with is a good start. It gets them familiar with how the pieces fit together. Then they can start trying to figure them out on their own. Adrian started playing with them at age 4 1/2 and now at almost 6, he's starting to try to do the puzzles himself, rather than look at the answer sheet. He also loves coming up with his own designs.

I made mine with craft foam sheets. I added magnets to the back. You could make them out of anything though, from simply cutting the paper you printed the pattern on, to crafting a fine set out of wood (I've seen these and they are gorgeous!). For a magnetic set, you need to make 2 parallelograms, one flipped, or else you won't be able to do all of the designs. Just don't forget to leave out the unneeded parallelogram when you do the design!

Here is Adrian and his favorite tangram, a cat! (You can see the extra parallelogram off to the left there)

Wall organizers

Now your kids need someplace to put all those cool toys you made! I'm sure it's cheaper just to buy organizers at the store (I recently found some small ones at the Dollar Tree for $1), but these are just too cute! The first one I've shown has see-through vinyl pockets. The second one has cloth pockets. Whatever floats your boat. This is a straightforward project. Use 2 pieces of fabric turned and top-stitched to create the main part (don't forget to add loops to hang it with!), then add pockets in any way you desire. If you use vinyl, you may need to put tissue paper in between the material and the foot of the machine. I added some binding around the edges of the vinyl to make it easier to sew on.

Character puppets

Character puppets are pretty easy. You can sew them or glue them together. I prefer to sew of course, although on the Cookie Monster and Elmo puppets, I did the face with glue. If you want to sew the puppets, it's nifty to know that you can sew right through the wooden sticks. I sewed the felt to the sticks with the machine, then hand-stitched the rest of it.

You don't have to be an awesome artist to do these. I can't draw to save my life but I was able to do these free-hand with a little trial and error. You could also print out basic pictures of the characters and use that as a template to get everything "just right".

I'm going to attempt Hello Kitty next and maybe Spongebob as well. I think the trick is to pick characters that aren't extremely detailed. Although, you could certainly attempt the detailed ones, if you are just that talented. ;-)

Felt food, post 2

For basic instructions, Felt Food, post 1.

Felt pizza slices look difficult but are really not. You'll need a machine to do them, but that makes them come together more quickly! I used the 2 part tutorial here and here. I changed it a little to suit my tastes. I did not use foam in the middle, but poly-fill and I added a strip of red "sauce" between the crust and the cheese.

Sugar cookies are amazingly easy. Pick a few cookie cutters your child would particularly like, and trace the shape onto beige felt. Cut out the shapes, 2 for each cookie. If you are afraid of leaving marks, you can use washable markers. A quick rinse under cold water and it comes right out! Stitch the pieces together, stuffing with poly-fill as you progress.

Bread is a little time-consuming, but totally worth it. I'm sure you can machine stitch these, but I chose to do them by hand. First I cut 4 squares from beige fabric and rounded off the corners a little. Then I cut long brown strips of felt about 3/4" wide. I sewed them together so their perimeter equaled the perimeter of the beige pieces. Stitch the crust to the bread, all the way around. When you are about 3/4 of the way done with the second side of the bread, start stuffing it with poly-fill. You don't want this to be as firm as some of the other pieces of food. Once they have enough stuffing, finish them up.

Quite possibly the easiest felt food I've ever made...PB and J! Just cut some bread-sized pieces from the appropriate colors. The red "jam" can also double as sauce for your bow-tie noodles.

Your bread should have more than just PB and J though. Meat (or mock meat if you are a vegetarian), swiss cheese, lettuce, and tomato are all great toppings. All of these are made with 2 pieces of felt stitched together. The meat is the easiest. Trace something round, cut it out and stitch it together. For swiss cheese, I made a square, then just randomly cut holes. Stitch in and around each hole. The tomato is just two circles, but in order to tell what it is, you should pick a contrasting color and stitch the "wedges". Free-hand the lettuce. To make it more realistic, you can add "veins" with similarly colored floss.

Princess Crown and Wand

For this project you'll need felt, decorative buttons (optional), embroidery floss, a wooden dowel rod, poly-fill, 3/8" elastic, and ribbon (optional). You can find wooden dowel rods in various sizes at a craft store. You don't need a thick one. The thin ones are usually less than a dollar and easy to cut to the size you need.

Print out the star template here. You'll want the biggest star for your wand (cut 2) and the middle sized star for the middle of the wand. The smallest star is for the crown. You can design these ANY way you want. I didn't want ours to be overly princessy/girly, so I chose somewhat neutral colors and didn't make it too flashy. For the crown, you'll need to measure your child's head. You'll want the actual felt part to be about half the circumference of their head. I drew the pattern so it came up to just one simple point at the top. You could make it more elaborate though. You'll want the elastic to make up the rest of the circumference, minus about 2" (so it will be nice and snug on your child's head). So if your child's head is 20", make the crown length about 10" and the elastic about 8". Cut two pieces of the crown shape.

Stitch all of your decorations onto ONE crown piece, then sew the elastic into place on each end of the crown, between the two crown pieces. Hand-stitch all the way around the crown.

For the wand, stitch the decorations on the top piece, the glue the dowel rod to the back piece of the star. Start stitching the star pieces together, stuffing poly-fill into the star's points as you go around. Make sure it is nice and full before you finish sewing it. Tie a ribbon under the star. Now go grant some wishes!

Cloth G-tube pad

So yeah, I know this isn't a toy. But kiddos with tubes love pretty pads instead of ugly, white gauze ones. Surprise your tubie kid with a stack of these!

1. Trace circles onto flannel or any other absorbent fabric. I prefer flannel because it doesn't stretch much when you sew and it's nice and soft. I use 3 layers in my pads and I use the same cup every time so they are all uniform.

2. Pin the layers together and draw a small circle in the center and a line straight down. I use regular kid's washable markers and it washes out in the first wash.

3. Cut up the line and around the tiny circle.

4. Round off the edges. I think this makes the finished product look nicer.

5. Zig-zag around the edge of the pad. Go slowly and reposition the foot as needed. Because it's so small you really have to stop and start a lot unless you are just a genius with a machine (I am not). After zig-zagging, do a straight stitch around the whole thing for added stability.

6. It should look something like this. Trim any stray fabric away from the edge.

7. Add a snap. If you don't have a press or snap pliers, the metal hammer on snaps work fine. They are a bit of a pain, and take a little practice, but they are cheap.

The hand-sewn version: Do everything through step 4 and then just stitch by hand instead of using a machine. It takes longer, but it actually looks nicer and neater, especially around the small inner hole. I used 2 layers of thread, but only 1 is really needed. Wrap the thread around the edge and then straight stitch all the way around. One pad took me an hour vs 10-15 minutes on a machine, so it's not all that time consuming. Stitch one up while you watch your sitcoms in the evening!

Felt puppets

These puppets are more time-consuming than the stick puppets, but will last much much longer. You will need pretty much all the material and skills outlined in the felt food post. You need to start by making a basic pattern for the puppets. I like to draw my pattern on poster board. It is sturdy, but also thin enough that I can fold it in half and make sure everything is symmetrical. For these puppets, I like to make them big enough to fit a small adult hand (like mine!). Once you have the pattern made, cut two pieces for each puppet. Get creative! I've shown 4 of mine here, but there's so much more you can do with this. I made mine mouthless. Mouths are kind of hard to do anyway, and I like how they are somewhat expressionless. It gives kids more freedom in their acting. Stitch on little details, ears, ect, then stitch everything together, leaving the bottom open of course.

You could also just glue all of this together if you don't want to sew. I prefer the sewn look, but glue will work nicely too. You also may want to choose something beside glued-on googly eyes if your child is younger.

Crayon Roll-up

Preschoolers just love these. I don't really need to say more do I? The crayons fit so perfectly! I mostly followed the tutorial here.

Book quilt for the little ones...

Sometimes it is hard to come up with great gifts for babies. They don't really play much, and when they do, they always go for your cell phone or remote control rather than their toys. This is something babies can enjoy even at only a few months old and can use as a wall hanging for several years to come. Hopefully they will cherish it enough to save it for their children!


Pick your child's favorite book. Or pick YOUR favorite kid's book, if your child hasn't shown a preference yet. Scan 8 or 9 of the pictures and save them to your computer. If the book is older, you may have to "clean" up the pictures a bit. If you want the quilt a little more personalized, make the 9th scan a picture of your baby. Cut 9 squares from linen or any white fabric that can be used with iron-on transfers (pssst...mine were from an old sheet!). I used 12"x12" squares, but you can use smaller or larger ones.

Then you'll have to splurge and buy the printable iron-on transfer sheets from the craft store. Or if you have a mother who owns *everything*, just go to her house and "borrow" some. Once you are sure the pictures are just perfect (and flipped, if there are words that need to be read left to right AND the image is sized so it will fit on your squares), print them out onto the transfers. Let them dry, then apply them to the fabric squares according to the directions on the package.

Sew all the pieces together making a 3x3 quilt. You can choose to dress it up or not. I sewed ribbon over each seam, but it is fine left alone too. Then pick a fabric for the back, cut it to size, and stitch it all together. You could add a couple of loops at the top so it can hang as well. Or heck, loops on each side so you can attach toys with linky-doos for playtime on the floor.

Then watch your family members drool over it when it is presented to your little one! They'll think it was professionally made!

For the gamer in your life...

This is not so much a "toy" but rather a special keepsake for anyone you know who is a World of Warcraft fan. Every player in the game, now matter what race or class they choose for their character, starts out with a Hearthstone. This stone can transport them back to the inn of their choosing. It is useful in dangerous situations and also if you just don't feel like walking so far.

I made one for my boyfriend this Christmas. He loves it, but he also thinks I'm a little strange. LOL Anyone who plays WoW will get a kick out of the novelty of it though. Just find a palm-sized, smooth stone (or buy one if you can't seem to find one just right), paint it white (multiple coats so it's really, really white), then paint a blue swirly on the front. If you aren't very artsy, it may take a few tries to get the swirl just right. I think I washed the blue paint off 7 times before I was satisfied with it. So it is important to make sure the white paint has a had a chance to dry *thoroughly*!

Felt food, post 1

This is going to be a series of posts. I've made a LOT of felt food, so I'll stick to 5 items per post. Felt food does require sewing by hand, and some pieces should be done on a machine. The hand-stitching is VERY easy. Even if you've never sewn in your life, you can pick up on it quickly. Most of it is done with just this one stitch.

You'll have to learn to start and stop the threads. I'm sure there are good references if you google it. Personally I prefer to take one long strand of floss (there are 6 strands in embroidery floss), fold it in half and thread my needle. I pull it through until there is only a small tail where the two ends of the floss are (the loop is on the long side). Then when I do my first stitch, I thread the needle through the "loop". This holds it without having to knot anything. When I end a thread, I pull one of the strands out of my needle, scoop up a teeny bit of fabric, then tie the two strands together 2 or 3 times.

You can buy different types of felt. Most craft stores have both wool and eco-felt (polyester). Wool felt is supposed to be stronger, but it is more expensive. I've not had a problem with the durability of eco-felt and I only buy animal products if there is no other alternative. So it's totally a personal preference. You can buy it by the yard, or in little "sheets" which run about 3/$1 (for eco-felt). I use embroidery floss, which also runs about 3/$1. You'll also need a pack of hand-sewing needles and some poly-fill (although you can take stuffing from anything in the house that is no longer usable, although I suggest washing the item first).

All of these projects I would consider "beginner" projects. You don't even need a pattern for them.

For bowtie noodles, simply cut a rectangle from beige felt, accordian fold the middle and make one tiny stitch to hold it. Tie it tight and you are done! Repeat a dozen or so times for a bowlful.

For green beans, you should cut pieces of felt that are about 1-1 1/2" thick in the middle and taper to a point on each end. They should be about 4-6" long. Fold the bean in half, long-ways and start stitching up the side, wrapping the thread over the edges, like I linked to above. When you've gone a couple of inches, use something long and skinny like a knitting needle or a chopstick to stuff some stuffing down to the bottom. Keep sewing and stuffing until you've finished. I did 5 of them, which is plenty.

For lunchables, you should cut some small circles from brown for the crackers (2 circles per cracker), 2 circles of pink for each piece of meat, and 2 squares of orange for each piece of cheese. Place two pieces of felt together and and stitch all around the edge. You do not need to stuff these with anything. Repeat for each item. For the crackers, you can add embellishments if you'd like. I did a bunch of french knots on each piece before stitching them together.

This pancake is very easy as well, but it will have people wondering where you got your mad skillz! Find a round object about 5-6" in diameter. I think I used a large ovaltine lid. Trace 2 circles onto light brown felt and cut them out. Freehand some "syrup" on dark brown felt. Cut a pat of butter from some yellow. First, stitch the syrup to one of the circles. Then stitch the butter on top. Stitch the two circles together about 3/4 of the way around, then stuff with some poly-fill. You don't want it bulging, but it should be nice and full. Then finish stitching (adding a bit more stuffing if needed just before finishing).

For the poptart you will cut two rectangles from beige and the icing from white. For the icing, I cut a smaller rectangle, but then cut some very slight wavy edges. Stitch the icing to one of the beige rectangles. Then add "sprinkles". You can either do very small beads, or french knots. I always recommend french knots for the little kids (they can't chew them off quite as easily). Then sew the two beige rectangles together, stuffing towards the end and finishing up.

Felt Food, post 2.

All kinds of stick puppets!

Ahhh....simplicity at it's best. These are such simple projects your kids could make them all on their own, or you could surprise them with an elaborate set of stick puppets on a special occasion.

First up, the "Doctor's office sticker puppets". We discovered this as a way of letting Charlie also enjoy the stickers she would receive from the doctor's office. She can't see well and looking down at her shirt doesn't happen easily for her, but she can hold a stick! You could save up the stickers and make them later, or you could be bold and ask the doctor or nurse for 2 stickers and a tongue depressor. Chances are, they won't refuse you when you show them what you do with it! Just place the stickers on the stick, sticky sides together and you have a double-sided "puppet".

We originally did this for Charlie, but you you see how beat up the one on the right is? That's be cause Adrian plays with it all. the. time. Really! Who says kids need video games, computers, and fancy toys to be entertained? Give them a stick to play with! I'm sure some kids wouldn't really know what to do with these, but most will find something creative to do with them.

Same concept, but also a way to "recycle" all those gift cards you receive! Cut out the character and tape or glue them on. These were some of our Christmas cards this year:

You can also cut out pictures from magazines or old books, glue them onto cardboard or heavy paper, then put on the sticks.

This is one idea I haven't tried yet but looks awesome. They could be puppets OR masks. Even if you don't typically buy disposable plates, that is one pack of plates that would get a LOT of use!

Sometimes the simplest toys ARE the best. Think your kids won't go for it? Give it a shot...you won't be out much if they don't like it.

Playdough, with extras...

Playdough is a wonderful toy that even the most uncrafty person can make, and for just pennies! Start with a simple, basic recipe like this. Play around with it a little. Playdough is difficult to mess up, but you may find you prefer a certain consistency, or prefer to do certain steps in certain orders. I don't like to start with colored water personally. I split up the dough and do multiple colors after it is made.

So after you make all the playdough, then work the colors in really well (don't forget to mix the food coloring to get green, orange, purple, and brown!), you have to decide how to store it. If you are giving it as a gift, you may want something special, like Christmas tins, which can be found at the dollar store or walmart. Most kids are perfectly happy with ziploc baggies though. You could reuse old playdough containers. The BEST container I have found is the milk bottles I got while Charlie was in the NICU and I was pumping for her. We used to have dozens, but over the years they've been lost or tossed for one reason or another. We have 6 left now, all used for playdough. So if you have the chance (and if you do, I'm sorry to hear your baby is not well), snatch up a couple dozen of them. They are also good for homemade baby food.

One awesome variation to traditional playdough is scented playdough! I decided to make this stuff on a whim. Adrian needed more playdough anyway and I'd heard of people adding cocoa and stuff to it before. I went through my cupboards, got out everything that smelled good and just went for it. So my 8 little balls of playdough were destined to be scented with cocoa, vanilla extract, lemon extract, almond extract, peppermint extract, lavender, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie (nutmeg and cinnamon mixed). *An important note* I wouldn't use any essential oils or nutmeg if your child is younger and still tends to eat the stuff. Nutmeg in larger quantities (and you do have to use more than you would in a pie) has a hallucinatory effect and essential oils are also not safe in larger quantities. You know your child best, play it safe. My kid is 6 and has oral aversions, so I put it all in.

Once the dough is scented and covering up the noticeable playdough scent, you can color it. I tried to pick colors that "matched" the scent. Red for cinnamon, yellow for lemon, ect. Blue didn't have a match so I just put it in the almond one. The cocoa one didn't need coloring at all. It was a beautiful, rich brown color from the cocoa alone.

So your playdough is made and in it's fancy (or not so fancy) containers. What now? How can you make this toy more exciting? Well, with playdough accessories, of course! You definitely need cookie cutters and a rolling pin. You can get them fairly cheap in a store, or you can raid your cupboards and maybe even Grandma's basement (that's where I found mine!). Throw in other fun utensils like drinking straws, toothpicks, plastic-ware, ect. Remember to keep it age-appropriate.

And how do you keep all of this off your carpet? A special "playdough mat"!

For ours I used PUL, which is a common waterproof material used in cloth diapers. I sewed it shiny-side out to some extra material. It doesn't fray though, so you could just cut a big square and leave it like that. Jo-ann Fabrics started carrying PUL, so you don't have to order it online. Or you could just package the whole set up with a vinyl table cloth. You can even use old placemats. Whatever you use, it will be special to your child because it will be THEIR playdough mat.

Welcome!

My name is Shauna and I'm a single, part-time working mom to two kiddos, Adrian and Charlie. You can meet them in my other blog here. I love making little toys and treasures for the kids. I've been doing it since Adrian's second Christmas. I didn't used to be crafty. My mom taught me to cross-stitch when I was 5 but that's all I really knew how to do. When Adrian was a baby, I took a leap and made a no-sew fleece blanket for one of my nephews. I got the sewing bug when I realized I could sew Adrian's cloth diapers myself and save a bundle of money. One pocket diaper then went for about $15 or so. I could sew one for $3! So I learned. The very first pocket diaper I made was used for well over 3 years (through Adrian, and then Charlie). I finally put it up when the velcro got too fuzzy.

So with the skills to sew, I made a few simple things for Adrian's second Christmas. The next year, Charlie was born and stayed in the NICU for almost 2 months. I didn't have time to make a whole lot, but they each got a blanket and pj pants. The next year, I left their dad....I went out on my own with virtually nothing. My mom gave me furniture and I settled into my own apartment. That year, considering I had very, very little money to spare for Christmas, I became quite resourceful and for $25 I purchased a little tree and some ornaments, a few toy-making supplies and in the end, they had a load of presents under the tree. It was a very defining moment in my life. I COULD provide for my children, even in the tougher situations. This year, even though I had more money to play with I still made a few little treasures. It's just such a special thing, to be able to make something out of (almost) nothing and share it with your children.

Many people ask me when I'll start selling on Etsy. While I'd LOVE to, I just don't have the time. But I thought maybe I could share with others all the fantastic ideas I come across or make up on my own. So this blog will be a combo of all those things. Some things I'll have tried out and have pictures to share. Others I'll just have links to, maybe because I've not had time to try all of it out, or it's not an appropriate toy for my children at that point. Most of all, I'd like to help out other parents who have been in the same situation as me. Every year I come across a handful of posts on Facebook or a message board people who are just FLAT BROKE. I always make a list of things they could try so they can have a good Christmas. Wouldn't it be nice to just link them to my blog? I think so.