Tracing Cards

I'm a huge fan of Lake Shore Learning.  They have such amazing things for kids development. 

I found these Tracing Cards and Stencils while I was Christmas Shopping, I loved them, but I have a hard time parting with $$$ for somethings I know I can easily make.  Well, 5 months later, I finally get around to making a set (One less thing on my to do list!)

For a few weeks I saved cardboard from some of our food containers...

Then, one night while at Archivers, I used their "wall o' die cuts" to create a set of tracing cards/stencils  for Peepers.

 Tracing Shapes

 Tracing Numbers with Shapes

 Tracing Letters

 Some didn't turn out so great...

 But they are still fun!

Thank you, Karla

Play Tent

Hi all,
I was so inspired by this cute little play tent, I had to make of for Anders. The winters are long & I knew this would be a great creative outlet for him to play in & even have a place to "escape" to.

The instructions are super simple to follow A FRAME TENT . I was lucky enough to find a sheet that works perfectly for this project at GW (the sheet is actually from the Company Store & has cute blue & yellow stars).

I added a bit of extra zing to my version by adding flags left over from the FLAG BANNER project a few years ago (Have I mentioned I'm somewhat of a hoarder?)

It is great outside...

And great inside... we pretend we are "camping" every weekend".

Plus, it easily un-assembles & stores away.
Thanks, Karla

Holiday Ideas to get the juices flowing

Card Board Tube Ornaments over at Don't bother me, I'm Reading

Button Snowmen & Santa’s at Rubies & Pearls

Melted Snow Man at Flexible Dreams

Felt Candy Cane Garland at PurlBee

Sweater Tree by Betz White

Felt Pine cones by Betz White

Yarn Wrapped Star at Live Laugh Rowe

Also there is a collection of 20 Holiday Ideas at Tater Tots & Jello

and Crazy Christmas Crafters at I heart Nap Time

Enjoy!

Felt Play Money

There is a craze out there for cute Felt food. I'm jealous of those that make this for theirs kids. It looks absolutely amazing, but I just don't have the patience or time for hand sewing small pieces together. Here are 2 fun sites to check out. Felt food Here or Felt Food Here.

So, instead of making Felt food, I made Felt Play Money. I Googled it to see what was out there & really only found this one site Felt Money & thought... I can do better that that. Then I had a bit of a brainstorm & was inspired by a former boss who made "Pete Bucks" as an incentive for us (It was a dollar bill with his face on it, it had no monetary value... just bragging rights over who had the most)... And "Anders Bucks" was born.

What you'll need:
3 sheets green felt
1 sheet white felt
1 sheet tan felt
1 sheet dk grey felt
1 sheet lt grey felt
T-shirt iron on transfers (had this in hand)
Fabric paint (had this on hand)
Coins: First I found shapes to trace... the largest coin shape was from the Fisher Price piggy bank, I traced this on the light grey for the quarter.

I used a coin from New Orleans (from a girls weekend before hubby & baby) for the nickel on the dark grey felt.

I used an actual quarter for the dime on the light grey felt & penny on the tan felt. I would not recommend going smaller than a quarter to trace as I found it difficult to get a nice circle. I folded the felt so the coin would be double thick, pinned & traced. I then sewed the circles that I had drawn, keeping the pins in place so the felt wouldn't shift. If you are making these, you could use Stitch Witchery between the layers of felt. I then used my fabric paint & free hand the coin value.
I let the fabric paint dry for 48 hours before cutting out. If you wanted, you could cut numbers out of felt & again used Stitch Witchery to iron them on to the coin.

Dollars:I was able to cut 3 dollars out of each sheet of felt. I used a real dollar to trace the size. Again the dollars are a double layer, so cut sizes per photo. I used print shop & funny faces of Anders for the different dollar amounts. Photos from when he was 2 days old are on the one dollar bill. I cropped & resized them so the height of the oval was 2". Print them out on the T-shirt iron on transfer sheet per the directions.
Cut out the oval face & iron it on the white felt. Then cut out the faces from the felt.

Stitch the faces on the a single layer of green felt. I sewned some in the center & some off center (you know, it makes them less likely to be counterfeit). Then fold the felt dollar in half & edge stitch.
Again, I used fabric paint for the dollar amount.
Come on Mom, let's go ... I have my purse & my money - let's go shopping.

Thank you, Karla