Book Cover

We have a birthday party this weekend for a (soon-to-be) 7 year old.  I figured most little girls love arts and crafts, so I sewed up a personalized cover for a sketch book.  Between the book and a few pretty pens, we're in business! 

 I added a little pocket to the inside cover for papers or pens or whatnot.

I love how it turned out.  Although the size is different, I used this tutorial from Delia Creates.

(Fairy) Wands

This is a project that was really truly a complete joy to work on.  I found the idea here, on 'heartmade'.

I didn't add a pocket to my wands as they do in the tutorial. 

I started making just a few of these for Miss A's 6th birthday....but couldn't stop!  Here's when I knew I was in trouble...

"Oooooo they're so pretty!  And I have so much more felt...and so many more sequins.....I should just cut out a few more....."

And then there were the sticks (dowel rods).  I didn't have any glitter glue so I just combined a bunch of glitter to my Mod Podge and went to town.  It took about 3 coats to get them as sparkly as I wanted them.

And so, I ended up with SEVEN wands.  For 3 little girls.

And then you KNOW Miss A wanted to make a wand.  Since she has decided to be a 'rainbow flower fairy' for Halloween, we made hers a rainbow wand.  She sewed on the sequins and I sewed the layers together.

I did want to say, I loved the idea on the tutorial where they glued a bit of stuffing to the end of the dowel rod to keep it in place inside the star.  That worked great (I used hot glue).  But when I got all the way around the edge of the star, I found it easiest to use a dab of hot glue to keep the ribbons and star firmly in place around the dowel rods.  THEN I finished with the last few stitches to close the star completely around the dowel.  Sometimes I had to sew a few stitches through the hot glue....that's what thimbles are for, people.

Kid-Made Birthday Gift

Yep, it happens.  We get to the day of a birthday party and my energy to make another pencil case or crown is just GONE.  Well this time, Miss A came up with a great idea of making the present herself!  She knew the birthday girl likes jewelry, and she had the most fabulous time making this necklace and bracelet.  I just hope that the recipient knows how hard Little A worked to make sure that this gift was a special one!

I found some pretty 'Handmade with Love' printables here.

Bug Birthday Treats

My little man turns 3 this week.  THREE!  I was trying to think of something fun to send to his class for a birthday treat and found this candy butterfly idea.  Since there's no reason why butterflies cannot, in fact, be bugs, we made our own version...

The kids helped decorate several pieces of construction paper.  I cut them out, and Elmer's glued the wings together....and for my favorite part...added GOOGLY eyes!

Too fun!  The antennae had to be hot-glued to the construction paper, but that was it for the hot glue.  Who knew Elmer's glue would hold those KitKat bars on there so well? 

Not the healthiest treat, but they're tiny.  And it is a birthday after all!