Make a flag from paint sticks!

I'm proud to live in our country, and I love our flag.  I get excited every year to put up my patriotic decorations.  To me they look summery so I have them out for most of the summer.  One of my favorites is this paint stick flag I made years ago when I was a cub scout leader.  The boys had fun and their flags looked good.  I would be so easy to make with your own children.

You need per flag:
7 paint sticks, these are 14 inch
wire, (I used door bell wire) 2 white are 18 inch, 1 red is 16 inch
16 stars, I made these with a dye-cut machine at a scrapbook store,  1 1/8 inch wide

You also will need:
paint: red, white and blue
foam paint brushes
wire cutters
drill
sand paper
masking tape
clear spray

Adult preparation:
Have one flag made for the boys to look at.
Use rubber bands to hold six paint sticks together.  Drill holes with 1/16 drill bit. 
Holes are 1/4 inch from edge, 3 1/2 inches from ends.
Make sure to drill straight so all the sticks will be the same. 
Drill the seventh paint stick with holes only at the top.  This will be the bottom stripe.  Lightly with a red pencil write red on this paint stick. 

Sand with sand paper any ruff wood left from drilling holes.
Use masking tape to make a line to paint blue on 4 paint sticks.  6 1/2 inchs of blue.

Instruct boys to not use too much paint so it will dry faster.
Paint the blue on the 4 taped sticks, allow to dry.

While the blue dries paint 2 sticks all red.  One must be the one with red written on it.
Paint 1 paint stick all white.
Take tape off of the sticks painted blue.
Put tape over the blue to make line to paint the other half  red or white.

Paint 2 of the half blue sticks red.
Paint 2 of the half blue sticks white.

Make a knot in one end of the white wires.
Lay out the seven paint sticks to look like a flag.
Start with the red stick with only the top holes. Bring wire through hole from the bottom.  Stitch the stripes together. 
Wrap excess wire around pencil to make spirals. 
Use red wire to make a hanger.
Glue on stars, let me make their own pattern if they want.
Spray with clear spray

 

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ABC Baby Book

I like to do digital scrap booking when I have time, which is hardly ever.  Before I had kids, I had grand dreams of making very detailed and beautiful scrapbooks and journals for each of my children.  I thought I would have every smile and step recorded.  Then I entered the real world of parenthood, and yeah, that just didn't happen.  My oldest is only 4 and I have no clue when he first rolled over!  But I do have this need inside of me to have something to remind me of my sweet babies.  That's when I thought of doing just a small (8x8) baby book for them. Originally I was just going to do the first year of life but that didn't happen, so I decided to do the first two years.  Even though I didn't plan it that way I like it because to me they're still babies until then anyway.

I knew I would need a theme of some sort to keep me on track, so I decided to do an ABC book. For each letter of the alphabet I put together a simple page of pictures pertaining to that letter.  For example, M is for mommy and the page just has pictures of me and that sweet baby. 

I used my own program called FotoFusion but you could do it in Photoshop or any other program that has digital layouts. You could also easily do it through any online company (such as Shutterfly, Snapfish or even at Costco) that does digital scrap booking.  They have layouts already for you to use so all you have to do is drop the pictures in and add a little text.

To make sure I got it done I kept it very simple with hardly any special embellishments or extras.  I used the same papers over and over which also made it go faster and made it look themed.

Most of the time I just do one page per letter but there where some I had too many pics I loved so I did a double page layout.  If you do this make sure you do the math and make sure all your doubles will go together.  (I've made this mistake)  I also really wanted my kids to be able to see what their family was like when they were just a baby so I included a lot of family pictures. 

Whenever I tell people about this idea they always want to know what I did for every letter and how I came up with so many ideas.  So here is what I did and a couple of other suggestions that would be fun.

A- Aunts
B- Blessing Day, Baby (use favorite pics), Boy, Bubbles
C- Cousins, Cuddle
D- Daddy
E- Eat
F- Family
G- Grandparents
H- Holidays
I- Ice Cream (I admit I gave my baby ice cream just for the sake of the book)
J- Jesus,
K- Kids, Kite, Kitten
L- Lake, Love, Likes
M- Mommy
N- Name, Newborn
O- Outside
P- Paisley (our dog), Party, Play
Q- Quilt
R- Reading (I like to include a pic of their favorite books at the time)
S - Siblings, Sunglasses
T- Toys
U- Uncles
V- Vacation
W- Water (great for those bathtub pics)
X- Xylophone, or you could use a word like Extra
Y- Yellow, yawn
Z- Zoo

Another thing to think about when you're choosing your theme for each letter is that you want this book to be personal and really reflect your baby.  For example, I make sure to include pics of some of my baby's favorite things.  So when we look at it when they're older I can tell them that was their favorite toy, blanket, food, book, etc.

For the most part I just used pictures I already had, but for a few pages I took pictures specifically for that page.  The most important thing is to get all of your favorite photos of your cutie in there.   It's quite a project that takes more time than I usually spend on such things, but I feel it was well worth it. 

My kids absolutely LOVE their books and I've found they come in handy when those cuties are driving me crazy!  Sometimes I need a reminder of all the good times. Good luck and have fun!

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Celebration Banner

This is a fun birthday tradition to start, hanging a birthday banner.  Here are some pictures of ones I've made.  You could make a gender neutral one to use for all your family's birthdays.  Julie wanted one for her son and one for her daughter.

You can even it make it more personalized by making their name as well.

I made these with 5 inch letters.  The rectangles are 5 1/2 x 7 inches.  The felt behind is 6 x 9 inches, folded to make a casing to thread a rope through.  They are made with fabric but can be made with little or no sewing.  To figure how much fabric you'll need, this information should help.  You will want to use woven cotton or cotton blend fabrics and felt for the back.  There is no need to preshrink or pre-wash the fabric because you won't be washing your banner.

• 1/4 yard for the letters
• 1/2 yard wonder under (I've used 805 and 725) this is paper-backed fusible web to fuse the letters on
• 1/4 yard for each print for the background (if the fabric is 45 inches wide, you can get 7 rectangles)
• You'll need 3 or 4 backgrounds
• 1 yard of iron-on pellon interfacing, this goes on the back of the background to keep it from fraying and adds stiffness           
• 2/3 yard felt, if the felt is 72 inches wide
• Thread to match the felt if you are sewing, hot glue if not

Other items you'll need:

• Patterns for 5 inch letters (I found my at a teacher's supply store)
• 20 feet thin rope or twine (not yarn it stretches)
• Ruler or/and yard stick
• Sewing pins
• Large safety pin or large bobby pin

Print supply list

These pictures where taken while making a Halloween Banner, the steps would be the same for a Birthday banner.  You can make a banner for any occasion.  You could make a child's name to hang in their room or your family name to hang in a family room.  I suggest you read all the way though the post before you start.  Banners are fun to make and anyone can do it!

Step One, The Letters:
Iron the fabric for the letters.  It will be easier if there are no wrinkles in the fabric.
Following the directions that come with the wonder under iron it onto the back of the fabric for the letters.  The paper side up to the iron, the fabric is wrong side to wonder under.

Trace the letters you'll need onto the wonder under, the paper side.  I use a pencil.  Letters need to be backwards so when you turn them over they'll be right. 

Cut the letters out.

Step Two, Back Ground Rectangles:

Iron the fabrics for the background.
Cut the iron-on interfacing into 5 strips. 4 will be 7 1/2 inches wide.  1 will be 6 inches wide.
Following the directions that come with the iron-on interfacing, iron one of the 7 1/2 inch strips onto the back of each of the background fabrics. 

If you chose 4 backgrounds, you cut 3 rectangles from each strip. If you chose three, cut the 4th 7 1/2 piece of interfacing into thirds. Iron a third onto each of the backgrounds so that you get 4 rectangles from each background. You need one more but wait until after you lay them out.

Cut each strip into 5 ½ x 7 inch rectangles.  This can be done using a rotary cutter and cutting mat. 

If you don’t have a rotary cutter you can make a 5 1/2  x7 pattern out of card stock or a file folder. Then trace the pattern onto the interfacing side of the strip and cut out with scissors. 

Next lay out your rectangles with the letters on them.  Decide the order of the backgrounds.

Now you know which background you need one more of.  Cut 8 inches off the 6 inch strip of interfacing, iron it onto the background fabric.  Cut one more 5 1/2 x7 inch rectangle.

Peel the paper backing off of a letter.

Position it where you want it on the rectangle.  You can eye ball it, or measure it so that the letters are the same distance from the bottom and centered.   

Following the directions from the wonder under press the letter on the rectangle.  This is a perfect time to make sure the edges of the background fabric is glued to interfacing by pressing edges.  Repeat with all of the letters.

Step three, felt backing:
Cut 13 rectangles 6 x 9 inches.  This can be done with a rotary cutter and cutting mat.  If you don't have a rotary cutter make a 6 x 9 inches pattern from newspaper.  Pin the pattern on the felt and cut around the pattern.

To make the casing for the rope, fold the top down 1 inch and pin.

If you have a sewing machine, stitch 3/4 inch from top.  Make sure to back stitch at each end.  If you don't like to sew or haven't had much experience don't worry, the stitching doesn't show.

It is much easier to sew the casing but it can be hot glued.  If you use hot glue to glue casing you will have to glue the letter rectangle to the felt in the next step, you can't sew through hot glue.  To hot glue use pins to make a line 3/4 inch from top of fold. 

Lift the 1/4 inch edge and run hot glue between edge and rectangle, press together (using your fingers, not an iron).  Quickly remove pins.

Step Four, Putting it all together:
Place a letter rectangle on a felt rectangle, 1/4 inch from the bottom.  Pin in place.  It will cover the stitching for the casing.

Sew around the letter rectangle using a zig-zag or hem stitch.  I use a hem stitch.  While sewing, when you get to the corner leave the needle down in the fabric and lift presser foot to turn fabric.
Then let presser foot back down and continue sewing.  Repeat with remaining letters.

Or you can hot glue the letter rectangle onto the felt.  You might want to use some scraps of the background fabric with the interfacing ironed on to check that the glue doesn't show through.
If it does (and you can't sew) use Unique Stitch, found at fabric stores.
Before gluing, pin in place by putting one pin in the middle and one near the top in the center.

To glue, lift bottom half and put glue around the edge.  Not too close, glue will spread.  Press down.  When glue is set, remove pins and glue top half.

The last step is to thread the rope through the casings.  To do this lay out the letters in order, you can start at either end of a word.  Loop the rope though a large safety pin.  Use tape to keep the loop in the rope.  The pin is so you have something stiff to push though casing.

Leave plenty of rope at the ends.  This will make it a lot easier to hang and tie knots.  I put each word on it's own rope.  If you have a large place to hang the banner you can use one rope.  Make knots in the rope to make a space between the words.  Be sure to tie the knots before putting the second word on the rope.  Now hang your banner.  Enjoy!

This post has been linked on Ginger Snap Crafts!



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Fancy Hair Flowers

I'm not the most crafty girl and I don't sew.  I am however super cheap so these fancy hair flowers and I are a perfect match. The key words here are EASY & CHEAP.  Believe me if I can do it you can do it!  I can make a few while watching my favorite movie and then have baby shower gifts ready in advance. 

Here's what you'll need:

1/8 yard of poly-satin fabric (this will make about 4 to 8 flowers depending on the size you do)

Scissors

Hot clue (my best crafting friend)

Candle

Hair clip

Jewels,buttons, or beads for center

 To start you need five circles for the actual flower, then I cut an extra of the smallest to glue the flower and clip all together.  I have made a pattern for myself because sometimes I can be a prefectionist but really free handing it will work fine because you end up burning the edges.  My circles are 3 1/2in, 3 in, 2 1/2 in, 2 in, and 1 1/2 in across. If you're making multiple flowers double or triple your fabric to save time in cutting.

Next cut four slits in your beautiful circles.

Burn the edges of each petal so that they curl in.  

They should look similiar to this when you're done.  Now, use your hot glue gun to glue the flowers together.  I start with the biggest and work my way up and alternate how the petals lay so they don't look stacked.

Next glue the extra small circle (which I cut in half to conserve) in between the two prongs on the clip.  This will help the clip go on easier.

Glue the flower to the top of the clip.

Last but not least add a little bling to the middle.  I've used a vairety of beads, buttons and jewels. 

There's so many options with these fun flowers.  You can add them to wreaths, head bands, frames or anything else you want!  I recently just made a fun necklace with them.  (More on that later!)

Go ahead and get creative, alternate colors or try patterned fabric.  Have fun!

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