Diy play birthday cake

DIY Play Cake

I've made several different play foods out of felt for my kiddos to play with, but the one thing they needed most was a cake. They are always throwing birthday parties for each other and what not, and I wanted to make one for them.  

I made one myself out of only felt. . . well. . . it didnt hold shape, so as i looked online for how to fix it (and i did, ill post it later hopefully) I found this tutorial here at she wears flowers for one using a hat box. I loved the idea of one with storage for decorations, but didnt have a hat box, or the metal for the outside of it, but to my surprise while searching my craft pile, i found this old cookie tin and thought YES same idea, minus having to cut metal!!

The idea:  wrap the tin in felt to look like a cake, make felt decorations that can store inside it, add magnets to the decorations and they stick on the cake. . . awesome, right!!

First, cover the cake! I wanted it to be chocolate, so  found a nice brown and cut a strip (or two) the same width as the depth of the tin, sewed them together to the right circumference (to fit snug) 

Next, turn this brown circle inside right, and slip over the tin.

Important:  The tin needs to close, so make sure you leave the space at the top that the lids comes down to uncovered.  Extra will hang over bottom.

Wrap that extra around the bottom and hot glue it in place

Next cut a circle a bit bigger than the lid, and hot glue it on so it touches the rim 

mine was a little short but thats ok, im adding a ruffle 

 I saw instructions for making the felt ruffle HERE (she wears flowers)

after making the ruffle, (well several sewed together long enough to go around) I glued it on the rim of the lid like so:

I made sure it hung over a little that way it would cover up any gap i may have had in the felt

see how cute!! 

 I liked the ruffle so much i decided to make another for the bottom of the cake too, to more resemble the piped decorative icing on a real cake.

Bottom and top of cake 

And then what the kids loved best. . . the decorations!!

For the candles theres a better turorial here.

I just cut the little flame shapes out of red and yellow felt and glued them together with hot glue, then took a 2" square and rolled it up, glued the end to together, glued flame atop, and a round magnet on bottom :)

felt sticks to felt, so i cut random shapes out for them to stick on the cake

i made theses flowers of felt and glued a magnet on bottom

see, here is a cute cake to have with tea, 

and here is a birthday cake for all their parties!!

 and what i like best. . . all decorations store inside !!

Diy party lights tutorial

A how to for some party lights. . . whatever color or pattern you wish!!

You will need:

String of christmas lights

mini plastic cups 

spray glue

Fabric (to cover cups)

paper (for cup pattern)

small knife or other tool to cut cup top

First:  trace the cup the best you can onto paper

It should look something like this:

cut it out, and wrap it around the cup and trim it as needed till you get a fit

this is your pattern

next, cut an x in the top of each cup you will be using ie: number of lights on strand.

(i only wanted a small strand but only had a large strand so i folded mine in half and put 2 lights in each hole)

Next:  cut out pieces of fabric using your pattern to cover each cup

cover an area well (spray glue is messy!)

spray the cup (or back of fabric) and wrap it on the cup smoothly

then finally push the light thru the hole (or if you are like me, 2 lights)

Then voila!! your finished!

NOTE: i didnt want to buy anything and used what i had at home, soooo, WHITE wire lights would look much better :)

They look so cute on!

Fast Easy Valentines Day Hair

A Valentines Day Hair-doo!!

This is cute in pigtails too, but my little one has really thin fine hair, so, one it is :)

To do this, i made a simple ponytail, rather high on the head, loosened it, and made an upside-down topsy tail.  Then, just split the topsy tail in two equal strands and fold them down into a heart shape and secure it with a cute little hairbow. 

Took just a couple minutes all together!!

Valentines Day Card Idea

This was Cali's Valentines Day card last year (kindergarten).  Thinking about doing something similar this year, but undecided. 

I saw a similar one on pinterest, it was taken outdoors. . . this would have looked much better outdoors due to the fact that the hand catches all the flash.

Anywho, to make one, just take a pic of your cutie with their hand to one side in a fist, make sure the fist is made like they are holding something, with thumb towards their body.

Mine looked like this:

Then, to make it look like a card, I added a border, and a Short Valentine Message (make sure its still 4x6 size)

 I printed them (4x6) at my local wal*mart, and cut little slits with an exacto knife on the top and bottom of her fist, and inserted a valentine blow pop

Finished Product, pretty cute huh? and just imagine if I had taken the pic outside, how much better!!

DIY Snowman Kit

This idea came from a post on pinterest that you can find Here

Materials Needed:
craft dowels (or old pencils lol)
Sculpey Clay in assorted colors

Just as in the tutorial above, I sculpted all pieces out of sculpey, baked about 20 min at 275 degrees, and glued to sticks (to stick in snowman)

I followed that almost exactly, except that I didn't have dowels on hand, so i used old pencils,

I crumpled a small piece of aluminum foil in the shape of a carrot and covered it with the clay so it wasn't such a thick piece of clay (called bulking out) , and I baked my eyes and buttons flat, and hot glued the pencils on later.

This shows my old chewed on pencils hot glued to back of eyes and buttons

what pieces looked like when done

(I also lightly sealed it with Pledge with Future Acrylic Floor Finish)

We had our first good snow last night, so we got to use our kit this morning!

Just add any old hat and a scarf and there you go! Cutest snowman on the block!!

Old Top Repurposed!!

So, I had this cute short sleeve sweater. . . Which is much too tight.  This is why in the pic I chose to hold it up to me, rather than try it on. LoL.

Using my creative mind, I decided to repurpose it!! Meaning, I decided to transform it from an old ill fitting sweater, into a cute girls sweater dress.

First (no pic of this sorry), I put it over my girl, and pinched the sides together to get an idea of how much smaller it need to be.  I pinched up a bit more than an inch on either side.


I laid the dress flat, inside out and sewed a seam down each arm as shown below (about
 same as I had pinched together on her earlier)

Make sure if you do this that you round out the underarm, and cut the excess off as close to the seam under the arm as possible, so it lays right when turned back inside right.

Once sewn down both sides, trim excess close to seam, and turn inside right.

It was a hit! She loved the dress!

DIY Valentines Day Wreath

I saw all these adorable Valentines Day wreaths on pinterest and thought to myself "YES! A way to use some of those old tees I wouldn't throw away!" (I hoard things I think I may someday craft with). So I got my got out my material and went on a hunt for a wire hanger!


The first thing i did was bend the wire hanger into a circle (not as easy as it looked)

Next I dug thru our old tees and found the closest to Valentine colors I could (tossed in a piece of pink gingham check fabric i had also)

I then cut the tees into thin strips (they were about 3 inches long and an inch or less wide)

Starting at one end, i tied the strips in a simple knot (in a repeating pattern) on one at a time

It looks like this, while I was going i would push the knots as tight as I could together, because the overall looks better the fuller it is. 

The finished product.

I thought it was just a bit plain, so i tied on one old Valentines Day ornament I had.