Big Birthday Bash

 Last weekend Gavin, my youngest baby, turned 3!!! years old. I still see him as my tiny little bambino. It's so difficult to accept the fact the he is changing into very independent little boy that can't stand being called 'baby'.
  So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he chose airplanes as his party theme. I would assume that it might be the metaphor for being ready to fly free and soar through the sky. I can totally picture him  doing that one day.

  At the party as usual we had a pretty good mix of kids of different ages, about 15 little people total. I came up with 'decorate you plain' craft. It was just perfect, young and older kids  was pretty happy creating their unique airplanes with paper, stickers, markers etc.I cut them out from cardboard boxes that I'm obsessively saving for millions of crafts my kids come up with every week .I just love recycling art .

     

 I was absolutely impressed how much they liked their creations. To stretch a bit creative time, I asked them also to decorate airplane cookies. And that was a fantastic success as well . A night before, I baked about 300 cookies ....

 
 ....some of them I have decorated for goodie bags and another 200 was up to the little decorators ....

     Of course,there was a lot of folding paper action  for paper airplanes and lots of running / flying in and out of the house. The big finale was the cake..yes! the airplane cake ! .. made with vanilla and chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting inspired by recipes form famous 'Magnolia' bakery in NYC

 
  That was one busy Sunday filled with lots of friends, love and laughter. Now I'm planning next party for Amelie,  my oldest daughter, and that will be a very different celebration indeed ...only 9 year old girls allowed! 

Turquoise and purple sort of crafts

Another day filled with excitement about another birthday. Have I mentioned that February is just bursting with birthdays in my family? So thanks to all the celebration we have so much motivation and inspiration for all this crafts.
Amelie decided to share her love for headbands and she made one of her lovely accessories for her friend’s b-day. And it absolutely HAD be purple and turquoise , even thought me made tons of headbands in this hues. Well,  here it is one more variation. It must be the most popular color combo of this season .And btw, it makes sense ! these are the colors for February and March ( according to astrology) .Thank you dear Aquarius and Pisces friends  for a very powerful influence.And I think Neptune is supposed be very powerful these days.

And I made something with a little bit of turquoise myself…cute banner in the anticipation on coming spring . Looking at these photos, I must say we were riding the same color pallet waive …blame it on genes.

  
 And all those project are of course our entries for 'Thing-a-Day' ...keep on working out those crafty muscles ...

Another crafting night...

 February is one of the busiest months here, especially when it comes to parties, crafting and gift giving.
Last evening we had one big family crafting night. We made 30 little valentine hearts for Oliver's friends in pre-K. It was mostly Amelie and me cutting and stitching, and Oliver and Maya had to chip in a bit with counting hearts and stuffing them with little stickers. I felt like I was surrounded by bunch of elves :).I must say we created one cute bunch of little Valentines.

 And conveniently this project was perfect match for my 'Thing-a-Day' Challenge

Flower Headband Tutorial

 Few friends were asking about tutorials. on how to make some of my designs. So here it is , my very first tutorial on how to make a cute headband .

  First of all,  relax, that is a fun project. Super easy, have a nice cup of tea with some cookies or a piece of nice dark chocolate :) . Here is your list of tools and materials:

-fabric ( fabric scarps are always a great choice)
-thread
-needle
-scissors
-buttons, regular kind or cover buttons, if you wish to have a fabric button in the middle
-elastic ( cute skinny or fat elastic bands )
-rotary cutter if you like to use it instead of scissors
- ruler
-pencil/ fabric marker

 ..and you are all set to go...

1. First, cut two fabric strips.I'm making here a big flower, so first layer is 4 inch by 14 inch, and a second one is 3 inch by 14 inch. If you want to make a smaller flower, you can make width one inch shorter, so it will be 3inch by 14 inch and 2 inch by 14 inch. You can totally play around with length and width.

2.I am making fabric covered button for the center. You can buy supplies for that at the local fabric or craft store. I like  BasiandFluffy  Etsy supply store . Or you can just use some pretty and cute button of your liking.                                            

                                         

  3.Once you button is ready,  fold your fabric strip in half with right sides outward...

    
....and get your threaded needle and start gathering the open edges of the fabrics, running stitch is the way to do it  ....

....and gently start puling it till the fabric forms the flower shape.Secure and tie off the thread.

4. Do the same thing with another fabric strip....

 5.Attache small flower on the top of bigger flower ...

  6. Sew in button to two flowers, that way the whole construction is secure.

 7. Sew your cute flower to elastic band ...

..make sure it is secure.Tie off the thread and here it is- your brand new headband in a full glory ....

*. I like adding a piece of felt on the back side to add a nice, finished look ...

  So as you can see, and hopefully experience, the process of making this headbands is very simple and easy. You can make a nice gift for your children, friends in no time. Instead of elastic, you can use a ponytail holder or hair clip . Or you can even make brooches or badges ! There is lots of ways to enjoy this fabric flowers.

 Happy crafting  :)

...and if you REALLY think that for some REALLY valid reason you can't make it yourself, you can always check out my store on Etsy - Stitchinnetka for a quick buy...but only if you REALLY can't make it yourself :).

Still crafting

Monday was super busy. Lots of happening ,as usual, but we have manged to make a little project that was beneficial for many kids as well. Apart from chocolate chip cookies that were gone pretty fast, I made a play dough that Amelie transformed into Pretended Foods :). Again- Perfect project for ' Thing-a-Day'

  And if you ever make a play dough you never can make a small batch, you  always end up with couple of good pounds, so yes all the kids were absolutely happy with our project today . Lots of sculpturing happening today.

 
  Here is the recipe :


Quick Modeling Dough  from MaryAnn f. Kohl 'Mudworks'
Materials:
1 cup cold water
1 cup salt
2 teaspoons oil
3 cups flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
powdered paint or food coloring
Process:
1.Mix water, salt, oil, powdered paint/food coloring.
2. Gradually add flour, cornstarch, till the whole mixture looks like bread dough.
3.Knead few minutes.
4.Explore dough freely :).
Store in air tight container for several weeks.If dough gets too mushy add some flour, if it is too hard knead for a while with wet hands.

Crafty Sunday

This Sunday turned out to be a day of easy crafts. Weekends usually are filled with family time and friends. So here it is our creations form day 5, entries for our 'Thing-a-Day' challenge

  Amelie made sweet little card

  And I couldn't resist another headband project :). And actually this headband was created for the tutorial that hopefully will be posted here tonight.

Stay tuned for more...:)

Keep on Crafting...

Keep on Crafting...Yes,this title will be repeated a lot this month...just keep on crafting :) Thank you 'Thing-a-Day' for making us madly creative. I'm pretty much sure that by February 20th we will be very tired of it, but for now full of ideas and energy.

  Today Amelie got up at 7am!!! just to let me know that she was ready to work on her project !  Well, I guess it's good to be excited about making and creating, but REALLY 7am on Saturday morning isn't exactly the good time to shout it out to your sleeping parent . Kids are truly full of surprises.

 So we had a very early morning, but thanks to that we actually accomplished a lot.

 Here it is -Amelie's little bird key chain charm. She found the idea from one of the blogs we know through Pintrest boards . She did most of work herself, I made few final stitches.

  And to sweeten the day I made some Sweetheart Brownies, good test for the V-day :).

  
  And here is the link to our entry for 'Thing-a- day ' - Day 4 

Also talking about the V-day, it's almost here. One of my headbands got featured in this cute little collection on EtsyKids .

 I have a feeling that there will be more of those cute little headband projects happening in a very near future. I'm thinking of putting together a short tutorial ,since  I have already few requests... It's very easy and kids-friendly, definitely anyone can do it. Stay tuned.


         

Keep on Crafting

Here is the creation form yesterday. This time it was a mama/ daughter collaboration - Sweet Owl Case for iPod Touch.

And here is the link to  my entry on  'thing-a-day' Blog   Day 3

thing-a-day

 
Yes, it is this time of the year 'thing-a-day' - making and creating through February all 29 days this year :). Amelie got absolutely excited about that, so I thought that with her skills and need to create she can totally enter this  race with me. I must say it is a lot of fun to have her by my side, she has amazing powers when it comes to brainstorming and bringing out inspiration :).It is going to be one interesting month.

 These are creations from our first two days :)

  Day 1 - Cute Headbands with handmade ( and very much  beloved ) fabric covered buttons

Day 2 -  I had to make one more headband for Maya, and Amelie made this cute felt airplane for Gavin's birthday.

  ...I wonder what is going to happen today :)