First Signs of Spring

Spring is creeping in, and we have some lovely spring themed items from out team members.

Woodland Animals Baby Bi... HipViolet $12.00	Baby Hat, Girls Hat, Newborn... NuxieMade $26.00	Crayon Caddy Coloring Wall... nanabrowns $15.00	Nursery Wall Art Kites Embro... KingSoleil $34.00
Tricycle, GIrl and Butterfli... FigDesignGalle... $30.00	Green yellow toddler pants... OliveAndVince $20.00	Needle Felted-Tiny Teal Bi... ThingsByV $15.00	Easter Chick in Bunny Ear... CROriginals $34.00
Security Blanket, Lovey, or... AlphabetCitySt... $12.00	Wooden Toy-FLY ME- Gard... applenamos $7.00	SALE. fabric flower. 3d flo... leilasflowerga... $7.00	1 yard from Leanika Collect... thelittlechick $9.00
Green leaves shortall 18 2... ComfyFeely $29.00	printed softie pillow with t... PinkNounou $23.00	Gender Neutral Lovey Woob... BabySleepSweet... $6.00	Vintage Green Yellow and... WearYouGo $29.95

Treasury by team member marmaladecreations.

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April Showers Umbrella Craft

By Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

We all know April showers bring May flowers, but too many rainy days can make you a little stir crazy. These umbrella mobiles  from Ramblings of a Crazy Woman are a fun, easy craft for a rainy day that even little kids can do.

For each umbrella you’ll need:

Paper plate
Stickers, markers, crayons, or paint for decorating
Several blue rain drops cut from blue construction paper (we used eight)
A “J” shape cut from contruction paper for the umbrella’s handle
Glitter and glue (optional)
Thread or fishing line
Hole punch
Tape or glue

Cut the paper plate in half. Cut a slit in each plate, at the top of one and from the bottom of the other. I made my slits about half the width of the plate. Don’t cut all the way through!

Set your kids to decorating their umbrellas on all sides, leaving the area around the slits clear. If necessary, let them dry. My son is going through an ocean and “Finding Nemo” phase, so he opted for sea creature and fish stickers.

Punch holes along the straight edge of your umbrella pieces. I did two on each side of the slits. Slide your umbrella pieces together at the slits to form an “X”. I taped ours together to keep the shape.

If desired, glue glitter to your raindrops to make them sparkle. When they’re dry, tie them to your thread or fishing line and then attach the opposite end to the umbrella. Tie another loop of thread at the top of your umbrella.

Hang and enjoy!

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Twirling Umbrellas

Hand Stitched Appliqued Onesie - Customized Umbrella from eleanorestreasures

Baby / Toddler Sweetheart Sun Hat from nanabrowns

Key Chain Wristlet, Beach Umbrella from brooksboutique

Blue Umbrella embroidered baby bib from MorningTempest

Beach Babes, Folk Art Signed Matted Digital Print from RisingStarArt

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Bring the Outdoors In: Nature Collage

By Christine of Belly Bear Baby Gear

Looking for a way to enjoy and capture the color and beauty found in early spring?  Then this fun, simple activity will be a perfect experience for you and your children.  Not many materials are needed. Clear contact paper (as a side note, this is not as easily found as I was anticipating.  When looking for clear contact paper, do not go to your local grocery store, drug store or Staples as I attempted.  After 5 miserable failed attempts, I finally found the apparently illusive contact paper at Home Depot of all places), items from nature: grass, flowers, leaves..., string or ribbon, a hole punch, and a basket to collect your nature items.

While outdoors with your children offer them a basket and often all you'll need to do is take a step back and watch.  Children are natural collectors of beautiful, natural items and will make quick work of finding things to place in their baskets.

I was inspired to write about this by my 17 month old daughter.  Upon arriving home recently, she climbed out of the car and immediately bee-lined for the lawn where she quickly plucked a tiny acorn lid from the grass.  She was amazed by this beautiful item and insisted on bringing it indoors.  This moment reminded me of the many nature collages I have made over the years with the preschool aged students in my class.


Once their baskets are full, this is where the clear contact paper comes in.  You may now begin placing the natural items directly onto the contact paper.  Flat items work best for this.  Izzy's little acorn cap would be a bit challenging to use in this application.

If you are working with young toddlers as I was here, they will not only enjoy sticking items to the contact paper, but will want some time to simply enjoy the tactile experience of the paper itself!

Now that you have filled one piece of contact paper with your beautiful things, you can either place a new piece of contact paper on top to sandwich the items in between, or you could simply fold the paper in half as I did here.

This project is so open ended you can make any size collage you would like. Once your collage is complete, there are a variety of applications for it.  If you made a small collage, punch a hole in the top, put a piece of string through and instant book mark!

These nature collages also make lovely window hangings.  They truly are a sight to see when the sun shines through.  Be creative and use your imagination (2 things young children are great at).  The variety and beauty found in nature will provide brilliant works of art.


Christine can be found online on her blog Bellybearbabygear, facebook, and her etsy shop:

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Chic Chicks

Spring Baby Girls Dress from wildthingsdresses

Eco-friendly Knitted Pair of Chicks from woolies

Not Rubber Ducky Amigurumi Toy from principessasweetpea

Cute Chick Hair Clippie from CravingCuteness

Turquoise Chicks Rule Pullover Bib from boygirlboygirldesigns

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Hippity Hoppity Paper Bag Frog Puppets

By Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

Here’s an easy activity perfect for spring days when you’ve got just a little time for an activity: paper bag frog puppets! Even better, chances are pretty good you’ve already got everything you need:

Lunch-size brown paper bag
Green construction paper
Red construction paper
Googly eyes (the bigger the better!)
Glue

My inspiration came from this blog post. We made our frog puppets on Feb. 29 (aka, Leap Day) and paired them with a few of the Froggy books by author Jonathan London and illustrator Frank Remkiewicz. But, I think you’ll find this is great for any spring day or even an “F”-themed day – especially if you’ve got a good place to go looking for frogs!

First, you’ll need some basic shapes:

Two strips of green paper that are rounded on one end for eyes
Two green arms
Two green legs
Several green circles
A long red tongue

Depending on the age of your kids, you can either precut these shapes or trace them onto construction paper and let them do the cutting.

Glue the googly eyes onto the eye strips and fold under the bottom (non-round) end. Glue to the base of your paper bag.

Glue the eyes and legs inside the side folds of your paper bag. Glue the tongue under the bottom of the bag.

Last, glue the green dots all over your frog. Put your hand inside and start hopping!

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Tutorial: Spring Chick

From Steph of NewMillie of This Homemade Life.


Has your weather been as crazy as it has been in Texas? Last week we had a few days of high 70's, low 80's with humidity and now for the last 3 days it has been pouring rain and 50 degrees. It's confusing, and I decided we needed a bit of Spring in our lives, and I want to share with you this little Spring Chick tutorial!!

Here's what you need:

1.  Yarn. I used yellow, pink, black and orange, but you could make your little chick whatever color your little heart desires.
2.  Hook. I used a 4.25 mm, but once again it's whatever you want.
3.  Felt.
4.  Hot glue
5.  Hair clip or headband

Stitches used:
ch- chain
sl st- slip stitch
sc- single crochet-
hdc- half double crochet
dc- double stitch
tr- treble- Yarn over hook twice, then insert hook into next stitch. Yarn over hook, then draw yarn through the stitch (there will be four loops on your hook) *Yarn over and pull through two loops (three loop remaining), yarn over and pull through two loop,(two loops remaining) yarn over and pull through last two loops.
dbl tr- double treble- Same process as the treble, except yarn over hook three times to start the stitch
trp tr- triple treble- Same process as the double treble, except yarn over hook four times to start the stitch

Are you thoroughly confused informed? Okay! Then we are ready!

Chick Body

Chain 4, sl st to form ring

Round 1- 10 sc into the ring

Round 2- 2 sc in first st, sc in 2nd st, 1 hdc and 1 dc in 3rd st, 2 dc in the 4th st,
2 dc in 5th st, 2 sc in 6th st, 1 sc and 1 dc in 7th st, 2 tr in 8th st, 2 dbl tr in 9th st,
2 dbl tr in 10th st.

Round 3- starting in the first stitch of the previous round, 2 dbl tr and 1 trp tr in st,
ch1 and sl st in same st (this is your tail). I also pulled my starting string to close up the hole.

Wing

Chain 4, sl st to form ring

Round 1- (crocheting into the ring)- sc, hdc, dc, 2 tr, dc, hdc, 2 sc, hdc, dc,
2 tr, dc, hdc, sc, sl sp into next stitch.

Finishing

1. Sew wing onto chick

2. Use black yarn to make a little eye

3. Use orange yarn to make a little beak. (I just found the stitch I wanted to be the beak and attached yarn, sc, ch 1, sc, ch1, sl st all in the same stitch.)

4. Finish and weave in all your ends

Now, cut a piece of felt in a similar shape to your chick. Get out your hot glue and glue it to the back of your chick, hiding all your ends. Then get your clip or headband and hot glue it to your chick. I like to put one last piece of felt over the clip or headband just to ensure it is going to stay.

Now go make some chicks! And as always, if you have any questions, please let me know!  You can find me on Facebook, at my Blog, or in my Etsy Shop: 

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Homemade Strawberry Applesauce

Strawberry season just ended here in MD, and the little patch in our garden produced up a storm! I hope you don’t think I’m bragging when I tell you I have enough berries in my freezer for three batches of jam. :) Yum!

My son has decided he doesn’t like strawberries this spring, so we’re not eating as many right off the plants as we have in the past. We’ve made smoothies (which he will drink, oddly enough), and a couple of weeks ago, I got the idea to mix them into applesauce. After some initial skepticism – “Why is this applesauce purple?” – my son gobbled it up. The adults in the house love it, too. It’s so easy that I don’t know why I ever buy applesauce!

Strawberry Applesauce

4c apples, peeled, seeded and sliced (I had galas in the house, but whatever you like will work.)
1 ½ to 2c strawberries, hulled (frozen OK!)

Place fruit in a saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of water to keep it from sticking. Let it cook over medium heat until the apples soften and the berries start to break apart. On medium, this took about 15 minutes.

Use an immersion blender or regular blender to puree the fruit. I like my applesauce a little chunky, so I don’t blend it for long.

Alternately, you can leave the peels and seeds on the apples, slice and cook them and then put the whole concoction through a food mill.

Let cool and enjoy! Great warm or chilly.

Cheers! -Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

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Here Comes Peter Cottontail

Our shamrocks and pots of gold are all put away for another year, and Spring is finally, finally here!! Woo Hoo! Here in the Midwest, and in many other parts of the world, it's been a long, long winter, and we are ready to surround ourselves with everything SPRING!

Fuzzy Bunny Infant Hat by TizzyDee
Easter Bunny Rabbit Softie by looploft
Simply Sweet Bunnies Appliqued T by ChewChewsCloset
3 Tier Sweet Cheeks Bunny Diaper Cake by mylittleangleco
Chocolate Bunny I Spy Bag by thosegreathousewomen

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Spring season

Picture provided by Baby Chick Designs


Spring is here or at least it is here in my area of Coastal Texas. The sun is shining, birds are singing and flowers have begun blooming. This also means that the spring season of craft shows will begin shortly. Craft shows can be a blast for both vendors/artists and customers. Vendors get to get out and meet people in person, get immediate feedback, and make new friends with the other vendors/artists. Customers get to find things they would of never thought of looking for.



I personally enjoy the interaction with the customers, selling online is a great fun and I enjoy every minute of it, but sometimes I miss the personalities I meet when I am out in the real world. And sometimes the fresh air is a great relief from all those cotton balls and dust bunnies that sometimes accumulate in my work space.



So I thought it would be great fun to take a small breather from internet life and discuss what we love about craft shows. Vendors/artists what do you enjoy about craft shows? Customers, or those of us that get to be customers from time to time, what do you enjoy about craft shows? And what is the craziest thing you ever saw at a show?



Lets have some fun with this.

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EtsyKids Spring Egg-stravaganza: Day 3

A cheerful bunny is hiding in a few item listings from EtsyKids members. Find just one of them and you could win a fabulous prize! Today there are eight prizes, and therefore eight chances to win! Hurrah!

Today's clue is: A lagomorph mammal

When you think you've solved it and know what the keyword is, go to Etsy.com and type your keyword + etsykids team into the search, and start looking!

Once you have found the image, send a conversation to Lizzypops with 'EtsyKids Egg-stravaganza' in the subject line, and a link to the item where you found it by midnight (Eastern time) April 4th. All correct entries will be entered into a random drawing for a prize!

For complete instructions on how to play and contest rules, please click here.

A big thanks to My Mini-Mocs for designing the images, and Little Elephant Company for coming up with the clues!

Now on to the prizes:

REVERSIBLE Car Seat Covers for Infants Toddlers and Adults in Sandi Henderson

from Amy Rose Designs

Protect your baby’s neck by adding these reversible car seat belt covers to his/her car seat, stroller or carrier. Not only do the strap protectors fit around baby’s seat straps, but they fit perfectly around an adult seat belt. Use this set in your child’s car seat or for two of the seat belts in your car.




Spring Berry Basket

from bugbitesplayfood

Your little Chef will delight in picking their own berries, putting them in the basket. Also a great addition to play food pancakes, ice cream, tarts & anything else you can think of. This set contains a "delicious" mix of 2 strawberries, 5 blueberries & 3 raspberries all contained in this perfect lidded & handled berry-picking basket. All berries fit nicely inside for easy storage.










Boo Boo Birdie Hot Cold Pack by Daisy Creek Designs

from daisycreek

Made with 100% cotton flannel, 100% polyester felt, filled with 100% organic golden flax seeds and embellished with 100% polyester ribbon, this Boo Boo Birdie is the perfect addition to your freezer or home first aid kit. The Boo Boo Birdie can be kept in the freezer and used at a moments notice for an ouchy or put into the microwave for about 20 seconds to soothe sore muscles.









PAIR of Collectible kids books about Hawaii's endangered species AUTOGRAPHED

from tikitales

The official selection for President Obama's Inaugural Ball gift baskets for the Hawaii State Society! A PAIR of collectible kid's books written & illustrated & self-published by Judi Riley. BOTH books are NEW, AUTOGRAPHED, Hardcover, and 40 pages, including glossary.



Chic Mink and Bella Baby - Baby's First Things - Rose Pink - Traveling Baby Wrap Pillow

from Goldtonedesigns

Our neck wrap pillows can be positioned any way you want to, to give your baby the support he needs for his head while napping. (Back, Front, Side) Travel pillows are great for airplanes, long car trips or just going to the store. Adorable antique pictures of baby's first shoes, first socks and first jumper are displayed with sunny flowers in this cute girly pink print. Baby cloths are about 1 1/2", from the 'Bella Baby' collection by Michele D'Amore for Marcus Brothers Fabrics. Winter White - so very soft Chic Mink on the back !



Easter Egg Sugar Cookies Felt Play Food Set of 6

from thelittlelovebug

Each cookie measures about 2 inches . This item will fit your child's little hands perfectly. Your child will love these! What a cute party favor for a birthday party. The design is machine embroidered and each one is handsewn around the cookie.



Number Flipboard Game

from TootsieBear

Learning is easy when it's hands on fun! Children love using my flipboards! Each is printed, laminated and cut to fit my flipboards. Great gift for children, or for teachers and child care providers.This set includes numbers 1-20 and flipboard with rings. Mix up each set and attach to flipboard. Children count the dots and find the matching numeral and number word.



DIZZY DOTS Crayon Roll Up

from happybabeeandbeeyond

The crayon roll up comes with 8 crayons to keep your little one entertained. It is perfect for long waits in the doctor’s office or at a restaurant. The crayon roll has a flap that you fold over to keep the crayons from slipping out into your purse or diaper bag.

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