Tutorial:: Upcycled Crayons

Are you swimming in school supplies at your house? My kids brought home backpacks filled with all the used supplies from the school year. Some things have been tucked away to reuse next year, but others get cycled into the families general craft supplies.

A couple of weeks ago The Crazy Elephant shared a fun project using broken crayons on her blog, that she recently did with her son. She made cute upcycled crayons using the old, broken, ruddy ones that seem to multiply ten fold in the craft box when on one is looking. It's a great summer boredom buster that kids can be ultra involved in!

Start by collecting all the old crayons ... odds and ends, bits and pieces from the craft drawer, leftovers from the school, everything that's lost it's interest to play with. When we made them, everything got thrown in the mix, Crayola, RoseArt, freebie crayons from restaurants, fat, skinny, washable, glow in the dark, princess, you name it we used it. Each has their own unique melting qualities, and that made for some fun added dimensions when looking at the end product. But we are all really pleased with the results.

Next, remove the paper wrapper around each crayon and sort by color. Cereal bowls or custard cups work really well for this step. Depending on how many crayons you want to upcycle, sort by exact color, by similar color, or don't sort at all, and create a multi-colored rainbow crayons. Let your child experiment with it. Have them make predictions about how the crayon combination will look after they are melted.

The Crazy Elephant and I both used silicon molds, because they come in great shapes and make removing the crayons a snap! The Crazy Elephant used a Lego muffin mold and I used a star mold. But metal cupcake pans also work well.

I baked ours at 350 for about 15 minutes and then let them cool for a couple of hours, a friend using a metal pan melted hers at 350 for 10 minutes and years ago when Family Fun had this idea in their magazine they said to melt them at 250 for 15 minutes. I think it all depends on the kinds of crayons you are using, how big your molds are (FF's was no bigger than 2", and mine 2.75"), the brand of crayon you are using, and possibly the pan (silicon vs. metal?). So turn on your oven light and watch them closely. It takes them a while to cool enough to remove from the pan, so plan a trip to the library or the pool to make the waiting period easier!


Upcycled crayons are not only fun to make, but they are also fun for kids to use and make great gifts and party favors for birthdays, stocking stuffers, Valentines, or little extras in care packages.

If you're looking to purchase chunky crayon shapes to use for an upcoming party, EtsyKids Team Member, PreschoolDoll Designs, has lots of whimsical shapes to go with your theme, and individually wraps them, making them perfect party favors!

Thanks to The Crazy Elephant for this great project. Please check out her Etsy shop and blog!

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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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Photo Makeover Series Part 4

EtsyKids Photo Makeover Series Part 4: Photo Editing, Props, Styling and More!

TwoLittleBluebirds continues her Photo Makeover Series on the EtsyKids Treasury Team Blog this week with her fourth installment filled with styling tips to enhance your product photos and entice buyers! She also discusses free photo editing software programs along with tips for editing your photos. Jump on over and see what improvements you can make to your product photos. You've got a month to put TwoLittleBluebirds advice into action and enter your new product photos in the final photo makeover challenge. Contest details and how to enter are found on the EKTT blog.

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Displaying Kids Artwork

Were you inspired to encourage your children to create more art after reading Plume De Nikola's post Art Festival Time? A great reminder to not only allow our children creative time, but to also encourage them to try and experiment with traditional art techniques and mediums.

Lots of parents struggle with how to display all of the projects their children create at home, in the classroom, and during extra curricular activities. Displaying a child's creative efforts is important to developing their sense of self and cultivating their future creative pursuits.

Clutter and organization experts suggest providing a defined space, with limits, for displaying your child's work. If you'd like, involve them in selecting the location, but be sure to display their work prominently in your home where everyone can see it. It's also important to pick a setting with spacial limits. A defined amount of display space, encouraging them to make choices about what projects to keep and what to part with.

A simple google search proves there are tons of creative ways to display your children's artwork. Everything from large push pin or magnetic bulletin boards, to a small collection of large frames or the front or side of the refrigerator.

Having a gallery wall to display all of the children's artwork has worked well in our home. During the school year, everyone's work is displayed on the gallery wall. I'll write their name and class grade on the back and tape or pin it to the wall. When space runs out, we photograph each project, selecting just a few to save, and recycling the rest, making room for new projects.

Recently PreschoolDollDesigns, posted a simple way to display artwork, photographs, certificates, homework or other 2-D treasures your children come home with on her blog. It's a clothes line for art that you attach to the wall with nails or cup hooks. Simple, inexpensive and super chic!

Photo from PreschooDollDesign

You'll need clothes pins, ribbon, two nails or cup hooks, tape measure and wall space. The number of clothes pins and the length of ribbon will depend on the length of your wall display space. Once you've selected your wall space, determine the height of the clothes line and it's length. Place a nail or cup hook on each end. If your dedicating an entire wall space to the display of your children's art, consider stacking two or three rows of display space, spaced two feet apart.

To create the actual clothes line, thread the ribbon through the spring of the clothes pin. Repeat for the number of clothes pins you have space for. PreschoolDollDesigns recommends spacing them every 10-12 inches. The great thing about this set up is that they slid, easily accommodating small and over-sized projects. Once you have the desired number of clothes pins on your ribbon, tie a loop at one end. Hook over one of the cup hooks or nails. Stretch the ribbon to the second hook/nail and tie a second loop. The ribbon will stretch a bit over time with projects hanging on the line, so tie the ribbon straight and taught with little to not slack.

Here's a similar artwork display line in use in our home.


PreschoolDollDesign has great suggestions of where to hang your art clothes line, along with four other ways to fabulously live free on her post, 5 Ways to Fabulously Live Free. I also loved looking through her Etsy Easter Finds ... 20 things for under $20. Lots of great finds the kids will love, and so will your budget.

Visit PreschoolDollDesign on Etsy and on Facebook.

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Monday Organizing

This week we're sharing two organizing DIY projects to keep small things together and at your finger tips while shopping, so you can save time and money.

FIRST:: Shopper Card Key Ring, from TinyStitches

Lots of stores now offer customer cards, shopper cards. They are free cards the store uses so they can offer you special discounts and coupons. My poor wallet didn't have enough card slots, so I implemented this tip I saw on the Martha Stewart Living TV show during her first season.


Round up the supplies::
Your non-credit card, plastic cards (reward card, library card, grocery card, preferred customer card, video rental card, etc.). Cards that are scanned (bar code) are better than those that are swiped (magnetic strip), but you can* make the swiped ones work too.
A key ring.
A single hole punch.

Double check the back of the card for the placement of the bar code and/or magnetic strip. Select a corner that is free from the bar code or magnetic strip and punch in approximately the same location in each card. *Cards with a magnetic strip that need to be fully inserted into a card reader are better off not being stored on this ring, as the placement of the punch and ring make it very difficult to get the card full inserted into card readers.

Once every card is punched, start threading them on the key ring, working carefully so the card doesn't break. Now you can drop the ring into your bag and because their are a half dozen or so on the ring, they will be easy reach for.


SECOND:: Beautified Coupon Organizer Tutorial, from RaeGun

Earlier this month, Modern Handmade Child Magazine launched a new feature, their blog. If you love the great ideas, projects and information shared in Modern Handmade Child Magazine, you're going to love the resources shared on the blog too!

For example, last week EtsyKids Team Member, RaeGun shared how to beautiful a very plain and very plastic coupon organizer. So find your oh so boring plastic coupon holder, get a piece of fabulously chic fabric, dust off your basic sewing skills and make yourself one of these cuties so you can save yourself some money in style!

Visit the Modern Handmade Child blog for the full tutorial.

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Little Cheerleader Pom-Pom's - How-To

Football season will be in full swing this weekend! If your family is one who loves to cheer on the home team, this is the project for you! Perfect for home games, parades, imaginative play, and much more, young and old a like will enjoy getting in the spirit of the event with one or two of these in hand.

These pom-poms are easy to make and eco-friendly, allowing you to re-use everyday items you will likely have on hand ... and if you don't improvisation is always a good thing! The instructions were published in Family Fun magazine last summer and are available here. You might notice that we had to do a little improvisation when making the one pictured. Because of a strict event budget, dowel rods were quickly abandoned, so we turned to a local fast food restaurant who donated a box of extra tall drinking straws. Perfect! Three extra tall drinking straws taped together held the weight of our recycled grocery bags very nicely.
Hummm, maybe I need to take a dozen or so to the kids soccer games?

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Tags and Twine - Tutorial with free download!

Have you noticed that presentation, the all important finishing touches, can take the plain and turn them into something so much more than plain. These finishing touches aren't big and expensive, all too often they are simple things we have on hand that when thought of, used, can turn a simple house plant, a candy bar, a plate of cookies, into a gift that is so much more than a thoughtful gesture ... a basket, a ribbon, a little tissue paper, cellophane, or a simple piece of twine and a tag. It's just a matter of taking the extra minute or two to do it.

Grace Hester of gracehesterdesigns has a knack for presentation. One look at her Etsy shop and a quick pa-rouse of her blog and you know, nothing leaves her hands without it looking like it stepped away from a photo shoot.

Grace recently created some beautiful tags for a friend and is now sharing them with us on her blog so we can make our own set to dress up our brown paper packages! Thankfully she's also provided a quick how-to to insure our tags look as crisp and professional as her's do.

You can find the tutorial and the freebie download on her blog, here. See the lovely teal and white bakers twine - that little something extra that makes those little tags sing? Well she's even got a little giveaway going on ('til Wednesday 8/18/10) for some, so be sure to check that out as well!

Thanks to Grace for granting us permission to use her photographs and share these tags with you.

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Indoor Water Fun for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Have you seen the water tables some preschools have? It's basically a table with a deep basin they can fill with water, sand, oatmeal or an assortment of beans to serve as a tactile station. At every station like this, kids typically have to be pried away and told to do something else, or they get squeeze out by other kids who want to play too.

I participate in a little mom's preschool co-op for my three year-old. On the day I talked about rain, snow, wind and water, our free play activity was my own "mom" version of a water table. Because the outside weather wasn't conducive to outdoor water fun, our fun had to be inside. Whether your looking for inside fun because the heat index is over 100, or it's pouring rain, or their is a foot of snow outside, tuck this little activity away to keep your little ones active and engaged.

I used two under bed storage bins, filled them 1/3 full with warm tap water, had a plastic watering can for each child, plastic cups in different sizes and measuring cups. If your kitchen isn't fully tiled like mine, consider setting this up in another location with a tile, cement or linoleum floor that can withstand getting wet. Even the garage would work in some climates. Just be sure you choose a safe location and monitor the amount of water on the floor so children can safely move around without getting hurt.

Since I was doing this a preschool activity, I needed the kids to make it home somewhat dry, I used plastic store bags to make 'smocks' for each of them. I flattened out the bag and cut out a shallow C shape from the middle of the bottom 'seam' of the bag to make an neck opening. Leave 3 inches of the seam on both ends, these will be the shoulders of the smock. Next cut open both sides of the plastic bag all the way to the bottom seam. Snip the handles apart to create ties. This should resemble something like a scrimmage jersey.

Slip their head through the opening in the bottom of the bag, and tie the handles securely at their hips.

If you're doing this at home with your own kids, swimming suits would make it extra fun, especially in winter!

Keep a stack of towels on hand, because try as they might, water will get on the floor and you'll want to wipe it up periodically so your feet don't get cold and wet and to keep it safe for them.

These kids played with this set up for a 30-45 minutes, with no sign of getting bored.

To do this activity outside, prop the storage bins up on buckets or set up two folding chairs facing each other, using the seats to set the water bin on, making it accessible from both sides and would allow up to four kids to participate.

* * This activity requires constant adult supervision! Do not ever leave a child playing with water unattended. A child can easily drowned in just a few inches of water.

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HAPPY SATURDAY - HERE'S A TUTE

I've been sewing for almost 20 years now...sigh - I still remember when I first started...the sewing patterns read like stereo instructions - good grief!
Along the way I've learned a few shortcuts and tips and one of my favs is this method of sewing a pair of pants - and it works for any length or style of elastic waist pants or shorts. See the tutorial HERE.
Smooches!

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Tutorial: Satin Ribbon Rose

Sweet hair accessories are all the rage for gals of all ages, from the wee babe with just a few wisps of hair, to school girls and teens and even us mamas, too. EtsyKids team member bbsforbabies, created this great YouTube tutorial for how to make her Satin Ribbon Roses. This simple, high impact project, is definitely on my weekend crafting list! My girls could use some new hair accessories and these little roses, are simple enough for them to make AND oh so adorable when attached to bobbie pins!



Thanks bbsforbabies for sharing! Check out her lovingly made animal security blankets and other creations for babies and tots in her Etsy shop.

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Hello World Its Saturday!

If your anything like me - Saturday is a welcome sight! It's the day I get to sleep late and then get up and play in my studio all day - uninterrupted! I've been sewing since I was a little girl and doing it professionally for the last 16 years. The longer I sew the more I learn about fabrics and techniques and I always love to share with others. I have really fallen in love with shirring these days and some people may assume that its a complicated process but its really very easy. It is time consuming but VERY easy. So - if you've got an hour or so and a cutie that would love a shirred dress or top then read on and take some notes and your on your way.

1. Hold down the person your sewing for and grab these measurements : Chest measurement and the measurement from chest to where you want the garment to end.

2. Take the chest measurement and double that - this will be how wide your fabric needs to be. Then cut the length of the fabric to match your second measurement. Finish the top and bottom edges of your piece with the serger or by hemming - you can also leave the edges raw if you like that look.

3. Pick up a spool of elastic thread from your local fabric store - they are never more than $1.50. HAND WIND the elastic thread onto the bobbin being careful not to stretch it as you go. Put the bobbin in the machine and set your stitch length to the longest stitch. And that's it - your ready to shirr.

4. Your fabric should be face up on the sewing machine - so that the elastic is on the wrong/in side of the fabric. Then, using your presser foot as a guide - stitch your first row 1/4" from the top edge. After you've done this row you will see that it has gathered slightly. Continue stitching 1/4" rows. You should at least do five to achieve the proper gathering but you can do however many you want. In the pictured example - Ive made 15 rows, but sometimes I do even more than that.

5. Once you've shirred as much as you like - put the two sides together with right sides facing and sew a seam straight down the back...Voila! You have a beautifully shirred top or dress for someone special or even yourself.

I hope you'll try this super easy technique on your favorite lazy dazy Saturday - you will be so proud of yourself when your done! Smooches!

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