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:: DIY Diaper Wipes

From Emily of BusyChickadees and Raising Busy Chickadees. 

I started making my own disposable diaper wipes a few years ago. I love them! They are more natural and cheaper than the store-bought version.

Now, I use cloth diapers, so I use cloth wipes, but I wanted to share how to do this with my disposable diaper friends. I am going to use mine as eye make-up disposable wipes. You will be amazed at how easy it
is to do. Are you ready?

Homemade Disposable Diaper Wipes
Ingredients:
Bounty Paper Towels (select-a-size)
2 cups water
2 tablespoons baby wash (natural if possible)
2 tablespoons oil (canola oil, olive oil, and coconut oil work)
container
tea tree oil (optional).

Step 1 
Cut the rolls of paper towels in half with a serrated knife.

Step 2
Pour water into container. Add baby wash and oil. Stir.

Step 3 
Add 2 drops of tea tree oil (used to prevent mold) optional.

Step 4
Drop the half a roll of paper towel into the water. Wait until water has soaked into the paper towels and remove the center cardboard tube.

Step 5
Pull wipes up from the center.

**A note of caution. **If you seal the lid on tightly, you are almost guaranteed for your wipes to mold at some point. I just leave the lid cracked open and have not had a problem with that. How about you, have you used your own wipes before?


Find Emily online at Facebook and Twitter, by visiting her blog - Raising Busy Chickadees and her Etsy Shop - Busy Chickadees:

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Toddler Sensory Activity: Colored Spaghetti

I was making dinner the other night {spaghetti and meat sauce} and though how fun it would be to play with the spaghetti! I knew coloring it would make it even more fun so I did some browsing and found this video on how to color spaghetti. It's really easy...just take a look.

I didn't have any watercolors so I used food coloring. It worked just fine but didn't distribute the color all that evenly.

If you don't have a sensory table {I don't} then you can use a bowl, tupperware, one of those disposable lasagna pans {which we used}...pretty much anything your little heart desires. There are also tons of sensory table DIYs around the internet if you are handy enough to make one yourself. We also have a water table that we like to use.

Bug had so much fun playing in the spaghetti. In fact, it was an all day project! Here are all the things we did with it:

First we played with it using our hands.

 Then I broke out the toddler scissors.

 She had some trouble with them so I showed her to lay it over a cup and use 2 hands to cut.

 Then I held it and she used 2 hands to cut.

Bug served me some scoop-fulls using kitchen tongs {great for motor skill development}!

I even dared to let her take it out by the carpet to cook in her kitchen.

She stepped in the tub and wiggled her toes. {I think she liked this best - be careful though, it's slippery}

We took the spaghetti to the kitchen floor and made some shapes with them too!

It was so much fun! How will you play with spaghetti?

If you like this post and want to see more toddler activities please visit my blog, Tutus and Tea Parties. You can also follow me here: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest.

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Introducing All Wild Co.

Today We Introduce You To Nadia of All Wild Co.

Q: What motivated you to start your shop?
I’ve always lived a creative lifestyle. I worked as a fashion designer for some years before starting a family. While staying at home with my children, I felt inspired and encouraged to create something that would try and capture their full of life personalities, innocence and love for nature.

Q: What is the story behind your shop name?

For the shop’s name I took my inspiration from nature - organic, wild. Also I felt it reflected children's' infinite originality and their creative and playful spirit.

Q: Do you have a favorite Etsy Shop (non-child related)?
I love textiles, art and photography. These are some of my favorites:

twostringjane

wireanimals

lindamonfort

EyePoetryPhotography

laferrera

tushtush

SamanthaFrench

rinnshop

silverridgestudio

PeggyWolfDesign

unitedthread

tastesorangey

kikiandpolly

scoutandcatalogue

Q: What surprised you most about having your own craft / online shop?

I found it to be a very rewarding experience having your own online shop. It feels wonderful to see other folks enjoying your designs and workmanship. I’ve also picked up a lot of new skills and met some wonderful people along the way.

Q: What do you find most challenging about being an Etsy seller?

Not enough hours in a day!

Q: What's your personal philosophy behind your shop / products?

I pledge to develop fresh, fun, functional items, and to try my best to make them as eco friendly and safe as possible. All my items are made of either 100% organic cotton, hemp or other unique eco friendly blends. I hand dye with non-toxic dyes and screen print with water-based inks. Always trying to support local business, I strive to source fabrics that have been grown and milled right here in the USA.

Q: How would someone (other then you) describe you?

A little shy, friendly...

Q: What music do you have on while you are creating?

Right now I enjoy music by Of Monsters and Men, Adele, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, and Fleetwood Mac.

Q: What do you do when you aren't working?

I have two children and when not working I devote most of my time to them. However, when ever I get a moment, I like to play piano, try new recipes, and skim through design magazines and blogs.

Q: Anything else you'd like to tell us or share?

I would like to mention how much I’ve enjoyed being a design challenge coordinator for this team. Every month I’m astonished by our members’ creativity and craftsmanship.

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EtsyKids Design Challenge: It's time to Vote!

It's time to vote for your favorite item! Voting will be open until March 27th. This month, EtsyKids members were challenged to create an exciting new item based on a theme "Bumblebees, Bugs, and Butterflies". We received a bunch of fantastic entries from some talented people. Please vote for your favorite item from the list below.

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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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Handmade Business 101: Revenue or Profit?

Business 101 is a new monthly series from Sarah of CuriousWorkmanship designed to help you improve the success of your handmade home business.  

We crafters are so creative, we often spend more time on the “craft” side of the craft business than the “business” side. With this series of monthly blog posts, I’ll introduce you to some of the business concepts that will help you make your business more profitable. Don’t worry—there’s no math more complicated than simple arithmetic!

Today’s topic is revenue and profit.

Revenue is the amount of money that comes into the business. Let’s make up an example to illustrate it. If I sell a baby dress for $35, my revenue is $35. But even though there’s now $35 in my pocket (or in my PayPal account), I don’t really have $35, because I have to figure that I spent money on materials and selling fees. Profit is what’s left over of the revenue after you subtract the costs you had to pay to sell the dress. To figure that, we need to make a list of the costs associated with this dress. Let’s say I spent $10 on materials for the dress, $1.43 in Etsy fees, $1.32 in PayPal fees. These costs total $12.75. So my profit, what’s left over of the $35 revenue after I subtract $12.75 in costs, is $22.25. That’s how much I’d be getting paid for my hour of work making the dress.

Suppose, though, that I discover that somebody else is selling a similar dress for only $15. I don’t want them to undercut my prices, so I am thinking of dropping my price to $15 also. What does that mean for my profit? Well, even without the labor costs, my materials and fees still come to $12.75. That would leave me just $2.25 to pay myself for an hour’s work! Is that really worth it for me? I would wonder if my competitor is doing the math on this, because her materials and fees must cost something like mine.

Why do we want to calculate profit? Because we’re usually in business to make money. Let’s say I’m earning money so I can take a $1000 trip. How many of those dresses will I have to sell in order to earn that much money? If I sell them at $35, I will have to sell 45 dresses to make $1000 profit. But if I sell them at $15, I will have to sell FOUR HUNDRED and forty-five dresses to make the same amount of money. As hard as it is to find buyers at the $35 price, it’ll surely be easier to find 45 buyers than 445 buyers. Plus it will be much less sewing for me.

Now let’s apply this to craft shows. Many people think they’ve had a good show if their revenue is bigger than their booth fee, but they’re often wrong. Let’s say my competitor sets up at a craft show where the booth fee is $100. If my competitor sells 10 dresses at $15 each, they have $150 in their pocket and they think they’ve done well. But have they? The cost of each dress is $10 for materials, and instead of Etsy and PayPal fees we have to add in the booth fee. So the cost of selling 10 dresses at $15 each is $100 for the materials ($10 times 10 dresses) and $100 for the booth fee. This show actually cost them $200, but they only brought in $150 in revenue. Not only did they not make any profit, they paid $50 for the privilege of being at that show! And that’s not even counting their time making dresses and displays, the gas they had to use to get to the show, etc. Don’t let the revenue fool you—a craft show can be unprofitable even if the revenue is more than the booth fee.

Next time we’ll look at how to find the right price for your items. Pricing your items higher and getting fewer sales may actually give you more profit.

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