Fun Finds!

Today's Fun Find is something one of my dear friends just found that I thought I would share with you because it is all about felt! Check it out here at Modern Kiddo . It shows you where you can find patterns to make your own felt food for your little ones, and also a few links to etsy where you can purchase pre-made felt food. Some of this play food is absolutely adorable!!

Fun with Felt!

In 2009 when I found out I was pregnant with a girl, I was soooooooo excited!!! I had spent 5 years with a little boy, digging in the dirt, watching him eat his own boogers, and watching episode after episode of Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder.

Needless to say I was certainly ready to girl it up for my daughter's nursery! I was on a tight budget, so I figured I would decorate with felt. Felt is slowly becoming one of my ultimate faves, it is super super cheap, and you can get it by the yard at the fabric store or by the square at places like Wal-Mart. And you don't always have to use a sewing machine or even sew at all, it works really well with craft glue.

The supplies I used for this project:

1) Felt by the yard (brown and green)

2) Felt squares in bright colors

3) Scissors

4) Tacky Glue

5) Pipe Cleaners

6) Double sided foam tape - to adhere to the wall

Optional:

Sewing Machine (only for the tree below, not required)

Hand-sewing needles and thread

My inspiration was a piece of scrapbook paper I found while taking a trip to Michael's (you will see the picture below), and I just decided to create some simple shapes with felt to adorn her walls:

A little blue bird

I made the tree on my sewing machine, used polyester filling, and then hand -sewed the flowers onto the tree. In addition to the two little bluebirds I made two butterflies.

My Mom even got in on the crafty-ness and created some custom art for my daughter's room!

And here is the inspiration, a piece of scrapbook paper by Imaginisce called Twitterpated Hey Foxy.

So if you have children, felt is an easy and fun way to create something custom to decorate their walls. You can literally create whatever your mind can imagine, and if you totally screw up, you won't be throwing away a small fortune :)

Cute Cute Cute!

I absolutely love anything Japanese! Even my husband was born in Japan (but unfortunately he's not actually Japanese, it was a military base). I also love sewing, but not anything that is too incredibly difficult, I'm fairly a newbie and self-taught for the most part. A couple years ago a friend of mine introduced me to this cute craft book by Aranzi Aronzo called The Cute Book .
If you aren't that great at sewing, and you happen to have felt (which is one of the most inexpensive things you can buy at the fabric store!) you can make these cute little dolls!

I made a panda and a lizard soon after getting the book, and then found out the author has even more books, including Fun Dolls.
This book is even more amazing, and it really is seriously CUTE! The Fun Dolls book has patterns for larger dolls and gives you the option to work with some different fabrics, like fleece, which are super easy to work with for beginners like myself!

I had the opportunity to make two of these cute dolls for a couple of cute little girls a couple years ago, check it out:

So if you are looking for something easy, fun, and kid-pleasing (although I won't tell if you make a billion pandas for yourself!) then these books are a MUST HAVE for your Crafting Library. You can go back to them time and time again for really unique gift ideas :)