Sewing Tutorial To Do List

Here are some tutorials I want to try when I have time.

http://sewmuchado.blogspot.com/2010/02/refashion-tutorial-toddler-ruffle-skirt.html

http://sewretrochic.blogspot.com/2009/10/shirred-mod-top-tutorial.html

http://www.prudentbaby.com/2010/04/most-flattering-shirt-dress-diy.html

http://sewhappytocraft.blogspot.com/2010/04/gymboree-inspired-tank.html

Pop-Up Puppets

SOURCE: http://mommymeatloaf.blogspot.com/2010/03/peek-boo-puppets.html

Start off with a wooden dowel. Take a styrofoam ball and stick it on the end of the dowel to form a head (I guess it would really be the skull since it will be covered, but anyway...) Then, take a plastic cup, cut out the bottom, and slide it up onto the stick.


Next, take a sock (I used an old one because its cheaper than buying one) and slide it over the ball, down the dowel, and up over the cup. The sock needs to be hot-glued to the cup. Before you glue it, make sure the cup is all the way at the end of the dowel; this is so you have room to move the puppet up and down when its finished. If the sock is longer than the cup, just cut the sock.

Now you want to take fabric, felt, or whatever and cover the cup.

Ok, so on to the fun part. You can use felt cut-outs, wiggly eyes, pom-poms, pipe cleaners,or whatever else you want to make a face and decorate your puppet. This is a part thats fun for the kids. Now of coarse, they can't use the hot glue gun, but you can give them Elmer's and let them go crazy. The Elmer's doesn't stick so well, but when they aren't looking you can use your hot glue gun and re-secure their pieces. For mine, I made curly hair by wrapping yarn around a dowel, wetting it, and microwaving until dry. Make sure to microwave at small increments (20 seconds or so) or you will burn the dowel and yarn. Trust me, I know!!

Plastic Easter Egg Snakes

SOURCE:  http://mommymeatloaf.blogspot.com/


Grab some line and some plastic egg halves
String the eggs onto the line.
Turn the very last egg backwards to give it a "finished" look and tie a knot.
Paint a face on it and glue on a piece of ribbon to make a mouth.

Plastic Spoon Flowers

Source: http://www.cool-kids-craft-ideas.com/plastic-spoon-flowers.html#lily

Water Lily
This one looks great sitting on your table. Place it on a blue mat or paper to simulate the look of water.



Supplies
14 Plastic Spoons
Decorative Button or Paper
Green Felt
Sturdy Scissors or Diagonal Cutters
Hot Glue
Thin Cardboard

How to Make a Plastic Spoon Water Lily
Cut the stem portion of the spoon off leaving about 1/4" for gluing.
Cut a piece of cardboard into a circle shape 3 inches in diameter.
Using the hot glue, glue 5 spoon bowls on the outer edge of the circle cardboard spacing evenly around the circle.
Take five more spoon bowls and glue these in between the first 5 spoons slightly in closer to the middle of the circle. For this layer, angle the spoons slightly upwards.
Glue the last four spoons onto the cardboard. Again angling the spoons higher and in closer to the middle.
Glue on a decorative button for the middle of the flower.
Tip: You can also use card stock or craft foam and decorate it anyway you want.
Lastly, cut out two leaf shapes with green felt. Glue these to the bottom of the cardboard.
Another flower craft idea for this one is to use colored spoons. You can alternate with white and your choosen color and make your water lily all one color.

Tulips

This one is fairly simple and the younger kids can give it a try. You will need an adult to help with the hot glue gun.

Supplies
1 Plastic Spoon per tulip
Permanent Marker or Paint
Green Pipe Cleaners

How to Make Plastic Spoon Tulips
Paint the back bowl side of the spoon the desired color for your tulip. Let this dry completely.
Using a complementing color, paint a triangle starting from the edge of the top of the spoon and come down to a point for the triangle. This will create the look of a tulip.
Paint the handle green to create the stem.
Fold a pipe cleaner into leaf shapes and wrap it around the stem.
Just stick your tulip in a styrofoam ball to display this cute flower. You can make a vase as well and use floral foam or clay to hold in place.

Roses
The directions below are for the roses with a "slumped" petal which requires working with a candle and is intended for older kids with supervision. If your younger child wants to try this craft, you can do this without using a candle.

Supplies
8 Plastic Spoons
Permanent Marker or Paint
Sturdy Scissors or Diagonal Cutters
Hot Glue
Candle
Green Tissue Paper
Ribbon

How to Make Plastic Spoon Roses
To create a petal look (called slumping the spoon), light a candle and hold a spoon about 2" above the flame. The spoon should be bowl side down facing the flame.
Hold the spoon to where the tip of the spoon is receiving the heat. Hold in place until you see the spoon "slump".
Remove the spoon from the flame and press the tip against a hard surface (like the the table) to bend the tip back to create the petal.
Tip: For the first two spoons, bend back only slightly. These will be the center of the rose.
Paint your spoons the color you want (if using white spoons). Color the folded part of the petal (where you bent it back) a slightly darker matching color.
Hot glue your first 2 spoons together keeping the handle on the spoon.
Slump your next two spoons creating a slightly larger fold in the petal. Paint the spoons. Cut off the handle of the spoon leaving about 1/2" for gluing to the first two spoons.
Glue these two spoons to the first two spoons but place these so they are on each edge of the first two spoons (meaning facing each other but in the opposite direction of the first two spoons.
Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the remaining spoons creating a larger slump with each row of petals. Be sure to glue these on the opposite side of the last set of spoons.
Lastly, wrap the tissue paper around the stem and part way up the rose to cover all the edges of the cut spoons. Tie it off with a bow and give this to mom for Mother's Day or Valentine's Day.

If you want to do this rose craft without the candle and slumping of the petals, simply follow all the steps above skipping the slumping. You will still get a beautiful rose but it will be more of a rose bud without the petals opening. We placed a small pine cone in the center of ours to give it a different look.

Lid Wind Chimes

Source: http://www.cool-kids-craft-ideas.com/sensory-crafts-sound.html#wind_chimes
Supplies
3 large canning lids (the flat insert piece)
10 small canning lids (the flat insert piece)
1 large canning lid band (the part the twists on the jar)
Metal Paint (like Rustoleum)
Ribbon or String
Glitter Glue
Scissors
Hot Glue

How to Make Wind Chimes
Paint all the lids with rustoleum paint and let dry.
Using glitter glue, write out your message or decorate the lids as you want. Use the larger lids for the first letter of each word.
We used the words Peace, Love and Hope on one side and Faith, Life and Wish on the other side.
Cut 3 long strips of ribbon (long enough to hold all the lids for each word.
Hot glue the lids to the ribbon leaving enough of the ribbon to tie to the lid band and some to hang from the bottom.
Tie each ribbon to the lid band in different spots. Tie another piece of ribbon to the band for hanging.
Hang your wind chime somewhere outside to catch the wind and make some noise.

Pine Cone Hyacinth

Source: http://www.cool-kids-craft-ideas.com/flower-crafts.html

Supplies


1 Pine Cone (per flower)
Colored Tissue Paper
Green Construction Paper
Colored Aluminum Foil (or colored paper)
Plastic Tub (like from margarine)
Scissors
Glue
Pencil
Ribbon or Bow





How to Make a Pine Cone Flower

Place the tub on the aluminum foil and wrap the foil around the tub. Fold over the end into the inside of the tub to hold in place and cover the rim.
Tip: If you use paper instead of foil, just use double stick tape to hold it in place. Fold the end of the paper into the tub and tape in place.
Glue the pine cone into the plastic tub.
Tip: If you have a smaller pine cone, just build up the inside of the tub with flower foam and then stick the pine cone in a bit to hold in place.
Cut the tissue paper into 1 1/2 inch squares. Place the eraser end of the pencil in the middle of the square and twist the tissue paper by twirling the pencil.
Dip the pointed end of the tissue paper into glue and stick it between the pine cone petals. Repeat this until the pine cone is completely covered with colored tissue paper.
Cut leaves from the green paper and glue in place.
Wrap a ribbon or place a bow on the outside of the pot.

Bubble Wrap Prints

http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/search/label/0%20grade

1. I cut panels of bubble wrap that were smaller than the journal pages so that the paint wouldn’t go all the way to the edges. The students were given a brush, acrylic paint and paper plate. After spreading the paint out on the plate, the bubble wrap was pressed into the paint (bubble side down) and then printed in the center of a blank journal page.


2. After a successful print was made, the students pressed a paper towel on top of the page to absorb any extra paint.

3. When the paint felt dry, the students used colored pencils to color in the bubbles. I love how they look like marbles all lined up in a row.

Old Board Book into Personalized Baby Book

Source: http://katiesnestingspot.blogspot.com/2009/01/altered-baby-board-book.html

The first things I do is make sure the binding is intact. You don't want to put a lot of hard work into your creation and then have it fall apart after a few uses, trust me this is from experience! Most board book pages have a shiny coating on their pages. I sand the pages using a scrap of sand paper and then wipe off all the little bits. I read somewhere that this gives the glue something to hold onto and ensures better adhesion. Next I plan out my pages, choosing which pictures to include, papers and ribbons, what embellishments to use, etc. A note on embellishments: try to use as many flat embellishments such as stickers and die-cuts if you want your finished book to close and be somewhat flat. All the fancy 3-D embellishments will add to the bulk of your book and prohibit it from closing.


It's all a matter of preference, because I've made some with bulkier embellishments and I think the finished book looks pretty with the pages fanned out on a table. In that case, I display mine standing up, so the front cover looks like a frame.

The pages reveal a little bit of what's inside and I think it makes your guests want to pick it up and look at it. Also, if you are using 3-D embellishments keep them toward the outer edges of your pages, the idea is to have a slight fanning of the pages, not to have them completely open. The design phase is also the time to plan for any extras such as, shortened pages, windows, or flaps. A shortened page is just that, when you cut part off, so that a little of the following page can be seen. A window involves two consecutive pages; you cut a shape out of one page, I found a square to be the easiest one. Place a photo behind the opening and glue to either the back of that page, leave a border around the print for glue, or glue it to the following page so that it can be seen through the opening. Adhere both pages together, I like to use really strong double sided tape to do this as it's quicker, but you can also use mod podge.

You will need to apply the glue, then use clamps or clips to hold the two pages together overnight. A flap page is similar to a window, but when you are cutting out the shape cut out three sides and score the last one so it will open. Glue the first page to the second, being careful to not glue the flap. You can place a picture or patterned paper and embellishments in the opening of a window or flap.

Okay so now you've prepped your book by sanding and wiping it clean, planned out the pages, and made any necessary cuts to pages for extras. To assemble. Cover each page, one at a time with a thin layer of mod podge. Cut decorative paper to slightly larger than the page. Attach and smooth out any wrinkles with your fingers. Continue until pages are all covered. Let glue dry. Cut around each page with an x-acto knife. Sand away any excess paper so edges are smooth. Now you can decorate and embellish to your heart's content.

I save the cover for last, because if bulkier embellishments are used on the front it can make it harder to complete the inside pages if the book will not longer lay flat. If you choose to use flat embellishments on the inside, the front cover is the place to go crazy, I've even attached bigger items with hot glue.

Cover the front and back using the same method as the inside pages. Measure the spine of the book's height and width. Add an inch or so, so that the binding will be covered as well as some of the front and back. Using a coordinating scrap of paper, cut binding cover and hold up to your book to check that you like how it "fits" and make adustmentss as necessary. Cover the binding by, attaching first to the front of the book, folding it and gluing as you go around the spine, and then gluing it to the back.

I like to cover the seams on the front and back with ribbon. Cut to lengh and use glue dots to attach, fray check the ends before attaching. Or attach with mod podge, I haven't needed to fray check the ends as the glue does that for you. When you are finished you may want to apply a thin layer of mod podge to the covers to protect it from fingerprints and smudges.

If you embellish the front with silk flowers or something along those lines do not put mod podge on top of those. In that case, apply mod podge on the unembellished cover, let dry, and then hot glue on bigger items. I usually also apply a thin layer onto of each inner page, allow for drying time. You can apply mod podge right over any embellishments and photos as it drys clear.

Sock Puppets

Source: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/kids/craft_zoo_puppets.html

What you need


• 1 empty gelatin box (or box that size) for each puppet
• An old, but clean, sock
• Scissors
• Glue
• Fabric scraps, construction paper, yarn, sequins, felt, pipe cleaners, etc.
• Tape

What you do

1. Tape the open end of the gelatin box closed. Lay the box flat, then start cutting the top across the middle. Cut all the way across the middle and down each of the sides, but don't cut the bottom that was lying on the table (look at the diagram). Now fold the box in half along the middle of the uncut side. If you put your thumb and fingers in the open parts, you can move it like a mouth. This is the puppet's mouth.

2. Take the sock and cut off the toe, about two inches from the end. Slip the sock over the box, so it creates a head and neck for the puppet, with a moving mouth. Glue the edges of the sock onto the box to keep it together.

3. Now you can use the fabric scraps and other materials to decorate the box and the sock to create any animal you choose. Felt teeth can be glued inside the mouth (square ones for herbivores or pointy ones for carnivores), and a pink oval (or a blue-black one if you're making a giraffe!) can be glued inside to make a tongue. You could make antlers or horns with pipe cleaners, a mane with yarn, spots or stripes, and different sizes and shapes of ears and eyes. You could make antelope or deer, big or small cats, foxes, pigs, giraffes, hippos...you name it!

Sea Turtle Marionette

Source: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/kids/craft_trash_puppet.html

What you need

(You can substitute anything you have that is similar to these items.)
•1 clear plastic deli container with a snap-on lid, like the ones that parmesan cheese comes in. This is the turtle's shell.
•4 plastic spoons to make the flippers. Carefully break off the handles of the spoons, leaving only about one-half inch of the handle and the scoop part. An adult could also snip off the handles with wire cutters, but don't try that yourself.
•1 plastic container from individual-size pudding cups. This is the turtle's head.
•4 wine bottle corks for legs
•4 buttons–2 for eyes, 2 for anchors for your marionette strings.
•1 piece of sponge for the turtle's tail
•5 twist ties
•2 popsicle sticks for your marionette control
•4 small screw eyes to connect the legs to the shell
•Thick white glue
•Nail
•Hole punch–the kind you hold in your hand
•Heavy thread
•Acrylic paints, if you'd like to paint your turtle

What you do

1. Legs and flippers: Cut a small slit in one end of the cork. You might want an adult to help you. Push the shortened spoon handle (flipper) into the cork. On the other end, twist the screw eye into the cork. Repeat for the other three corks.

2. Head: Use the nail to punch a hole into the bottom of the pudding cup. You will later thread a control string through here. Use the hole punch to punch a hole near the rim of the cup. This is where the head will connect to the shell. Now turn the cup over so the opening is downward. This is how the head will be placed. Glue two buttons to the front for eyes (the punched hole is in the back).

3. Shell: Take the lid off of the container. Use the nail to punch a hole in the center of the bottom of the container. This is for your control string. Now use the hole punch to punch five holes around the rim, one for the head to connect and four for the legs to connect. Keep the holes closer to the front than to the back. Now punch five holes in the container lid, in the same places as those in the container.

4. Tail: Cut a small triangle from the sponge. Glue it on to the back of the container, down near the rim.

5. Control: Glue the two popsicle sticks together in a T shape and let dry.

6. Paint: Paint each piece and let dry. Make the mouth pointed. Paint the "scutes," or sections of the shell.

7. Strings: Cut 6 pieces of heavy thread, each one about 18 inches long. Head string: Tie one end of a thread onto a button. Thread the other end up through the pudding cup until it rests on the button (it will kind of look like a bell on a string). Shell string: Repeat for the other button and thread it up through the small hole in the container. Now snap the lid on the container, making sure you match up the large holes you punched for the neck and legs.

8. All together: Use a twist tie and thread it through the large hole in the pudding cup, then the holes in the front of the container and its lid. Twist to secure, but not too tight. The head needs to be able to move freely. Next attach a leg and flipper by threading a twist tie through the screw eye, and then the large leg holes in the container and lid. Be sure the spoon is turned so the rounded part is facing up. Repeat for the other three legs/flippers. All the legs will point toward the back of the turtle.

9. Strings on the control: Tie a thread around each of the flippers where the handle of the spoon meets the cork. Now attach everything to the control. It's easier if you have someone to help hold the control as you tie on the strings. Tie the shell (body) thread to the crossed part of the T. Tie the head thread to the very end of the long center stick of the control. Gather the two threads for the flippers on the right side of the turtle and tie them to the end of one of the cross pieces of the T. Repeat for the left side. Be sure your turtle's legs are even with his body as shown, so it looks like he's swimming. Put a dab of glue on all your knots, and on the control to keep the strings from slipping off. Let it dry. Cut off any excess thread and you're ready to swim the seas! Tilt the control from side to side and watch what happens. With a little practice, you can make your turtle really look like he's swimming.

Ways to Recycle Water Bottles

BOUNCY BEANS – Put various large dried beans in a bottle for your child to shake and roll around, listening to the sound it makes.

RAIN BOTTLES – Put some rice in a bottle and make your child a rain bottle as they tilt the bottle up and down.

POP CORN POPPER – Put some popped corn in the bottle and encourage your child to roll in around the room, popping the corn.

FLOATING OCTOPUS – Blow up two very small balloons and tie. Place them in the bottle and then fill the bottle ¾ with water. The balloons will bob around and look like baby whales.

MINI TOYS – Look for mini cars, animals, balls, dice, etc. to place in a bottle.

BEACH SCENE – Place ½ cup sand in the bottle, along with some mini shells. Pour in some water, tinted with blue food coloring.

BUBBLES GALORE – Pour in some water, tinted with blue food coloring and some dish soap or some bubble bath. Shake up the bottle to make bubbles.

GLITTER BOTTLES – Drop in some glitter, sequins, metallic confetti, glass jewels. Fill ¾’s with water and shake.

FEATHER BOTTLES – Fill the bottle with ten or twenty small feathers.

Source: http://www.preschoolexpress.com/toddler_station06/toddler_station_sep06.shtml