Snugglebug University

A Percy Jackson inspired birthday celebration

2021-07-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!

It's been awhile...and I hope this post finds you healthy and safe. We've had a few creative projects this year, and I'm sure one day I'll get around to documenting them here, but in the meantime I wanted to jump on here to some things we put together for Lu's bday.

No big birthday celebration this year thanks to COVID, but we still tried to make the best of things Camp Halfblood style! Lu's been really into the Percy Jackson series, so she wanted to try to recreate camp halfblood. We got her an archery set and had so much fun making Greek God inspired accessories and shirts with our silhouette cameo. Lu made the shirts using designs that were a fusion of a few different designs she saw online.

We had a Karpos monster (aka: modified pineapple pinata) that the kids battled, and a greek inspired building activity with marshmallows, toothpicks, and rice crispy treats. We also had a water balloon fight--Lu initially wanted to make it Medusa themed where you were frozen when you got hit, but ultimately the kids were just too excited and it turned into typical water balloon fight.

Ah, and then the food....Lu wanted junkfood and blue food...and so that's what we did! Pizza, blueberries, and blue rainbow jello.

We also found a few other blue junk foods for the kids to enjoy: blue Hostess Snoballs, Calypso blue lemonade, and blue push pops.

Overall it was a fun Camp Half blood inspired day!

XOXO,

Jill

Puppies and more!

2020-11-29T18:17:00.003-08:00

Hi friends!

I hope this post finds you healthy and in good spirits. 2020 has been quite a year, hasn't it?

I wanted to jump online to show you our latest project, which I have to say is a twist on one of my favorite all time projects--THE PUPPIES!

A long time ago, a curly little toddler convinced me to create an abundance of puppies...and then this year she convinced me to revisit the same project, this time with her helping to make the puppies as gifts for others. How could I say no? If you ever wondered what these cuties would look like if sewn with fake fur...here you go!

Here's the puppy dog pattern and the dog carrier pattern. Both are completely free, so if you're looking to create some puppies this year, this could be a fun project! The fake fur does make these beauties quite a bit more difficult to sew than the fleece versions, but they are a cute twist!

This year has certainly called for us to be creative in different ways, but I've enjoyed the simpler pace of life, and then opportunity for my kids to really drive our creative projects, like these puppies!

This year looks different than most. More online activities and less in person ones, but I love seeing how cheerfully flexible our kids can be! Our parties have certainly looked different this year, but I've loved some of the virtual options we've come up with, like this 1980's themed crafting party, where the kids decorated acrylic clipboard and snap bracelets, and snacked on some candy from my childhood. So, so fun!

Other than that we've enjoyed the family time. Time to just play at home, jump in puddles, and appreciate the simpler things in life.

We wish everyone well in these trying times. Stay safe and take care!

XOXO,

Jill

Free Patterns: For when there is nothing to do....

2020-03-15T18:31:00.001-07:00

Hi friends,

I haven't had time to blog for a while....and then the world shut down..

I truly believe that this shutdown offers opportunities that we don't even probably fully comprehend right now. Many of us have time on our hands that we couldn't have even imagined a month ago.

For some people, that means being able to use a bit of their fabric stash. If you are like me, the ability to create something can seem calming and way to combat anxiety. I stopped selling my patterns a little over a year ago, and now seemed like the perfect opportunity to make some publicly available, for free.

So I picked my 4 favorite patterns and uploaded them here for you. Here's the puppy dog pattern and the dog carrier pattern.

And here's my June bug doll pattern:

And here's my little house pattern:

In times like these, offering a few patterns like these doesn't seem like much. But I hope that someone enjoys them. We're in all in this together. I wish everyone health and quality time spent with family in isolation.

I'll be trying to juggle work with kids at home, but I imagine that there will be some time for crafting, and if we do anything interesting I might share it here. This week, my plan is to try to do some art with the kids. I'm going to use this Pinterest board for my inspiration.

XOXO,

Jill

Christmas Around the World Advent Calendar

2019-12-01T20:29:00.002-08:00

Hi friends!

I can't believe that it is already December! I wanted to hop on there and share a free printable that I made for my daughter's girl scout troop. We're studying holidays around the world, and this advent calendar brings you through some interesting facts about how people celebrate Christmas around the world!

You can download the calendar for free using this link. You can have your kids color the calendar, and then cut out all of the facts and turn them into a chain as a countdown to Christmas!

I threw this calendar together yesterday when I knew I had 16 girls coming to my house to earn the snacks badge, but I was worried that with rainy weather they might need something else to work on. So this calendar was born, and I figured I might as well share it with you all as well! Hopefully someone gets some use out of it!

I learned a lot while making this calendar. There are so many cool traditions across the globe for celebrating Christmas! So, so fun!

I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season, full of lots of love.

XOXO,

Jill

A Very Harry Potter July!

2019-07-30T21:08:00.002-07:00

Hi friends!
It has been quite a while, hasn't it? Life is busy, but a good kind of busy. I thought about not sharing this post because it's just so incomplete...My pictures aren't great, and I don't have any great step by step pictures to share. That's the reality of life though isn't it? Life isn't perfect, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth documenting or sharing. There's some really fun, good stuff here...I hope you'll agree with me!

Lu's been obsessed with Harry Potter lately. We took a trip to Universal Studios in Los Angeles a couple of months ago, and then this summer she decided what she wanted most for her birthday was to bring Harry Potter alive. There's no shortage of wonderful Harry Potter ideas online, and we tried several of them!

We made shirts. All except Gryffindor, because those shirts I was able to pick up at Target. I love how these turned out!! We used iron on vinyl and my cutting machine.

We loved bringing Honey Dukes alive. So many of these templates we found on Pinterest. Let's just say lots and lots of cutting happened for this project.

Lu made these adorable Pigmy puffs. Some craft foam, googly eyes (left over from Valentine's day), and a garland from the dollar store came together so cute!

Potions though stole my heart. Did you know that if you boil red cabbage that the purple water remaining is a fabulous PH indicator? Let me just tell you this...Follow the recipe below and I promise you won't be disappointed. Add the following to about a 1/4 cup boiled cabbage juice. Make sure to add them in order. (Dried dragon eggs=baking soda, troll snot=milk, mushroom juice=lemon juice, and frog pee equals vinegar. )

For dessert, Lu opted to have the kids make Mandrakes with pudding, oreos, caramels, and mint leaves instead of cake.

We made wands, with little magnets at the end, so that they were magnetic! This was really fun for relay races, where the kids had to keep a balloon (with a paper clip attached to the end) from falling and hitting the grass. I wish I'd gotten better pictures of this set up, but we made olivander's shop with the makey makey, similar to what was done here.

I'll be honest, this party was a ton of work (and not just for Lu...for Mom too.) But it ended up being a really fun party, and Lu was super excited.

Totally worth all the hard work...and definitely worth documenting, despite the imperfections!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

XOXO,

Jill

The Greatest Show on Earth!

2019-04-03T18:58:00.001-07:00

Hi friends!

I can't take much credit for the project that I'm going to share with you today! It's actually pretty bittersweet...my kids can put together a blog worthy post all on their own! You all know that I've made my kids tons of puppets in the past. We also made a puppet theater/pretend shop a LONG time ago.

The kids started begging me to make them some more, but I suggested that I thought they could do the project all by themselves. They grumbled at first, but then they totally owned it. They used my old puppet templates as guides, and made a whole bunch circus themed puppets. I think it turned out so cute!!! They used our old shop/theater and put a box behind it for scenery. The kits could control the puppets through a slit in the box on the bottom.

They made acrobats, lion tamers, and more!

They even made a girl that flies out of a cannon! So creative!

The girls had so much fun making these, that they wanted to make sure that I posted about their project on the blog here, and provided the templates so that you can make your own to color in! All you'll need are some skewer and some brads to put the puppets together.

You can download the templates with this link.

I think it's such a fun spring break project, and I hope your kids love it as much as mine did! Have a great week everyone!

XOXO,
Jill

An easy DIY bakery kit for kids or dolls!

2019-02-17T08:48:00.001-08:00

Hi friends~

Happy belated Valentine's day! When my kids were little I often tried to put together some sort of kit for them on Valentine's day...a flower shop for example, or a flower making kit. I thought it would be fun to continue the tradition this year, and I love what I came up with! We make a bakery kit for my kids' dolls! And since they are older now, I let them help too! We put this together over several weekends and the kids really seemed to enjoy making them together.

The basis for the kids are cardboard boxes, which we painted. Then we made lots of embellishments that could be easily switched out and removed! The ribbons have velcro circles on the ends, so that they can be removed and switched out.

What I really like is that each of my kids kind of put their own unique spin on the cakes to match the personalities of their dolls. They turned out so fun!

We made frosting covers to go on the boxes, fake fruit, and even candles!

And the best part is that when they are done playing they can just put all the little accessories inside of the "cakes" for storage!

Would you care to see how some of these accessories came together?

The frosting wasn't hard to make. First, I simply cut a piece that went around the box, plus a little for a seam allowance. I did the same for the base. I sewed up one side of long rectangular piece, only going part of the way down.

Then I pinned the side to the base and sewed around the edges. I turned the "frosting" right side out, and then put it on the cake. I cut ridges around the side to complete the frosting.

The rosettes were pretty easy to make too. I just folded ribbon in half and then did a gathering stitch. I added a bead to the center and a little piece of green felt for a leaf. My kids loved making these, as they could really make them themselves!

Straws were great for "chocolate twists" and birthday candles (with a piece of velcro attached to the bottom so that they would stick to the felt frosting.)

And the fruit cakes? We put those together with a hot glue gun, felt, and lots of little puff balls.

We had so much fun with this! I hope my little tutorial insights help you make your own little bakery!

Have a great week everyone!

XOXO,

Jill

A doll-sized garden and doll quilt

2019-01-14T20:02:00.001-08:00

Hi friends!

There's a new doll at our house, which someone in my family is super excited about. We've had a really fun couple of weeks making things for Ellie's new doll. We've made a cute little garden and a doll quilt!

This project was so fun guys! Ellie helped me sew little fleece tubes which we stuffed and put in a little crate that we found at the craft store. We loved making garden sticks out of Popsicle sticks.

We decoupaged some scrapbook paper to the outside, and I used a razor to cut out the slats.

We used an assortment of fake flower pieces and crafting foam to make the vegetables and flowers to put in the garden.

Ellie also wanted to make a new blanket for her doll, so we made a little quilt for her. We recycled an old vintage pillowcase to be the rim of the blanket, and I love that it is a little lamb! It seems like the perfect little quilt doll for a doll whose story is that she lives on a farm! It seemed like such a great way to recycle such a pretty piece of embroidery.

I hope you liked this little sneak peak into the crafting going on at our house!

Have you started crafting in 2019? I'd love to hear what projects are on your "to do" list this year! Have a great week everyone!

XOXO,

Jill

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

2018-12-25T14:26:00.002-08:00

Dear friends,

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas, from my family to yours. I didn't make anything for the kids this year...except for this photo book from highlights from this blog! It was so fun to read through it with the girls!!

So many great memories, many of which they don't even remember.

Thank you all for letting me share our creative journey with you! It's been such a great journey, and I love having all these happy memories to look back upon.

Merry Christmas friends!

XOXO,

Jill

How do you remember your trips?

2018-12-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

Hi friends!

About a month ago we took a family vacation to Virginia/Washington DC/Maryland and it was super special. When I used to live on the east coast Fall was my absolute favorite time, so I absolutely loved being able to take in all of the beautiful fall color! The kids got to really "live" history in Monticello, Jamestown and Williamsburg. Williamsburg was especially fun because we rented period costumes for the girls and the girls just totally LOVED it. At $25/kid it wasn't exactly cheap, but the kids became so much more interested in learning about the history of the time, so I totally think it was worth it!

Eventually we headed north to DC where we checked out the monuments, museums, and the treasury! My kids loved the treasury tour--especially when one of the workers pretended to make a paper airplane out of one of the money sheets! DC provided such a fabulous background for lots of history lessons for the kids. They asked the best questions as we covered everything from the ideals our country was founded on, the challenges our democracy has faced, to civil rights and equality. Good, good, stuff.

On this trip-just like when we went to Europe earlier this year--we only took carry on luggage. It requires a bit of planning to make traveling light possible (like making sure we had access to washers/dryers!!) The only downside to traveling light is that it doesn't always leave room for souvenirs. Even not considering the space issue, I've found myself buying fewer things on vacations lately and I'm not quite sure why.

A few weeks ago though I started feeling a bit nostalgic of our trip, and when the kids and I were painting ornaments on clear glass globes, I decided to paint one from our trip. I really love this idea because all of these "trip ornaments" all kind have the same "look" even though they are different. My kids loved it because it was just such a nice bit of quality time spent painting with them.

In fact, we had so much fun that when Lu had to go to a ceramic painting shop to earn a girl scout badge, I decided to paint a ceramic trinket tray based off of our European trip earlier this year! I love it! It was kind of inspired by an old anthropologie product that isn't available for sale anymore.

I'm totally digging my new way to remember trips with handmade things. Making these things, alongside my girls, feels like remembering great memories and forming new ones at the exact same time! So special!

So that brings me to ask, how do you remember your vacations? Do you have a crafty way to document your favorite trips, or do you pick up an ornament or other memento everywhere you go? I'd love to hear!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. I have to say that life feels so busy these days, but I'm trying to step back and remember that my kids won't be young forever, and the Christmas excitement won't always be there.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

XOXO,

Jill

Final sale! Pattern Shop Closing Soon....

2018-11-18T12:54:00.002-08:00

Hi friends!

I have some news to share...I'm going to be closing my pattern shop on Etsy and Craftsy on 12/31/2018, so if you've been eyeing a pattern but haven't wanted to make the leap....now's the time! There are so many fun ones! Like these little fairies...including the most important fairy of all--the tooth fairy!

and one of my best sellers, this lovely little puppy pattern:

Up until 12/31 you can get 25% all patterns in my shop with the code FINALSALE2018.

I've decided that I want to simplify life a bit in 2019. With the kids busy schedules and a new job for me, I just decided that it was time to take managing my pattern shop off of my plate. I hope you all understand! I'll still be checking in every once and a while on the blog here :-) I'm so thankful of your support over the last several years!

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

XOXO,

Jill

1950's party fun!

2018-10-22T11:35:00.001-07:00

Hi friends!

I know it has been a while since I last posted (which is probably going to be more and more the norm these days) but I wanted to jump on and share some of the details from Ellie's 1950's themed birthday bash.

Do you remember when I made Ellie tons of puppies, and we turned them into pull toys and made carriers for them? It's still one of my absolute favorite projects. We revisited a bit of puppy madness recently for Ellie's birthday party, but this time the carriers were paper ones and the dogs were from the dollar store. It would have been awesome to make carriers for all the puppies, but alas there just wasn't time.

Let me step back a bit. Ellie decided that she wanted to have a 1950's themed party. Originally the idea was to also have an "adopt a poodle" station where the kids could make carriers, but Ellie didn't like any of the stuffed poodles that I found her, so we opted for some regular puppies instead. Still super cute!

We made little bones out of clay, and gave each dog a collar (the collar tutorial can be found here--I just added a little necklace charm for the center.) The kids all got to decorate little carriers for their puppies.

We did make some poodle cupcakes, based off an example that I found on pinterest. Mine didn't turn out as cute....but Ellie was pleased so all was good!

We had the kids decorate hula hoops, and I found these cars for plates...So fun!

It was a fun party...just lots of running around and playing in the backyard.

I hope you all are having a great week!

Jill

DIY Modern Succulent outdoor coffee table

2018-09-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!

I know it's been a while since I've written anything on the blog...but that's because there is so much going on! We've been working on our backyard, and we just did a project which I absolutely LOVE! I can't wait to share it with you today.

We made a modern succulent coffee table for our new outdoor seating area! I'm totally in love with how it turned out.

The table is essentially a box with a plexi glass top, sitting on top of a base made out of redwood 2x2's. I'm going to show you how the whole thing came together! It was such a simple project, and I'm totally looking forward to propagating some more succulents to put inside my new table!

Let's talk about how this table came together.

Here's what you'll need:

4 redwood fence slats(approximately 5.75 inches by 6 ft. We got the nicer redwood heartwood pieces and I really went through them to find the highest quality pieces.)
2 8ft redwood 2x2's for the base.
1 1/4 inch plexiglass top measured to fit the top of your finished table.

Essentially you start out by building a box. We cut the 4 redwood fence posts to 48 inches long. From the remaining fence post end, we cut a 11.25 inch piece for the end, which we then cut in half the long way so that the air would be able to flow through the table. We sanded the wood so that it would be smoother and easier to paint.

Next, we glued the box pieces together, and used a clamp to hold the pieces together. Then we used a nail gun to attach the pieces.
Here is what the whole top piece looked like assembled.

Then it was time to build the base. The base was made from 4 12 inch pieces, 4 18 inch pieces, and 4 4.5 inch pieces. We used 2.5 inch outdoor wood screws to attach the pieces together.

We painted the base and the top with exterior paint and let them dry. We turned the top over and traced where we wanted the base to go, then we flipped it over and made sure that the base was aligned where we wanted. We used exterior wood screws to screw the top into the base in several places. Then we drilled holes along the base so that the planter could drain properly. I don't see drainage as being a huge deal since these will be succulents and they won't need massive amounts of water.

After that we just had to fill up our table with succulents. We measured the top of the table and I bought a piece of plexiglass to go on top. We are lucky enough to have a TAP plastics store nearby, who was able to cut a piece of plexiglass to perfectly fit the top of our table. (It looks like you can also order custom sized pieces online if you don't have a store near you). They also gave us some little plastic stickers to attach to the planter top so that the plexiglass wouldn't shift.

Not counting the paint (which we already had) the whole patio table came out to be a little under $100, with about half of the price being the plexiglass top. And while I could have probably found a cheaper table solution, I absolutely love how special this one is!

I hope you all are having a great week!

XOXO,

Jill

Free Space Inspired Wall Art!

2018-08-22T18:47:00.003-07:00

Hi friends!

School has started here, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around that reality, but in the meantime I wanted to share with you some fun art that we did over the summer using space images in the public domain.

Did you know that there are tons of images that you can print out! It's so cool! Here are a couple of examples, like this one or this one. There are a whole bunch of them though, so I highly encourage you to go browsing! (This post is in no way endorsed by NASA or any other space entity).

We had fun adding text and illustrations to the images and making them into wall art for Lu's room. Perfect for my space loving girl!

I've uploaded them here for you if you'd like to print out my "modified" versions.

I hope you all enjoy the printables! And for those just starting school, I hope that it is fabulous start for you all!

XOXO,

Jill

Make your own Space Patches (with a free printable!)

2018-08-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!

I can't believe summer is almost over! I've got one more craft project for you before the school year starts, and I think that this one would be totally awesome to do to personalize your child's backpack, or even a jacket!

For Lu's birthday I made her and her doll matching jackets. And while I used NASA patches that I purchased from Amazon for the girl-sized jacket, I made my own patches for the doll sized version.

The truth is that these patches would be really great though for anything--doll sized or otherwise! In the free printable that I provide, you can make patches in two different sizes. The small size is the size that I used for the doll-sized jacket.

I provide the printable for these that I put together on my computer based off of the ones American Girl has for the Luciana doll...but you can really make them with any picture or log that you'd like...and I'm going to show you how!

So let's get started!

Here's what you will need:

Fabric transfer sheets: I used Avery T-shirt Transfers for Inkjet Printers 3271
Template
Fabric to transfer image on. I used white cotton fabric.

If you want to attach your patch to a now cotton fabric (My fabric was a performance fabric which I couldn't iron on) you'll also need fusible interfacing and some wool blend felt (make sure that it can be ironed! Acrylic felt cannot be ironed as it is made of plastic and will melt).

The thing about using transfer paper is that you need your image to be inverted (mirror image). On the template link above you'll see that I've included both inverted and regular patch designs, in case you are using a different product or would like to turn these into stickers!

Step 1: Print out the template on your Transfer paper.

Step 2: Then cut out the patches, and placed them image side down onto my white fabric. (If you want to attach this directly to your shirt, etc. this would be the fabric that you would use in this step. I had to first attach this to a piece of white fabric, and then attach it onto my jacket later because my fabric couldn't be ironed.)

Step 3: Iron the back of the patch, let it cool, and then remove the backing. Do this one at a time until all of your patches are transferred to your fabric.

Step 4: Now, I attached wonder under fusible interfacing to the back of the patches, and then I fused them to a sheet of white wool-blend felt.

Step 5: Cut out your patches and sew them to your jacket, backpack, etc.

I attached my patches by hand because this performance fabric sure was wiggly!

And that's it! I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and free printable!

XOXO,

Jill

PS:
If you like this post you might also be interested in these posts, like how to make a Doll bean bag chair:

or a loft bed!

We've also made these doll cots and the bakery treats and stand.

And we made these galaxy slippers!

Easy DIY Washi Tape Puppets plus More Adventures...

2018-07-24T15:55:00.003-07:00

Hi friends!

I hope you all are having a fabulous summer. We just got back from a vacation, and I wanted to share some of it with you. More specifically, I want to share a fun project that we did while on vacation, that required ZERO!! of my help. It was such a hit, and totally last minute.

But before we get into craft zone, I want to talk a little bit about our trip north up the California coast! We went along highway 1, which is a super scenic route along the California Coast. It is breathtakingly beautiful, and we found the beaches to be isolated and full of wildlife to observe.

We stopped at the Point Arena lighthouse, where we were able to climb up to the top and get a beautiful 360 view of the area. The sun even came out while we were there!

We stayed in Sea Ranch in this lovely house which had an indoor window from the second story bedroom. The kids were totally excited by the house, as it was the perfect place to hold a puppet show!!

Before leaving for Sea Ranch, I realized that I wanted some sort of craft project for the kids to do while we were there. I threw some tongue depressor/Popsicle sticks, markers, and washi tape into my bag, thinking that the kids might be able to make something out of them. The kids' imaginations totally went CRAZY with this project. They spent HOURS making puppets and holding puppet shows out of the cool indoor windows in the house.

I love what they came up with, don't you? There was this adorable lion, mermaids, fairies, and more! I love that they made accessories for the puppets too, like guitars, and purses!

It was such a fun trip for these kiddos....filled with crafts, nature, extended family, and beautiful scenery.

Hope you all are having a wonderful summer, and that this simple summer project excites your kids as much as it did mine! Sometimes the simple projects really are the best ones.

XOXO,

Jill

Free pattern!! Make your own Galaxy Doll Slippers

2018-07-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!

I hope you are having an absolutely fabulous summer. I'm so enjoying the slower pace of things right now...and I loved getting some time to work on this crafting project with Lu the other day. She LOVES her Luciana doll, and was eager to make some slippers to go with the PJ's we made (with the pattern for the old Molly doll!). My grandmother helped me sew the same PJs for my Molly doll when I was a kid, and I have such fond memories of that Sunday afternoon. I'm so grateful when I get the chance to share a similar experience with my kiddos!

But let's talk about these slippers, because we love how they turned out! The silver fabric is a stretchy performance fabric, which makes the fit so much easier! The base of the slipper is just flannel.

Because the fabric is stretchy, it works great for an "elastic" strap for the back of the slipper. Easy peasy.

We used puff paint to paint on the stars. So fun! The pattern is simple, but it definitely requires the help of an adult, as it can be a bit frustrating to sew within the small spaces. But they come together fast, so it is a good quick and easy project!

Alright, let's get started!

What you'll need:

Template
small fabric scraps--use a performance fabric that stretches in both directions for the top of the slipper and the back strap. You'll need to cut two two top pieces per slipper. You'll need two pieces of flannel or fleece for the base. A thicker, heavyweight fabric such as duckcloth would work as well for the base.
Cut out one piece of fleece or quilt stuffing per slipper to give the slipper a little bit more "weight"
basic sewing supplies.

Ok, let's begin!

First fold over each of the back straps, and sew along the top edge with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. It's best if you use a stretch stitch for this, because the fabric is stretchy. (A zig zag stitch will work.)

Use a chopstick or dowel to turn the pieces right side out, and set aside.

Next let's work on the slipper top. Baste each of the straps to one of the slipper top pieces as shown.

Then, place the other side of the slipper top on top of the other slipper top piece, and sew along the top edge. When you are finished it should look like this:
Now it's time to connect the top of the slipper to the slipper bottom.

First, put down the piece of batting. Then put the slipper top. I like to pin the strap down so that it doesn't get caught in my side seam. Next put the other bottom piece on TOP so that the two right sides of the bottom piece are facing each other.

Sew all around, leaving the base open. When you are about half the way around, reach in and pull out your pin. It can be hard to remove if you wait until the end.

Being careful not to cut your seams, trim around the edge of the slipper, so that there is less bulk when you are turning.

Turn the slipper right side out.

Now you need to sew up the heal. Put it on your doll so that you can measure correctly. Fold in each of the raw edges.

Use a blind stitch to close up the opening.

If you'd like to embellish your slippers, just add a little bit of puff paint. Let the slippers dry overnight.

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed making these slippers!

XOXO,

Jill

PS:
If you like this post you might also be interested in these posts, like how to make a Doll bean bag chair:

or a loft bed!

We've also made these doll cots and the bakery treats and stand.

It's a Giveaway!! Plus Dollhouse Remodel Sneak Peaks!

2018-07-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!

I've teamed up with Sew Can She to give away a bundle of my patterns! Click here to enter! I'm giving away my brand new portable dollhouse pattern AND my puppy dog and dog carrier patterns!

And if you'd rather substitute another pattern or equal value, I'm happy to do that too!

I know that things have been kind of quite here lately, but we have several projects in the works, and I can't wait to share them with you! We've also been working on redoing the kids dollhouse a bit. If you remember, when I made it I coated the inside and outside with magnetic paint. I think my kids are finally at the age where they appreciate this feature, and they are excited to be able to decorated the walls at will.

Here's a sneak peak of some of the things that we've been working on... Like this magnetic farmhouse door for the girls dollhouse.

With the magnetic walls, its easy to "slide" the door into the open position.

We've also added a loft and some artwork to the kids' bedroom. So cute!!

I hope you are all having a fabulous summer! I can't wait to be back here soon with a new tutorial!

XOXO,

Jill

The Portable Dollhouse/Fire House Pattern and Miniature How-to's

2018-06-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!

It's been a while since I've done a pattern, and I felt like it was about time for a new one! My family is obsessed with miniatures right now, and I couldn't help but make a dollhouse tote version of the house I made for Ellie a few months ago.

We made two versions, a firehouse and dollhouse version, and both are included in the pattern and which is now available in my shop. The tote itself is about 13.5 inches tall and 7 inches wide when finished. It has a zipper on one side, and is fully lined. It's a relatively straight forward pattern, so it doesn't require a lot of advanced skills. I actually think that Lu is going to make it with me as a sewing project! In this post though I'm going to show you how to make all the little dollhouse goodies that go inside that house--keep reading!!! Lots of tutorials coming your way!

I'm going to show you what I used to make all of these miniatures and how I made them today! (I'll also include a short appendix to the pattern with all of this info, but that part really isn't meant to be a pattern--more of an idea of furniture you could make.) I imagine that there will be lots of dolls used, so I didn't want to make a specifically sized bath tub for example.

What I love about all the things in this dollhouse is that everything can be neatly folded up and placed inside the dollhouse...It's the perfect toy for travel! Today I will show you how to make sleeping bags, a mattress, foot stools, a stove, a bathtub, a lamp, and cardboard portable walls. The small white table pictured was from the center of a pizza box. Don''t you love it when you can recycle things like that?

Who is ready to make some miniature-sized furniture? Ok, let's get started!

First, let's make a sleeping bag!

Begin by measuring 3 rectangles slightly larger than your dolls. You’ll want to allow for at least ¼ inch for seam allowance on all sides. Fold one of your pieces in half (A), and place it on top of one of the other pieces (B). Place the other piece face down on top of the other two pieces (C). Sew as shown in (D), leaving the base open for turning.

Fold under the raw edges of your sleeping bag and use the ladder stitch to sew up the base of your sleeping bag. All finished!

Now, let's make a bathtub:

Take two pieces of white vinyl, and sew around the edges by hand. When you get to the base of the bath tub, incorporate in two silver beads for the base of the tub.

Now let's talk about that stove:

Use a sharpie to draw burners on to a metal tin. Then store miscellaneous doll sized food, pots and pans inside.

Now let's talk about the mattress:

In order to make a mattress and stools, you will need some fabric scraps, some sponges, a glue gun, and some embroidery floss.

Now let's talk about the lamp:

The lamp is made from a small dowel, a toothpaste cap, and 5/8 inch mini candle cup (a wood piece found in the craft wood section at the craft store). It was glued together with a glue gun.

And finally, let's talk about those walls!

For the portable house, I took two pieces of cardboard that would fit in the dollhouse, and 1 slit in each piece, and then widened it a bit. I embellished with scrapbook paper. Together they fit to make four “rooms.”

And I think that's it for the tutorials! I hope you loved this project as much as I do!

Have a great week everyone!

XOXO,

Jill

Summer Rules.....

2018-06-10T12:46:00.002-07:00

Hi friends,

I hope your summer is off to a great start! In our house summer has started off with a new set of summer rules, which I thought might be fun to share here, in case anyone else would like the printable. I saw several of these on Pinterest, and made my own version.

You can download it here!

Sometimes the beginning of summer can be a bit of a difficult transition, so I'm hoping this chart helps a bit!

Be back here soon~

XOXO,

Jill

New things are coming...

2018-06-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!

Summer is here, and I just can't believe it. I love the beginning of summer because there is just so much potential--so many things that we hope to do, and crafts too!

Would you like to see a sneak peak of what we've just started working on?

There is a new pattern in the works, plus lots of tutorials... Our house is infatuated with small things these days, and I think think this might be our theme for the summer. I can't wait to share it with you!!

Be back here soon!

XOXO,

Jill

Teaching Robotics to Daisy Girl Scouts!

2018-05-19T10:29:00.002-07:00

Hi friends!

A few years ago I did a meeting for my Daisy Girl Scouts to introduce them to coding. It was before Girl Scouts came out with their STEM programs, so at the time I pulled the content together from lots of different sources. I decided to revisit my coding meeting with Ellie's Daisy troop last week. We did some things that we did before, and some new things too. I worked within the context of the Robotics curriculum provided by Girl Scouts, with a few tweaks and additions. And I LOVED how it turned out!

In my opinion the new Girl Scout Daisy Robotics curriculum is relatively basic--there isn't much too it. There's some drawing activities and talking prompts that are good, but the activities I supplemented with are much more hands on and interactive.

Today I'm going to share with you 4 activities that we did. The first two are totally low tech. The last two use two robots that are aimed at teaching kids how to code. Our local library has robots available for check out which was awesome! I was able to check out a DASH robot and an Ozobot. Both of these robots are really great tools for making computer science accessible to kids.

The low tech activities that I did were variations of some activity ideas from the book, Hello, Ruby. This whimsical picture book gives kids an intro to computer science basics, but I feel like the real jewel is the great activities at the back. I felt like the story was too long--and covered too many topics--for a single hour lesson, but the activities were great!

We started out the meeting by talking about how robots know what to do, and what a computer program is. We then took turns pretending to be a software engineer and a robot. I gave each pair of kids a bag with a set of instructions that they could put out in a sequence of their choice. They took turns telling each other what to do.

The next activity was a mental exercise to design a robot. I loved the idea from Hello Ruby of making paper dolls to illustrate computer science concepts! I drew up my own templates a couple of years ago when I did the similar lesson for Lu, and I used them again this time. If you'd like the paper doll printable, you can find it here

This time however I also asked the kids to design a Dressing Bot Robot. The ideas was that they had to design a robot that would need to dress them in the morning. The robot would need to know what to dress them in and be capable of possibly storing or handing out clothes. The kids had to think of all kinds of sensors and information that the robot would need as well as what kind of mechanical features the robot would have (wheels, arms, etc.).

The kids thought about how it would need be able to sense the weather, and know their calendar. Ellie made her robot like a armoire, where all the clothes could be inside. The kids designed arms for dressing, a clock to tell the time, and more features that I am probably forgetting right now! They were very creative!

And then they practiced how they would code the robot to know what to put them in, using their paper doll clothes.

After that we broke the girls into two groups and let them play with a DASH robot or an Ozobot…(and then we switched groups.)

For the Dash robot they worked on making their robot do different things using my ipad to control it. The girls played around programing it with the app, making it dance, light up and more. It's pretty much drag and drop, so it's pretty simple to use.

The principle behind the Ozobot is that it will travel along black lines, and then a sequence of colored lines will tell it to turn directions or turn left or right. Ozobot has lots of lesson plan ideas, which make it really easy to teach with.

We used this Ozobot mother's day worksheet, and the other worksheet we used was here, on page 20, in this guide for K-2 students. What's nice about both of these worksheets is that the kids just had to fill in the code part (and not draw the lines themselves, which can be a little tricky for Kindergarteners because they need to be nice and thick for the Ozobot to follow it.)

And that's it for this meeting! I love how it turned out, and I hope my "lesson plan" helps you design your own awesome robotics meeting!

If you're looking for more girl scout activities, here are a few other of my posts below.

Have a great week everyone!

XOXO,
Jill

Courageous and Strong Petal Activities

I did this STEM themed meeting for Girl Scouts:

Here is a free Kaper chart and other free printables for Girl Scouts.

Have a great week everyone!!

XOXO,

DIY Dried Flower and Succulent Crown

2018-05-06T20:01:00.001-07:00

Hi friends!

I never really expected this to be a blog post, but I love how this flower wreath turned out that I couldn't help but share! I made this for my daughter's first communion, but I think it would be lovely for a wedding too.

I can't believe how big Lu's getting! I keep just wanting to slow life down a bit...but I guess it doesn't work that way! This spring has just flown by! Yesterday was a special day for her...

But let's talk about this flower wreath for a bit. Do you love it as much as I do?

It's made of real dried flowers, with a few fake ones added in to give it a bit more color. Then I added in a few real succulents from my garden. I think they are my favorite part!

This flower crown was inspired by the crown that my mom had made for my own first communion. Mine was a little bit different, but I remember thinking it was really special. For my first communion I wore my mom's first communion dress, but that wasn't possible for my tall girl to wear! But at least we continued the tradition of the flower crown.

I thought it might be nice to include some pointers about how to make your own wreath, so I've included some comments below.

First, let's talk about what you'll need.

Dried flowers (see below for more info)*
Floral wire (both gold for the main part of the wreath, and a smaller thin green wire for attaching the bits of dried flowers into the crown).
Floral tape. This is the green tape you see in the picture above. I actually found mine at the dollar store.
A few fake flowers
succulent clippings
wire cutters
a hot glue gun

*Basically I took a ton of flowers from garden (plus some baby's breath which I purchased) and hung them upside down for a few weeks until they were nice and dry. Some flowers dried really well (baby's breath and lavender especially) while others just crumbled right apart. Live and learn!
** I made my wreath a week before we needed it. I left it at room temperature when it was done, and the succulents still looked great when she wore it yesterday. Phew!

I started by making tiny little bouquets with mixed dried flowers and live succulents. I wrapped the base in floral tape, and then used the thin wire to attach it to the gold circle of wire that I measure out for Lu's head.
Then it just became really tedious. I added mini bouquet after mini-bouquet, until I went all around the wreath. I did use a glue gun to cover some of the wire with dried flowers.

But mostly it was just wrapping and more wrapping...

And that's really about all there is to it. Just lots and lots of wrapping around the wreath. At the end I opted to just leave a bit of empty space and then tie on a gold ribbon.

That's it friends! I hope this helps if you find yourself needing to make one of these beauties for a wedding or first communion in the near future.

Have a great week everyone!

XOXO,

Jill

8 Days in Europe...with kids!

2018-04-16T09:39:00.001-07:00

Hi friends!

I mentioned in my last post that we were planning a big trip over spring break, and it was so awesome! We went to Europe! It was the first time that I went back since doing a study abroad in Europe about 15 years ago, and it was the first time for my kids.

In 2016 we made it a goal for our family to travel more, and tried to make an effort to really adjust our priorities to make that possible. How we plan vacations might seem a little odd to most people though.

We've made a list of places that we want to visit, but we don't really have a time frame for when we want to visit them. We have a vacation budget--since we really want to prioritize travel--but we don't have specific places/times to go in mind. I'm always on the look out for cheap flights, because with a family of 4, plane tickets can get really expensive really quickly. Europe was not in the plans for spring break, but when I found really cheap tickets there, we decided to take the jump and plan a last minute trip. (For those looking for cheap flights, google flights is a great resource! We found tickets from San Francisco to Europe which were about the same as a domestic flight to the East Coast...it was cheaper than going to Hawaii!)
I try to book vacations for breaks within the middle of school year, rather than the summer, for two main reasons. One is that plane flights are cheaper, and two is that I really hate traveling in big cities when it's hot and potentially muggy (especially on public transportation!)

This wasn't our first big international trip (In the last two years we've done Argentina and Vancouver Island) so I'm beginning to learn what makes for a good trip when traveling with kids. My kids are currently ages 6 and 8. (Ages 6 and 8 seem like golden years for travel! No strollers, they can read books and watch shows to keep occupied on the plane! So much easier on mom and dad!)

For this trip, we were gone 10 days, which left us with about 8 days to enjoy Europe. We split our time between three big "home" cities: London, Paris, and Amsterdam.

We arrived first in London. It was the afternoon, so after checking into our apartment (we booked apartments in all of the places we visited--it's so much easier to have more space when traveling with kids, and access to a kitchen is both easier and keeps costs down!).

I've learned that my youngest has the hardest time adjusting to new places. In light of that, the Easter bunny gave her a Paddington Bear stuffie to bring with her. She cuddled it the whole time on the plane, and brought it with us everywhere we went on our first afternoon and evening in London. It seemed to work like a charm, and definitely was her security blanket while we were gone!

We spent 4 nights at our London flat. For two whole days we explored London itself, and on one day we took a day long excursion to Bath, Windsor Castle, and Stonehedge.

For our days in London, here are some highlights:

We went to the globe theater. This was top on Lu's wish list because she is currently studying Shakespeare in school.

We climbed to the top of St. Paul's cathedral to see all of London. I'd never done this before, and I can tell you that it's a bit freaky, especially if you are afraid of heights! My 6 year old only made it to the first level (which is still A LOT of steps) but my 8 year old and I made it all the way to the top and it felt like such an accomplishment!

The views were worth it!

In London we also went to Kensington Gardens, Hamleys (a 7 story toy store!!) and placed at Princess Diana's memorial playground. At Kensington Garden the kids got pretend crowns to wear. They loved seeing the Princess Diana fashion exhibit and they loved the Victoria exhibit (where they could play with toys from the era!)

We picked up the little playmobil soldiers at Hamleys. The girls were thrilled! They also loved being able to ride on top of a double decker bus. They were able to get the front seats up top, and the ride was definitely a favorite for them! (On a side note, can I say how easy it is to take bushes now that google directions exist? We'd map the routes on our phones, and it was so easy. Just remember to buy an Oyster card (Kids don't need one--they ride free with a paying adult!).

Our one big day trip from London was to Bath/Stonehdge and Windsor Castle. It was really great to be able to see all three places, but the day felt really rushed to me. I think I'd break it up into two days if I were to do it again. Windsor Castle was much bigger and impressive than I expected. The kids loved the huge dollhouse there! It even has running water! So impressive!

Bath was such a charming city that I think I could have wondered it for a whole afternoon. However, given the time that I had, I'm glad we were able to visit all three places (and that we didn't have to drive--we were jet lagged so it was great to sleep on the bus for a bit!)

The "tour" format was great for the kids though, as there was a good amount of driving "down" time on the bus as we went from place to place. We visited Stonehenge last, and it was nice that it wasn't very busy. Boy does it get windy though!

After our time in London we headed to Paris via train. The first thing we did was head to the Eiffel tower. We waited too long to try to book tickets, so we couldn't go up it, but the kids were happy to not wait in the long line and instead ride the carousal at the base of the tower. After that we went to the Louve to check out the Mona Lisa. We had AMAZING! crepes for dinner and then went up the Montparnasse tower--to see the whole city from above! My kids loved seeing the whole city so small!

We spent our second (and last) day in Paris visiting the Musee Orangerie and Musee d'Orsay. My big advice is if going to museums with kids, teach them about some of the things they are going to see beforehand. My kids were so excited to see some of the art they had studied in our summer art series that we did last summer! We also got some postcards in the gift shop and made it a bit of a scavenger hunt for them to find them.

Ellie's attention span was still only about 30 minutes though. Beyond that, she got very pouty! After the Musee orangerie we rode the ferris wheel outside of the museum, and that cheered her up a bit! It was actually really neat to see the city from up high, and it was a very different perspective than the tower we visited from the night before!

We spent the rest of the afternoon wondering around (and touring) Notre Dame, visiting Sainte Chapelle, and wondering around some neighborhood markets. We made great use of the Museum Pass in Paris. We didn't spend a lot of time in each museum, but it was great to be able to stop in and see some of the highlights. The kids didn't need passes at all--kids under 18 can visit the museums for free!

Our last two days were spent in Amsterdam, which had been on my bucket list for a while! We got there by train, and the city did not disappoint. It was so beautiful! I'm a complete sucker for cities with canals running through them, and throw in some flower markets and flower fields and *swoon!*

I was actually kind of surprised that Amsterdam seemed to be my kids favorite city to visit too. They loved being able to ride on a boat, run around and play at the huge Vondelpark park, and they generally liked that the city was a bit less busy with cars and other traffic noises. (They just had to watch out for the bikes--they will run you over! We luckily avoided any crashes.)

The kids LOVED the wood playground located in the center of Vondelpark. It was really like nothing they had ever seen before. It was a great release for them to just play after all of our museum visits in Paris.

On our last day in Europe we went outside of the city to visit Keukenhof. I've always wanted to see these flower fields of tulips, and while we weren't there at *peak* time, the tulips were still pretty spectacular. Keukenhof has a play structure for the kids as well, so the kids enjoyed playing there for a bit while I walked around and enjoyed the tulips some more.

It's been almost a week since we've gotten back, and I'm still trying to get back into the routine of things. A few people have asked me why I took the kids to Europe so young--and while I do think there are things that they would likely have been able to appreciate some things more as they get older--I also feel that they got a lot out of this trip. We enjoyed seeing these cities through our kids' eyes, and I think we all have really positive memories from this amazing vacation.

Every time I travel far with kids, I'm always struck with a couple of things. One, that traveling seems to always go better than I fear. That's not to say everything goes perfectly--My kids got scolded by a lady in Dutch for not being kind to each other. I had to pick up one extremely pouty child from the floor of the Louve. My kids fought a lot--just like at home. But overall, they did great. They handled long travel travels and visiting foreign cities with grace--even when they didn't understand the local language. They gained perspective on how other people live and eat, and were generally willing to try new things.

I'm not sure where we will head next, but I'm eager to go on more trips. Do you have any suggestions on where we should go next? Have you ever taken your kids on a far-away vacation?

I hope you all had a great spring break everyone!

XOXO,

Jill

A quick and easy travel dollhouse

2018-04-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!

Today I thought I'd hop online and show you a recent little sewing project that I did for the girls (Mainly Ellie). We have a big trip planned, and I always struggle to think about how I'm going to keep the kids busy. Ellie hasn't quite been bitten by the reading bug yet, so she's a bit hard to entertain.

Little toys though keep her occupied for hours! I knew that some of them would inevitably be brought along on our trip, so I thought it might be fun to make a cute little carrying case for them...

There are little sleeping bags for the whole family:

And I even whipped up a little bath tub, too. I wanted to give her things to play with that wouldn't take up too much space!

I used a little tin to make stove and store some of the things inside:

All together here is a full set:

And it all zips up for easy carrying!

I can think of so many fun variations of this--I think they'd make a great pattern too! What do you think?

Have a wonderful week everyone!

XOXO,

Jill