Hanging with My Gnomies for Valentine's Day -- Paper & Felt Gnome Tutorials with Geometry Lesson

 

Have you noticed how gnomes seem to be so popular these days? They seem to be the in thing for the past couple of years, and they have moved into different seasons. It used to be gnomes were for Christmas and maybe the fall and of course the garden. Now they seem to jump into every holiday! I was thinking about gnomes for Valentine's Day. And I was thinking about how paper gnomes would lend to geometry. Then I was thinking back to our Waldorf School days and remembered a felt gnome tutorial. I went and created different kinds of gnomes for you! The first one I made is the one on the right.

Hoops Hooray! -- a Crafty Sundays Review

Disclosure: Leisure Arts sent me a copy of this book in return for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

Hoop art is extremely popular these days. It is so easy and fun to do too. I don't know if you ever caught any of the ones I featured in Crafty Weekends in the past. There have definitely been some creative and beautiful ideas shared! Today I am going to share a book with tutorials to make your own hoop art. It is Hoops Hooray! by Ashley Millhouse.

Magical Forest Fairy Crafts Through the Seasons -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was given this ebook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Are you getting ready for the holidays? We are and are loving it. Today I am sharing a fun book for kid crafters or for adults to make crafts for or with kids. This book reminds me of our Waldorf days perhaps because they always had their first Forest Fairy book on sale at the holiday fair at the Waldorf School. Afterall fairies are part of the magic of Waldorf. The book is Magical Forest Fairy Crafts Through the Seasons by Lenka Vodicka-Paredes and Asia Currie. 

Kids' Felt Cuties -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Leisure Arts sent me a copy of this book in return for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

We enjoyed a few days visiting the very western part of our state. We finally took Hazel to the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum. We promised her a couple of years ago we would take her. Then we saw a few natural wonders and relaxed at the pool. I didn't have a lot of time for crafting, but want to share with you a fun book to make kids' felt toys. It is Kids' Felt Cuties by Kim Layton. 

Felt for the Home

Disclosure: Leisure Arts sent me a copy of this book in return for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

We had a busy week back from our vacation and we are celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week a week early so my focus has been at school and not crafting. Ugh!! However I want to share thie fun book with you. It is Felt for the Home by Kimberly Layton. 

Exploring Pakistan -- Global Learning for Kids

This month we have been exploring Pakistan as part of Global Learning for Kids. I have to have a proud mommy moment and tell you that our exploration of all these countries helped Hazel tie for third in her school Geography Bee and it was first through six grade!! I was so proud of her! Now onto our exploration of Pakistan. 

Pakistan By TUBS [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Horse Play! -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Be sure to check out my on-line Thirty-One Review & Party!! Get all your summer organizing essentials!! It ends this week!!

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Storey Publishing. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase from them.

Do you know a child that loves horses? Then you will love today's book or should I say she will. The book is Horse Play! by Deanna F. Cook and Katie Craig. 

Sew Dolled Up -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Quarto Books USA. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

So ages ago I began making one of the adorable dolls in today's book, Sew Dolled Up by Boutique Sha. Hazel wanted me to make her the brown haired Country Style doll named Irina first and then wanted some of the others as well. I had the doll's body and head and had sewn together the legs and just needed to put them on the doll and then do the arms (which are cut out as well). However she got put away for a bit and now all I can find are the legs and arms. So I do not have any pictures for you of her. I am so sorry!! I cannot wait to find the rest of her and finish her though.

Easy Valentine Tic-Tac-Toe Game Craft

I have been seeing these felt tic-tac-toe games for Valentine's Day everywhere. Some are for sale and others are crafts made by kids or parents. I wanted to give it a try. I thought about sewing it all and making the lines out of stitches, but I wanted it to be simple enough for a child to make so I decided on gluing on ribbons.

Groundhog Masks inspired by the Wild Kratts with free pattern

Hazel's favorite television show is The Wild Kratts. It is on PBS and features Chris and Martin Kratt in real life who go into cartoon to explore different animals lives. In cartoons they have all sorts of great technology including creature power suits that allow them to change into the animals. Of course it is not on enough for Hazel so we watch it On Demand often. Since she was home all last week we have been watching the four or so shows that are On Demand over and over. One of the episodes is an Episode from Season 2 called Groundhog Wake Up. (You can see the full episode here for $1.99.) I am sure it is On Demand since Groundhog Day is fast approaching. On the show they make a map on their Creature Pods (I think that is what they are called) after scanning a real groundhog's burrow. Hazel decided to use her play tent as her burrow with the tunnel as one of the entrance tunnels. Watching her play groundhog gave me an idea.

"Groundhog, eating" by D. Gordon E. Robertson - Own work.
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Big Red Kangaroo Book Review

Have you entered my current giveaway for a wooden watch?

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

 We are so excited to share this fun book with you today. Big Red Kangaroo by Claire Saxby is a wonderful book about red kangaroos. It was released last week. In similar fashion to Grandma Elephant's In Charge (which I reviewed last month), Big Red Kangaroo follows a dominant male red kangaroo with his mob but also gives facts about red kangaroos in side notes. The dominant male kangaroo is responsible for the safety and livelihood of its mob which is made up of females and joeys (baby kangaroos). Young male adult kangaroos will challenge the dominant male for the mob. The dominant male will have to fight off or scare off the challengers. He also has to help find the safe places for the mob to eat and rest during the hot sunny days. It is so interesting to learn about the harsh climates these animals live in. 

Just Us Girls Book Review--Mother Daughter Crafts

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Quarry Books. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Today I get to share with you a wonderful book called Just Us Girls: 48 Creative Art and Craft Projects for Mothers and Daughters to do Together by Cindy Ann Ganaden. This book has some fun projects for any mother and daughter team to try. It promotes bonding time which is always important. Hazel loves that it is called Just Us Girls. She thinks of it as a secret time to do fun things. As usual I let Hazel go through and pick some crafts to try. She limited herself this time or maybe I limited her by not giving her as many papers to mark pages. 

Book Review & Craft: The Woollyhoodwinks vs. the Dark Patch

Disclosure: I was sent this book digitally to review free of charge from Immedium. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Today I get to share with you another fun book from Immedium. The book inspired me to be crafty and as a result Hazel and I did some hand sewing together. The book is The WoollyHoodwinks vs.The Dark Patch by Jeff Root, Scott Runcorn, Phil Dumesnil and Asa Sanchez. The woolylhoodwinks are five homemade characters that live in the North Black Forest in a pretty carefree way. Then one morning they awaken to a strange noise in their forest and they go off to investigate it. They find a strange black patch on the ground and wonder what it is. As they investigate the patch grows and some of the woollyhoodwinks and their dear forest get stitched into the black patch until the one who is afraid of the dark finally saves the day. 

The story uses such imagination, and the pictures are fun. Hazel and I really enjoyed reading it. The characters are similar to common animals, but not quite and are just basic enough for a child to love. 

To go with the book, we decided to make our own woollyhoodwinks or should I say feltyhoodwinks since we did not use wool. We used the pattern for finger puppets in Kata Golda's Hand-Stitched Felt. They are relatively simple. The body shape is a rectangle that is stitched in the back and then on top. You then add ears. The original pattern comes with mouse ears (outer and inner). 

We glued Hazel's inner ears to the outer ears so she would not have to sew as much. Then I quickly stitched them into one side of the rectangle. We also drew the faces on for simplicity. Sorry the lighting was not great to get the face details on hers. We left the tails off since the woollyhoodwinks do not have tails.

For mine I tried to make it a bit more like the woollyhoodwinks by using a different color for the body from the head. I also tried to make the longer ears and put them to the sides and I added feet. Since these are finger puppets, I did not make them so they could be stuffed. Mine required a bit more sewing to make the different colors in the body, but I'm happy with how it came out. Hazel wants to make the rest of the woollyhoodwinks too. We will see if we get to it.

So we loved The Woollyhoodwinks vs. The Dark Patch and I loved that it inspired us to sew and craft. The story itself requires some imagination and I was asking Hazel if different parts were really possible in real life. A perfect book to grow a child's imagination and inspire more! The hardcover book is available at the Immedium website for $15.95. It is also available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Sewing Lesson: Felt Heart

Hazel received a gift card (well actually several) for her birthday. With one of them she bought a children's sewing machine. She has really wanted a sewing machine since I sew so much.Her little sewing machine does a chain stitch and if you are not careful you can pull all the stitches out when you remove the fabric from the machine, but she loves it!

She has been practicing on scraps of fabric I have given her, but I wanted to find some simple project where she could actually make something. I found one on Pinterest. The website it comes from is in an Asian language, but the pictures were enough for me to figure it out. To make some simple felt hearts you need a piece of felt, a sewing machine and some scissors. 

1. Taking a piece of felt, fold it in half the long way (if you want you can cut it in half the long way--I found I liked just folding it). 
2. Stitch close the fold.
3. Unfold the felt and fold it over your stitches (so the stitches are inside the fold). 
4. Stitch close the cut edge.
5. Cut your felt into "strips". Each strip is a heart.
6. Now you can hand sew them to be a wreath or a garland. The site I got this from used wool felted balls in between hearts for the garland. You could also use other large beads.

Now I need to hand sew ours to make a garland. It is such a fun and easy sewing project and it got Hazel using her machine (though the felt was a bit thick for her machine) for something useful. I secured the ends on the ones she sewed, so we would not lose all the stitches. 

For some more Valentine's Day Ideas check out:

• For the Love of Geometry: Geometric Love Poems
• Strawberry Heart Muffins
• Felt Heart Gift--Hand Sewn
• Lavender Heart Sewing Lesson (Hand Sewing)
• Preschool Made Simple Valentines
• Valentine Tea Party
• Valentine Swap & Lots of Valentine Crafts
• My Valentine's Day Pinterest Board

Sharing Saturday 13-42

Ok, I have been a bad hostess the last few weeks. Once again I have not made it to visit many. I'm so sorry. I have to admit my life seems crazy from now until the new year. Hopefully I'll find time again soon. I am so behind on emails and social media as well. We also dealt with Hazel having a cold. She was sick enough to stay home and want mommy, but well enough to need to be entertained, so I didn't have the time I usually do the past few days. This is also why Flamingo Friday did not happen this week. Between Halloween and a sick child, I was lucky to check the computer. Anyway, I hope you had a chance to check out the great posts shared last week. They look amazing!! There was a large tie for the most clicked, so we will just feature a few that caught my eye.

1) From Doting on Deirdre: Wise Old Owl Crafting

2) From There's Just One Mommy: Preschooler Owl Craft

3) From What We Do All Day: 25 Math Activities for After School

4) From April's Homemaking: 52 Weeks of Fairy Tales #49--Lichka

5) From Juggling with Kids: The Secret to Cutting Felt

6) From Trillium Montessori: Parts of a Turkey (Free on Teachers Paying Teachers)

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

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From Your Hostess:
This week we shared a Baby Moses craft and books we have been reading, an Islamic Snow White, craft book review to make felt animals, and our Halloween.

Now for This Week's Party  
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Book Review: Super-Cute Felt Animals

Today is the last day to enter my current giveaway. Have you entered yet?

Today I get the pleasure of reviewing a wonderful book to make felt animals. I am truly honored to get to review this book. The book, Super-Cute Felt Animals by Laura Howard is her latest book. However I fell in love with her designs from her first book, Super-Cute Felt. I was really excited when I stumbled upon Laura Howard's blog, Bugs and Fishes by Lupin, and it was announcing the newest book. I couldn't wait to see it. Laura has also been posting complementary felt projects to go with her newest book on her blog. 

Super-Cute Felt Animals features 35 projects and are divided into six chapters: In the Woods, On Safari, Under the Sea, On the Farm, In the Garden and At Home. The animals are three-dimensional, but a flat three-dimensional. They are perfect for making into ornaments, jewelry or to add dimension to a felt board. Laura also jazzes up the animals with sequins and beads as well as some stitches. 

I got into making felt things, especially animals, when Hazel was going to the Waldorf School. Now that she is not going there, I confess to switching to the cheaper felt, but I am still enjoying having small hand sewing projects to do. I have completed two of the animals in this book and am working on my third. Here are my projects.

From the In the Woods Chapter, I made this adorable deer. The deer has white seed beads for its spots and black seed beads for its eyes. I think I will sew a ribbon on it so it can be a Christmas ornament. Her book provides full patterns in the back to trace or photocopy (if you are lazy like me) as well as very clear directions on how to make each animal. She also provides help with cutting small pieces of felt and for each type of stitch.

From the Under the Sea Chapter, I made this flashy jellyfish. Hazel could not wait for it to be done. As soon as she saw it, she added it to her felt beach playmat. Again, the pattern and instructions were easy to use and follow. 

From the On the Farm Chapter, I am making this sheep. It is not quite done, but it is coming together very easily. I am making this one in secret since I plan to use it for one of Hazel's Advent calendar gifts. I also plan to make some pigeons, robins and parakeets from the book for her Advent calendar gifts. I'm hoping to make the birds from Tomie dePaola's The Birds of Bethlehem. I bought her a copy of the book as the first gift. Plus I want to make some felt nativity ornaments for our tree or hers and I figured the sheep would be perfect for this. 

So if you are looking for some easy but fun animals to make in felt, check out Laura Howard's Super-Cute Felt Animals. The book is perfect for homemade holiday gifts as well as for the beginning little sewers. The title describes her animals perfectly. You will also find wonderful tutorials at her blog!

Baby Moses Books and Craft

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Last week in Sunday School, Hazel learned about Baby Moses. After our fun with Noah's Ark, she asked to hear more about Baby Moses and about Moses. There are not as many picture books on Baby Moses or Moses for that matter as there is for Noah's Ark, but we found some at the library.

We are making our way through the books. We started with the ones that are just about Baby Moses. The Wee Sing book has a Baby Moses song in it. 

Hazel's Baby Moses Craft

They made a Baby Moses paper craft in their Sunday School class, but I wanted to find a fun one for us to do. I consulted my Baby Moses Pinterest Board for ideas. I found this cute one over at The Art of Being Mama: B is for Bears, Blueberries and Baby Moses. I had some walnuts around, so I cracked them for their shells. Then I found the small peg dolls I bought ages ago when I ordered a variety pack from Amazon and we went from there. Here are the supplies you need to make our Baby Moses craft and you need glue. I forgot to put it in the picture. Sorry!

 The first thing we did was to draw a face (I added some hair as well) on the doll and then wrap it with a scrap of fabric. We glued the fabric onto it and glued it into the walnut shell.

 Then I cut a circular shape from blue felt and some reeds from green felt. We glued the walnut shell to the blue felt and the reeds around it.

My Baby Moses Craft

 Here is a view from the side. I am thinking of adding a string or ribbon to put on Hazel's seasonal tree in her room.

I know her Sunday School class is going to continue with the Moses stories, so we will probably be doing some more as well soon! Plus we have more Noah's Ark crafts and books to do.