Lisbeth and the Littering Ladybugs -- Book Review & Giveaway with Ladybug Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I am working with The Children's Book Review and P.E. Shadrick to bring you this post.

When Hazel was young, I loved telling her stories. Since we started at a Waldorf school, storytelling was very important. Stories could entertain, teach lessons and so much more. Today I am sharing book that has a grandmother telling a story to her granddaughter as she works the tangles out of the granddaughter's hair. The book is Lisbeth and the Littering Ladybugs by P.E. Shadrick and illustrated by Maya Penzlik.

DIY Doll Headbands -- Crafty Weekends Tutorial and Link Party

Hazel fell in love with American Girl's Girl of the Year 2010, Lanie Holland. She of course is retired since she was only available in 2010. However we found her on ebay. I had gotten Hazel Lanie's meet outfit, computer and pet rabbit to use with one of her other dolls, but we couldn't get the doll's hair to curl like Lanie's, so she used some money her grandmother had given her to get her own. The Lanie doll we found on ebay and won was naked, so Hazel could not wait to get her dressed. The dress I had bought did not come with her headband or shoes. I decided to make Lanie a headband since the headbands on ebay were running around $15 plus shipping.

Twists, Braids & Ponytails -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Quarto Knows sent me this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I will admit this is not a total craft this week, but it does have some creativity and with the week I have had, this is the best I  could do. Hazel loves having her dolls hair look nice. However she has not really mastered braids or doing hair yet. I got her (and me) this book to get some ideas and learn new tricks to do. It is Twists, Braids, & Ponytails by Joel Benjamin. 

Summertime Fun Ideas from Oriental Trading

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to the products for your convenience but do not receive anything if you buy from them.

So one of the things that got me going on our Summertime Fun Series is this amazing review for Oriental Trading. We picked out a variety of things to review to bring different summertime activities to you. Hope you will try some of them out.

Finger Knitting Fun and Pom Pom Kits -- Product Reviews

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.

What can you do with a ball of yarn? Lots of things, but here are some fun crafts that you do not need much more than a ball of yarn to make. Both of these crafts were handwork Hazel would have done if she remained in the Waldorf school, but since she is no longer attending there, I got to do them with her. The handwork was one of the things I loved about the Waldorf school. Hazel and I started with two Pompom kits. The first is Make Pompom Animals.

The kit comes with a book, six balls of yarn, two pompom makers in different sizes and some googly eyes and paper clips. I started by making a blue bird similar to the one on the cover.

Fairy Tales that Teach Hygiene: Book Reviews

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.

I have not done one of my Fairy Tales in Different Cultures posts recently and these books are not really from a different culture as much as have a different twist than the traditional fairy tales. They are fun and have important lessons in them. There is actually a series of them called Fairytales Gone Wrong at Quarto Books. Each has an important lesson about hygiene or healthy habits. Since my focus has been on Cinderella and Rapunzel mostly, I asked to review those two. 

Avoiding the Summer Slide with Free Programs

Before I get into today's post, I have to share with you what made me so proud of Hazel yesterday. She had decided she wanted to get her hair cut. She was not sure what she wanted to do, but mentioned the possibility of donating it again. With it long it gets tangled very easily and she hates brushing them out. Well at the hairdresser she decided she did want to donate it and got a cut similar to mine. She was very excited this morning to brush her own hair and put her own barrettes into it.

DIY Hair Ribbons for Pony Tails and Pig Tails

With the warm weather Hazel likes to wear her hair up. With the school uniforms, I wanted to have something nice to put in it that would match the uniforms. Her school colors and uniforms are navy, yellow and white. I bought a package of hair elastics and some ribbons of those colors. Joann Fabrics has the ribbons for fifty cents a spool. I started making what I am calling hair streamers. I bought her ones similar to this to match a dress at Gymboree. They were literally a bunch of ribbons folded over the elastic and sewn into place. I knew I could do this. 

I cut two of each color and folded them in half and sewed them together on my machine. Very easy!! Hazel loves them and has been getting many compliments on them.

For the bows, I took the three colors and wound them several times around my hand. Then I took a piece of one (I chose navy) and wrapped it around the center of the other ribbons and the elastic. I sewed the ends of this ribbon and then I sewed down the center of it so the bow could not pull out on either side.

Again she loves them and has been getting compliments on them!!

Now putting up her hair is easy each morning and I am not searching for matching elastics and if I put ribbons in they are not falling out before we get to school. A perfect and cheap solution!

For more hair ideas check out my ribbon barrettes and other hair things Pinterest Board.

Valentine's Day Garland and other crafts

While Hazel was decorating her valentines some more, I made a very simple garland. I glued some red heart cut-outs that I got at the Dollar Tree (I think) onto heart doilies. I alternated the doily colors pink and white. Then with Hazel's glitter glue I wrote letters on it. To string it I cut two slits in each one with an Exacto knife and strung it on a thin ribbon (which had tape on the end). Very easy and gets us into the holiday spirit a bit more.

Close up of one letter

Hazel was having fun decorating the wood cut-outs today with glitter glue. Yesterday she added glitter glue, stamps and stickers to our paper valentines.

Then remember the needle felting I did at the end of January. I finally did something with a few of them. I bought a head band at Joann Fabrics and sewed on the flower.

I got my model to stay still and let me take a picture, but first I had to wear it and let her take a picture of me with her camera. Luckily she doesn't know I can download her pictures yet. We got her a kids' digital camera for Christmas so she wouldn't play with ours all the time. Most of the pictures she takes are of something like a leg or the sofa because she doesn't quite get the proper way to use it.

This one might be the one to send to family for Valentine's Day.

I also bought some barrettes at Joann Fabrics to make different barrettes for her. So I glued one of the hearts onto one. She has actually been letting me pull her hair back at least for a short bit most days. I used the idea I read on someone's blog of using the non-slip shelf liner inside the barrette to make it not slip out. This is one of the biggest problems we have is nothing will stay in her hair. I will let you know if it works or not. We are waiting for the glue to dry still before we could try it.

Well that is about all we have been up to in crafting besides a bit of painting.  Hope you are having a good day!

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