Catalog Paper Beads -- Recycling Catalogs -- Tween & Teen Craft for Earth Day

 

This week I started thinking about paper beads with something different. I had an Oriental Catalog sitting around and decided to try making beads from it. I was thinking this would be a fun Earth Day craft for tweens and teens. I tried different shapes and methods which I will share with you here. Most of the paper beads I have made have been recycling paper, but most of them were with special paper that I had. I wanted to find something that people would have in their homes to recycle. I came up with catalogs. I started with the Oriental Trading catalog that came in the mail recently. I still have pages of it even with all the beads I made.

Even More Paper Bead Fun -- Crafty Sundays

 

Now for the third week I have been experimenting with paper beads. This week I experimented with using brown paper as in paper bags and brown paper wrap. It began when I was at the Cape house and my sister had covered a counter with brown paper to protect it while contractors were there doing work. I was in charge of removing it. I went to throw it away and realized it might work for beads that I could paint. To start though let me share some finished products from beads I made last week. Here is the bracelet I made from the map beads. 

Experimenting with Making Paper Beads -- Crafty Sunday

 

This weekend begins my spring break. I finally get to rest for a couple of weeks. We really don't have much planned as Hazel still has dance classes and her college classes this week. I just know I need down time desperately. As I have been trying to give myself time to craft more since it relaxes me, I have been doing a bit of paper quilling. Paper beads have a similar technique as paper quilling. I made paper beads a few years ago out of wrapping paper. 

Picture Books that Teach Lessons

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I am going to share three picture books that teach different lessons. Some are more serious than others. The books touch on things like the waste and accumulation of plastic and more, depression and anxiety and words and their meanings when you add another word. We will start with a perfect one for Christmas. It is Toy Mountain by Stef Gemmill and Katharine Hall. It is recommended for ages 3 to 6.

Books that will help Celebrate Earth Day from National Geographic Kids

 

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Earth Day is in two weeks! There are so many ways you can celebrate with kids. One of my favorite though is sharing books. The range of books can be about the reason for Earth Day, Earth, wildlife, recycling, reusing, etc. This year I have gathered some great ones including some craft books which I will share on Crafty Sundays in the next couple of weeks. I was trying to decide how to share the various books I have gathered and decided to go with publishers. Today's books are both from National Geographic Kids. We will start with one of the most interesting books ever, Beneath the Waves: Celebrating the Ocean Through Pictures, Poems and Stories by Stephanie Warren Drimmer. 

Kids' Craft Books -- a Crafty Weekends Review and 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!

Most schools are out for the summer now around here (or will be this week). I know people will be looking for things to do with kids especially on those rainy days. Today I am going to share two craft books for kids. Our first book is by one of my favorite bloggers: Rachel Nipper over at I Heart Crafty Things. The book is After-School Kids' Crafts. 

Books to Add STEM to Your Summer

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books 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.


It seems everywhere you look people are talking about STEM. The products at Lakeshore Learning seem to be labeled STEM or STEAM. This is the latest educational craze and it is about time. As a former math teacher I know the importance of math and science for our kids. I also know that it is important for them to be taught at a young age so they can really enjoy learning them. And for the most part kids love learning science!! It is one of the few places that hands-on learning is not made up it just is. The experiments and discoveries are natural and normal. They lead to real life math problems as well. However this is often where the elementary teachers have a shortfall. Since our elementary teachers teach all the subjects: reading, math, science, social studies, phonics, handwriting and grammar; they often focus on their favorites or what they feel are easiest for them to teach. It makes sense. Unfortunately it is often not math or science and sometimes the teacher's own insecurities of these subjects can be passed on (as well as the parents') by how it is taught and approached. It seems that the publishers and educational toy makers have finally realized they needed to bring products to parents and teachers to make teaching these subjects easier. After all in this high tech world science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are the careers of the future. So today I am going to share with you some great resources to bring a little STEM into your house this summer as well as a few of the lessons we did for our science units as I homeschooled Hazel the last six weeks of second grade.

Books for Earth Day

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Saturday is Earth Day and to get ready for it, we have been having fun with many different books that go along with the Earth Day theme. I started sharing some on butterflies with you last night. Today we have many more on different themes. We will start with 23 Ways to be an Eco Hero by Isabel Thomas. 

Japanese Paper Toys Kit & Mini Easter Baskets -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Have you entered to win the 18 amazing books about non-traditional princesses yet?

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me copies of these books free of charge for this 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.

Easter is only one week away!! I can hardly believe it. We have had a busy week and then Hazel got sick again, so she has been resting all weekend. This week is full of visitors and getting ready for them. I love this time of year. How about you? To get ready I thought of a fun little craft made from recycled fruit bowl containers. Hazel has been into the Dole fruit cups and we have been recycling many of the little plastic cups. I got the idea to add a handle and make them into Easter baskets. 

Audio Books for Crafters & DIY Teacher Gifts -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Have you entered my current giveaway for a custom canvas print?

Disclosure: I was given audio versions of these books free of charge for this 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.

What do you do when you craft? Do you craft in silence? Or are you like me and watch television (or at least listen to television) while you craft? With the summer reruns season starting I am finding television pretty boring. Penguin Random House Audio Publishing came to my rescue. They have a page dedicated to crafters with recommendations as well as free knitting patterns!! On this page there are links to articles, free coloring pages and patterns as well as some book suggestions. There is even a place to say how long you want to craft for book recommendations. All of the books have sample clips so you can get a taste for the story and the telling of it. I was lucky enough to be sent four audio books to check out. I will admit since I have not been crafting very much lately that I have not listened to them yet.

Outgrown Favorite Sweater Dress to Doll Dress -- Crafty Weekends Link Party

* Disclosure: The links in this post are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.

We had another busy week and weekend!! I mean between Steve's birthday and Valentine's Day the weekend should be one big party, but we had some cleaning and getting ready for our guest. My 13-year-old nephew is arriving tonight (after several delays) for a week long vacation!! Hazel is so excited!! It was hard to calm her down today. After I write this post, I am off to the airport to pick him up. I hope he took all the adults seriously when we told him he had to wear warm clothes to come here this year. Boston is experiencing the coldest day in almost 60 years and I can feel the cold even with the heat on in our house. Anyway, one of our chores this weekend was going through Hazel's clothes and pulling the ones she has outgrown. We had a few piles: pass down to friend, donate to Salvation Army, keep as memories and make crafts or doll clothes. Some of her favorite clothes she does not want to part with and so I make some into doll clothes for her 18-inch dolls. She had this fun sweater dress from Gymboree last year. 

Hands-on Bible Craft Book -- Crafty Weekends Book Review & Link Party

 Disclosure: Kregel Publications sent me a copy of this book free of charge for this 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 have been enjoying a very busy week with our Christmas celebrations. Have you? However we have found some time for crafting! Today we are sharing Hands-on Bible Craft Book by Christina Goodings.

Doll Clothes from Outgrown Clothes

I usually pass Hazel's outgrown clothes to a friend who has a three-year-old girl. However there were a few I kept this time. One was a t-shirt that the tag was cut out and whoever cut it out cut the shirt as well. The second was her favorite dress (well actually I kept three favorite dresses, but I only did something with one so far) and the third is a favorite skirt. I started with the t-shirt. It had a pom pom type trim on the neck (this is what got cut) and a band at the waist. I cut the band off and then cut the neck decoration off and saved it for later. Next I got out my pattern for a BFC doll t-shirt from Beach Baby Doll Boutique. I won ten free patterns from Sylvia at Beach Baby Doll Boutique awhile ago and one of the patterns I picked was the Easiest Tee to fit BFC Ink. I have to say it really is the easiest pattern!! After completing the t-shirt I added a piece of the neck trim to the neck of the doll shirt.

Autumn Lights for Darker Days

Autumn has definitely begun even if the temperatures in New England have been in the 70s this week. How do I know autumn is here even with unusually warm weather--the shorter number of daylight hours. It is getting dark much earlier. This time of year always makes me think winter is coming too fast. It is also reminds me of our days at the Waldorf school and the holiday Martinmas. Martinmas is not until November, but I feel like I could use it now. In past years we were part of the lantern march at the Waldorf school. It is where the children carry lanterns they make at school with a lite candle and march around together singing.

DIY Sesame Street Birthday Party

Have you entered my current giveaway?

My good friend's youngest son turned one last week. For his first birthday party she decided to do a Sesame Street themed party. She bought some decorations, but did much of it herself with some help from me and a few friends and her mom. She had the party at our church. She and her husband have large families, so there are a lot of people. She made some adorable tissue paper characters. They sat on the cake table. She got the idea here.

For decorations she had some Sesame Street tablecloths and bought a couple of decoration kits. Then she made favor bags. She had Cookie Monster, Elmo, Bert and Oscar. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of the Cookie Monster ones. She got the idea here.

Her mother and she made Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes. They were so cute!!

Then Hazel and I made a bowling game for the party. We were inspired by Sharing the Wealth: Sesame Street Birthday Party. They are very easy to make. We used empty plastic water bottles, construction paper and some printouts of the heads as well as Bert and Ernie's shirts. The heads are copyrighted, so I cannot share them, but I just googled the characters until I found what I wanted. I made them about 3.5 inches wide.

We wrapped the bottle in the paper and then glued on the heads. By the end of the party they were destroyed, but this is because several of the young boys were very hard on them and wanted to just kick and step on the bottles. We used the ball from one of Hazel's toy bowling sets.

She also bought a pin the nose on Elmo game. This would be pretty easy to make yourself. The one nice thing of the bought one is the noses were stickers.

She wanted two crafts for the kids whose ages really varied (one to preteen). The first was to decorate a hat with foam stickers.

Hazel wore her purple hat the entire time. She loved it! The second craft I found for her at Katherine Marie Photography. We decided to use paper cups instead of plastic for the ease of glue sticking.

These were the samples of Cookie Monster, Abby and Elmo that Hazel and I made. We only had pom poms and eyes. The two crafts got combined by the end and many of the older kids made character hats and used the foam on the cups. They had fun.

So that was the fun first birthday party we went to this weekend!! So many great DIY ideas!! We loved it!!

DIY Doll Panties from Onesies And Inserting Elastic Tutorial

A few weeks ago I showed you how we made doll t-shirts from newborn onesies. Well one  of the things that really bothers me is dolls with no panties and naked dolls. (I hated the stage where we would find naked dolls all over the house. I'm so glad she outgrew that one.) I wanted to buy some panties for Hazel's dolls but was shocked at the prices. I hadn't gotten around to finding a good pattern to make any. Then I saw the bottoms of the newborn onsies that I had used for t-shirts and thought those could be panties. They are pretty easy to make and work as panties. They are not perfect, but since I already had the onesies they are free. So if you have already cut the onesies for a t-shirt you take the bottom and cut the snaps off. I just cut the cuff part off. Then you sew a seam there with right sides together. Next finish the waist seam with a zigzag or rolling seam and fold it down twice so you can fit 1/4-inch elastic through. Sew at the bottom leaving an opening for the elastic.

Next measure the elastic to the dolls waist (American Girl dolls are 10 1/2 inches) and it does not have to be perfect as long as it is not too big. Attach a safety pin to one end and insert the pin through the hole you left in the casing.

Move the safety pin around the casing pulling the elastic through, but make sure you leave a tail of elastic at the opening or you will have to start over. Once all the way around you will have both ends sticking out the opening.

Sew the two ends together to form a loop. Then stick the ends into the casing.

Then stitch the casing closed in the spot that was opened. Turn right side out and you have a pair of doll panties!

And they match one of the doll's t-shirts for perfect underwear combination or pajamas!

I made some for each doll. On the plain white pair I added a little lace to dress them up.

Now I hopefully won't find naked dolls. They can at least have their panties on!

For more doll ideas check out:

• Easy Spa Wrap from Washcloth
• DIY Doll Sandals
• DIY Wooden Doll Table
• Doll Ice Cream Sundae Party
• DIY No-Sew Doll Purse
• Cheap Doll Items to Buy or Make
• DIY Doll Pencil 
• Doll Mermaid Tail and Tutorial with Free Pattern
• Leather Doll Clothes
• Easy Doll Clothes to Sew New or From Baby Clothes
• Baby Doll Clothes and Changing Area
• Making a Waldorf Doll
• My Doll Clothes and Craft Pinterest Board

Pinned it and Did it! Doll Clothes

We have been very into dolls lately and I have been looking at patterns on-line. Now for 18-inch dolls,  Hazel has two What a Doll dolls from Kmart, a BFC doll and a You & Me Doll from Toys 'R Us. The BFC doll is super skinny and an older girl with breasts and jointed everywhere. She came in a bathing suit. The problem being that her straps would get caught in her shoulder joints and then her chest would be completely exposed. I had to make her a dress. I found a simple pattern on Wren-Feathers: Summer Sew-Along Week 7.  She has many great doll patterns on her blog!! Check it out!

I also saw lots of ideas on using baby clothes to make doll clothes.  Since we donated most of Hazel's baby clothes except a few favorite things, we had to purchase some new onsies and a newborn outfit. The first thing we tried was adjusting old baby dresses like the ones I saw at Doll It Up and A Doll for All Seasons. However I started by adjusting one of our favorites of Hazel's baby dresses.  This dress was a 6-9 month size. It had been a gift for Hazel's baptism. I just adjusted the side seams to make it fit the dolls. It is a bit long on them because it was so big, but I didn't want to adjust the length.

Here is Hazel in it as well. I also adjusted the headband so the dolls could wear it.

While shopping we found the cutest newborn outfit/dress. We thought it looked the right size for two of Hazel's baby dolls. 

It fits pretty well except the onsie part underneath is a bit too long, but since you cannot see it with dress, I didn't bother adjusting it or cutting it off.

The final idea we had was to use newborn onsies to make tee shirts like I saw at Nest Full of Eggs. I have not finished the edges yet, but Hazel wanted to use them right away. To make these you simply cut the bottom part of the onesie off. Then finish the edge. 

We also found a pair of 3 month onsies with flamingos on them. I cut the simpler one of them and made a doll night gown. The other one has tulle ruffles it, so I think I am going to try to make it into a dress.

Tomorrow I will share my birthday party at the American Girl Doll Store. Yes, we did it for Hazel, but since my birthday is coming up my mother-in-law went all out for the celebration. 

For more doll ideas check out:

• DIY Doll Sandals
• Doll Mermaid Tail (Tutorial Coming Soon)
• Leather Doll Clothes
• Baby Doll Clothes and Changing Area
• Making a Waldorf Doll
• My Doll Clothes and Craft Pinterest Board

Sock Animals

For Hazel's half birthday she received a sock animal kit. It included one sock, two buttons, a piece of batting and a copy of Socktastic!  The other day she decided she wanted to make some sock animals. We opened up the kit and looked through the book.

Homemade Pressed Flower Vase/Pencil Holder Gift for Teacher or Mom

Since we are in the middle of Teacher Appreciation Week and Mother's Day is this Sunday in the United States, I thought I would share with you a simple craft Hazel made for her teachers. To make these pressed flower vases (or pencil holders) you need to press flowers. I have a simple DIY flower press tutorial here. For some of the flowers we did not wait for them to dry out and they actually were a bit easier to handle on this project. We picked some of the spring flowers in our yard and pressed them. Then we used almond butter jars that were completely washed out. The only other things you need are Mod Podge glue and ribbon and craft glue (though you could use the Mod Podge) for the ribbon.

Craft It Up Around the World book review

Today I have the pleasure of review a wonderful book called Craft It Up

Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong.  Craft it Up Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong is published by CICO Books at £9.99 and is available from www.rylandpeters.com. This book was sent to me by CICO Books to review here, and I have to say I am so pleased to do so. The book contains 35 craft projects from different places throughout the world. The crafts are meant for children to do, and if they are older than Hazel, they will not need much help from an adult. The authors are currently based in Sydney, Australia, but between the two of them they have lived in many parts of the world and are trying to inspire children to look at the world around them and learn more about other places. I have to say it is the perfect book to go along with our multicultural adventures between our Fairy Tales in Different Cultures, Virtual Flat Stanley and Around the World in 12 Dishes.

One of the things I really like about this book is several of the crafts use recycled materials. The first craft I want to share is this wonderful map bunting. You could focus your circles to be spots you have lived, visited or want to visit, or you can do what we did and just take any place to be included. Hazel enjoyed helping me sew these circles together into the bunting. As we did this I thought it would be neat for a birthday party with a world travel theme. Really this book would be perfect for it. Now to convince Hazel of this idea.

To make this bunting I used one of Steve's outdated Atlas books. I had planned on going to AAA for a free world map, but didn't make it there, so I asked Steve to see what he had. I figured it was even better to use a book he didn't need or want anymore. I did not have a big enough circle punch, so I traced a glass and cut the circle myself. It really took no time at all to make a pretty long bunting. Now we are going to hang it on Hazel's tree in her room.

After that we made some of the crafts to go with the countries we have already "visited" this year. We made the Easy Peasy Felt Tulips for the Netherlands. Hazel is using them as the centerpiece on her play kitchen table. Great craft for springtime.

We made the Saving for a Snowy Day for Finland. He is made from a recycled smoothie container. We will be saving him for the winter. This is a great craft for the winter.

For Spain we made Click Clack Button Castanets. Hazel hasn't tried them since the glue was drying, but I did. She will love them, and she got to pick out the scrapbook paper we used. I made them a bit smaller than the instructions called for, but I thought this would help Hazel use them. This would be a great craft for any Spanish themed lesson or party.

For France I made the "Ooh La La" Pretty Parisian Embroidery. We will hang it in Hazel's room. She probably could have helped with some of the sewing, but I made it while she was in bed. She did however help me cut the fabric for the project. Again, wouldn't this be a perfect decoration for a world travel themed party.

The final craft idea I will share is for Egypt (this month's destination for Around the World in 12 Dishes) and it is Howard's Treasure Hunt Bottle. It is a recycled jar filled with some Egyptian objects and sand. I added on it a print out of the Egyptian flag and map. We used objects from Safari Ltd. Miniature Replica Toobs. Some we had and we picked up the Ancient Egypt one the other day at Michaels with our 40% off coupon.

We also included a bird amulet and a cat statue.

So Craft It Up Around the World is a great book full of ideas for kids who are exploring the world. The book includes a picture of the country's flag and shape of the country as well as some interesting facts about the countries. There are a variety of crafts calling on different skills, so they will appeal to both boys and girls of different ages. Again Craft it Up Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong is published by CICO Books at £9.99 and is available from www.rylandpeters.com. You can look for more great crafts from this book as we explore the world through all of our fun adventures as well!!