Saturday, November 15, 2014

Pinch my Cheeks ornaments

My husbands family have these cool animals that you pinch their cheeks and a Hershey kiss pops out. His mom showed me how to make them, and since then I've started making more customized ones. They are fairly simple, but do take some time.

Star Trek symbol
 Mario and Avengers
Yoshi
 Toad


Supplies needed: 
-Plastic Canvas
-Yarn (color of choice)
-Large, blunt needle 
-Yarn threader (the cheap metal ones work ok, but I suggest getting one with a plastic handle and thicker metal, or they seem to just break).

Cut out 3 matching squares out of the plastic canvas (they are made with tiny squares, so I usually do 10 squares x 10 squares).

Cut out a workable length of yarn. Thread needle with desired color, only single strand with a small strand hanging out the end to keep from coming out of needle. Remember these will be diamond shape. 

Start in a corner and pull thread through until about 1/2 inch is left. then thread through the next square across at an angle. Continue to thread this way, while wrapping the 1/2 inch inside the stitches on the back. Do the outside edges on 2 sides of 2 of the squares, leave the other square with no edges stitched. Change color as needed if doing a certain design. When you start running out of yarn, push the need through several stitches on the backside and clip off the yarn. Re-thread needle, and push the new strand through several stitches on back and pick up where you left off.

The two pieces with edges done are going to be the top and bottom. The third is for the back. Put the top and back piece together open edges touching. Sew over hand stitch all the way around the two edges. Put the bottom piece together with the back and do the same. This gets a little tricky because you have to bow the canvas to make it work. Then sew a loop on the top and you have a pinch my cheek. Pinch the sides to open the mouth and put a Hershey Kiss inside.

(More detailed photos to come later)

Thankful Turkey


Draw a turkey body on poster board.
Cut out feather shapes out of lots of colors.
Every day have each person write what they are grateful for on the feather.
Glue on turkey.

By thanksgiving you'll have a very full Turkey

Thankful Jar

I was too lazy to draw a turkey and cut out individual feathers this year. So I taped a pic of a turkey on a jar, and every time they are thankful for something they put a pom pom in the jar until it's full. Works well as a reminder to be thankful and really easy to do.


Lion Tail

My sons lion costume didn't come with a tail, so I made one. Here it is:
I used yarn, 6 strands of yellow, I braided it 2 by 2 by 2 about halfway down, tied a knot for the top of the tail, turned it upside down and used the braid for the middle string to make it thick. then I looped a bunch of brown strands together, tied it on the end, and cut the loops to make individual hairs.

Pirate Party

My son wanted a Jake the pirate party. Here are the invitations.
The Cake
We did a treasure map that led to different rooms in the house. Each room had a game.

The games were Alligator bean bag toss, pin the skull on the pirate ship, and the "island" walk (cake walk but stepping on islands). The treasure was hidden in a treasure box with an X on it, and inside were the party favor bags, and my sons birthday presents.

Here is where I got the ideas for the games.
http://www.awesome-kid-birthday-parties.com/pirate-games.html

The party favor bags had gummy sharks, marine animals, eye patches, rolled up coloring pages of Jake to look like a scroll, gold coins (candy/toys), and some light up rings.