Archive for Family Fun
November 23, 2009
· Filed under Crafty!, Family Fun, Holidays, Molly · Tagged advent calendar, Christmas crafts for kids, family activities, Kids Crafts
I have seen so many advent calendars lately – I’ll share links to them at the end of this post. But I stumbled across the one above on ikat bag (you may remember she made this amazing princess pavilion and more recently, she made this unbelievably cute little blue playhouse). I decided that the girls and I could have fun making these trees together. Here are ours:
The trees are each made from a quarter of a dinner plat- sized circle, plus a little seam allowance where you glue it together. Here’s the pic from ikat bag of what your trees should look like:
Sometimes I am a little slow to figure things out, so it took a few tries at a template before I got it right. Here are the steps I took:
1). Trace a dinner plate on a piece of paper.
2). Draw a vertical line down the middle of the circle, then draw another line about a quarter inch over for the seam allowance.
3). Cut out the semi-circle by cutting on the line of the seam allowance – see the pencil markings below (the blue paper is just for contrast).
4). Use the semi-circle pattern to trace 11 more semi-circles (12 semi-circles = 24 quadrants/24 trees)
5). Measure and draw a horizontal line across the middle of the semi-circles, to make two quadrants. Each quadrant is a tree. Cut all of your semi-circles into quadrants.
6). And finally, you’ll want to snip a piece of the seam allowance where the top of the cone forms, like in the picture above, so that the tree comes to a nice point.
I hope those directions aren’t too confusing.
I did all of the cutting ahead of time, so that I could let the girls jump right in with the fun part: decorating the trees with stickers, glitter, sequins and stamps. When they were done decorating, I glued each of the trees together.
Instead of making 24 trees, we made 21 trees and then added 3 small presents to the landscape.
I splurged this weekend on some Martha Stewart glitter from Michael’s. In hindsight, I wish we’d used white paper for the trees and made all of them glitter trees, because the colors are awesome. Next year.
I thought about hanging tags from the top of the tree with numbers on them, but I think I’m just going to play this by ear – let them choose a tree or present every night, without having to go in any order.
Now I just have to go out and find some treasures to hide under these trees!
As promised at the start of this post, here are some of my favorite advent calendars I’ve seen lately:
Adorable advent calendar by Pickle (via @zakkalife)
Advent calendar by Jodii
An amazing handmade advent calendar by Gingerbread Snowflakes.
Also, you can see a great advent calendar round up by Design Crush, and another by Oh So Beautiful Paper.
November 20, 2009
· Filed under Family Fun, Holidays, Molly, Projects · Tagged Fugu Fugu Press, giving thanks, hostess gifts, Mahar Drygoods, modern family tree, Paper Source, placemat tutorial, the Small Object
Holy Moly! Where has November gone?! (Or as Buddy the Elf would say, “Son of a Nutcracker! Peanut Brittle! Snow Flickers!”)
Is it really almost Thanksgiving? We’re piling into the car next week and heading west to my sister’s house in Indiana. How many Cracker Barrels do you think we’ll pass on the way? Whatever you guess, add 10 and multiply by 3.
I’ve been keeping track of a few Thanksgiving related projects and family ideas. First, here’s a nice idea from Paper Source – decorate keepsake boxes for each of your guests, then encourage everyone to write some nice things to put in each others’ boxes. Sweet.
That would be a nice gift for anytime, not just Thanksgiving.
Also, I love these notecards by Fugu Fugu Press which you can use to let people know what you’re thankful for. Sarah of The Small Object pointed these out via Twitter. Aren’t they great? I love Fugu Fugu Press. (I love the Small Object too).
Since Thanksgiving and family tend to go hand-in-hand, I spotted this link on the Junior Society blog (by Robert Mahar of Mahar Drygoods) for modern family trees by My Tree & Me. I especially love the “Ripples in a Pond” design.
But this Super Mod Tree is pretty cool, too:
And I would give thanks to anyone who makes me these reverse appliqué Thanksgiving placemats and matching napkins from the Purl Bee. I love them, especially the colors.
I hope you all have a happy weekend, and I hope to see you back here on Monday!
November 16, 2009
· Filed under Crafty!, Family Fun, Kids, Kids Crafts, Molly · Tagged easy kid crafts, family activities, lunch bag crafts, rainy day crafts
A couple of weeks ago, Rosa came home with this sweet little house she made at school (the middle house pictured above), and I promised her I’d feature it here on Charlotte’s Fancy. I’d already lined up the two weeks of holiday gift guides, so she’s been waiting patiently for awhile now.
Rosa, today is the day!
This is a very easy, quick and fun craft that kids can do, with lots of opportunity for fun embellishments, depending on what supplies you have lying around the house. Here’s what you need:
SUPPLIES
- Lunch bags (brown, white or whatever color you’d like)
- A few sheets of newspaper
- Construction paper
- Markers
- Glue
- Stapler
- Optional: tissue paper, scrapbook paper, felt, etc.
Step 1. Cut out the roof and a strip of paper for the chimney.
I took a piece of scrapbook paper, cut it to about 8″ x 12″, folded it in half and cut it like a trapezoid (make sure the fold at the top is the shorter of the two parallel sides). Set aside the roof and chimney for now – you’ll attach those at the end.
Step 2. Decorate your house.
The paper bag is going to stand, so you can draw the door (or a person standing at the door, as I did) and windows right at the bottom of the bag. Draw a 2nd story of windows about half way up the bag. Make sure not to draw windows too high up on the bag, or the roof will cover them up. I used sharpies to draw on the bag.
Step 3. Add a door and shutters and any other decorations.
Rosa’s classes used that corrugated bulletin board decorative border. I didn’t have any of that lying around, so I used felt (glued it on). I used regular construction paper for the door and glued it on. Rosa’s class also used tissue paper to make grass. I didn’t have any green tissue paper, so I used construction paper for that too.
Step 4. Take some pieces of newspaper, crumple them up and stuff them inside the bag, then staple your roof and chimney on (no need to fold over the top of the bag – just staple it shut).
Elena decided she wanted to get in on the action too. Here’s a close up of her house:
Wouldn’t you love to live in this sweet little village? I bet all the little people who live here are happy and nice to each other.
October 30, 2009
· Filed under Family Fun, Holidays, Molly · Tagged Halloween costumes, Pippi Longstocking, punk rocker costume, Rubik's cube, Super Mario costume, sushi costume, Valley Girl costume
I rustled up some old Halloween photos of me (of which there aren’t too many), Rolando, and the girls.
Kindergarten. Scary witch mask!
First grade. That’s me in the polka dot clown costume facing the camera. Do you see me? My town mixed a bunch of candy into a pile of hay in front of the five and dime store, and then had all the kids scramble for it. Who thought THAT was a good idea?
Rolando and his sister Diana. Scariest clown ever. The stuff of nightmares.
Fourth grade. You have no idea how proud I was of this costume, which I made all by myself. To clarify, the color in this photo stinks, because the two sides you see are orange and pink (and not both pink).
Nice bangs!
Punk rock love in California.
Valley Girl love in Indiana. (That’s me on the far left. My sister spray painted polka dots into my hair.)
Elena as Snow White’s evil stepmother. Rosa as a butterfly.
Waiting for it to get dark.
Elena as Pippi Longstocking.
From last year, Elena as a sushi roll and Rosa as Super Mario.
This is the first year I won’t be making any part of their costumes. Their grandmother bought them flamenco dresses in Spain, which they wanted to wear for Halloween. Pictures to follow soon.
I hope everyone has a fantastic, warm and sunny Halloween filled with only the best candy (i.e. no Good n Plenty!)
***
Starting to think about the holidays?
Karin and I have been collecting our favorite gift ideas. Starting on Monday, we’re bumping our regularly scheduled blog posts for two weeks’ worth of handmade holiday gift and stocking stuffer guides and as well as a holiday card round-up. Stay tuned! Lots of fun and pretty things for you to see!
October 19, 2009
· Filed under Crafty!, Family Fun, Good Books, Kids, Kids Crafts, Molly · Tagged DIY projects for kids, doll clothes, simple craft ideas
I bought this D.I.Y. KIDS book by Ellen and Julia Lupton for Elena awhile back, and she occasionally opens it up and does a little project. Yesterday, when I got home from the grocery store, she and her friend Haley surprised me with a wardrobe of clothes for their stuffed animals, made from fabric scraps. I promised them I would feature the clothes on Charlotte’s Fancy today.
Everyone’s favorite is this ridiculously fashionable Panda with her scarf, vest and skirt. Elena made these from jersey fabric. What the girls found is that jersey was the easiest and best to work with because it stretches to fit different stuffed animals.
Don’t you wish you looked this good?
The top is the skirt – cut a round piece of fabric, then a hole in the middle
The middle is the vest. Start with a rectangle-shaped piece of fabric, snip the two upper corners, then cut two holes for the arms.
The bottom is the very versatile scarf, with two holes for the ears.
Because all arctic hares need ponchos and rain hats, right?
The poncho is a square-shaped piece of fabric with a hole in the middle.
The hat is a circle-shaped piece of fabric with two holes for the ears.
Miss Foxy thang and her double ruffle skirt. The girls created this clever ruffle look by cutting out two skirts (one a little bigger than the other) and putting them both on. Miss Foxy is also sporting a vest and tiny hat.
You may know her as Linny from the Wonder Pets, but now you’ll know her as an up and coming runway model. Purple couture scarf, hat, vest and skirt by Haley.
“Fashion Animals” as the girls called them.
You can find a very simple tutorial for a circle skirt on the D.I.Y. Kids website as well as a handful of other fun projects from the book. If you have a kid who likes to make things, this is an excellent little book.
October 12, 2009
· Filed under Crafty!, Family Fun, Holidays, Kids Crafts, Molly · Tagged easy crafts for kids, Halloween crafts, lift-the-flap craft
This lift-the-flap haunted house craft is something I used to do all the time when I was a kid. I don’t know if I learned at school, or I made up on my own, but it’s a fun and easy craft.
You’ll need:
- Construction paper
- Glue
- Scissors
- X-acto knife, or small sharp scissors
- Markers/crayons/colored pencils
- Stickers (optional)
Step 1:
Draw freehand, or use a template to cut out the outline of a haunted house. I printed this one out, then drew it freehand on a piece of black construction paper
Step 2:
Take a white or silver colored pencil and draw some windows in the house
Step 3:
For some windows, use an x-acto knife or small sharp scissors and cut out three sides (for the lift-the-flap windows). If you want to have open windows too, just cut out the whole outline. Once you have cut out the windows/doors, flip the house over (so you don’t see your pencil lines) and glue the house onto another sheet of construction paper. Orange makes it spookier, but white makes it easier to draw the crazy characters who will appear behind the flaps.
Step 4:
Draw your scary creatures behind the windows and doors and decorate the rest of the page too. We used a combination of drawing and stickers. I resisted getting out the glitter.
This is a fun book for learning how to draw goofy monsters:
Here’s Rosa making her haunted house:
Creak creak creak creak! Go away!
Of course, this same idea can be adapted for other designs: a gingerbread house, a cute country cottage, an apartment building in the big city. I have in mind the idea to make a little woodland animal/fairy cottage scene for Elena.
Elena, meanwhile, was not so much into spooky Halloween scenes. She was too busy making portraits of her Little People (of the vintage Fisher Price variety). How cute is this?
One of the easiest ways to get crafty with the kids is to take a big roll of white paper (I get mine at the teacher supply store), tape it to the top of the table and let them draw whatever they want. They love it.
When the trees and sun are happy, the whole world is happy.
October 9, 2009
· Filed under Crafty!, D.I.Y., Family Fun, Karin, Kids Crafts · Tagged crafts, rainy day crafts
Karin’s got a fun rainy day project/recipe and links for us on this Family Friday:
Chasing Cheerios is a blog about homeschooling from a Montessori approach. My daughter loves Silly Putty, so this craft idea I found there is something that we definitely plan to try. Seems especially perfect for some rainy day this winter when we are climbing the walls wondering what to do with ourselves.
The ingredients are pretty simple:
- two parts multi-purpose white glue
- one part liquid starch
- food coloring
You can also check out the Silly Putty tutorial on YouTube.
October 2, 2009
· Filed under Birthdays & Parties, Family Fun, Freebies, Kids, Molly · Tagged family games, fun party games, print your own bingo cards
No, not the song. (Is it stuck in your head now? Sorry.) I’m talking about the game of Bingo. If you ever do a family game night, Bingo can be really fun, especially if you hand out small prizes to the winners.
You can print out Martha Stewart’s bingo cards (pictured above) if you don’t own a bingo game. She suggests making your own ping pong balls with numbers, but you really don’t have to go that far (plus, you’ll go bankrupt buying that many ping pong balls). You can just call out numbers. You should know that this particular set of bingo cards is really designed for small kids, so it goes quickly, and the bingos come fast and furious.
Alternately, you can easily find bingo sets at places like Target or any store that sells a decent selection of board games.
Prizes? Well, that’s the fun part. How about Matchbox cars or small pieces of candy or some spare change for their piggybanks? Crayons, little notebooks, or stickers? How about things you might already need, like a pair of new socks, or barrettes or a new toothbrush (so you’re not adding clutter to the house)? You can always raid the $1 bins at the store, too.
We’ve done this for special occasions, like on New Year’s Eve, and also for Elena’s birthday party last year.
I love how Elena (in the purple sweater) is eyeing other people’s cards. Oh the suspense of being just a space or two away from BINGO!
(Incidentally, we played until every one of the kids won. We had a big bowl of prizes for them to choose from).
Tomorrow Karin and I are going to Crafty Bastards in DC. Can’t wait for that! I’ll be sure to do a Crafty Bastard round-up next week. Stay tuned!
September 25, 2009
· Filed under Family Fun, Gift Ideas, Kids, Molly, Pretty Things, Travel · Tagged Djeco, Haba, puzzles, Ravensburger
The Swiss do a lot of things right: mountains, lakes, chocolate, watches, and beautiful, handmade wooden puzzles.
I think this is the prettiest puzzle I have ever seen. I had to take a picture.
I loved these too.
You don’t want to know how much they cost.
Really, you don’t.
Puzzles are always a great gift, and a nice family activity. Consider Haba, Djeco and (the very affordable) Ravensburger puzzles. We even have some fun glow-in-the-dark Ravensburger fairy puzzles.
You might be lucky enough to have a local toy store where you can find these, but if not, try one of these great online shops: Moolka, Oompa and Maukilo.
Have a good weekend, everyone – see you back here on Monday.
September 18, 2009
· Filed under Crafty!, Family Fun, Kids, Molly, Projects · Tagged felt crafts, Martha Stewart, owl crafts, Paper Source
I couldn’t possibly do an Etsy round-up of owls, because there are just too many things to choose from. (Well, I guess I could be sweet-talked into it…) But I got a Paper Source catalog in the mail this week, and aside from exclaiming “Hot Damn! I almost forgot I live near one of these now!” these owl place card kits jumped out at me as extra super cute.
You can see how easy they would be to recreate (as place cards or as decorations), without the kit; just get some cardstock and some scalloped scissors and glue. I like the idea of using patterned paper for the wings and maybe using brads to make them movable.
I also stumbled across this picture of “Your Best Handmade Creations” on Martha Stewart:
It had no pattern/instructions, but I HAD to make one for myself. This is seriously one of the cutest crafts I’ve ever seen.
Srsly.
(Did I sound like a giddy teenage girl just then? Good.)
I used a 4″ styrofoam ball, about 4 pieces of felt (couldn’t find any of the awesome hot pink felt like in the picture above, but the next one I make is going to be the yellow/pink combo), two 20mm googly eyes, and a glue gun. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out:
The key is to start at the bottom, gluing the feathers around the bottom first, all the way to the top. As you can see, I cut out a little pink circle for the bottom. Why? I dunno. I was just making it up as I went along, and it seemed like a good idea for helping the owl stand upright.
Once you glue the feathers (almost to the top), glue on the nose, then the ears (triangle shaped – folded in half), then the eyes, then the top piece.
Yes, I’m pretty pleased with this. I want to make more of them with the girls, but I have to pace myself – it requires a lot of cutting. And, I used a glue gun, but it’s possible that regular Elmer’s glue would work. In all, it took about an hour and a half to make.
Stay tuned: I have another (short) post today. (You’ll see.)
