Thursday, September 29, 2016

Butterick B5625 Baby Aprons

We've been making many many sews this week. These two aprons turned out pretty great.
They're gifts for Lily who turns TWO this week!!!
Hard to believe. Time sure does fly.

This pattern is great for using up left overs from other projects. This one is made from left over Grandpa Jimmy shirt fabric. Maybe they can wear them at the same time and be all matchy!!! I used button plackets to close the sides of this one instead of the patterned tie.


Here's a great floral one. The fact that these aprons are two layers thick is great! They'll keep Lily tidy no matter what she decides to get into. My girls both used to wear aprons like this with just tights and a onesie underneath. Kind of like a mini housedress.


Here's the pattern. I can't wait to make the other outfits for next summer.
They're all adorable!


We' made some more bows for Lily too. Here she is modeling her latest one while she gets her nails done for her birthday party at Nammys. 
Can't believe she's two already....


Saturday, September 17, 2016

Baby Blob Necklace

Here is another great baby craft with STAEDTLER Fimo Kids clay.
These are going to make fantastic gifts!

This is how the mixed colour discs that lily made the other day turned out. In case you missed it, we just let her mix some Fimo kids colours together and we helped her roll them out into a sheet. We used mini circle cutters to cut out the shapes and then we pushed them all back together in an arch shape,
After the pieces were baked, we drilled holes in each end to hang the piece.



We varnished the front of the baked clay and after it dried added a chain, clasp and bead.


How fantastic are these!?!
They look like they came from a fancy designer shop!
Get on this folks!
Those mini humans at your house could be rakin' in the big fancy designer bucks too.
Or at the very least, building heaps of self confidence by making these really pretty gifts for their posse.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Thumbprint Heart Pendants

We made these really cute necklaces from the thumbprint hearts that Lily made with us the other day.

I LOVE the way these turned out!
They were way too easy to make.

You'll need:

one block of STAEDTLER Fimo Kids in any colour you'd like.
(we used the sparkly pink one!)
a small heart mold (optional)
baby powder as a mold release.
a few jewelry findings, jump rings, lobster claws, metal beads and bails, head pins
double sided 1/4 inch satin ribbon
a few 1/4 inch beads to dangle from the necklace backs
thread to match and a needle
jewelry glue



We kneaded the clay and pushed bits into the heart mold. We dusted the mold with the baby powder first to be sure the clay would pop out easily. 
If you don't have a mold you could just cut out little heart shapes with a craft knife from a sheet of clay. 
We helped Lily push her finger or thumb gently into each heart. We used a piece of wire to poke a hole into the top of each heart. Then we baked the hearts on a parchment paper lined baking tray in a preheated 230 degree oven for 20 minutes.


To assemble the pieces we glued in an eye pin to the holes we made in each heart, 
attached a bail with a jump ring, 
threaded an appropriate length of ribbon through the bail, 
added a metal bead to each end of the ribbon, 
folded each end of the ribbon through a jump ring and sewed the ends closed, 
added a bead of glue and pulled the metal bead up to the jump ring, 
connected a lobster claw to one end with a jump ring,
added a chain of five or six jump rings to the other end,
finished the piece off with a bead on a head pin.



They look pretty from the back too!

These will make great Christmas pressies from Lily!
Perfect way to carry on the tradition of home made gifts,
She sure is proud of these!


Saturday, September 10, 2016

Lily Makes, with STAEDTER Fimo Kids

Lily had a Grandma and Nammy playdate today!


Lily sat on THREE cookbooks so she could reach the table to craft things up.


Lily mixed the clay colours and rolled them into a sheet. (We might have helped a little bit)


She really enjoys mixing colours. She had this deep look of concentration on her face the whole time she was working. (Ignore the baby mess in the background. It was a fantastic day!)


She made some thumbprint hearts. I pushed clay into a tiny heart mold and then helped Lily gently push her thumb onto each one.


After Lily rolled out the clay, Nammy and I used small circle cutters to cut out cool colour combinations. Then we pushed a few different sized circles together in a gentle arch. These will be bib style necklaces after they're varnished.


I think these are my favorite pieces. I'll drill holes for the jump-rings and hang them from chains for necklaces or glue earring blanks onto the back for button earrings. A big thank you to STAEDTLER for making this amazing STAEDTLER Fimo Kids clay. It's definitely Lily approved!