Craft Ideas

Hello, I am Sharon, a good friend of rays of bliss, I love doing crafts and I am all about do it yourself fun projects. I came across this totally cute Santa ornament and could not wait to share it with my friends!! So here is how you make it (DIY) . 🙂

Supplies needed

• Cotton batting
• Tan fabric
• Acrylic paint (red, light pink, black, white, and tan)
• 2 inch paint brush (got 2 for $1 at Wal-Mart)
• Scissors
• Glue gun
• Small paint brush for making eyes and rosy cheeks, and paint brush for painting handle.
• 1/2 in thick ribbon for little bow and hanging ornament

Another good/cute option for hanging ornament is twine

How to make

1. Start out by painting the paint brush handle red and allowing time for it to dry, then cut a strip of tan fabric (enough to cover the metal part of the brush overlapping the bristle slightly) secure with a couple dabs of hot glue all around the edge.
2. Take long and wide enough strip of the cotton batting to around the top part of Santa’s face for the trim of his red “hat”, use few little dabs of hot glue all the way around.
3. Cut 6 little strips from the tan fabric about 3-4inches long or just long enough to go to the bottom of the bristles.
4. Glue the strips down on the bottom of Santa’s soon to be face three on each side.
5. Use your smaller paint brush and use the light pink to make the little rosy cheeks, then take black paint to make little round eyes, adding the white dots with the end tip of the paint brush.
6. You make the little nose by rolling up a small piece of the tan fabric and gluing it down and painting it tan for a more finished look, or leave it the way it is.
7. The extra little bow is optional but I think it really adds a cute little touch. Use about 6 inches of ribbon to make this little bow, cut the ends at an angel and heat seal the ends with a lighter so they don’t fray.
8. Finally, tie some ribbon or twine through the hole of the paint brush handle and you have an adorable ornament for your tree or to give as a sweet handmade gift.

 

This is a fun project for the entire family; you can even paint names or the year on the handle as a cute keepsake!

This year my 6 year old and 3 year old decided they wanted to be Mario Brothers. So obviously that means I get to dress my baby boy as Toad! Unfortunately, they do not sell an infant size Toad costume!  I had to get creative and crafty for this one and make my own DIY Toad Costume and Hat! This DIY will work for a baby, kid or even an adult!

I am still learning to sew with a sewing machine so my husbands grandmother helped me with this project. All references to sewing was all her! But, I am getting weekly lessons so soon I will be a sewing machine master!

What You Will Need for Toad Costume

First I purchased white pants for my son. You will probably have to go into the girl section for some reason they do not sell boy white pants. I actually got these from a resell store for $2 in the girl section!  I already had a tan/beige colored onesie. I purchased the royal blue vest on Ebay from a store that sells vest separately for $12. I also already had some yellow fabric for sewing around edge of vest, but you can purchase a small amount of yellow fabric for under $1.

You will have to sew or use Iron-On Adhesive to put yellow around edge of blue vest.

The hat was the hardest part but was not too difficult.

How to Make Toad Hat

Supplies:

1/2 yard of white flannel fabric

1/4 yard of red flannel fabric

winter hat or beanie that fits your child

batting

Iron-On Adhesive

iron

scissors

needle and thread

sewing machine (optional)

Directions:

Cut a large white circle. My son is 6 months so my circle was 18 inches wide. You will need to leave a lot of room for batting. Bigger hats may need 1 yard of white fabric to cut larger circle.

Cut 4 ovals out of red fabric.

Cut 1 small circle for top of hat.

Use Iron-On Adhesive to attach ovals and circles to white fabric. (I went ahead and also used sewing machine to sew dots on but iron-on adhesive will do the job)

Cut batting down to fit inside hat.

Sew around the outer part of white fabric and pull thread to pull hat together.

Put winter hat or beanie inside of hat.

Sew the winter hat into Toad hat.

*Optional instead of using a winter hat you could sew in an elastic band.

Here’s a picture of my 3 year old as Luigi and my baby boy in his Toad costume. I couldn’t get “Mario” to cooperate! Those pictures will have to wait until Halloween!

 

This post comes courtesy of my good friend Sharon. She is a super crafty lady on the cheap! She made this play oven for my niece!

This play kitchen was made out of extra furniture laying around. Super cheap and way easy for anyone to make! Spent total $15 to make this.

You can also get some “junk” stuff people leave on the curb or from thrift store. She is working on a big oven now with a dresser she picked up form the curb!

Basically just sand it down and then paint whatever paint color you want.

You can buy cheap test paints people return at home dept or lowes for cheap. She got this one at home dept for 50 cents!

Then add fabric on the bottom to cover the area. You can get the fabric at hobby lobby or walmart for cheap. They always put the returned fabric on sale, great deal!

Optional,  add a wood piece on back for that extra look.

Next, add hard ware. She got hers from home dept for $1.

Last paint circles on the top for the stove top

She added a picture frame from the dollar tree and painted it to match the fabric for a little color.

Super Cute!

Hope this inspires you to do some DIY crafts on the cheap!