Category: Craftiness

General craft ideas, including sewing projects, kid-friendly ideas and VBS inspiration.

From T-Shirt to Self-Tying Paint Smock 2.0

Posted on June 19, 2015June 19, 2015 by Mama

paintsmock Since we are in the throes of Vacation Bible School prep, I decided to pull out one of my favorite VBS posts from my first days of blogging and repost it here today. I think it’s just awfully clever (yes, I say so myself) and has proven very useful. This post was first published on August 6, 2013.

Okay, so it’s not often that I have a completely original idea, so here’s one for the books. . . or the blog, or however the saying must go in today’s electronic age. It’s not like it’s an earth shattering discovery or anything, but it sure did make last week’s VBS painting projects much less messy.

I picked up several extra large t-shirts from my Mom’s church for a buck each and planned to use them as paint smocks, but I didn’t think the children would appreciate us pulling them on and off their heads each day so I started thinking about an easy way to make them into backwards vests that somehow stayed on their little bodies. I wanted them to have ties in the back, but I just didn’t have the time or gumption to do a sewing project involving that many shirts.

Suddenly the thought occurred to me that perhaps there was a way to cut the shirts themselves so that they would be equipped with built-in ties, and that’s when this idea was born (now if I’m the last VBS craft girl on the planet to ever think of this, please tell me now so that I’ll stop being so darn pleased with myself).

Materials:

good pair of scissors (I keep a couple of pair just for material)
t-shirt

Directions:

Lay the t-shit flat on a hard surface with the back facing up.
Cut straight up the entire back of the shirt from hem to neckband.
Flop the shirt over to the front and cut a slit just through the center of the neckband.
Then cut around the neck band toward the back of the shirt on both sides, stopping about an inch and a half from cutting off the entire neck band on each side.
These little flapping pieces of neckband will now be your ties.

Just have your child(ren) put on the shirt with the open slit at the back and use your two pieces of neckband to tie a loose knot at the top. That’s just how easy it is to make a mess-saving painting smock.

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Rainy Day Caterpillar Craft

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Mama

It rained here today. . . for the umpteenth day straight. But thankfully it was also MOMS Club® craft day at my house, which is always a good way to spend a few hours of the day (especially when I don’t have to leave home). Today’s project was this cute little pompon caterpillar that was also a former VBS project, so rounding up the supplies was a breeze.

Here’s what you need:

5 medium pompons
green craft foam sheet
printable leaf pattern
glue
small google eyes
flower stamen or light-gauge wire
clothes pin
hole punch
scissors

How to make your cute caterpillar:

Cut out a leaf from the green craft foam using the printable leaf pattern. If you want to add bite marks, use the hole punch to punch three holes in the side of the leaf.
Adhere all five of the pompons onto your leaf using glue.
Fold a flower stamen, or a short piece of wire, in half and glue it on top of the first pompon, and glue on two google eyes for the face.
After all the pieces are dry, glue a clothes pin on the underside of the leaf so that you can clip this cute little caterpillar on any number of places.

Just in Time for St. Patty’s Day Wreath

Posted on March 20, 2015February 19, 2016 by Mama

Spring Break is winding down here at the Quarter-Acre Wood and this week has been filled with lots of goings-on that I can’t wait to share with all of you. I’m way behind on my latest events and accomplishments, because my sister, great niece and one of my niece’s friends arrived Sunday to do Spring Break Kansas City style and we have been going ever since.

So first, let me back up to St. Patrick’s Day, yes I know it came and went. . . three days ago, but I so want to show you my new little craft project perfect for the greenest of days. Okay, so I bought the supplies a month ago but I only put it all together the morning of the seventeenth (I told you I was a procrastinator). I was completely determined to make that wreath by St. Patty’s Day, even if it took me until midnight. I’m happy to say it went together quite quickly and we got to enjoy it for several hours. Oh, who am I kidding, it’s still hanging on my door. . . but it’s just so cute.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own St. Patty’s Day wreath :

1/4 yard of 5 different green fabrics
heavy-gauge wire or coat hanger
rotary cutter and cutting mat or scissors (a rotary cutter will make this project a snap)
ribbon

This is how you put it all together:

To create the round shape, I used wire that was less stiff than a coat hanger, but still had enough strength to hold it’s shape. I would love to tell you what gauge it happened to be, but that label has long since gone away. Just shape the wire and bend the ends together or, if you’re using a coat hanger, snip off the hanger part and then shape into a circle. I ended up with a circle diameter of 15″, but you can make it a bit larger or smaller as needed.
Using my rotary cutter, I cut 1″ x 6″ strips from each of the five fabrics. You can use scissors or the snip and rip method to cut your strips, but a rotary cutter makes this task so much faster, especially if you fold your fabric a couple of times.
I cut 32 strips from each of the fabrics and used just about everyone one of them on my 15″ diameter wreath. So that was approximately 160 small little pieces of fabric.
To adhere the fabric, simply tie them in a knot all the way around the wreath. I chose a pattern in which to tie them and stuck to it all the way around. Tie a few pieces and then push them together tightly around the wire, then repeat. By continually pushing the tied pieces together, you will get a fuller, fluffier finished product.
After all the fabric strips are tied to your wreath. Cut and tie a long piece of ribbon for the bow.
Lastly pull all the fabric strips ends toward the front of the wreath and fluff them for a finished look.

My sister, the one in town, thought this was a really cute project and made plans to create an Easter or Spring wreath of her own. You really could do one for any holiday just by changing the fabric you choose.

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