I found this cute little set of paper dolls on a clearance shelf somewhere and bought it for my kids. I made some extra pieces to give it a little ethnic diversity, and I added a few others- a mom bringing in some cupcakes and a giraffe (don’t ask why, I just thought he was cute).
You can download the little people I made, if you’d like, by clicking here. I didn’t make a downloadable school, but I’m thinking about it.
As a little aside, I’ll tell you that I reeeally want to make a little garden set for our Ladybug book, because we are building up promotional stuff to push the paper copies for Christmas. Yaaaay! I don’t want to labor this too much here and now, but the process is pretty much done, and we’re both excited to be able to present this, after all the work we put into it.
Well, I just burnt up about two hours on The Daily What and Whatever The Geek Site Associated With It Is Called, both of which were entertaining albeit a waste of time. I should be ashamed of myself, but I found these awesome posts and I like them too much to feel the shame.
It’s a deer and antlers hat! Oh, YEAH BABY! The pattern can be bought and downloaded for a mere five dollars! Yay! “Are you tired of trying to grow antlers with no luck?” Oh this is good. I’m getting one as soon as the bills are paid.
There was also this guy that they found… oh, who knows where Reddit or somewhere, and it’s probably even cooler than the antler hat:
And in closing, here are a few more random things I saw there that I liked. A superhero optical illusion:
and a clip of cute duckies trying to get up a set of stairs.
Every year I do this project with my preschoolers, always to roaringly positive critical acclaim. The kids love this (and it’s relatively easy).
Here’s how you do it!
The supply list consists of ten items:
plain white socks (any size will do, but I use ankle sized or smaller)
rubber bands (three per snowman)
a few orange pipe cleaners cut to 3/4″ lengths
glue gun
white bottled glue (I like to put it in a little cup with a craft stick, but that’s not necessary)
round sequins for eyes (black fish tank pebbles also work well)
flat buttons (the ones pictured are star-shaped, in case you’re wondering)
pom poms
dried pinto beans (I use two lbs for a class of twenty)
cotton balls
And the process is as follows:
Gather your supplies.
Have the child put about ten handfuls of beans into the sock. Supervise closely! I have them keep the sock over the beans in a large hat box.
The first segment should be a little smaller than a tennis ball. Wrap a rubber band tightly around the sock above the beans and have the child repeat the process to make two round segments.
After you’ve rubber banded the second segment, have the child put about five cotton balls in the top. Wrap a third rubber band around that, leaving as much of the neck of the sock free as possible.
It should look like this now. Fold the open top of the sock down to look like a knit cap, and have the child glue on the eyes, buttons, nose and pom pom with white glue. Remember to glop a lot of glue on if you’re using heavier buttons and things.
Put some hot glue around the rubber bands that connect the body segments. Done!
My colleagues have done this many different ways, with different levels of student involvement. Some like to put all the beans in for the kids, some use rice, some do all the gluing with a hot glue gun, etc. The point is, the process is easy to vary, depending on what your kids can handle and how much you’re willing to do for them. I can do three or four kids at a time like this, at an average of fifteen minutes per group, and I like this method because it involves them doing most of it themselves. Whatever floats your boat.
Hope you have fun!
PS- Leave a comment below and tell me what you think. I know there are a lot of different ways to make this project, and I’d love to see what different people out there are doing.
One of my families gave me a gift card to a Teachers’ Supply Store last year, and I’ve just now gone out and used it. I would guess the brand name Melissa and Doug is pretty familiar by now to people who have kids, but in case you have never heard of them, they make adorable and appealing educational toys. The play food sets were all so cool, but I ultimately landed on this one- the four food groups. It was a tough call between that and the sushi set. And the pizza. My last play food sets have run their course, and now I’m glad to start the new year with a fresh set.
Also, for your reading pleasure, click here for a delightful list of disgusting convenience foods. Try not to use your imagination too much.
I got this incredibly schmultzy book today and can’t wait to start making potholders! The whole set of these books are so very cute and girly. I wanna get them all and start handmaking everybody’s Christmas presents now…
Some of my favorite pages. Awww. I wanna make a bunny one.
And as an unrelated thought, I feel the need to comment on Emma Watson’s new haircut. My mother hates it when girls do this, and I have to say that I actually feel a little sad to see that beautiful hair chopped off. But this is perfect. Oh my gosh, this girl knows style. I don’t want to get off on celebrity blogging here, but really. It’s like she went from being Grace Kelley to Audrey Hepburn.
I’m a huge fan of Seinfeld, and found this today on Totally Severe. I know I do a lot of gushing about this website, but seriously. How can I do otherwise? She made an embroidery of George and Frank Costanza! and Lloyd Braun. This scene can be watched here.
I think I want to make embroidered art now.
Okay, this is swell. I don't care what you think of Taylor Momsen.
Oh, and on a side note- the Material Girl clothing line is available in stores and is cute, cute. Very teenagery and eighties and fun (and affordable, aka cheap) for the not quite punky fifteen year old heading back to school soon. I don’t like leggy clothes, so the short shorts and miniskirts, meh… but the rest of it is adorable. Hooray for fun kid clothes!
I am so happy. I’ve just finished constructing my first garment! It’s official- I’m quitting my job and going full time as a fashion designer! Okay, maybe not. This is a lot of work, and I had to take apart and redo portions of this thing repeatedly. Nevertheless, I am pleased by the final product, if I do say so myself. I was going for kind of a shabby chic look, and had initially planned to put a jellybean-shaped pocket on the front using the striped fabric that I used on the belt loops, but it was too much with the maroon sash/belt thing so I dropped the idea at the end of the project. I am so in love with the fabric- isn’t it adorable?
I’ve finished the owl purse- I patterned him after the first owl I made, but I would like to do a few more in black white and red themes. Maybe do some in orange. This was my first attempt at installing a zipper in something, and I’m not sure I did it correctly. You have to hold the sides of the material to pull it open and shut. Next time I do this, I will concentrate on making it more secure; I’ve noticed my biggest problem in this was sturdiness. Nonetheless, I’m pleased with it overall and intend to give him to my Korean teacher as a b-day gift. I think the next thing I want to make will be a crab or a snail or maybe a turtle.
I’m so glad I finished this thing! I thought it would be as easy as 1-2-3, and now I’m feeling a little foolish about my initial optimism. I wanted this to be a project that I could do with a friend, but now I am rethinking the difficulty level. I have a few (hopefully) improved engineering ideas that should make this a much more realistic rainy day craft. We’ll see if I can squeeze out a workable prototype.
Anyway, here are a few shots of the completed piggy purse.
The front.
The underside of the ears.
The back.
I stitched a couple magnets into the liner to close the purse. It seemed simpler than a zipper, but in retrospect it's clumsier and probably just as difficult to do. I think in the future I would stick to zippers on an item this small.
The polka-dot fabric is for the liner and wrist strap.
The pig is not yet finished. Sad thing- I was hoping he’d be done by now, but here are a few shots of the current status. The nose was pretty tricky and took me quite a while. I embroidered the nostrils on the front. Embroidered nostrils. Isn’t that charming? I will need to figure out what to do for the eyes- I still haven’t decided, and the fullness of time is come. The eyes need to go on now, and I don’t know what kind of material to use to make them. I also need to get a ring for the wrist strap.
With the embroidery done, I took an inverted strip of the pink fabric, folded one of the short ends to make a nice, clean seam, and matched the edges. I stitched on the line all the way around and it was a quite a pain.
The snout is complete.
In between pig sewing, I got my table saw put together. Here it is, just waiting to do great things.
Link to anything I post if you'd like, but pretty please do me a favor and leave the pictures here. :) Thanks!
Featured Artist
Giuseppi Giraffe
My first featured artist will be a personal favorite. This young giraffe has accomplished many great works of greatness and makes an excellent placeholder until I decide who's going to go in this spot in his place.
Here he is pictured with one of his mosaics. If you squint, you can see it's his name.
Kirinjirafa's Blog 