Gifts Kids Can Make: Monogram Pillow

A few days before Christmas my daughter told me she wanted to make her baby brother a pillow for a Christmas present.  She had already made him some finger puppets but she was really into the spirit of giving this year and I had a few minutes where I could help her and plenty of scrap fabric available.

She picked out some soft cozy fleece and I helped her to cut out some squares.  She decided she wanted to add his monogram to the front which we did easily with a little fusible webbing.  We then pinned it together and I even let her use my sewing machine for the first time to stitch the pillow together.  After flipping the fabric right-side-out came the fun part of stuffing the pillow with some batting.  I helped her sew up the opening and it was ready to wrap.

My daughter was so excited to place her present under the Christmas tree and could hardly wait for it to be opened on Christmas morning.  She kept mentioning how much she thought her baby brother was going to like it and even asked if he could open her present first.

It's been such a treat to watch my kids get excited about making their Christmas gifts this year and to see them fall in love with giving.

And of course my little guy loved his new pillow.  What a lucky fellow to have a sister like his.

DIY Christmas Plate

My kitchen was looking a little too bright and summery so I decided to switch things up for December.  I traded my yellow daisies out for some red berries but I needed something to switch my blue plate with.  While walking around the store I almost bought something but it wasn't quite what I was looking for so at the last minute I put it back.  On the drive home I realized I had everything I needed at home to make the perfect plate!

We had some old dishes that we didn't use anymore so I had my plate.  Then I grabbed my leftover red spray paint and gave it a good coat or two.  I already had cut out some vinyl snowflakes so I applied one to the center.  By the end of the day I had a great little Christmas plate just using the supplies I had around the house!  Hooray!

Don't you just love it when projects come together like that?

Gifts Kids Can Make: Super Hero Masks

My three-year-old, Mr. A, decided to make super hero masks for his brothers.  He dug through my felt stash and picked out specific colors for each of his brothers.  We followed this tutorial and Mr. A helped me to iron the felt together with heat 'n bond.

Since this was A's gift to make and give I decided we would skip the sewing part.  But he did help me to stitch on the elastic. 

 I knew he would be a little sad on Christmas morning when he didn't have a mask of his own so I made one for him as well--I bet he'll be surprised!

Gifts Kids Can Make: Little Ninjas

My daughter has been a busy little elf.  Over the last few weeks she has spent hours locked in her room making Christmas gifts for everyone in the family.  It's fun to see her so excited about giving gifts instead of worrying about what she's getting for Christmas.  I don't know what all her little gifts will be but I did help her with one of them.  As a gift for her younger brother she painted some little peg dolls to look like ninjas.

I then helped her make this little bag to put the dolls in.

I just know he's going to love them.

And I knew my daughter would love her own little ninja dolls too so I had my son make up a few to give to his sister for Christmas.  He loved helping to paint them and adding the details to the dolls.  You can't see it in the picture but they each have a little sword drawn in the back.  He made sure I drew them in the back because apparently that's where ninjas keep their swords.  I think they turned out really cute and it's so much fun seeing my kids excited about giving.

Gifts Kids Can Make: Simple Bookmarks

Like Amy, I wanted my youngest to be able to give something to his older brothers on Christmas morning.  My oldest two are readers now and the 3-year-old wants to be just like the older boys so little H and I set out to make some simple bookmarks.  We just used scrapbook paper, washi tape, stamps and a self-laminating pouch.

Obviously my 18-month-old isn't going to be doing any of the cutting but he sure loved to help with the stamping!  He thought he was really big. 

We're just getting started on our handmade Christmas!

A Little Business

We finally made the switch to a dot com!  We're now serving-pink-lemonade.com.  Feel free to grab a new updated button.

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11 Felt Crafts To Make For Kids

Felt is such a great medium to make kid crafts with.  You don't have to worry about fraying edges, it's inexpensive, and it's easy to work with.

Below is a compilation of projects featured on our site made from felt.  They're all simple to make and many include free templates along with the instructions. 

Click on the pictures below to take you to the full project.  To see our complete list of felt projects click here.

 Tool Box and Tools

Grocery Sack

Dinosaur Play Mat

Super Hero Puppets

Cookies

Felt Food

Car Mat

 Princess Finger Puppets

Puppet Tutorial

Felt Pizza

 Quiet Book

Simple Gift Tags (and free template)

It seems like my kids have been going to a lot of birthday parties lately.  And it seems like we're always rushing to wrap the gift just minutes before we need to head out the door.  Oh.  And then the card.  I never have one of those.

The other day I decided to make several gift tags so I'd be covered for a while.  A few girly ones and a few boyish.

Two sheets of card stock made 18 gift tags.  I simply cut them out, punched a hole in the center and tied a ribbon through it.

When a birthday party rolls around I add a little message to the back and we're good to go.

Want to make your own?  This simple template will help you get those diagonal cuts at the right angle.

(To print template: Click on picture and then copy and save to your computer.  Open in a document and reduce your margins to zero.  Expand to 100% and print.)


These templates make great gift tags for Christmas too!

Nativity Advent Calendar

Years ago I bought a little nativity advent calendar.  It wasn't very well made and after looking at it I thought, "I could make something better."  But I was very busy with other responsibilities and the thought of taking time to do that when I had a perfectly good one in my hands seemed silly.

Several years later I found myself still wanting to re-do what I had.  I started out thinking that I would invent my own patterns but on second thought decided I would peruse Pinterest and see if I could find something I liked.  And I did!  I stumbled upon this nativity and then found that someone else had made up some patterns from it.  Perfect!  It was just what I had in mind!  I used heat 'n bond to glue the pieces together.  (I love the stitching on the original so I may go back and add that next year!)

My original thought was to continue using the old calendar and just replace the pieces.  However, once I started in on the pieces I realized that they would be too big to fit into the old pockets!  Now my next task was to make a backdrop and pockets big enough to fit my new adorable pieces!  (My husband commented, "If you give Jeanine some felt . . .")  After a bit of thought I came up with an idea that worked.  I just used a large piece of dark brown felt and used the heat 'n bond to attach the sky and hills.  The pockets are just one long strip of felt that I sewed on and divided into compartments.  It needed something to make it just a little more sturdy so I added some red Christmas fabric to the back and folded it over the edges to tie it all together.  The numbers were cut with my Silhouette.

  

I love my new advent calendar and excited to use it for years to come!  And even more importantly--so are my boys!

Gifts Kids Can Make: Hand Warmers

This year I'm continuing on the tradition of having my kids make homemade gifts for each other for Christmas.  You can see some past ideas HERE.  

Since my 13 month old isn't really old enough to make anything on his own I helped him out a little this year :) When everyone is giving their homemade gifts to each other on Christmas morning I thought it would be nice if he had a little something to give too so I made some simple hand warmers that he could give to his older brother and sister.

Each cozy hand warmer is made out of fleece and filled with rice.   They're the perfect size to fit in your hand.

To warm them up simply place them in the microwave for a few seconds and then stick them in your coat pockets to warm up your hands when playing in the snow.

Stay tuned for some more homemade Christmas gifts that kids can make . . .