Diy Sponge Ball

Do you know those water toys that you can throw at someone and they are soft and squishy and lots of fun, but sadly cost a bit too much to have many. What if I told you that you can make them yourself with the cost of couple of dollars! Presenting to you Sponge Bob Ball!

 For one ball you will need 3 sponges, I had them all different colour, but you could have just two colours or even one colour. Then you need an elastic band and scissors and that's it.

 Cut your sponges in 8 equal pieces, the easiest way to do this is to cut the sponge first in half, then that half in half and those halves in half. And that's why I have the pictures above, it makes more sense when you look at them. Once you've cut all your pieces then just put the elastic around them. Now make a few more of these and you are ready to have a good old water fight.

 Here I tried for you guys what it would look like if you used just half of the sponges. Not so good in the looks for Sponge Ball, a bit too thin, but the kids didn't mind it. This is our new favourite toy in the pool. It's so much fun to throw at each other or throwing it in the air and trying to catch it.

Super quick summer toy for water play

We are taking full advantage of summer and we are loving it. Out little blow up pool gets so much use every day, even I've jumped in a few times. You don't need fancy toys to enjoy you summer, so today I'm just quickly popping by to give you a great toy idea that you can do with no cost.

All you need is an empty ice cream container or yogurt container or any container that you wish to use. I'm sure you will have something like that around, I mean who doesn't eat ice cream during summer?! Then you will need a drill. Don't try this with a knife, it doesn't work, trust me... Drill works great.

Once you've got your two items just drill away. When you're finished drilling holes, pull out those few pits of plastic that are left hanging on your container. Super easy! This took me less than 5 minutes to make and we're playing with it every single day. The kids put it in their head and pretend to be astronauts, we make a shower for some of our other toys with it, we make rain and sing rainy day songs. It is the bomb summer toy.

Now excuse me as I head back out there.

Diy superhero mask

Here's the instructions for a basic superhero mask, it will take you 10 minutes to make! It's so quick that even these instructions will be short.

Materials:

• mask template (print THIS one)
• felt
• elastic (12'' / 30cm)

And of course you'll need scissors and a sewing machine, but that's just common knowledge.

First print your template and cut it out. Then using the template cut your mask out of felt. Cut the eyes too. Then measure elastic (I cut mine 12'' / 30cm and that works great for my kids and even me) and sew each end on the opposite sides on the mask. You're done!

Merry making guys!

Diy dress up present for a boy // SUPERHERO cape

I've been feeling very sick for this week. My body must be still in Finland, because it's getting sick in December even though here it's so hot. Go figure. Lucky I'm only making quick presents this Christmas so I'm not exhausting myself too much.

Today I thought I'd share with you how to make a super quick dress up costume for a boy. Though I'm giving this for my daughter as she is playing superheros at the moment, so I'd say it fits well for both.

YES, it's a BATMAN cape! You don't have to make a batman cape, you could use this idea to make any superhero cape, or make one of each! Red for superman (or is that blue one?), green for ... I don't know enough about superheros, but you get my drift.

All you need is:

• pillowcase (yes a pillowcase!, you could use an old sheet as well or old curtains.. anything that's material pretty much!)
• felt (for your superhero logo)
• ribbon or shoe laces
• superhero logo template (google and print)

I started out by cutting the pieces for my batman logo. First I printed the logo out of the Internet and cut out the yellow oval and then the black batman from felt. Pretty easy so far. Then I sewed the batman on the yellow oval, this was a bit tricky so a more simple superhero symbol might be easier to begin with.

 After you're finished with the logo get your pillowcase and cut the long sides so you have one long piece of material. Then choose how long you want your cape and cut. Make a seam on the long sides so that they don't fray, overlocker does this one great, but if you don't have an overlocker then just zigzag the sides.

Sew your superhero logo to your cape. After that iron the casing where the ribbon will go through and sew that. Then put your ribbon through that casing with the help of a safety pin and you're done!

 I apologise that the pictures aren't too clear, but I don't have much energy at the moment to make them good. Oh well mentality over here. But I'm so happy how it turned out. Now my daughter doesn't have to use scarves as capes anymore, she will have a real batman cape!

Tomorrow really quickly a quick guide how to make the most basic superhero mask with a template to download.

Diy reversible felt tiara

All right, I think the vintage princess skirt needs a little tiara to go with it! After all all princess' need a tiara or two. And what better one to make than reversible one, two in one you might say, because sometimes your outfit might need a different coloured tiara.

Here's what you'll need:

• felt (two different colours)
• sequins
• template (you can print THIS one if you want)

You don't necessary need a sewing machine for this, but it makes your project quicker.

First you need a template. Measure your child's head and make that the length of the template, fold it in half and draw the shape you want your tiara to look like (folding it in half helps you to make it symmetrical). Or if it's easier, you can print the one I made, HERE.

Cut your felt pieces and decorate with sequins. Then it's just about sewing the pieces together. First sew the back seam, then the top of the tiara and lastly the bottom seam. Don't try to make the pieces totally same size before you start sewing, felt moves a little when you use a sewing machine. Instead sew the pieces together and cut out the edges even afterwards.

There you have it, tiara that you can turn around and use both ways, takes you maybe 30 minutes to make. Now I'm going to go and wrap Emma's vintage princess skirt and her tiara.

Ladybird bean bags // learning to stitch

First on our bug week is little ladybird bean bags. Ladybirds are Emma's favorite at the moment. She seems to find them everywhere and last night I acutally found two ladybirds inside our house that she must have carried inside.

I've wanted to try if I could teach my 3 year old to stitch. Is it even possible for a 3 year old to master a basic stitch? That's what this craft is all about, and it doesn't mean you can only do this with a 3 year old, in fact I'd say that it will work better with older children than a 3 year old.

Felt is a great material to use in kids crafts as it doesn't fray and it's easy to cut. However glueing felt pieces together is almost impossible with normal glue, so stiching those pieces together is the best way to go.

Here's what you need for this craft:

• felt
• embroidery thread
• needle (quite big one)
• paper and pen
• scissors
• rice or dried peas
• sewing mahine (optional)
• snacks (optional but makes it heaps more fun)

We used a hot chocolate container as our round shape to draw a template, it was just the perfect size for this. So the first thing for you to do is to find something round in your home and use that to draw a round template. That will be the size of your ladybird. Kids can do this part on their own with just little instructions. I cut out the cirle out of the paper, but older children could do this part on their own as well.

We did most of this project outside on a picnic blanket because it was such a beautiful sunny day. The snacks helped her to stay focused as she was able to sit and snack while I did some parts. Sultanas, apricots and other dried fruit are a good 'no messy' snack, just a hint hint.

Then it's just a matter of choosing your colours and cutting out the pieces. You need two round pieces of the same colour and then one set of your black parts. I used that circle to cut the black head for our ladybird and the spots I just cut freehand. You could use a coin, for example, to cut the spots, but I'm not that fussy.

For the needle you will need a quite large one and it needs to be sharp so that it will go through the felt layers. So don't leave your child unattended, help them along the way and stay there to see that they don't poke themselves too much with the needle. Go up and down with your needle and thread attaching the head first.

I did the first few stitches so that Emma could see what we were doing and how to do it, then she had a go for couple of stitches and I finished it off. Team work, that's what it's all about.

Above is a picture of what it should look like on the wrong side. Don't aim for perfection if your child is older and doing it by themselves, this is just rather neat because I was helping her all along the way.

Then assemble your spots and see where you want them. We stitched each spot with two stitches aiming to make a X but it didn't always work, oh well I thought, as long as it stitched them together. We took turns in stitching the spots, I did the first one and she run around the yard and had some snacks, then it was her turn to make the stithes, so we went until all the spots were done. It worked great as she didn't have to stay still and focused for too long and she still got a good amout of praticing stitches.

Towards the end the snacks were almost gone.

Once you're all finished attaching the head and spots, it's time to attach the two pieces together. I used a sewing machine just because it's so quick, but if you don't have one you can just as well hand stitch the pieces together. Remember to leave a gap where you can fill the bean bag!

You can use rice or dried peas or why not lentils or even sand. Fill your bean bag and sew the gap closed.

 Make a few more and have fun! Throwing, catching, hiding and finding, there's just a few things we've done with ours.

 

Now what other ladybird things could we make? Paper plate ladybird? A terrarium for real ladybirds?