Doorway Puppet Theater

While I was suffering from crafter's block, about a month ago, I searched my pinterest boards for inspiration.  When I came across a beautiful doorway puppet theater, I decided to try and make one myself.

It seemed fairly easy.  I mean, I did make a fitted domed circus tent topper, so I figured I would give it a try.

I had material, a tension rod and plenty of puppets, so I had nothing to lose.

First, I measured the width of my door frame and cut out the amount of material I would need.
*I would suggest, if you attempted to make your own, to use striped fabric, the stripes act as better guides in cutting than polka dots. 

The next steps really were easy.  I sewed a hem, along all sides of the puppet theater.  Then, I took the top of the puppet theater and folded it down about 3 inches. 

I sewed along the seam line to make a pocket the tension rod would feed into.

This is where it got tricky.  I cut out the center, for the puppets to peek through BUT I had no idea how to finish the edges.

So, this project sat and sat. My crafter's block made more frustrated by half finished projects I had no idea how to finish.

Cue a visit from my mom, the Queen of Quilts.  Using some double biased tape, she hand sewed the trim over the raw edges using a reverse miter on the inside corners.

Finally, the unfinished project was finished.

My crafter's block is, fortunately, a thing of the past.

And, this hedgehog is happy to have a stylish venue to perform.

I am determined to master the art of reverse miter and make these as gifts for Grace's classmates birthdays.




*The doorway puppet theater I was inspired by, is for sale on Etsy.  If this stay at home mom could have afforded it, I would have spent the $90 (including shipping) to have bought it myself. 

For the love of birds...

Yes, we have begun to think about Valentine's Day around here. If you feel like hearts and love and all other things Valentine's Day related are for the birds, you might be right!

While poking around Land of Nod's blog I came across a tutorial for making bird seed ornaments from Homemade by Cameron. So, with an ample supply of heart shaped cookie cutters, I decided to show our birds a little love.

After adding bird seed to my husband's Home Depot list, I had everything I needed to make my own bird seed ornaments {full tutorial here}...

including a willing helper.

To hang our bird feeder, we filled our cookie cutters halfway up, added a looped ribbon and then with the bird seed mixture covered the ribbon and filled the cookie cutter the rest of the way up.

This recipe yielded 10 bird seed feeders, which happened to be more than the number of heart shaped cookie cutters I had SO we improvised with some non heart shapes.

After the gelatine set, I removed the cookie cutter and added a few hearts to our flower boxes {which I suspect will be more for the love of the squirrels}.

And we hung a few.

Ironically, the same weekend Grace and I made our bird seed ornaments, a good friend of mine and her son also showed the birds some love.

What I love about her bird seed ornaments is the simplicity. She used some stale bread, peanut butter {to act as a binding agent}, bird seed and cookie cutters. Her version is perfect for toddlers that want to do everything themselves.

*In the Made by Cameron's version, there is a step that requires boiling water to dissolve the gelatin in, definitely requiring adult assistance/supervision depending on how old your little helper is.

Cheerios Necklace - the new must have accessory

Grace likes to accessorize and snack...

So when it came time to craft, I decided to combine the two.

Stringing Fruity Cheerios onto some rope, we made ourselves edible necklaces.

As to be expected, there was some snacking during the process...

but that only made craft time that much more fun.

In the end, there was some admiring of the new necklace...

but mostly, there was nibbling on the new necklace.

Fruity Cheerios, the perfect accessory!

Just what every princess needs...

Princesses are a very big deal in our house, at the moment. Grace lives in her very own fairy tale where her daddy is the Prince and Riley is the witch {poor Riley}. Grace, of course, has cast herself as a princess.

So what does every princess need besides for a fairy Godmother or two...

A crown, of course.

Using these tinsel pipe cleaners from Hobby Lobby, Grace and I crafted our {her} own crown.

I started by twisting 2 of the pipe cleaners together, making a halo shape, for the base of the crown.

Then, by twisting and bending the pipe cleaners, the crown started to take shape. I used 8 pipe cleaners, cutting some of them to fill in and give structure to the sides and middle of the crown.

The finishing touch...jewels.

Grace happily glued some pink and blue 'sapphires' to her crown.

I think it's a crown truly fit for a princess.

The fairy tale continues. Do you think by default I get cast as the evil queen?

Linked up and a BIG thanks to: