A Summer of Fairy Magic

This post was originally shared over at Nap Time Creations but if you missed it there, I'm going to highlight a few of the things I shared. This summer I've planned a little extra special magic for my grandchildren when they come to visit us. Since I have some pretty girly little granddaughters, I've planned several activities around fairies, including stories, treats, crafts and fun outdoor activities. Take note of these ideas and join us in the fun!

FAIRY STORIES

To start out that fun, I plan on reading to my three and five year old grandchildren, "The Night Fairy" by Laura Amy Schlitz.  This is a chapter book with beautiful illustrations. The story is about a night fairy named Flory. When she was three months old, her wings were injured by a bat. She falls into a human's garden and because of her injury, she can't fly away. It's a darling book I know they will enjoy.    

Reading chapter books with younger children can also be entertaining. Another fun chapter book to read to older children is "The Fairy Rebel" by Lynne Reid Banks.  This is a fun chapter book about a woman who is sad. When she goes to her garden, she meets a fairy and then confesses to that fairy that she really wants a baby.  Let's just say this fairy livens up this women's life.

If you have younger children, a really enchanting fairy book is "The Faerie's Gift" by Yanya Robyn Batt. The illustrations are beautiful. In the story, a kind woodcutter helps a faerie that's in trouble.  In return, that faerie gives the woodcutter a very special gift. I loved this story and how the woodcutter uses his gift to help his family. 

When you're done reading this book, ask your child what wish they would ask for if they were given just one wish.  My grandson said he would wish for all the bad guys to go away and then all the jails could be taken down.  I told him that sounded wonderful.

FAIRY TREATS

When stories are through, doesn't everyone like a good treat? My grandkids do! We'll be making fairy dust. My grandchildren helped by stirring the ingredients together.  This magical treat is so easy to make and the best part is there is no hot summer baking. Here's how to make it:

Fairy Dust Recipe

•  1/4 c. powdered sugar
•  1/4 c. granulated sugar 
•  Red or pink food dye. 
•  Strawberries, raspberries, grapes or bananas
•  Colored toothpicks

With a spoon, mix together the sugars and stir in two to five drop of food gel or food dye until the sugars have speckles of color.  Cut up fruit as desired and add colored toothpicks to each piece of fruit. Dip the fruit into the fairy dust.  

We'll fill a very small container (I'm talking really small, like a toothpaste cap) with this mixture and then I'll have the children take it to our garden and leave it for the fairies to enjoy.  Make sure you don't put it where ants frequent...that could bring unwanted guests to your party!

ACTIVITIES

Online at Flower Fairies Fun and Games there are free computer games, printable activity sheets, and coloring pages which are always fun for children.

Please join me tomorrow for more fairy ideas.  I'm enjoying my son's family this week.  I hope you get to enjoy family too! -xoxo Grandma

Other posts about fairy crafts:

How to Make a Fairy Cottage go HERE or house go HERE.

Guest Post - A Summer of Fairy Magic

Hi, today I'm happy to be a guest blogger over at the cutest blog, Nap Time Creations. My guest post is about as whimsical as they come (at least for me). It's called, "A Summer of Fairy Magic".  Go read about the fairy magic activities I've planned for my little summer visitors HERE.  

Three of my grandkids arrived with their mom this week to spend nearly a month at my house.  Needless to say, this Grandma and my husband (aka Grandpa) are thrilled to have them!  Below are some photos with the grandchildren participating in a little fairy magic. I hope this makes their summer a little more magical! Enjoy!  

Making Fairy Dust

Before you go, check out all the other fun posts going up today!

A Summer of Fairy Magic on Nap-Time Creations by XOXO Grandma

Nail Stamping Fun by Rae Gun Ramblings

Mini Minion Bowling Set Craft by Boy Oh Boy oh Boy Crafts

Cookie Butter Ice Cream from Kojo Designs

Enjoy your children and grandchildren this summer! - xoxo Grandma

How to Make a Fairy Cottage - a Refashion

I loved making THIS fairy house so much, I've come up with another fairy abode I'm dubbing a "fairy cottage." This little cottage was made from a felted sweater sleeve (though feel free to just use felt).  With summer right around the corner, go ahead, cut off a wool sweater and shrink it to make this toy.  Join me in the fun and make one too!

Craft Supplies needed:  

• Felted wool sleeve cut from a sweater.
• 1 small container like a Gerber brand item
• Scissors
• Thread or glue
• Embroidery floss
• 1 button
• Light green felt scraps for leaves
• Dark green felt (9" x 9")
• 3 silk flowers
• 15 sequins
• 15 small clear beads
• Pins

How to make a fairy cottage:

1. Cut a sleeve from an old sweater.  If it's not felted, just rinse the wool sleeve in hot water and throw it in your drier.  
2. Cut openings from the container using the patterns found HERE.
3. Cut off the excess of the sleeve from the bottom of the container leaving 1/3" extra length to attach to the leaf base.
4. Cut the cuff of the sleeve into 3 equal pieces.  Make the edges of the cut pieces into points.
5. Using the downloaded patterns (see step 2), embroider the edge of 3 leaves and sew onto the ends of the cut-up cuffs.
6. Using the pattern, make a door as instructed HERE. See steps 8 and 11-14.
7. Cut netting about 1/2" larger than the window openings.  Sew the netting from the back side of the cottage close to the edge of the window.
8. With 3 strands of embroidery floss, embroider around the edges of the windows with a chain stitch and the edge of the door opening with a blanket stitch.

     9.  Make a closure across from where you want a door knob.  To make this,   Sew six strands of floss 3/8" apart and loop stitches all around the floss.  Then pull the tread tight.  Once the floss is covered with the tightly pulled loops, tie the thread off from the back side of the cottage.

     10.  Opposite the closure, sew on a button to the door.

     11.  Cut out the leaf foundation from two layers of felt and one of stiff interfacing.

     12.  Using a different colored green thread from the felt, sewing around the edge of the foundation, using a blanket stitch.  Use a blanket stitch to form the leave's shapes.  Then use a durable stretch stitch.  (This stitch gives the veins of the leaves more definition.)  To save time, I used my sewing machine for all this stitching.

    13.  Pull the sleeve over the container. Around the edges, using an epoxy, glue the cottage to the container.  

    14.  Now, the fun part, which to me is adding extra embroidered leaves and silk flowers to the cottage.  I sewed sequins onto the center of the flowers and secured them in place with small clear beads sewn on top of the sequins. Then I tucked and tacked down leaves as I played with my design.  If you don't want to sew the details down, you can simply glue these components onto your house.

This fairy cottage is so sweet and inviting. This toy can be used with welcome imaginative play or it can easily be turned into a night light by tucking in an LED light through the door's opening.  Please join me tomorrow at Nap Time Creations for more fairy fun.  xoxo Grandma

You also might like these posts:

FAIRY WINGS MAKEOVER

WHIMSICAL LITTLE FAIRIES

Linked at:  Nap Time Creations, AllFreeSewing

Making Good: How to Repair Wicker Furniture

This week, I'm part of a blog train hosted by Agatha Lee of Green Issues by Agy called Making Good.  Yesterday,  Vanessa  from SweetLeigh showed you how to repair glittery shoes and add more bling to them.

So, I know its hard to believe, but I haven't always had so much time to craft and create. At least not with fabric. Ages ago, I used to work for a high end furniture store that specialized in wicker and rattan. Because of that job, I have some beautiful pieces of wicker furniture in my home. Fast forward to last summer, and while grandchildren were visiting, a certain grandson, who will remain nameless, picked at an area of cracked wicker on one of my white wicker daybeds, even though I begged him to leave it alone. Sadly, he created a lovely hole right in the back of the daybed.  Luckily, pillows can cover this hole but when those pillows are removed, YIKES, it looks bad! 

While working for that particular wicker furniture store, I also used to help repair some of the pieces of wicker. After watching a refresher video on how to repair wicker furniture found HERE , I set about repairing that gaping hole in the daybed. 

You might wonder why even bother repairing a wicker daybed? Firstly, this daybed is beautiful and classic in design. Secondly, my biggest motivation is that my oldest daughter just purchased her first home. When I redecorated her, and her twin sister's, bedroom long after they moved out, we put one of these daybeds in our storage area.  Yes, I own two of these daybeds.  When cousins came to visit, we'd have a dormitory using the trundle beds, that were stored below these daybeds, filled with cute girls.  I told my oldest daughter that she could have her daybed for my granddaughter's new bedroom.  Needless to say, my daughter was delighted to get one of these beautiful bed frames.

The hardest part about this project was finding half round real wicker reeds to repair the hole in the back of the daybed. I had to order mine from a store I found online called Frank's Cane and Rush Supply.  I couldn't find a way to place the order online so on a Friday morning, I placed my order the old fashion way and called the company on the phone.  The owner answered & I gave him my order.  They have amazing service because I received my order three days later in Monday's mail.  YEA for fast service!  

Anyway, onto how I made that daybed good again: 

The first step was to soak the reeds in warm water for at least 30 minutes.  I soaked mine in the bathtub for several days... let's just say I may have forgotten about them.

Next, remove enough wet reeds to repair your wicker.

The size of reeds I purchased were a little larger than what I needed so using scissors, I cut the wet reeds down to the size of the original reeds.

Then working from the back of the daybed, I snipped off the existing wicker pieces so that they ended behind the horizontal reeds.  Then I started to weave the reeds in and out keeping the pattern as close as possible to the original weave.

This is what the front of the daybed looked like once I was finished weaving:

I let the wicker dry for several days. Then I laid down old towels in front of the area I was going to paint and behind that same area.  After shaking the can vigorously, I sprayed the wicker from the front of the wicker.  I had to repeat that process four times.  

Beware, the spray paint is super stinky so make sure when you spray, you do it on a nice, non-windy day with the windows wide open.  You don't want any wind to blow dust or particles onto what you're spay painting.

This is how that repaired wicker daybed looks - like new again!

I'm grateful I was challenged to repair something because now this daybed is finally ready to be passed onto the next generation of children in my life.

Tomorrow, please join Julia at Sum of Their Stories.  Julia lives in the United Kingdom and comes from a long line of crafty women.

Here's the schedule of bloggers that have joined together to bring you this series of posts about mending, just in case you want to hop over to their blogs and learn a ton!

Linked to: Crafty Allie, Nap Time Creations, Totally Tutorials 

Transform Your Old Sandals

Do you own sandals that you hardly ever wear, but you just can't bring yourself to throw them away? If you do, this post is for you. While putting away my winter shoes and pulling out my summer ones, I came across a pair of sandals that I've had for several years.  They are super comfortable for my wide feet but I hardly ever wear them because of the colors in the fabric.  

I've been wanting to try this project ever since I saw this post but I'm not a big fan of regular flip flops.  So the "bones" of these sandals was perfect for this transformation.  First, I gathered together these supplies:

• 7/8" ribbon (other widths can be used)
• a variety of shell beads (mine were upcycled from a shell belt & necklaces)
• clear seed beads
• pearlized beads 6mm
• thread
• needle
• pins
• strong epoxy glue like E6000

And I proceeded to transform my sandals like this:

I took the end of the ribbon and tucked it into the bottom of the strap. Add a little glue to the ribbon's end or pin this in place. Then I started to wrap that ribbon around the strap until I got to the toe strap.  I wrapped it once around the other side and then looped it back to wrap the toe area.

Then I wrapped the ribbon back and forth over the middle area.  Once that was done, I added a bit of glue to the end of the ribbon. 

Then I add seashells, seed beads and pearlized beads.  For one sandal I glued all the accents on ahead of time, and for the other I simply started sewing these elements on as I went.  The nice thing about using this type of sandal was that the straps were all fabric, making it was easy to sew right through those straps. 

I'm quite happy with the new look from my old sandals. Try transforming an old pair of sandals yourself and see what new look you can create! xoxo Grandma

Linked to: Crafty Allie, Diana Rambles

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Fabric Doll House & a Free Pattern to Make a Mini Doll

I've found the perfect project to use up all your little scraps of fabric, random buttons, lace and tiny seed beads!  Make a doll house and with all your random leftovers, create dolls and a wardrobe for those dolls. I feel like that book The Hundred Dresses, only instead of drawings, I've created about 60 articles of clothing so far. I decided to make four of these doll houses. One for each of my children's families. It reminds me of the time I made quiet books which were a lot of work but a lot of fun! Below are examples of some of those outfits and the adorableness of this fabric doll house and the mini doll I created along with the dolls created from the original pattern.

For this fabric doll house and my first group of dolls, I started with this 1973 McCall pattern:

I liked the portable house idea but I didn't like the handles on the side of the house so, I moved them to the roof of the house.  In the pattern, the clothes looked dated and the dolls hairstyles were so time consuming that after making two dolls, I figured out how to do the doll's hair another, quicker way (see below). Here's a view of the portable house's exterior:

Here's a few view of the interior of this fabric doll house:

Don't you just love how the bed was designed so that a doll can be tucked into it?  And that wardrobe on the other side of the bed, is just so great!  The wardrobe Velcros shut and holds all the doll's clothes which is one of the brilliant ideas of this fabric doll house. 

Notice the doll in the middle, this is the one I redesigned. I'm calling her the Livy doll.  On the original doll, the neck is just so chunky and her head seemed out of proportion to her body. I made four of the original dolls like the pattern directed and then I rebelled and redesigned this doll and I'm glad I did.

HERE is the pattern you'll need to make your own mini Livy doll. This doll has a smaller head and neck. I also added underwear to my pattern because a doll's bum shouldn't be exposed, right? At the last minute, I decided that the shoe pattern that came with the original pattern was ridiculously small and most children would just loose those shoes if I was crazy enough to make them. So, I created tiny shoes that are sewn right onto the doll and the best part is the child can't take them off. 

Make sure to print this pattern at the full image meaning the "fit to page" is not checked when printing this. Got it?  Print the pattern off & cut out the pattern from whatever ethnic color fabric you want your doll to be. Then, follow the directions below:

Are you ready to make a few dolls like this? HERE are the two free patterns and tutorials on how to make the mini tutu dress and the black and white sundress that are pictured in the tutorial above.  Have fun sewing this project with your scraps!  xoxo Grandma

I've linked this to Sew Mama Sew Softies Contest.  One doll house was completed to create this post & the other three were sewn after Feb. 23rd. On two of those doll houses, I  add embroidery to the outside of the doll house.  I love the spring feel this embroidery added along with texture and tiny details from the planter boxes and the wreath.

You also might like these softie patterns: 

HERE

HERE

Linked to: Threading My Way, Nap Time Creations, Sustaining the Powers, Sew Pretty So Free