Animal Alphabet Giveaway

I've put some new ABC cards up in the shop--look familiar? I originally made them as posters, but I'm kind of loving the smaller size of the 4 inch by 5 inch cards. I made a fun little book for my kiddos by putting the Animal shaped Alphabet Cards into a simple photo album. My animal loving sweetie has been enthralled with it. 

They've been a bit of a hit, and we really haven't had a giveaway for a long time . . . so we're having a giveaway! 

To enter for the printable Animal Alphabet leave a comment telling me what you'd do with the Animal cards. 

Giveaway ends Monday, May 7th. One winner will be posted May 8th. 

enjoy!

Freebie Friday: Pretend Pasta Box

With the new kitchen the kiddos got for Christmas they have all these cute little  pots and pans. But all the plastic and wooden food they have doesn't fit very well inside. One apple in the pan just doesn't seem right. . . So I made them some felt pasta. It's been probably a month since then and I've found felt pasta everywhere. They needed some containment. So our freebie today was born: a pasta box for felt fettuccine.

 Get the box here. 

 I just cut it out, taped some plastic on the holes, folded it and taped it up. Although in retrospect, I think I may go back and laminate it instead. . . last longer that way.

A Merry Busy Christmas!

Went a little MIA this christmas season working on this entertainment center turned kitchen. The idea started brewing 3 weeks before Christmas after seeing several in blog land, mostly notably this one from sutton grace.

 So 2.5 weeks before Christmas I went and bought this entertainment center at the thrift store for $10 (talked the guy down from $20 cause I'm cheap like that) and then spent every night (when I usually blog) working on it for several hours.

I added the long side door aka "fridge" and the "oven" door. Found an awesome real faucet with sprayer at the thrift store for $5, modge podged the numbers around the oven knobs (also found at thrift store .25 each). The stove hot plates are black paint (simple, easy and fast), the "rack" stripes in the oven shelf I ended up just drawing on with a wide sharpie marker and a ruler. The phone was also found at the thrift store and hangs on a screw (so it can come off pretty easy), the sink comes out of it's hole and is just a weird bowl I also found at the thrift store and then the curtain at the top is held in place with a small tension rod.

All in all the most time consuming part was the painting, and the waiting for paint to dry, and shopping for all the pieces (because I refused to buy more than I had to at home depot-I bought as much as I could from the thrift store and the Habitat for Humanity ReStore).

 It took the full two weeks finishing up Christmas Eve. It was a fun project to do, albeit a little bit stressful under the time restraints. I love how it turned out, especially the yellow, of course, and the sweetie LOVES it. It was given to both her and the buddy, but it the buddy has been too busy with Captain America, spiderman and remote control cars to have time for the kitchen. Give it a couple weeks . . .

The little sweetie has spent most of yesterday and today playing with it which makes my heart so happy. It definitely makes it all worth it to see her so excited about it!

Hope you had a very merry Christmas too!

ABC Poster Giveaway

Young, Yippy, Youthful Y is for Yak.  Yahoo. The ABC posters are up in the shop. I've even included a printed option. (well, most of the ABC's are up. The stomach flu this week postponed a few things, alas). So to celebrate we are doing a giveaway!

One printed poster and two printable pdf posters for three different winners. The letter of your choice.

Here's how . . . .

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite animal
2. Leave a SECOND comment if you follow me
2. Winner will be announced Wednesday November 23

goodluck!

Welcome to Radiator Springs-A Happy Place!

"mommy I don't have a road for my cars to go on . . . " this is what spurred our Cars Board. A year or two ago I made this train board for him and I had another piece of particle board and thought why not? So we pulled out the scrapbooking paper, turned on Pixar's Cars and went to work. The buddy picked colors and told me what needed to be on it, and then helped me modge podge all the pieces on. It's so much fun to do "projects" with him right now. He loves it, and of course I love it. But in retrospect it probably would have been easier to just google images for each of the buildings online. It wouldn't have been as much fun though, eh? Oh, and then he was worried because we didn't have a race track. We flipped it over and managed to get a two-fer.

Had to start with the cozy cone motel . . . simple numbers typed in word and cut out.  Oh, and don't forget the "interstate" at the top!

We added the flag at the buddy's request on Sarge's home (a picture printed off the internet), and then of course Fillmore needs a place to park!

How 'bout somthin' to drink? Stop on by Flo's V8 Cafe. . . it's a basic necessity . . . with space for them to park and fill up.

Traffic Court is always important with crazy race car drivers right? I used rub-on letters for the "accused" word.

Ramone will fix you up right . . . pin striping? How 'bout von Dutch style? (I may or may not have the entire movie memorized) I used some rub-on letters and designs on this one.

Stop by Luigi's Casa Della Tires . . . have to have the Leaning Tower of Tires!

When you need a little break we've got tractor tipping-just don't let Frank catch you!

And the impound lot . . .

I wanted to find the "Radiator Springs . . . A Happy Place" sign online but couldn't find a good quality one. The buddy was appeased with this and a train track (for the part where Lightening McQueen races a train when he's looking for Mack).

The race track on the back with parking spaces on the sides for cars to park.

Overall a smashing success. He's played with it every day since we made it. And I may have joined him several times. Who says mom's can't like cars too?

Felt Food for Hungry Caterpillars

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is one of the little buddy's favorite books. So when I came across this post a few months ago on Once Upon a Thread featuring felt food from The Very Hungry Caterpillar I immediately wanted to do it. But then I got thinking about all the time it would take . . . and it went to the back burner. Today the little buddy asked me to read him the Very Hungry Caterpillar. He kept talking about it so I casually got online and showed him the felt food. He got so excited about it and of course said he wanted it. So I asked him if he wanted to help me make some. He sat on my bed for an hour and helped me pick out the felt colors, and put the pieces on top of each other while I cut them out. He lost interest in helping as soon as his caterpillar was made though-off he went talking to his new best friend.

Seriously he has spent the entire day playing and talking about them-that always makes me feel like a good mom. He even took the ice cream and his caterpillar to bed with him :)

Most everything I cut free hand so I don't have any patterns, and some of them didn't turn out that great, but if you want to make your own and have questions I'd be happy to help!

Freebie Friday: Gold Coins

The little buddy loves this pirate book we got from the library. The line that is used over and over and over is "where there's a gold I be goin'." But alas, when we play pirates we were fresh out of gold. When I was at Joann's this week I saw those plastic gold coins and almost picked some up. But, then I figured I could make some for free, and since I'm trying to cut out all those cheap little things that we end up throwing away eventually I figured that this was the way to go.

Get the gold "coins" here. (I made six by gluing them back to back and then laminated them).

I also thought they could be really cute as a cupcake topper with a chocolate cupcake made into a "pot" with the little gold coin sticking up. Kinda fun. Anyway, enjoy!

Freebie Friday: { Mini }Treasure Chest Box and a few annoucements

I probably shouldn't admit it, but the buddy is still not potty trained. He's both stubborn and sensitive about it and I am desperate. DESPERATE. This idea came to me awhile ago, but carving out the time to actually make it didn't happen until yesterday.  A Treasure Box to house his "potty booty." A new bribe. It's little, cool, with a secret inside? Isn't that good bribery?

It's small, only 1.5 inches deep and long by 2.5 inches wide, but perfect for a mini candy bar, or other small treat to bribe the pirate loving buddy. Get the Treasure Chest here.

*one note: I have changed the lock on it to be on the front of the box instead of on the lid, so it doesn't get folded in :)

They could also be cute for St. Patricks Day right? Or is that a pot of gold? I get pirates and leprechauns mixed up they both say arrrrrr right? Or maybe it's just the whole Lucky Charms, Marshmallow Matey thing that's got me confused. Still . . . it could work.

Or favor boxes at a pirate birthday party? 

ANNOUNCEMENTS? I said I would let you know when I got these in the shop . . yeah two weeks is a few days right?

Find the Lace Up Card Boys (already made for you) and printable costumes in the shop here 

Last but not least, I finally gave in and made a facebook page. Like me so I don't feel like a friendless loser :) Plus I'll post my freebies a little early for ya!

Freebie Friday: Numbers & Shapes Matching

This freebie was inspired by this post from handmade by Jill. The little buddy was sitting next to me while I was reading it and asked if I would make him "some of those." Obviously I don't an L Letterpress (alas) so we just did something on the computer. But they are still kind of fun. Instead of making them the same I opted for numbers and shapes with corresponding values. But, if you wanted to print out two sets you could just match number to number and shapes to shapes.

The second page I copied Jill and made a "back" for them. I thought that was really an ingenious idea since a lot of the time a single page of 67 lb. cardstock is still see-through when it's flipped over.  I used spray adhesive to stick them together before I cut them out. -but any kind of glue would work (elmer's or another really "wet" glue will probably make them wavy though). And of course there is always laminating . . .

Here they are. I did two inch square so if you want to turn them into circles instead it would work!

enjoy!