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 I originally made them as posters, but I'm kind of loving the smaller size of the 4 inch by 5 inch cards.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!

ABC Giveaway Winner!!

Hey guys, the buddy and I did an old school drawing. (after the sun went down, sorry for the bad lighting)

And we've got some winners!

Jeanine and KevinandJenn congrats! Email me at yellowmum (at) gmail (dot) com and I will email the files to you!

If you didn't get it this time, they are still in my shop. I'm also thinking we're going to have to do giveaway's more often. I've already got one planned for when I finish all the Animal Alphabet posters. 

Thanks for playing!!

ABC Flashcards Giveaway!!

I must be on an ABC kick what with getting the little buddy ready for preschool! Yep, we're just doing a little joy school, so it will be fun to be one of his teachers. We're both pretty excited about that. So I hung up these ABC flashcards to take pictures of them, but they were so fun up on the wall that we've decided to make them a permanent fixture.

So maybe it's mean trickery that these aren't a freebie . . . but I do have them up in my etsy shop! I know my blogs probably mostly just good for freebies, but occasionally I spend a whole lot of time working on something and I feel like it's worth a little more than just free :) Sometimes it's a hard call whether to give something away or sale it. Don't hate me.

Anyway, onto the giveaway. I will be giving away TWO pdf Printable ABC Polka Dot flashcard sets away. These cool ABC's are each different, yet only use red, yellow and blue. The different sized polka dots make the red and yellow, or red and blue, or yellow and blue turn into secondary colors (same idea behind pointilism). Simple and fun fun fun.

Here are the rules:

1. Comment and tell me your favorite letter of the alphabet
2. Get a second "entry" by following me, or telling me you already do.
3. Giveaway will be announced next Thursday, September 1st.

Enjoy!

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: 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!

Freebie Friday . . . Lace Up Boy

Yep, I finally finished making these.  While I was cutting them out today the buddy sat by me and played with them. He kept talking about the boy in his "skins." I admit I haven't taught him the word "naked" so he uses "skins" and I love it. I'll be sad when he learns the real word. But, I think they are a success since the little buddy LOVES them.

So here is the Spring Lace Up Boy. . . . and if you are too busy to print and cut and laminate and punch yourself . . . you can get the finished deal in my etsy shop.. . .{ in a few days. . . . the little sweetie came down with croup today and listing those things fell to the bottom of my list. sorry. They will be there soon. I'll let you know!}

 The Spring Lace Up Boy comes with four sets of clothes . . . and a knight costume . . .
 

Also in the shop {in a few days}? Some more sweet dress up clothes as a Printable (for you to print) and Made  (by me, and laminated and punched . . . ready to go) versions! I think the cowboy is my favorite.

And if it doesn't get better than that . . . I'm also featuring customizable dolls in my shop. Hence, if you don't want a scrawny white boy  . . . you can pick any color of skin, hair and eyes in either a Printable or Made set. . . .

I'll let you know when they are in my etsy shop {in a few days}

Fabric Envelope for Lace up Dolls Tutorial

I made this fabric doll envelope specifically for storing your lace up dolls when not in use. A package of lace up dolls with fabric envelope would make a fun Christmas present for someone special too . . . When finished the envelope roughly measures 6 x 8 inches.

*I may also be posting 4 more winter outfits for the lace up dolls in the near future . . .

What you need:

Envelope Template (click to download)
1 thicker weight fabric for outside (I used an old pair of khaki slacks) at least 14 inches square
1 cotton weight fabric for lining (cheap walmart fabric)
1 inch piece of velcro (male and female)
button-optional
sewing supplies

1. Print out and put together envelope template following instructions in pdf. 

2. Using envelope template, pin and cut out one envelope from each fabric.

3. Find center of flap by fold lining in half and crease on top "blue" flap (outline color of template)  Place velcro across crease and 1/2 inch from edge. Pin and sew down.

4. With right sides together, pin together. (It appears that my right sides aren't together-they really are, it's just such low quality fabric that the print shows thru almost as good on the wrong side). Start sewing on the long flap (purple) where my finger is with 3/8 inch seam allowance. (This is an out of the way spot that is straight, not curved). Remember to leave an inch or two opening to turn it right side out.

5. Clip curves and corners

6. Turn right side out. I used the flat end of a skewer and ran it along all the edges. Iron edges. You'll notice a little picture on the opposite side. *See notes at bottom for explanation.

7. Fold up flaps starting with orange, then purple, then blue. Pin in place and hand stitch shut taking care not to sew all the way to the back (You want to be able to open the envelope when you're done)

8. Fold down top and determine location of second peice of velcro. Pin and sew, again taking care not to sew back two layers. (this is kind of tricky-but you can do it.)

9. Sew a button on top so you know which end opens.

*note: I wanted a label on mine. So, I stretched a piece of cotton tight and taped it to a letter size sheet and then printed out a little label on the computer onto the "fabric." It isn't super clear and it kind of printed wiggly, but it's okay. After doing so, I realized you can buy printable fabric. Alas.
I just sewed it to the right side of the outer fabric before sewing them together. If you're interested in having a label let me know.

Word Trains

The little buddy has had a lot of fun playing with these word trains I've just posted in the shop. So much fun, in fact, that I didn't even finish cutting them out before he was stealing them away. Right now we're working on spelling his name (nope, it's not John). It seems to be working, he can recognize it now and knows what letter it starts with. Progress! Get your own set here. Small Christmas gifts for friends anyone? Thanksgiving distractions?

FF- Halloween Games

I'd planned to do candy bar wrappers today. But they were boring. And, really, whose going to spend the time to cover all their candy bars with little Halloween sentiments? I wouldn't. So I bagged it and moved on. Hopefully these are more fun-they were more fun to make that's for sure. So here are four little Halloween activities for varying age levels.

Print them out, cut the page into fourths and you've got four little 4.25" x 5.5" activities. I tried them on the little buddy, he's almost 3 1/2, to see how much he could do:


the first one was pretty easy for him once he knew what to do



the second one he struggled figuring out the differences on the first two rows-not obvious enough-but he picked the "pumpkin" out of the skeletons very quickly. By the fourth row I'd lost his attention span, obviously.



the third activity was beyond him, as I suspected it would be. He had fun coloring it though!


I didn't even attempt the fourth one, the maze. I knew he wouldn't get how to do it, much less be able to figure it out. Maybe in a few years. In the mean time I'll have the hunny take a gander at it! Well, enjoy!



As a little side note update: google groups, which is currently hosting all my freebie friday downloads, has decided to stop hosting documents. This is the last one I will post through google groups. But I WILL still have a freebie friday.

All of this to simply say, the freebie friday's up through this one will still be available until the beginning of February. After that, all downloads previous to October 16 2010 will no longer be available for download.

FF-Dinosaur Shapes

*UPDATE: The dinosaur shapes are now available for a small fee in my etsy shop: You can find the one page version here. I have also put a larger version with 2 dinosaurs to a page here.

In the spirit of school, I thought I'd do something for the little buddy this week as our freebie. He LOVES dinosaurs, and is really not interested in learning his shapes. Seriously, he should already know them. He knows his colors, numbers, and even all the letters and their sounds. But shapes? Other than circle he really couldn't care less. But, my sneakness thought if I combined it with dino's he might change his mind.

This one is a 2 page printable. The first page has the dinos on it and the second has the shapes. I did two sizes of shapes. Large ones (easier for little fingers to pick up) and small ones that are the exact size to fit inside the dinosaur. I won't lie, the little ones are tiny, probably only an inch or so which makes them harder to cut out. I laminated the shapes so they would last a little longer, and added magnets to the back of the big ones. You could also do velcro sticky dots. So far he seems interested . . . that's a good first sign, right?