Will Zoo Be Mine?

Did you ever make homemade Valentine's as a kid? 

I remember making some with my mom out of red and white paper heart doilies in the 2nd grade. It was one of my favorite Valentines memories. 

This year is Miss E's first Valentine's party at school and I thought it would be fun to make some homemade Valentines to give out. Luckily there are only 12 kids in her class, so it wasn't too difficult to put together. ;) In fact, they were rather easy to make. Normally I'm scrambling last minute to get holiday crafts done but this time I was 2 weeks ahead of schedule. Yay! 

And if you are ever wondering what to do with the empty Costco cardboard packaging you have lying around (maybe that's just me), just cut them up and make it into Valentines! :) Miss E also helped me stamp her name and glue on some felt hearts. 

She got a little attached to the plastic animals and may have disassembled the Valentines at one point so she could keep them and play with them but I persuaded her to give them back by giving her her own set which she was thrilled about and now we have plastic animal friends all over the house. :) 

I hope you all have a LOVEly Valentine's Day!!

Happy Crafting!

Love, Sierra

Felt Sugar Cookies

My daughter loves to serve food to me from her play kitchen. I sit my large pregnant self at her little IKEA chair and table and she mixes up concoctions like lemonade with eggs and salt in it, pancakes and of course yummy sandwiches. 

When she started pretending that certain foods were cookies because she didn't have any pretend ones, I took it as a hint that I should whip up some easy felt ones.

Here's the How-To:

Ingredients:

*Felt- you can use any kind (I have a combination of eco felt that you can purchase from the craft store and wool felt that you can purchase HERE

*Sprinkles (tiny beads found at the craft store)

*Embroidery Floss

*Needle

*Regular All Purpose Thread

*Poly Fil

*Scissors

*Fabric marker

Recipe:

1. Find something in your home that makes a circle shape for the size cookies and frosting you want. I used different sized drinking glasses. You'll need two cookie circles and one frosting circle per cookie. Trace with a fabric marker and cut out with scissors.

2. Hand sew your tiny "sprinkles" onto your frosting circle.

3. Sew your frosting onto the top layer of the cookie. I sewed mine on with my sewing machine but you can hand stitch it as well. :)

4. Take your bottom cookie piece, line it up with the top cookie piece and blanket stitch around the edge, leaving a small gap to stuff your cookie.

5. Fill with a little bit of poly fil and blanket stitch the gap closed.  

And you have a lovely treat that is good enough to eat...or at least to pretend to... ;)

If your giving them as a gift, you can put them in a little bakery box and tie them up with some pretty bakers twine. :)

Happy crafting!

Love, Sierra

Special Guest: My Sister's Suitcase

I am so excited to introduce our special guest today... Holly from My Sister's Suitcase. Today she is sharing her fabulous changing table transformation and I think you lovelies are going to flip over! :) 

Hi, I'm Holly {one half of My Sister's Suitcase}. Nat and I are two crafty moms who are lucky enough to be sisters! We wish we lived closer to each other, but for now we are using our blog to keep our LDCR (Long Distance Crafting Relationship) alive. I'm excited to be here today, showing you a project that I made for my little girl {which was inspired by our shared love of ICE CREAM!}

One of the things I love about Spring, {besides the beautiful weather} is the motivation I have to check things off my "project" list. Today I'll be showing you how I converted this $10 yard sale changing table...

... to THIS:

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I'm not gonna lie, this project was a lot of work... but isn't this cute face worth it???

She loves her new "ice cream parlor" and all the goodies that go with it. {Don't mind the crazy hair... I know she needs a hair cut. But since she is my first girl--and she has so little hair already--I'm nervous to do it!}

So, what do you think of Anna's Ice Cream Parlor?

I have a lot of different projects going on here :) So, today I am going to show you how I transformed her plain-jane changing table, and created a fabric panel that can fold up into an awning. Here's the basic overview:

The weather was gorgeous this week, so I took full advantage and spray painted this baby! I used Rustoleum Heirloom White, and then dry brushed a little Pure White chalk paint on to give it some texture and a hand-painted look. Next, I added my new vinyl shelf paper {I scored 2 rolls of this for $5.99 at TJ Maxx!} I think it totally makes the new look. To add "walls" to the back of the ice cream parlor, I created two panels out of white foam board {dollar store} and covered them with fabric. Yay hot glue! The final step was sewing the fabric panel that will hang from the front of the changing table. This is where things got a little harder, and coincidentally there aren't any pictures...

Before we go any further, I just have to say that sewing is NOT my best skill, {in fact I just learned to use my machine last year.} For me, sewing = experimenting, and therefore you will probably never get a sewing tutorial with pictures from me.  I am sure for most of you this panel would be a piece of cake. Here is what I did.

I wanted the panel to be double-sided so I cut my pieces of striped fabric to length, then cut my scalloped border in the pink fabric. I sewed that part first, then turned it right sides out and added a top stitch around the scallops. {This was my first time sewing something other than a straight line!} Then I pinned the scalloped piece inside the two striped pieces and sewed them together. I continued to sew all sides of the panel, leaving an opening to turn it right side out. {I ironed A LOT during this whole process too.}

Now, it was time to add the dowel to the top of the pink scallop border (this will help create the awning shape later). I created a small dowel pocket, then sewed up the rest of the sides of the border. The last step was to create two small pole pockets and sew them inside the seam {on the back of the panel} where the striped and pink fabrics meet. These will hold your awning poles in place.

I think I spent $2 total at Home Depot for my pvc pipe (1/2") and two caps for the bottoms of the poles. A nice employee even cut them to the length I needed :) I covered them in the striped fabric and I love how it looks!

Once the fabric panel was done, I attached it to the changing table with some home decor velcro {one strip is super sticky, and the other strip is sewable.} I ended up using fabric glue to attach it to the top of the panel because I was sick of my sewing machine didn't want more stitching showing on the front. I also used velcro to attach the foam "walls" to the back of the changing table. Worked like a charm!

Now came the tricky part... how was I going to get the panel to fold up halfway and attach to the top to create the right length for the awning? After a few failed attempts {snaps... ribbon...} I decided to try this:

The pink and white twine looks cute, and it's functional! whoo-hoo! I added really small nails up at the top of the table {on the back} so the twine loops would have something to hook on to. It is really easy to adjust and the height is perfect for the awning now.

Just stick your poles in the pockets {cut side of pvc pipe} and then the capped end should touch the floor. The poles will lean back towards the table and stay in place nicely under the bottom shelf. Here's what it looks like from the side:

I added an ice cream banner across the front of the awning and tied it to the poles. That's it! Now we're ready to set up shop :) Here are some of the accessories I had fun making:

For the ice cream scoops, I found the cutest idea here! Adrienne used a ping pong ball to wrap the felt around, giving it the perfect scoop shape. I followed her pattern for the ice cream cones, but added the stitching on the felt to make them look like real sugar cones. Mint choclate chip is my favorite flavor, so I had to have it!

I glued some mini pom poms on the tops of some of the scoops to make "sprinkles". Then I put the rest of them in a salt shaker... it is one of my daughter's favorite things to play with!

The menu was made from chalkboard vinyl and a picture frame. I had so much fun accessoring the shop... paper straws, mini wooden "tasting" spoons, and kid-size malt glasses were a few of my favorite finds. I also painted the 5x7 canvases hanging on the wall. I used a chalk marker to draw out my designs then added a few pops of color.

I think my favorite part is the "pick up" window :) I had this crown molding shelf sitting around that was the perfect size...

I'll take a scoop of chocolate to go please!

I hope this inspires you to take something that is just wasting space, and turn it into a creative play space for your little ones!

Thanks so much for having us over at your darling blog! Here are some of our most popular projects from the past month:

                        Upcycled Spring Globe                                    Old Chair to Spring Planter

{Aluminum Sheet Metal} Dresser Makeover

We'd love for you to stop by and check out what else is in My Sister's Suitcase!

Have a beautiful Easter weekend!

Thank you so much Holly for sharing that adorableness!! Make sure to visit Nat & Holly at My Sister's Suitcase to see all of their other amazing projects! :)