crafts

American Girl Birthday

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American Girl Party Tent

Well, you had to know this day was coming. Miss Priss asked for an American Girl birthday party, and TheRoomMom complied. We have attended a few AG birthday parties recently, and we needed a new spin to the theme. I was already working on the American Girl camping supplies, so we opted for a backyard American Girl campout birthday (sleepover NOT included– I did recognize my limits on this one).

American Girl Party Invitation

The Invitation

I know it is popular to use Paperless Post or Evites right now, but I really like paper party invitations delivered via snail mail. There were several fun camping party choices on Etsy. I ordered through a store called Memories Too. The store owner e-mailed a JPG file to me after about 4 business days. I had one edit, which she turned around in a few hours. I uploaded the image to FedEx Office and had the invitation printed in color on white cardstock. I found plain pink envelopes at a local paper store.

The invitation asked guests to bring a doll or stuffed friend with them to the party, so they would have a camping buddy.

The Activities

When guests arrived, they received a doll sleeping bag that had a name tag with a number. We grouped the guests based on the tag numbers on the sleeping bags and rotated the party guests through three stations. That kept all of the guests spread out for most of the party and gave everyone something to do until it was time for cake.

American Girl Dolls Camping

  • Station 1— We set up 3 camping tents in the backyard. This group played in the tents with the dolls and the sleeping bags. TheRoomDad monitored this area and provided some monster invasions from time to time.

American Girl Party Activity Bug Jar

  • Station 2— This group searched for small twigs in the yard then used the twigs to make small bug jars and marshmallows on a stick. I had a table with the supplies as well as my regular babysitter to run this station. My sitter showed everyone how to set up the bug jars, make the fake marshmallows, and she monitored supplies. For full bug jar and marshmallow instructions, visit the American Girl Camping Post.

American Girl Party Activity Campfire

  • Station 3— This group made a doll sized campfire. I ran this station, and it was set up in a similar way to the bug jar area. For full campfire instructions, visit the American Girl Camping Post.

Each guest had a paper plate with her name on it. When the child finished a craft, she put her item on the paper plate. We set the plates to the side, so parents could easily carry the crafts to the trash can at their home home at the end of the party.

American Girl Mini Brownie Bites

The Cake

Miss Priss wanted chocolate! We ordered a mini chocolate fudge cake from the grocery store. I call these “smash cakes” and see this mini size at first birthday parties a lot. We put candles on the cake and sang, but we did not cut the smash cake. Instead, guests ate mini brownie bites that had been decorated with pink and white flowers.

The Food

Keeping with the doll theme, I tried to do all mini or bite sized food. After we sang, the kids went through a buffet line and picked up the little snacks and brownie bites. It was all finger food, so it eliminated a need for any forks or spoons.

IMG_3918

  • Pigs-in-a-blanket— Basically, a mini hot dog. I used 3 rolls of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and 2 packages of Lit’l Smokies, which yields about 60 pigs. I cut each crescent roll into 3 triangles and then wrap a triangle around a Lit’l Smokie. I follow the baking instructions on the Pillsbury Crescent Roll package.

Mini Dill Dip Party Food

  • Dill Dip— This is Miss Priss’ favorite snack, and one of my signature recipes. I purchased 1-oz plastic shot glasses at the party store and put a dollop of dill dip at the bottom of the cup. We stacked mini carrot sticks, mini celery sticks, and mini red pepper slices in the cups, so they were ready to serve. Click here for the Dill Dip and Chex Mix Recipes.

IMG_3902

  • Chex Mix— We saw mini pink popcorn boxes at our independent party store, but I also considered using Wilton mini cake boxes from Michael’s Crafts to hold the snack mix. I did a variation of one of my Chex Mix recipes. This version has popcorn. Click here for the Dill Dip and Chex Mix Recipes.

Marshmallow Smore Party Food

  • S’More on a Stick— We used brightly colored cocktail sticks and stabbed marshmallows. I melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and plain Hershey milk chocolate bars in a double boiler. I crushed graham crackers and placed the crumbs in a flat bowl. I dipped the marshmallow in the melted chocolate, and Miss Priss rolled the chocolate end of the marshmallow in the graham cracker. I must say, these were delicious and much safer than having 17 six and seven year olds standing around a fire pit.

The Party Favors

Guests took home the bug jar and campfire crafts. They also took home the doll sleeping bag. If you have a sewing machine, the sleeping bags are easy to make. However, had I known I would need 17 doll sleeping bags, I might have rethought my decision to have these as party favors. For full doll sleeping bag instructions, visit the American Girl Camping Post.

American Girl Party Favor Sleeping BagsI am exhausted and am considering canceling Halloween. Anyone with me?

American Girl Goes Camping

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american girl camp out

Miss Priss ran out of sleeping space for her American Girls, so I offered to make some sleeping bags. Well, if you make an American Girl a sleeping bag, she will need a campfire to go with it. If you have a campfire, you will want to toast marshmallows. If you toast marshmallows, bugs might show up for a snack. If bugs show up, you will need a bug jar…

Sleeping Bags

AG doll in sleeping bagMaterials

  • cotton fabric
  • coordinating fleece
  • reversible ribbon
  • sewing machine

Directions

  • Cut one piece of 30″ x 21″ cotton and one piece of 30″ x 21″ fleece.
  • Pin the two pieces of fabric together. The cotton should have the wrong side facing out.

AG sleeping bag pinning fabric

  • Sew the two pieces of fabric together about 3/8″ from the edge. Leave an opening along one long side.

AG sleeping bag opening

  • Turn the fabric right side out through the opening. Push the corners out with a finger, so they are square. Fold the fabric in half.

AG sleeping bag inside out

AG sleeping bag sew closed

  • Cut a piece of ribbon about 30″ and fold the ribbon in half. Insert the folded end of the ribbon into the fabric opening and secure the ribbon with a pin.

AG sleeping bag add ribbon tie

  • Pin the fabric along the edge that has the ribbon and halfway up the open side.
  • Sew the edge with the ribbon and the partial side together.

Campfire and Toasting Marshmallows

AG fire pit with marshmallowsMaterials

  • CDs
  • Elmer’s glue
  • potting soil
  • stones
  • small twigs
  • tissue paper in fire colors cut into small squares (2″ x 2″?)
  • white Crayola Model Magic sculpting clay

Directions

  • Cover the surface of the CD with glue.

AG fire pit glue

  • Sprinkle potting soil on top and shake off the excess.

AG fire pit add dirt

  • Drizzle more Elmer’s glue around the edge of the CD. Add rocks around the edge. Rocks that are about the width of a quarter work well.

AG fire pit add rocks

  • Collect small twigs from your yard and break into small pieces (maybe 2″).
  • Drizzle glue around the center hole of the CD and stack twigs. Drizzle a little more glue and add sticks until it looks like a campfire.

AG fire pit add sticks

  • Roll the squares of tissue paper into a flame shape and insert between the twigs. Drizzle glue here and there as needed. Let campfire dry overnight.

AG campfire with tissue flames

  • Roll a pea sized piece of Model Magic between your fingers into a ball. Flatten the top and bottom, so it is cylinder shaped. Push onto a twig. Let dry overnight.

AG marshmallows

Bug Jars

Materials

bug jar supplies

Directions

  • Find a small twig and break it to the height of the jar (about 1″). 
  • Secure 3-4 mini pom poms to the twig with the glue dots. This is the caterpillar.
  • Put the caterpillar on the twig in the jar and add a sequin leaf, small torn pieces of tissue paper, and maybe another small twig.

AG mini big jarsI know the scale is not perfect, but the bug jars are our favorite American Girl accessory right now. What is your favorite American Girl craft? Don’t forget to go back and look at the American Girl Cafe, American Girl Sweet Shop, or American Girl School before making a decision!

AG fire pit bug jars marshmallows

Swim Coach Survival Kit

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coach survival kit tags

Swim team season officially ends tonight with a swim and pizza party, swim medal presentation, and gifts for the coaches. We have four swim coaches for our team. Three are college students, and the head coach is a science teacher during the school year. The swim team mom in charge of the coaches’ gift decided cash would be the most useful for the coaches rather than gift cards or something more specific. She needed a way to present this present, so I offered to make these easy potholder clutches.

I originally saw the idea on a site called Tidy Mom. They are really fun (and fast) to make, but you will need a sewing machine. I filled the finished clutch with items a coach might need at the pool. We filled the first pocket with the cash.

coach survival kit supplies

Materials

  • square potholders (The Tidy Mom post suggested potholders from Target. I had a hard time finding single square potholders. I ended up purchasing 2-piece oven mitt sets from Kmart. My square potholders are 7″ x 8″– not a perfect square– with a loop along one short side)
  • Scotch tape
  • snack size Ziploc bags (6 1/2″ x 3 1/4″)
  • sewing machine
  • ~7/8″ button (coordinating color)
  • thread (coordinating color)

coach survival kit tape bags

Directions

  • Set your potholder on a flat surface with the loop on the right side. I kept the potholder pocket on the outside, but it is up to you how you want your potholder to face.
  • Place one snack bag on the right side with the baggie opening facing the right edge. Place a piece of tape on the top and bottom to keep the baggie from moving.
  • Place another snack bag on top with the baggie opening facing the left edge. The center should overlap with the first baggie. Place a piece of tape at the top and bottom.
  • Continue alternating baggies right and left. I liked 5 snack bags (=5 pockets). The Tidy Mom post used 10, but the bags fill up fast if you include bulky items and then the clutch won’t close.

coach survival kit zig zag stitch

  • Sew a zig zag stitch down the middle of the potholder, which should also be down the center of the Ziploc bags. Cut any loose threads. Carefully remove the tape from the edges without pulling or stretching the plastic bags.
  • Fold the clutch in half and pull the loop around to the front and eyeball where the button will need to be placed. If you do not have a loop on the potholder, follow the Tidy Mom site’s directions for adding a loop.
  • Attach the button with coordinating thread. I used green thread and black/green buttons in honor of our swim team colors.

coach survival kit buttons

  • I printed gift tags on white cardstock and tied with curly ribbon to the loop.

coach survival kit finished

Survival Kit Content Suggestions

  • plastic comb
  • chapstick
  • sunblock stick
  • gum
  • Bandaids
  • hair rubberbands (for the girl coaches)
  • travel toothbrush and toothpaste
  • Tylenol or Advil
  • Tums
  • travel size lotion
  • travel size shampoo
  • some cash or change (for trips to the snack bar or soda machine)

coach survival kit contents

Notes

  • Flatter items work better. The sunblock stick took up a lot of room. I ended up removing the toothbrush and toothpaste because the combination of the 3 created too much bulk.
  • When possible, I used items that matched our team colors (black comb, green gum, black and green hair bands). I did not force the color thing, though.
  • Don’t cheap out on the Ziploc bags. I bought CVS generic brand on sale, and they are a little flimsy. I wish I had used Ziploc or Glad snack bags.
  • This could easily be adapted to a Teacher Emergency Kit for a great back to school teacher gift. It could also be used for many other sports as an end of season coach gift. It is not very girly if you use solid colored potholders, so it works for males and females.

coach survival kit filled

Swim Team Shirts

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sharpie tie dye shirts

In honor of the final swim meet of the season, Mr. Star Wars and his teammates decorated shirts after swim practice this morning. The coach brought acrylic paint and brushes, each swimmer brought an old white t-shirt, and I felt compelled to up the decorative quality of the shirts and brought materials for Sharpie tie dying.

I learned about this so cool but so easy technique 10 years ago when my oldest niece attended a summer camp near my parents’ house. My niece was 5 or 6 at the time and came home with this t-shirt that had multi-colored sunbursts all over it. Lately, I have seen samples floating around on Pinterest. The Pinterest sample I saw looks a little different than my way, but it is roughly the same procedure. The best thing about the Sharpie tie dye is the minimal mess!

sharpie tie dye supplies

The Materials

  • Sharpie pens, variety of colors (we used shades of green and black for our team colors)
  • medicine droppers (purchased at CVS)
  • rubbing alcohol
  • coins (quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies)
  • cardboard squares (about 8″x8″)
  • cup or jar

sharpie tie dye before

The Directions

  • Put the cardboard piece inside the shirt to prevent the Sharpie from leaking through to the other side. Move the cardboard around as needed, so it is always beneath the area where you are working.
  • Place a coin on the shirt. Draw an outline of dots with a Sharpie marker around the edge of the coin. You want the dots to be fairly close together to make the effect better. You can alternate color dots if you wish.
  • Remove the coin from the shirt.
  • Pour rubbing alcohol into a cup, so it is easy to get the alcohol into the dropper. Fill the medicine dropper about 1/3 full and begin dropping rubbing alcohol into the white center of the Sharpie dot circle.
  • Add drops a little at a time, always directly in the center of the Sharpie dots, until the Sharpie begins to bleed out.

sharpie tie dye sample

Notes

  • Our white cotton t-shirts from Cherokee (Target line) and J. Crew worked better than the Hanes men’s cotton undershirt. There is a difference in the weave of the cotton. It was kind of interesting how the material changed the effect of the stain.
  • If you alternate colors, you can create new colors. For example, alternating blue and red dots creates purple. This is a great learning tool for kids about the color wheel.
  • The sun burst size changes depending on how close the dots are to each other, so experiment with that too.
  • You do not have to use the coins. Kids can create any dotted outline (like a heart or a star) and discover different results.
  • Unfortunately, I have not figured out a way to set the Sharpie marker well when washing. If you run the shirt in the dryer before the first wash, it helps hold the color. When you do wash the shirt, wash in cold water on gentle cycle. You may want to hang dry.
  • Black Sharpie marker looks like purple when it spreads.

sharpie tie dye sample 2

Fairy Gardens

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fairy garden finished

I always return from a visit at Sewing Sister’s with at least one crafty project. I was completely enthralled with the planters on my sister’s back deck set up like fairy gardens. Turns out, she has a local gardening center with an entire (small) room dedicated to fairy garden accessories. Oh, for the love of all things mini! My heart (and Miss Priss’) skipped a beat when we entered the room.

Several months ago, we started a fairy garden in a planter box on our back deck after Miss Priss’ kindergarten teacher shared the book, Fairy House Handbook, and Mr. Star Wars completed a fairy tale unit about the same time. The original plants had been growing wildly for 3 months or so, and the fairy garden was ready for a face lift.

fairy garden full view

The Location

  • According to Miss Priss’ kindergarten teacher, fairies like hidden or out of the way locations. Look for a spot that is quiet and away from big people feet.
  • Nooks and crannies of tree stumps are great. Flower pots or deep flower pot saucers work well tucked in a corner of your yard.
  • We used one of the empty plant boxes that surround our back deck. One end of the box has a large jasmine vine growing up the corner post, so it provided a nice covered area.

fairy garden phase 1  fairy garden phase 2  fairy garden phase 3

The Plants

  • Ask your gardening center for succulents. Here is a list of a few we have growing.
    • Pachyphytum oviferium
    • Sedum adolphii
    • Aeonium bella
    • Sedum brevifolium
  • Certain kinds of moss or plants that are good ground cover for paths and borders work well. We just added the two below and are waiting for them to fill in a little.
    • Blue Star Creeper (Isotoma fluviatilis)
    • Irish Moss (Sagina subulata)
  • I think herbs like tarragon or thyme would be the right size and would have that wild look in a short amount of time.
  • If you can have something tall like our jasmine vine mixed with the shorter items, it gives the fairy garden a little variety.
  • The fairy garden looks much better after several months of growth. Now that our succulent plants have filled out, the garden looks much more secretive and cozy. The pictures above show just planted this past March (far left), 2 months later (middle), and this past week (far right).

fairy garden fairy

The Accessories

  • Fairies prefer naturally found materials, but we had to sneak some very tiny man-made items in our garden. Fairies also like colorful and shiny items like the sea glass.

fairy garden table

  • We made a table and stool from bottle corks with sand dollars hot glued to the top. I purchased mini sand dollars, and I had regular sized sand dollars (for the table top) from a recent beach trip.
  • We used shells to line paths and placed pieces of fencing along the paths. We scattered blue sea glass to look like water in a stream.

fairy garden swing

  • We found a mini metal garden arch, and we tied twine to a piece of bark to make a swing.
  • We bought mini rabbits, a fairy, and some mini flower pots at Sewing Sister’s gardening store. My niece recommended using any tiny plastic animals we had in our toy collection if we wanted more wildlife.

fairy garden rabbitsThe Fairy Note

  • It is possible that fairies will leave a very tiny note if they are happy with the home you create. Miss Priss is positive fairies are real because they have left behind a note or two. She keeps the tiny notes with a note the tooth fairy left her.
  • I think the fairies must use a pen with a very fine point to be able to handwrite such tiny letters. 

fairy garden noteThe Sources

  • Sugar Creek Gardens in St. Louis had the little ceramic fairy and rabbits. We also purchased the ceramic foot bridge, the sea glass, the turquoise bird feeder, and turquoise flower pot there. I picked up the ground cover plants for paths and borders at this gardening store too.
  • Hobby Lobby had the mini sand dollars, the garden arch, and the fence pieces. I think they also have other fairy garden items.
  • I found the succulent plants in my local Ace Hardware’s gardening section. 

fairy garden full view 2If you have a fairy garden in your backyard, please share photos on my Facebook page!