Handpainted Rope Basket

Supplies:
Rope basket from Michaels (can’t find it online, but it was picked up at my local shop)
Craft paint
Tintable fabric paint mix
Paintbrush

Directions:
Mix your tintable fabric paint with your craft paint following the package instructions, then paint your design onto your rope basket.

I had been wanting to sew a large basket, but haven’t had the time, but was so happy to see Michaels carried them. I’m thinking of picking up another and painting a different design on it. I’m no Gemma Patford, but it was fun to paint this basket.

My little creative space is usually a crazy mess (proof here), but this month’s Michaels Makers Challenge has forced me to organize, which is a very good thing. The challenge was to organize our craft space a bit, so I picked up some baskets from Michaels (this and this one, the green one is from there too, but not online). Then, I had Ben mount a thread holder on the wall for me. Things are definitely feeling much better in that room, and I can’t wait to start making something so I can make a giant mess.

I will share more of the room soon, but I want to organize the closet first. Anyone remember that episode on Friends about Monica’s secret closet?! I have a closet just like that. I get stressed when I go in there, but that’s where all my fabric is, along with a whole lot of other (craft) junk. It needs major help, so I’m hoping I can give it some attention in the next month or so.

Supplies for this project was provided as part of the Michaels Makers series.

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True’s been requesting a handmade She-Ra doll for awhile now, and her wish comes true this Christmas. I think when Brave got a handmade version of her favorite superhero, that’s when True started asking for her own.

I wasn’t sure how to make this She-Ra doll happen, but I sketched out a couple ideas, and then just made things up as I went. I started off with the regular rag doll form first, then went from there adding details that would make it the Princess of Power. After I got the head and hair all done, I got super excited because I could totally see the She-Ra doll coming to life. I love the way it turned out and I’m pretty sure True will too. Ben and I so excited to give it to her!!!

I can’t wait for Soul (and Glow) to make a request one day. I love the challenge and seeing an idea come to fruition, and then seeing my girls get so happy about something I made for them. Are you excited?! There’s only one more sleep left until Christmas!!!

New Year’s Eve Party Hats
inspired by these cool vintage party hats

Supplies:
Party Hat template
Colorful cardstock (bought in the scrapbooking section)
Glitter stickers
Crepe paper streamers
Glue gun & glue stick
Round elastic cording
Hole punch
Sewing machine
Coordinating thread
Fringe scissors
Scissors

Directions:
1. Using the template, cut out your party hat. Make sure to cut the slit on the hat for the tab to go through. Then, add your saying or design. To create the cone shape, insert the tab through the slit, glue to secure cone close.

2. Cut three – 24″ strips of crepe paper, sew down the center of the entire length. Fold in half, and using your fringe scissors, cut a fringe on your crepe paper strip. Cut towards the center, but don’t cut all the way through. Glue fringe all along the bottom of the hat, wrapping around twice. With your hand, brush the fringe upward to make it fuller.

To make your fringe topper, cut three – 4″ strips of crepe paper, sew the center width-wise, and cut each end with the fringe scissors toward the center. Pinch the center together and glue to the top of the hat. Another topper option is to cut several thin 12″ strips of crepe paper (in various colors), pinch the end together, and glue to the top of the hat.

Punch a small hole on on each side of the hat to string your elastic through, and knot on each side. Our elastic was 15″ long and with it tied on both sides, and it was the perfect fit for my girls.

The girls picked their New Year’s party dresses from Old Navy (there are lots of fun ones to choose from). I love Brave’s plaid denim dress, it’s nice and thick, and such a cute cut. I would totally wear it. In fact, I would totally wear Soul’s too. She is such a girly girl in stripes and leopard shoes. Her criteria for her dresses are… the skirt must be above the knee and no sleeves to her hands. Good thing I make them wear shorts under their dresses all the time. Soul is the most difficult when it comes to getting herself dressed (she changes so many times before settling on an outfit). She didn’t want to wear the party hat at first because she liked her headband, but after seeing how much fun the other girls were having wearing their hats, she finally wanted to join in the fun. True picked her pink dress because she said, “Mommy, it’s good for twirling.” Glow will still wear what mommy wants her to wear (thankfully), and I think it’s cute how her dress looks like it would be a fabric of a floral sofa. Now that I think of it, I think she would totally match my mom’s sofa! Then, topped with their party hats, my girls will be ready to ring in the New Year with our traditional Bratcher Dance Party. But first, we will happily get through Christmas, and Christmas Day is for wearing pajamas all day long!

on true: pink tiered dress & marled socks, c/o old navy. biker boots, gap kids. on brave: plaid denim dress, c/o old navy. boots, doc martens. on soul: striped dress (similar here), headband, and leopard ballet slippers (we cut off the elastic band), c/o old navy. on glow: floral dress, c/o old navy. shoes, minnetonka moccasin.

This post is sponsored by Old Navy. I’m continuously thankful for the support you give me and the brands I partner with!

This past weekend, as a thank you for doing such a good job for helping both Ben and me execute surprises this past week, we busted out these cool Huzi Design Cars and gave them to the girls. Oh my gosh… they went wild for the cars! Huzi makes these wooden cars, painted in chalkboard paint, and they come with a little packet of chalk (and an eraser). The girls spent all day decorating the cars and playing with them. The body (top/chalkboard part of the car) magnetically snaps together to the base/wheels. We have 4 cars, but there’s only one set of wheels per box (a box has two car bodies), so they had to take turns; they mostly did a good job of sharing. They creatively figured out other ways to play with them when someone else had the wheels.

I was out doing errands and Ben would text me about all the different types of designs they would draw on the cars. I think the popular one was a van that delivered fresh bread. And as you can see above, they took tape and made roads all over the place! They really played with the cars all day long. It was funny, as I would just walk through doing this or that around the house, and if I ended up on one of their roads, they would say, “Don’t walk in the middle of the road Mommy!” Between these roads, and the designs from this day, I’m pretty much all out of tape. I’m glad it’s going to good use that keeps them engaged and let’s them be creative. Now that I think of it, I probably should add that to their stockings for Christmas!

We have the “Dream Car – Adventurous” and the “Dream Car-Classic,” and now they are lobbying for the other two sets… too bad they didn’t put it on their Christmas list. I love toys like this that really encourage creativity and are well-designed.

This is how we put together the castle for Soul’s princess party. Ben created the frame by using PVC pipes we already had. I simply covered it with my massive roll of craft paper (I use it for so many things!) and affixed it on with packaging tape. I cut out the two, top front panels in the shape of a tower, and then I painted on a brick pattern all throughout the exterior (excluding the back and right side) and interior.

I originally wanted to make it out of cardboard boxes (inspired by this) and make them slot together, similar to the cardboard dollhouse, but we didn’t have boxes large enough. Also, I was too pressed for time to figure that out (that’s what happens when I have two December birthdays to prepare for on top of Christmas!). I told Ben what I was visualizing and I let him come up with the frame. Thus, he came up with the skeleton, and I added the meat. We like to tag team on projects like that often. Usually though, I do the skeleton and he adds the substance, but this time it was at the other way around. *high-five Ben!*

I did see this cool medieval castle playhouse, and this coloring castle, or this life-size fairy castle, or even this discovery play castle. In the end though, none of them were quite large enough to have them have a party inside the castle, so we made our own. But I just came across this carriage, and had I seen that early enough, I might have gotten that to add to our castle. Everything worked out wonderfully and if you saw her party post, you know Soul loved her castle! The only bummer part is that when I moved my fiddle leaf fig tree, I didn’t realize there was sitting water in the saucer. I’m guessing somehow it leaked out because there was a big puddle on the wood floor, which I didn’t see until after the party was over, and well now, we have a a couple really warped planks. Oye vey!

One of my most favorite things to sew are my dollhouse pillows. This is my first one ever and it’s still getting a lot of love today. It looks pretty worn because it’s been played with and loved so much! In my book, Let’s Sew Together, I give full instructions on how to make a dollhouse pillow that opens up! It’s one of the “take your time” projects in the book, but it’s really such a labor of love your child will treasure.

I shared a simpler version of my dollhouse pillow on A Beautiful Mess, so if you still need a couple ideas of Christmas presents to make, you might want to consider making one these. Get the full instructions here. Also, if you want to see some of my other contributions to ABM, check out the full list here.

We had such a lovely day celebrating Ben’s 40th birthday yesterday, and what I thought was going to be all about him, there ended up being a surprise for me too (I share a bit about it here). That man of mine is something else!