Creative Mom Cafe

One fun thing to do in the warm weather is go on picnics. The sunshine, the fresh air, the threat of ants are all part of what makes eating outside fun. I pulled together some great sewing ideas from around the web to create your own picnic things. From wrapping utensils to wrapping sandwiches there are a lot of easy sewing ideas you can use to have everythign you need for a picnic lunch. Everything except the food, of course.

Over at Instructables you can follow the directions to quickly sew a utensils holder from a dish towel. There is also an idea for making a dish holder from ordinary dish towels as well. All you need are some great dish towels, you can usually find them for cheap at your local dollar store. Then use ribbons, buttons, or iron-ons to decorate them however you want. If you can cross stitch these could be a fun project to get into.

Looking for a simple sandwich wrap that can be reused?  Try a square of PUL for a fun sandwich wrap. You can buy squares of this coated fabric online for very low cost. Sew on a small bit of Velcro to keep it on to hold it secure and you’re ready to go. If you don’t want to buy PUL check out what this mom did with ordinary fabric and a plastic sandwich bag.

If you have left over scraps of fabric laying around the house you can whip up some simple cloth napkins for your picnic lunch. These are so very simple to make and can add a bit of fun and style to any picnic. Of course you don’t have to just use them for picnics. Make a big batch of the napkins and use them every day to keep your paper use low.

Have a picnic tablecloth that keeps blowing away in the wind? Here’s a simple idea to keep the tablecloth cover down using just a little elastic.  The same will work for bench covers as well. If you are really worried about a windy day try these picnic placemats with individual utensil holders. Keeps the wind from blowing away your fork and spoon in the middle of eating your meal.

Once you get these fun projects whipped up there will be nothing left to do but make your sandwiches and slice the watermelon. Have a great picnic!

crafts, sewing, picnics

I found these adorable spring animals online and had to share them. Using empty baby food jars and some craft foam you can create cute little animals to show off. Make bunnies and chicks for Easter decorations around your house, in your church, or even at the dinner table if you are having a big Easter meal. The possibilities are endless for these easy to make pets.

Of course they don’t have to just be decorations. You could help your kids make an entire farm full of animals for some creative play time. Or you can even use them for party games. Write numbers on the lids then have everyone pick an animal. Later draw a random number, whomever has that numbered animal wins a prize. Hide the fun animals around your house or yard for an interesting scavenger hunt game, just be sure there aren’t any eggs still laying out there. Use your imagination and I’m sure you can come up with a lot of great fun ideas for these cute animals.

Since they reuse the glass baby food jars you could turn them into a fun recycling project. Use scraps of felt or bits of broken toys to create the animals. You can stuff them with bits from old towels, clothes, or the cotton stuffing from blankets and pillows. See how creative you can get using only recycled items for your animals.

For other ideas on reusing baby food jars click here.  There are a lot of fun ways that you can reuse something that most parents already have sitting around.

crafts, spring, animals, Easter, recycling, kids

I’m pulling this idea out of the archives, but for a very good reason. It can be a great spring craft to make with your kids right now. Back during the winter I suggested giving flowers as a Christmas gift. It wasn’t just the flowers but also the pot that makes a beautiful gift.  No doubt if you have gone to the store recently you have seen displays of flowers for sale, lilies, daisies and tulips are the most common right now with some other spring time flowers also. These could be great to give to grandparents as gifts for Easter or to just have around your own home to bring in a little spring. But you don’t have to keep them in the boring pots the stores keep them in.

Turn ordinary terracotta pots into fun spring time crafts. Let your kids go wild painting them, sticking on bunny stickers, or gluing fake eggs around the bottom of the pots. Just be sure to cover the area well first, kids and paint always seems to mean big messes. Here are some great tips on painting terracotta pots that you can use.  You could also try this fun mosaic idea on your flower pots.

Of course you don’t have to just have flowers in your pots. You could decorate a large pot for a one pot herb garden.  Or you could try some container gardening for indoor or patio vegetables. Spring is the perfect time to grow something new and with pretty pots made by your kids it is even more fun to do.

flowers, gardening, Spring, Easter, kids, crafts

Pretty Easter dresses, colorful eggs, delighted faces running through the grass. These are the things that make moms carry their cameras every where they go in hopes of getting a few good photos. With Spring almost here and Easter on the horizon I wanted to share some fun ideas for you scrapbook lovers out there. After all, you have to do something with the mountain of photos you are taking every day.

This is an Easter scrapbook page I did when my oldest son was not quite a year and a half yet. The giant rabbit handing out suckers and taking photos was too fun to resist, at least to me it was. Making the page was just as fun, mixing bright colors with the unique patchwork quilt pattern gave a look I loved. And of course the embellishments added the perfect Easter touch.

• Go with the unusual. Instead of the typical soft pastels look for a bright green or yellow, or mix up colors that you would not normally use together. Just think of wild flowers bursting into bloom.
• Use photos that tell a different story. Instead of the sweet faced child in her best dress use the one later, where she’s covered in chocolate looking for trouble.
• Add some nature to your pages. Not just in photos of nature but with some dried flowers, pressed leaves, or even a muddy hand print begging to be preserved.
• Create a paper garden. Toss together little bits of this and that into a scrap paper garden. All those little ends and sides that leave paper messes every where could be reused into a funky and colorful Spring flowerbed.

If you are looking for something great to say but hitting a writer’s block here is a collection of poems and quotes perfect for Spring time use. You might even be inspired by the quotes themselves. “In like a lion, out like a lamb” is already giving me an idea involving two great pictures. one of my youngest screaming as he waits impatiently for his chocolate candy, and the other as he slept peacefully on the couch, chocolate smears across his lips. You can also get inspired by checking out the great pages other scrapbookers are doing for spring at Flickr.

Spring, Easter, scrapbook, scrapbooking, crafts, photos

As the big green day draws closer more and more people are talking about how they celebrate St. Patrick’s day. There have been so many great posts I could not just sit back and keep them all to myself. Here are the ones that have caught my eye recently. I promise to catch up tonight on the great St. Patrick’s day craft ideas I promised, but until then visit these posts.

If you are looking for some great St. Patrick’s day ideas head over the the St. Patrick’s Day carnival going on at Babylune. There is quite a collection of posts full of ideas for your St. Patrick’s day fun.

Also check out the Holiday Blogger who has a fun craft up called a Leprechaun Box. This is a fun little craft that kids of any age could do, and it gifts you a chance to slip them some treats in secret.

Over at Gather you can find a good recipe for some traditional Irish soda bread. It’s an easy bread to make for anyone, even those who have never tried to make bread before.

Over at My Readable Feast you can find a recipe for a yummy sounding Honey Almond Oat pudding as well as a few good links to check out.

I have several fun creative ideas that I think you are all going to enjoy. Things have been busy, but tonight I’ll have the time to share them all here. Until then here’s a question for everyone to answer. Are you celebrating on March 17th as usual or are you going to be celebrating on the changed date of March 15th?

St. Patrick’s day

Here are some great St. Patrick’s day ideas for the knitters in your house. I love finding fun things to create with a little yarn and my favorite needles.

• Knit Shamrock Cloth - This could be used as a pot holder, dish cloth, or just a decorative piece to hang up. What ever your do it brings a little luck of the Irish.
• Frolicking Shamrocks Socks - The pattern is $5, but these socks are so cute it’s hard to pass it by. A little St. Patrick’s Day fun for your feet.
• Shamrock Pillow or Sachet - Here’s a fun pattern to knit a small shamrock shaped pillow. Very cute!
• St. Patrick’s Day “Necklace” - This fun little knit necklace takes almost no time to create and even beginners can do it.

For those who like to crochet here are some great patterns to get into before St. Patrick’s day.

• Pot ‘O Gold - This fun little crochet pot is the perfect place to hide your treasures.
• Four Leaf Clover coaster - You can whip up some of these to place around if you are planning a St. Patrick’s day party. Be sure to use green yarn to hide the spills from the green beer.
• Shamrock - This cute little crocheted shamrock would look adorable pinned to your jacket.
• St. Patrick’s Day hat - This little green hat is so cute I can’t resist it. It is certainly not for beginners, but worth the effort.

If anyone knows of any other fun patterns online for St. Patrick’s day please leave them in the comments. Thanks!

knitting, crocheting, St. Patrick’s day, crafts

For those who like to recycle their trash into crafty projects the milk jug Easter basket is a fairly common one this time of year. However this simple basket can pull double duty and become a Pot ‘O Gold for some little leprechaun to carry. All you need is a clean empty milk jug, scissors, paint, a stapler, and your “gold”. My favorite is to use chocolate candies wrapped in gold foil. You can use both a gallon and a half-gallon milk jug to make this, both work great. Here’s how to make the pot.

Using your scissors cut the bottom 4-5 inches off of the milk jug. This bottom part will be the pot. From the top part cut a long, thin piece  to be the handle of the put. Use the stapler to secure the handle to the pot. You may need to use two or three staples on each side. It should look like this once you have the handle stapled one.

Once you have it securely stapled into place you can paint the pot. Some may prefer to go with black to make it resemble a traditional pot, others may want to go green with it. You could even glue on pictures of 4 leaf clovers or leprechauns to make it even more fun.

This could be a great class project to do. Have everyone bring in a jug to cut and paint themselves, then leave them out on their desks over night. The next morning they might find a suprise left behind in their pots by some traveling leprechauns.

crafts, pot of gold, recycled, milk jugs, St. Patrick’s day

This isn’t a project you will want to do with younger children, but it is still a fun St. Patrick’s day craft idea.

Many people have seen the fun necklaces and earrings made from soda cans. Shapes, usually hearts, are cut from the cans and strung onto chains or hung on ear hooks to make interesting recycled jewelry. I have always thought these were cool pieces of jewelry, and have also secretly wanted a Mountain Dew heart necklace to show my love for the beverage that keeps me going. This weekend I decided instead of a heart I could use the green can to make a fun four leaf clover. So that’s just what I did.

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Nothing else says spring like flowers. Here is another fun little spring craft you can do with your kids to get you all in a spring state of mind.

• cardboard
• paints, crayons, or markers
• scissors
• glue
• a small photo of your child

You can make a cute flower photo frame to show off your child’s artistic talents and spring time smile all in one shot. First you will need to print off the flower template to use. Or create your own flower head to show off your child’s face. For the template click on the small image below.

Use the flower template to cut a flower shape out of your cardboard. You can make this a great recycling project by using cardboard from boxes. If you use food boxes, such as from cereal or pastas you may want to cut two flowers to layer together for a sturdier flower frame. Cut the center circle out for your child’s picture.

Most children will have fun decorating their flowers for unique spring time treasures. You can use just the flower heads, or cut stems and leaves to glue to your flower frames. Once dry add your child’s picture to the center and you have a fun spring time frame. The great thing about this craft is that it is so simple you can adapt it in any way that you want. Attach magnets to the back to hang your flower frames on your fridge or glue each flower onto a doweling rod and “plant’ them in a flower pot. You can get as creative as you want to with these simple frames.

crafts, kid’s crafts, spring, pictures, picture frame

Over at Unplug Your Kids there are fun weekly projects going on. This is one of the blogs that I absolutely love reading for all the fun ideas and easy crafts that are always going on. This week the kids made a pillow and small banner flags out of fabric. They turned out so cute and the kids were entertained for hours. Sounds great doesn’t it?

Those of you that sew, go ahead and pull out your own bins of fabric and see what scraps and pieces you might have hiding in there. Eve if you’re not a sewer you can usually find fun pieces of fabrics at thrift shops for very cheap. It could easily become a full day of fun by letting the kids pick out their own materials and come up with their own creations. Those who can’t, or don’t want to, sew you could always look for fleece. Because fleece does not fray on the edges you can make many no-sew projects.

With Easter coming up you could try sewing some cute fabric eggs with your kids, make liners for Easter baskets, sew an Easter kite, or make this sweet Easter bunny (pdf).

Stuffed animals is one Easter staple that never seems to go out of style. Everyone ends up with two or three new bunnies, chicks, and sheep before the candy has been eaten. So sewing up some cute handmade stuffed toys would be a great simple sewing project to do to. Follow in Sew Green’s footsteps and recycle old material to make the toys out of. Socks without a match and out grown clothes could be remade into sweet little lovies.

Know any other great Easter sewing projects out there? Leave a comment and let me know!

crafts, kids, sewing, Easter

I promised more spring themed crafts coming up and here is one that screams spring and is something that you can do with your kids. Make your own sweet spring bonnet to wear on those sunny spring days. The really fun part is that this hat isn’t made from the typical woven hat. Your kids will enjoy getting messy making this fun hat from paper, glue, and liquid starch.

Here is what you will need:

• large mixing bowls
• a large metal pan
• liquid starch
• glue
• 2 large pieces of construction paper, 24 inches in diameter, per child

In the pan mix together the startch and glue. Dip the pieces of paper into the mixture and cover them completely. Turn the mixing bowls upside down and place the pieces of paper over them. Smooth out the papers and allow them to try. There may be dripps from the glue and starch mixture so you might want to lay down newspaper to cover the area. Expect a lot of mess as your kids get their hands covered in the goo.

Once the paper hats are dry glue on ribbons, fake flowers, or anything else you and you kids want to create a fun spring hat. They aren’t the sturdiest hats and will break if played with too much. But for a fun spring time dress up game these hats are perfect.

While you have out the glue and liquid starch you can also make a batch of crazy putty for your kids to play with. There is a great recipe for it over at Howstuffworks.

crafts, spring, spring bonnet, kid’s crafts

Happy Valentine’s day!

Are you ready to enjoy the day? Treats made, crafts done, trinkets and small presents ready to go? Or are you like me and putting everything off to the last minute? If you still don’t know what to make or do today there are a few easy and quick ideas that you can do last minute. After all, just because you are creative does not mean that you are timely. Some of the most creative people are also the mose scatterbrained. Or, that’s what I tell myself.

• Beaded Valentine - make a cute bead and lace Valentine that’s easy for kids to make.
• Woven Hearts card - for the more advenced creative types create this beautiful card by weaving ribbons into hearts.
• Satin Heart Box - this beautiful heart shaped box looks like a lot more work than it really is. If you can cut satin and use a hot glue gun you can create this elegant little box.
• Plastic Canvas Mailbox - This is a fun little mailbox you can create out of plastic canvas and yarn. Perfect for putting those little goodies in
• Cross Stitch Valentine Gift Bag - Here is a simple way to decorate a bag into a special Valentine bag.
• Sweetheart Necklaces - bake these simple little hearts with your kids to give as cute gifts
• Felt Conversation Hearts - These are another simple craft that you can do with your kids. Have fun making the hearts the decide what you want to say with them.

Hopefully you will find something there that you can whip up for a last minute fun craft.

Valentine’s Day, crafts, gifts

wordless wednesday, felt, sewing

Are you still staring at a pile of Christmas cards wondering what to do with them now? You could chop them up to make thank you cards to send out to everyone. Or cut them down small and use as gift tags for next Christmas. If you are really feeling artistic you could create some interesting art pieces from images cut from the cards and other thins you can find. It could be a great weekend project to get your creative juices flowing.

If instead of Christmas cards it is gift cards you have piled up Treehugger shared an artist who found new life for used gift cards. The possibilities are endless here. You could even cut up the gift cards and create one of a kind pendants for necklaces and earings. A bit like these intersting conversation starters. Jewelry made from soda cans. Now that is recycling for art.

Take some time this weekend and look around your house, your trash, the neighbor’s trash, any places that you normally would never think of going. See if you can gt inspired to try something different and strange. Stretching your imagination is a great way to give yourself a mental workout and can bring out a mountain of new ideas. If you are still stumped watch your children playing for a while. The untamed imagination and creativity in kids can be a great stimulant for your own.

There are a lot of great ways to reuse what you have in new,creative ways. If you would like to get your kids involved here are some fun sites with ideas for recycled art.

• Recycling Crafts for Kids
• Artists Helping Children
• Environmental Fun for Kids
• Recycle Works Kids
• Crafts that recycle

art, jewelry, gift cards, cards, recycling

Are you going to be hosting a New Year’s Eve party for kids? It can be a lot of fun decorating and setting up fun things for kids to ring in the new year with. And it can be easy too!

Making a ruckus at midnight is what it’s all about. You can create some fun noise makers for kids of all ages to enjoy. For younger kids you can make a tambourine from a paper plate and some bells. Punch holes around the plate and tie bells to the holes. This can also be a fun craft project to do before midnight. Paint and decorate the plates then add ribbons for shaking fun. You can also use cardboard, craft foam, or anythign else to create unique tamborines.

For a midnight burst fill balloons with confetti and blow them up. Then at midnight pop pop pop them for a fun burst.

Making hats for everyone to wear can be fun too! You could use cardstock, cut it into a crown shape, and have your kids decorate with glitter, markers, and fake jewels. Use a hole punch to put a hole on each end and connect with a rubberband. You could also use construction paper, thin sheets of craft foam, or plain visors that you can decorate into hats.

And don’t forget the decorations! Streamers, ribbons, and sparkles are the basic supplies. But for something more here is intructions to make your own New Year’s Eve ball. Having one of these will really make your child’s party stand out, it works for a grown up party too. But not that kind of grown up party.

Is anyone else doing any fun New Year’s Eve crafts? I’d love to hear about them!

New Year’s Eve, party, fun