Crafts - 10/34 - The Idea Room

Thanksgiving Craft—Finger Puppets

I finally finished up these fun Thanksgiving Finger Puppets. I have had these planned for a while now and was just able to find the time to get them all finished up. These are the perfect Thanksgiving craft to do for and with some of your kids. Need some distractions for the kids while you are prepping for Thanksgiving Dinner and preparing for the relatives to come over? Traveling to be with family this holiday? These finger puppets will be great for entertaining.

The patterns for these puppets will be available tomorrow for purchase in The Idea Room Store…or you can try your hand at making some!

The pattern will sell for $2.50 and comes with pictures, patterns and step by step instructions.

The patterns are for the boy and girl Indians and Pilgrims and the turkey.

To Purchase the patterns for these puppets click here:

Thanksgiving Finger Puppet Patterns

November 8, 2011 · Filed under: Activities, Crafts, Felt, Gifts, Kids, Thanksgiving Tagged with felt crafts, finger puppets, how to make finger puppets, indian craft, kids crafts, pilgrim craft, thanksgiving activiites, thanksgiving kids crafts, turkey craft

Chalk Board Tees and More

18 Comments

I have been wanting to make one of these fun Chalk Board T-shirts and finally had a chance to get around to making one now that the kids are back in school. The chalk board cloth may or may not have been sitting in the JoAnn’s bag on my craft room floor for almost 4 months now…. I had wanted to make some for the kids for their last day of school with a big chalk board square on the back of the shirt so all of their friends could sign it like a yearbook. Then I thought it would be fun to get a picture of it! But…alas…it never happened. I just never found the time. But I totally plan on doing it this year!

And I am really glad I finally made them. They are a lot of fun and my kids LOVE them. And I like that they are a fun and unique way to let your child’s personality show. The possibilities are endless.

And you are never going to guess just how easy it is to apply. I found my chalk board cloth at JoAnn’s in their specialty fabric section. I believe is was $4.99 a yard…but I bought it a while ago and my memory is not what it used to be!

I simply made a simple pattern of the shape I wanted to make the chalk board cloth into and cut it out. It cut so easily and smoothly. As you can see, I used chalk to make an outline of the pattern and then just simply erased it.

Then I just glued it onto the shirts with this Fabri-Tac. So EASY!!! I was going to sew it, but figured I would give this a try as I was too lazy to pull out the sewing machine which has been in storage since school got out in early June. Some day, maybe I will get the energy to pull that baby out again! And so far, with some use and a couple of washes, it seems to be holding up really well. Bonus!

Before you can write on the cloth with the chalk, you will need to “prime” it by rubbing the side of a piece of chalk all over the surface of the cloth. Then simply wipe it off and it is ready to go. I did this after each washing too.

I also made my son this tie t-shirt! He loves it and thinks it is a great option for wearing to church. Not really what I had in mind, but fun to wear around the house. How fun would this be on a little baby onesie? I think I will make one for the next baby boy gift I need. Or how about a chalk board in the shape of a little guitar? Or flowers? Or Mickey Mouse? Or for pictures on the first day of school with their grade written on the shirt! Gah!

So many fun ways to dress up a simple t-shirt and make it a lot more fun and unique. And…I am planning on using the left over chalk board cloth for another fun and unique project. Stay tuned for that one!

If you were to make one…what would you use it for?

September 12, 2011 · Filed under: Acessories, Activities, Birthdays, Crafts, DIY Tutorials, Gifts, Girls, Moms, Sewing Tagged with baby gifts, chalk board cloth, chalk board t-shirts, fabri-tac, fun t-shirts

Make Bead Necklaces

19 Comments

I am so excited about this latest project…how to make bead necklaces! Ever since I saw those adorable gumball necklaces over at One Charming Party (whose site I LOVE)…I have been wanting to make them for my girls…and if I am being completely honest…MYSELF!! So cute right? Well, I have kept my eye out for gumballs and just never came across any colors that I loved without having to order them online. Well, one day while perusing the craft store (which happens more often than I would like to admit) I spied some wooden beads! BINGO! I had my “gumballs” and I could make them exactly the colors I wanted.

And they are so EASY! I simply took the wooden beads and painted them with acrylic paint.

I put each bead onto the end of some skewers that we had left over from some summer BBQ’s so that I could paint them easily. Then I carefully pushed them off the skewer and onto a paper and left them to dry completely. Then I painted them with a high gloss finish. I just used a bottle that can be found right next to all the acrylic paints. I forgot to take a picture of it…but any glossy varnish will work. I wanted them to have a glossy finish much like the gumballs do.

I painted several in some fun and bright colors and added some polka-dots to some since I seem to be loving polka-dots lately!

After the beads are completely dry, cut about 3.5 – 4 feet of ribbon (depending on the finished length you would like the necklaces to be). I used 3.5 feet and that seemed to be a great size so that all three of my girls could share and wear these necklaces.

Line up your beads to determine the pattern you would like them to be strung on the ribbon. Take your middle bead and thread it onto the ribbon so that it is in the exact middle. Tie a knot on each end of the bead to hold it into place. Then leave about an inch of space (or more depending on your preference) and tie another knot. Thread your next bead on the ribbon and tie a knot directly on the other side. Now do the same on the other side of the middle bead. Continue with the process so that you thread one side and then the other. This will ensure that you have the same amount of ribbon at the end of each end bead on the necklace. I put seven beads on each necklace and feel that an odd number looked better than an even number of beads.

The possibilities are endless! You can also find other great beads at your local craft store if you don’t feel like painting them yourself!

I love that these are so fun and cute and so INEXPENSIVE!! I also think these would be a great classy gift for a little girl for her birthday from a friend. Or a fun activity to do for a little girl’s birthday party so the guests could each take one home. Or Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers…Or make them to give to a mom/grandma for Mother’s Day!

We have been wearing these around town for the past few days and have already had several compliments on them!

Now I am looking for some classier beads to make one for myself!