Big and Little Week Crafts!

Big and Little craft time!!! :]

I've made sooo many crafts over the past couple of weeks. It's been crazy!

I was lucky enough to have gotten TWO littles this semester!! I now have triplets.  Which is intense. 

Anyways, here are some very simple ideas of crafts you can make littles or anyone else in your life!

For the first craft you will need:

• Clothespins [$1, Dollar Tree]
• Mod Podge [Michael's, Walmart, Hobby Lobby]
• Sponge brush, or another kind of cheap brush you don't care about
• All Kinds of Glitter. All kinds. 

 This is the simplest craft, I swear!! 

Take a clothespin and brush or dab on some mod podge!

Start sprinkling on the glitter!  Do this over a piece of paper or box that can collect the glitter.  This way you can pour it back into the container and save it for another time!

By now your clothespins should look like this! 

Actually, scratch that.  I did two coats of glitter and mod podge.  This is what yours will look like with two coats!

Two coats of mod podge allows more glitter to adhere to the surface of your clothespin.  It also helps to keep the glitter on.

I chose to do red and green glittered clothespins to represent my sorority, as our colors are forest green and red.

They're so cute.  They'd be perfect for holding pictures or cards!

On to the next craft!

You will need:

• Corkboard [Daiso, $1.50]
• Puff Paint [Michael's, Walmart, <$1 a piece]
• Pushpins
• Anything else you wish to use! [Glitter would have been mad cute!]

Take your corkboard and pick which colors you want to use, as well as what you want to write or draw on it.

I chose to do our sorority's name along with our motto.  I alternated our colors to make it more exciting, since it started out as the most boring brown thing.

That's literally all for the corkboard. SO. EASY.

This next one is pretty universal for any sorority, or special person in your life.

GIFT BASKETS!

Here are two baskets I made my littles. I like to go to the Dollar Tree for these because of the selection and the price is right.  I added flowers and easter grass for some flair.

Putting someone's favorite snack or candy is always a crowd favorite.  It's a perfect way to show that you care about them and what they like! Same with the flowers, I used my littles favorites!

I also made sparkly letters [as in their first intial], and made them door hangers! 

Here is a door hanger and a little flower frame I found and decorated for my little Carina!  

The door hangers I found at Michael's were uncomfortably expensive.  What I decided to do was to by foam sheets [they sell them in large packs with multiple colors for about $8], and cut them into door hangers.  I saved a bunch of money and now have a bunch of foam I can use for other crafts!

The flower frame is from Michael's as well.  I used paint, glue, and glitter to decorate it, as well as some puff paint to add her name. 

The door hanger is a great way to express your creativity while further showing your interest in this person.  You put stuff on it that represents them or their style, and it can be quite personal.

Here's the inside of another basket! [I ♥ Baskets!!]

Inside of it I put a cute pack of tissues, an adorable pocket mirror, a little teddy bear with hello kitty ribbon on it, a pen, and two easter eggs filled with loving notes.

Our big/little week is full of surprises for our littles.  They don't find out who we are until we've spoiled them!

I didn't want my littles to know for sure that they were twins, so I tried to switch it up a little bit. 

Instead of a corkboard I did a mirror!  I tried to make the colors more cohesive, and added more swirl detailing to this one.

Another picture of a basket, with a fishy plush!

This basket was filled with candy and bubbles!

Here is little Alma's door hanger, with a fish on it! :] 

In the back you can see the "A" I made for her wall.  It's so pretty in person, the glitter is amazing.

I made a lot more things, so hopefully I'll get to posting them too!

I hope this has been helpful :]

Are you in a sorority? Do you craft? Let me know! :]

♥Riley

Valentine's Day!: Cookie Valentine Pockets ♥

Here is another quick and easy craft, just in time for Valentine's Day!♥

For this craft, you'll need: 

• Two or more colors of felt, 25-33 cents each
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks, or another kind of glue
• Puff Paint or other paint in a couple colors choices

All together this craft should cost you less than $1!!

 Cut out a good sized heart out of paper for your pattern.  Place the paper on biscuit colored felt and trace two hearts. This is how much of the felt sheet my biscuit pieces took up.

 A closer picture of the hearts traced on the felt.

 Then I cut out a smaller paper heart with rigged edges to look like frosting.

 You can see here, I drew a heart and then drew wavy lines around it to make it look more symmetrical.

 Here is what you should have by this point. Two biscuit heart pieces and one icing heart piece.

 Hot glue gun the pink to one of the biscuit pieces so that there are no holes.  Another way to do this would be to only glue the bottom of the heart so that it could be a pocket.

 Then glue the bottom edges of the biscuit hearts together, so that it forms a pocket.

 Here you can see that it is a pocket.

 This is what the edge looked like.  I hot glued the edges together, to save time but still make it cute.  You could also sew this all together.  Another way to do this would be to glue or sew all around the biscuit hearts and stuff them, then leave the frosting as a cute little pocket. 

 Then add some decorations! I put little blue sprinkles on using deep turquoise puffy paint.

Then I added little pink dots to add some more dimension to the heart!

Thank you for reading! I would love to see if you made a biscuit heart pocket like this! 

♥Riley

P.S. I think this would be a really cute way to give candy or a note to your Valentine! Send me a picture if you make this craft and show me what you put in your pocket! :]

Valentine's Day!: Puffy Hearts ♥

Here is a very simple Valentine's Day craft!

You could make one as a Valentine for someone, or you could even make a bunch of them and hang them from a tree or around your house!

The best thing about them is that you can personalize the colors and styles.

You will need: 

• Two colors of felt, 25-33 cents each
• Embroidery floss
• Needle
• Stuffing

All together this craft should cost you less than $1!

 First thing's first! Make a stencil.  Now, we all know how to make a perfectly symmetrical heart! Think back to elementary school and fold a paper in half.  Cut a half heart out of it and unfold it. Voila! A perfectly symmetrical heart.

 Cut two larger hearts out of red if you're copying mine, or whichever other colors if you are making it different from mine!

 Sew a smaller heart onto the front of one of the larger hearts.

 Here is a zoomed up picture of the top heart.  It isn't perfect, but that's why I like it!

 Sew the two larger hearts together! I pinned them together to try and keep them straight for this step.

 Before you have finished sewing it all together, stuff it to optimal stuffiness.

Sew it shut and you're done! This is a really easy craft to do if you know how to sew or are learning how to sew.  It is very inexpensive to make and I think they are very cute!

Cute Felt Anniversary Card!

Here is an easy tutorial on how to make physical felt cards for your loved ones, for any occasion! 

You can hang it on a wall, and it would make an adorable addition to any room. 

December 7th was Dave and I's 7th anniversary!  I was 15 when we got together, and he was 16.  He's the best thing that has ever happened to me! 

Our mutual favorite animal [or one of our favorites] is the manatee.  They have no natural enemies and our quite fast.  They also are very intelligent.  

You will need:

• A lot of different kinds of felt, mostly bits and pieces, with one to two solid pieces for a background
• Glue, hot glue or fabric/tacky glue
• Paint or puff paint for details

All in all this card will end up being $3 to $4

I looked up some different cartoon manatees to get a basic shape.

I needed pieces of gray for the manatees themselves.

I chose to use a pretty blue for the background color. I glued two sheets together to make them more sturdy.

I chose to use felt in the color "Silver Grey" for my manatees.

I traced a basic shape onto the felt.

Here it is with my hand for sizing purposes.  I realized that it looks quite small on its own, but they are actually larger.

I then cut out the manatee from the sheet of felt with some fabric scissors.  

I decided to make the marked side of the manatee the back side.  I needed two manatees cut.

I then traced it right side up, to make two different facing manatees.

I cut out little fins similar to the shape and size of my tracing.  I think they are just adorable.

Here is a close up of the manatees.  I made them hold hands! Then I cut out a little mouth for the manatees.

I made the girl manatee, the one on the right side, have a smaller mouth than the male manatee.

This is what they look like with both their mouths, a little zoomed out.  

I decided to make the girl manatee look a little girlier and cut out two hearts and a circle out of pink felt.  I put the points of the heart together, and put the circle on top of the points.  I often fuss over the shape of bows, but thought this was simple and cute, and fitting, as well.

Oh, I just think they are so cute! I used hot glue to affix all these pieces, but you could use fabric or tacky glue as well.

You can see that they are hearts and a circle in this picture.  

Then I decided to add pennant flags to the top.  I cut out 16 triangles and glued them to the top.  Five for happy and eleven for anniversary.  

I overlapped them a bit, as shown in this picture.  I wrote "happy anniversary" in puff paint on them, but I do not have a picture of it yet.  

Then I started making food items for the side, to make it a true manatee party.  I cut a tan circle out, as well as a smaller yellow circle, and five little red circles.  This, is a half pepperoni, half cheese pizza.  I made this because I am vegetarian and Dave and I always make our pizzas like this.

Then I decided to make a cheese quesadilla.  I cut a cream circle and a yellow half circle.  

I folded the cream circle over the yellow circle and glued it all down.

After cutting out the red circles, I noticed that a perfect little bow tie had been made.  I decided it was perfect for DaveO manatee. :]

Here is a little cupcake I made, with a cherry on top.

These are the broken down parts of the cupcake.

I then decided to make a burrito, after our love of Chipotle. 

Here is what my card looked like at this point. 

I folded in two sides of the circle, and rolled it up, then glued it down.

This is what it looked like finished. 

I then glued that down.  

This picture may be more clear.

I then added little puff paint eyes for the manatees, where they were shown in my tracing.  I don't have a picture of them after I put them on, but I will put one up soon!

There are all kinds of details and options in making felt cards like this.

Thanks so much for reading!

♥Riley

P.S.  I'd love to see your interpretations! :]