This is Owl & Free Printable Craft

Yesterday I held a story + craft with the ADORABLE book This is Owl! This is an interactive books that asks kids to clap, tap, blow, even "twit-twoo" to help tell the story! The kids LOVE that they get to really participate in the story, and who doesn't love a cute little owl!?

I really like to include a craft at the end of my story times, so for this week I decided to draw an Owl for each of the kids to color, glue onto a half sheet of black construction paper, and then "build a nest" with more construction paper cut into tiny strips.

After a little thought, I decided to make a printable Owl that was very basic, so that kids could make each one their own by adding different colors, patterns, etc. Watching each child customize his/her artwork always amazes me, it's like a tiny glimpse into what's going on in their heads.


I love how my almost three year old only wanted yellow strips, and added "Q's" in her sky (her name is Quinn).

I also love how my five year old thought her picture needed a branch :p.

You can order the book for your family  here (it would also make a great gift!). And download the printable owls here! I have two per page, since I was making it for my story time. I figure many of you might have more than one child, or maybe you want to color an owl of your own ;).

Enjoy!!

Paper Straw Butterflies!

Attention butterfly lovers!! Check out these gorgeous books that would make the perfect addition to an Easter basket!! 😍 And if you want an easy butterfly craft look no further than these paper straw butterflies!

I made 100 of these little paper straw butterflies for an event at my daughter's school this weekend and Thank God they are so simple to make! Print out the wing template and cut them out! Hot glue the wings on a paper straw and add some pipe cleaner antennas . You can color the wings however you choose! We did crayons at the school for less mess, but the preferred way at home became drawing a "secret design" with white crayon and then revealing it with water colors! The paper straw really does give them a nice flutter 🦋

Fun With Felt: DIY Felt Wall!

Our DIY felt wall:

 

So ever since I saw the idea of a felt board on Pinterest I knew I would have to try it out! But instead of actually making a felt board, I decided to be lazy and just hang the felt directly onto the wall with painters tape. We have the perfect half wall in our split level house to do it on and this way I didn't have to make any holes! I will admit that I first tried to tape both the sky and ground up without sewing them together, which lasted a little while but then I had a little area right in the middle of the scene that things wouldn't stick to very well. So I eventually did sew the light blue and green panels together. When we want to make the ocean or the backing for the map I just stick the blue over our base sky and land and painters tape the sides and it works fine.

I have had the felt wall for probably five months now and I just add little pieces here and there as I I have time. Some pieces I have sewn together, some I have just hot glued. I think the scuba diver is my favorite (I found the template on Pinterest here) and the little piggies are Kylie's favorite!.

There is still so much I want to do: more farm animals, more foods, a big bad wolf, a garden, more things to show the changing seasons. It really could be a never ending addiction for me. I also have many more ideas for the world map (although I still need to add Antarctica) that include more than just felt! My inspiration from that project is coming from here and here. But since Kylie is still a little young for some aspects of it, I will probably hold off until this winter.

Everything Easter!

At some point I will be able to write a post with some substance again, but today I only have time to post a couple more Easter crafts and baby girls Easter goodies :)

Easter crafts:

Wooden Easter Eggs I painted filled with stickers to find on Easter morning: 

Goodies for the Easter Basket:

And the finished product: 

I tend to obsess over stuff like (I blame it on my mom who always gave us perfectly put together things for the holidays), but I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out and I can't wait for Easter morning now!!!

A Simple Easter Craft

Nothing too fancy, but the start to our Easter/Spring crafts, hopefully there will be more to come! I just cut out some egg shapes out of paper and then we just had 'decorating' them. I do highly recommend the sponge brushes for stamping/painting in general, not just for this craft. My daughter is loving painting right now and she is also loving using these circular brushes. I have seen people use clothes pins stuck on pom poms which would work just as well probably but these were so cheap at Walmart I couldn't resist!

Baby Shower, Diaper Cake

My sister-in-law is expecting a precious baby girl in April and a few weekends ago we threw her a baby shower! My baby girl and I had a blast preparing and celebrating such a wonderful event :)

My sister-in-law is one of the sweetest people I have ever met and of course I wanted to do something a little special for her gift, so I made a diaper cake. They are actually quite easy to make, because everything is so cute anyway! I rolled up the diapers while I watched "At Home in Maine", a documentary about home birth, and just assembled the goodies as I purchased them.

 This diaper cake includes: 

128 Size 2 Diapers

5 Headbands

4 Recieving Blankets

4 Pair of Socks

3 Bibs

3 Baby Toys

(praying doll, stroller toy that jingles and little elephant rattle toy)

2 Pair of Pants

1 Onsie

1 Package of Boogie Wipes

1 Bottle of Baby Shampoo

1 Tube of Butt Paste 

My mother-in-law also made some really sweet DIY details for the party include these darling washcloth puppies: 

 And these beautiful favors:

And of course I have to include some pictures of this cutie pie enjoying herself with her cousin :)

 As I said we had a fabulous time and really look forward the arrival of our sweet niece/cousin in ONE MONTH!!!

 

DIY Magnet Projects

So I just thought I would share some DIY magnet projects I have done for my daughter. These ones were really simple to do and yet they get played with pretty much daily, win/win if I do say so myself!

1. Food photo magnets. 

I just tracked down some images of various foods via google, pasted them into a word document, added text and printed on two sheets of magnet paper that you can buy at the store. I still have the word document I made kicking around so if you are interested, feel free to email me, mommysturg@gmail.com, I'd love to share! I did mostly fruits and veggies because they were colorful and fun. I also think it is nice to get pictures with white backgrounds. As you may be able to see from the pictures, some of ours have gotten a bit crumpled over time, but that just means they are well used, ha!

2. Baby food jar lid magnets. 

Any type of jar lid would work!  But if you have a baby, chances are you might have a least a few empty baby food jars hanging around. I had a roll of magnet "tape" that I just cut up into squares and hot glued onto the back. You could put in whatever you like for pictures. I have a few pics of baby girl when she was a newborn and pictures of each of her grandparents. I also made the letters of her name by sticking letter stickers onto scrapbook paper. I would have loved to do the whole alphabet but I ran out of lids!

New Type of Headband Addiction

So, a few weeks ago I stumbled on to a new type of headband addiction; making them! I think it might be even more addicting than buying them.

I made these beauties from a lot of supplies I got off ebay. But the most clever idea I've found so far was to make a headband from an old pair of tights: http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2010/08/easy-stretchy-baby-headband-tutorial.html

It's so easy it's ridiculous!