I’ve never shared Linden’s “big boy” bedroom on here before (except for when it used to be our guest bedroom) but during the last year, his room has slowly transitioned from nursery to toddler room. Along the way I realized there are some great ‘tips’ to keep in mind while creating a sweet and inviting (and functional) toddler room, and today I’m here to share those tips with you!
The other day Chace (my four year old) saw me coming out of the bathroom after changing the toilet paper roll. I know, random but I have a point. Before I got to the recycling bin he said “Mommy, can we make something with that?” The craft loving designer in me had her heart grow three sizes that day (oh, whoops, that was the Grinch) but needless to say I was happy. DIY something crafty? Of course!
I asked him what he’d like to make and he said “a pirate”. Of course he did. Because he couldn’t have just said something simple like “an orange toilet paper roll”. But my little four year old wanted a pirate so this mommy was going to do her best to dream up one with what I had on hand.
Oh, and did I mention that Chace’s favourite show right now is ‘Jake and the Neverland Pirates‘? Yo ho let’s go!
Ahoy Matey!
Okay, so obviously this is not the best thing ever crafted BUT, more important than that is what this means. Having Chace ask me to make him something out of a piece of material destined for the recycle bin was a bigger question than that. What I heard was a little boy asking his mommy to come and ‘play’ with him.
To digress for a moment, with all the ‘stuff’ going on in the world these days and the horrible events unfolding in Boston and all over the world right now this simple question was a reminder. A reminder to take a deep breath, to get off the computer, log off of Facebook, turn off the news. Let the dishes sit dirty in sink, don’t worry about Chace’s bath night that night and needing to rush because of it. Just. Be. Present. Sit down. Make a silly craft and soak up some of the best medicine the world has to offer (in the form of a four year old boy who wants his mommy to do a craft with him).
I’m a big believer in doing stuff like that. Of course I love my blog, I have freelance commitments, a full-time job and I love my house being tidy. But more that all of that, I love my family. My Chef Kev, my dog Belle and my little nugget Chace. Spending time with each of them is a silent way to say “you are worth all of my attention. You. Nothing else matters right now”. Time to breathe.
Easy to forget to do at times isn’t it?
So, to sit down and make a little pirate for my adorable little crew mate as he finished his dinner was something I was more than happy to do.
Impromptu as it was, I just went upstairs to my craft bin and grabbed what I had on hand. It didn’t need to be the best pirate ever to be valuable. 😉
I grabbed a bunch of leftover felt and pipe cleaners (used here at one of my annual Christmas Craft Night’s for making elves!) as well as some other left over pipe cleaners, little pompoms and googly eyes (from a kid’s Halloween craft party where we made spiders out of mini pumpkins). I also grabbed some white glue (and not pictured but grabbed after was a paint brush, coloured markers, a T-pin and my glue gun).
Originally I was going to get Chace to help me make the pirate but it was a bit too difficult for his skill level (he just turned four as mentioned) and he said he wanted to watch me make it as he finished his dinner. Good gig kid.
If you have any desire to make a little pirate then you’re in luck as a I documented the steps. If not, then I hope you like pictures of ‘how to make a pirate’ because you’re going to see a lot of them. Buckle up.
First, line up your ‘pant’ felt about halfway up the toilet paper tube. Disclaimer – none of this has to be perfect. I will show you evidence to support this statement below. You have been warned.
Apply some white glue to your tube.
Wrap the felt around.
PANTS. Done. As easy as dressing a toddler. Scratch that. Strike the oxymoron from the record.
Next up was a shirt. I chose my blue felt (well, Chace did) and decided to wrap this one a bit differently for interest. I started on a bit of an angle…
So that when finished it had a neat ‘seam’. As you can see I used the ‘cut a strip and apply glue’ method as mentioned above for the pants.
I overlapped the pants too just for fun (like a real shirt).
Moving along to the hair now. I made simple cuts to create some hair texture…
And glued this on as well. This piece was not as long as I didn’t want the ends to meet. Have to leave room for a face!
It was about this point that Chace exclaimed, “Mommy, this is a really cool pirate!”. Melt my heart kid.
This little pirate needed a hat and I’ll admit, I totally winged this part as well.
I folded my red fabric in half and just started cutting, figuring it out as I went.
I knew my pirate hat should have some sort of a ‘bill’ that was big and floppy. The rest I just made up. It looked like this after I was done.
Here is where I used my glue gun. I glued the top part (where the fabric folds) together so that the top stayed closed. If not then the hat would have looked like a big round ball on his head.
I glued the hat on to my pirate and added some googly eyes as well!
He kind of looks like a bandit here! Oh well, perfection was not my goal here remember? 😉
A pipe cleaner and pompom later and we had a belt. I used the glue gun here too. I cleaned up the rough edges with scissors after (where the glue strings are).
To add the arms I used my T-pin and poked a hole.
Then I popped in a pipe cleaner, pulled it down (through the bottom) and tied a knot in the end. Then I pulled the arm back out to the point where the knot stopped it and trimmed the arms to size.
Every little pirate needs a sword right? Well luckily I had a pipe cleaner that could turn in to one!
To make the handle of the sword, make a small loop and twist the pipe cleaner end back on itself.
Next, fold the long end roughly in half.
Bend the right side out like a little blade and twist the bottom end back on to your handle shaft.
SWORD!
With some coloured markers, draw on a lopsided face as well as some buttons and feet and guess what? You. Are. Done.
And the best part? This.
Cutest toilet paper roll ever. And cutest toilet paper roll player.
So that is the tale of the Potty Pirate. The tale of Chace and the Neverland Pirate. The tale of the ‘totally tubular dude”. Aaarrrrrhhhhh! Me’s off to scrub the decks. Actually I’m going to go watch ‘the Voice’ that I pvr’d but same diff right? Ursher baby!
A really good friend of mine had a sweet little baby boy on Thursday. When she told me his name – Evan – I immediately saw some interesting typography in my mind, so later that evening I whipped up a little art gift before I forgot it.
The process was simple enough to do in my graphic design program (Adobe Indesign). First I made a block of colour (background) which was 7″ x 5″. I chose a warm gray (Pantone Warm Gray 5), then I typed the words “LOVE” and “EVAN” in a font named “Cabin” at 125 pt. (a free font that can be downloaded here). I overlapped the last two letters of ‘love’ and the first two of ‘Evan’ and set the ‘Evan’ font block to “multiply” in the effects palette. I then set an opacity of 46%. And for those wondering, the colour I used for ‘Evan’ is Pantone 322.
Then I typed “the sweetest little baby boy…” below it in the font ‘Bickley script’ (download from here) and set the colour to “Pantone Cool Gray 11”.
This is just how I did it of course, you can get the same affect through Photoshop or other programs that have some design capability.
The neat thing about the typography in this gift is that the last two letters of the word ‘love’ are reflected in Evan’s name. (i.e. in ‘love’ we end with ‘ve’ but in ‘Evan’ we start with the opposite arrangement ‘ev’).
Here are a few other examples of how you could play with something like this: SPECIAL and LAYLA – see how ‘special’ ends with ‘al’ and then ‘Layla’ start with the opposite ‘la’. Or, how about LOVE with EVIE, EVA, or even EVELYN. Or, JOY and YOLANDA. SWEET and TEAGEN, PURE and ERIN, or (my fave) LOVEABLE and ELAINE (ha!). See, the possibilities are endless!
Here is a better look at the the script line…
To frame it, I used a white frame with an interesting wood grain detail.
I got to meet baby Evan this weekend and give him a lot of cuddles. Mommy and Daddy enjoyed this gift and hopefully one day when he’s old enough, little Evan will too.
What did you get up to this weekend? Any highs from ‘new baby smell’? Any impromptu artwork projects? Regardless, I hope it was a nice one. Have a good week all!
Linking to:
Liz Marie
Serenity Now
Craftberry Bush
The Shabby Nest
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
A Jennuine Life
I wanted to do something fun and Halloween related for Chace as now that he’s three, he’s really starting to get in to the holidays. He keeps asking if it’s Halloween yet, and then when I reply ‘no’, he asks if it’s Christmas.
So when I saw this amazing FREE countdown haunted house over on ‘Kiki and Company’, I just HAD to make it for him. What better way of focusing his adorable excitement than with an advent calendar!?
Here is the completed one on our kitchen table – ready and waiting for excited toddler.
Now, you may have noticed that I had to water down the amazing typography that Kiki did. The designer in me hated to do it, but the mommy in me won out. Since Chace is only three and can’t yet read – and is learning all his numbers – I edited the file in Photoshop so that each window only had one number. That way when we are asking him to “find number 21 – look for a two and a one together” then it’s nice and simple for him.
After I did that, I uploaded it to a photolab that can print a 16 x 20 print and also picked up some foam core from the craft store.
When I had my print back, I used my exacto blade and ruler and (tedious alert) cut out all the windows and the door. It was worth it though :). I made sure to leave the left ‘side’ of each intact since that would become the ‘hinge’.
Then I flipped it over and used some white glue on the back. In hindsight, a glue stick or rubber cement would have been much better (it’s bubbling a bit due to the white glue) but I just used what I had on hand and didn’t worry about it being perfect. Chace will love it just the way mommy does it. He’s not picky!
Flipping it over, I glued it in place on the foam core. Since my foam core was larger than the print, I trimmed down the edges.
The version that Kiki and Company created has another sheet filled with fun Halloween related tasks to go behind each window (i.e. “make pumpkin sugar coookies and decorate them”) but in reality, Chace is too young for most of the tasks and/or they require major mommy involvement and planning – and I’d end up having to do most of the task for him. Perhaps when he’s a bit older…
So for now, most days will just have a little sticker inside. But when I saw these mini Halloween clothes pegs, I just had to work them in somehow!
So I grabbed three jewellery boxes from the craft store and realized if I used the top and bottom I’d end up with six little boxes that I could use as ‘cubbies’.
I picked six windows and then cut through the foam core to make an opening behind them. Again, I didn’t worry about being too precise here. It’s a bit finicky to cut through the foam core and the edges aren’t that clean, but don’t sweat it if you try this yourself.
Then I flipped the haunted house over and simply taped the six boxes to the back of the board with a single long piece of scotch tape.
Then I used a remnant of the foam core excess and cutting it on an angle, made an easel for the back. I attached this with scotch tape as well.
Here are some of the little happy Halloween stickers waiting for my little ghoul.
And of course, one of the six cute clothes pegs that are sure to delight.
Such a fun and easy little project that lights up Chace’s eyes. Now he knows when he gets to the ’31’ that it is finally Halloween time!
Still a ways to go kid.
What about you? Any fun toddler/kid projects going on over at your house? Do you have a holiday challenged boy like me? Easter? Halloween? Christmas? Anyone? Bueller… Bueller… Bueller…?
Or should I say Booller? {Groan}
This past weekend Chef Kev, Chace and I went to to a birthday party for a very special three-year old girl named Aubrey. She happens to live next door so naturally, her mom and I drink wine, er, ah I mean watch the kids and laugh at all their antics together.
Obviously Aubrey and Chace will marry someday.
So it was the least I could do to help make cupcake toppers for my future daughter-in-law’s third birthday party.
Her favourite show is Backyardigans so that was the theme of her party. And the theme of her cute little custom cupcake toppers.
To make these toppers you will need the following things:
– print out of your topper art. I designed mine in Adobe Indesign but you should be able to use any program that allows you to place graphics. I purposely left the art for each ‘pick’ without a border. I’ll explain why later. And naturally the theme can be changed to suit your own party theme.
– two circle punches of different sizes. I used a 1.5″ and 2″ circle
– tape runner (or double sided tape tabs)
– glue gun
– lollipop sticks
And you will also need some scrapbook paper. Here are a bunch I pulled. I pulled a wide range but Aubrey’s mom and I narrowed it down to a smaller palette once we started putting the Backyardigan picks together.
As mentioned above, I purposely did not put any border on the circle toppers. The reason being that it’s hard to line things up exactly perfectly when cutting, and eliminating the border allows that bit of variance that inevitably happens. For the ones where the colour goes right to the edge I actually added a bit more image (called ‘bleed’) which allows you to be less than perfect when punching and not have a funky white imperfect edge.
If you don’t already own punches, I’d suggest getting ones that have an open bottom. That way you can visually line up your image upside down as you punch and see that it is centred. Use the 1.5″ circle for this part.
Punch! Booyah. One Backyardigan down.
Flip your little dancing hippo over and add a bit of tape with your tape runner.
Use your larger 2″ punch to cut a shwack of coloured paper.
Layer your Backyardigan over it’s new paper backing. It’s exciting day in Backyardigan land people.
The party hasn’t even started yet but these little guys were in full force.
In addition to the Backyardigan characters I did some that had the number “3” on them and some that said “Happy Birthday Aubrey”.
Flip over and apply a bit of glue (versus the gallon you see here), quicky apply your lollipop stick and let dry.
And with that – the party is on! Well, actually there is the whole part of making and icing the cupcakes but that’s for another day 😉
For our purposes we’ll just fast forward to the party shall we?
How ridiculously cute are those little white picket fences that Aubrey’s mommy found at Michaels? PERFECT!
And what is a picket fence without some green grass? I guess it’s just a dirt patch. It was just a retorical question. No need to answer.
I love how the ones in the foreground look like little flowers in a garden.
It was a great day. Happy Birthday Sweet Aubrey! I’ll recycle this idea for the bridal shower I throw you in 25 years.
So, what did you get up to this past weekend? A birthday party? Good times with friends? Or perhaps you attended a bridal shower 25 years in the making (awkward).
Last night I made Chace (my three-year-old) a special little treat.
That’s right. I made him a sweet (ha, get it) ice cream clown – in honour of him running away to join the circus… might have been kidding about that last part.
And as you can most likely tell, it was very easy to make.
First I simply melted some chocolate (I used Aero bars) in a homemade double boiler. If you don’t own a double boiler you can acheive the same effect by filling a pot about 1/4 full of water and resting a stainless steel bowl over the opening (like a lid). Once the water in the pot begins to boil, your chocolate will melt nice and evenly. Stir the chocolate though so it does not scorch.
Once melted, I twirled the open end of my cone in the chocolate.
And then twirled it once more in a bowl of sprinkles.
With my ‘hat’ made I moved on to Mr. Clown’s ice cream face.
To stop it from melting all over the plate I scooped a small scoop into a little condiment bowl and then stacked another small scoop on top of that. Then I topped it off with my waffle cone hat and made a face with Runts candy. I love how the hat hangs over the back as seen above.
What a ‘sweet’ (stop me now) little face.
I quickly snapped a bunch of photos as my time was limited. For obvious reasons – melting ice cream, yes. But someone something much more pressing was waiting in the wings.
Mr. Clown lived a short life but he was well loved.
It was a perfect way to ‘cap off’ (okay, done with those now) a warm summer evening.
I love doing little crafts like this with Chace and marvel at the excitement he gets from such simple things. It’s amazingly beautiful, and innocent, and ‘sweet’ (sorry – had to).
What about you? Any easy to make toddler faves that you want to share? Made any special treats recently? Run away to join a circus as of late? Please share 🙂
PSST – I’ve updated my Facebook page with a new seasonal cover photo highlighting some summery projects. Head on over and let me know what you think – and don’t forget to ‘like’ the page if so inclined. Thanks 🙂
Hello
I'm Elaine. A graphic designer, mommy, wife and blogger. I have trouble sitting still and am always looking for a project. Follow along as I post about life – in a pretty and creative way of course.