Felt Shield and Sword - Version 2

We're pretty inconsistent gift-givers around here.  Last year we didn't send any gifts to the kids' birth families, so this year, I didn't want to drop the ball.

Little Brother got an awesome home-made super hero outfit from Charlie and Mimi (Little brother's little brother and little sister...each a little younger than Little Brother and Sweet Pea respectively), so I wanted to make them something fun.  I couldn't think of anything...and then the night before I needed to mail everything we thought of these.

Here's a cute picture of Charlie with his sword and shield, borrowed from his mom's blog here.

I made some felt shields and swords for my kids about a year and a half ago, so I decided to whip some up for Charlie and Mimi.  Okay...I guess this gift was really more for Charlie...but they've got to go in a set.  You have to have someone to sword fight, right?  And I figured Mimi wouldn't really notice if the gift was more for her brother.

Easy Felt and Twig Valentine's Tree Tutorial

Yesterday I shared my melted crayon LOVE tiles that I made for our mantel.  Once I finished them, though, there was still something missing.  We needed something with a little more height to it.  After looking around on Pinterest I had this and this for inspiration, I remembered an empty red vase hanging out in our kitchen begging to be used.

A few scraps of felt, thread, and a glue gun later...

Easy Mini-Book Christmas Ornament Tutorial

If you're a regular reader, you know how much we love books at our house.  A couple years ago, I made Firecracker a felt book ornament to commemorate her learning to read.

I wanted to do something similar for Little Brother this year now that he's really reading too, but I wanted to think of something a little bit different.

The Gruffalo - Read Along with Crafty Ave.

I'm glad I don't have to choose a favorite book or project for this Read-Along because it would just be too hard.  I continue to be impressed with the amazing, simple, and completely brilliant ideas everyone is coming up with...and that continues today with Crystal from Crafty Ave.

Crystal shares The Gruffalo by by Julia Donaldson and Alex Sheffler.  Her idea of making felt board characters look so fun (and could also be applied to other books.)

And her method for making the felt board itself is absolutely brilliant.

And she includes a fun tasty treat.

You can find out more about the book, the treat, and how to make the characters and the felt board by here. 

If you're just now joining us, be sure to visit our Read-Along Archives to see the books we've already read.

Felt Forests and Birdie Wreaths

Here are a couple of copy cat projects we've done this week.  Yesterday a friend watched Little Brother and Sweet Pea while I went in to help Firecracker's kindergarten make these Felt Christmas Trees.

I love how this student really filled their tree up with beads.

We pretty much followed the directions from That Artist Woman...except I tweeked the circle sizes just a bit and we didn't paint the toilet paper tubes.  I brought in everything already cut out and the kids just helped assemble them.

Felt Jack-O-Lanterns & Shape Toy

We've been reading lots of pumpkin books lately, so when I saw these felt Jack-O-Lanterns posted by Heather on Camp Slop.  She made hers into a game, but I wasn't feeling quite that ambitious the morning I made these.  We did read the book Pumpkin Heads by Wendell Minor which is a really fun book.  It's got simple text and is a Halloween book without being too spooky.  I also had the kids look through the book for ideas to carve onto our pumpkins.

I Challenge You to a Duel!! (Felt Shield & Sword Tutorial)

"En Garde!!"

"I will meet your challenge!"

"Engage!"

Felt-Food Cook-Along Readers' Showcase #2

This post is long overdue.  I was surprised when I did the first one at just how long it took to put together a "highlights" post, what with clicking on all the links, downloading and then uploading the pictures and attaching the links (especially since our computer is on the slow side.)  Anyway, there were a lot of deserving projects that were linked up, and I wanted to highlight some of them.  If you have a felt food project of your own you'd like to share, add it to our linky list at the bottom!

Shelley Inspired shared her loaf of bread and a tutorial for it.  This reminds me that I really should make one of these, especially since we make so much homemade bread around here. 

Greater Than-Less Than Felt Alligator Game

I've been subbing a lot lately while Hubby is home with the kids during the day and taking night class to get his teaching credential. While my favorite assignments are chemistry and math, I sub from kindergarten up through high school and everything in between. One of my elementary classes was comparing numbers using greater than and less than when I remembered this number fish game I made for my kids.  They still love playing with it.  Then I thought...I should make them an alligator to help them practice comparing numbers...perfect since an alligator eating the bigger number is often how we teach kids to remember how to use the greater than and less than symbols...which apparently blogger won't actually let you use in written text.

So I thought I would post my first non-felt-food project with felt today in honor of Fun Felt Friday's over on Camp Slop, so head on over and check out her blog after you've checked out this post.  I think Heather's Felt Fridays officially start next week, but her blog is awesome.  There's plenty of other cool stuff to look at.

Here's what we did.  I found this image via google image seach.  I copied it into Word and made it bigger.  Then I used my computer screen as a light box and traced the shapes for the head, mouth, and teeth and then drew the body for it myself.  I wanted the head exaggeratedly big so that it would stand out. 

I wanted my alligator to be reversible, so it could be turned around for greater than and less than.  To do that, I cut two alligator pieces, two red mouth pieces, and one set of teeth (one top piece and one bottom piece.)

Then I sandwiched the teeth between the two red mouth pieces, and sewed along the edge to hold the teeth in. 

Then I sandwiched the mouth between the two alligator pieces and sewed. 

Before doing any of the sewing, you want to make sure you've pinned everything really well, so it stays lined up.  (Felt has a tendancy to stretch slightly as you sew.)

Then you're done.  As you can see, my alligator is still blind, but it seems to find fish to swallow anyway.

I was going to do eyes with embroidery thread...and maybe I will...but who knows when I'll get around to it.

I let Firecracker out of bed for a trial run, and she had no problem using the alligator for two number fish.

Adding the numbers up on multiple fish was a bit tricker...which wasn't a surprise since we're working on her adding lately.

You could also put up fish without numbers and have your child decide which side has more fish.  Like the flannel board that's part of our puppet theater?  Click on the link for more info. 

If you're looking for some extra cute counting fish, check these out by Counting Coconuts.

So for all of you that don't want to go through all that to get your pattern for making a Number Crunching Alligator, you can print mine, and I even included my number fish pattern for good measure.

Please click here to download the printable Number Munching Alligator Pattern.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, Felt Style- Felt Food Cook-Along Day 24

This is the last of the tutorials for the felt food that I have made so far.  I still want to make some frosting for the mini-cupcakes, little tarts, a pie, cake, and some other things...but since I've got a few other projects I'm working on, I make no promises about when they will get made.  When I do get around to them, though, I promise to share the tutorials and patterns!

Anyone care for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?  You can see how I made the bread here and download the printable pattern.

The Coolest Thing Since Sliced Bread...(Felt-Food Cook-Along) - Day 24

...is FELT sliced bread for your kids to make sandwiches with.  Again, there are a ton of ideas out there on blogs for making sliced bread.  You can go even simpler and just have it square shaped.  I made mine with a curved top since that's more like what my kids are used to eating.

I started this post over a month ago, and then realized that I hadn't taken very many pictures of the process, so it's taken me this long to get around to making another one.  The upside is now you can have a printable version. :)

Felt Peelable Banana with Printable Pattern- Felt Food Cook-Along Day 23

My kids love, LOVE, LOVE bananas, so they were pretty high on my list of felt food to make.  I thought a pealable one would be a lot of fun.  I found a great tutorial on Just Stuff via Felt-O-Rama's felt food tutorials links (on the left sidebar of her blog.)  While you're at Just Stuff be sure to check out the way she modifies this pattern for a corn in it's husk, and she also has some other great looking felt food to inspire you.

Felt Orange Peel - (Oranges Part 2) - Felt Food Cook-Along Day 22

This tutorial is just for the orange peel, so if you want to know how to make the wedges, yo'll need to click here.  For the peel, I thought of using a ball pattern, lining it, and then leaving one side open.  I saw a link on Homemade by Jill to this fabric ball pattern from Grand Revival Design and thought I'd try it out for making my orange.  I used the smallest of the three sizes in the pattern for making the peel.

Materials: orange and white felt, pattern from Grand Revival Design at link above, and all the regular sewing stuff...sewing machine highly recommended.

Felt Orange Sections - (Oranges Part 1) - Felt Food Cook-Along Day 21

We love oranges at our house any way you slice them.  I made a peelable banana...which I still need to share with you...and that got me thinking it would be fun to attempt a pealable orange with sections.  I haven't seen a peelable orange like this (although I'm guessing there may be some out there), so this was a bit of an experiment for me. 

I also really liked the orange slices on Thinking Mama, so that's the vision I had going into this.  Doing it this way, the orange slices come out of the peel...with a peel.  I wanted them to work both with the peel and on their own, though.

Let Us Eat Lettuce (Romaine Lettuce) - Felt Food Cook-Along - Day 20

Lettuce is another one of those things that is pretty easy to figure out, but I figured if I'd done a tutorial on everything else, I'd do one for this one.

Materials:  Green felt, general sewing stuff

Chocolate Mini-Cupcakes with Printable Pattern

Finally some printable patterns!  A big thank you to SpartanGirl on Camp Slop for pointing me in the right direction for uploading PDF's so these patterns will stay true to size.  I've been meaning to get this up for a while.  One of these days I'll get around to following her recommendation for making a three column blog.  Here is a printable version of the mini-cupcake/muffin pattern I made.  I'm also adding it to the original tutorial for my blueberry muffins.

Sliced Cheese - Felt Food Cook Along - Day 18

From here on out, the felt food may be in a somewhat random order.  Sorry about that.  I wanted to do sandwiches next starting with sliced bread...but when I made the sliced bread, I didn't take very good pictures...so I need to make some more before I can do a tutorial for it.  Hopefully I'll get that done soon. 

Felt Strawberries - Felt Food Cook-Along - Day 17

Don't these look good enough to eat!?!  My two-year-old certainly thinks so...he's popped a whole one in his mouth several times to show off.  (He knows better...he just thinks it's funny.)

I couldn't help but make these felt strawberries, when I saw them.  The tutorial is awesome, so I won't go through the whole thing again here.

Carrots - Felt Food Cook-Along - Day 16

This tutorial for felt carrots from "i make stuff" was linked up to our Felt Food Share a while back.  As soon as I saw it, I knew I would be making these!  They're super easy and her directions are GREAT!  There's even a printable pattern.

Sunny Side Up Eggs - Felt-Food Cook-Along Day 15

Scrambled eggs not your style?  You want that cheery sunny-side-up egg to greet you in the morning?  Here's now I made mine.