First Time Mom and Losing It

I wanted something fun and exciting that we could do once the New Year comes so I decided to make these New Year's Eve push-up poppers. Before I decided to make these, everything I found in stores to celebrate was too loud or too dangerous for a preschooler so these really fit the bill. I got these push up pop containers a couple of years ago and have been meaning to make some push up cakes with them but never got to it. What a perfect way to use them to pop out some confetti instead of cakes!


Supplies:

• Push-up containers
• confetti
• black glittery paper
• gold glittery paper
• white card stock
• gold ribbon
• black ribbon
• double sided tape
• paper punchers (I used: 1 1/4" circle, 1" scalloped square, 3/4" square)
• clear marbles (optional)
• vase (optional)

What fun traditions do you do to ring in the new year? 

I have been homeschooling my daughter everyday for a few months now. To make it fun for her I found some amazing Christmas themed lessons. She has been more enthusiastic about these lessons but still gives me a hard time sometimes. I wanted to create a Christmas Tree that we could hang up but that also had a lesson included with it. I decided to create the Christmas Tree with some pom poms because that is my daughter's favorite.

First I created the template by creating a green tree and adding some circles. I colored in some of the circles to stand for the ornaments. The circles are the placement holders for the pom poms. I had tons of pom poms but not enough green so I went to to my local craft store to pick up a bag of green pom poms. Then I found some sparkly pom poms for the ornaments.


I printed out the Pom Pom Christmas Tree template onto some card stock so that the art piece would be more durable and easier to hang on the wall. Once I printed out the template I placed it onto my daughter's learning table and spilled out the pom poms next to her. Then I asked her if she could help decorate the Christmas tree by adding the pom poms were they belonged.

To make the process a little less messy I placed some Aleene's Tacky Glue onto a little paper cupcake cup that I had. This way she could dip it in instead of squeezing a ton of glue onto each pom pom. Since the Aleene's Tacky Glue is thicker it helps the pom poms stick on better and stay on faster. When all of the pom poms were placed we let it dry for a few hours before putting it on the wall. I used foam mounting tape to hang up the beautiful pom pom tree.

What Christmas themed lessons or crafts do you do with your kids? 

I love every holiday and I try to make it special for my daughter by making it fun. We usually do holiday themed crafts and food. Another tradition I like to keep is to make her a shirt she can wear. One of my favorite and easiest ways to decorate a shirt is to use a stencil, waxed paper and paint or glitter.

Supplies:

• Plain White Shirt
• Candy Cane Stencil
• Wax Paper
• Fabric Glitter Glue
• Fabric Glitter
• Aleene's Fabric Fusion Adhesive (optional)

Step 1: Click on the link to download, save and print out the stencil. If you don't like this one you can do a google search for "candy cane stencil." There will be hundreds to choose from.

Step 2: Place the printed stencil under a piece of wax paper with the paper side up. Trace the stencil design onto it.

Step 3: With an exacto knife, carefully cut out the parts of the candy cane that you want to be red. I made sure that the first piece was red and alternated it with white.


Step 4: Trim the excess paper around the stencil and then carefully place the design on the shirt, paper side up. Use an iron to stick the wax paper onto the shirt. Make sure you iron it enough so that the edges are fully adhered onto the shirt.


Step 5: Use a foam stencil brush to pounce on the glue onto the cut parts of the stencil. You want to make sure you are fully coating the stencil. Sprinkle on the red glitter being careful to cover all of the cut parts of the stencil. Let dry for at least 6 hours with overnight being best.


Step 6: Remove the excess glitter by carefully grabbing two ends of the stencil and funneling it back into the container. Carefully peel off wax paper.

Step 7: (Optional) Place some of the Aleene's fabric fusion adhesive onto a paper plate and dab on some glue over all of the red glitter. Allow to dry completely. Preferably overnight or 8 hours. This prevents the glitter from falling out over time.

Step 8: Make a bow with the ribbon and then use a strong fabric glue to glue it place.

Stenciling with freezer paper is one of my favorite ways to DIY a tshirt. DIYing a tshirt is my favorite way to dress up my daughter for the holidays :). I wanted to jazz up my normal stenciled tshirt so I thought up a way to add streamers to the shirt using ribbon. I thought it would be more fun for my daughter if she could actually play with the streamers as opposed to me just painting them on. This is how I made the 4th of July Ribbon Streamer Fireworks Shirt.


Materials

• white tshirt
• fabric paint: red, blue
• 1/8" ribbon: red, white, blue
• foam brush
• freezer paper
• fabric glue

Step 1: Click on the link to download the stencil. Open the .PDF and print it out using the "fit" option.


Step 2: Place the printable under a piece of freezer paper, paper side up. Trace the three stars. Using an exacto knife or sharp small scissors cut out the stars.


Step 3: Iron on the freezer paper stencil to the upper middle part of the shirt shiny side down. Place some paint onto a paper plate and using a foam brush paint inside of the star stencils. Let completely dry and then carefully peel off the stencil.


Step 4: Cut a piece of cardboard or card stock that is 4" x 3". Wrap the three colors of ribbons around the cardboard randomly. Take a small piece of ribbon and tie a knot onto the top of the wrapped ribbon. Cut the bottom loops of the wrapped ribbon.


Step 5: Grab the ribbon like the image below. Run a line of fabric glue along the back of the ribbon the entire width.


Step 6: Carefully glue underneath the stenciled stars taking care to press the ribbon into the glue and shirt. Let dry completely and then pull on the ribbon to make sure it is all glued on. If you have lose ribbon add some more glue and press firmly onto shirt.


Check out my other tutorial for my stenciled flag shirt.

My precious, sweet little girl will turn 3 this week. Where does the time go? I can remember when I first set eyes on her. She was such a long waited for gift so my husband and I treasure her immensely. She has grown up to be such a funny, smart and beautiful little girl. In honor of her birthday week I came up with a fun number 3 shirt the she can wear on her special day. Here is how I did it:


1. Print out the printable. Click on the link, download and print out with the "fit" setting.
2. Tape the printable onto a table and then tape a piece of freezer paper, paper side up, on top. Make sure the piece of freezer paper is bigger that the printable.
3. Trace the number three and remove the freezer paper. Place another piece of freezer paper on top and then trace the crown.
4. With an exacto knife or small scissors cut out the inside of the number three. Do the same for the inside of the crown.
5. Place the three stencil on the shirt in the middle. Then place the crown stencil. on top at the same position that it is on the printable. Carefully slide the number 3 stencil without moving the crown stencil.


6. Iron on the crown stencil carefully. Making sure all of the edges are stuck onto the shirt.
7. Place some fabric paint onto a paper plate and with a sponge brush and paint in the crown. Wait for it to completely dry and then peel off the stencil.
8. Place the three stencil on top of the shirt matching where the crown should be on top of the three. Use the printable as a guide. Iron on carefully making sure all of the edges of the three are stuck on.
9. Paint in the number three with a layer of fabric glitter glue. Sprinkle on some fabric glitter making sure to coat the number completely. Place a piece of freezer, paper side up onto the glitter and take the bottle of glitter and roll over the glitter to make sure that it is sticking to the glue. Wait about 5 hours for it to dry completely and then carefully pour off the excess glitter onto a piece of folded paper. Pour the excess glitter back into the glitter bottle. Peel off the stencil.
10. You can outline the crown with some fabric puffy paint and add some rhinestones to the top of the crown if you like.




**I am not sure how well the glitter will hold up to washing so I recommend turning the shirt inside out and hand washing, being careful not to agitate the part with the glitter. I would also allow it to air dry.

I love painting on shirts for every occasion because they are easy to make and affordable. Every time my toddler sees me painting onto a shirt she wants to be like mommy and paint one too. I like to let her craft and explore her creativity but I don't like cleaning up the mess. This is why I always get Huggies Wipes at Walmart. Since I got a new supply I decided to finally let her stencil on a shirt too.


First I created the stencil and printed it out. Then I traced it onto the paper side of freezer paper. I cut out the red stripes and and blue square of the flag. Then I ironed on the stencil to the middle of the shirt. Then I placed the blue square part of the flag back on and ironed it on. I also ironed on scraps of freezer paper to parts of the shirt that I didn't want my toddler to accidentally paint. Next I placed a piece of stiff cardboard into the shirt so that the paint wouldn't bleed through the back of the shirt. I then placed some red fabric paint on a paper plate and handed my daughter a sponge brush. I showed her how to paint inside of the stencil. When she finished painting the stripes I peeled off the part where the blue goes on the flag and let her paint it in. Let the paint completely dry and then peel off all of the freezer paper.


As soon as we finished painting I took out my Huggies wipes and cleaned away. I love that the triple clean feature really gets into the mess without breaking apart. Huggies is the only brand to have Triple Clean layers so I am confident that it will get the messes clean every single time.


Because Kids Outgrow Diapers, Not Messes* I always make sure to have the Huggies Walmart wipes on hand. I use them for everything from spills, to craft messes, to meal messes. They are super useful to have on-the-go too.


Walmart and Huggies want to show you the many ways to use the TripleClean wipes. Click below to watch the videos. You may find a new way to use them that you never thought of.

• 101:  HUGGIES® Wipes, the ONLY wipes with TripleClean* layers.
• Explorers: Don’t let a little mess get in the way of a lot of fun!  HUGGIES® Wipes helps ALL explorers stay in the adventure. #bestfriend
• The Cleaner: Ice cream #fail!  Watch how HUGGIES® Wipes saved the day from this on the go mess!
• Pasta Baby:  Question: What happens when babies and pasta collide?  Answer: HUGGIES® Wipes with TripleClean* layers.
• Playtime:  Playtime can be a dirty job.  HUGGIES® Wipes. Keep the play. Not the dirty.

My daughter is obsessed with anything Disney including the entire cast of Disney Jr. One of her favorite shows, and mines is Doc McStuffins. I love that it gets little girls excited about the medical field and dreaming about becoming doctors themselves. When my daughter pulled out her toy stethoscope and told me "Mama, I gotta check your heart with the stethoscope" I was floored that she knew what a stethoscope was. I would have never ever imaged knowing what one was when I was 2! I have also noticed that she is less afraid when we go to the doctor's office for her check-ups too.


My sister bought her a cute little Doc McStuffins dress up set that came with the jacket, shirt, and otoscope. My daughter is all about dress up now so I decided to complete the outfit and made the leggings and skirt. I didn't want to have to search for the right polka dot pants and skirt so I made it myself. I also didn't want to buy any new fabric so I used some old pieces of purple legging fabric and pink knit fabric I had in my fabric stash. The only thing that was missing was the polka dots so I took out my fabric paints and created a stencil.


To make the pants I followed my tutorial for DIY Toddler Flannel Pajama Pants but with some minor changes. I used a pair of my daughter's leggings and subtracted from the length to make the pattern into capris. I did no addition for ease and added 1/2" all around for the seam.

You will need hot pink fabric paint and a sheet of card stock paper. Take the card stock paper and using a 1" hole puncher cut out holes in a row where the circles are a little less than 1/2" apart. If you don't have a circle punch you can just draw the circles and use scissors or an exacto knife.


Place the stencil on top of the fabric and paint in every other circle. Lift the stencil above the circles you just painted and paint on the circles you missed in the row below. Continue in this manner until almost all of the fabric has polka dots. Continue with the tutorial linked above to finish the pants.



To make the skirt, measure around the child's waist and the length from the waist until a little above the knee. Add 4" to the measurement of the waist and 2" to the measurement of the length. Cut a rectangle out of the pink knit fabric that is the waist measurement wide by the length measurement long. Fold under 1/2" at the hem and use the zig zag stitch on a sewing machine to hold it in place. Fold under 1/2" at the top of skirt and iron. Fold over another 1" and iron to make the casing at the waist. Sew all around with a zig zag stitch to keep it in place and leave a 1" opening for the elastic.


Cut a piece of elastic that is the measurement of the waist plus 1/2". Thread through casing of skirt using a safety pin. Overlap ends of elastic and sew in place using reinforced stitches in a couple of places to make it durable. Hand sew the opening of the casing.


What character does your child like to dress up as?