Lasting Lovies

I made my niece this Molly Monkey doll back in 2010!

Here she is still loving on her two years later.

I made my nephew a Super Kid cape and Super Monkey back in 2010. Here he is enjoying them both then and now.

 

 2010

2012

Have you had the pleasure of watching your creations loved over the years?



Happy Storm Trooper!

Here is the birthday boy!

 He is being Hans Solo pretending to be a Storm Trooper. He had to pose with a gun for the full effect. (Good thing he was able to whip one up out of Lego blocks in no time at all.)
He was very happy with the new characters as well.

 I even added a Sand Person at the last minute. He requested some additional bad guy robots as well as "twentyfourty" more storm troopers and fifteen more Jawaws.
He was very pleased with the eye choice for the Jawaw and stated that they do indeed have gold eyes. I also made weapons for them and he was quite satisfied with their accuracy to the movie. So overall we had a happy camper!

I love that he understands that these are custom made for him! Can you imagine opening a store bought gift and requesting revised weaponry, additional characters, etc. to your own desired specifications!

This is what makes handmade gifts so special! They are custom made just for you!

Have you made a handmade creation for someone recently? How did you customize it to meet their particular interests, desires, etc.

Activity Board!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we created an activity board for Lucas for Christmas!
After watching him play we made a few changes. We added a door knocker, a drain spout, and painted it with chalkboard paint!
His favorite part is the springs that stick out at the top. We simply attached them with screws.

He also loves the top door that opens to a mirror. He always greets his reflection with an enthusiastic "HI!!"

The drain was a great addition. He loves anything that functions like a steering wheel.

What is included:

2 doors

One with crinkly shiny wrapping paper behind it (leftover from Christmas)

The other with a mirror (from one of his old baby toys)

3 door locks

1 hook lock

1 latch lock

1 chain lock

1 light switch

1 door knocker

4 caster wheels to SPIN, SPIN, SPIN!

4 Springs to BOING!

One pulley to pull a string through

The board is made of two sheets a plywood attached together. We screwed them together so we could take them apart easily if we ever wanted to add anything else.

The two boards allowed us to open the doors and not have wall behind.

We made the doors by drilling small circular holes in each corner of a drawn square.

Then we could place a saw into the holes as starting points for each cut without losing our square to make the door itself.

As finishing touches we used a router along all the edges, primed with grey primer, and used chalkboard spraypaint.

Our son is involved with Early Intervention because of his heart condition. The supervisor was highly impressed and said this was excellent for developing gross and fine motor skills.

So we got a very big seal of approval!

Lucas absolutely LOVES it!

Happy Birthday Storm Trooper!

My nephew's birthday follows shortly after Christmas so it's always fun to be able to carry the theme or creations from Christmas over and have a bit more time devoted to just to him.

In 2010, I made his Super Hero Cape to match the Super Monkey I made him for Christmas.

This year, I thought I would make him a Storm Trooper Helmet. It is made out of Milk Bottles! I used this tutorial. However I used white milk jugs. Unfortunately  they have an extremely different shape than the clear jugs used in the tutorial. So I had quite a bit of trouble trying to keep it truly Storm Trooper. I think it came out well despite the different shape and there was no spray paint involved. I just used acrylic paints including white that I used to cover up the hot glue from the hot glue gun. The nice part about this was that I could just wash off the bottles and start over if I made a mistake. I used black electric tape for the black band at the top and used vitamin bottle caps for the caps at the "ears." Hopefully he likes it! We are still waiting for an official fitting to put in the eye holes.

Also, at Christmas my nephew loved his Star Wars Finger Puppets, but as you would imagine as an almost 5 year old he had a few recommendations. He requested I add guns and some more "bad guys" so he could REALLY play with them.
So with some simple folded pipe cleaners and some more floss everyone was equipt with guns in a matter of minutes, except for R2-D2 and C-3PO. He said Leah should have a gun, because Luke let her borrow his. As for the bad guys he requested a Jawa and Darth Maul. So here they are in all their glory.

My mom is bringing some red pipe cleaners on Thursday so I can make his double light saber.

She is also bringing black pipe cleaners so I can make the Jawa's gun. My nephew was very specific about the gun since it has a very large barrel. He even knew what it was called. I did a google image search and sure enough, they do! I didn't even remeber they HAD guns! I really wanted gold eyes so I searched through my jewelry making supplies and found the eyes above. I know they are bigger, but I like that they make him feel smaller. Hopefully my artistic license is acceptable to my nephew.
Unfortunately we all got sick so we had to miss his big day. We are hoping to get together soon to give him his new Star Wars friends. Don't forget if you want patterns for the rest of the gang to shoot me an e-mail at mcgowan.rebekah@gmail.com

What projects are you working on over the winter months?

Free Star Wars Finger Puppet Pattern

The Star Wars Finger Puppet Patterns are now available through PDF!

They print out on standard letter size paper. I have also included the basic instructions in the packet.
Just e-mail me at mcgowan.rebekah@gmail.com and I will reply with the PDF that includes basic instructions and the patterns for all the characters shown above.
If you enjoy the pattern and want to say a thank you, donations are accepted. There is a link in the sidebar to donate through PayPal.

The Materials List is:

Assorted Felt

Assorted Embroidery Floss

Embroidery needle
Pins

Pipe Cleaners

Please note: The Patterns are intended for Personal use only. They can not be produced for sale without my express permission and the patterns can not be sold privately or publicly.

Star Wars Finger Puppets

I just couldn't wait to show you!

These are for my nearly 5 year old Nephew for Christmas. They were so much fun to make!
I have made printable patterns available through PDF. E-mail me at mcgowan.rebekah@gmail.com if you would like a copy of the free patterns for personal use.

The Goose is Getting Fat!

It's feeling like Christmas around here and we have been very busy little Elfs lately!
In addition to our looming list of homemade gifts to make I of course had to make a few Holiday creations for Lucas.

We had a rod iron rack that held rod iron baskets of vegetables and towels next to our fridge. Unfortunately, the need to toddler proof forced us to take this down as Lucas loved to try to pull it on top of himself. We suffer from the same plight as many others. We neglected to realize that Stainless Steel is NOT MAGNETIC! Now that the magnetic black side was finally available for play, we wanted to give Lucas some much needed magnet fun. I had some magnet sheets from an old project in my craft drawer and I always have felt lying around so I decided to make Lucas some magnets. I started out with ABC. then used the scraps to make triangles, eyeballs, a line, a tounge, and a circle. I had also made him a felt tree with felt ornaments and a star and had attempted to hang it on the livingroom wall. Lucas immediately ripped it right off the wall along with some of the wall paint! We felt the fridge was a little safer. So I used the remaining magnet scraps for the back of my tree. There literally wasn't a scrap of magnet left in the end. I love that you don't need to put anything on the backs of the ornaments or star since felt sticks to felt. The new magnets are a big hit and they wander over to the non-stainless dishwasher from time to time as well.

We also have been working tirelessly on our Christmas presents. Some will have to remain secret of course, but I can reveal that I finished my pattern designs and began cutting on my StarWars finger puppets for my nephew.

This idea was born from talking to my nephew and then watching him play. He had recently seen Star Wars III for the first time and apparently it changed his life much like thousands of other little boys and girls across the world. He later found Lucas' finger puppets and instantly began an extravagant narrative with them. So I thought what better thing than to combine the two! Of course I thought this was a completely original and brilliant idea until I did a Pinterest search. Low and Behold others had come up with the same idea. Luckily I could only find a decent Darth Vader that seemed to be a worthwhile pattern to work from. This left me to be able to make my own designs for the others. I hope they come out as awesome as they are in my head!!

My little niece turned two back in September. She adores taking care of her baby dolls and Lucas whenever she can get a chance. So I thought for her I would make my first quilt. I actually can't believe I've never made a quilt completely on my own, but with the power of Pinterest and Youtube I made it through!

I only have the hand stitching left to do around the binding. I had a wonderful time making this little piece.
If you have never made a quilt and are looking to get started I highly recommend using a combination of  this tutorial for the construction , a quilt tying tutorial - you will need a curved needle- I used a 2", and I needed this youtube quilt binding tutorial inorder to really understand what they were talking about. I will try to add the quilt tying tutorial I used. I forgot to save it to Pinterest and unfortunately they have shut down their search feature at the moment.
We have also been stirring up a little Christmas fun in the kitchen as well! I planned to make a cheese log using this recipe. However this was for a vegan, gluten free party, so the cream cheese was Tofutti. I found that it doesn't harden as well as regular cream cheese so it wouldn't keep it's little square package form on its own like the recipe intended. So I just put it in a small bread dish I had from our wedding and topped it off similar to the tutorial. I used green onions for the green bow. I found they curl best with an actual pair of scissors and if you run it along the inside of the leaf rather than the outside.

 We also made our version of the santa hat brownie bites pictured here. Again since we were going for Vegan/ Gluten Free we ran into a few road blocks. It turns out you can not use Egg substitutes with boxed Gluten free brownie mix. It will end up a crusty, overflowing, undercooked, and somehow overcooked mess. At the last minute we decided to just go Vegan and drop the attempt for Gluten free. I used my favorite Wacky Chocolate Cake recipe (no eggs, no milk, yet super moist and rich) in a mini cupcake tin, frosted with Pillsbury vanilla frosting (no eggs, no milk, no gelatin) and topped with strawberries. Excuse our messy creations as we were unable to purchase tubed frosting since it typically has gelatin products and I still haven't overcome my fear of making my own piping in a pastry wrap tube. So we frosted with a knife and then used fondu forks to decorate. Bill ended up frosting most of them so I could get dressed for the party. What a great guy! He thought it was pretty awesome so he didn't mind the silliness or tediousness too much.

Well, I hope you are having a VERY merry Christmas season!
I have consulted with 2 potential creative cohorts who have said they may be willing to do a guest blog showcasing their amazing holiday creations while I try to keep my current works under wraps.
So keep posted for some gorgeous hand made crafts by Carrie and Heather.

Merry Christmas,

                                                           The McGowans
P.S. That Party I was talking about, well it was a crazy Christmas sweater party. And as you can imagine, we won.

For the Love of Plexi

With just a little more persistance, the wall is now complete! Lucas practically wiggled his way out of Bill's arms in excitement and anticipation as I changed the last few pictures.

Bill's truck was at the shop and some dear friends had loaned us their extra vehicle. Tonight we went to return it and they happen to live in the craft store mecca of our area. So Bill agreed we could make a family quest in search of Plexi-Glass. No luck at Michael's. No luck at AC Moore. They had 2 sheets of 5x7 for about $4 a piece. So we popped in at the Dollar Tree as a last ditch effort. There they were. There were only four, but they were a beautiful site. 4x6 frames with Plexi-Glass! This allowed me to switch out the plastic on the crucial frames and I added Command Strips to my parent's photo which was still low enough to make me nervous.

He couldn't stop laughing, giggling, talking, and singing to all the wonderful photos. A few could use some updating, but I'm just so thrilled they are up and ready to be loved!

Learning our Loved Ones and Limitations

At last, I have created the ultimate family wall. It is touchable, pullable, pokable, and very lovable. destructable! 

Lately our little pumpkin is pointing at his Daddy and saying 'DaDa', 'Daddy', or even the occasional 'Bill' and is  filled with snuggles for 'Mumma, Mummy, or Momma.' So we would love to teach him the other vital members of his family tree.

Lucas' Loved Ones wall was originally in his nursery behind the glider. It looked great up there aesthetically, but annoyed me that for him to look at the pictures he had to virtually crawl on your shoulders while you sat in the glider and peer over his lamp. The frames are from our local Christmas Tree Shop. They were $3-$5 a piece.

As always I was inspired by a post on Pinterest and once again it was from YoungHouseLove.
They showed how they baby proofed wall hanging photos. Imagining Lucas standing in front of his family members and being able to physically point or poke at them as he learned their names was irresistible.
They had switched out the glass for plexi-glass and used Command Strips to hang them. I had the perfect spot in mind! We have a mini hallway that passes the bathroom on the way to studio. P.S. Ta-da!! I have a french door! Bill installed this gorgeous door for me. I love that is cuts down the noise from the rest of the house, but doesn't make me feel cut off or isolated.

Only plexi-glass stood in my way! I checked the posting and Sherry had pulled the plexi from some cheap frames they had around the house. So I was left to fend for myself. I didn't know where it was sold or how it was sold. I didn't know if I would have to cut it down or if it came in picture sized sheets. I contemplated purchasing cheap frames with plexiglass covers from the dollar store, but I had more than 9 pictures so spending $9 seemed silly when I would be throwing out the frames. Someone mentioned thick transparency sheets, but where would I get those? Could he pull the plastic down from the corners? So basically, I was left looking for a very specific item that there isn't a high demand for. My favorite...When all your shopping trips are limited to the few hours between naps and entail carrying a 13 month old in tow, searching from store to store is not an appealing idea to me. So as the procrastinating perfectionist I am, if I didn't have a perfect plan it goes on the back burner.

 Today in Lucas' Early Intervention his PT offered the idea of laminating. Yes, I was so obsessed I was talking about it in Early Intervention. That was interesting. Laminate paper is easier to come by, but if I switched the picture I would have to re-laminate and heaven forbid I got a bubble in there! Not perfect.

Finally, I bit the bullet and went off to the local craft store. As I scanned the shelves for anything and everything that would work I saw a photo calendar. I could cut out the sleeves! This could work! 12 months means I have enough for 9 frames! But the price tag got me. $20 for something I was going to cut up, so back to the shelf it went.

But this made me realize, since I have 4x6 frames, I could cut out photo sleeves from any of my old photo albums! A perfect solution was born. Price tag $0. Nothing was holding me back.  I do have 1 8x10 and 1 5x7, but I hung them high enough on the wall that he shouldn't be able to reach them.

So in case the idea isn't self explanatory enough I took some photos of the step by step of what didn't work.

Here's my sassy little photo album circa 1999.

No holds bar, I started cutting. You have to cut directly around the photo as there isn't the extra room in the frame. Yes, there were some fun honeymoon pictures in this album circa 2005.

Make sure to leave one side of the sleeve alone. It makes a little plastic folder for the photo.

This makes me feel better about him being able to pull the plastic from the frame. If your little one has busy little fingers like mine, I think this might help.

Introducing his Great Grandma and his late Great Grandpa behind plastic!
The plastic actually reduces the glare that you get from actual glass so even with the little crinkles and creases I was still quite pleased with the result.

Now on his way to go bang on the glass of my new door (Bill thought ahead and got Tempered) Lucas can take a pit stop and visit his aunts, uncles, cousins, grand parents, and even great grandparents. Mom and Dad are there too of course and the 8x10 is of himself. We think it's good for children to think the world revolves around them  have self confidence.
Ahhhh. Now I can stop laying awake in bed thinking about plexi-glass.

Update: I should have Kid tested before posting! Just as I feared Lucas' little fingers were able to rip out the plastic and photo in about .02 seconds. I guess tonight I'll be dreaming about Plexi-glass.

At least he had fun with it! Have you had a recent DIY disaster or struggled to find the exact materials for a perfect DIY idea?

Pumpkins with our Pumpkin

The Fall is my favorite season, hands down. We even got married in the fall and had our son in the fall, so it keeps getting better and better! One of my favorite things is carving pumpkins. Since Lucas is a little young for that, this year we thought painting pumpkins was an ideal choice. 

So we set our little man up with some taped up pumpkins and some paint and let him go wild. 

He had so much fun that he started crying when we put the paints away!! We had to get them back out and give him another pumpkin to paint!

He even gave himself a round of applause when he finished!

Did you make any awesome pumpkins this year or start any new family traditions?