Paper Garlands

The next project in the book is Paper Garlands. This was actually a really cute idea and I am thinking of adapting it for our next birthday party.

22- Pirate Garland
23- Princess Garland
24- Flowery Garland
25- Sports Garland

You start by cutting out rectangles of paper, roughly 8 inches by 2 inches. I cut various colors, depending on the flag. Then you fold them in half, so you have a 4 inch by 2 inch rectangle to decorate. For the pirate flag, I cut triangles out of the bottom, and for the flowers and leaves you cut half of the shape you want.

My pirate garland....

My princess garland...

My flower garland....

 My sports garland....

And here is what they are supposed to look like...

We didn't actually hang them on ribbon or string because Riely wanted to use them as tunnels for his trains. But he did let me at least hang them on a hanger and take a photo.

Finger Print People

Well, its almost the end of February, and have I kept up with this blog? NO!!! What is wrong with me! haha

Sadly, we have actually been doing the projects, I just haven't had the time to upload them all! Do you believe me? No, of course not. Well here is a project we did a while back.

Finger Print People
Project 19- Stick People
Project 20- Jobs and Hobbies
Project 21- Hairstyles and Expressions

The idea behind these projects is to make people out of finger prints. So I used ink pads and had Riely and Eliza make finger prints all over the paper. Then I added the arms, legs, hair, etc.

It was pretty neat, but Riely wasn't that impressed with my art skills.

Wow, January is over! And have I gotten through 31 projects with the kids, ummm not so much. But I have been busy working on other things that I can't wait to share with you!

The first is a quick and easy flower head band that I made for my "niece" Addison's third birthday!

The project can be completely no-sew, if you want to use a hot glue gun. I chose to sew it because I was sitting on the couch and I didn't want to risk hot gluing anything to my couch (or my baby that you can see crawling around on the floor in some of the shots).

So you will start with about 1/4-1/2 yard each of 2 different fabrics. It depends on how full you want your flower to be. I cut the "big" pedals as 6 inch circles (meaning 6 inches in diameter) and the small pedals are 4 inch circles. Cut out 8 of each size circle. You will also need something for the middle, I chose decorative buttons. a head band to attach them to and 2 small 2 inch circles of felt (not pictured)

You will begin by taking one of the large circles and folding it in half like a taco.

Then you will fold it in thirds. This is really hard to describe, but basically you are taking the left edge and folding it back behind the middle "third" and taking the right edge and folding it in front of the middle.
 

Then you will attach it to the small felt circle. 
 

You will repeat this with all 8 circles.

 Here is what it looks like with all the big pedals on it.

 Then you follow the same technique for the small pedals.

 

Now its time to add your decoration. I found these really cute buttons and sewed them in the middle. This is also a great time to "catch" any loose ends when you were attaching the pedals. 

 

Next you will hot glue it to the head band. I used the second felt circle to sandwich the head band in, so the hot glue wouldn't show and for extra support. 

 

Now you are all done! I made 3 different ones from different color combos of the fabrics I bought.  And Addison (and her mom) loved them!

 

Total cost: $8 for 3 (plus I have left over fabric) Total time, 45 minutes for all 3.