DIY craft kits for kids: Washi tape clothespins

Every time we go to the craft store, Elise just stares at the craft kits. She wants all of them, even the stupid ones. (Make your own foam princess tiara? No, thanks.) 

Here's the thing: they are overpriced, over-packaged and (mostly) overly girly. There's only so much pink this mama can take.

So I put together my own DIY craft kits for Elise. She is four, so I chose simple low-mess activities. She's got a fierce independent streak going on, so I tried to give her things she could do without much assistance.

This is just the first post of a short and sweet DIY craft kit series. Stay tuned for more ideas!

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Washi tape covered clothespins

I can thank my friend Katie for turning me onto this first idea!

I was a late adopter to washi tape, but now I can't get enough of it! Just cut a length of tape and apply it to each side of the clothespin to make cute clips.

You can get clothespins at any craft store, but they are even cheaper at Target (50 for less than $2!). And it seems washi tape is available nearly everywhere now for just a couple of bucks a roll. Super easy and super cheap!

I packaged all of the kits in brown paper lunch bags with these clothespins securing them. Love the simple look!

See more kid stuff here >>

Update: High contrast, black and white paintings for baby

Basically, this post is just another opportunity for me to show you more baby photos. 

But seriously, I was amazed that at only two days old, Etta was totally checking out the black and white high contrast paintings Elise and I made for her. We hung them right next to the changing table, and when she's there, she is fixated.

It made Elise feel pretty good that Etta was so interested in something she made. So good that she thought Etta might also be interested in her crayon drawings. Big sister/baby sister relations success!

Scrap bag fabric flower garland (Guest post from Moonfield Lane)

Thanks to Michele for filling in for me today and sharing her project with us! Check out her blog Moonfield Lane for more great decorating and project ideas!

Hi there! I'm Michele and I blog over at Moonfield Lane. I've been a fan of Erin's creativity for a long time, and I'm thrilled to guest post at Lansdowne Life while Erin cuddles her new baby girl.

Today (in honor of spring and baby girls) I'm going to show you how to make a flower garland from scrap fabric.

If you sew or if you've ever made fabric crafts, you probably have an assortment of fabric scraps already. If you don't, you can buy fat quarters cheaply at the fabric store, often bundled into coordinating prints.

You'll need:

• fabric scraps
• scissors
• cardstock and a pencil to make a pattern
• needle and thread
• twine
• hot glue gun

Before you start, I'd think about where you want to hang your garland, how long you want it to be and how many flowers you'll need. I hung my twine across my mantel before cutting it, allowing for drape. I then marked the middle of the twine, so that I could begin my flowers on either side of the mark. I also tried to get a visual idea of how many flowers I wanted and how I wanted them spaced. I ended up with 12 flowers on 7 feet of twine to hang on my 4 foot mantle.

Loosely draw and cut out three petal shaped circles on the cardstock, each one smaller than the other. These three petals make up one flower. Mine turned out to be about 2 3/4 inches, 2 1/4 inches and 1 3/4 inches respectively, but you don't need to be precise.

Decide on your fabrics and start cutting! I was able to cut through four folds of fabric at a time, making the process go a little faster. You'll need a flower on the front of your garland as well as a flower to glue on the back, meaning I created 24 flowers in all. So I cut 24 petals of each size and 72 all together. You'll want the flowers on the front and back, if not entirely the same, to at least sort of match.

As you're cutting your petals, lay them on top of one another the way you're going to sew them so you can visualize the finished flower and how your patterns look together. You can see in the photo that I frayed my edges a little by running my fingernails around the edge of each petal, pulling some of the loose threads.

Now it's time to sew! Start stitching about 1/4 the way through the smallest petal and go all the way around ending with your needle on the wrong side of the fabric (not like in the picture where the needle comes up through the correct side.)

Pull the needle and thread as tight as you can through the back (without breaking the thread!) as you would a drawstring bag. This creates the center of the flower. Tie a knot in the thread and cut it off. You may need to adjust the center a little until it looks right. You can stick something pointed through the back to sort of "fluff it up" if you need to.

After you've made your flowers, glue them to the twine. I just put a small blob of hot glue on a flower, laid the twine on the glue and pressed another flower on top.

Glue the flowers along the entire length of twine and you're done!

Thanks for having me, Erin!

About Michele from Moonfield Lane: I live in Virginia with my husband and our two wild and woolly little boys. I blog about home decor, crafts and chocolate, and much of my day is spent picking up Legos and cleaning up dirty footprints.

p.s. from Erin: Wouldn't these flowers also be super cute on little girls' hair clips? Might have to make some for my girls! Thanks again, Michele!

Stimulating high contrast paintings for baby

We're still getting ready for baby around here! I put together this simple "sibling activity" to get Elise more excited about baby sister and their shared room. Plus, she's always up for any crafty project I can throw at her.

There's a lot of research out there that suggest babies prefer to look at black and white geometric patterns and high contrast images. We decided to make some of our own to hang up near the baby's changing table to give her something interesting to look at during diaper changes.

I bought some small 6"x8" canvas boards at Michaels for a few bucks. We covered them in office supply dot stickers and painters tape, creating different geometric patterns.

Then Elise painted the entire canvases in black. I didn't care that the coat of paint was uneven. Actually, I think it gives it some extra interest. But if it bothers you, a second coat of paint will take care of it.

Before the paint dried completely, I carefully peeled off the stickers/tape revealing the white below. The edges of the stickers came out a more raggedy than the tape due to the texture of the canvas, but that's OK. Handmade!

For the polka dot and striped paintings, that's all we did. Easy peasy.

The diamond pattern was a bit more complicated. Initially, I thought it would only take a couple of layers, but I took over and ended up doing multiple multiple layers of tape and paint. Honestly, I stopped taking progress photos, and I'm not sure it would be worth explaining in detail. Sorry. If anyone is super interested, leave a comment and I will write up an explanation. See below for a photo explanation of how I did it!

p.s. Of course, Elise had to take some project photos with her own camera. My little blogger without a blog.

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Update 03/25/2013: Baby Etta is fascinated by the paintings! Even at only two days old!

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 Added 02/24/2013:

A brief explanation of how to complete the diamond pattern, in photos.









[I don't have a photo of this, but paint the exposed gray diamonds in black, then peel off the tape.]

Summer craft: Experimenting with sunprints

This was a guest post I did over at my friend Ann Marie's blog, White House, Black Shutters in June. Since then, Elise and I have made more of these sunprints and I'll be sharing those soon. But first, I wanted to show you our introduction in case you missed it.

There's still a little bit of summer left before the kids are in school, so pick up some sunprint paper and get to experimenting! Sunprints (or cyanotypes) are a great activity for children: no mess, quick results, and a dose of sciencey magic!

I love projects that are simple enough for kids to do, but have sophisticated, frame-worthy results. This is one of those projects! Are you ready? Let's put some of that summer sun to work!

What you need:

• Sunprint light sensitive paper
• Flat objects with interesting shapes
• Two cookie sheets or trays
• Water
• Sunlight!

I bought my sunprint paper at a local art supply store (20 - 11"x17" sheets for $14), but it's also available online in various sizes. It might seem pricey, but I cut my sheets in half to 8.5"x11", so really I paid something like 35 cents a sheet.

First, collect up interesting flat objects from around the house. Coins, keys, bottle caps, buttons, letter magnets, toys -- anything is fair game! Be creative, but don't choose anything too tall that would cast a shadow across the print. You can certainly do the traditional nature-based botanical prints with leaves or flowers too.

Put the sunprint paper blue side up on a cookie sheet. Then arrange the objects on the paper. The paper is very sensitive to light, so make sure to do this step inside and out of direct sunlight.

Now comes the fun part! Carefully transport the cookie sheet outside and place in direct midday sunlight. I left mine in the sun for two minutes, but follow the instructions on your package of paper. Don't overexpose the print; make sure you take it inside after the recommended time. Be careful, though. A metal cookie sheet might get hot even after just a couple of minutes in the sun.

In the sun, the paper will fade from bright blue to nearly white.

But everything that was protected underneath the objects will still be blue.

And now the magic begins! Fill a second cookie sheet with water and submerge the print to develop it. Watch as the white turns blue and the blue turns white! I left mine in the water for one minute, but again, follow the instructions on your package of sunprint paper.

The print will continue to darken as it dries, ending up a vivid cobalt blue.

The truly opaque objects leave a bright white shadow, while the more translucent plastic lids and such produce a cloudy lighter blue. Experiment! Try layering things and see what kind of effects you can create.

But the kids shouldn't be the only ones to get in on the fun. After my daughter was done, I made a few prints myself.

Yarny heart ornaments

Here's my take on the yarn-wrapped wreaths/letters that have been floating around the internet.

I'm not normally into the yarny sort of look, but it seems appropriate for February and Valentine's Day. A time of the year that begs for warmth, sweaters, and yes, yarn. If not now, then when?

These wooden hearts are mid-nineties vintage Wal-mart. A few months ago, my mom and I discovered a box of craft supplies in her basement, untouched, like a time capsule, since they moved into their house in 1994. Lots of wood cuts and baby's breath. The baby's breath went promptly into the trash, but all the wood cuts came home with me!

First, I painted the hearts a similar color to the yarn I was going to use in case any showed through.

Then (and this is really hard so pay attention) I wrapped the hearts in yarn. This yarn was leftover from a scarf my mom knitted for Elise. These hearts are only about 3.5 inches tall, so it didn't take much. 

For the first layer I kept things pretty orderly. Then I wrapped a haphazard second layer on top to make things look more disorganized.

I hung them on the chandelier above our dining room table. Another one of my favorite places to hang ornaments!