Homemade Bubble Wands

We made some homemade bubble wands the kids have been smitten with for awhile now. I'd been meaning to make the classic metal hanger version, but then I decided to get out my metals box and try to make something a little more magical.

The kids had fun going through my stuff, picking out ribbon and pretty little things.

Using a pair of needle nose pliers, I twisted wire into star shaped wands, then threaded the beads and such they had chosen onto the stems. Beads that were too small for the wand wire, I put on smaller gauge wire and looped it loosely onto the wand so that they dangle freely like tassels.

I went over the stars with a hammer, forging them gives them strength so they will hold their shape. 

I tied ribbon on the handles, and gave them a couple jars of bubbles for some super magical bubble blowing.

Kaia particularly likes running with her wand, trailing bubbles... I had a hard time getting a picture of her even relatively in focus. :)

The wands are bigger than any they have had before, and they love the larger bubbles. Next time I will have to make some great big ones to dip in a dish!

Katalin concentrates so hard when she blows bubbles, it is really amusing to watch. She is so proud every time she produced a bubble!

They have had bubbles, but these little wands hold a whole new level of appeal for them, they have been bubbling constantly!

Watercolor Lanterns

The girls and I made some lanterns using watercolor paper and paints, vegetable oil, and white craft glue. I think they are lovely! I did see this idea somewhere else on the interwebs, but I am unable to find it now to give any credit. This idea seems to be kicking around, though, so I don't think I am sweeping the glory out from under anyone's feet too terribly.

We started off with plain watercolour paper which the girls painted, using the wet on wet watercolour technique. This simply means that you soak your paper before painting it with dissolved watercolours. (Not "dry" paint, as it is considered straight out of the tube.)  Here, Katalin demonstrates both her one-brush, and three-brush methods. ;) I cut one large watercolour sheet into two, one side a bit smaller than the other, to get two lanterns out of it in different heights.

This pair was a Birthday gift for their Grandma, and I only gave them yellow and red paints to work with so that she wouldn't get mud lanterns. They didn't seem to mind, and enjoyed swirling the two colours into orange in places, and trying to cover their entire papers.

When they had finished painting, we sprinkled the wet papers with a little coarse sea salt. You can use any salt, though, and it will absorb the paint directly under it, and gather the paint in the area into little pools around the grains. Different sized salt grains make different sized patterns. The salt has a nice effect, you can see the visual texture it left in some of the below photos, and the kids always have fun sprinkling it on. Many of our watercolour paintings get this treatment!

When the paintings were dry, the girls rubbed vegetable oil into them with paper towels, until they were thoroughly saturated and transparent. They were a little over-enthusiastic, so I dabbed the excess oil off when they had finished, and we left them overnight to dry on a few paper towels. The next day, I cut little strips along one side, this side become the base. Ours are approximately an inch apart.

Then I put a line of white craft glue down one of the side edges and rolled the paintings into cylinders, overlapping the glued edge with the opposite side. This seam needs to hold together well while it dries, so to hold it in place, I slipped a jar in each lantern. I clipped the edge the jars didn't reach shut with paper clips. To be on the safe side, I left these to dry overnight as well.

Once the side seams were done, I folded the fringe on the bottoms in with a dot of white craft glue where the strips overlap. I set them upright and dropped the jars back inside to hold the strips firmly in place while they dried. This is what the bottom of your lantern will look like when yo are finished. Unless your child's name isn't Katalin.

They look so soft and beautiful, with or without a candle lighting them up. The girls made a couple more for us using lots of colours, and I have been using votive candles (that are contained in glass,) inside them to keep flame away from the paper. In the ones we gifted we included some wax LED candles, so that they can be safely placed anywhere and left flickering away without fear.  

Kaia has been constantly asking me to light the candles in them, I am going to pick up another LED candle so that she can do it herself. I think it would be sweet for her to have one next to her bed at night, glowing warmly while she drifts to sleep. Next, I believe I will be wiring some handles onto ours for them to carry around, as this is what they do anyway!

Castle Birthday Invitations

Sharing with you the invitations we made for Miss Kaia's birthday party. They are pretty simple affairs. I folded a piece of scrap paper in half and drew half a castle on it, then cut it out. (So it will be symmetrical.) The door is cut out the way it is so that it is easy to trace the shape, and I know where to stop cutting to leave paper "hinges" on.

I used that first piece as a template to trace out the rest of my castles, and cut them all out. The doors are cut up the center, then down each side about halfway, leaving them attached and openable.

Using a glue pen with a sponge tip, I applied a light layer of clear glue to the backs of the castles. I adhered them to card stock, leaving the backs of the doors unglued.

To make so many windows easier to do, I cut potato stamps in three shapes. A large window, and smaller window, and a point for using on doorknobs. I dipped them in embossing fluid and stamped my windows, dusting them with embossing powder, which I then set. I outlined the windows and rooves with a glue pen and dusted them with sparkles, as well as adding a big "K" to the front. (For, "Kaia", of course.) The embossing adds some neat texture to the castles, as the windows actually bubble out, something not really picked up by the camera.

Inside the doors, I drew a bunch of balloons, and touched them with a glitter pen. I outlined them with pen, and also used pen to add a couple flag poles on the turrets. I cut tiny pennants out of card stock, and glued those above the towers on the "poles".

I added all the party info to the backs, (what I would give for a printer!) and what I would like to say now is that I immediately slipped them into addressed envelopes and sent them on their way!

Unfortunately, what really happened is that I set them in the middle of the table to do just that, and while I was was not watching, (probably cooking, doing laundry, or *gasp* in the bathroom, heaven forbid,) my inquisitive little 18 month old, Miss Katalin,  got them all down and "happened" to them. Kataclysm! Oh, this age. Such fun.

So I have remade just a handful to send out to Grandparents, which I am doing quite belatedly. Ah, life.

Make a Unicorn Horn Flower Crown

Because who should have to decide between a flower crown and a unicorn horn? Kaia really wanted to wear both for her Birthday, and this is what I ended up with. 

When she first told me she wanted to be a unicorn for her Birthday party, I started poking around the Web, trying to figure something out. I was really disappointed with what I found. I didn't want her to be encumbered by a big, hot, bulky costume for her indoor party. I wanted something she could don on her own when she wanted to play. I didn't want a modeling clay horn held on with an "invisible" elastic band. These just don't seem practical to me for a young child. I wanted a horn that would go on easily and comfortably, one that was lightweight, was not fragile, and would stay in place well on her head while she cantered around the house wildly, rearing and jumping. Because you know that is what is going to happen when you place a unicorn horn on a 4 year old. (Omygosh, she's almost four!) I think I actually achieved all of these standards I set myself, and I am really happy with how the whole thing came together, (and so is she!)

When I made the horn, I was thinking I would experiment a bit, start figuring things out. I didn't expect to be happy with the first thing I twiddled with, so I'm stuck without any pictures. I made a paper model in order to do this tutorial. Not the prettiest pictures, but hopefully they at least make the process easy to see.

You will need:

• Craft Felt in Various Colours
• Stuffing
• Sewing Thread and Needle
• Extra Strong Quilting Thread
• Small Length of Elastic
• Headband
• Hot glue
• Scissors
• Plastic Gems
• Fabric Leaves (Or Make Felt Leaves)

 I used sparkly white craft felt for her horn. Aside from the fact that it is, obviously, sparkly, the sparkle felt is quite a bit stiffer. Cut out a skinny triangle and fold it in half lengthwise, right sides together. Sew up the open long side, marked with sharpy in the following pictures. Leave the bottom open. (That triangle was supposed to be relatively symmetrical. The real thing was, I swear. Pretend that it is relatively symmetrical, okay? Thanks.)

Trim off excess fabric, and turn right-side-out. Using extra strong quilting thread, cut a long piece, (enough to wrap your spirals,) and knot off the end. Make it a good, big knot, you don't want it to pull through the felt once there is tension on it. Run the thread out near the tip of the horn from inside. (Not at the tip.) Pull it all the way through, so that knot is the only part left inside. Stuff the horn as tightly as you can, I used polyfill stuffing. Trim the bottom to even it out if necessary.

Begin wrapping the thread down the horn in a spiral, tightly enough to leave a good indent. This will give your horn a nice spiraled shape, and keep the thread from slipping and sliding around on the horn. (This was the part I was most unsure about. I worried that the fabric would bunch, or that the thread would not be strong enough to pull tightly, or that it would not stay in place. None of those fears came to light, it worked very well.) Tie your thread off inside, near the bottom of the horn. Place your horn on another piece of matching felt, trace the bottom circle, and cut it out. 

Starting from the inside, wrap stitches around the edges of your felt, sewing the circle to the bottom of the horn, and tie it off. Try to hide your knot inside, or at least away from the edge.

I attached it to a nice, wide, cloth-covered headband that we found at a dollar store. To do so, measure a piece of elastic around the center of the headband to get your length, then make it a bit smaller so that it will stretch snugly into place. Sew the elastic ends together to form a loop. Stitch the elastic to the bottom of the horn. Take care to sew the elastic all the way to the edges of the horn, or the base will pull up at the front and back. Also make sure that the seam holding the elastic together gets sewn to the horn, this way it will end up on top of the headband, instead of as an uncomfortable lump against your child's head.

Your unicorn horn is complete! Like magic, the paper horn suddenly transforms into a real one! Oh, wait... *ehem* Anyway, once on the headband, I added a little hot glue under the edges of the horn to help keep it from wobbling any. I think this would be remedied by using a wider elastic band than what I happened to have on hand, though.

 Hot glue the fabric leaves down either side of the headband, overlapping a little and alternating direction. Cut a variety of flowers out of the coloured felt. (Tip: Your husband may get slightly irritable if you attempt to do this in bed, stick to reading a book.) I honestly think layering has the biggest impact on how nice they come out looking. I used hot glue to fix the layers together. I've no idea how well hot glue works on wool felt, but it works amazingly on eco felt. I believe the heat actually fuses the layers together to an extent. For the large yellow flower, I simply cut a bunch of strips of felt, folded them in half, then tacked them all together by their ends with a little thread.

Hot glue the flowers all over the headband, then hot glue the plastic gems to the centers. Make sure to overlap the base of the horn a bit and cover up the elastic band. You are the proud new owner of a unicorn horn flower crown!

I had a very hard time keeping her still long enough to take any pictures...

Her rainbow unicorn tail is now complete, too, and I have a full blown unicorn galloping around the house all day. Find that tutorial here. By the way, it would be really easy to stick a couple ears in there amid the flowers. According to Kaia, however, she already has two ears and didn't want any more. (Don't look at me... she wears plenty of other animal ears, my logic does not often have much effect on her, however.)