Fathers Day Craft

Cute and Easy Fathers Day Craft

Shrinky Dink Neck Tie Key Chain 

Here is a super cute, simple and easy fathers day craft kids of any age can make for their dad...even babies can scribble on the paper.  I had never heard of shrinky dinks until earlier this week when my friend had the girls make some on a playdate and sent us home with the scraps to try making more.

Pick up some shrinky dink paper

 My friend found some at Hobby Lobby in the kids craft area in the back.

Preheat oven to 300 F

Draw a basic tie shape on the paper, or find a clipart drawing of a tie and print it out on the shrinky dink paper.

Have your child color in the tie with regular markers.  Younger ones can just scribble..older ones can try and make a pattern...

Carefully cut out around the edges once it is done being colored and punch a hole near the top.

The colored tie in the middle used to be the size of the outlined tie

Place the tie on a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper and put in oven

Set timer for 3 minutes (according to instructions but ours took longer)

watch it curl up and shrink, then it will slowly start to open back up.  Once it is looking pretty flat, take it out of the oven and press it flat with an oven mitt.  Let cool.

Attach neck tie keychain to key ring.  I had to use a safety pin to attach it because I made my hole too small for the key ring to go through.  You can do this too, or use string or something else thin if your hole comes out too small after it shrinks.  

Now daddy with have a cute fathers day craft from the kids that will always be with him!

And for more fathers day neck tie goodness...check out these free fathers day printables
http://amandaparkerandfamily.blogspot.com/2011/06/freebie-fathers-day-printables-are-tie.html

Cake and Strawberries! Plus Cake Stand Tutorial!!!

So I had previously posted a picture and a link to these adorable ideas I found through V & Co. featuring a strawberry shortcake and set of fabric strawberries. This was something on my to-do list that I ACTUALLY got done! I made these for one of my daughter's 3rd Birthday gifts. I used THIS free tutorial for the fabric strawberries and could have bought the tutorial for the cake HERE, but I was too cheap and just stared at the picture instead and decided to figure it out. If you decide to make this cake, maybe buy the tutorial...you'll save yourself some time and frustration. Mine is REALLY "fudged" but with the frosting on it looks decent. I decided to make my frosting reversible so my daughter could have strawberry shortcake or a lemon cake! Anyways, it was a hit! She has really been enjoying this play set, and it goes perfectly with her new tea set! I also made the cake stand, it only took about 10 minutes...if you include waiting for the glue gun to heat up! My daughter loves switching the frosting around and piling on the strawberries....then pretending to take a great big bite right out of the cake!

Fabric Strawberries

I found the little yellow basket for the strawberries in the Easter Section at Hobby Lobby for 50 cents! I thought it was PERFECT!

Strawberry Shortcake

Lemon Cake

Super Easy Cake Stand Tutorial

To make the play wooden cake stand, here is what you'll need:

glue gun
foam brush
acrylic craft paint
wooden candle stick
wooden circle-
(found mine near clock making supplies at the craft store)

Pull out the metal thing that holds the candle. (my husband used a butter knife to pry it out).

Decide which way you want to use the candle stick, I actually used mine upside down, it looked better f0r the cake plate design.

Heat up your glue gun.

Find the center of you wooden disc/circle

Apply hot glue to the end of the candle stick and carefully aligned and attatch to center of wooden disc.

Using your foam brush, paint an even coat of craft paint. That will quickly dry and you can do a second coat if needed.

THE END!

And if you need a real cupcake stand that can be thrown together in a jiffy and on the cheap, check out my super easy, frugal cupcake stand tutorial.

Another great bargain seen here? I got that dress my daughter is wearing last year from Gymboree on Clearance for under $10, it was originally around $40. I bought the next size up and now it fits her perfect for this spring/summer season! I LOVE getting a good deal!

May Contain Lead? CRAP!

My daughter LOVES to play with her tea set and host tea parties. She received an adorable tin tea set by Schylling a little over a year ago and has used it so much. However, my daughter doesn't like to just pretend, she likes my to put a bit of water in the tea pot so she can pour it into her tea cups and drink it. I didn't think much of it...then my husband noticed the inside of her tea pot was started to get a bit rusted, that can't be healthy. One thing lead to another and I was looking at her exact tea set on Amazon and it said a warning that the product may contain lead or produce lead dust. YIKES! Well, I just tried to find it again and now I don't see that same warning, however, in the meantime, I spent tons of time combing the internet trying to find a replacement set that actually advertised as being SAFE to drink out of. It was actually really hard, so I pretty much decided to rule out anything made in China and eventually found this BPA and Phlatelate Free Tea Pot Set made by Green Toys.
So this will be her replacement set. It's made from is 100% recycled material and is actually advertised as being non toxic and safe for children to drink and eat out of...This was the only set I could find that clearly stated this. It's not AS cute as some of the other tea sets out there, but at least I know it's safe. I'm not ussually crazy about checking these things, but when it comes to toys that are constantly being put in your kids mouth, you want to be careful! I can actually feel good about this set as well as it's environmentally friendly...which is something I've been trying to work on more since joining the One Small Change Challenge.

If your little one loves tea parties or you are trying to think of a gift for a little girl, I would definitely recommend this tea set, it's durable, safe to play with and drink with, totally non-toxic, made in the USA, and helps the environment. And unlike some "green toys" that tend to be more boring to look at, this tea set is still colorful and cheerful.

Some of my other favorite safe toys are

Make your own Monster!

A year or two ago, I came across this Make Your Own Monster Kit at the famous FAO Schwarz toy store in New York. The kit retails for $249 and allows a child to design their very own monster, then send in the drawing and have it made into a custom plush toy. I thought "what a fun idea!" I wanted to do it for my nephew ever since but didn't get around to it until this Christmas. When he visited my mom for Thanksgiving, I told her to have him draw a picture of a monster (without telling him about what I wanted to do with it). She then emailed me a copy of it and I used felt and buttons to make this toy. I wrapped the toy up with his drawing included, when he opened it he was so surprised and excited, and then told me he wanted to be a toy designer when he grew up!
This monster toy makes a great gift or just a fun project to do. It didn't take long and it was really fun to make because I wasn't stressed about making it perfect and having perfect seems...actually, any mistakes or uneven areas just added character to the creature!

Update: I just came across a great tutorial for doing this same project! And since I didn't create my own tutorial as I made mine, you can use this great on over HERE at Little Birdie Secrets. ENJOY!

Boutique Style Tutu

Easy Boutique Tutu

This was a super easy and fun project that I came across on ehow.com called How to Make a Boutique Style Tutu. I was looking for something to make for a birthday gift for a 2 year old girl. I made this tutu while watching a movie with my husband one evening and thought it was so fun and easy I have since made more! I wish I had put more flowers on it, but I used what I had. These are SO cute!
You can find the tulle ribbon in the wedding section at your local craft/sewing supply store. I found mine at JoAnn Fabrics.  You could whip up a bunch of these as tutu party favors to your daughter's guests at her next sleepover party or birthday party.  If the girl's are old enough, it could be a party activity, I think girls 8 and up could make these easy tutus.