Treasured Again on Etsy

We love to be included in treasuries on Etsy.  It's nice to know that people love your items.  BTW - it's the unicorn poncho. 

'Christmas for Jack and Emily!' by splendidowl

Gift ideas for Jack and Emily!!! <3

Vinyl wall art deca... aluckyhorsesho... $14.00	NEW Rawr Means I lo... RockRiverTees $13.00	Recycled Crayons Tr... RedElmDesigns $5.50	Heather Ross Unicor... ragadoos $26.00
Sleepy Strawberry O... raspberryrocke... $12.00	PERSONALIZED I love... littlesaplingt... $	Wireless Plush Glit... 4eva $23.50	Snow White and the ... MysticMoor $30.00
Lanie - wool felt r... PolkaTods $14.00	Dinosaurs Wall Viny... sixunderatree $25.00	Construction Trucks... sixunderatree $20.00	Believe in Fairies ... SimplyStickItD... $14.99
Dinosaur Soap BathingBella $	Green Dinosaur / Dr... ButterflyBlueD... $15.00	HELLO KITTY HAT.ANY... BabyCreationBy... $19.00	ON SALE Unicorn Dre... c1h8r9is $17.95

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Moon sand Tutorial

Guess what! You can actually make moonsand really cheaply.  I suppose you could make it organic (but you've got problems if your kids is eating sand:)

Anyway the recipe is 3 ingredients
6 parts play sand - you can get a bag at Home Depot really cheaply - it also comes already colored if you want that
3 parts cornstarch
1.5 parts water
Mix up the cornstarch and water first until smooth.  Then, mix in the sand 1 cup at a time.  Store in an airtight container.  You may need to add a little more water each time you play (depending on humidity - a couple of tablespoons).  But, in order to make a product that never dries out, I can only imagine that it is full of gross chemicals - I think that the patent calls them copolymers of vinyl or acetate.
Will this moon sand work underwater like the other stuff?  Who knows - I haven't tried it like that.  Water, 3 year olds and wood floors don't mix - but for cutting and molding it is nice.
Also, you can add glitter to make it sparkle.  Glitter is available many places very affordably and most kids - boys and girls alike tend to love it.

Tag Blankets with Style

This idea came from a combination of the ever popular tag blanket, something my sister saw on another website, and my personal experience. I decided to create a smaller version of the tag blanket after seeing my daughter and niece pay with the big blankets. Plus, I wanted to make something that was more like a softee. I took coloring book pages and used them as templates to create these little taggie "Blankets". The faces are machine embroidered b/c I am lazy and I totally despise hand sewing. I have about 50 stitched on my machine, but you could easily make these simple faces by hand or with the zig zag (satin) stitch on you machine.

Tagimal Taggie Blanket and Softee Rattle

I was also inspired by the fact that the selection of adorable boy items is very limited. I made a princess crown and star rattle for girls.
I am going to be making a series of similar taggies in planes, trains, and automobiles. I will post samples when I finish.
This is a great upcycled craft. First of all, I used fleece scraps to make these and I used ribbon pieces that were so short that they were useless for most products. Plus, fleece is mostly made from recycled pop bottles so you can feel good about using it. It is durable and washes and dries well.

Burp Cloth Cupcakes - Creative Packaging Idea

So, I needed a better way to package up my burp cloths to make them really cute and just a bit more unique.  I mean, there is nothing really special about an all flannel burp cloth.
Here, I combines two ideas that I had.  First, I love the little mini diaper cakes that people are calling diaper cupcakes.  I also like coordinating burp cloth sets.  There is just something extra nice about giving a handmade gift at a baby shower.  If you aren't throwing the shower it is a little weird to show up with a full on diaper cake.

Anyway, I made my usual jumbo burp cloths, (I like flannel b/c it comes in hundreds of totally adorable prints and washes well).  Then, I made a diaper cupcake out of about 10 newborn diapers.  Then a "frosted" it with my burp cloths.  It would be really cute to put a huge red pompom on top, but I didn't have any.

I packed the entire thing up in a cake box that I bought at the party supply store.  This one is a huge hit with all of my friends.

Coffee Sleeves for Christmas

This little project was inspired by my sister.  She is all about embroidery, but as you all know, I totally despise hand sewing. I took here idea for a java jacket style coffee sleeve and made it modern with a retro graphic.  So my version is fleece because fleece is made of up to 100% recycled materials (old pop bottles).  It also has an insulating effect that keeps your coffee warm and your hand cool.
I basically traced around a cardboard coffee sleeve to make my pattern, adding a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Then I cut 2.  Then, I printed my vintage style graphics on printable fabric.  I satin stitched it down (a very tight zigzag).  Then I sewed the two pieces right sides together, turned and then top stitched.  Top stitching gives the piece shape and closes the opening from turning so there is no need to do a blind stitch to close.  If you don't have a machine, you could hand sew this in about 10 minutes.  I am lazy, so I would whip stitch the whole thing or blanket stitch.  Fleece is not going to fray.  I added velcro to the back for closure.
I am going to do a line of photo sleeves next.  I can't wait to give out baby photo coffee sleeves to all of my friends.  

Java Jacket Coffee Sleeve Reusable

I also have a great way to turn this idea into a kid craft.  I made a white version on this in white cotton with a white fleece lining.  I had my daughter color the whole thing with crayons.  Then I ironed it on high with a sheet of wax paper over the top.  This sets the crayon.  What a fun gift for dad or grandma/grandpa. 
This project is another great way to use scraps.  I save every little piece of fabric from my projects, so I always have odd sized pieces waiting to be used.

Altered Domino Numerology Pendant Necklace

This is an idea that I had a long time ago after seeing an episode of the Carol Duvall show where the guest altered dominoes. I am not into making a tiny useless mini journal and wearing it around my neck, but I thought that it could be fun to make something that incorporated my love of the occult with an altered domino. I basically took the domino and stamped and inked the front with plain old permanent markers. I used a gold paint pen to "gold leaf" the edges of the domino. I left the back blank so that you could see the numbers on the domino. I did have to use the dremel tool to get the hole for my finding. Plastic dominoes give off the most disgusting gas when you are drilling them so I would not recommend doing it when you are pregnant. I then attached it to a card where I explained how you get your personal number and then information about your number on the back.

altered domino

So Simple Monster Softee Dolls For Christmas

I recently made about 30 of these kooky little dolls for my ebay store. I wanted a simple pattern that I could whip up really quickly and that had no hand sewing. I free hand drew a pattern out onto newspaper double. Since I wanted the front to be two colors, I chopped it in 1/2 and used the 2 halves as a template for cutting. Then, I sewed up the 2 front pieces and stiched them onto the back leaving the whole top of the head open. I stuffed the dolls and then top-stiched the head shut with a decorative embroidery stich. The mouths are trim and the eyes are felt that I zig-zagged down.

Twilight Purse / Backpack Charm / Locker Organizer - Great Teen Gift Ideas

This craft was my mom's idea. She saw a woman at the store with a key chain with photos of her grand kids. We decided the make some themed charms chains for the Twilight fans out there.
You need wooden tags which you can buy a package of at Joann's in the section where all of the little wooden pieces are kept. Then you cover the tags with decorative papers. I used ink the distress the edges and the papers for a more romantic feel. Then I printed up the photos and stuck them on with double stick tape. Next, I started on the jewelry part of the project. I took some chain, jump rings, and different charms and hooked everything together. These are pretty long, but you could make them much shorter. I finally fixed the three lengths of chain together with a claw hook so that it would snap onto your key chain, zipper, etc.


I had a ton of old cigar box purses laying around in the closet just waiting for me to finish them. Once I got hooked on Twilight, I knew that this was going to be the best thing to do with the boxes. I added tons are matted photos, book quotes, hearts, flowers, and lots of dazzling sparkles to the purse. I have actually made several of these up including one totally devoted to Edward.

Twilight Altered Cigar Box Purse

Then, I covered the entire front of the purse in embossing powder and baked it to give it that super shiny "dazzling" finish and infuse it with glitter. Since, I was giving it as a gift, I also made up a matching gift bag.

So, I saw someone making altered magnets and I thought that it was one of the dumbest things ever until I realized that they were making them for school lockers. So, I decided to try my hat at making a locker organizer. Here, I added magnets to the back of an altered cookie sheet. This turned out super cute. I added a mirror, matted photo of Edward & Bella, decorative papers, prima flowers, and chipboard magnets, and ribbons to hold in different papers. I think that this turned out much more useful than the plain altered magnets. You could even put this on your fridge and use it as a kitchen message center.

A Twilight Locker Organizer