Aimee's Pocket House

You will need (give or take a bit on measurements it will still work)

Main part of bag  =  2 X 47cm by 60cm (65 with top hem)  sturdy fabric  (I recycled bit of left over curtain)

Roof =  2 X Yellow felt rectangle sheets ( that you get from any craft store)

Door  + decoration =  blue felt rectangle door measures 13cmh by 10cmw and a button

Windows + decoration  = 4 magenta pink felt rectangle  10cm by 10cm and 8 hot pink strips 2cm by  10cm

Flower background = 20cm by 47cm       

Flowers = some green ribbon, 6 buttons and some different coloured felt

Elastic = length over 50 cm (mine was 57cm but I trimmed a fair bit when seams went together)

Ok I wanted to make something for Aimee’s 1^st birthday that was fun and busy for that age. My little 1 year old is forever putting things in and out of stuff so I was inspired by Eli and this fantastic  little house pouch over on The Long Thread blog (I will get around to making one of them). Tada the two combine to make Aimee’s pocket house, one large bag that will hold the toys to be sorted, and a strip of elastic so you can slide it over a dining chair, they can be busy at dinner making time yay!

So I cut all the pieces I needed out as above ingredients list details then I laid it all out to see if I was happy with design. To cut the roof you need the midpoint 23.5 cm on mine, this is the tip of your triangle then use ruler to measure slope down two sides, as per photo.

You will need to hem the top 2 pieces of your bag; mine didn’t need doing as I used the hemmed part of the curtain.  You will need the extra 4 0r 5 cm to top of your bag measurement to allow for this.  On the top side sew on your flower background stripe just top and bottom will do. Then sew the bright pink cross pieces onto your window squares. Pop the button onto your door and then you can stitch the door down on three sides leaving the top open making the pocket, do the same for the windows.  

Sew on the roof, mine took two bits of felt to fit across the width of the bag, so to hide the join I put some blue felt stripes about 1.5cm wide descending in length with the roof line over the top. It made it look so much more interesting, and then using my pinking shears I cut 2 long bits of bright pink felt about 1.5cm again to go the length of the roof, bit like fancy guttering ;) I used some decorative stiches to sew them to the bag.

Then cut your ribbon into 6 same but different lengths.  I cut out some circles using my pinking shears a bit larger than the buttons about 2 cm in diameter in some left over felt, think this would work as normal non bumpy circles too.  I had 12 circles in all layering them by two’s. I pinned the flowers in place and again used a decorative stitch on my machine went up the ribbon and a little onto the flowers. I then attached my buttons to make my flower centres.  

Then put your elastic at the very top of your house piece, put right sides together of your bag and sew your three sides together. Turn inside out after trimming any loose threads, voila an Aimee pocket house! Slip over a chair to test it out. It makes a great present and I got some foam letters for little Aimee to sort out.  I want to make an Eli boyish version, and I think this idea would make great organisers for the back of homework desks.

How to make Dino Painting

Ok if you read my previous post on Flynn's dinosaur pictures I said it was possible to make one even if your kiddies are past the extremely free painting stage. You can get there help to do parts of this or you could do it solo. This technique should work for any kind of words and animal silhouettes. So you will need a canvas or a board to paint on, the one I’m using is mdf board from the hardware store, because I’m going to add some handles to the bottom so that bags hat and so forth can be hung from it. The mdf board can be bolted straight into the wall (a job I leave for tortoise). Carbon Copy paper, you could use tracing paper but the carbon paper is so much faster and gives a darker line to follow. I had to ask at the newsagent counter for it as it’s not a popular item anymore so they sell it by the sheet, one piece can be used multiple times. And some acrylic paint, and brushes, and a computer with printer.

Step one (above), print out the images you want on your painting, arrange them till your happy, then I copied the letters because I wanted a definite idea of where they were going to end up, with the dinosaurs I just knew roughly where I would place them. Then I filled these areas with some rough colour, I blended cadmium yellow and orange to give a nice hot lettering effect, and I threw in a bit of cadmium red too.  Wait for it to dry, that won’t take very long if you live in this hot climate.

(above) Next I took some bubble wrap, painted the wrap with some white paint and Flynn and i pressed or stamped it onto the board, it leaves a nice repeated print. We randomly stamped away, then did another layer with a brown (burnt sienna) we did that immediately so it would smudge a bit with the white. You don’t have to be precious as the desired effect is that haphazard random look. Then I took a small plastic cup mixed about 2 tablespoons roughly of water with a bit of paint and Flynn was allowed to flick, dribble it across. It works best with a sharp flick of the wrist. Together Flynn and I flicked lemon yellow and green (mixed from cadmium yellow and ultramarine blue) with gusto. (below)

When this was all dry I drew / scribbled diagonally across the lettering to give it some more definition with a red coloured pencil. Then I added some tiny dotting details in burnt sienna brown mixed with a dash of ultramarine blue, where I thought the large t-rex was going to make him a bit more impressive.

Then using your carbon paper trace the lettering over again, lining it up carefully, and any other shapes you want, Its a bit hard to see the outline of the diplodocus  but in real life its visible enough to work with. The next step is magic, fill in your negative space around your lettering and dinosaurs!

I did 2 layers for the background an ultramarine blue, the darker one let it dry then dry brushed a ultramarine mixed with white blue over it. Dry brush is as it sounds a brush dipped into the paint and don't dip it into your water.  I went back in after this and added a little bit of white and brown for eye definition. I hope this was explained well enough, go ahead and try your own version!

PS. Eli reached up to the table I was working on pulled this jar without me noticing, broke it and I caught him as he was about to shove broken glass a paint into his mouth!! man that was close, I need eyes in the back of my head.

Finger Paint

Finger Paint = squishy fun

1/2 cup corn flour

3 tablespoons of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 cups of water

Food colouring

So you take the cornflour, sugar, salt and water in a saucepan cook until it thickens, this takes about 10 to 15 mins. Its best if you keep stirring it especially as it thickens. Then take it off the heat let it cool a bit divide into containers (I used baby food jars). Mix in the food colouring to each pot. It Makes a great non toxic paint a bit like a jelly that smooshes onto the paper really well. I add a few drops of essential lavender oil because living in the tropics and I don’t want my boy’s paintings to go mouldy.  You could also add glitter, kid’s love a bit of sparkle. And to extend the play for longer I let Flynn drive a little bashed up car through the paint, leaving burnout marks. He also likes using a comb to scrape through the paint living stripes, a plastic fork or knife would work too.  I hope this brings you and your children many happy paintings.

Ps... Before I let him lose with the paint it hake as many pieces of clothing off as I can and I prep the paddle pool or bath for a fast and easy clean up because @ 3 when they have had enough of something that it they have had enough.