Felt board sight words sentences

You can make your own board using any frame and adding felt material to it. I have an easel from Ikea and I don't use the blackboard side so I decided to cover it with felt. I attached it using velcro to the four corners. You could stick it in more places if you want to really secure it. I laminated the sight words so they can last a long time. I also attached a small piece of velcro to the back of the words. They easily stick to the felt material. My son likes legos and building things and he already had a tool box with mega blocks so I just use a label and wrote sight words on them. He can put the blocks together to make sentences too. You can also just use masking tape and stick that on the block and just write your sight words on it. I recently also got word family bingo from Amazon to help improve his reading skills.

I have a youtube video that shows this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujgBfQD-31c&feature=youtu.be

How to hem jeans/pants keeping the original stitch hemline.

It's hard for me to find pants that fit me at the right length. Petite Sophisticated went out of business so now it's even more difficult to find the right pant size. I remember a friend of mine in CA, Sharon, who paid to have her pants hemmed. She said that they didn't just cut it and hem it up. The hem like looks just like the original. Well, I think there is a technique that will cover that. I am not a seamstress so I don't know what the right terms are but it's not hard to follow. I'll demonstrate it here. I took my son's pants that was too long for him and I folded it to the length that would fit. Then I measure up about 1/2 inch from that folded line (that's the same measurement as the original hemline). I folded the pants again using the new marker. Then I just sew along the stitch line. I then tug in the pants and it is done. I have a video on youtube here to illustrate better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P45aeoa6TTM

Diaper Cakes for any Shower

I thought these were so cute at craft events but then thought why not try and make my own. There are lots of tutorials on how to make the regular roll diaper cakes but not the smooth diaper cake so I will let you in on a secret. When making the smooth diaper cake use any size 1 diapers. Place the decorative side on the inside so it doesn't show. Use a round baking pan any size you like for your foundation. Just continue to place all the diapers in till it fills the container. Then use a big rubber band to secure it in place. Add a ribbon around it to make it decorative. I also added white tulles on the outside to fancy it up a bit.

Crochet Owl Hat With Tassels

This was my third project after teaching myself how to crochet from watching youtube videos. Seriously, is there anything you can't learn just by watching youtube these days. I love video tutorials especially the cooking recipes (save for another post). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IaN5_gBQZw I started out with a multicolor yarn that I thought would be nice but it turned out to look too busy for an owl hat. It looks cute enough as a tassel hat but not as an owl hat. So I started again. I use yarn from my local craft store Hobby Lobby. If you don't have one close to you. Here is their website. http://www.hobbylobby.com/ There yarn brand is called "I Love this Yarn!" and you will love it. It's inexpensive yet it's soft and it's fuller than even Red Heart brand. You know how when you tug at it turns really fine well not with the Hobby Lobby brand. I just use size H hook for most of my projects. The second attempt at making this hat as a gift I use two color to give it a two tone look without making it look busy. I modified the eyes to not have a third round but to have a little sparkle in the center. I did that with just a couple of stitches.

Crochet Bunny Hat

The Angry Bird hat was my second project and one of the most popular. My first project and first time ever picking up a crochet hook was to make a Bunny Hat. I wanted it in time for dress up on the 31st. But I was surprise that it took me only two days to finish. I started crocheting end of Oct. 2011. The video tutorial I use is from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yLhJucsSWM. It's in 5 parts but it was worth it. Clare/Bobwilson123 will show you how from start to finish. She does it so slowly and even if you didn't catch it the first time, guess what you can alway rewind. Love video tutorials!

Crochet Angry Bird hat

Who knew I can make this Angry Bird hat after teaching myself how to crochet in just a couple of weeks. I started out knitting because a couple of my friend said that it was easier to knit. Well, it wasn't easier for me. I tried and it felt easy to hold two needles but there wasn't much I can do except make scarves. So I gave up and took up crocheting. I found great youtube video on how to make and Angry Bird Hat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQGuTAa5cDo. I posted pictures of my finished work on my Facebook wall and it was a hit. Even people who I never hear from started commenting on how great it turned out. I was thrilled everybody wants to know if I can make them one. I just got started so it took me about 4 days to finish one hat so it wasn't cost effective to go into business doing it. So I decided to make it for people who would donate $30 to one of the local charity. The Pregnancy Help Center. http://phckaty.org/ if you like to have me make it for you too let me know.

Christmas Tree Keepsake

This is my own creation to capture both my boys prints. I have the younger son's feet be the top part of the tree then I added the older child hand prints to be the lower part of the tree. It is done with embossed powder after inking the kids with clear versamark ink. I wrapped wired ribbons around the tree and added hanging charms as ornaments. I also added little pictures of them with melted clear embossing powder. How to make photo charm will be on a different post. I cut a small rectangle piece of brown construction paper for the trunk of the tree. The star is made with clear stamp star image. This made a great gift for grandma.