Category: Arts and Crafts Projects

Birthday Crown

Our blog countdown to the three-year old’s birthday party continues!

Today we share a mother-daughter project that’s been three years in the making.

The birthday girl and I made this special birthday crown based on Amanda’s crowns, adapting the template and technique in her inspiring, wonderful book, The Creative Family.

My daughter involved herself in each step of the project (no surprise there!). She picked the colors, dictated the embellishment shapes, and placement of all items. She hand sewed the green star-burst on the pink bird. She held my hand as I cut the felt, assisted me in pinning and gluing the embellishments, attached the velcro to the tags (omitting the elastic band in the back, allowing for a more seamless crown), and helped me sew the entire crown, pulling the needle through after I placed each stitch.

Let me tell you, this crown was a labor of love and so worth it.

Want to see it on her? That’s tomorrow’s post!

Birthday Party Letter Art Banner

Our blog countdown to the three-year old’s birthday party continues!

Yesterday we talked about our photo banner:

Today I want to share with you our Happy Birthday letter art banner that we’ve hung on the opposite wall of our living room:

I typed “Happy Birthday” using different fonts for each letter on our computer and set up the letters to be outline only. After printing the series out, we then decorated the letters with stickers, twistables crayons and colored pencils.

The project took us several days to complete and we talked about the different letters and colors as we filled in the outlines. For some of the letters, my daughter focused on coloring each outline one (or two) colors and matching stickers of the same color to each letter.

A fun preschool project that’s simple, yet open to endless creative possibilities.

Now, a freebie for you:

Download a PDF of our Happy Birthday letter art banner to print and color in for yourselves!

Birthday Party Photo Banner

Our blog countdown to the three-year old’s birthday party continues!

First we gathered photos of the birthday girl taken over the past three years, then we glued our favorites on colored construction paper and decorated the frames using glitter paint pens, gel markers, and stickers:

Then we hung a purple ribbon on the wall (using push pins) and clipped the photos to the ribbon with clothespins:

A simple, sentimental, and colorful birthday party decoration that we will definitely be recreating each year. Such a hit!



(Thank you to my friends Alissa and Dorothee for inspiring me with their own ribbon/wire art walls.)

Felt Crafting

I savor each and every new experience with our daughter. We’ve sewed together and worked on our own projects before, but working on our own, independently-designed projects next to each other is a new, glorious experience.

We began working on birthday crows for our babies (mine turns three years old next week, hers is lying on the table waiting for her crown fitting).

Then she decided that she needed to sew a present for me (my birthday is just after hers).

In true toddler fashion, she needed to do it entirely on her own.

She then preceded to design, cut and sew the project entirely by herself, asking for occasional help threading the needle and tying off knots.

She made me a little stuffed pillow. My heart melted.

She seems quite proud too.

Unfortunately, somehow I’m going to have to break the news to her that I don’t want to cut her embroidery open to get to her intended present inside.

After all, it’s her beautiful needlework that’s special to me, not the stuffing.

But when it’s your birthday, you open presents, and she wants me to open mine. “It’s a stuffing birth-fairy present, Mama!”

I suppose I need to encourage her to wrap it (won’t take much persuading, she LOVES to gift wrap presents), so I have that to unwrap and can keep her darling pillow intact instead.

We’ll see how it goes. I’ll be sure to give her a high-protein snack beforehand and make sure she’s adequately hydrated when she gives it to me. We all feel more agreeable and happy when we’re fed and watered, right?! That certainly seems to work in this family. :)

Birthday Girl Photo Banner Preview

We’re gearing up for a certain little girl’s birthday party this month.

This week we’ve been focusing on making decorations.

We took some favorite photos from the last three years and placed them on construction paper frames decorated by the toddler (with Elmer’s Washable Glitter Paint Pens and Crayola Gel Washable Markers).

We’ll string them up into a banner and hang them on the wall for a fun, birthday girl photo display.

Photos of that soon.