2018 VALENTINE MASTER - coloring card

PRESCHOOL MATH GAME

I saw this idea on Pinterest, but made my own game boards. The child uses dice for this. One die for the 1-6 boards and 2 dice for the 1-12 boards. Originally it was just a 1-6 board, but I wanted to go higher, yet if you just do a 1-12 board with 2 dice, you can't ever get one. So I did it this way. I glued a circle to start with and (I traced a shortening lid)  then added features, using scrapbook paper scraps. I also used odds and ends of stickers I had on hand. The google eyes are  the glue-on kind and the child counts the number on the dice, then puts on that many eyes. Later if you want to, you can have them lay the dice on the word that matches the number. I haven't laminated these yet, but plan to. I made them from cardstock because I wanted them to fit into a notebook that has other preschool worksheets. I will buy a pencil case that fits into a 3-ring binder to hold the google eyes and the dice. Instead of using regular dice, I am going to make one from a block of wood with numerals instead of dots to count, as they are counting the eyes and I want them also recognizing the numerals. I think this will be a fun math activity for pre-schoolers. Another tip is to put more than 12 eyes in the bag, so that they can't just use all the remaining eyes instead of counting them out.

SEWING MACHINE COVER

I decided to make a new sewing machine cover. I wanted lighter and prettier this time, and chose this flower print. It was not the quilted material I usually use, so I inserted heavy pellon to give it more substance, and doubled the flowered material. When I looked through my buttons to find something to wrap the ribbon around, I found these fairy buttons. As a child I believed that fairies lived in the flower gardens, so these seemed just right.

BOOKMARKS

These are bookmarks for a class I am teaching at church. This master makes ten bookmarks. I added dark brown ribbon to some, ivory ribbon to others, and a small star sticker to the circle in the key. I printed them off on cardstock, I used a fancier cardstock that was light brown and had a slight marbling pattern to it, that made it look older. This was a quote I wanted to emphasize in this class, and the bookmarks are for their teacher manuals.

PJ MASKS PEG PEOPLE (Except Night Ninja, who will have to join these when I get more pegs...)

Scroll down to see the Ninjalinos and the Teeny Tiny Ninjalino. Left to right: Gecko (Greg), Owlette (Omaya), Cat Boy (Connor), Romeo and Luna Girl.

DOC MCSTUFFINS PEG PEOPLE (Some of them....)

Here are some. I ran out of wood forms to paint and can't get them in town, so more will have to follow at a later date. Maybe I will figure out how to make a Stuffy by then. :S
Left to right? The Wicked King, Hallie, Doc, Lambie and CeCe.

MORE PEG COWBOYS

Here are two more. The first two were for my daughter's nephew, then I decided to make 2 more for my peg people collection. I figured out how to take better pictures of them, too, by the way. :)

PEG COWBOYS

My daughter talked me into making these for her nephew. I bought the hats at a craft store. These aren't the best pictures when you blow them up and you can't even see the black cowboy hat in the 2nd one, but here they are.

NINJALINOS

The little one got the PJ Mask play figures for Christmas with all the characters except Night Ninja and the Ninjalinos. The other day I found a Night Ninja, but no Ninjalinos. This is my version of the Ninjalinos, made out of the peg people forms you buy in craft stores (but not for children who put things in their mouth). I was glad I looked them up online, because for some reason I spaced that Ninjalinos are dark purple and Night Ninja is dark blue, but other than that they look the same, only smaller. Of course you can't forget the teeny weeny Ninjalino, who is much smaller than the rest. One of these days I might actually do the whole PJ Mask set, but it isn't today.

ABC-123 MAGNET ACTIVITIES

I saw the ABC game on Pinterest and decided to make it. I bought the metal boxes at a second hand store, but plan to watch for one like the ABC activity for the number activity. The words and numbers are put onto tongue depressors with a magnet glued onto the back. They are stored in Ziploc bags. I put the word on with permanent marker. You put up a word and the child finds the letters to spell it underneath.

For the number game I wrote out the word and put that many stickers onto the tongue depressors. Be careful when you put on the stickers - bigger ones are best for the lower numbers and little ones for the larger numbers, and fitting them all on can be a challenge. I did mod podge the stickers on so they won't fall off. You can buy a small bottle of that for about $3 and it only takes a small amount.

I bought the letter and numbers in the same bags, paying $1.50/bag (they were on clearance). I bought 5 bags so there would be enough letters to spell names and words. My 3 year old granddaughter has played with this for hours, and it is educational. They are also easily stored. If you don't have a big enough box to play on the lid, let them play on a larger magnet board or the fridge.

MORE BIG BOOK OF BOOBOOS PAGES

Christmas Card 2016

2 More Doc Button Scenes

DOC MCSTUFFINS FELT PLAYHOUSE

I found Doc McStuffins buttons at WalMart and decided to make a play set to keep in my purse for when I have little bored granddaughters with me somewhere. I thrift-shopped the bag to keep them in, luckily in Doc colors, and I sewed the bandaid buttons on it. The felt scene is a folder type made from felt scraps and other things I had on hand. I had to modify it a little due to size, but overall I think it works. The felt play scene fits inside the little bag with the buttons, which will stay loose. I did add a fairy button I had on hand to be one of Doc's toys.

PLAY STOVE/DISHES

My 2 1/2 year old granddaughter that lives with us has a play house in the backyard, and she loves to play in it. She pretends she is cooking and brings us imaginary dishes with imaginary food on them. I can't claim credit for this idea as I saw it on Pinterest, but today I made her a play stove for outside in the play house. It is the shoe box size plastic container. I had the idea to add knobs for her to turn. I bought a package of 2 small, unpainted wood knobs that I painted pink. My husband advised me to have metal washers on the inside and outside,and I had to buy shorter screws than what was in the package. He drilled 2 holes for me with his drill.  I left the screws loose enough so the knobs will turn. The dishes are all inexpensive plastic, and they store inside the box, If I had been thinking I might have looked to see if there was a solid bottom box that didn't show the dishes. Then again, I did want a box this narrow so it can fit on the little ledge in the playhouse without falling off, and this was the only kind available in this size.
The little one hasn't seen it yet, but she has a good imagination and I think she will have fun with this. I did look for a little plastic sink and stove combination instead, but they took up too much room, and I wanted there to be space for the little one and her friends to play.
The burners were put on with permanent marker, by the way. I cut some cardstock the size I wanted and then traced around it. Then I folded the square in half to use as a guide to draw the lines inside the burner, leaving space in the middle.
This was made to stay in the play house and be weather proof.

FINISHED DOLLHOUSE

I had to improvise a stove. This is a little hinged craft box on its side, and I painted the silver square and "knobs", and the burners are silver buttons glued on with gorilla glue.

I also had to improvise the couch. I found a half circle plastic container and cut it down for the frame. I intended to have a pattern for this, but had to alter it and change it so much as I went that a pattern would never have worked. You could also make a couch without an inside frame and just stuff it well to make the shape.

I did the floors from individual stick on squares I found at a hardware store for about 69 cents each. I used tin shears to cut them to size,but I did lay down newspaper first to make a pattern for that.

DOC PILLOWCASES

My little 2 1/2 year old granddaughter has been wanting a pillow. I bought a travel-sized pillow for her, but wasn't impressed with the available pillow cases to go on it. I decided to make my own. This is one yard of 44 inch wide material, cut in half to make 2 pillow cases. Knowing what I know now, I would buy one and an eighth yard and make a wider hem on the edge, but my granddaughter is still happy with this one.
I cut this out material exactly in half, sewed it up and blogged this in the time it takes to watch one Doc McStuffins episode.
My mistake; Not taking into account that this is a one-way material, so one pillow case's open end is on the "wrong side" , but now you will be warned and can prevent that.

DETOUR

Okay, I told you to stay tuned, but I found this doll house for $5 and now I am re-homing the first one. I want to re-paint the inside and make some minor repairs, but I like this doll house better. It is about the same size, but makes better use of the space and has more rooms. It doesn't have a floor on the bottom, though. That is the table you see, so I do want to get a board for the bottom of this.

LOOK & FIND

Okay, every family and their dog has one of these for church, right? I saw a heavy plastic material in a remnant bin and bought it, then kept worrying if my sewing machine could actually sew it and not have it leak. Then I had this idea, a pencil case. The filling is the filling they sell to make beanie toys, bought at a craft store. I had various small items already, a couple of squinkies, some novelty buttons and small toys I'd picked up here and there, also a few glue on gems. I will admit I carefully arranged some on top for you to see in  this picture, but the filler shifts and different items reveal themselves, Right now I have the zipper kept shut with a safety pin, but I am going to remove the zipper pull and try to jam the zipper some other way. This is a cute idea for church, doctor's office or anywhere you want to focus your child in a quiet activity, and my way was an easy way to make it. FYI I have also seen it done with rice, but I don't like the look as well,

TINY BABY BED

My little granddaughter got the new baby doll on Doc McStuffins today. She has played and played with it all day. I had some tiny bottles on hand from the store (baby shower supplies) and I gave her one. Also we made a blanket out of fleece. (not pictured) I kept thinking and thinking of how we could make a baby bed for her, and it came to me to cut down a Crystal Light package. (This is actually from the Great Value brand of the drink.) I just cut it down to size with scissors, then laid it down on 2 pieces of material to make a mattress, leaving enough around the sides for seam allowance.I stuffed it with some stuffing I had on hand, and it made it too thick for the bed I'd cut down, so I sewed stitches here and there to pull the bulk down, and it worked. I put heart stickers on, one inside and one outside. The outside one is not shown. These are puffy heart stickers and I am not sure they are going to stay on, so I may have to replace them with normal, flat stickers. This was a very quick project, but my granddaughter was very happy to get it. I think this little doll is going to be very popular as the newest Doc toy, so I thought I would share.