DIY Father's Day Tie Banner

This year we have been making lots of paper garlands (does that sound a little girly for Father's Day?) or banners or buntings or whatever you want to call them. They are a fast, easy, cheap, and cute way to decorate for almost any holiday and it is easy to involve even really little kids.

We made this cute tie banner yesterday. My husband had a long day trip and I thought is would be a good way to welcome him home and decorate early for Father's Day. The process is really similar to the Valentine's Day Garland we made in February and the boys always have fun trying to "sew" the pieces together. There are pictures of the process in that post.

Homemade Father's Day Tie Banner (Garland, Bunting, etc.)

• Any decorative or plain paper you want to use (We used the rest of this recycled gift bag, the bottom of the bag had a little bit of plaid on it, and we drew designs on the brown inside so we would have a variety of different patterns)
• Yarn or string
• Tape and/or plastic straws for "sewing" (optional, but makes it a lot easier)
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Pencil
• Markers (optional)
• Other embellishments like stickers or die cut letters if desired
• Glue stick (optional)

1. Draw or trace tie patterns onto paper and cut out or let a child who can be trusted with scissors cut them out. I also cut 1 inch circles that we glued on with a glue stick and then drew the letters for the words we wanted. But you could either just write We Love Daddy, Happy Father's Day, or another message right on the ties or use alphabet stickers or die cut letters as well.
2. If desired write and/or draw on the ties.
3. If desired put on stickers or other extra embellishments.
4. Punch a hole on each side of the top of the tie.
5. String ties onto yarn or string to make a garland. (I threaded the yarn through part of a small plastic straw that I cut at an angle for a "needle." This made "sewing" the ties together much easier. You can also tape around the end to just make it a little stiffer, like the end of a shoelace.)
6. Tie the ends off and hang up the banner to enjoy. 

DIY Fabric Heart Garland

I've been doing some more sewing lately. After doing some very functional sewing of diapers and mending I wanted a quick and easy project just for fun. This simple heart garland came together really fast and makes me smile.

Easy Homemade Valentine's Day Heart Garland

• Assorted fabrics that won't fray easily (I used felted wool and fleece)
• Sewing machine (although you could do this by hand with a needle, it would just take longer)
• Thread
• Scissors

1. First I cut out a bunch of hearts free hand. The shapes and sizes vary slightly, but I kind of like it that way. I did make the same number of each fabric.
2. Then I arranged them in the order I wanted to sew them in a big stack. I choose to make a repeating pattern since the shapes and sizes vary some.
3. Then I sewed  them together using a straight stitch on the sewing machine. I started sewing point first and then just lined the next one up right behind. For them to feed into the machine smoothly, it seemed to work best to sew them point first and over lap them slightly with the next heart just under the one being sewn.

Once you have sewn all of the hearts together, you can hang it up and smile.

DIY Paper Heart Garland (Valentine's Day Decoration and Preschool Activity in One!)

Lately, if you tell my 4 1/2 year old you are going to do something (and it is something he wants to do) he will just keep asking you about it until it actually happens. So we made this paper heart garland a bit earlier than I had intended. That's OK, we'll just enjoy it a little longer.

Our version looks quite a bit different than the picture perfect Real Simple version that I got the inspiration from, but in the end I definitely like ours better, because my boys did all of the cutting, tracing, and stringing themselves. My 4 1/2 year old did all of the cutting, and my 3 year old did most of the stringing.

Also, my 4 1/2 year old was the one who decided we should write on all of these hearts. I wrote the words and he traced over them. We started just writing love and then added ἀγάπη (agape, love in Greek) and 爱 (Ài, love in Mandarin). Then we wrote a bunch of people we love (our family names, grandparents and extended family, friends, etc.). You could also write about what love really is, but I think we're going to do other projects later doing that.

Homemade Paper Heart Garland

• Paper
• Yarn or string
• Tape and/or plastic straws for "sewing" (optional, but makes it a lot easier)
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Pencil
• Markers (optional)
• Other embellishments like stickers if desired

1. Trace half hearts onto folded paper and let a preschooler who can be trusted with scissors cut them out.
2. If desired write and/or trace words on the hearts.
3. If desired put on stickers or other extra embellishments.
4. Punch a hole on each side of the heart.
5. String hearts onto yarn or string to make a garland. (I threaded the yarn through part of a small plastic straw that I cut at an angle for a "needle." This made "sewing" the hearts together much easier. You can also tape around the end to just make it a little stiffer, like the end of a shoelace.)
6. Tie off and hang up the garland to enjoy.

You can see pictures of the steps below.

Fall Decorations

I pulled out the fall decorations I made last year a little while ago and we've been having fun having these little pumpkins around while we enjoy our new little pumpkin.

I'm not making decorations this fall, but in case anyone else is still looking for ideas to make for fall decor here are the posts I wrote last year.

• Sew Easy Pumpkin
• Scrap Pumpkin
• Sew Easy Sleeve Pumpkin or Apple
• Scrap Wreath
• Scrap Garland
• Fall Place Mats

Easy Valentine's Day Luminaries

This is the same idea as the candle luminaries I made for Christmas. I simply changed the colors and added a beaded heart ornament. Simple and cute!

Easy Heart Wreath (No Hot Glue Required)

I've seen a lot of cute Valentine's wreaths on the internet, but most of them require the use of a hot glue gun, which I don't have. So I came up with a different way to make a tissue paper heart wreath, without any hot glue.

Easy Tissue Paper Heart or Heart Wreath

• thin cardboard
• pink or red tissue paper
• scissors
• hole punch
• ribbon (optional)

1. Cut the thin cardboard into a heart shape whatever size you like. If you want a wreath, cut a heart shape out of the middle of the larger heart.
2. Use the hole punch to bunch holes all over the heart shaped cardboard, about 1–2 inches apart.
3. Cut 3–5 inch squares of tissue paper.
4. Take a square of tissue paper and twist it a little in the middle and stick in one of the holes. Repeat until the whole heart is covered with fluffy tufts of tissue paper.
5. You can add a ribbon if you like for hanging on the wall.

Easy Stuffed Heart Ornaments

For another simple Valentine's Day decoration, I made these cute stuffed hearts. I just cut out 1 heart out of a cute print, 1 heart out of black for the back, and 1 heart out of batting to stuff the heart. I put the print and the black right sides together, and then the batting on the bottom, and sewed around the heart with a small seam allowance, leaving just enough room open for turning. Then I clipped the dip in the top of the heart close to the seam to avoid bunching, turned it right side out, whip-stitched the opening closed, and added a loop of thread to hang it at the top. I top-stitched one of them but decided not to bother with the rest. Really easy, but I thought they turned out really cute too.

Easy Beaded Holiday Ornaments

This past Christmas, I made some beaded ornaments for the unique little Christmas tree I made. Now I am going to reuse the hearts for Valentines day decorations. Aaron (3 1/2) even helped a little, but older kids can do these fairly easily on their own. I remember one Christmas where my aunt brought lots of beads and wire and all of us girls, my mom, and my aunt would bead together for hours.

Easy Beaded Holiday Ornaments

• small beads
• wire
• wire cutters
• pliers

For most of the ornaments that I made this year, I simply strung a long series of beads to cover the wire and then twisted it into the shape I wanted. I then twisted the wire around to make a loop at the top and then twisted it tightly together to secure it. I often left a little extra and made small curls with the pliers. The hearts were one of the easiest shapes to make.

I also made some stars that were a little more complicated. For the points on the stars I made, I strung on a pattern of beads, ending with a large pear shaped bead. Then I put on one more small seed bead and threaded the wire backwards through the pattern of beads, starting with the pear shaped bead and ending with the small beads.

DIY Christmas Decorations: Easy, Low Sew, Pocket Advent Calendar

I realize this is a little late for anyone to be making advent calendars this year, but I made mine a couple days late, and we've been enjoying it ever since then. I simply cut 4 inch squares out of a variety of green fabrics and one brown square for the trunk (Christmas Day). I arranged them in a pattern to resemble a Christmas Tree and hand sewed them on. I have been embracing frayed edges and uneven stitching in our holiday decorations, but you could finish these much nicer if you prefer. I then used fabric paint to paint on 1–25 for the days of the month, but you could embroider, sew on number beads or decals, iron number transfers on, or even just write them on with a sharpie.

The choice of fabrics and how you do your numbers could totally change the look of this calender for any decor.

My husband and I are working on writing a Jesse Tree devotional book for our family this year and I am putting each day's symbol ornament in the pocket for that day. But you could put treats, a verse, a family activity, or even an act of service in each pocket for other ways to celebrate the season. The boys really like our advent calendar, especially because we combine it with a treat in their Christmas stockings as we count down the days to Christmas.