DIY Sweater Sleeve Snowman

These cute sweater sleeve snowmen are a quick and easy winter craft project. This project similar to the sleeve pumpkin I made, is a great way to upcycle a old clothing into cute decorations.

This is a fun project to involve kids in. Younger kids can help draw on the snowman's face or stuff it, and the sewing part is easy enough that a child old enough to be trusted with a needle can do it themselves.

Sew Easy Sweater Sleeve Snowman

• White sweater sleeves
• Needle and thread
• Something to use for stuffing
• Permanent or fabric marker to draw on face and buttons (or you could use tiny real buttons and sew them on)
• Fabric scraps to cut for scarves

1. Cut out the sleeve or sew a long tube of white knit fabric.
2. Gather the bottom of the tube, and stitch closed tightly.
3. Stuff the bottom ball of the snowman.
4. Gather the section of the tube directly above the stuffing, and stitch closed tightly.
5. Repeat until you have the desired number of balls and are at the top of the tube.
6. Gather the top of the tube, and stitch closed tightly.
7. Draw on the snowman's face or sew on buttons.
8. Cut a strip of fabric for a scarf, cut the ends to resemble tassels and tie onto the snowman. 

DIY Corn Husk Bouquet

This idea is so simple, but I really like how it turned out. I had my husband and sons go out to gather some leaves and things for fall decorating and craft projects.  When I saw these I thought they would fit perfectly into my glass vase. I love the touch of fall that it add to our kitchen.

The corn husk bouquet adds a lot of vertical interest and I think it complements our scrappy fabric pumpkins nicely.

And you can't beat the price at free.

Want to learn how to make the pumpkins?

DIY Upcycled Birthday Reusable Streamers (Long Festive Garlands)

For Aaron's 5th birthday I made checker board inspired garlands to use for streamers. I made similar streamers for the Candyland inspired party we threw when my husband's parents came. Both sets of streamers added a festive air to our dining room.

I love how excited my kids get about streamers and balloons and declare it a birthday or holiday as soon as they see them. And unlike paper streamers these are easy to save and reuse in the future.

It would be easy to make red, white, and blue for any upcoming 4th of July celebrations, or customize these for any theme you wanted.

Since I used old felted wool coats that were just going to be thrown away, these decorations were free and gave a second life to someone else's discards. They are made very similarly to the Valentine's heart garland that I made in January. There are more pictures of the process in that post.

Homemade Upcycled Reusable Streamers

• Assorted fabrics that won't fray easily (I have 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 shapes 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 the shape on the top of pile and then just lined the next one up right behind. For pointed shapes to feed into the machine smoothly, it seemed to work best to sew them point first and over lap them slightly with the next shape just under the one being sewn.

Hang them up and throw a party!

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!