DIY Doll and Me Suitcase Travel Bag for American Girl style Dolls - Doll Luggage

If you know a little girl who loves her American Girl or similar 18-inch doll, you're going to love this simple suitcase conversion.  With no sewing involved, you'll have comfy soft suitcase to fit the travel needs of both your favorite girl and her doll(s).  This easy tutorial has been done in partnership with Fairfield World who provided materials and compensated me for this post as well as Shannon Fabrics and Dritz who provided materials.   All thoughts, ideas, and opinions are 100% my own.  This post also contains affiliate links.

The American Girl doll craze started at our house a little over a year ago when my younger daughter saved up enough money to buy her own American Girl doll with money she saved up.  (She chose Grace because Grace looked the most like her of all the dolls that came with stories.  We also have several of the similar and much less expensive Our Generation dolls.)  Since then Becca's been in love with all things baking and Paris.  It's been fun for me help her make her own accessories and clothes.  (Something about miniature crafting is a bit addicting.)

Ever since seeing this fun vintage suitcase to dog bed conversion from Morena's Corner,  I've been trying to find just the right suitcase to do the same thing for a doll.  (Since Becca's favorite doll playmates are her cousins who live three hours away, I wanted some way easily keep all her stuff together when we go on trips to see family.)

Alice the Fairy Book and Wand

It's been a while since I've shared some favorite kids' books...so here's a fun one.  I was lucky enough to find a copy of Alice the Fairy by David Shannon at Goodwill a while back.  David Shannon is one of our favorite authors/illustrators at our house...and I love finding good quality hardback books at the thrift store.

Alice is a temporary fairy who can use her wand to do some magic...she can't turn a frog into a prince, but she can turn her dad into a horse.  She can't turn her bath into jello yet...but she can turn her white dress red when her wand tips over her grape juice.  The book just seems to capture some of the essence of childhood to me.

I decided to use a little fairy magic to turn it into a Christmas gift for my niece.  Becca tried it out and approved.

No-Sew T-Shirt String Infinity Scarves - Great Gift Idea

Looking for a simple stocking stuffer or gift for friend, mom, sister, etc?  This is it.  It will take you about 10 minute to make.

Our family decided to do 12 Days of Christmas/Secret Santa for a teenage girl we know.  It's been a little out of my comfort zone to find trendy/fun gifts for a teenage girl, since I didn't feel trendy or super girly myself even as a teenager.  I generally don't wear many accessories, so it's been a fun adventure to discover some cute things to make for her...and I've even made a couple for myself and my nieces along the way.  So moving out of my comfort zone has been good.

I asked several people who work a lot with teenage girls for good gift ideas.  They all mentioned scarves, so I knew I had to make that at least one of the gifts, so I started looking around Pinterest for scarf tutorials, and I found this one.

These looked really fun and fast...and they were.

Infinity scarves are fun because there are so many ways you can wear them.

Glasses Gal Pumpkin Tee - KCWC Day 3

I didn't get anything posted last night...so you get to see this now.  This is a project I actually DID make during the Kids Clothing Week Challenge.

I saw this adorable T-shirt via the Little Four Eyes Pinterest page a while ago.  I didn't plan on making it until I found this brown T-shirt in my stash and figured it was destined to be a Halloween shirt. 

Doll Bunting Taggy Blanket

Last Christmas I sewed Becca a really fun Bird and Bunting Quilt to fit her toddler bed.  Well, the only thing that can make a little girl's favorite quilt better is for your doll to have one of her own too.

Shooting Star Bean Bags

This is one of those projects that evolved.  The plan started out that we were going to keep Firecracker's birthday party super duper simple...just cupcakes after school.  Then when she asked for an outer-space party, we figured we could throw a couple games in because Grandma had given Little Brother a set of Outer Space Bean Bags (inspired by these) and I figured we could throw together a bean bag toss game.

Dollar Store Princess Party

Firecracker requested a princess party for her birthday.  Internally, I groaned a bit because princess is so typical...but it was HER birthday, and it was a reasonable request.  She would have loved to have Disney princesses plastered all over, but Hubby and I are just not all that in to licensed characters and I didn't want to pay extra for licensed products.  I was going for a more generic princess theme.  I have to say it helps a lot that Firecracker is in love with pink and purple and her birthday takes place in the month leading up to Valentine's Day.  If you'll be throwing a princess party later in the year, you might want to stock up on a few things now.

I hit the dollar store (Dollar Tree) first to see what they had in stock that would come in hand.  I came home with an 8 pack of huge plastic rings, a six back of headbands, a 10 pack of cheapy bright colored neckaces, a 12 pack of heart shaped bracelets, a 7 pack of glittery styrofoam hearts on sticks, 2 packages of pink "money," and some cute square frames with gold trim.

Easy Castle Cake

My big girl turned 6 last week!  I can hardly believe she's that big. 

Firecracker wanted a princess party...more about that soon (probably tomorrow)...so we needed a cake fit for a princess.  She would have liked one with the Disney princesses on it, but I wasn't feeling that confident in my artistic abilities with frosting...and I'd rather things at this house don't have to be Disney to be fun. 

We agreed on a castle cake.  There are a ton of cute castle cakes on the internet, but I vowed to keep mine simple.  As I was getting ready for the party, I kept putting the cake off for last.  I knew it would take longer than I wanted to decorate and I was dreading it.  Finally with less than an  hour to go, I figured I better get decorating.  It's even simpler than I'd pictured...but for the effort I put into it (not much), it turned out amazing.  This took me about 45 minutes to decorate, including making the frosting.

I cooked a whole cake mix recipe in a 9x9 pan for the base.  It took some extra time to cook because it was thick.  The monster cupcakes from earlier in the week had needed about 1 1/2 recipes of cake mix, so I cooked the extra half a recipe in a bread pan.  I cut that up to make the raised parts on the side and still had about half of that left over.  After I'd put the whole thing together and frosted it, I remembered I needed to include the ice cream cones...so I put one on in the middle.  I took the left over pink frosting from covering the cake and added purple to it do the trim...so only one frosting bowl.  I have cake decorating equipment, but I just piped all this out of a ziploc baggie with the corner snipped off.

I showed it to Little Brother about 5 minutes before the girls walked through the door, and asked him what it was.  He said it was a church...so I figured I'd done all right.  Firecracker REALLY wanted a #6 candle instead of the usual 6 candles, so that's what she has.

The little girls were super impressed with it.  It's so nice they're easy to please!

Bathrobe to a Stuffie: Great Gift Ideas

I learned a while ago that I'm not really cut out to be a "REAL" craft blogger...I have a hard time sticking to any single theme for very long.  I don't have guest posts or sponsers.  I don't plan ahead enough to have my projects for most holidays posted before the holiday, so now that Christmas is over, I'll be showing you cool stuff you could have made for Christmas.  The truth is, though, that most Christmas gifts can also make great birthday or other gifts to use all year long...and you can always file these ideas away (or get a really early start) for next Christmas.

So for now, I'm declaring January to be Great Gift Idea month.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm sure there will be a random smattering of preschool activities to share too.  I hope you'll be along for the ride.

I'm still pulling together pics of some of the projects I made myself for Christmas...like pics of the hubby actually wearing his new belt.  So I thought I'd share a great gift idea my mom came up with.

Meet Sills the Cat. 

(Sweet Pea actually hasn't named her yet...but this was my brother's suggestion, so I think I'll try to influence her that way.  Sills was my grandparents' much loved cat.)

My mom took an old bathrobe of my grandmother's and turned it into stuffed animals for some of the grandkids.  Sweet Pea was lucky enough to get one of the stuffies.  This is extra special for us since my grandma passed away over 10 years ago...before any of the great-grandkids on our side of the family were born.

You can see my mom's post about making them here.

Sweet Pea loves cats, so this was the perfect choice for her.  It hasn't quite reached "I-need-it-in-my-bed-everytime-I-go-to-sleep" status yet...but she wants it in bed with her at least half the time which is quite a compliment.  She's a little picky about bedmates, and there are several bedtime gifts she was given that are still not allowed in her bed...like her new fleece blanket.

Make Your Own Doilies

As I was getting ready for Firecracker's Cupcake Party, I realized what we really needed were some doilies to go under the cups and saucers...but we didn't have any.

I still had some coffee filters left-over from making our snowflakes, so I improved.  (We don't drink coffee ourselves, but the filters are cheep to buy and great for craft projects.)

You start by ironing the filter flat.

Then fold the filter in half 4 times, so you have a wedge that's 1/16 the size of your original filter.

Then cut out half of two hearts near the top.

Unfold once and cut two more heart-halves lower down.

Unfold one more time and cut two more heart-halves near the tip.

Completely unfold and iron.

And set your table.

These could look pretty against red as a Christmas decoration too.

Pinkalicious Cupcake Party

Firecracker made it to 100 on her reading chart!  Actually she got to 100 on it quite a while ago, but it took us a while to follow through on her promised party.  First it had to be postponed because our car was in the shop.  Then we had it all scheduled...and it got snowed out.  Then the next week was Thanksgiving, but last week we FINALLY had her friends over.

I've got another Archive Highlight for you from Ms Muffin of Muffins and More!  I'm always so impressed with people who don't have a lot of background in sewing, but are brave enough to just jump right in and teach themselves.  I can't believe this was her first sewing project!  It turned out so awesome!  You'll love her blog.

Hello!

My name is Ms Muffin and my blog is called Muffins and more. I do love making muffins - but on my blog you will find alot more. You're welcome to come over and check it out!

I love creating things and that is what I write about. I love to sew, crochet, knit, craft, do kids' projects, bake, decorate ... I just wish I would have more time to try all the things that make my fingers tickle! :-)

I started my blog actually as a collection of all my crafty adventures. I am a bit chaotic and always start many projects at the same time which regularly ended up being confusing. So I figured if I document my projects on a blog that might help. It did. But not just did it help me to at least get a bit of order into my crafting. I also stepped into a great world of creativity and sharing and supportiveness - I had no idea that something like this exists! I have met so many great people through their blogs, I got so much great inspiration and I even have made friends! So blogging naturally is much more to me today than just documenting my crafts - it's about that great creative community out there that I love to be part of.
It is so much fun with you guys!

When Polly asked me whether I wanted to participate in Archive Appreciation month I was totally thrilled! It was really hard though to pick a post that I would like to be highlighted. I finally decided on a post I wrote about the first dress I ever sewed. Well, the first thing I sewed at all to be completely honest. I did not choose a pen roll or a small pouch or something like that as my first project - no, I chose a dress for my daughter that I had seen and fallen in love with.

In the post you can see more photos of the finished dress but I also talk about a couple things I learned from sewing that first piece. I actually still learn ALOT everytime I sew something. Maybe that is encouraging to other sewing beginners - everytime you sew you practise and/ or learn something. Even if you make mistakes.

So even if it might be furstrating sometimes - KEEP ON SEWING!

And if you guys have tips for me or other beginning sewers it would be great to hear them! :-)

How to: Hair Bows from Little Lizard King

Okay, I had great intentions with and August Archive Appreciation Month...and now it's almost the end of August and I'm just getting the first post up!  We were without internet for longer than I thought we'd be and we've been enjoying our new town so much and getting to now people and getting Hubby ready for school that I haven't been doing much blogging...but now I'm going to get all those posts up that my wonderful friends have sent me.  Little Lizard King was the very first to send me something from her archives.  She sent the whole tutorial (but all you need to do if you want me to highlight your idea is include an intro and the link.)  If you have checked out Little Lizard King, you really should.  She's got some amazing stuff.  One of these days I'm going to order her pinafore pattern.

So here she is...

Hi, I'm the Little Lizard King, and I'm into sewing patterns and DIY crafty things.

For those of you who like to sew, check out my shop that's stocked with tutorials and instructions to teach you to make boutique products without boutique prices. 

Here is a sampling of the items you could make using Little Lizard King patterns. 

  

    

Now, onto the tutorial. 

Here's a quick how-to-hair bow.

Supplies needed:

• Needle

• Thread

• Ribbon

• Alligator Clips

• Hot Glue and Glue Gun

• At least 1 cute little girl

Thread a needle.

 Take some ribbon.

Create one loop with the ribbon.

Make a second, equally sized loop. My two loops are about 5" across. There is not a right or wrong size regarding the length of your hair bow. Pinch the ribbon in the center. Do not let go.

Repeat. You should now have two layers of ribbon per loop.

For a different effect, create three loops.

Push the needle through the center point of the ribbon.

 With the needle poking through the ribbon, spread out the loops of ribbon to create an X.

 Push the needle entirely through the ribbon. Do not let go of the ribbon.

 Pull the needle through the other side.

Repeat. Push the needle back through one side of the ribbon.

 Pull the needle out the other side. 

This is an optional step. Loop the thread around your ribbon two times.

 Pull the thread tightly to pinch the ribbon in the center. If you do not want a pinched center, do not complete this step. I typically do not complete this step if I am creating layered hair bows. Wrap the thread around the pinched center two or three times.

Regardless of whether you pinched the center of the ribbon or not, push your needle through one side of the ribbon, and pull it back through the other side.

 Do this two times.

 Cut your thread. If you stop here, it looks nice to glue a small 2-3" long piece of 1/4" wide ribbon around the pinched center. 

 If you want to layer your hair bow, repeat the aforementioned steps.

 Arrange one bow on top of the other according to your preference.

 Glue the two bows together with a hot glue gun. 

 Repeat with other types, sizes, and colors of ribbon.

 Add embellishment, if you desire.

 Use a lighter to heat seal the ends of each raw edge of the ribbon. This prevents the ribbon from fraying.

 I'm not loving this green bow. It looks odd. I was in a hurry.

 Cut a piece of ribbon approximately 7-8" long.

  

Add a strip of hot glue down the center of the entire ribbon.

Beauty supply stores sell 100 alligator clips for around $5. You can also buy them on Ebay and probably Etsy. It is shocking how fast you fly through 100 alligator clips. It's insane. Buy more than one pack. 

Place an alligator clip on your ribbon. 

Wrap the alligator clip with the ribbon.

Glue your hair bow on top of the alligator clip.

 Wahlah!

Now, be creative. Combine colors, sizes, and prints of varying ribbon for cute, coordinating, and creative hair bows. 

Before you know it, you'll be swimming in hair bows.

My former color guard cousin loaded us up on ribbon over Christmas, and I'm finally putting it to good use.  Thanks, KK.

Enjoy,

Little Lizard King