diy – Page 2 – Cecelia's Spot

DIY Superhero Cape!

Superhero cape time! You can make an easy superhero cape in less than 15 minutes! My daughter needed to be distracted in a fun way while I needed to care for her baby brother, so we pretend to be superheros who fetch diapers, plastic bags, and bottles for baby brother! Also, her dolly had to have a super cape too! So I went to the fabric store and found the perfect superhero fabric! The fabric has a great design and also is very stretchy and does not fray easily. I also bought double sided bias tape in gold for the outside. Her dolly also needed a superhero cape so I designed a small one for dolly.

As usual, there is a written and youtube tutorial for this cape. I only used one side of material but you can easily do two fabrics (this is outlined below). Enjoy!

What you need:
1) Fabric (one or 2 different cuts 1/2 yard each)
2) Velcro or your preferred method to connect
around neck
3) Optional: Bias tape and/or monogram

You can decide on the best size by either knowing your childs height and how wide you would like it, or you can always look at their clothes! I do outline the length and design in my video and written tutorial.

I made the cape for my 2.5year old but it ended up being very big, big enough my German Shepard dog could wear it! The sizes I use could most likely fit up to a 4t. Fold 1/2 yard of fabric in half. Measure long way 26inches long (this was a bit big for my 2.5yr old but still worked) and cut straight across. If you are using two fabrics (one for front and one for back), repeat this whole cutting process.
Then measure about 4 inches down from the 26inch top and cut in and up for the connecting part of the cape (mine was a bit big for my 2.5 year old but she will grow into it!)
If you are using two fabrics take both sides and cut and then face each other and sew all the way around except leave a 3 inch opening (as with all other projects with two fabrics). Then pull the fabric through the hole and sew hole shut (make sure you push out corners).
Next, I took the bias tape and sewed all the way around (pinning it first).
Lastly, I ironed on the Velcro sections with the softer side facing on side downwards (that way if its too big at one point it is not rough on the skin). You can also use snaps or any other closing you would like.
And that is it! Pretty easy just eyeball the size or you can measure your little one! Enjoy!

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Way Better Than Store Play Dough!

I’m sure you have seen the advertisements and blogs about making your own play dough, I sure have. I always think, “That cannot be good play dough and how long does it even last?” Well, one day I decided to make it for myself. Actually, my 2 1/2 year old and I made it.

First things first, let me give you some advice:

It is messy to make (especially with a toddler)
Use an old pan (it can be hard to get the dye out!) and an older wooden spoon if possible
It is totally worth it! The play dough is awesome. Much smoother, easier to work with, and does not dry out as easily. I was very impressed.
The play dough will last longer if you keep it in the fridge and can last 6+ months. You can leave it out in an air tight container as well, but it will not last as long.

Okay, lets get to it!

What you will need:

1 Cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of salt
2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
1 cup water
Food coloring (or natural or any dyes you would like to use)
2 tablespoons of any cooking oil (even coconut oil works!) I used canola

Warning** Once you start the process it goes quickly so I suggest you read the directions once or twice and have everything ready before you start**

Combine the flour, cream of tartar, salt to a saucepan and mix (the heat is off)
Add the water, oil, and food coloring
Turn the heat on low to medium and stir away (a wooden spoon seems to work best) (it may get stained!)
Stir it until it gets thicker like play dough or like sugar cookies
Then turn the heat off and let it cool a couple minutes
Knead it a little and it should roll easily into a ball. Store in the fridge for it to last 6+ months in an airtight container or ziplock bag. You can leave it out in an air tight container but it will last longest if its in the fridge.
Okay enjoy!
The quality of the play dough was much better than store brand and easier to roll. I love it, and so does Cece!!

Cece enjoys using a rolling pin and cookie cutters to make shapes!

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DIY Bandana Drool Bib

Once the drool starts it doesn’t stop! I saw an adorable bandana drool bib in a store and thought, I could easily make that! And you can too! It is a simple 5 to 10 minute project that makes a great gift and a fantastic accent and cute and functional accessory for your little one.

As always, there is a youtube tutorial and the written steps on here! Hope you enjoy!

This is for size 6months to 12months.

What you will need:
1) Two Fabrics (one side needs to be absorbent). I used a cute flannel fabric and then a yellow fleece material for the back.
2) Velcro or snaps to hold it shut

Fold your fabric in half. Cut out two triangles, one with each fabric (you can use my measurements or compare to your bib size for your little one) . I used the measurements of 9in long and 7 1/2in on the fold.
Next, you are going to make a cut for the neckline about 3 inches in from the side
and 2 inches down the fold.
Cut the little triangle off the very end, abut half an inch, this is where the velcro will connect.
Take pattern side facing pattern side and sew all the way around leaving a small
opening around 2 inches (this is where you will pull it right side out)
Now pull it right side out and hand sew the hole shut and VOILA! drool bib
complete!
Iron press it! You can also go around the whole outside and sew it if you like for the design look!
Next you want to attach either your velcro or snaps. I have iron on velcro I used.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial, if you have questions just post! Thanks

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Homemade Paint!

Looking for an easy homemade nontoxic paint for your little one to be creative? Well, look no further! We experimented with several types of homemade paint and below are our favorite recipes!

Kids of all ages love painting! You can have your little one finger paint, use brushes, sponges, or even potatoes!

So we started off making completely edible finger paint with only a couple ingredients!

Here is what you will need: (this makes enough for about 4-5 different colors depending on how much you want for each)…

1 cup water
1/2 cup of flour
extra water to thin out
food coloring, watercolors, or natural colors such as beet, carrot, tumeric

Instructions:

Place pot over medium heat and pour flour and water into pot and continuously stir the ingredients until it becomes a thick paste.
Take the pot away from the heat when it no longer sticks to the sides
Add cold water to the blob until it reaches the consistency you like and place the amount you desire into separate bowls to color.
Add food coloring, watercolors, natural colorants such as beet or carrot juice, turmeric spice
These can be enjoyed right away or stored in the fridge!!

This paint works well for fingerpainting or sponge painting. You can also use brushes but as you see in the photo, the colors come out thinner and lighter than traditional paint. The color dries on without fading. We used the paint several days in a row.

And who doesn’t love watercolors? The problem with watercolors is that the colors can mix and you only get very small amounts of each color. However, this can all change with homemade watercolor paints!

tbsp. baking soda
2 tsp. white vinegar
1/2 tsp. light corn syrup
2 tsp. corn starch
food colors*
containers for storing paints*
something to stir with (toothpicks)

You can use a muffin pain, disposable cups, egg cartons, or any other container that you aren’t going to use for a couple days.

Instructions:

1)Mix baking soda & vinegar in a cup with a spout. I used my Pyrex measuring glass. Let the kids watch as it fizzes

2) Add in light corn syrup and stir.

3) Stir in the corn starch until well combined. (If it gets too thick, add a little more vinegar.)

4)Pour into your paint containers- not too full, you need room for the food colors.

5)Add the food colors and stir until you reached your desired color!

6) Now if you want them to harden into hockey pucks you have to let them sit almost two days! If you plan on using it right away that’s fine too!

Sponges and potatoes!!

You can cut out designs in potatoes or out of sponges and dip into paint and press just like a stamp! I remember doing this as a child!

You can also use cookie cutters and paint the potato. This picture was taken from Fun stuff.
Dollar store sponges are great to cut out designs for painting!

Enjoy!

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10 DIY Baby Costumes under 10 dollars!

Since you generally don’t take a baby trick or treating, you don’t want an expensive costume. You also want a costume they won’t immediately pull off or scream because it’s uncomfortable.

So here are 10 costumes you can make for under 10 dollars!

1. For your newborn! Prisoner. Make yourself with a sharpie or sticker. Use a black hat.

You can also use a striped outfit if you have it and a black hat.

2. Biker baby!

3. Harry Potter!!

Picture from tumblr

Just use felt and draw ears on!

4.Popcorn baby holder- how cute! Just buy some felt and glue or sew it together!

Photo is from this placeisnowahome
5. Here’s and idea- Charlie Brown!!! Although I don’t think I’d draw on my baby’s head, still a cute idea. You can use a hat to draw on

Picture from the meta picture

6. I had to include this one since I love Dwightschrute from the office

Picture from meta picture

7. Animals! Animals! Animals!

You only need a white onesie, some disposable nipples and felt! Moooo!

From really awesome costumes. Again, you need felt and some glue or sewing

You can also take advantage of any winter animal outfit you were given! Such as the bear….

Again, green outfit and some felt. You need a green hat and either fake eyes or make your own!

8. Garden nome

Costume-works

9. Farmer! Overalls and a straw hat! I had a toy hat I used!

10. Gum ball machine! All you need is a hat and glue or hot glue on colored cotton balls! You need the red shirt and black pants.

This one is cute too so I put it in…ghost! You need a white nightgown and felt

Whats you little one going to be?

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Easy Sock Snowmen!

What’s an easy gift that can be personalized and made in 15mins? A sock snowman of course!

A what? A Sock Snowman? What is that????

Well, let me tell you. A sock snowman is a snowman made with rubber bands, rice, men’s socks, a hot glue gun, and personalized items. It is easy, fast, and I love that you can personalize it any way you want for any time of the year! I made 10 of them for Christmas gifts. You can see the harry potter and eagles one above. I also made a hunter, patriots, and princess snowman. Then I made the usual Christmas snowman for decorations as well. I even got most of my supplies at the dollar store!

As usual, there is a youtube video tutorial and the written instructions below. These make great gifts for any occasion and are quick and easy! Enjoy!

What you need:

-Hot glue gun
-Crew socks or longer
-Any type of rice
-Rubber bands
-Decorations such as eyes, stick ons, felt, buttons, bows, pins

Take your crew sock and cut below the ribbed area (the bigger the snowman the lower you want to cut (the bottom part will be the hat of the snowman).
Turn the top ribbed part inside out and place a rubber band tightly on one end
Turn it right side out and pack with rice. Make sure you continuously pack it down with your hands to give the snowman a fuller shape. Leave a small area on the top and then close it with another rubber band.
Put a rubber band on the top then 1/3 of the way down place another rubber band as tight as you can and adjust the rice to form the body and head of the snowman.
Now time for the fun part- decorating!
The scarf can be made out of felt, scrap fabric, or even a crocheted or knitted scarf! I did this with camo yarn for a hunter snowman.
I used the hot glue gun to make sure everything stayed in place including the scarf and hat!
Take the bottom part of the sock and fold top of it and place on top of the snowman’s head for the hat! Feel free to decorate the hat as well.
I made my sister a harry potter snowman. I also made a hunter camo snowman, princess snowman, patriots snowman, soccer player, and Christmas themed
snowmen.
Congrats you are done! Good job! Post your pics!

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DIY Felt Christmas Tree!

Cece bear loves to pull toys out of baskets and put them back in. She also likes to build blocks and figure out other puzzles. So I thought to myself, what can I make for Christmas that she can play with? And a mini Christmas tree came to mind. Eventually, I figured out a felt Christmas tree with all sorts of sensory stimulation and Velcro ornaments would work! So I decided to get to work.

I decided to make three trees, one for each of Cece’s friends. It also made a great birthday gift for her friend Kyle’s first birthday! This is a great activity to do with older children as well. They can make their own ornaments and decorate the tree! There are a variety of ways to put the tree, ribbons, buttons, and ornaments together. The two I used were sewing and hot glue gun, but you can do one or the other as well. Just make sure if you have a baby, infant, or toddler, to make sure everything is very secure so they can’t pull it off!

As always, there is a youtube video and written steps and pictures. Feel free to add your own creativity and pizzazz!!!

If you have an older child, instead of using velcro to stick the ornaments on, you can use string or twine looped on the ornament and they can put them around buttons on the tree!

What you need:
*Green felt fabric (I used 1.5
yards for three trees)
*velcro
*Brown felt fabric (stump)
*Felt fabrics of various colors for
ornaments of your choice and design
*optional: buttons, ribbons,
and other accessories

1) Fold your green felt and make a tree outline on the fold (so half of it traced on). Then cut your tree out!

2) Next, if you want a stump, use brown fabric to cut one out! Once again you can trace it out. You can either sew it on the bottom or hot glue gun.

3) I wanted to make something to hold the ornaments besides just having them stick to the tree. So I decided a present with the child’s name on it would be perfect! So next I chose a color of felt I had and cut about 11x 7 inches.

4) Next, for one of the presents I made I wanted the bow long ways down so I sewed a piece of ribbon straight down the piece. (the other two I made have it across the box which you can sew on now or later)

5) The next step would be to turn it right sides facing inwards and sew to the length you want so you have the top of the present flap long enough. Check out the picture to see what I mean. Then turn right side out.

6) As you can see, I decided to iron on letters for the name of the child. These two presents are different sizes. Also, if you want to put a piece of iron on or sew on or glue gun on Velcro to the top of the present to have it stick now is the time.

7) Then decorate the present at will. I added some adhesive Rudolph stickers. I did hot glue them so they would be more secure.

8) Follow that, I sewed the present onto the tree. This is optional, you can have it separate or not have a present at all. I opened the top flap and sewed right along the fold to the tree. You can also hot glue gun it.

8) Now, back to the tree. Now is the time to get even more creative! Use ribbons, garland, buttons, or whatever you want on the tree! You can sew or hot glue gun them on. If you have an older child and want to have hanging ornaments on buttons then align your buttons!

9) Next, it is time to make ornaments. If your child is older they can help decorate and make ornaments. I chose actually Christmas items and one ornament and one light bulb. I used whatever felt scraps I had to make them. I also made a star at the end. Remember to Velcro your ornaments on the back using the hard side of the Velcro. You want to iron them on before you decorate the front! Otherwise you might melt or damage your decorations.

To hang the tree, I used 3m adhesive strips, but I have heard that the blue paint tape works well on walls. You can also use suction cups if its on the window or door. Ok enjoy! Feel free to post your tree below!

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Hooded Dress (Christmas Theme)

So I didn’t want the same old fancy dresses for Christmas that take FOREVER to make and are uncomfortable. Therefore, I strolled around the fabric store looking for inspiration. A tan plaid red and green pattern caught my eye. For some time I have wanted to make a plaid dress for my little one, but haven’t found the right fit. However, today, I thought to myself, “How about a comfy hooded dress in plaid?” And so, the Christmas Plaid dress was born!!!

I designed the dress myself, so be patient with the video since sometimes I change my mind after completing part of the dress. Oh, you’ll see what I mean when you watch it! As always, there is a youtube video tutorial and a written and picture form. The dress pattern is listed below and is a sketch I made of it. There are several sizes on there, but you can always adjust it by measuring your little one or making it bigger or smaller by moving the lines.

What you will need:

The pattern found here–> dress.jpg
Fabric (around 1 yard)
Thread
Sewing machine and scissors
Optional: ribbon, bias tape, buttons, felt, any other decorations, Velcro for hood

Lets get started!

Print the pattern and cut out the right size (note: make sure it is the right size for your little one by measuring)
Cut your fabric patterns out as instructed (decide if you want a hood and if you want it detachable. Also decide if you want long sleeves or no sleeves)
You can serge or zigzag stitch around all the pieces of fabric to prevent fraying.
After zigzaging or serging, sew the top part of the pocket on the main pocket
parts
If you want a button on your pocket sew them on now before you attach it
Next, make sure you align your pockets on the dress front by measuring in from the sides and from the top and bottom to get them as even as possible.
You can either fold your pocket edges and sew either a straight or zigzag stitch around the pocket leaving the top open, or you can just stitch around it as I have done since I liked the look for the plaid dress.
For the hood, have the pattern facing each other on the inside and sew the rounded edge!
Flip right side out and hem or add bias tape to outside
You can sew your hood on fabric pattern facing fabric pattern and sew across and flip right side out, or you can use buttons or velco. You will need to either make button holes or put velcro on the back of the dress to hold the hood. I used iron on velco. Note**If you are sewing it on wait until after you sew the front to back**
The front collar of the dress needs to be hemmed or sew bias tape on it
Next, is to sew the front to back of the dress. If you want the top of the dress to be velcro as well, you can have a jumper (but you wouldn’t have sleeves so skip the sleeve part).
To sew it together, turn patterns facing each other and sew . Also line up sides and pin and sew down underneath the sleeve opening. Then turn right side out.
If you are not doing sleeves, you want to hem or use bias tape on the sleeve holes after sewing down the side. If you are not doing sleeves then hem or use bias tape around the bottom and you are all done!
If you are doing sleeves, turn pattern facing pattern and sew. Then turn right side out.
Sew the sleeve sides together by facing pattern side to pattern inside. Do not sew the curved part as pointed to in the picture below. Then turn right side out
Turn your body of the dress inside out. Have your sleeve right side out. Place your sleeve inside the body with the curved open part lining up with the
armhole. Sew around.
This picture shows that you want the sleeve facing downward inside the body of the dress. the larger end to the hole and the smaller end (where the hand comes out) facing downwards.
You can hem or use bias tape on cuffs of sleeves and bottom of dress. Then add any embellishments you want and wah-la you are done!
Congrats! Feel free to post your pics below!

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Crib Rail Protector! GRR

One day I put my little munchkin down to nap and a couple minutes later I go to check on her and she is gnawing the crib side rail! And you know how expensive cribs are, so I was not a happy camper. I was also concerned about the stain getting in her mouth. So, I got right to work making a crib rail cover and protector! So far, she has only gnawed on the one rail, and that is because this rail faces the hallway that she enjoys looking out and crying to see if anyone will come to her rescue!

This is a simple project that should take no more than 15 to 20 minutes. As always, I have a Youtube video and a written and picture explanation.

What you need:
Fabric with your chosen pattern
Batting (fleece or any type of padding)
Ribbon
Measuring tape

First you want to measure your crib rail that you will be making this for. Measure the inside from side to side for the length and then the width and add 2 inches (or measure downwards for how long you want it to go down).
Also measure where your ties will tie onto your railing. Mark this all down so you remember.
Then cut the length and width of the fabrics and also cut your ribbon. Now you may want to make your ribbon longer for bigger bows but keep in mind your little one may pull at them if they are too long. I recommend about 6-8 inches long. I used 6 pieces of ribbon (so 3 ties) total for the side rail.
Pin your ribbon onto your batting facing inwards. Have the two ribbons across from each other and make sure to measure out the spots. Pin them down with the shiny side or pattern side up.
Line up your other fabric piece with right side down (right sides facing eachother).
Now you want to sew all the way around the edges leaving a 2 to 3 inch opening. Make sure you backstitch!
Pull the inside out and make sure the corners are popped out. Then sew this area shut.
You are done congrats! Go put it on and save your crib!

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1st Birthday Ducky Theme!

As I searched the internet for ideas for my munchkins first birthday, I noticed a lack of imagination for the rubber ducky birthday theme! So I have decided to share what I came up with in hopes of giving others ideas as well.

My little Cecelia loves rubber duckies. She has since she was introduced in the bathtub to them. Now, besides just the rubber duckies, she loves everything ducky! She crawls right over to any books that contain ducks; especially, the duck and goose series! I even got her a large rubber duck down at the shore.

So I didn’t want to go overboard on her first birthday since she won’t remember it, but…of course we had to have rubber ducks everywhere!

First, I made Cece a 1st birthday dress. You can click here to see some of the details however right now I do not have a full tutorial. If you are interested in purchasing one you can private message me. My Etsy site is upcoming.

First I thought to myself, well if it is a rubber duck party, then I definitely need rubber ducks for favors! So I searched the web for the cheapest, yet best rubber duckies for about 35 people. I ended up going with an assortment of 2 inch rubber ducks from amazon. There were some bad reviews that they were not a good assortment; however, I found them very varied in theme.

Last minute, I decided to make birthday crowns! This tutorial can show you how to make easy quick crowns! Of course, if you have a large amount of kids coming you may want to just buy party hats or completely skip this. I used scrap pieces to make the crowns and just did ribbon along the bottom that could be tied. You of course can do buttons, Velcro, or if you know the head size, sew it all the way around.

Next, of course I needed party decorations! I didn’t want to spend 10 dollars for 8 fancy paper plates with cute ducks on them. So, I made a trip to my dollar store and bought yellow napkins, plates, cups, and silverware. They also had cute I’m one plates, so I bought a couple of those as well. Since the weather is nice, we had lots of tables outside and I bought yellow tablecloths.

As far as balloons, I ended up buying balloons on amazon, ones with little ducks on them and then two large Mylar duck balloons. They did not carry these type at my local stores. The only place around to fill the balloons was the dollar store. Do you see a theme here? **Note: it does cost more to have Mylar balloons filled, so if you are saying a buck or two you can skip the Mylar and go for the regular smaller balloons.

I also used the rubber duckies to decorate everywhere! I had a couple mums and vases in the house and added little ducks to them!

Food…of course this is key for a party. I wanted to save some time but not spend too much money either. So, I decided to order a couple small party trays and then do crock pot recipes. I didn’t go crazy with the duck theme food since there weren’t a lot of kids coming to the party. However, if you want to see some duck themed food check out pinterest for lots of ideas. Yes, we did deviled eggs and some quacky snack mix that I used small duck cups for. Cake. Originally I was thinking of making my own cake, there are tons of ideas on pinterest. However, with more than 40 people coming, and cheap but tasty sheet cakes with a free smash cake included, I decided to save myself the stress and space in my fridge, and order a cake with a duck theme. However, let me show you some of the ideas I picked up from pinterest.

Duck Birthday Ideas: click for more pinterest ideas.

I was GIVEN THE WRONG CAKE WITH NO SMASH CAKE when I went to pickup the cake two hours before the party! I was given a mere 1/4 sheet cake (wrong size) with the wrong duck design on it, and NO smash cake! Don’t panic I told myself as my mind reminded me I only ordered this a month in advance to make it was done right! After several minutes of panic, the manager apologized and stated they could make my cake and smash cake in about two hours. I agreed but would have to send someone else back to pick it up. Lukily, my brother in law agreed to pick it up and got fifty percent off the cake. Phew, added stress you don’t need!

I ended up addin some small ducks to the smash cake! Note: it was a HUGE SMASH CAKE!

I also made duck shaped cookies with a duck cookie cutter! And then I used yellow icing to make the number one of them! Half were pumpkin sugar cookies and the other half regular sugar cookies

Drinks. Duck punch of course! There are a variety of recipes to make blue punch. I ended up doing half blue hawiian punch, half 7up, and then putting in vanilla ice cream to make it look like bubbles! You can clean rubber ducks up well and put them in, or freeze them in ice! I also had a punch server that I put ice and ducks in the middle and then put water in it!

Play.
Since there were a handful or two of kids coming, I decided to buy a couple items and also set up items for the kids to play with. Of course we had games such as bean bag toss, bacchi ball, redneck golf, and Frisbee setup for adults.

I bought some duck beach balls off amazon. They came in a 12 pack so I got them cheap enough and gave them away as favors too.

Birthday chalkboard! I love this idea! And it is so easy to make! Now again, I needed to save myself some time with this project, but also not spend too much money. My handwriting is awful, so making a chalkboard myself was out of the question. I also wanted it on a poster board to have it as a keepsake. So if you are into graphic design you can make your own up and have it printed at an office store. However, I am not into graphic design so I investigated the options at etsy. I ended up going with a 5.99 graphic for ducks and edited the sections myself with adobe. I took it to staples to have it mounted on a poster board and enlarged.

HOWEVER, **Note: the file was locked due to the seller having a password. The staples I went to could not print it so I had to have it turned into a JPEG. The seller offered to do it, but I didn’t want to wait, so I just changed it myself on a free online program. Just type in change to JPEG and you can easily find a free site. For these pre-made designs you cannot change the pictures or the design, only the words can be edited. For mounting on a thick foam poster board and enlarging to 16×20, it cost me 16.99 online. I am very pleased with the way it turned out and now it is displayed in her room as a great keepsake!

You can of course buy a chalkboard and make your own. You can even print out different fonts and trace them onto the board. You can also buy a cheap graphic design program and make your own. Again, for the price, and since it was last minute, it was easiest for me to order it.

So that is it folks! Although she won’t remember this, I have lots of pictures and we had lots of fun!

Hope you enjoyed the post and I hope it gave you some good ideas! You can check out my pinterest site for more ideas! Follow us on facebook too!

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