Dress a Chick

I thought of this idea because my mom has a blog called Nerdy Chicks Rule. When I saw all of the toy chicks on sale for Easter, I thought it would be funny to dress one up like the chick on her blog.  It looks like this: 

We used wire to make the glasses, then added ribbon and sometimes beads. Then we just glued them on with hot glue. It was easy and we had fun. We don’t usually do the same things on our blogs, but this time we posted our chicks both places. If you want to see all of the chicks we made click HERE.

If you want to dress up your own chick, here is what you will need:

Materials:

Toy Chick

Ribbon

Beads

Beading Wire

Hot Glue

Coated Wire

Sharpie

Scissors

Directions:

Make a bow or headband with ribbon, then glue it to the chick.

Wrap coated wire around round object like a paintbrush handle or a round pencil to make glasses. You will make two loops with a straight piece in between.

Bend piece in middle of glasses up or down until it looks right.

Glue on chick.

Make small loop in coated wire. String on beads.

Hook lose end through loop to create necklace. Place on chick and you are done.

For sunglasses lens: color a piece of plastic with sharpie. Cut to fit wire shape, then glue in place.

We have other ideas about how to dress up chicks, so maybe we’ll put up more pictures soon!

Metallic Easter Eggs

We found these Metallic Eggs in Target in the “Dollar Section” (But they were $2.50). Then we took turns decorating them with metallic markers.

Materials:

Metallic Eggs

Metallic Markers (We used Sargent Art Liquid Metals from Big Lots.)

Directions: 

Draw on eggs with metallic markers!

These make a great gift for grandparents.  Each child and/or grandchild can decorate an egg to create a keepsake basket!

Valentine’s Soap

Easiest craft ever and it looks so cute in the bathroom!

Supplies:

Clear bottle of hand soap.

Scrap of ribbon.

Plastic table scatter.

Directions:

1. Peel labels off of hand soap bottles.

2. Put plastic scatter into the soap.

3. We used a bamboo skewer to poke shapes into the soap. You do not have to do this, eventually they will sink and you can add more.

4. Tie a ribbon around the neck of the soap.

Ta- Dah!!!

Valentine’s Eraser Jewelry

When we saw these cute Valentine’s Day erasers at Target, we knew just what to do with them! They are perfect for fun and functional jewelry! And the craft is super easy too, and super inexpensive.  Basically, here’s all you need:

Supplies:

1. Cute erasers.

2.  Crafter’s Pick Glue, The Ultimate (or other strong child-safe glue)

3. Findings (Ring blanks, pin backs, eye pins, jump ring)

4. Wire clippers for cutting eye pins (scissors often work well too.)

5. Ribbon for necklace.

Directions for rings and pins:

1. Lay erasers on a flat surface.

2. Add a large dot of glue to the back of each one.

3. Pin back or ring blank on dot of glue.

4. Allow several hours to dry.

Directions for necklaces: 

1. Cut an eyepin so that about 1/4 inch of wire extends from loop.

2. Poke into top of eraser.

3. Add a tiny dot of glue at the top if desired.

4. Add a jump ring through the eye pin.

5. String ribbon through jump ring.

See the finished products below! We feel sure you could do this same project with hot glue, but it tends to pull off of surfaces, so we don’t know how durable they would be.

 

 

 

 

This post is also linked to Toys in the Dryer, but their icon kept popping up on top of my photos every time I tried to upload it!  So to see more Valentine’s crafts, visit them at http://www.toysinthedryer.com/.

Santa Hat Dress

This may be the most affordable Christmas Dress your 18” Doll has ever worn!

Supplies:

1. Two Santa Hats.  (This dress was made with a felt hat that had fur trim.)

2. Fabric Glue

3. Ribbon

4. Small Piece of Velcro

 Directions

1. Lay one hat on flat surface and cut off top of hat.

2. Cut armholes.

3. Glue Ribbon at top of armholes with fabric glue.

4. Put fabric glue around any rough edges to avoid fraying.

5. While glue is drying, cut white fur trim off of second hat.

6. Cut trim the right length to drape over shoulders of doll like a shawl.

7. Glue dime-sized piece of Velcro to ends of shawl. (One on the fur side, and the other on the opposite under-side.)

Now your doll is ready to party!

Fingerprint Santa Keepsake Ornament

We made these with our cousins. Everyone draws their own face and puts a fingerprint for Santa’s head. They make nice keepsake ornaments because each face is as individual as a thumbprint! 

Supplies:

1. Glass Shapes. We ordered ours here. They are very inexpensive, but you do have to clean the glass when it comes in!  http://tinyurl.com/7rgyn6w

2. Ornament Hooks

3. Black Sharpie

4. Acrylic Paint

5. Bead

Directions:

1. Draw eyes, nose and mouth in the center of the glass with Sharpie.

2. Paint on beard and white part of hat.  Allow to dry.

3. Add red part of hat and red shirt. Allow to dry.

4. Put a dab of flesh colored paint in a paper plate.

5. Put thumb in paint, making sure it is covered.

6. Press thumb over face.

7. Attach hook. Thread on bead.

Tip: This ornament shows through the back of the glass. It is important that you do these steps in the right order, or it won’t look right. Face first, then white paint, then red paint, drying in between! Thumbprint goes on very last!

Tinsel Pencils

You can’t get much more glamorous than a shimmering trail of gold following your pencil as it moves across the page!  This craft is super easy, and fun to play with (and write with) afterward.

Supplies

1. Tinsel (get the kind where the strands are attached across the top.

2. Pencil

3. Painters Tape

Directions

1. Cut a few inches of tinsel and lay on a flat surface.

2. Place pencil on tinsel and secure with small piece of tape.

3. Roll tinsel around pencil.  

  4. Put a small piece of tape over the edge of the tinsel, securing it to the pencil.

Now go write something amazing! 

*Tip: AFTER tinsel is on the pencil, you can cut it to different lengths for different effects.

Fun Fur Firs

We’re still trying to find uses for all of the fun fur we bought and didn’t make into scarves.  Making these trees with it was easy and a lot of fun!

Supplies:

1. Cones.  We recycled these old cardboard bobbin cones, but you can use Styrofoam cones too.

2. Hot glue

3. Fun fur or other fun yarn

4. Marti Gras beads, beaded garland, or other strings of beads

5. Tree toppers. We used stars from a battery operated string of lights that no longer works. But you can use small ornaments, ornament stars, or even small Christmas balls.

Directions:

1 Add a small vertical  line (about an inch) of hot glue to the cone.

2. Wrap yarn around cone, crossing over glue until it is covered. Repeat these steps until tree is covered with yarn.

3. Fit star into hole in cone OR decide what other item you will use for your tree topper and glue it on top.

4. Starting at the top, wind beads around tree, using a few dots of glue to keep in place.

That’s it!  You can add buttons, sequins, or other things to your tree too, but we decided to stick mostly with beads!

Ribbon can be used instead of beads for decoration.

 

<a href=”http://tipjunkie.com/” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.tipjunkie.com/images/TipMeTuesdayButton1.png” alt=”Tip Junkie handmade projects” border=”0″/></a>

 

 

 

 

Host a “Dress a Turkey” Party

Our family had a great time last Thanksgiving with this dress a turkey contest started by our cousin Alice C. Alice baked enough turkey shaped cookies (20+) for everyone in the family to have one. The rules: Decorate your cookie any way you want. The decorations do not need to be edible. Alice supplied the cookies and the icing. We had to bring our other decorations to the party. When we were finished dressing our turkeys and giving them titles, the girls next door came over and judged. The winner was Mr. Fancy Pants, pictured above in the top hat. We wish we had room here to show you all of the creative turkeys!  But here are a few of our favorites:

The Real Thing

Bone Appetit

Cooked

Nerdy Turkey

Easy Pumpkin Earrings and Pendant

 

This Jewelry is super easy to make and fun to wear.  C made the witch’s finger out of a stick, green marker, and red nail polish.

 

Materials:

1. Beads

2. Headpins

3. Hooks for Earrings

4. Coated Wire for Pendant

5. Needle Nose pliars. (If you do not have these, you can make loops around the end of a small paintbrush.)

Earring Directions

1. Put round bead on headpin. (We used 2 orange fire polished beads we purchased from Shipwreck Beads.)

2. Add small green bead. (These came from Fire Mountain Beads.)

3. Add a small loop in wire. See the link for directions. 

http://tinyurl.com/3fuws29

4. Add Earring hoops.

Pendant Directions

1. Add large orange bead to headpin. (Fire Mountain)

2. Twist a piece of green coated wire around a toothpick, leaving a closed loop on one end.

3. Put wire on headpin.

4. Add green bead. (Fire Mountain)

5. Add loop to headpin. See link for directions.

http://tinyurl.com/3fuws29