Mickey Mouse Treat Bags & Food Signs

I made these treat bags for Grant's birthday party.  There will only be 2 other kids there, both girls, and both of their names start with an "S".

I used my cricut and the Mickey and Friends cartridge for the Mickey heads, and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge for the letters.  I cut the Mickey heads at 4 inches and the letters at 2 1/2 inches.

 

I used micro glue dots to attach the pieces, folded the top over once, punched 2 holes and threaded the Mickey ribbon through for the finishing touch.

 

I love how they turned out and I'm so happy I finished them.

 

 

None of the food I'm having really needs a label but I think it's a cute way to further the theme.  I downloaded a Disney font from dafont.com and found the character images on google and just saved them to my computer.  I used Microsoft Works Word processor and then just printed them on cardstock, cut them out, and glued them to colored cardstock.

 

Superhero Cape- A Christmas Gift

I am so excited to have this post up. Mainly because it makes me feel like I'm actually accomplishing something and I'm not such a procrastinator.  Either way I'm still excited to have at least one of Grant's gifts finished.

I've known for a while that I wanted to make Grant a superhero cape.  My plan is to make one for my neice Sophia too but I have yet to buy the fabric for hers.  I looked at random blogs and tutorials online trying to get a feel for how to make one and how to create a pattern.  I ended up taking one of Grant's toddler bibs and tracing the neck and then then making an "A" shape on newspaper to make my pattern. 

I bought 1 yard of poly satin and 1 yard of green cotton.  I was really nervous working with satin because I remembered from years ago my aunt (who is an amazing seamstress) said it could be difficult to work with, which is why I decided to use cotton on the back instead of another satin fabric.

 

I used my cricut to cut out a "G" template and decided to keep things simple and applique it onto a triangle shape.  Originally I wanted to put the monogram onto a lightning bolt but that got nixed pretty fast when I tried to free hand one and it turned out awful.

 

Here are my few bits of advice if you are going to make a superhero cape and if you're going to use satin to make it.  Make sure you clip the curves and corners or the neck will be on wonky...yes, I said wonky.  Stitch slow so you will have a slimmer chance of having to rip out seams and risk snagging the fabric.  If you're like me you will finish the entire thing, have it all turned right side out and then have to pull it wrong side out 5 times to fix all the things you forgot to do the first time.

 

Finishing this project makes me want to get started on the rest of my homemade Christmas to-do list.

T-Shirt Scarf

I feel like I have been a little MIA around this little blog of mine but I actually have been crafting behind the scenes.  Unfortunately a couple of my crafty endevours (is that how you spell that? anyway, forgive me) have not turned out too well and I've had to start over or scrap it all together.  More than that, quite a few of my projects are still in progress.  And let me just throw out there that my son has a habit of getting up at 5 am, like getting up for the day at 5am.  You would assume that would mean he takes a longer nap, but no we are still lucky to get an hour out of him.  How is it possible for a 1 year old to get so little sleep compared to others his age.

Now that I've put all my excuses out there, on to the post. 

I've said before that I love repurposing.  For whatever reason it has become a little obsession of mine.  When I started making a t-shirt quilt out of mine and my husband's old shirts (one of those projects that are still in progress) I had a bunch of leftover shirt sleeves I didn't know what to do with.  A normal person would have just thrown them away but not me, I felt compelled to keep them and repurpose them into something.  I saw a post here about a t-shirt scarf and thought it was so cute and decided it would be the perfect project to use up my shirt sleeves by making one for my little man.

I used a small envelope as my template and cut out 2 rectangles per shirt sleeve (one for the front and one for the back).

Then I laid them out in the order I wanted, pinned each right sides together and started sewing.  I ended up with 2 long strips, a front and a back.

 

I pinned them right sides together and stitched all the way around making sure to leave an opening for turning.  Somehow or another 1 of my strips ended up longer than the other, like a full rectangle longer, and there were the exact same amount of rectangles on each strip.  I'm still scratching my head on that one, lucky for me when it comes to some projects I'm not a perfectionist.  Once you turn it right side out just stitch your opening closed and you're done.

 

 

Here it is finished, I really love how it turned out.  It's simple, boyish, and best of all it's repurposed!

 

 

Even my little man loves it.

 

 

Peanut Butter & Jelly Pancakes

I watched an episode of Money Saving Meals on Food Network and Sandra Lee had a recipe for peanut butter and jelly pancakes.  To me, pb&j pancakes sounded a little gross but I knew my son and neice would love them.  I didn't follow her recipe as far as measurements so here's how I made mine:

1c pancake mix
3/4c milk
1/4c creamy peanut butter
1 egg
1c grape jelly
1/2T cornstarch
1/2T water

Put grape jelly in small sauce pot and heat over medium heat til thin.  In another small sauce pot heat milk over medium heat, once it is warm add the peanut butter and stir till combined.

In a bowl mix pancake mix, egg, and milk/peanut butter mixture with a wisk till thoroughly combined and make pancakes on griddle or stove.

mix cornstarch and water together.  Once jelly is thinned out add your cornstarch mixture stirring the entire time while adding it and let it simmer til thick.  Once thick take off the heat and let cool a little.  If syrup is too thin add enough water to get to the consistency you like.

My little guy gobbled these up and even I thought they were pretty tasty.  I put my leftover syrup in a glass container in the fridge and froze the leftover pancakes for a quick and easy morning breakfast.