Seriously Adorable DIY Felt Hair Bows

I'm a total sucker for cute little bows on babies, but I tend to like the simple, go-with everything type and was having difficulty finding something that I liked. So many of the bands out there were the wrong shades or had multiple colors that didn't match her outfits - which annoyed me more than it should have.

So I decided to make my own!

See that cute, little, lop-sided felt bow on that cute, little, round head?

How about this one?

 

Or this one?

 

 

They match perfectly and are small enough that she's not bothered wearing one. 

So, I made one in every color.

Because that's how I roll. 

Want to know how to make some for your self? It's actually really easy.

First, gather your supplies. You'll need:

- Felt (I just used felt sheets from Michaels)

- Glue gun and glue

- Elastic

- Template

- Kitty (optional)

So I downloaded the pdf template from How About Orange and printed three copies (one  scaled to 75% size, one at 50%, and one at 25%). So I could make three different sized bows. The bow in the photos are the 25% scale.

I cut the template out of cardstock so it would last longer.

And used those templates to cut pieces of felt.

This piece will be the bottom. So add a little glue.

Press the ends of the "loop" piece into the glue so that the center is on top.

Use a little more glue and press the center over where you just glued the ends.

Take the small rectangle piece and wrap it around the top of the bow.

A little glue on back will keep the ends together.

Ta-da!

I cut another small rectangle (no real measuring, just a guess) and a piece of elastic that will comfortably fit around Doodle's head. For her, it was probably about 12 inches, but be sure to measure your own Doodle to get the measurement right. Remembering that you want the elastic snug, but not tight. These are tight enough so that the headband doesn't fall off, but loose enough so they don't "dent" her head.

Glue the ends of the elastic to the rectangle. Don't worry about the mess, it will be covered up.

Fold over the felt and glue it together.

I used some cuticle clippers to trim the extra glue when it dried. It works great!

Then, glue the side with the seam to the bottom of the bow.

Ta-da!

You could also use other shapes and colors for the center. Here we have our Daddy's three favorite sports teams' colors.

Like, I said, I also made simple ones.

In every color to be precise.

Doodle seems to like them.

How to Keep an 8-Month-Old Entertained for 30ish Minutes

You'll need the following:

1 muffin tin

12 things that are small enough to fit into a muffin tin, but too large for a baby to swallow

1 curious baby

In this particular instance I used:

bubble wrap*

foam sandpaper block*

padlock*

business card*

felt

glass ball

cardboard*

retractable tape measure

spool of thread*

soft tape measure

carabiner

crinkly bag of candy corn*

*When I put together my first muffin tin toy, Doodle wasn't really putting things in her mouth yet. So as long as I played with her and watched what she was doing, I didn't mind having some of these items. Now that she's in that stage where everything goes in her mouth, I've switched out many of the items for bigger things and things that won't hurt her mouth.

She loves it. She'll go through and pick up each item, examine it, try to eat it, determine that it's not edible, and move onto the next one. She'll sit quietly and pick through the items for probably 20 minutes.

And when Doodle isn't using it, it's a great makeshift cat bed.

I Made Something! - Rainbow Gumball Wreath

Instead of cleaning (or sleeping or packing or exercising), I decided to make something. It took a styrofoam wreath, a glue gun, and LOTS of gum balls.

LOTS of gumballs.

Probably about 6 pounds of gumballs to be exact.

But it was totally worth it. 

Isn't this adorable?

Want to make one?

All you'll need are a wreath, a glue gun, glue, patience, and did I mention gumballs?

I found a styrofoam wreath on clearance at Walmart. I liked this one because it was flat on the top, bottom, and sides which I thought would make gluing to gumballs easier.

I started by drawing lines on the wreath using a yardstick and pen. The lines are about 0.5 inches apart (because that's how big my gumballs were) and stretched across the whole wreath. To rephrase, I would lay the yardstick on the wreath, draw a line on one side, and continue it on the other side without moving the ruler.

I did this because I wanted to make sure that the rainbow pattern matched up. I didn't want to work my way around the wreath only to realize that I would have two rows of blue at the end.

This is better illustrated in the next picture. I started gluing red on one side and continued on the other, using the lines as guidance. I recommend starting on top and just gluing in a line.

See how they line up across the wreath?

And just keep gluing.

Eventually, you'll finish. It gets a little tricky around the curves on the top and bottom, just make sure to go straight across at some point otherwise the rainbow will curve and it won't line up - does that even make sense? I still need to spray paint a clear coat on it, but I just couldn't wait to show everyone!

It's a great way to brighten up a door (or maybe use as decoration for an upcoming birthday party...in several months)

ILean is intrigued. 

Happy Father's Day!

So I'm a week late on the Father's Day thing, but that's ok. We went to a Beer, Bourbon, BBQ festival, so really how much more of a Father's Day celebration can you get? Plus, my husband isn't really the breakfast-in-bed type.

Now for his first Father's Day, I really wanted to make it special. I spent months thinking about the perfect present. Something thoughtful, yet something he'd really want. I pinned things for months and eventually settled on this: 

Not because it has special daddy/daughter meaning. Nope, because he sent me a link to the website and "suggested" that I order that day since it was on sale. 

At least I got to be creative with the grandpas' presents. 

How cute is this? Ok maybe I'm biased, but seriously?

I used a gold paint pen on navy card stock to create the signs. Then, Doodle and I spent about an hour in the backyard fending off mosquitos and (literally) taking 400 photos. p.s. rapid-fire cameras are awesome and necessary.  Of those 400, four were acceptable for framing. I'm fine with this. I then printed, cropped, and put them in a frame I just picked up from Michaels, nothing fancy. 

We gave them to the grandpas today and they just loved them. Now, I'm totally jealous and want one for us. Although, I probably would have made one for us if someone wasn't so insistent on what he wanted for Father's Day. Next year. Unless the Mets get new jerseys of course.