Giving thanks...for kids

Last year, I shared this link for a great family Thanksgiving activity.  We just pulled it out and read over what we wrote.  It was cute to see the kids read their responses. 

This year, I found this via Craft Gossip and wanted to share with you.  It would be a great project for school, or home, either before or on Thanksgiving.

Hope you are finding many reasons for giving thanks! 

New Blog Button...finally!

After working on it way too long yesterday, I finally figured out how to include a blog button (at the request of one lovely reader - thanks, N!). 

If you are in a similar boat, look no further than HERE. It took me all of 3 minutes!  Not bad for a severely inept techy like me!

Feel free to grab the code and post the button on your blog - especially if you've referenced one of my tutorials.  Share the love! 

Custom Halloween Pillows

A while back, I fell in love with this pillow.  It was on my list of Halloween crafts, but I just hadn't found the right template for my oversize couch pillows (remember them from this?). 

Flash forward a few weeks, and I found the above skeleton sketch in the trash!  Little E had drawn it to carve on her pumpkin, but didn't like it after all.  I pulled it out, enlarged it on the copier and turned it into a felt applique for the pillow cover.  Instead of a blanket stitch, I made coordinating felt piping (see here for the how-to).  I didn't have to worry about cutting on the bias because the felt is stretchy enough with the straight cut.  I basically followed these directions to make the pillow. 

With one pillow done, I was inspired to cover the other two in the same fashion.  Little E supplied the ghost.  Little A was more hesitant to draw on demand, so I found one of her drawings of a happy face and turned the hair into a stem.  Can you keep a straight face when you look at him?

 

I'm so excited to have festive, custom pillow covers for the Halloween season.  They are even more special because they are based on my girls' art work.  I know we'll have fun pulling them out every year and remembering their 4 and almost 7 year old versions of these Halloween classics.