Magnetic Figure Skater Toy Download in the Shop!

School is out for winter break and if you are like me, you need fun activities to keep little hands busy, busy, busy. Well expert figure skaters, Sebastian and Sadie, are here and ready to help with that!

To get started, purchase the download here for only $3.99, complete with both figure skaters and three tree shapes. Print out the figure skaters (I recommend using fine art heavy card stock or taking the file to your local print shop for the best quality of print) and cut them out. Cut out support tabs and glue long vertical strip to back of skater for support. (I find it's also helpful to add a piece of thick foam or cardboard for additional support).


Now using hot glue, adhere magnet to the bottom of the flap of skater

Once the glue is dry you are ready to try out your new skater on the "ice"!

To create your ice rink, take a large discarded cereal box and place it on it's side. You may cover it in white butcher paper before hand if you like, leaving one end open. Create slits in the box where you'd like your trees to go. Print out tree shapes. (You can keep them as is or cover them in black duct tape as we did here). Place large tongue depressors to the backs of the trees. Now you are set to place your trees within the slits you created in your large box.

Place your skater a top the box and than place a corresponding magnet within the cereal box and directly below the skater. Magnets should meet up. You are now ready to move your skater around on the ice! So fun!!

These make a great stocking stuffer or craft/toy to play an create with friends and family members during these winter months! Hop on over to the shop to get started on your very own skaters now!

(download will be emailed to you after purchase)

Trick-or-Treat Candy Buckets with Duct Tape

If you are looking for the perfect trick-or-treat candy bucket, but you don't want to spend a lot (or if you are like me and don't want to bother going out to the stores only to find that what you're looking for just doesn't exist)...we've got just the thing for you! A Do-it-Yourself bat (or pumpkin) treat bucket from a tin can, adorned with cardboard wings and duct tape!

To make these candy buckets, simply gather together a number of household materials, such as:

• a tin can (paint cans work great as they already have a handle in them)
• a wire coat hanger and pliers (if you don't already have a handle)
• an assortment of festive duct tape colors
• an X-acto knife and self healing mat (see tips for cutting duct tape here)
• cardboard (for the wings if you are making the bat)

Start by punching holes for the handle into the sides of the can with a hammer and an awl (or use a drill). You can then bend and trim the coat hanger until you are happy with the size and shape for your handle. Don't place the handle into the holes just yet, though. I would wait to do this at the end once the tin is already covered in tape.

Once the holes are punched, you can begin covering your tin with duct tape. For the bat I covered it completely with black and created the face, and other decorative elements, with colorful tape. I even did a few rows of corresponding tape within the bucket to make things pop a bit. It's important that you have a good layer of tape folded over the top of the bucket so that no sharp edges are exposed. You can also cover the holes you previous made in the tin can and then puncture the tape where the holes are. This helps to cover any sharp edges that holes might have created as well. I then added a few bat ears by taping together pieces of black tape and then cut out triangle shapes which were then taped to the inside of the bucket.

Once you have finished decorating your tin, you are ready to put your handle on. You might want to wrap a few layers of duct tape to the top of the handle to make it that much easier for little hands to hold throughout their night of tricks and treats.

For the bat wings, simply download this bat wing template and trace it two times onto cardboard (or a cereal box, etc.).


Cut the wings out of the cardboard and then cover with duct tape. Fold the wing over (at the dotted line) and tape securely to you bucket.

But don't let the fun stop there! You can continue to create an assortment of other haunted treat containers for your home or to give away as ghoulish gifts. Have fun raiding your pantry for a variety of cylinders. We made this little pumpkin guy out of an old discarded chow mein noodle package and we've become quite fond of him (not to mention the goodies he now holds inside!).


Now that your trick-or-treat buckets are complete, your little ones are ready for a spooky night out on the town! And my favorite thing about these treat containers is that they are mighty durable and, if treated well, should hold up for at least a few years. (To store, simply remove the wings and lie them flat. Any nicks and scratches can easily be repaired with a new "coat" of duct tape). And little O's favorite thing about these buckets? Well the candy they hold of course!!

Halloween Flashback: Bat Toppers with Template

I have loved reusing household items for craft projects for some time now. And one of my favorite free paper products that we always find in our mail box - oh nearly every day - are beautifully diverse security envelopes. A couple of years back I reused a collection of these security envelope patterns for these simple and fun bat sandwich toppers.

And of course these would also make great cupcake toppers, place setting labels, scrapbook decals, you name it! And now I'm offering a template for these little bat friends.

To make it easy, you can fold your paper and place half of the bat template on the fold, trace and cut. Or you can use the entire bat template if you don't want a fold in your paper bat. It's up to you!

And next week I hope to have a brand new Halloween craft that I'm super excited about! And...Baby M's birth story should be hitting the blog next week as well. Here's hoping I can get enough sleep and keep my head on straight to make this all happen!

And I hope you have some haunted fun lined up for this weekend. Corn mazes? Haunted houses? Hay rides? Apple picking? Pumpkin patches? Or just sipping on some apple cider while eating pumpkin donuts and watching spooky shows? October weekends are some of my most favorite in all the world. I'm quite certain I'll have to slip out of the house for a few of these festivities soon.

Happy Fall!

Halloween Flashback: Felt Pumpkin Faces & Template

Are you getting into the Halloween spirit yet? We're still very much in baby mode here (Baby M is already a week old!!) but little by little we are trying to introduce elements of the highly anticipated spooky holiday over here. Just last night Jon and the boys put together a Mr. Pumpkin Head of sorts with real pumpkins while the girls tried to get some beauty sleep. These pumpkin heads reminded me of the fun felt pumpkin faces the boys and I made a couple of years ago. And we of course want to share them with you! To make things easier on you, this year I've included a template for you to download and use as a pattern for your felt pieces.
 
There are so many options for fun and silly faces with this pattern.

And don't be afraid to add a few of your own elements to the mix. There really are so many spooky and wacky possibilities!

And the best part...these guys will keep your little ones occupied mixing and matching, giggling and laughing, for a good long while. I'm thinking I might even need to make a little felt book of sorts to tote these little pumpkins around in. I really think it would come in handy on-the-go.

And now to start our week where we try to get back into the swing of things. I'm a little weary of all the driving around I have to do, but such is life with three...and we're having to jump right into it. Wish me luck!

Halloween Flashback: Black Cat Paper Mask Template

Hi friends! I wanted to pop in with another Halloween Flashback for this week. But before I get into that, I wanted to let you know that our baby girl arrived on Monday, Oct. 1st at 8:15 AM! We are so in love and are trying to quietly settle into life with this new little angel. I'll try to share pics of her next week!

And as for our next Halloween Flashback installment, I wanted to share with you the template for this simple and fun black cat paper mask!

Simply print out the template and then trace it on a folded sheet of black card stock (or any color you chose). Just be sure to place the center part of the mask on the fold. Follow along the cutting lines to create your eyes, whiskers and slots for the ribbon. I used a 1/8" hole punch for the dots surrounding the whiskers.

For the ribbon, simply measure how large you need it and then slip it through the slots and stitch ribbon together. And there you have it! One simple but striking black cat mask. To see the original post, along with A's fox paper mask, go here.

Enjoy!

Halloween Flashback: Carboard Tube Bat Treat holders

Happy October! If you have been following my blog at all you probably know that fall is my favorite time of year. The first chill of October whispers of boots, jackets, chunky sweaters and spooky Halloween fun to come. But this year, October also means that baby girl is coming! I'm scheduled to be induced Oct. 2nd and we are so excited to meet her and settle into life as a family of five.

And while we are settling in with baby girl I thought it would be fun to have a flashback line up of some of my favorite past fall and Halloween crafts - now complete with templates - so that making these will be that much easier!

One of my boys all time favorite Halloween crafts is this little cardboard paper tube treat holder. In fact, A saw me working on this post and asked if we could make more of these this year (Little O just asked if we he could have some candy corn treats). And with how simple they are I'm thinking we can definitely squeeze a few of these in before Halloween!

And if you want to download a template for the face, ears and wings of the bat, I'm now offering one here.

You can see the original bat treat holder post here.

Stay tuned for more flash back October crafts (and some new ones later this month!) complete with new templates. Oh and of course, updates on the new baby!!

Wish me luck!!

xo
Mer

Complete Milly the Mermaid doll pattern (with additional hair and skirt option!) in the shop!

As a continuation of Sarah Jane's fantastic Out To Sea fabric blog tour I'm offering the entire complete Milly the Mermaid doll pattern in the shop!

This downloadable PDF pattern is for a 20 inch Milly the Mermaid pattern, complete with instructions. Milly can transform from sea to land with both legs and a slip on mermaid tail! Milly's hair can also change up as this pattern includes options for two different hair styles that can be taken on and off with Velcro. Milly also comes with a pattern for a darling bodice and skirt.

 So many fun dress up options!

This pattern is appropriate for those with intermediate sewing skills.

The PDF pattern will be sent to the email address associated with your etsy account unless otherwise noted. You will receive the pattern within 24 hours of purchase.

And what's even better...visit Sarah Jane's blog to get an exclusive discount code towards you very own Milly the Mermaid pattern!

And like always, I LOVE to see any creations made from Mer Mag tutorials so I'd especially love to see any mermaid dolls you might make! Share them on facebook, twitter and instagram and spread the mermaid making love!

Free Printable Domino Activity for Kids

Little O is going to preschool this year (he has an October birthday so he'll be one of the older ones) and we have been trying to get him geared up and ready. He's known his shapes for some time but I wanted to push him a bit further in this area. And these simple printable dominoes are just the thing!

To print out your own dominoes, head on over to Handmade Charlotte for the templates and game play instructions. It's so quick and simple, you'll be able to print them out just in time for your weekend camping trip!
 
(I also love that these can double up as great black and white baby flash cards for when little sister arrives! Maybe we'll make a mobile or something out of them...).

Paint Chip Animal Friends

I trust all US readers had an excellent 4th of July. Ours was hot, hot, hot! We spent most of the day in my parents pool (here in Colorado - where the fires are finally starting to calm down and be contained. Hopefully no new ones will pop up!). We had a great time though.

And if you are looking for a new, fun and super easy (not to mention practically free!) craft for your little ones to do (perhaps indoors while avoiding the hot summer heat), look no further than our fun little paint chip animal friends. Head over the Handmade Charlotte for the full DIY.
I know your little ones will love these new little animal amigos just as much as mine did! I think we'll be sharing this fun craft with all of our cousins later today. Perhaps that will give us moms some time to sit, sew and chat together.
 Enjoy!

Summer Fun Jars

I have to give full credit to my cousin Crystal for this summer fun idea. For the Mudpuppy giveaway she commented:

"So this summer me and the kids made a summer fun jar so I don't have to be as creative everyday. Each week they pick out an outing, a food to make, and an activity to do at home and we make sure we do all three that week. "

Crystal I LOVE, love, love your idea! So of course we had to implement it here in our home as well.

 This approach to summer fun works really well for us. I often get super busy with work while it seems like our friends are gallivanting off to swim parks, camping trips and more. I've been feeling really bad for my little guys and have worried that their summer just isn't turning out as fun and exploratory as I'd hoped it would be. So when Crystal mentioned this idea, I thought, "Hey! I can do that!" This simple approach satisfies my little ones need for structure and planned events (especially my oldest who has been ansty non-stop ever since school let out) and also allows me the freedom to chose when the events/projects work best in my schedule. I don't have as much pressure to do something extravagant every day and the littles love looking at our calendar, looking forward to what is coming up next!

To make our summer fun jars we used old pickle jars (we are pickle fanatics here), covered the lids with decorative paper and affixed a label for each summer fun item, reading "LET'S GO, LET'S MAKE, and LET'S EAT." 

If you'd like to do the same, I've made some jar labels for you to download here.
Each Monday evening, during family night, we have our kids draw out one slip of paper from each jar. The kids then love looking at and discussing what types of things we have in store for us that week. In our "LET'S GO" jar I've put in outings to local hot spots as well as things we can do closer to home such as "have a BBQ with friends." In our "LET'S MAKE" (which could also be called "LET'S DO") I've placed a number of prompts for us to get creative such as "make a summer scrapbook" or "learn a new skill".Our "LET'S EAT" jar has been a huge hit (notice the explosive amount of papers in the jar). I decided that I'd finally do something with all the delicious food pins I've been collecting on Pinterest. So I printed out several pages of pins, cut them up and then placed them in our "LET'S EAT" jar. This is so popular we actually ended up pulling out two food items, one sweet and one savory each week (I ended up making another savory jar, not shown here).

*(You could also use this Pinterest approach for your "LET'S MAKE" jar. Just print out all the DIY's you've been saving up and start doing them! If you need motivation to get started, take a look at a few of the pins from Mer Mag).
The kids love looking at what we have in store to make and eat. Somehow it's so much more exciting than just reading it. For example, take these delicious Mint Brownies from Brooke of Inchmark. I've been dying to make these ever since she posted about them! And now they have been drawn and placed on the calendar. We will be making them today!
So when we draw a food item from the jar, we then go to back to Pinterest to get the recipe. All the ingredients to make that item then goes on our shopping list for that week. The kids loving doing this and I love that they are learning a bit about shopping and cooking (and if I'm really ambitious I can give a little lesson about money on our shopping trip).
And it may be a bit late in the season (unless you are in Cali where school just let out for the summer) but we finally made our summer calendar. My mother would do this for us each summer and we loved visually looking forward to trips, events and fun summer activities. It really made summer SO much fun. To make ours I simply took a piece of black poster board and divided up the space into squares with decorative washi tape. I then used white oil pastel to write in all the dates and days of the week. From there we simply taped it to the wall with more washi tape.

And when the boys draw something out of our summer fun jars, we choose a day of the week and then have them tape up the paper right to the calendar. They love it!
 
And now we need to prepare for our big summer fun activity... our annual trip to Colorado for the 4th of July! We are so excited! To see some of the great summer reunion fun we've had in the past, take a lookly lou here, here, here and here. This summer we are going with a traditional 1776 white wig, Betsy Ross type of gala. No fireworks though, due to all the fires in Colorado :( but I know we'll come up with something just as fun. Apparently my mother is making little white wigs for all the kiddos and I just can't wait!

Crafting for Handmade Charlotte this Summer!

Hello friends! I'm thrilled to announce that I will crafting over at Handmade Charlotte this summer! Yippee! Rachel Faucett, of Handmade Charlotte, has one of the best eyes for modern and vintage children's toys, crafts, games, clothes, you name it. If you are not following her deliciously inspiring pins, I suggest you start doing so now!

Today I am sharing a fun spin on the traditional paper doll. Hop on over the Handmade Charlotte to get the full DIY. It's the perfect thing to keep little hands from getting bored now that they are out of school!

Time for Tee's!

It's that time of year again. School is almost out for the summer and A is growing out of practically every shirt he owns. We needed to think fast (and thrifty) so off to the store to get $1 shirts (we found ours at the Dollar Tree) and then back to the craft lab to create some one of a kind tees.

I knew I wanted these to be graphic and simple (design wise at and to make). First we started with a simple little octopus illustration for the navy blue T-shirt. This little guy is hinting at us all kinds of exciting summer water adventures in store for us. I'm really craving the ocean as of late and we're hoping this guy can lead the way.
For our second heather grey tee, we simplified things even more and went with a large house graphic of sorts. You could take this in a million different directions if you were making your own (add a chimney, front door, windows, etc.) but we decided to keep things super simple, and we love it.
And for our final black T-shirt we went freestyle and created a connect-the-dots geometric design with white fabric paint. (Sorry the photo is blurry but I liked how this pic showed his shirt, and personality, the best). This is a fun one to do with your Littles. You could paint on the large circles and then have them  connect them with lines. My boys loved this and pronounced it to be a "kite" when it was complete.
If you are interested in making some of these shirts yourself, I've included our little octopus friend in stencil form to make things easy for you. You can download the pdf of him here:

As for the others, I'm thinking they are pretty straight forward. For the house, you can create your own freezer paper stencil house however you like best. And for our geometric "kite"...well the doors wide open for what you could do on your own with this.

Enjoy and happy last few weeks of school!

Speaking of which, are you are already making big summer travel plans? What about summer classes for the Littles? Do you go with sports? arts and crafts? music? or all of the above? How does one decide? I'd LOVE to hear your tips as I'm trying to figure this out now for my little guys and I'm all in a tizzy!

Mother's Day Stationary with Free Envelope Download

Mom's are the best, right? And although we should be celebrating them on a daily basis, I'm so glad we have a specific day set aside to show the mother's in our lives just how much we really appreciate all that they do for us. Well, Mother's Day is just 3 days away which leaves just enough time for last minute gift ideas. In fact, this idea was so last minute last year (yes, I said last year) that I didn't have time to blog about it in time for Mother's Day 2011. But for 2012, I've got you covered (I'm just really on the ball for this year, right? Which is a good thing because I've been swamped drawing so many little darlings due to the large amount of Mother's Day portrait orders from the Daily Candy Kids coverage...Way to think ahead, that's what I say).
With my free downloadable herringbone patterned envelopes and some custom stamped monogram cards (easily made by you with a stamp or sponge using letter stencils - perhaps with some help from the kiddos?), you have the perfect gift to let the mother's in your life know how much you love them.
To download the hand painted green herringbone envelope, just click here.
And to download the hand painted peach herringbone envelope, just click here.


Wishing you all the most wonderful Mother's Day weekend! And happy Mother's Day to all you beautiful mothers out there!

xo
Mer