Tutorial Tuesday: Mommy Time Dice

Today Jodi from Meaningful Mama is visiting with a fun idea for kids and moms! :)

First, here's Jodi with a little bit about her blog:

Why my blog? Becoming a mother is hard. I learned that in the labor process, and I’ve been learning it ever since. This blog has been, for me, a desire to be more intentional in my parenting. I think I’ve spent the last four years of parenting living in the “I should” moments. I should really take my kids to the park when it’s cold outside. I really should get a reward system in place at our home. I should get off “Words with Friends” right now and spend some quality time with my kids. I should really invest in the character development of the kids more. I was tired of the “I should” and decided to become meaningful. This isn’t about me being an amazing mom. It’s about me trying to improve daily in this precious role. Every day I offer you a craft or activity, a character development idea and a parenting tip that I’ve found helpful. Is life at our house perfect? Absolutely not. Is it improving? Absolutely yes. I want to inspire others to be more meaningful in their parenting. Will I have Martha Steward moments in the process? Hopefully, a few. Mostly, I want things accessible. Things you can take away and say, “I can do that. I’m going to do that this week.” Do everything? No, but I am hoping you’ll take something away from these minutes you spend in my corner of the web that inspire you to turn the “I should…” into “I’m going to…” Please stop by Meaningful Mama for more ideas. You can also find me on Facebook or Pinterest.

And now... The Mommy Dice!

OK - It's just one die. I know that calling it a "dice" is not really technically correct. However "mommy time die" just didn't sound quite right. Agreed? I had done one of our favorite projects recently - turning your kids into interchangeable blocks. I had a few left over blocks from the original project, and I was trying to brainstorm what I could do with them and came up with this idea. This is a die to roll when we are having unplanned mommy time. It's a great thing to pull out to fill our random gaps in the day. When a moment arises, just pull out the die, have the kids roll it and what it lands on is the activity they get to do with you. It's a great thing for dads too.

What you will need is a 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 wooden block (If you are going to use my printable), mod podge, paint brush or sponge brush, scissors and printable.

The next step is to cut out the different squares and Mod Podge them onto the block. You'll have to let a few sides dry before you move on to the next. Please see my post about tips for doing Mod Podge to help you with the technique.

For those of you who like the idea but don't want to go to the trouble of making a wooden block, here's a printable my wonderful husband made. Ain't he the best?

Of course your kids will want to do an activity right away when the die dries. Our die landed on puzzles.

Thanks so much for making a guest appearance on Raising Memories today, Jodi! If you want to see the feature I did on Jodi & her blog, you can find it here!

Tutorial Tuesday: Messenger Bag

Hey! It's Amber from Crazy Little Projects stopping in to say hello and teach you to make a messenger bag. Please come visit me at my blog or be my friend on facebook. 

I think I have a thing for sewing new bags. I don't carry a purse, always just a bag of some sort, so maybe that's why. My bag functions as a diaper bag and purse all in one. Remember this little sling tote? And this reversible messenger bag? Yes, I like to sew bags.

I affectionately refer to my current bag as "the dungeon" because it is so large and full of so many random items. (Goggles anyone? How about an old french fry?) I wanted to try to make a new bag that was less dungeon like-maybe more compartments or maybe a slightly smaller bag.

Well, I succeeded in making a cute bag, but I am not sure that it is going to be any less dungeony. Oh well.

 

Want to make it yourself?



Here's What You Need:

1 yard of your main fabric

1 yard of coordinating fabric

1 yard of lining (optional)



Start out by cutting out your pieces. The front of my bag is 17" wide by 15" high with rounded corners on the bottom: (ya, I should iron before cutting). Cut this out of your main fabric, your coordinating fabric and your lining if you are using lining:

The back of the bag is the same width but is MEASUREMENT tall. Again, cut it out of both fabrics and your lining.

Cut 2 pieces that are 4 inches by 45 inches as well out of all of your fabrics. One of these pieces will be your strap and one will be the sides of the bag.

You should have 4 pieces total for each fabric.

If you want any inner pockets now is a good time to do that. I did a large pocket on the back inner part of my bag:

I made some compartments in my pocket for things like my cell phone and a pen simply by sewing straight lines down the pocket:

OK, next lets do the strap. Put 1 of the 45 inch strips from each of your two main fabrics together with right sides facing and the lining on the outside. Sew down each side:

Turn it, press it and then top stitch it:

Now let's put the bag together. Starting with your inner fabric and your lining (if you are using it) put the other 45 inch strip along the edges of your front piece with the lining on the outside. Pin it in place all the way around the bag trimming any excess length off as needed.

Sew around the part your just pinned. Do the same thing with the back piece, matching it to the remaining side of your long 45 inch strip.

It should look like this when you are done:

Here's a close up of the corners:

 Do this to both the outer and the inner fabric.

Now, here's the trickiest part. Turn the OUTER fabric right side out:

and the INNER fabric inside out. Slide the OUTER fabric down inside the inner fabric matching up all the seams from the two pieces.

Tuck your straps down inside the bag so that the ends stick out like this:




Starting at the top of the flap and leaving an opening, sew around the bag-down the flap, across the middle, back up the other side of the top.
Leave several inches open at the top of the flap:

 I go over the strap part several times to make sure they are very secure.

Now, using your opening on the top, turn everything right side out and push the inner part down inside the outer part.

Press it nice and flat and smooth (that's always my favorite part because it starts to really look like a bag.)

Top stitch all the way around the flap. This will close your opening and keep your flap laying nice and smooth:

 And you're done! This can also make a great diaper bag. I even tossed in my diaper and wipes carrier:

Pretty nice huh?

Don't forget to also check out these other bags:

Sling
Tote Tutorial

Reversible Messenger Bag Tutorial

 

Diapers
and Wipes Holder

 

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Thanks so much for visiting today Amber! What a great tutorial!
If you'd like to read more about Amber, here is the feature post I did about her & her cute blog!

Family Question Jar

Please welcome Ginger, who will be showing us how to make a Family Question Jar as part of her guest post on the blog today!
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Family Question Jar

Hi!  I'm Ginger & I blog over at Ginger Snap Crafts.

It's a place where I share my cute & easy projects.

I would LOVE to have you drop by sometime!

Besides blogging...I'm also a busy wife & mom.

I've got 5 wild & crazy kiddos & a wonderful husband.

Today I'd love to show you a fun idea to use with your family.

Family dinner time is so important for our family.

To make it a little more fun we made our own "Question Jar". :)

Family Question Jar

I originally made one of these for one of my Church's enrichment nights

many years ago.  When I wanted to make another one I did a quick

search online. I found the Utah State University Cooperative Extension site

that has all the questions for your jar & even a cute little poem you could attach.

{You can check out their website HERE.}

Making our jar was pretty simple.  I found this large jar at Walmart.

Then I added a big blue question mark with vinyl to make it fun. :)

Then I printed out the questions from {HERE}.

I cut them into strips.  :)

Annnd then put them in the jar.  So easy!

How this works is that at dinner time we each take turns picking out a piece of paper.

Each paper has a question to answer.  It's such a fun way to learn more about each other!

You can check out all of my cute & easy tutorials {HERE}.

A few of my most popular projects are:
block Nativity ~ burlap wreath ~ cute & easy dress

Hope to see you over on my blog soon!

You can also find me here:

 

Cabinet Door Chalkboard

Hi!  My name is Eva and I blog over at Tales of the Scotts.

I'm a stay-at-home momma to two very busy little people.  I'm a pastor's wife.  I love creating and blogging.  Over at my blog, you'll find crafts of all sorts, scrapbooking, sewing, a few recipes and funny stories of my kiddos.  Heather so nicely featured me on her Friday Feature series earlier this year.  It was my first time being featured and I was so thankful she did.  So, today I'm here to show you a chalkboard I created from a cabinet door.

We recently celebrated my daughter's 1st birthday.  We threw her a simple Pink Lemonade party.  (You can see the party post here).  We had a budget so I did a few DIY projects for the party to make it special.  

Today I'm showing you how I turned a cabinet door into a chalkboard!

I used some chalkboard paint for my Bathroom Message Board recently so I have chalkboards on the brain now.

Here are the steps I took:  1. Someone gave me several cabinet doors so all I did was remove the door. 2. I took it outside to sand.  3. You can see a small hole in the door where a handle was supposed to go.  I was going to buy some hole filler but didn't want to spend the extra money so I'll show you below how I covered up that hole.  4. All sanded and taped, ready to paint.  5. I used some flat light pink paint that I received for free.  6.  All painted (I did 2 coats) and ready to paint the middle with chalkboard paint.  I forgot to take a picture of this step but I just followed the instructions on the chalkboard paint bottle and did two coats.

And here it is all finished!  Sarah's Lemonade Stand.

I used this as a focal point outside as guests arrived.  

Here's what I did to cover up the hole.  I made some Fabric Yo Yo's and attached them with double sided tape so I could change this up if I wanted to.  I would have done a tutorial but it was my first time making them and didn't know if I'd mess them up.  :-)  But I followed this tutorial.  I really think these are adorable and will definitely be making more yo yo's.

So, I went from this cabinet door to this chalkboard.  I really love how it came together.  What I love is that I can change it up if I want.  After her party, it will go in her room but if I ever find that I could use it elsewhere, I can just repaint and add some different embellishments.

This is an easy way to repurpose something you may already have!  

Thank you so much for having me Heather!  I had a great time!

I'm social!  You can keep in touch with me on

Twitter // Facebook // Pinterest // Instagram

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Thanks so much for making a guest appearance on Raising Memories today, Eva!
If you want to see the feature I did on Eva & her blog, you can find it here!