Be Grateful! Thanksgiving Crafts and Ideas 2014

 I wanted to take some time and focus on a holiday that seems to be overshadowed. Thanksgiving: On Wikipedia it states, "Thanksgiving Day ... is a national holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year."  For me it is also a time that I can bring a special focus on all that I have been blessed with. Let's just face it, turkeys, tee pees, pilgrims and pumpkin everything are some great stuff!

Here are some Thanksgiving Ideas:

Day 8 of the 12 Days of Halloween Fun: Bat Burlap Wreath

Luckily I was given some burlap and I purchased the green wire wreath frame on clearance for under 2 dollars. So this little wreath project was an inexpensive one. I wanted to make a wreath that I could change out the look for each season.  See below how I accomplished it...

Thanksgiving craft: Gratitude Bean Bag

For the next couple weeks I will be posting some Thanksgiving craft ideas.  After that I will be focusing on some Christmas Crafts, since there are so many!

The Craft I chose today is the Gratitude Bean Bag.  It actually has a couple purposes.  The first, is it is a cute decoration.  The second, is that is can be used for a little game or "Name What You Are Thankful For".

Here's What You Need to Make One:

Muslin about 4x6 inches (size may vary, just make sure front and back fabric are the same size)

Fabric for back 4x6 inches (size may vary)

dry beans

sewing maching

scissors

embroidery floss and needle

pencil

crayons or colored pencil

Here's How You Will Go About Making One:

One a piece of muslin either free hand a design or find a patter you would like.  The one I did I just free handed it on.  Next, using an embroidery needle and embroidery floss, do a primitive stitch on you design.  Now, fill in any areas you would like colored with a colored pencil or crayon.  Put wrong sides of fabric together stitch around the edge with a forth of an inch to half inch seam.  Leave a small opening so you can fill it with beans.  Fill it with beans about 3/4 full.  Now stitch opening shut.  Use scissors and cut fabric into almost the seam every 1/2 inch, giving it a little fringes look. Now, you have this cute Thanksgiving decoration.

To Play the  "Name What You Are Thankful For" game:

You will need to sit around the room as a family.  Gently toss the bean bag to a family member.  That family member then needs to name something they are grateful for.  Then they gently toss the bean bag to another family member, who then names something they are grateful for.  Continue until everyone in the family names at least one thing they are grateful for.

Cutest little boy bed!

So, I just had to show off my little boy's new bedspread. It was made by my mom, I must say she is very talented and did a fabulous job. We have found that if you need to purchase a lot of material, such as for bedspreads, the most inexpensive way is to by sheets. We usually just purchase the flat sheets from Walmart. You get a ton of material for your money. The front of the bed spread was made from a brown flat sheet, muslin and spraps for the cute bears and trees. The reverse side was an off white sheet with some pladish lines in it. She also used the shapes of the bears and trees to quilt the beadspread, so cute! I love the cute little deco pillow made to match! She even made the sheets for the bed.

Crayon Holder Tutorial

Here is a tutorial on how to make this crayon holder.

First gather your supplies:

• Plastic canvas
• Yarn
• Large needle (hole needs to be big enough to fit yarn through)
• Velcro
• Embellishment for front

First Step:

Cut all pieces out from plastic canvas.

Step Two: Trim off all of the excess from all pieces.

Step Three: Sew the inside box together. Start by sewing the sides onto the bottom, then sew the sides together and finish off the edges.

Step Four: Put your embelishments on the top piece of the outside box.  This could be anything, you could sew a design on with yarn, sew the child's name, or sew on or glue on an embelishment. The puppy one is a felt puppy I cut out and hand sewed around, then I glued him on.  The flower is a silk flower that took the center out of and hand sewed a button on and sewed it onto the top.

Step Five: Sew the handle onto the one of the long side pieces.

Step Six: Sew the outside box together.  Start by sewing the three sides onto the bottom, then sew the sides together and sew the top onto all of the sides.  tip (make sure that the handle is at the top)

Step Seven: Sew the flap on so the velcro will close onto the back of the box. Hand sew the velcro onto the flap and onto the back (I used two strands of white thread). Finish off all of the edges and trim any loose strands.

Step Eight: Place crayons or a box of chalk inside, fasten and give it to a lucky kid!

* Crayon boxes have been around a long time. I have know idea of who originally came up with them.  This one has been customized by me and my mom.  She came up with the flap closure, which is great because the crayons don't slide out.  *

Getting Batty!

Here is a fun little candy holder, great for a little Halloween gift.

To make this craft all you need is some black yarn, google eyes, canvas, hot glue, ribbon or halloween fabric, black cardstock, & white embroidery floss.  First cut out all of your pieces.  I cut 4 squares 12X12 (that is not inches, that is counting 12 holes). The front one I cut a little different, because it has ears.  I also cut the strip for the handle it is 25X2.  I then stiched all of the pieces with the black yarn. Then I stitched on the mouth and teeth on the face with the white embroidery floss and glued on the google eyes.  Then I sewed all of the pieces together.  Last I cut out the bat wings out of black cardstock and hot glued them on. Then filled with candy and there you have it a fun little gift.

Click on pattern to print, may have to adjust size of wings so they look proportioned.

Crafts: Bib Clips

So I decided that I was going to use this blog for my crafts as well as my thoughts on different things.

So here is what I have been up to the past few months.

Bib Clips

These have came in very handy!! The fit easily into my purse and when we are out and need a bib, I can just pull them out and clip them onto a napkin.

If you would like to know how to make any of the crafts I post, leave a comment and I will try to come up with a tutorial for them.

Turkey Day Crafts

Here are a couple of crafts I have made this year for Thanksgiving. They are pretty easy, if you have a sewing machine. Let me know if you'd like the patterns.

Blessing Bag


Toss this bean bag around and have each person say something they are grateful for in their life. Also can be used as a cute decoration. I stuffed another one with batting so it was a little pillow.


Small Turkey


My mom made big turkeys a few years back. I tried making my own pattern for a small one and this is what I ended up with.

Another Spider Craft

Here is another spider craft I made:

If you would like the instructions to make these please leave me a comment of e-mail me. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!