Kids' On the Sewing Machine

The past couple weekends the kids have been fighting for a chance to try their hand at my sewing machine. They've finally learned to take turns. What surprised me was how well they somehow knew how to use the machine. Audrey looked like she's done it before (maybe she has while I'm at work) and Samuel... well... he's a little 'engineer' like daddy. He's seen me change the foot of the sewing machine once this morning and immediately he knew how to do it! They've learned to change to setting it to different stitch settings and using diff. foot for certain stitch style.

Kids' Messenger Bags

Just in time for our trip next week, managed to finished the messenger bags for my twins. This is based on a fantastic easy-to-follow tutorial from mmmcrafts.

When I printed out the blog post and showed to my twins what design they would like to have, Samuel immediately told me he wanted a blue guitar and Audrey said she wants a pink butterfly. So the easiest was to draw a these icons and use felt to cut them up and applique them onto the flap. Followed the great tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew! blog on how to do machine appliqués. As this was only my second time to do appliqués on my sewing machine, you can see there is still room for improvement. The little pieces and details were sewn in first onto the main body and then used the sewing machine to appliqué the entire design onto the flap.

I've reduced the size for these bags as the size specified was a bit big. I think I reduced the width of the bag by 4 inches. The pink one uses cotton canvas and the blue is denim linen. For the latter, I had to add some batting to give it body as it ended up a bit too soft even after the lining was added.

The greatest feeling was the big smile they had when I showed them their bags and immediately wanted to put stuff in. They didn't want me to take pictures of it as they just wanted to walk around the house with their bags.

Birthday Party Ideas

I just realized that kids' birthday is a little over a month to go and haven't really started planning anything. And since I've always got a lot of things happening all at the same time, I've started panicking - not sure if I'll ever have enough time to prepare.

My criteria this year are:

1. as much as possible low key
2. no balloons
3. as much as possible handmade
4. has to be a unisex theme as my twins is a boy and a girl
   

I'm not even sure if this is all realistic... So I've put together some 'mood boards' to see what my options are. My twins of course wants something either too boyish or too girly and even at 4 cannot seem to agree on a theme until this morning when I asked them. When I hinted at a underwater sort of theme, it seems like they both agreed. Now putting my mood boards together does not really seem like it's coherent to the chosen theme... Who knows what I'll end up having in the end but maybe I can adapt some to theme... we'll see.


1-2: Martha Stewart Pop-up Party Decorations - I remember making these way back in grade school and I'm going to try to remember how these are made this coming weekend. This would be a nice change from the streamers which everyone has been making like what the kids and I did one weekend (see picture 3).

4: Martha Stewart Festive Garland - another possibility combining 1, 2 and 3

5: Creature Comfort's Paper Rosette's based on Martha Stewart's Fabric Star Medallions - this may be my go-to version if I am not successful with doing 1 and 2.


1 and 4: Cookie Magazine's recommendation for party games - Bean Bag Toss and Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I was actually planning on making Bean Bag Toss this weekend so it'll be a trial or one which I'll keep until the party.

2: Coloured Pasta - could be something I'll get the kids to put together into jewelry. I clipped an article from Parents magazine last year which had some excellent ideas on what things you can make with coloured pastas. Simply Radiant has a great tutorial for making the pastas bright and colourful.

3: Pinata - definitely! I have already an idea on how I'll make one using a string or ribbons to pull open the pinata. I don't like those that requires a bat to break the pinata open. We had a small fire truck last year which I bought and then filled with small amount of candies and lots of tiny toys. It was a big hit.

5: Martha Stewart's Fabric-Scrap Favor Pick - good way to use up my fabric stash but not sure yet what I'll put inside...

6: Legos - will be something boys can do

7: Martha Stewart's Notebook Labels - my idea is more of personalized bookplates for the guests

8: Freezer Paper Printing - This was something we did one weekend and the kids had fun so I'm thinking could be an activity and at the same time a party favor afterwards.


1: Fish Bowl Cupcake - this idea was on a book I bought last year called Hello Cupcake. But also found this from here. The kids have asked me a few times when I'll make these but haven't gotten round to it. This will be my chance, I guess.

2: Annabel Karmel's Jelly Boat - made this last year for the kids 3rd birthday and was a hit, so in line with the 'theme' this may make a comeback.

3, 5 and 9: Cookie Magazine's Healthy Snacks - these snacks were featured in one of the issues I received and have tested so far the frozen banana treat. I've been wanting to try the other 2 and this may be a chance. These doubles also as party food.

4 and 8: Bakerella's Cake Pops - oooohhhh... I've been eyeing these for some time now and thought these would be perfect party food. Just haven't had much time during the past weekends. These sound a little less 'evil' than a candy pop; not big on candies.

6: Inchmark's Star Cupcakes - this is an interesting idea for a topper too which is neither too girly or too boyish...

7: Martha Stewart's Carrot-Cake Mini Cupcakes - this is more for the idea on the topper and possibly the cupcake recipe or a banana one.

Kids' Activity Pack

At last we will be able to go on a short vacation after all. Kids are very excited and I definitely am, too. When we found out we can travel, I started thinking again an idea I had for some time now but have never managed to materialize it. Our friends were going on a vacation before us so I thought it was a good opportunity to start with a pack for Owen and Liam to take on their vacation.

Here's a few pictures of what I've managed to put together. You can download the tutorial (PDF) here. This is just a guide on I made our packs so feel free to customize it and share what you've made. This is for personal use only. As this is my first tutorial, please don't hesitate to let me know what improvements or how to simplify this.

The notebooks I added in the pack were extras I had and covered with scrap fabrics left over from other projects. You can find the tutorial here. The road map included in the boys' packs can be downloaded from here.

Add any goodies/toys you have in hand. Most of what I've included in each of the kids' packs are stuff I already had and so it was good to do some de-stashing at the same time. See more pictures here...

I may do more to give as Christmas presents... what do you think?

First Kindergarten Mini Album

Finally managed to officially finish a mini album of my kids' first (proper) nursery year. 'Proper' because when they were 1.5 yrs old, we sent them to another local nursery school which was supposed to be longstanding one in our area. As it turned out, it wasn't really great and towards end of that school term, kids hated going there. Can't really blame them. In China, it is quite normal to send your kids to nursery school as early as 1.5 years old.

We were very happy when they got in to Sinan Kindergarten which is also walking distance to and from our home. The kids also were happy. So I thought I'd do a hybrid mini album chronicling the first year. The basic layout was based on Ali Edwards' Layered Template #33 but have adjusted size and changed details. Added also some embellishments to give it a bit more tactile feel.

Here's a look at some of the spreads...







I don't really know all the names in their class (I'm really bad with names and most esp. when it comes to Chinese names.) so I added a film overlay and traced the kids outline and numbered them. Then I asked one of the teachers to help write each kids' name so I can add it into the album.



The school organized for the kids to go on a train ride to the outskirts of Shanghai and the kids even had their own 'special' tickets. Added a little pocket to hold the train ticket on the fold-out page. Samuel lost his ticket so I only had Audrey's left.

I wouldn't have been able to put this together without the teacher's help in copying the photos for me. I love the ones taken during normal school activities or outings.

Birthday 'Cards'

My sister and sister-in-law are having their birthdays in August with only a few days apart and I thought I'd send them something different this year using up some bits of scrapbook stuff I had.

Quite easy and quick to do and the fun bit was getting the kids to draw or write something for their aunts as each one had their own pockets to hold a card and their photos. The pictures are using digital scrap stuff from various sources and background paper from the Vines Paper Pack.

Instructions for the accordion pocket book is found here.

Painting Faces

Sunday turned out to be a very wet day here in Shanghai. We managed to get through the afternoon with a few activities and one of the things that the kids enjoyed were the face and body paints that I've brought out. They immediately went in search of a mirror (we only have this one small 2-way mirror that was portable...).

Here's what they did...


Samuel said he's a 'knight'...


Audrey says she's a 'clown'... And she asked me to paint her belly with a cat's face...but I think I ended up making it look like a puppy than a cat (don't tell her that).


Lots of fun and we'll definitely be doing more.