Fairy Finger Puppets

While trapped in my house for two days this week, in sub-zero Chicago, I decided to make some finger puppets. With our car fuel line frozen and no way of going to my beloved craft store, I had to work only with materials at hand.  I always thought it would be effective to use a large wooden bead as the head on a finger puppet. Since I had no large beads I wound up using a ball left over from my Ping Pong Ball Thanksgiving Turkey project.  It turns out a ping pong ball makes a perfect head for a little puppet.

Materials

• Ping Pong balls
• Acrylic craft paint for ping ball ball. I used a "sandstone" color for the flash color.
• Small paintbrush
• Paint or markers for mouth, eyes and nose
• Small scissors. Nail scissors work well.
• Yarn or embroidery floss for hair
• Craft glue
• Fabric
• Tooth pick
• Confetti or star sticker for wand
• White felt for wings
• Gauzy fabric for wings
• Needle and thread
• Optional accessories like beads for headband, necklaces, trim on dress 

Steps

1. Hold the ping pong ball so that the indentation is where the jawline of your face will be. This way it will not show when you add the hair. Poke a hole where the neck will be using something like a knitting needle or nail.
2. Use tiny, sharp scissors to cut away a neck hole. Make it large enough for a finger to fit inside.
3. Paint the ping pong ball the skin color of your choosing and let it dry.
4. Add facial features to your head. I used white paint to make the eyes and permanent markers for the lips, nose, eyebrows and pupils.
5. Assemble your hair. Lay a long piece of yarn down on a newspaper and put glue all over it. Then cut your hair pieces (longer than you need them to be) and glue them along the center of the main piece.
6. After the glue is dry you can attach your hair to the top of the ping pong ball. Wait to give your puppet a final haircut until she is all assembled and you can see what length will look best. 
7. I sketched out a simple wing shape and cut out 2 felt wings and 2 gauzy pieces to go over the felt. Glue them together.
8. I made a simple dress template that is around 3 inches high and 2 inches wide at the bottom. You want the neck to be long so you can stuff the fabric inside the ping pong ball hole and hold the puppet together.
9. Pin the template to some fabric and cut out two pieces. If you are using felt and hand stitching you can cut it out along the line of the pattern. Otherwise give yourself 1/4 inch around extra for seam allowance.
10. Sew the dress pieces together with the front sides pinned together. When you sew you will sew down the neck, down both arms, and down the side. You will leave the bottom, head and sleeves open so that you can add hands later.
11. Reverse the dress and cut out some little felt hands. Sew them into the sleeves.
12. Apply glue to the inside rim of the ping pong ball and stuff the neck of the dress into the head using your finger like you will when it is a puppet.
13. Sew the wings onto the back of the puppet.
14. Make a wand. I used a toothpick painted gold and some star confetti I had left over from a party. You could also cut out a star from tinfoil or use those star stickers they sell at office stores. The star seems to have fallen off the wand in our photos so you also could just have a plain stick.
15. Glue the wand into the hand.

Here the fairy joins some of her pirate friends.

Happy 4th of July!

This is one of our very first posts, we thought it was worth another view, since likely many have not seen it.
We have here, a little patriotic party Sarah and I prepared for the kids
dollhouse family.

Hope everyone celebrating July 4th, has a safe and happy holiday!

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The kids are out of school, the weather is heating up, Fourth of July is coming!

The dollhouse folks are totally prepared and ready to celebrate!

A picnic feast has been prepared.

We have our American flag (made from fimo clay) and tiny paper pinwheels,.

Mini Chalkboard Heart Messages

My kids do enjoy picking out those boxes of store bought valentines every year,and they are 

a quick easy, way to give cards to a huge number of people.

 But it is always really special when you get a handmade card. 

It can be simple or complex, but it lets the person know you were thinking of them when you made it!

These chalkboard hearts are a cute, handmade way to leave your valentine a message.

Pom Pom Fairy Acorns

If you come across some acorns like these in your trees, look closely, you may find a fairy nearby!

If not, you could also try to make your own because they are pretty cute.

Here is how;

Start off with a pom pom, we made our own pom poms which are really easy to make,

and look even better than the store bought ones.

You can buy pom pom makers, or cut one like I did here. You can even just use 2 fingers, and 

wrap the yarn around them.

1 .So, I like to start with one strand of yarn in the middle of the 2 sides, that can later be used to tie off the middle of the pom pom. I have just found this to be easier.

2. Lay the other piece on top of the yarn.

3. Start wrapping yarn around the middle. Just make sure that loose strand in the middle, stays loose.

 The more yarn, the bigger and denser the pom pom. 

4. When you are done wrapping it, turn it upside down and see if those ends are sticking out.

5. Just pull them together and get ready to tie a knot. You can't pull it as tight

as it needs to be at this point, but you can get all your yarn gathered.

6. Tie that knot.

7. Now turn it rightside up, and cut along the round edge, straight through the yarn.

8. Now the cardboard is loose, so just pull the pieces off. 

9. And now you can really pull the knot as tight as it needs to be. I make a double knot.

10. So grab those strings you just used to tie the knots, and shake the pom pom out. You should have an unruly, messy pom pom now.

11. Take your scissors, and clean it up to a more uniform ball. (or leave it messier if you like!) Just a little at a time, it can shrink to a tiny pom pom fast!

So, now that you have the pom poms, go get some acorn tops!

The tutorial pom pom, was make with a wool roving yarn. These pom poms above were

 made with cotton yarn. 2 very different looks.

1. Get your supplies. Pom poms, acorn tops, and glue.

2. So simple, using craft glue, fill the acorn top and then attach it to the pom pom.

3. If you want your acorn to hang, then just fold over your ribbon of choice, 

and slip it in between the pom pom and acorn top, when you glue it.

Now  let them dry, and think of all the cute places to hang them.

Windows, 

ornaments, 

attached to a gift, 

in a tiny fairy home,

 in a tree or plant,

off of a lamp, 

I mean, c'mon it's endless!

Back to School Mini Abacus

We luckily still have another month until school starts at our house, but I know some folks who start back in just a few weeks. So depending on when your dollhouse kids start back to school, here are some ideas to think about for the coming school year.

Here we have an abacus. Made from popsicle sticks, wire and beads.

Now, most projects on our blog our geared towards activities you can make

with your kids, so I will be honest.  This project is probably best to make for

your kids, as it is complicated, and elicited quite a bit of cursing from me!

This might not be the case for you, as hopefully you can all learn from my mistakes

and make your tiny abacus without a single frustration.

First, take one popsicle stick, and cut it in half, right in the middle.

I then drilled 10 super tiny holes, with the tinest drill-bit we had, evenly down the length.

Then you get some wire, I used 20 gauge wire, which turned out to be a bit of a problem, so

I would suggest picking a higher gauge, thinner wire 24 or 26 should work much easier.

 (Higher gauge is thinner, lower gauge is thicker)

If you want to try and go ahead with 20, you can. Just learn from my mistakes and how to fix them!

.

                 I tied a knot at one end, pliers were required for this. Then strung it through the top hole,

near the rounded edge. Then I strung 10 beads onto the wire.

You will be making 10 rows of 10 beads. So you will need at least 100 beads

and about 25 inches of wire. Each row is about 1 1/2 inches wide.

Then sew the wire through the matching hole on the top of the other popsicle

stick. Clamp down the wire well, I used pliers, and try to keep your length even. (about 1 1/2")

The 20 gauge actually made it easier to hold the wire's shape, and not lose your length.

Then string it through the next hole, back and forth, adding 10 beads on each

row before you connect it to the opposite side.

All of the clamping and pulling with pliers on the soft popsicle stick, does take its toll,

so you have to be VERY careful.

Also be careful with the pliers, so you don't crack any beads. I cracked 3, this is when the cursing began.

I got about 8 rows done, it was looking pretty cute, when this happened.

The wood split right down the middle, from all the pulling of the heavy wire.

This is when I had to take a break! Time to put the kids to bed, and rethink this.

As I laid there with the kids, I figured out how to fix it. So I grabbed a glass of wine (another reason to make this on your own time!) headed back to the craft room and  I re glued the broken half back together

with wood glue. Then once the glue was set up, but still tacky, I very carefully snipped the

ends of the wires so I could stick them back through the still tacky, glued holes. There was one good thing about this, is it gave me a chance to replace the broken beads I had cracked and broke.

This took patience...lots of patience (and a second glass of wine). Leave as much length on the wires as you can, so none slip back out the holes.

Ah, by morning it was dry, and it seemed to work!

So, if you if you mess up as I did, and now have sharp edges sticking out,

you wait until all the glue is totally dry, then use pliers to fold down the

edges. Snip off the ends so they are as short as possible.

If you used a larger gauge wire, well then hopefully, nothing broke, and everything

looped through as it should and it looks perfect.

 Now, that bottom row should have lots of extra wire, as you see above.

 DO NOT CUT IT OFF,  you will need it.

You will need this extra bit of wire to make a base.

Take the wire and loosely loop it around, and thread it through

the bottom row wire's loop.

So, you should have created a half circle, that will hold the

abacus upright. Test it to see that it works before you twist the wire together.

Use some pliers to twist the 2 ends together, neat and tight.

If you use a larger gauge wire, you can may be able to twist this without

using tools.

Snip off the end of the wire with wire cutters.

I cut 2 pieces of fabric to cover up the messy sides. Just trace

the shape onto the fabric and cut to fit. I glued it in place with fabric glue.

It's a bit bumpy from the wires, but still, it looks better than the raw edge.

Yay, you are done, and your kids will be amazed at what you made for them!

Mine were amazed that the beads moved like a real abacus.

Tah dah!

Now we're all ready to go back to school!

I can show how to make the globes next week. They, on the other

hand, are very easy and kid friendly to make.

If you like what you see subscribe to our blog, over on the right sidebar, or by email. 

We are posting new ideas all the time!

You can also follow us on Facebook and Pinterest, and we love comments, suggestions and

 ideas from you guys!

Miniature Greenhouse

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I have always wanted a greenhouse of my own. Until that day comes,

this miniature greenhouse is keeping me pretty happy.

I finally found a good use for all these old thimbles. They make

perfect planters for tiny succulent plants.

For the greenhouse,  I used a glass terrarium that was no longer, housing any plants.

Look around for terrariums terrariums and glass domes). there are lots of options out there

for creating a small greenhouse.

Besides thimbles, I used plastic bottle lids, for planters. They also sell very tiny little terracotta

pots, you can use. Be creative, any small waterproof container, that can hold dirt

should work.

A view from the top.

I just took snippets from plants already in our garden.

I used some old wooden bobbins, and wood block for tables.

                                            The kids helped to build the rock table in the back. 

They loved stacking the rocks so much, they came up with

their own little project,.

Throw in some tiny tools, (we had from other toys), and your greenhouse is ready!

Set it outside, and if you're lucky, you may have some little visitors!

If you like what you see subscribe to our blog, over on the right sidebar, or by email. 

We are posting new ideas all the time!

***If you enjoyed this post and like tiny things, check our latest post

And you can make a cute and tiny scout sash. like this one.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Pinterest, and we love comments, suggestions and

 ideas from you guys!