Micro Crafts - Minature Book and Teddy Bear

I recently went to my local library and found this awesome book. Microcrafts: Tiny Treasures to Make and Share written by Margaret McGuire, Alicia Kachmar, and Katie Hatz.

It includes 25 different micro crafts. These are super tiny crafts like the cat in the photo on the book.

My favorite project was the mini books. I've always been obsessed with notebooks and journals and thought this would be a really fun project. They are so tiny you can fill them with quotes, pictures you draw or if you are really crafty - make a microscopic scrapbook.

Well, I read the directions and followed them step by step and discovered it was really easy. Here is the first book I have ever made. Notice it isn't much bigger than a penny.

I used one sheet of printer/copier paper, a tiny piece of scrapbooking paper, a small piece of cardboard (cut from cereal box), some regular sewing thread, a push pin and a glue stick. It took me about an hour to actually make the first one only because I didn't want to mess up. I also let it sit overnight to let the glue dry. Actually working on it took very little time at all. Which is great for someone like me who likes instant results.

I've also made a couple teddy bears from their book and a few more books. My daughter gave a couple teddy bears out as presents for Christmas. They are small enough to fit in a pocket and carried around undetected by others.

The teddy bears can be made out of a very small piece of felt. Any color or pattern. I'm thinking about making a camouflage bear for my son. 

I have to say this has got to be the best craft book I've found in a long time. I've actually completed a couple of the projects in the book unlike so many books I simply browse through. These projects are something I can make with my kids and we love how tiny they are.

* Just an FYI - the link above is my affiliate link for the book on Amazon, but feel free to check your local library first. If you love the book like I do you can always go back and buy it later.

Turn Your Child's Artwork Into Something Really Awesome

Boy do kids make a lot of drawings when they are young. Aside from sticking them up on the refrigerator, making a book with them, or maybe turning your garage into an art gallery what are you supposed to do with all those wonderful pieces of art?

Using these really easy printable iron on sheets you can make almost anything. Here are just a few of the really neat things you can make:

• Tote bags
• T-shirts
• Sweatshirts
• T-shirts for stuff animals or dolls
• Aprons

Any of these would be perfect for:

• Teacher's gift
• Christmas presents
• Baby shower favors
• Bridal shower favors
• Mother's Day/Father's Day, etc.
• Get well gift
• Birthday present
• lots more.

It's really easy to do. I made this simple tote bag with a drawing my son did at school. I scanned the drawing into my computer, but places like Staples and Office Depot can do that for you.

Then simply print out the drawing onto the special printable iron on paper which is available at almost every craft store and even some major department stores. If there is writing on the drawing you will need to print out a mirror image of the drawing.

Take the newly printed image and place the image face down on the shirt, tote, etc. you want to personalize. Iron according to the direction on the package.

Let cool and peal off the paper. Your item is now done and ready to be used.

Personalized Guess Who Game

My kids had received 2 games of Guess Who, a while back, in a kid's meal from one of their favorite restaurants. They played it once and then it was left sitting for a couple months. Normal unfortunately for kid's meal toys in my house.

I was trying to find fun activities for my kids while we are on vacation next week and wanted to surprise them with a personalized game for them to play.

We had a portable version of the game, but you could easily do this with the regular size game and it would work much better. These pictures are so tiny, but I made it work.

I made one with all our immediate family members. I also made one that has a bunch of Harry Potter characters because we are big Harry Potter fans.

I collected all the photos I wanted to use in a folder on my computer than selected the ones to print. Then I chose "Contact Sheet" or "Index" on the print settings. I will print out a bunch of thumbnail size pictures. I still needed to shrink them a bit so I printed the page out 55% instead of 100% size. You can obviously make the photos whatever size you need.

Hope this inspires some of you to create your own personalized games for your family.