Make It Mama: Worry Stones

As a child and adolescent therapist, I work with many kids plagued by worries. In addition to my work kids, my own son has a tendency to experience anxiety and anxiety produced behaviors. Worry stones are great for any kid with anxiety, but particularly those who need a replacement for anxious behaviors such a nail biting, skin picking, lip biting and the like. You can buy beautiful gem worry stones, but for kids, I have found that it means much more, and allows a sense of control, for them to create their own. 

Our favorite way to create worry stones is to use Fimo Soft Clay or Play-Doh. Kids come up with their own color combinations and ways to mix the colors together. Some kids even get fancy with designs and create heart shapes. I typically choose 2 or 3 colors and roll them together in a ball. I then roll the ball out into a "snake" and shape the snake into a spiral and roll into a ball again. I then press the ball into a "stone" and most of the time use my thumb to create an indention in the stone. The indention is optional, but does serve as a spot to "rub." I bake according to package directions, 230 degrees for 30 minutes in foil pans. I typically let stones cool for a couple of hours and then use Modge Podge Acrylic Gloss Sealer to give the stones a shiny and smooth coating.

I keep a jar of stones in my office and a jar at home. The colorful jar is always enticing to little hands, and I encourage curious little hands to choose a stone to keep in their pockets. When worries emerge, the stone is easily accessible and can be used to teach a self-soothing skill as the child  "rubs" away the worry discreetly. This creative craft project is easy enough and appropriate for kids as young as the preschool set, and enjoyable enough for those all the way in adulthood.

Make it Mama: Family Journal

Our family has a tradition of keeping a yearly journal. At the beginning of every year, the kids and I decorate a basic composition book with magazine cut-outs, stickers, and other randomness. Throughout the year the kids, husband (sometimes) and I write messages, draw pictures, note events, glue funny pictures/cartoons we find in magazines, press leaf prints from hikes, and tape on paper souvenirs from places we've been. At the end of each year, it's fun for us to look back at this yearbook of sorts and reflect on the journey. I look forward to seeing how the message from the kids develop as they grow older - I am sure there will be some interesting entries!

I highly recommend keeping a family journal for a variety of reasons. In addition to the documentation of memories, it will help kids develop creative and written expression, foster a sense of bonding with other family members, will help them explore varying perspectives, help develop confidence in writing, assists in the development of language, encourages creative thinking and provides an emotional outlet. The benefits of journaling are many. These family journal keepsakes are something we will cherish for years to come.

This post contributed by Amy Maslow

Make It Mama: Fairyland Play Set

I include at least one handmade gift in my kids Christmas stash each year. Even though the jingle bells have long stopped ringing, I thought I would share this adorable Fairyland Play Set I made for the girl kiddo this past Christmas, since she has played with it daily since December.

First step is locating a "home" for your play set. I wanted the set to be portable and contain itself so I opted for this wooden, 8x10" box that is approximately 2" deep from Michael's. The standard price of the box is $20, but if you are lucky enough to score a 40% off coupon, you can make a nice dent in the total price like I did. I love the natural color of the wood, so I decided to leave it as is on the outside, although creative minds can certainly have a field day decorating the outside of the box, perhaps personalizing it with a name. Staining the box is also another option that I considered.

The next step is determining what pieces you would like to include. I wanted to start out with some basics and then add to it over time, using the addition of extra pieces to serve as an opportunity for some mom and kiddo crafting time. I started out with a plain wood horse, wood furniture knobs (left over from an Ikea purchase, but also available at your local hardwood store), and some scenery. Now I could have hand-painted the scenery, but this full time working mama knew getting around to that would probably result in an unfinished project, so I opted to pick up some pre-painted wood cut outs from the craft store. 

Of course, the most important pieces of a "fairy" play-set are the fairies themselves!  I picked up a couple of wooden peg figures to paint.

The final step is to make fairyland come alive! I cut out dark and light green one inch felt squares for the "grass" and hot glued them to the bottom inside of the wooden box. I preferred to use felt over painting the grass, to give the play-set a nice dose of texture.

Using non-toxic paint, I hand-painted the horse, the fairies and transformed the wood drawer knobs into toadstools. The perfect starter accessories for a fairy kingdom!  I coated all the wood pieces with a non-toxic sealant to make them more durable, but still safe, for little hands.

I painted the inside top half of the box a sky blue and used wood glue to secure the pre-cut tree and rainbow. I also added a clasp closure to the box. Isn't it adorable?! I'm in the process of selecting additional pieces to add to the set with the help of the girl kiddo. This makes for a fun activity to complete with the little ones, or a great gift for someone special. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination!

If you're not the crafty type, no worries, I will be selling these sets (and similar sets) here.

Make It: Flower Hair Clip Tutorial

In December of 2010 I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.  I also gave birth to a new crafty obsession - making hair accessories for my darling daughter.  Now baby girl is almost 8 months old and the obsession is still going strong.  Unfortunately baby girl doesn't have much hair to work with, but once she does, she will be set with a solid selection of hair accessories.  In the meantime, here's a simple tutorial to make an adorable felt flower hairclip for your little girl.

Step 1 - You can skip down to step 2 if you are a master at drawing perfect circles, otherwise if your circles are a bit lopsided, you might want to stick around.  Gather up materials to create your templates.  You will need 3 different sized circular objects, in the size you would like your flower,  to trace. I used to baby food jar, "poker" type chip and a quarter. You'll also need something to draw the template on.  You can use sturdy cardboard or an index card.

Step 2 - Once again, skip ahead down to step three if you prefer to freehand.  No?  Freehand not your thing?  That's ok.  We all have our limitations.  Trace the three circular objects you picked out on your template paper.

Step 3 - By now you know that you should just skip ahead if you posses the artistic skills that render templates useless so I'll just refrain from stating that from here on out.  Anyway, use the circles as guides to form your flower pattern.  I use the simple 6 "petal" shape shown above, but other details such as scalloped edges work as well.  Of course, you could always opt for super simple and just leave the circular shapes as is.

Step 4 - Cut out your template pattern.  You can use the templates to trace the pattern on the felt and then cut, or you can hold the template against the felt and use the template as a guide as you cut the felt. You can use one color of felt for all three circles or mix and match colors.

Step 5 - You should now be left with three felt flower patterns in varying sizes.

Step 6 - Use hot glue to attach each layer, arranging the layers in size order so the largest shape is one the bottom and the smallest shape is on the top.

Step 7 - Hot glue a cute gem to the center of the flower to give it some detail.

Step 8 - Hot glue a plain silver hair clip to the back of the felt flower as shown in the image.  The end result?  A super cute hair clip!  I would have let my daughter model the hairclip, but as I mentioned, she's lacking in the hair department so that would be pointless.  You'll have to just settle for this picture instead.

Flower Felt Hair Clip Tutorial originally created for Bluebird Kisses website.