Saturday was Heidi’s September crafternoon. I seriously look forward to these every month. I’ve said it before, but there’s no harm in saying it again, all the girls (and guy) who come to these crafternoons are so nice!

The food as always was really good! Heidi was super sweet again and made a gluten free lasagna that was awesome! I miss pasta. I was able to bring home some leftovers too and am totally having some for lunch later. She also made salad and a cake that looked soo pretty! I can tell you the icing was really good, and I assume the cake was even better!

The craft this time around was felted acorns! I’ve always wanted to make felted beads, and this is pretty much the same thing. You can see step by step instructions on Amanda’s and Heidi’s blogs. It was a lot of fun and super easy! Katie C. provided piles of acorn caps, so we were able to make a bunch. I made all the ones pictured above. I plan on keeping them all in a mason jar in the library. I may also see if Katie has any leftover because I kinda want to make more!! (hint hint)

I can’t wait until next months crafternoon, it’s Halloween themed, and I love Halloween!!

Sunday was another fun day for us. Katie H.’s kids had an ice cream themed birthday party that CT was invited to. It was her first non family birthday party. She LOVED it!

It was a two stop party, with the first stop being at one of the local frozen yogurt places. The kind were you pick out your ice cream and topping all yourself. CT had an interesting concoction of vanilla, cookies & cream and strawberry shortcake with a bunch of strawberries, mango boba and sprinkles on top. I had pumpkin spice and cheesecake which was really good together (and were both few gluten free ones).

The second stop was in downtown Frederick at Baker Park. It was great because the kids were able to go crazy after having all that sugar at the fro-yo place! Good idea guys!! CT met some new kids and I met some new parents, it was really nice! CT really did have loads of fun, she’s still talking about it all today and will probably keep talking about it until the next time we see some kids.

Even though I’m super exhausted right now, I’m glad we did everything we did this weekend! Next weekend looks like its adding up to be just as awesome.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who made these past two days so nice, you guys are all awesome!!!!!

Don’t worry, she also loves princesses, dressing up and everything else girly. CT is a very well rounded toddler.

Her 2nd birthday is coming up soon. Next Sunday to be exact. I really wanted to make her a few of her gifts, something she would actually enjoy and play with. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile actually, and I ended up choosing a cape and shield.

I started with the shield. I wanted to do an actual Captain America’s shield, all red white and blue, but apparently I forgot to buy blue felt. I had a horribly stressful time the last time I went to Joanns (xmas shoppers are CRAZY), So I just said “whatever” and made it Red, White and Pink.

Want to know what the coolest part about this shield is?

It’s form is made with help from a frisbee!!! Yep, I thought of this while picking up CT toys one day. I didn’t know if it would actually work, so I was pleasantly surprised when it did!

Would you like to make your own? I made sure to take photo’s while I was putting this together. So if your interested, keep reading…

Supplies Needed:

• a frisbee, mine was a 9″ plastic one from the dollar store
• a piece of red felt approximately 11″x24″ (cut from a bolt)
• a piece of 3/4″ elastic about 4-5″ long
• a loose piece of white felt (the kind found in sheets)
• a loose piece of grey felt (the kind found in sheets)
• a loose piece of either pink or blue felt (the kind found in sheets)
• a glue gun with glue sticks
• tacky glue
• star and circle template
• scissors
• coordinating thread for each piece of felt (optional)
• a compass (if your frisbee isn’t 9″)

I’m not too great at showing how I did things. I warn you ahead of time! If something seems like it’s missing, just comment below and I’ll fix it.

First thing, print out the star and circle template. I know it looks like all one pattern piece, it isn’t. I just wanted to save paper and fit it all on one piece of paper. I suggest cutting out the large circle first, tracing it on the felt. Then move onto the next size until you come to the star. you should end up with 3 SOLID felt circles and one star. not rings. Trace each piece onto felt and cut them out. I made sure to label each piece.

After you have all your template pieces traced and cut out, get the frisbee and trace it onto the felt TWICE. make sure to leave about an inch around one of the outlines when tracing (you need that extra felt for stretching over the edge later). Cut out one of the circles on the traced line. Cut out the other circle with a 1″ allowance around the entire thing.

Put the smaller frisbee circle aside, you’ll need it later. Take all your other circles and stack them, trying to make them as even as possible. As pictured above. Once you have them the way you like, glue them in place. If you are choosing to not top-stitch or hand-stitch the edges, I would suggest gluing all the way to the edge and securing all the edges as well as you can. If you plan on sewing the pieces just use enough glue to keep them all in place. I used tacky glue. My specific glue required that I wait about 2 hours for it all to dry. It really needs to be completely dry before you can continue.

Ok, so this step is if your top-stitching or hand-stitching yours. Shown above is me top-stitching. I pinned the pieces just to give that last bit of security. I just used a small stitch around the edge of each piece. You could also hand-stitch this in the same manner, or any manner you like! I will say that there is a lot of bulk around the star, My machine can normally handle a lot, but it had some issues there. Seriously a first for me. Once your finished, clip all the loose threads and set the front piece aside. For now.

Now were onto the back piece. Using some of the leftover red felt and cut out two rectangles measuring approximately 2″x3″. enough to cover the ends of the elastic.

Pin the piece of elastic to the back of the other red piece of felt, not the front piece we just put together. Try and center it (I forgot to take a picture of this step). To make it all really secure I zigzag stitched the short edges to the felt, as shown above. You could also hand sew it. I just wanted to make sure it didn’t break on CT.

Next place a small rectangle on each end of the, now secured, elastic. I pinned mine. This will make the handle even more secure and cover up the raw ends of the elastic. Stitch in anyway you choose, I top-stitched just like I did on the front piece.

Were almost done. Now is the time to plug in your glue gun and get it nice and hot. I used a bunch of glue sticks, so I suggest having a few extra easily at hand.

take your front piece, the one that has all the rings and star on it and place it design side DOWN. Place just enough glue on the back side to hold the frisbee lightly. Center the frisbee and attach the top of the frisbee to the back side of the front piece. Flip it over and see how centered it is. If it’s not to your liking, take them apart and try again. That’s why I suggested not too much glue.

I stretched the sides over the same way I would stretch a canvas. You glue one small piece on one side, then go to the opposite side and pull the fabric taught and glue a little, then turn it slightly and repeat. This way you will have a nice even stretched piece. You can kinda see what I’m talking about in the photo above. Also, while doing this, please be very careful! It really hurts when you burn yourself with hot glue, make sure to either cover your fingertips or be very gentle and don’t rush.

This is what it should look like once it’s all stretched and secured.

Next step… glue the back piece, the one with the elastic attached, to back of the frisbee. I would only glue the center, just to secure it. Then once it’s centered glue all the edges down. Secure it as nicely as you can.

This is what the back should look like once your done! Which by the way, your done!!! Hot glue dries super super quick, so your new shield is all ready to be played with and enjoyed!!

I don’t have real action shots yet since CT won’t be opening her gifts for a whole week.

I would love to see all the finished shields you guys make!! Maybe you’ll go with a different super hero? Maybe you’ll use your child’s initial? Or a different sized frisbee? The possibilities are endless. Anything goes when your fighting crime.

Next up… A cape! A girl themed cape, of course.

I LOVE to cross stitch. It’s very calming to me. I wait until after CT goes to bed and I just cuddle up with a blanket and watch some TV while stitching away.

Lately I’ve been buying all my patterns from Wee Little Stitches. We love nerdy stuff in our house, and they make awesome nerdy patterns. I highly recommend checking out their etsy shop.

the Tardis, pictured above, is from one of their Doctor Who patterns.

If you would like to see how I made this piece into an ornament, please keep reading…First off, I started this pattern on PLASTIC mesh, not fabric. I felt it would make it easier to cut around and I wouldn’t have to worry about fraying. I live in Maryland and currently can only find this stuff at Hobby Lobby (the closest is 45 minutes away) and sometimes I can find a stray piece here and there at AC Moore. Usually hidden with the regular plastic canvas.

It’s different than the normal plastic canvas in one way, and one way only. It’s perforated, so its small holes evenly spaced, instead of a square grid. I think this stuff is great! You don’t need a hoop and every project I use it in looks so crisp and clean.

See all the little holes?

Next choose any pattern you want and start stitching! The Tardis above took me about a weeks worth of nights to finish. Depending on your pattern, it may take you more, or less, time.

Above is my finished piece.

Next you’ll want to cut around your design, but make sure to cut at least one row away! If you want a larger border around the edge, cut a little more. Just be careful not to cut into any of the slots holding thread.

Here I have the Tardis almost completely cut out. I went boxy on the edges, to keep with the pixelated design, but you don’t need to.

Next I cut a piece of yarn double the length of the loop I wanted on the top. Fold it in half and glue it on the back of your piece where you feel it would hang best. I used Tacky Glue because I was afraid my glue gun might melt the plastic canvas. It worked out well. I left it to dry for about 30 minutes before moving onto the next step.

You’ll need a piece of felt for the back of your ornament, I chose white wool felt, only because it was the best color I had on hand that matched. You could very easily use any kind of felt in this project, I don’t believe it would matter. I piled a bunch of tacky glue on the back of the finished piece, flipped it over and lined up the top, where the loop was, with the edge of the felt. I thought this would help with cutting it out later. It did.

I wanted the piece to dry flat and evenly, so I placed a piece of wax paper on top and then about four large books to weigh it down. I let it be for 3 hours before disturbing it.

Once you feel it is dry enough, carefully cut around the edge of the felt, all the way to the edge of the plastic. As you can see from my photo, I had a loose thread that got caught in the edge. oops. Though it does illustrated the sandwich effect nicely.

Now your ornament is ready to hang!

I’ve never written a “how to” before, so my apologies for anything that may be missing. Thanks!