Last Minute Gift Idea for Lego Lovers

We have purposely stayed off of the 'Lego' bandwagon in our family...until now. I didn't want any of those tiny pieces around while we were in the baby-puts-everything-in-sight-in-mouth stage. We're finally out of that stage of life...so bring on the Legos!

And if you have a Lego lover on your Christmas list, it's not too late to get this gift for them. They can enjoy it all through 2014!

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Legos are such a fun toy that makes kids use their imagination. It takes patience to put a masterpiece together, and when you follow a kit kids get really good at honing their direction-following skills.

My 7 year old is the perfect age for Lego sets right now. So when I saw a friend talking about a new company that is like Netflix for Lego sets...I was intrigued and we signed up!

Pleygo (affiliate link) is a fun new subscription service that allows you to set up a 'wish list' of Lego sets then they mail them to you, one at a time! The sets are sanitized and you can hold onto them as long as you want. Once you send them back, a new one is sent right away. The first month to try it is free and in our first month we got 3 total sets! And, of course, sometimes pieces are lost but Pleygo doesn't charge you extra even if you lose a few pieces (up to 10).

For us, the best thing has also been that they have the larger blocks for little kids, as well as sets for girls! So fun! Here are a few of the creations my kids have made:

A subscription to Pleygo would be an amazing gift for any kid! The first month is free and then you can choose from three different subscription prices after that. Happy Lego Building!

100+ Gift Ideas plus a GIVEAWAY!

Are you thinking about the holidays yet?? I know I am. If you follow me on Instagram you saw that I already put my Christmas tree up! (hehehe) So if you're like me and thinking about making handmade items for Christmas, get ready....here's some big inspiration!! The Sewing Rabbit Team has put together a mini-magazine with over 100 sewing patterns and tutorials. All of them are perfect for gifts and decorations this season.

Simply click on the image below to flip through the full catalog of inspiration ideas...it is pretty fun, and only takes a couple of minutes to look through! (and keep on reading below for the amazing giveaway!)

Pretty cool, right? (Jess from The Sewing Rabbit put together the Flipboard. Isn't she amazing?)

Now to the GIVEAWAY! Want to win some gifts for yourself as you make things for others? Happy Holidays to YOU!

4 Winners will be chosen to each win 1 of these amazing prizes...

1. Brother 1034D Serger
2. $50 Gift Certificate to Raspberry Creek Fabrics
3. $50 Gift Certificate to The Fabric Fairy
4. $50 Gift Certificate to Banberry Place

So go ahead, flip through the Sewing Rabbit Team's Handmade Holiday Magazine to get inspired - and enter the giveaway below for your chance to win some amazing prizes to help you pay for those handmade projects!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DIY Fabric 'Paper' Dolls

Do you remember playing with paper dolls when you were little? I do and they were SO much fun! My parents recently took a cruise to Alaska and brought back a fantastic set of paper dolls for my girls with all different Alaskan outfits. Cute!

Real paper dolls like those are harder to come by now....and let's be honest, kids tend to rip paper so after a while the dolls have fewer dresses to wear! :)

When I was fabric shopping in Minnesota I came across this amazing fabric with 'paper' dolls all over it. There were several versions of the fabric, one with dolls, and two others with different clothes. I bought a bit of each and have lots of these cute and easy-to-make fabric dolls to put together for my girls this Christmas.

Materials Needed:
Paper Doll fabric (These are Paper Dolls Schoolhouse by Newcastle Fabric)
Ultra-firm Stabilizer (I used Peltex)
Scissors
Iron

First roughly cut out the paper dolls and clothes. Then cut a piece of stabilizer similar in size.

Fuse the stabilizer to the fabric following the manufacturer's directions. Then cut closely around the doll and clothes shapes.

You're done!

I made two dolls and a set of clothes for each to see if my girls would like them and they were thrilled! They spent a long time playing with their new 'friends' and later that night I found Isa sleeping with her fabric paper doll!

You could do lots of variations of these using the paper doll fabric. Adding Velcro or snaps to the outfits would keep them on securely. You could use fusible fleece and the dolls would stick to a piece of flannel mounted in a frame. Or you could sew these with an additional piece of fabric on the back and stuff them as a soft doll.

If you make some dolls I'd love to see them! Happy sewing!

Custom Cars

For Christmas Elliott was given a couple more sets of Hot Wheels Wall Tracks by us and my parents. He still loves them and now (mostly thanks to another Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa C) he has almost 30 cars to play with on them!
The cool thing about these tracks is that you can reconfigure them in endless combinations because the distance to each wall anchor is the same...making the pieces interchangeable. (Man, I wish I had thought of that! Genius!)

Here is the current set up...

And here is an exciting addition to Elliott's car collection...a custom Hot Wheels car with his own picture on it! Another genius at Hot Wheels figured out a way to put a picture and custom wording on a car for a crazy-cheap price! This one was actually free because one of the Wall Tracks boxes had a code in it for a free one. But it's sssssooooo worth the money to bring joy to this sweet little face.
If you have a little car-lover in your life, go make one of these. I think it will be our favorite birthday gift for his little friends too. (although the down-side is that it takes almost 6 weeks to get your custom car)

Of course...since Elliott got to pick the wording he wanted on the sides of his new truck he naturally chose 'Elliott's Awesome!' :) I agree, little buddy.