My seven year old cannot wait to be in charge. As the first born, he often thinks he is in charge or a part of our parental team. He’s smart and his processing is often spot on, but I try to gently remind him (sometimes more strongly than others) that he is a kid and to enjoy it!
Being a parent is one of the best jobs in the world. It is also one of the scariest. We are tools being used to shape a little ones outlook on life, character, sense of security, joy, peace, happiness, and all the other important outlooks on life (not to mention caring for the basic needs such as clothing, food, health, and a warm place to sleep). It’s a big responsibility. We know it. We feel it; but in a lot of ways we are set up to succeed, if we are humans.
Did you happen to see the Disney Bears movie this summer? This is in no way a pitch or sponsor post for Disney. We saw it as a family and I just love that movie.
I watched anxiously as a mama bear tried to navigate her two young cubs through a scary world. She protected them. She struggled to keep them safe and fed, and was always on the watch for those that could hurt her babies.
I could relate. Ever since that movie, I have had a fascination with bears. It was time I got one of my own. Although I have three little cubs under my roof, we needed a fury friend too. Here is how my plush bear came into existence. Be warned! I now want to make a whole collection of furry wild friends, and you may want to too!
It started as an idea to sketch a bear. Since we are in transition to our own place, I don’t have all my usual craft supplies on hand. I did have some creme fabric though, so I started sketching on that. I had some sharpies
I filled in my sketch with quick strokes to create a fur look. My goal was for the bear to definitely look like a bear, but to look simple and cartoon like. I think I got that. I cut the extra fabric off around my sketch. Be sure to leave enough margin to sew your sketch to a back fabric. Also, try to envision what cuts would make for a good pillow. In hind sight, I might have just cut one big oval out rather than cutting in to have the head and front and back paws in separate sections. It made it a bit trickier to stuff, but you will see that below.
I then laid my sketch face down on a towel. I folded my towel over to have it be extra thick and used both sides of it to create the back of my bear. I decided to use a towel because it was a thick, sturdy material, but it also had a fur like texture. You could use any fabric or left over material.
If I had my sewing machine, I would have then quickly sewn around to join the towel and bear sketch together. Note: Be sure to leave a two inch opening, so you will be able to flip your new pillow right side out and stuff. I forgot that step and had to go back and cut some slits.
Since I didn’t have my sewing machine, I did a quick in and out stitch by hand to join the materials together. It did not have to be perfect, since my main stitch was going to be on the outside.
This is a pretty mindless craft at this point. I had one of my favorite movies playing as I stitched. Can you guess the movie!?
I hand stitched a blanket stitch around the outside of my bear with yarn. I hadn’t done this is a long time, but by a simple Google search, I was able to see some pictures and learn how to complete this stitch. I love how it reinforces my bear, but also adds another texture and it looks so cute! Once the bear was stitched and stuffed to the thickness I liked, I simply stitched it close.
The last step was to admire and enjoy him! I am pretty obsessed with this little guy. I now want to make him some furry friends and use bright colored towels to make some creative rabbits, foxes, and maybe even a giraffe! Oh the possibilities! The most expensive craft supply was the bag of Poly-Fil
I took my little bear around the farm for a photoshoot. What a good model! 🙂
What an inexpensive, fun craft to make! They would make great Christmas or holiday presents! Do you know a young child that would love a fun pillow?
If you have been following along with our move announcement, why we uprooted our family from sunny Atlanta to less-sunny northern Indiana, and how we have been adjusting, I would love for you to know we have found a house! We will be moving from our sweet friends’ basement into our own home in two weeks! Thank you for all the prayers, encouraging, and sweet comments as we have been transitioning to hooser territory!
Disclaimer: affiliate links were used in this blog post.
What’s your favorite part of creating?
Next, I measured out where I wanted my word “home” to go and penciled it on, so I would have a guide to follow with my Dremel.
I was then ready to start! I was so excited I didn’t wait till my Dremel was fully charged. Lesson learned. I was forced to be even more patient and wait for it to charge when my project was half way done. So, good lesson for me… Have your Dremel charging while you are prepping your project.
I found myself carving and it was so easy and FUN! I literally started and finished carving HOME and asked myself, “what else can I carve?” I made a few more signs as I couldn’t put this thing down!
The Dremel was so easy to maneuver. I was really impressed with my first try. I thought maybe I should play with it a little on some scrap wood, before I started my project but my impatience got the best of me, as usual, and I just dove in. To my pleasant surprise, it totally worked out!
Do you have a Dremel? The Micro 8050 can cut, carve, engrave, sand, grind, sharpen, clean and polish—helping you bring just about any brilliant project to life. It is fully compatible with all Dremel rotary tool accessories. I demonstrated the carving/engraving technique, but I can’t wait to try out it’s other features on future projects.
Do you have a party or a shower coming up that could use a little flair? For my last Spoonful Lab, I created these Flower Name Tags, and I know the guests at your next gathering will love them. Follow along and I’ll walk you though how to make them step-by-step.
Once I had a collection of yo yos, I simply sewed a button to the center. This step was important because it tightens the yo-yo down, so it doesn’t puff out like a balloon.
I then had fun embellishing! I used my hot glue gun and glued my yo-yo flower onto a petal off a fake cheap flower to give it another dimension and pop of color. I then glued a little burlap leaf onto that flower.
It was that easy! I hot glued a little pin and a piece of paper (with the name) to my flowers to make fun name tags. You could do this too or if we use our imaginations, I know there are a lot of other uses for this type of flower!
These little name tags were so fun for my Spoonful Lab attendees. If you love making your parties special too, you can check out the 
I am so excited to share more pictures with you from my last Spoonful Lab soon! I hope you are having a great week and get to create something!
For the love of felt!
I used 
as the center of my flower and hot glued one petal at a time on to it. After I had one row of petals around my felt ball, I simply hot glued another row behind.
Once both layers of petals were glued in place, I turned my flower head over. I used sharp scissors and snipped a slice in the felt ball. I created a little envelope fold by doing this. I placed hot glue and then a dowel rod into the hole. After holding the rod in place for a few minutes to let it set, I let it go and had the base of my flower complete!
I think these flowers are so cute by themselves in a vase! As I had them posed in a vase in our dinning room, my daughter came by and wanted to smell them and started waving them around saying she was tinker bell. She is a blast. She gave me the idea that these sweet flowers could be sweet party favors for a 
For the next three people that buy one of my 