Florida Safari = Crafters Inspiration

Tweet Florida is such an amazing state~ gotta love the awesome tropical weather just about all year round. Being a native Floridian we do often seek out fun natural crafts to work with for our kids crafts like seashell crafts, pine cone crafts and other fun tropical treasures. In Florida you turn one way and your ocean side or like we did today head west and you just might find yourself in the middle of an African safari. Since it was a beautiful outside day we decided to step away from the craftroom and head out for a wild time at Lion Country Safari with our girls. There is nothing like some new inspiration thanks to nature and this last minute adventure did just that. The girls had such a blast on the Safari and later were surprised to see how many crafters on Etsy have items inspired by nature and all those cool creatures we just visited: Fun Zebra prints, cool Lions, giraffes and even leopards too. The genuine colors and patterns are so inspiring and fun to work with. We found all these fun Safari theme items from many of our Etsy TeamFest members. We also included some of our friendly Etsy shop owners that are living right there close to the Lion Country Safari savanahs. I wonder if they hear the Lions roar in the morning? Enjoy these fun Safari themed treasures from your TeamFest and West Palm Beach , Florida Etsy shops. When its time for a little new inspiration take the time to step away and just look around. Might be surprised with what you find! We will be posting new items with safari inspired patterns for sure. Here's our latest

And some Fun Pics from our Lion Country Safari Adventures today! See you Soon. From Beth

Pinecone Crafts from Sunshine Kids Craft Corner

Tweet Agh the Holiday time. So many fun and beautiful handcrafted things to make and do! This is a great little handmade pinecone ornament craft that you can so easily make with the special little one's in your world. Let that imagination run free with Pinecones~ here's what we came up with. Reindeer Pinecone Craft Ornaments Supplies 1. Pinecones from the Yard! 2. Glitter Pens in Various Colors 3. Carpet Cleaners in Various Colors 4. Little Pom Pom Balls in Various Colors 5. Sticks from Around the Yard 6. Leaves from Around the Yard 7. Googlie Eyes

Step 1 Using a little Glue ( Elmers or Glue Stick) Add Some Silly Googlie Eyes to your Reindeer Step 2 Once those Eyeballs on are there good. Grab a fun Colored Pom Pom for your Reindeers Nose

Step 3 Time for some fun Antlers. These can be made with sticks from yard ( very rustic and cute) OR you can also use carpet cleaners and bend them in fun shapes. Then find a snug little spot on each side of your pinecone to slide them in and add a little glue. Step 4 Reindeer like to be able to hear so grab some nice little leaves from the yard and walla! Reindeer Ears!

Step 5 Make a Hanger by taking two pipe cleaners and twisting them around one another ( like a candy cane spiral) and connect them to either side of the PineCone with a good Twist! Step 6 GLAM! Get out those kid friendly glitter pens and add some pizzazz to your handcrafted reindeer pinecone ornament.

SMILE and Happy Holidays FromBeths and the Sunshine Kids Craft Corner

Sunshine Kids Craft Corner- DIY Kids Party Favors

Tweet Everyone loves a creative and fun kids party. The best part is when you have the time to allow the children to be a part of creating all the fun party favors, centerpieces and games that go along with it. As a mom of three, I know that you don't get the pleasure of doing these kinds of things with your little one's forever so kick back, seize the moment and craft away with your Little Treasure Too!

This month the girls and I have been experimenting around with little Pillow Favor Boxes. These little guys are so much fun and actually once you have all the pieces that you will need, the kids really had a blast putting them together. Imagine, you can work with your little one to make these sweet little party favors in any color or theme and actually for any holiday or special event. Fill them up with some stickers, candies and little themed whatnots and your on your way to great Favor or Gift Idea!

Here is what you will need.

1. A sheet of card stock paper cut out as 6 x 6. Two sided is nice to use just make sure it's heavy enough
2. A pair of Scissors
3. A scoring knife or we just used a plastic knife
4. Glue or double sided tape
5. A CD or a Can from your Pantry


Optionals: Depending on your theme or idea you can embellish these with stickers, stamps, ribbons,glitter  and more. We still love Elmo so we had some Elmo letters around for ours!

Supplies

1. Cut your sheet of card stock to 6x6

2. Fold down about 1/8" on one side ( this will become your seam)

3. Fold the paper in half

 4. Using the CD trace and cut out each end of the paper so both ends are rounded

 5.  Then flip the CD over and trace from the corners in to make an almond shape on the paper. These will be your ends that fold it. Trace the CD with a score tool or just a plastic knife

6. Now that all your parts are layed out go ahead and glue/ seal your pillow seam. Give it a minute and then Pop It Up a little bit

7. Fold down the two ends where you scored the paper ( Starting to look like something now!)

8. Embellish your pillow pocket however you would like ie. stickers, letters, glitters what ever makes your little one's smile! 

9. Add a little bow to it or around it and Walla! A fun handmade kids craft idea for your party. They will be so proud that they were a part of making them.  

Way to Cute!  Have some fun with creative ideas for crafting with your kids.

See u soon.

From,

Beth

Sunshine Kids Craft Corner

Tweet We have a new blogger for the Etsy Street team! My name is Beth Morgan from SFL and I am simply what I call a "Family Crafter." My girls and I craft, well we craft just about all the time. We ended up with so many fun things we had made that we opened up a shop on Etsy and are having so much fun. The Etsy community is a great base of wonderful heartfelt crafters from super skilled artists, jewelry makers all the way down to a whole lot of mom's who love to craft with their children. The latter is where I fall and since I do enjoy finding things to make and do with my girls I have volunteered to bring some of these fun and cute ideas directly to you here with my Etsy Street Team gang.

I am a generational crafter, my mom always had a jam packed closet full of fun things to make and do. Rainy days were never a bummer when I was growing up. It's hard sometimes to get in the one on one with children as they are always running here and there for sports, friends, playdates and whatnot but I have found that carving out that special little "craft time" for us is just so rewarding. They are my favorite shoppers.

So.. over the next bit I will bringing to you new Kids Craft ideas right here. We tend to be mostly paper crafters but I know that many of my Etsy teammates will have some actual "skilled art" ideas that will be shared as well! So go ahead and subscribe and join our RSS feed to get Kid's craft ideas sent right to you.

Since this week is Teacher Appreciation Week we have been having ALOT of fun. We have picked flowers from the yard and made handmade smiley face chocolates and since tomorrow is the last day... we are making thank you cards.

After looking around the girls landed on these adorable purse thank you cards.

Here is what you will need:
8 1/2 by 11 inch heavy paper or card stock
Paints (optional) crayons work just perfect
Embellishments of your choice (ie. glitter, sequences or anything you find around! That's what crafting is all about)

Total Time is .. laff well about an hour.