Simple colorful Five Little Ducks (with Their Mama) Tutorial

E has been into the Five Little Ducks nursery rhymes lately, asking me all day long that I play the Youtube video. Having limited screen time to a maximum of 15mn a day, I had to find ways to entertain him off-screen. We started making ducks out of construction papers based on this idea from Preschool activities, which he loved but soon he asked to take his ducks "swimming" with him. We only had two rubber ducks at home and I did not feel like buying more. I looked around for some other ideas I could adapt and that would not take more than a day, and found this wonderful tutorial to make baby shower ducks with crepe paper or fabrics.
She used glue gun to attach everything but I wanted it to be waterproof so I had to sew mine. So this is what we came up with.

Fig. 1: Finished product, five little ducks with their mother.

It is actually quite simple to make and only requires basic sewing skill. Let's get started.

This tutorial will be based on the size below:
- 6cm x 6cm for the mother duck (the base is roughly a circle of 6cm of diameter and 6cm high from bottom to the top of the head)
- 5cm x 5cm for the little ducks.
However, since the tutorial does not require the use of a pattern, you can easily adjust the size to fit your needs.

What you need

- 28 x 28 (cm x cm) square of fabric for the mother duck.
- 20 x 20 cm square of fabric for each little duck.
- Orange felt (A felt sheet of 10 x15 cm would be largely enough. I only used up less than half of mine but I am very careful when cutting felt to avoid wasting even the tiniest bit of it :). I also used stiff felt but I think you can use any felt fabric, or you can stiffen your felt sheet yourself (I have never tried to do that myself so I am not sure if it will give a good result or not, especially if you want to make it washable).
- Ribbons (I used 25cm of ribbon for each duck).
- Stuffing: I used polyester stuffing I already had but it can be quite expansive especially if this is the only project you will need it for. You can replace it with cotton balls, wading or scraps of fabrics.

What you do
For the mother duck I used the same dimension as that of the small duck in the video tutorial.
1. Start by cutting a 16x16 cm square with the mother duck fabric, this will be used for the body. Cut another square of 12x12cm of the same fabric to be used as the head. (Cf. Fig.2)
2. Cut a rough circle of 16cm of diameter (8cm of radius) out of big square. To do so, fold the square along the diagonal repeating 3 times as shown on the Fig.3 and Fig.4. Mark 8cm from the center on the longer edge, then cut from the shorter edge to the marking in a curve. you will get a rough circle, it does not have to be a perfect one.

Fig.2

Fig.3

Fig.4

Fig.5

3. Using running stitches, sew around the circle leaving half a cm of seam allowance, pulling the thread as you go to create a pocket, see Fig.6.
4. Stuff the pocket and pull tighter on the thread until it is fully closed. Sew around the closing with back stitches to make it stronger, see Fig.7 and Fig.8.
5. Repeat step 2 to 4 with the 12x12cm square, measuring 6cm from the center at step 3.
6. Attach the head to the body at the closing using back stitches.

Fig.6

Fig.7

Fig.8

Fig.9

7. Cut the beak (2 pieces): you can either draw directly on the felt sheet or on a paper first. Draw a 2x2cm square and fold along the center line. Draw a line joining the top right corner to the bottom left corner (the folding line being on your right). Along the drawn line, mark 2cm from the top right corner. Draw one and a half an arc from the marking to the bottom left, refer to Fig.10. cut along the red dashed curves.

Fig.10: Drawing of the beaks for Mama duck

 8. Cut the feet (2 pieces): Draw a 2.5 x 2.5cm square. Follow the same direction as for the beaks but using 2.5cm instead of 2cm throughout the drawing of the feet.

Fig.11: Beaks for mama duck

9. Attach the beaks: Using blanket stitches, attach each piece of the beak separately from the inside as shown on Fig.12. Once this is done, close the beak and use blanket stitch around to seal.

Fig.12: Attaching the beak pieces from the inside.

Fig.13: Sealing the beak.

10. Using blanket stitching, attach the feet, referring to the position of the beak to  make sure they are at least approximately symmetric.

Fig.14: Attaching the feet.

And we are done with Mama duck.

For the little ducks use the same instructions, altering the measurement according to the table below.

Table 1: Measurement

Once you're done, tie your ribbons around the necks of the ducks and let the little one have fun!

P.S: Two weeks have passed since I finished these ducks for E and still every morning he will be asking me to play with his little ducks and sing! The ducks "follow" him almost everywhere, even when he is napping!

Fig.15: The finished yellow little duck in E's hand.

Easy Father's Day Sailboat Footprint Art on Canvas

I love handprint and footprint arts! There were times when I was scouring Pinterest for some unique handprint and footprint arts to get inspiration from. Last year, I fell in love with this beautiful butterfly footprints on canvas from Mommypotamus and made one for E's dad as he was working 2400 miles away from us. He loved it --although he did not express it with such strong word, but just raised his eyebrows when asked if he liked it! But I have to say I was quite happy with the final product, which encouraged me to do some more.


What I love the most about handprint and footprint arts is that they do not require much artistic skill --which I unfortunately lack--and they make such wonderful keepsakes of those precious early years of our children, plus you do not have to break the bank for them!
After trying a few print arts with E, I realized getting footprints was much easier with older babies and toddlers than handprints. Last year, I failed to get E to keep his palm open while I was trying to get his handprints and had to completely change the project.

For Father's Day this year, I wanted to make footprints that can convey a message, not just a pretty keepsake. I scoured all over Pinterest but did not find anything that really made impression on me. Since I love sailboats, I just decided to go with a boat footprints.

 

What you need
- A canvas: I used a 20cmx25cm canvas I purchased at Michael's on sale ($3 the pair) a year ago. You can use any size you want as long as your child's footprints can fit on the canvas plus enough space for the hull and some margin for the waves.
- Paint: Non-toxic acrylic paint and finger paint.
- Paint brush or paint sponge: i found it easier to work with paint sponge with toddlers.
- Paint pen (optional: you can use a marker or just a paint brush instead.
- Wet wipes: very useful when working with babies and toddlers!

How to do it?
This was actually quite easy to realize.
- Mix up your desired colors on a palette. Again, I am not an artist so I just used primary colors --red and yellow being E's dad favorite colors.
- Before starting, lightly brush the canvas with water, that way it absorbs the paint easier.
- Mark where you want the footprints to land.
- Start with the sails first but make sure there is enough room left at the bottom for the hull and some waves. Evenly paint the sole of your child's left foot with the jib sail color using the paint sponge (I used red), then press the canvas against the foot. It should be slanted for about 15 to 30 degree from the imaginary mast. If your toddler is still enough, you can gently press each toe. Wipe or wash your child's foot immediately.
- Repeat with the right foot with the main sail color (I used the same color for the two sails). This time, there should be 45 degree between the imaginary mast and the axis of the foot. Make sure that the big toe is aligned with the left big toe, you will need to put the heel lower than the left heel to get the angle right.
- Repeat the process with the hull color (I used yellow).
If the result does not satisfy you, you can wash the canvas and start over again. You do not need to let the canvas dry before the next attempt.
- Using a paint pen or a paint brush, draw the outlines of the sailboat. I am sure you can do a much better job than I did :)
The method outlined here is best suited for babies and toddlers. Since they are not easy to control and capturing their footprints is quite a challenge, you can work with the details after you are satisfied with the footprints. If you are working with older children, it is easier to outline the sailboat and arrange the footprints accordingly.
- Squeeze some finger paint on the palette for the waves and guide as your child draws the waves with his finger.
- Add your message and you're all set!

I wanted the message to stress the responsibility of a father in child rearing - to guide and mentor.

The Story of Noah - Simple quiet book

Hi there, :)
This is my first post ever so please forgive any un-blogger-like mistakes you may find! :)

I discovered about quiet books about 6 months ago and decided to make one for my son E for his first birthday. So I have been spending most of my free time on Pinterest getting some inspiration for the design of the book and ended up running out of time! As it turned out, one week before his birthday, I still had not started... still busy thinking about how to make the perfect quiet book!
Then I realized there was no way I could ever finish a book given the amount of time I had left so I decided to start with something simpler than a book, just an initiation to felt work and opted for a little toddler Christmas tree.
Anyway, after that it was my best friend's daughter's third birthday and I ended up making my first quiet book for her. And I realized it was A LOT of work! A lot more than I thought. And finally decided I need to think of something simple for E's Christmas gift and I can always keep on making quiet books and improve my techniques.
So finally, I started working on a very simple quiet book  based on the story of Noah (I'd rather call it a play set or felt activity set instead of a quiet book since it only looks like a playmat). I got my inspiration from this cute play set http://www.amazon.ca/Bright-handmade-designer-children-Kolobok/dp/B0145PRKFS/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1451455845&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=designer+soft+toy+tablet and a few other Noah felt boards.
Again I missed my deadline this time and the Christmas gift was only finished 5 days later! The culprit? It was still a lot more work than I thought. But it is finally done and although I am not very happy with the finish, E loves it! He loves undoing the rainbow, handing me the pieces and putting them back on, whichever way he wants. And when we had to get the animals into the boat, he also removed the clouds and insisted on putting them in the boat. It will take him some time before he will know how to properly play with it but he is enjoying it and that's what matters.

So here is the final product.
 


The cover: my eyesight is not very good so I used a supposedly washable marker to trace the letters but after the first wash it did not go away completely. Hope I will have better luck later on. I still have to work on putting the zipper more professionally too!


Before the flood: The sky elements are attached with Velcro and can be removed and interchanged. The mat itself does not take much time and was relatively easy, although the final assembly to the cover was quite tricky and I am still trying to figure out how it can be improved next time.
E loves animals - his favorite being the lion -  I had to have a lion then I just added other safari and jungle animals and I thought the panda and kangaroo were so cute so I added them. And just so he won't forget where he comes from, I had to add Madagascar's signature animal - the lemur (here ringtail lemur, my favorite!). Making the animals was the most time consuming given all the details and how small they were ( each animal took 1 to 3h!) but it was fun! I like how the lion turned out :)


Building the boat:
I wanted to include as much activities as I could so I opted for the boat building! A very basic one that is.


The rain and the flood:
The clouds contain "raindrops". I was trying to make it as toddler-safe as possible and did not want to use beads so instead I just used ribbons. And fabrics pulled over and attached with Velcro for the flood. this was the easiest way I found but certainly not the best!




After the flood, baby can build the rainbow!


And finally all the removable pieces!



I am thinking of having a series on Bible stories, and will probably start with The story of Creation next but I still have no idea on how to make it fun and educative at the same time, and requiring less work...is that even possible? :-)
Until next time again! And wish you all a blessed year 2016!