Sometimes having children is about revisiting the past. Do you have any of your childhood toys left? Lucky for me, my mother is a bit of a packrat and kept many of our things. Now we regularly drink from Smurf and Muppet glasses, my children play with my old doll house and use my handmade wooden doll beds. It’s nice to see things come full circle.

But these Ant and Bee books were a different story. I had them squirreled away on a shelf, intending never to share them with my children as they are too precious. The books were originally printed in the UK in the ’70s with a re-print in the late ’80s and early ’90s, but are  now out of print. They are selling for rather outlandish prices, as you can see here. But mine aren’t in very good condition and what’s the point in having something that you can’t share? So I pulled them down from the shelf and had a flood of memories as my daughter read them aloud. So sweet — and really great books. As my seven-year-old was reading Ant and Bee and the Rainbow, my five-year-old followed along reading the names of the colors. Angela Banner’s words and illustrations are still relevant today. They should print these again.

Then my friend Laura brought the girls a super awesome gift – her Barbie townhouse that she had as a girl, still in its original box and in perfect condition. My husband said this was the Death Star of Barbie toys. I took one look at that elevator and remembered that I also had this as a kid. Somewhere down the line it didn’t make it back to me, but it’s so nice to complete the circle. My younger daughter especially loves Barbie, though I have rather mixed emotions. But then I do that “Well, I played with them as a kid” thing that we as parents often do. You know, since we turned out so well. And this Barbie house has a working elevator. Now that’s just cool.

Looking for ideas for handmade Valentine’s Day cards? Making cards with the kids seems like such a chore when we have to mass produce them for every kid in the class. Check out my post over at Alpha Mom for seven easy heart-themed craft ideas.

A few of you asked about the children’s table in my sewing room that was featured over on Craft. I recently painted the table and covered it in fabric. No one likes to put together IKEA furniture, but the benefit of this table was that I was able to take it apart to attach the fabric. For $40 plus some fabric and paint, I think it turned out to be a pretty cute table and chairs.

We had been using this table for a while and it was painted pink, but became covered in paint, glitter and glue. So I removed the table top, laid it out on the fabric, cut the fabric about 2″ wider than the table on all sides and stapled it to the underside. Now we’ll try to use this table mostly for drawing and sewing, but I’m sure one day we’ll manage to spill glue or paint on it, so then we can simply remove the fabric and replace it or paint the table again. I used some IKEA fabric leftover from our bathroom shades, and at $6 per yard I’m not too worried about ruining it. You could also try an oilcloth or polyurethane-coated cotton to withstand spills.

Oh, and the drawings on the table are from Erin McCamant, the budding talent who is helping me test patterns for the book. Thank you, Erin! My girls are enjoying playing fashionista with her designs.

After seeing these shoes in an Etsy shop, I decided to make some little shoes to go with the baby gift that I posted about yesterday. I mostly used the template and pattern for reversible baby shoes from Maked.

Well, this was my first attempt at making any kind of shoes. On the first go I tried to alter the pattern thinking “I don’t remember baby feet being that small.” But then I found some old baby shoes in a storage bin and realized that baby feet are that small. Adorable. Then I sewed a shoe correctly and decided that I didn’t want to fool with hand sewing the tiny thing closed and these didn’t need to be reversible, so I started over and used a different method for putting them together in the last step. I found this video helpful.

So once you get the hang of making these little slippers, they are quite fast and remarkable for something so simple. After all, who makes shoes? Factory workers in China, mostly. But that was a rhetorical question, wasn’t it?

Have I mentioned that both of my girls were born in December? Makes for a busy month. My younger daughter had her party at a bouncy place, so it was low-maintenance. But my older daughter (yes, the one who dressed as Violet Beauregarde for Halloween) wanted a Willy Wonka party. And my apologies to the parents of the children who attended, but we had a full-on Wonka candy party. It was a mess!

We loved the original Gene Wilder movie and I recently finished reading the Roald Dahl book with the kids. Love that book. Overwhelmed by first-graders, I didn’t get many photos of the party yesterday, but took some this morning. My older daughter dressed in her Violet costume and I made a t-shirt into a Veruca Salt dress for my five-year-old (this character is so appropriate for her these days). My husband even rented a Wonka hat and jacket. But no, I did not dress like an Oompa Loompa. So first, we made Wonka bar invitations by wrapping a candy bar with a golden ticket printed on the reverse of the label (pictured above).

We made some recycled decorations like the mushrooms pictured above. These were made with the same technique I used making the Halloween bowls and I cut a fabric bolt for the stems. Then my daughter painted them. We also used cardboard fabric tubes for giant candy cane sticks by covering them in butcher paper and wrapping them with red velvet ribbon.

Then I asked a local mom to make this super awesome cake shaped like a Wonka bar. If you live in Atlanta, you can contact Christi of Frosted and Sprinkled to make a cake for your event. It tasted as good as it looked. The tablecloth was a patchwork of pinwheels made from the polka dots in Amy Butler’s Love collection.

The kids played Pin the Hat on the Wonka with the sweet picture that my daughter drew. Note the smear of chocolate on the poster board since I took this photo after the party. They also made candy canes from pipe cleaners and guessed how many jelly beans were in a jar.

The goodie bags were filled with cocoa mix for the kids to take home and a miniature swirl lollipop tied to the top.

I used gerbera daisies mixed with candy for the flower arrangements.

My daughters both painted lollipops for decoration. We used foam core board for these, but should have used recycled cardboard since we have so much of it around the house these days.

We hung paper lanterns and tissue paper flowers from the ceiling, served kettle corn, chocolate dipped fruit and carbonated water with twisty straws for “fizzy lifting drinks”. I found this cool French poster for the movie that we hung on the front door and I plan to have framed for her room. Yes, I went overboard on this party. Hope no kids vomited on the car ride home.

Make this glitter house paper craft with your kids over the holidays. Check out my post for Alpha Mom, complete with printable templates and tutorial.

We made some salt dough ornaments the other day, using the recipe below. Unfortunately we had no white flour, so substituted with 50/50 white and wheat flour which was fine, but did add more texture and a not so great color. So after they were cooked and cooled, we painted the ornaments with brown acrylic paint. Then we dusted them with frosted glitter, strung them on some twine and made a garland. This was a good kid-friendly project that I worked on with my five-year-old daughter. This recipe made about 20 small ornaments.

• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 cup flour

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Mix the salt and warm water until the salt is dissolved. Add the flour (you might need extra to get the right dough consistency). Roll out the dough to about 1/2″ thickness and cut shapes with cookie cutters. With a toothpick, poke holes in the top for hanging. Make any other designs that you’d like with your toothpick. Place on an ungreased pan and bake for 2 hours or more, until the ornaments are hard. While they are still warm, make sure that your holes are open and poke them open again with your toothpick if necessary.

Last week I bought this adorable doll from Luvaboo at a local craft fair.  These dolls have velcro attached to the eyes and hands so that they can play peek-a-boo, give hugs, and hang around.  Luvaboo does not have an online shop yet, but you can e-mail to buy a doll.  My four-year-old handed over her Barbie in favor of this doll, so it was a big hit with the kids.

Take a look at the easy printable holiday calendars I made over at Alpha Mom.  One for Christmas and one for Hanukkah.  This will help keep your kids busy when they’re out of school next week.  Customize your calendar to celebrate whatever you’d like–how about Festivus?

I’m turning this blog over to the kids.  This post was created by the kids for the kids.  My children are always making things, usually shunning my ideas in favor of their own (as well they should).  So I’ll be featuring some of their original ideas from time to time.  This week:

A belt made from a broken plastic necklace brought to you by my four-year-old!

And a shirt made from a paper bag from my six-year-old!

That concludes this installment of KIDCRAFT!  Go make stuff, kids!

I have some favorite gifts that I like to make for kids’ birthdays that could make nice holiday gifts.  So I’ll be sharing some of my entries from the past.

Here are some gift ideas for the little artist, and even those who would rather play with light sabers sometimes like to have time for artistic reflection.  Pictured here are the sketch box, doodle bag and craft can.  The posts for the sketch box and craft can include printable templates for a quick and easy gift.

This year I bought nice art boxes for my kids and plan to do a wood-burning design with their names and fill them with art supplies of their very own (that they don’t have to share).  A sewing set is another great gift for a child or teenager — you can make a drawstring bag, tote or box to keep the supplies.

How cute are these? I just received these custom designed dolls made by Project Grab Bag. I ordered these from Craftsbury Kids, but it looks like you can also buy them directly from Project Grab Bag’s Etsy shop here. Made from new and upcycled fabrics, these dolls are super cute. Hope they can compete with the American Girl dolls for the affection of my children.  I think they can!