Make a Panda Bear Hooded Towel

My son loves panda bears (love panda bears, too? You might like my panda party, panda ears tutorial or panda pancakes). Now that he's 2 and huge, he needed some bigger towels for bath time. What better creature to make a hooded towel like than his favorite snuggly panda?

I followed the same technique taught by Amber at Crazy Little Projects. If you have never made a hooded towel, do yourself a favor and read her very thorough tutorial. Then come back here and see how to adapt it to make a panda.

Supplies

• White bath towel
• White hand towel
• Black bath towel
• Black washcloth
• Fusible Interfacing (I used Heat'n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive)
• Matching thread
• Sewing machine, scissors, iron, Walking Foot if you have one.

Cut list:
White hand towel: Cut in half across the narrow width
Black bath towel: Cut off the top third of the towel across the longest width of the towel
Black washcloth: Cut out 4 ear shaped pieces (remember to cut them bigger than you need them). Then iron on the fusible interfacing to the remaining washcloth material. Cut out two kidney bean shaped pieces for eye shadows and a nose.

Hood

1. Fold in the front edge of the towel past any band that might be on the towel. Using white thread, sew across. This is the front edge of your hood.
2. Switch to black thread. Stitch around the curve of the ears, leaving the flat edges open. Flip ears so stitches are inside.
3. Iron down the eye patches and nose. Use a zig zag stitch to applique these pieces to the hood.
4. Cut slits in the hood where you want the ears to go. Insert ears and sew to hood from the inside.
5. Fold hood in half down the middle of the face, right sides together and sew with white thread.

(Are these instructions not making sense? They assume you're familiar with basic hooded towel construction. Be sure to read Amber's great hooded towel tute if you haven't yet.)

This is what your finished hood should look like:

Body

1. Placing right sides together and being sure to line up any bands on the narrow ends of the towels, lay the long black bath towel strip along the long edge of the white bath towel . Sew together and open. 
2. To keep the seam flat, I opened up the back side of this seam and stitched down the length of the towel on both sides.
3. Make a tuck along the top edge of the black section and pin in place (refer to Amber's tutorial).
4. Center the hood seam to line up with the tuck and sew, attaching the hood to the body of the towel

Enjoy!

Free Personalizable Valentine's Day Photo Cards: Family Time

If you're on the hunt for Valentine's Day photo cards for your family, look no further! The next installment in my personalizable Valentine's Day card series is perfect for photos of families. My photo happens to be in black and white but you can use a color picture for this layout, too.

It features a generously sized area for your photo, a red finger paint texture on the bottom and personalizable text. The font I used for the names is called Janda Elegant Handwriting and it is available for free.

Download the free personalizable photo card here. (4x6 size)

Name font (Janda Elegant Handwriting) available here

If this is your first time downloading one of my cards, note that you will need to register (it's free and takes literally 10 seconds) first to download the card. Then scroll down and click the download button below the file (circled in red).

Free Personalizable Valentine's Day Photo Cards: The Girly Girl

Everyone is on the hunt for adorable Valentine's Day cards...we've got just one month left! I've got a special series of personalizable photo cards I'll be posting over the next couple weeks so be sure to keep checking back!

Our first card would be perfect for the girly girl in your life. It's got a modern damask print and pretty pink text and polka dots. You can personalize both the photo and the text on the card. The font used to write the name on the card is called "odstmeplik" can can be downloaded for free.

Download the free personalizable photo card here. (4x6 size)

Name font (Odstemplik) available here

If this is your first time downloading one of my cards, note that you will need to register (it's free and takes literally 10 seconds) first to download the card. Then scroll down and click the download button below the file (circled in pink).

Make a DIY Pretend Doctor Kit

For Christmas, my two year old son said he only wanted Santa to bring him one thing for Christmas: "A doctor kit with a stethoscope." I'm not even kidding. Whose two year old asks for something that sophisticated?

Since he really only asked for one thing, I wanted to try to get him one.

The problem? Most kids' doctor kits are $20-$30 and full of little plastic do-dads. I have major hang ups about paying $30 for a small collection of junky plastic do-dads. And none of them do anything. The reason he wanted a stethoscope in the first place was because a nurse had let him listen to his own heart with one a few weeks prior. Since he asked for one specifically, I wasn't sure he'd want a kids pretend stethoscope that didn't make noises.

So I did what any crafty mom would do: I decided to assemble my own with as many (safe for toddlers) working things as possible. I made this in the two weeks before Christmas, so I know that if I'd given myself more time, I may have been able to get some of these things for less.

What's in the Doctor Kit?

• Personalized doctor bag (Free: made myself from an old purse. See below)
• Stethoscope (about $8 for this one: Prestige Medical Dualheads, Frosted Royal)
• Knee hammer (about $3 for this one: Taylor Percussion Hammer)
• Light scope (about $10 for this one: CVS Multi Use Scope Light for Eye Ear Nose Throat)
• Metal baindaid box (about $5 for this one: Hello Kitty Bandages)
• Ace bandage (about $1.50 at Wal-Mart)
• Self-stick medical "tape" (about $1.50 at Wal-Mart)
• Box of bandages (to refill bandaid box, $1)
• Prescription bottle (on hand)

Total Spent: $30

So I did not actually save any money over buying a pretend doctor kit from the store. BUT I got stuff that is way cooler for the same price I'd have paid for a box of useless shaped plastic pieces. I'm hoping mine will last a bit longer, too.

Here is the break down of everything for those who like pictures and things....

Doctor Bag

The doctor bag actually used to be my favorite purse from college. It did create a smidge of heartbreak to turn my fave sentimental purse into a kids toy but the honest truth is that I have not actually used the purse in 5-6 years (the layer of dust I had to clean off of it will attest to that, ahem) and chances that I will be using such a small purse any time in the next five years is not high either. It also had the best shape for a doctor bag of any of my old purses.

This is what it used to look like:

I made a patch to cover the C on the front with a large white circle of felt, a red cotton cross that was appliqued on, and "Dr. Bonham" written in fabric paint. Once the patch was made (and the paint was dry), I used Aleene's Original Tacky Glue to glue it to the purse. I chose this glue because it is flexible and can move with the bag

Accessories:


Below are the items I bought to fill the kit (you can click the image to go directly to the item for sale on Amazon). We already had the medicine bottle at home.

      

For those of you wondering: Yes, this doctor kit is for a boy. 

Really? Hello Kitty? While the Hello Kitty bandage tin came with cute bandaids, I swapped them out for some plain colorful bandaids instead. All I was really interested in was the tin to use as a durable container for bandaids. You may be able to find a less expensive tin at a drug store near you (I paid about $5 for mine online).

Does he like it? Yes he does! He is particularly enamored with the bandaids - everyone including one of our fluffy dogs has fallen victim to "Dr. Bonham's" attempt at nursing them back to health with the power of kisses and bandaids. It has also become common to have to explain to grandparents, babysitters, store clerks, etc that my child isn't really injured. He just likes bandaids. 

He also likes to use his light scope as well as the stethoscope.

These are a couple pictures from Christmas morning:

These were taken a few weeks after Christmas. Notice how both Dr. Bonham and Daddy Bonham have several bandages each.

Thank you for stopping by! If I inspire you to make your own DIY Doctor Kit, please leave me a link in the comments. I'd love to see!

**This post contains affiliate links and I may receive a portion of sales generated from clicking my links. I promise to only ever link to products I know and love. Thank you for supporting Carissa's Creativity Space!**

Make Glitter Dinosaur Ornaments

Join me over at Dollar Store Crafts where I teach you how to take small plastic dinosaurs and transform them into fun ornaments for your tree. This technique, of course, works with all manner of plastic creatures including bugs, zoo animals, horses and more. If you find that your tree is a little on the full side, these also make great present toppers - plus your recipient gets the bonus gift of a sparkly dinosaur friend. {Learn how to make Glittered Dinosaur Ornaments Here}

Make Reindeer Pom-Pom Magnets

My son is 2 and a half and has been getting more and more interested in making crafts with me. In a search for kid friendly crafts (which I admittedly have very little experience with), we have been experimenting with pom-poms. They are soft and kid friendly. And my son has a lot of fun fluffing up his "puffy balls" as he calls them before we start crafting.

This particular guy is stuck to a magnet from the dollar store (you can get a package of 8 magnets that look like buttons in the school supplies section of Dollar Tree). They also make fun tree ornaments if you stick them to a painted clothespin instead of the magnet. Just clip it onto the end of a branch!

Supplies

• 1.5" or 2" brown pom-pom (pictured craft made with 2" Pom Pom)
• Googly eyes
• Small sparkle pom for nose
• 1 tan "chenille stem" AKA pipe cleaner
• Magnet or clothespin
• Wire cutters
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• White glue** (if crafting with kiddos)

**When I make these by myself, I use hot glue for the whole thing. If crafting with kiddos, you can use white glue to attach eyes, nose and antlers - although this method will require drying time before it will be ready to attach to a magnet or clothespin with hot glue. If you do this, be generous with the glue because the large pom-pom with absorb a lot.

Step 1: Make the face

Attach googly eyes and sparkle pom to large pom-pom using your preferred gluing method. If using white glue, be generous in your application and allow to dry overnight after attaching antlers.

Step 2: Make the antlers

Cut the chenile stem into 6 lengths (each approximately 2" long) using the wire cutters. If you end up with slightly shorter lengths at the end, use these for the top rack of antlers. Make two sets of antlers as show by twisting 2 sections around a length of stem. Attach to large pom-pom using preferred glue method.

Step 3: Attach the magnet

Regardless of your face/antler attachment method, you'll want to use hot glue to attach the magnet to the back of the reindeer. I prefer the dollar store magnets over the small kind you get at the craft store because not only are they less expensive (8 for $1), but they are a more substantial size. Look for them in the school supply section.

That's it!

Alternatively, you can also glue your reindeer to a clothespin. I got a large package of clothespins at the dollar store and painted mine red with red sparkles. Glue the reindeer upright on top of the pincer end and then just clip him onto the end of a branch