Have a Picnic Lunch!

What You Will Need:
Large Popsicle sticks (You can probably find these at most craft stores or in the crafting aisles)
Glue (I used hot glue to speed up the process, but I imagine most craft or wood glues would work)
Scissors

Steps:

1. Gather 12 popsicle sticks and cut the rounded end off like so:

Craft Note: When cutting your popsicle sticks sometimes the pieces fly and I know I wouldn't want to hurt anyone.  I would suggest cutting them in a bag, whether it's a Ziploc bag or grocery bag.

2. Lay them side by side one another to get a sense of how big the table will be.  If you want more than 12 then go ahead and add a bit more for an even bigger table if you prefer.  I just thought 12 would be good because it wouldn't be to big or small for storing later.

3. If you don't want to do this step, then you don't have too.  I glued the straight ends of the popsicles together to give it some extra reinforcement, but that is your choice.

4. Take 3 untrimmed popsicle sticks and lay them on top of your 12 lined up like so:

Glue them down.  Make sure to get all the small knooks and crannys.  I repeated this process on both sides of the table top.  I thought it gave it an even look.

5. Next I cut the ends off 8 popsicle sticks, try to make these as much as the same size as you can.

Following that you will need to cut 8 pieces of popsicles that are about 2 inches long with an angle cut out of them.  Try to get these as close to the same size as possible.  It took a few tries for me to get there, so if at first they don't look alright, that's okay.

6. As I mentioned you cut 8 of each.  I glued 2 together of each of the pieces, so you end up with 4 long sticks with the ends cut and 4 of the smaller pieces.

 Then you will need to glue the small angled pieces to the popsicle sticks with the ends you cut off.

7. Next you will glue your four pieces you glued together to the bottom of the table.  This also takes a bit of patience, but just working on it.

8. I wanted some added support, so I cut some angles on a popsicle and glued it inside of the sticks to give it some more reinforcement.

9.  Now this part is optional, but I wanted to add some more sticks to the bottom.  I cut angled cuts off the ends of one popsicle and glued them to the bottom.  I think the picture can explain it better than I can.

10. And flip your table over and you are done!  If you wish, you can paint it, but I wanted to leave it as is.  I think I will coat it with a layer of Mod-Podge to make sure it stays together for awhile.  I took an oddly angled picture of the table next to my doll, but it's about the right size.  It is probably a bit small, but it was so much cheaper than buying one myself.  Now I just need to make a chair for my doll!

 

I hope you enjoyed the craft!  I actually burnt my finger pretty bad with the glue gun while working on this.  It took it a few days, but it finally started to heal.  So if you use a hot glue gun be careful!

Have a wonderday!

Dollar Store Finds! + Michaels

I went to the Dollar Tree the other day, which is one of the most wonderful-est stores ever for teachers and random doll finds!

Here is all I found!  I picked up another tea light set just to have, so I didn't take a picture of it.

  

I found this small book light that works perfect as a desk lamp.  It isn't the greatest quality, but it was only a dollar.

I bought one of these small bug catchers to make an aquarium with the box and then my doll would have a net for her own bug catching kit (which is hopefully going to be a Camp It Up! activity).

I found this wok/barbecue set as well.  I realized I could make a standing grill by adding some legs and a wire rack in the grill.  So that is another Camp It Up! activity I hope to post soon.

And these guys are quite helpful.  They are clear rubber bands.  I got the last package, otherwise I would have picked up one more.

 This was my one and only Michaels find and to be honest our Michaels store really isn't all that great anymore.  I think with Hobby Lobby opening recently and JoAnns being as hopping as it, no one really bothers to head to Michaels now.  But I did find this canvas and easels.

I suppose that is all for now.  Have a wonderday!

Let's Gather 'Round The Camp Fire!

Two quick notes before we get started!  

1. This craft may need the assistance of an adult if you use certain equipment, such as a hot glue gun or sand paper.
2. When creating my fire pit, I wanted to be able to reuse the tea light.  That is why I used two circle disks.  I wanted to be able to put one inside of the other.  If you wish to just glue a tea light to the middle of one big circle or you don't have one, then you can just cut out the big circle.  On with the show!

What You Will Need:

Paperboard/Cardboard or Lid/Lids

Glue

Paint

Scissors

Sticks

Sandpaper (optional)

Tissue paper/foam (I ended up using tissue paper, but I put foam in the picture)

Ruler (not shown)

Steps:

1. Now for my craft I used paperboard, but if you wish you could use a disposable lid from a container (a Pringles can, butter container, or anything you would think is big enough to make the fire how you want it.)

First draw two circles, I made one slightly smaller than the other so it would fit inside.  (I believe my bigger circle had a diameter of about 4 1/2 and the other was just slightly smaller.)

And then I cut out multiply copies of each circle.  I had four bigger circles and two smaller ones.

2. I glued the circles together and put something heavy on them so they would dry flat.

3. On the smaller circle draw a small circle and cut it out.  I traced the tea light I was going to use as the "flame."  If you do not have a tea light or "flame" then you can just omit this part.

4. Next is making the sides to glue onto the bottom bigger circle.  I figured out the circumference by doing some math, but you can just cut a strip and measure it that way.  I believe I made mine about an inch high, but you can make yours how ever high you would like.

I glued the two ends together making sure it was tight around the disk.  I held it together with a clothes pin until it was dry.

Crafty Note: Instead of making the strip, you could also glue some rocks around the edge for a fun nature affect.

5. Next I started to assemble the fire pit.  I glued the circle strip around the bottom edge of the bigger circle.  You can probably use any kind of glue, but I decided to use the glue gun on this part to make it faster.

6. Paint!  I painted the inside of the pit brown, along with the small disk as well (both sides!).  I then painted the outside of it a darker brown.

7. Now comes the fun part where it will finally going to start looking like a fire pit!  Take a buddy, my dog went with me, and find some sticks outside.

Crafty Note: If you don't have any available sticks that is alright, grab some Popsicle sticks or toothpicks or take the fluff off a Q-tip and paint them.  With your imagination anything is possible!

I personally sanded down my sticks.  I didn't want the particles from the dead wood getting everywhere when I stored it.  For picture taking purposes I showed myself sanding inside, but make sure you have a vented area when sanding and wear protective covering.  I went outside to really sand my down.  Again, had my buddy with me.

8. Glue your sticks onto the smaller disk with the hold cut out.  I put the tea light in the middle so I knew how I wanted it to go.  Again I used hot glue for this part, but I think I would have preferred a clear drying liquid glue.  Although I hope it will last longer with the hot glue.

Crafty Note: I wanted to be able to reuse my tea light, so I didn't glue the sticks to it.  If you would like to glue them to the tea light that is your decision.

Rearrange your sticks however you would like.  It's really up to you!

9. Now we need some flames!  Unless you like how it looks and want to stop, cool.  If not, let's keep moving forward!  As I mentioned at the top, I used tissue paper to make my flames.  

I went to my craft supplies and realized I didn't have the colors I needed, but worry not.  I had white!  I painted the tissue paper the colors I needed: red, orange, and yellow.  It looks awesome because you can't put a thick layer of paint on, so you can still see the tea light flame through it.

I took some white school glue (doesn't really matter what kind) and mixed it with some water.  I used a paint brush to put the glue on the sticks and carefully started to arrange how I wanted the fire to look.  I added the red, then orange, and finally yellow.

I did get frustrated a little when I was doing this part, but it looks great when it dried.

10.  That's it!  Add your tea light in the middle and you have a roaring camp fire!  Grab your marshmallow roasting sticks and guitar for a fun night at the camp fire!  If you have any questions leave them below and I will get to them as soon as I can!

Here is the camp fire in action!

Camp Doll Diaries: Marquee Sign!

I made my own marquee sign!  I hope to make all of the letter for Emily, but for now I made the E!

I think it turned out pretty good.  I sort of changed how they made them.  I used a few stacked layers of paperboard and painted it.  My mom said JoAnns sold these (big ones of course) for about $40, while they had them anyways.  And she said mine looked quite close to those, except for some lights inside.

So don't forget to head over to Doll Diaries for some camping fun of your own!

And I have my own craft I will be posting soon!  A clue is that it always keeps you toasty and your marshmallows.

Have a wonderday!

Update on Tent!

I emailed Our Generation last night and they got back to me this afternoon.

They said they would happily send along a new set of tent poles for free!  I am excited!  Hopefully it won't take too long to get here.

And I am going to make the activity over at Doll Camp Diaries today!  Or at least attempt it.  We shall see, I will share when I'm done!

Have a wonderday!