St. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and we are still busy making Valentines at our house. My daughter and I came up with these cute mustache straw Valentines for her to give out to her classmates. This is a great craft for Second and Third graders to make on their own! Read on to get this FREE printable to use to make your own mustache straw Valentines!

Supplies:

• Stache Straws by GamaGo – link below
• Washi Tape by Darice
• Yummy, Yummy Scented Glitter Pens by International Arrivals – link below
• Paper Punch
• Decorative Edged Scissors

How To:

1. Print out the free printable Valentine Printable – I Mustache You.
2. Cut out Valentine Card pieces.
3. Add washi tape to the around edges on the front and back of the Valentine Card piece. (Tape will be stuck back to back with the edge of the paper in between.)
4. Cut edges of washi tape with decorative edge scissors.
5. Paper punch a hole in the top center and bottom center of the card.
6. Use Yummy, Yummy Scented Glitter Pen in silver (watermelon) to add names and sign your Valentine card.
7. Slide Valentine Card onto straw.

Free Download: Valentine Printable – I Mustache You

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

The post How To | Valentine Mustache Straws appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Do you make your own Valentines? Do you let your kids help? This year my kids are really putting the pressure on, they each have something different they want to make. The bubble Valentines are for my preschooler. He is very excited to be able to take Valentines to school for his friends. These Valentine Bubbles were very simple and cheap and I have a FREE PRINTABLE for you to use!

* As always this free printable valentine art is for your personal use only.

Supplies:

• Bubbles in a tube – I found mine at Meijer for $3 a bag!
• Washi Tape or Printed Masking Tape
• FREE Valentine Printable
• Scissors

How To:

1. Print out FREE Valentine Printable. Sign your name in the open space next to the heart.
2. Cut out each paper strip.
3. Use a strip of Washi Tape along the top and bottom of the paper and stick to bubble tube.

Download Free Printable here: FREE Valentine Printable

The post How To | Valentine Bubbles appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

It’s the second week of Handmade Holidays on The Craft Nest. Today I have a free pattern for you! You can create this lovely hand-sewn bird ornament to give as a gift or to keep for your own tree. This is also a very easy craft for a beginning sewer or child sewer to sew by themselves.  A free pattern is included in this tutorial.

There is quite a variety of colors and decorations you can use to create and decorate this lovely bird and make it your own. I am picturing Baltimore Orioles, Cardinals and Finches. All would be so pretty dangling from a Christmas or Spring tree! Let’s get started.

Supplies:

• Craft Felt or Felted Wool
• Thread
• Needle
• Stuffing
• Bit and Baubles
• Glue
• Scissors
• Pattern – Felt Bird Ornament Pattern Download

How To:

1. Use pattern to cut out pieces from felt. You need two bird bodies and one belly. Download FREE pattern here: Felt Bird Ornament Pattern Download

2. 

   Thread needle with matching thread. Using a whip stitch, start sewing right under the birds tail. Sew all the way around the bird until you reach just under the chin.

3. 

   Lay the belly piece on the outside top of the bird body. Use a whip stitch to continue sewing one edge of the belly to the bottom edge of the bird body.

4. 

   After one side of the belly piece is sewn to the body piece, FLIP the belly piece over and sew the remaining belly edge to the remaining body edge. If there are any gaps where all three pieces come together use a whip stitch and close them up. Leave a small opening to add stuffing.

5. 

   Add stuffing into your bird ornament. I often use a chopstick or pencil to help me push stuffing into all the small areas. Sew closed using whip stitch.

6. Decorate your bird by gluing on bits and baubles. On the dove pictured at top I used false eyelashes and trimmed them to glue on for the eyes. I ordered tiny crown charms that already had a loop and stitched them onto the bird’s head.
7. Sew on an ornament hanger on the back of the neck so your bird can beautifully decorate your tree.

The post Handmade Holidays | Felt Bird Ornament Pattern appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

It’s Girl Scout cookie time. What’s your favorite? Thin Mints? Samoas? Tagalongs? Hmmm, sounds like it might be time to raid my secret stash… Let’s celebrate the Girl Scout cookie with a free printable!

I had a reader ask me to make this printable for her and I thought I would share it with all of you. Like before, one is a 5×7 .jpg and the other is a .pdf of 20 small rectangles the measure 1.25″w x 2.375″h.

I am sure you can find a lot of uses for this printable. As always I would love to see what you are creating!

You can download the FREE printables by clicking on the links below:

• Keep Calm – I Have Girl Scout Cookies-5×7

• Keep Calm – I Have Girl Scout Cookies – tags
• Keep Calm – I Have Girl Scout Cookies – 8×10

The post Printable | Keep Calm – I Have Girl Scout Cookies appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Are you in the holiday spirit yet? I have some more free printables for you because I am feeling so festive!

Print these pretty signs out and place them in a frame, make them into your Christmas card or Mod Podge them to a canvas or piece of wood to create decor for your mantle. (See some cool Mod Podge ideas here.)

I would love to see your projects, just leave feedback or a link in the comments!

As always this art is for your personal use only.

Free Downloads:

• Santa Subway Art 11×14
• Holly Jolly 8.5×11
• be jolly 5×7

The post Printable | Christmas Posters appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Are you looking for a gift for a Girl Scout or a Girl Scout leader? Well, you are in luck because I have some FREE printables for you to use.I have two printables for you. One is a 5×7 .jpg and the other is a .pdf of 20 small rectangles the measure 1.25″w x 2.375″h.

Use the large image to print out and place in a frame and give as a gift for your daughter’s leader to display on their desk or wall. The small tag size images can be used to make small ornaments or gift tags.

You can download the Free printables by clicking on these links:

• Keep Calm I’m A Girl Scout – 5×7 .jpg
• Keep Calm I’m A Girl Scout – rectangle tags .pdf

I would love to see what projects you make. Come back and leave some links in the comments!

The post Printable | Keep Calm I’m A Girl Scout appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Remember earlier in the week when I teased you with the hint of a free pattern? Here it is. A free pattern download to create a matching fleece animal hat for your daughter’s American Girl Doll or 18″ doll. This hat will also fit a 15″ Bamboletta or various styles of Waldorf dolls too.

This free doll hat download has the same animal ears to match the Fleece Animal Hat Pattern for children that you can read about and purchase here.

I hope you are getting inspired to make your holiday gifts handmade! And please share my website with your friends so they can be inspired to create handmade gifts this year too.

Please note that this pattern is for personal use only. You may not sell this pattern, variations of this pattern or hats made from this pattern.

15″ Bamboletta Doll

Supplies:

• 8″ x 22″ piece of fleece for outer layer
• 8″ x 22″ piece of fleece for inner layer
• 24″ of ribbon
• Straight Pins
• Needle and Thread
• Sewing Machine
• Scissors
• Printed Doll Fleece Animal Hat Pattern

How To:

1. Print out the pattern pieces and cut them out.
2. *note: all the sewing was done with the fabric on the outside edge of my sewing foot, unless otherwise noted.
3. Fold outer layer fabric with right sides together and pin pattern (main hat piece and ear) to fabric. Cut out main hat piece and ear. You should have two cut fabric pieces for each shape.
4. Repeat step 2 with inner layer fabric.

5. 

   With right sides together, sew along top outside edge of outer layer fabric. Repeat for inner layer fabric.

6. 

   Place the inner layer hat inside the outer layer hat. Make sure right sides are together. Cut 2 – 12″ pieces of ribbon. Sandwich the ribbon in between the layers (as shown above). Place one on each side of the hat near the bottom corner. Pin in place. Pin together layers all around edge of hat.

7. Sew around outside edge of hat. Leave at least a 2″ hole for turning the hat right side out.
8. Turn hat right side out and sew hole closed. You can use a machine or do it by hand.

9. 

   Hat turned right side out. If you don’t want to add ears, then your hat is finished!

10. 

    With right sides together, sew around outside edge of ears. You will want to sew quite close to the edge, but make sure you are catching both layers of fabric. Do not sew bottom closed.

11. 

    Turn ears right side out.

12. 

    Pin ears to hat. Hand sew ears in place.

13. 

    Your hat is done! Try hat on favorite doll to check the fit.

Free Download: Doll Fleece Animal Hat Pattern

*Please note that this pattern is for personal use only. You may not sell this pattern, variations of this pattern or hats made from this pattern.

The post Handmade Holidays | Doll Fleece Animal Hat Pattern appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

My son is in love with all things Space. For his birthday he wanted to take a Space themed treat to school to celebrate. I came up with an idea to create the Space Shuttle out of Lifesavers and Hershey’s Kisses. For me this was better than baking cupcakes! It probably was better for the teacher too, who didn’t have to help a class of Kindergarteners unwrap their cupcakes and then clean up the frosting mess afterward.

Later this week I hope to post about the Solar System mobile we made and tell about his Space themed birthday party. So check back to see what cool space projects  you can make!

***NEW – I just added a separate download for a Rolo sized wrapper. See the free downloads below.

Supplies:

• Lifesaver Rolls (I bought mine at Sam’s Club)
• Hershey’s Kisses (at Sam’s Club)
• Glue Dots
• School Glue
• White Paper
• Color Printer
• Silhouette Machine (optional)
• Black Paper
• Space Shuttle Treat Download

How To:

1. Use a large glue dot to stick a Hershey’s Kiss to the top of each Lifesaver roll.
2. Use a color printer to print out the Space Shuttle Treat Download and then cut out all the needed pieces. (If you have a Silhouette Cutter and Illustrator it will be easiest to download the file and open up the .pdf page of fins in Illustrator, then use black paper in your machine to cut out the fins.)
3. Wrap the Space Shuttle paper around the Lifesavers and adhere the wrapper to itself by making a line of glue along the long edge and overlapping the ends of the paper. Hold in place for a few seconds to let it set, then put it aside to dry.
4. Make a small fold on the long straight edge of each fin. Run a small line of glue along each (4) black line at the bottom of the space shuttle wrapper (see pic below) and adhere fins to wrapper. Hold in place for a few seconds and then put it aside to dry.
5. Use as a treat at a space themed party or pass your Space Shuttles out at school on your birthday!

Free Download: Space Shuttle Treat Download

Rolo-Sized Wrapper: Space Shuttle Treat Rolo Wrapper Download

The post How To | Space Shuttle Party Treat appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

The best part of a birthday party surprise is planning the decorations. As I said in a previous post I do all my decorating when my kids are asleep, so the decorations have to be simple to hang up. My daughter was in love when she came downstairs on the morning of her birthday and saw these lovely tissue paper bunny fans hanging from the ceiling. Want to know how to make your own? Just follow the instructions below.

How To | Tissue Paper Party Decorations

Supplies:

• Assorted Colors of Tissue Paper (I bought a pastel pack from Dollar Tree)
• Embroidery Floss
• 11×17 White Paper
• Scissors
• Double-sided Tape
• Tissue Paper Bunny Head Download
• Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

How To:

1. You need four pieces of tissue paper to create one fan. Use two pieces together and fold them using an accordion fold. Fold the second two pieces together using an accordion fold.
2. Tie both sets of folded tissue paper together in the center using embroidery floss. Leave two long tails of floss and tie them together at the top. The tissue paper will attach together inside of this open loop and will be used to hang the fans.
3. You will have four different sections of tissue paper.
4. Use pieces of double-sided tape to tape the sections together.
5. Once all sections are taped together the fan will be a complete circle.
6. Print off one bunny head shape from the file download (Tissue Paper Bunny Head). Use the one as a template to cut out multiple bunny heads. I like to staple multiple pieces of paper together and then cut them all out at once.
7. Using a hot glue gun, glue the bunny heads onto the tissue paper fans. Put a bunny head on each side.
8. Use the long thread to tape the tissue paper fans to the ceiling.

Free Download:

Click here – Tissue Paper Bunny Head

*(for personal use only)

The post How To | Bunny Party Tissue Paper Decorations appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

No party would be complete without a small take home gift for the party attendees. We made jars of bunny noses for my daughter’s friends to take home after her bunny themed birthday party. You can download the bunny noses label for free using the link below.

How To | Bunny Noses Party Favor

Supplies:

• Small Jar
• Pink Jelly Beans
• Paper
• Scissors
• Tape
• Bunny Noses Party Favor Labels

How To:

1. Print off Bunny Noses Party Favor Labels.
2. Cut out labels.
3. Use tape to adhere labels to jar.
4. Add pink jelly beans.

Free Download:

Click here – Bunny Noses Party Favor Labels

*(labels are for personal use only)

The post How To | Bunny Noses Party Favor appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.