Here’s How to Crochet Your Own Baby Yoda

by Shahrzad WarkentinDecember 17, 2019

Fans just can’t get enough of Baby Yoda and with the holiday season in full swing you might been the hunt for one of your own to put under the tree. Now you can crochet one to gift to your favorite young Jedi.

While there are already dozens of plush and collectible Baby Yoda in the making, none of them will be available until after the holidays are long over. If you just can’t wait that long, break out your yarn and check out these Baby Yoda crochet instructions you can score from Etsy shop PhilaeArtes.

For just $5 you can get a digital file with a crochet pattern to create your very own Baby Yoda, or as he’s actually called in The Mandalorian, “The Child.”

If you want to add a tiny Yoda to your tree, PhilaeArtes is also selling a crochet pattern for a Baby Yoda ornament.

—Shahrzad Warkentin

All photos: PhilaeArtes via Etsy

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Eerie Entry: How to Turn Your Door into a Monster

by Amber GuetebierOctober 5, 2019

You don’t have to live in the brooding mansion atop Spook Hill to flash a little haunted house style all your own. Welcome a monster into the home with this easy, DIY Halloween decoration for kids: the transformation of an ordinary door into a ghoulish delight.

Using an inside-door opens up the possibility for materials (no weather-proofing needed) but you can also adapt this to your entryway or exterior door if you want to wow trick-or-treaters. Read on for a simple tutorial on turning any portal into a monster worthy of Dr. Frankenstein’s lab.

You will need:

A door

Scissors

Any combination of the following materials:

Tape—masking or painter’s tape works great, comes in many colors and doesn’t peel off the paint when you remove it.

Paper plates or construction paper—can be used to make the eyes as well as the nose or teeth.

Felt, faux fur, ribbons—The possibilities are endless. Great way to use leftover costume making supplies.

Plastic bags—work well for outside-dwelling door monsters.

Googly eyes, puff balls, yarn, etc.— anything you can think of to make eyes, a nose and a mouth.

Adhesive stuff—glue, double-sided tape, scotch tape. You’ll want something like double-sided to attach the eyes, nose, etc. to the door as well as glue or tape to create things like the eyes.

Gather your supplies. You’ll want to cut out eyes, nose and mouth before hand, and assemble anything like eyes before attatching. Hair can be made from strands of tape, faux fur, slices of paper or yarn.

These eyes are giant, glow-in-the-dark googly eyes, attached to paper plates. Let the kids draw the squiggly “bloodshot” lines on the plates. And remember, this is a monster. One, three and even twenty-one eyes are all acceptable. Attach you eyes, nose, mouth, hair and eyebrows. Embellish with stitches or other fun ideas. Voila! You have created a monster.

Did you create a Door Monster? Share your pics with us at #redtricycle #rtdoormonster on Instagram or Facebook.

—All photos and story by Amber Guetebier

7 Ways to Get Creative That Won’t Ruin Your Home

by Shahrzad WarkentinJune 6, 2019

Top of mind this summer: keeping your kids busy without turning your living room into a toy-tornado zone. Good news: We uncovered plenty of ways to play and get creative that are mess-free. From engaging digital coloring activities you can download with one simple click from the Amazon Appstore Family to transforming a pool noodle into a light saber, scroll down for seven ideas that’ll take you from the first day of summer to the last—no slime or glitter required.

Kids Coloring Fun

There’s no better summer boredom-buster than good old fashioned coloring. Take those coloring books into the future with an app that allows little artists to color and create to their heart's content without any wasted paper or worry that those colors will end up outside the lines and on your walls. Pink Fong’s Kids Coloring Fun app, available in Amazon Appstore Family, your go-to hub for top apps for kids ages three to 12 years old. This Coloring Fun app offers hours of mess-free creativity with over 220 coloring pages and tools that include digital stickers, and even glitter, and all you have to do is turn it off when you’re done—no clean-up required!

Origami Transformers

Avoid summer brain drain and have some no-mess fun making origami stars. Kids will put their STEM skills to the test with math art that’s so much fun to play with they won’t even realize they’re learning. Get the full tutorial on folding origami paper into ninja stars from What Do We Do All Day?

Make a Light Saber

Soft pool noodles aren’t just great for water play, they're also the perfect accessory for a safe and mess-free light saber battle. Take advantage of the abundance of pool noodles on sale for the summer to make this out-of-this-galaxy craft. After kids have designed their light sabers you can let them loose to play without worrying about anything breaking. Check out the full details from Muddy Boots.

Kids Doodle 2 - Color and Draw

Neon and glow-in-the-dark projects are always fun for those warm summer nights, but they can get a little messy. Get your glow on with the Kids Doodle 2 app—available in Amazon Appstore Family—which offers the perfect way to get creative without any mess. A great option for your older artists who need something more than a coloring page, the app features endless bright colors and 18 different brush styles including glow, neon and rainbow, and once the masterpieces are completed, the young artists can display their work in a mini movie gallery.

Yarn Doll

Popsicle sticks, yarn and a little imagination is all you need for this fun, low-mess craft that offers hours of creative play. Kids can decorate the sticks in different colors and add faces, then they can put on a puppet show or just play. Check out the full details at Happy Hooligans.

Baby Shark Catcher

If your playful tots can’t stop singing Baby Shark, they’ll love doo-doo-doing this cute paper craft shark from Easy Peasy and Fun. With nothing more than paper and scissors, they’ll have a mini shark made in no time that they can use to chomp away the day, pretending to be under the sea without actually needing any water. You can download the full instructions and free template here.

Tape Town

Those dog days of summer can get long when the kids have already played with same toys over and over. You can spice things up and get creative with nothing more than a few roles of washi tape. Transform those been-there, done-that cars and dolls by letting your kids tape out a city on the floor for creative play. When they’re done all you have to do is pull the tape off, no mess guaranteed.

Check out more creative, mess-free ways to play this summer with Amazon Appstore Family.

—Shahrzad Warkentin

Featured photo: Amazon

This 11-Year-Old Is Making the World a Better Place, One Crochet Project at a Time

by Shahrzad WarkentinFebruary 13, 2019

If you’re looking for a little inspiration to finish that sewing project you’ve been meaning to get to, look no further than this 11-year-old Wisconsin boy known as the “crocheting prodigy.” Jonah Larson was just five years old when he taught himself how to crochet by watching YouTube videos. Now at age 11 he runs a full-fledged crocheting business out of his house.

His business is Instagram-based where he takes custom orders and has over 46,000 followers. Not only is he an incredibly talented artist, he’s also a generous one. Jonah routinely donates his work and his profits to the Ethiopian orphanage where he was adopted as an infant.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtOU-aShrjj/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs3rt_Zg49r/

His mom, Jennifer Larson, who runs his Instagram account explained, “I don’t buy his yarn for him. He buys his own yarn from the profits he makes from selling. He saves some money, he’s investing some money and he donates as well. So those are things I think are important in life for adults to do, and I’m glad that he can learn that at an early age.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqYl9wNAym6/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsQe42dg1gd/

After being featured in a newspaper in his hometown of La Crosse, Wisconsin, Jonah became a viral sensation and has been flooded with so many orders he has been forced to temporarily stop taking requests.

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Jonah told NPR, “After a very hard, busy, chaotic day in this busy world with school, it’s just nice to know that I can come home and crochet in my little corner of the house while sitting by the one I love most: my mom.”

Heart. Melted.

—Shahrzad Warkentin

Featured photo: jonahhands via Instagram

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Pixar’s Latest Short Has a Powerful Message & We Are Loving It

by Shahrzad WarkentinFebruary 12, 2019

If you thought Pixar’s Bao was moving, wait until you see the how the newest Pixar short, Purl, “weaves” an empowering message on feminism and women at work.

Any woman that’s ever felt out of place in a male-dominated workplace can relate to what short film’s star is going through. Purl is a pink ball of yarn and struggles to fit in at her new job where she is the only female—and yarn ball. Though she changes herself to get along with the “bros” in her office, she eventually discovers that she doesn’t have to set aside her femininity to be accepted.

“My first job, I was like the only woman in the room, and so in order to do the thing that I loved, I sort of became one of the guys,”director Kristen Lester told Polygon. “And then I came to Pixar, and I started to work on teams with women for the first time, and that actually made me realize how much of the female aspect of myself I had sort of buried and left behind.”

Purl is the first release to come out of Pixar’s new SparkShorts Program, which was created to highlight new storytellers and explore new storytelling techniques. The program has also produced another short, Smash & Grab (a robot love story). Kitbull, a short about a pitbull and a kitten, is launching soon. More SparkShorts will be available to watch on Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+, when it launches later this year.

—Shahrzad Warkentin

Featured photo: Disney Pixar via YouTube

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Living Kindness: Make a Good Deed Advent Calendar

by Melissa HeckscherNovember 14, 2018

Looking for something more meaningful than a piece of chocolate to put behind those advent calendar doors? This simple, DIY advent calendar gives kids good deeds to do every day leading up to Christmas (or Hanukkah, which starts this year on Dec. 12). You can adapt it to any month, though, if you want to do one that is 30 or 31 days. Read on for the how-to.

What you’ll need:

Paper

Twine, yarn, or string to hang advent bags

24 small muslin bags (30-31 if you’re going for a month)

24 clothespins (30-31 if you’re going for a month)

Number stickers (enough to label numbers) or fabric paint

Charms or other trinkets (optional)

Glue gun (not pictured)

Step One: Brainstorm Acts of Kindness

Sit down with your kids and talk about what it means to be kind, and what they can do to practice kindness (Need ideas? Check out this story). Some ideas our young kindness crew came up with included:

– Call Nana

– Pick up trash

– Let someone in front of you in line at school

– Hug a friend

Then, have them write these simple acts on small squares of paper to go inside the muslin bags.

Step Two: Number the Bags

Use number stickers or fabric paint to label all 24 muslin bags (we think gold glitter looks holiday-festive, but any color will do). Note: If using stickers, use a hot glue gun or other strong glue to secure the stickers to the bag; otherwise, they won’t stick for long.

Step Three: Put Stuff Inside

Put the acts of kindness cards into each muslin bag. To up the excitement factor, you can also add trinkets or candy. Our best suggestion — Drop these heart-shaped charms into each bag (they’re about $8 for a box of 50) so your kids can make “kindness necklaces” to remember all those sweet, nice things they did.

Step Four: Hang it Up!

Hang all the bags on a wall, across a mantle — wherever works! Start opening the bags on Dec. 1 and keep on cranking out those acts of kindness until Christmas Eve (and, hopefully, every day thereafter). If you’d rather keep your December decor secular, just add a few more days and call it a countdown to the new year.

Keep the kindness coming…
Inspired? Check out these free lesson plans from RandomActsOfKindness.org that teach kids how to be fair, kind, and respectful all year long.

Show Your Toys”R”Us Gift Card at Michaels Stores & Get a Discount—But Be Quick

by Karly WoodMay 10, 2018

If you blink, you’ll miss it! With the inevitable closure of both Toys”R”Us and Babies”R”Us on the horizon, retailers everywhere are stepping in to fill the void the toy and baby gurus are leaving. This week, craft giant Michaels is offering a discount when you show your TRU or BRU gift card.

From now until Saturday, May 12 simply bring in your gift cards when you do your craft shopping at Michaels. You’ll receive a $5 discount when you purchase $20 or more!

It’s such a bummer that we are bidding farewell to some of our beloved stores, but this discount is a reminder that it’s time to get creative and look for new places to shop when we need gift and activities.

Michaels is so much more than just a place to buy faux florals and scrapbook paper. Use this coupon to check out tons of fun supplies for crafts like jewelry, beading, painting, Perler beads, foam designs and yarn. The best part? It’s screen free fun and we’ll take all the discounts we can get!

––Karly Wood

Feature Photo: Mike Mozart via Flickr

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“That’s What She Said” Is the Joke That Will Never Die for Your Kids

By Andrew Knott

Tinybeans Voices Contributor

November 10, 2017

“It was the end of a long day, and even though I knew better, it just slipped out,” said Sharon, a 31-year-old mother of two, in reference to her recent usage of a ‘That’s What She Said’ joke within earshot of her 5-year-old son Rory.

“Rory was playing with a puzzle on the floor of our living room while I was getting the mac and cheese on to cook in the kitchen,” Sharon explained. “He started getting frustrated and exclaimed, ‘This is so hard!’”

His words just hung there in the air, waiting for the obvious response.

“So, of course, I said, ‘That’s what she said!’ And then everything went south.”

Sharon reported that Rory proceeded to bombard her for the next three hours with a series of questions ranging from “Who is she?” and “Why is that what she said?” to “Why hasn’t she come to my house?” and “If she said that, why didn’t I know about it until now?”

“Before I knew it,” Sharon recalled, “I was caught up in the most elaborate lie of my life. I thought my first marriage could never be topped in that regard, but this managed to do it. An imaginary friend I met at the gym named Olga played a starring role. It got so bad that I started to feel a little bit of empathy for Kellyanne Conway, but then I remembered that I didn’t.”

Not surprisingly, Sharon’s yarn made very little headway with Rory.

“After hour three of the inquisition I just had to go lie down in my bedroom, turn the lights off, and place a cold compress on my forehead,” Sharon said.

“While I was lying there I thought about a lot of things. Like how exactly it was that I arrived at this moment. Do you know I have master’s degree in European history? Maybe I should go back and finish my Ph.D. I bet I could finish it up in three or four years or so. Perhaps by then Rory will have forgotten about ‘That’s what she said.’”

Syndicated from Medium.

Featured Photo Courtesy: White77 via Pixabay

Andrew Knott

Tinybeans Voices Contributor

Andrew is a writer from Orlando, Florida and father of three. He is a regular contributor to numerous publiations including McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, HuffPost, The Funny Times, TODAY Parents, and Parent.co. His website is Explorations of Ambiguity. His first book, Fatherhood: Dispatches From the Early Years, is available now.

9 Storage Solutions for Your Kid’s Crafty Clutter

by Erica LoopOctober 19, 2017

Your imaginative little artist is all about taking out the paints, markers, glue, glitter, yarn and paper. But, what about putting it all away? Um, that kind of never happens. So you end up stashing the supplies in the first empty shopping bag you grab or tossing them into a junk cabinet. Yup, you’re in need of some artsy organization—right now. Before your child’s crafting cascade takes over your home, scroll down to check out these simple (yet totally genius) storage solutions!

photo: Mini Monets and Mommies

1. Tape It Up
You have a zillion used tissue boxes sitting around. You could toss the boxes. Or, you could reuse those boxes and turn them into colorful craft storage. Break out a rainbow of duct tape, and use it to decorate an empty tissue box. Now it’s ready to hold pencils, markers, paintbrushes, pipe cleaners and more.

photo: Lolly Jane

2. Dino Designs
Who has a dino-loving kiddo? Yep, that’s you. Then this rad storage jar DIY from Lolly Jane is your child’s dream. Oh, and you can also store your child’s play dough or modeling clay in it. That makes this crafty storage solution fabulous and totally functional.

photo: Just A Girl Blog

3. Caddy Up
All of those art supplies won’t organize themselves. Just A Girl Blog created this cute caddy that makes storage so, so, so simple. You can separate all of your child’s supplies into individual spaces, and move them from room to room in this portable (and awesome) option.

photo: Mini Monets and Mommies

4. Egg Them On
Wait! Don’t throw away that old egg carton. As long as it’s clean (no random egg shells or gooey drips), you can reuse it as a craft caddy. If you have loads of loose glitter, craft sand or anything that’s similarly small, tame it with this recycled storage “bin”. Just close the top when your littler crafter is done for the day, and pack the carton away.

photo: Sew Many Ways

5. File It Away
The mountain of scrap fabric and felt that your child is amassing may just be taking over. Tossing it all into a box is making your organizer-self go kind of crazy. Instead, sort it all out, and file it away like Sew Many Ways did.

photo: Damask Love

6. Spin a Yarn
Craft storage can look pretty too. Damask Love made this baker’s twine organizer that you can also use for spools of yarn, floss or ribbon. Not only will it organize all of those loose ends, but it makes a sweet little display too.

photo: Ana White

7. DIY Dream
Craft storage gets fantastically functional with this homemade table from Ana White. Your child can sit and draw to her heart’s delight, and it also stores all of the artsy items. That’s right, your child can store their materials inside of the table—and not in a desk type of way.
photo: Gabby Cullen

8. Kit and Caboodle
Any child of the ’80s and ’90s will remember the Caboodle. With layers of trays, organizing supplies for creative work has never been so easy. Plus, the super solid latch ensures not one bit goes astray.

9. Cute Crayon Caddy
As if traveling doesn’t present enough packing challenges when you have kids in tow, add on a craft bag and you have a recipe for a mega-mess. Don’t lose all of those crayons in the cracks and crevices of the minivan. Instead, load them into a DIY crayon caddy. Simply reuse an old travel diaper wipe container, turning it into a crayon-sized holder. If you have more than a few crayons (or want to store markers and pens too), reuse a regular-sized diaper wipe container.

Do you have your own crafty storage solution? Share it in the comments below!

— Erica Loop

10 Splurge-Worthy Baby Shower Gifts

by Katie BrownOctober 19, 2017

While the greatest gift you could give new parents would be a 25-hour day including a full night’s rest, we’ve compiled a list of baby shower splurges that are a pretty close second. From the coziest crib sheets to high-tech bassinets, read on to discover something to W-O-W every expecting parent. Dare to dream…or hope guests will go in on big-ticket items!

Finn & Emma Rattle Buddy

This precious hand-knit rattle is made in Peru with organic cotton yarn and eco-friendly inks and dyes and is stuffed with sheep’s wool. It makes for cozy snuggling and stimulates the senses with a shake or two. Choose from Daisy the Zebra, Ramsay the Raccoon, Kellan the Elephant, Finley the Fox, Belle the Bunny, and many more.

Available at finnandemma.com, $28.

Which item is your favorite splurge? Let us know in the comments!

— Katie Brown

ML Interest Tag: yarn

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