Great Gift Idea: Pillow Personalized by Your Kids

With the Holidays right around the corner, many parents are trying to find fresh ideas to make a custom, personalized gift for friends and relatives. Sure, we have all done our share of crafts with the kids' hand prints and pictures on your home printer. You may have even picked up a recordable greeting card or two to give to your folks. Believe it or not, for only a few dollars each, you can make a keepsake pillow with all three - your child's hand print, a photo chosen by you, and a playable greeting recorded by you.

My daughter and I made these three pillows as Christmas gifts for her father and grandparents. They turned out better than I'd expected, and only took a couple of hours to make (not including the paint drying overnight). My favorite part is the fact that you can press a button in the pillow and hear my daughter tell each recipient, "Merry Christmas" and "I love you." Here is a video of the finished product. Step-by-step instructions can be found after the jump:




What you'll need:

-Fabric pieces large enough for the front and back of the pillow. I used colorful scraps for the front and muslin for the back.
-Fabric paint
-Inkjet Cotton Sheets
-Inkjet printer
-Fiberfill for pillow stuffing (not pictured)
-Voice Recordable Module (10 sec) - Available on Ebay
-Scissors
-Iron
-Paintbrush
-Paper and pen for heart pattern
-You'll also need either a sewing machine or needle and thread

To get started, decide how large you want your heart-shaped pillow to be. Fold a piece of white paper, then draw half of a heart along the fold. Cut your pattern.

Iron your fabric to get all the wrinkles out, then fold it so that you'll be able to use your pattern on it.

Place your pattern with the straight edge along the fold of the fabric, then cut along the curved edges of your pattern.

Next, get out the recordable modules and let your kids record their messages. The good news is that they can keep recording over and over until they get one that all of you like.

A couple of notes about the recordable modules: they're readily available on Ebay and other websites, but they all (unfortunately) appear to ship from overseas*. You'll want to keep this in mind for shipping times and availability - it may take a couple of weeks to receive them. Also, mine didn't come with instructions. To use them,  first remove a clear tab from the circuit board (just pull it straight out). This activates the battery connection. To record, press the button connected to the red wire. The button connected to the yellow wire is to play back. The third small round item is the microphone, and your children will want to put it close to their mouths when they speak. They can say anything you'd like (obviously). My daughter just kept it simple and said, "Merry Christmas, Daddy (Grandma, etc.). I love you."

Once you get the recording you want, clip the red-wired button off to avoid accidentally erasing your message. This will be crucial as you handle the module and put it inside your pillow.

You'll also want to somehow label which module is for which pillow, if you're making more than one at a time.

Next, coat your child's hand with fabric paint and let them put hand prints on the pillows.

At this point, replace the plain white paper in your inkjet printer with as many Inkjet Cotton Sheets as you'll need. Print out your pictures onto the cotton sheets. You may want to do a few test prints onto plain white paper first and check the photo sizes on your hearts, to make sure they're the size you'd like.

I then used fabric paint to paint the words, "Little Hands, Big Heart" on the fronts of the pillows.

Both the printed cotton and the fabric paint will need to completely dry before you proceed. Most manufacturers recommend 24 hours, but you will want to follow the manufacturer's instructions for your specific products.

Once the paint and photo print are completely dry, you're ready to complete the pillow. Place the hearts onto the fabric you chose for the backs of your pillows, and cut around the edges.

Remove the paper backing from your printed cotton photo and trim the excess cotton away from the photo.

Sew the cotton photo onto the back of the pillow.

Place the fabric pieces right sides together.

Sew them together, leaving an opening about 3 - 4 inches along one edge.

Turn the hearts right side out by pulling the fabric through the openings. Be sure to push the fabric all the way out along the seams so that the heart shape shows well. Get out your fiberfill.

Stuff your pillows with fiberfill.

I can't stress this enough: If you haven't already done it, double check your module one last time to make sure that it hasn't been accidentally erased, and if it's still intact, snip the red-wired button on your module. If you try to stuff it into the pillow intact, your message will surely be erased.

Place the module into your pillow. You'll want to leave the speaker (largest round part) near the fabric, and you'll want the yellow-wired button to be kept to the side. The rest can be placed into the middle, inside the fiberfill, so it will be cushioned. Once most of it is tucked away, place the yellow-wired button in the lower part of the pillow (the bottom of the V in the heart, if you will).

Close the opening in the seam by using your sewing machine or needle and thread.

I then used a foam sticker and pen to mark the button on our pillows, but you could either skip this step and demonstrate it yourself, or use any other temporary method of showing the recipient where to press the button to hear the greeting.

That's it! Obviously, if you wanted to skip any of these steps and, for example, just do the pillow without the greeting, or leave off the photo on the back, it would still be a cute keepsake that anyone would appreciate.

*Heads up American manufacturers! I would have gladly paid more if any American-made modules had been available.

Make a Dog Sweater from an Old Human Sweater

We have a long-haired Chihuahua, and even though he's pretty big as far as Chihuahuas go, he's a little dog and gets cold pretty easily. He has made it clear that the past few mornings have been much too cold for his tastes by shivering for several minutes after he comes back in from outside.

We decided to make him a doggie sweater from an old sweater I'd kept for craft projects. It's mostly cotton and not the most attractive sweater around, so I thought it'd be perfect for our sweet little dog.

For a small dog like ours, one sleeve is all that is needed, so there is plenty left over for a purse, hat, or other project.

To get started, measure your dog's neck size and then measure around the small end of the sleeve (stretched) to ensure it will fit over his or her head. Then, measure from the base of the neck (collar) down the back as far as you want the sweater to go. Cut that length of sleeve.

Cut the sleeve open, leaving approximately 3" at the narrow end intact.

At this point, you'll want to do a test fit to double check the neck size and length down the dog's back.

Now, go back to the sweater and remove the rest of the sleeve you've already cut.

This will fill in the chest and upper stomach area of the sweater, so do a rough fit and cut two leg openings in the piece. Try it on your dog to make sure the leg openings are wide enough.

Take both pieces off your dog and sew them together by placing them right sides together, then sew down each side. I used a narrow length, wide zigzag stitch to ensure that the sweater doesn't fray.

Finish off all the edges, including the leg holes, with a narrow length, wide zigzag stitch. You could also hem the edges for a more finished look, or if you're a perfectionist. (I am not, obviously.)

Our dog is a male who squats like a girl when he pees, so I didn't want the sweater to come down very far on his stomach. If you have a girl dog or a boy who pees with his leg up, you could use a wider second piece for more coverage.

It isn't the most attractive doggie sweater I've ever seen, but he definitely likes it. We can just call this his "staying in" sweater, and we'll make him a prettier one for going out on the town.

Getting Rid of Halloween Candy (Without Eating it All!)

The official Holiday Eating Season begins each Halloween. Do you find yourself facing pounds and pounds of your kids' candy? If you want to do something with it that won't add pounds and pounds to you and your family, start a new tradition - the Halloween Witch!

I got this idea from a friend, and I was lucky enough that she told me when my daughter was only 1. If she'd been older, she may not have gone for it. This is the third year the Halloween Witch has visited us, and my daughter, at 4 this year, seemed more excited about being visited by the witch than most of the other Halloween activities.

The day after Halloween, my daughter pulls out the candy she really wants to keep. 

The rest goes into a bag and placed out on our front porch for the Halloween Witch.

The Witch visits at Midnight and leaves something nice for my daughter as a sign of her gratitude. My daughter believes that the witch takes her extra candy and shares it with children who may not have been able to get as much candy as she had on Halloween. 

In reality, my husband just takes the extra candy to his dentist, who participates in the Halloween Candy Buy Back, to send the candy to our troops overseas. 

I seem to be the only one in our house with a relentless sweet-tooth, so not having the candy here to tempt me is worth a little bribery!

Words, Please!

Dear Internet,

I just want to read. I don't want to open a web page and watch a video, listen to a podcast, or navigate an infographic. It's okay if these are offered as secondary options, but not the only content available. I realize that this request is considered somewhat "old-fashioned", but I really just want to read words on a screen.

Thanks, and have a nice day!

Love,
Me