homemade gifts for kids - toys!!

Most of the homemade gifts I'm doing this year are for my daughter. Homemade toys are so fun to make. Post your ideas for homemade gifts for kids here!

Felt Food - here is the felt food I made which I've posted before - I made it for Christmas last year.
No Sew
Pizza: cut an 8 inch circle from light brown felt, a 7 inch circle from red felt and a 6 inch circle from cream felt. For toppings, cut circles of red felt for pepperoni, cut mushroom shapes out of light brown or grey felt, green pepper slices out of green felt, circles of ham from pink felt, small rectangles for pineapple bits from yellow felt, white crescent shapes for onion slices, small black circles for olives etc.
This is my sewn pizza set.


Sandwich: Cut bread shapes from tan felt. For lunch meat, cut circles from cream (turkey) or pink (ham) felt. For cheese, cut a square of orange-yellow felt for cheddar and a square of cream felt with holes in it for Swiss. For vegetables, cut a blob of lettuce out of green felt and a circle red for tomato. You could also do small circles of green for pickles. For condiments, cut blobs of yellow and white for mustard and mayo.
Another sandwich option is to make a blob of light brown felt for peanut butter and a blob of red, purple or orange for your favorite jelly color.

Also, the veggies from the sandwich and pizza can be combined to make a salad. =)

Little-Sew
If you have a sewing machine and can do a straight and zigzag stitch many more easy felt food possibilities are open for you. Make the bread slices for your sandwich thicker by using a few layers of batting. Sew the two pieces of cream or light brown bread shapes to a strip of darker brown around the edge of your bread pieces. Leave a gap for turning and stuffing and hand-stitch closed.

Some of the previously mentioned items look better with two layers sewn together around the edge with a zigzag stitch, such as peanut butter, cheese, lunchmeat, lettuce and tomato. I did a little bit of detail stitching on the lettuce and tomato, just using a straight stitch on my sewing machine – nothing fancy at all!
Sack lunch:


Breakfast: Sew a piece of batting in between two tan felt circles to make a pancake. Use a zigzag stitch around the edge. Sew strips of tan to a darker brown strip to make bacon. Cut 2 white blobs for egg whites and sew a yellow circle to the top of one for a yolk. Lower your needle and stuff the circle before completing the seam. Sew the other white blob underneath to cover your seams and give it some weight. I cut a blob of dark brown for syrup. For butter cut two little squares of yellow felt, sew together and stuff. You can also use bread from your sandwich set with butter and jam for breakfast toast.


I also printed and laminated a Menu to go with the food.

Felt Puzzles - these were fun to make too.
here are some felt puzzle tips - learn from my mistakes:

* Fill as much of the square as you can. White space makes it difficult to figure out where the piece goes. That's why I added the bubbles and seaweed to the fish puzzle. Also, the seaweed anchors the puzzle and it's easy to tell Maggie that it goes on the bottom.
* Sew everything down before cutting the puzzle up. Then stitch again around any open edges.
* Use a rotary cutter, if you have one. This should have occurred to me much sooner than it did.
* Don't make a 7" square puzzle. Seriously. Just make it 6 inches and you can easily cut it into 2" squares.

Play Mail Set - I might have posted this one before too. I made felt envelopes, and a postcard with fabric applique, and a mail bag out of a leg from an old pair of jeans.





some other play mail ideas: CraftPad - Be creative. Get crafty.: The Jolly Little Postman
CraftPad - Be creative. Get crafty.: Finishing Touches
Emmer's Ideas: Mailman Fun
Nothing Fancy: Mail Center

ABC/123 crayons - Maggie would love these!

Alphabet crayons This sites also sells the molds, but I've seen similar ones at IKEA and you could probably find them at Walmart or Big Lots

Diaper for doll

How to make a diaper for a child’s doll « Skip To My Lou

I made this one in a few minutes from scraps.



Here is a tutorial for homemade play baby wipes to go with the diapers!

Crayon rolls
Lots of free tutorials for these out there on the internet.

Here are a couple:
On a roll « Skip To My Lou
Felt Crayon Roll « Skip To My Lou