I have made many a tutu in my day, but this is the first for my daughter. There are tutorials all over the place and they may use other methods but this was how I learned years ago and it’s fast , easy and worth sharing.  I love the silly fun frills that come with girls and know that once she can voice her opinion about clothes, hair clips and tutus my reign supreme will be done.  She loved feeling the texture of the tutu but really it’s a fun prop for pictures at this age, in a year or so it will be good for play. The nice thing about these easy tie tutus is that you can add or remove tulle as needed as long as the ribbon is long enough. As with any object with string/rope/ribbon these are NOT to be used unsupervised, slept in or any other activity that isn’t directly supervised.

1. Gather your materials. You will need tulle ( I used a roll of  6″  wedding tulle from Wal-mart), ribbon for the waistband, thinner ribbon for contrast and scissors.
2. Measure your child’s waist with the ribbon, double it and cut.
3. I am not one to measure mostly because I am impatient with everything other than small kids but also because my son turned my yard stick into a lance to go with his Knight’s Shield. So instead I use my arms. For the tulle I did 2 arms lengths and cut. I like longer pieces because once you pop them on the ribbon they will be poofy. Tutus should be poofy!  I did 30 of these. Not all at once.
4. Then I folded the tulle 4, made a loop around the waistband ribbon, pulled it through and tightened. At the bottom you will see a loop , just snip it. 
5. Keep going after 9 I popped on a contrasting ribbon in gold. These were only one arms length and I added it on the same way.
6. Once all the tulle is on ( test it on your child a few times) make a spot in the front middle and using the same ribbon as the waistband is made from tie a bow on. This gives the illusion that the tutu is tied in the front but stops your child from being able to untie it themselves.
7. Tie it on and take pictures I am saving this for when she is a little older although she had fun practicing pulling up in it.

My mom is in Ireland right now on business and staying in castles, nice eh? Well since telling my son that he has been pretending to be in a castle in Ireland too. So today we made one out of all different shapes. We couldn’t pass up the glitter either , although looking at my floor sorta wish I did. Getting down on all fours with a dust buster and a 34 week belly is well, not fun! Decide for yourself!

1. Gather your materials. You will need 3 different colors of construction paper, scissors, glue, markers and glitter .
2. Start by cutting out large rectangles and triangles , as well as some small squares for the castle.  You can use any shapes you want but these were simple for me to cut out and simple for my son to use to build.
3. Cut out some shapes to use as windows, doors and flags in a contrasting color.
4. Invite your little castle builder to come and decorate the background.  Clouds, flowers, whatever they choose. My son made rain, because I had shown him pictures of me in Ireland and it was raining, and he was making his castle in Ireland as well.
5. Next add glue
6. Add your main castle pieces. Remember to ask and talk about the shapes. Today my question was if he turned the shape around would it still be the same shape. He had to think about that for a second.
7. Add your triangles.
8. Add the small squares.
9. Add more glue for the windows and doors.
10. Add the contrasting shapes. My son didn’t want the flags, or all the shapes I cut so they went into my scrap bin.
11. Next up glitter, add the glue first ( we took turns adding glue).
12. Add the glitter. Immediately regret it when you watch your child rub the super fine glitter into their PJs, and hair. Send them onto the back porch to shake off.
13. Let dry. I always let the glue dry before shaking the excess glitter off.

Princess Books

The Princess and the Pizza by Mary Jane and Herb Auch is really a cute re telling of the classic Princess and the Pea. They have modernized it and made it a little more feminist in the process, exactly my kind of book. The text is a little long for toddlers but my son sat through about half before wanting to go back and look at the illustration of the horse on the first page. The message is sweet, saying that a woman doesn’t need a man or marriage to attain her goals! Beware though it will make you crave pizza!

Princess Smartypants by Brenda Cole is the antithesis of the classic beautiful frail princess stories, but it still ends with happily ever after.  Princess Smartypants does her own thing and doesn’t understand why her family is so obsessed with finding her a husband. She bends to their wishes but still does things her way. I think this is a great message about happiness and confidence for girls and balances out some of the other princess stories. She was happy just the way she is and didn’t  need a spouse to feel complete.

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch is one of my very favorite books. Some parents have shared their dislike of Elizabeth’s outburst at the end calling Ronald a bum but I think not only is it justified, he treated her horribly, but people say things when they are angry and you can easily use it to teach your child about anger. I think it’s a wonderful story about a princess taking things into her own hands and saving herself and the prince! My kind of fairytale.

You May Also Like :

Shape Dinosaur
Shape Pizza
Princess Wand

Naptime Creation!

It’s been a long time since we made a naptime creation. What that is for those new here are crafts for older kids- older being relative of course. This would be perfect for the 5-8 crowd! Instead of candy, cookies or the plain old paper valentine’s why not make your friends their very own princess wand? This valentine will be used long after February 14th! I chose to make a fringe but you could glue on sequins or plastic gems too!

1. Gather your materials. You will need some sparkly sticky back foam, a dowel, a hole punch,double stick tape,  some ribbon, a marker, scissors, some fun card stock and a cookie cutter for a stencil .
2. Start by tracing the heart cookie cutter on the back of the foam.
3. Cut out.
4. Punch holes in both foam pieces, make sure they match up!
5. Peel the backing off and sandwich the dowel in between the sticky foam.
6. Cut the ribbon into short pieces.
7. Tie the ribbon onto the wand.
8. Using pretty card stock  and double stick tape make a gift tag and write a message.
9. Tie onto the wand and it’s ready to be given to your fellow princess!  

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Princesses and the color pink are both welcome and well loved in our house. My son’s favorite sippy cup right now is one with Cinderella so we decided to make a princess wand . Using sticky back foam is crucial for keeping this craft in the realm of super easy! I couldn’t beleive how well it held up to my son’s abuse this morning, the jewels stayed on, although please only do this craft with kids that will not place the jewels in their mouths, they are a choking hazard. You could use markers and simply skip the jewels and glue.

1. Gather your materials. You will need a sheet of sticky back foam ( sparkly if you can), a dowel, glue, plastic gems or sequins, scissors , ribbon and a marker.
2. Start by drawing 2 identical stars on the back of the  same sheet of foam. I used a star cookie cutter as a stencil.
3. Cut out. Do not take the back off yet.
4. Invite your child to come and glue the gems on. We played with them for a while, pointing out shapes, and colors.
5. Let dry. This took a long time. I pressed all the gems down a few hours after to make sure that the sparkly surface was stuck to the gem.
6. When dry peel back the paper on the underside of the star to reveal the stickiness press the dowel into it.
7. Peal back the paper on the 2nd and sandwich the dowel, press down carefully but with some force.
8. Add a ribbon and you are ready to rule the kingdom!

Books

“Princess Smartypants” by Brenda Cole is the antithesis of the classic beautiful frail princess stories, but it still ends with happily ever after.  Princess Smartypants does her own thing and doesn’t understand why her family is so obsessed with finding her a husband. She bends to their wishes but still does things her way. I think this is a great message about happiness and confidence for girls and balances out some of the other princess stories. She was happy just the way she is and didn’t  need a spouse to feel complete.

“Good Night Princess Pruney Toes” by Lisa McCourt  is a fun carefree book about a happy loving father and daughter. Princess Pruney Toes emerges from her bath to rule over her kingdom before bed. I love that the dad in this story follows along with his daughter’s imagination. I think it’s so important for parents to play with their kids and what’s better than pretend play? This lovely book is another fresh look at what makes a princess and that even princesses wishes can be easy to grant.

“The Paper Bag Princess” by Robert Munsch is one of my very favorite books. Some parents have shared their dislike of Elizabeth’s outburst at the end calling Ronald a bum but I think not only is it justified, he treated her horribly, but people say things when they are angry and you can easily use it to teach your child about anger. I think it’s a wonderful story about a princess taking things into her own hands and saving herself and the prince! My kind of fairytale.

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