Imagine all the neat little things that you can make with the assistance of your little one. How much assistance you receive would probably depend upon the age group you are crafting with. For instance, as of late, pirates seem to be quite trendy. There is no age group requirement to cut out a small black eye patch, tie it up with some yarn, pair it with an empty cardboard roll from toilet paper or paper towel to be a “scope” and suddenly there is hours of “argh”some playtime searching for buried treasures.

Children love to imitate their parents; they adore owning the same kind of items we believe are quite common. For example, when I decided to move away from carrying a bulky diaper bag everywhere, I moved all my essentials to a slightly oversized purse. Little did I realize what kind of effect this had on my nearly three year old. She had to have a purse too. Well, needless to say, I pulled out the felt swatches; let her select the colors and beads for adornment. In less than thirty minutes, we crafted a simple bag using braided yarn as a shoulder strap, had some quality time, used our imaginations and satisfied a need.

There are many personalized gifts as well that even the least crafty person could probably handle. For those children that are nearing the stage of losing teeth, make a tooth pillow or small wall hanging for above their headboard. If you are making a pillow simply cut to size of about 5”x5”, sew on a pocket about 2”x2” with thread, then sew the pillow together with yarn, and don’t forget to use a little stuffing. The wall hanging could be made the same size, along with the little pocket, sew or glue on some ribbon to hang it and glue beads or sparkly gems to decorate it.

If you are feeling particularly handy, make a paper template of an animal such as a bunny or teddy bear. Using the template, cut two pieces of felt to make your stuffed animal, sew, stuff and decorate however you wish. This is a great little project that you can do with children or without. The stuffed animal is great to decorate birthday gifts, baby shower presents, and stocking stuffers for Christmas or even as Easter basket buddies.  Adding a pocket on the belly could make a cute tooth pillow as mentioned earlier.

The ideas are limitless. Creativity comes to everyone, inspiration drives it.

I also considered this idea when my daughters were born, but I did not want to pay the ridiculous cost for the wooden letters. Even the unpainted ones were pretty expensive, especially if the child’s name has a lot of letters.

For my first daughter, I crocheted small (5”x5”) pillows and “cross-stitched” a single letter upon each pillow and used different colored ribbons to hang them. This made it personal and did not cost nearly as much as the wooden letters. For my second daughter, I used scrap fabrics to create pillowed letters of her name and again used different colored ribbons to hang them.

If you happen to not be as handy with a needle or hook, there are certainly many more methods out there so that you can personalize these decorations. Wallpaper sample books are usually tossed out or given away by DIY-type stores. Stencil out the letters you wish to have and using a hobby knife cut out the letters from coordinating patterns and/or colored samples. They could be hung using ribbons or thumbtacks. The same stenciling method could be used on colorful magazine pictures or even photographs. These cut-outs could be then inserted to matching pictures frames and hung on the wall.

Once you have an idea of what basic materials you want to use, do not be afraid to explore. Beads, sequins, gemstones, pearls, ribbon, buttons, silk flowers, or chain links could be added to spice up the lettering. Taking a walk through a hobby shop could provide great ideas. Creativity comes to everyone, inspiration drives it.