Hansel and Gretel finger puppets

I've been working on some new finger puppets based on classic children's stories and fairy tales, and today I present to you: Hansel and Gretel!

The finger puppet set includes Hansel, Gretel, the evil witch, and her candy house.

I had so much fun designing and making this set, especially the adorable clothes for Hansel and Gretel.  I have a special love of German culture, since I speak German (though rather poorly these days) have been to Germany several times, and lived in Austria for a short time, so it was especially fun to make their cute traditional German clothes.  Gretel is wearing a dirndl, a traditional dress, and braids (of course!), and Hansel is wearing lederhosen (which literally means leather pants).  The tiny little patterned detailing on the apron and lederhosen are probably my favorite part.

And of course the witch had to have a hat, stringy hair (made from twine) and a nice wart.

The witch's house is made to look like it has gum balls and candy canes and gum drops and icing.  Delicious!  :)

And it's a pouch to store the puppets in.

And I'm excited to say that the Hansel and Gretel set is now available in the shop!

Bible stories finger puppets

I've spent the last few days working on some new finger puppets, and I'm so excited about them!  I've been wanting to do some Bible story finger puppet sets for a while now, and even had a few designed but not made, but then I got a custom order request.  I guess that motivated me to at least do those ones!

The order is for a vacation Bible school, and they wanted puppets for the story of Naaman and Elisha, Noah's ark (which I already have in my shop) and the story of Jesus calming the seas.

So here are a few pictures of the finger puppets I made for this order.

Jesus in a boat with two apostles, and rain cloud above

One of the fun details about the rain cloud and boat is that they can be used as "puppets" too - they both have slots on the back where you can slide a dowel to hold them up.

Simon Peter, Jesus, and Paul

(although really, they could be any of the apostles...)

The prophet Elisha, Naaman the leper, and the servant girl

I'll be adding several new Bible story finger puppet sets to the shop soon!  

gardening

Some of my craft projects have been put to the back burner lately because I've been spending more time out in the garden!  I've been trying to get everything planted now that the sun has been shining and it's not getting below freezing over night.  Unfortunately, my big belly and the ensuing back aches have limited my garden time... but over the past couple weeks I've gotten a fair amount planted, and it's starting to look good!

This was taken the first week of April - still rather dead looking

This was taken May 1.  So much more is growing!  I planted some new things, and lots of the plants from last year started coming back to life.  It looks even better now, just a week later - some of the flowers have started to blossom!

This is one of my favorite little bedding areas in the yard.  Some of the plants are coming back from last year, and lots of them are new and just starting to grow and fill in, like some gorgeous peonies (hopefully we'll actually get blossoms on it this summer).  And we're planting another lilac, some hollyhocks, and some other things here too.  By next year this area will be amazing!

I can't wait to start eating those delicious peas and juicy tomatoes and sweet watermelons.  That is definitely the best part about a vegetable garden!  Everything just tastes so much better!  Unfortunately I don't have any good pictures of the vegetable garden yet... I just find the flowers so much more photogenic!

But while I wait for all my fruits and vegetables, I get to enjoy some of the spring blossoms.

A beautiful pink double tulip

A red columbine in full bloom

Oh, I just love spring!

Now I should go actually finish up the new Bible story puppets I've been working on so I can share those with you too.

plush alphabet magnets - part 3: finished!

Once you've got your pattern, and sewn all your pieces, you're almost done!  All that's really left is to put the magnets on.

I used the adhesive magnet strips you can get at craft stores, and just cut it up into little pieces and stuck them on the back.  So easy!

And now they're ready to play with on your fridge, a cookie sheet, or with the quiet book matching game I made to go with them.

For the free printable version of all the quiet book pages, click here.

(Here's a preview of the first page)

Just print it out, then slip the pages into sheet protectors, and put more magnet strip pieces over the letters and shapes on the pages.  The easiest way to do this so they'll actually line up is just to stick the magnet piece intended for the page on the magnet on the plush letter/shape, then peel the paper off so the sticky side is exposed, and line the plush letter or shape up with the one on the page, pressing to make the second magnet stick to the page.  Ready to use!

If you don't feel like using it as a quiet book, it would also make some great coloring pages!  Or you could use it as a quiet book or file folder game just with paper pieces to match if you don't want to take the time to sew all the pieces.

Jack playing with his alphabet magnets for the first time.  He was kind of confused at first why they were all stuck.  Then he found one made from the same fabric as his "blankie" and held it up to his cheek.  Too cute.