Guest post from Melonie

I am so excited to share this post from Melonie!  I always love the ideas for kids that she shares on her blog, and am so happy that she came up with a couple of new ones for this post!  Thank you so much for the awesome ideas, Melonie! 

-------------------------------------------------------

Hi Bekka's Blog fans!!! I am super excited and honored to be here guesting for Bekka this week. I am sure that little Liam has been doing a great job of keeping his Mama busy....but all too quickly Bekka will be looking for things to keep Liam busy and that is where the projects that I want to share with you today come in:)

As I was scouring the aisles of the  store the other day thinking about what I would write for this very post......a pot holder hit me in the face...no literally it hit me in the face and I considered it to be crafty fate.  :) 

Hey I don't mess with the hands of the craft Gods.

Long story short  I picked that pot holder up and gathered a few of his friends and headed home to create something out of him.

Here is what I came up with:
 

There are endless possibilities for homemade and personalized toys out there but what I like about using pot holders is most of the hard work is already done for you making the projects I am showing you here today very easy to  create in just an afternoon. You know in between naps, and snacks, and laundry, and the rest of that endless list of to-dos.   If your child is older you can even create these together and personalize them to keep him or her busy in the car...or more importantly at your favorite restaurant because lets face it after a long day in the house tackling that aforementioned list...who doesn't love a night out?

Materials needed:
 pot holders

felt and or fabric scraps
ribbon in assorted textures
and basic sewing skills.

I started the busy book off by cutting out a  couple of critters from  felt.  As I said above try to personalize the book to  YOUR child.  Make your busy book work for you.  If he or she likes a certain animal,  make the book revolve around that animal...if he or she likes to  color you can add a crayon holder like the one shown below:

If little Liam should end up liking cars or trains it would be really neat to make a couple of pages with a felt road and a pocket to hold the cars or trains in. ABC's and 123's you name it you can craft it.
Here are the remaining pages of the book that I made:

picture pages to put some of those super cute photos of Liam and his Mommy and Daddy in...or simply a place to showcase his artwork.  :)

a pocket page to hold a favorite rattle or other small toys and a peek-a-boo page...everybody loves peek-a-boo right?
 

Finally here is a simple puppet made from another pot holder. This pot holder was the culprit that smacked me in the face and started it all so he had to look a little mischievous.

To make this guy you simply gather a bunch of fun ribbon (assorted textures add another dimension of play for baby), cut along the top seam of the pot holder and place your looped pieces of ribbon in like this:
 

sew the seam back up and turn right side out.

Add an eye and a tooth and ta-da a new found forever friend:)

Thanks for listening today and hopefully this post will get you thinking outside of the box for creating toys for your little one.  Have a great day everyone!!