Crocheted food - yum

The only thing better than felt food is crocheted food. I found an excellent pattern for crocheted cupcakes at BitterSweet (what an amazing blog - she is a crochet genius). From there, I just made the patterns up myself.

Chocolate cupcake with pink icing and sprinkles

apple

carrot

The cheeseburger is my favorite.

more on felt food

The felt food is being put to good use. Mmmm ... tasty.

Felt Food toys

I have a new craft obsession - felt food. It is so fast, so fun, so easy to make. I just sent a bag of "groceries" to my niece for her second birthday (a perfect compliment to her first kitchen from grandma). Most of these ideas are shamefully copied from the toys at Mahar Dry Goods (sorry). Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

Pancakes, bacon, a fried egg and a strawberry

The insides of a bologna and cheese sandwich with lettuce and tomato

lunch - bologna and cheese with potato chips


Oreo cookies (these are crocheted)

pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers and black olives

cheese ravioli with marinara sauce

Chicken dinner - a drumstick, mashed potatoes, pea pods and a slice of pumpkin pie

another shot of the pumpkin pie - I added a dollop of whipped cream

The grocery sack - I sewed it out of those sheets of fun foam you can find at the craft store. Peeking out of the bag is the ravioli (I made a label out of full-sheet label paper and stuck it to a glad ware container) and a loaf of bread (which I forgot to photograph).

They should start a 12-step program for people like me. Hello, my name is Jill and I am addicted to making felt food.

short order cook

I've become a short order felt food cook the past few days.  It has been several years since the first round of felt food that I made for my niece (those dark photos make me cringe!), and I'm happy to report that I'm ready to re-enter the 12-step-program for felt food addicts.  It really is fun to make!

 Here is what I have so far:

 fried eggs, bacon, and a pancake with syrup and a butter pat for breakfast

 a few sandwich fixings for lunch (we need deli meat, pb&j and some nutella stat!)

  and ravioli, green beans (or snow peas, whatev), and a baguette for dinner

much more to come ... my bag of felt is screaming for fruits and veggies.  And beverages.  And pantry items.  (This could take a while.)

This time around I have been trying to hand stitch most of the food, and I really like the look of it over all machine sewn.  I love me a blanket stitch.  :)

I haven't been using patterns for these because, come on, we all know what a fried egg looks like, right?  I'm a cut and sew on a whim type of girl.  If I come up with something ground-breakingly original, I'll be sure to make up a pattern for you.  But there are TONS of free felt food patterns online - great to use or just to give you ideas.  I've rounded up a bunch for you to check out:

Fruits and Veggies:
Orange Slices (and fried eggs) by One Crafty Mumma
Orange Slices by Thinking Mama
Strawberries by Mr. Monkey Suit
Fabric Strawberries by V and Co. (at Moda Bake Shop)
Cherries at Melissa Rambles On
Banana in Peel or Corn in Husk by Just Stuff
Lettuce by One Inch World
Tomatoes/Pumpkins by V and Co.
Tomato Slice by One Inch World
Pea Pods by Mr. Monkey Suit
Cut-apart Carrot and Potato by American Felt and Craft
Carrots by I Make Stuff

Protiens:
Fabric Eggs by Lola Nova
Sushi by Hoogli Art

Desserts:
Birthday Cake by Ikat Bag
Sprinkle Doughnut by Escape Artist
more Doughnuts by Skip to my Lou
Fortune Cookies by CraftSanity
Cherry Pie by American Felt and Craft
Cherry Pie by Martha Stewart
Goofy Grahams by Craft Tutorials
Cupcake at Hoogli Art
Waffle Cone by Hannah Hoosier

Little bit of Everything:
Fabulously Fun Felt Foods on Craftster
Brown Bag Lunch by Skip to my Lou
Sandwich and Bag of Chips by Snazzle Craft
Turkey Dinner for Two by MADE
Corned Beef and Cabbage meal by Ivers

And holy cow, I just found the Felt Food Cook-Along at Helping Little Hands (which includes over 2 dozen ideas)!  Felt food gold.

Also ... a great idea from a commenter named Kourtney on the play kitchen post.  She said:

"Just an idea for the play food thing... I saw Martha do a necklace out of a t-shirt with Queen Latifa a bit ago and I thought it would make cute play food spaghetti. She just took a t-shirt and cut it up into thin strips with a rotary cutter. When the strips were given a tug they rolled up like noodles."

Brilliant idea!  Can't wait to try it.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Oscar's play kitchen (finally!)

I took a break from baby girl things this weekend to finish a long overdue project - Oscar's play kitchen.  I guess I should say mostly finish.   It is definitely functional (and cute!) but seriously lacking accessories and play food.

Ta-dah!  I tried to keep it fairly gender neutral so it will get maximum use.  I like it, and more importantly, Oscar likes it, too.  He has been very busy stirring up sandwich soup in his little pots (like I said, more felt food will be necessary).

Some of my favorite details ...

• painted scrabble tiles to make the checker board back splash
• wooden plaques from Michael's for the gas burners
• the cute little scalloped trim on the control plate and shelf (trim also from Michael's)

I am loving the wooden pots and pans I bought (made by Melissa and Doug). 

I have a confession to make.  I bought MDF for the backing and used it for the oven door as well.  Big mistake!  Oscar has already tried climbing onto the open oven door and the screws started pulling out of the hinges (I really should have seen that one coming).  So I am going to switch out the oven door with a hard wood, and maybe add some extra hinges to make it stronger.

So ... still on the kitchen to-do list:

• reinforce the oven door
• make some accessories: dish towels, an apron, maybe a chef's hat
• make massive amounts of felt food (just because it is fun)
• gather/make a few more decorations - maybe a picture to hang over the sink, perhaps a little garland to hang over the shelf
• decide what to do with the other side (opposite the hooks).  It is currently bare.  I'm considering adding a chalkboard menu.

This kitchen was heavily inspired by the play kitchen found at Vintage Songbird - it is still one of my very favorites out there.

I didn't bother photographing things step by step or providing instructions for this project, because there is already tons of info out there.  If you want to try it yourself, check out the tutorials at Out of the Crayon Box and My Little Gems.

making play food: salt & pepper shakers

I've been making a little progress this week on the play kitchen.  Since I am doing all the prep work at my in-law's house, I can't have an all night craft-a-thon and just get 'er done like I normally would.  In between work days, I am making play food and kitchen accessories.

I can't throw anything away, so I have several wooden spools hanging out in my drawers of thread.  This afternoon I used a pair of spools and two wooden domed disks to make salt & pepper shakers.

 

All it took was a bit of glue and paint.  I also filled them with seed beads so they would make a shaking sound.  The hole in the bottom of the spool is just covered with cardstock.  What do you think?

 

  

This is the nightstand I am working with to make Oscar's play kitchen:

  

You can't tell from the picture, but the nightstand angles inward starting just above the drawer.   It doesn't give me a ton of space to work with, but leaves plenty of room for a sink and two stove burners.

With the help of Oscar's grandpa, we now have a hole for the sink, the legs are trimmed down to a more toddler-friendly height, the drawer is dissembled, and the whole thing is sanded down.  I can't wait to start painting!

Oscar was really interested in "helping" and decided this was the best way to do it: