Flying Barrel Of Monkeys » toy

Dollar Dress-Up

MamaMonkey — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:08:06 +0000

I usually avoid the Dollar Spot at Target since we have plenty of toys and don’t need a bunch of cheap junk around. But yesterday I decided to spin through on a whim and discovered a plethora of dress-up costumes. MonkeyBoy’s imagination is really flourishing these days and I thought he might enjoy some role playing, so I picked up one of each of the costumes for him. When we got home, he spent the next few hours dressing up and running around the house. He’d pause and tell me to take his picture, then he’d run off and change again.

Lego Play Mat

MamaMonkey — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:40:15 +0000

I mentioned sewing projects in my previous post, and I wanted to come back and post some pictures. First is my standard two-year old gift – an embroidered apron and some felt food.
I didn’t get a good picture of the food, but the top bun has “sesame seeds” and the tomato also has stitched “seeds”. I have one more set to make for MonkeyBoy, so maybe I’ll get a good picture of the stitching then.

The other project was a belated birthday gift for the birthday girl’s four year old brother. MonkeyMan has mentioned several times that he used to have a combination playmat/bag for his Legos when he was younger. He loved it because he could spread out the mat and build his creations on it, and then when his mother said it was time to clean up, he could just pull a drawstring and collect all his toys at once. So, using his description, I came up with this super soft denim bag/playmat. I used my stamping eyelets to reinforce the drawstring holes, and my crop-a-dile tool to punch the holes and set the eyelets.

(The birthday boy received a set of legos, but I used MonkeyBoy’s foam blocks for my photo.)

I’m definitely going to have to make one of these for MonkeyBoy.

Spy Bag

MamaMonkey — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:12:17 +0000

I’m on a spy bag making kick these days. I made my first one as part of a blog swap with a friend of a friend in Japan. Then I made a few for birthday gifts. And I made a super jumbo packed one for MonkeyBoy for our recent plane trip. That combined with the felt car book and a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD occupied the entire length of one of our eight hour plane rides recently.

My sewing skills still leave a lot to be desired, but I’m getting better at sewing straight lines. The bags are double-stitched shut to keep the bite-sized contents from coming out, and I tend to get a little curvy on the second set of stitches. I try to personalize the bags to the recipients by putting in little toys they might like, their names, or using special fabric.

Car Play Book

MamaMonkey — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:25:19 +0000

While preparing for our recent trip, I knew I needed some activities to keep MonkeyBoy in his airplane seat. One of the things I wanted to make for him was a small playmat that he could use as a scene scape as well as a storage device for his toy cars. I didn’t want to invest a lot of time or expense in it, so I used up scraps of 8.5″ x 11″ felt that I had lying around the house. I used the design on “Gifts By Hand” as a springboard for my book. In about an hour, I had created a four page “book” complete with storage pockets for four vehicles. Since I used relatively small dimensions for the finished project, the pockets were too small to hold standard Hot Wheels-type cars, but luckily I had a supply of Micro Machine-type toys that worked great. MonkeyBoy’s eyes lit up when I pulled it out of my carry-on bag and he played with it for HOURS. It was the perfect size to fit on his lap on the airplane.

Here’s the front of the book. I couldn’t do a project without some of my stamping toys, so I used the Big Shot die cut machine for the letters, and some retiring ribbon for the tie closure.

The first page.

The middle pages (a two-page track).

The final track page and the car pockets on the inside back cover.