make your own Archives - Rave & Review

American Girl fans: DIY Tenney and Logan inspired tin drum craft

Are you as crazy excited about American Girl's new contemporary dolls, Tenney Grant and Logan Everett, as we are? We've literally been counting down to their release for months, and we're so thrilled they are finally here. To celebrate their release, we came up with a Tenney-and-Logan-inspired DIY project to make a tin drum so you can start a band just like they did.

I'm going to walk you through the steps to make your own drum, including two handy little printables you can use to add logos to your American Girl-inspired drums.

To start with, you will need to gather your supplies:

2 large tin {or tin-and-cardboard} cans – we used milk substitute tins, but you could repurpose coffee cans, formula canisters, powdered drink containers, or whatever else you have on hand.

2 long threaded rods (or bolts), 8 nuts, and 12 washers – for securing the drums together

2 printables – for covering the cans {you can download those below}

Scissors, tape, ribbon, and a small drill {optional, you can use scissors if your can is thin enough}

DIY kids cape from an old prom dress

Have an old prom dress hanging around? Why not turn it into an awesome fancy cape for your little one {or for yourself, if you're looking to make a capelet}? I had honestly thought I purged all my old prom dresses when we moved into this house, but I discovered them tucked away in my daughter's walk-in closet while we were doing our winter cleaning. Since she has the only floor length hanging bars in the house, I remembered I had stashed a few of my nice dresses and my wedding dress in there, but I hadn't realized that there were some prom dresses mixed in.

I donated two of the prom dresses, but one of them was so out of date that it was just begging for a little DIY inspiration. I knew immediately that it would make the perfect dressy cape for my kiddos to play pretend in and the layers would add a level of drama that the kiddos would adore.

Of note: I don't claim to be the best seamstress around, and my sewing skills are basically limited to alterations and simple decor items, but even I could see the potential hidden in this 90's-style strappy number. While your DIY will depend a lot on what kind of material and length of gown you are working with, hopefully you can use this as a rough guide for a simple sewing project. Ready to get started? Great!

DIY snowflake window cling craft for kids {inspired by the movie Frozen}

My kids are fully obsessed with the new Frozen movie from Disney. You may remember my post about the press pre screening we were invited to, but what you don't know is that we loved it so much that we actually went back to the theater that same week and watched it again. That's a lot of love.

Both of them are dying for the movie to come out and are broken hearted about the fact that it's going to be months until we can watch it whenever we want at home, so we've decided to bring some Frozen fun home while we wait. First up on the list was doing a craft I've been wanting to do for a while: snowflake window clings.

To make DIY Snowflake Window Clings you will need:

Tulip Glitter or Puffy Paint
Wax Paper
Snowflake pattern from the Disney Frozen site

DIY: transform your wagon into an awesome fire truck

My little guy can’t wait to grow up and fight fires and drive fire trucks. On his 3rd birthday he came running in as soon as he woke up and asked if he was old enough to be a firefighter yet, clearly thinking that 3 just had to be grown up enough to fight fires.

Although I can’t do anything about the fact that he’s still got a decade and a half before we can pursue his dream of firefighting, I can encourage him to imagine himself as a firefighting hero every day of his childhood. With the Get Real Gear Jr Fire Fighter costume from Aeromax paired with what is quite possibly the coolest kid’s ride ever, we are well on our way to helping the kids play hero whenever they want.

Hello, Step2 “Fire Wagon”!

DIY No-Sew Tutu Flower Girl Dress {Tutorial}

Planning a wedding and thinking about a tutu flower girl dress? These little beauties came about as a necessity as we were trying to clothe 4 flower girls for my cousin’s wedding and not finding anything that had the style or price tag we were hoping for. I had never made a tutu before, so … Read more