Card Table Playhouse

When I was growing up, we had a cover that went over our card table and made a house. It provided so many hours of entertainment for us. I wanted to bring that same imaginative play to my own kids, so I searched pictures of playhouses on Pinterest and came up with this...

(I am definitely what one would call a beginner at sewing. Not much is sewed on this thing straight, but it still turned out pretty well. I have to sew the sides together yet, my felt food is not made, and I  want to add some more finishing touches--a clothesline--to the outside, but I will post when I finish that.)

I started by measuring my card table. I bought 4 yards of blue fabric to be used for the panels. This is just cotton fabric. Then I bought a yard of brown fabric to be used for the roof and the door and the logs in the fire. 

Most of the things I did on the inside of the house is made from the little pieces of crafting felt you can buy at Wal-Mart or Joann's, or places like that. 

I cut four panels for the sides of the house. (I did 1-2 inches more than what the table measured because I know I don't sew straight and I figured it was better to have more that I could cut off later as opposed to making it too small. 

Then I went to work on the panels. The first one I did was the door and mailbox. 

I cut out the size of door I wanted. I didn't even measure, jut cut it out. Then I sewed a piece of the brown fabric at the top of the door hole. The mailbox is a  piece of orange fabric I had. I sewed the two sides and the bottom to the blue fabric. This way the top opens so they can actually put their mail in it. I ironed on the numbers. The kids picked this address because it matches their ages. I wrote our last name with fabric markers. 

These pieces of mail are made from felt. 

I attached this panel to the roof. (I have no idea if this is the best way to sew it together, but I was nervous about it not fitting on top of the table, so I sewed it one panel at a time. I am sewing the sides together as a last step so I can add things to the panels if I find new ideas. 

The next panel was the fire place. I used red fabric to make the mantel. The black is crafting felt sewed together. The logs are made from scraps of fabric from the door, and the orange is also fabric. I used a lot of pins to hold this in place while I sewed it together. I sewed the logs and fire on the black felt before I sewed the whole thing to the fabric. Then I added this panel the roof. 

The next panel, and my personal favorite, is the kitchen. This whole thing is made from felt pieces. I sewed on the back of the refrigerator, then sewed a small door for the freezer and a larger door for the fridge. I added velcro to the doors so they stay shut. Then I sewed a couple of bowls (made from scrap fabric) inside the fridge. This is where the felt food will go when I finish that. There are also felt shelves sewed in here too.  Then I made the stove from pieces of felt as well. I sewed the stove together first and then attached it to the panel. It is so much easier to work with if you sew the pieces first before attaching. The pots have an opening at the top so the food can go in the pot. The baking pan in the oven has some felt cookies on it as well. The stove doesn't open up, but if I did it again, I might try to make that happen. 

The last panel has the feature the kids like the most...the dog door. The panel below is what this looks like on the outside of the house. I made the dog door from felt pieces. Above the dog door is a window. I made "curtains from fabric scraps I had. The curtain can be rolled up and held up with that piece of brown fabric hanging down. (It has velcro on the end of it.) 

The inside of this panel is the bedroom. (The brown square at the bottom is the dog door. It opens like the front door, so it is only sewed on the top. 

The bed frame is made from extra brown fabric. I sewed fabric on the bed for a blanket and white felt for a pillow. Then I sewed the last panel on the roof. 

Here are some pictures of the house while it is on the card table. 

We added a mini Christmas tree for extra light.

The sides aren't sewed together yet, because I want to add a clothesline to the outside panel that has the fireplace. I think I will try to add some accents to the top of the roof too because that sewing looks a little sketchy :) 

I sewed the sides together and added a few more things. I found some fabric that had large panels with Bible verses on them. I sewed one patch above the fireplace. 

I put another panel by the door. I found some precious moments fabric too that I decorarted the bedroom with too. 

And some kitchen fabric panels for the kitchen walls. 

The last thing I did was add a clothesline to one of the outside panels. We have some of Rachel's painted artwork hanging on it to dry already. 

Three-Ingredient Chocolate Banana Bread

I saw a recipe that used a yellow cake mix to make banana bread, but I didn't have a yellow cake mix, so we tried something else. It turned out great! 

Ingredients:

1 chocolate cake mix

2 eggs

4-5 small, mashed bananas

Place all three ingredients in a mixing bowl. Beat with a hand mixer until incorporated. 

I bake my banana bread in a bundt pan, but it could be done in a loaf pan. Grease and flour the pan. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes. 

Cool on a wire rack and then cut. 

Name Christmas Tree

We have been working on letter recognition with Rachel, so this was a great craft for her. 

We cut some green triangles and glued them to a piece of scrapbook paper. Then the kids wrote their name on the triangles. We glued on a star and a tree trunk. 

Christmas Tree Counting Craft

I cut a bunch of trees out of green construction paper. Then we cut some stars and glued them to the trees. David wrote the numbers 1-10 on his trees. Rachel had three trees. 

The kids glued the correct number of puff balls to the corresponding tree. 

Puff Ball Tree

We started with a styrofoam cone for this tree. Then the kids chose puff balls to hot glue to the cone. It is a really pretty decoration. 

Footprint Snowmen

I glued two pieces of 12x12 paper so we had enough room to put all three kids' footprints on here. 

They used Sharpie markers to decorate their snowmen.

Footprint Tree

The kids love all footprint crafts. Here, we turned their footprint into a Christmas tree. 

Cornstarch and Baking Soda Ornaments

We made cinnamon ornaments last year, so we wanted to try something different. I found this recipe online: http://12thhouseblog.com/2012/11/26/homemade-cornstarch-ornaments-great-for-painting-better-than-salt-dough/

Ingredients: 

2 cups baking soda

1 cup cornstarch

1 1/2 cups water

Whisk the ingredients together in a large pot until smooth. Heat on medium heat (I had my stove between 5 and 6.)

Continue stirring constantly until the mixture changes consistency. 

Pull from the heat when it forms a dough, as shown below. It took about 12 minutes. 

When it is cool enough to touch (a couple of minutes), place the ball of dough on a table covered with a light layer of cornstarch. 

Place a damp towel over the dough ball, until it is cooled. 

When the dough is cooled, roll it out on a piece of wax paper. Roll the dough to be about 1/4 inch thick. Then cut out shapes with your cookie cutter. 

We wrote names and the year with a toothpick on some of the ornaments. Then we used a skewer to poke a hole in the top. 

Place the ornaments on a cookie sheet.  Bake at 175 degrees for 50 minutes. Flip the ornaments. (It is cool enough in the oven to flip with your hands.) Bake for about another 50 minutes, or until the ornaments are no longer spongy. 

The final step is to paint the ornaments if you would like. We used Sharpie markers. Tie a ribbon through the skewer hole. 

Baby Jesus Ornament

This is a simple craft that doesn't take a long time to make. We painted 5 popsicle sticks (per kid) yellow. Then I hot glued them together. The kids drew a face on brown construction paper and wrapped the paper with white felt. Then we glued down some moss on the star and glued baby Jesus to the moss. We tied a ribbon around the top to hang it on the tree. 

Gingerbread Stadium

We wanted to make a unique gingerbread house today. As we thought about ideas, we decided that the boys' favorite things involve sports, so why not make a stadium. 

We made the gingerbread dough first (I got a recipe from simplyrecipes.com): 

Ingredients: 

6 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4 teaspoons ginger

4 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks butter (softened)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup molasses

1 Tablespoon water

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside. 

Using a mixer, beat the brown sugar and butter together until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, molasses, and water. 

Add half of the flour mixture to the molasses mixture. Beat until well combined. 

Add the remaining flour mixture and knead with your hands or the dough hook of a mixer. Wrap dough with plastic wrap and let sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough to the size you need for your stadium. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured piece of wax paper. I rolled two pieces 4 inches wide by about 14 inches long for the long sides of the stadium. The short sides were 4x8 and the field was 3x11. (Or close to that.) I made goal posts out of scrap dough. It was a lot easier to have the entire goal post constructed, as opposed to constructing the post after they were baked. I also did some mini gingerbread men and some mini footballs with the scrap dough.  Bake the dough for 8-11 minutes on a greased cookie sheet, or until it starts to brown. Let cool before constructing. 

For the icing, I mixed two egg whites with 1 1/3 cup powdered sugar. Whisk that until it is smooth. Then add another 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar. Beat with a mixer on high speed until you get the consistency you want. You may need to add a little more powdered sugar. 

I decorated the field before placing it insde the stadium.

 I glued the pieces of the stadium together with the frosting and put it on a cookie sheet pan covered with tin foil. Make sure you put frosting on the bottom of the walls so they attach to the tin foil for extra support. 

I used a grass tip and colored some of the white frosting green for the field. Then, I colored a little frosting blue and drew on a lion and colored the end zones. I added white accents with a line decorating tip. I cut out little slots on the end to stick the field goal posts. 

We added the footballs and gingerbread players to the field. Then we placed the field inside the stadium. 

I was going to attach marshmallows to the sides of the stadium to resemble people, but it didn't look good, so I settled for the frosting dots the marshmallows made on the walls. Then I attached the goal posts with frosting. 

Plastic Bulb Ornaments

The possibilities are endless with plastic ornaments. For this one, we filled it with fake snow and added a penguin sticker to the front. 

We wrote the date on the back with puffy paint and hot glued a piece of ribbon to the top. 

Button Christmas Trees

For this craft, I cut a tree out of green cardstock.

Then the kids glued on buttons for the ornaments and lights. 

We found mini bows at the dollar store to be used for a tree topper. 

We finished it by gluing on a brown trunk.

Lemon Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

5 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3-4 drops lemon essential oil

Glaze Frosting: 

2 cups powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 Tablespoons milk

1-2 drops lemon essential oil

Mix the flour, soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Set aside. Cream the butter and sour cream together. Add the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Then add the flour mixture. Chill the dough for a couple of hours. 

Drop about a Tablespoon of dough on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes. Cool on wax paper. Mix the glaze and frost the cookies. 

Grinch Cookies

The kids were in a baking mood tonight and wanted to learn how to crack eggs. So, we decided to throw together some cake mix cookies and make them look like Grinch cookies. 

I had a cherry chip cake mix, so that is what we used. You could use any light colored cake mix. 

Ingredients:

1 cake mix (cherry chip or vanilla would probably work best)

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

green food gel

red heart sprinkles

Mix the cake mix, oil, eggs, and food gel together. 

I let it sit in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes while I waited for the oven to preheat. 

Then scoop about a tablespoon of the dough onto a greased cake pan. Place a red heart sprinkle in the cookie. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. Let cool on a cooling rack. 

Christmas Tree Brownies

David found a picture of these on the frosting container and decided he wanted them for his snack day contribution. 

We made two batches of brownies in 9x13 inch sheet cake pans. I always add a little bit of caramel topping to my brownies before I bake them. They are extra gooey when I do this. 

After they cooled, I cut them into triangles. I got 18 triangles out of each pan. I am sure there was probably an easier way to cut them, but the kids enjoyed having the "brownie scraps". 

Then we added green frosting and sprinkles to the top of the brownie triangles. The finishing touch was half of a pretzel stick for the bottom. 

Popsicle Stick Christmas Tree

Another of our 25 Days of Christmas Crafts was this popsicle stick tree. We cut the popsicle sticks in different shapes. Then we painted them green and let them dry. We glued the smaller pieces to a large popsicle stick and attached some jewels and stickers for decorations. 

Paint Sample Christmas Tree

This is one of our 25 Days of Christmas Crafts. The larger paint samples would work better, but our local stores only had the skinny paint samples, so we cut two of them and glued them together. Then we glued on a piece of brown paint sample and puff ball decorations and stickers.