kid stuff Archives - TaylorMade

Kids Camping Shirts

August 1, 2018 By Taylor 2 Comments

We love camping! Seriously, we can’t live without it! In honor of our love for camping I’m sharing some Kids Camping Shirts today with a free download to make your own!

We go camping few times a year and we sleep in a tent and hike and cook and it’s amazing. My mom took us camping as kids and we have great memories so after we had kids Bryan and I started going again to keep the tradition alive. We usually go to a State Park that is right under 2 hours away so it’s really not too much trouble because it’s so close. Keeping it simple is key. We do however like to make a big deal of our camping menu which is fun :) We go with our family and some good family friends so we have a group of around 20ish. There is something about sleeping outside under the stars and roughing it for a few days that will fully recharge your battery. And can you think of a better way for kids to spend a weekend than playing outside?!

For our last trip we decided to make “official” camp shirts. I made the adults matching shirts but made something a little different for the kids and I just love how they turned out!

All the moms picked a different colored solid tee for their kid. They are super simple but that’s kind of how camping is so it works :) I used black heat transfer vinyl and a heat press so they will hold up well, we are very hard on our camping clothes as you can imagine! (HERE is a link to my heat press machine, I love it!) I found the super soft blank tees and these little dino shorts at Walmart.

I have the silhouette file available HERE for free to download or if you just want the PNG file to copy and trace on vinyl you can find that HERE. I have the images flipped so be sure to check that before cutting depending on how you are doing them. I would love to see your shirts if you make one so don’t forget to email me or tag me in a pic :) Also… if you haven’t taken your kids tent camping yet you should definitely give it a try, I promise you will all love it!

Mermaid Birthday Party

July 9, 2018 By Taylor 1 Comment

This last week Bee turned 4! We had a weekday playdate party at our house with some friends and fun was had by all! She requested a Mermaid Birthday Party months ago so I went with it… thankfully there is a ton of Mermaid stuff out right now :) For the decor I just did a balloon arch, one food table and then we had some fun party favors! We blew up a big kiddie pool, a slip and slide and we also had a mobile Snowcone Truck come to our house so that was a big hit!

If you follow me on Instagram (@taylormadecreates) you know I got lots of help with my balloon arch this time… Yay for big kids :) I always get a lot of questions about balloons… I usually buy way too many but I like variety and I like options. I had 3 shades of pink, 2 purples, 3 mint/teals and a bag of white balloons and the bags usually have about 25 of each. I also like a variety of sizes for the balloons. I used THIS STRIP this time to make the arch. If you haven’t used it or made an arch it’s not quite as pretty but it’s also WAY easier! It’s just a thin, clear plastic strip with holes in it and you push the end of a blown up balloon in the hole. (this is a link to amazon but I have found it a few dollars cheaper at party city.

I usually make all of our invitations but this year I was in a time crunch and I found this one on Etsy and thought it was pretty perfect… HERE is the link.

Total party planner fail.. I didn’t take any pics of the table once the food was all out but I promise it was pretty haha! We had a “brunch” theme. I made an egg casserole, lemon vinaigrette salad, chick fil a tray for the kids, goldfish and chips and fruit salad. The only thing I made that was on theme and cute were these little oyster cookies that I found all over pinterest. I just piped strawberry frosting between nilla wafers and added a candy pearl. I found the tablecloth, happy birthday banner, plates and napkins all from Target’s party area.

I added just a few drops of blue food coloring to some lemonade to make it look mint and called that “mermaid lemonade”. I had some champagne and OJ for the moms because #brunch. The pink bevnaps are from amazon HERE.Bee and I have the same birthday so I always like to do something matchy matchy for us ;) This year I made us matching shirts for the party.

Speaking of shirts… I made the cutest party favors. I found a place online who sells very affordable blank tees in tons of colors and sizes so for under $3 a piece I made all the party goers a tee with my silhouette machine, vinyl and my heat press. The boys got sharks and the girls got shells. I even had some mini guests :) I hung them up with twine and clothespins and the kids had fun finding their name after they swam.

My mom is always in charge of the kids cake… thank God for her because I am no baker! This year she had a cake planned then a few days before the party while at Kroger she spotted this one just knew it would be perfect for the queen of flashy, I mean perfect for Bee :) She also got her matching cupcakes and of course Bee LOVED it!

Just in case the kids didn’t have enough sugar, I found a snowcone company who comes to your party in a truck:) They make the ice part of the snowcone then the kids get to top it with their own flavor on the side of the truck… it was super cute!

How cute is this little mermaid swimsuit?! Guess where I found it?? Amazon haha… HERE is the link.

We had such a fun and festive time! Thanks to everyone to who came to help us celebrate… our little mermaid loved it!

Check out Bee’s past parties here!: Fiesta Party, Farmers Market Party, Peppa Pig Party!

Conversation Heart Cold Packs

February 5, 2018 By Taylor Leave a Comment

If your kids are anything like mine then these Conversation Heart Cold Packs will be a big hit at your house!! We call them “boo boo buddies” and they are very well loved :) We keep these guys in the freezer and the kids know right where to find them… you bonked your head, got a scratch, your legs are sore? Go grab a boo boo buddy! These are the perfect little custom gift and they are easier than you think!

pastel fabric for hearts
dark pink or red fabric for words
iron on adhesive/fusible interfacing
heart template (DOWNLOAD HERE)
rice or flax seeds for filling

Using the heart template, cut two hearts from each color fabric.

For the letters, there are several ways you can do them. If you have a Cricut or Silhouette Machine, cutting your letters out on that is a great option. You could also use felt and sew them on. I used Wonder Under (fusible interfacing) and ironed it to my dark pink fabric. Then I hand wrote my letters (don’t forget to write them backwards) on the back and cut them out.

Iron the letters to one side of the hearts you have cut out.

Next, place the heart pieces right sides together, pin and sew. Be sure to leave a 2″ opening on one side of the heart. That will be where you fill the heart in the next step! After you sew the hearts, clip the curves, the tip of the heart and the center where the heart meets. Clip carefully! You don’t want to clip too close to the line you just sewed but clipping well around those curves will allow your heart to lay flat with no puckering.

Flip your hearts right side out and press.

Now its time to fill your hearts 🙂 I used plain brown rice because thats what I had. Flax seeds are a little more expensive but they make amazing cold packs. If you have any essential oils it would be a great idea to add a few drops to your rice also… we have a Lavender one and they kids actually fight over it, it smells amazing! I just spooned the rice into the opening then used a pin to keep it closed and sewed the opening shut.

Voila! Super easy custom cold packs! Your kids bonked heads will be so happy! Happy Valentine’s Day

Check out another favorite Valentine’s Day project HERE and another Boo Boo Buddy HERE :)

A Peppa Pig Tea Party Birthday

October 11, 2017 By Taylor 1 Comment

This summer our sweet Bee girl turned three! We had a Friday Morning Playdate party with a friend who has a birthday the same week as Bee. They were in the same class in PreSchool so we just invited their class :) The other birthday girl was planning a tea party and Bee was excited about a Peppa Pig Birthday so we mixed the themes and threw a Peppa Pig Tea Party… Super fun!

I made the invitation in Illustrator and I love how it turned out! The other mom saw the wording on an invitation on Pinterest and it went perfect with our theme… I had it printed at our local copy shop and the best part was that we handed them out to the class on the last day of school in May so we didn’t even have to mail them.

How cute is her little birthday outfit?! I found the shirt at Old Navy, the skirt is from Amazon (HERE is the link) and I just hot glued some felt on alligator clips for the little piggy ears :) It was a water party so she later changed into a Peppa Bathing suit… she’s very fancy with her party costume changes haha.

I did a little mini balloon arch over the window in my breakfast room with all of the food. We all know how I love a good balloon arch :) I usually try to choose 4/5 colors for most parties so we tried to stick to Pink, Lavender, Yellow, Green and Light Blue.

For the food we went with a “tea party” ish menu. We had tea sandwiches, fruit salad, pasta salad, goldfish and popcorn in baking cups, watermelon and pigs in a blanket. My mom also made little “tea cakes”, snickerdoodles and sugar cookies. We also served raspberry sherbert punch for the kids and mimosa punch for the moms :)

The other mom throwing the party with me did the flowers in the piggy rain boot which I thought was so cute! And how perfectly girly are these flowers?!

For the backdrop behind the table I used a science fair board and taped the sides flat and covered it in felt. I cut the Peppa family out of felt and attached them together with hot glue. All of the Peppa Pig characters are reposition-able so Bee actually played with this for weeks after the party! Our other friend made the big “3” for her sons party earlier this year and asked if I wanted it… I have been hoarding it ever since haha!

I used my silhouette machine to cut teacups out of cardstock and sewed them together to make a teacup garland. I hung that up with a paper strip garland that I did the same way :)

We put a few cheap kiddie pools in my backyard, one was filled with water and one we filled with Jelly Beads (my kids are obsessed with THESE). I also bought this water toy at the beginning of summer (HERE is the link). It did end up with a few holes in it by the end of summer but we got a few months of play from it. The kids had so much fun playing in the hose and splashing in the water beads!

For the party favor we did a spin in the “adopt a pet” idea I have seen and we did “Adopt a Pig”! I found the Pigs at Oriental Trading Co. They had little shirts with sayings on them but I just cut those off. For the pig pen I got a green foam core board and made a little fence from popsicles sticks and just placed the piggies inside.

We have always had all of our kid’s birthday parties in the afternoon and I have to say the daytime playdate party was a fun change! Happy Birthday to two sweet girls!