marshmallow shooter and supply belt tutorial

Micah is going to a birthday party this weekend and at first I said I just had too much going on to thing about making a handmade gift for his friend. Then I saw these on Pinterest and decided it would be simple enough to run to Home Depot while we were out, and whip up a couple marshmallow shooters, what 10 year old boy wouldn't like that gift?  And when we had finished the guns I decided what one really needs for a marshmallow war is a belt complete with marshmallow holding bag.  We will be giving two guns and two supply belts as the birthday gift, because you really need one for you and one for a friend, right? :)

The guns are pretty straight forward, so no real tutorial for that, I will give you my measurements though. I used 1/2" PVC pipe. (A 10 ft piece is enough for 7 guns) For 1 gun you need 2 slip elbow joints, 1 slip T joint and 1 slip cap.  Cut the PVC as follows: 1x6", 2x3"(the handle and piece between T and elbow) and 2x2.5"(mouth piece and vertical piece between elbows).  We spray painted ours with florescent green paint that is supposed to glow under black light.

Addie was super proud to model for me :)

For the belt I used some cotton webbing I had on hand and D rings.  I made it to fit my 10 year old with some room to grow.

For the Bag you need:
Fabric (I used a light weight canvas):
2- 10x7
2- 7x7
9" piece of corset boning

1. Lay out 1 10x7 piece of fabric.  mark fabric 2" and 3.5" from each side (along the bottom edge)  Pleat the fabric so that the marks match up (see bellow) and the bottom edge measures 7 inches. Pin and top stitch pleats.

2. Pin pleated fabric to 7x7 square (right sides together) and sew sides and bottom using 1/2" seam allowance.

3. Trim corners and turn right-side out.

4. Repeat with remaining fabric pieces, only leave an opening at the bottom for turning later.

5.  Put exterior bag inside lining bag, right sides together, pin and stitch all the way around the tops (1/2" seam allowance).

6. Turn right-side out and press.  At side seams stitch in the ditch from top edge down, about 3/4".

7.  Using the hole in the lining, insert corset boning and push up to the top edge on the long side of the bag.  It should look like this:

8. Top stitch all the way around the top, about 5/8" from the edge.

9. Sew up whole in lining.

10. Make two button holes about 1/2" from the seam on either side of the back (near the top of the bag).  I used the largest setting on my button foot and the holes were just the right size for my 1" webbing.  Use the seam ripper to open the button hopes up and slide belt through the holes.

11. Go get some mini marshmallows and have some fun!

If you make your own supply belts (or something from one of my other tutorials), please post pictures in my flickr group!  I'd love to see what you make!

Shop update

I just listed a few items in the new shop!  Hopefully there will be more to come soon!

hazel

We are pretty smitten here and despite the fact that Hazel sleeps all day, we are still finding it hard to get any school done with a sleeping hedgie to watch :)

She has been awake in the mornings, so that has been our time to play with her.  I think she had fun exploring the house in her ball (no pictures) and playing with some toys.

But I am sure it is all a bit overwhelming too, cause as soon as I put her back in her cage she crawls right into her cozy sack and goes to sleep.

Totally unrelated.  I have a tutorial I am working on for you!  Something fun for the boys (and girls too) in your life :)  I may even have it up as soon as tomorrow, but at least by the end of the week.

in keeping with the hedgehog theme...

I have been working on a plaid hedgehog t-shirt design for the shop.  This is my latest version.

He is on his way to Colorado now, for my friend's little boy.  She did an awesome job on our shop graphics and is getting some of our first outfits for her kids :)

Here are a couple of my other attempts.

My newest is definitely my favorite so far, but I still might try a couple more design ideas.  What do you think?
p.s. I have a few outfits to put in the shop, I just need to get them photographed and listed.  I will let you know as soon as they are up.  I am also working on some children's aprons, but it may be a little bit longer before I get them posted.

our family is growning...

Meet our newest baby, Hazel Spikalina.  She is an Africa Pygmy Hedgehog.  Hazel was born on December 21, 2012 and we brought her home to live with us today.   She is super sweet and curios, and just plain adorable :)

We are all totally in love! More pictures to come, I am sure :)

2016 olyimpics, here we come ;)

Regan had been begging for over a year to take gymnastics, but up until this point (for various reasons) we just couldn't make it happen.  She has checked out every library book on gymnastics, watched a million U-tube videos and spent countless hours in the front yard teaching herself to do cartwheels, front walk-overs, back walk-overs, round offs, press handstands... the list goes on.  We recently discovered that our local YMCA has a small gymnastics program that seems to be a perfect fit for what we need, so I signed Regan up and she had her first class last night.  This is what she learned in her first gymnastics class!

still here

We are recovering from a nasty cold-turned RSV for the two littles and Strep throat for the everyone (yippee!)  Luckily we caught the Strep before any of the big kids (and adults) got too sick. The babies got the worst of it.  I've got lots of things I want to blog and hope to be back before the week ends!