Uh Oh.....its that time again

Its that time again:  The time where my creativeness flows and I become obsessive over some HUGE diy project for my daughter (ironically, these bouts of crazy generally come right before some holiday involving gifts--lucky me right?)

So what have I come up with this time?  A diy Play kitchen from some sort of furniture!!!

Addi has been asking for a play kitchen since last year.  So last xmas we got her a small plastic kitchen and it has been played with TONS!  Its downfall, however, is that she is a little tall for it now, and she has so many kitchen accessories that she can't put anywhere cause the kitchen has no counter space or storage space.   Naturally, this is a frustrating toy that should have years of play and added gifts (ie-more food, microwave, toaster, blender, etc).

Of course, I got the idea from pinterest and it just snowballed from there!

My original inspiration: http://pinterest.com/pin/110760472057226138/

Its SO cute right???

Okay so it just gets better.  I decide that I really want an entertainment center with a glass door. I also want an entertainment center bigger than 4 feet because my kid is tall and I want her to play with this kitchen til she is 11 or 12.  So, I go to facebook and my grandma happens to have one WITH a glass door she wants to get rid of that is roughly 5 feet high.  SCORE! (also shout out to gma for being cool enough to have facebook and even cooler to donate the entertainment center).

So I really have been thinking lots about her kitchen and how I want it to look.  I decided that black with silver is the most polished as well as the best color scheme to last her over the years as her personality ages. For the mean time, my kitchen will have some accessories that are pink (dark and light) because, lets face it, Addi LOVES pink (for now).   The plan is to have a silver fridge, a silver and black stove, a silver and black microwave, and the whole entertainment center structure will be framed in black.  i'm going to buy pink spatulas, plates, cups, etc from the dollar store.

I want to get a cute pink vase or pot with fake flowers to place on her "counter".  

I also plan on spray painting some white wire racks from the dollar store to silver to keep with the polished look.   I know I want to do a backsplash in the kitchen, but I wont know what color(s) till I go to the hardware store.  

The other part of this huge project I want to accomplish is new (or upcycled) everything for the kitchen (food, appliances, cookware, apron, oven mitts, etc).

So tonight, I decided to work on some food and WOW! I wish I had this stuff when I was a kid!!!

I really love the idea of felt/fabric play over plastic for a couple reasons: 1.I can make many things out of felt/fabric 2. usually plastic only becomes punctured, dented, painted on, slobbered on, melted (by me trying to do something too fancy), etc.  and 3. its great sensory play for babies/kids

Birthday Cake:

Supplies (ignore the bottles in the pic, they were for a different project)

Felt--$.25 cents a sheet (I used 4 sheets for the frosting and a few scrap pieces for decor)

Adhesive-I used my glue gun.  spray adhesive would probably work the same, maybe better

Styrofoam-2.47 for a small circle, 3.47/ea for 2 bigger circles (this stuff was more expensive than I wanted to pay and I'm sure I could have come up with a cheaper alternative, but the craft store was wearing on Addi's mood so I didn't spend much time thinking of an alternative--if you have an alternative idea, please share in the comments :)

Total-- $10.41

Start by cutting the smaller circle into fourths (this is sort of messy.  I used scissors to indent the foam then simply bent the foam til it snapped.)

Next, glue the two big circles together so they are one big tall circle. 

I then took the big tall circle and covered it with white felt (choose whatever color you want).  I covered it by cutting out two big circles and covering the top and bottom then using scrap to cover the sides

Follow the same process to cover the 4 triangles you cut using the small circle.  

I then glued ribbon to the insides of the 4 triangles to look like a filling--this is totally optional

Using scrap felt or whatever colors you want, cut out various shapes for "decorations".  Felt sticks to itself pretty well and obviously comes off easily as well.  Addi spent a couple of hours decorating her cake, serving it, and taking all the decor off only to start the process over again.  

**food for thought (get the pun?):  You could skip the ribbon for filling and use the top circle (the one cut in 4 triangles) to vary between a pizza and a cake

 I think i'm going to make a cake stand using the classic pinterest idea of a dollar store candle holder glued to a dollar store plate, spray painted pretty and voilla!

Various food:

I used felt and a glue gun for tons of food pieces tonight (not pictured: lettuce, buns, tomatoes, pickles, tortillas, cookies, beef for hamburger, beef for tacos).  You could always use a classic thread and needle rather than a glue gun.

Eggs and Bacon (the lighting sucks, the bacon is a brownish/dark reddish color).  The eggs are stuffed with scrap felt and the bacon is made by cutting rectangle strips and then pinching various places and holding in place with hot glue.

Last suggestion: You could stuff any of your food with various materials that make noise or feel squishy, etc for more of a sensory play element.

You know, I'm not great at this stuff and it takes a lot of time, but hearing Addison tell me I'm the "best mommy in the whole world" and playing with her new food for hours really makes this project so incredibly rewarding already.  

I Cannot wait to start on the actual kitchen.  Stay tuned! Happy crafting!