Thursday, November 27, 2014

Quiet Time Turtle Box

I've wavered back and forth for weeks, over whether or not to share this on the blog.  First of all, I had no idea what to call it. Second, it's totally silly.  Please don't make fun of me.

I try to come up with something to make the kids for Christmas every year, and as The Kid gets older, it's getting harder and harder.  Since I'm incapable of writing and designing my own video game, I decided to troll Etsy for some ideas.  I plugged in 'turtles', since that's his thing, and ended up finding a version of this.


The original was made in an Altoid tin, but I dug through my stash and pulled out a wooden brie container. Ya know, 'cause everyone has old cheese storage in their craft piles, right?


I had everything I needed on hand, which is basically felt, glue, a mini cotton ball, needle, and embroidery thread.  The turtle's body is two pieces of green felt sewn together.  If you ever decide to do something similar, make sure you sew any embellishments on, like the face, before sewing the two together.  I blew it and did not.  I was going through the opening at his rear end with a long needle and it sucked.  Just FYI.  
I attached the legs and tail as I was going around with embroidery thread.  The shell is a separate piece of felt, glued on to the top piece of green, then sewn on via the shell pattern.  Do this before sewing the top and bottom pieces together, as well.  He's super tiny, so it took less than a whole mini cotton ball to stuff him. I pulled it into small pieces and poked it up inside of him with a pencil until he was full.  Then, I just finished closing him up at his butt, attaching his tail at the same time.  The end.  


The rocks, pond, plants, etc., are just cut out shapes of felt. For the upright plants, I cut strips of felt and tied them at the bottom with thread.  Then I just trimmed them flush so they could be glued to the bottom. The tops were trimmed short enough for the lid to close. Everything in the box is glued down except for the turtle.




So this is probably more suitable for a younger kid, but because it's turtle themed, I think it'll go over okay.  It'll be a fun thing to keep in the car for long trips, if nothing else.









For the lid, I painted the edge black, then glued a piece of scrapbook paper to the top.
The C, for his initial, is cut out of black contact paper.



I couldn't leave well enough alone, I had to add a couple flowers.
I glued down three mini paper flowers, again, from my stash.







And there ya have it.  
Something for, what seems to be these days, the ever-elusive imagination.




2 comments:

  1. I love everything about this!!! I seriously think this is genius pal!!! My kids would have a blast moving this habitat around. You could add frogs and fish. The possiblities are endless!!!! So glad you shared this and sorry about being behind with my reading....the flu payed us a visit!!! Happy week friend!! Nicole xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh my gosh, Mindy!
    You're a genius! What an adorable (and great) idea!!
    I need to share this with my sister in laws :0)
    Happy Monday,
    Suzanne

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