Preschool Class Craft #3: A Very Preschool Pirate's Chest

Yup, you guessed it, I did it again.  I willingly volunteered to build something awesome and hand print another batch of kids all for the sake of helping raise some money for preschool.  This year it was for Colton, where in year's past it was for Maben.

You can check out the previous finished crafts here and here.

I searched high and low for inspiration.  I probably spent as much time trolling for inspiration as I did building it.  I hate creative block.  But, when it struck me, that was it, I knew what I was doing.  I saw a hand print pirate.  A PIRATE!!!  How awesome.  BTW, saw it over here.  Colton's hand print pirate pictured below.

After that inspiration struck, I started to look for plans (or figure out my own) to build a pirate's treasure chest.  My awesome husband came to the rescue with a magazine called, "Quick-and-Easy Woodworking Projects," from Wood Magazine; issue from 2006.  I was sold!

The build wasn't hard, parts of it were rather tedious (cutting all those slats for the lid).  I mostly followed the directions and didn't screw up anything that I couldn't fix.  The directions were written well, I just am more of a picture person.  I follow directions much better when it's step by step pictures vs. written word.

Anyways, without further ado I present to you, A Very Preschool Pirate's Chest!!!

The teacher's and kid's names have been blurred out for their privacy.

The finished dimensions were approximately 35 inches wide by 22 inches tall and 22 inches deep. 

A big thanks goes out to the mom and teachers who helped me hand print a bunch of three-year-old children.

Another thanks to Amanda over at Handprint and Footprint Art for the inspiration.

Sharing this over at:
So You Think You're Crafty: I'm Crafty Party #35 
Sawdust Girl: Sawdust Throwdown 
Tatertots and Jello:  Weekend Wrap Up Party

Pillowcases for Charity

I was the Administrative Vice President for my local chapter of MOMS Club for three years.  It was an amazing and rewarding experience.  The biggest part of my position was to coordinate all of our community service projects. 

The last project that I coordinated was to sew pillowcases to donate to children with cancer.  We did this through the ConKerr Cancer organization.  It is such a simple and wonderful mission, provide a smile to a child by delivering a pillowcase to them during a hospital stay.  For anyone who has had a hospital stay, there is nothing fun about it, so anything to brighten a stay in the hospital is well worth the effort. 

Anyways, the members of my MOMS Club outdid themselves.  We were able to collectively donate 50 pillowcases!  50 PILLOWCASES!  That shattered my expectations.  Here is a small sampling of what we donated.

I was lucky enough to get to spend hours (I really mean hours) in Joann Fabrics buying much of the fabric used.  Some members did their own shopping too.  I am sure they had just as much fun as I did.  I want to thank our local Joann Fabrics staff for being so nice to me when I walked up with 30 bolts of fabric.  I completely understand how intimidating that could have been.  Your efforts were noticed and thank you!

We tried to make enough that would encompass children of all ages, boys and girls.  I wish I could have had the room to photograph all 50 pillowcases.  They were all great!  A big thank you to everyone in my MOMS Club, you made my tenure as AVP well worth all the effort. 

If you would like a instructions on how to make your own pillowcases, you can go to here.  ConKerr details two different methods for making pillowcases, I personally like the hotdog method.

Have you ever sewed/crafted for charity?  If so, what did you do?  I am curious, because I would love to be able to use my talents more to help out others.