Disability awareness coloring book!

I created a Disability Awareness coloring book to hand out to kids at our county fair this week. The agency I work for has an information booth at the fair - we hand out pamphlets, give-a-ways and show pictures of the services we provide and share stories about the wonderful people we serve and what they have accomplished. {It's a fun week, being at the fair, even though it's blazing hot and dirrrty!}

Anyway, I wanted to share my coloring book because I think it's something that may be helpful. I drew the artwork in the book, with the help of images I found on the internet and images I had on hand. The book highlights disabilities, both physical and intellectual, and emphasizes that people with disabilities are people - they like to do, and can do, the same things as anyone else! 

The coloring book can be a starting point for a conversation with your child about disabilities. I also included a couple online resources where you can learn more and get more activities and information too. 

Let me know what you think of the coloring book, and, if you have any questions about it or about developmental disabilities or disability awareness, feel free to send me an email and I can point you in the right direction. 

I've included the PDF of the coloring book below, however, feel free to email me at twostartwins{at}{gmail}{dot}{com} to request that the PDF be emailed to you directly. I'd be more than happy to email it to you.

Learn about Disabilities Coloring Book for Children -

Is it the return of the button-eyed doll?! Hmmm.....

For the first time in a half a year, I made a doll! And she turned out perfect! 

I had quasi-somewhat-sorta retired my dolls. Kind of. But not completely. Ha! I had gotten really tired of making the dolls a year ago when I was making a bunch for my Etsy shop and for craft shows. So I didn't make any for awhile aside from the random special order. But then last Christmas I was getting frustrated making some special orders and I told myself, enough! If the dollies are making me mad, no more! So I gave them up for a long time. 

But! This past weekend I got a request to make a doll and at first I hesitated, remembering my frustration earlier, but then decided, what the heck, I'll do it!  

The doll turned out perfectly. I could not be more pleased!

Notice the front her legs are pink, the back are orange! Faaaancy!

I had always been annoyed with how I was stitching up the back of the dolls ... I used to do a two or three inch stitching line on the back of the doll and I started not liking that. {Refer to this listing here - look at the back of the doll to see the short stitching line.}Well, for this doll I decided to extend the line of stitching from the top of the dress all the way down to the tag. I like it. What do you think? 

Will this be the return of Two Stars' button-eyed dolls? I don't know for sure yet. I am contemplating trying to get into a few craft shows this fall. I want to make Halloween themed dolls too ... I made a trial witchy looking doll this weekend that turned out OK. I want to perfect the pattern and look before sharing it here though. Stay tuned!

And, can I just say, whew-wee life has been nutty busy lately!!! Work has been super busy and we've been running around in the evenings doing all sorts of stuff - not much time for blogging as of late! 

Tutorial: Use Ink Effects paint to create a personalized pillow!

I am so pleased to have been given the opportunity to try out Ink Effects by DecoArt. It's a new fabric-transfer ink that is so very easy to use and the possibilities are seriously endless! The paints are new to the market and will be hitting stores soon, but! you can purchase them online now, here! 

When I first got the paints, I knew I wanted to have my kids help me with this project - and I'm so glad I did because they had a lot of fun with it and I think our pillow turned out quite cute!  

What you will need to make your own personalized kid-painted pillow:

* DecoArt Ink Effects Paint

* A variety of different sized paint brushes

* A glass of water to rinse your brushes

* Plain white copy paper

* Iron

* Air-erasable fabric marker

*  About a half a yard of white synthetic jersey-knit fabric for the front of your pillow

* Half a yard of any kind of coordinating fabric for the back of your pillow

* Poly-fil to stuff the pillow

Steps to create the pillow:

First, PAINT! Simply paint your designs onto white copy paper. Let your imagination go free! I knew that I wanted to create some sort of flower design for the pillow, so I told my kids to paint shapes and designs, knowing I would cut up their work to fit into a design. 

We ended up with a bunch of designs! Fun!

Let your paintings dry for about one hour. 

Next, figure out how you want your pillow to look. I cut out the different design elements I wanted to use and arranged them onto the white jersey fabric - I cut out circles and the little spirals and sun that my daughter painted. 

Set your iron to its hottest dry setting. Do not use steam!

Place your pieces painted side down onto the white fabric, and place a piece of plain white paper over top, then iron. Keep the iron moving and apply constant pressure for a minute or two. 

Peel off the painted piece to reveal your design!

I was very pleased with how the paintings transferred to the fabric! These paints are really cool!

Transfer all of your painted pieces onto the fabric as you choose, keeping in mind the shape of your pillow and your desired overall design.

Since my circles were to become flowers, I traced a circle around them with the eraseable marker, then sewed on the line using a zig-zag stitch. Embellish your pillow design how you choose.

I added ribbons for flower stems.

I embellished it by hand, too, stitching around the smaller circles and adding stems.

The really cool thing about the Ink Effects paints is that you can use the painted pieces of paper over and over. I decided at the last minute to add in 'grass' to the bottom of my design. 

I cut up a green zig-zag design my daughter painted and positioned it onto the bottom of the pillow and ironed each piece where I wanted it. Using just two pieces of the design repeatedly I was able to fill up the bottom of the fabric with the 'grass'!

Next, cut off the access white fabric around your design to your desired pillow shape. 

Pin your backing fabric right-side-up to the front of your design. Your pieces will be right side together. Sew together all four sides of your fabric, leaving about a four-inch gap so you can turn it right side out. Once you're done sewing, cut the access fabric off with pinking shears - leaving about a quarter of an inch from the seam. Clip your corners closely. Do not trim the gap you will use for turning the pillow. 

After you've finished trimming it up, turn the pillow right-side-out, poking out the corners with the eraser-tip of an un-sharpened pencil. Then, stuff the pillow!  

Sew closed the hole - I pinned together the hole securely while sewing to prevent any puckering. Use a tight hand stitch with white thread to close the hole. 

Now your child's artwork will be preserved forever as an adorable pillow!

My daughter loves to draw suns so I had to include her Mr. Sun at the top corner of the pillow! After all, flowers need sun to grow!

Connect with DecoArts to learn more about this amazing product!

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I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with DecoArt and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.

Check out what other crafters are making with Ink Effects!

Lydia's first baseball game

Lydia is playing baseball this summer, the first sort of organized sports activity she has ever played. {Arlene wants no part of playing baseball. She'd rather cheer on the sidelines. She doesn't like to sweat.} Lydia had her first game on Saturday and it was just adorable! The kids are all 7-years-old and most don't have any clue what to do. There's a lot of bodies running around the field and baseballs going here and there. It was really hilarious. And FUN! The kids had a lot of fun. 

Thank goodness the game was moved indoors because it was 102 degrees outside! They don't keep score - each player gets to hit in each inning and everyone's a good sport about helping each other figure out what to do and where to go. 

The indoor game made getting pictures sort of difficult but I did get some cute shots of our little ball player:

Look at that stance! She's ready man.

This is Lydia's only other girl teammate Isabella - I liked the way she tied her shirt in the back!

Good form! The coach pitches but if they can't hit the pitch it gets placed on a tee. Lydia hit one off the tee and one off a pitch.

She got on first base and was incredibly proud of herself! At this angle I do believe she is looking into the stands at her cheering section!

The two girls on the field. 

Batting again! 

After the game - all smiles! Did I mention her Daddy is the coach?!