Felt Doughnut Tutorial

It's been party-central on the blog here lately because it's my favorite way to create (and it involves so many DIYs that I have lots to talk about!)  So bear with me a few more times as I share about my daughter's 3rd birthday party and all the fun elements within it.  Today I want to show you how I made felt doughnuts. They were used as decor & then the kids at the party got to take them home as a favor to use in their own play kitchens!  So even if you aren't planning a party, you'll definitely want to read on and make these for your own imaginative play! Because after all, there's never a bad time for a doughnut.

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Have you ever read If You Give A Mouse a Cookie?  There's a whole series that includes the original mouse cookie, Moose a Muffin, Pig a Pancake, Cat a Cupcake and of course Dog a Donut (just to name a few). Our whole family loves these books!  My daughter's birthday party was themed around the series, meaning that each table or section was based on a different book.  This table was all about Dog and his donut!

I found this great tutorial on felt doughnuts and used the basic idea to make my own.  I'm not sure why she left an opening on the outside though so I changed that and also sewed the topping on before turning it.  Hope that makes it a bit easier for you (and less hand sewing so it's faster!)

First cut out your circles from felt (2 pieces) and cut a hole from the middle of each.  Then from a different color felt, create an icing piece (also with a hole in the middle).  I hand embroidered some sprinkles on it then top stitched with my sewing machine to attach it to my felt.  Don't forget to keep the middle hole spot open for turning!  Here's how it will look once the icing has been attached:

Next, take your 2 pieces (one just the tan felt, 1 with the frosting attached to the tan) and putting them right sides together sew all the way around the outside of the doughnut.  Keep the middle hole open. It will look like this when this step is done:

(The photo above is of 2 different doughnuts. On the back of it you will only see tan. On the front you will see the stiching from your frosting) It's like a little sandwich from the side view.

Next, carefully turn the doughnut inside out using the open middle hole.

After everything is turned right side out, use Poly-fil or another stuffing to give the doughnuts their shape and blanket stitch the middle hole closed.  It's easiest if you do a little stuffing, a small batch of stitches, some more stuffing, some more stitches until you make it all the way around.

The blanket stitch gives it a secure hold for a long play life and is visually a prettier stitch for projects like this (it's also a very basic, beginner stitch so it's easy to do!) 


That's it.  These doughnuts are pretty easy in terms of dimensional felt food and are about the cutest things ever!  We did all sprinkles with different colored frosting but you could do plain, just frosting, drizzle, nuts, the possibilities are endless!  What would you put on yours? Would you use them for a party like this (or an entire doughnut themed party?) or just for play? Let me know & follow me on Instagram!

DIY Pretend Play Ice-Cream Toppings

I don't know if it's because my children are blessed with so many Christmas celebrations (read: spoiled by family) or because we have managed to raise little humans who are thankful for what they have but when I told the kids that their "big" Christmas gift from us (they still get some things from Santa) wouldn't be finished by Christmas, they were totally fine with it.  Honestly, I planned for it to be done pre-Christmas Day but as is often the case with DIY projects... I got a little behind.

So that's why I'll be sharing parts of this gift over the next few weeks here on the blog... because well, I just got it done and gifted this weekend.  It's the truth, it's messy, it's real life.  Aaaanyways, keep on reading to see how I made these custom ice-cream toppings to fit the pretend ice-cream we already owned.

[Discloser:  This post contains affiliate links to products used in this project.  Purchasing through these links earns me a small commission at no extra charge to you, which I use to put back into my blog/projects. Thank you for supporting my blog.]

A little backstory: My daughter (2) has recently started playing "ice-cream shop" every day.  Sometimes with our Melissa & Doug Ice Cream Set, sometimes just with her imagination.  But each and every time she would ask me what topping I wanted.  Of course, it's always great to simply use our imaginations but I thought that her and her brother would just be tickled if they could actually add 'toppings' to their ice-cream.  I figured the company would have some for purchase but after repeated online searches, I found nothing.  So I decided to make my own. Join me as I show you what works and what doesn't:


What Doesn't Work:

My first thought was to make entirely new scoops of ice-cream, using a similar technique as these faux whipped toppings.  Problem: They are made out of spackling.  After doing some research, it seems that spackling isn't super safe and since my kids sometimes actually lick their play ice-cream I decided it wasn't worth the risk.

My second thought was to use school glue and paint to create a drip (like I ended up doing in the photos above). My first one went really well and then I dropped it on our couch. No joke. Paint everywhere. The next day I tried to make more and could not get the consistency to be thick enough.  Below is the clear school glue with sprinkles (beads) on it and it was so thin that it dripped too much and couldn't keep shape. Even mixed with paint, I couldn't get it to work.

What Does Work:

So finally I figured it out. Hot Glue. First things first- cover your ice cream scoop!  You want to be able to remove it without ruining your nice play set.  Plastic cling will melt, so I used aluminum foil.

Next, simply squeeze hot glue out onto the top of the aluminum foiled-scoop. Glop it on top, occasionally letting it fall over the edge to create longer drips. It's easier than it sounds and the hot glue & gravity really does the work for you.

The one problem I can't get past is the aluminum foil sticking once the hot glue has dried. I was hoping to peel away the foil from the inside but it's pretty hard to do.  The plus side is that for the drizzle toppings, paint covers the top and for the clear base toppings (like sprinkles) it does show through but doesn't seem to be very distracting.  I would still love to hear any ideas that anyone has for removing it (or using something else in place of it) so please comment or message me letting me know what you think will work! I did try to grease it with non-stick but it discolored the glue.

Once the glue is dry, use non-toxic acrylic paint to paint the top of the glue.  Personally I would not paint the inside because it might discolor your store bought ice-cream scoops over time but it's up to you.  For sprinkles or other toppings like that (we used brown beads for toffee/nuts and rainbow beads for sprinkles) carefully drop and press seed beads onto the glue while it is still hot.  Be careful not to burn yourself!

I ended up creating 4 pieces to start with.  Two were drizzle flavors- chocolate and caramel/butterscotch...

...and two sprinkle type toppings- a rainbow sprinkle and a toffee/nuts:

You can see how the aluminum foil shows through on the toffee/nuts one but it really doesn't look bad at all and my kids don't even notice!


Here's a few peeks at the toppings in action. They just set right on top of the store-bought scoops but because they are molded to the shape, they don't easily fall off. It's almost like they "snap" on!  Now my kiddos can offer their customers a wide variety of ice-cream and topping flavors!



If you don't already have a play kitchen, see how my husband turned an entertainment center into an amazing play kitchen !

What flavors/toppings should I do next? My favorite ice-cream is "Coffee Toffee" so now my kids use chocolate ice-cream and toffee bits topping to make it for me.  It's so fun!  If you have any ideas for something better than aluminum foil (or how to remove it better) please let me know & don't forget to follow me on Instagram for crafty ideas straight to your feed or just to chat!


Looking for more play kitchen DIYs? Check out these other projects I've made for our play kitchen: felt pasta , personalized apron , felt decorated cookies , even DIY seasoning salt ! 

Pretend Play Seasoning Salt

Okay, truth time. I am ALL ABOUT "Imaginative Play".  Pretend Play, kids using their minds to create scenarios and to act out situations ranging from the everyday "mundane" to the mythical and previously unconsidered.  In our home we do a lot of this. One of the most popular spots for play is our Play Kitchen (which my husband made himself. Check out the post!). My children love to help in the "real" kitchen and so in their play kitchen they can do it all and more because well, no actual hot stoves.

A while back I had started saving empty containers of different kitchen items so that the kids could have their own play version that looked exactly like ours. I forgot about this one until I went to cook pork chops the other day and the kids wanted to help season it. They were so into it that I went searching for the empty container I had and well, the rest is history...


[Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Purchasing through these links earns me a small commission at no additional charge to you. These earnings help to fund future projects and DIYS. Thank you for your support of my blog and happy crafting!]

Y'all, I can not get over how stinking cute this is. I'll even tell you how to make it not messy if you want ;)

It's simple to make and took me about 5 minutes total (really).



First, you need to gather materials:

- classic soft felt (snag a few 9x12 sized pieces in the craft area of your local craft store)
- Fabric Scissors
- an empty (and washed clean!) Seasoned Salt Shaker

Next, cut some thin strips from each of your colors. It doesn't take much at all so don't go crazy cutting or you'll end up with a bunch extra!

From there, cut the strips into tiny little square pieces. Don't worry about making them perfect, just cut them small. If you want them to actually come out of the "shaker holes" make sure you cut them small enough for that. I cut ours just big enough that they come out the bigger "tab" opening but not the shaker holes. (because my 1 year old would go NUTS with that!)

You can choose any combination of colors, these were just some I had on hand from past projects and I thought they looked nice together like a bunch of different spices. That red felt is my favorite and actually has some black specks in it. I've used it to make strips of bacon and pasta sauce for pretend play as well. It's so cool!

Before putting them in the container, mix up the different colors to give it that mixed spices appearance.

[Yes, that's a tiny play pot. It's from our Melissa & Doug Stainless Steel Pots and Pans set which is one of my FAVORITE toys we own!]

All that's left to do is to put your little pieces inside the empty shaker container. (Don't forget to put the shaker top back on if you don't want it spilling out everywhere). I had a great little helper:

...and PLAY!

My kiddos have definitely upped their culinary game with this easy DIY. They love being like mom & dad and I love that they are able to create even more detailed imaginative play scenarios in their play kitchen.

SUPPER'S READY!

For less than $2.00 (assuming you aren't buying the seasoning salt just for this!) and about 5 minutes of your time, this DIY is a definite win-win! Who else's kids would totally flip over this adorable play kitchen ingredient?

DIY Play Kitchen [Full Details Shared!]

My husband and I love to give our children one really awesome big gift versus a dozen small gifts that will get thrown into the toy pile. We've made a giant ball pit (with almost 1,200 balls in it), a miniature workbench just like daddy's and this play kitchen.  Today I want to share with you the details of the play kitchen. A lot of time went into making this- not because it actually takes long to make but because we made it one very long drawn out process.  Tip: Just do it all at once. Just get it done so your kids can enjoy it already! I found different elements that I wanted online and some things I just made up on my own so hopefully this post will inspire you to create the perfect kitchen for your family.

[Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. By making a purchase through these links, you help me earn a small commission at no extra charge to you, which helps me to bring you more new content! Thank you for supporting my blog!)

I have loaded up this post with a ton of photos to show you all my favorite elements from this play kitchen. I have also included links to my favorite play kitchen products in case you see something you want to add to yours.   Let's begin shall we...

First up is the sink.  We created this realistic and movable sink by using real faucet fittings (get at your local hardware store or check out the Habitat for Humanity ReStore to see if you can find one for cheap!) and a metal mixing bowl.  Just make sure the mixing bowl has a lip on the outside and it will fit perfectly into a hole you create.

Surrounding the sink is a window and some cooking accessories.  We cut a large square and I simply taped up an image I painted to the back so that the picture peeks through.  Eventually I may put something more permanent up, but if I waited for that it would forever be empty.  Then we added a toaster, a timer, a bell (mostly because my son loves it so much. We like to ding it and yell "ORDER UP!") and an oven mitt.  My favorite accessory is the Stand Mixer which spins by hand, has a speed dial and comes with accessories to make "pound cake" which is my son's favorite thing to mix!

I finished the window by adding some curtains made of this adorable dancing food fabric that I just happened to have lying around. See- this is why it's okay to just buy the fabric because you like it!  The edges are just folded over and stitched for a finished look.  On the top I made a basic casing for a dowel rod to go through. The rod has a little wood piece on the ends to keep it from sliding off and the whole thing hangs on some tiny little hooks.  I used small eye hooks and ribbon to tie the fabric back. Sturdy and easy peasy.

On the right side of the play kitchen we have a hook that holds aprons and reusable shopping bags.  Check out my tutorial on how to make your own DIY custom apron in minutes and for only a few bucks!

To the left of the sink, we created a "glass" stove top with movable dials and pretend "hot" burners.  My husband made the dials himself out of wood and attached them with a screw that allows our kids to turn the dial 360 degrees before stopping so they don't come off.

Loving those realistic looking pots and pans? They're from Melissa & Doug and they are LEGIT. My husband was so excited when my son got them for Christmas last year because they came with their own metal stand.  Of which my extremely organized husband was happy to hang in the play kitchen immediately.


To create the look of a glass top, we first put down a piece of black painted wood.  Next we placed the burners on.  I made these out of white and red vinyl that I cut with my Silhouette.

Lastly, we screwed a piece of Plexiglas to the top to give it the "glass" look and to protect the vinyl from peeling up.  I love how this turned out!  Bonus: The top is also super easy to wipe down when it gets dusty or dirty.

Beneath the stove top is an oven.  It's painted in contrast white and has a real handle attached to it.  Another piece of Plexiglas is used to make the little "peep through" window.

We used a wire shelf for the inside with some pieces of wood so that the shelf can slide in and out like a real oven.  My husband also added a washer and screw to make a "stop" for it so that the shelf wont accidentally come all the way out.

The door has hinges to help it open and close and has a magnet on the top so that it latches shut when you lift it up.

Enough about appliances, let's talk storage.  Every kitchen needs a place to store food, right?  My husband loves the bottom freezer (we don't have one in our real kitchen but he's waiting for the day that we have to get a new one so he can have it!) so of course he designed ours to have a bottom freezer.  We mostly keep ice cubes and Ice-Cream in ours.  If your kid loves ice-cream (who doesn't?) you have got to pick up this Melissa & Doug ice-cream set. It's magnetic and has cones and a box and a scoop that really works.  It's probably my sons favorite "food" toy.

On top of the freezer is a refrigerator with a few shelves (also made from the wire shelving).  We use this area as both a refrigerator and as a pantry for canned food and such.

I wish I knew what brand that big circle divider was because I would recommend it a hundred times over.  It came with all different foods and the sections are divided by type (fruit, vegetable, grain, dairy, protein). Although we don't put them up in their correct spots, it makes an AWESOME container to store it all so that all the food can be easily accessed without dumping out a big box like other containers I've seen.  On the shelf above it though is the Melissa & Doug Cutting Fruit Set which I also highly recommend. It comes with fruit pieces stuck together by velcro that you can "cut apart" with a play knife (also included).  I also really love the little wood crate it came in too. We store all of our velcro foods in there so that they are easy to get to without digging through the other food.

As you can see, we also store the pound cake (that came with the mixer) and some DIY tea bags in there as well.


On the top shelf, we keep all of our canned foods, condiments and felt foods.  I hate to admit, but I waited a while before opening up the canned items because I expected them to be those cheap, junky ones that you see everywhere.  Oh my gosh, was I wrong. They are also Melissa & Doug (I should work for them as much as I promote their products. We LOVE M&D in  our house!) and they are crazy sturdy. They get played with, thrown around and because the lids are removable, my son often tries to cram things inside them that are much too large and yet... they hold up. It's seriously incredible.  Don't buy these at the dollar store or whatever, buy the Melissa & Doug set. It's so worth it.

Inside one tote is condiments like ketchup, mustard, Parmesan cheese, syrup and box mixes, flours and sugars.  Inside the other we store felt foods like pasta, bacon and cookies.  To learn how to DIY your own pastas, check out my tutorial here.

Speaking of storage... where are all the dishes? Plates, forks, cups?  That's an easy one: under the sink!  I love how much storage space this kitchen has.  My favorite thing about "large" gifts is that you can store the play items within the larger item. No need for a bunch of loose toys laying around.

On the left side sits a Drying Rack (this isn't the exact one we have but it's the closest I can find since I don't know the brand) which holds utensils,  plates, cups, mugs and measuring cups.  I think this would also be really cute up by the sink but in our kitchen we just ran out of space up top!  This is probably less likely to get messy anyways.  I like using the drying rack for storage because it makes it easy for my kids to find what they are looking for.  If they want a plate, they just reach down and grab it.  No need to dump out an entire box looking for 1 plate.  It also seems more "real" because I don't know about you but we don't store all of our dishes in a big box somewhere!


Next to the drying rack are two glass containers (old salsa jars!) that hold cooking utensils.  Those blue ones in the front are real silicone utensils! We have some duplicate ones in our actual kitchen.  There are mini tongs, a pastry brush, a Whisk and a spatula.  Those links are not the exact product we own but similar. The link on "spatula" includes a scraper, wisk and silicone baking cups which we also use to real cook and to play cook!

On the right side I took a plastic storage container (actually the one my son's train set came in) and tossed in all the "random" leftover items.  This includes other pots/pans from food sets we've gotten, larger plates, a cookie sheet, a cupcake pan, rolling pins, etc. We then slide the waffle maker  against the side and it fits perfectly.

Don't forget about cleanup!  Since we have aprons on the right side, we figured we might as well use the left side as well.  All we needed was one nail and our Silly Sam (Which we have been calling Sweepin' Sam for 2 years now! I just found his real name when I searched the link.) hangs nicely, ready for cleanup!

My son loves his play kitchen.  It's honestly his favorite toy that he owns and he plays with it every single day. My daughter is just starting to really get into playing with it too!  My favorite thing is watching them "play together" at it, which they can do easily since it's so big!  I also love that this kitchen looks nicer and will last longer than the plastic ones you can buy at the store.  A quick search of "entertainment center play kitchen" on Pinterest will provide you will more tutorials on how to physically built/adapt yours, but I hope that my post here has provided you with some great ideas to include in your own.

I would totally tell you how to do the building part but I have no idea what he did to the guts of it.  I just said "Honey... can you make it look like this?" and he did... because he's a good husband! haha!

Seriously though, that is one happy kid.  Go snag yourself an old entertainment center and get crafting!  I'd love to see what elements you've included in yours so please share them on our facebook page because it makes me happy to see us working on the same projects <3